Guild Wars 2

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XAlted

What in the hell?
guild-wars-2.jpg


Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the amazing MMORPG Guild Wars; developed by ArenaNet.

Guild Wars was an interesting MMO, simply for its extremely low level-cap (lvl. 20), and that it didn't force you to pay a subscription fee to play.

Guild Wars Box said:
No subscription fees to pay! But the game. Get an internet connection. Done.

Guild Wars 2 follows that same no subscriptions policy, but makes some major changes to the game itself. For instance, you can play as different races (along with a human).


  • Charr - Ascalon's conquerors, the charr are ferocious, warmongering creatures--the intractable foes of humanity. Now, as greater dangers threaten their conquests, charr legions and their war machines prepare for battle.
  • Norn - The norn are towering brawlers from the frigid northern lands who can shape-shift into mighty bestial forms. Driven from their homeland by a force beyond reckoning, the norn have regrouped among the dwarven ruins of the Shiverpeaks.
  • Asura - The asura, who once ruled the caverns and tunnels below Tyria, are an advanced race of small size and great intellect. Now that they have risen from below, the asura aim to rule the surface world with their powerful golems and ingenious plans.
  • Sylvari - Not much is known of the sylvari, save that they are a race of sentient plant-beings, newly blossomed into the world. The sylvari are the youngest of the races, bound together by a common dream and awesome power.
There are also 8 professions; the only one confirmed is the Elementalist (one of the returning classes from GW1).

Some improvements to the combat has been made.

Guild Wars 2 combat is visceral, dynamic, and visually impressive.

Maneuver around an opponent to strike for maximum damage or send them flying through the air. Create giant crushing stone hands, turn into a massive tornado, or summon a flock of vicious birds of prey to swarm your enemies.

Turn the tide of battle with improvised tactics. Combine attacks from different professions for extra damage, like shooting arrows through a flaming wall to create a barrage of flaming projectiles, or sending pets through a cloud of poison so they spread the toxin among the enemy.

Search your surroundings for powerful environmental weapons. In the hands of a skilled elementalist, a simple boulder can be turned into a meteor storm. Save the day by taking control of a siege weapon on the battlefield!

The skill system is easy to learn and rewarding to master. In Guild Wars 2, you start with a strong base set of skills, but the game allows for deep player customization. You get your base skills from the weapons you wield and then customize your skill-set with racial skills, healing skills, profession skills, and even a devastating elite skill.

Some adjustments have been made to exploration too! For instance now you can swim and explore underwater!

If I recall correctly the level cap is being raised also (it better be, 20 simply isn't pleasing enough).

Another important aspect to Guild Wars (if not the most important) is PvP. Guild Wars had PvP nailed, from creating your own Guild (and having your own island for that matter), to Alliance Batles (12 on 12 battles to capture certain locations), from being able to gain control of Cantha (a country in Guild Wars) for your Alliance, to simple random PvP (and progressing through PvP will give you acess to the Hall of Heroes where you originally win battles and win the favor of the gods [which unlocked new areas for you to explore]). Guild Wars 2 has some new ideas for PvP like Server vs. Server battles among other things.

So when is Guild Wars 2 going to be released? Simple enough, when it's finished.

Oh, of course; screenies.

gw002.jpg

gw289.jpg

elementalist-meteor-shower.jpg
Aren't they beautiful? *sniff*

Videos? Got those too:
Races Trailer
Guild Wars 2 Trailer

Guild Wars 2 Official Website

Being a fan of the original Guild Wars, I am stoked for this game. Opinions? Thoughts? Feel free to share them.
 
When the game was first announced, it has some of the most amazing video game artwork I had ever seen.

Some time passed and I grew to hate the design principles behind the original Guild Wars; the entire system is flawed and the advertising of the game only throws salt in to the wound. The game is not skill based by any means; it's merely picking the one of eight clones of the same spell and repeatedly using it in boring, laggy PvP battles where everyone has the same exact gear but strangely enough there isn't any balance. I'm attributing its apparent success with the fact that it doesn't cost a monthly fee, which has created a massive stigma of subscription-based MMO hate in the community and also dramatically lowers the average intelligence of a player. The game does not get regular content updates, the game does not have proper support at all; there's a reason why it doesn't have a subscription fee.

When they started showing gameplay screenshots and revealing details about the mechanics for the sequel is when I realized how much of a mistake ArenaNet is making with it. I thought the original WarCraft II developers would know better, but they've told the press in interviews that they're copying mechanics from World of Warcraft. By all means, WoW is not a bad game, but Guild Wars cherished itself in having a unique meta game albeit poorly implemented. The fact that they're abandoning this in favor of money is foolish. The hardcore players of the game won't be impressed that their Combat-heavy system is being intertwined with profession grinds to get, what I assume, is the same gear with a different model set.

The final stake in the heart to this game for me was the Elementalist videos they released recently; it really shows Guild Wars 2 to be nothing more than a slight engine improvement from the original. Very little has been done to improve the animation, the texture detail, and even the post processing effects. It's really a shame, because again Guild Wars 2 has some of the best concept art direction in any video game I've seen, but the actual in-game art is just horrifyingly dated and bland. The team just doesn't seem to know its weaknesses and strengths and how to combine them harmoniously.

tl;dr this game had potential but it's being ruined each press release. It will have its followers and to them I say "have fun" but the game itself lacks any sort of movement forward.
 
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