first-impressions
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First Impressions: Ryzom
Officially called just Ryzom now, the MMO previously called The Saga of Ryzom is back from a brief hiatus. Featuring amazing design aesthetics,this game has its own unique style. Despite the fact that it was developed by a French studio, the English translations read, in many ways, better than some native American titles. We spent a couple of hours playing Ryzom, and here are our First Impressions. Remember, this is not a guide of any sort; this is merely our experience in dropping into a new title. Peruse the Gallery to read what we thought about Ryzom! Go to the first image >> %Gallery-31718%
iPod touch 2G unboxing, hands-on, and first impressions
We'll tell you that when we first got a chance to handle Apple's latest generation of the iPod touch on Tuesday, our gadget-nerd alarms went clanging like there was a really, really bad fire somewhere. The improvements the company has made in design aren't remarkable, but they are entirely welcome. The new housing is smooth, incredibly thin, and feels like a solid metal brick in your hands. The built-in speaker is a nice addition, as are those volume controls (finally!) -- the screen is incredibly bright (on par with the iPhone 3G), though it also looks like it got the 3G's new color temperature. On the software side, 2.1 is definitely feeling smoother and slicker than previous versions, the Nike+ inclusion is huge if you're a runner, and the implementation is well integrated -- overall, we're leaning towards a thumbs-up on those bug fixes too. Unfortunately, we couldn't seem to get the Genius function working on the device (anyone else having this issue?), though that may be more of a server-side conflict than something funky with the player, as we were getting errors in iTunes when trying to flip the switch. We'll be blowing this out with a full review, but for now you can enjoy the succulent pics in the gallery below!%Gallery-31721%
iPod nano 4G unboxing, hands-on, and first impressions
We had a chance to paw this beauty on Tuesday at the Apple event, but finally getting home and spending some quality time with the device has given us a far deeper impression of just what the folks in Cupertino have done. So far our impressions are favorable: physically, the nano redesign is a move in the right direction for the company, leaving that awkward previous generation nano on the cutting room floor, and falling much more in line with Apple's current design language. The player feels solid and compact -- maybe a bit too tiny for our big paws -- though build quality is on par with the 1st generation iPhone. You can tell a lot of careful rethinking went into this, and there's not an edge out of place. We're going to be doing a full review of the device and its new software, but for now feast your eyes on the gallery below.%Gallery-31711%
First Impressions: Atlantica Online
Welcome to our First Impressions of NDOORS' Atlantica Online. Although it's in its third round of its closed beta, it's functional enough to talk about, and deservedly so. It's not the only MMOTBS -- massively multiplayer online turn-based strategy -- currently on the market, but it's got a high level of polish and a lot of potential. Let's dig in.%Gallery-30621%
First Impressions: Maple Story
Welcome to our First Impressions of the king of all 2D MMOs, Maple Story! If you haven't played it, consider this a dip of the toe into its cuter-than-thou madness. We're not divulging secrets here, this is not a guide of any sort; this is just a record of the way we found the game during our first hour or so of play. Caveat emptor!First of all, please notice the banner ad at the top of this post. That should tell you everything you need to know about MS in a nutshell: Cute superdeformed anime-esque graphics, goofy-themed gameplay, and an engaging sense of humor about itself. Cyborg turkeys, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Don't forget, clicking on the following pictures leads to their hi-res versions. Read on, O brave audience!%Gallery-29725%
First Impressions: SAGA
SAGA (not to be confused with Saga, who gave us the immortal "On the Loose") is an MMORTS -- massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game. While there are few enough of these on the market -- making its very existence worthy of approbation -- we thought it would be worth taking a closer look, to offer up an opinion of our first couple of hours into gameplay. Thus, this First Impressions post.Remember: this is not a guide, nor was this in any way influenced by the development studio. This is an entirely subjective look at SAGA, from an average gamer's point of view. And now, on with the show! Game. Thing. Whatever. Onward!%Gallery-28014%
First Impressions: Requiem: Bloodymare
We've been talking about this game for months now, and Requiem: Bloodymare is finally available to play. Hailed as the first horror MMO, there are definitely aspects of R:B that are pretty gruesome. Whether or not they freak you out is between you and the game. I will say that, having played the beta, Gravity Interactive has made leaps and bounds in turning this title into something that I could spend a great deal of time playing.What you behold is our First Impressions for Requiem: Bloodymare, a feature meant to give you some idea of what gameplay will be like once you've signed up for an account. Keep in mind: this is not a guide, there is no insider knowledge here. This post merely details the experiences playing this title for the first few hours; your mileage may vary. Up, up, and away!%Gallery-26440%
