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They should've figured that with a level cap of 30, people would flock to the PVP servers to have more options once they capped out. I'm not saying a level cap of 30 is a bad thing (It's actually perfect for me, as that's around the time when I get bored with grinding out levels. They must've researched this). I am saying that having only two PVP servers with such a low level cap and such an amazing combat system was a bad decision on SOE's part. I figure they'll probably switch a server or two over once they figure this out.

Otherwise, this was one of the smoothest and most enjoyable launch days I've ever had the pleasure of participating in, and I've been through quite a few. There are a few glitches to be worked out, but so far I have run into literally nothing that's game-breaking, or even anything that affects the actual gameplay whatsoever. That's definitely a first, and it's even more impressive when you consider how far this game pushed the envelope with MMO design.

I have bumped heads a few times with players, but not nearly as much as I expected to. Sharing XP and quest objectives with anyone in proximity to you not only alleviates a lot of stress, but it almost makes it feel like you're part of one big group. That's a feeling I've never really gotten out of an MMO before, and I have to say that it definitely improves the experience a lot.

Anyone playing this on PS3 out of curiosity? Curious to hear what the experience is like on that end w/ servers, etc.

I'm playing as Pelinore, Villain affiliation, on the Death and Glory server on PC.

Playing Ice/Brawler, with Lex Luthor as my mentor. Decided to keep Lex as I was quite enjoying it, even if it was different to the Joker (He's not amused by the chaos, he just simply doesn't care), and I've already played through a fair chunk of Gotham.

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This is also one of the smoothest launches I've played, and I've played quite a few (All of the Warcraft launches had more bugs than this has displayed). I do hope they create more PvP servers, and allow players to transfer off to alleviate the populations.

I'm surprised about the smooth launch personally, SOE does not have a good track record w/ MMO's.

Is it possible to base your entire career out of one city? I'm impartial to Gotham myself (if they managed to capture the same feel that Arkham Asylum did, I'll be a lifetime subscriber), never really cared much for Metropolis/Superman (in fact, I despise superman)...

VenerableBrotherPelinore wrote:I'm playing as Pelinore, Villain affiliation, on the Death and Glory server on PC.

I'll be sure to add you to my friend's list. I'm still deciding on exactly what I want to play as well, but I should have it all figured out in good time.

chaos0xomega wrote:Is it possible to base your entire career out of one city? I'm impartial to Gotham myself (if they managed to capture the same feel that Arkham Asylum did, I'll be a lifetime subscriber), never really cared much for Metropolis/Superman (in fact, I despise superman)...

Both Batman and The Joker's storylines are based out of Gotham City. While I'm sure that some game content will end up taking you to metropolis (Raids, Alerts, Special Events and the like), if you choose either of those characters as your mentor, the majority of your quests will play out in Gotham.

SOE has absolutely perfected the feel of Gotham in this game. It is at least on par with Arkham Asylum, and it only helps that the entire city is at your disposal, with every single major landmark accounted for (and fleshed out by descriptive voiceovers that you can find all over the city). The Joker's questline is superb (from what I've played); it always manages to feel like you're actually doing his bidding with most of the chaotically insane tasks he sets forth for you. Mark Hamill reprises his role better than ever here, and you'll probably hear more voiceovers from him within the game than you would in an entire season of Batman: The Animated Series (remember, full voice acting).

The raw criminal nature of Gotham has never been more apparent. They even went so far as to keep Gotham in a perpetual state of night, and as skeptical as I was about that at first, it really pays off in making the city actually feel like the Gotham you know and love. It doesn't hurt matters any that Gotham happens to be roughly twice the size of Vice City. Arkham Asylum is even included as a PVP Battleground of sorts. How fitting.

I'd still say the other quest lines are worth playing, even if you hate Superman (trust me, I'm right there with you). Every mentor is completely different from one another, with different goals in mind, and personalities that really shine through whenever they chime in to give you a mission. As noted, Lex Luthor is a complete sociopath. It's amusing to see how his interest in science overtakes his concern for human life, and his general stoic nature is almost guaranteed to entertain you in some way (plus, you both have similar goals in mind. If you hate Superman so much, why not try your best to murder him?). This is definitely a more modern iteration of DC; the characters are more developed and believable than ever before. Skip the Metropolis content if you want to, but you might as well get what you're paying for.

