Up to now: Guild Wars 2

It's been just over a month since release. Many people have surfed the Dynamic Event waves to level 80, and  the PvP players are starting to get some crazy looking attire. It's been hugely successful in the brief time we've had it, but can it hold on to its end-game magic long enough to keep people interested?

Starting off with the personal story; a pleasant, though scripted game-play experience for one player to share with friends, if he/she desires. The idea is that once you've completed one character's personal story, you could have a completely different experience with a new character. A new race, new class, new quirky background stories about your involvement with the circus. However, this simply isn't the case. Regardless of how many variations you make in character selection from your previous play-through, you will only see a real difference up until level 40-50 ish. It's at this point where the game moves away from your choice of faction (Vigil, Whispers or Priory), and towards the Pact. The Pact is an alliance of all three of the player-chosen factions. This is also the point where the Sylvari Trahearne, takes the lead role in the story away from your character. This needs to be done or the game would feel broken by having so many player Pact- commanders. After then, the variation comes from the 'fork-in-the-road' conversations in which you choose a plan of action. Trahearne, naturally, defers to you for every major decision in the campaign against the dragon, Zhaitan. It makes you wonder,
'Sorry, who's the commander, again?'
Not to mention Trahearne's wooden acting (excuse the pun), which somehow allows him to make a stirring speech of Martin Luther King proportions sound like a 'mind the gap' tube chant. Maybe it's so he doesn't steal your character's bad-assery spotlight, but still. I love what ArenaNet have done with this part of the game, but the personal story's lead role could have had a little more charisma, no?
Varied or not, the final clash with Zhaitan is something to behold. Riding a flak-cannon toting airship headlong into a horde of lesser dragons never gets old, and using an Asuran mega-laser to blast bits off the boss-man is indeed as fun as it sounds. You'll also get some neat rewards for finishing the plot, which are randomly generated within certain parameters. The only issue I have with the system as it stands, is that the final personal story battle is a story mode dungeon, and some of the players who aren't as proficient in MMOs and are just there for the personal story will have some serious trouble reaching the end of what they're playing the game for. There is something to be said for making the game challenging, but perhaps the challenge is best left for the explorable-mode dungeons.
But seriously, if you can, do Arah story mode at least once. You won't regret it.

The ruins of Orr. A bleak, yet oddly picturesque landscape.

The Dynamic Events in the highest-level zones go one-step further in terms of their scale than you would have seen before level 80. Take the top-end Norn zone, Frostgorge Sound: the 'meta event' chain results in a Claw of Jormag (a huge ice dragon) to attack the north-eastern-most corner of the zone. It takes about 30-40 players to pick up some Charrzookas, fend off ice elementals and arm flak cannons long enough to bring the blighter crashing headlong into a mountain. Then, the players must defend siege golems as they carry bombs to the grounded dragon's feet while hordes of Icebrood attack from two sides. At the end you're rewarded with a chest which contains level 75-80 gear and a vendor appears that sells top-level crafting recipes. As always, however, the mob of players will always be disorganised. There's no real replacement for raids that ex-wow players will be looking for. At the end of it all, it seems that the Karma system (the currency gained from completing events) is just something else to collect in order to forge a Legendary weapon. More on that later.

Explorable mode dungeons are the mainstay of the endgame PvE. Like in other MMO's, doing these dungeon runs earns you tokens, which can be exchanged at a vendor in Lion's Arch for weapons and armour that have a look tailored specifically to their respective dungeon's theme. They recently changed the system so that the tokens are only rewarded at the end of the run. This is to prevent players exploiting resetting the dungeons after the first encounter for quick tokens. There's plenty of variety of appearance among the dungeon sets, and you can even mix and match and still get the set-bonus benefits by using transmutation stones. If you so choose, you can have an entirely unique-looking set of armour. No identi-kits here.
There is a problem with how the way the routes are chosen through the dungeon, but one that isn't easily fixed. You are presented with three to four options on which route to take at the beginning, and the party is given the vote on each one. Democracy, folks! However, this means that each of the routes has to have the same 'token reward/time' ratio for the majority of PvE players to be interested in doing it. This made the Scholar Magg run of Citadel of Flame the best route to take for tokens, even with increased end-rewards from the other routes. This prevents players from experiencing a great deal of content when playing with strangers, as it's so difficult to persuade anyone to explore content that is numerically inferior in terms of its rewards. To my relief, ArenaNet are quickly working out a solution whereby the first run-through of any explorable route per day will yield sixty tokens, which means you get the best of both worlds. The rewards... and the gameplay experience.

