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LunaHound wrote:Guild War2
Starwars
Tera Online
Diablo III



Only time for 1, suggestions?

Well here's my take:

Starwars TOR: The Expanded Universe has gotten kinda dumb over the years so I'm not sure how much the patented Bioware storytelling will cary. Other than that, I think it's just about as generic as an MMO could get, which is not a good thing IMO. Also there's the subscription fee.

Tera: I'm not sure if this one of the many MMO's that come out of Korea but either way it certainly has the aesthetics of one. I find the entire art direction to be absolutely terrible and because of the obvious immediacy of the visual; it's so distracting, off-putting, and jarring I don't think I could play it regardless of how neat the gameplay is, and whether or not the gameplay is any good remains to be seen anyway. It also probably has a monthly fee.

Diablo III: I'm certain this game will be good, so far the only real downside to me is the constant need to have an internet connection even if you want to to go solo. It's less open-worldy, MMOish, and social than the other games because it's not a traditional MMO as I understand the genre. It's more like a cooperative action-RPG loot 'n' dungeon fest. A great one if the beta is any indication. Also no subscription is a bonus though it isn't really an MMO.

Guild Wars 2: I admit I'm a huge fanboy but it does have some ideas that are rather different from the normal conventions of MMO's, and all very smart changes I'd say. However that does mean you need to do some reasearch on a game like GW2 to know what you're getting into, but I think anyone who does do the requisite research will probably be eager to board the Guild Wars train. It excels in pretty much all departments so far: graphics, sound, art, optimization, gameplay, customization, ease of use, and probably more. In fact GW2 and Diablo 3 are the only games I'm really looking forward to this year. Finally, no monthly fee is a big deal. It's not free to play or micro-transaction heavy (the items that you can get are really only cosmetic and convenience items) and all the micro-transactions can be bought with in game currency anyway. GW2 is priced like a traditional game: pay 60 bucks and then you're good to go but there's optional purely cosmetic "DLC" as it were.

Thank you so very much, that was a great review asimo77 !

Well I'm glad to have helped!

Melissia wrote:

Fafnir wrote:How far in did you get, and was what race? I know some situations where melee combat was just a terrible idea even from my short experience with the beta. There have even been some people talking about some areas where melee combat is just impossible (Ascalonian Catacombs, IIRC)

My human warrior and norn elementalist got to level ten, and my human necromancer got to level fifteen, IIRC.

Well, we both ended up at similar levels by time the beta ended, so neither of us can really speak for later on. Hopefully melee begins to even out once traits start getting involved, but for as far as I know from personal experience, and from what I've watched and read so far, I'll still have to stick to my stance.

And I'm gonna stick to mine, heh.

Well I got my Warrior to level 22 and I agree with Fafnir so I'm the most right

I got an Engineer to level 22 and unless I dodged and circle strafed mobs just walk up to me and start wailing, I didn't really play much in the way of huge group events though.

If you preorder it you get a code for the closed beta right? Because I preordered it today at EB games (90 bucks, better be worth it!) and they didnt have a of the codes at the time, so could I get it of the GW2 website or something, or do I have to wait?

JohnnoM wrote:If you preorder it you get a code for the closed beta right? Because I preordered it today at EB games (90 bucks, better be worth it!) and they didnt have a of the codes at the time, so could I get it of the GW2 website or something, or do I have to wait?

Did you pre-order (paid a deposit, will pay the rest on release) or pre-purchase (paid the whole sum up front)?

If you pre-order you do not get beta access whereas if you pre-purchase you do.

I tended to completely avoid melee if I could. Granted I was playing as a Sceptre+Warhorn/Staff Necromancer with a couple of minions so I could quite easily chill or immobilize anything nasty that came my way.

A few in my guild were playing as Guardians though and they all said it seemed to be the most balanced class in terms of damage output (in melee) coupled with resistance.

Best part of the Beta was taking on the Shadow Colossus in the swamp Loved the way the camera zoomed out so you could see the whole area, made the event seem really epic!

