Nothing Great out there.

No there's nothing GREAT, but I'm facing the reality of the situation. It's really put a bad taste in my mouth. 7 years, 2 months (20 months of those unemployed) I kept 2 subs going. Because THEY didn't take out a payment for August I'm bumped down to premium. Can't post in most of the forums, I won't even log into the game because it would break my heart even more than it is now.

Anyway, I downloaded, through Steam, every F2P game that seemed worth playing. Champions Online, DCUO, LOTRO, DnDO AND I found a 3 day trial to the Secret World. I agree that I'm not paying $60 (although I've seen it as low as $34.99) just yet. I tried C.O. and it still sucks. Somehow my character's auto-run kept coming on, with the default, through 3 logons. Coulda been my fault, but no other game does it. Tried about 1/2 hour of DnDO, made a character, when through the tutorial, not bad. But the biggest surprise was DCUO. I've just finished playing that for 2.5 hours and it didn't suck! It was kinda fun actually.

And I feel guilty as hell. But when I think about it, it's sort of like you find out that your wife, or girlfriend (or husband, or boyfriend) had a terminal disease, 2 months to live, but when you get home from the doctor they tell you they've been cheating on you for years. That's kind of how I feel about the whole CoX situation. *I* didn't do anything wrong, but the game's going away, but I can't even say goodbye properly, post in the forums I want to, play all of my characters, screenshots, etc.

So, yeah, there's nothing out there that can compare to CoX, but it's going away and I don't have a choice in the matter so that's that.

AND I know there are a lot of plans, hopes, wishes and dreams to keep the game going. I've signed every petition, spread the word on FB and Twitter, commented on the CNN website and any other news outlet that ran the story but deep down, in my heart of hearts I don't think it's gonna work. I'll be the first one to eat my words, jump for joy, do cartwheels down the street if it's saved but...

Anyway, going to go try The Secret World, see if maybe that can at least start to fill the void that I feel already.

For the folks who are considering The Secret World, I think it's a great game, and have been playing it regularly since its official release. But there are a few things I'd consider first:

1. The atmosphere, story arcs and mission designs are darn good.

2. There are no classes and the power system is open ended. That being said, I have found that my background with COH mechanics has helped me understand TSW's "power" ability wheel. But it's more complicated than COH's power structure. It also is quite possible to gimp your character (I've heard; I'm still in the starter towns).

3. TSW is graphically intense. I had purchased a new computer this year to play COH in Ultra Mode (and I was able to do that at mid-level settings with no problems). OTOH, my FPS rate were horrid in TSW until I purchased a high level graphics card (which works like a charm now).

4. IMHO, I don't find TSW to be team friendly (or at least duo friendly), unlike COH. This is due to certain story arcs forcing you to enter solo instances. Now, it's not that big of a problem for me, but it is annoying when I want to duo with my brother through an entire story arc. We literally have to play separate instances and wait until the other person is done before regrouping. This is one of my biggest gripes with the game.

5. You only get 4 slots (you can purchase more I believe), so my altitis is severely limited =) But the game is designed so you can literally have all abilities (given time) in one character.

Anyway, give me a PM if you are considering it and want to know more.

Tried TSW didn't like it. Apparently I got in under the 3 day trial but played it for about 15 minutes. Hated the graphics. I created my character, really limited clothing options, went through the initial cut scenes. Made my way to the first expository NPC and the game froze up on me.

I rebooted and went back to playing DCUO. I *might* try it again tonight but I doubt it.

TSW: the concept is nice. The graphics are well-done. Character customization is very limited. When I'm firing at a target it doesn't come across as real life-like. The EULA mandates that you allow PWE to install malware on your hard drive. I'll wait for Marvel Heroes to come out.

Healix, stop posting that, it makes me haz a sad.

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Then again, maybe you should post it every post you make... hm.

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I agree, nothin' like Co*. CO is just a mess. DCUO is actually okish... but I'm not digging the 'you will do this' power choosing, and I don't like the wearing of items for power... and they apparently wear out. And where's my XP indicator? And HOW DO I GET A CURSOR TO PLAY WITH THE MAP!?! Geez... little things, people... this is a PS3 engine, so I see where the limitations are... Overall, though DCUO isn't terrible...

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STO needs a lesson in *how things should work*. The ground missions were... horrid, for me, but not bad, just... badly lit. Perhaps that's 'realistic', but give me some light, this isn't Doom 3.

But nothing takes the cake of the broken space battles. Having a starship that *cannot loop-de-loop*, much less do a barrel roll (yeah, yeah, Starfox, whatever)... AND has to be assaulted by no less than 4 Borg spheres, and I *cannot warp away* until I beat them all!?

Right. Game over man, game over.

Sorry... STO really chaps my *** as a Trekkie. Ticks me off royally. I want my starship to WORK RIGHT, dangit, and as such, STO is horribly broken...

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Of course, perhaps they fixed it... it's been a couple of years, I admit. Ah well.

All that bein' said... I am probably done with MMOs... and gaming in general, to be honest... after Co*. I said it in another thread... I've been spoiled rotten. Nothin' gonna come close to the experience and mechanics of Co*... unless they make a Co*2 and use a lot of the rules of this version...

And even then, I'm probably not going to join up... I don't want 7+ years of stuff lost because someone else decides to up and stop the works.

I *made stuff* in this game... that's kinda what hurts the most.

Mike

/I have housework and car stuff to do anyway, so I'll be occupied.

..because it stated exactly how I feel in my heart.

@healix Brutal pic, especially since I'm a vet.

I haven't logged into CoH for a while. Always felt comfortable my toons were waiting for me. I did spend some Paragon Points back when Controllers were on sale. I had one character slot left on Virtue and wanted to roll a troller, but couldn't decide which kind would be good for SO only. But that's not to be anymore.

As for other games, I had been playing Star Wars:The Old Republic. I enjoyed it a great deal - four hours every night. The class quests are good stories. Leaping into battle as a jedi knight is fun. PvP is fun when the game is close. The general feel of the game, seemed like 'WoW with lightsabers.' Like others here, I found the post-50 grind less than enjoyable. Playing in alt was a little dull, because, aside from your class quests, you tend to do the same quests on the same planets. Never did play operations, but I heard they were pretty fun. The flashpoints (similar to WoW dungeon instances) are enjoyable, but they need a few more of them. Try it free till 15 so how you like it. Trooper class is easy - you get a healer companion before any other class. Scoundrels are fun too. Nice to send your companions off to do the crafting and you could go do fun stuff - PvP, questing, or log off entirely.

I've been playing World of Tanks recently. Its free to play, with the option to buy stuff (upgraded crew, more tank slots in your garage, etc). The first few days is really fun, then you hit the grind from Tier III to Tier IV tanks. But its fun to log on and play a few battles every now and then. Its all PvP, 15 tanks vs 15 tanks. The tanks are grouped into Tiers of roughly equivalent ability, and the random battles group tanks of similar Tiers into two teams. Its fun, but somewhat grindy.

GW2 looked interesting, but of course never going to play an NCSoft game. Haven't played TSW. The genre looks interesting, but don't want to pay for it.

I had a comment written and then the forum logged me off, man that's so annoying. But anyways, here's the jest of it:
Many of you will probably find an MMO you enjoy, but not until you move away from CoH.
Others of you are more into CoH than 'MMO gaming', and thus you will simply never find anything to replace it.

I'm guessing someone is still paranoid about Pando.

I've also found a new home in The Secret World. Wow, I feel like a traitor saying that But I have a year long sub for CoX (which renewed recently), so I've never had any intention of leaving CoX, ever. *sigh* I hope the "Save CoH" campaign works, somehow.