[Einbroch]

Thank God for that.

1-4, Alt 1-4, Q, E.

DONE.

[Disheveled_Zen]

It's not optimized yet, there's still a lot of driver issues and such. As has been mentioned several times, Gaming sites don't always have the best hardware, almost always have the worst players (who are even worse when trying to narrate during play), and are also running capture software which has a negative effect on performance and quality. Somebody like TotalBiscuit who puts these videos out all the time and knows what he's doing will inevitably show the game off the way it should be.

Not him but his wife, and you see no real stuttering or FPS loss in this one, although there aren't 200 people on screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V6Ck...ure=plpp_video

[AppleSmack]

Does the fact that this game is free means its missing out shit that paid MMOs have? I never really seen gameplay or anything but it seems to be too good to be true. Gonna try to find some gameplay and features videos.

[kayos90]

Does the fact that this game is free means its missing out shit that paid MMOs have? I never really seen gameplay or anything but it seems to be too good to be true. Gonna try to find some gameplay and features videos.

The original Guild Wars was amazing despite it being free. I expect more from Guild Wars 2.

[Retro]

Does the fact that this game is free means its missing out shit that paid MMOs have?

Not really. In fact, they're not charging you for shit that lots of MMOs do. For example, you can transfer between servers for free (WoW is what, $25 per transfer?). There will inevitably be lots of quality-of-life stuff you pay for, like faster leveling potions and such, but ANet has stated that anything you can buy with real-world cash will have no effect on gameplay.

I think the worst you'll have to pay for is extra character slots (Like the original GW, you only get 4).

[Sophia]

If we had a realistic discussion in the last thread about mapping everything to a controller and almost got it to work, then the number of hotkeys you'll need compared to other MMOs is amazingly low (that's a good thing, so sick of "There's a game somewhere under this UI" syndrome)

I'm glad for this, and it's good sign for PvP. One of the biggest problems with WoW's PvP is trying to find keymappings for everything because there's just too many goddamn buttons.

Not really. In fact, they're not charging you for shit that lots of MMOs do. For example, you can transfer between servers for free (WoW is what, $25 per transfer?). There will inevitably be lots of quality-of-life stuff you pay for, like faster leveling potions and such, but ANet has stated that anything you can buy with real-world cash will have no effect on gameplay. I think the worst you'll have to pay for is extra character slots (Like the original GW, you only get 4).

Yup, $25

[AppleSmack]

The original Guild Wars was amazing despite it being free. I expect more from Guild Wars 2.

Never played the original since I was still a WoW addict back then. Thing is though, I heard that the original didn't have a full world like WoW and it was all instanced. That was kinda bad for me IMO. This one is definitely different in that regard since I know everything isn't instanced anymore.

[Principate]

Does the fact that this game is free means its missing out shit that paid MMOs have? I never really seen gameplay or anything but it seems to be too good to be true. Gonna try to find some gameplay and features videos.

It means it's not padded out with the grind and time delaying stuff most mmo's have which are designed to make you play as long as possible in order to pay for subscriptions fee's as long as possible.

Think of this game as a multiplayer Skyrim with probably more content , two forms of pvp, with content being added through paid expansions etc with some cosmetic stuff sold through a store.

[kayos90]

Never played the original since I was still a WoW addict back then. Thing is though, I heard that the original didn't have a full world like WoW and it was all instanced. That was kinda bad for me IMO. This one is definitely different in that regard since I know everything isn't instanced anymore.

Well part of that was because Guild Wars wasn't really an MMO.

[Einbroch]

Not really. In fact, they're not charging you for shit that lots of MMOs do. For example, you can transfer between servers for free (WoW is what, $25 per transfer?). There will inevitably be lots of quality-of-life stuff you pay for, like faster leveling potions and such, but ANet has stated that anything you can buy with real-world cash will have no effect on gameplay. I think the worst you'll have to pay for is extra character slots (Like the original GW, you only get 4).

And cosmetic stuff. League of Legends makes BANK on skins.

