Warhammer Online:

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
$19.99
I had high hopes for Warhammer. The ideas in it are very good, and this game could have been a killer. After playing it for a year, having left once and come back, I am reluctantly leaving it again. The problem that Warhammer has been unable to resolve is player number imbalances on the servers. I've played on two servers and they both have the same problem, way more players playing the Destruction "bad guys" than playing for Order. Although I don't know the actual numbers, the Order players are so outnumbered that they have practically no chance of winning in the core "open RvR", PvP fighting. Two nights this week I was unable to find any open RvR action because all the Order player had simply left. Most of the time, Order will try to get a warband going for PvP, and will immediately be run over by Destruction warbands with twice as many players. I believe the problem is self perpetuating because new players and existing Order players will start Destruction characters to be on the winning side, making the imbalances worse. I've played a Destruction character also, and it got boring fast also when there is no opposition. If the trend continues, and it does appear to be getting worse, soon all the players will be on one side only. Good PvP combat should depend on teamwork and skill, not just having more fighters than the other side.
This is a serious flaw in what could have been a very good game. As it is, there is little enjoyment and a lot of frustration.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides)
$24.99
This book is a tome of flavor sprinkled lightly with game information. I am not a hardcore MMO player and purchased this "guide" to help me along. Instead I find myself sorting through all sorts of nonsensical flavor text trying to figure out why I can't use a certain ability because I don't have some other skill and don't know where to get it. I have been using Prima guides for years with other games and they are generally helpful. However, this one is nearly a complete waste of money. Don't bother.

Two stars for neat-o flavor text and excellent artwork.

Warhammer: Battle March
$29.99
I love this game for the PC. Great graphics, engaging and evolving story, and a good old crash your armies togehther RTS. This game makes for a very difficult transition to the XBox 360 the controls are very complex and without any real quick keys makes for an insanly difficult learning curve espically in the heat of battle trying to remember what controls do what. My advice if you want this game: get it for the PC.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Collector's Edition
$29.99
Ok i am going to review this game not just on a current quick play. I'll go in depth as much as i can so bear with me please.

I will be the first to say this game has had many issues and has been fighting an uphill battle on a hill made of ice. I know.. i stayed none the less (largly due to i beat GW and GW2 isnt out yet... and i am a mythic loyalist despite their many many many faults). They have had serious issues with bugs, balance and grinding, among other things. thankfully much of it has been fixed and more is coming, very soon! I won't sit here and tell you it's the perfect game because it's not but i will tell you whats wrong has been wrong and whats been fixed and is being fixed now or in the future.

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First thing, i've been on WAR for over a year now and i am dead sick of people comparing it to WoW. It is NOT WoW get over it.
1. wow has been out for years... multiple expansions and time to fix stuff. WAR has been out barely a year. Compare WoW at 1 year to WAR at one year. At 1 year WAR has more content and fewer bugs than WoW... looks promising to me but most people have gotten so used to zombifying to an old game that has been in the market for years they are to impatient to wait for a new game to fix itself thus slowing down the fixing process when everyone impatiently leaves thus preventing the compony from having enough money to support all of its employies...
2. It is PvP primarily not PvE primary... so dont bother grinding for PvE and then complaining it's a grind fest... it isn't you can start PvP right off the bat, no grind and if you so choose you dont even have to touch PvE at all, as you can level in PvP as well.

Ok it's been a year what now what then?
1. Ok there are still bugs but they aren't all the same they are new bugs from new content. And they are fairly minor bugs that hardly effect gameplay. Not to mention i see bugs vanish every couple of weeks as they get fixed.
2. They have had more content added, not just simple oh hey here's a new quest or armor piece but an entire expansion worth. Guess what. It's free... as of right now WAR is aiming at making their expansions free, they have considered making a pay for expansion maybe (i stress maybe) somewhere down the road but likely keep it at free. Entire zones and classes have been added. And i expect new races even in the next year or... (hopefully not) two years.
3. Revamped: The game is being revamped based on player, not developer but player feedback. RvR and PvP has change drasticaly making it run smoother and quicker... no more wasting 24 hours to take a capitol city.
4. Revamped: Major complaint was class balance. This is gonna be fixed in the next month. They are putting through a major patch that will make the classes on order and destro sides mirror eachother more closely like they were meant to. Same skills diferent names and apearance... but same skills essentialy. Also crowd control is finaly being fixed and is no longer the mass spam nest it has been. It will be harder to get, have more requirements to trigger, and will be more limited class wise (most classes will lose most of their crowd control, tanks will gain crowd control making them better at their job).

Leveling and costomization did suck... end game was lacking and what was with the repetitiveness?
1. Ok if you are playing PvE and you were so sick of hitting that brick wall at one tier or another... they fixed it... leveling is much smoother like it was meant to be...
2. Customization is getting much better. There are more trophies, armor sets (and more armor set design variation), and even mounts. granted some are a little harder to get than others but that's how it should be... some stuff easy some hard...
3. Even the repetetiveness as fallen down... now the live events are more frequent and more varied... dont worry though they aren't one time only things... They plan to bring them back...
4. end game... the end game has been revamped so much... now things are easier so you can access more of the end game content, and more end game contect has been added (for example an entire continent of new stuff)

Ok the bugs, population and the graphics.
1. i hear people quit due to crappy graphics. that is no longer the case. the graphics are much much better than they were in clossed beta and early game... and rumors abound about another graphics update.
2. Graphics have been ironed out more solidly so there is far less lag... much much better.
3. Population issues are next to mute now. Before it was sad... the server was maxed on pop, and yet you could hardly find anyone. Well they finaly fixed it. They merged most of the servers into i believe 7 servers, and raised the pop cap tramendously. I never log on and find things feal dead... lots of RvR and PvP, or PvE its amazing!!!
4. The bugs are so much less than they once were... most of them are hardly even noticable much less effecting your play. Server stabability can get 50/50 right after a major update to the game but usualy gets fixed in 1-2 weeks... or at least lessened till they find a more permanent fix.

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In End Note... the game is tremendously much better than it was... much much better. I did dock a star due to the bugs and such we still have but with the fixes going through right now and as fast as they are working i know this game can pick itself back up. (as long as they don't let EA rush them anymore). I would also like to note that they are under new management now, and the new management so far is much smarter... they have been more willing to tell us the players stuff straitforward with less beating around the proverbial bush. And they listen to the players much more than before. It is also promissing to note that another major compony is jumpin on the wagon and depending on how they handle things we may see things spead up as well on the game.. Looks promissing... can't wait to see what happens in the next year after the last years performance.