Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance PS3 Demo Review 6.5/10

    For starters, the Metal Gear Solid series is my number one favorite game franchise. So when Metal Gear Rising was announced at E3 in 2009 I was really excited, but at the same time really apprehensive. I was excited for a story involving Raiden again, but a sequel to Guns of the Patriots didn’t sound like a good idea. As the game developed and was handed off to Platinum Games more details arose that made me even more wary. I’ll be honest, after seeing the first few trailers since Platinum took over, I wanted this game canceled. Especially when they unveiled the subtitle: Revengeance. Although, surprisingly, revengeance is a real word despite the redundancy of it. I was afraid that this title would sully the Metal Gear franchise with a game that went too far away from the original feel and style of game. But I opened my mind and decided to give this demo a try.

    The demo starts you off with a tutorial exclusively for the free cutting system. Its a short and fun tutorial that shows you how to use the slow-motion, slicing ability Raiden has at his disposal. The tutorial seemed great at the time in that it was simple, to-the-point, and, most of all, brief. In hindsight however, I wish it had been more in depth but I’ll get to that in a moment.

    The rest of the demo takes place in a segment sometime after the beginning of the game that is prefaced with a brief explanation of what happened at the beginning of the story. This was the first clue I had that this demo would not impress me. It somewhat verified my suspicions that the story would not be the driving force of this game like it had been in previous MGS games. Although this may not be the case, this was the idea that I got from this design choice.

    First off you watch a cinematic cutscene explaining your mission: to go into some African nation and deal with a terrorist PMC organisation. Raiden is dropped off in the outskirts of an urban city and, not a moment too soon, is attacked by a group of stealth-camouflaged cyborgs (after trying valiantly, but to no avail, to defeat a feral cat). This is where you get your first taste of combat. During combat, you are limited to a certain area designated by a red forcefield which you cannot cross. I found this annoying especially when you get backed up against the force field and have nowhere to go. Since all you know how to do is use the blade mode, the rest of the combat controls are told to you via vague, on screen prompts. And since I wasted my blade mode gauge fighting that damned cat, I had to fight these soldiers the old-fashioned way: attack combos. Raiden has a fast attack and a strong attack that I hope can be strung together because that’s what I was doing. I never felt very effective, but i was able to defeat the cyborgs. When combat concludes you are given a rank and score. I received a C explaining why I felt so ineffective.

    After the battle you follow your radar waypoints and proceed through the city where you fight more cyborgs and a few Metal Gear Gekkos you’ll remember from MGS4. Along the way you learn the simplistic inventory system including the secondary weapons you can use including grenades and an RPG. I found both of these weapons extremely useless in combat since they require you to stand still for the most part. As soon as I tried to use them I got knocked on my ass. You also learn that you can backstab your foes if you can manage to sneak up behind them. The game has a similar alert system that the MGS series has had before, but in this game it seems utterly useless. You can “sneak” around but Raidens only form of movement is running around. So when you are spotted and the famous alert noise sounds, you don’t feel like you’ve made a mistake but you do wonder if you were supposed to have been stealthy. Even still, sneaking up on the cyborgs is easy because you can just sprint up behind them as long as you haven’t been seen already. You keep fighting your way through the streets until you enter a building and a cutscene plays where the building is mysteriously sawn in half while you walk down the hallway. This is when the boss steps in to to battle. This is when the demo took a turn for the worse.

    You are confronted by an AI-controlled cyborg hound with a chainsaw-tipped tail (seen above). After some pretty ridiculous back-and-forth taunting, the battle commences. The first thing you discover is how fast and agile this dog is, which made me notice how stiff Raiden’s movement feels. He can’t move with the agility we’ve seen him exhibit in cutscenes. So first you have to catch up to the boss. Then you have to figure out how to parry his attacks or you will be stunned or dead in a flash. This is something I wished they had taught you in the tutorial other than the self-explanatory free-slicing mode. After about 10 deaths I finally figured out how to block his attacks and by this time I was extremely tired of the robots taunts of my “intellect”. SoI had finally defeated the boss and then the demo simply cuts away to the main menu. I was inspired. Truly blown away. Sensing my sarcasm?