[AppleSmack]

It means it's not padded out with the grind and time delaying stuff most mmo's have which are designed to make you play as long as possible in order to pay for subscriptions fee's as long as possible. Think of this game as a multiplayer Skyrim with probably more content , two forms of pvp, with content being added through paid expansions etc with some cosmetic stuff sold through a store.

Is it entirely focused on PVP or they spending good time on the PVE/raid content as well?

[Midou]

I've read quite a few previews, other than performance issues which very well should be fixed by launch, it seems everyone is enjoying it a lot. Lots of praise for the combat. It does look like a lot of fun.

[Alchemy]

Does the fact that this game is free means its missing out shit that paid MMOs have? I never really seen gameplay or anything but it seems to be too good to be true. Gonna try to find some gameplay and features videos.

Game isn't free anyways, it costs you $60 for the box. Just no sub.

[Midou]

Game isn't free anyways, it costs you $60 for the box. Just no sub.

Probably make good money from people buying extra character and storage slots and whatnot. GW had enough for normal play though, at least with the additional campaigns.

[vaelic]

Another game where those with more real life money can make a better character and kill you easier in pvp? No thanks

[Sophia]

Is it entirely focused on PVP or they spending good time on the PVE/raid content as well?

Pretty heavy PvE Content. Check out some of the videos, the PvE is unlike anything done in an MMORPG before.

Another game where those with more real life money can make a better character and kill you easier in pvp? No thanks

Good thing the developers have explicitly said that won't happen. And they've got a good track record (See: original Guild Wars), so there's no reason to not believe them.

[Lazy Jones]

90GB!?!?!? OH LAWD

When I fraps 1080p@60 fps the files are 4gb for 30 seconds so it might not be that much.

[Disheveled_Zen]

MikeB gives city tours -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLmk...4jDJmrhyFsW9E5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4meu...y4-_eE872oUI2O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ll54...wQIrBWJphdO-3J

[Alchemy]

Probably make good money from people buying extra character and storage slots and whatnot. GW had enough for normal play though, at least with the additional campaigns.

Yeah, if it follows the GW1 strategy (and it sounds like it does) its supported by purchasing the box and buying microtransactions.

[Vano]

Does the fact that this game is free means its missing out shit that paid MMOs have? I never really seen gameplay or anything but it seems to be too good to be true. Gonna try to find some gameplay and features videos.

Free? lol Its pay for the game only, no subscription , i think you meant that. The game is different to the usual MMO that we see nowadays for design choice, but it doesn't miss anything because doesn't ask for 15 money per month.

[Retro]

Yup, $25

That's disgusting. It'll be nice to bump into people who play the same game as I do and know that we can actually play together if we want without it being an expensive game-altering decision.

And cosmetic stuff. League of Legends makes BANK on skins.

Yeah, I can definitely see that happening. You unlock Dyes as you play (in the Beta, monsters were apparently dropping "Color Seeds" randomly), but I wouldn't be shocked if there was an option to unlock them all at once for cash.

And like a bitch, I'll buy it, because I like playing dress-up

Is it entirely focused on PVP or they spending good time on the PVE/raid content as well?

There's actually more emphasis on PVE in GW2 than PVP, from what we've been reading.

Another game where those with more real life money can make a better character and kill you easier in pvp? No thanks

.... nice reading comprehension skills ya got there. ANet has promised no game-altering items will be available for purchase, just cosmetic elements or things that help you level faster, make more characters, etc.

[Principate]

Is it entirely focused on PVP or they spending good time on the PVE/raid content as well?

Most of the PvE content is based on the open world, with dynamic events pretty much being it's bread a butter, essentially scripted events some of which chain across maps in which everyone can paticipate and gain XP etc with several different types of objects e.g raiding enemy encampments, defending fotress's etc as well as some more mundane like water plants and feed animals etc, which anyone can do. Some of these have various stages that have end point, that remain until pushed one way or another by various factors. and basically the overworld is filled with over a thousand of these things.

Then you have your personal story which is more in line with a basic single player rpg story which depending on your choices leads to various bits of content. Then you have the usual 5 man dungeons fair but there's no raids.

[K.Sabot]

SO MANY MESMERS

[Sophia]

.... nice reading comprehension skills ya got there.

