Guild Wars 2

[Tigranes]

I've never played MMOs long enough to tell what differentiated GW1, but I enjoyed levelling up with a few of my friends who were into it. The story and setting were absolutely terrible crap, i.e. a collection of $1 fantasy novel dumpsite material, but at least you could skip it. I thought the core mechanics and instance design were solid. It was pretty generic looking and had way too much bloom, but ah well.

 

Haven't followed GW2 at all, I'll check it out after release and see how many people I know play.

[HoonDing]

 

Can you play as a fat chick in TOR? With BioWare being so adamant about equal opportunities, and all that.

[LadyCrimson]

The thing about the screens Hurl posted is that I've started to dislike all the super-shiny effects. It looks sterile and cold or something - the lighting of it doesn't look real to me at all in most cases. Like the difference between glossy and matte photographs....I tend to prefer matte.

 

And to my eyes, the only difference in chr. model between the 1st and the 2nd is haircut and armor (chunky ribbed grey armor vs. delicate more revealing clothing). Both female's body/outline and pose/posture outline, for example, pretty much look the same, except one has a bigger chest and paler skin.

Edited April 29, 2012 by LadyCrimson

[WorstUsernameEver]

Can you play as a fat chick in TOR? With BioWare being so adamant about equal opportunities, and all that.

 

I think that's meant to be the "fat" chick. Yeah.

[Oner]

The thing about the screens Hurl posted is that I've started to dislike all the super-shiny effects. It looks sterile and cold or something - the lighting of it doesn't look real to me at all in most cases. Like the difference between glossy and matte photographs....I tend to prefer matte.

 

And to my eyes, the only difference in chr. model between the 1st and the 2nd is haircut and armor (chunky ribbed grey armor vs. delicate more revealing clothing). Both female's body/outline and pose/posture outline, for example, pretty much look the same, except one has a bigger chest and paler skin.

They actually made a point out of making metal look like metal and armor dyes reflect the material too to some degree. Haven't played with those yet, but there's all kind.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dye

[LadyCrimson]

Hm, the shiny armor pic on that page is still a bit too reflective in a few spots for my tastes, but I do like the overall texture/design of the armor a fair bit.

[Hurlshort]

The funny thing is, despite my criticism, I'll probably still give it a try eventually. As I said, the gameplay was solid in the first and I'm glad to see they are opening up the world instead of relying on instances all the time. I thought Rift looked a bit generic and that setting ended up being pretty cool, so who knows?

[LadyCrimson]

Ok, a kind benefactor enabled me to take a peek at the GW2 beta. Don't have time to really make judgements tho, to be clear. So far, I was amused by my total sense of confusion by the intro.

 

First I made a character:

 

I entered the game to chaos - rain, battle, thunder sounds. NPC's yelling at me to "go here". So I did. Told to "go there." So I did. Keep in mind I know nothing about the game, so I'm all confuddled. I get to a bridge.

 

 

After finally figuring out how to draw my weapon (not the game's fault, btw) I get past that and go thru a building to the other side:

 

 

(guess there's a limit to attachment size per post...last 4 pics in next post)

[LadyCrimson]

I charge into the fray:

 

 

Bit later, it was over, and some cutscene stuff, I am then tossed into a room:

 

 

After that fast paced and utterly confusing intro, I needed a break. I'm old.

I like the look, the colors, the effects in the game. I did take a glance at the skills for my class, noticed the lock symbols/method of acquiring them. Movement felt smooth but wish there was a mouse-speed option slider. Anyway, I'll take another peek soon. See if I can get to the point where I feel like I'm actually playing.

[LadyCrimson]

Played a little more. Can't speak for story stuff obviously, but early items and inventory remind me heavily of WoW (or maybe just generic MMO these days). You have your usual "adds +10 to something for 10 minutes" type food items. You have soulbound loot/items. Extra little bags for making inventory bigger. Typical MMO chr. classes, with their own skill variations. Environment still felt very fantasy-generic in the early area at least. All of this is, of course, just IMO.

 

The "Event" concept is sort of interesting. I don't fully understand it but I guess it's more efficient and it's nice you don't have to party (?) and other such ... but it was initially confusing because you're walking along and get a msg. about an event, and if you "complete" it you may not entirely realize why or who to turn it in to, or if you even have to turn it in to anyone.

 

The beta had no tutorial and I didn't find the in-game info on stuff very helpful for my slow-to-adapt brain, so I felt very lost. The world/map looks very large. I felt a little overwhelmed with GUI, keymap, and world learning curve and didn't play very long. Example: I saw a hoe on the ground and picked it up. My chr. equipped it and then for long minutes I couldn't figure out what it was for or how to unequip it so I could go back to bashing with my mace - it didn't seem to be in my actual inventory, no explanation. I know I'm not the brightest/fastest - especially these days - but...anyway, nothing a good manual or wiki couldn't fix.

