Timewaster's Guide Archive

Games => Video Games => Topic started by: Entsuropi on May 03, 2005, 10:20:00 PM

Title: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 03, 2005, 10:20:00 PM
Alright... i'm playing this. Currently using a Ranger/Monk by the name of... Henzar Jendao. Anyone else playing?

First impressions of the game: It's like a hybrid of Diablo 2 and City of Heroes. The combat feels like CoH, but the world and the rest of the game feels like Diablo 2.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock on May 03, 2005, 10:32:23 PM
Hmmm, no Diablo though? OR you haven't found him yet? And what of Baal? I wonder how he's doing.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: JP Dogberry on May 03, 2005, 10:32:40 PM
Isn't this the MMPORPG that has no monthly subscription cost?

I'd consider getting it if I didn't have an 80% chance it won't work through my network and I'd be wasting my money.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Tage on May 05, 2005, 01:15:26 PM
Ok, TWG got our review copy, which I bribed Fell for, so I'm playing with a Mesmer/Necro named Cadamis Landsgrave. I'll look for you online, Ent.

First impressions: The game is beautiful, and gameplay is interesting. Some aspects, such as movement and fighting, are very intuitive. Others, such as "move your skeletal minion to set off the trap," well, I still have no idea how to do that. The interface isn't as polished as WoW or CoH, but it beats things like Lineage II or Saga of Ryzom. They've done a surprisingly good job of transferring the Diablo "point-n-click" to the 3D world.

More later.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 05, 2005, 07:00:34 PM
Tage - the trick with that one, is to use the spell while standing close to the traps. It will create a minion from the body on the other side, and the minion will run into the trap to reach your side (like the happy puppy it is). That's the way. There is no way to move a minion itself that i know of.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 06, 2005, 05:15:24 AM
I seam to remember a way to move a minion from the last beta I played (novemeber) but they may have taken it out.

I debateing buying the game, I like the first beta I played in a year ago but didn't care for the changes they made when I played it in November.  Also with Duengon Seige 2 comming out in October and the rumors of Diablo 3 comeing out at the end of the year I don't know if I want to invest in the game when I'd rather play those.

Also Tage, is the sound Track or Art Book any good?
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Tage on May 06, 2005, 12:54:30 PM
The art book is astonishingly good. I haven't listened to the soundtrack yet.

Thanks for the hint, Ent, that got me through it. Fell also bought the game and started last night. What's your guy's name, Fell?
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 06, 2005, 12:57:54 PM
Well let me know, I'm a sucker for soundtracks and if I do end up buying the game I'd get the collectors edtion just for that.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 06, 2005, 01:47:17 PM
Since my wife and daughter designed my character, I'm playing a female ranger named Princess Dawn. Yeah, I know.

The game is kind of cool, but most of my reaction to it is to realize how truly streamlined and easy the WoW interface is. Playing Guild Wars reminds my of early DAoC in a way, back before there was any documentation and I had no idea what I was doing.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 06, 2005, 02:50:19 PM
Lol. I do like the chat interface, pressing shift 1 - 5 is the quickest way ever to change channels, and it keeping the name of whoever you are whispering to helps a lot, made it easier to insult Tage until he recognized me.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 08, 2005, 07:54:34 PM
Might as well post my char.

Yuki Kawaji Monk/Mesmer
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 09, 2005, 04:38:26 AM
Heh, if you've got the Speakeasy GW Team Speak installed or are useing someone elses servers then whenever you have a NPC in your group, during the coopertaive missions, and they talk in the group chat window (like the prince) they'll also talk over Team Speak.  That's pretty cool.

Also I'd like to rant about the lack of macros and party member hotkeys.  It's annoying, since I'm a healer, to have to allwayse click on the party window to select targets.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 09, 2005, 09:39:47 AM
...speakeasy GW teamspeak? o_o
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 09, 2005, 09:57:11 AM
ya, Guild wars has their own Teamspeak servers hosted by Gamesdameon.com (aka speakeasy hosting).  If you've got the collector's edition, like Tage, you can host your own account there free for three months.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 10, 2005, 01:00:30 AM
The missions keep getting better and better.  Finaly did the first one in the shiverpeaks and it was really cool, carying around kegs of blastpowder to blow up doors and with 6 people in a group now the missions are even harder.  The missions are frainkly the best thing about the game.

