By Jim Rossignol on August 17th, 2011 at 4:00 pm.
They’re just showing off! Stop showing off, Arenanet. No one likes a show off, ESPECIALLY when they’re pretty. As if the PvE action stuff wasn’t showy enough, the flyovers of intricately produced cities and other superlative-stretching environmental features are just too much. And then that dude totally decks a centaur… and what is that robot thing?!
Really, everyone’s impressed, you can go be humble in the corner now. Christ.
17/08/2011 at 16:04 Forgoroe says:
I love you Arenanet
17/08/2011 at 16:34 Askeladd says:
For those that love Anet ->
Live Stream from Gamescom: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ncsoft-gamescom
Schedule GC Anet
ESL GW2 PVP Match-Schedule
17/08/2011 at 19:33 McDan says:
Arenanet sure are amazing and worthy of love. They have all of mine. Can’t wait for this, annoyed that RPS hasn’t been working well for me lately though, and I really want to watch this again but it’s real jumpy.
17/08/2011 at 16:08 porps says:
amazing graphics i must say
17/08/2011 at 18:39 BebopBraunbaer says:
thats true, but in a way i find them “to good” , or maybe to clean? or to sharp? i dont know , but something is wrong (for me)
18/08/2011 at 00:23 aldrenean says:
@BebopBraunbaer
Yeah, I think it’s actually the textures. Broad surfaces of things don’t have much depth to them, such as the clothed chests of characters. Bump mapping or something similar would be nice, but being an MMO I totally forgive it some ugliness. Still first rate in the genre.
17/08/2011 at 16:09 jon_hill987 says:
MMOs always have impressive trailers, even the F2P ones from Perfect world manage it. This is the first one that I have seen manage it in engine though.
17/08/2011 at 21:34 sleep_crime says:
SWTOR didn’t, then again SWTOR also blows cock.
17/08/2011 at 16:12 Nick says:
Can’t wait.
17/08/2011 at 16:13 CryingTheAnnualKingo says:
I’m guessing the combat won’t be as cinematic or action oriented in the real game.
17/08/2011 at 16:19 CommanderZx2 says:
Why wouldn’t it be so action oriented? It was just as action packed in Guild Wars 1. Unlike other MMOs in guild wars you actually hit the enemy, you don’t just swing your sword in thin air.
WIth regards to the trailer in general I remember that Giant mechanical golem in guild wars 1, I wonder if it is a new one or perhaps the original was ressurected.
17/08/2011 at 16:21 Askeladd says:
Action oriented – Yes. Afaik those animation are all in the game as skills.
Cinematic – No. You won’t be looking from those angles at all in combat. You’d go crazy.
17/08/2011 at 16:22 Merus says:
I don’t know, it was pretty swell at PAX last year. Been very excited for it since then, because it looks like they’re actually doing all the stuff you thought MMORPGs should have been about all this time.
17/08/2011 at 17:06 Dominic White says:
There’s been hours of actual gameplay footage released, including a 50+ player cooperative megaboss battle. It might not have the cinematic camera angles, but it’s sure as hell more interesting to watch than your average MMO. Meaty, full-contact combat on this one.
17/08/2011 at 17:13 Danarchist says:
It’s fairly awesome in guild wars 1 already, I do not expect two to be less than one :)
17/08/2011 at 20:55 gwathdring says:
@ OP
You realize almost all of that trailer was in-engine stuff and while a lot of it was scripted, a fair bit was actual gameplay footage compiled from earlier gameplay demos?
19/08/2011 at 13:14 Palidore says:
It wouldn’t be feasible to have all these different camera angles in succession during combat, no. However it is a very cinematic game. Boss fight cameras are actually adjusted for cinematic affects, and the game itself will be filled with cinematics as well as a massive amount of voice acting. No such thing as wall of texts in GW2. They’ve recorded over 60 feature films worth of dialogue, which by ArenaNet’s math on their blog, one 90-minute film = approximately 10,000 words.
As for for action-oriented combat, that’s actually what GW2 combat is about entirely. The game heavily encourages movement, positioning, line of sight, dodging, rolling, etc. There’s no auto-attacking nor auto-targeting; no energy bars (a change made just this week; skills simply run off of recharge times now), and the first 5 skills (out of 10 at once maximum) in a player’s skill bar is determined by the combination of their main and offhand weapons or equipment; of which players can have two sets that can be hotswapped in combat with a button press. There is no holy trinity in GW2; no dedicated tanks, healers, or dps. Every class can heal, revive, and switch to different combination of weapons and equipment to cater to different playstyles and necessities in battle or in groups.
17/08/2011 at 16:14 Lemming says:
Woah
17/08/2011 at 16:15 Ignorant Texan says:
Wait, when did they add Skaven to Tyria?
