Guild Wars 2 Message Board older than one year ago

#guildwars The answer to the question posed in the headline is a simple one: the Guild Wars 2 sound team. It's how they do it that's a little tricky. More »

#fineart As we've seen previously, with Levi Hopkins' art, there's some outstanding work being done at ArenaNet on Guild Wars 2. An impression that's only reinforced looking at the contributions of Kekai Kotaki. More »

An overview of playing as the Engineer class in Guild Wars 2!

We’ve played Guild Wars 2. It’s tough. It’s good. Here’s a little feature about how it is coming together, including some thoughts on that newly-revealed Engineer profession, and underwater combat.

Okay, so you know Ascalon? Noble, quaint kingdom, lovely people, delightful taste in continent-spanning walls? Crushed by the Charr at the beginning of Guild Wars, and so forth? Population massacred, people scattered, a last stand frozen in time by the desperate actions of King Adelbarn? Hmm, yes, them. Tragic story. Sad.

Did you ever think that they may have been the baddies?(more…)

Are you going to the beach this summer? The weather looks like it’ll hold up, though personally I’ve always enjoyed a walk in the rain along a stormy beach front, as long as I don’t have to deal with scuba diving wolf men battling with lizard spike beasts.

The forthcoming Guild Wars 2 made a splash with the reveal of some interesting looking underwater areas covered in this previous developer walkthrough, and now two rather stylish trailers would like your attention as well. Are you going to take the plunge? Let’s dive in.

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ArenaNet's sequel to Guild Wars is not simply a prettier version of the original. Gone is the heavy instancing of explorable combat areas. In Guild Wars 2, the quest zones are open and filled with players. You can jump. You can swim and fight underwater. You can wander and participate in public quests that pop up around zones, and if you're using the Engineer profession, you can use guns, turrets and flamethrowers...

Well, I wasn’t expecting this. Guild Wars 2 apparently has a “huge” amount of underwater content, including unique underwater weapons and abilities and – according to developer Jon Peters talking in this Gamespot video, embedded below – entire underwater cities. The twenty minute shows some huge aquatic creatures, lots of combat, and some extremely atmospheric underwater and coastal areas. It’s fairly impressive, and certainly makes other MMOs’ brief dabbling with submerged areas look pretty, uh, shallow. Go take a look.(more…)

Europe's Gamescom 2011 convention is starting to take shape, with a hefty list of exhibitors revealed by GameCloud. The list includes most of the major players from E3, including Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Capcom, EA. Activision was notably absent from the list, which is odd given that it usually attends the convention. Gamescom will also be sporting some exhibitors not seen at E3, chief among them being Valve and NCSoft.

Just what Valve has planned is anyone's guess. Dota 2, perhaps (we've heard it's kind of a big deal over there). NCSoft, on the other hand, is almost certain to show off its upcoming MMO, Guild Wars 2. Rest assured, we'll be on hand to see what the fuss is about.

MMORPG developer ArenaNet is no stranger to implementing standalone additions to its subscription-free title Guild Wars, but it sounds like the studio won't follow the same strategy for the game's long-developed sequel. Speaking to Gamerzines, Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum explained, "At this time we don't plan to continue with the standalone expansion model," adding that such add-ons "split our player base unnecessarily and also caused us to focus development effort on things that were redundant with the original release of the game such as tutorial areas and duplicates of already existing skills."

Update: An earlier version of this post misunderstood Flannum's message, which does not count out the possibility of traditional expansions -- only standalone add-ons which do not require the base game, such as Guild Wars: Factions and Nightfall. We apologize for the confusion, and thank the commenters who pointed out the error.

MMORPG developer ArenaNet is no stranger to implementing incremental expansions to its subscription-free title Guild Wars, but it sounds like the studio won't follow the same strategy for the game's long-developed sequel. Speaking to Gamerzines, Guild Wars 2 lead designer Eric Flannum explained, "At this time we don't plan to continue with the standalone expansion model," adding that the add-ons "split our player base unnecessarily and also caused us to focus development effort on things that were redundant with the original release of the game such as tutorial areas and duplicates of already existing skills."

Personally, we like the implementation of frequent expansions in MMOs. Back in the Everquest days, it was our very own makeshift caste system. "Oh, you're still on Scars of Velious? That's adorable. Maybe come talk to us when you've made it to Planes of Power."

Punish your enemy with the devious gadgets and traps of the Engineer class.

Hot on the heels of their beta announcement, ArenaNet today revealed the seventh profession (of eight) in to be playable in Guild Wars 2 -- the Engineer. With Guild Wars 2 taking place centuries after the events of Guildwars: Eye of the North, technology has advanced to the point where guns, cannons, grenades and steam-powered technology is more readily found. Thus, the Engineer, a master of these new technologies, makes for an obvious choice...

