Guild Wars 2

Rienrodrys.7493:

Test.8734:

warbignime.4610:

Pretty well thought and insightful review

This one more is more insightful:

http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns

Although I think the game deserves a somewhat lower score than what they gave it.

Yes and pigs fly.
Don’t make us laugh, a review from a guy who wrote:
" Aging engine has surprisingly poor performance"
AGING?
“Group-focused content in an anti-social game.”
ANTI Social Game ?
“I have an 80 Engineer and 80 Revenant. I’ve spent plenty time in this game.”
Wow 1 class in 3 years before HOT.
Rofl.

He’s right about the aging engine.

Having a very modern GPU and a top end CPU doesn’t help much with GW2 because the performance optimisation for Dx9.0c was completed years ago in the era of songle or duo core processors; this effectively means there is almost no CPU scaling for GW2, i.e. gameplay on a G3258 is pretty much the same as on a i7 4790 most of the time for a giving graphics card. CPU scaling only helps with character population scaling it doesn’t allow the game to be more prettier.This is not true of a Dx11/12 engines.

At the end of the day, the very best graphics GW2 can deliver is only ever going to be the very best deliverable 10 years ago. That current bottom end hardware is capable of delivering excellent 10 years old graphical performance is of course very good news for casuals. However there are strong hints to the age of the engine in the game architecture if not in prettiness – menu system, map system, keyboard based, slow zoning, the game isn’t much different from EQ/EQ2.

Phy.2913:

How is this game anti-social? mobs, loot, chests, even resource nodes are all shared. There’s no tagging mobs or stealing nodes from other players. You’re not forced to group with people, you can just run in and start hitting things and get the same rewards.

What am I missing?

Not forced to group with people.

lilypop.7819:

Phy.2913:

How is this game anti-social? mobs, loot, chests, even resource nodes are all shared. There’s no tagging mobs or stealing nodes from other players. You’re not forced to group with people, you can just run in and start hitting things and get the same rewards.

What am I missing?

Not forced to group with people.

You are forced for certain content, and currently a lot of open world content.

First and foremost, my response was actually fueled by another discussion we had here about PCGamer, IGN, GameSpot, etc. and that certain sites would give a good review to those that pay for it (trick here is to pay for a “believable” positive review and 80-90 is believable) and that some of ANet’s blunders only got fix (or even acknowledged) AFTER one of those sites brought it to the front lines with a nasty negative review.

So my initial response was a jab from that discussion we had here.

As to something that was brought up…

Aging engine has surprisingly poor performance

Most of us vets KNOW that the game’s engine is old and poor performance. It is the same engine GW1 uses. It is only DX9 while we are in the age of DX11 and 12. It is ONLY x86 (32bit). And it pumps almost EVERYTHING through a single core including most of the graphics.

We’ve been asking for DX11 minimum. We’ve been asking for an x64 (64bit) client. We’ve been asking for better CPU optimization and to have more of the graphics pumped to our GPUs.

Group-focused content in an anti-social game.

“WP if you’re dead” ring a bell?

We tried to take the North Door earlier today and just about everyone wiped. And guess what, the WPs were contested and there were STILL players saying “WP if you’re dead” as if we’d be able to get back in time from the start of the zone. Most of us WPed back to the start of the zone and decided go about our business with a group of us headed back to VB to grind out Masteries and loot.

warbignime.4610:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

When it comes to Gameinformer and PC Gamer, yes, good reviews go to companies that buy ads.

Then why the score isn’t higher then? They could easily justify 90 or above.

Maybe they couldn’t?

Straylight.7529:

My “no comment necessary” refered to this line:
“The latest and greatest GPUs can limp along in the 30fps range in most environments even when settings are toned down.”

..which is simply wrong. No discussion needed.

Yeah, because no one ever complains about the poor optimization of GW2 and how it can stutter even on great systems.

Straylight.7529:

No matter what profession you play, you’ll not spend most of your time auto attacking.

As a necro I have 15 active abilities on my ability bar. In order to make the above statement correct I’d have to use it more than 50% of the time which is simply not the case! Checkmate.

Yeah, because no one who has played GW2 has ever complained about how the game favors spamming 1111 while mindlessly following a large zerg.