17/08/2011 at 16:17 VileThings says:
Those things look more like the Skaven’s cuter cousins. Micemen instead of Ratmen.
17/08/2011 at 16:44 Ignorant Texan says:
Ah, ok. I thought they may have been just cute-ified, like the way Asurans went from mangy, ill-tempered cats to Hello Kitty from EoN to GW2.
17/08/2011 at 17:23 Dominic White says:
The backstory on them is actually pretty grim stuff. The cute little mouse-people have some sort of psychic hive-mind thing going on. One by itself is barely smart enough to figure out a knife, but a large colony of them can reverse-engineer Asura technology.
As such, the Asura like to cull/genocide the cute little mousie colonies whenever they’re found, because while the Asura may look cute and fluffy, they are stone cold pragmatists who *will* wipe out your entire species if you pose a threat to them.
17/08/2011 at 17:33 Ignorant Texan says:
Well, Dominic, you and Wulf are my two trusted RPS sources for GW2 information/lore. I must admit I have found the shift in Asuran look, if not temperament, to be disconcerting. I like their presentation in EoN, so I hope their rough edges haven’t been completely smoothed away. It was somewhat refreshing that the ‘cute’ species was a bunch of pretentious, superior pricks.
17/08/2011 at 17:40 Dominic White says:
At least their ‘cleaned up’ look has a solid plot explanation. In GW1 they’d basically been living in filthy caves and pressed to near-extinction. They looked like they’d been dragged through the mud backwards because of it.
In GW2, they’ve got their city back. They’re literally living in ivory towers. Transforming, magical ivory towers that fire lasers. As such, they look somewhat fancier than they used to.
17/08/2011 at 18:43 DrGonzo says:
But that’s the same as the rats from Planescape!
17/08/2011 at 19:05 Dominic White says:
You say that like cribbing from Planescape is a bad thing.
There’s more to their background than that, of course, but I just gave you the Cliff Notes version, rather than the Wulf info-dump.
I do actually quite dig the backstory they’ve come up with so far. It’s high fantasy sillyness, but it’s an appealing sort of mishmash.
17/08/2011 at 22:42 unlimitedgiants says:
“Old Blindmeis, Heh Heh.”
18/08/2011 at 12:10 Zepp says:
Rats from Planescape were marvelous. :)
17/08/2011 at 16:17 MonkeyMonster says:
Jeez louise… *that* is a trailer.
17/08/2011 at 16:17 Crescend says:
That giant robot is the Iron Forgeman I believe, though I could’ve sworn I already defeated it ages ago in Sorrows Furnace and it didn’t have lazor eyes back then.. :D
17/08/2011 at 18:35 Squirrelfanatic says:
FORGEMAN!!
17/08/2011 at 20:59 Hoaxfish says:
perhaps it’s a forgery
17/08/2011 at 22:26 Askeladd says:
Thats a hoax
17/08/2011 at 16:17 Scatterbrainpaul says:
Looks good, nearly tempted to buy it. But most things in slow motion with nice bit of classical piano in the background generally do look good
17/08/2011 at 16:22 Askeladd says:
Just wait for some more gameplay videos. They only wanted to show off.
17/08/2011 at 16:18 Doesntmeananything says:
That’s certainly a lot of frames per second there.
17/08/2011 at 16:21 nrvsNRG says:
wow!!
they really know which buttons to push dont they?
How come an MMORPG can look better,IMO, than a popular single player RPG that will be out soon? (skyrim)
17/08/2011 at 16:29 Askeladd says:
You sure? ANet has really talented artists. They have made a game with unique aesthetics.
Thats also the reason why SWTOR looks meh.
For reference: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/3201-Graphics-vs-Aesthetics
17/08/2011 at 16:37 nrvsNRG says:
yeah i know,sorry man,i probably didnt explain right.
To me, GW2 (an mmorpg), looks better than a SP RPG (skyrim)…….normally, as we know, its the opposite for the obvious reasons.It looks beautiful! So much more pleasing to the eye than Obliv….sorry Skyrim. ;)
edit.
Doh! :P, i see your point now.
17/08/2011 at 18:45 DrGonzo says:
One of the lead artists was also one of the lead artists for Half Life 2, he is also the face of Father Gregori. He’s absolutely fantastic.
18/08/2011 at 01:04 skinlo says:
I disagree, whilst some of the buildings are much more impressive in GW2 it seems, the actual graphics for me are better in Skyrim.
18/08/2011 at 05:41 BurningPet says:
I honestly fear i am in a minority here. while there is no doubt Tinfoil is a genius enviroment artist, the character designs were never top notch, both in GW1 and it carried on to GW2. the animations look off in a lot of places in this video (archer shoots the arrow before releasing the bow string and many other small glitches like that) and some of the lighting and texture on those characters are bit simplistic.
