DC Universe Online

[Hovis]

So, yeah, there's this game with Superman in it and stuff. I bought it on a whim cos I was bored.

My brief assessment is this:

I really like it. It's an MMO but it plays like Arkham Asylum, and I mean that in a good way. Combat is fast and furious, though character building and PvP can be rather more clever than it looks. Easily the most polished MMO I've played at launch. Nothing broken, decent amount of content, so on and so forth. Probably owes that to being a PS3 title as well. It has cool cut scenes, the setting is really well implemented, as are characters and powers and so on. The main cities are huge, and not instanced apart from the boss fight buildings, so it's properly massive, you won't find yourself in Gotham City 4 while your mates are in Gotham City 28 for example.

The fact it's a console game doesn't have too much of a negative impact, it does mean things are kept simple, you can't use huge numbers of powers and so on in battle, but that's actually not a bad thing, in keeping with the Guild Wars approach of choosing wisely and using what you have to the best of your ability. Character building is very well done, with skill chains to be built up across your main power line, your weapon and your movement ability, plus you can pick up iconic powers too.

The grind is minimal. By which I mean I have a character at maximum level after sixty hours play. You level fast and quests are fun, usually four or five open areas then an instance. Each quest, if its right for your level and you do the sub quests, will usually net you a level or two and maybe take an hour or so. The end game is being built up, but you can get to it very easily and quickly. Even getting stuck into PvP I was still able to level up to the top very fast, on one of the dickless PvE servers it'd be doable even quicker.

All things considered I'd say it's several orders of magnitude better than Champions Online, in every single regard. It just pisses all over it from the moment you start playing.

All that said, will I subscribe to it and keep playing? Probably not. This game is very good, but it's a very good month. I can't see myself still finding things to do two or three weeks. But I reckon for thirty odd squids you can easily get value out of it in a month worth of play.

[Khammar]

Was pretty much my take, and why (with less disposable income than I might like) I skipped it.

If they drop it down later on, I may pick it up and give it that month though. :)

[Volw]

It's quite fun. Yet, the length of the game is somehow console grade.

I'm worried it will be milked by SOE - with episodic content, expansions etc. The base sets the ground for those really, familiarises the player with main heroes and villains etc.

It depends how are they going to price it, but paying for the sub and extra content may be a bit too much for the pc crowd.

[Hovis]

It's quite fun. Yet, the length of the game is somehow console grade.

I'm worried it will be milked by SOE - with episodic content, expansions etc. The base sets the ground for those really, familiarises the player with main heroes and villains etc.

It depends how are they going to price it, but paying for the sub and extra content may be a bit too much for the pc crowd.

True. Times have changed and I think in these days of DLC and standalone expansions etc even the subscription itself looks expensive. There would need to be a lot added. That said, once you do hit 30, a lot of content appears. Loads more Alerts, Arenas, Raids, those Duo things, all kinds of good stuff. It's the part of the game that looks most like it might be a grind, although it's still, yanno, not bad. I'm probably going to spend the month levelling toons to thirty though.

[DestRox]

i havent got it myself but iv seen some ppl streamin it and read some comments
it looks alright but it was clearly made for a consol and for DC comic fans

the game shouldnt be ppm rather like GW
ppl complain about low character customization, "copy/paste" dungeon layouts

tbh even CoH/CoV have more to offer and is more of a pc game

But if you luv DC comics and play on consol, there is no reason not to get it

[Ludicrouse]

...All things considered I'd say it's several orders of magnitude better than Champions Online, in every single regard. It just pisses all over it from the moment you start playing...

I could not disagree more.

DCUO is plain terrible. It is the purest form of Console Derp i have ever seen. This pile of turd filled cack does not trump City of Hero's let alone Champion's Online in anything, with the exception of Graphics and Derpyness.

It claims to have customisation, fuck right off. It has about 1% of the customisation of City of Hero's and Champions Online. Superhero MMO's should be about Customisation and feeling like your own seperate SuperHERO, you get none of that in DCUO. With such a limited choice in the Costume department there is no true variety when you look around. A perfect example is that there is no way to customise your characters body, no sliders to control muscle mass, weight, height, arm length or foot size. You only have options such as "Large", "Small" and "Medium".

