Aion Balaurea expansion dated

By Robert Purchese Published 16 July, 2010

More levels! Pets! Different flying!

NCsoft has stamped a 10th September date on Aion free expansion Assault on Balaurea.

Those of you in the US will be able to play slightly earlier from 7th September.

Assault on Balaurea has some pointless story about the invading Balaur. Really, the attraction will be on a raised level cap, new weapons, items and skills, and different flight mechanics.

In addition, NCsoft is introducing player pets to the game that provide in-game bonuses.

Aion is NCsoft's big Western hope. You may know it as the MMO that gives you wings. It's pretty and expertly made. Oli Welsh reviewed Aion for Eurogamer.

One to, wait for it, keep your eye on.
One to, wait for it, keep your eye on.
One to, wait for it, keep your eye on.
One to, wait for it, keep your eye on.
One to, wait for it, keep your eye on.
One to, wait for it, keep your eye on.

1/7 One to, wait for it, keep your eye on.

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About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • ZuluHero #1 2 years ago

    Here, I’ll do your WoW expansion one for you to copy and paste in later:

    "Cataclysm has some pointless story about some ancient evil tearing the world asunder. Really, the attraction will be on a raised level cap, new weapons, items and skills, and different races (possibly flight mechanics too)."

    ;)
    Edited by ZuluHero at 16/07/10 @ 13:58

  • login_name #2 2 years ago

    Thanks to the Steam summer sales I've recently started playing Aion. I have to say I wasn't expecting much but I like it so far. I'm not a huge PvP fan in MMO type games; it always feels like bullying to me (the odds are usually never fair -- ganking, balance issues, equipment discrepancies etc). Factor in lag and I find it far too frustrating to take part in. With that in mind, I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue to enjoy Aion, which is sad cos I've really gotten into it.

  • Scopeh #3 2 years ago

    Somebody wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Poor article write up. Game looks good.

  • Hei #4 2 years ago

    why have to bash any game that it is not Western... specially if they are not from UK like WOW

  • Macross #5 2 years ago

    Yeah have to say im pretty disappointed with the article, as someone who has a passing interest in aion (lapsed player) id like to know a bit more rather than some grumpy bloke, who doesn't sound like hes actually read anything about it properly saying its all tedious shit and not giving any details.

  • SleepyMagpie #6 2 years ago

    WoW is from the UK?

    Aion is pretty but soul-less in this gamer's opinion, btw. If you feel any attraction to asian esthetics I'd give FFXIV online a go when it opens at the end of September (which is where I'm headed), or maybe even go for Guild Wars 2 when it shows up (not that those two are mutually exclusive tho.. ^^

  • Shikasama #7 2 years ago

    Zuluhero - if only they could be that consistent.

    Seriously bad form there Rob

  • levitate #8 2 years ago

    Move along. This is not the game you're looking for.

  • Zaiz #9 2 years ago

    Aion was...dull. I only had fun playing a ranger, because it was a movement-based class and you could really have fun with it, but buying arrows was ridiculous, too much of my income went to buying 1k arrows every time I came back from the shops, and required grinding. Since grinding is fun, of course. ;-; I want big, juicy, instanced content and PvP, not spending a week getting from level 10-20.

  • ratmaggot #10 2 years ago

    Hei: "specially if they are not from UK like WOW "

    I laughed.

  • Kerome #11 2 years ago

    Might be fun to re-visit Aion sometime, but unless they've made some deep changes to the mechanics I won't stick around. Grind-based games which give gankers free reign and rely on tiny item drop chances to stretch out limited content are not really my cup of tea long-term.

  • grenade_master #12 2 years ago

    Too late!