17/08/2011 at 16:22 bleeters says:
Oh, hey, a female character wearing armour that actually covers her entire torso. I didn’t think they existed.
17/08/2011 at 16:23 Askeladd says:
And you’ll see much more of them in guild wars 2.
17/08/2011 at 17:07 Dominic White says:
Yeah, most of their character artists are women. And if a female suit of armor has them running around in a bra-top, then a male character wearing that same suit is going to be bare-chested.
17/08/2011 at 20:13 Binho says:
Except for the one woman in only a black leather bra and side slit leather pants? And the fact that all the armour types show massive amounts of bare cleavage?
Haha, sorry, but as good as most of this game looks, it’s female armour is just as revealing and impractical as most RPG’s. :P
17/08/2011 at 20:49 Dominic White says:
Like I said, if a suit is revealing on a female character, it’ll be revealing on a male character too. Gender equality and all that.
Half the Norn-unique suits are basically just a couple of metal plates and a loincloth. This is because they’re giant were-bears and think that armor is for wimps. Also, clothes are for wimps but they do have at least a vague concept of modesty.
17/08/2011 at 22:29 Grot_Punter says:
A rough breakdown of armor looks in GW2:
All player races except Norn: Armor is great!
Norn: Armor? FEH! I HAVE SKIN! *proceeds to become a bear/snow leopard/wolf/raven man, and runs off laughing maniacally*
17/08/2011 at 16:22 Jake says:
Love all of it except the big headed gnome things. I will try to ignore them.
17/08/2011 at 19:13 WrongThinker says:
I completely agree. I really, really dislike them. I feel like the Cabbage Patch Kids have somehow invaded my fantasy MMO.
17/08/2011 at 16:23 Yosharian says:
Fuck this game is going to be awesome
17/08/2011 at 16:24 Casimir's Blake says:
Hyped to heaven, from all corners, even friends of mine are going nuts over this game.
But despite what is admittedly a very polished trailer, displaying a lot of great art and design, for those of us that want a compelling solo-player narrative… AN MMORPG IS A HIGHLY REPETITIVE WASTE OF TIME.
(Unless there is a first-person mode, then I MIGHT reconsider.)
17/08/2011 at 16:28 nrvsNRG says:
there was no need for that to be stated, never mind in bold dude……everyone knows it an MMORPG and not SP………whats your point,apart from the obvious we already know about narratives comparisons?
edit
looks like you edited that before i could even hit the away button.but the question still remains?
17/08/2011 at 16:43 Oreb says:
@ Casimir’s Blake – I think your generalization is unfair – the “highly repetitive waste of time” bit. That is a criticism that can be leveled at all games to some extent. And having sunk a huge number of hours into the first Guild Wars and its expansions, I never found it particular boring, repetitive, or grindy. I consider the experience on par with single-player RPG’s like Baldur’s Gate II, Planescape Torment, Fallout, Oblivion, etc. And they were all repetitive time sinks that I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed. I’m optimistic that Guild Wars 2 will be as good or better…
17/08/2011 at 16:50 Merus says:
I suspect GW2 will be different because they don’t have to justify a monthly fee. It’s totally okay by them if you get to the end of the game and there’s nothing left to do. You’re free to check out until there’s something new to do.
17/08/2011 at 16:58 John P says:
The thing is, Arenanet says they’re trying to make their ‘personal story’ thing as good as a single player RPG. Now based on Guild Wars 1 I don’t have great confidence that they’ll succeed, but the point is they’re actually trying to make a single player RPG within the MMO shell. As well as a full blown MMO. As well as extensive PvP. I can see why it’s taking them so long to make it.
And Guild Wars has always been pretty good at avoiding the grinding stuff, unless you’re obsessed about getting different cosmetic armour. In GW1 it was super quick and easy to get the highest-damage weapons and best quality armour. Harder to find stuff was mostly just cosmetic bragging rights stuff, and not required at all.
Because GW2 doesn’t have a monthly fee, they don’t have the same incentive to make players do endless repetitive tasks for small rewards, just so they keep paying each month.
17/08/2011 at 17:56 Nick says:
I thought GW1 was a decent single player RPG, better than Dragon Age 2 anyway.
17/08/2011 at 18:18 Casimir's Blake says:
@ John P
Thanks for the constructive reply. I do recall spending some time with GW1, though it seems like aeons ago. I also recall I enjoyed the artistic design of the game, and the interface was easy enough to get used to. Another commonly hideous element of MMORPGs are galactically-obtuse and messy interfaces.
And indeed, the lack of a monthly fee is noteworthy. I certainly have never desired nor would I ever consider paying monthly for an MMO just to satiate some irrational desire to grind for stats or levels. But I remain skeptical that even Arenanet can create a potentially compelling solo experience in GW2. The first game fell flat on its face once it revealed some of its more linear later stages. (I vaguely recall some decrepit Rage-style wasteland at an ocean’s edge that was an utter trudge to play through)
@ Nick
What ISN’T preferable to Dragon Age 2? Horrendous game, that. Cluster-fuckery combat, and a distinctly underdeveloped narrative would be putting it mildly.