    I give the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance PS3 Demo a 6.5/10. Not to say that this game would rank that way, but the demo leaves much to be desired. Between the useless tutorial, odd story placement, and combat guesswork, I was more glad the demo was over rather than glad I had played it. I was already on the fence on this game to begin with and I knew this demo would push me one way or the other. Needless to say I will not be buying this game. That being said, I don’t believe this demo could convince a newcomer to the MGS franchise to buy this game either.

- Skye

.hack//Introduction (Part 1)

    I love games that last forever. Early on in life I was drawn to the promise of long epic adventures in games like Final Fantasy and Pokémon. Later, I found that MMO’s truly never ended. They took a special place in my heart, albeit a different one. It’s a bittersweet moment when I finish a long game. I’m proud of my accomplishment and happy to see the conclusion of the story, but I’m always sad that it’s over.

    Mass Effect is the most successful game to use data saves from previous entries. Every game in the series was a critical success as a stand alone title, but there’s no doubt that one of the reasons they scored and sold well was because your data carried over. It was fun for your decisions to hold weight even after the game had ended. It was exciting to pick up the next title to see how your relationships would continue. In this generation, Mass Effect’s success reflects that many people enjoy expansive games like this.

    .hack(pronounced “Dot Hack”) came into my life at the perfect time. I had just discovered MMO’s but could only play them at my friends house because I didn’t have a PC. I was itching for that experience, but again, only had a PS2 to work with. Then I read about .hack in GamePro Magazine. It was described as an MMORPG experience in an offline single player game. You bested dungeons, gained loot, and met friends. Just like playing an MMO, you could make lasting relationships with other players by not only leveling up with them, but also by sending emails back and forth. This single player game was capped off by having a mysterious story that MMO’s, up to this date, hadn’t been able to replicate. All this and it was only the beginning. There were going to be 3 more.

    Needless to say I picked up .hack//Infection and quickly fell in love. It was everything I wanted. .hack was an MMORPG experience in an offline setting that I knew wasn’t going to end anytime soon. I met players along the way. I found loot and legendary weapons. I battled monsters that seemed unbeatable. Luckily, with some extra training and a little help from my friends, I was able to win against insurmountable odds.

    I finished the the game in about 20 hours. After the credits rolled I was pleasantly surprised that I could still play on the same save file. After logging in I was greeted by the regular round of new emails my friends would send, but one in particular told of a new dungeon that may be our biggest challenge yet. I continued leveling up and gaining loot knowing that everything I did would be carried over into the next game.

    The World, as its called in .hack, was going to be my interim home until I could get my hands on a true MMO. Little did I know it was going to touch my heart in such a way that it’s still one of my favorite games.

    In the next article of this 4 part series I’ll be telling you exactly what I love about .hack. Stay tuned for next Friday!

- lvl 99

Dead Space 3 Xbox 360 Demo Review 10/10

Preface: This is the second article of our special dual review series. Be sure to not only check out this review by Skye, but also the review below by lvl 99. Two perspectives. One demo. Enjoy!

First off, if you haven’t played the Dead Space series, stop reading now and go play them. They are fantastic. I have never been so terrified playing a video game since Resident Evil 4. But if you need a little current Dead Space action to hook you on the series, this demo is also fantastic, so go ahead and play it even if you’re not quite caught up on the franchise. For spoilers and Dead Space veterans sake, I’ll skip explaining the story so far. Suffice to say, Isaac Clarke is back and I hope this time things don’t go so terribly for him.

That can't be good...

This demo features three things from the full game: the single player level, a level where you can try out the new weapon crafting system, and a co-op level (which I’ll get to later). First I tackled the single player mode, which takes place on a snow covered planet on which Isaac has crash landed. With many demos of big titles such as this, their choice of which level to present you with can either teasingly entice you or ruin elements of the plot. This is especially perilous for me as I am rarely surprised by any plot twist since the movie Fight Club. This demo level was excellent in that regard since, for me, it raised more questions than it answered. What is this place? Why did he come here? Why does poor Isaac always end up bloody and unconscious? I discovered none of these things during the course of the demo, which was fine by me.

