Tendo City

Well I'm not buying it either. I'm just going to install my friend's copy. :D

I don't know if that would work, I think it might have online checking or something...

Only if you play online multiplayer.

I mean on install...

Over 200,000 people tried the E3 test and then 400,000 tried this test... I'd say that this game is well on its way to success. :)

Never used a no-cd crack before?

Ah... because I thought that I had heard that it would have some kind of internet check on install -- that to install the game you have to have an active net connection so it can check if you bought the game. Maybe not, but I've heard it anyway...

That would suck...

But Halo 2 is going to be better anyways, so I don't care too much.

Beta Weekend now (with limited keys available at gamespot), e3 test area is back if you create a level one character, and it's just as great as before! Okay, the town is totally different and not as cool. But the outdoor area is just as awesome (and hard!) to do, especially if you solo, and the missions are back to good old 'four players and a steep difficulty level' that I missed from the second test missions. Actually it's the best of both worlds, as those are available too if you launch your level 15+ characters... :)

what

I hate ArenaNet, a whole month...

...

Between the four day test of Thurs-Sun the week before last and last weekend's two day test (that is almost six days total), I played 40 hours of this game. Now I can play none for a month. You'd feel the same way. :)

But you knew it was going to happen.

... and don't you have school and stuff? How do you find the time to play so much?

Well, four of those seven (counting this saturday morning as a seperate night) nights weren't weeknights, so that's one thing... as for the other three, um, I didn't get much sleep. :)

Work? What's that? ... oh, that stuff... yeah, I didn't do much of the reading... that's the only homework I had though. And I did some.

Think of it like this... that's a bit over six hours a day. Generally that came down to a couple of hours between 4 and 6:30 and then some hours (along with web surfing) that night until I forced myself away from the game... which on all but one night was at least at 3 am... averaged to a bit over 6 hours a day. When you define "day" as being from about 10 am until 3 or 4 the next morning. :)

And I played other video/computer games for like two hours total in those six days...

Good gravy.

If it was just a normal game I'd play it less, but when it's time limited it makes me want to play it more so that I can play it more before time runs out...

With all of that free time you could easily get a job, you know.

Yeah yeah, but then I'd have less time to play games... :)

If you really want a Diablo II comparison, I actually played a couple of hours of D2 online with a friend last Friday. Went through the end of act 3 and then acts 4 and 5 in Normal (single-player characters, multiplayer via IP). It just confirmed my opinion that though Diablo 2 has great graphics and is fun in single player for a while, I just don't care much for the multi. IMO anyway the multiplayer game is just there for trading items and maybe making the enemies slightly harder... that's it... "teamwork" is a phrase Diablo does not know, and I just am not interested that much in playing the game in multiplayer mode. Unless people want to give me items (like my friend was doing). :) And even then, it's not like I'm going to play tomorrow and continue the single player campaign (midway through Nightmare difficulty with the only character I've beaten Normal with)... no, IMO anyway, Diablo II despite its good points is no competition with Guild Wars for action-based online multiplayer games.

You kids these days are so lazy.

Lazy perhaps, but it's more fun this way...

So you don't have a job because it isn't "fun"??

And because I don't need to... :)

And you're what, 21?

I managed to resist in the November and December betas, but I can't help it this time... after the January beta (delayed a week because of New Year's), I need to post some pics. :)

1) my Windows cursor (replacing the standard arrow, not any of the context-sensitive ones) for at least a month now: the GW one. Gotten off the IGN GW forum. Attached at the bottom of this post.

2) Wallpaper: Current: (The newest GW wallpaper, just out Wed., and very cool)



Previous:



More GW wallpapers: (the Elementalist one is also great)
http://www.guildwars.com/gallery/wallpaper/default.html

3) November Beta Screenshots:

Hold them off!

One of the only areas with a hard celing in the game

The Wall


December Beta Screenshots:

Ascalon City

Combat

End-of-beta developer fun


January Beta Screenshots:

Denravi

New inventory interface.

The classic arena...

Mission

End-of-beta developer fun!

More

Scars (yes, it's armor)

I hate MMO's.

And why is Milla Jovovich there?

Quote:And why is Milla Jovovich there?

Huh?

Quote:I hate MMO's.

Based on my limited experience with standard MMOs I think they're alright, but GW is not your standard MMO, as I've explained before... it really is very different.

Quote:Huh?

That blue picture. That's Milla Jovovich.