Putting this out there to the rest of the RPS readership: Have your MMOs if you so desire. But allow me my comments also, please. I have long since lamented the death (and I’d argue this is accurate) of compelling solo first-person role-playing games. Arx Fatalis, the eighth Wizardry, the ninth Might & Magic, and (particularly) the fourth King’s Field were all marvellous experiences but also all released a very long time ago. But since then MMOs have “taken over”. (TES is the lone exception.) Guild Wars has not, and still does not look as though it will be a suitable substitute.
17/08/2011 at 18:53 DrGonzo says:
I think lots of people agree with you. But wouldn’t comment on Guild Wars 2 about it as it’s an MMO. Your problem with it is that it isn’t a different game. Well I’m afraid that’s not the games fault.
As for Dragon Age 2 and the state of single player RPGs, I agree with you. But Guild Wars 2 has absolutely nothing to do with that.
17/08/2011 at 19:17 nrvsNRG says:
i wasnt trying to take away your freedom to comment, i love SPRPG as much as the next guy…..but this looks and sounds like its going to be unique.
17/08/2011 at 16:24 Jimmeh says:
I love the hand painted effect at the start of the video, wish they had carried it through because it was breathtaking.
17/08/2011 at 16:45 Merus says:
The UI continues that hand-painted effect; it’s very much part of the game’s aesthetic.
17/08/2011 at 21:41 wcanyon says:
Agreed. Most artistic game trailer I’ve seen in … ever?
17/08/2011 at 16:26 GenBanks says:
The bosses look really impressive… I wonder how much play time it’ll take to see one. I’ve never once seen a WoW boss. (a really gigantic one I mean… except maybe one dragon by accident)
17/08/2011 at 16:50 The Magic says:
The giant Ice Worm is one of the starting bosses for the animal people.
17/08/2011 at 17:09 Dominic White says:
Yeah, the game STARTS with a big setpiece boss battle. Apparently the Shatterer (the hundred-foot-tall crystal uberdragon) is a mid-level boss. So expect them semi-regularly rather than saved as ‘endgame’ content.
17/08/2011 at 17:25 Askeladd says:
Its an open world battle, He will attack random(?) locations and you cannot(?) kill him.
After you have hurt him enough he leaves. This may change in the full game.
17/08/2011 at 16:33 AMonkey says:
Just give me a release date please ANet. I can’t keep getting excited like this and then having weeks of nothing.
17/08/2011 at 16:36 The Hammer says:
Soooooooooo.
What’s the catch? Because I don’t think I see one yet.
Madly, obsessively excited about this.
17/08/2011 at 16:43 John P says:
The catch is it’s still a fair way off release. It won’t be out this year, that’s about all anyone can say for sure.
17/08/2011 at 17:43 Urthman says:
Even if you wanna play single-player the game requires an always-on constant internet connection! And no mods allowed! And auction houses for items!
17/08/2011 at 16:49 clownst0pper says:
I’ll bet right now this game sells over 10 million copies in one month. Easy.
17/08/2011 at 17:27 Jimbo says:
Umm, how much?
17/08/2011 at 16:56 Maxheadroom says:
I cant watch this yet cos i’m still at work for another 21 minutes, but based on the comments either everyone is being really sarcastic cos it’s a bag of shite or its the MMO ive been waiting for since quitting EQ about 8 years ago.
Not sure which would tickle me more actually
17/08/2011 at 16:59 Askeladd says:
The MMO or the bag of shite?
17/08/2011 at 17:17 Dominic White says:
So, laying out out for those who haven’t been following the game. The one BIG thing this is doing compared to every other MMO on the market is that it’s inherently a cooperative, social game.
There’s a personal story-arc that happens in instances that you can invite co-op buddies too, but the majority of the games content is events that’ll happen whether or not you’re there. You want levels and loot? Go out and find a town under siege, where you’ll find other players fighting the enemies too, and it’ll scale up in difficulty for all to compensate for your presence.
There are no ‘quests’ as such. You don’t get told to go somewhere and harvest 27 badger testicles. If you don’t join in on something, it’ll either succeed or fail based on who was there. These events are circular chains for the most part, so something is always happening and events will eventually repeat, but they’re designed to funnel most players in each zone into just cooperating towards a common goal. No partying or communication needed.
While Planetside and Realm of The Mad God may have had tangential takes on the idea, this is the only ‘traditional’ MMO I can think of that is inherently geared to being all social cooperation, all the time. And that’s good, because MMOs forgot they were Multiplayer quite some time ago.