Corpsesarefun wrote:

JohnnoM wrote:If you preorder it you get a code for the closed beta right? Because I preordered it today at EB games (90 bucks, better be worth it!) and they didnt have a of the codes at the time, so could I get it of the GW2 website or something, or do I have to wait?

Did you pre-order (paid a deposit, will pay the rest on release) or pre-purchase (paid the whole sum up front)?

If you pre-order you do not get beta access whereas if you pre-purchase you do.

Pre ordered. So, if i pay it off completely i'll get access to the beta?

JohnnoM wrote:

Corpsesarefun wrote:

JohnnoM wrote:If you preorder it you get a code for the closed beta right? Because I preordered it today at EB games (90 bucks, better be worth it!) and they didnt have a of the codes at the time, so could I get it of the GW2 website or something, or do I have to wait?

Did you pre-order (paid a deposit, will pay the rest on release) or pre-purchase (paid the whole sum up front)?

If you pre-order you do not get beta access whereas if you pre-purchase you do.

Pre ordered. So, if i pay it off completely i'll get access to the beta?

Depends on the retailer, you may be able to pay it off... you are meant to get a physical box with the code in it from them.

Corpsesarefun wrote:

JohnnoM wrote:

Corpsesarefun wrote:

JohnnoM wrote:If you preorder it you get a code for the closed beta right? Because I preordered it today at EB games (90 bucks, better be worth it!) and they didnt have a of the codes at the time, so could I get it of the GW2 website or something, or do I have to wait?

Did you pre-order (paid a deposit, will pay the rest on release) or pre-purchase (paid the whole sum up front)?

If you pre-order you do not get beta access whereas if you pre-purchase you do.

Pre ordered. So, if i pay it off completely i'll get access to the beta?

Depends on the retailer, you may be able to pay it off... you are meant to get a physical box with the code in it from them.

I dont think EB actually knows what the pre-purchase thing is. All I did was pre-order the collectors and pay for the lot up front, then they gave me the code on a piece of cardboard.
I just made sure that they knew I wanted the codes or I wasnt going to get the game from them lol.

I dont think EB actually knows what the pre-purchase thing is.

That wouldn't surprise me. EB/Gamestop are pretty stupid about things like that, they only really care about selling used games.

A nice round-up of some articles the press have whipped up about the april beta weekend http://www.arena.net/blog/link-roundup-beta-weekend-event

We’ll be conducting a stress test on Monday May 14 from 11 AM to 6:00 PM PDT (-7 GMT).

This special test event is open only to Pre-Purchase customers who have registered their accounts. With your help, we can conduct important tests and address some of the issues we identified during our first Beta Weekend Event. During this event, all you need to do is play normally with a new or existing chara...cter on your Beta account using the same game client. Please note that since this is a stress test of our servers, you may experience some in-game performance issues. If you’ve pre-purchased Guild Wars 2 and wish to participate in the stress test, we recommend that you register the account and download the game client.

Pre-Purchase customers, log in to the Beta Forums for more information and/or to download the Beta client if needed.

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/stress/news/Getting-Started/169235

Having issues logging in? Contact Support: https://support.guildwars2.com/


Taken from their FB Page.

Would be interesting to see if they've made any changes to the gameplay, especially concerning melee and ranged combat.

But I work during that time, so I won't get to play it.

That's from 6pm to midnight GMT so it's good timing for me, I'll be playing.

@fafnir I'm willing to bet there have been quite a lot of changes.

Aye I'll be able to get in an hour or two as well.

I'm hoping they open up the tree folk at some point, its still looking likely my main will be one of them.

That's about 2am for me, so I'll be missing the beginning.

Meanwhile I'll be missingthe end because of prior engagements.

It's a stress test so it'll probably be like the first few hours of last months beta, crazy laggy and hard to even log in.

Wish it was on sat or sun instead of mon....

So do I...

Also it's the same build as before so there are no gameplay changes and characters from the last beta are preserved, I guess they are just trying out new server stuff.

No optimization changes?

Optimisation changes and server changes are possible, no gameplay changes though.

I will most definitally not be playing (work) but thats fine. It is only a stress test.

Hooray for study leave.

Horray for having no job, nor being in education!

1 hour till the stress test, patch your clients now folks.