LEGO Universe (PC)

“The Lego MMO? How does it compare to other MMOS?”

“Well, that whole three hour window was spent trying to get in, which I never did. And I usually work the days it's open. So, this is just going on one hour of play.

So far, it's pretty fun. It's more of an action MMORPG. It's a real time hack n' slash type of battle system, and works pretty well (think Torchlight, without having to click ON enemies, just click to swing). I'm yet to get abilities or magic or anything of that sort, so I'm not sure how that works. I'm finding single Lego bricks here and there, and evidently you can build anything you want, and "display" them at some kind of player housing (could be wrong on that one, just going by things I've overheard). Building itself is a bit odd to get used to at first, but it works well enough.

Quests work exactly as expected, and it keeps pretty good running track of them with a little box at the top of the screen (which can be removed). You get different outfits and body parts as rewards sometimes, which is a plus. Speaking of outfits...

Player creation is pretty limited for now. But I think that's simply to keep the "good" stuff in game to find. Obviously you won't be changing the shape of your minifig, so you only pick face types (broken down by eyes, eyebrows, mouth), and clothing.

I was hoping to get a better idea of how things are today, but again, no go with that. Hopefully they start adding more playtime days/hours soon.”

“Could I still get into the beta? Or is it too late?”

“It you had to compare it to another MMO, what MMO? WOW? Eq? Etc.”

“I think you can still send them an email to try for it (it's still pretty early), but it takes a while to get in. As for comparison, I'm not sure. The real time combat makes it different from most MMOs. And from what I've seen so far, it seems a little more geared toward building and exploration. So yea, not really sure.”

“They don't have a website where I could join?”

“Give this a shot, and good luck.

http://us.universe.lego.com/en-us/Beta/Default.aspx”

“Thanks, I've loved Legos my whole life, so this looked interesting.

Just signed up.”

“I played once the first weekend it opened and never had the chance after that. Hopefully as time goes on they open it up to more then just 3 days. I had alot more fun with this MMO then others since it's a realtime battle system, it kind of annoys me when you are not in control of the action! ”

“I think your being rather harsh on Fallen earth, its actually a surprisingly good game, it wont get the mainstream success of WoW, but i beleive it will be a success”

“Was in the beta. It has the potential, but needs a serious overhaul of netcode first of all to even survive as serious MMO and should have a graphics overhaul too.”

“i dont see whats wrong with the graphics, they arent drowning in particle effects but the textures and models look good, that should be enough for an mmo. as for netcode.. thats not the problem, its more engine optimizaton... nobody's getting high pings (atleast i'm not and i should be as i'm european) its more a case of having the game freeze, low fps and raise your cpu temp to rival the sun itself... so yes, engine optimizaion is very necessery.. everything else, i dont really agree with.
about the graphics.. if runescape can be popular... ”

“Nice oveview, I still need to check out a lot of those that you reviewed.

One you forgot was Guild Wars 2...though I guess we don't really know how "upcoming" that is...hopefully soon enough.”

“@KrazyKain Yeah, IMO I'm far more likely to play an MMO with ho-hum graphics, but with a good community, and a nice skill system that allows you to take your character in any direction than one with outstanding graphics that's full of griefers and forces your character down only a hand-full of different paths.”

“@KrazyKain I thought about Guild Wars 2, but as you said, no idea how "upcoming" it is.
@dowekeller Me too, however good or at least decent "average" graphics will grow the player base in the beginning quicker than something like Fallen Earth has. An MMO that really does the community right, will cause many of their players to... well be better than your usual stereotypical WoW MMOers because they will come to respect the game and their fellow players.
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