Topic: The thread of the Guild Wars

[PyroMenace]

Well its happening, me, Idol, and Que are hooked on it like its crack. You all should come join us since Guild Wars is free, its crack and its FREE!! FREE CRACK!!

Hopefully Ghandi should be joining us soon. Right now I think both Que and Idol just hit 20 and Im well on my way there at level 14. Im finally now starting to really understand the game, Im just so used to WoW and others MMOs Ive played have been a similar structure to that. This passed night all of a sudden everything just clicked and I really understood why the game is so appealing.

I made this thread to really have a place to post updates and to let everyone know that you should play with us. Oh and heres the roster for the guild:

Lifesteak Sandwich

• Idolminds        Idol Minds            Monk/Mesmer
• Quemaque      Quiel Rainkist        Ranger/Necro
• PyroMenace    Pyrohan Menach   Warrior/Mesmer
• Ghandi           Vandal R              Monk/? ? ? ?

[Xessive]

I kinda wish I had GW and a better connection.

[Quemaqua]

I got into WoW a fair bit when we used to play it, but I wasn't too hardcore... I feel myself slipping more into the groove of Guild Wars.  It's a bit easier to comprehend and the barrier to entry doesn't seem quite so high.  That isn't to say there isn't a lot to learn and a lot of crazy stuff to do, but more that I find it's design to be a little more simple and elegant.  It isn't about leveling up, it isn't about grinding as much as some others, and it isn't about fedex quests; it's got an actual story with campaigns that can be beaten, you can (for the most part) play it solo if you want to using computer-controlled henchmen, and the PvP content really balances the rest of the stuff and makes it so that you max your level and gear fairly quickly, but spend the rest of the time really customizing your arsenal and learning how to use your skills well.  I think it's really "the MMO for the rest of us", if you will.  That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy WoW, but more that I think this one fits me a little better.

(once upon a time, there were images here)

And don't be fooled by how good the game looks... you can run this on a wide variety of systems.  Ghandi's old beat up rig supposedly does the job pretty nicely, and there's a surprisingly huge amount of depth to the visuals despite the somewhat aging technology.  This game has some of the best art design I've ever seen, and is very technically proficient.  The cutscenes are a little wonky, and aren't animated too well, but the actual character and combat animations are superb, and the story is actually quite good if you get past the bad voice acting and the fact that the storytelling isn't quite what it should be.  But the decent premise and the cooperative, totally epic story missions more than make up for it.

EDIT - Wow, for a game in which I have taken literally over a thousand screens, it seems odd that I chose several pretty crappy ones for this.  Sorry, I'm rushed... I have to go to work.  This conflicts with my desire to play more Guild Wars and just generally makes me confused.

[poomcgoo]

Yeah, Que you messaged me about this but I was being lazy and then forgot to respond but I'm definitely down to play.  I need to reinstall and get a new character going probably but GW is damn fun when you have other people to play with.

[Ghandi]

I shouldn't have looked at those screens. Now I'm jealous. The game still looks *ok* on my system, but nowhere near that good. And yeah, it scales pretty well it seems - my machine actually runs it pretty well, except in towns when everyone else is running around. I'm usually around 30-40 fps with everything minimum, which is definitely playable.

Anyways, I don't have to work today so I'll be on in a bit if anyone wants to play. I'm going to start a new character since mine is only lvl 6 and I see Idol is also a Cleric - variety is nice. I'll post the name when I'm done.

[MysterD]

GameStop has GW: Eye of the North (expansion) for $14.99 TODAY ONLY, June 2nd on their Game Days Sale.

[idolminds]

Que must have been rushed. He called me Sy.

[Quemaqua]

Damn, I did.  I must have been thinking of WoW.  And I need to fix those screens, get some better ones in there.  Because I need to convince Cobra to join us.

Nice link, MyD... that's a lot of cheap game.  GWEN is really for the high level players who have finished at least one campaign, so it isn't instantly appealing to everyone, but I've got it and can't wait to try some of it.  There's some armor from it I already want, heh.

[MysterD]

I have GWEN, but yeah -- I ain't finished any of the campaigns.
I ain't finished Prophecies or Nightfall.
I still don't own Factions.

