Guild Wars 2 Trailer, Media Flood Unleashed
Publisher NCSoft has released the first trailer for ArenaNet's subscription-free PC MMORPG Guild Wars 2, first showing animated backstory then lavish in-game footage. A whole shedload of screensho
A whole shedload of screenshots and gorgeous concept art also arrived, along with further details on the sequel set 250 years after the original Guild Wars games.
Chief among Guild Wars 2's changes are the shift to a persistent world, though instances will still remain for certain story elements. The long-awaited ability to jump also arrives, and players will even brave water for the first time in new subaquatic areas.
The sequel will see five playable races--plain old humans, shape-shifting Norn, high-tech Asura, Guild Wars villains-turned-industrial society the Charr, and sentient plants the Sylvari--uniting to trounce mighty dragons and their undead hordes.
An interview with Eurogamer reveals that the persistent world will feature events independent of player interaction. Lead designer Eric Flannum gives the example of an attack on a castle by centaurs, where players could help defend if they happened to chance past at the right time, or would later find the castle held by the horsey fiends.
AI henchmen will return, letting players play entirely solo should they so desire. A City of Heroes-style sidekick system will let low-level players play along with high-level chums.
Players will once again be able to instantly participate in PvP, levelled up to the maximum and granted appropriate equipment. A new 'World PvP' system will allow large-scale combat with any number of players, according to the Eurogamer interview.
The interview also reveals non-combat activities will be expanded with a crafting system "As well as a few other things that are going to provide players with other things to do."
Guild Wars 2 is currently scheduled for release in 2010 or 2011. Lore details are promised to follow later this year, with new gameplay information arriving next year.
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mrwolf710
replyOk, that was some impressive world creation there.
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I'm pretty critical of most MMO's out right now, mainly because of how most have jumped on the bandwagon that WoW has glorified with its art style. But man, this trailer and the environments it showed off, definitely a step up in the right direction.
How is GW1 and 2 able to provide this much content for free? What's their model?-
With GW1, they weren't releasing expansions but individual "campaigns". A person new to the game could pick up any single campaign and start from there, without owning any of the other ones.
So, for factions and nightfall for example, characters created with the campaigns new classes would get a slightly different storyline than someone bringing an existing character in to play through it.
I thought it was a pretty cool way of doing things. Each new Campaign was as long as the original game itself. I would guess that most people who played the original campaign for any decent length of time also would have bought the other two campaigns at least. -
In addition to the three add-on campaigns, Guild Wars also offered additional upgrades in the form of storage space for your characters, additional character slots, skill unlocks, and a few years later, an 'extreme makover' option to completely change your character's appearance, a name change option, and pet unlocks, each in exchange for money.