First Impressions: Dreamlords the Reawakening
Lockpick Entertainment has been hard at work on the relaunch of their fantasy MMORTS Dreamlords the Reawakening, and their efforts have not been in vain. This title is just as rich and complex a game as you'd hope for. If you're the type of gamer who likes getting your hands dirty, the level of micromanagement alone will please you. As for the rest of you, you'll have to decide for yourselves whether DtR is your cup of tea.To help you with that decision, we've put together this First Impressions post. Keep in mind that this is not a guide -- we have no insider knowledge to report. This is merely a record of our opinions and experience playing this game for the first few hours. As always, you can click on the pictures for their hi-res versions. Onward!%Gallery-26179%
First Impressions: Albatross 18
Have you been pining away for a great golf MMO? We have, too! Look, even if you haven't, let's just go along with this, okay? Albatross 18 is an engaging, colorful, whimsical game that doesn't disappoint. When one considers golf, there really isn't too much to it -- hit the ball into the hole, rinse, repeat. The beauty of its simplicity is that a developer can go crazy with that concept and add all sorts of madness to it, and it can only improve the game.And that's exactly what's going on with Albatross 18: beautiful environments, useful power-ups, crazy caddies, mascots, costumes -- this game is hilarious. Will you like it? Let's find out. As always, we remind you that this is not meant to be a full review of everything in the game; these are the first impressions we got after spending an hour or so playing. Excelsior!%Gallery-21821%
Breakfast Topic: Your first impressions
I've got something to celebrate -- not only is my birthday just around the corner (May 6th, cash and cake both accepted as presents), but my WoW-nniversary has just passed also. It was three years ago, in mid April of 2005, I think, that I bought World of Warcraft as a birthday present to myself, and I've been playing the game ever since. So in celebration of my third anniversary as a WoW player, let's ask a first-timer question today (courtesy of WI's own Elizabeth Wachowski): what did you think when you first played this game?I started up as a Night Elf, and even though I'd played Dark Age of Camelot before, and read up completely on World of Warcraft, I was pretty overwhelmed. I was clueless, too -- I had no idea there was any world beyond Teldrassil. I didn't discover Stormwind or Ironforge until I was at least level 30. But I did like it -- Dark Age of Camelot's long, low-reward grind had left me jaded, and so when a green item dropped for me within a few minutes of rolling up my character, I knew I'd found a game with a reward system as good as Diablo II.What did you first think of World of Warcraft? I can't imagine anyone hating the game completely (and staying around long enough to answer a discussion question here), but did you hate it for some reason? Did you love it from the start, or were there things that you missed until much later on? Did you start in beta and think it was unfinished, or did you start after Burning Crusade and wonder why it was so empty? What were your first impressions of WoW?
First Impressions: Last Chaos
How would one make an expansion to a game called Last Chaos? Second-to-Last Chaos? We-lied-there's-more-Chaos? What would you do? Seems like pigeonholing to me. The title of Aeria Games' free-to-play MMO, Last Chaos, might seem a bit misleading. There is plenty of the usual fare running around: knights, mages, rogues and ... purple horses? While it may not be chaotic, Last Chaos is certainly a little different and by different, I mean in the way that your distant cousin is a little "different". You know the one. Last Chaos may not be grabbing any big headlines lately but that doesn't mean there isn't a game here. The people at Aeria Games know what they're doing. They've certainly done it enough and while Last Chaos might not sweep you off your feet, the game is worth taking for a spin. Especially if you've ever said to yourself "I'd really prefer to run through this dungeon in a leather miniskirt and some fishnet stockings." If that's the case, Last Chaos is for you. Let's enter the last chaos you'll ever enter ... again. %Gallery-20202%
First Impressions: PMOG, the passively multiplayer game
We first reported on PMOG here on Massively back at the end of January. It's the product of a videogame startup called GameLayers, Inc., and claims to be a "passively multiplayer game." But unlike most online games, there are no clients or servers -- the game itself is played with just an extension for the Firefox browser, and instead of wandering a vast virtual world with dragons or aliens, you wander around the weirdest virtual landscape out there... the Internet itself.It's an interesting idea, but does it work? I've been playing PMOG for about a month (the game is now in open beta), and I've amassed quite a stash of virtual cash and almost reached level four. Read on to see my impressions of the "passively multiplayer online game," and find out whether it's something worth extending your browser into.
