a new card within the past 6 months or so, you can say hello to some god awful cardboard cutout graphics.

Sound:

I'll admit - Vanguard's music is quite good for an MMORPG. It doesn't have the cinematic qualities of Gears of War, but it beats WoW in this case. At least you can hear some nice music while you stare at cardboard trees, right?

Conclusion:

Overall, Vanguard has that "old-school" Everquest feel to it. Some people said that it is the real Everquest 2, but the problem is that without mass-market appeal (we thought 500k with Everquest at its peak was mass market, but now that WoW has topped over 8 million) there is nothing that would make you play this game over WoW, even if

There are quite a few new games coming out in the MMORPG market this year, including the highly anticipated World of Warcraft. However, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, by Sigil, one of the lesser known contenders in the MMORPG market, is releasing on January 30, just 2 weeks after the upcoming launch of WoW:BC.

After getting our hands on the beta, how does it stack up against the mighty WoW? We go in depth on the gameplay, graphics, features, similarities, and differences.

World of Warcraft has definitely changed the way MMORPGs are made. Although some claim WoW is just another Everquest clone, the amount of innovative features (ghost form upon death, mailboxes, rest exp, robust questing) and mass-market appeal put it into a class of its own. Truely, all of the new MMORPGs draw upon WoW in many more ways than one. Vanguard is no exception, and you'll find many of the same features as in WoW. But is its gameplay good enough to warrant a $50 purchase and $15/month fee?

Gameplay:

True to standard MMO affair, you must first create your ingame avatar. There are 3 factions and dozens of races, but honestly they all seem pretty similar. In fact, there are 6 human races. Besides that, there were a few wolves, gnomes, dwarves, and elves. But one race that struck me were the fox people. Yes, fox people. Interestingly enough, Vanguard does not try to seduce you with half-naked elves and such, instead they give you with fox people with boobs. Hot.

Starting areas differed greatly. Some are definitely more polished than others, which shouldn't be the case for a game 2 weeks from release. Classes are also noticeably unbalanced, with some classes having abilities that definitely need tweaking. Overall, with so many different classes, Vanguard attempts to make them all unique by adding different gameplay types to all of them. However, the classes could more work and polish as they just seem odd at times (my ranger hit harder with his sword than his bow).

Features:

Vanguard definitely draws upon WoW. That may or may not be a good thing, but I was hoping they would be more innovative and have something new. In any case, you'll find lots of quests, a looking for group system, mailboxes, a hearthstone recall type system, and many other similarities. Lets move on to the graphics.

WoW takes the cake here. Even though the game is 2 years old, its artistic style is unbeatable. Compared to WoW, Vanguard's environments look dull and bland, although the character models are quite detailed. However, to even get your game to run well and look decent, you'll need to be running the latest state of the art hardware. On the forums, there were even some complaints that the Nvidia 8800 was getting bad FPS. With a 7600GT, at times the game was choppy, but it was playable. However, if you haven't bought a new card within the past 6 months or so, you can say hello to some god awful cardboard cutout graphics.

Sound:

I'll admit - Vanguard's music is quite good for an MMORPG. It doesn't have the cinematic qualities of Gears of War, but it beats WoW in this case. At least you can hear some nice music while you stare at cardboard trees, right?

Conclusion:

Overall, Vanguard has that "old-school" Everquest feel to it. Some people said that it is the real Everquest 2, but the problem is that without mass-market appeal (we thought 500k with Everquest at its peak was mass market, but now that WoW has topped over 8 million) there is nothing that would make you play this game over WoW, even if

rket appeal put it into a class of its own. Truely, all of the new MMORPGs draw upon WoW in many more ways than one. Vanguard is no exception, and you'll find many of the same features as in WoW. But is its gameplay good enough to warrant a $50 purchase and $15/month fee?

Gameplay:

True to standard MMO affair, you must first create your ingame avatar. There are 3 factions and dozens of races, but honestly they all seem pretty similar. In fact, there are 6 human races. Besides that, there were a few wolves, gnomes, dwarves, and elves. But one race that struck me were the fox people. Yes, fox people. Interestingly enough, Vanguard does not try to seduce you with half-naked elves and such, instead they give you with fox people with boobs. Hot.

Starting areas differed greatly. Some are definitely more polished than others, which shouldn't be the case for a game 2 weeks from release. Classes are also noticeably unbalanced, with some classes having abilities that definitely need tweaking. Overall, with so many different classes, Vanguard attempts to make them all unique by adding different gameplay types to all of them. However, the classes could more work and polish as they just seem odd at times (my ranger hit harder with his sword than his bow).

Features:

Vanguard definitely draws upon WoW. That may or may not be a good thing, but I was hoping they would be more innovative and have something new. In any case, you'll find lots of quests, a looking for group system, mailboxes, a hearthstone recall type system, and many other similarities. Lets move on to the graphics.