I have a feeling vaelic won't even post back in this thread again. The people who post one off-ish comments like he did usually don't pop back in a thread. Of course, maybe I'll be proven wrong.

My god, the Divinity's Reach tour is AMAZING. O_O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLmk...4jDJmrhyFsW9E5 Everyone should go watch it. D:

[K.Sabot]

When I woke up this morning and saw all the videos, I just threw my head back and yelled.

Hope the neighbors didn't call the cops.

[Vano]

That's disgusting. It'll be nice to bump into people who play the same game as I do and know that we can actually play together if we want without it being an expensive game-altering decision.

More if you sum the faction change that is 20$ if i remember well, so 45 in total.

Elementalist skills (names and descrption only) with Traits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvKzw_dLoz4

Engineer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f08U3T0QPNo

Guardian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fpw0ZUnJ4g

Mesmer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ATXO_mSsY

Necro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqugAF3R5xg

RangeR:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6jQl3yVlEg

Thief:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTjVBYVJrpM

http://www.youtube.com/user/GWOnlineNet/videos?view=u

[Jira]

Love hearing Mike B getting all excited doing the tours "This is only one of THREE cities".

Wonder what will happen when he finds out there's 6.

[Retro]

Then you have your personal story which is more in line with a basic single player rpg story which depending on your choices leads to various bits of content.

The MMORPG.com article mentioned that the personal story is comparable to SW:TOR's "Fourth pillar";

We didn’t think that other companies would nail this so soon after SWTOR. But, while not quite as cinematic, Guild Wars 2 does an excellent job of making you feel like a special little snowflake. With a main quest-line that changes depending on your choices during character creation (and each race is entirely different), there’s a great deal of replayability here. On top of it all, it’s very engaging stuff that will make you feel attached to your character: the hallmark of a good RPG." (Source)

I have a feeling vaelic won't even post back in this thread again. The people who post one off-ish comments like he did usually don't pop back in a thread. Of course, maybe I'll be proven wrong.

Something about MMOs seems to trigger more trollish blindly-loyal behavior in people than usual. Any time a new MMO comes out and has any kind of positive news, seething little shits come creeping out of the woodwork to try and shit on them. Not surprised at all, but a little dismayed that he's literally 9 posts away from the correct info and yet still blindly spouting misinformation.

[Orayn]

Another game where those with more real life money can make a better character and kill you easier in pvp? No thanks

Driveby posting is discouraged, friend.

[Disheveled_Zen]

snip

It's getting harder and harder to figure out if I want to do Charr Warrior or Human Thief first, I figured these videos would help....nope.

[Sophia]

It's getting harder and harder to figure out if I want to do Charr Warrior or Human Thief first, I figured these videos would help....nope.

I know I'm doing Elementalist or Warrior first. They look by far the most appealing. :3

[Retro]

More if you sum the faction change that is 20$ if i remember well, so 45 in total.

Yeah, I forgot about that; the awkward moment when you meet another WoW player and carefully dance around which faction you're in; the ugly green monsters or the pussy albs.

No factional division + No server transfer fees = no crapshoot when it comes to that whole 'social' thing MMOs are supposed to be about.

Elementalist skills (names and descrption only) with Traits:

This kind of info is easier to read than watch in a video, but I'll be damned if I didn't watch the Guardian and Warrior ones earlier today to try and figure out which one I'm gonna pick (though I'd be lying if I said I won't have both at some point)

Driveby posting is discouraged, friend.

Yes, but now we have the search function back so we can see which MMO thread the drive-by posters are sneaking in from.

It's getting harder and harder to figure out if I want to do Charr Warrior or Human Thief first, I figured these videos would help....nope.

I tend to go for the Paladin-esque classes (Cleric, Paladin, Warrior-Priest) first, and almost always stick to melee classes. I find I just can't get into casting classes. For GW2, Guardian and Warrior are definitely my first choices.

That said, with all of the changes ANet is making to upset the usual class design, there hasn't been a profession yet that I haven't considered interesting enough to at least try.