Quote:Based on my limited experience with standard MMOs I think they're alright, but GW is not your standard MMO, as I've explained before... it really is very different.

Refresh my memory.

You mean the Necromancer render (and I'd say the main color is the purple background, not the blue highlight)? They did a wallpaper character detail for each of the six character classes... those are the Ranger (green/brown) and Necromancer (purple/blue). These are the other four.

Mesmer

Monk

Elementalist

Warrior


I doubt I'll remember everything, but here goes...

As for the game... first, no monthly fees. Second, it is only kind of massively multiplayer -- only the non-combat areas have lots of other people. All missions and areas you wander around in while doing missions or just exploring are instanced. Oh, and the game is party-based, very strongly -- you can do it without other people, but it's almost impossible to get anywhere with just one character. If you want to play by yourself you can use the NPC allies -- you can add some computer-controlled party members. They don't have a hire cost, but they take a share of all dropped gold so there is an effect... but since you can't get far alone you almost have to use some if you can't find other people to adventure with.

Combat? Fast paced. I've heard Diablo mentioned, as well as MMORPGs, but it's really somewhat different... in the towns or other neutral areas you set your set of eight skills from however many you have (that is, you can have a lot of skills to choose from but you can only take eight of them with you into the mission)-- and those eight are set for the mission. So you choose appropriate ones for the task. There are six classes, and you have a main class and a secondary one (chosen at character creation). Since each class has a seperate skill list that means you get two classes' skills to choose from for each character. Of course, when you create the character you only have the basic ones... other skill trainers scattered around have more for sale or you can buy a capture skill and try to capture skills off of bosses (unfortunately you can't capture off normal enemies). As you can guess, this aspect of the game is kind of like a Magic-style game... cards, a "deck" of eight you have for the mission, rarer and more common skills to find, and an attempt of course to make it balanced so anyone has a chance...

Oh, that's a big aspect of GW -- being more balanced and reducing greatly the amount of wasted time. There just isn't nearly as much grind as most MMORPGs. You max out at level 20 and it doesn't take forever to reach that level. Also, you don't have to walk to places to get to them -- there is a world map and you can warp to any city, mission, outpost, etc.

As for the gameplay, there are three major divisions: adventure zones, missions, and PvP. PvP is simple: go to a PvP arena zone, and for the random team ones then in the lobby area (you walk around and stuff in this lobby area) and hit start. It'll form up teams and you play. There aren't any consequences for dying or anything here... you're just returned to the lobby (if you win the team goes on to another game until you do lose). The other kind of PvP are arranged teams, where in the lobby you form a team together and then enter the mission... there are several gametypes here (king of the hill, plain team deathmatch, deathmatch with resurrection every few minuites if you keep a NPC priest at your base alive), but which you get is random (you just hit start and get what you get). Oh well, it's still quite fun, even if the "real" teams (that is, guilds) often dominate that arena. I don't play pvp all the time, but it's great fun.

The missions are a linear story, at least as far as we've seen. There are about 13 so far seen in beta, but they've said the final game will have at least 25. They can be fairly challenging, and of good length, so it takes a while to get through them at least the first time. The missions are a lot of fun... they also tell the main story of the game. And while they are mostly linear in level design because of branching and how the game works it doesn't really matter... actually if it was much less linear it'd be really hard to finish the missions because they don't always make it clear where you should go next.

The other type of gameplay is the exploration zones. These are adventuring areas outside of the towns and mission enterances. They don't have map hotspots to warp to them -- you enter these areas by the nearest town, mission, or outpost and if the party dies you start back from one of them again. You can form parties for these too, though it's a bit harder because unlike missions and pvp there aren't really areas specifically set aside for forming parties for exploration areas. I guess the outposts are supposed to serve that purpose... perhaps they will once this aspect of the game is more complete (this part is where the most holes show. Some zones are obviously not complete yet with problems like very few enemies. Others are unpopulated with flora as well, in some you can clip through trees and things, etc...). Also, the quests in exploration zones are also unfinished. They didn't have much of one in the December test... adding some quests in these areas was something they added for January. In general you get quests from people in towns or outposts (which are small bases in the wilderness often with a couple of NPCs to buy stuff from and stuff, as well as warp points) and then go into the wilderness with a human or NPC party to do these quests. These areas are large and intertwining (they connect all the parts of the map so of course they are more open) so unlike missions your path isn't obvious and linear... but between the minimap and the big map (which shows the whole world or a zoomed-in picture of the general area you're in) you can usually figure out where to go if you have some idea of your destination. You can see the kind of architecture and level design the game has in my numerous screenshots in this and previous GW posts...