So, the servers have gone down, at least Death & Glory, so I thought I'd write a summary of some of the good things, and a few bad things I did find about the game today, for those who are considering purchasing it, before I hit the sack.

The immersion is immense. I'm not a DC comics fan, most of my favourite superheroes being Marvel. But. playing through the first ten levels of the 'Lex Luthor Storyline', I actually got a feel for Luthor beyond 'I hate Superman, I want him dead'. He's a cold-hearted bastard, no doubt about it, who cares only about advancing his own goals and cares not for the lives he ruins in the process, but he actually has more to him than simply hating Superman. The Joker, and Gotham are described very well by Chyrs in the thread above me. Major lore characters, events, places and information is thrown at you left right and centre,

Metropolis is huge, easily as big as Gotham. The first 10 levels have taken me across an area probably as big as a normal World of Warcraft zone (But filled with much more, DCU is designed with three dimensions in mind), consisting of a large University campus, a few city blocks, a nightclub, a couple of parks, and a football field, as well as inside two 'solo instances' (Which did include decently challenging end-bosses with mechanics different from the norm, and are worth doing again if possible (I haven't checked if they are, but you gain feats for doing them without using consumables, being knocked out, etc), and the 'Jokers Fun Vault' (The premise for this was quite amusing, even if it wasn't as challenging as I thought it could be....then again, it is a daily you get pretty much at the start of the game so......a daily involving rolling balls, explosives and presents.....we love you Joker.)

The combat doesn't begin to wear thin, even after playing it for 10+ hours, which I feared it might. It's still just as fun to beat the crap out of things with my fists now as it was when I started. This is likely due to the combo design. Brawling, at least, has a high number of stuns/disabling attacks, that you need to bounce between to make it work. If you don't, it's not anywhere near as efficient as it could be. Some styles are blatantly more entertaining and powerful than others though (Two-Handed Weapons hit really hard, like, beyond what you know they need to, and the Hand Blasters are also quite powerful)....the Dual Pistols style needs some work, at the moment, it seems rather dull. (Although, I'll admit, I haven't seen much of the combos for it.)

There are some things that could be fixed however.

The powers aren't very well explained. I played Ice to 16 in Beta, I've played it again to 10 now since release, and I still have no clue what actually triggers the 'Ice Armour' effect, because my theories seem to be disproved. Powers are generally quite well explained in what they do, and the effects they'll leave, but alot of powers work based on effects, or are more damaging if the enemy is effected by say, 'Burning', and these are generally left off the tooltip, or are very vague. Thus, when you're leveling, you will quite likely pick a power or two that really don't synergise very well with your other powers, and will be pretty worthless. But, never fear. For $500 (Not that hard to get), you can respec your skill and power points. You cannot however rechoose your powers, weapons or method of travel....you will get another weapon style later in your leveling though. It seems you will need to respec quite a few times at this current point however, at least until detailed player-made guides on the different powertrees are released.

The methods of travel are also quite inconsitant, at least at low levels. Playing on a PvP server, there's already alot of 'World PvP' (Aka Ganking a player when he has four mobs on him.....but hey, I'm not bitter ) going on, and some travel powers....well, one, flight, give the player a distinct advantage, as they can hover in the sky and release ranged doom....yeah, you can do that...no joke. There are counters however, quite alot of them, so clearly SoE did think it through, they just aren't available at lower levels....at least 3 of the powers have 'Death Grip' style powers (Scorpions Spear...'GET OVER HERE!') as one of their opening powers on either tree (Ice, Nature, Gadgets), just off the top of my head. These don't prohibit the flyer from getting away however, so flight still has a distinct advantage at lower levels (Higher levels, you start getting movement skill points, and acrobatics and super-speed start to catch up). Also allows you to fly off if you begin to lose, provided you don't get dragged back (The drag back is quite a distance, and has no cooldown, so it's very handy for dragging back an attempting to flee hero...provided you didn't use all your power bar.)

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Well, that became alot longer than I intended, and I wasn't even done. Shall add to it after I finish up around the same time tomorrow, with the beginnings of Circe, or maybe even one of the Heroes I don't have the distaste for Superman you guys do, I actually quite like the guy. (Gonna have a play through it, along with another power/weapon set. I'm thinking Nature/Staff, as I'm not really feeling the Ice Powers as I progress more and more into them.)

