GW2 BWE#1 Wrap-up

I covered GW2 extensively over the weekend with my thoughts on questing, combat, Battlegrounds/Mists, and World vs. World.  I want to briefly wrap-up my thoughts from this weekend into one post so that someone wondering what I think about GW2 can easily find them.

Something about GW2 won me over.  I had framerate issues in WvW and sometimes in crowded areas, and it was clear that the game has a few months of Beta until it is read. However, I find myself sitting here wishing I could log on and play.  I miss playing.

WvW has a lot of potential if the players will stick with it while it matures.  If GW2’s community hits its stride and defends, attacks, and really invests emotionally into the World vs. World experience it will be a long-lasting form of entertainment that will give GW2 a lot of replayability.

I like the individual loot system because I don’t have to worry about something dropping and someone else getting it. There’s also very little BoP/BoE stuff, if I recall correctly.  Questing is a natural progression experience through each zone, and I like how I can go to the area and work with others to complete quests even though I’m an individual.  Playing with friends is extremely easy with the de-leveling in lower level zones.

The Cash Shop … I guess I should say, “What cash shop?”  It was as though the thing didn’t exist.  I’m not at all worried about the current state of the cash shop, but that’s perhaps what worries me the most because ArenaNet wants to make a profit.  I hope enough people want to buy those worthless (I mean totally awesome) keys and costumes.

I don’t know what’s up with the whole ‘mail everything’ system.  You can’t trade with anyone which will prove to be an oddity if stays that way.

GW2 is definitely a themepark, and there isn’t a whole lot of ‘new’ being brought to the genre.  ArenaNet hasn’t just copied WoW, though.  There is a lot borrowed from games like DAOC — qualified and proven features — that were ignored for years, and things like weapon swapping that feel innovative.

TLDR Impressions after the jump. (more…)

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GW2 WvW Impressions

WvW is the closest I have ever come to reliving Dark Age of Camelot RvR.  I chose to lead off with that comment because WvW is the reason why I will play GW2, and the reason why many of my friends decided to even give GW2 a chance.  I want to begin by giving you a narrative of the video I shot below.

The video starts off with my server fighting outside the outer wall of our Western Keep in Blue’s World.  We are the invaders taking and holding Blue’s territory.  Almost right away we are pushed back through our wall just to find ourselves flanked by an even larger Blue force which broke through the other gate on the wall.  Keeps, Towers, and Outer Walls in GW2 have multiple gates.  This makes defending much more difficult because the attackers can come at you from multiple fronts.

As we are pushed back, I dive off the cliff into the beautifully done waters of our Keep’s moat.  Water combat, and water in general, are stunning and an amazing addition to the game and WvW.  We battle back and forth and eventually push Blue back to their Garrison (primary keep, awesome defense).  Moments later, as my guildies and I are retreating to our keep on our way to take a supply depot, GREEN server’s army flanks us out of nowhere inside the walls of our keep.  I LOVE three faction PvP!!!

The video ends with the end of our attack on a Tower and a look at the Orb (DAOC Relic).  We break the doors with our ram and burst through cleaning up the last of the defenders.  Slaying the Tower Lord, we claim the Tower for our server and march off to take more objectives.

Read on for more WvW Impressions. (more…)

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GW2 WvWvW Explained

GW2 just took the top spot on my list of must-have-games.  Reason: ArenaNet has, on paper, come the closest to replicating DAOC.  World vs. World vs. World has just been detailed by Mike Ferguson, and everything he has to say makes me giddy.

Those familiar with DAOC will already have memories of how most of this works.  For those who missed the DAOC experience, I hope that GW2 finally brings you up to speed with the best way to do PvP in a MMORPG.

I really like the idea of server vs. server now.  In DAOC, each of the three factions grew very close because you were an entire team against two other teams.  You were fighting for meaningful objectives, for reputation, for honor, and glory.  In GW2, you’re fighting for all of those and for the ability to move up in what sounds like a ladder system.  Every two weeks your server is evaluated based on how you did and then given a new server to fight against.  I like the sound of creating healthy competition between servers; maybe that’s what’s needed to create the infamous “realm pride” in today’s market.

I’m in love with the idea of lower players joining the fight and continuing to progress while playing.  Giving everyone the opportunity to play removes segmentation and contribute to the server’s victory that week.  I hope that ArenaNet improves their bolstering system over that of WAR and SWTOR, but even if they don’t I can’t imagine why having more bodies would be a bad thing in this type of PvP (whereas in 8v8 having lowbies sucks). (more…)

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Dominus jetpacking to the top of my ‘gimme now’ list

If you guys aren’t checking out Dominus, a sci-fi 3-Faction PvP sandbox game currently in development, then you’re out of your freaking minds.  Dominus is one of my most anticipated games of 2012. I want to send these guys some more love, get the word out there, and once again throw my support behind a studio that is really moving mountains to accomplish something with their game that I love.

Pitch Black Games held another one of their live chats.  My schedule doesn’t allow me to watch their videos live (stupid classes), so I’m stuck playing catch-up the day after.  I just watched January 27th’s chat and my mind was blown.  They’ve updated their engine (Hero Engine, same engine SWTOR uses) and given the game a huge visual overall from the last preview I saw.  I think in the video, correct me if I’m wrong, one of the guys said there isn’t a part of the game that hasn’t received some update.  The game looks graphically amazing, and in my opinion better than SWTOR (again, same engine so I’m making comparisons.)

During the video they showed some day/night cycles in zones which looked great, but the scenery really shocked me.  The game is looking fleshed out and gorgeous.  Note: These are screen captures from a video, of a video, of a game.

Read on for more screenshots and thoughts! (more…)

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