Then there is the super Console Retardo-matic Combat System WOOHOO! You too can feel like Supermans Down's Syndrome suffering Cousin in DCUO. Just lazily move the camera in the general direction of a NPC and watch as it automatically targets the mob, great if you are playing like a retard with a Gamepad - not so hot with a Mouse and Keyboard. Just wait until you get flung back by an NPC only to have the retarded thing switch targets to another NPC which just walked in front of your cursor. Yeah, there is a way to "lock" the target but it is so unwieldy it is beyond redemption.

Then there is the lovely spam clickyness that the game involves. I like to call it, "How to destroy your mouse in 10 days". What a load of bollocks. Click once to punch, click once then click and hold to Haymaker, now click 14 times and hold to shove your fist up Lex Luthors arse and shove your Epeen down his throat. This wonderfully simple system was apparantly designed to "Revolutionise MMO Gameplay", destroying your mouse is just a benefit, and to get away from the "Push 1 then 2 then 7" gameplay that you get with most other MMO's. That would ofcourse be fine - had they not left a fucking Action Bar im the bastard game and REQUIRED you to put stuff on it such as CC abilities and the like that you WILL be using in every fucking fight. Way to own yourself fucktards.



To summarise. DCUO is shit. Pure Console retardation which generally suits the mental stature of PS3 players. If you want to play Superhero then wait until the 25th of January and play Champions Online for FREE (Yes, it is going F2P). CO may not be the best MMO ever, or come even close to be honest, but it is a lot better than this crock of shit.

[SneakRocker]

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/hs1345.snc4/162019_309807268291_8081701_n.jpg

[Khammar]

To summarise. DCUO is shit. Pure Console retardation which generally suits the mental stature of PS3 players. If you want to play Superhero then wait until the 25th of January and play Champions Online for FREE (Yes, it is going F2P). CO may not be the best MMO ever, or come even close to be honest, but it is a lot better than this crock of shit.

I'd like to point out that you get no customization of your character's abilities in the F2P version, making it just one more big pile of fail.

[Hovis]

I could not disagree more.

DCUO is plain terrible. It is the purest form of Console Derp i have ever seen. This pile of turd filled cack does not trump City of Hero's let alone Champion's Online in anything, with the exception of Graphics and Derpyness.

It claims to have customisation, fuck right off. It has about 1% of the customisation of City of Hero's and Champions Online. Superhero MMO's should be about Customisation and feeling like your own seperate SuperHERO, you get none of that in DCUO. With such a limited choice in the Costume department there is no true variety when you look around. A perfect example is that there is no way to customise your characters body, no sliders to control muscle mass, weight, height, arm length or foot size. You only have options such as "Large", "Small" and "Medium".

Then there is the super Console Retardo-matic Combat System WOOHOO! You too can feel like Supermans Down's Syndrome suffering Cousin in DCUO. Just lazily move the camera in the general direction of a NPC and watch as it automatically targets the mob, great if you are playing like a retard with a Gamepad - not so hot with a Mouse and Keyboard. Just wait until you get flung back by an NPC only to have the retarded thing switch targets to another NPC which just walked in front of your cursor. Yeah, there is a way to "lock" the target but it is so unwieldy it is beyond redemption.

Then there is the lovely spam clickyness that the game involves. I like to call it, "How to destroy your mouse in 10 days". What a load of bollocks. Click once to punch, click once then click and hold to Haymaker, now click 14 times and hold to shove your fist up Lex Luthors arse and shove your Epeen down his throat. This wonderfully simple system was apparantly designed to "Revolutionise MMO Gameplay", destroying your mouse is just a benefit, and to get away from the "Push 1 then 2 then 7" gameplay that you get with most other MMO's. That would ofcourse be fine - had they not left a fucking Action Bar im the bastard game and REQUIRED you to put stuff on it such as CC abilities and the like that you WILL be using in every fucking fight. Way to own yourself fucktards.



To summarise. DCUO is shit. Pure Console retardation which generally suits the mental stature of PS3 players. If you want to play Superhero then wait until the 25th of January and play Champions Online for FREE (Yes, it is going F2P). CO may not be the best MMO ever, or come even close to be honest, but it is a lot better than this crock of shit.

You unlock the costumes and customisations. There's fuckloads, but just like most other MMOs you start off looking like, well, a newb.

Customisation is a way short of APB, which remains the benchmark, but it's still a hell of a lot better than Champions Online. In CO you make your character, and that's pretty much it. In DC you equip items exactly as you would in any other MMO, which then in turn unlocks that style. So if I find a torso armour of win +2 that looks like a robot, I can have a robot looking chest, or not, if I choose. Gives you the control over your look that a superhero game demands, but at the same time the continual progression of appearance that MMOs thrive on.