After Isaac regains his consciousness, you have to brave the violent blizzard to get to shelter, which is frightening enough without the horrific creatures that you surely will come across. As you press forward through the demo you have to fight newly-necromorphed humans swinging ice picks at you, regular humans who shoot at you, and a mini-boss with tons of regenerating appendages to blow off with your plasma cutter. You also get to try out the new weapon crafting system when you get to your first upgrade bench and suit station. In this you get to upgrade and craft your own unique weapons from a variety of interchangeable parts and statistic modding circuits. You can also just load the weapons testing level and craft to your hearts content and then try out your new guns by spawning Necromorphs.

The demo continues on with indoor and outdoor environments. You also run into some light puzzle action that then builds up to a huge firefight where a giant hideous creature levels the battlefield. It charges toward you just before the demo cuts to the Dead Space logo. A perfect edge-of-your-seat finale.

After we both played it single player, lvl 99 and I got together to try out the co-op. Dead Space 3 features a new drop-in/drop-out co-op mode that puts the second player in control of Sergeant John Carver. The co-op mode adds this character to the same level as single player, only now with added dialog between Isaac and John. This almost felt like a different game with the added exchange between the characters revealing plot details and taking away the loneliness you might feel with just Isaac.

The co-op in Dead Space does a great job of making both player’s characters equally important to the plot. There were conversations between the characters that did not take place in the single player game and John Carver feels like a real, independent character instead of just a second gun. A great thing I noticed as well was that you don’t have to share items with your partner since the items drop for each player independently. The co-op was great, but I’m a little concerned that it might take away from the terror of the game. But, like I said, the co-op mode felt very different from the single player experience so it may not be an issue at all.

For me, this demo comes in at a perfect 10. It’s an enticing and thrilling excerpt that leaves you wanting more.The demo shows off some new enemies, features, and the new co-op mode all in a well polished package. I didn’t get into Dead Space 1 and 2 until far after they came out, but playing this demo has put this game up to a day-one purchase. I’ll be picking up this game on February 5th, and I can’t wait to be terrified once more.

- Skye

Dead Space 3 Xbox 360 Demo Review 6/10

    Preface: In an effort to begin diversifying the content we offer, the Dead Space 3 Demo will be receiving our first dual review. Not only will I be reviewing the demo, but Skye will as well. We hope you enjoy reading 2 articles on the same game. Cheers!

    The Dead Space 3 Demo was extra special because here at Dear Backlog, we got “early access.” For the most part, this meant nothing. It was open to everyone, and the only thing you had to do to get an early access code was to sign up for it on their website. If you didn’t feel like doing that, then there were many other ways to get your hands on one. If you didn’t feel like doing anything, then you could simply wait a week and it would be available to all. Again, it wasn’t anything special, but it made us feel special. It made us excited for Dead Space 3.

    The demo had two options for playing. You could either play the sample content by yourself or co-op with a friend or stranger. I played the demo by myself and with Skye. The first thing I looked for during my co-op run was how the story changed. I knew adding another player into the game would change the gameplay, but I wasn’t sure if they would go the extra mile and change the story as well. Games like Halo have sadly given me this outlook on co-op. To my surprise, the story did change slightly. There were added cutscenes and exploration even changed a bit. For example, at one point in the demo the main character, Isaac Clarke, is trying to bust open a jammed door. During my single-player playthrough I just mashed through the quick time event and went on my way. During the co-op playthrough, the scenario basically played out the same, except this time the other main character, John Carver, locates himself on the opposite side of the door, and tries to help pull it open. Again, they were small additions in the demo, but it showed that perhaps Visceral Games has more co-op specific scenes in store for the full game.

Isaac Clarke and John Carver.

    The graphics and sound were good, but I didn’t feel they brought anything special to the demo. I never stopped playing just to listen to a soundscape and only once did i stop playing to stare at a vista. I’m pretty sure there’s some inspired art somewhere in this game based on footage from games before, but in the Dead Space 3 Demo, it’s all pretty standard sci-fi. There was one time when Skye pointed out to me a specific melody that plays after you upgrade your suit, but if he wouldn’t have said anything, I probably would have never noticed. It may have clicked with him because he has played through the other games in the series.

What I wish I saw in the demo.

What I actually saw in the demo.

