Came across this article and passing it along to our fans and readers of Guild Wars 2. I would like to thank nowgamer.com and Adam Barnes for posting this article and review 
Guild Wars 2: A Perfect 10 - NowGamer
For the click link impaired I copied and pasted the article below
Guild Wars 2: A Perfect 10
Adam Barnes
Feature
We delve into the factors that could mean Guild Wars 2 has the potential to score the perfect 10.
Published on Jan 13, 2012
Guild Wars 2 is an ambitious game, you can be certain of that. ArenaNet has been protective of its darling, keeping a beta back from Guild Wars 2’s baying fans in favour of meticulous in-studio balancing and bug-testing.
As yet another in a series of features taking a closer look at the big name games of 2012, NowGamer takes a closer look at the elements that could make Guild Wars 2 a potential candidate for a 10/10 score at review.
The MMO That Isn’t An MMO
Guild Wars has long been seen as an MMO but technically it’s not. Its developer, ArenaNet, is adamant it’s a co-op RPG over an MMO – and who are we to disagree?
But this is one element where Guild Wars 2 will improve. ArenaNet has set the foundations with the original, and now it has the luxury to tweak and improve the system ready for its release date; whenever that is.
There are still MMO elements, of course, but many of the changes already put into place – from the combat system to the way PvP is handled – is so much beyond what has come before that those lines between genres are going to be even more blurred than ever.
Next-Gen MMO PvP
That’s ArenaNet’s words, not ours, by the way. Confident words they are too, but that’s not surprising considering the innovative system being implemented.
World vs World combat is something that has – in various guises – been seen before in online RPGs, most notably in Warhammer Online’s Realm vs Realm combat.
This is different though, pitting three different servers against each other in fortnightly combat. Here each world must work together to collect resources, rebuild defences and try to gain an advantage over opponents.
With an expected number of around 500 players during battles, these WvWvW battles are likely to be the most innovative PvP feature seen in an RPG for a very long time.
Dynamic Events
The quests of MMOs have been a running joke for a long time now, resorting to typical fetch quests and ‘kill 10 boars’ style of objectives. Needless to say, that’s worn a little thin now.
So here to save the day is ArenaNet, who has decided to cut out those irritating quests for something a bit more fluid. Dynamic, you could say.
What it means is that objectives are activated by a series of unknown requirements – from speaking to a certain NPC, finding a certain item or just visiting an area at a specific time of day.
This spawns a chain of events that act as quests yet, regardless of outcome, keep offering a new objective to work for – enemy goblins may well capture a fort after ‘failing’ one event, but that just opens the new objective to free it once again. There’s a lot of longevity here, and could well be the element that gets the most praise from critics.
It’s Ready When It’s Ready
What is it with PC developers that decide we’re only allowed access to a game when it’s good and ready? Have they not heard of the much-loved day-one patch?
Too few developers/publishers these days hold back the release of their games in favour of fine-tuning a game until its perfect. Of course ArenaNet has an idea of when it wants to launch, but it’s not going to spoil the hard work by telling us that.
So like Valve and Blizzard before it, we’ll give ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt. Everything seen and heard so far sounds fantastic, so if we need to wait a little longer while they perfect it, that’s fine by us.
Real, Tactical Combat
If ever there was proof that Guild Wars 2 isn’t an MMO it’s in the combat. You won’t find yourself tapping once and watching combat happen, in Guild Wars 2 you’ll need to be far more active than that.
Namely, positioning and timing are key elements here. The Mesmer’s portal ability, for example, let’s them quickly jump behind an enemy, catching them off guard.
Not only that, but learning to combine each skill – and more to the point, which skills work best together – is where the depth of Guild Wars 2 really comes in. It’ll be refreshing to actually enjoy – and think about – RPG combat again.
Tweaks To Skills
Meanwhile, changes have been made to the loadout of each character. Rather than have a widely customisable string of abilities dependant on the chosen class combinations – as was common with the original Guild Wars – now it’s a little… different.
The first five abilities are limited to weapon or class combinations. The sixth is chosen from a list of healing abilities while the seventh, eighth and ninth ability are non-class specific. The final tenth ability is an elite skill and is unlocked over the course of playing.
What this means is that there’s a choice to be made in what skills are worth equipping, but also that – if you wish – you’re more than able to survive the game solo with the correct choice of equipped skills and attacks.
