The first time I tried out Guild Wars, I thought it was amazing. An ultra-thin client that downloads the game’s content on demand, the simple hack and slash gameplay and the absolutely stunning graphics made up an experience I would not soon forget. In my mind, ArenaNet has essentially created Diablo III – for anyone that misses the point-click-kill-loot formula, Guild Wars will be your ticket to paradise. But after two preview event weekends, for me this is where most of the game’s shortcomings lie.

I played during the World Preview Event on the 29th, and then took advantage of a 7-day trial of Gamespot Complete to play another Preview offered for members the following weekend. Conveniently, any characters created during the WPE were carried over to this Gamespot preview. There had also been a significant increase in monster toughness between the two events, and as a result the weapons and armour I collected were almost useless in some of the later quests. To balance this out, I noticed the item drops were a lot more numerous to give every party member something nice to take away.

Guilds seem to have been implemented since the E3 event, although I never did figure out how to start my own. Guild members are identifiable by the tabards they wear emblazoned with their Guild logo, and at this point I can’t really see how Guilds will make a difference in the co-operative quests. Because the world is essentially made up of discrete locations, Guilds seem like more of a status symbol than anything else, because you have to be invited to be a part of one.

Although ArenaNet likes to make the distinction of Guild Wars not being a MMORPG in the traditional sense, there isn’t a very “massive” quality to the game. I had a great time doing the quests and exploring the new mission areas, but things really start to break down when you actually think about what’s involved. Each quest is instanced on the group leader’s computer. You will never see other players wandering the wilderness of the quest areas outside of the members of your party – you will only encounter AI controlled NPC characters. The only time you will ever encounter other players are the Tournament or Competitive missions areas, like the Gladiator arena. I’ll admit it was fun to just throw down with my character in a cleverly designed arena, and the random team matching makes sure things are balanced, but there isn’t much substance to it beyond the standard deathmatching.

The game world is extremely disjointed, as well: after each successful quest is completed, you gain a new point on the world map. To go back to town, all you have to do is click on the town’s location and you’re there. Returning to a mission area works the same way. The enormous world map implies that there is great potential for adventure settings, but in reality you’re just visiting portions of a pre-ordained path. The location for each mission is basically a staging area for groups to get together, optimize their ranks (a party made up of mostly warriors and healing spell-wielding monks is a good start) and then start the mission. And it’s at this point that you realize there isn’t anything different beyond your run of the mill action RPG.

Going back to town is much like Diablo II, but the worst parts. People selling items, people looking for items, power-gamers looking for a group, etc. It quickly becomes tedious and leaves zero room for any roleplayers. I may not have been fair to World of Warcraft in this respect, because there are taverns and locations you can go to sit and relax after a hard day’s adventuring. The potential for roleplaying was there, I just didn’t see it amongst all the powergaming. As an aside, for the recent open beta I have joined one of the roleplaying servers – but so far my attempts at maintaining a roleplaying encounter have been pretty dodgy.

Guild Wars is a different kind of massively multiplayer game, and because of that it’s really hard to fault it for expecting things the development team never said would be part of the package. I guess that after playing a few MMORPGs, I begin to expect a few conventions that make it seem like an entire world to explore, instead of a container for a set of missions connected by a static storyline. During the preview events, Guild Wars was once again in an extremely playable state, and the only thing I could really complain about technically was the amount of lag experienced in town. When you’re in missions, it’s entirely dependent on your party’s internet connections. In the end, anyone who hasn’t grown tired of Diablo II’s successful formula will absolutely love this game. And despite the game’s shortcomings, the free service should overcome the hesitation of prospective players who are reluctant to commit to a monthly subscription. Unfortunately, after playing Star Wars Galaxies, and then experiencing the action of World of Warcraft first hand, I think my imagination may have unfairly assigned qualities to Guild Wars it never had.

the gazing eye won’t lie

It only took me two days to download the new and improved client, but I’m back in the World of Warcraft beta. Both Blizzard and Fileplanet took a savage beating on Monday during the afternoon and evening after the Open Beta was first announced, but the client download page was back online later that night along with numerous unofficial torrents. The account creation page, however, had been taken offline completely. It wasn’t until the next morning before work that I was able to create my account, only to find out later that day the account creation page was again unavailable. And then today, the official site announced that due to an obscene amount of requests the Open Beta was, in fact, now closed. Anyone that missed this opportunity should keep an eye out, because Blizzard will be monitoring the player population and will open up any spots that become available before the game’s release on the 23rd. I think this last minute call to arms is a genius marketing move – Everquest II launched this week (did anyone notice?), and apparently you may be able to carry over your Open Beta characters into the retail version.

