Originally posted by Nitth

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And im saying maybe the pr guy that isnt directly involved with accounting has got his wires crossed.

Regardless, it has/is happening so im not complaining.

I didn't see the second bit of your post.

I changed aftwerwards.

As in my edit it wasn't the first time I saw a similar tweet.

The OP is entitle to his/her opinion. I don't think an hour is fair to the game for fanbois OR haters (or the more mellow cousins of either, the likers and the dislikers).

What really gets me and I think it takes away from the overall possible informational value, is the last paragraph. It seems that people just can NOT refrain from making a stupid sarcastic comment even when it lessens their position in an discussion.

"Maybe I can justify the box price by sitting in the character creation screen for a few hours...." Really? You just helped invalidate your entire multi-page post by not being able to rein in on a foolish comment.

*shrug*

For info, I've been playing WoW since US release in Nov 2004, I'm still playing (mostly doing PvP), and I'm definitely not a WoW hater. Now to the points...

1) Agreed.

2) Agreed. Jeremy Soule... 'nuff said.

3) The voice acting during the personal story is arguably not as good as in games like SW:TOR or TSW, I found it to still be acceptable and to do the job, but the voice acting from NPCs in the world is fantastic and greatly contributes to improve immersion.

4) If you don't like one race's personal story, just try another race. For instance, I found the human story very "meh", but I love the Norn story. For my sister, it's the opposite. ANet have done a good job trying to give a different experience for different people. And about the "writing"... yeah, sure, it's so much worse than some static NPC sending you to kill 5 rats in his field, which is WoW's top notch writing. Do you remember the quests in the WoW starter areas? Go kill 5 wolves. Great, now go kill some orc spies. Awesome, now go kill some worgs and bring me orc weapons. Amazing writing, really! If you base your opinion about a game as complex as a MMORPG on the starter areas and one hour play time, you're doing it wrong, starter areas are always intentionally simple, not everybody is a MMO veteran.

5) What's your computer? I have a Phenom II X4 940, 8GB DDR2, a HD6870 and a "classic" harddrive (not a SSD), and I run the game with everything maxed out smoothly (1920x1080 resolution), despite that computer being several years old.

6) If you only play with auto attacks, you're doing it wrong, and you won't live long once you leave the starter areas and mobs become smarter and harder.

7) I could eventually agree to some extent here, with some caster weapons the repetitive auto attack looked a bit weird to me too. But on most weapons they are just fine.

8) As I said, I've been playing WoW from 7+ years, and I didn't notice any difference in the camera handling between the two games. I never had to stand still to zoom in or out.

9) Didn't notice that either, but some people do. I guess it just doesn't annoy me.

10) That didn't afffect me either. You say that the performance on your computer isn't very good, that may be the source of that problem for you.

11) As said above, don't judge a MMORPG by the complexity of its starter areas. Remember killing 5 wolves in WoW? How exciting! The first few events are intentionally simple. Wait until you see events than span over a whole zone...

Conclusion:

I have played WoW up to heroic mode raiding for 7+ years, and also done a lot of PvP in that game, and I had zero problems adapting to GW2. I find the controls smooth and responsive. I wasn't surprised by the combat either, possibly because my MMO experience isn't limited to WoW but also includes games like Asheron's Call. And PvP in GW2 without the resilience gear grind is just awesome, World vs World feels a bit like a mix between vanilla WoW's AV battles and Wintergrasp on steroids, but only much much better.

This WoW player will make GW2 his new MMO home. So to the reader who played WoW but who didn't try the GW2 yet: don't believe what people say (this includes the OP but also myself), and just try the game YOURSELF, as opinions are like... you know what. And give the game a little more time than one hour spend swapping between the classes.

I don't get why people are bashing the OP because he only played an hour.

He doesn't call it a review but a first impression. Gaming magazines do it all the time so they are wrong to?

And all the points he makes could be easily determined after only one hour, except point 11 maybe.

Or do the camera, animations, voice acting, dialogue, framerate change after the first hour?