    One of the really promising new features to Dead Space 3 is the weapon crafting. You can now build your guns anyway you want. If you want to pair a shotgun with a flamethrower, you’re free to do that. If you want to wield a pistol that does tons of damage but needs to be reloaded often, then you’re free to do that as well. Since this happens to be a huge selling point of the full release, they smartly added the ability to test it out in the demo. Though you can’t fight any Necromorphs in the demo version of the weapon forge, it does allow you to build almost any gun. It’s totally separate from the story, but it allows you plan what you’d like to eventually get your hands on. If nothing else, it showcases one of the new reasons to try Dead Space 3.

    There were some things that bothered me during the demo. They were all really small, but together left a pretty big blemish on my experience. First off, the main menu for the game is just plain excessive. Every time you select a menu option, you have to watch a short cutscene as the menu transforms into something else. The developer must have been thinking that the player would enjoy watching these, but actually it just wasted my time. It only took the menu maybe 4 seconds to transform, but it could have just as easily been instant.

Another thing that bothered me was that during my play-through the game never taught me that I could pick up dismembered parts of enemies and use them as weapons. If I never would have played with Skye, a veteran Dead Space player, I never would have known that was something. Once I learned that, the combat changed drastically for the better. There’s also a cover system in the game, though it’s very unclear when you’re actually in cover. It wasn’t even clear when it was advantageous to use. As far I could tell, just standing behind things and coming out from time to time to shoot was good enough.The demo should have spent time teaching these mechanics.

Lastly, other human non-player characters took forever to kill. I understand Necromorphs aren’t going to go down so easily, but other human enemies should die with a couple shots to the face. These characters weren’t even outfitted with a special suit like Isaac or John, yet they were taking so many shots to the head that I had to reload before finishing them off. I even tried using the alternate fire on the pistol that’s used to cut limbs off of Necromorphs. Sure enough, I fired a shot that should have cut the human enemy in half, but instead he just flinched a bit. This took me out of the game.

I fucked up.

    The Dead Space 3 Xbox 360 Demo receives a 6/10. Above all else, a demo should get you excited to pick up the full game. I applaud Visceral Games for creating a form of hype around the demo release. That was good. Unfortunately, the demo didn’t do the same thing. After playing it, I no longer feel I need to play this right now. The story is the main reason I’m interested in the Dead Space series, and after playing this demo, it’ll still be the main reason I pick it up eventually.

    Needless to say, I won’t be buying Dead Space 3 anytime soon. I haven’t played the previous entries, so honestly, I’m in no rush to play this one. I’ll bite for about $20 after I’ve finished Dead Space 1 & 2.

- lvl 99

Game Goals For 2013

    When the Playstation Vita first came out it was way too expensive. There was absolutely no way I could justify spending $300 on a portable machine. Sure, it was a nice piece of hardware, but we all know hardware’s not what makes a successful console. Even if it would have launched with a killer app it still wouldn’t have been a good idea. It was just too much of a gamble.

    Now, in 2013 the PS Vita is knocking on my door once again, and this time, I plan on answering. One of my gaming goals of 2013, is indeed, to finally purchase a PS Vita and here’s why:

It’s Cheaper

    I’m hopeful that the PS Vita will receive a much needed official price drop by E3 at the latest. Even if it doesn’t, a refurbished Vita can easily be bought at your local Gamestop for about $190. By using that number, I’m confident that I can barter my way into getting one for $150 on Craigslist.

Final Fantasy VII

    Need I say more? Sony finally added the ability for the Playstation Vita to play Playstation 1 games. I own Final Fantasy VII through the Playstation Store and it’s still on my backlog. I’d love to play this game on the go or in my bed. There’s also the promise of Final Fantasy X coming to PS Vita, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Playstation Plus Instant Library

    This was a great idea. In December, the Playstation Plus games available to download for free as a subscriber included Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, and Gravity Rush among others. These are all games I would want to play if I bought a Vita, but I wouldn’t be able to afford them all. I’d have to pick one. I’d easily pick Gravity Rush, but now that they’ve given me free games to play once I purchase a Vita, I no longer have to make that easy decision.

Cross Buy

    This sounded promising when it was first announced but I wasn’t sure if I’d ever use it. I now own Sound Shapes which is a beautiful game on PS3. The idea that I can also play it on my PS Vita at no extra cost sounds awesome to me. I’d love to take it on the go. I also plan on purchasing Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time which is Cross Buy as well.

