Graphics-wise, my favourite options have to be AoC and GW2, though honorable mention goes to TSW (narrative matters!)

More important than graphical quality, however, is what graphical style you're interested in, and also what you want the graphics to portray...

AoC - gritty fantasy/Swords and Sorcery

GW2 - classic (sometimes humorous) fantasy

TSW - gritty(-ish) modern conspiracy Cthulhu-style

If those don't suit, I'm sure there are other options

I've always thought that TSW would have have been better as a single-player RPG...the atmosphere and story type stuff were the best part of the game IMO.

For me,the MMO tropes in the game clashed with that at times.

If TSW had released as a single-player game, it might have been gentler on Funcom's budget too, which is by all accounts rather stretched at present.

After reading the post, my sarcasm detector just overloaded :/

I like GW2 a lot, but the OPs post strikes me as baiting.

Always good to see someone look at the positives as well as negatives.

That said, I don't agree with some of the points -

Roles are horribly underexplained and unclear  - this is kind of true, but then again, being a "jack of all trades" seems a lot more workable than in other games where one is doing (broadly) one thing e.g. tanking, healing or dpsing, so I don't see that fitting oneself into a role is as necessary as it would be in traditional "trinity" games.  I can quite see how someone who likes the "trinity" gameplay style would be confused and/or unimpressed, though.

Dynamic events don't work in their role as quest replacements - pretty much agree with this - I'd really like to see Anet do some work here

Area flow is problematic - several areas where I disagree with their review -

Firstly, Karma vendors are not the best sources of items when levelling unless one has karma to burn - it's easier to either buy off the TP, take a hand-me-down if an alt or even buy the white vendor gear (sure, it's not optimal, but gear is relatively unimportant in GW2 when compared with many games, especially when levelling).  I therefore can't see why it's a big deal re the karma vendors.  For my characters I've pretty much saved my karma for later, only buying recipes, crafting resources or the odd item with a nice skin or an amusing quote.

Secondly, I don't understand why the reviewer feels that he ought to be forced to the next zone?  I personally find that wanting to explore the world and see what it's like is motivation enough

Thirdly, there is motivation to explore other zones...if you're a crafter (and especially a chef), as it's only by going to new places that you'll obtain some of the resources either because some resources are account bound or others are too expensive on the TP to get all that one needs in a cost-effective manner.

Crafting is a freaking mess - it doesn't seem any worse than many other MMOs' crafting systems, and I think the reviewer is going about it the wrong way.  He says that making a  craft 20 item only gives experience towards L21, and implies that there's an unnecessary amount of making useless items.  Agreed one has often outlevelled the items by the time that one can craft them but usually, I level my craft skills by discovery, which increases my craft skill by several points whenever I discover a new recipe, so doesn't feel terribly grindy to me, as although I'm making useless items, I'm not having to make very many of them.   Chef is a little different to the other professions too, IMO, and is a bit more fun, although it does eat up the bank space

The story is weak - pretty much agreed - though there are some amusing bits of narrative (I like some of Tybalt's lines, for example) and the voice actors do well with what they're given, for the most part (though Adelbern's cut scenes make me cringe).  As for the narrative of the main story, it doesn't really hang together very well IMO

I'd say to myself "Hey man, you know that crazy idea you have about a Sylvari engineer.  Don't do it, m'kay?  Go for a charr - you'll enjoy it more - trust me on this"

Ah well....at least I like 4 out of the 5 races...

We get that you don't like the game, but you offer little justification for your opinion...and much of what you do offer is either subjective or wrong.  Only thing I agree with is the lack of ability to choose a 2ndary prof.

Thus far, you've offered almost no reason to take your subjective opinion as being more than that.

Oh, and typing "TRUTH" in caps doesn't grant your opinion any additional objectivity.

Originally posted by Baseline

Originally posted by Tiller
Wanna know how to troll bots? Drop a Mad Kings table down, or witch cauldron and they get stuck there since they have auto loot macro running.

Is there any non-halloween way to troll them?

If one's a mesmer, one could put down a portal entre near to them and have the exit near something nasty - might have to get lucky with the timing and their movement, however.

Shouldn't really be a surprise IMO - Ragnar's strength is storytelling, and I imagine it's a part of the game design process that he both likes and can (hopefully) turn to a profit.

