Comments on: Vanguard Beta Leaks Like a Russian Pipeline

By: Kuro

Kuro — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 00:44:08 +0000

“I played Beta for 1 day and logged in few times since”

Clearly most beta testers who don’t enjoy this game walked away as I did at the inception of our invitations.

If you havn’t logged in now, during beta 4, and played at least to level 11, your opinions are not responsible and clearly lacking in substnace.

Most of the claims made on here are an absolute uneducated mockery of the truth behind Sigil’s piece. But then again, we’ll have to wait until open beta for general opinion to be clearly defined.

By: skala

skala — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 21:35:36 +0000

In all fairness you could probably find an equal amount of positive reviews and comments from beta testers quite easily. Oh, and yea, it’s *beta*.

By: Gorbag

Gorbag — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 16:04:03 +0000

Try to review a Game that is released and graphics is not a good thing to make 3 paragraphs about its not what makes a game. look at wow for example. You have nothing to say about the gameplay ? please go back to fps you fools

By: CURRENT-BETA4

CURRENT-BETA4 — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:52:51 +0000

I am in beta 4 of game testing in Vangaurd. I was given a beta key at a point in this beta that is considered to be nearing the end of this cycle. The truth is this game is not ready for a open beta. I want Vanguard to do well but this game is not ready for the public to view it in a beta form yet. A bad open beta launch is almost as bad as a bad retail launch. There are still performance issues, servers which crash, problems with database errors not saving character information, npc models which show up with missing textures or screwed up textures, a questing system that needs work…ie if you abandon a chain quest you have no chance to start over from the last point you were at previous to the last quest you did in that quest chain.

There are a ton of game mechanics, performance issues, and quality issues that needs to be fixed to consider beta 4 done and ready for beta 5. If they have a open beta within the next month they are going to shoot themselves in the foot if they do not address the current issues found in BETA 4 of the game. I do not have anything against this game. I actually like the game play mechanics being pushed by Sigil but for god’s sake fix the problems in beta 4 and optimize the performance before going to beta 5.

By: EQfanatic

EQfanatic — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:40:53 +0000

I was looking forward to Vanguard and had followed it for 1 and 1/2 years. There were so many promises and ideas that sounded exciting and revolutionary… yet when I entered beta with my CGM beta code, the game was nothing like I read. So much is lacking and there is no zazz like WoW has. And this is coming from an Everquest fanatic who desperately seeks a game like EQ. They’ve revamped zones, classes, systems so many freaking times that there seems to be no sense of gameplay… as odd as it sounds.

This game is NOT ready for release at all! No MMO ships complete, but they shouldn’t ship as a piece of shit either. Vanguard is just about to do that, and take it from a beta tester.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:33:42 +0000

Im in beta as well…and i love the game its realy fun, its not OVERLY addicting but its good…its like having a realy nice fishing rod and a uber shiny cool real and a nice expensive line…but no hook…it has no hook..WHERE IS THE HOOK!!?!?! nope dont have one lol , so a lot of ppl are not gonna get caught by this game..but for the ones that do stick w/ it…you will have fun ^^. btw its in Beta 4 now and they are working on a lot of stuff and it is inproving.

~HappyGaming

By: Itstheterrible truth

Itstheterrible truth — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 08:31:17 +0000

Gotto agree with the articles, it’s a terrible game. It’s a disenchanted, ugly game that is groping for a part of the WoW pie but they do not know how to do it. This is no smooth, artfull, colorfull and easy to get into game like WoW, yet it misses all the enchantment of EQ too, like an intriguing political and racial landscape, alive dungeons and the many twists and turns that a well designed EQ-zone could give you. I can cover the starter areas of Elves, Humans, Halflings and Dwarves in a single evening, on foot as a level 6. Not once did I get the feeling that the political or racial landscape changed, that I was arriving in strange lands. No Sense of Wonder.

NPC’s in VG are quest automatons, lifeless, everything goes through popup screens and clicks(no NPC dialogue in your chat box or for others to hear) making interaction with NPC’s even more lifeless and hands off, a gazillion small RPG details have simply been scrapped, the UI is the most generic and boring I have ever seen, there is TLC and other terrible mechanisms all to failsafe and foolproof their game: but without the fun gameplay of WoW and EQ. Fishing? Never heard of that in VG. Faction, KoS? Implemented in the most hands off way so that it completely fails to spice up the world or your gameplay experience. It’s too much too mention.