First Impressions: Jumpgate Evolution
At Codemasters' Connect08, we had the chance to sit down for a few minutes with upcoming space MMO Jumpgate Evolution and take it for a wee test drive. "Space MMO?" I hear you cry, "Let me guess, it's spaceships flying around shooting at each other and enemies?"In a nutshell, that's exactly what Jumpgate Evolution is. You pilot a spaceship. You shoot stuff. You get a better spaceship. Repeat. But, as with many MMOs that can be distilled to an equally dull one-line summary, there's far more to the game than that. Read on for our gameplay impressions (bearing in mind this is an alpha pre-release, not the final shipped product). %Gallery-18375%
First Impressions: Eternal Lands
For as long as I can stand it, I'm going to commit the next batch of First Impressions to free Mac MMOs, a list of which I found on the Apple Geeks forums (thanks, DarkChronic!). We start the fun with Eternal Lands, which is very much a homebrew effort, meaning that no one's getting paid for developing this game. In fact, the home site makes a point of welcoming volunteer help and encouraging donations. Having said that, I will say that I'm impressed by what's there, even if it's not something I'll be spending any more time playing.Why won't I be going back to Eternal Lands? Call me spoiled, but even free MMOs have to compete with mindshare, and it's difficult to 'dumb down' expectation of graphical quality and user interface sophistication. I'm going to be as gentle as I can be here, given that this is a for-the-love-of-the-game effort, but some snarkiness may sneak through. Remember, kids, this is not a guide, this is not an in-depth look. It's a post about how the first hour or so of a game strikes me, with no preconceptions or foreknowledge. Pray for Mojo.%Gallery-12498%
First Impressions: Perfect World
Time for another episode of 'First Impressions'! The show that asks the question "Where has Akela been playing lately?" Today's installment: Cubizone's Perfect World. Remember, kids, this is not a guide, this is not an in-depth look. It's a post about how the first hour or so of a game strikes me, with no preconceptions or foreknowledge. Caveat emptor!What you're looking at above is my avatar, Akelatal the Beastman. He's a cheery sort, isn't he? Don't you just wanna cuddle him and feed him treats? Throw a riven skull for him to chase and chew on? He's adorable, like much of this MMO, though there are a couple of issues, to be sure. Rest assured, at least a couple of them are adorable too.%Gallery-12224%
CoX Issue 11: First Impressions
The newest expansion for City of Heroes and City of Villains, Issue 11 has been in open beta for a couple of weeks, and -- so far, at least -- it's proven to be a hit. As with all other releases, there have been the inevitable tweaks and adjustments to make sure that levels are being balanced and that powers are neither too strong nor too weak. Still, all things considered, it's been a phenomenal step forward in the elegance of the game.It's hard not to squeal with delight when I think of the changes that have been made since I first created my account in June of 2004. Whether we were peering Through the Looking Glass or fending off an Invasion, NCsoft was always pushing to give us new features, and to make sure that the play was as balanced as possible. As far as I can tell, they've done a phenomenal job of continuing that trend. %Gallery-9980%
HP's iPAQ 100 series gets unboxed on video
You've already tuned in to see Nokia's newfangled N82 get unboxed on video, so here's yet another one to feast your eyes on. HP's kinda-sorta delayed iPAQ 100 has finally made its way out (in a non-commercial box, though) to be pored over, and PocketPCThoughts took the time to carefully unbox the unit, spin it around a time or two and toss out a few first impressions for good measure. Granted, you're not likely to find any edge-of-your-seat suspense here, but those still on the fence about picking this thing up can hopefully get a better feel for it after peeping the video posted beyond the jump.
Gifts from the Patch 2.3 fairy
I, like so many others, eagerly logged in to the game last night to survey all the new goodies brought by the Patch 2.3 fairy. Many things were not a surprise, if only because we've been reporting so assiduously on what was coming here on Wow Insider, coupled with the fact that I spent a little time on the PTR myself nosing around. A few things though changed without any formal announcement, and it's these little gems that make patch day a true joy.First I noticed the changes to the mail system. You can now attach up to seven items to a mail message, making my use of the CT Mail Mod obsolete. Also, when you hover over the mail icon now, it tells you who has sent you that letter waiting for you in the mailbox. I know the new hover icons with NPCs were already on the PTR, but their addition to the game makes navigating cities a delight. Each icon tells you instantly who has a quest, who can repair, and who just wants to chat.