Persona 4: Golden

    Didn’t I say how games make the system somewhere in this article? Well, here’s a game that I would buy a PS Vita exclusively for. I know it’s also on the Playstation 2, but from what I’ve heard this is the definitive version. It’s also the type of game you play for hours and when I say hours I mean 300+. I bought a DS for the sole purpose of playing Pokemon and anything else I played on the system was icing on the cake. I feel Persona 4: Golden will be this game for me. It has the potential to solely justify owning the system.

    Well there you have it folks. Purchasing a PS Vita is one of my many Gaming Goals for 2013. I’ll be writing about other Gaming Goals I have over the course of January and February. Wish me luck in tackling not only my goals, but my never ending backlog! Cheers!

- lvl 99

The Unfinished Swan PS3 Demo Review 10/10

In The Unfinished Swan you play as Monroe, an orphaned boy whose mother left him with only her paintings, all of which were left incomplete. When Monroe goes to live in an orphanage he can only take one painting, the Unfinished Swan. One night he awakes to find the frame empty, the swan disappeared, leaving only a trail of orange, web-footed prints. Monroe grabs his mother’s paintbrush and follows the trail into a mysterious world of unfinished art.

    When the demo starts your screen is completely white with just a black circle in the center. It took me a second to realize that this was the game world and that circle was my center of view. You aren’t given any directions or tutorial explaining what to do so at first I was confused. Only after walking around a while, and hearing my footsteps, did I know that I was in a room. I tried some other buttons and then a ball of black paint was thrown forth and it beautifully splattered on what I then discovered to be a wall. This lack of direction would probably have annoyed me in any other game but it became clear that the designers wanted me to feel as lost, lonely, and confused as the boy was. This game’s fun is partly in the exploring and learning that you, the player, and the boy experience. This white screen was in fact an unpainted room which led to a whole world that I discovered as I painted my way into a magical storybook kingdom of unfinished paintings.

    The Unfinished Swan is an adventure game where you must explore the kingdom by painting your way through the three dimensional environment. The demo gives you the first three parts of the game. At first your world is completely white but by end of the demo the world is already shaded in a little so you don’t have to feel your way around blindly the whole time. This wondrous exploration is accompanied by a simple and beautiful score of music and ambient sounds that adds to the magic and mystery of the world you are in. As you explore, you find bright golden letters on some of the stark white walls that, once painted, reveal a page of the story written like a children's storybook. These excerpts are read to you by the excellent narrator of the tale. The demo concludes just when you catch your first glimpse of the painted kingdom from a high terrace. Then they show you a video montage of the chapters to come where you see that you will later get to paint in color and that the world is far more beautiful and colorful further down the road. After the video you can purchase the full game to continue your adventure from that point.

I rank this demo as a perfect 10/10. As a demo, this could not have been better. It offered a small portion of the game that is just enough to make you want more. I would, and probably will, gladly buy this game for $15. This game is also playable with Playstation Move which I imagine would pull you into the world even more. If you’re looking for a game that proves videogames are art, check out The Unfinished Swan.

- Skye

Sound Shapes PS3 Demo Review 7/10

    The Sound Shapes PS3 Demo starts off by introducing you to the controls and the goal of the game. In it’s favor, both are pretty simple. You use one button to roll into a faster moving ball and the left analogue stick to move in the 2D plain. You can stick to many of the “Sound Shapes” that you traverse and you must avoid the red ones. At the end of the level you reach a record player which completes the level. The idea of the game is that you make music as you play. The way that works exactly is hard to explain in text, though the Sound Shapes Demo does an excellent job of doing so in game. I will try to explain it just as well.

    The levels are broken up into smaller segments that fit your screen. Once you reach the end of the segment, the game seamlessly switches to the next segment of the level. You can freely go back and forth if you happen to miss a sound orb. These sound orbs are placed in a horizontal order and when the beat reaches that orb the sound is added to the track for the rest of the level. At the beginning of the game there are no sounds. It’s silent until you get your first sound orb. Once you’ve gotten that it’ll play every time the rhythm loops itself back to that part. By the end of the level you’re experiencing the entire song and it’s quite exhilarating. It does feel as if you created the song yourself.

The circles are the added sounds. The grey bar is the beat moving across the plain.