VG misses the mark on so many things, small and large, that it is almost embarassing.

By: Sturmrabe

Sturmrabe — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 16:00:09 +0000

There just can’t be enough bad things said about this game…

I myself was in beta, and it was like a time machine to 2001 with graphics from 2003/4…

Now that SOE is in the mix it won’t even keep its core market: people who want to play EQ again without SOE around…

And Brad being involved in FOH tell you something: the days of GM’s and Devs being founding members of uberguilds that get all the perks and game support are back! Join them or miss out on all the good content!

By: Kuruk

Kuruk — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:16:24 +0000

I was thrilled when I got a beta invite to this game a few weeks ago. But I was absolutely shocked the first time I logged in and played. I concur with most of the criticisms up above, and as far as EtKiller and his glowing comments, he’s either playing a version of the game none of us have seen before or he’s got a serious drug problem.

By: Wolfman

Wolfman — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:10:01 +0000

This blog entry was posted in May. It is now November and the game seems to be 2-3 years from completion. It is a lifeless, awkward, mess of a game.

Even considering it’s beta status this game is simply a disaster. Vanguard plays like a High School computer class project.

By: Not me

Not me — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:29:07 +0000

Vanguard is a huge dissapointment and I see it do more or less thesame route as DDO. It’s Everquest 2 with WoWish interface. The game still crashes every 10 minutes, it runs *HORRID* and is a pig on resources. I don’t know who did coding on most of this but it is a mess and there is no way that they will fix this by release, or anytime soon afterwards. I played Beta for 1 day and logged in few times since, it is that bad. Everquest 2 is a *much* better game if you are into this kind of stuff. Personally I think that the only mmos with any hope comeing up are Tabula Rasa / Age of COnan / Warhammer with Warhammer obviously being the new 900 lbs gorilla on the market.

By: Cyras

Cyras — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:04:49 +0000

KK, the quotes you’ve posted are pretty much dead on.

I am a beta tester, but unlike most others I’m not gushing at the gills to praise or damn the game. Vanguard is what it is, for better or for worse. Every game has it’s strengths and weaknesses and V:SOH’s strength is that for everyone out there who said “I’d just love to play EverQuest Live again if only it had updated graphics..” .. well, V:SOH is for you.

For the rest of us.. probably should be looking elsewhere. Age of Conan looks promising, but I am so tired of fantasy MMO’s.I feel like a man sitting at a bus station waiting on a bus that never comes: a SciFi MMO since AO that is worth playing.

By: EtKiller

EtKiller — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 22:17:29 +0000

Oh please let me set this record straight. I have been in Beta 3 since it started and your so full of shit it aint even funny. The dungeons are amazing. Best I have seen in ANY game ever. Yes Better than EQ1. Next the graphics are better than ANY MMO out now and most that are coming out. The music is superb . The quests are way better than WOW’s and there are tons. Folks dont believe the naysayers they are not playing the same game I am. lol

By: ze Kranky Kraut

ze Kranky Kraut — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 03:05:27 +0000

The screenshots I was referring to (back in May) were not posted by Brad McQuaid. The link doesn’t seem to work anymore, anyway they were not posted under Brad’s forum nick and it did spark quite a discussion about beta leaks. Plus, Brad has never been a member of FoH, at least not to my knowledge.

I’d also like to point out that this Blog entry isn’t a “review” of beta Vanguard, it is a collection and a comment on the information that leaked to the public via various beta breaches in May of this year.

With regard to your “WoW fanboi” comment, I’d like to refer you to the “About” page linked on the left, where you can check out my “MMORPG credentials”, if you must.

By: Andrew Coste

Andrew Coste — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:06:03 +0000

“The most recent NDA breach, to my knowledge, was the posting of a number of screenshots on the FOH Forums. The screenshots were taken on a mid-range PC and are probably indicative of the level of visual quality most players who don’t have high-end hardware can expect.”

Umm…the screenshots that were posted on the FOH forums were by Brad McQuaid (the president of Sigil) being that he’s been a member of Fires of Heaven since EQ1. This makes your statement ignorant and you didnt research it enough.

The rest of your review tells me that:

1 – You obviously review games that are under beta all the time and have no earthly clue what you are talking about.

2 – You sound like another WoW fanboi that has the “my WoW game is holier than thou” ring to it. Do you WoW players bash every game you come across that isn’t “easy mode” that WoW is? Truely predictable.