Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Man, Guild Wars 2 looks amazing

2:55 PM / Games / Comments4 Comments

Guild Wars 2

Great in-game footage over at Gamespot of a tutorial area, which looks more action-packed and filled with impressive pyrotechnics than the endgame content of a lot of titles I could mention.

It looks very much like Arena.net are intent on retaining the hallmarks of the original GUILD WARS - free online play, lack of grinding, distinctive art style, MAGIC: THE GATHERING inspired "card" system for magical abilities - while expanding the world and making it more free-form and persistent. GUILD WARS is the only MMO I've ever really enjoyed, and if you read their design manifesto, it's pretty clear that they're intent on turning the genre on its head and doing something truly inventive rather than just ushering out another WORLD OF WARCRAFT clone. If they can do this while retaining what made the original so distinctive and appealing, they really should be on to a winner.

 
4 Comments

1. ChuckZ said:

That article was a great read, but I still have my doubts. Age of Conan sounded great on paper, but it quickly dropped off a cliff after the developer didn't have enough content rolled out. If this game is released in beta or release candidate form rather than stable and complete, enough people may not give this game much of a chance to take off.

(Posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 7:51 PM)

2. MCP said:


Looks like Yoji Shinkawa art...

(Posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 9:35 PM)

3. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Chuck:

Well, I suppose we'll have to wait and see. The original GUILD WARS and its various campaigns did well to stand out from the pack. GUILD WARS 2 admittedly sounds more ambitious on just about every level, but I think these developers have proven they know what they're doing.

Interesting note: the three founders of Arena.net were all former high ranking Blizzard employees, one of whom, Jeff Strain, was the original project lead on WORLD OF WARCRAFT before he left.


MCP:

Not a name I'm familiar with, personally, but I Googled some of his art and I definitely see the resemblance.

There's some truly impressive stuff coming out of Arena.net's art department. Their art director, Daniel Dociu, is incredibly talented and draws some of the most stunning landscapes and architecture I've ever seen in the games industry (have a look here). I bought their hardcover art book the day it was released. Of course, the impressionistic style is pretty hard to replicate with 3D graphics, but the gap between the two is definitely shrinking.

(Posted on Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 11:34 AM)

4. MCP said:

Michael, thanks for sharing - the art shown is really top notch, on level with some of the most talented fantasy artists of recent past: the name of Roger Dean and Luis Rojo come to mind, but Deciu & C have their own and somewhat more "modern" style.

(Posted on Thursday, August 26, 2010 at 2:15 PM)

 
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