Also the leveing gets much slower after you hit 10, which is good sence there are only 20 total.

We're going to have to find time this week to get all the TWG people togethor so we can run some of the first area missions, we can even play with Entropy in the international areas (or he can e-mail Arena.net and have the relocate him to the american servers).
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 10, 2005, 02:45:05 AM
Whoa--I thought one of the whole selling points was that anyone could play with anyone? Or is it just anyone can chat with anyone?
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 10, 2005, 03:02:42 AM
anyone can play with anyone, but since Entropy is on the European server he cannot see the American Districts just like we cannot see the Asian or European ones.  However there are international districts that you can goto (just selecet International from the drop down when selectings a city's district) were people from any of the three regions can meet up.

Also arena.net allows for people to be able to change their home region if they want upto five times.  

As for PvP that you can allwayse fight against others in the arena no matter what, the only thing that the regions affect are guilds and PvE areas.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 10, 2005, 06:49:14 AM
I think i might just get arena.net to change me. I take offence to being surrounded by french :(
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 10, 2005, 08:36:57 AM
Actualy it looks like you can do it yourself


Quote

-Log into your Guild Wars account and click the Edit Account button in the lower left corner of the character selection screen.

- Select the Change Territory option followed by the Next button in the lower right corner.

- On the Change Territory screen, you will be informed of the territory to which your account is set, and how many more times you can change that territory.

- Select the new territory you would like to join, then click the newly highlighted Change button in the bottom right corner.

- You should receive a message stating your account location has successfully been changed and your account is now located in the new territory you selected. Click the OK button.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 10, 2005, 12:10:04 PM
My graphics card is not supported by the game, which means that every now and then the ground will disappear, replaced by blank white, and then after a while it will blink back in. The game runs kind of sluggish while the ground is gone. This was very rare in the starter section, but now that I've gone to the future it happens constantly. I might not be on much until Media Play restocks their graphics cards.

Also, I'm kind of bored of my character. I think Ranger/Elementalist was a bad choice. I might start over with a Necro/Warrior.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on May 10, 2005, 12:18:43 PM
send your old card to me! Im collecting them!
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: n8sumsion on May 10, 2005, 12:50:10 PM
How is this game for PvE (player vs environment)? I've gotten the impression the game is geared towards PvP team play, which doesn't interest me much. Can you play the game solo and fight against monsters and such and still have a fun time?
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 10, 2005, 12:58:11 PM
I've enjoyed the PvE well enough, though my one taste  of PvP so far has been much more entertaining. Sprig says that the PvE missions get better as the game goes on, though--I've only barely left the starter zone.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 10, 2005, 01:40:27 PM
Oi! Warrior/necro was my idea :P

The idea of killing someone with a sword, then turning them into a zombie in the middle of melee, is just too delicious for words.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 10, 2005, 02:50:22 PM
I was thinking more of primary necro to get the Soul Munching power, or whatever it's called, that gives you life when people near you die. Combine that with the necro blood powers (dots that hurt someone and heal you), and then charge into melee.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 10, 2005, 05:46:58 PM
Yes PvE is very Good Nate especially the storybased missions.  There are tons of places to expore outside of the missions too, the misssions themselves probaly only cover a third of the whole map.

I was playing with a necro warrior last night and he did very well, just remember to have plenty of lifestealing spells.  I personaly also have a Warrior Necro sence Necro's have a huge range of debuffs includeing ones that lower armor.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 10, 2005, 07:39:29 PM
Ok guys, I made a guild :D

It's called 'The League of Procrastinators', clantag is LP. I've yet to make the cloak. I'll try inviting the character names mentioned so far in this thread...

Cadamis Landsgrave
Princess Dawn
Yuki Kawaji

I'll be inviting people from an online group of friends, and some from my RPG group, so we should have a few people.

:)
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 11, 2005, 06:35:57 AM
Quote
How is this game for PvE (player vs environment)? I've gotten the impression the game is geared towards PvP team play, which doesn't interest me much. Can you play the game solo and fight against monsters and such and still have a fun time?


I should address the Solo question, it's a both yes and no.  The first area is designed for it but after that it gets harder, you can solo in one zone after the Prologue area after that you have to use NPC henchmen to fill out your group.

The henchmen are a mixed bag, sometimes they show remarkable intellegence and other times they just stand there as you get beat upon.  There are many areas of the game that would be near impossible with the henchmen because of how they can be unreliable and how later maps/zones are set up with large groups of mobs placed close to each other.

After the Prologue it become nearly impossible to pull singles since about 90% of the mobs are linked to at least one other, and in the later areas 6 or so, that come a chargeing even if they're no where near the one you pulled.  Plus mobs automaticaly attack the casters in the group even if they aren't the closest fighter so you can be fighting one or two and have 4 archers takeing out your mage and healer, that happened to me today.  Had a good group of above lvl 10 players and I died 6 times (healer) in just one small area becaue the groups had at least four mobs in them and they were so close we usealy got two groups.  With three different healing spells, to offset skill cooldown timers, I couldn't heal fast enough to offset the damage I was takeing (and that was usealy from just two mobs).

It's hard to say how well you could solo the missions with the henchmen since I've never tried it before, but I'm sure you could do at least the first few no problem.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Onion of Death on May 11, 2005, 07:40:08 AM
Once I get around to buying this game, you can be sure that I'll be running around in the game looking for you guys. Probably without any pants. Oh well...
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 11, 2005, 11:54:22 AM
Given how hot the women are in this game, there's a remarkably high number of people who run around without pants.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Tage on May 11, 2005, 12:50:32 PM
As much as I like this game, I think I'm probably just going to do a review of it and let it fall by the wayside. I don't really have time to play too many different games, and WoW is quite simply better. Still, GW has its merits, and makes me wish I were back in high school when all I did was play games.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 11, 2005, 10:23:12 PM
Its hard for me to say which is better since right now I don't like WoW anymore, but I think I agree with Tage if they had both come out at the same time I'd rather play WoW.  But now since I've been playing WoW for almost a year I'd rather play this, hitting 60 killed WoW's fun for me there's nothign enjoyable to do after that.  And I don't consider constantly running instances to try and get slightly better equipment fun, also I don't (and have never) care for MMORPG's PvP systems or thought that genral MMORPG combat was fun for PvP.

I'm sure I won't care much for GW's PvP either, but at least going into it my chances are based off my skill selection, playing skill and group rather then my class.

I think GW's top selling point over WoW is that it's more causal of a game (which is hard since WoW is very casual until you hit 60), and has an actual story that you can play.  WoW is way more solo friendly (I soloed about 3/4 of the non-instance game) and is much more indepth world wise, but WoW is a MMORPG and GW isn't.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 12, 2005, 09:09:45 AM
There was a patch last night, http://www.guildwars.com/news/gameupdates.html, some new quests and PvP features were added.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 12, 2005, 11:40:49 AM
I didn't get a chance to look for a graphics card yesterday, I'll try to drop by today.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 14, 2005, 12:02:04 AM
you need to reinstall this entropy so you can place me in the guild.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 19, 2005, 02:19:05 AM
The review has landed: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1067

For the most part I agree with his assessment. I intend to give the game a much more solid chance sometime soon, so at least it entertained me more than it did Tage, but for the most part I was pretty underwhelmed.

Also, Tage is a great writer. We need him to do more reviews.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Mr_Pleasington on May 19, 2005, 02:37:25 AM
I've been on the bubble about this.  Now I know that it's not for me.  Thanks for the review, Tage!
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 19, 2005, 03:02:55 AM
I felt Tage really left out how engrossing the Cooperative missions are they really are the best thing about the game far better then the standard quests that you can solo.  Not even mentioning these really dosen't let you give the game a fair shake.  Besides that I have to agree with most of his points, especialy the 8 spells/abilites I've got about 50 right now but as you get farther along it becomes fun and not annoying to mess around with all the different abilites and combos.

