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Role Playing (Games)

SOE Station Pass Reviewed 41

Posted by Zonk from the swords-to-sabers dept.
Geldonyetich, at Grimwell.com, has reviewed the pile of games that makes up the SOE All-Access Station Pass. The pass includes SWG, EQ, EQ2, Planetside, and the "Station" games Tanarus, Infantry, and Cosmic Rift. From the article: "In the interest of having a complete review, I installed and took a good look at each of the individual PC game offerings under the Station Access subscription. I didn't have the necessary broadband PS2 hardware to try out EverQuest Online Adventures nor the Apple hardware to run EverQuest: Macintosh Edition. Just because I didn't include them doesn't mean they aren't part of the subscription plan. Chances are if you're considering the Station Access subscription you are a PC gamer anyway, as otherwise you've only access to one or two of the games."
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SOE Station Pass Reviewed More

SOE Station Pass Reviewed

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  • If you enjoy any three of these games then a Station Pass is a very good investment. I was an EQ addict for a number of years, and have kicked that habit, but often consider going back to Sony because I would still enjoy Tanarus (bzflag with better graphics) and Planetside (PS:UT2XMP::UT2XMP::UT2k4ONS).

  • Planetside is worth a trial run (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Monday June 20, 2005 @06:13AM (#12861649) Journal
    Theres a lot of fun to be had in PlanetSide. Unfortunately, after a few days it wears off. There's no long term progression in PlanetSide like traditional RPGS. And as anyone who has played DOAC knows, it sucks not being able to choose your teammates... In fact having morons on your team regularly worse than not having them at all. Planetside is one game that gives me hope for the future of MMOGS. Its not something I'd want to pay monthly for, because it has some fundamental flaws, and the strategy is normally just zerging. Its something more for having personal fun, trying to go Rambo against the enemy without caring about the main objectives.

    • Re:Planetside is worth a trial run (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The first six months of Planetside from launch were fantastic. As players started to figure out strategies and strategic assaults, it was awesome. I still remember my first assaults, packed in a dropship with my buddies and going out and kicking ass.

      Then gradually SOE brought out the nerf bat. My favorite class - the cloaker - was nerfed so that it became ineffective without 4 enhancement slots (except that you can only have a max of three - and I need / want Darklight, Melee Booster, Advanced Targeting an
      • Having a specialty "class" be more powerful than a generic, well-rounded "class" isn't really all that different from vice versa. Either way, if one is more powerful than the other, tons of people will go with the more powerful way.

        The difference is that dying in a stand-up fight is a lot less annoying than dying to the cheese factor. When I played waaay back during beta, the sheer vast number of stealthers, snipers, and Reaver pilots was ridiculous, and you could bet dollars to donuts that you'd die to
    • See, I would say that not having to constantly level is one reason I LOVE planetside. It took me a couple months to get every rank the game offered and now I just play for the community and fun. And you CAN choose your teammates.

      The secret to enjoying planetside is finding a good Outfit. Outfits are like Guilds. If you get a good group, get on Teamspeak with them and have a couple beers...its a great way to pass an evening after work.

      I suspect you never got into the community in the game and learned f
  • The reason they can offer these games at such low prices is because these games are dieing. Are they good games? For the most part - but their times have passed and they are, to say the least, not the best out there. Vanguard is your best bet (2006) - http://www.vanguardsoh.com/ [vanguardsoh.com]
    • Yep Vanguard will take everything bad about eq (forced grouping, long tedious progression, huge time commitment) increase it 10 fold (harvesting and crafting will require a group?!?!) and slap some nice graphics on it.

      This is why 'from the original creators of EQ' is a bad thing; they just repeat the same mistakes.

      • Re:I wouldn't (Score:2, Troll)

        by NBarnes ( 586109 )
        Rated +1 for True

        Remember EverQuest? How there were great parts and parts that made you want to scream?

        Brad McQuaid was the design force behind the parts that made you want to scream, and argued for years for their retention post-release when other people maintaining the game wanted to remove them.

        • Re:I wouldn't (Score:3, Informative)

          by rellix ( 888535 )
          I'd honestly love to see your proof that he was behind the failure of EQ, or did you forget that the game was at it's peak during the Kunark/Velious era. After Brad left, the game only went downward and is left in it's current status: death.

          • Re:I wouldn't (Score:3, Interesting)

            by Harlockjds ( 463986 )
            EQ was only a hit because it was the best game of it's time. It's only alive now because of station pass and people that don't want to leave behind years of work.

            This has nothing to do with Brad leaving, the next generation was improved on EQ and took players away while expanding the audience (wow has toped 2 mill players, eq toped out at around half a mill). Heck EQ left such a bad taste in peoples mouth that EQ2 is having problems because people equate EQ2=EQ=pain in the ass, despite eq2 having learned t

            • Re:I wouldn't (Score:2, Informative)

              by rellix ( 888535 )
              Regardless of the reason EQ became so popular, its longevity does not rely solely on the station pass, in fact, the station pass barely effects it. Of the guild I was in before quitting EQ(about a year ago) after 4.5 years, I would say that even today, only about 15% at most use the station pass. People play that game because it's damn good, and while it may be past its prime, it's still a good game. Friendships are made and many things are accomplished. You're right that many people play because of the
        • Ok mods, grow some brains here. He is speaking the truth.

          McQuaid was the biggest proponent of "hell levels", xp grinding etc. Verant was the big pusher for all of that stuff. Once Verant was absorbed into the giant known as SOE things changed.

          Hell levels were dropped, you could med without staring at your book, xp bonuses were granted etc. That was why Brad left. He thought Sony was making the game entirely too easy. His "vision" (TM) is to have you sit at your machine for years to reach that high
          • Hm, I got modded as a troll for saying what you just said.

