Every so often, an addictive game comes along and swallows us whole. For some, it's Call of Duty: World at War's zombie mode. For others, it's Wii Sports Resort, and for the few, the proud, and the nerdy, its a little ol' genre known as MMOs.

These games come and go by the droves. They range from sci-fi to fantasy; from free to play to $15 a month; from casual to hardcore; and from a full $50 entry cost to browser based affairs. But all of them have one thing in common: they're timesinks. For the socially sane, MMOs are squeezed in after work, and before dinner with the kids, or after the wife goes to sleep (cough, cough). Should you choose to take the road less traveled and let an MMO dominate your life, say goodbye to your significant other, your social life, and your job.

So who is the new kid in town? What devilish fiend is attempting to lure you into his van with candy, and take you on a vacation that never ends? This month, its NCSoft's Aion.



What is Aion?

Aion: The Tower of Eternity is a new fantasy based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO), made with the CryEngine (Far Cry), and published by NCSoft, who has managed a myriad of hit or miss games, ranging from the heralded City of Heroes to the dead and buried Tabula Rasa.

NCSoft is currently charging $50 for the game, and $14.99 per month to play, with discounts offered if you commit to three, six, or twelve months.



What are your choices for your personal avatar?

Well, unlike typical role playing games, you're not going to get a whole lot of choices when it comes to your race. You can either be the angelic Elyos, or the demonic Asmodians. So basically, you can pick the flamboyant pansies (win), or the complete and total badass death bringing devils. Whenever you meet an opposing faction member, you will always be able to kill them, and every enemy level shows up as a "??" on your HUD.

Where Aion fails in racial diversity, it succeeds in customization. Want to make Barack Obama? You can! Want to make yourself? Provided you have the self confidence, you can do that too! If you happen to be me, you can live out your fantasy of looking like a J-Rocker.

Just like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, every cosmetic facet is fully customizable, from your chin size, to whether or not your ears are elf-worthy. For once, I actually think I succeeded in making four completely different looking characters.

Class-wise, Aion has just about everything you could want, sans hybrids. You can play your typical damage soaking tank, damage dealing warrior, arrow shooting ranger, elusive assassin, nuke heavy sorceror, pet-based spiritmaster, the always popular healer, or the black sheep of the pack: the Chanter (the supportive bard).



How does the game look, and how impressive is the overall design?

Without reservation, I consider Aion to be the best looking MMO I've ever seen. The set pieces are absolutely gorgeous, and every area has a unique feel to it.

The CryEngine really does wonders for the MMO genre. Rather than talk about how amazing it looks, I'd rather just serve you up some screenshots, fresh off the burner.







Get to the point, man! What's the gimmick?

Sadly, all MMOs released in the shadow of World of Warcraft need some sort of marketing gimmick: something unique to differentiate themselves from the pack. Well, Aion has flight, and ladies and gentlemen, Howard Hughes would be proud.

I've heard complaints from outside audiences that the flight system doesn't look authentic. Here's a video that I believe will speak for itself.



To be frank, I've never had as much fun in an MMO as Aion, and a large part of that is due to the flight system. Sometimes I'll find myself on a gigantic hill, with my objective some five hundred feet below. In a standard MMO, I'd have to hoof it, but in Aion its no problem, as you can glide indefinitely! Instead of lazily taking the elevator, I always opt to take flight (it's there, why not use it!).

Small note: the initial starting areas are light on areas where you can engage in full flight, and right when you earn your wings, you can fly for a limited time of sixty seconds, which is off putting. Through upgrades, which are essentially "mount" purchases, you can upgrade your flight time, and later areas offer more flight opportunities, but Abyss pvp always offers full flight.



Is it fun: or better yet, is the combat system involved?

Simply put, combat in Aion is much more involved than your standard MMO. To use World of Warcraft as an example, I would use two, maybe three abilities to level from 1-70 (forgive me, I quit before Wrath of the Lich King's 80 cap). Aion is a bit more robust, as I already had eight viable abilities very early on in the game playing a spiritmaster, partially because the game requires you to to make pet commands manually rather than put them on an auto-cast system. Plus, every character gets a limit break ability that can be used every so often, just to mix things up a bit.