[PyroMenace]

Well I finished off the rest of the Shiverpeak quests and made my way to Kryta, woot! Hit level 15 and now I can't wait to start the missions here.

[Quemaqua]

I think Kryta is when the game starts to get awesome.  I mean the other stuff is fun, and the prior missions were fun, but Kryta is when the end of your leveling chain is in sight and you start worrying more about the core gameplay mechanics and how to build your character, so more of the game's options become apparent and stuff.

[MysterD]

Nightfall character
Rex Sands -- Dervish/Paragon, Level 9.

[PyroMenace]

Whew, man I did this quest in Beetletun where you had to defend the city from undead hordes... wave after wave of fucking hordes of undead. It was nuts, our group must have wiped 10 times, towards the end we would spawn and last literary 5 seconds and die. The funny part was you couldnt really fail the mission. The hordes of undead would kill the city guards then they would just go up to the zone wall and just sit there. My group would just keep respawning killing away a handful of enemies at a time till we defeated all of them. In the end it was just for 500 xp and some skills, but jeez, it was insanity.

[Quemaqua]

Heh, that's really funny... idol and I murdered that one.  What level are you at?  I haven't met up with you in-game for a little bit.

[PyroMenace]

I'm still level 15 and pretty close to 16. I won't be on tonight though, Megan was going to come over, I may hop on for a little bit to show her stuff but not for long.

[Quemaqua]

(there used to be a picture here)

So this was last night's war party for a mission I soloed.  Picture that, plus 2 other NPCs that weren't in the shot, plus 10 bone horrors because I turned one of my heroes into a necro minion factory.  Then add like 30 enemies at a time.

EPIC.  WIN.

[MysterD]

I was working on my Prophecies character today.

Prophecies character
Derick Sands -- Warrior/Monk, Level 9

[PyroMenace]

Wow Que, thats madness.

Tonight I decided to venture my way for this apparently big 4k xp quest. I figured it would rape me but I thought I could get some exploring done and try out various henchmen tactics. I played a little bit with my build to be a more supportive role for the group instead of being the big meat hacker. Totally abandoning the strength attributes, I went more towards tactics in favor of a buff that significantly increases the party's armor, and another that turns me into an armored block. I found a better way to manage those really big melee bastards. Basically I just place my group back on stand by, then run in solo, let the mobs start pounding on me getting their attention, then Ill signal the group in to clean them out, works really well. Anyway, I ventured all the way to the black curtain, where I ran into some high level undead which for the most part clusterfucked my group. Undead just overwhelms you with summoning minions, then those minions summon golems, then those golems will have pets, then those pets will multiply and reincarnate themselves, its fucking ridiculous. Plus Id run into these horsemen mobs with hellhounds that are all level 18 and then decided Im not going much further. However through all this I learned some good henchmen tactics, Im thinking of trying to solo the next mission area.

Oh and Que, another gold bow weapon dropped, I'll have to show it to you next time we're on.

[Quemaqua]

(there were pictures here)

Where is everybody?  I'm conquering the world by myself over here.  Idol's out due to bad weather, Pyro's out because he's got a life (apparently), I haven't seen Ghandi in days, Poom never showed, and MyD showed up for like... 10 minutes.  I can get by on heroes and henchmen, but it just isn't the same without you guys spamming guild chat all the time.   

Anyway, note that all the above screenshots earlier in the thread have changed.  Some prettier ones up now and stuff.  If you like them, give the game a spin!  Come keep me company!

[Ghandi]

yeah i played with you guys 4 a few days but this guild totally sux...sry but ive found a better guild

[PyroMenace]

Oh man those screens look amazing...

Sorry Que I havent been on at all this weekend, Ive been really wanting some quality Guild Wars time. I should be on all this week though, in fact I plan to use Guild Wars to stave off the internet when MGS4 is released so nothing gets spoiled when I pick it up the week after. Apparently theres already stuff from the game going around, for instance K-Man told me some guy bought ad space on something awful and put up spoilers. So yea, its already begun.

[MysterD]

I don't have Factions yet, Que.
I do have Prophecies, Nightfall, and Eye of the North -- all which I ain't finished.

[Quemaqua]

(there was a picture here)

I don't know what the hell that thing is, but I want one.  It moved like it was a player, but... the hell?  I know some characters have the ability to turn into "avatars", but I looked them up and that isn't one of them.