17/08/2011 at 17:27 Frye2k11 says:
That sounds great. And the badgers agree.
17/08/2011 at 17:31 Askeladd says:
I remember those times in WH:O. Three months after the release everybody was doing higher level content so I was left alone leveling up without being able to do PQs. This wasnt really intended by the devs. Not to mention PVP. Please dont do it.
And soon it died for me.
R.I.P.
I’m glad GW2 is supposed to have fixed that similar to Rift.
17/08/2011 at 18:38 Dominic White says:
From the sounds of it, all the events scale based on the number of players, so even if folks are pretty thin on the ground (if they use the instance system from GW1, that shouldn’t be a problem though, as it’ll automatically add or remove instances as players join or leave) they’ll not be impossible or too easy, and as there’s a finite number of them going on at any time, players will be funneled into them.
It’s actually really clever, design-wise. Following the development of this one has been very reassuring. Most studios would have made me wonder ‘Why would they even do that?’ a few times. With GW2, I’ve found myself asking ‘Why hasn’t anyone done that before?’
17/08/2011 at 20:16 Wulf says:
Also, other MMO developers are realising that ArenaNet is doing everything right.
Go watch the GW2 Manifesto, then scrounge around the TERA videos, as there’s one that almost directly rips off the Manifesto word for word. I’m not joking, I wish I was. And it was that way around because the Manifesto came about months before the horrible TERA rip-off. That doesn’t give me a great deal of faith in TERA, to be honest. :P
17/08/2011 at 17:29 Jimbo says:
Got all Mass Effect 2 at the end there.
17/08/2011 at 17:52 Joof says:
I was excited for this, and so bought Guild Wars 1. I played for several hours, and thought it was terrible. Should I give Guild Wars 1 another try, or just pass on it?
17/08/2011 at 18:26 Ignorant Texan says:
It all depends, really. Which ‘campaign’ did you buy, and what didn’t you like about if?
17/08/2011 at 22:25 Joof says:
I bought the triple pack, but I only played the first campaign. Mostly was put off by the controls getting in the way of the game, and the interface annoying me, as well as the world feeling really big and boringly empty. However, I only stayed around the one town that gets destroyed by the Charr, but what I had played hadn’t impressed.
17/08/2011 at 22:41 Grot_Punter says:
Ok, Joof, I’m not going to lie to you, the first campaign (Prophecies), while an enjoyable story, I would not recommend starting in. It is a horribly slow slog at the start. ANet realized this (probably also had tons of player comment) and made the following campaign intros MUCH shorter, allowing you to get to the meaty bits quicker. I’d personally recommend starting in Nightfall, due to the addition of heroes (who are leagues better than the pissy henchmen you’re otherwise restricted to when soloing), and you’ll be able to take that character to any of the other campaigns right after the prologue section of the game. The only thing you’d miss out on are the Factions exclusive classes, and character creation options from the other campaigns. This is assuming you were dead set on making a European-esque character or something.
18/08/2011 at 00:48 Joof says:
I’ll try that out than. Thanks!
18/08/2011 at 05:24 Ignorant Texan says:
Pretty much what Grot_Punter says. The consensus seems to be that Prophecies has the best story, Nightfall has heroes and the best story missions, and Factions has Alliance Battles/Jade Quarry( PvP sessions akin to Scenarios from WAR/Battlefronts from RIFT) and some of the most hilariously bad voice acting you are likely to hear(a mention of Beware…the…Harvest…Ceremony was always guaranteed to get a laugh in chat). All the campaigns have their charms(the various continents/countries are different in both geography and culture), but Nightfall is probably the best one to start.
Plus, you may just not like them. There is no shame in that.
17/08/2011 at 18:22 TooNu says:
So now that Edios and Square have pretty much ruined my hopes for DEHR being PERFECT, I can hope for Guild Wars 2 to deliver that instead.
It looks so very very good the more I see and read :)
17/08/2011 at 18:35 Dominic White says:
DX:HR just got a 10/10 score from Edge. The 14th in 18 years. The original DX only got a 9, so I think it might be pretty close to perfect, even if there is region lockery going on with the retail edition.
17/08/2011 at 20:16 Jake says:
Wow, 10/10? What’s that in Optimus thumbs? Like a million I bet.
17/08/2011 at 20:48 Dominic White says:
A 10 from Edge is equivalent to getting a raised… other extremity from Optimus.
Ooerr, missus.
18/08/2011 at 08:32 Prime says:
I miss Optimus thumbs. :(
17/08/2011 at 18:25 arccos says:
From the GW2 wiki: “Control of combat will be more active; including blocking skills that are ‘held down’, ground-targeting for spells and attacks, and hit detection that allows one player to block projectiles by standing in front of the intended target.”
Between that the trailer, I think I need to go lay down. I don’t think I can be more excited about a video game.
