Guild Wars 2
 

Looks like Arena.net and NCSoft have finally decided to give a sneak peek at Guild Wars 2. Got a trailer up at the Guild Wars 2 site:

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

It's a little cheesy, but the first official word of this game as far as I know. Seems to include a fair number of in-game snapshots too. Some interesting environments there and pretty nice graphics. :)

I thought the environments were beautiful. The graphics aren't overwhelming, but that's to be expected, and I'm certainly not complaining. Looking forward to this one.

I might as well ask the question that's on everyone's mind and get it out of the way.

Can you jump in this version? :p

A big plus in my book is that Guild Wars 2 will, like its predecessor (which I haven't played), not have any subscription fees. That alone might be enough to persuade me to eventually try an MMO (or should I say "that MMO"). The nice looking graphics don't hurt its chances either.

Kind of liked the first one so I might give this one a try...
Especially since you can play as a Norn :D

I can't wait to play a Charr, myself. :)

I might give them a try too ;)

I usually prefer human-looking species, so my first character if I get Guild Wars 2 would probably be a human or Norn. If I get as attached to that game as GW1 though I'll likely try them all out eventually. :)

Judging by the evidence seen in the trailer the species seem to have unique traits roughly like:

• Humans:
  Medival sword & sorcery.
  
  
• Asura:
  Magic-powered technology, golems, portals etc.
  
  
• Charr:
  Steam-punk, crude industrial technology. Primitive explosives and firearms?
  
  
• Norn:
  No clear impression, but probably similar to GW1, barbarian-ish independent, mostly physical might and shamanistic rituals, and not so much tech or magic.
  
  
• Sylvari:
  Druid-ish, nature magic, organic "technology".

Okay, you get your jumping. Whiners. :)

Damn.

Cataclysm, ToR, now Guild Wars 2 (which was my first MMO..cool guild with high school friends)...which one do I pick? :(

Looks very, very good though...although I stopped playing GW for a year now. Might have to revisit my characters some time soon...

Asura would be fun, especially if I can have sassy quips like they have in GW1 now. :D

The trailer was welcome info. I'd almost given up hope on a GW2.

Agreed

I look forward to jumping, more than anything :D

More GW2 info...
 

Seems like Guild Wars 2 is getting close enough to release that they are finally releasing some real information about the game now.

Apparently there will be 8 professions/classes, some returning ones from Guild Wars 1 and some new ones. First in the spotlight is the Elementalist, which seems to play a bit differently this time around:

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam.../elementalist/

AreaNet has also started a series of articles that explains the various aspects of the game and how they differ from the prequel:

1. Skills and combat
2. Weapons, professions and racial abilities

While not directly related to Guild Wars 2 they've also started a series of Guild Wars Beyond events in GW1 that is supposed to fill in some of the story and pivotal events in the story between GW and GW2.

This page describes some of these in-game events from an NPC's point of view:
http://www.guildwars.com/warinkryta/

This wiki page summarizes some of the on-going events and game changes:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/War_in_Kryta

I thought this topic could use an update. Some significant info has turned up in the last few months.

We've got an article on Traits:
Then there's a very interesting one on healing and death:
And two "new" classes have been revealed, the Warrior and the Ranger.

Accompanying the articles are new screenshots which do look nice in my opinion, though I'm still seeing those faces from Guild Wars that were also in lesser known Korean MMO's.

Awesome video of Guild Wars 2. I'll just quote Kotaku here:

A new profession has been announced: the Guardian. Essentially, it can be compared to the role of a Paladin in other MMO's, and comes closest to the Monk in the original Guild Wars. These days, however, MMO developers try new things with healing classes, trying to address the problems that a strictly healing class have posed. The Guardian offers a solution by essentially making him/her the Warrior/Monk combination, setting its healing skills to optional and focusing more on Wards and Spirit Weapons.

The above video is obviously dramatized, but is in-engine and shows some great skills.

In any case, it seems most Guild Wars veteran players are waiting for a Mesmer class announcement, which is understandable, of course. The Mesmer was loads of fun to play and a valued asset in PvP.

cast: animate thread
 

First Open Beta weekend of Guild Wars 2 this weekend. Seems like we're finally getting closer to release. Will be exciting to see if the game is as good as it seems it will be. :)

Anyone else around here who are going to play it?

Are pre-release game open beta's a new marketing fashion or is it a pretty old idea? I don't remember them happening often but SWTOR and Diablo 3 had one. Now GW2 is joinin' em.