Funcom's future outlook from their Q2 report is towards "Building smaller, more focussed online games" and "Player driven content, engagement and community", which sounds, to me, like it'll leave a lot less room for story elements than has been allowed in recent releases.

Long story short - I think Ragnar and Funcom's aims now diverge over the "story" element.

Trion's update speed and quality control is fantastic, and has set a high bar in this area for other MMOs to match - other companies could learn from Trion's example here.

However, I found the combat rather dull as a whole.  Macros were a really bad idea IMO, or maybe that the combat system lends itself to that so much means that it was badly designed....dunno....

For me, the game was too gear-focussed and the lore some of the least engaging I've come across.

Some good ideas for sure (I really enjoyed chloro back in the day), but it didn't really work for me.  I also found it a little too high fantasy for my taste.

Well, I'm enjoying it.  I end up getting Bartle-typed as an explorer, and don't give 2 hoots about gear progression beyond any basic level required to overcome challenges, so no suprise there.

I've found that I enjoy situations more when I get more into the events in a zone and seeing how the events lead on to each other, as well as some of the interconnecting dialogue, which is often funny or charming...well, to me at least!

It also beats sliced bread for me by miles...but that could be because I'm not massively keen on bread.

Definitely a good idea to suggest mixing it up a bit if one class seems too easy or the like.

However, that said, one can also change the difficulty quite significantly, and more easily than creating a different character, by simply changing one's playstyle e.g. finding longbow ranger too dull?  Try going something unusual like sword/torch etc.

The classic case in point re the above is engineer...if you want more difficulty, just add more kits!  That alone gives more flexibility (& potential), but also more room for confusion.

For me, I find necro very powerful...at times it feels a little like god (presumably Grenth) mode - the survivability is insane...but one does have to stay active and involved to use the character effectively.

Totally agree on warrior and ranger - easy for sure. I've basically shelved my warrior

A friend of mine has been playing ele and has been unhappy with it for some time until it just clicked for him - he's now quite effective with it, and now says it's demanding but fun

Engineer - *totally* depends on one's setup, I believe

Mesmer - I feel effective for sure, but can get punished quickly for being off my game..  The control is amazing, though.  I'd put this towards hard if one's looking to get the most out of the class.  (Mesmer is my main, btw, and I normally run Sw/P & GS)

Haven't really played guardian, ele, thief or engineer outside the betas, however...but certainly remember guardian as quite powerful back then.

Disclaimer re the above - I'm about L40 on my main and L20 or thereabouts on my other characters.

I don't agree with the OP - I find the  level-scaling a good thing.

The claim was made by another poster that having level-scaling is immersion-breaking.

I personally find it to be the other way - I've always found it jarring to be able to have a tough but winnable fight with, say, a bear, at level 20, and then come back at level 28 and pretty much one-shot it.

It would be nice to have both play-styles catered for, of course, but one would have to have different instances for the 2 styles and even then there would be an issue re how the reward/loot is determined.

That has to be one of the most poorly planned trailers I've ever seen  - do even Anet know what they're trying to say with it?

IMO, there are too many themes almost randomly thrown together with little to unify them.

I'm hoping that the appearance of it means that the production value was low but, looking at the first bit, maybe not?

Why they didn't just use some of the quite lovely in-game assets is beyond me...especially with some of Jeremy Soule's music to draw upon.

Originally posted by mazut

Originally posted by MMOExposed

2hander Axe!!!

2hander melee polearms.

2H axe, agree, but who will use it? Again only warrior and maybe guardian.

Thief with Axe?? Ele??? Necro?????? Engineer o.O... The weapon must be used at least of 2 or even 3 profs. to be acceptable

 

Maybe if they introduce another prof. in the future. Some heavy armor mage type.

I had heard (maybe just a rumour) that it was confirmed that 2H Axes would be added at some point.

It'd sit fine with necros fine, IMO, because a) they can already use 1H Axes b)  the caster professions sometimes use weapons as a focus for energies more than actually directly hitting the opponent with them (q.v. necro axe, dagger,  mesmer greatsword, ele dagger)

The game was ready but the servers weren't.

I have a friend still unable to log due to authentication server issues.  Three support ticket submissions later, and still no response.  He likes (even loves!) the game, but is getting pretty cheesed off with the situation.