WoW takes the cake here. Even though the game is 2 years old, its artistic style is unbeatable. Compared to WoW, Vanguard's environments look dull and bland, although the character models are quite detailed. However, to even get your game to run well and look decent, you'll need to be running the latest state of the art hardware. On the forums, there were even some complaints that the Nvidia 8800 was getting bad FPS. With a 7600GT, at times the game was choppy, but it was playable. However, if you haven't bought a new card within the past 6 months or so, you can say hello to some god awful cardboard cutout graphics.

Sound:

I'll admit - Vanguard's music is quite good for an MMORPG. It doesn't have the cinematic qualities of Gears of War, but it beats WoW in this case. At least you can hear some nice music while you stare at cardboard trees, right?

Conclusion:

Overall, Vanguard has that "old-school" Everquest feel to it. Some people said that it is the real Everquest 2, but the problem is that without mass-market appeal (we thought 500k with Everquest at its peak was mass market, but now that WoW has topped over 8 million) there is nothing that would make you play this game over WoW, even if

they give you with fox people with boobs. Hot.

Starting areas differed greatly. Some are definitely more polished than others, which shouldn't be the case for a game 2 weeks from release. Classes are also noticeably unbalanced, with some classes having abilities that definitely need tweaking. Overall, with so many different classes, Vanguard attempts to make them all unique by adding different gameplay types to all of them. However, the classes could more work and polish as they just seem odd at times (my ranger hit harder with his sword than his bow).

Features:

Vanguard definitely draws upon WoW. That may or may not be a good thing, but I was hoping they would be more innovative and have something new. In any case, you'll find lots of quests, a looking for group system, mailboxes, a hearthstone recall type system, and many other similarities. Lets move on to the graphics.

WoW takes the cake here. Even though the game is 2 years old, its artistic style is unbeatable. Compared to WoW, Vanguard's environments look dull and bland, although the character models are quite detailed. However, to even get your game to run well and look decent, you'll need to be running the latest state of the art hardware. On the forums, there were even some complaints that the Nvidia 8800 was getting bad FPS. With a 7600GT, at times the game was choppy, but it was playable. However, if you haven't bought a new card within the past 6 months or so, you can say hello to some god awful cardboard cutout graphics.

Sound:

I'll admit - Vanguard's music is quite good for an MMORPG. It doesn't have the cinematic qualities of Gears of War, but it beats WoW in this case. At least you can hear some nice music while you stare at cardboard trees, right?

Conclusion:

Overall, Vanguard has that "old-school" Everquest feel to it. Some people said that it is the real Everquest 2, but the problem is that without mass-market appeal (we thought 500k with Everquest at its peak was mass market, but now that WoW has topped over 8 million) there is nothing that would make you play this game over WoW, even if

ve something new. In any case, you'll find lots of quests, a looking for group system, mailboxes, a hearthstone recall type system, and many other similarities. Lets move on to the graphics.

WoW takes the cake here. Even though the game is 2 years old, its artistic style is unbeatable. Compared to WoW, Vanguard's environments look dull and bland, although the character models are quite detailed. However, to even get your game to run well and look decent, you'll need to be running the latest state of the art hardware. On the forums, there were even some complaints that the Nvidia 8800 was getting bad FPS. With a 7600GT, at times the game was choppy, but it was playable. However, if you haven't bought a new card within the past 6 months or so, you can say hello to some god awful cardboard cutout graphics.

Sound:

I'll admit - Vanguard's music is quite good for an MMORPG. It doesn't have the cinematic qualities of Gears of War, but it beats WoW in this case. At least you can hear some nice music while you stare at cardboard trees, right?

Conclusion:

Overall, Vanguard has that "old-school" Everquest feel to it. Some people said that it is the real Everquest 2, but the problem is that without mass-market appeal (we thought 500k with Everquest at its peak was mass market, but now that WoW has topped over 8 million) there is nothing that would make you play this game over WoW, even if

a new card within the past 6 months or so, you can say hello to some god awful cardboard cutout graphics.

Sound:

I'll admit - Vanguard's music is quite good for an MMORPG. It doesn't have the cinematic qualities of Gears of War, but it beats WoW in this case. At least you can hear some nice music while you stare at cardboard trees, right?

Conclusion:

Overall, Vanguard has that "old-school" Everquest feel to it. Some people said that it is the real Everquest 2, but the problem is that without mass-market appeal (we thought 500k with Everquest at its peak was mass market, but now that WoW has topped over 8 million) there is nothing that would make you play this game over WoW, even if you are sick of it. Honestly though, WoW puts Vanguard to shame. No WoW killer here folks - move along.