"GUILD WARS" Live E3 Demo (FREE FOR ALL!)

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-05-08 01:13am

Get ready, because on May 12th thru 14th, a company made by the 3 big guys from Blizzard (the ones who developed Battle.Net and played an important part in all of its big games) will open up their servers for an online demo of "Guild Wars", their latest (and first) MMORPGthing.

So get off your lazy ass (well actually sit down on your lazy ass) and download the client now, it's a fully streaming game, the download is only about 200k (plus a big 10 mb initial burst of content) and the rest is downloaded as you play. Right now you can create your user for the event.

You will be playing at the same time they're demonstrating this thing on E3, and best of all this game will be completely Free. They're going to release some kind of "campaign packs" every 6 months that you can buy if you want, but there's no cost for the game nor subscription fee (hope it's worldwide tho). And it's kinda story orientated, since you'll take campaign missions with your party, etc.

Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.guildwars.com

EDIT: oh yeah, after that it's still gonna be at least 2 or 3 months till they release the full game, I guess, but I hope I can sneak in during the closed Beta stage.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-05-08 02:53am

What if I allready got it on CD

I'm probebly going to either be playing, or watching streams courtesy of Gamespot.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-05-08 04:18am

How much can you acutally play in a couple days? I've read its more FPS-like in gameplay, but still, its not much time; not for an MMO.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-05-08 05:26am

It's not like you're losing anything for playing the demo. Hell, it's smaller than most demos.

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-05-08 06:12am

It seems impressive. I will give it a try.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-05-11 08:48pm

They've started it early. If you want to try it, download the game now and connect.

It's about an initial 8 mb download for the login screen, then after character creation it loads about 12 mb more. Don't know how much will it transfer afterwards.

Meest · Post by **Meest** » 2004-05-11 10:39pm

Seems pretty good so far, its kinda like FPS, in the sense you can get into some instant action if you want to, or go and build on your character solo or in co-op.

Graphic engine is pretty good, fast servers, pretty vast clipping range so makes for great ranged combat. Its going to be free service game, so looks well worth it, better than some of the recent subscription MMORPGs.

Bugsby · Post by **Bugsby** » 2004-05-11 10:56pm

Damn thing crashed my computer every 5 minutes. Now you might not have the same experience, but Im not touching this thing again.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-05-12 02:40am

Fun game, but after 30 minute, my PC locks up from heat.
Will set up fan then play more.

Impressive graphics.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2004-05-12 02:40am

Looks nice, but sadly this comp would melt and catch fire before it would run that.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-05-12 07:51pm

It feels like the bastard child of Diablo and Shadowbane; I really can't say I like it.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-05-12 11:31pm

I'm not liking it that much myself. Really looks like some kind of Diablo (max 4-8 players) and the towns and outposts are little more than the equivalent of the Gunbound "chat" rooms.

It's not such a bad idea to have that kind of quests, but a system like the one I heard of Anarchy Online (with unlimited autogenerated quests) would have been nice, plus also a world to roam and fight where you can meet the other players.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-05-13 12:26am

Grouping and chat is awkward, movement is difficult at times; and whenever I go to fight a "boss" monster I always lag heavily. I'm going to give it a 2/10, it's just not very good. I played it for a good 5 - 6 hours, and I have to say it is not good at all. Guild Wars goes into the list of poor MMO's, which is getting upsettingly large.
And on a side note, I don't see how "skill" came into play in the game at all.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2004-05-13 01:39am

InnocentBystander wrote:Grouping and chat is awkward, movement is difficult at times; and whenever I go to fight a "boss" monster I always lag heavily.

Yeah, uh, it's kind of an alpha build.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2004-05-13 02:41am

It seemed kinda good. Already terms like "nukers" and "tankers" are popping up. Anyway, it's still got a lot to iron out.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2004-05-13 04:04am

One thing I didn't like (but that doesn't really tell us anything) is that they chose a very cool, distinct type of armor as the "generic" one for this demo (and doesn't look a bit like ringmail).

But as I said, it doesn't tell us at all how the final game will be.

Meest · Post by **Meest** » 2004-05-13 08:15am

Gotta remember this still alpha. Its more polished and better than most of the recent betas lately.