iPhone Second Impressions: On activation, UI, EDGE and answering questions
Another quick round of first impression stuff that covers some user problems with activation, EDGE speeds, Google Maps and Mail. We're working on some more focused, in-depth posts that explore individual features in their entirety, such as Safari, the keyboard, Mail, etc. For now, let's get started with trying to solve some of these activation pains and go from there. Activation Readers at TUAW and across the web are reporting all sorts of activation problems, and I'm truly sorry to hear about it, but I might have some tips that could help get your iPhone on its feet. As I recall, iTunes gave me an error message during the activation process, but the iPhone still kicked me back out to the home screen once it was done, and I received the standard 'your phone is activated' email a couple minutes later. I immediately was able to receive a phone call, and SMS and make an outbound call. I was also an existing AT&T customer, so all I had to do was add the $20 iPhone Data Plan during the process. I'm not trying to brag here, just provide context; by my rough calculations, existing AT&T customers seem to be having less problems than those who are first signing up or porting over service, as those operations probably entail a bit more work in the back-end on AT&T's part. There are a couple tricks that might help here: First, some owners are reporting that simply soft resetting the iPhone (hold the power button at the top of the phone for a few seconds to receive the power off slider) and then booting it back up fixes the issue. Just for the heck of it, why not wait a few seconds or even up to a minute? It couldn't hurt, and it might work some network voodoo to wake AT&T up and get your iPhone rollin'. I honestly don't know about this one as it is simply an idea I had, but: if you have a second Mac or PC lying around with the latest iTunes 7.3 installed, you could try plugging it in to see if the activation process begins again. However, remember: this is just an idea I had, and I have no idea whether that will illicit any results or get your activation process even more borked up on AT&T's books. I honestly don't believe it could do any damage, but I certainly am no AT&T activations engineer either. This is another theory that I haven't seen tested or mentioned anywhere, so take this one with a grain of salt as well: If you're an existing AT&T customer with a SIM card in your current (or - hopefully - soon to be replaced) phone, you could try swapping out the iPhone's SIM card as outlined in the iPhone User Guide (not included with the phone itself). Simply open that in Preview and search for SIM; your first result should be a guide for removing the SIM card and inserting a new one. Then plug your iPhone back into iTunes to see if a new activation process can begin. Again: this is just a theory; I haven't tested or heard anyone try this as a solution for activation problems. Update: More readers are reporting that turning off your old phone before activating the iPhone might help with activation issues. While this tip won't do you any good if you're already caught in the limbo of AT&T's activation system, it might help if my idea of re-trying activation with a different computer is worth anything. EDGE It's surprisingly fast. The best speed test I've found so far for Safari on the iPhone is dslreports.com/mspeed, offering a really scaled down page with a few download size options and no-nonsense results. I'm getting, on average, about 150 kbit/sec downloads on my phone. In light of the drawbacks of EDGE's (traditional) speed, the only reason that makes sense as to why Apple and AT&T didn't make some massive announcement of a network upgrade is that they're getting hammered this weekend with iPhone activations and people tinkering around with surfing via EDGE. If they're going to announce this at all, waiting until maybe sometime next week makes sense as the iPhone storm might be dissipating to more manageable levels where most users will see this increased speed across the country. Of course, this is just speculation on my part, but the tests don't lie: users across the nation are reporting that EDGE has upgraded from its previous 20 kbits/sec speed to anywhere from 100k - 200 kbits/sec. This is great (unofficial) news. Call me crazy, but I think YouTube is serving up different movies based on whether you are viewing via Wi-Fi or EDGE. I've watched three separate videos via both wireless methods, one of them user generated with crummy equipment to start with, and I swear I see a higher quality version over Wi-Fi than when watching with EDGE. Whether this means there are literally two separate files encoded at different qualities or if YouTube is working some streaming + compression magic I have no idea, but I would love to hear other iPhone users chime in on this one. Google Maps usually impresses me with its speed when viewing satellite images over EDGE. Simply viewing the standard map and searching for a location is almost always snappy over EDGE (sometimes there seems to be a delay, but not often), and even downloading satellite imagery is usable. Google Maps This was probably demoed and I just don't remember, but I'm talking to enough iPhone owners who didn't know this that I felt it warranted a mention: you can pinch to zoom in and out of either Google Maps views. This is fantastic. Traffic reports are usually pretty snappy, again even over EDGE. The Bookmarks feature of Google Maps (accessible by the blue book in the address bar) is a great way to save frequently used routes and quickly get at the addresses of contacts. At first I was slightly disappointed that I can't hook the iPhone's Google Maps up to my actual Google Account, but after exploring that Bookmarks feature, I deem it a non-issue, at least for me. Mail, selecting and deleting items Some readers are asking about doing operations like deleting more than one Mail message at a time. While you can slide your finger across any single message to invoke that red delete button for just that message, hitting the Edit button at the top of any message list will invoke red buttons to the left of every message in the list. While this isn't exactly the same as holding the Command key on a Mac, selecting a bunch of messages and hitting the delete key once to trash them all, this is the quickest way I can find to perform large deleting operations. This seems to be the UI for any situation where you have a list of items that can be deleted; there's no way to select a few of them at random and hit one delete key - instead, you enable a 'delete mode' which makes it easier to delete more than one message, but still one at a time. I'm slightly disappointed at the lack of the 'One Inbox to Rule Them All' like Mail in Mac OS X has; if you have more than one account synched to the iPhone, you have to drill down into each account's inbox to view any new messages, drill back out to the accounts list and then drill back into a new account and inbox to view that account's new messages. It's clunky, but it's also becoming inspiration for me to consolidate email accounts. That's about it for now. Like I said, stay tuned for those more in-depth posts on individual features, but in the meantime, I hope everyone's activation problems can get solved soon.