I would say “checkmate”, if not by the fact that would assume that proving obviously wrong statements to be wrong is something as complex as playing chess. Proving the degree of denial here is more like checkers than anything else, tbh.

Straylight.7529:

Test.8734:

Do you want to see something funny? Take a look at the post history of anyone in this topic. Do you really expect to see anyone attacking the review that agrees with that user’s previous point of view?

Maybe you should have a look at your own post history

Which part of “anyone in this topic” was too hard for you to understand?

Oh noes, some review has a different opinion from mine. Clearly someone must have bribed them because my opinion is the only correct one.

Reviewer played a thief. So, skip past anything, stealth if problems, etc- no wonder he liked it. New maps are a thief’s dream.

Seems to me to be a fair review.if they do something about the crazy amount of xp needed for masterys and fix the constant crashing thats making meta events unplayable this expansion could be salvaged.

Having read it, it is a pretty fair article if you take into consideration that he is writing atleast partially from personal preferences.

He mentions that things are pretty grindy, and that masteries require “a kitten load of events”, and he even touches on the community backlash.
Mentioned as well are frustrating enemy designs, and the complete mess to navigate that is Tangled Depths. And concerns are expressed about whether or not people will keep showing up for meta events.

Since he hasn’t had much succes completing them he probably isn’t aware of the really poor time-to-reward ration for these events.

All in all it’s a fair article that pays attention to both the good and the bad.

Ok I Did It.2854:

I stopped reading that review when they wrote this

“I do like Guild Wars 2. According to the game, I’ve spent 728 hours playing it. 30 days”

How can you properly review a game for the masses that you have only looked at for 30 days, and given there is only 720 hours in 30 days, it further adds to the mystery, im guessing being AFK in LA for a month cannot really constitute playing.

You misunderstood, he is saying that he played the game for 728 hours, which is just over 30 days of time, not that he only played the game for the last 30 days.

I’m not entirely sure how a person can honestly and without bias review HoTs when a lot of HoTs promised content isn’t even out yet.

I’m looking at you raids and legendary weapons/armor.

Uhhhh…. They SAID those things would come out later.

Dengar.1785:

Uhhhh…. They SAID those things would come out later.

Yeah, they shot their old statement of “we will release it when it’s ready” and instead decided to release the already lacking in content “expansion” without many of the features they claimed it would have. Raids, at least the first few legendary weapons, the new squad system, the Fractas leaderboards… All unavailable and all given a vague “later” release date.

Raids were never going to be implemented on launch.

I don’t see how anyone can argue against the engine being poor. It’s 2015, this engine is well overdue to an overhaul, but it will not happen.

I don’t think anyone is arguing against the engine being old. But pointing that out is kind of… I can’t think of the word for it, but basically it really goes outside of the scope of what you’re judging. It’s a game that already exists, you can’t just write a new engine for it all of a sudden, you’d have to re-write the whole game.

Phy.2913:

How is this game anti-social? mobs, loot, chests, even resource nodes are all shared. There’s no tagging mobs or stealing nodes from other players. You’re not forced to group with people, you can just run in and start hitting things and get the same rewards.

What am I missing?

is this sarcasm? you are basically talking about anti social tools. Im not saying it should be social, but those other systems in those games you spoke of, tend to force cooperation, teamwork and sociall structures.

phys.7689:

Phy.2913:

How is this game anti-social? mobs, loot, chests, even resource nodes are all shared. There’s no tagging mobs or stealing nodes from other players. You’re not forced to group with people, you can just run in and start hitting things and get the same rewards.

What am I missing?

is this sarcasm? you are basically talking about anti social tools. Im not saying it should be social, but those other systems in those games you spoke of, tend to force cooperation, teamwork and sociall structures.

No, those other systems force you to go off by yourself and shun other people.

phys.7689:

is this sarcasm? you are basically talking about anti social tools. Im not saying it should be social, but those other systems in those games you spoke of, tend to force cooperation, teamwork and sociall structures.

No they usually force people to be kittens and make sure you get to a target first, forgoing any chance at teamwork ever.

Dengar.1785:

phys.7689:

is this sarcasm? you are basically talking about anti social tools. Im not saying it should be social, but those other systems in those games you spoke of, tend to force cooperation, teamwork and sociall structures.