It’s Not All About Combat
For all its MMO tropes, the original Guild Wars had very little to do outside of the instances and combat. There was NPC interaction, but not much else.
Guild Wars 2 will rectify that, and not just by adding in crafting. Activities will be scattered throughout the world, and are a range of mini-games to play away from all the seriousness of cutting up beasties.
There’s 30 or so planned for release, ranging from simple shooting galleries and snowball fights to free-for-all bar fights. If that doesn’t sound fun enough, there’s even custom, aesthetic skins for clothing and weapons to be won should you win.
The Lore And The Story
Few games capitalise on their purpose built worlds as well as they should. Mass Effect and Dragon Age are rare cases, while World Of Warcraft is a more fitting comparison.
Guild Wars 2 is looking set to hone in on the world created in the original and fill out its mythology a little more – while accompanying novels will provide real detail for those hankering for more.
Most importantly, though, all this will tie into the storyline of the game – which in turn is affected by the dynamic events mentioned earlier. The result is a storyline that is personal to every player, and though the end result will likely be the same, the thousands of permutations means how you get there is the focus.
High Grade Visuals
Guild Wars wasn’t an ugly game, but it still tried to tailor for as large a group as possible, which resulted in open, empty areas and fairly rudimentary character and environment models.
So it’s pleasing to see that Guild Wars 2 will easily be one of the best looking games on PC this year. A lot of effort has gone into building an impressive trifecta of geometry, textures and art style.
Now with the backing of its fans, ArenaNet has the time and resources to spend honing its visuals that will make it outstanding from start to finish.
Quality Over Quantity
The ultimate point that needs making is ArenaNet’s newfound motto of ‘quality over quantity’. By the release of the final expansion pack there were reportedly around 1200 skills – that’s a lot, if you didn’t already figure it out.
So with Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet has adopted its new adage, not only for its skill-count but for the game at large. This means a lot of balancing. The team won’t add something for the sake of it, meaning every single element included will be considered and thought-out.
It’s an approach that too few developers deem necessary these days, and could be the deciding factor that turns Guild Wars 2 from a great game into a perfect game.
Click the links below to find out how other big name games of 2012 could score the prestigious 10/10:
Guild Wars 2: A Perfect 10 - NowGamer
For the click link impaired I copied and pasted the article below
Guild Wars 2: A Perfect 10
Adam Barnes
Feature
We delve into the factors that could mean Guild Wars 2 has the potential to score the perfect 10.
Published on Jan 13, 2012
Guild Wars 2 is an ambitious game, you can be certain of that. ArenaNet has been protective of its darling, keeping a beta back from Guild Wars 2’s baying fans in favour of meticulous in-studio balancing and bug-testing.
As yet another in a series of features taking a closer look at the big name games of 2012, NowGamer takes a closer look at the elements that could make Guild Wars 2 a potential candidate for a 10/10 score at review.
The MMO That Isn’t An MMO
Guild Wars has long been seen as an MMO but technically it’s not. Its developer, ArenaNet, is adamant it’s a co-op RPG over an MMO – and who are we to disagree?
But this is one element where Guild Wars 2 will improve. ArenaNet has set the foundations with the original, and now it has the luxury to tweak and improve the system ready for its release date; whenever that is.
There are still MMO elements, of course, but many of the changes already put into place – from the combat system to the way PvP is handled – is so much beyond what has come before that those lines between genres are going to be even more blurred than ever.
Next-Gen MMO PvP
That’s ArenaNet’s words, not ours, by the way. Confident words they are too, but that’s not surprising considering the innovative system being implemented.
World vs World combat is something that has – in various guises – been seen before in online RPGs, most notably in Warhammer Online’s Realm vs Realm combat.
This is different though, pitting three different servers against each other in fortnightly combat. Here each world must work together to collect resources, rebuild defences and try to gain an advantage over opponents.
With an expected number of around 500 players during battles, these WvWvW battles are likely to be the most innovative PvP feature seen in an RPG for a very long time.
Dynamic Events
The quests of MMOs have been a running joke for a long time now, resorting to typical fetch quests and ‘kill 10 boars’ style of objectives. Needless to say, that’s worn a little thin now.
So here to save the day is ArenaNet, who has decided to cut out those irritating quests for something a bit more fluid. Dynamic, you could say.