Well you only played for 1 hour and i guess most of that time you played with your camera zooming and character creation screen.

that's just minor things

Well, I think he's right about several things - and most importantly, the writing DOES suck and the voice actors DO suck. It's like they REALLY didn't care about the personal story.

I certainly hope they didn't - because if they DID care, and that's the best they can do, it doesn't bode well for the story in the other quests or the world lore.

Wow..just..Wow..  I cannot begin to say how il-informed you are about a game.  I pretty much disagree with every single aspect of your post.  Everything.  I am going to go out and say that your opinion is wrong.  Yes, your OPINION is wrong, because you judge it on hour? 

As people have said, how spammy does your mage look in WoW when hes casting fireball over and over and over and over in WoW until level 10 or beyond?  In GW2, you fill up your action bar in about 2 or 3 levels, and each auto attack in the animation is completely different than the previous swing. 

You judge the dynamic and world events on what is going on in queensdale.  You say the events are terribad in the game based on what you saw there.  Thats like saying the Lich King fight in WoW will be utter crap because I am killing wolves in Elwynn forest.

Next time you come to a gaming site like this one, especially this one since people are are quite hostile, form a more informed opinion on more than one hour of gameplay.  Get out of the starter zone, and actually see the game. 

Ive NEVER been a big pvp player.  Ever.  Always PVE.  And while I absolutely love the PVE content in GW2, after yesterdays stress test, I am super stoked about PVP.  I now understand why combat is the way it is in GW2, and its awsome!

Originally posted by thekid1

I don't get why people are bashing the OP because he only played an hour.

He doesn't call it a review but a first impression. Gaming magazines do it all the time so they are wrong to?

And all the points he makes could be easily determined after only one hour, except point 11 maybe.

Or do the camera, animations, voice acting, dialogue, framerate change after the first hour?

 

 

Some are opinion, like dialogue lines.

Calling the voice over horrendus and the story so bad he has to skip it even though he never skips story in a MMO is BS - it might not be the best, but it is far from being bad, especially the voice acting.

Camera I only read that it isn't equal to wow and other mmos - I didn't know cameras had to be equal to WoW.

Frame rate has been vastly improved - and lowering the detail actually increases FPS. Obviously some options don't stress the GPU that much, but on the other hand, no system specs given. Still beta and stress test at that and improvements are visible.

Animations - opinion. Although, to me animations feel very good..

Originally posted by thekid1

I don't get why people are bashing the OP because he only played an hour.

I'm not bashing him, but I'm disputing his ability to comment on several points of his list because of that very short play time, yes. See my previous post about the starter areas, for instance. In all MMORPGs, the starter areas are much more simple and also forgiving than the later areas, because not everybody is a seasoned MMO player and newbies should get time to adapt to the game. In WoW you kill 5 non-agressive wolves, then kobolds, then a few orcs, in GW2 you have very simple dynamic events and hearts compared to what you experience once you leave that starting area.

So yes, there are things you just can't judge in just one hour.

One reason people don't consider his review warranting any merit is due to the unprofessional phrasing of most of his points. He clearly was trying to actually create issues of his own, going in with some pre-concieved notions that the game is not very good and that the hype is all balogney. He probably is well aware then he can refund his pre-order and at some point decided to join the GW2 anti-fan club before he hopped into the beta and only played for an hour. If he quit playing after one hour this has to be the reason, or he is just not a very smart consumer. There is more then enough information out there to get a good idea on how GW2 plays and what to expect. If he was able to determine that he did not like the game after an hour; anyone with a bit of logic could have figured this out without even playing and wasting their time. That is the issue here.

If he talked about the 3 hearts he managed to finish and roughly 5 dynamic events rather then focusing more on stuff to do with the camera and judging how the entire game works based off autoattacking mobs enough to unlock 2 weapons worth of skills his review would have some value. He didn't even touch pvp from the looks of it. Really the most you have time for is roughly that, 3 hearts, 5 dynamic events, 1 sPvP match, level 4-5, and 2-3 weapons of skill unlocks. It will take you 10-15 minutes just to get out of the tutorial area, oriented with the game, setup the graphics,keybindings, and other options for the first time. If that is what he focused on he would have had a much better first impression. (not necessarily one that is good, but one that has more value)

Originally posted by thekid1

I don't get why people are bashing the OP because he only played an hour.