So I figured I'd post again. I ended up having to roll on the Public Enemies server due to friends buying the game (that I wouldn't have guessed would buy it in a million years..).

But we are all villains and if anyone wants to band together lemme know!

My char is "Revenant" and he is a Dual Pistol Mentalist.

If you guys want to get together and make a group or guild or whatever let me know. We are all in Gotham and I must say, the Bat has quite a following that needs to be put in their places...

Initial thoughts on the game: Pleasantly Surprised!!!

Are the servers cross-platform or is it a separate set for PC and PS3?

chaos0xomega wrote:Are the servers cross-platform or is it a separate set for PC and PS3?

I would like to know this as well.

Picked the game up yesterday for my brother mainly. Went to look half an hour later still downloading, went to look an hour after that still nothing... (seperate loading bar and like the first no %, no GB/MB listed. Cmon guys at least make it one download bar with MB/GB listed) Maybe it'll be finished when i get home from work..

The game is separate for each platform, despite minimal changes to the UI between games. I think they could've easily made the game cross-platform, seeing as how the keyboard and mouse control scheme holds no distinct advantage over a gamepad (in fact, the menu system runs a bit more smoothly with a gamepad, not to mention that it makes the game a whole lot more fun to play).

Though I doubt they'll ever do it at this point, I'd like to see the servers merge into a cross-platform model, unless they make significant changes to the UI for the PC. This would be the second game to pull that off, and it would be easy to do.

I'll make a guess that the community is much better on the PS3. Mostly, the PC is filled with MMO veterans that obviously didn't know what to expect (I actually hear a lot of complaints that it's not like WoW, which is strange to say the least), and a lot of complaints are voiced about the UI (which, again, works perfectly with a controller). Unfortunately, the PS3 version is curiously lacking a lifetime subscription option, so that's the only thing keeping me from recommending that version over the PC version (aside from the option of using a gamepad or a mouse and keyboard).

I'll post my critique when I hit level 30. It shouldn't take more than a few more days.

Is there a free trial for this? I'd be interested in trying it, at least.

I don't believe so Melissia. As with many games in the initial stages, even if they have a strong confidence in the game, they want the initial strong surge of capital from the initial purchases of the game to make up parts of their investments.

There has been a new PvP server released also, Cry for Blood. Hopefully, this shall alleviate some of the population surplus on the other two PvP servers (200+ queues). Definately thinking about re-rolling on one of ye old servers without the 300+ queue that Death & Glory is currently experiencing.

The only free trial available comes as a 10-day access 'Buddy Key' with a purchased copy of the game. Seeing as how either my friends don't have the time for an MMO, or don't have computers good enough to render the game, I might consider giving someone mine, depending on a few factors. Anyone can PM me if they're interested.

I may reroll on Cry for Blood (Not only does Death and Glory have ridiculous queues, the population is incredibly ungrateful and whiny, and hopefully changing to a smaller server will remedy that somewhat). I have quite a few characters started up on Death and Glory already, though, and I don't know if I want to lose the 20 or so hours I've spent on the server.

How much choice does the character creation have? Having unlockables is all well and good, but I was put off many games because I was forced to choose from a line-up of crappy starting clothes.

This is also something WoW fails on, very little character customisation and the fact that you can't have a good looking character that is effective during end-game (or you can rarely).

My possible delving into this depends on the customisability (I already play WoW, but since everything I like and use is being nerfed I might well take a break from it until Blizz inevitably make it all OP again in the next patch). Aesthetic choices may seem minor, but hell if I want a powerful character that looks crap i'll just keep playing WoW (which is also £1 cheaper).

It's fairly decent, even at the beginning. You have an array of hair options, and skin option. Some of the skin options actually work doubling as 'gear' choices at the beginning, I.E The Mummy wraps, the Undead skin, the 'Thing' impersonator, etc.

There's also a decent variety of clothing. It's not as much as I'd like, but it's enough to make a decent looking character very easily. My main character currently is running around in a full business suit, true crime-lord style.

It's certainly more customisable than WoW in appearance, as your cosmetic style and gear choices are completely seperate (Excepting that your gear unlocks more cosmetic style choices.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAZ3vc1b_v0

Video during the Beta on Character Creation....it appears there are longer ones, but that's the only one I've watched and know that the persons voice doesn't make you want to pull your intestines out your mouth and hang yourself with them. Watching it partially again, alot of the textures have been improved with release, especially the 'Rock' texture.