Not sure why you'd think the console combat system is a bad thing. I mean I've not played an orthodox MMO since probably WAR, so my benchmark is out of date, but it beats that hands down. Maybe MMOs have got more dynamic and responsive since then, but if sharper, more streamlined controls are console retardation then bring them on. It's still not as sharp as a full on action game, but it's definitely going in the right direction.

For my money the only major disappointment was the way that the game so effortlessly turns into a series of grinds once you get to max level. Now in truth it could be argued that since it only takes a week to get to max level that's fair enough, but still, it's a bit grim to look at the best armours in the game and realise how many hundreds of instances or arenas each one will demand. And sure that's par for the course with any MMO, but that's why I tend to bin most MMOs.

There is also a fundamental lack of meaningful open world combat, which is a big shame, because I don't much care for arena fighting. The open world fighting, where you need to keep your head on a swivel in case some passing villain chucks a truck at you, is brilliant. Arena combat is very sterile by comparison.

[Ludicrouse]

Yes, you can find pieces of Armour while playing, whoopie! Trouble is, so can every fucker else and there is not *that* many different looks i can assure you. Yes, you do have an "Appearance" system but that is not anything special.

If you want to use CO, as APB was fail, as a Benchmark for the Customisation then as a matter of fact you can unlock new costume by completeing various achievments and quests. All in all everyone in DCUO looks generic, it is disappointing and i do not think that SOE have quite figured out that this goes against all logic for a Superhero MMO.

The controls are in no way Streamlined, they are built for the PS3 specifically, this is just a Port. It wants to be a Beat-Em-Up but they do not suit a PC's Mouse & Keyboard at all. Im sure their system works superbly on a PS3 gamepad as you have multiple buttons which is alot less repetitive than spamming LMB or RMB dozens of times like a Chimp with Attention Defecit Disorder.

In short, the Control scheme of this game reminds me of the first of the Final Fantasy MMO's. They came along with a gimpy Console Port too, they just tried to complicate the control system to be more like a PC MMO and failed. DCUO is going the other way and trying to retard the control system in order to make it simple like on the Console, neither works so it just goes to prove that Consoles are not ready for complex MMO's.

[Ludicrouse]

I'd like to point out that you get no customization of your character's abilities in the F2P version, making it just one more big pile of fail.

Well that just put's it in the same kind of fail pile as DCUO. It has none of the intricate Power Selection like CO does with its Custom Framework. Yes, you can pick and choose powers from your Abilities windows but you cannot for example have Laser's shooting from your eyes while you summon Zombies and ride a giant chunk of Ice. :shinner:

[Hovis]

Well that just put's it in the same kind of fail pile as DCUO. It has none of the intricate Power Selection like CO does with its Custom Framework. Yes, you can pick and choose powers from your Abilities windows but you cannot for example have Laser's shooting from your eyes while you summon Zombies and ride a giant chunk of Ice. :shinner:

Thing to bear in mind with DC is that it has a setting, rather than just being LOL SUPERHEROZ LOL, and the setting is that the bad guys stole the powers from all the superheroes and villains in the future, then those powers were nicked, brought back and offloaded in the present to reinforce the locals against the invasion. It's daft, as comic book plots should be, but it's a simple explanation as to why powers are limited in range. So you can't ride around on ice and shoot zombies from the shoulders of your pet robot cow. Oddly enough though, I can't say as I've missed being able to do that.

Again comparisons with CO are undermined by the fact that CO was awful to play. DC is much more fun. And that right there is an issue of being fit for purpose. Champions Online can have all the features it wants but in the context of a game that is no fun, what's the use of it. Creating an absurd character and going LOL at it, that's great, that's a fun five seconds, maybe a minute if your character is really funny, but that's not going to save the game in the playability stakes.

Probably helps to have a bunch of goons to play it with as well though, been in Vanu Corp since I started playing and it's a good crew. They're also looking into the next Planetside, where I shall burn them down.

[Ludicrouse]

Story does not a good MMO make'th, historically anyway. DCUO just does not offer enough of everything it is supposed to, and as Volw pointed out earlier - this screams DLC/Microtransactions and eventual Free 2 Play. Do PS3 players even pay a sub?

I will not get into a debate about CO and it's quality as you are right, it stank shortly after release and it has suffered that.