 

I think graphically it's nothing outstanding. Good to ok from a distance but not as impressive in most things close up (polygonal cats/fish, low textures). I did see some chr. class pets that looked kinda cool tho. It's very colorful, over-saturated in certain things/areas, and if you like that, it's eye-catchy. It does look nice overall and I didn't see over-use of bloom in this one. Certainly a lot better than the first game. The beta hardly made my GPU usage meter go up at all (like 20%).

 

While it looks a bit interesting, especially for free, I think for me I'd need to read a lot of wiki pages first, and (being me) I definitely don't like the "it's just an MMO" feeling now. It felt hard to feel alone during my initial starter foray. If I check it out I'll probably wait 6 months for crowds to lessen.

 

Here is 1920x1080 in a spot that's not color-overwhelming, w/most things on High, can't remember if I had AA on or not.

 

Edited April 30, 2012 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

Btw....speaking of Final Fantasy...

 

 

 

...I think it's funny, actually. In a good way.

[Oner]

I told you the greatswords suck.

[Delfosse]

Okay, GW2 is supposed be a heavily pvp-oriented game like its predecessor. PVE content is just "for fun".

 

So can anyone who plays the beta tell us (instead of talking about how you kill one line scripts that look like big bad monstas) about the pvp mechanics, how well balanced classes are, how much skill does the game require, things like that? What is a typical team pvp scenario? What is a typical tactic? (ie look for healer, CC the DD, nuke healer, etc?)

Edited April 30, 2012 by Delfosse

[Gorgon]

I take it you can't import your pimped out GW 1 character. I've got one that's been dormant for what 5 years. I don't want to be vl1 or do any bloody tutorials.

[Oner]

Can't say anything about PvP, only tried PvE. 2,5 days wouldn't have been enough to get a serious grasp on balance and everything, especially since it's a beta. Since you have to face your opponent to actually hit them with most attacks and PCs are quite mobile, it would require quite a bit of skill.

 

You can't import your character, but you can get rewards for stuff you did in the first game. http://hom.guildwars2.com/en/#page=welcome You have to own Eye of the North though.

[zero_or_more]

I know this will probably cast a bad light on me, but I tend to play games just 'for fun'...

 

And I was surprised how fun the beta was, because I mostly favor single player games. While I understand the 'generic' remarks I don't really care if it manages to hit an acceptable level - and gw2 is well beyond that imho - since a game most defining element should be the gameplay. Events can be hectic especially at first, but they seem like a good idea to me.

 

Anyway what stood out for me that exploration did worth the effort even if at times you got caught up in some random events started by someone else. Altogether while some things still 'felt' beta the overall gameplay was pretty smooth, though sometimes I did feel that it would be better with a few friends, eg. for crafting.

[Hurlshort]

After naysaying it initially, I balked and decided to pre-purchase the game. I even gave the original a whirl to refresh my memory and make sure my names are reserved.

[Oner]

*evil laugh* Yeeessss, join uuussss...

 

In other news, the new look of the Tengu sucks. And second beta event should be at the end of this month.

[zero_or_more]

June 8th- if anyone was wondering.

[Oner]

Btw guys, I'm playing on the Eternal Grove server, feel free to drop a pm to whichever character I'll settle on playing.

 

http://www.arena.net/blog/were-ready-for-this-weekends-beta

Edited June 4, 2012 by Oner

[Monte Carlo]

After naysaying it initially, I balked and decided to pre-purchase the game. I even gave the original a whirl to refresh my memory and make sure my names are reserved.

 

Hurlie, you need to do something about that MMO habit dude. You're like Al Pacino in Scarface, but instead of mountains of Gak you surround yourself with more and more MMOs

[Hurlshort]

I do love my MMO's. I did manage to not buy Tera, which came out recently. And with Guild Wars 2, at least there isn't a monthly fee!

 

It's really been a good year or so for MMO's though. Rift was really good, Lord of the Rings expanded to Isengard, TOR came out...I've had trouble figuring out what to play.

[tripleRRR]

Have you taken a look at the Secret World?

 

The setting Funcom has put together looks amazing.

[Oner]

Fang Bloodmane awaiting your occasional PMs.

 

And yeah, TSW has an awesome setting.

 

Kessex Peak seems to be buggy, causing frequent crashes. Don't go there.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Oner

[Setzer]

Just got to experience some World vs. World and it was AWESOME! Brought me back to the good 'ol days of doing RvR in Dark Age of Camelot.