    A game like Sound Shapes will live and die by it’s soundtrack. In the demo you only get to experience 2 of the songs. This was enough to determine the quality of every other working part, but left me wondering what the rest of the soundtrack was like. I didn’t expect to be able to play any more songs, but a video showcasing small bits of the rest of the soundtrack would have been nice. The Sound Shapes Demo could have even touted itself by listing how many songs you’ll get to play.

    While playing the demo, I often questioned the replayability of the game. Other music games like Guitar Hero have higher difficulties and scores that extend the life of the game. In the Sound Shapes Demo there was only one difficulty and after playing the first two levels, perfect completion didn’t seem like it’d be a challenge. I don’t think Sound Shapes needs these things, but for longevity it does need something. That’s where the Community feature comes in. Sadly, I have little idea what the Community feature is. They don’t let you experience any of it in the demo. All that’s given is a short explanation that basically says it’s where you download player created levels.

    The Sound Shapes Demo also shows off the level editor where you can create your own level. It reminded me of LittleBigPlanet. It was simple to use but offered the opportunity for challenge if you wanted to make a masterpiece. Again, this portion of the game interacts with the Community Feature, but the demo didn’t allow me to figure out how exactly. Obviously, I’m pretty sure that if I make a level I can then upload it to the Community server where other people can download my level and vice versa, but it would have been nice to see exactly how that happens. Both the level editor and the Community feature seem to be big parts of the full game, but were mostly absent in the demo.

Coooooooooooool

    The music is the main draw of the Sound Shapes Demo but the graphics are quite the treat and complement the beat through and through. I loved the bright colors that saturated the plain as I rolled through. It brought about a sensation I would imagine people have when they go to a rave. Some of the shapes in the world pulsate with the beat which nods the attention back to your awareness of the music. Small things like this remind you that Queasy Games, the developer, knows what it’s doing.

      One thing that’s unique to PSN games is that sometimes when you buy it on PS3 it’ll unlock it free for the PS Vita as well. That also holds true in the opposite order. This is definitely a bonus to purchasing the full game but I wasn’t able to find this information anywhere in game or on their website. In the Playstation Store it shows that both items are separate purchases. After purchasing the PS3 version, I found out that indeed the PS Vita version unlocked with it. I was still left wondering how they interact though. I imagine they are the same experience on both platforms but can I transfer the same save file back and forth? These questions certainly held me back from making the purchase.

    The Sound Shapes PS3 Demo receives a 7/10. It was a very strong experience but failed to really solidify itself as a must buy. The demo should have included a tease of the soundtrack, a trial of the community feature, and further information about what a purchase would include. I really enjoyed what was there, but with all the questions I had, I was sitting on the fence as to whether I would buy it or not. Luckily, the scales tipped in the games favor because it happened to be on sale for only half the price. If not for that, I probably would have debated too long and eventually forgot about the game.

    I would wait for another sale unless you already have a PS3/PS Vita Combo and it has a transfer save file feature. If those two variables ring true then I’d purchase this game for $15 easily.

- lvl 99

My Game of the Year 2012: Guild Wars 2

    Guild Wars 2 is not just my Game of the Year for 2012. It’s also the best looking game: art and graphics. Technically speaking, it’s also the best scaling game. It’s also the game that redefined what’s expected from MMOs. It’s also the game with the best developers behind it. It’s also...

    The list could go on and on, but I’m just going to tell you a few reasons Guild Wars 2 is my Game of the Year.

     ArenaNet set the bar incredibly high for Guild Wars 2 and what it was going to look like. The concept art gave off a more stylized approach for what the artists had in mind for the game. I expected ArenaNet to get about half of the concept art into 3D graphics. For a 3D game today, I’d say that’s pretty normal. Usually we are fed concept art to get a feel for the game. Rarely does the concept art translate 100% into the graphics, but ArenaNet did exactly that. First off, the art of the game looks hand painted. This gives the impression of movement even though the piece of art is static. I don’t think there’s a better compliment you could give an artist than to say that their painting looks as if there’s life in it. Looking at the concept art, it’s easy to think the game was already made, and only then did an artist come by and paint what they saw. Also, it’s quite baffling to think that multiple people created these works. They all have the same essence of life in them. Every time I log into GW2, I’m blown away by not only the beauty that fills the monitor, but also the detail. There’s so much attention to detail in this game that I’m constantly surprised at how well it runs on my PC.

The prize at the end of the Wintersday jumping puzzle.

