Guild Wars 2: What’s Different?

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Aug 29, 2012

Filed under: Game Reviews 204 comments

splash_guildwars2.jpg

I’m a few days into Guild Wars 2 at this point. I’ve tried about half the classes and all but one of the races. I’ve played enough that I’m ready to start making bold proclamations with regards to gameplay. Specifically, this game is my new gold standard for how an online game should play.

Maybe it’s too early and the game is too young to go around making blanket statements like that. If it all turns to frustration and tears later I suppose I’ll regret being so nice. I’m willing to risk that eventuality.

Some people are accusing this game of still being grind-y. Let’s get our definitions straight. Or at least, my definition, since I’m the one writing this thing. I consider grinding to be doing something inherently boring in order to make progress. This intersects a bit with what Chris has said in the past about motivation in his video on gamification. If you set your rewards improperly, then the gameplay becomes a means to an end instead of a source of entertainment. Grind is an even more severe case of the problem, where the gameplay is fundamentally un-engaging no matter how you structure the rewards, and the game has to resort to Skinner Box systems to motivate you to proceed.

gw2_13.jpg

But here’s the thing… Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Guild Wars 2: What’s Different?”

 


 

SWTOR vs. Guild Wars 2

By Shamus Posted Monday Aug 27, 2012

Filed under: Rants 169 comments

splash_guildwars2.jpg

I am going to be talking about Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, I don’t want to fill this post with SWTOR screenshots, so everything you see here is from Guild Wars 2.

I was pretty hard on Star Wars: The Old Republic. But never have I felt less charitable than I do now, after my first day with Guild Wars 2. We can argue all you like about what went wrong with SWTOR. Did EA interfere too much? Did BioWare overreach? Was a grand vision marred by executive meddling? Did a few developers suddenly find themselves with more money and freedom than they had resources and ability?

gw2_6.jpg

We can argue, but it’s all speculation. The only thing I know for sure is that the SWTOR team had some system of revolving-door contractors working on the thing. That’s idiotic and self-defeating. It does smack of EA’s bungling, heavy-handed management that doesn’t seem to understand how to make creative products. But In the end, I just don’t care. We can try to peek in the windows of EA / BioWare and guess at what went wrong, but what’s important is that it did go wrong. It went spectacularly wrong, and I seriously doubt the company is capable of making course correction. I would be delighted to be proven wrong on this point.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “SWTOR vs. Guild Wars 2”

 


 

Mass Effect 3 EP8: Krogan Air-Drop

By Josh Posted Saturday Aug 25, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 301 comments


Link (YouTube)

And the last episode of the week comes to you a day late courtesy of Guild Wars. You’re welcome. It’s an action-packed Let’s Play adventure featuring bad euphemisms by Chris, Rutskarn ruining everything by singing, and me chickening-out at making fun of all of you.

I wonder if Mumbles is going to be mad that we made it this far into the game while she was taking a break…

 


 

Guild Wars 2: The Eikosi League is a Go

By Josh Posted Saturday Aug 25, 2012

Filed under: Notices 62 comments

gw2Eikosi1.jpg

The Guild Wars 2 Headstart is officially live, which means you could be playing it right now if you pre-purchased. As promised, Twenty Sided has set up an official guild for the game. We’re based out of the Henge of Denravi server, and the guild name – since everyone seemed to like it so much – is Eikosi League [dXX]. If you’re looking to join, send a whisper to either Rason Johandy (Randy) or Jeran Extar (me) – or, if that fails and we’re offline, send us an in-game mail instead. We were playing some World vs World, but our server just took over the entire battleground, so… I think we picked the right server.

Hope to see you in game.

 


 

Ding 41!

By Shamus Posted Friday Aug 24, 2012

Filed under: Landmarks 147 comments

splash_shamus41.jpg

I turn forty-one today. A week from tomorrow, this site will turn seven. I have been working on this site for 17% of my life. The site has 3,279 published articles and just over 208,000 comments. So that’s kind of interesting.


Link (YouTube)

If you started reading this year, then you might want to read the Autoblography, which I wrote a year ago as part of the run-up to my mid-life crisis.