Aion also benefits from a "combo system", that encourages you to use lower abilities to "activate" stronger, more useful abilities. For instance, if I were to use the first ability-based sword attack as a warrior, I'd have the option to use a more ferocious strike for a few seconds, while the opponent is reeling.

Combat can take place either in flight or on the ground, but either way, its a blast. At its heart, its still an MMO, which means you're going to be standing in place a lot, but if you have simplicity reservations, expect to push a lot of different buttons.



Is it grindy? Also known as "is it fun to level?"

Is it fun to actually level up? Well, yes, but I say this hesitantly, because at times, it can get monotonous. I was extremely pleased to find out that Aion was very much grind-free until level 22 or so, but I'll get to that in a second.

From level 1-10, all of your time will be spent becoming accustomed to the fantastic world of Atreia, and earning your wings. There are an abundance of quests, and not just "kill 10 boars" (Southpark anyone?) and other such derivatives. In fact, you may find that when it comes time to ascend (earn your wings, and subsequently become a true citizen of Aion) that you have a ton of extra quests left over.

Aion also benefits from the "story quest system": a trait that it shares with fellow competitor Lord of the Rings Online. Unique to very few MMOs, Aion actually makes an attempt to weave a cohesive story, and it simply works. You'll learn the inner workings of rebellious organizations, and become connected to the plot at large. As time goes on, harder quests that require balanced groups will arise, and you'll need to (gasp!) cooperate with other human players to move on.

So what's the problem with later levels? Once you hit level 22, the game stops holding your hand. Quest hubs become more obscure, and only a few story quests are available until level 25. Once you hit the glorious two-five, however, Abyss-Arena PVP, dungeon instances, and a whole heap of other options open up to you. To make up for it, you get experience for gathering materials, and for PVP, which is always a plus.

Bottom line: you have been warned! While I was able to get my third character from 1-10 in two hours, level 22-23 stole 8 hours of my life that I cannot take back!



Is there end-game content?

Here's the meat and potatoes question! Frankly, this is all I look for in a serious MMO. I didn't really start playing World of Warcraft until The Burning Crusade was out, and end-game raid content was a top priority. Just like Vanilla World of Warcraft, Aion is a bit light on the end-game content side, with only a few raid-size dungeons to offer, which may turn off some.

Max level in Aion is 50, and early reports are coming in that it would take around 10 days of straight play to reach this milestone. To give you something to compare it to, in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (which has a maximum level of 70), I reached 70 on my third character in 6 days knowing what I was doing, and with little dilly dallying.

On the pvp side of things, rifts are a really unique addition to Aion that really help spice up gameplay. Upon receiving a message that a gateway has opened up, the entire area will go into a sudden state of panic, as your opposing faction now has access to your land.

"Rift parties", consisting of any number of members will start forming, and all hell breaks loose. The biggest reason why I enjoy rifts is because it forces world pvp, and considering you get experience and gear points for it, its definitely worthwhile. But, if you're the type who finds world pvp too taxing, and enjoy some good old fashioned arena based action, Aion also allows you to enter the Abyss: a giant battleground used entirely for player versus player combat.

The question you don't want to ask after buying it: will it end up in the MMO graveyard?

From the looks of it, no. NCSoft has recently said that every year they will come out with a major update for Aion, not including forthcoming patches that add extra content and items.

NCSoft has had its ups and downs, but if reports of 3.5 million Asian subscribers are anything to go by with the earlier released Asian client, Aion is an early success.

I hope to see you in Atreia!

All of the preceding pictures have been personal in-game screenshots

Also, Cloud Strife

[All of the above quotes were actually said to me at one point in time whilst attempting to learn DotA]

Defense of the Ancients has become a national pastime for gamers: and all of it spawned out of a simple modification for Warcraft III. Taking the focus off waging war as the commander of an army, you are placed within the role of a single entity: a summoner. The common misconception is that since you only have to control one unit, it would be much easier than micromanaging platoons. This fallacy nearly cost me my self esteem, folks.