    I play and love Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m not here to bash that game. I do want to point out that for whatever reason, GW2 runs better on my PC than SWTOR. When I say this I’m talking about FPS and graphics. GW2 also runs better than Skyrim on my PC. It’s weird to think that an MMORPG could look better than a single player game. I know GW2 came out about 9 months after SWTOR and Skyrim, but still. The first time GW2 really surprised me with its technical prowess happened when I was taking down a champion spawn with 20+ other people. We were all dodging and attacking as if it was just another action game. This was taking place online and there was no lag or slowdown whatsoever. This is the new normal.

    The massively multiplayer online game has drastically evolved this generation. Consumers used to settle for paying $15 a month to play the game of their choice. That’s just how it was. Now that we’ve seen some those same triple A games convert to a free to play option, gamers no longer feel boxed in. This generation has brought an MMO liberation if you will. Now you can play multiple MMOs without breaking the bank every month. Now you can play blockbuster titles without spending anything. Now you can choose exactly how that $15 is going to be spent. MMOs have slowly been implementing new payment options to customers with great success. GW2, building on it’s competitor’s success and failure, was the first triple A MMORPG to launch free to play after purchasing the game. Though ArenaNet didn’t do it alone, GW2 marks the first game to change the way we play and pay for MMOs.

    Although it’s not the first MMO to be free to play after buying a copy of the game, it is the first that feels like a full experience. GW2 doesn’t make you feel like you’re gimped if you decide not to spend real money in game. I haven’t spent one penny after buying the game and I still don’t feel disadvantaged to other players who did. It’s also the first free to play MMO that truly feels like a big deal. Before GW2, F2P games carried around a stigma for being a lesser experience, graphically at the very least, than pay to play titles. F2P also represented a failure of the respective game because generally it was only implemented after the monthly subscription failed to retain customers. With older MMOs converting, the switch from P2P to F2P still carries a small weight to it, but it’s been lessened greatly thanks to GW2. But for future titles, GW2 has set the standard. I want to go on record saying that every MMO we see from here on out will have a robust F2P option. If it doesn’t, simply put, I won’t be playing it.

    After playing the game or reading any number of reviews, it’s easy to see that the developers behind GW2 are very talented. They built a great game that will be enjoyed for many years to come. But we’ve all seen that before. That’s not a new idea. The thing that ArenaNet has pioneered is the idea of communication with it’s fans. I’m not just talking about twitter updates or random emails, though they do that as well. I’m talking about how they’ve gone out of their way to build a game for us. From the beginning they wanted to build a game that not only GW fans but also MMO fans in general have been asking for. No one was really sure if it could be done, but it didn’t stop the internet from demanding it. ArenaNet listened and midway into development they released a Manifesto. This laid out how they’re game was going to be different from anything you’ve played before. Being the first F2P blockbuster MMO experience was certainly one of them, but there were many more. I’m not going to go into detail about all the things they promised. It’s a long and beautiful list. I will say that they kept nearly all their promises, which is also a first for the genre.

Playing an MMO often resembles a relationship with the developer. If you’re going to be spending 10+ hours a week playing their game for years, then you need to be able to trust that the developer is going to support the game and live up to what they’ve said. So far, ArenaNet has done exactly that. They promised to follow their manifesto set out pre-launch. They did that. They promised special holiday events for the game. They’ve all been there. They promised they’d listen to players feedback throughout the life of the game. They’ve been listening. This is by far, is the most exciting thing about playing GW2. I know that the developers still care. In a world where they already have a lot of people’s money, they’re still treating us as special guests. When fans got up in arms with a new armor set, ArenaNet promptly began addressing concerns. They didn’t stay quiet. They didn’t lie to us. They came out and admitted that they fell short and listed how they were going to fix it in the future. ArenaNet did this in many ways. One in particular took place on Reddit, where Chris Whiteside, a Studio Design Director, did a question and answer session. This really showed that ArenaNet listens and knows it’s audience.

ArenaNet’s gift to us.

There are many reasons I left out on why Guild Wars 2 is my Game of the Year for 2012. Again, I could go on and on about how much this game has set a new standard, and even if you don’t feel the same way about GW2, I hope you at least give it a go.

I’m sure Guild Wars 2 will be many people’s Game of the Year in the years to come.

- lvl 99