Guild Wars 2

[Spiff]

There's a bit of PR spin going on and I'm pretty sure it's the same tester they had for the thief video (no offence to 'Sarah', but get someone else in the driver's seat for these things, it can look 'real' and still a little smoother than this), but little to nothing that's turning me off at this point.

And I absolutely fucking love their art-direction, like give the whole art team bj's love it  .

[Murgos]

There are a couple of videos from TERA up on gametrailers from GDC as well.  I have to say that the combat, as good as it looks in guild wars, looks even better in TERA.  However, pretty much everything else (environment, UI, and PVE questing flow) looks like it's had much more attention paid to it in guild wars.

Between TERA, GW2 and SWTOR this is the first time in a while that I've felt that there were upcoming MMO's that looked like real steps forward in some areas and not just complete MOTS in a new wrapper.

[Sky]

And I absolutely fucking love their art-direction, like give the whole art team bj's love it  .

Yeah, the art direction is really the thing pulling me in strongest (and "free" is compelling when done right).

But I'm going to go ahead and skip the blowjobs.


(And I kind of block out the asura)

[Engels]

like give the whole art team bj's love it  .

<looks at your avatar>

<gags>

[Strazos]

Gags? Looks like plaster...

[UnSub]

Gags? Looks like plaster...

That ain't plaster, son.

[Hutch]

You guys should be Ashamed of yourselves.

[Hawkbit]

You guys should be Ashamed of yourselves.

Seriously, there's no excuse. 

[Engels]

I'm writhing about in shame like a beheaded robot in his robot juices.

[Lantyssa]

There is no shame in dreaming what I do about the GW2 devs.

[Phred]

As to LOTRO, I think Moria was out before they got around to making all the epic quests soloable. I still wonder why they go to all the work to make them soloable and won't budge on a global LFG channel or a LFG system that actually works.

I think they are so proud of their lack of world wide spammable channels they can't see the utility of one. Most servers seem to have made their own and at least on my server it is marginally useful and only slightly retard heavy.

As to a working lfg system. If the almighty blizzard took 5-6 years to get one that worked what hope does Turbine have? Despite EQ1's fine example of a working system circa 2003 or so.

[Mattemeo]

No one's mentioned it yet, beyond some GDC footage, but Arenanet's put up the Thief Page

I really, really like their take on the class. It seems so much more intuitive and exciting than most other MMO's rogue-likes. That you start off with a full ammount of 'initiative' which replenishes over time instead of having to work your way up to an attack ala WoW (which I always considered somewhat backwards) is a huge step in the right direction. That you're also basically goddamn Nightcrawler is a giant leap in fun.

[Sheepherder]

I really, really like their take on the class. It seems so much more intuitive and exciting than most other MMO's rogue-likes. That you start off with a full ammount of 'initiative' which replenishes over time instead of having to work your way up to an attack ala WoW (which I always considered somewhat backwards) is a huge step in the right direction. That you're also basically goddamn Nightcrawler is a giant leap in fun.

Erm?  Energy and Shadowstep?  Come on guy, WoW has had the first since launch, and the second since TBC.

[Sjofn]

It does read like energy rather than reverse combo points, but I'd have to play it to know. But who cares, the thought of dual wielding pistols makes me smile.

[Lantyssa]

This game is going to be terrible for my alt-itis.  Four of the six classes i'm really interested in playing, and I'm alt-curious about the other two.  I hope the last two aren't interesting to me.

[kildorn]

From about 10 minutes of futzing: game is fun. Looking forward to it a lot.

[Furiously]

This game is going to be terrible for my alt-itis.  Four of the six classes i'm really interested in playing, and I'm alt-curious about the other two.  I hope the last two aren't interesting to me.

The hall of monuments is KILLING me right now.  You people who have not logged in - in FIVE years. you should let me have your minipets.

[Lantyssa]

I call dibs on a Water Djinn!

It seems like an appropriate time to mention I had made a mini-pet spreadsheet to help facilitate trades.  I'll be happy to add people to the gdoc if they contact me in a PM.

[DLRiley]

No one's mentioned it yet, beyond some GDC footage, but Arenanet's put up the Thief Page

I really, really like their take on the class. It seems so much more intuitive and exciting than most other MMO's rogue-likes. That you start off with a full ammount of 'initiative' which replenishes over time instead of having to work your way up to an attack ala WoW (which I always considered somewhat backwards) is a huge step in the right direction. That you're also basically goddamn Nightcrawler is a giant leap in fun.

Picture a gang of those bastards.,

[Sjofn]

I'm alt-curious about the other two.

I lol'd. 

[HaemishM]

No one's mentioned it yet, beyond some GDC footage, but Arenanet's put up the Thief Page

HAWT. 

[Stormwaltz]

I don't play games to crush, I play them to bake bread: Andrew McLeod Talks Crafting in GW2

(Article was posted a week ago, but I didn't see a link upthread.)

[PalmTrees]

We decided to go with a discovery system for learning recipes so as to allow crafters to distinguish themselves.  When there is a static list of recipes learned from a trainer, every character with that crafting discipline is the same.  However, with a discovery system, players that spend time and effort on their crafting disciplines have a way to distinguish themselves..

They must realize every recipe will be on a listed on a wiki before open beta is even an hour old, right?


Having only two skills active but being able to switch them without starting over, for a fee,  makes me wonder why they bother with the limit of two. Make the fee big as a gold sink or so prohibitive you have a de-facto limit of two skills? Might keep crafters that like to stick to one character around as they max all the skills on that one guy.

[Ingmar]

I take it to mean there will be a time/effort gated process in actually learning the recipes, listed on a wiki or not.

[Lantyssa]

I'm fine with the system as it will let me experiment.  If I really need to know a recipe then I can look it up.

[Furiously]

http://www.justin.tv/alienwarearena/b/281335903 Shitty sound. But bit more playing.

[Mattemeo]

http://www.justin.tv/alienwarearena/b/281335903 Shitty sound. But bit more playing.

Skip to about 11 minutes in, and stop watching around 45. Otherwise you'll be watching a lot of loops of the old GW2 cinematic wtih PAX background noise.

And yeah, GW2 thief is something entirely different. Actual melee combat (which happens only when strafe firing dual pistols isn't cool enough at that precise moment) is actually reminding me of Batman: Arkham Asylum's grapples. Lots of attack > flip over target > attack some more > flip back over. Nice.

[Furiously]

I'm just wondering how they are going to make the other classes that fun to play.

[Zetor]

Pretty awesome, though I wonder how that's going to work with 300+ ms latency... I'll probably stick to a caster like usual. 

[AutomaticZen]

I took in a demo at PAX East.

I left... very impressed.  I mean damn.

I never touched Guild Wars, but the sequel is just amazing all around so far.

[Lantyssa]

Seventh profession released.

It was a gun class as we suspected.  Yet another one I want to play.

[KallDrexx]

I'm assuming that's an april fools joke.....

[Murgos]

I'm assuming that's an april fools joke.....

Predator strike!

[Lantyssa]

I'm assuming that's an april fools joke.....

Y'think?

[kildorn]

That or mesmers got a pretty hefty buff in GW2.