Since it's initial explosion, "DotA" has evolved into an incredibly popular niche game, and garnered a community of thousands: from strategy enthusiasts to general gamers. However, after just two days of experience with DotA, I concluded that it did not actually stand for "Defense of the Ancients", but instead:

DotA: Die, odible, tabanid asshole!

Def: odible
"worthy of hatred" [due to the player's ineptitude]

Def:tabanid
"blood-sucking insect" [the player is sucking his team dry of resources]



In DotA, a new player can effectively change the tide of an entire match. By "feeding" the other team with the glorious rewards of free experience points and riches upon death: all it takes is one "noob" to bring an hour long standstill of a game to a screeching halt. Then, the insults fly...hard. But before any of this happens, many gamers have engaged in a predictable step by step pattern after becoming intrigued by the notion of a "simpler" strategy game.

From cordial prospect to prospective cord hanging:

1) Hearing about DotA everyday all day, they inquire as to what it is, and instantly are engaged by the prospect of team play.

2) They log in to their first DotA game, aptly labeled "noobs only" [sounds inviting, yes?], and assume that it actually is a "new players only" game.

3) The player is shunned and ridiculed after his first death: his sexuality brought into question, and the moral dilemma of whether or not his parents should have had an abortion is put on the table. The player is a jaded shell of his former self, and vows never to play DotA ever again.

At least, these are my experiences. But, with a little help from my friends, I found out there is still hope for the soon-to-be suicide watch gamer.

Either:

Find other people to enjoy the game with, and play private matches, until they inevitably rise above your skill level

or

Stop playing DotA, and go back to Warcraft III (noob)

Ok, so those really aren't options. As you can clearly see, the situation looked pretty bleak, until only recently. The newly developed League of Legends has attempted to break down the barriers of entry with a simplistic "tips" system for individual characters, and custom tailored items for each player to choose from.

However, underneath it's welcoming exterior is a massive superhighway of rune combinations, skill trees, and advanced tactics that will absolutely fly right over the head of casual gamers.

While I am improving, unless I dedicate three lifetimes to the genre, I have no hope of actually becoming a deciding factor in any battle, and will be forced to play with more forgiving close friends for the rest of my dying days. Considering I'm adept in just about every other genre, my inability to actually become a better player is a perplexing dilemma.

So, fellow DotA bloodsuckers everywhere: unite! Someday, we will be a forced to be reckoned with after our years of hiding beneath the Earth's crust in our private games, and then: "they" will feed us.

As a recapper myself, I feel like shit for subjecting Qalamari to this, so I almost didn't make one of these.

But, Destructoid is such an amazing community through and through, it deserves something!

I suppose a substantial non-memey post is in order then if I don't want to make failtoid.

Destructoid is currently the best gaming website on the internet because:

-The Editors and top dogs bother to respond to comments of all shapes and sizes: Jim even feeds the trolls! On other regurgitative, news dumpy sites, all you'll get is "whelp...here's the post. Have at it, consumer whores" (oh, and it's probably written by someone who's first game was Halo). With Destructoid, you'll get a naturally flowing discourse when you attempt to pose questions to the editors. Want proof? I questioned Destructoid's review policy and won shit for it.

-The Community contains every type of person you can imagine: casual gamers, batshit insane OCD gamers, numerous trolls, religious folk, atheists, console fanboys, PC gamers: you name it. We get everything from "this game sucks" to "the entropic nature of villains in relation to Frederick Niche".

-Niero (the site owner) fucking responds to us. When I started off in my quest to build a reputable gaming site, I came to Niero for advice. You know what he did? Emailed me back a detailed biography on how he got to where he is today. All I can say is: I was speechless. His advice worked, and now we are on Metacritic, Gamerankings, and are about to strike a new ad deal. I was able to meet him in person at E3, as press, and give him a big 'ol hug for his kindness: that's the stuff of dreams.

-I get called out on shit all the time, and I love it (mostly by Blehman because he hates me). People care here when they comment: instead of just feeling like your post would be a "throwaway": click that submit button! No comment is worthless.

There are a myriad of other reasons I could list on why I make Destructoid a daily part of my routine. The meme posts below are another, for example. Long term members supporting the site is something you don't really see every day.