[Sophia]

I actually don't mind the faction division in World of Warcraft, but they've made it kinda pointless over the years.

[AppleSmack]

Holy shit. This game has some seriously awesome features in it. I'm watching some of the videos and am very impressed. What particularly got me was:

1) Dynamic Content and Personalized Quests: DAMN! That is gonna make you feel more like a hero. Its like a singleplayer RPG feature in an MMO. SAVE THE VILLAGE FRIENDS! I wonder how they gonna pull that off.

2) Dynamic Combat: Holy shit. Action RPG combat epicness

3) Art: Truly amazing. Some of the best art I've seen. The sense of scale is incredible. I do think its a slightly bad thing that you can't fly to travel though. How can you quickly get from place to place?

4) Realm/World PVP: Sounds interesting but I could see it getting overly chaotic or just broken as some people may not give a shit to work together. Will have to see more about this.

5) The UI and weapons system: Its pretty cool and quite unique. Will see how it works out in real gameplay during the Beta videos

6) No Tanks, Heals, DPS : I'm not sure about this decision. Want to see it in action first.

[Sophia]

Holy shit.

And now you know why we're all excited for this game. ;)

[gunbo13]

My god, the Divinity's Reach tour is AMAZING. O_O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLmk...4jDJmrhyFsW9E5 Everyone should go watch it. D:

I'm thinking that is medium. It looks like it is around 25-40fps maybe? It does much better inside then outside with the lush garden.

Stupid UT grabs below.
Top = Slideshow which is probably HQ
Bottom = Mike B's likely medium run

Yes, they are day and night (no pun indended). But you should be able to see the difference in detail. This means that if ANET can get modern hardware to do the HQ @ a high FPS, it will be a wonder to see.

[AppleSmack]

This game is coming out 2012 correct? My exams end in late April so I hope it comes around May so I can play it during the break :(

[Sophia]

Yeah there does seem to be a significant quality difference in the two. They did say that the game would run on a wide variety of hardware. (The more and more I watch the videos the harder and harder I find that to be believable tho. XD)

This game is coming out 2012 correct? My exams end in late April so I hope it comes around May so I can play it during the break :(

Yes, sometime this year. I'd expect August or later given my initiation and the way previous MMOs handled their releases. But I could be wrong.

[SDBurton]

I know I'm doing Elementalist or Warrior first. They look by far the most appealing. :3

Guardian or Engineer for me. Probably Guardian though.

[Orayn]

This game is coming out 2012 correct? My exams end in late April so I hope it comes around May so I can play it during the break :(

I think we do have confirmation of a 2012 release, but when is anyone's guess. My money's on some time between June and October.

[Hoo-doo]

MikeB gives city tours - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLmk...4jDJmrhyFsW9E5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4meu...y4-_eE872oUI2O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ll54...wQIrBWJphdO-3J

That guy is uploading awesome 1080p footage like nobodies business. His character creator videos are also good to watch.

[Helmholtz]

http://www.youtube.com/user/akamikeb?feature=watch Mike B has a lot of really good city tour videos that don't have a FPS in the single digits. He also said in the comments of one of his videos that the game runs better without FRAPs recording.

Great video (s). Thanks. This has me convinced that a lot of these FPS issues are hardware based. I'm guessing a lot of these press don't have the best computers or are having driver problems.

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

Youtube videos must be getting hammered. I can't consistently stream anything 720/1080P. I managed to get through both of the Yogscast videos and the TB video so far and the game looks great! Starting in on the Mike B videos now and still looking for a decent WvWvW video.

[Retro]

I actually don't mind the faction division in World of Warcraft, but they've made it kinda pointless over the years.

Vanilla WoW (despite it's many, many problems) at least kept the factions separate and warring with each other. As soon as they started introducing sanctuaries and neutral towns, things got too buddy-buddy. Mists of Pandaria sounds like it will shift the focus back on Horde vs. Alliance, but it's too little too late at this point.

Holy shit. This game has some seriously awesome features in it.

Welcome aboard the Hype Train.

1) Dynamic Content and Personalized Quests: DAMN! That is gonna make you feel more like a hero. Its like a singleplayer RPG feature in an MMO. SAVE THE VILLAGE FRIENDS! I wonder how they gonna pull that off.

