guild-wars posts

On the surface, an announcement about a upcoming zombie-based MMO from one of the founding members of the team that made Guild Wars would make PC gamers jump for joy. But you can stop your jumping, folks, because we have some bad news. That seemingly dream PC game prospect . . . isn't coming to the PC at all.

That's right. The newly announced Undead Labs, a Seattle-based games studio founded by ArenaNet co-founder Jeff Strain, has announced its plans to make a zombie-based massively multiplayer game . . . for consoles. And just for consoles. In their "Rude Q&A" on the company's web site (their version of an FAQ page), Strain states, "There are scores of MMOs on the PC. There are very few on the console, and exactly zero developed specifically for the console." He adds, "Nobody wants to see a PC MMO ported to console, with a hybridized design attempting to appeal equally to all players."

While we agree that the console space has not been well served by the MMO genre the prospect of having consoles get a freakin' zombie MMO before the PC, and made by people who actually know what they are doing in this space, still hurts us. A lot.

It's just over a week until Black Friday 2009 hits and tons of retailers are cutting prices to the bone for the biggest sales day of the year. If you happen to find yourself at a GameStop store on that day you will be able to get a few PC game bargains. The biggest one has to be for the just released Left 4 Dead 2. Valve's zombie shooter sequel will be on sale during Black Friday for just $29.99. That's a massive $20 price cut on a game that was just released this week.

The entire GameStop Black Friday PC game sales list, as provided by bfads.net, is as follows. Keep in mind that GameStop's stores open at 6 am on that day and the sales are for just two days only.

Guild Wars Trilogy - $24.99
Left 4 Dead 2 PC - $29.99
World of Warcraft - $4.99
World of Warcraft Battle Chest - $19.99
The Sims 3 World Adventures - $29.99

How many times have we been told that the PC game industry is dying? Console games get the vast majority of media attention and sales for a number of high profile console games reach millions of copies sold. However there are still a number of game franchises that have remained, at least for now, strictly for PC gamers only. We know that console gamers would love to play all of the following game titles:

Check out five PC games that console gamers would love to play after the jump

The NVIDIA line of graphics processors are among the most popular (if not the most popular) brand of high-end gaming hardware available today. However, some would argue that these days, graphics cards are offering fewer significant returns with each successive generation. With this in mind, it becomes important for the company to start shifting focus from strictly speed and high resolution frame rates (which are still a very important aspects of PC gaming) to the addressing the gameplay experience itself. One step in this direction was through adopting PhysX technology into its repertoire and having the software run using GPU instead of through a separate card. With PhysX, PC games offer deeper immersion using effects that operate in a realistic non-scripted fashion, like with smoke, cloth and liquids moving in real-time.

NVIDIA's 3D Vision technology takes the game experience even further by bringing games into the third dimension by stereoscoping games in real-time and using special shutter glasses. Unfortunately, not a lot of gamers have $600 to spend on 3D graphics. The glasses alone cost over $100 and the required 3D ready monitors that have a 120Hz refresh rates are very expensive and hard to find, leaving 3D out of the hands of the average consumer. However, NVIDIA has found a way around the prohibitive costs and an easy way to deliver a 3D experience. Not counting the cost of the video card itself, gamers can use NVIDIA 3D Vision Discover for almost nothing... or in some cases, exactly nothing. That's right, by taking the PhysX approach and incorporating 3D technology into the software drivers, PC gamers can literally give their games more depth.

Download the Resident Evil 5 Benchmark

To keep the momentum going in between the recent premiere of the Guild Wars 2 trailer and upcoming release of Aion, NCsoft has announced a special cross promotion offer for current Guild Wars players who also purchase the Aion Collector's or Steelbook Editions; a wings emote that can be used in any of the current Guild Wars games. Yes, your Guild Wars character will be able to flash a pair of wings identical to those found in Aion, but it doesn't look like you'll actually be able to fly.. but be realistic now, you can't even jump in Guild Wars. There's no word at this time on whether or not the emote will carry over into Guild Wars 2. More information about the Aion wings emote can be found on the official Guild Wars website. Although the emote will be accessible forever once the code is inputted, the offer will only be around for a limited time. Aion is scheduled to release in September.

