Everquest 2 vs. World of Warcraft Comparison

GinoMGG writes "My Guy Games has an interesting EverQuest II vs. World of Warcraft series that includes an interview with a level 50 EQII player and a level 60 WoW character. The series also has a side by side shootout between the two biggest MMORPG releases in November."

Not Exactly the "Casual Gamer", then

[nijk]

level 50 EQII player and a level 60 WoW character

I dunno if I trust his opinion if he plays MMORPGs that much, sheesh.

Re:differences

[Anonymous Coward]

OMG, Neeeeerrrrrrrrd!

Fools, all of them

[The-Bus]

What? I won't stand this unfounded adulation towards these "Dark Elf Shadowknights" and what have you. Let them match their worthless warriors against DocutronXP, my level 48 Hunter Strangler, hailing from the Land of Enchantment & Good Prices on Leather Sofas [progressquest.com]. You have never met a more brave and stunning Enchanted Motorcycle. Foes cower at my Level XXXVIII Clever Fellow. Those not vanquished by my level XXII Lockjaw will succumb to the one-two punch of my level XIX Animate Nightstnad and/or a Rabbit Punch from my +25 Custom Studded Titanium Gauntlets.

Re:No Contest

[loquacious d]

I'd find a way to try it on your machine before you buy it if you haven't yet. WoW beta performance on my PBG4 1.5/15" (with 128 megs of VRAM, nonetheless) is wretched. I can't even quite reach 30fps indoors, at 800x600 (lowest supported resolution), with graphics turned all the way down.

The odd thing: none of the graphics settings (aside from the fog distance, which I have to keep low all the time, making the vistas much less scenic on my machine) even seem to affect the framerate by more than few per second, so I usually play at max graphics at 1280x854. I get 20-25fps inside buildings, 10-15 running around in the world, 5-10 when lots of characters are around. (I was completely useless yesterday when the bastard Alliance raided the undead city of Brill on realm 23. Death to all level 20 gnome mages who take me down in two hits!)

It's definitely playable (and fun, oh God how fun), but just be sure never to look over the shoulder of a PC-using friend or you will be overcome with framerate envy. (Not to mention the nice graphical touches that don't seem to be implemented at all in the Mac version.) Anyway, I am sick to death of game companies and their lazy, underperforming Mac ports. I retain hope that Blizzard will address Mac performance issues by the time the final is released, but not much.

Oh well. Macs just aren't gaming machines. This, combined with Counter-Strike Source and Myst IV not running on portable graphics cards (WTFWTFWTF, Cyan??) are making me consider building a cheap PC gaming rig. I think one of those, a Powerbook 12", and a nice big-ish LCD to share between them would make for just about the ultimate computing setup.