Tag: Guild Wars 2

A Few of My Favorite Things #GuildWars2 #GW2

Ah, another beta weekend come and gone, and the last one before Guild Wars 2 goes live in August. What a long time it seems from now! Of course, that’s more than likely because I’m incredibly impatient. I thought I’d name some of my favorite things that I’ve discovered about Guild Wars 2 so far. Keep in mind I’ve been reading very little about the game, and while these things may not be new to you, they were for me (and brought about a lot of joy). Hopefully some of these things will also be news to others out there, and they’ll bring you just as much pleasure.

1. Vistas. These are Super Mario-esc jumping puzzles that players have to figure out how to reach and I think they’re brilliant. How many times a day in your average MMO do you see people jumping all over the place for no reason what so ever. People love to jump! These vistas are marked on the world map by a set of triangles, and what you’re looking for in game is a hovering map surrounded in white light, typically way up high some place. You’ll have to figure out how to reach it, and then jump to it without falling. Once you’re up there you’ll be granted some experience for finding it, as well as the achievement for finding it, and a remarkable video depicting the area you happen to be in. Beautiful AND fun!

2. Guilds. I learned this weekend no longer are we tied down to one guild! Have a guild of RL friends? A guild of roleplayers? A guild of hardcore raiders that only meet once a week? Now you can be a member of ALL of those guilds at once. You can only ‘represent’ one guild at a time, that is, talk in guild chat – but I still think this idea is fabulous.

3. Dye. I mentioned this before, but I love the way dye works in GW2. You’re no longer collecting bottles that stay infinitely in your inventory or in your bank, but you’re collecting bottles and then unlocking a colour. It does work per character and isn’t account wide, but you can trade / sell the bottles so your alts can unlock them. You can customize colour from the get go with the default palate, and I think that’s fantastic.

4. Crafting. In specific the ‘collections’ tab which holds all of your crafting supplies (well, the raw materials in any rate). This tab will also hold all gems you find (gems are used to socket your gear, basically) and miniatures. I love that my inventory is rarely ever full, because I can just instantly send all my crafting supplies to the collections tab no matter where I’m at. Thank you ArenaNet for letting me play and have fun without the hassle that comes from a full inventory!

I had a blast this weekend, logging in almost 15 hours of game time between Friday and Sunday (I decided not to play Sunday because I knew it would be shutting down in a few hours). I still haven’t decided what I’m going to play at launch, but the beta weekends (the two I’ve participated in) have been an absolute blast. I can’t wait for it to go live! I hope everyone else had a great time playing too.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

The Death of Prince Rurik #GuildWars

I haven’t given up on Guild Wars, today is a stress test for Guild Wars 2, and I’ve decided to avoid it. I have already purchased the game and am just waiting for it to go live. So I’ve been completing the missions in Prophecy, and the further along I go the deeper into the story I get. My monk / warrior is sitting at a comfortable level 11, and items that drop in missions are starting to show higher powers and when I salvage them I have a chance to take these items and re-apply them onto other things. I think that’s neat.

SPOILERS:

I just finished completing ‘The Frost Gate‘ which included a dramatic ending where Prince Rurik ends up getting knocked down and then killed by Dagnar, something I really wasn’t expecting! The cut scenes are well done despite the age of this story, and I really enjoyed completing the mission. Me and Ninga even managed to complete the bonus stage, something I’ve been trying to do (but have missed one or two along the way). Bonus stages are great because they reward you with a large amount of experience and they also give you a skill point. I’m learning about the importance of these skill points as I level up.

I still need to continue trying to complete Hall of Monument achievements, but in the mean time while I wait for GW2 to release I’m finally enjoying myself in GW1. It feels a lot like my time in EVE Online, where it takes me a try or two (or three) before I find my ‘groove’ and can figure out what (or rather, how) to play the game so that I’m enjoying myself. I’m very glad that I decided to stick with things this time, and I think it will help me appreciate aspects of GW2 even more.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Finding Myself in Guild Wars 2 #GW2

I’ve never been one to ‘spoil’ games by participating heavily in betas – although don’t get me wrong, I love betas and I do take part in them. I just tend to stick to specific testing grounds instead of ‘completing’ the entire game. For the past few months my inner circle of blogging / twitter / G+ friends have been talking about Guild Wars 2 and I showed very little interest. I always had plans of picking the game up, but I would get distracted with Diablo 3 (briefly) or Wurm Online (constantly) or something else would come up that prevented me from looking very far into the game.

Until this weekend. I could hold back no longer. I pre-ordered the game, which automatically allows access to all of the beta weekends. It was a fast download (for me at least, 3 mb/s) and I was ready to go when servers opened on Friday. The problem initially was that my friends had already picked a server and by the time I logged in ready to create a character – it was full.

Gah!

I hate the idea of servers. I always have. The main thing any one person wants to do in game and I have said this countless times is be able to play with their friends without limitations. New friends and old friends alike. No matter when someone has started playing the game. In GW this was easy, there are no servers only districts and you simply port to a new one and ta da you’re with your friends. I hear there are ways around this in GW2 with guesting and server transfers, but they’re still just band-aid solutions to the greater issue (imo).

Looking past this – I was incredibly impressed with character creation. My character has a history. A ‘life’. She is not just made up of statistics and dye colours, but has a background. I instantly felt bonded with this beta character, sad by the prospect that hey, it’s beta. Having played a mesmer in GW, that’s what I created for GW2. Then I spent the next hour running around, exploring. I didn’t do anything else. I don’t know how anything works in game. I was enthralled with the spell graphics, and with all of the graphics in general. It runs wonderfully on my machine, and looks amazing. For now, that’s all I need.

I can’t wait for this to go live.

Pandas, Guild Wars 2, and Vanguard

Even though WurmOnline has taken most of my attention these days, I do still have an interest in a few other games coming out this year, and I do still get excited about announcements.

Vanguard: Finally, the Free to Play announcement that we’ve all been waiting for. We haven’t gotten many details yet other than it will happen (maybe) this summer. Personally, I’m excited. I’ve been a long time player of Vanguard and I’m constantly going on about how much I love the game. I realize that there are always going to be people against a F2P model, but honestly at this point in time, some players are better than the no players the game is currently working with. I have high hopes that this will help revitalize the game a bit. The only down side is that it will be happening when a lot of other games are coming out, and that may cause issues.

World of Warcraft: It has to be said, I still play. I still enjoy the game even though I did not really enjoy cataclysm. I don’t raid and I find that there’s a lack of things for me to do, but I did sign up for a year (Diablo 3 for the other half) and I enjoy poking around when I want a game to play that requires very little thinking. I should be getting into the beta for the panda expansion, and I’m also really looking forward to the new race. Jokes aside.

Guild Wars 2: This title has been on my radar for ages now. I’m not in the beta, but I wish I were. I enjoy Guild Wars, I enjoy not having to worry about a subscription, and I don’t really care if there’s a market or how it works. I have been staying away from most of the news updates about this game, although I have indulged and watched the trailers. I’m eager to jump in and play, and it doesn’t matter how good or bad the game is, I’ll judge for myself whether or not I enjoy it.

There are a few other games coming out this year that are pretty exciting. What are you most looking forward to if anything at all? Perhaps there’s a console game that tickles your fancy? Let me know in comments! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.