I think that's one thing I like about these online games... there's just stuff out there happening and you sometimes run into things that have no relevance or meaning to you, but they're neat to see and remind you that the experience is bigger than just what you've seen so far.

[MysterD]

That thing's pretty cool looking.

And sheesh, that thing's huge compared to the player! 

[Quemaqua]

I'm gonna' be on pretty much all day today, if everything goes as planned.  I had to bail early last night due to staying up until about 2 running Pyro through west Kryta on Thursday night.  Was good times, but man, that took it out of me.  3 and a half hours sleep then a full day of work?  Yikes.  I even managed to get through another Nightfall mission despite that, which was utterly fucking awesome, let me tell you.  Factions did some cool stuff, and was unique and different in flavor from Prophecies, but you can readily see where Nightfall wanted to bring back certain elements of the Prophecies campaign and where Arenanet simply got much better at developing their game.  That first big assault mission was just stunning to behold, and the heroes add so much depth to the game.  Plus the setting is amazing.  Factions had some neat stuff to see too, and I think some of the cooler stuff is still ahead of me since I haven't gotten *that* far into the Factions campaign, but Nightfall is just epic looking.  Everywhere you turn... epic.

[Quemaqua]

So we haven't played in a while, but I want to get back into it.  I feel the need to explore, and since there's no way I'm paying upwards of $80 for WoW expansions plus a $15/mo subscription fee when I still have tons of GW to play for free, and lots of land mass that I haven't yet set boot on, I'm pretty excited.

So aside from calling all you slackers back out to play if you'd like, I'd also pass on the information that the GW store is having a buy one, get one 50% off deal.  It seems to apply to the original campaign (Prophecies), Factions, and Nightfall, but not Eye of the North.  So if you're missing the expansions or want to get into it for the first time, now'd be a good time to bite.

[Ghandi]

I'd be willing to play but the original game ran like piss on my system once I got out of happy land.

[Xessive]

Dudes, I think I'm gonna go for GW Collection pack (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North). I know, I'm a little late to the party. Actually I'm gonna try out a sampler first, a friend is gonna send me his demo key. If I love it, which I suspect I will, I'm going for the full packagé!

[Quemaqua]

The game's just as fun to play now as it was in its prime.  It has the advantages of having one giant server where everyone goes, so it's still busy, and it's got more content now than ever, plus with the heroes from Nightfall, you can even successfully solo most stuff with yourself, 3 heroes, and a coupla' henchies.  It takes a little bit to get used to the way the game works, but once it clicks, its lots of fun.

EDIT -

I'm again going to put out a call to arms to everybody who wants to play.  If Xessive comes on board, that gives us another hand at the Lifesteak Sandwich tasks, and I once again renew my generous offer to COBRA.  I know your misgivings, but seriously man!  The offer stands, it's a good deal (the best kind, amiright?), you have friends to keep you from going off the deep end, and you're under no obligation to keep going if you decide against it in the end.

To further entice anyone who isn't currently playing, I'd like to reiterate the wide variety of amazing locations and the fantastic accompanying art that Guild Wars contains by showing you some more of my beautiful 8 jillion screenshots.  The system requirements aren't super steep, so older systems can still run it, it's got an amazingly well-optimized engine, and it still looks really good even after so much time has gone by.  Plus the community is still active and there are still lots of players around!

So here's shots, spoiler tagged just so they don't load before you're expecting them:

(click to show/hide)

You've got wastes:



You've got icey places:



You've got jungley places and some serious beaches:



You've got gorgeous exotic plains:



And you've got rolling Asian hills and urban Asian city undergrounds:



And more, JUST BECAUSE I'M CRAZY ENOUGH TO TAKE ALL THESE SO SOMEBODY NEEDS TO SEE THEM:

And I kid you not, this is the barest, most generic stuff I can show you.  For me half the joy is just going around seeing all the cool new places, and these are just some of the general stuff.  The initial campaign can be a little divided into regions, but you'll often note a lot of variety in where they send you from mission to mission, and there are tons of unique places that can't be so easily pigeonholed.

SO COME PLAY.