Not going to play the beta, would be too much on my plate right now. But I'm looking forward to all the opinions on it. I hope the things they promised really work in practice. :)

Seems to be pretty standard for MMOs similar online games with many players, and has been for years, from what I've seen.

It's hard to internally stress test games intended to handle hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of players simultaneously, and it would be too expensive to hire people to do it. So they bring in the hordes of hyped-up fans who are all too eager to do it for free. :)

I picked up a pre-purchase copy so I'll try out the beta this weekend if nothing unexpected happens. I'll try to remember to post my impressions here. :)

I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Getting ready to jump in soon, just waiting for the installer to finish updating. Anyone not sure about this game should watch the Yogscast videos, they are great.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...2&feature=plcp

The login server seems to have crashed already. Seems like they underestimated the onslaught of over-eager fans. :)

Hope they fix it soon.

Seems the forums are down too. I don't really know if I'm downloading an update or just downloading the whole thing again either because there is no indicator to inform either way. I downloaded it all yesterday so I'm hoping this is just an update, but it's strange because it doesn't seem to be actually installing anything on my pc. I don't get it.

Well, after staring at a login screen for 3 hours and beta-testing their connection timeout error messages I'm off to bed. Hope tomorrow will be less disappointing than this evening has been. :roleyess:

Any preference in class you'd try out first, stoffe (whenever you get the game to start :p)? I'm most interested in the Engineer, I'm curious to see how it works with and against other classes. A Charr Engineer would probably my first pick.

I've been playing as a Norn elementalist so far, exploring the lower level areas of Norn, Human and Charr lands. Pretty much a glass cannon since elementalists are hopelessly fragile and die immediately if they come under attack, but do decent damage against bunches of enemies. I think this is the game I've died the most in, ever, so far. Maybe will improve once I get more used to the combat system, but I still hope they tweak the combat difficulty before release because in some places/events it's more frustrating than fun.

Charr engineers seem to be a popular pick, lots of people in the Charr area had that profession. Hard to tell how well they were doing though in the chaos of battle.

Only few hours left to play before the beta is over now. :)

I played as a Human Ranger and didn't die nearly as much as Stoffe did, but I think that is mainly as my pet keeps enemies at bay and if it dies I just run away leaving a trap in my wake to slow them down. I could easily handle 2-3 enemies on my own, but more than that and I was definately struggling. I plan on playing as a Norn as my main when the game is finally released, and I'll be giving that one a go in the next beta.

I had a great time in the 10 of so hours I played it, and I'm glad I pre-ordered now. At one point a group of us had all done a dynamic event chain of events together and we were in the swamp when all of a sudden a HUGE, and I mean HUUUUGE swamp beast demon thing that took up the whole screen suddenly came out of nowhere. I think we were all in shock but proceeded to start taking it down. There was a lot of dodging and killing spawned enemies and it took about 20 minutes to kill it. At the end there was a huge chest in the middle with lots of good items in and a green item (which is good in GW2). We all just stood around chatting in chat about how amazing it was for about 5 mins afterwards. It was just brilliant.

Edit: I found a video of event I'm talking about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFKFqzRhXKs

Probably my fault for picking such a fragile profession that I died so much. Elementalists are pretty much glass cannons, they can do decent damage to groups of enemies, but can't take any beating at all themselves.

Still, after getting up in level a bit and picking up more abilities (including a couple of summons to tank for me briefly) and better gear my death rate slowed down considerably. Sure I still kept dying every now and then, but not so annoyingly often. Maybe me getting more used to the combat system helped too. :)

I encountered the huge Shade in the swamp as well. Looked huge from a distance, but when you get close the scale really becomes apparent with a player not being much larger than a toenail by comparison (if a Shade had any). Took a few screenshots of the fight too.

* * * *

Overall I'm impressed by the game. Environments are varied, interesting and often very pretty, with plenty of postcard vistas and interesting places to visit. Quests and events are also varied in scope and tasks. Story is decent as well from what I've seen so far. Perhaps not Bioware-grade storytelling, but it gets the job done of keeping you interested in what's to come and provide a background for what you do. Combat is quite different from the standard MMO or guildwars 1 formulas, which can be fun in some ways and a little frustrating in others. Only done the 1-15 starting areas of the 3 species in the beta, and a part of a 15-25 area. Gotten my Norn elementalist up to level 23 before the beta ended.