Oh yeah, combat. You choose an enemy (mouse or key to switch through them) and hit left mouse to attack. You'll start doing your default combat action. Then, you use either those buttons on the bottom of the screen (the central eight skill buttons) or the 1-8 keys to activate the abilities... each one uses a certain number of magic points (the blue bar) to cast, and has a certain amount of wait time until you can cast it again (as well as a certain amount of casting time, from instant to several seconds). The combat is very fast... I've heard Diablo as a comparison, though because of the very strong team focus and the combat engine I don't really agree (though like Diablo it is fast, it isn't a clickfest like that... more strategic while still having lots of action...). Oh, there are no healing or mana potions. Or items you can use in combat to get any kind of benefit. Just skills for combat. Given the huge variety of skills though that isn't really a restriction... and I at least would say that it is welcome since potion draining gets tedious. Also, between fights your health and mana regenerates so healing abilities are only for use during combat, removing one major use for potions.

As I've implied, combat is also team-based. You go through missions as a group (in a strong contrast to stupid Diablo multiplayer). You learn to work as a group. Yes, with random groups this doesn't always work, but there's always guilds or going solo (though that will not work in PvP. :)), and I don't really mind the random groups.

Finally, inventory! Monster item drops will mostly be weapons and crafting materials and gold. One essential item is the item that turns weapons or materials into base crafting materials (like use it on a sword to get Iron). You then use those materials to go to a crafter in town (or in a outpost, crafters are, like salespeople, all over and different ones have different stuff they can craft. Find them all! :)) and have that crafter craft armor or a weapon or something for you. Mostly armor. It's called crafting but because of how it is done (by NPC crafters only, not players) it's really just collecting the specific items you need to buy whever it is you want... you've just got to deal with a bunch of materials, not just gold. Oh well... it works and is fun enough. It's frusterating in the context of a two or three-day test (as it's hard to get enough materials fast), but for a full game it'd work just fine.

Oh, and when you are in a party with other humans, drops are tied to players -- no drop stealing here! While gold is just divided among the players (and NPC hirelings), items are for players only and are bound. Only that player can pick up the item. This means that backline mages don't get left in the dust while the warriors hog all the drops... very, very nice. :)

I'm talking about this picture: http://www.guildwars.com/downloads/wallp...er-800.jpg

That's Milla Jovovich.

The game still doesn't interest me. No MMO's do, really. The problem is repetition. You do the same stuff over and over again because it's addictive. I find that very wasteful, especially when I can be playing various other games instead. I have so many games that I need to finish...

Milla Jovovich? Of Resident Evil? Why would you say that? I don't think I would... it's just a render of a necromancer...

Quote:The game still doesn't interest me. No MMO's do, really. The problem is repetition. You do the same stuff over and over again because it's addictive. I find that very wasteful, especially when I can be playing various other games instead. I have so many games that I need to finish...

There is some repetition, but it is so much less than everything else I've seen in the genre... the main aspect of repetition is getting stuff for armors (crafting materials) and you can get a good amount of that just in normal explorations. Remember, since there is no monthly fee they don't have to have massive amounts of extraneous content to try to keep you playing five million hours a month. So no hours of walking from place to place just to get to somewhere you've been five hundred times. No massive level cap that requires huge amounts of grind to reach. And one result of that? Not much of the standard "it gets fun at point X" or "just a few more levels/hours" stuff that normal MMORPGs have. Yes, it has some, but then again at least in the tests it also allows you to create level 20 characters (very doubtfully will be in final) and PvP-only L20 characters (will likely be in final). Also, if you just play the missions and nothing else by the time you are most of the way through you will have reached level 20 before you're through all the missions. You'll also have reached the major towns and enough skill trainers to have a decently competitive skill set... you may not have all the best skills but you'll have a competitive set. One thing contributing to that is the fact that the best skills, Expert Skills, are restricted -- no one can ever have more than one of them in their activated skill set. Like a collectible card game you can be competitive because everyone, even the best, are restricted to just eight skills and only one elite one.

So... like a single player RPG, it has a mission progression with a set of missions that you can do by yourself (and NPC allies) or with other players. This is quite unlike a MMORPG -- they may have some instanced dungeons, but not what is really a campaign... Arena.net doesn't call it a MMORPG and for good reason. It's too different from them to be one -- I mean, ever heard of a MMORPG where every area where you fight anything is instanced? :) Or with the main story being told in a series of seperate (instanced) missions?

