Remember Ascalon?

This isn't Ascalon as we knew it.

Guild Wars 2 - Learning to Swim at Kessex Peak!

I did spend a lot more time underwater learning the combat there.  It's actually really challenging since your aggro bubble is 3 dimensional.

This is somewhere in the Kessex Peak region.  Yes, that is a shipwreck.

Apparently turrets are disabled underwater (which is good, they don't exactly float).  I couldn't use any good healing skills.  Party battles are hard to coordinate here but, the good news is that you just need to surface to regen health and rally - far easier than on land.  One thing that GW2 did very well is to make underwater battle not just a rehash of land battles.  It really is a different experience although within the same rules.

This is what you surfacing to breathe and regen looks like.  The monsters will try to dunk you back under though.  That's always fun.

The Lost City of Atlant... - WAIT - Lion's Arch

This time I focused on what was under the water - as I will during the actual release.  I have reasons for this.  I know that the game has made the greatest strides in this area.

I tried out the Asura portals and quickly learned that you can fall THROUGH the ones that aren't active.  Unfortunately, it takes a little more work to dive off the the portal platform in Lion's Arch (or what passes as Lion's Arch...I'll get to that).

So this is how I fell out of the portal to the Sylvari area...I wound up on the rocks below and then got stuck inside the bridge to the portal.  It was kind of weird.  I sent a ticket asking if I was supposed to be able to walk INSIDE the bridge supports.   If you still can in the final release, I'm going to assume that it's a "yes".

New vs Old

There is a lot of fresh content or new spins on old tricks in the upcoming Guild Wars 2 game although much is fairly standard for the modern MMO.  Let's break it down!

The GW2 BWE Closing Thoughts

This is ultimately a marriage of traits from numerous games - including the original Guild Wars.  One thing which I notably miss is the apparent lack of the quirky titles like Drunkard here - I mean, I've had every rum bottle that isn't nailed down and I still don't see drunk visual effects or points accumulating for it.  I do feel that Guild Wars 2 has given up a part of the Guild Wars identity in game play while staying true to the lore.

The Good

I love Points of Interest - the design team had fun and we can see it, enjoy it, and be rewarded!

I love the massive persistent world and the minimal zone lines/breaks and World Events and Personal Story as opposed to Quests and Missions.  They didn't just rename things, they changed how they felt.  It really does seem more natural and I feel that the bar has been raised.  GW1 was a story-driven game and GW2 appears to be one as well - although, I'm sure, you could just sit in a level-capped area and kill easy monsters all day with huge, overpowered weapons and skills from karma-merchants.  You'd probably get laughed at though because this is a persistent world.

I do feel that there are items imported which add flavor or utility to the game - experience for exploration (previously seen in WoW - although GW gave a title for exploration, unless we're having a definite GW3, this might be a better approach), Waypoints which need to be tagged prior to use (the Final Fantasy series used these in both MMOs), and massive character creation variety (PWO had the opportunity for you to make yourself look pretty ridiculous with customization and Aion, I understand, did the same).

The GW2 BWE Phase Five: Living (and Dying) In a World

The world itself is full of interesting little details - points of interest (go look at them), art, hints of the prior game and new features.  Vendors, repair and crafting are fairly standard but there are twists on things we've seen prior in other MMORPGs.  For example, you can now swim and battle fishes underwater.  As an Elementalist, my attacks totally changed for battle and even took into account that I was still fire attuned!  Finally, a game that doesn't expect that I will do the same thing underwater that I did while on land!

The GW2 BWE Phase Four: The World Itself

I've mentioned that you can kill yourself by jumping off of bridges or mountains.  I've done it.  You will get hurt based on how high you jumped (so it's not always lethal) and water does NOT cushion your fall from what I've seen.

It's a pretty big world but the starting areas are focused in what those who've played the first Guild Wars would know as the Divinity Coast (the little village grew in 250 years), the southern Shiverpeaks (I'm sure that the Dwarves having the plotline they did last game has something to do with their complete absence), and Ascalon (which is no longer so barren and burning and more overrun with Charr and angry ghosts of cursed Ascalonians from the first game - I don't blame them since, if I were killed by Charr and then cursed to walk the land for all eternity by my king, I'd be pissed after a couple hundred years).  Apparently Elona has undergone some changes although Elona proper isn't even on the map at this point - just the portion with Ascension from Prophecies.

I was pretty confined to these areas above.  I did try to get out or into areas through zonelines they haven't activated yet only to encounter the "big red NO sign".