So now I’ve got a little more time under my WAR belt and I’m starting to notice a few things.  Of course the “bad” things seem to stick out more than the “good” things, but here’s my Good-News, Bad-News tribute:

The Good News:

For open beta, the game seems very stable, playable, and uses solid game mechanics.  Far better handling of massive amounts of peeps in one area than I expected.  It gets notably laggy, but nothing like the game zone-crashes of WoW, or even DAoC of yesteryear, and it still seemed playable except in extraordinarily crowded RvR (100+) areas.  My machine breezed through areas with as many as 60-80 peeps, 100+ seemed to be the threshold of playability. 

The Bad News:

Still a few bugs here and there which don’t really seem to manifest until after you’ve been “in-game” for awhile; loot bags not opening, “right-click to equip” not working, “indicator icons” disappearing (quest NPC’s, Merchants, Trainers, etc.)

Annoyances:

Skill recharge seems to be VERY slow, even for an old fart like me, who definitely is not a “button masher.”  I found myself wondering if I should go get a beer between spell casts… Seriously, if a player doesn’t have a viable skill to smack 100% of the time, they’re gonna see the game as “slow.”  In this area, I found the melee classes much more fun to play, but they have their own issues.  The “problem” with melee that I’ve always had was having to constantly chase down the mobs.  You’re sitting there smacking away and then some caster gets a critical nuke and the mob goes running after them and you gotta go chasing after the critter.  It was mediated a bit in DAoC with a “follow” or “stick” command, which I’m still looking for in WAR. 

So to sum up: 

GOOD: The game seems very stable and “mature,” esp. for how early it is in it’s life-cycle.  

BAD:  Game mechanics seem kinda “slow,” and still a few annoying bugs – but no “show-stoppers.”