#engineeringchaos In some fantasy role-playing games, engineering bombs, guns, and useful gadgets is nothing more than a novel crafting skill. In Guild Wars 2, it's a way of life. Let's meet the game's newly-revealed Engineer. More »

#fineart I usually don't play MMOs. Never played Guild Wars, may never play its upcoming sequel either. But boy, I could look at this concept art for Guild Wars 2 all day long. More »

Yesterday I posted an interview with ArenaNet community manager Martin Kerstein about how Guild War 2′s planning to do away with traditional questing and grinding, which was something we hadn’t fully documented on RPS before. But you don’t want my stupid questions, do you? You want your own stupid/excellent questions. That’s why I posed a whole bunch of them, gleaned via the Twitters, at Kerstein when I met up with him. Covered: hats, cats, crafting, pirates, centaurs, PvP, difficulty, failure and whether this is a more or less tactical game than its predecessor.(more…)

Those closely following the progress of NCSsoft's hotly-anticipated MMORPG Guild Wars 2 will be pleased to know that a beta is on the way -- specifically in the second half of this year according to Eurogamer. The announcement came from NCsoft chief financial officer Jaeho Lee during a conference ca...

Hello! I recently had a sit’n'chat with ArenaNet’s Martin Kerstein in search of deeper detail about Guild Wars 2, an MMO which we seem to have been waiting forever. Most of that chat was firing questions from RPS readers at him, which I’ll be posting on the morrow (that’s how people in fantasy games speak, you see. They’d never say ‘tomorrow’), but my own probing about Guild Wars 2′s oft-repeated promise that it’s escaped the usual MMO treadmill of questing and grinding bears a standalone post. Will this really be the long-promised MMO rapture, the online world that’s free from the increasing irritatingly traditions of this oft-static genre? Let’s find out…(more…)

The city of Lion’s Arch is one of the hubs players will be able to go poking around in Guild Wars 2, and despite everything it’s been through it’s looking swell. Once the Capital of Kryta in the original Guild Wars, it was then destroyed by a dragon, the land was flooded and the place was taken over by pirates until finally the flood waters receded. Arenanet’s concept art team have, however, come to the place’s rescue, and now all the ships in the area have been repurposed into buildings. You’ll find the town’s trailer after the jump, and plenty more details over on the Arenanet blog.(more…)

#goldenarches Every massively multiplayer online role-playing game needs a place for players to hang out, shout their auctions, and bitch about the development team working on the game they're currently spending every waking hour playing. For Guild Wars 2, that city is Lion's Arch. More »

See the expanses of Charr and its Black Citadel in this trailer for Guild Wars 2!

#meowremix In Guild Wars the warlike, feline Charr were one of the greatest threats the humans of Tyria had ever faced. In Guild Wars 2 they might be Tyria's greatest hope against the power of the Elder Dragons, when they aren't busy coughing up hairballs or desecrating innocent sandboxes. More »

Not to be outdone by Blizzavision's World of Duty: Modern Warcraft, it appears NCsoft's Guild Wars 2 will counter with a Commando profession for the upcoming MMO. Featuring the motto: "If it bleeds, I can kill it," the contemporary military unit will "Oscar Mike" into the fight on land, sea or air across the fantasy realm.

Some may argue that the profession is overpowered against evil bunny and dragon tangos, given that the class can equip grenades, drive all types of modern vehicles, and call in gunships, Predator air strikes and naval bombardment... but allow us to assure you that it totally is. Good thing the profession is just another April Fools joke.

#mikemikeoscar ArenaNet's upcoming massively-multiplayer online game Guild Wars 2 has warriors, magic-users, and rogues. What's missing? Elite military commandos. For one day and one day only, that role has been filled. More »

#interview Most massively-multiplayer online role-playing games have some sort of rogue class, but none are quite as roguish as the newly revealed Guild Wars 2 Thief. Kotaku spoke to developer ArenaNet about what raises this stealthy stabber above the rest. More »

#howitworks When the Guardians, Thieves, and Elementalists of Guild Wars 2 aren't busy building their legend, they'll be building guns, gadgets, and gears via the game's comprehensive crafting system. ArenaNet details how the game's eight crafting professions get the job done. More »

Okay, so crafting possibly isn’t the most exciting thing about the spectacular upcoming MMO, Guild Wars 2, but it certainly is a thing about it, and ArenaNet have chosen to reveal it today. There will be crafting, and there will be eight disciplines: Weaponsmith (making melee weapons), Huntsman (crafting bows and pistol, as well as torches and warhorns), Enchanter (for the fashioning of magical weapons such as staves and scepters), Armorsmith (for heavy armour), Leatherworker (for medium armour), Tailor (for light armour), Jewelcrafter (for rings and necklaces), Cook (for buff-inducing foods). Most of these professions will also be able to upgrade existing items. Characters can choose two of these disciplines at any one time, and these can be changed back and forth, retaining skill level’s acquired, for a cost.

More information, and a quick chat with game designer Andrew McLeod, lie below. (more…)

At last, we know why ArenaNet and NCSoft haven't realeased too many gameplay trailers for their upcoming MMO, Guild Wars 2 -- they were just waiting for GDC 2011, where they'd reveal enough video from the game to drown the internet. Check out four clips from their presentation below!

And now, presenting a full half-hour of Guild Wars 2 footage, covering everything to Norn character creation to Guardian and Thief game footage! You know what looks great? I’ll tell you. This game looks great. The last time RPS played an MMO together way probably City of Heroes, an event that’s now firmly entrenched in my mind because of Kieron’s story about that very summer. Allow me to recount it for you. (more…)

#mmorpg Slipping through the shadows unseen, striking from the darkness with a relentless barrage of melee attacks, one could easily mistake the latest class revealed for Guild Wars 2 as some sort of assassin - and they wouldn't be far off. More »

Stay on the move.