17/08/2011 at 18:33 PleasingFungus says:
Wow, okay, this is a next-generation MMO.
17/08/2011 at 20:00 Wulf says:
I predicted this. I held the faith. Based upon bits of concept art and information I had scrounged… no one would believe, but I believed.
There would be charr constructed airships. Oh yes. Many of them. And what would they do? Air-bombing and dropping of soldiers at Orr. That’s what. Yes, I said that there would be charr airships involved in the final battle, that they would carry us there and likely even aid in the battle against the dragon. I predicted this long ago.
And there it is. In the first still involving airships. Charr airships over Orr.
Vindication feels good.
And those airships are effing awesome. So awesome.
17/08/2011 at 20:22 Jake says:
Hmmm I am pretty sure you said there would NEVER be Charr airships over Orr actually. You found the whole idea of Charr airships absurd, if I remember. And you said even if they did exist they would certainly never go anywhere near Orr.
17/08/2011 at 20:53 Wulf says:
@Jake
“Hmmm I am pretty sure you said there would NEVER be Charr airships over Orr actually. You found the whole idea of Charr airships absurd, if I remember. And you said even if they did exist they would certainly never go anywhere near Orr.”
I’m certain you’re confusing me with someone else here. 100% so. I’ve been mentioning that the charr have had airships and helicopters for a long time now. I’ve pointed it out in the concept art a couple of ti–oh wait, you’re just trolling me, aren’t you? (Why would I possibly find the idea of a technologically superior beast race absurd? Of course you’re trolling me.)
Well done.
Got nothing better to do?
—
I know what you might be talking about. The movement of Rata Sum, where someone mentioned that that could be used to attack Orr. I’m not sure whether that was on these forums or elsewhere.
I said that was absurd because the Asura use magical generators to just about barely keep Rata Sum up, and those have to be stationary on the ground at all times in a very specific position or Rata Sum falls. This was covered in Eye of the North.
You could be talking about that.
But really… a technologically superior beast race? Dismissing that? Me? Oh come on. Either you’re mixed up or you’re outright trolling.
(And I’ve grabbed the original text just in case you edit it when you realise how silly it would be to throw an accusation like that at me of all people. :P Seriously. Think first.)
17/08/2011 at 21:23 GrandmaFunk says:
but…Rata Sum isn’t floating in Eye of the North.
or do they use the same type of generators for something else during EOTN? I’m pretty sure I did all the asuran quests and dungeons but it’s not ringing any bells.
17/08/2011 at 20:00 skyturnedred says:
That looks neat.
17/08/2011 at 20:01 Binho says:
Even though this isn’t my type of game, that is an amazing trailer!
17/08/2011 at 20:09 takfar says:
Huge.. scary.. giant… thing. er.. effin. awesome.
Anet owes me a new jaw. Again.
17/08/2011 at 21:20 Chris D says:
I am beginning to think that even if they scrapped all the classes and replaced them with a new tourist class whose only ability would be to wander around the place and take pictures it would still be worth the price of admission.
17/08/2011 at 22:30 Askeladd says:
True art is timeless.
17/08/2011 at 22:07 Bantros says:
Well I think it looks terrible
17/08/2011 at 22:32 Askeladd says:
Your comment looks terrible under mine. Please change it for me to something less terrible.
17/08/2011 at 23:42 danielfath says:
Someone once told me the doodads (trees, grass, etc.) were static. I CANT UNSEE IT! Though seriously is it me or does background look stiff a bit?
17/08/2011 at 22:55 Crimsoneer says:
This all looks far too Korean for me to be excited.
17/08/2011 at 23:43 Dominic White says:
That’s nonsensical roughly on par with the folks who refused to look at Deus Ex: HR because they were convinced it was ‘too Japanese’ (because Square are pubilshing, see?).
Crazy talk, mate.
17/08/2011 at 23:53 Thermonuclear says:
I see no Koreans in this trailer.
You’re clearly misinformed.
18/08/2011 at 07:58 Nick says:
racist.
17/08/2011 at 23:39 Rii says:
Look, I’m sorry, but we’re all thinking it: this makes TOR look all kinds of stupid.
18/08/2011 at 00:44 Wulf says:
This makes every traditional MMORPG and every MMORPG that apes those traditional MMORPGs look stupid. Well, not stupid so much… but… hrmm. Boring, dull, uninspired, and poorly designed!
17/08/2011 at 23:44 Dominic White says:
Bloody hell. Here’s some proper gameplay footage from Gamescom so far:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0nCHPl_mEU
A boss fight event. 50-ish players vs a Dracolich that summons bone walls and grabbing tentacles and armies of zombies. Coastal batteries and a bloody great laser cannon are used against it.
18/08/2011 at 00:42 Wulf says:
That was breathtakingly amazing.