He doesn't call it a review but a first impression. Gaming magazines do it all the time so they are wrong to?

And all the points he makes could be easily determined after only one hour, except point 11 maybe.

Or do the camera, animations, voice acting, dialogue, framerate change after the first hour?

 

 

You are correct, he calls it a first impression.  But what he fails to maintain in his post is a reminder to the audience that "Hey, I only played one hour, so while I think the opening questing experience is terrible, it has the possibility to open up and be awsome since the dynamic events and world events are supposed to have an impact and chain together later on".  He flat out says "The questing stinks, the gameplay stinks, the combat animations stink, the acting stinks" as if that is his final word on the game.  Not a first impression anymore, but it sounded like a final word.  So we come here to bash him for that because that is the feeling he got after one hour...no longer just a first impression but a determined opinion.

Originally posted by DKLond

Well, I think he's right about several things - and most importantly, the writing DOES suck and the voice actors DO suck. It's like they REALLY didn't care about the personal story.

I certainly hope they didn't - because if they DID care, and that's the best they can do, it doesn't bode well for the story in the other quests or the world lore.

What personal story did you play?

And what do you think of the chat of non personal story NPCs?

Originally posted by swordmark45
If this hour was during the stress test. Then you have nothing to say

Because camera, quests and skill animations are different during stress test?

Originally posted by DKLond

Well, I think he's right about several things - and most importantly, the writing DOES suck and the voice actors DO suck. It's like they REALLY didn't care about the personal story.

As I already said in my first answer to the thread, if you don't like one race's story line, play another race. My sister loves the human story which I find quite "cheesy" (women... sigh... ;)), while I love the Norn area story which is way more "rugged".

Originally posted by cesmode8

Wow..just..Wow..  I cannot begin to say how il-informed you are about a game.  I pretty much disagree with every single aspect of your post.  Everything.  I am going to go out and say that your opinion is wrong.  Yes, your OPINION is wrong, because you judge it on hour? 

As people have said, how spammy does your mage look in WoW when hes casting fireball over and over and over and over in WoW until level 10 or beyond?  In GW2, you fill up your action bar in about 2 or 3 levels, and each auto attack in the animation is completely different than the previous swing. 

You judge the dynamic and world events on what is going on in queensdale.  You say the events are terribad in the game based on what you saw there.  Thats like saying the Lich King fight in WoW will be utter crap because I am killing wolves in Elwynn forest.

Next time you come to a gaming site like this one, especially this one since people are are quite hostile, form a more informed opinion on more than one hour of gameplay.  Get out of the starter zone, and actually see the game. 

 

Ive NEVER been a big pvp player.  Ever.  Always PVE.  And while I absolutely love the PVE content in GW2, after yesterdays stress test, I am super stoked about PVP.  I now understand why combat is the way it is in GW2, and its awsome!

 

Yea it is unfortunate that after 8 years people expect something more. How dare they.   That being said, I've played many hours of BWE and agree with the OP on most of his points.  The voice acting / dialogue are incredibly cheesy. This probably won't change even with it being in beta. The events do get better as you move on through the game, but still have the same premise and little replay value (neither did standard quests).

I have hope for the rest. Hopefully ANet notices the camera / control issues during the beta (They've received feedback, from me and others im sure).

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

Originally posted by DKLond

Well, I think he's right about several things - and most importantly, the writing DOES suck and the voice actors DO suck. It's like they REALLY didn't care about the personal story.

I certainly hope they didn't - because if they DID care, and that's the best they can do, it doesn't bode well for the story in the other quests or the world lore.

What personal story did you play?

And what do you think of the chat of non personal story NPCs?

I've played Human Thief and Norn Ranger until about level 15 both. But it's not just their stories - it's the entire "main story" delivery and quality that's not very good. It's in stark contrast with games like TSW and TOR - because those games put most of their emphasis on this aspect.

