PC impressions: Aion

I think it might be worth a try. I liked to play RO and UO, maybe this one will be fun.

boy, this game looks a LOT like WoW, just from that one screenshot.

Wow, based on that screen shot, I'd almost think it was WoW you were showing us.

Looks like a Guildwars clone!

That looks like the Guild Wars engine fo sho

Umm its not an MMO. Last I read from NCsoft this was a single player game because tehy wanted to do something new.

People who go out of their way to point this kind of stuff out are stupid imho. Thats how we maker newer and better games so we can work on making the perfect game. We take stuff that made old games great put them into new games and change the stuff that made the game bad. People need to get use to it. I remember the "Oh they are stealing UO's idea for charging a monthly fee!" Now look at mmo's they are ALL like that.

Incremental advancement--evolution, rather than evolution--is expected in games, certainly. Standing on the shoulders of giants is part of what helped even World of Warcraft reach such heights. But even when a game is working within a familiar genre, some level of innovation should be expected. Otherwise, you haven't achieved evolution, just stagnation.

If you don't do something new that WoW doesn't already have, why would I play your fantasy MMORPG?

As a counterexample, consider the upcoming Chronicles of Spellborn. That's a fantasy MMORPG with both an original setting and very new takes on combat, crafting, and character appearances. Evolution, not stagnation.

Er, there's a difference between making an original game, and completely cloning everything off your competitor's game. I mean, even down the the exclamation points!

It is a guildwars clone and if you think different you are nuts!

But but but... you have wings and can fly! eeeeeee /hyperventilate

there nto taking it from a competitors game as a matter of fact the interface is alot like ncsoft's other fantasy mmo's lineage 2 and guildwars

lineage 2 has been around longer than wow too so they're not cloning blizzard.

Nc Soft is simply building upon their mmo empire and hoping to create better games as they go along while building upon what made the other mmo's great

That's WoW.

I can't believe people think this looks like WoW.

This is a screenshot from Guild Wars.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/Valjiin/bots.jpg

Notice any similarities? Like the entire UI?

If you just replaced Aion with WoW and NCSoft with Blizzard I could swear that you were talking about WoW too.

This looks EXACTLY like GW IMO

@ Exo: It is an MMO, "Genre : MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game," taken from the official NCSoft site.

"Realistic conflicts between guilds with PvPvE and RvR combats." Epic battles between angels and demons, with flying characters, count me in!

This game looks awesome man...the critek engine will give the most realistic effect...Players will get timeless excitements with the cutthroat RvR’s that take place in the abyss between the heavens and the devildom as well as outpost combats. Aion makes the new era of PvE system with monsters that attack the players in the way you have never seen before and with environments that changes organically. Aion gives PvPvE-able world to the players to create synergy between PvP and PvE. The game also integrates compensation system with emotional flows to make the ultimate PvPvE system. A closed beta is scheduled for the end of 2006 and the launch in 2007 ..!!!

PD: Check this video to have an opinion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1LeEpB52o8

Some corrections to a few comments made here:

# Aion is an MMORPG, not a singleplayer game.
# The screenshot posted with this article is too tiny and low quality to really be able to use it for comparison. If you go look at some of the better quality screenshots or the videos - you'll realize it looks nothing like WoW and nothing (apart from the interface) like Guild Wars either.
# The interface was based on other NCSoft games, such as Lineage 2 & Guild Wars.
# The graphics of this game are vastly superior to those in WoW & Guild Wars and the style is quite different.


Aion happens to be one of the most interesting MMORPGs currently in development - and contrary to what a few people have been saying here, it is fairly innovative:
# Players can fly & climb.
# It features Race vs Race PvP with a twist: there's a third NPC race that fights against whoever is threathening to win the war.
# The world will change depending on player actions.
# Weather has an effect on your actions. Fire spells are less effective in the rain, etc. Naturally, enviromental effects like water will also have an impact on your movement.
# Spell chaining with other players - combine powers to cast a far more powerful spell together.
# From what NCSoft has been saying, apparantly the cumulative actions of all the players in a server will determine the progress of the story & the world on THAT server. So one server might be lead to look angelic, whereas yet another is a firey hellhole. Sounds impossible to implement, but would be cool if they could actually pull it off.