Another day at work for a Charr paramedic

WvWvW or World versus World versus World (... versus World?) provides a genuine use for your hard work in PvE by allowing your level 80 gear stats to carry over. Some will complain that this makes in inherently imbalanced, but World PvP in any game has been about how many chums you brought to the party, rather than your individual stats and skill. This mode also provides a PvP fix to players that maybe aren't quite confident enough to play in structured 5v5 PvP. You can get an insane amount of gold, experience and Karma; all of it scaling to your level to provide the best reward. The server matches go on for two weeks, and create friendly rivalries between servers. Well, mostly friendly... this is the internet. A well-organised guild force can coordinate its use of siege weapons, and when it pushes out into the field, to great effect. There's a feeling of pride when taking a large chunk of land from an opposing server, and holding back the counter attack. You did your lot proud. There is no reward other than pride for winning a server match-up, but honestly, what better and more lasting reward can you get out of an MMO than pride?
Plus, you can create and use Iron-man style 'Alpha Siege Golems', (Sort of like Dreadnoughts from Warhammer: 40k)  which is a reason to play by itself.

This brings me to the Legendary weapons. I'm talking supreme instruments of mass Skriit destruction. A unicorn bow that shoots rainbows, and all that good stuff. These may be cool as can be, but I disagree with how they are attained. They require you to spend weeks gathering enough Karma, enough dungeon tokens, enough crafting skill, enough WvWvW tokens and gold to make, and I think that for a game that was sold promising 'no grind,' this seems very out of place. I can understand that ArenaNet only want a few people on each server having one, but creating a super-long grind isn't the way to achieve that end. Having an achievement-based system (i.e. accomplishing something that's near impossible) would have worked better. It says more about the weapon bearer if they got it through achieving something, rather than having a lot of spare time on their hands. Eventually, as it stands, everyone who really wants one will eventually get it before the expansions are released. Still, it's something to work towards that MMO players really want when they play, so an item that takes a long time to acquire achieves that end.

At last, I'm brought to the sPvP (structured). It's not really 'endgame' as such, nor is it 'early' or 'mid-game'. It's a different game entirely, and one where the only progression is aesthetic rewards. It's sleek, tactical and requires some game knowledge to play and watch, but no where near as much game knowledge to watch as a game like WoW does. This is thanks to the capture & hold mechanic on all of its maps. Red and blue numbers make it easy to determine who's winning, and who just did something awesome. The catch? It's not going to attract any audience outside its own player base. This is no Starcraft, which can be appreciated by a broad range of viewers. When the ranked tournaments are finally released, however, I think we will see the Guild Wars 2 PvP scene explode with enthusiasm.

So, the endgame has its issues, and its dead-ends. However, the levelling experience is by far and away the most engaging levelling experience in an MMO to date. There is also no subscription fee, and paying for the expansions means you pay for content as it is released, rather than for how long the developer takes to bring out said content. The WvWvW game is infinitely captivating and the PvP has a healthy competitiveness in its community that so many other games miss. The PvE game will not keep you occupied as long as other MMO's, but that's because it doesn't hold you back at every turn with arbitrary grinds and restrictions. It's a shortened PvE experience with most of the tat taken out and left aside.

Skulking Around In: Natural Selection 2

It's getting close to its release now, so I thought I'd do a write up on the sequel to a well-loved Half-Life mod that I've had an absolute blast/shoot/chop/stomp with.