Now, I'm not saying GW2 really needs a particularly good personal story - but from what I've experienced so far, it certainly hasn't got it.

It's just really amateur-hour fantasy fluff with hammy voice acting.

I must admit that I haven't taken much note of the random comments from NPCs. Some are cute - some are just silly, and there's way too much repetition. I also don't like that you can hear them from what seems like 50 meters away.

It's like nothing is meant to be taken seriously - and it's even more of a joke than WoW lore. That's fine if you're into that sort of "merry who cares" crap, but I like to be able to immerse myself fully.

Originally posted by thekid1

I don't get why people are bashing the OP because he only played an hour.

He doesn't call it a review but a first impression. Gaming magazines do it all the time so they are wrong to?

And all the points he makes could be easily determined after only one hour, except point 11 maybe.

Or do the camera, animations, voice acting, dialogue, framerate change after the first hour?

 

 

  Wel, i dunno... he stated that the money for GW2 is wasted and is "payable only for character creation screen" with barely scratched surface of the game.

  I am 100% sure that majority here will be satisfied with objective criticism (excluding a couple who will flame despite anything). But come on, this guy had a "camera problems' and is unsatisfied with autoattacking? I mean come on... Like someoone before me said... In WoW, up to level 5 you autoattacked wolves. According to that i can say that WoW is (was) the waste of money. To really see WoWs flaws, you need a lot of more gameplay than that.

  Dont get me wrong now though. OP is entitled to his opinion and matter of taste. The only thing he need to learn is how to build it well and accurate, which many people on internet fail to do.

Originally posted by The_Korrigan

Originally posted by thekid1

I don't get why people are bashing the OP because he only played an hour.

I'm not bashing him, but I'm disputing his ability to comment on several points of his list because of that very short play time, yes. See my previous post about the starter areas, for instance. In all MMORPGs, the starter areas are much more simple and also forgiving than the later areas, because not everybody is a seasoned MMO player and newbies should get time to adapt to the game. In WoW you kill 5 non-agressive wolves, then kobolds, then a few orcs, in GW2 you have very simple dynamic events and hearts compared to what you experience once you leave that starting area.

So yes, there are things you just can't judge in just one hour.

But with exception of point #11 it can all be judged in one hour.

The camera, animations, voice acting and frame rate won't be different after 200 hours.

And if the dialogue is horrible in the first hour, it's a good indication it will be bad in the rest of the game.

Originally posted by thekid1

Originally posted by The_Korrigan

Originally posted by thekid1

I don't get why people are bashing the OP because he only played an hour.

I'm not bashing him, but I'm disputing his ability to comment on several points of his list because of that very short play time, yes. See my previous post about the starter areas, for instance. In all MMORPGs, the starter areas are much more simple and also forgiving than the later areas, because not everybody is a seasoned MMO player and newbies should get time to adapt to the game. In WoW you kill 5 non-agressive wolves, then kobolds, then a few orcs, in GW2 you have very simple dynamic events and hearts compared to what you experience once you leave that starting area.

So yes, there are things you just can't judge in just one hour.

But with exception of point #11 it can all be judged in one hour.

The camera, animations, voice acting and frame rate won't be different after 200 hours.

And if the dialogue is horrible in the first hour, it's a good indication it will be bad in the rest of the game.

The quality of dialogues is pure opinion, I have no problem with that, to each his own. As long as it's not stated as a fact...

Point 4 and 11 just can't be judged after 1 hour. There's no "ifs" or "buts" or "opinions" here, it's a fact. It's like judging the Lich King story line from your experience in the Northshire Abbey killing wolves. It's nonsense.

Same for points 6 and 7. It's like judging the WoW gameplay from killing wolves with the single spell you have at level 1.

The animations is most likely a problem of adaptation, when you played a game (WoW) for years, you will automatically notice things that are done differently, that doesn't mean they are bad. WoW isn't the "end of it all" of MMOs.

And his camera problems most likely come from his point number 5 about performance. On my (old) computer, the game runs smoothly and I have no camera problems.