Alright, been hounded enough for the inevitable blog post over the Warhammer Online preview weekend.

I'm not going to tell you everything in nitty gritty; plenty of other sites are doing that. Instead, I'm going to point you to sites that I agree with what they say, because I'm a lazy bastard and don't feel like repeating what everyone else is saying (except: This game fucking rocks.)

Ten Ton Hammer: Five Things YOU need to know about WAR

Unlike other games which have treated PvP as nothing more than an appendage, it has been built into the foundation. Even as early as level 7 or 8 a number of quests become available that take you right into the heart of RvR content.

GameSpy: Warhammer Online Beta Impressions Preview

Rather than forcing players to go through a PvE leveling process that ultimately ends up being meaningless as everyone rushes toward the endgame, they wanted to create an MMO that was essentially "all endgame."

((Also check out their week-long WAR Journal for hands on game play))

Preview Weekend Review thread at Order of the Obsidian Throne

There was the odd hiccup, but at its absolute worst, was better than AoC's best.

If that's not enough, and you're still seeking my own words, here's from some forum posts I made on Gamer DNA:

I totally see where everyone who was dissapointed so far is coming from. This isn't shaping up to be a WoW killer. Doesn't mean it sucks, doesn't mean it's not worth checking out. I'm going to refer to it as a "Gimmick" MMO, like City of Heroes/Villains. It's nothing WoW or any other MMO couldn't be pulling off. It's just they chose to run with a certain style/gimmick that wasn't being used a lot in current games, and either players are going to love it or be bored with it quickly.

I'm trying to refrain from calling this a theme-park MMO, because the term has been used to describe games like DDO and others and I don't want WAR to be painted in that image. But the thing is, it's like a big world that sure, is living and breathing and has stuff going on all the time. But once you've done the same PQ about 3 or 4 times, it feels like you're standing around Six Flags/Disney waiting for the fun actors to come up the walk way and do the same skit with the public again.

That said, for people who love playing games for the love of playing and having a ton of stuff to do, I was up to the late hours rocking this sucker out and participating in some wickedly fun stuff, which is kind of cool considering I was level 5-7 to be able to say I fought several Scenarios, wracked up several titles, burned a few boats of Norsemen invaders and even killed a Giant and a Hydra a few times.

It's going to be an MMO for people who just want to hop on and get shit done and have fun. PvP is there right out the door, the PQ's are adding a fun competetive and rewarding edge to PvE, and the Tome of Knowledge, while just being a really, really well done quest log and title tracker, will be awesome for the Lore freaks and the accomplisher types.

I'd almost say all the WoW folks who are balls deep in WoW and heavily invested, stick with it, it's not going anywhere, and WoTLK looks to be shaping up pretty good. But to others who could never quite groove WoW, or are between games, yeah this is at least worth a shot. I'm sold, but I'm not going to tell everyone it's the best game ever.

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I just wanted to chime in:
There's actually a lot of decent pugging options here, especially in the PQ's and RvR, to where guilds are Not necessary from the get-go to enjoy the game. Especially the RvR part, just hop in with open parties and you're good to go.
Granted, being a good guild will improve the experience, but it's definitely not a requirement to start enjoying the game.

And yeah, the PvP is the heart and soul of this game. But I think it's presented in a way that even a "casual" PvP'er could find him or herself glued to the monitor for hours. I've already heard from quite a few who could never "get into it" in other games, but are pulled into WAR's setup and are now bloodthirsty.

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Any other questions, hollar at me.

Otherwise, look forward to seeing everyone Sept. 7th for Open Beta.

FOR THE EMPEROR! FOR SIGMAR!