It's enough like MMORPGs that people who play them can understand some of the basics, but different enough that on Guild Wars forums you constantly get people saying things like "how do they have no monthly fees?" and "we want to go in the adventure zones in a massively multiplayer setting, not instanced", etc...

But really the only way to tell if you'd like it is to play it. If you like RPGs I bet you would.

Oh yeah, and if someone buys the game and plays it and then gets bored and doesn't want to do more repetitive trips to some area to get crafting materials for better armor, they simply stop playing. No penalties, no decisions like 'do I want to stop paying the monthly fee'... yes, it will have expansions, but they've promised lots of content (not just a few new areas, but new classes, possibly other races, lots of areas, missions, skills, etc...) in the expansions and given how well they've held up with their promises so far I believe them.

I don't know if they got her permission or not, but that model was definitely modeled after Milia Jovovich. I am 100% certain of that.

Maybe, maybe not, who cares...

You suck.

If you really want me to care, then post a picture for comparison...

Fine, but you're still probably going to deny it, just because you're dumb and like to deny stuff for no reason than to argue.







Same exact nose, eyes(even the same color), eyebrows, lips, jaw, everything. Everything but the pear white hair and skin, of course. It's very obvious that they modeled that character after her.

It's not so incredibly similar that it couldn't be a cooincidence, not even close...

Yes it's totally a coincidence that the 3d modelers came up with a character model that looks exactly like one of the most famous faces in modeling.

Do you have any idea what the chances are that they could make up a face that looks identical to one as unique as Jovovich's? Do you really understand what the odds are?

Probably not, since you are ABF.

Just so you know, I'm not the only one who thinks she looks exactly like Milla Jovovich. You're just blind (and dumb, I might add).

http://www.guild-hall.net/forum/showthre...ight=milla

Quote:I swear she looks almost exactly like Milla Jovovich

http://www.guild-hall.net/forum/showthre...ight=milla

Quote:he necromancer female IS more hot, but then again im in love with Milla Jovovich, so how could I not like her best?

http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topi...arch=milla

Quote:That girl in the new screenshot for Guild Wars has... GOT to be Milla Jovovich...I hope she is gonna play!

Quote:I thought the exact same thing.

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread....ight=milla

Quote:They got Milla Jovovich to pose for the cover!

NOT a coincidence. You're just denying it because you like to disagree with me. Idiot.

I do read the IGN Guild Wars forums (not every thread of course given how many there are, just a few really) and hadn't come across any such comments, which is why I was unsure when you said it... I guess a few other people agree with you, though, so there might be some truth to it.

You are an idiot. A blind, dumb idiot. Go to any Guild Wars forum and ask about it and they'll say the same thing I did.

Yes, because I don't 100% agree with you I am blind and an idiot. Of course!

And anyway, you well may be right...

I am right, fool.

Whatever, fine.

I do think there's a good chance you'd like this game, though...

I highly doubt it. I don't like repetitive, addictive games that make you want to play for hours each day. I don't have that kind of time.

Uh, isn't it generally a GOOD thing when games make you want to play them, as long as it stays interesting? :) (yes, that's a trap that MMORPGs usually fall into with their 'you must play for a long time to have any "fun" and must play more to keep your character decent, but one of the guiding philosophies of GW is to not have all of that forced play so that anyone can have fun and have a chance in the game whether they play it a lot or a little... they can't help if if they make it good enough that you WANT to play it a lot though. :)

NO. Even with PSO--which I played non-stop when it first came out--I consider to be a pretty crappy game. It was addictive, but that did not make it fun, really. MMOs and addictive games of that nature are the drugs of the videogame world. People probably aren't having all that much fun, but they can't stop playing them. I hate that, which is why after PSO I never wanted to give another game of that type a chance. And that wasn't even MM!

You really can't say exactly what kind of game it is without playing it.

There was another GW test last weekend. The game is one of the best games I've played in a really long time. Six tests now and I'm still hopelessly addicted...

23 hours played. In three days.

Oh, and I actually had an even greater success -- I finally achieved the goal of getting someone else (with a capable computer) to play! And he thought it was great. Multiplayer games are always more fun when you can play them with people you know... like War3 multiplayer with me and Bleakstare. :)