Aion, one of the most anticipated MMOs of this year, launches on September 22nd and NCSoft was on hand at Penny Arcade Expo 2009 to give players a preview of the system, running the latest build, build 1.5. Even if some area maps were still in Korean, we were promised it would be completely localized by launch.

Most MMOs give you a starter weapon based on which class you have chosen and then let you have at it for a few levels. Aion time card is no different and actually goes through these motions twice, since you become a new class at level 10. Each starter class is given two classes that they can turn into. One of the options will allow the player to continue playing much as they have, a Scout turning into an Assassin for example. While choosing the second option will bring about a new play style.

Lead Artist Hyung Jun Kim describes some of the steps taken on the art side of things to achieve the age of conan cdkey desired Western appeal, stating, "We took out a lot of elements that were characteristic of Asian games. For example, Asian gamers usually prefer more cute and handsome characters."

Not shying away from the controversial reputation of Korean games, Assistant Manager of Global PR Kevin Kim states, "Korean games are known as games that are grinders, that sto cdkey don't have that much story or quests, but Aion has implemented so many stories, so many quests, and so many storytelling strategies, that it just makes you part of the game."

Lani Blazier, Associate Producer at NCSoft West was on hand to show me the newest features that will all go live by launch.We looked at the character creation screen which has two tabs. A basic tab which allowed players to select preset styles, and the AOC cdkey advanced character customization which gave players slider bars to change many aspects of their face and body. 40 new default faces per faction were added for basic customization, as was the option to change eye color and in response to player feedback in beta, players will be able to change leg length to create some seriously short characters. There are no last names provided in Aion cdkey and no change of life name change at Ascension where player characters evolve to Daeva and gain their wings. Players may only use letters in their names. No numbers, spaces or any other keyboard characters. So characters with names like JonBob222 or will not be running around in Aion.

When you hit level 10, you complete a quest which offers you three different weapons as rewards. Confusingly, the offered weapons are based on your starter class and not the class that you have become. It is important to know what weapon is right for your new class because the game does not do a very good job of explaining it. It is very easy to choose a weapon you do not want to use, or perhaps cannot use. It is not the end of the world if you choose the wrong weapon, but it can make the next few levels more difficult than they should be.