There are thousands of events that are all linked to each other, and the action or inaction of the players determines where those events go. ANet has confirmed that some event chains will take more than a month to reset. The general impression I get is that you can watch the reset process too; if you drove the undead army back to their stronghold, you can check in and see them mustering for another invasion and thin their numbers or kill their commanders to keep the event from launching again.

We'll just have to wait and see, it's only day one and there's a lot of video out there to sort through.

4) Realm/World PVP: Sounds interesting but I could see it getting overly chaotic or just broken as some people may not give a shit to work together. Will have to see more about this.

I think a large part of it will be the size of the WvWvW space; if it's so huge that a large group of players can't dominate across the landscape (as it appears to be), then there will be plenty of room for uncoordinated groups to work together.

For example, escorting a caravan of supplies is something 2 or 3 people could probably do and would be small enough that a huge zerg wouldn't be able to constantly stop them all.

I'm sure there will be lots of Zerging going on, but even WoW players could learn to re-capture Resource nodes in Arathi Basin and defeat the other team's zerg.

I think we do have confirmation of a 2012 release, but when is anyone's guess. My money's on some time between June and October.

Yep ANet kicked off this year by making a big deal about it being the "Year of the Dragon" and that GW2 would be out in 2012.

With testing supposed to run through March and April, I keep quietly hoping for a late May release (Memorial day weekend would be perfect), but the realist in me figures it will probably be late summer or early fall before we get our hands on it.

And you know what? I'm content waiting for it so they get it absolutely right. So far this appears to easily be the best-looking MMO Beta, so they're already making a lot of progress.

[Aerox]

I'll chime in real quick on performance stuff.

The performance issues were pretty much across the board. We were told up front that a lot of optimization still needed to be done, and they were aware of most of the FPS drops and said they would absolutely be addressing them in later builds.

i7-2600K
2 GTX580s in SLI
8GB RAM

Performance varied all over the place. In certain areas, I could get 70-80 FPS on highest settings. One notch down, I was generally averaging around 30-40 FPS in most places in the world. Water reflections made it tank, and in WvWvW, when everyone was throwing spells and abilities around, FRAPS was reporting 12-15 FPS in general.

Game was only running in DirectX9, no current option to use 10 or 11.

[Kintaro]

Hmmm Charr Guardian or Charr Engineer...

[Hoo-doo]

For anyone interested in seeing what Divinity's Reach looks like in day-time, and with awesome music from the GW2 soundtrack to boot, check out this gem from Gamescom last year. It's offscreen, but it's in decent quality.

I personally feel the city just looks much more impressive during the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD4i890IBbs

[DJIzana]

A couple of negative thoughts that stood out for me: crafting is "meh", the fact there wasn't Sylvari or Asura & lastly it's not all seamless. The really have the PR up there.

Other than that, I'm trying really hard not to let the media's negative views get to me. Every game has its problems, especially at launch... it does seem like a step back though. Either that or the media at the time, wasn't allowed to talk about the slowdowns or whatever during the convention demo's they were given previously.

[Orayn]

I'll chime in real quick on performance stuff. The performance issues were pretty much across the board. We were told up front that a lot of optimization still needed to be done, and they were aware of most of the FPS drops and said they would absolutely be addressing them in later builds. i7-2600K 2 GTX580s in SLI 8GB RAM Performance varied all over the place. In certain areas, I could get 70-80 FPS on highest settings. One notch down, I was generally averaging around 30-40 FPS in most places in the world. Water reflections made it tank, and in WvWvW, when everyone was throwing spells and abilities around, FRAPS was reporting 12-15 FPS in general. Game was only running in DirectX9, no current option to use 10 or 11.

Good to hear that ANet is keeping on top of technical issues instead of taking Bioware's approach of burying their heads in the sand. :P

[Coolwhip]

MikeB gives city tours - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjLmk...4jDJmrhyFsW9E5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4meu...y4-_eE872oUI2O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ll54...wQIrBWJphdO-3J

Those cities look amazing.