Not every MMORPG is a 3-Monther, despite what some may say. A popular vantage point for launching a debate against said belief is to claim that it's impossible to recreate…
Guild Wars 2 has been out for a month now, and it’s time to really grade the game across the board. Up until now I’ve been able to say “oh well this is a good feature” or “this needs improvement”, but all of those statements aren’t really qualified until put to the test over the coarse of time.
I have put in over 200 hours into Guild Wars 2, reached the top level, obtained almost the “best” gear, and I’ve experienced the game to the point where I feel qualified to grade the game. And that’s a finicky thing to do with an MMO because, more than any game out there, how players feel about the game changes regularly. Reviewing an MMO is an ongoing process.
What use is this to you? Well, if you’re someone who hasn’t purchased Guild Wars 2 then this might be useful in your purchasing decision. We can also use this as a way to look back and discuss the merits of GW2 one month in, and use these metrics to help us figure out what we value most in a MMO, hopefully to help us with future purchases.
You’ll find the grade breakdown after the break. (more…)
I have noticed a trend in the MMO market/community lately.  It happened only a few days ago. Before you read on, can you guess what it is? There are a…
Another week has gone by in Guild Wars 2, and I'm still racking up new experiences each day. Dragons I knew about Tequatl in Sparkfly, but I had no idea…
I finally figured out how to explain dungeons in Guild Wars 2. Previously the best explanation I had was simple chaos and dodging. My guildmate has a better explanation: It's…
My ranger (Glumshanks) has dinged level 80. This momentous occasion actually happened many days ago... for some reason I never included it in a blog post. I find myself at…
I want to talk about my week-long efforts to figure out what is going on with my computer and Guild Wars 2. To give you a very quick summary, I’m having weird FPS issues and lots of instability with my hardware and the game. I spent the entire week changing settings, monitoring performance, changing drivers, pouring over forums, and trying to figure out what is causing my issues.
I can get around 50-60 FPS in the PvE world, and the game is actually quite smooth. In fact, I have no complaints about the PvE zones except for some random overheating and frame drops in places like Lion’s Arch or random zones. Generally speaking, I would say PvE is flawless.
However, in WvW zones when there is any sort of battle going on my FPS will drop to 5-15 depending on the fight. It becomes unplayable, a slide show, and I get motion sickness.
Here are my system specs:
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 930 Processor (4x 2.80GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 – 1GB – EVGA Superclocked
Memory: 6gb DDR3-1800
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
Drivers: I have tried the 306.02 beta drivers, and the current stable release drivers. No difference.
I can set my settings as low as they will go or to ultra and I see ZERO difference in my FPS. This is what has me confused the most. Why am I not seeing any performance change between the two highest and lowest settings? I’m also concerned about the fact that my GPU is being underutilized. In massive fights it will only be 40% used, and sometimes my core clock and shader clock will throttle.  My CPU is only being 50-60% utilized. I see no reason for me to have any game-breaking lag at all.
Any help you can provide is appreciated. I added a video showing the issue happening after the jump. (more…)
I am by no means a pro, but I have been around the RvR block a few times. WvW is really very similar, and I’m noticing a lot of very fundamental strategies/tactics ignored.
Defend!
When you take something, please defend it. I don’t know where the mentality came from to take something and immediately have every person leave it. All you do is create an enticing opportunity for the enemy to go take it back and gain karma/experience. Leave a small task for there to guard the location, alert the zone to enemy movements, and upgrade. That leads me to my next point…
Upgrade!
Not a moment should go by where your supply camps, Keeps, Garrisons, and towers aren’t being improved. Increase the supply your caravans deliver (and defend them) so that you can use more supply to upgrade your keeps. Hire extra guards; That way you won’t have an annoying thief sneaking in to the back soloing the camp.
On your keeps upgrade the doors asap, the walls, and get some cannons. Cannons absolutely wreck attackers. Don’t forget to place siege like arrow cards in a position where they are protected from Elementalist aoe but can still hit attackers on the door.
Oh, and please don’t take supply from towers. Take supply from supply camps. Let the supply in towers be used for upgrades. Once you have a very healthy supply, and sufficient upgrades, leave the supply in the tower/keep to repair the doors and walls.
Read on for more tips! (more…)
Despite being shortened to "WvW", there are three worlds fighting each other in Guild Wars 2. Though, at times, you wouldn't know it. We've had several days on Ehmry Bay…
It's hard to believe that a week has already passed since GW2 has launched because so much has happened! I've seen so much of the world, and experienced so many…