Black Raven Dragoons

[Tirian]

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/heroes-of-tela ... pid=gspy53

I love the class concept and the variations on the rift content. Not so keen on the old-fashioned quests or the overly serious art (LotRO, anyone?). Will be interesting to see how this goes.

[Grimblast]

I'm not too impressed by how they decided to advertise their game. "This isn't Azeroth anymore" line doesn't do them any good. I think if I saw a different advertisement I might have shown a little more interest. The detailed graphics remind me of Oblivion. Their souls system sounds similar to dual specialization but with more options. Their Q/A in that article provides some incite but I probably won't try it unless there is a free trial I can try just to poke around with it.

[Zancarius]

Companies really need to distance themselves from Blizzard in all forms--including comparisons--if they wish to be taken seriously. I think it shows a lack of creativity from their marketing department, if that's how they've advertised themselves. Plus, I think the fantasy MMO concept is a horse that has more or less been beaten extensively post mortem; I don't mean to say that the genre doesn't need any other installments, but I will say that any company trying to compete with WoW is going to have a very difficult uphill battle.

That said, the graphics look impressive. It seems they put somewhat more effort into medieval appearances (correctly so?) than other fantasy MMOs. So kudos to them for doing something no one (except maybe Guild Wars) has done before. I'll be curious to see how it turns out, especially since Blizzard really does need some competition. Maybe Rift can provide that.