LONG LIVE DETRUCTOID.

So apparently the comic-con teasers are now available for public viewing. All I can say is: amazing! In case you didn't notice, my banner and avatar are a result of the brilliant minds at this particular studio. I fact, I really wish that Madhouse was doing the Halo anime as well.

I don't think it gets any better for anime fans when you unite both Western and Eastern properties for an all out over-the-top action fest. I, for one, enjoyed Batman: Gotham Knight, particularly the two bits that Madhouse did. If I had to choose, I'd say Iron Man looks particularly incredible when compared to the seemingly overly-easternized Wolverine that I have dubbed "Kenshin with claws".

Don't get too excited though. Apparently these two clips are just examples of what to look for in terms of the style, and aren't actually final footage.

So are you a fan of Western IPs gone anime? After watching the Iron Man teaser, you might be.

So here's the rub. I'll be giving away one XBLA (R-Type Dimensions) and one PSN (Bomberman Live, with Mr. Destructoid!) redemption code. All you have to do is follow My Twitter, and tweet

RT @ChrisCarter_GL: Magnalon is giving away R-Type Dimensions! RT and follow to win - Rules - http://tinyurl.com/n89mjk #magnalon360

If you want R-Type Dimensions



and/or

RT @ChrisCarter_GL: Magnalon is giving away Bomberman Live! RT and follow to win - Rules - http://tinyurl.com/n89mjk #magnalonps3

If you want Bomberman Live



Entries will be accepted at the time of this post until 12AM EST, Friday, July 30th (one week from today).

To all you new twitter users, all you have to do is make an account and copy-pasta that exact message into the text box. At the end of the contest, I'll assign each person a number, and use a random number generator to see who wins. Make sure you're following me so I can direct message you the code!

Rules:

Anyone can enter, even Editors! Of course, you can't win both codes, but you CAN enter both contests if you own both consoles! I'll announce the winners in this same blog, and over Twitter myself.

Just make sure to note that the R-Type XBLA code is restricted to US only, but with Bomberman Live! you can just create an American PSN account to redeem the code (I can give you instructions if needed).

Also, make sure you only tweet it once for each console, otherwise I'll have to disqualify you.

But Twitter blows...

It's safe to assume I'll get some "I hate Twitter, so this sucks" messages. Don't fret! It's just as easy as Destructoid's sign up proccess, and at the end of the contest, you can throw away your Twitter account if you want to! I am a former Twitter hatter, but have grown to like it, if anything just because electrolemon's updates are absolutely amazing.

My hopes are that with this contest I'll get in touch with more community members, and possibly find the hidden location of the second Wiisucks horcrux: MrSadistic.

<3,
Magnalon

All the recent controversy regarding Battlefield 1943 not being "team friendly" got me thinking. A lot of Destructoidcommunity members are all about playing with their friends, and chatting over Xbox Live or PSN. Personally, I've never really enjoyed team games with the exception of my LAN-oriented Halo series experiences.

I've always enjoyed the rush of "going at it alone". Not only do you get the benefit of being able to kill more enemies yourself, but you also get the adrenaline kick that goes along with always being in a constant state of danger. You don't have your buddies covering your back, so you have to watch your own: sounds like fun!

It's sort of a therapeutic experience for me as well, especially with Call of Duty's hud-less hardcore mode. There's no attachment to anything or anyone; it's just a pure run-and-gun for your life adventure. Ultimately, I suppose it's part of my introverted nature taking over that allows me to enjoy solo play so much.



Team play does have its pragmatic and social benefits, most definitely. Sometimes it just can't get better than trampling your enemies time and time again with an unbeatable and balanced squad of friends. Calling out where to go next, and what strategies you plan on executing with people you know is a blast. After playing 1943 for a few days, I can easily see how much fun rolling with a tight knit squad could be.

I recently played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in Destructoid's Friday Night Fights meetup last week, and I really enjoyed chatting it up with some of my fellow community members. It's just that on a normal basis, I feel right at home in a free-for-all or casual team deathmatch setting that doesn't require headset communication.

What's your preference in a multiplayer game? Does it differ from title to title, or do you generally prefer one style of play?