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.

Hump Day Video: Newsroom

If you have been following this blog for a while now, you probably noticed I really like Screwattack.  It is one of my favourite video game site on the World Wide Web and I enjoy everything this group of gamers does.  Yesterday, Screwattack launched a new monthly show by the name of Newsroom.  In Newsroom, Screwattack news editors Jared and Lauren perform a little skit on a big news story in the gaming industry.  The first episode was on the 40 second wait gamers have to "endure" to connect to Blizzard's servers for Diablo III and the disdain of most gamers.  This skit has Jared complaining to Lauren about waiting these supposedly long 40 seconds and Error 37.  After complaining to Lauren for the entire 40 second wait and receiving Error 37, Jared comes to the conclusion of complaining on the Internet.  The result seeing Jared immediately banned from the online forum.  Newsroom lasts under 2 minutes, but provides tons of laughs for any gamer.  We will have to wait until next month to see what news story Jared and Lauren parody next.  While you wait, watch the first episode a few times.

Launch Station: Max Payne 3

Diablo III is not the only big game to release today.  The long delayed Max Payne 3 from Rockstar Games has finally hit store shelves after a few years of anticipation.  While Max Payne 3 is at a big disadvantage of being overlooked by most gamers due to the huge game it has to go up against, the Rockstar name and the legacy of the first two games will keep it from getting completely destroyed by Diablo III.

The years have not been kind to former NYPD turned vigilante, Max Payne.  His life is in the dumps and seems to have no where left to go.  Then Max gets called up by an old friend for a job working as private security for the wealthy Rodrigo Bronco in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Max takes the job in hope of escaping his troubled life in New York City.  Sadly trouble seems to find Max wherever he goes as he gets pulled into a conspiracy involving the warring Sao Paulo street gangs.   Max Payne 3 features some improvements to the series' core run-and-gun gameplay.  The new over the shoulder zoom and cover mechanics help Max Payne 3 compete with current third-person shooters.  Max Payne 3's main selling point is the return of Bullet Time, which allows you to slow down time in order to dodge incoming bullets and return fire to foes.  If Max has one painkiller on him when wounded, you can activate Last Man Standing.  In Last Man Standing, if you are able to kill the enemy that delivered the wounding shot, you will recover enough health to keep on going.  Max Payne 3 features a new version of Rockstar's Euphoria physics engine, which makes shooting and killing enemies more realistic than in any other Rockstar game.  Another new feature found in Max Payne 3 is the cinematic action movements, interactive cutscenes that seamlessly transition into continuing gameplay.  New to the Max Payne series is a full-on multi-player mode that offers maps the dynamically change during the match, rewards, ranking, clan support and Rockstar social club integration.

Have never got a chance to play any of the previous entries in the Max Payne series, so I am not that interested in Max Payne 3.  Honestly, I am a little more interested in Max Payne 3 than Diablo III only because I like Rockstar a little more than Blizzard.  Other than that I could care less for Max Payne 3 as I am not going to pick it up anytime soon.  If anybody is looking for a good third-person shooter, Max Payne 3 will definitely fill that void.

Launch Station: Diablo III

There has no game that I can possibly think of that has been as highly anticipated as Diablo III.  Starcraft II comes to mind, but I personally believe Diablo III's anticipation trumps that of Blizzard's other franchises, Starcarft and Warcraft.  Some gamers have waited 12 long years for this one game that May 15th will be a significant date in their gaming lives.  It is not hard to imagine stores crowded and servers pushed to capacity as millions of gamers looking to play Diablo III.

Two decades after the events of Diablo II, a fiery harbinger of doom strikes the very ground where Diablo once entered the world of Sanctuary.  This fiery harbinger from the sky reawakens the ancient evils of the Prime Evils.  As a hero of the Sanctuary, you are called upon to defend humanity against the army of the Burning Hells once again.  At the beginning of the game, you are able to create your hero from five different classes.  These classes that you can choose from are witch doctor, barbarian, wizard, monk and demon hunter.  At Diablo's core, it is a dungeon crawler in the truest forms.  You accept quests, complete randomly generated levels, battle monsters and collect tons of loot.  With 12 years since Diablo II, Blizzard has had a lot of time to add new features to Diablo in its' third entry.  Some of these new features are destructible environments, in-game damage effects, the ability to pick up gold and loot by just touching it, replacing the potion bar with a skill bar, having enemies drop health orbs to replenish your health and skill runes.   There are two big new features in Diablo III that might possibly rub certain gamers the wrong way.  First is that Diablo III requires players to be constantly connected to the internet in order to play, even in single-player.  The second feature is the Auction House, which allows players to auction in-game items for real money.  Also Diablo III features co-op play and player vs. player battles with up to six players.

I can see why gamers love Diablo.  Blizzard created a game in which gamers could lose themselves in for thousands of hours, finding new encounters with enemies or new pieces of loot around every corner.  It is engaging, extremely gratifying and has an incredible amount of polish.  Personally I have never cared for anything Blizzard has developed.  I tried Starcraft, Starcraft II and Warcraft III.  After playing them, I found that Blizzard games just don't interest me or even appeal to me as a gamer.  Other than a few games here and there, I have never really been that big into PC gaming.  Sure, there are certain games like Dragon Age that I will only play on the PC, but I am not what you call a hardcore PC gamer.  Never been into upgrading my computer every couple of months.  While I might not care for Diablo III, there are certainly millions of gamers out there than do and have already bought the game and have been playing for the past day.  For those on the edge, give Diablo II a try or wait until Blizzard releases a demo for the game or see some reviews of the game.