A Preview of Aion

A couple weeks back I mentioned a new MMO I was keeping my eye on, Aion - Tower of Eternity (official site here). Today I read a pretty nice preview of the game, even though its still in closed beta. The preview is in three parts and it makes me even more interested. (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)

When I first heard about this game, what immediately struck me was the awesome artwork and in-game graphics. NCSoft is the same company that developed Guild Wars (along with Tabula Rasa and City of Heroes/Villains) and the in-game world and character models in Guild Wars just look amazing. Aion seems to me to be improving upon that design philosophy, and I like that.

What is also of interest is the fact that this game is going to be catered toward "casual" players, unlike most other Korean-developed MMOs. It appears NCSoft is focusing more on the Western market as of late, which is a good thing for those of us who actually have lives. ;)

So I'm definitely going to continue to follow the development of Aion, perhaps get lucky enough to make it into some beta testing when it comes to North America. A WoW killer it will likely not be, but that doesn't mean it can't be a great game.