What it means is that objectives are activated by a series of unknown requirements – from speaking to a certain NPC, finding a certain item or just visiting an area at a specific time of day.
This spawns a chain of events that act as quests yet, regardless of outcome, keep offering a new objective to work for – enemy goblins may well capture a fort after ‘failing’ one event, but that just opens the new objective to free it once again. There’s a lot of longevity here, and could well be the element that gets the most praise from critics.
It’s Ready When It’s Ready
What is it with PC developers that decide we’re only allowed access to a game when it’s good and ready? Have they not heard of the much-loved day-one patch?
Too few developers/publishers these days hold back the release of their games in favour of fine-tuning a game until its perfect. Of course ArenaNet has an idea of when it wants to launch, but it’s not going to spoil the hard work by telling us that.
So like Valve and Blizzard before it, we’ll give ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt. Everything seen and heard so far sounds fantastic, so if we need to wait a little longer while they perfect it, that’s fine by us.
Real, Tactical Combat
If ever there was proof that Guild Wars 2 isn’t an MMO it’s in the combat. You won’t find yourself tapping once and watching combat happen, in Guild Wars 2 you’ll need to be far more active than that.
Namely, positioning and timing are key elements here. The Mesmer’s portal ability, for example, let’s them quickly jump behind an enemy, catching them off guard.
Not only that, but learning to combine each skill – and more to the point, which skills work best together – is where the depth of Guild Wars 2 really comes in. It’ll be refreshing to actually enjoy – and think about – RPG combat again.
Tweaks To Skills
Meanwhile, changes have been made to the loadout of each character. Rather than have a widely customisable string of abilities dependant on the chosen class combinations – as was common with the original Guild Wars – now it’s a little… different.
The first five abilities are limited to weapon or class combinations. The sixth is chosen from a list of healing abilities while the seventh, eighth and ninth ability are non-class specific. The final tenth ability is an elite skill and is unlocked over the course of playing.
What this means is that there’s a choice to be made in what skills are worth equipping, but also that – if you wish – you’re more than able to survive the game solo with the correct choice of equipped skills and attacks.
It’s Not All About Combat
For all its MMO tropes, the original Guild Wars had very little to do outside of the instances and combat. There was NPC interaction, but not much else.
Guild Wars 2 will rectify that, and not just by adding in crafting. Activities will be scattered throughout the world, and are a range of mini-games to play away from all the seriousness of cutting up beasties.
There’s 30 or so planned for release, ranging from simple shooting galleries and snowball fights to free-for-all bar fights. If that doesn’t sound fun enough, there’s even custom, aesthetic skins for clothing and weapons to be won should you win.
The Lore And The Story
Few games capitalise on their purpose built worlds as well as they should. Mass Effect and Dragon Age are rare cases, while World Of Warcraft is a more fitting comparison.
Guild Wars 2 is looking set to hone in on the world created in the original and fill out its mythology a little more – while accompanying novels will provide real detail for those hankering for more.
Most importantly, though, all this will tie into the storyline of the game – which in turn is affected by the dynamic events mentioned earlier. The result is a storyline that is personal to every player, and though the end result will likely be the same, the thousands of permutations means how you get there is the focus.
High Grade Visuals
Guild Wars wasn’t an ugly game, but it still tried to tailor for as large a group as possible, which resulted in open, empty areas and fairly rudimentary character and environment models.
So it’s pleasing to see that Guild Wars 2 will easily be one of the best looking games on PC this year. A lot of effort has gone into building an impressive trifecta of geometry, textures and art style.
Now with the backing of its fans, ArenaNet has the time and resources to spend honing its visuals that will make it outstanding from start to finish.
Quality Over Quantity
The ultimate point that needs making is ArenaNet’s newfound motto of ‘quality over quantity’. By the release of the final expansion pack there were reportedly around 1200 skills – that’s a lot, if you didn’t already figure it out.
So with Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet has adopted its new adage, not only for its skill-count but for the game at large. This means a lot of balancing. The team won’t add something for the sake of it, meaning every single element included will be considered and thought-out.
It’s an approach that too few developers deem necessary these days, and could be the deciding factor that turns Guild Wars 2 from a great game into a perfect game.
Click the links below to find out how other big name games of 2012 could score the prestigious 10/10:
