I have a few random thoughts about GW2 I want to spew. It’s mainly a cut & past from the Multiplaying forums post I did, but I did change a few things to make it more bloggy. Here are my thoughts:
Can You Handle it?
I was running GW2 with an i7 6 core Intel, 12mb ram, 460 GTX and 2mb ram NVIDIA on ultra settings the whole weekend. I had some lag, but a patch came out that fixed that. Most of the time I had 0 lag and no hitching whatsoever. It ran super smooth for me except for the Beta Closing Event. While we were killing the Legendary White Bunny, it was like a freeze frame light show. I never saw the bunny just pew, pew, pew. The spells are really cool to see, but man it takes a lot of processing power to handle it.
That said, I was in several large scale WvW battles with hardly any lag. Once and a while during keep defense I had a bit of skipping when rangers would unite for rain of arrows. Even for beta, I was very impressed with the stability.
Auntie Flow
The worst problem, I know they will fix because there was a massive outcry, was the Overflow servers. Not the one you get logging into the game, but the zone overflows that would break up groups. What I didn’t know is Overflow servers are from all servers not just yours. If you get slapped in an overflow, you are in a random pool from the whole game. A lobby of pissed off customers. Reminded me of the DMV.
WWE Cage Match… Ummm WvW & Arena PvP
WvW and Arena PvP is awesome. If you are not sure if you want to stick with a class, hit the Arena PvP button and you get most of your level 80 spells and the exact same gear as everybody else in your class. There is no arena PvP gear grind but as you play, your gear looks more bad ass. It is like when WAR was in beta they said you could have a necklace of ears to show your kills. I never saw this in that game. GW2 is suppose to pimp you out. I wonder if that means we’ll get WoW shoulder pads?
WvW is my new crack baby. It could use some tweaks, but I think they should wait until the game has a month or so under its belt. They don’t want to drastically change it like they did WAR right before release. Too many times you see huge changes before a massive amount of people get a chance to look at it. WvW is very additive as it is right now curing beta it was always full, that is a great indicator.
The big problem with PvP is getting the hell out of it. If you went to arena PvP you constantly moved from match to match unable to leave unless you booted yourself to the Mists. Then, you had to take the 5:30 train to Albuquerque, cross 5 times zones, 1 date line, and do day light savings, just to arrive 3 days late to the place you left. Gawd forbid you were in a party you didn’t get in the same PvP match. Then when you do get back to them, you’re slapped in an Overflow server. A tiny bit frustrating to say the least.
Brothel
I was sad I was totally locked out of the Multiplaying guild on day 2 from a patch. It showed others in the guild I was in, but I couldn’t represent the guild. I do say, I did not like the idea of multiple guilds. I’m not a whore. It’s a cool concept but I feel like I’m splitting up my friends. Good news is, you can make your own guild all by yourself and have your own guild bank for extra space. It gets around the whole, “you can’t mail yourself to have a mule” thing. The idea of not having everybody I like play together bothers me a bit. I might warm up to it later, but it’s a bit odd when you get tell asking why you are not representing a guild you are the guild leader of. Ahhhh, because I was drunk and thought it was a good idea to make something. Now, I regret it because my baby is ugly? Yeah, the multi-guild thing is going to be awesome for drama.
Bobcat Goldthwait not Morgan Freeman
The voice acting was cheesy compared to SWTOR but better than most. I avoided personal stories and just clicked past it all in character creation. Every time I had a cut scene I thought of my kids playing with transformers together trying to mimic their over-the-top voices. The script wasn’t engaging to me either. I’m glad it wasn’t a huge feature for this game because that gave them a bit more cash to actually make a fun game to play.
Jackalope
A big surprise for me was the amount of creatures you can shapeshift into. I saw robots, horned rabbits, pigs, birds, welps, Naga looking things, anacondas (if you want buns hun), a probably many more I missed. I think this will replace my need for a fancy mount collection.
Blow (the drug)
The cash shop had some great stuff, but it is far from done. I logged into GW1 to get a feel for what we can expect. They have a lots of costumes, PvP maps and weapons, hero kits, combat pets, mission pack, bag slots, and character slots. I just hope they leave out the combat pets that can be used in PvP and the PvP gear. I wouldn’t mind having to pay for extra story mission packs, more PvP arenas, and a house (I’ll throw money at them for housing).
I see where ANet has locked in a way to make cash though. You can buy Gems with Gold, but your gear breaks super fast and if you rez you have to pay to go to waypoint as long as you have money. Don’t think about hording your money in a bank or getting out of it easy because if you don’t have the cash on that character, it finds it on your account. I see it very hard to make gold in this game with all the fees. I guess it keeps the Gem business flowing with real cash. It’s not a bad thing, it is just good business.
Sooooooo….
I think the game is well worth the $60 to play for a lifetime. I can see myself playing for at least a year. I played 7 classes mostly up to level 2 and PvPd them to get an end game feel. I loved all of them. I just didn’t try the guardian. The game is ready for me now, but needs a bit of time for the masses to not complain about little things under the hood. I’m just going to throw this out there because it’s how I’m feeling and I like to over exaggerate most of the time…
WoW KILLA!!!