            Frankly, the reason I think Vanguard is going to be much less successful than people like rellix think is the near-total unquestioning devotion and intolerance of alternative perspectives that V:SoH anticipators display in threads like this.

            It's established fact, to the point of being banal, that McQuad was the person at Verant that wanted to retain slow level grinds, item camps, hell levels, competition for a limited supply of spawns, etc, etc. Y
            • Everyone is entitled to there own opinion and I wouldn't downtalk how wrong or right you may be. Also, my opinion of Vanguard will remain as it has for some time to come. Thanks.
        • haha. How long did it actually take them to fix that? It was Brad that kept saying that it was working correctly for months after release.

      • Re:I wouldn't (Score:2, Informative)

        by rellix ( 888535 )
        I doubt that it will increase it tenfold in the slightest, and what mmo realisitically doesn't have forced grouping? There will be solo content after all, so you won't have to always be grouped. Tradeskills can be done with multiple people *but will not always require it*. The original EQ didn't have these "mistakes" you speak of. It wasn't until these creators were gone that EQ became the waste of time and effort it is today. The creators of Vanguard are making a 3rd generation game. They know what w
    • Any links or numbers you can show that prove this 'theory'?

      • Re:So... (Score:2, Interesting)

        by rellix ( 888535 )
        I'm not sure how I can argue the fact that some games are better, without pointing to their "amazing" features on their websites - but I'd rather not advertise for them.

        If you want some strict subscriber information, you can check out http://www.mmogchart.com/ [mmogchart.com] - if you look at a few trends, EQ is slowly declining in subscribers. SWG was never that popular and has been declining as well.

        EQ in the last few months combined their servers and got rid of at least half (I believe), which is more than enough p

        • Yes, EQ is declining. That is expected though since EQ2 has been released.

          EQ2 is still showing strong numbers though. So not all of the games on the access pass are going out.
          • You should check out the other posts under this topic.. I've made the note that EQ2 is more alive than ever quite a few times.
          • EQ2's numbers have some issues. One problem was they expanded the number of servers shortly after launch but after the first 3 months the population took a hit causing servers to become under populated. Even at peek times servers population is light on just about every server, months ago it was heavy on many of them and Moderate on the rest.

            truly new players are in short supply, most of the low level chars are alts of people who already hit 50 and are tired of raiding and the beginner area is a ghost town.
          • > Yes, EQ is declining. That is expected though since EQ2 has been released.

            Er, EQ2 is *also* declining.

            > EQ2 is still showing strong numbers though.

            They're down over 50,000 from their peak numbers. This is "strong"?

            > So not all of the games on the access pass are going out.

            Well, they may not be going out, but they aren't worldbeaters, either. EQ, SWG, EQ2, are all declining. EQ:OA and PS appear to be holding ground for now but at about 50,000 players each, neither is a major player.
            • actually the numbers seem to have climed slightly after their sharp drop a few months ago (at least according to http://www.mmogchart.com/ [mmogchart.com]). At least the population has stablized.

              It'll be intersting to see what happenes when the asian servers go live and the expansion comes out. I wouldn't expect WoW numbers but it should see a nice spike and it is more likely to retain people than it was when it rolled out (the game has changed a lot since then).
  • SWG, EQ, EQ2

    Could you really hope to play all of these games and make worthwhile progression? Just 1 mmorpg is enough to rape your life away, nevermind 3.
    • I have the station access pass, and I play all three.

      True, mostly its eq2, but I dabble in eq and have several characters in SWG that I play weekly that are all masters of their chosen professions.

      True, if you let them, these games can rape your life away, but i'm not out to get to the highest level possible as quickly as possible. I play for fun.

  • Planetside (Score:2, Informative)

    by FooHentai ( 624583 )
    I played PlanetSide for about 6 months solid before giving up my subscription.

    Great idea, and MMO FPS games are definitely an exciting direction to be going in. However notable flaws:

    1. Pricing - full price for the game and then a full-price subscription fee? I paid it, but I didn't like it. On top of that, paying another full-price for the expansion to the game? No thanks. That's about the time I quit playing, when the Core Combat expansion was released.

    2. There's no victory - You take bases, whil
  • Can someone who actually plays 2 NCSoft games confirm or deny something for me?

    It seemed to me in the all the wording and documentation found in PlayNC that their 'default' was something like this.

    You buy a game, but you don't subscribe to a game, you subscribe to PlayNC. Then you're allowed to play any game that you've purchased.

    That seems really convinient, and it seems strange that they'd do that without charging the same premium that SOE did, but like I said, that's the distinct impression I had fro
    • PlayNC doesn't give you anything like the Station Pass by default, no.
      I dunno if they have an option, as I've been mostly playing the
      subscriptionless Guild Wars. My CoH account will probably be re-
      activated again for a while, and the only option I've seen on the
      account pages is just that game for the fifteen dollars.

      ($15 is small change to some of us Europeans ;)
    • As far as I can tell, PlayNC is just a master account to manage your games. I haven't tried Lineage 2 to confirm this, but for my City of Heroes subscription there is a line item for CoH with the billing cost and the activate/deactivate button.
      Guild Wars and an NCsoft beta game are listed as seperate line items.
  • I never liked SOE's payment plans, mainly which you have to pay for expansions. Mainly because in multiplayer games, people usually wont jump up and buy an add-on; and because people don't buy into it, those who do are stuck with very few people to interact with in those "new" areas. Remember that planetside expassion; yeah it sucked because there was nobody to fight there.

    My only other gripe with SOE is there lack of an art/graphics department. SWG/EQ/EQ2 you look at the graphics and kind of just want to

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