Launch Station: Guild Wars 2

Madden NFL 13 and all those PlayStation game collections were not the only games released Tuesday.  Tuesday saw the release of a highly anticipated MMORPG, Guild Wars 2.  Guild Wars 2 is possibly the only MMO that could give Blizzard's MMO giant World of Warcraft a run for it's money.  With huge improvements and no monthly subscription, Guild Wars 2 looks to be the MMORPG experience not to miss this year.

Guild Wars 2 is set 250 years after the original game.  In that time, the world of Tyria has faced massive changes, devastating cataclysms and other huge global events that have caused big changes to Guild Wars 2's environments and play areas.  Humans are no longer the dominant species as the balance has shifted to towards the many other races inhabiting Tyria.  To make things worse, dragons have awoken from their slumber to wreak habit on the world.  You, the player, are tasked with reuniting the disbanded Destiny's Edge guild in order to combat the dragon threat.  At the outset of Guild Wars 2, players are able to create their own character from a combination of five races (humans, charr, asura, norn and sylvari) and eight professions (engineer, necromancer, thief, elementalist, warrior, ranger, mesmer and guardian).  Each race and profession have different attributes that effect which skills the player has access to.  Guild Wars 2 combat system is very skill-based, so players can only use 10 skills in combat.  Each skill slot has predefined roles in order to make each character balanced and have the combat focus more on strategy than just spamming certain skills.  Guild Wars 2 also includes a higher level cap of 80, a more elaborate crafting system and a World PvP that players can jump into at anytime and play anybody in the world.

Not everybody enjoys playing MMOs, but the original Guild Wars and in turn Guild Wars 2 offers a lower barrier of entry thanks to the game having no monthly subscription.  All you have to do to play Guild Wars 2 is just buy the base game in store or online and you are ready to go.  It is very appealing especially for people like yours truly whose biggest reason for not playing many MMOs was due to the monthly subscriptions.  I personally will not be picking up Guild Wars 2 because there is no way my computer could run it, but possibly someday down the road.  Blizzard and World of Warcraft have some serious competition in NCSoft and ArenaNet's Guild Wars 2.  We will have to see who wins out, but I believe it is time for a changing of the guard.

Off the Newsstand: Game Informer Issue 230

This past month or so I have had a steady of stream of magazines to read.  Whenever I would finish reading one, another would show up in the mail.  It was very nice as I always had something to read and keep me occupied.  Also when I do not have anything in particular to read, I get kind of stir crazy.  While I wait on the newest issues of EGM and Nintendo Power, I read Issue 230 of Game Informer, which I just finished a few days ago.  Without any further ado, here are my thoughts on this issue.

The Elder Scrolls series graces the cover of Game Informer once again as Bethesda and Zenimax Online announce The Elder Scrolls Online in Issue 230 of Game Informer.  While I am not a fan of the Elder Scrolls series and MMOs, this cover story was fairly enjoyable and very informative.  It goes into full detail how Bethesda and Zenimax Online are going to tackle the MMO genre while keeping Elder Scrolls' identify in tack.  I do think how Bethesda and Zenimax are handling the story with the multiple heroes, player choice and the PvP endgame is all very interesting and great hooks.  I still need to see and read more before I am convinced that The Elder Scrolls Online can compete with the likes of World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic and the upcoming Guild Wars II.  While not as good the Halo 4 cover story from last issue, The Elder Scrolls Online cover story is an enjoyable read nonetheless.  Honestly, I was more impressed with all the articles in Issue 230's Connect section like the evolution of the ESA, the current state of adventure games, the many different ways game makers are making money in this day and age and interviews with the curator of the Smithsonian's Video Game Exhibit and the filmmakers behind Indie Game: The Movie.  They were all amazing articles that kept me engaged and glued to the page as they dived right into some of the biggest trends and stories in the video game industry today.  Issue 230 is also packed with the brim with previews from big blockbuster games like the Amazing Spider Man and Resident Evil 6 all the way to some great games under the radar of most gamers like Epic Mikey: Power of Illusion and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.  The review section this issue is fairly small, but looks at the biggest games from this spring such as Fez, Dragon's Dogma, Prototype 2 and Kinect Star Wars.

As a whole, Issue 230 of Game Informer is a great issue.  While the cover story on The Elder Scrolls Online is a must read for all fans of The Elder Scrolls series, it is still an enjoyable read for the average reader.  The best content is found in the Connect and Preview sections of Issue 230 and make this issue of Game Informer a must-read for all gamers.

