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

Guardians of Middle Earth PS3 Demo Review 9/10

Guardians of Middle Earth is the new MOBA (that is Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game just released for PS3 and Xbox 360. For those of us who are unfamiliar with this genre of game, it works basically like this: you control one character, in this case referred to as a Guardian, and you run down a lane from your base towards your enemy’s base whilst destroying defense towers that will hinder your ultimate goal of blowing up your enemy’s base. You are followed by a bunch of AI soldiers who will help you fight off opposing Guardians and, for the most part, simply be cannon fodder for the towers while you pick away at the tower’s health bar. Other players online then control different Guardians so the whole thing is a team effort. I had played a little League of Legends (a popular MOBA game) before and never really got into it, but if you throw a little Lord of the Rings into the mix I gladly give the genre another go.

This game starts off with a cinematic featuring Gandalf and his heroes of good against the Witch-King of Angmar and his dastardly group of evildoers. Plus Gollum who promptly tries to eat Gandalf’s face. An action-packed brawl commences with weapons and spells flying, and at one point I had to wonder how this scene made it past the copyright department at Marvel. Then just as the Heroes seem to have won the day Sauron himself steps into the fray. This has got to be good, right?

Middle Earth's Mightiest Heroes

This demo came in the form of a 60 minute trial so as a demo it's really just the full game with a timer. In this trial you are given various famous characters such as Gandalf, Eowyn, Gollum, and Legolas to use as your player characters. However there were some pretty cool side stage names a fan would recognise from the books like Beregond of Gondor, and Thrain the Dwarf that are also playable characters. There are some named orcs from the books for the evil side of the battle as well.

As the trial begins you are prompted to undertake the tutorial before jumping into the action, which I begrudgingly did even though tutorials usually are pretty tedious and unnecessary if you have half a brain to learn the mechanics. Seeing as how I’m pretty much a complete novice to this type of game I figured I could use all the help I could get. However I discovered that this tutorial was pretty straightforward and was over in no time at all.

After the tutorial finished and I exited back to the main menu, the game (like all trials) asked me if I wanted to unlock the full game. It did this also every time I finished a match. All in all, one of the least annoying trials I’ve played as far as nagging you to buy the game. 

Then it was time for the real action. At first the game only allows you to play an offline AI match, with no human teammates or opponents. Maybe if I were a MOBA veteran this would have annoyed me, but for the sake of a demo review, I preferred to rule out the possibility of some internet jackass ruining my experience so I only played offline. They give you the option of a single-lane match, with one road from yours to your enemy’s stronghold, and a three-lane match. First I played the three-lane choice and chose my Guardians and started play. The game starts and you are off towards your foe with your allied Guardians in step barrelling down the road. Soon your little minion soldiers spawn and bring up the rear and the action commences immediately with the quick death of one side’s Guardian. In this first instance it was, of course, me. But that didn’t hinder me and I had soon bagged my own kills and leveled up multiple times. The game has a simple level up system where you choose which special ability to improve then back to killing. Later you can choose to upgrade your troops and defense towers, which are just as easy to execute. After a long and drawn out battle, the forces of Mordor overcame the Free Peoples and I was sent back to the main menu in shame. However, I had increased my rank and could now unlock a few more features of the game. Of course I would have to buy the game to explore these features as my time was running short.

What I, sadly, could not do...

So I quickly launched a single-lane matchup, which promised quick brutality and set off again. The promise was promptly fulfilled and I was brutally defeated again. Perhaps I should have enlisted the aid of some more experienced allies online...

All in all this was a pretty great trial that I’d rank a 9/10. Not intrusive at all in its attempts to take your money and the time limit is long enough that you can get a good feel for the title. After playing this trial I would think about buying the game at some point, but it doesn’t immediately grab a spot on my priorities list. At $15 it seems like a pretty good deal, but you do have to pay another $15 for the season pass to access all of the playable characters. But if you’re into MOBA games and the Lord of the Rings, give this game a try. It may just be pitched battles between high-ranking names from the LOTR canon, but it’s very well made and pretty fun. Even if I was sorely defeated.

-Skye, Resident Lord of the Rings Expert