Thursday, August 20, 2009

Polar Bears: Guild Wars 2 Looking Good

Guild Wars 2 has a new website and a new trailer. Normally, MMOG previews are full of computer generated cut scenes and movie-like storytelling. Not so with Guild Wars 2: the video is full of in game footage and the game looks absolutely stunning.

I was most intrigued by the Polar Bear people and would be interested to find out if they are an NPC faction or playable race. Unfortunately, I read through the FAQ and they are not exactly a playable race:
Will Guild Wars 2 have non-human playable races?

Absolutely! In addition to humans, players will be able to create, customize, and play a variety of non-human races.

* Charr - Ascalon's conquerors, the charr are ferocious, warmongering creatures--the intractable foes of humanity. Now, as greater dangers threaten their conquests, charr legions and their war machines prepare for battle.
* Norn - The norn are towering brawlers from the frigid northern lands who can shape-shift into mighty bestial forms. Driven from their homeland by a force beyond reckoning, the norn have regrouped among the dwarven ruins of the Shiverpeaks.
* Asura - The asura, who once ruled the caverns and tunnels below Tyria, are an advanced race of small size and great intellect. Now that they have risen from below, the asura aim to rule the surface world with their powerful golems and ingenious plans.
* Sylvari - Not much is known of the sylvari, save that they are a race of sentient plant-beings, newly blossomed into the world. The sylvari are the youngest of the races, bound together by a common dream and awesome power.
But hopefully, Norn, can shape shift into being a polar bear, because that would be cool.

8 comments:

  1. Seriously? What in game footage? Terrain fly overs and concept art? C'mon man. Granted the art looks good but I am not sure you watched the same trailer. Kudos for starting the hype train though

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, the Norn were introduced in the Eye of the North expansion, and they do shift into bear form.

    Looks like they'll have additional forms for GW2 which will be great.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The IN game footage where it actually shows things actually IN the game, like NPCs walking around and flybys of the environments. No, it didn't show gameplay or combat, but I never said it did. I prefer to see CG trailers the first time I boot the game up, not years before the game even launches.

    ReplyDelete
  4. There was plenty of in game footage shown. The cities look fantastic and the environments in general are really something to behold.

    The Asura looked neat (if what I saw were the Asura).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Agreed. I was never a huge Guild Wars person, but even I couldn't help but be impressed with both the in-game footage in the trailer and the fact they skipped all the CG hype nonsense.

    Looking forward to see more.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Graktar6:29 PM

    @Hudson, the in-game footage was in the middle of the trailer -- if you only looked at the beginning and then skipped to the end you missed it.

    I liked that the graphics didn't seem to be a huge step up from Guild Wars (which are still quite good even now), but rather a big step up in the use of geometry. Hopefully GW2 won't be a system crusher.

    I loved Guild Wars, even if I did only beat 2 of the 4 campaigns, and I'm really hopeful for GW 2.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ Graktar

    My problem with the current Guild Wars graphics is the invisible walls. The background is just that, a background. I would have quite enjoyed exploring some of the areas of the original Guild Wars beyond the invisble barriers.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8:11 AM

    The world shown in that trailer is jaw-droppingly beautiful. I only played GW during beta, but, as an explorer type player, I might have to try GW2.

    ReplyDelete

Join the conversation; leave a comment!