If there's no free trial, I'm just gonna wait.

VenerableBrotherPelinore wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAZ3vc1b_v0

That dude just sold it for me. I am probably going to get this game after I get done with Dead Space 2.

Wish he would have gone with a Rifle instead of Duel Pistols, though.

He has a complete uploaded video series which shows the first 2-3 hours of Gotham city from the Villain point of view.

He ends up with a staff and the Fire powers.

However, if the rifle is as weird as the bow is right now, it should be pretty good. For some reason, the bow hits really freaking hard in melee at the moment.

VenerableBrotherPelinore wrote:However, if the rifle is as weird as the bow is right now, it should be pretty good. For some reason, the bow hits really freaking hard in melee at the moment.

Interesting. I plan on making a Rifle/Flight/Gadgeteer dude with a Jengo Fett/Vile styling, hopefully it remains viable.

I'm thinking of going bow, ice, and either flight or superspeed.

Melissia wrote:Dunno why I'd play this game over Champions... I'd have to play a free trail to see if it's any better or just more generic MMO stuff.

CO is such a much better game as well. I got invited to the closed beta for DCUO. I played the intro level once and was really disappointed. They'd rather pump all their money into the intro cinematic than concentrate on game polish and depth. Costume options were absolute garbage. Only thing I liked were how travel powers used all surfaces, except acrobatics, which was stupidly animated.

Yep going to make a "SPESS MAHRINE" and give him a giant hammer

Ok, I have been playing a bit (The starting area), and I have to say, I don't really care for Guns/Gadgets/Flight.... Maybe it's because I spent too much time watching someone with the same thing (pistols instead of rifles, though), but it aint doing it for me. Going to try to start something else.

Sorcery/Hand Blast/Flight, however, is pretty cool. Think Imma gonna go that.

Got it on Friday and used my first truly free weekend since the beginning of December to play a bit.

The leveling experience at least is really great. Combat is fun (both on my Martial Arts/Ice hero and my Dual Guns/Sorcery Villain) and even though PC controls are not as good as they could be I actually like them more than using a controler after testing both of them.

While movement and combat feel slightly better with a pad, camera control is far better using the mouse imo. If you get DCU give both a shot and look which one you like better.

So far I encountered a few bugs (unharmable enemies, sound missing and so on), but mostly it ran perfectly smooth and lagfree.

Moving through Gotham and Metropolis is very fun (have tested acrobatics and flight so far) and the amount of stuff you find while traveling is great as well. From small collectible stuff (lore snippets and so on) and "everyday" hero/villain work (muggers, thieves, people trapped and so on you can either help or mug yourself) to time trial races for your movement type you can find something to do every few steps.

Since this is my first Superhero MMO I can´t comment on the depth compared to CoH/V or CO, but coming from a more traditional type of MMO (WoW and WAR) I was pleasently surprised by the amount of options I had to make my hero/villain look the way I wanted.

So far it´s way better than I thought it would be, and while it has some issues left (I´m not that sure that endgame can hold my interest yet for example) DCU has some nice potential, and I´ll keep playing it for now.

Just a small personal review for people interested

I played it till level 7 before my computer broke, and the only complaint I really have is that my helmet looks terrible on my Fire/One Handed/Acrobatics Villain.

Oh, and since I am basing him off of a character for one of my games, I really wish I could give him scars instead of those stupid tattoos.

I would get this game just on the fact that i can make a Mr. Freeze clone - seriously would be running around screaming stupid puns like "cooool party" or "WHO KILLED THE DINOSAURS?!? THE ICCCCE AGGGGGEEE" and then shoot ice everywhere - yet im a student and i cannot afford it.

Oh man I just spent over an hour watching videos on that. I think Im going to check that one out for sure.


Does the PS3 play on the same servers as a PC or are those separate?

KingCracker wrote:Oh man I just spent over an hour watching videos on that. I think Im going to check that one out for sure.


Does the PS3 play on the same servers as a PC or are those separate?

They play on seperate servers as of this current point in time. There's no word they intend to change that, but many hope they will.

Just bought it, so excited!

Just when I thought Steam was done downloading... now it's downloading the updates I suppose...