Ugh,

I just wanted to take a moment and vent about the utter dissapointment I've had in AION TOWER OF ETERNITY. At first glance it did like it was going to be the wow killer. The graphics and atmosphere pull you in, but once you start into it, you realize it's barely more than a platform game like Crash Bandicoot.

The first thing that will dissapoint you is the linear feel to the experience. In every given area there is pretty much one path that you can take. Unlike in WOW, where you can jump through some bushes, skip through a forest, swim a river, and cut into your next area; AION is filled with walls and barriers that trap you in your perspective place until you run down the path to the next spot.

Next is the flying. Wow, never thought any game would let you fly before. Well don't get exited, you can only fly in specified areas and you have a two minute timer. Of course, if you're looking down hill you can glide, but get ready for a game that asks you to run back and forth to pretty much every quest giver and area. It's lame.

Of course, AION promised better pvp than wow, just like every game before has promised and not delivered. True, in WOW, pvp can be very gear and class specific, but if you take the time and gear up pretty much any type of toon can be decent. In aion, look at it like this, Sorcerers, and Priests, will own everyone. Of course, that's assuming you can get past 25, after which almost all the quests are gone and they hope you will hang on long enough to grind out the remaining levels while levels 40-50 have free reign to farm you, and your friends, and your quest givers, NPCS, pretty much everything because they really don't have anything better to do.

So congratulations to AION, you have won my polished turd award. Oh, and if you don't have an upgraded graphics card, don't expect it to look better than WOW either. I was playing the other day and noticed things in WOW like the shine of polished metal and the mist coming from your breath in the cold areas. AION has copied these effects, but on cheaper operating systems, you pretty much have to turn everything off to get it to run passably.

Oh, one last thing, don't get me started on instances and boss fights. AION doesn't have any until way later than you'll be willing to force yourself to play, and once you've done it, highest dps gets the loot. Don't be surprised if noone wants to tank or heal.