Also, charr tazer turrets? Thaaat’s… going to really piss off the charr/tech haters. Ha! I approve, ArenaNet, since I’m a charr/tech lover in this instance. >_>
18/08/2011 at 04:05 roy7 says:
Thanks so much for posting the boss link. That’s incredible. I just finished a 7-day trial on Rift to pass the time, and my favorite part of the game was the random zone events and forming public groups with strangers to work together. Makes me appreciate what GW2 is doing all the more.
18/08/2011 at 05:42 Deccan says:
My word.
It’s like one of those WoW boss fights but, instead of having to do it the exact same way every time, you can do it however you want. You could participate in this battle a dozen or more times and it would never be the same for you.
This is what joy looks like, bottled in an RPG and put up on screen.
18/08/2011 at 05:43 Ignorant Texan says:
Three Thoughts -
1)Dominic, thank you.
2)Asuran warrior?!?(after watching him in action, you can remove the question marks)
3)Oh, FUCK YES!!!
18/08/2011 at 00:17 Tunips says:
Hey, it’s Numidium. I love that guy!
18/08/2011 at 00:28 utharda says:
I think I might well have sex with that. I mean play that. I was really skeptical but… wow.
18/08/2011 at 09:43 BoZo says:
Am I the only one who is just so damn tired of all this high fantasy?
18/08/2011 at 12:12 danielfath says:
No way man. I hear you.
But but, the high fantasy fans say, would say why have mechanical stuff when you can have MAAAAGIC!
To them I can only say *foot in mouth* and toss ‘em off a cliff.
Is it wrong that I want to make a Sylvari Engineer and shoot Giant Magical lazors into a wild dragon while spraying him with bullets? Or an Asura Elementalist firing fireballs off the shoulder of her awesome golem. The only thing I need in GW2 is a Paladin with a gattling gun! Firing magical bullets of protection.
TL;DR I miss Arcanum.
18/08/2011 at 14:21 Wulf says:
No. Proper high fantasy is rare. Go play Dragon Age if you want more low-end, gritty stuff. I mean, christ, come on… we rarely get a good, well-written high fantasy game. One turns up and suddenly we’re forgetting more low-fantasy games like Skyrim (which doesn’t look far off Conan, currently), Dragon Age, and a bunch of others.
Yes, this is all sorts of wonderfully crazy, it’s unbounded imagination at its finest. And hey, if you don’t like that, that’s fine. But what you consider as ‘high fantasy,’ I consider as ‘fantasy.’ Why? Fantasy is supposed to be fantastic. What you’re after is more boring, less fantastic fantasy. But to me that’s the most humongous oxymoron in existence. If fantasy isn’t fantastic then how the hell is it supposed to be fantasy?
I think what many people really want is just realistic historical medieval games and nothing more. Just another Mount & Blade. But let those of us who have some creative vision have our somewhat more batshit games. They’re not meant for more boring people, no, they never were. But at least let us have them.
(And if you have a problem with something in the game–such as fantasy lasers–then that just shows limited thinking on your part. Frankly, if you’re only going to complain about something, it just means that you’re not creative and clever enough to come up with a reason as to why such a thing might exist. I’ve complained about this before and I’m complaining about it now, because see… some of us are clever enough to understand how these things might work. Such complaints display a total lack of creative thinking. A complete inability thereof.)
18/08/2011 at 10:31 Puppetmast0r says:
I’m in the (small) camp of people who don’t see what the fuss is about. If you use chanting choirs, plenty of slow motion and dramatic camera viewpoints and it still only looks this good, I’m not impressed.
Player characters look really diverse though, which is cool, but there are better ways to show them off than a trailer.
Not at all tempted to pick it up this time.
18/08/2011 at 10:57 Dominic White says:
So watch the hours of actual gameplay footage (like the clip above) and see what people are excited about. Yeah, the game doesnt look Crysis-3 pretty, but it also means you can have 50+ players running around and fighting an army of the undead and their zombie dragon overlord without crippling slowdown.
18/08/2011 at 12:35 Confusatron says:
I’m with you.
18/08/2011 at 14:17 Wulf says:
“[...] the game doesnt look Crysis-3 pretty [...]”
Indeed. Crysis is quite ugly in some respects and Guild Wars 2 is a good deal prettier.
One thing we, as gamers, need to stop doing is obsessing over the functionality of an engine. I know you weren’t doing that, Dominic. I know you of all people weren’t. But I’m just piggy-backing off this to make a point. The engine needs to be good enough to display the art and no better. Uru is brilliant, visually. TF2 is brilliant, visually. The engine needs to be just good enough to properly show off the art assets.