[Hovis]

Story does not a good MMO make'th, historically anyway. DCUO just does not offer enough of everything it is supposed to, and as Volw pointed out earlier - this screams DLC/Microtransactions and eventual Free 2 Play. Do PS3 players even pay a sub?

I will not get into a debate about CO and it's quality as you are right, it stank shortly after release and it has suffered that.

Indeed, but like I said, as a game, with a short lifespan, it's not bad at all. :D

[OniKiy]

DCUO is fun, plain and simple fun. The mechanics are enjoyable and require more than pressing numbers in a sequence. The PvP can be enjoyable and the world is fantastic and scales well enough to suit the game and the IP.

I have not enjoyed the leveling content in other MMO's as much as DCUO. The combat is pretty much like a console action game. While there are still moves performed as a standard MMO, they feel complimentry to what you chose than just odd. If you use bare hands, dual weild, single handed weapons, guns, or even caster. The powers all work within that and make it feel fluid and enjoyable. Each also brings their own bonuses and pros and cons. Which make the combat all that more enjoyable.

I can't tell you to enjoy the game, but I have been and will probably continue to enjoy it for some time yet. If you check out videos of TotalHalibut you'll see some in game videos and perhaps you'll feel the need to play. If not thats fair enough too. :)

[Volw]

New trailer.

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/02/01/dc-universe-online-the-second-blur-trailer

[DestRox]

pretty cool trailer.. makes me wanna watch some DC anime

[Hovis]

Must admit the trailers that DC Online has are the best DC Universe stuff I've seen, albeit in snippets, ever. Right up there with the Batman cartoon from the mid 90s (same voices too).

Damn them for having a story that's actually interesting too. If they really put the work into extra content month by month this game could be a serious keeper.

As it is, meh. Still unsure about month #2, especially having played the shit out of it first month.

[Khammar]

Don't worry Bread, Rift is out soon. You can play that instead.

[Hovis]

Don't worry Bread, Rift is out soon. You can play that instead.

Can you throw a bus at people in PvP? Seriously you've not PvPed until you've had your opponent snatched away from you by the Number 268 being hurled down the street.

Also can you swap class? Cos I like swapping classes. Like, in the middle of an instance, then back again.

[Volw]

I think that's the biggest problem of DCUO.

It's fun. All the way from lvl 1 to 30.

It doesn't dwell on the typical:

- grind boring quests for days/weeks to reach max level
- oh you are max level! awesome!
- now you need to grind for days/weeks to get your raiding gear / crafting / (insert another excuse for timesink)
- once you get all of your epix gear, gigantic e-peen and ginger hair, an expansion comes out and you have to repeat the cycle.

That's why I'm guessing it won't be a huge success on PC. It's fun and requires skill from people used to faceroll or simply macro during combat.

Unless they create a separate 'WoW' ruleset. With level progression x0.1,top level gear grind x10 and replace all of the combos with clickable skills.

[Khammar]

Can you throw a bus at people in PvP? Seriously you've not PvPed until you've had your opponent snatched away from you by the Number 268 being hurled down the street.

Also can you swap class? Cos I like swapping classes. Like, in the middle of an instance, then back again.

You can tear a hole in the fabric of the world and unleash planar enemies in the territory of your enemies.

"Swap Class" meaning go from healer to tank to dps and back again? Yes, every 2 seconds out of combat. (Disclaimer being only clerics have all three of those roles, but yes, all characters can swap.)

It's a good game. It's not a super hero game of course, but I know you like to play various things. I suspect you'd enjoy it.

[Tapja]

I suspect you'd enjoy it...

... for a month, maybe.

[Khammar]

... for a month, maybe.

But that's all Bread ever plays anything for anyway, so it's all good. ;)

[Tapja]

But that's all Bread ever plays anything for anyway, so it's all good. ;)

That sort of was what I was implying :shinner:

[Khammar]

That sort of was what I was implying :shinner:

Don't get too subtle with Bread.

He might start to get ideas.

Wrong ones.

Very, very wrong ones.

I must say I am saddened to know you will not be joining on release, and hope you do make your way into the game at some near future juncture, Tap. :)

[Tapja]

I must say I am saddened to know you will not be joining on release, and hope you do make your way into the game at some near future juncture, Tap. :)

It just felt somewhat lacking, could not pinpoint what exactly, but it just did not call out to me. Felt a bit like same old with not enough difference from wow/war.