iPhone First Impressions
It was difficult, but I finally tore myself away from playing with my 8GB iPhone to put together a First Impressions post. I tried touching on a few things that we might not have discussed before, or at least things that I particularly appreciate that might not have made it into the keynote or video spotlights. Given the complexity and depth of such a ground-breaking device, you can be sure this won't be the only first post of its kind from me or the rest of our team, but for now, read on for some initial thoughts on one of Apple's most anticipated devices of all time. I just need to get it out of the way: Words cannot describe how incredibly wonderful this thing feels to touch and hold. It is an absolute marvel of engineering. Gorgeous in every way. It's light; surprisingly so. Not quite as light as I remember my Samsung BlackJack being (one of - if not the - slimmest and lightest smartphones on the market), but considering how bad the BlackJack and Windows Mobile in general sucked, it's honestly a non-issue. Amazingly, just about all facets of the phone's software work as advertised. Switching from the browser back to the Home screen is a snap; hitting the Home button the middle of a YouTube video is also a snap. However, YouTube videos take a bit longer than advertised on TV to buffer and begin playing, even over Wi-Fi. Not too worried about it. Google Maps is surprisingly responsive, even over EDGE (which wide reports are saying has received a significant speed boost in the last couple days. Hmm, wonder why). The magnifying glass effect is quick and very, very cool. However, it unfortunately seems to negate the possibility of selecting a block of text for deleting. This would have been handy in instances like blowing away a URL already in Safari to start typing a new one; the only workaround for this is tapping at the end of the URL and holding the delete key down and waiting for each character to be deleted in succession. Kind of annoying. Update: Thankfully, a commenter pointed out the big grey X sitting in Safari's address bar, allowing for a one click deletion of an entire URL. Much handier. The reader.mac.com app seems a little misleading - all it does is display a message on the iPhone instructing you to add a direct URL for a site's feed in Safari, in which case it will display that feed much like Safari RSS on a computer. It isn't a web-based app at all from what I can tell. Unless Apple has something more planned for reader.mac.com, I'm calling this another fumbled addition to the .Mac family (though, for the record: I'm a happy .Mac customer, I just increased my storage to 2GB and I fully plan to renew my account in October). Have I mentioned yet that this seems to be a device designed and engineered by angels? Because it is. Changing the ringer/phone volume or toggling the vibrate switch elicits a translucent Mac OS X-like volume feedback. Seeing translucency on a phone with this gorgeous of a display is nearly worth half the price in and of itself. The SMS app looks like iChat and almost sounds like iChat; it features a different sound for incoming SMSes, but the default iChat sound for sending SMS messages. My only question is: where is iChat! YouTube H.264 videos look as gorgeous on the iPhone as they do on the Apple TV (remember: Apple got YouTube to convert a portion of their catalog for the iPhone and Apple TV into H.264 from the original uploaded files; this isn't a conversion from original > Flash > H.264). Note to YouTube: drop Flash, switch to H.264 video for your entire catalog. Now. Snapping a picture on the camera features a virtual shutter that snaps shut and open again once the picture is done being snapped and saved. Kinda silly, but more entertaining than a 'saving' or 'please wait' message. The 160 dpi display is even more gorgeous than in the videos and up on stage in a keynote. According to John Gruber, the iPhone's UI is all done in Helvetica, which I am definitely a fan of. I also agree that Notes being done in some icky Comic Sans-y type is... weird. That's about it for now. We'll hit up more of the (predominantly) wonderful impressions as soon as we can roll them out.