But if those art assets are shallow, unimaginative, dull, and lacking in any vibrancy and inspiration, then a great engine doesn’t mean shit, frankly. Sure, Crysis has a fantastic engine with amazingly high-res textures, superb physics, and all that rot, but I don’t actually think that it was all that good visually to be honest. Impressive as a technical feat, yes, but the art was empty and cold. I got no passion from it in that regard. And Crysis 2 was worse.
But some people like boring. They just want to be men in uniforms to kill men in uniforms with modern day guns, and that’s their prerogative, but I still think they’re wrong and perhaps a bit boring. Guild Wars 2 reaches far, far, far beyond that. Its visuals are storybook and beautiful for that reason. No, it’s not Crysis-pretty, it’s better, it’s better because the art is there, and the passion behind the art is there, and an engine needs to only ever be good enough to show off those astounding art assets.
18/08/2011 at 12:34 Confusatron says:
It looks nice but I’m not feelin’ the hype just yet.
It needs to have something other than looks…
The whole questing system sounds nice but might actually be more annoying than the current trends.
The only thing I find really appealing is the lack of a subscription fee. At least I could try the game out for myself and not worry about paying for time. Hopefully it’ll turn out good enough.
18/08/2011 at 14:27 Wulf says:
It has everything that MMORPG players have been lusting after for a long time. The information won’t come to you, but it’s out there, and I’m sure that you can discover a little of it by doing 10-15 minutes research. Read ArenaNet’s blog, watch some gameplay videos, and so on.
It’s got the best lore I’ve seen in any MMORPG, bar none, and the most interesting setting I’ve ever come across for a fantasy world. It’s high fantasy but it’s also more mature than DA’s ‘grit,’ and it just feels like a lot of love has gone into it, the setting, the races, it’s all so different to what we’re used to. And the gameplay mechanics in regards to PvE and PvP are refreshingly new, too. GW2 is a massive risk because they’re changing up everything.
Go do a little research and see for yourself.
18/08/2011 at 19:43 Confusatron says:
I’ve done a little research and I’m still not thrilled. I mean, it is possible not to like the same things, right? I just see far more things going wrong with their design. The game does look fantastic though. Ultimately no amount of said research can match simply playing the game, which is what really matters anyway. I’m just not prepared to go ahead and call it the best thing since sliced bread just from trailer or what the developers say about their own game.
Oh, and I don’t want to piss you off or anything but WoW has the best lore. Sure, most people who breeze by the game only caring about loot don’t see it. But it has rich history, characters, motivations, conflicts, politics and you name it.
Again, GW2′s seems intriguing as well, but it’s no reason to just ignore everyone else’s great work. GW2 looks like a good game. For now, that’s enough.
18/08/2011 at 22:20 Grot_Punter says:
What makes WoW’s lore “best”? I’d like to know, because all those reasons you just listed are all things that the GW lore also has. Between the histories of five human nations, their relations amongst each other and the world around them before and during the original GW, the 250 years between the end of GW and the beginning of GW2, and the information cropping up know of things dating back to pre-history, I’m personally willing to say that the GW lore is as rich as WoW’s, as well as being more compelling. Many of Warcraft’s key figures have become too cookie cutter for my taste.
Jee-Dubz the 2nd also has cooler Drangons.
19/08/2011 at 06:45 Confusatron says:
I only used the word ‘best’ because that’s what Wulf used. Just trying to put things in perspective, but clearly that’s difficult when talking about anything GW…
18/08/2011 at 15:47 Eversor says:
I can’t get excited while watching this. I really can’t. Sorry, but this looks… well… like an MMO. Under all that shiny and prettiness and dynamic slo-mo shots, it’s still just an MMO like any other, with all its ups and downs, and it will stay that way, no matter how many layers of paint you try to smudge over it. I honestly don’t get the fuss over it.
18/08/2011 at 15:51 Dominic White says:
WATCH. THE. GAMEPLAY. VIDEOS. There’s tons of them, and they’re arguably more impressive than the trailers.
Then show me another MMO where there’s no quests, and you can walk into a 50-player boss battle without a party, let alone a raid group, where there’s Planeside-esque ‘open world’ PvP and a branching solo storyline.
18/08/2011 at 16:06 Dominic White says:
And here’s some more gameplay footage. This time of the 10v10 capture-and-hold PvP playmode:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-11-guild-wars-2/719377
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-11-guild-wars-2/719378
Featuring a rocket-jumping, turret-building, supply-dropping Sylvari engineer with a flamethrower. It kinda looks like a more arcadey version of DOTA in action.
18/08/2011 at 21:08 vampyren says:
Oh damn there goes my life, first Diablo now GW2 and many many more, i need to win a lottery so i dont have to work and enjoy alllllllll the great games.
19/08/2011 at 06:43 Confusatron says:
woopsie
24/01/2012 at 13:29 flem says:
I think what many people really want is just realistic historical medieval games and nothing more.
frauen