Gamer Diary: Guild Wars 2 (Part II)

Today I finally had the opportunity to experience the gameplay of Guild Wars 2 and I wasn't disappointed. After making a human, you log into an instanced zone - Shaemoor, where you defend the village from centaurs and then two earth elemental hands. It's a pretty epic start to the game (not as epic as the opening instance of Rift though). After defeating the elemental, it turns out your character was passed out for a couple of days and had had a couple of visitors, including some old friends. Your main quest to to go and see these old friends, however you have the option of doing side quests to increase your karma (kind of the equivalent of WoW's reputation point system) and experience in an area called Queensdale.

On the map there are 'hearts', which you can travel to to help out NPCs. These quests are kind of grindy, but I didn't find them boring. Every so often, events occur where you might have to fight off enemies from an area or escort an NPC. It makes the world feel more 'alive' and exciting. The graphics are nice, with beautiful environments and realistic looking characters and creatures. The map is also marked with points of interest and 'vistas' - places you can travel to on the map to get a more in depth view of the area.

Another interesting feature about the game is that you acquire a different set of skills depending on what sort of weapon you equip. You unlock more abilities for that particular weapon the more you use it.

My thoughts so far: Guild Wars 2 has many things to keep you entertained. You can follow the main story or you can go off and do the side quests, which are pretty addictive, and it's nice not to have to follow a strict linear path. The combat system isn't difficult and the game provides hints for those new to the game. From my experience so far, I would recommend the game, especially if you're looking for a new MMO or RPG to play.

Gamer Diary: Guild Wars 2 (Part I)

I finally got my hands on one of this year's most anticipated gaming releases: Guild Wars 2. I was lucky enough to get it for $72 as JB Hi-Fi were having a 20% off games sale, so I was pretty happy about not paying $90-110 for it as I'm a (very) poor student. Anyway, my desktop PC (which I named Tiberius, 'cause I'm pretty cool and like to name my possessions) is currently out of action, which is a major pain in the arse because my laptop can't run very many games. Therefore, I can only play games of high system requirements at an internet café (for now). Anyway, I finally had the opportunity to try out Guild Wars 2 for the first time a couple of days ago. I didn't really get to do much as there was a bit of patching to be done, but I thought I'd blog about my first experience with the game anyway.

Guild Wars 2 gives you the choice of five races: Asura (small, highly intelligent Yoda-esque beings), Sylvari (elf-esque, plant-like humanoids), Humans, Norn (Viking-like humanoids),and Charr (beast-like humanoids). And eight classes: necromancer, engineer, ranger, thief, elementalist, warrior, mesmer, and guardian.

I chose a female human ranger. The humans actually look pretty decent. The character customization is fantastic. Lots of hair styles to choose from, several body shapes and a decent variety of colouring for hair, eyes, skin, armour, etc. And you can customize each aspect of your characters face. This is something new to me in the mmorpg genre, as I'm a former World of Warcraft player, where the character customization is pretty limited. It's nice to create a reasonably unique looking character, she's pretty sexy looking too.

After you create your character's look, you choose a story background for them. Which apparently will determine which skills, weapons and abilities you'll end up with. You can choose whether your character comes from poverty, middle class or nobility; a personality trait (such as charm or dignity); which god you are blessed by; and what your biggest regret is.

It took me freakin' ages to come up with a name for my character, as all the ones I wanted were taken. I ended up settling with Yulissia (my main WoW character is named Ulysses, so I tried to get something similar). She is middle class, charming, blessed by Melandru - the goddess of earth, nature and growth, and her biggest regret is not recovering her sister's corpse. I chose a Stalker as my pet, which is a leopard-like creature.

After all this it was time to finally start my adventure! But unfortunately I needed to leave once I got into the game! At least I can get straight into it next time I have the opportunity to play. By the way, the server I'm on is Blackgate if you're interested. I hope to play soon!