Originally posted by: Bateluer
I've got it coming tomorrow, so I'll have time to play test it tomorrow.
Well, I've had it install now for a few days and have had the opportunity to play it. The game looks outstanding, and you really need a 6800 series card to run it smoothly with details turned up. Nvidia's been partnered with this for a long while.
I haven't experienced any serious lag myself, even in the Willow Wood village with 100 PCs standing around. Also, the zones can take anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 seconds to zone, depending on how big the zone your loading is. Tiny zones, like the workskop quest zone on Refuge actually loaded in the blink of an eye. You tend to spend a bit of time in zones that take longer ot load because they are bigger obviously.
I like how I always know what to do and a general idea of where it needs to be done. In WoW, I was almost totally lost. The minimap blows and you have no waypoints to guide you around. In EQ2 that is not that case. Every building has an ID on it, and if an NPC tells you to go to a building, the glowing path guides you to it.
The two villages that I've been to in EQ2 thus far both seemed alive, unlike the cities in WoW. The NPCs move around and almost all of them have unique voices. Most of them will give quests as well.
One last thing, the fights are MUCH more interesting and better done in EQ2 than WoW. In WoW, my hunter would simply draw her bow and fire the arrow for a standard autoshot and simply stab with here stilletto repeatedly. In EQ2, the club, the staff, the longsword, and the short sword that I've used so far have each has unique battle choreography. The staff particularly is cool to watch, the way the twirl it around and hold the staff during the fight looks very cool.
All in all, I like EQ2 so far. I am about half way through the citizenship quest to gain access to the city of Qeynos. I do wish I had more coin to buy stuff for my house though, oh well.