Off the Newsstand: Game Informer Issue 229

With this rather slow two months for video games, it has allowed me to keep up Off the Newsstand with my reading.  Averaging reading a whole magazine each week.  As long as my subscriptions come at a steady pace, I will be able to post Off the Newsstand every week or two.  Earlier this week, I finished the May issue of Game Informer.  Here are my thoughts.

Not much has been said about Halo 4 since Microsoft revealed the game at last year's E3.  There were a few tidbits of what the game was shaping up to be through various videos made by 343 Industries showing the behind the scenes on Halo 4, but nothing as substantial as this cover story.  Game Informer's cover story is split into two parts.  The first part takes a look at the opening few hours of the main campaign and has the developers at 343 discussing some of the plot points of Halo 4 such as Cortana slowly dying, exploring Master Chief as a character rather than an all-powerful superhero and the mystery of the Forerunners.  The second part takes a look at Halo 4's multi-player now called Infinity.  Infinity has a story of its own as you train a Spartan IV aboard the UNSC Infinity.  Spartan IVs train on the Infinity's combat deck, which like Star Trek's holodeck or the Danger Room in X-Men can replicate any known environment for the Spartans to train on, in red vs. blue matches.  There is a new co-op mode called Spartan Ops, which allows players to complete unique missions and challenges with other Spartan IVs.  Spartan Ops will be updated every week with new missions, new challenges and a new movie sequence to advance the co-ops' story.  The multi-player story even converges with the main campaign as Master Chief will run into the UNSC Infinity and its' crew at some point in his campaign.  At first I thought this story on Halo 4 would not interest me much like last issue's Assassin's Creed III cover story, after reading it I am genuinely excited for Halo 4 especially the Spartan Ops, which I think it an excellent way of keeping gamers engaged with Halo 4 for weeks, months even years after completing the game.  Also packed into this Issue 229 of Game Informer was an in-depth playthrough of Guild Wars 2, some articles on the Game Developer's Conference (GDC for short) like a look at Quantic Dream's new engine for the PS3, a look at the winners of this year's Independent Game Festival and Indie Game Challenge and an interview with Epic's Mike Capps, a look at the controversy surrounding Mass Effect 3's ending and much more. 

Issue 229 is the best issue of Game Informer since February's Issue 226.  The cover story delivers, there are insightful articles on GDC and current issues in the video game industry, previews of the biggest games of 2012 and reviews of the biggest games of the first quarter of 2012 like Mass Effect 3, Xenoblade Chronicles and The Witcher 2.  Issue 229 is definitely worth the 6 dollars to buy it at your local EB Games or Chapters.

Launch Station: TERA

2012 looks to add some big competition to World of Warcraft's reign over the MMORPG genre in the first full year of Star Wars: The Old Republic and the release of the highly anticipated Guild Wars 2 from NCSoft.  One MMO that has fell to the sidelines, so much that this writer among other gamers did not even know that it will be releasing tomorrow.  The game in question is Bluehole Studios' TERA (short for The Exiled Realm of Arborea).

After a divine world between Gods and mortals, the realm of Arborea has been left in ruin as a new metallic treat emerges from the underworld.  This threat is known as the Metallic race, Argons and there sole purpose is to destroy the realm of Arborea for good.  The remaining seven races, the Amani, the Barakas, the Castanics, the Elins, the High Elves, the Humans and the Poporis, must band together to stop the Argons and save their world.  TERA is a lot like many other MMORPG as it includes features such as questing, crafting and player-versus-player action (PvP for short), but it has many features to make it standout from other MMORPGs on the market.  TERA's biggest feature is its' fast-paced real-time battle system that has players targeting enemies with a crosshairs rather than clicking or tabbing each enemy individually.  Players also must actively dodge attacks than rely on a hidden dice roll to determine it for them.  This battle system immerses the player more as you feel more engaged than repeatedly clicking on one enemy until it is dead.  TERA offers a few different ways to control your character from the keyboard and mouse combo to a USB controller.  In order to deter gold farming, Bluehole Studios worked with CCP Games, the maker of the popular EVE Online, to create a currency called Chronoscrolls that can be purchased for real money or in-game gold.

As I am not a huge PC gamer or fan of MMOs, TERA does not really excite me personally.  For huge PC gamers and MMO fans, TERA looks to offer all the depth of a traditional MMORPG with the instant gratification of real-time combat and control.  It would have been nice if TERA got some much needed publicity as it will most likely pass by the radars of many gamers due to the lack thereof.  It almost passed right by me.