[Update]: The offer is exclusive only to Guild Wars and the emote code will not carry over into Guild Wars 2.

Download the Aion Guild Wars Wings Video Clip (6 MB)
Check out all Aion downloads

As teased earlier this week, NCsoft and developer ArenaNet have now launched a new web site for Guild Wars 2, the long awaited MMO sequel to their hit fantasy game. The site includes a new trailer for the game and a new FAQ is now available to check out.

While there is little new info on the FAQ it does reveal that players will be able to play a variety of non-human characters in addition to humans. There will also be a sidekick system that's similar to another NCsoft game City of Heroes. More info about the lore and races of Guild Wars 2 will be revealed later this year and gameplay info will begin to be revealed early in 2010. Naturally there is still no official release date.

On Tuesday it was revealed that ArenaNet co-founder Jeff Strain had departed NCsoft for unknown reasons. Many sites, including ours, speculated on how this could affect ArenaNet's upcoming and long-in-development online RPG sequel Guild Wars 2. IncGames got a response from another ArenaNet co-founder, Mike O'Brien, which also gave a general status report on the game (the first real one in a long time).

In short, Strain's departure from NCsoft (as its President of Product Development) has not been a factor in Guild Wars 2's development. O'Brien states, "Jeff hasn't been involved in the day-to-day development of Guild Wars 2 since he left ArenaNet more than a year ago." He added, "I continue to lead ArenaNet, and I'm not going anywhere."

And what about Guild Wars 2, which was announced over two years ago? O'Brien states, "We have an amazing team here at ArenaNet, and we continue to work hard on Guild Wars 2, preparing for the day when we can first reveal it to the world. That day is coming very soon now. I'm confident that, when you see Guild Wars 2 for the first time, you're going to love what you see, and any worries you have about its development will fade away."

NCsoft's biggest Western product launch in two years will have to do without two of its key executives. MMORPG.com is reporting that Jeff Strain, the co-founder of NCsoft's ArenaNet developer, has left the company. NCsoft's president of publishing David Reid has also left the organization but a spokesperson for NCsoft said Reid's departure was "an unrelated and separate event" from Strain's.

Strain helped to found ArenaNet in 2000 after working at Blizzard as the early lead programmer of World of Warcraft. ArenaNet was later bought by NCsoft and launched the highly successful Guild Wars series of fantasy online RPGs starting in 2005. In 2008 Strain was named the President of Product Development at the newly revamped NCsoft West.

The company plans to launch its next major MMO game Aion in late September. A spokesperson for NCsoft states that the departure of Strain "does not change our plans or negatively impact our upcoming launch of Aion." However many might be speculating over the fate of ArenaNet's long-in-development Guild Wars 2 which was announced over two years ago but which NCsoft has kept under a cone of silence since then.

Earlier this month we reported that NCsoft and developer ArenaNet were planning on some special celebrations for the fourth anniversary of Guild Wars, their popular quasi-MMO/action-RPG. Today NCsoft announced as part of those celebrations that the Guild Wars lineup of games (Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, and Guild Wars: Eye of the North) has now sold over six million copies since the first game's release.

As we previously mentioned the game's players are now taking part in special in-game celebrations for Guild Wars' fourth birthday. ArenaNet has added a new explorable area to the game along with new quests. They are also giving players ways to redesign and rename their characters. You can find out more about all the new content and features at the game's official web site.

Valve's PC gaming download service Steam continues to add to its list of participating developers and publishers. Today, NCsoft announced that a number of their titles will be made available to Steam customers for the the first time along with future releases.

Starting today, NCsoft's MMO games in the City of Heroes, Guild Wars and Lineage series will all be available to download via Steam. That includes the just released Mission Architect version of City of Heroes. In addition, the upcoming fantasy MMO title Aion will also be made available for purchase and download via Steam. Aion is currently scheduled for release in the US in late 2009. At the moment you can get Guild Wars: Game of the Year Edition on Steam for a 10 percent discount and Lineage II for a 50 percent discount.