Guild Wars 2

Excuse me for a moment if the following post qualifies as too “fanboi”.

I have been playing Guild Wars 2 for almost 2 years. I have completed a legendary weapon (working on a second), completed dungeon master, enjoyed the Living Story during the periods in which I was able to play, and enjoyed most everything PvE has to offer.

I didn’t realize that I was missing a tremendous amount of this game.

I was lucky enough to be able to upgrade my machine this Christmas, and I need to thank Arenanet for creating such a beautiful environment to play in. On my previous machine, with near-minimal settings, I already found so much to appreciate compared to your cartoonish competitors (and I say that as someone who invested years in multiple other games).

Over the past few hours, however, I came to truly appreciate the game you have designed.

I still have my gripes (not enough diversity in rare loot, better dungeon rewards, more complex world bosses in the mold of Teq, etc).. That being said, I find myself marveling at the world that has been created, even though it is all too familiar to me. Thank you for that, and happy holidays.

A pleasantly surprised veteran.

Absolutely! Particularly upgrading my video card during my time playing this game the last two years (and counting ) brought out so much more details than I’d previously even known was there.

And this is indeed a beautiful game! In fact, this game and The Elder Scrolls Online are two of the best-looking MMO’s I’d ever experienced (and I’ve been experiencing MMO’s for at least 1 1/2 decades now).

It is a beautiful game indeed

Ya, sometimes it’s nice to take a pause from the fast paced looting and immerse yourself in your surroundings… ^^

It’s easy to miss beautiful views in the midst of playing. Recently one of the daily tasks was to view a vista in Maguuma. I decided on an easy one in the Grove that I have done on all 10 of my characters. This time I saw scenery I really hadn’t noticed before:

Used to be more beautiful.

Yeah, i always so that my issues aren’t with the game itself, but with the company managing it. Theres slot of just, drop-dead gorgeous stuff in GW2. They truly did have a dream team working on the initial development and art direction.

slamfunction.7462:

Yeah, i always so that my issues aren’t with the game itself, but with the company managing it. Theres slot of just, drop-dead gorgeous stuff in GW2. They truly did have a dream team working on the initial development and art direction.

This (is not enough letters, so a sentence).

The new areas are beautiful, don’t want to take away from the team(s) that are area building, very nice job indeed creating textures that aren’t in the game yet (though, I’d love more grass and bandits and towns and such ala Queensdale, but that’s one person’s preference).

My angst is solely directed at whoever decided (a year and a half after release, mind you) that they needed to go CleanFlicks on the person that worked on the original models and animations, and whoever came up with some of the old mix-n-match clothing (which was clearly approved and put in the store).

So, yeah, it used to be beautiful.

I especially appreciate some of the more hidden places in the game like that bamboo waterfall area in The Grove. Gorgeous.

Currently I’m looking at getting a better monitor as I noticed my friend’s PC is not a gaming one; they have whatever cheapest components in it yet their monitor is quite new and everything looks so much more crisp even on lowest/low-mid settings as opposed to mine on ultra with however old this monitor is, hahaha.

I agree so much potential to enjoy it while enjoying other types of tasks outside of the kill all the time trap that many an MMO has fallen into these days. I used to login stop what I was doing and stand there to look at the way the world was put together, but there’s only so much of that you can do before moving on because of several missing pieces in the game play.

Guild Wars 2 is easily the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen. You can call that fanboi fanaticism, but I call it fact.

Not saying all areas are, and other games don’t have beautiful backgrounds, but almost everything in the game looks like you could hang it on the wall.

The original developers definitely got the look right.

I love the beauty and variety in the maps of GW2! After 2 years, I still love exploring all over Tyria even after getting 4 characters with world map completion with 2 more on the way. I wish I could view the game with better graphics than my laptop can handle, but even in moderate graphics settings the world looks brilliant and dazzling. I feel like a lot of love went into making the world of Tyria in GW2, which has made the game amazing from the start!

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to run the game on very high settings from the get-go. But I had a couple of guildies playing on minimum due to old computers who then got upgrades. They posted before/after pics in the same location to demonstrate just how wonderful it was to go from a muddy smear to a fine-grained sandy beach.

I remember a beta-era video where a reviewer stood near a book case and slowly notched up settings. From a flat surface with some vertical marks it resolved into a textured piece of furniture with every book spine distinct and the surrounding wallpaper filigree delicately detailed. I love when I can zoom in on armor to see the fine texture; the Noble’s Coat in particular has the most marvelous herringbone weave in the cloth parts.

While I’ve been playing some WoW WoD recently, I just grimace at the aesthetics and zoom out as best I can so as to ignore them. GW2 makes me linger on the looks.

I still find myself, even though I have played since shortly after release, stopping in game and just looking and admiring the scenery. Some really nice work on the artists’ part.