[Maurgrim]

I heard you get 2 buddykeys for a trial when you buy DCUO, anyone got one or two left for? :D

[Khammar]

It just felt somewhat lacking, could not pinpoint what exactly, but it just did not call out to me. Felt a bit like same old with not enough difference from wow/war.

Ah well. Maybe you'll reconsider at some point. Will be weird not having you in the vanguard as usual. ;)

[Ludicrouse]

It just felt somewhat lacking, could not pinpoint what exactly, but it just did not call out to me. Felt a bit like same old with not enough difference from wow/war.

Seeing as the thread has been de-railed already...

I feel exactly the same way. Rift was a good game, but one that i have been playing for the past ten years under various Pseudonyms.

Obi-Wan: SWTOR is our only hope...
Yoda: There is another... PlanetSide Next.

[Hovis]

See that was what struck me with every Rift video I saw. WoW. WAR. EQ2. All over again. Even down to the starting area with all these nabs running around killing ten of 'insert name of mob here' in a small area just outside the starting village. I mean even if it is the best game of that type ever, I think I'm done with that type of game. The time demands versus the level of legitimate enjoyment (beyond the simple time/reward MMO narcotic effect) are typically all out of whack.

In fairness to DCUO, the shine is off the apple, about 120 hours in, and I've played the Hero side to death. That's not to say I now hate the game, but I'm all hero'd out. Which is a fair return on thirty quid.

Got characters in three of the six classes to max level. Got basic raid kit and to be honest, I'm not looking too hard at the raids themselves because the more players in DCUO the more it feels like an MMO rather than a fighting game. The Duos, which are the two player instances, I like, but the more it scales the closer it gets to tank, spank and battery, with perhaps the only notable difference being every class can do the spanking.

Have to say though it's kind of sad and ironic that the best PvE MMO I've ever played is probably the one I'll have the shortest subscription for. The game just gives everything up so freely that there's very little left for me now, after nomming through it like a monster. I can usually get bored with an MMO inside of a week, there just comes a point where it suddenly turns into Matrix-like numbers and the illusion of gameplay is replaced by the realisation it's just a time sink, but this one lasted longer. I think because it's not a time sink. I mean three or four days to get to level cap, two or three days to get equipment that is within the range you can do the tough four man instances, a day to get the basic PvP gear. Time really is the one thing it doesn't really ask for.

[Volw]

There's two major things this game is missing.

End-game public quests - similar to invasions in CoH years ago. Or what everyone gets so excited about and calls innovative in RIFT :p

At the moment there is nothing meaningful or fun to be done at lvl 30, besides the usual instance grind. Having Brainiac attack different sectors of the map at random would give people an incentive to go out to the streets.


Open World - Objective Based PvP, based around teams of 4 and duos. Arenas and pvp instances are simply not fun.

Even a system similar to APB would work. Have villains ie. rob a bank and a team of heroes to counter them.


I wonder what SOE is going to do with it. They've got an extremely good game that is not so much missing content, but a good end-game designer.

[Hovis]

In fairness, very, very few games are born with a good endgame.

[Volw]

True, but usually, the problem is lack of content.

The content is here, it's just not utilised. It's the opposite to APB, where there was no content, but the game did perfectly well with what it had.

[Khammar]

In fairness, very, very few games are born with a good endgame.

I fairness, the title you just discounted a couple of posts ago supposedly actually has good endgame. ;)

Also:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/431/feature/4953/Rift-Tradition-Can-Work.html

I wish I had the money to play DCUO honestly. But I can't afford it with everything else I am doing. I suspect I'll be picking it up when they start offering it as a trial and then seeing what I think. So whenever that may be. :)

[Volw]

SOE slashed 3 months sub by 25%, down to $29.90.

£8/month is not that bad tbh.

--

Which is a good indication that a lot of people cancelled their subs - not a big surprise here.

[Hovis]

I think the implication is they are trying to get people on board for longer. To be honest I think if they want that they ought to offer two months with the game.

[Khammar]

Rift is offering founders club pricing on subs to encourage 3/6 months off the bat. It's so good I am 6 month subbing an MMO for the first time ever.

[Hovis]

What's it got for RvR? Cos basically that's the only thing that it might have that I'd be interested in.

[Khammar]

There's 2 factions that share areas and will butt heads. There's rifts which spawn in the open world and can be fought over (including high level raid rifts with good loot.)

*shrug*

It's likely not a good as WAR, but it runs way better.