But that really isn’t the problem. Griefers exist in every game. Any time multiple gamers play together, there will always be those who wish for nothing more than to cause others grief. No, the lack of community stems for the actions immediately following my death. Upon my resurrection, there was a flood of laughter on the chat channel where clearly many people thought my gullibility was quite hilarious. Even though I suspected something might happen, I still chuckled at my own naiveté. But amongst the laughter and clever dialog such as “What up now biatch?!” were several messages, both public and private, of “he just got me too” and “yeah he’s been doing that all day”. So not only was I punished for attempting to interact with other players, but everyone passively participated in the ambush by refusing to provide even the most tacit of warnings. Worse still, when another players asked a similar question not ten minutes later and of course Viper17 offered his “assistance”, I publicly warned the trusting soul that it was an ambush as was severely spammed by everyone to “keep quiet”, even by those who had previously been slain by this coward. Not only would noone help, but attempting to help was swiftly condemned.

Lineage II is a Griefers paradise. Power leveling is the name of the game. The faster you level, the more grief you can cause. Anyone can be attacked by anyone else at any time without provocation and with few reprisals or repercussions.



But enough about gameplay, let’s look at the Collectors Edition features.

First and foremost, this edition comes with all of the game files on a single DVD. I cannot stress how happy I am to see more games being produced in DVD format. Not only does it cut down on the number of CDs to swap out during installation but DVDs can be packed with all kinds of cool features, from music, to art, to videos.

Lineage II the DVD Collectors Editions is a FAT install. The disk footprint for this monster is in the 3 Gig range and one of the largest I have ever seen. What really bites is that even though the installation takes a fair amount of time and a large portion of your disk, it isn’t nearly complete. One would think that a DVD installation of 3GB would encompass everything, but in fact once you connect to the Lineage II servers, you must immediately perform a full scan and update. On my machine, with a cable modem, it took almost four hours to check each file and download all the updates. I cannot even fathom the patience it would take to perform an update of this size over a modem.

Also somewhat disappointing were the additional DVD features. There are some fair behind the scenes videos that might appeal to some real hardcore fans and a decent fan site kit is also included. The one standout feature included on the DVD is a series of music tracks from in-game. The music of Lineage II is really astonishing. It has broad appeal and is used in all the right places at the right times. And now you can listen to it at any time thanks to the MP3 rips of the songs and included preset playlist.



Also included in the Collectors Edition is a folded poster featuring a sword wielding elf babe with a wicked tribal symbol in the background. On the flip side is a decent map of the islands and regions in Lineage II. It’s not much different than the in-game map, but he detail and colorization is much better.

My vote for funkiest feature included in a collectors edition has to go to the 3D paper figure included with Lineage II. It stands at just about 22 inches tall, includes 32 sheets of paper and 128 pieces. The only tools required are a knife, scissors and some wood glue. The figure itself is manufactured by 3DPaper and isn’t bad overall. It tends to fly about my office when a wind hits it, but it’s a pretty cool novelty. It has certainly sparked quite a few conversations.

The standout feature of the entire package has to be the Beginners Guide from primo publisher, Prima. The guide includes fairly detailed information on all of the races and classes as well as maps and details on all the standard quests. The booklet itself is 159 pages long and is pocket sized to fit in the standard retail box. This guide should be considered the Bible for all new players to Lineage II. Its saves a lot of time and guesswork by detailing the recommended steps to advancement, full lists and details of quests. List of each skills, its cost and benefits for each race and each class as well a detailed maps and detailed quest information. Truly an invaluable tool and Prima should be very proud to hang their name on this guide.



If you’re interested in Lineage II and don’t already own the media, you should seriously consider the DVD Collectors editions. The DVD installer and Guide book are worth the extra cost.

Once additional note: Ever since I began playing the Lineage II DVD Collectors Edition, I’ve been experiencing problems with my ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256. Up to this point I hadn’t seen any problem such as the ones I am now experiencing, but as you can see in some of the screenshots, there can now be quite a bit of extra “pixel fuzz” in each scene. And it now extends beyond Lineage II. Older games seem to have less of it but it looks as though anything DirectX now exhibits this issue. Obviously I’ve attempted to remove and re-install DirectX to correct the issue, but so far I have been very unsuccessful. I’m not trying to lay blame on Lineage II for my graphics problems, it is more of an explanation as to why the screenshots are…substandard. Although, the evidence if pretty clear.

Editor's Note: More screenshots can be found here . You can learn more about the DVD version of the game at www.lineage2.com