No they usually force people to be kittens and make sure you get to a target first, forgoing any chance at teamwork ever.

they force you to group up to get loot at a decent pace. Hitting a target first you cant kill, or killking a monster 10 levels lower for crappy loot slowly, isnt usually too beneficial

phys.7689:

they force you to group up to get loot at a decent pace. Hitting a target first you cant kill, or killking a monster 10 levels lower for crappy loot slowly, isnt usually too beneficial

And in GW2, you don’t need to group up for the exact same thing. Anyone can join in a fight and help out. There’s no need to form a party.

Phy.2913:

phys.7689:

Phy.2913:

How is this game anti-social? mobs, loot, chests, even resource nodes are all shared. There’s no tagging mobs or stealing nodes from other players. You’re not forced to group with people, you can just run in and start hitting things and get the same rewards.

What am I missing?

is this sarcasm? you are basically talking about anti social tools. Im not saying it should be social, but those other systems in those games you spoke of, tend to force cooperation, teamwork and sociall structures.

No, those other systems force you to go off by yourself and shun other people.

when executed properly they basically force you to group up. See old ffxi, yeah you could try to solo earn money, but trying to do it via killing was basically dooming yourself to slave wages. I rember one of the famous solo farms, killing tigers for the equivalent of roughly 60 copper IF the drop the fang. Compare that to a team of 6 sharing the loot for a boss fight instance with a pot of the equivalent of 60-500 gold

gathering was pretty antisocial though i admit.

Dengar.1785:

phys.7689:

they force you to group up to get loot at a decent pace. Hitting a target first you cant kill, or killking a monster 10 levels lower for crappy loot slowly, isnt usually too beneficial

And in GW2, you don’t need to group up for the exact same thing. Anyone can join in a fight and help out. There’s no need to form a party.

which is why its anti social.

trust me, i live in a big city, taking the train is not a social experience, even though there is often 20-40 people in the same car.

its basically the difference between a work/friend car pool, and taking a bus.

now, i am not saying they should force these interactions, however, a spade is a spade, the game is not one that tries to force social play very often. Which is the point of the reviewer, because you never have to group, or need help for most things to this day, hero points are seen as crazy.

In ffxi, you needed to group up just to level past 15. Gw2 is antisocial, and they ve made it into a strength, perhaps asocial is a more accurate term.

phys.7689:

which is why its anti social.

trust me, i live in a big city, taking the train is not a social experience, even though there is often 20-40 people in the same car.

its basically the difference between a work/friend car pool, and taking a bus.

Excellent point.

I’ll offer one counter to this… everyone in our train is doing the same thing, so there is benefit to meeting and playing with those 20-40 people vs. random commuters in your real world comparison.

phys.7689:

its basically the difference between a work/friend car pool, and taking a bus.

You mean one forces you to be popular and the other doesn’t care what your social standing is? Now which of these is the more antisocial one? >_>

Dengar.1785:

Raids were never going to be implemented on launch.

Such righteous indignation! Too bad you can’t use it to talk about any of the other features, that were meant to be available at release but simply, well, weren’t

Dengar.1785:

I don’t think anyone is arguing against the engine being old. But pointing that out is kind of… I can’t think of the word for it, but basically it really goes outside of the scope of what you’re judging.

Ah, so what you are saying is basically “Oh noes, some review has a different opinion from mine. Clearly it’s not valid because my opinion is the only correct one”.

Dengar.1785:

phys.7689:

its basically the difference between a work/friend car pool, and taking a bus.

You mean one forces you to be popular and the other doesn’t care what your social standing is? Now which of these is the more antisocial one? >_>

the one that wants you to be popular. Popularity is a social structure, not caring how people fit into a social structure is anti-social.

Like i said, im not saying gw2 should be super social, however the systems gw2 instituted, which make players need virtually no interaction/structure are asocial ones. You sound like you prefer asocial/antisocial play, many do, which was the point the reviewer was making.

Gw2 is the game that said, you dont need to group up, and if people are around cool, if not cool. So in heart of thorns when this changes, it causes problems

If you can replace people with a robot or NPC companion and not notice the difference, it’s not social. Hell scripted NPCs might even talk more than actual players.

I thought the review was decent. Overall positive, and his biggest complaint was fixed by ANET prior to the review going live. Of course there is bias, but ANY review will be biased (positively or negatively). Not too effusive, just a matter of fact list.