It’s definitely not Guild Wars 1, but it does still have a “low level cap” in the way that it’s extremely easy to get to max level doing a variety of content, then the vast majority of content is done at that level. You probably reach level 80 within completing not even 5%-10% of the total available content, so it’s just a number. The way you “advance” your character is through gear and cosmetics, and there’s an account leveling system called masteries you unlock at 80.
As a long time fan and proud GWAMM, honestly it doesn’t need the “classic” treatment. It’s still online, and the last major content patches didn’t change anything significant enough to alter the gameplay in a way that would make people “miss the old days”. They added some end game content and some quality of life improvements and some tools that allowed players to more easily solo content, then left well enough alone. It still has a small core of regular players, and has the event schedule going on auto. I suppose they could do some graphical improvements but it’s still a very good game as it is
Considering how famously hard to kill werewolves are, it would probably have to be a chocolate wrapped in silver and then eaten with the foil on to do any real harm.
For a while, I played the MMO Guild Wars 2 as a music simulator. It has playable in game musical instruments that you can equip, and play with the number keys. A-G are represented with the numbers 1-8 with 9 and 0 swapping an octave lower or higher. Killing monsters? Doing dungeons? Raids and world bosses? Nah I’m just chilling on a beautiful forested cliffside near a waterfall figuring out an arrangement for the Lord of the Rings theme.
Cute idea, but disappointed that it’s just a reskinned car racing game. I read the title and I imagine a “cat scale” racer, running around indoors having to jump sofa arms and climb cat towers or doing an obstacle course in someone’s yard, going under bushes and through kids forts etc. Just realizing now a cat parkour game in the style of Mirror’s Edge would be good silly fun.
By Droknar’s hammer, what a savings!
Been playing GW2 since beta, but haven’t been that active since I had my a baby. I’ve played thousands of hours, have over 40k AP, was even mildly famous in the community for a bit, but I just haven’t had the time for any games lately. It’s still my favorite though, I love the art, the music, the player centric design and how they really try to make a fun experience and not waste your time. I tried Star Trek Online because I heard they had screen writers from the shows writing some of the content, and had enough fun to max a couple of characters and upgrade a ship or two and then they raised the level cap on me and made it all obsolete. I quit. I have no patience to put up with that kind of crap. I’ve been spoiled by GW2’s design philosophy, and they’ve proved worthy of my trust and time. I recommend it to anyone looking for an MMO.
Haha, that pre-bed burst of energy where you get more done in an hour than you did most of the day, and then get to go lie in bed with your mind racing about everything you were going to do and will definitely do tomorrow instead of sleeping, and then feel guilty for not being able to stick to the schedule people are asking you to and that your life demands, yeah that shit is the best.
It’s been a struggle all of my life to live on a diurnal schedule, we are the cave guardians
I’ve been extremely impressed with the longevity and all around toughness of my Dell Precision. I think it’s gotta be 12 years old now, it weighs a ton, been dropped multiple times, and while I replaced its disk and memory at some point it has never suffered a hardware failure. The thing is a tank, I love it.
I appreciate the shout out to Guild Wars there. Aside from the opaque learning curve it’s one of the most player friendly live service games going.
This is really well articulated and puts into words the reason I stopped playing. I was one of those non FPS players who really thrived on Sym and Moira and Mercy and I felt welcomed and appreciated when it first came out. I just had fun and that made me want to try to get better and kept me coming back. As they kept retooling things, especially with Sym 3.0, I felt they were deliberately pushing me and people like me out. Instead of having a fun, wild and playful team game for my friends to all have a good time in, it became just another FPS game.
Seconding 9 Parchments and the Trine series. They are both by the same studio and they are beautiful games, they make sure every new scene is a tableau worthy of a screenshot with hyper saturated fanciful environments. The gameplay is fun, polished and goes by fast, in a good way.
I’m a sucker for a cello. When I’m testing new audio equipment I put on Austin Wintory’s soundtrack to Journey. So, so beautiful.
Stellaris has a fine soundtrack, but I found myself vibing way more playing it with FlyByNo’s soundtrack for Endless Space. Endless Space didn’t have the staying power with me that Stellaris did but that soundtrack is * chef’s kiss * .
Yes, the first one is goofy but it did the whole “what would an actually average person do with superhero powers” shtick before it was cool, and managed to make it funny and pretty sweet too.
I’ll give you that it’s been longer than I realized since the base game came out, however, Beyond Earth came out 10 years ago (2014) and Alpha Centauri was 25 years ago.
I think one of the biggest issues with BE attempting to follow in AC’s footsteps is that the factions were not distinct, and it felt extremely generic. BE’s factions were all similar, played similarly, and all had the same options for development and could all take the same evolutions. In AC, not only were the faction leaders ideologies revealed in quotes in the tech tree and secret projects, it was inescapable in the game mechanics. The reason I feel Stellaris is a closer sibling is that it managed to mimic something of how it felt to be an idealogical leader attempting to make sure your values and your goals for the future were the ones that were supreme. BE was “civ in space”.
Banished, you can’t get more Indie than just one guy’s passion project.
I don’t know what it is about that game but it really struck a chord with me and I’ve come back to it over and over. It’s my favorite game to play when I’m sick and can’t do anything. It’s relaxing and peaceful and cozy while also being complex and ruthlessly challenging at the same time, so it’s like spinning plates. Seems easy when you get the hang of it but it can all come crashing down if you make a bad enough mistake. It’s spawned some copy cats, and I’ve tried them, but the original just gets me somehow.