With all the buzz surrounding sales of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2, I can only imagine what launch day will be like for World of Warcraft. Granted, the open beta is free, but so was Guild Wars, and it hasn’t even come close to developing the same amount of interest. Even though the client for Guild Wars was more accessible, and substantially smaller. Considered as games, I think many players may have been disappointed with what Guild Wars had to offer at the preview event last weekend, and turned to World of Warcraft to satiate a more discerning appetite for massively multiplayer RPG action.

are you tuning in

The new Episode III teaser trailer leaves me feeling a bit crestfallen. It was supposed to be an exclusive for paying members of Hyperspace, but as everyone knows this exclusivity doesn’t last long. I found a few mirrors, but you can also grab it on the official site if you don’t mind the wait. I liked how Obi-Wan Kenobi was spliced into the trailer to tell the story of Vader from his “certain point of view”, connecting the two trilogies and preparing us for the ultimate fall from grace. Indeed, a battle between capital ships, a climactic face off between old friends, and the Emperor hovering over his new creation were all merely hinted at. I have to admit, regardless of how these movies turn out, the trailers have all been outstanding at building up expectations.

Planet Gamecube posted links to a massive number of demo reels from Nintendo Japan, most of which I’ve only been able to take cursory glances at. Fire Emblem for the Gamecube looks like, well, Fire Emblem for the Gamecube. I was completely enthralled by the GBA version, and this Gamecube version looks like a straightforward transplant into three dimensions. This isn’t to say that its receiving the same treatment as Advance Wars, mind you, because the turn based strategy thankfully remains intact.

Seeing the DS in action was pretty fascinating, and even though Advance Wars DS only got a split second I can see how the second screen will be coming in handy. And naturally WarioWare will have some cleverly distracting minigames that utilize the touch screen. I have to admit I was a little uneasy about the Nintendo DS when I first heard about it, but I avoided outright condemnation of the thing like so many media outlets were quick to do. As the feature list became more tangible, most were quick to change their tune. I’m this close to adding it to my Christmas list, as the unique gaming possibilities are seemingly endless. I’ve also determined that the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS are not direct competitors; where one is satisfied to pander an existing mindshare, the other is pushing portable gaming in new directions.

You can also find some gameplay videos of assorted Gameboy Advance titles, and if there’s one game I’m more interested in after seeing it in action it would be Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. A sound decision was made to include Advance Wars and its sequel in one cart – any fan of turn based strategy that missed out the first time now has no excuse.

I thought that Blizzard was the master of introductory cinematics until I played Dawn of War. That doesn’t mean that the World of Warcraft intro video misses the mark; rather, it does a fine job of mixing together the various races of the game and puts them into a short film to let you know what kind of mess you’re getting into. I read about the possibility of the Open Beta starting today, and I envisioned an Internet that was incessantly bursting at the seams.

“And lo, Blizzard did begin the Open Beta, and there was much rejoicing. But it was like a mighty flood unto their servers, as thousands of keys were secured in an instant.”

i knew it wouldn’t last

Soon after I joined Star Wars Galaxies, I enlisted myself in the Beta program for Jump to Lightspeed. Being a fresh recruit into the Galaxies fold, I envisioned this expansion as being the game’s saving grace. How could SOE/Lucasarts make a better Star Wars MMORPG experience? Easy. Add in the spacecraft and dogfighting that made the movies so fun to watch and you’ve got yourself an instant hit. And for a good portion of the beta, I almost believed it. But after signing off the day before the expansion’s official release last week, it hit me: Jump to Lightspeed is just a clever distraction.

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As a form of media, games remain fairly young. Gaming criticism for the most part also shares this immaturity: the fact that we can still attribute numerical scores to an experience makes for an extremely shallow assessment of a game’s quality. And the constant quest for free product places most game reviews firmly into the realm of advertorial content. There are of course the exceptions to this unfortunate rule, but the trick is to get the average gamer to read them. Evil Avatar brought up this topic for discussion, specifically dealing with giving the traditional game review an overhaul. The original poster was of course referring to what’s been dubbed as “The New Games Journalism”. Kieron Gillen, the author of the New Games Journalism manifesto, make an appearance in this discussion. And also Always_Black, arguably the creator of this new form of examining games. It was interesting to hear them weigh in about the subject, although there is still much left to discuss about the state of gaming journalism.

I’ve indirectly visited this subject in the past, in a vain attempt to justify my own writings. Certainly a lot has changed since then, as there are now more gaming-related weblogs than a year ago (and a place to find them!). Critical thinking by hobbyists beyond over-the-top graphics or a licensed soundtrack is a step towards avoiding game review conventions. Most importantly, though, it makes up an even-handed view that might make the difference between hype and substance.

they’re just humans