 


 

Mass Effect 3 EP7: Some Kid Died!

By Shamus Posted Thursday Aug 23, 2012

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 315 comments


Link (YouTube)

At the three minute mark, I just have to say that particular cutscene failure is completely idiotic. You’re using the turret, and then suddenly you’re standing in FRONT of the turret, doing nothing and taking no action. Then you fall down like a derp. So you’re standing in a place that makes no sense and suddenly incompetent. This really is cutscene making according to the Resident Evil playbook of blatant and infuriating cutscene shenanigans.

Writers: You have command of the very fabric of reality and every other character that inhabits it. You can create objects off-screen and insert characters with whatever motivations you like. You can make walls crumble, things explode, ships crash, and anything else you need to put the player where the story demands. If you can’t make a single cutscene work without contriving a sequence where my character has their pants fall down and they trip head-first into a vat of Brute urine, then you really are shameful hacks. This happens again and again in this game, where I fail not because the enemy has a good plan, but because “Whoops I tripped”.

And it will get so much worse.

And speaking of Brutes, how many games DO have an enemy named Brute? I’m curious, so let’s crowdsource this. Chris or Randy mentioned Tribes. I was just playing Saints Row: The Third, and I’m pretty sure the Oleg clones are called Brute. In Borderlands, Bruisers are called Brutes on the second playthrough.

Okay, so list as many games with foes specifically named Brute. Go!

 


 

Spec Ops: The Line:
Operation FUBAR Part 2 of 2

By Shamus Posted Thursday Aug 23, 2012

Filed under: Game Reviews 171 comments

Last post. This will wrap up our series on the game. Just a reminder that the stuff in the gold boxes is Taliesin.

Part 3

“I get it. This is like Heart of Darkness.”

Actual loading screen.

Walker finds a radio that can reach Konrad. The two of them talk. It’s clear that Konrad has failed in his efforts to evac the city. He’d been ordered to stay out, but he broke from those orders because he thought he could help. His men mutinied, and he ended up killing his own soldiers. He now runs Dubai. The fighting between the CIA, the locals, and the 33rd has torn this city apart.

Konrad must be removed. Walker decides the best course of action is to cut through the 33rd and bring him to justice.

Your team is falling apart. You were a tight-knit unit when you arrived, but the civilian deaths, betrayals, and gunfights with fellow Americans has eroded everyone’s identity and sense of purpose. Compelled either by the tropes of the genre or sheer bloody-mindedness you march onward, shooting people and destroying what little of the city there is left.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Spec Ops: The Line:
Operation FUBAR Part 2 of 2″

 


 
From The Archives:

Joker's Last Laugh

Did you anticipate the big plot twist of Batman: Arkham City? Here's all the ways the game hid that secret from you while also rubbing your nose in it.

 

Black Desert Online

This Korean title would be the greatest MMO ever made if not for the horrendous monetization system. And the embarrassing translation. And the terrible progression. And the developer's general apathy towards its western audience.

 

Grand Theft Auto Retrospective

This series began as a cheap little 2D overhead game and grew into the most profitable entertainment product ever made. I have a love / hate relationship with the series.

 

Overused Words in Game Titles

I scoured the Steam database to figure out what words were the most commonly used in game titles.

 

Silent Hill Turbo HD II

I was trying to make fun of how Silent Hill had lost its way but I ended up making fun of fighting games. Whatever.

 

Deus Ex and The Treachery of Labels

Deus Ex Mankind Divided was a clumsy, tone-deaf allegory that thought it was clever, and it managed to annoy people of all political stripes.

 

Programming Language for Games

Game developer Jon Blow is making a programming language just for games. Why is he doing this, and what will it mean for game development?

 

Gamers Aren’t Toxic

This is a horrible narrative that undermines the hobby through crass stereotypes. The hobby is vast, gamers come from all walks of life, and you shouldn't judge ANY group by its worst members.

 

The Strange Evolution of OpenGL

Sometimes software is engineered. Sometimes it grows organically. And sometimes it's thrown together seemingly at random over two decades.

 

The Truth About Piracy

What are publishers doing to fight piracy and why is it all wrong?