Mythic details WAR early access dates

By Robert Purchese Published 1 September, 2008

Pre-orders get up to four days' headstart.

Those of you pre-ordering Warhammer Online will be granted access to live servers up to four days earlier than the general public.

Specifically, Collector's Edition pre-orders will be invited to play from 14th, while regular pre-orders will join a day later. Warhammer Online launches for the masses on 18th September.

Characters created during the Headstart period will retain any progress made and items gained after the live launch, rather obviously. However, heroes used during the open beta will be non-transferable.

Eager fans may want to download the rather meaty 9.4GB game client prior to this date, which will only need to be patched in order to work with the live servers.

Incidentally, open beta codes will appear on the official WAR website sometime this week.

Head over to our Warhammer Online gamepage for all of our thoughts from the beta so far.

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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.

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

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Comments (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Benno #1 4 years ago

    I heard its pants.

  • zsinj #2 4 years ago

    Where's my collector's edition open beta access damnit!?

  • Rizo #3 4 years ago

    Yea i heard it's not very good too.
    Shame

  • ciril #4 4 years ago

    I on the other hand heard it's great. Ain't different opinions great? :D

  • Hypercube #5 4 years ago

    Where would one download this client for the early access thing? And when would our retailer send us the early access codes? I for one am willing to give it a go and then form my opinion, but there are many parts of it as described on the internets that piques my curiosity.

    Edited for not-bloody-looking-properly: Play say "Instructions on how to claim this pre-order offer will be sent Tuesday 16th September 2008."

    And edited again for maths stupidity: The 16th? Hang on, according to this article, CE pre-orders get in on the 14th and standard edition the day after - the 15th. So if Play.com aren't sending details until the day after that, that could be a bit annoying (but only for 1 day).
    Edited by 3 at 01/09/08 @ 16:19

  • DFawkes #6 4 years ago

    I've only just started wanting this, far too late to get the Special Edition (I'm a sucker for being charged extra for a nice box). Nice bonus though.

  • spimmy #7 4 years ago

    lol ran by GOA no ty rather play us mythic version

  • berelain #8 4 years ago

    I heard its just ok.

    From me, through beta experience.

    Well, it didn't grab me, anyway, and my preorder was cancelled the other day. But hey.

  • mikeck #9 4 years ago

    I'm very excited about this, can;t wait for my head-start play - and yes I had a crack on the beta, and enjoyed it very much :D

  • Rizo #10 4 years ago

    Thats what i have been hearing alot of people trying the beta hating it and then cancelling there orders.

    Plus the combat is crap

  • CaptCastle #11 4 years ago

    Cancelled my special edition too.

    I was going to get it anyway and then ebay it, but I would have felt guilty, so I just cancelled in the end.

  • Rubakai #12 4 years ago

    its good....very good and i wasnt even go to play it until i played my mates closed beta recently.

    anyone saying they keep hearing its bad must be either lying or dreaming. 90% of the reaction has been good it seems, but hey whatever the fashion is...

  • M83J01P97 #13 4 years ago

    Anyone care to say exactly where they are hearing this "it's terrible" stuff from?

    Because pretty much all the previews are saying this is a very, very good game. It's yet another MMO that isn't going to topple WoW, but as they have been saying since the start... they never wanted to, and knew such a thing would be too ambitious.

    WAR is basically going to be a darker, more mature answer to WoW that offers a greater depth of character development and PvP.
    Edited by 1 at 01/09/08 @ 17:40

  • orakio #14 4 years ago

    It all comes down to exponentially increased expectations. Don't expect Revolution, since you'll be dissapointed. On the other hand, a lot of things have been the subject of evolution, and that's a good thing ^_^

    Some of The good:
    -----------------------

    RvR (the new and hip PvP) can be brilliant fun. Comes down to zerging? yes, it will. for a month or so, and then people will learn about organisation and tactics. I remember our group of 30 being obliterated by a group of 10 in the Tier 3 beta test.

    The guild system is unlike any I've ever seen. Guilds are living beings striving for domination over the server through accomplishments that are measured. It'll be interesting to see how this affects the entire social system of the MMO.

    It's a rather large world to explore with lots of content. Public quests for one are an excellent way of meeting people and do not feel like a grind (well, most don't).

    Some of the bad:
    ----------------------

    AI is once again, horrible. It's all just a matter of keeping the right distance and aggro and we've seen all of that in all the other games. Then again, it's not worse than the other games either. It just isn't exciting, that's all.

    Crafters, stay away. This is a PvP/PvE game with no place for a healthy economy. You will fight, and you will fight people.

    It's WoW all over again, with a graphical buff. You'll have your races, classes, specials, questgivers, etc. Combat is not synchronized, can feel a bit tedious and even slow at times.


    All in all, it will be a fun game, yet I don't see it having a lastability of more than a year. The devs will have to be very creative in their endgame content for that. And right now, they're not focusing on adding content. It's more a matter of cleansing the bugs and shortcomings before release, and they've done a fantastic job at that in the last few weeks of closed beta.

    Honestly? 7/10 , 8/10 for warhammer fans.

  • M83J01P97 #15 4 years ago

    Not focusing on adding content?

    They are already developing the first expansion pack which will be digital only (for now) and has been given a tentative release date of Spring 09. It's also going to re-add some of the cities that there taken out of the final game a couple of months ago.

  • foamy #16 4 years ago

    Definitely getting it.

  • ZuluHero #17 4 years ago

    me three.

  • orakio #18 4 years ago

    @M83J01P97

    Yes, but Spring 2009 will be too late for many people, given the content that's in now.

  • hula hoops #19 4 years ago

    They are already developing the first expansion pack which will be digital only (for now) and has been given a tentative release date of Spring 09. It's also going to re-add some of the cities that there taken out of the final game a couple of months ago.

    Wow, the game is barely released yet and they already working on squizing more money from the player for something which was supposed to be in the initial release.

    This and the higher subscription fee ... well, what can I say ... I am utterly impressed.

    /golfclap

  • Hypercube #20 4 years ago

    Play have updated their page for WAR with the correct early start dates now, so that's me happy.

  • Groggen #21 3 years ago

    @M83J01P97

    Can you provide a link that confirms that the cut content (cities and classes) will be added in a paid-for expansion? Or did you mean that the expansion they are planning for is a free one? This is the latest official statement on the cut content- issue from Mythic that I could find:

    Quote from Mark jacobs on 07/12/2008 12:45PM est
    2) Regarding this content going in as paid expansion packs, not likely. We want to give out plenty of free/subscription content, just like in DAoC, if you're a subscriber, you get the content as part of your monthly fee as these things are part of the plan. Now, just so we're clear again, I'm not sure that these 4 careers will go back into the game now or ever. They'll only go in if they are great. We want to get the next city pairing in as soon as possible but only after we are sure that we've had enough time to fix what will inevitably go wrong with the the first pairing and make sure that it goes into the second pairing. We do not, repeat do not, have any plans to make this content available as a separate expansion pack.

    If they do decide to put in this content in a paid-for expansion they will be in world of shit and hate from the community. But who knows...