The main cities of each species are huge and contain a lot to explore and find on their own. Took me over an hour just to see everything in Lions Arch, and the Black Citadel, Divinity's Reach and Hoelbrak are no less impressive in size.

My main beefs with the game so far is that combat in some areas and during a few of the Events is way too difficult. It's extremely easy to be overwhelmed in those situations, and luck more than skill seem to decide if you survive. Enemies also respawn way too quickly. Sometimes an enemy you killed respawn right behind your back while fighting his buddies.

I expect those things will be tweaked before the next Beta Event though.

A bunch of random screenshots taken by me in various places in the game:

http://i.imgur.com/e5T8Ps.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/wWrpOs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/MDTBvs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/VpBKzs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fkXBgs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/Qi7s9s.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/rnWENs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/gefhZs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/qzdqJs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/ZtVgts.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/pnjjTs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/rjndBs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/Xk5z2s.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8E9ocs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/K9elBs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/GGEOTs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/zsZs8s.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/3YfhBs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/Zt6Wfs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Xxi53s.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/0p9LRs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/O3Nh8s.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/vsUUbs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/BqGF6s.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/YSq6Js.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pCSXps.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/owkNVs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/MJ6EGs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/mOTtJs.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/pABJms.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/khy1Ls.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wPdF0s.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/vAXJAs.jpg

Woah, you weren't kidding about the environments - they're gorgeous! I do love a game that has proper attention paid to the surroundings.

One thing that does slightly irritate me about Guild Wars (and quite a few other games like it) is that it suffers badly from ICS - Impractical Clothing Syndrome. WOMEN OF GW! Y U NO WEAR PROPER CLOTHES/ARMOUR?! HOW U STILL HAVE ALL LIMBS?

Guild Wars 2 actually has a very wide range of clothing and armor styles. From fully covered to fairly skimpy, from plain to extravagant. So it's mostly up to you how you want your character to look (or what armor or clothing you've been able to obtain so far, this early on).

My character is a Norn though so it's more or less a racial/cultural thing that they run around lightly dressed in the snow and ice. So I tried to outfit her accordingly with the limited means at my disposal this early. Elementalists have paper thin armor anyway so might as well look the part. :)

Oh OK. I had a brief look at the character creation on youtube and it was like 90% skimpy. Mind you it was a Norn character creation so if it's a cultural thing then that makes sense I guess. Hrrrm.

Well yes, if it's character creation what you'd see is the starting gear for each profession and species (also modified by chosen back story I believe). You have to obtain the outfits you want while playing, they don't give you the whole wardrobe from the start. :)

Norns are more or less your typical Northern Viking stereotype, a bit like the Nord in Elder Scrolls (though the Norn are not human, unlike the Nord, depite their appearance). Tall (nearly twice as tall as humans in the case of Norn), unbothered by cold weather and independent-minded. (Unbothered by cold, modesty and personal hygiene, as an Asura remarked in a drive-by conversation :)) With the extra twist that Norn are natural shape shifters that can assume animal form.

How was GW2?

I'm thinking of picking up for my free to play MMO while swtor will be my Sub one

Was watching TotalBiscuit play it and to be honest, it looked disappointing.

It was amazing, I loved every second of the beta weekend and I'm so glad I pre-ordered it now. Really looking forward to it's release, I can't wait.

Agreed. It was a lot of fun to play, and the world is amazing in its detail, variety and polish, with nice little touches and secrets here and there that really rewards exploring. With all the events and heart quests going on everywhere there was always something to do as well when needing some variety from just exploring. A bit early to judge the storyline from what was available, but so far it was decent (the branch of it I ended up on at least as a Norn favored by Wolf with the Revenge backstory).

Combat will probably take a while to get used to and fully grasp the details of since it was quite different from Guild Wars 1. For the most part it was fun and challenging even with my total newbie bumblings, if a bit too difficult in some spots.

While it was still a little rough around some corners with a few things in need of tweaking, that's what beta testing is for. I expect many of those issues have been adressed by the next beta weekend. :)

:D I approve. Also, those wee gnome things? SO CUTE.

Those are called Asura, and yeah they are cute as hell. You should see their funny little actions. :D http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/asura/

The release date for Guild Wars 2 has now finally been set and announced. 28th of August this year; in two months. Early access starts on 25th of August for those who pre-purchased the game. Hopefully enough time to iron out the last few bugs and oddities and make some needed balancing tweaks, as evidenced by the public beta weekends held so far.

One more Beta Weekend Event has also been announced starting 20th of July.