First, a little glimpse into the history of Natural Selection (NS1). It blended the genres of FPS and RTS, giving players the goal of destroying the enemy base, much in the same way as Savage. However, Savage didn't come up with the concept to begin with; it only gave a commander to both sides. The commander controls the base-building and team-support mechanics of the game. He also has exclusive access to certain NPC units that simply do his/her bidding and nothing else. He issues orders to his team mates, and they can choose which goals to prioritise. Giving the foot-soldiers creative freedom gives the game an interesting dynamic. Instead of giving a specific order of <Attack Target> and then <Wait for Further Instruction>, the commander can explain using voice chat the over-arching goal he wants his team or specific marines to accomplish. Imagine, for a moment, that a Zealot from Starcraft could intelligently assess the situation and edit the commands given to him to best suit the situation.
'No, high templar, it would be better for me to protect our ramp's choke point to prevent any zergling run-bys!'
Ace.
This is, however, a double-edged sword. A new (or less cooperative) player could completely disregard the commander's orders, and the disorganised confusion would likely give the other team a few windows of opportunity to destroy resource towers and take more bases.

NS2 develops on the first game by allowing both teams to have a commander. Previously, the aliens would share the duties of a commander by assigning each other tasks over the mic, but now the process is streamlined with their newly dedicated boss-skulk. It allows for the better allocation of the alien team's brain-power. One player handles placing down structures, ordering upgrades and general care-taking, the rest of the team can focus purely on bringing down the enemy marines and resource towers.

It'll take more than bleach to get rid of that stuff

All of the classic units and upgrades remain; including the:

• Skulk: The aliens' base-unit. It has a melee-range bite, can run on walls and ceilings, has enough movement speed to make Greyhounds wish they could run on walls.
• Gorge: The aliens' builder unit. It's sort of like a deep-fried piglet that vomits healing acid. it can also build 'clogs,' which block movement through tight corridors, and Hydras, which are miniature turrets, which can net you a view kills from careless marines.
• Lerk: A pterodactyl which sprays toxic gas in its wake. This makes it difficult for marines to push locations without flame-throwers to systematically burn away the fumes. It can also be upgraded to shoot spikes from glands protruding from its body, which make it great for harassing at range.
• Fade: With blades for hands, the fade is a real nuisance for marine players. Its teleportation and phasing-out-of-reality capabilities, coupled with its beastly melee damage will often force marines to use shotguns to bring it down quickly.
• Onos: An Incredible Hulk of flesh and chitin that can break doors and stomp to knock down nearby marines. They can't digest a single target any more, however.
• Jetpack: A late-game changer. Marines will rejoice to get these, finally able to match the mobility of the alien units in open areas. They are an expensive upgrade however, and they're lost on death.
• Exo-Skeletons: A huge bulk of metal and gunnery is exactly what the doctor ordered to clear out those pesky alien entrenchments. They're also the marines' salvation against the infamous Onos.

The power mechanic has proven itself as a system that induces genuine fear in NS2's players. Once the power node in a sector is destroyed, marines lose a huge visibility advantage while having to contend with the aliens' infa-red alternative. It will also power down all structures in the vicinity. If the power goes down in your main base, as the marines you'd best have some repair tools to hand to patch it up quick, or GG's will fill your chat-log. It serves as a good real-life reminder that you should stay on top of your electricity bill.

The Crevice... Where Lerks and Jetpacks reign

Graphics technology has taken leaps and bounds since the original mod, and NS2 looks incredible. The lighting effects and shadows are spot-on. Not only do they look impressive, but they can conceal skulks in the shadows without the need for intentionally not rendering something to preserve the stealth mechanic. The HUD is sleek, and stylised to which team you're on. It's a beautiful game, but that does mean that it might have trouble running on a number of machines. If you're thinking of buying it, make sure to compare system specs and requirements, and note that optimisation is still improving going forward.

It would be great to see this game do well, as the development team is very well involved with the player base. So far, we haven't seen a precise release date, but its coming this summer. If you can run it, I'd thoroughly recommend giving this gem a shot.