EDITx2 - Added a couple more shots because I'm insane, and put it in spoiler tags just to avoid people having to load them if they weren't ready to.  Note also that they're a full 1280x1024 if you want to view them outside of the forums.  They look decidedly more glorious.

[Pugnate]

Oh my!

I have a stellar connection now. Maybe I'll buy this.

[Quemaqua]

You should!  The nice thing is it'd be easy for you guys to play with us.  The game throws people into districts when they're in towns.  Everything else is instanced.  For those of you without experience in MMO parlance, that means that towns are essentially public, but when you leave you're treated to your own private version of the world and its combat zones.  Some people like this a lot, some not as much, and it has its advantages and disadvantages, but because this game isn't like WoW and limited by servers, you can always find the people you want to play with.  So every town/outpost has districts for different regions, but you're free to just use a little drop box to at any time switch to another district if that's where your buddies are.  Your game doesn't change (i.e. quests and NPCs and whatever), just the PCs with whom you interact.  And once you get out in the world it doesn't matter anyway, because all that stuff falls back and gives way to the game itself, which will just be your party and not 10 billion morons asking for you to join their guild or give them 2 platinum for 5 bone shards out of the goodness of your heart.

So I'm now up to 1,498 screenshots for Prophecies, 135 for Nightfall, 666 for Factions, 45 for Eye of the North, and 57 for the bonus historical missions.  That's a total of 2,401 screenshots, and it also nicely demonstrates how much of each campaign I've done.  There's still so much ridiculous stuff yet to see!  I took a lot of shots in WoW too, but nothing like this.  This game is like moving 3D concept art.  I think being an artist on this team would have been the most amazing experience of my life.  Everything is so lovingly rendered.  Really curious to see more of the Luxon and Kurzick faction stuff (I've only just gotten to the point in Factions where you start picking sides and seeing more of their individual areas), and I've barely done anything beyond getting the initial heroes in Nightfall and seeing the opening area for GWEN.  It boggles the mind.  There's so much here.

Also, if more of you guys play we have a better chance of actually getting into some of the guild stuff.  If you earn enough cash in-game you can buy a guild hall.  There are tons of different designs to choose from, and you can stock it with merchants and extra storage and all kinds of crap.  Then if you get involved in guild battles you can fight in it.  I totally want us to get one.

EDIT - More deals!  Art bundle deals that'll get you all the Guild Wars campaigns plus an art print for like $50.  That's not bad, not at all.  I'm not sure if it comes with GWEN, but even without it that's a great deal.

EDIT x2 - Guild Wars Trilogy bundle, GoGamer via Amazon for $32.90.  2 left in stock!  GO NOW.  That's basically ten bucks per campaign, which is... I don't know, a ridiculously small amount of money per hour of entertainment.  GO NOW!  And if you miss that, you can get it at GoGamer.com itself for $37.90.  Which is still great.

[MysterD]

Okay, I got GW: Factions (Platinum) installed now.

So, I now have all of the four pieces of GW -- that would be Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and GWEN.

I'm Derick Ryu on Factions -- and I'm just getting going.

[Quemaqua]

Awesome.  Factions is quite strange, but it's pretty unique, and gets more interesting as it goes.

[MysterD]

I really dig already the whole Asian-influence and style this Factions campaign has going on from the very start.

Yeah, and on a side note, I did really like Jade Empire, too.

[Quemaqua]

TONIGHT WAS EPIC.  Lifesteak Sandwich is, most assuredly, moving up in the world.

[idolminds]

Yes. Yes we are. Videos will be posted, even if they didn't capture the entire epicness.

[MysterD]

Guild Wars could make for an entertaining podcast topic around here.

[Quemaqua]

It would be very entertaining to see how quickly that devolved.

[Ghandi]

I could pitch in and talk about happy land, and how well that ran on my system. And then how the game made me sad by chugging along out in angry land.

What happened last night that was so epic?

[Quemaqua]

We finally bought ourselves a guild hall.  I'm totally going to call it the Steak House from now on.

There was much celebrating.  I ransacked my alternate account for loot and birthday presents on the 8 characters there (this is a long story), which we opened, and idol had a bunch of fireworks which were set off for 10 minutes while I turned myself into a snow monster and ran around like an idiot.  Then we did super-epic Wintersday quests that were totally awesome.

Screens and possibly video to follow.