Well, i agree with most, but there IS a PvP system (currently 3 arenas in neutral space are hosting them, called "Nova Gladiator Games". I don't mind the monthly fee, first, because i play a game because i like that particular game, not because of its genre, and second, for me at least, 12.99 isnt a lot to pay a month. I currently play E&B and enjoy my Jenquai Defender quite a bit, unfortunately, the biggest mistake Westwood made is limiting their shields by one level compared to others, in this case, the Jenquai Warrior turns out to be the weakest of all character in the end. And, that i do play E&B, dont let it fool you, the whole game is about levels and experience, and after 2 months you will be bored mindless. After you see all the enemies, and go thru the dirt poor made stations with even the biggest....hugest of cities simply being 3 rooms in size, and making it worse is only 3-4 different tilesets for these rooms get old very quickly. And combat, is dull aswell, with a simple "Click Follow Button, Turn Autofire on all weapons, Hit F button to fire all weapons, Wait till dead, SOMETIMES use skills" is a total drag, you may like, i do, but there are some serious flaws

"I Would Rather Die Standing Than Live On My Knees"

To be honest, I know very little about Earth & Beyond, because I actually didn't try very hard to familiarise myself with it. The reason for that is that I don't like MMOG's and that has nothing to do with me being prejudice or anything. I stand ground pretty well in games, but once I tried BF1942 at a friends house and got my head blown off in about 34 seconds (it was probably Tach ), because some of these guys are real fanatics which I can't compete with. I tried a few times more, but my average time of being blown away was still around 45 seconds, you catch my drift ? And the fact that I still have a 56 K connection doesn't help much either (although I'm getting DSL very soon)

I also beta tested for E&B (until just before open beta test began) but not very much. I hit most of the major stress tests and did a bit of heavy playing early on but..... I concure with all the above statements. Leveling just for the sake of leveling is not enough reason to play a game....and certainly not enough reason for me to spend $10 a month.

I rembmer when I uninstalled the beta and thought, "guess I'll have to wait for Freelancer...."

I played E&B for a couple of months and enjoyed it, but it did get boring pretty quick. What orininally turned me on to the game was the idea that you could make your own weapons, shields and other other items, but I quickly discovered that you have to rely heavily on other players to get components and parts to make the stuff you want.

The whole idea of not being able to learn a skill or use a certain item because you are a certain class or race, really burns me. All it does is make a bunch of characters who are the same and able to do the same thing. Not a lot of freedom in E&B at all. The 'class only' warp gates are another big annoiance with that game. Just because you're not a certain class you have to fly twenty minutes out of your way to get to some systems. - really bad idea.

I also found the amount of weapons, shields, engines and devices to be very overwhelming. There is such a thing as too much, and I think FL sounds like it will have a good balance. No its not MM, but who needs that to make a good and fun game.

I played the E&B demo, but quickly got bored for a lot of the same reasons described here.

I've never really been a big fan of MMORPG's. For me gaming has always been more of a get away from it all, become the master of my own piece of fiction for a while. I do play a lot with friends on smaller, games, like went through Diablo II together, building up our characters, but these are all people I know, and its more just fun to hang out with them, rather than really play the game too much.


"If this is what you want to do, you'll do it, no matter how long it takes..........and usually the longer it takes the more fun you've had!"

LOL, Kivuli - you are going to LOVE Freelancer!

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

I wonder what the percentage of Freelancer players will really be interested in the multiplayer part? I for one will only play the SP. I have seen too much cheating and hacking going in UO and Diablo2 to have much interest in the multiplayer part of Freelancer. So..the only thing I will compare Freelancer to is....Privateer.

A few things are really going to help against cheating:

a.) The savegames are server-side
b.) The servers are run by fans, who can dedicate more time pr. player, thus discovering cheating, and banning that player from the Server.
c.) We are already working on developing a range of tools for running servers, and maintaining the files and services.

Also it WILL BE POSSIBLE to make custom setups for new players, so that you can have battles in all equiped super-ships in the Border Worlds between two groups... Clan-war!

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

Thats cool Bargib.

With a smaller group playing on a player's server..you should have good control over cheating and hacking. Good point!

I was a E&B beta tester. After months of playing, my experience could be described as : Desapointing!

I went in E&B with the wrong impression, which didn't help I guess. I thought of E&B as a Massive version of privateer but it turned out to be just another everquest close, set in space. I mean, nothing against that (I have played Ultima online for a year, Everquest for almost 2 years, Asheron's call for a few months and Anarchy Online for a year) but that's not what I wanted. It was really Everquest in space, you could have replace the ship with character skin, and the space with a scene from south Karana and you had EverQuest. The game isn't even in real 3D!

The combat was boring at best. Get in range, press attack, and it's done. You watch and use occasionnally some special weapons (could be refer as spells in EverQuest). It was nothing like piloting a ship, it was far from my dreamworld of Wing commander set in Massive multiplayer online environement.

I guess because it wasn't what I thought it would, I was really desapointed. The only fun part of the game was exploring from system to system to see just how far I would get. But that feeling didn't last long.

I read some information about Eve. It looks promising, although the fighting part of the game gets me worried again. It uses the mouse only (no big deal, Freelancer does the same) although it's more about "tactical" combat rather than skill. Not sure if it will look like Darkspace or like Imperium Galactica 3 (you must download the rare demo of this one, it looks amazing) so I have my doubts.

As for Freelancer's multiplayer part. I won't hide to you that I am looking for something close to a Massive Multiplayer experience. I want a strong feeling of community mixed with some RPG (that would be like a dream, people playing within characters). I'd love to know some pirates by reputation, or know the captain of Liberty's squadron because his acheivement are well known on that server. I want an experience as close has living in our own little universe and that's why I have great hopes for the Elite server.

i have always avoided MMORPGs just for the reason that i have always avoided arcades, you have to pay $$$ to play them, it just sort of bugs me, i know that $10 a month isn't that much, but usually the gameplay can't compare to that of a normal rpg or fps (tribes 2, diablo 2) and you don't have to pay anything to play them. So the only reason people end up playing those games is to lvl up, and there isn't much gameplay skill required (compared to something like Q3 or Tribes). Maybe I'm just too tight with cash, but thats what i think.

_____________________________
Peace through superior firepower.

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Also it WILL BE POSSIBLE to make custom setups for new players, so that you can have battles in all equiped super-ships in the Border Worlds between two groups... Clan-war!

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Holy crap! Really? How? This is great news!

I too had been in E&B beta, actually slightly before. Even had a fan site for a while. Then the realization hit me that the publishing company was going to push it out the door early and only 70% complete. 5 months after release they still have yet address major bugs in the game that were there in Sept of 2001 and reported by many of us. The was a lot of promises made and few actually materialized. But who knows that same company may or may not realize the error of their ways and actually FIX E&B, it still has a lot of potential. It is not a bad game, on the contrary it is quite good. It is just incomplete and its potential has not been realized or capitalized upon, all for short term profits.

FL will not share that fate as the people who designed it are very well thought of in terms of turning out high quality products.

I have even arranged a week off work so I can play the game undisturbed. Clear my Calendar and my inbox! March 4th I am going gaming!

Lance