I'd probaly give the game 5/6 it dosen't quite deserve better then that becasue of a few things like the lack of weapons and armor, there are a lot there becasue of suffix and prefixes.  Also it's not hard to get the best weapon in the game I allready know several people that have it.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Tage on May 19, 2005, 01:04:57 PM
Well, like I said in the review, I simply couldn't get myself to the point where I'd be doing the real multiplayer stuff, like PvP or Cooperative, whatever that is. I have no doubt those things are pretty fun. But the game's problems don't lie in what they did well, it's the things they forgot to do well that turned me off.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 19, 2005, 05:52:22 PM
Then it's not a valid review bucko. Saying 'this game has a lot of content but i couldn't really be arsed to look at it' is not much of a critique.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 19, 2005, 06:16:20 PM
True, but that's not what he said. He said "This game has a lot of content, but nothing that I saw made me want to see more." If a game can't grab you in the first several days of play, then it doesn't matter how good the subsequent days are.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Spriggan on May 19, 2005, 06:20:45 PM
I agree with Entropy, Tage didn't even play the main game he only saw the side quests.  It would be like leaveing RoTS right after the opening Scrawel and baseing a review just from that.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 19, 2005, 06:45:53 PM
At least the first scene. And I've read more than one review in my life from critics who've walked out of movies early--it's a viable reaction.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 19, 2005, 06:50:45 PM
Some brief E3 news: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/18/news_6125818.html
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 19, 2005, 08:07:55 PM
Quote
At least the first scene. And I've read more than one review in my life from critics who've walked out of movies early--it's a viable reaction.


And this is a positive influence how?
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 19, 2005, 08:58:56 PM
Reviews aren't supposed to be positive influences, they're supposed to be honest.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: 42 on May 19, 2005, 11:21:02 PM
Yes but critics are suppose to waste their time on trivial stuff so that the readers don't have too. When a critic doesn't do that, then the reader is left wondering "well perhaps it gets better after the point where the critic left."

So leaving the movie early is a valid reaction, but a not a very helpful one. It's also rather disrespectful to both the filmmakers and the reader.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on May 20, 2005, 09:05:35 AM
I have to agree with Fell and Tage on this one. Walking out or quitting is a fine way to do a review. I don't think it disrespectful to the reader, and it's irrelevant if it's disrespectful to the designer. It says plenty enough about the game.

If you disagree with his assessment because you played more, then you should write another review explaining your point.

Several days of play is plaenty to give the game a fair shake. If it fails to grab you at that point, it's fair to tell people that after several days, you still won't be interested. Who wants to waste their time on that?
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 20, 2005, 09:27:38 AM
Hrm... Next time i'll write a review based on a demo. After all, that takes a while to complete, right?
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on May 20, 2005, 09:39:28 AM
you could write a review of a demo by playing a demo, but since that has deliberately locked features and limited access, it's not the same as reviewing a game.

I think what you'll get if you force people to play a complete game they don't like in order to review it is that you end up with less reviews, not more people finishing the game.

And in the few cases I've heard of with complaints about this, I think 42 is the only one who has complained about it for reasons other than he disagreed with the conclusion of the review.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Entsuropi on May 20, 2005, 10:37:48 AM
Quote
you could write a review of a demo by playing a demo, but since that has deliberately locked features and limited access, it's not the same as reviewing a game.


Therein lies my point. Tage has not even bothered to look at all the features, so he might as well have reviewed a demo.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on May 20, 2005, 11:26:29 AM
yes, I understood your point. I'm saying they're different situations. If you CAN access those features, but they don't give you any reason to is different than saying "i don't have these features" when it's just because you're playing a demo.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 20, 2005, 11:45:38 AM
I'm not saying that I want this type of review to become the standard--we should try to give every game a fair shake as often as possible. But it has happened now and then in the past, on this and other sites, and will happen now and then in the future, because "it was so boring I couldn't go on" is a very natural reaction to some games. It's not a reaction you agree with in this case, but there it is.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Fellfrosch on May 20, 2005, 12:56:36 PM
Interestingly, Tycho says essentially the same thing about the game today (insert standard language warning here): http://www.penny-arcade.com/

The difference is that he worked his way past the crap and found the creamy center.
Title: Re: Guild Wars'en
Post by: Tage on May 20, 2005, 01:36:39 PM
You know, despite all the criticisms from everyone about my review, when the most famous game reviewer on the internet says basically the same thing, except that I didn't want to "eat the sawdust," well...  that's validation enough for me.

Besides, this site is a guide for how to waste time, right? I think my review should give anyone a feel for whether or not they should waste their time on Guild Wars.