I almost forgot about this months beta event! This months beta event is focused on PvP. They claim they totally remade the PvP, but it seems pretty much the same as before. I wander over to the Gladiator Arena to see what all this hype was about. I enter I join a match and BAM! I see what I saw before. I am with 3 other people all with blue capes....The countdown begins...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1. The doors open and my team enters an arena as well as 4 other people in red capes. We charge at one another and kill kill kill! If you win you go on to fight another group of people, if you lose, you go back to the arena area and wait. I haven't made a 'PvP character' for the beta, but I will later and hopefully the PvP will improve. The PvP isn't bad, but it's more like Team Deathmatch. In a way it's cool because I have never seen PvP like this before, but I would also like to see some of the more traditional PvP.





Ascalon city has been re-made for the better. It is now atleast 5 times larger, which is good because it IS the main city of the game. When you started off in Ascalon city (during the previous beta) you see this HUGE city full of houses, grass, happy people, then after one mission your city gets attacked and Ascalon is suddenly this smaller city of rubble with weird glowing rocks, and castles that just magically appear! Now in this months beta the burnt down city looks more like it should. There are ruined homes everywhere, broken down things, Ascalon city has sign posts in it now to direct you to different areas. Crafting areas, merchants you name it. Now instead of everyone gathering at the firepit selling things and spamming the chat there is an area made for people selling and buying things. This makes it a whole lot better and easier to sell.





This beta has a lot of bugs, because you can tell they kind of rushed for the beta dead line. Many texture issues, I can walk through metal rods, just about 80% of the rocks, and there are a few other glitches, but I am sure these will all be fixed because they are so obvious and minor. They changed the experience meter from a small sleek bar above your health to this half-inch monster of a bar. I chose to keep it turned off as it is a huge distraction. One thing I miss is the Guild Hall, which I hope they bring back. I think they got rid of it just for this beta weekend or atleast I hope so. Each guild could go to their Guild Halls and challenge other guilds, so it was like the PvP except you got to choose who you are fighting with. (In the PvP now it just puts you with 3 random people. In the Guild Hall it's One Guild vs. Another.)

Althought this beta weekend is supposed to be focused on PvP, I think I am going to explore a bit more, because this game is HUGE. Let me show you an example of just how huge this game is.

Here is a zoomed in map. Notice I am in Ascalon City.


And HERE is the full map when I am zoomed out. Notice Ascalon City is now a small dot in the upper right hand corner. (Click Picture for full size map)

Bump

WoW > Guild Wars

'nuff said.

*plays some WoW*

And EQ2 > WoW

Guild Wars sounds like it has PvP potential for the people who actually enjoy killing other people. In EQ1 the redbies (red server folks, which were the PvP servers) were total jerks. I hope this stereotype doesn't hold true for other MMOGs.

* plays some PlanetSide because MMORPG gameplay is boring no matter which flavor it is *

Oh, and since PlanetSide is PvP only (no NPCs) and is a FPS, everyone is a jerk; luckily the language and slang isn't as bad as Counter-Strike. So I guess since I play PS I'm a jerk...

Quib

Anything > EQ2

Anywho, back to Guild Wars.

Agreed. This coming from someone who played EQ2 for 3 months.

More shots for the people!

Yea, I remember reading about this a while back in PC Gamer. Looks pretty awsome, but I don't have the money or time to spare to dedicate to a MMORPG anymore sadly. But I'd probably pick WoW over this simply because it has more 'fun' factor IMO.

You do realize that this MMO is free once you buy it right? No monthly fees.

Also--the gfx are starting to look a lot like WoW. But I don't know why you're posting about this beta when it's only for people who bought the game previously (at least that's what I thought)

The game seems really.. bland.

The game looks nothing like WoW, except for maybe some of the more snow filled areas. Also, I am posting for people who want to know more about the game, and people that are considering buying it.

Guild Wars was really, REALLY boring when I played it.

I'll probably give it a whirl. I hope there'll be a demo or something, though.

Did you play any of the last 3 betas? The ones before it were pretty crappy, there weren't any co-op missions it was just PvE with few quests. The new betas have amazingly fun co-op missions once you go to the Acadamy (If you don't go through the Acadamy it isn't much fun.) I am at a part of the game where you are allowed to party with up to 6 people (used to be 4..I'm guessing it will continue to increase), the co-op missions are lengthy and each one has side-quests you can take as well. It's far from boring.

Kirby, that's because you never went through the acadamy. Which means you never did ANY co-op missions. You and I just killed birds and crap for an hour. People should give games a fair chance before dismissing them

Yea, we were able to do co-op missions and such. Last time I played the game was about the middle of February or something.