After a very long wait, Information from PC Gamer has finally been posted:
Page 1-I like pictures
Page-2 No more Guild wars Chapter 4, hello GW:Eye of the North, a expansion pack, followed by GW2
Page 3-Designers find some aspect fundementally flawed…but 6 months can fix it, kept changing fundemental, yet flawed ideas till a another chapter won’t cut it, a full fledged sequel can
Page 4-explanation on stuff you guys already no about, plus in the 2 year gap between now and GW2m expect a continuous stream of free content, as well as GW:EN
Page-5 focuse on GW:EN-40 new armor 100 new skills 150 new PVE only skills
10 Heros(not all Human) It introduces asura, and gets deep into charr culture, which will bridge to GW2. Introduces monuments, a way of honouring your GW1 Chars in GW2, Storyling focusing on DwarvesVGreat Destroyer, a existing
ominous presense
Page 6-Races! Asura=Techonlogical Race that Live Underground. Charr=We all know. Slyvari-natury race of spirits. Naiive, look like fairys Norns-Shapeshifting race of half giants, look like bulky humans
Also, GW:EN goes into the catacombs
Page 7-You cannot carry over stuff, but can via the hall of momuments, allowing you to display titles of and see the weapons and use minis of your chars from good old GW1
Page 8-GW2 Info here, set several hundred years after orignal GW, but same style, no sci-fiMission Based AND solo friendly, but will also use groups, completely open enviroment, but STILL FREE. Very Interactive Gameworld, such as bandit raids (of AI), no spawn camping or the like
Page 9-Some Bad news….there is apperently no level cap….or a very high one…jumping, swimming and slidding are movement options…, no servers, instead, its gloval. PVP sounds disappointing, introducing “world Battles”, a massive game similar to capture the flag
Page 10-But some Hope for Pvp, all pvping Must be done with non-level upable role playing characters, at a mid-level Players Also get a “companion” or pet which takes no place in the party window. Players that choose not to will have a slightly buffed character
Page 11-A entire page dedicated on the LACK of a monthly fee
Page 12-Final Page-sort of a heartwarming ender
Guild Wars 2 Info from GuildwarsGuru.com:
Guild Wars 2 Summary
Hundreds of years later, in Tyria… sounds more of a race-reliant struggle.
Predominately open worlds, with Instancing as a secondary feature in some areas (not positive on the interpretation). Hundreds of people in the same area, and choices that the population as a whole change the quest structure. PCG gave an example of choosing to rally against a dragon or not. Those that help, gain loot and xp. If the dragon isnt driven away, another ‘quest’ may trigger, leaving more options for the population. Very cool idea IMO.
I’ll just take the level cap stuff directly – “Events will also offer a way for players of different levels to keep interacting in the persistent world – which is crucial, since right now, ArenaNet is planning a very high [100-plus], or possibly no level cap”
Sidekicks simlar to CoH, allowing powers to seep from a high level character to a friendly lower level char.
‘Click to move’ will be abandonned in favor of a more freedom-rich control scheme, including ‘jumping, swimming, and sliding’
destroyable environments?
no real world limitations to servers. you pick a ‘world’, but can switch between the realms.
World vs World combat sounds to be a massive scale capture the flag (AB style?) with no minimum or maximum party size. Big-ass raids that can supposedly take place for weeks on end. At the end, the ‘world’ will be reset, and it will start again it seems.
GvG will still be present, as a more balanced form where everyone is on a level playing field.
Companions: NPC like heros can join you (like a pet it sounds), and dont count towards your party. Not using this feature lets you be mroe powerful.
I think I read somewhere in here that it will be mission-based, but I didn’t see it in my quick second-look.
As of now, there will be no monthly fees, and no ‘campaigns’… mini-expansions, and expansions are hinted at.
Plus, Gaile Gray gives us the official word on the new Hard Mode which will be released sometime in the next 30 days:
Hey, all,
We wanted to get you caught up to date on two subjects about which there has been quite a lot of interest–Hard Mode and Sunspear and Lightbringer titles. Here’s a note from the team about both:
We know that, in essence, it is currently not possible to get the maximum ranks of the Sunspear and Lightbringer titles. When we released Nightfall, our plan was to not allow players to max out these titles until the implementation of Hard Mode. We originally thought this feature would be ready shortly after release, but during testing we found more and more features we wanted to include in the Hard Mode update. The core idea was simple: Give players the option to take on a more challenging version of Guild Wars and reward their characters with better drops and titles than they could achieve in Normal Mode.
The basics haven’t changed, but to borrow a phrase from Tolkien, “The tale grew in the telling.”
Rather than simply staying with the general set of changes and rules we’d originally intended, we’re also adjusting creature Skill Bars throughout the game to make the fights more interesting. Contrary to our original intentions, we’re also including Hard Mode in all areas of the game (except pre-Searing Ascalon). So, if you’ve ever wanted to explore a version of the Flame Temple Corridor with level 20+ creatures, you’ll be able to do that with Hard Mode. This, of course, is requiring us to adjust some rules about how loot is generated.
We’re adding a few new items we think you’ll like that drop only in Hard Mode. In addition, we’re altering the way locked chests work in Hard Mode, including the addition of lock picks that can be used on any locked chest. Unlike keys, which disappear after you use them once, with a lock pick, you will have a chance of using it on more than one chest, and that chance will increase based on your Lucky/Treasure Hunting titles. We’re also adding new titles, Guardian and Vanquisher, which have required extensive testing and balancing of all the missions in Hard Mode. (This meant doing such things as making sure a human Hard Mode team paired with an NPC team in the Vizunah Square mission could still achieve Master’s level completion.)
Beyond all of that, we’ve also realized during the course of development that these changes give us the ability to rebalance several things in Normal Mode that players have found too challenging or unpleasant. For example, we’re altering the death explosions of the Afflicted creatures in Factions, creature distribution in particularly difficult areas, monsters scattering away from area of effect spells, and healer creatures running from melee attackers indefinitely. We’ve also decided to add a number of PvE-only Sunspear skills, which will be available to players through both Normal and Hard Mode.
In short, we’ve taken this extra time as an opportunity to make many aspects of the game better, and because of that, the Hard Mode release is taking longer than originally anticipated. We currently believe it will be ready within a month, if not sooner. We hope you’ll find it was worth the wait.
__________________
Gaile Gray
Community Relations Manager
ArenaNet
www.guildwars.com
