Having stayed up much too late playing CO last night, I’ve flip-flopped back to being excited about the game. Obviously the NDA is in place so I can’t say too much about it, but one of the things I do like (that has been talked about in previews) is that as you gain levels you can pick powers from any of the power-pools, which means your Champion can be really unique both in looks and skills. It just seems like the kind of game that will really cater to alt-aholics like myself.
So I’m thinking of pre-ordering. Trying to decide where from. It’s a complicated decision. Gamestop and Best Buy both give Early Access & $5 worth of points to spend on micro-transactions. Walmart gives $10 worth of points but no Early Access. Amazon gives $5 worth of points. Direct Drive and Steam give you the convenience of not having to deal with shipping.
Gamestop, Best Buy & Amazon give access to Open Beta starting on the 17th, Walmart and the digital distributions do not (though in my case, I have a File Planet Key that should cover that).
All but Walmart give different virtual items, but the descriptions are so vague that it’s hard to weight them against each other. Is an Insectoid Airfoil better than a Grond Vanity Pet? Who knows? Walmart skips the virtual items for a map and an iron-on t-shirt decal.
One thing I haven’t yet found out is, how long is this Early Access period? Is it 2 days? A week? Open Beta starts on the 17th and launch is Sept 1 (15 days later). I have to think Open Beta is at least going to span the following weekend, taking it to the 24th, so the max Early Access can be is a week. Realistically if it’s 4 days then we get the game a weekend earlier, which is mostly what matters to me.
Details on all these perks here.
But I ask you.. could they make it any more complicated?
And let’s look at that Lifetime Subscription again. I’m actually tempted, now that I’ve had a chance to see the game in action and see that it isn’t a total disaster. Why? Eight additional character slots. It seems like there are no discrete servers in CO, and so the 6? 7? 8? character slots are all you’re going to get, and as I said, this seems like a really alt-friendly game…just creating different looks and skill sets to mess about with. (Though if they’re smart, they’ll offer additional character slots as on of their RMT items.)
I think this is going to be a really “blogable” MMO, too. So much to discuss in terms of character builds and such. Looking forward to the NDA dropping!
Also think that the Head Start given by Gamestop will give you no shipping as you will have the digital client already downloaded. If you had to wait for the box to ship, the Head Start is useless.
Given that, the head start itself, and the extra $5 RMT credit made Gamestop.com the best place for me to pre-order. Not to mention flight early on, which is actually a factor given my limited playtime.
Yeah, I prefer giving my $$ to anyone but Gamestop if at all possible, so I’ll probably pop-round Best Buy tomorrow and see if they have pre-order boxes available.
@Beej it takes MAYBE an hour to get your first travel power. You get it at the end of the tutorial.
@Tipa: Doh! Really? I had read that it was a while coming, so I figured as stupidly casual as I’ve been lately, it would be in my best interest to get a travel power as soon as I could.
Oh well, though. No harm, no foul. I still get other perks. Had that been the sole reason I pre-ordered, I’d be irked, but it was just icing.
Early Access is 3 days. It wasn’t a big factor for my pre-order but I ended up with getting it from the local EB just because they had their pre-order cards all set to go (whereas Best Buy here is clueless).
For some reason I didn’t think Champions was available via Steam. I would have strongly considered that. D’oh.
The 8 additional character slots factored into my gf’s choice to get the lifetime subscription, she jumped on it right away. I’ll do the same, although I don’t play as many alts, the character creation for CO will change my habits I’m sure.
I agree that this will be a highly bloggable game, kinda like the Sims is. Strong character creation and building your character as you go– Those two elements oddly lack in most MMORPGs.
I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, I myself have flopped over to the other side unfortunately. But I guess we will have to wait a bit to discuss all of this won’t we.
Really? I look forward to talking about it, then!
Woot! I will defintely be checking this one out. I might need to save up for the lifetime sub, assuming they still offer it later, which they prolly will. Turbine did the same thing, pretended it was a limited time offer and then changed it. It makes sense. Why would you tell people the offer is alwyas going to be on the table if you a) Don’t know that and b) want them to feel urgency to buy.
When will the NDA be lifted actually? When open beta starts I guess, right? Just asking, so I can keep an eye on the different blogs (like this) dedicated or mentioning the game, to help me with my decision if I’m going to start playing this game (although my mind is already kinda set).