Guild Wars for Windows

The first thing I noticed when I installed this game was how fast and smooth it loaded, ran, minimized, and shut down. It was incredibly fast, especially for the level of graphic presentation it has. I don't have a slow computer by any means, but Lineage II takes a long while to load, forever to minimize, and another chunk of time to shut down. I bought the Guild Wars collectors edition the day it came out. I figured it won't be so bad because there's NO monthly fee!! I choose from the classes and looks (Warrior, Mesmer, Necromancer, Ranger, Monk, Elementalist If you want stats you can go to the games website). I got the feel for the easy controls and was soon running around town. The game is VERY much quest based. It's essentially like Diablo II, where you talk to an NPC, you get a quest, you complete it/get the required item and return to get more quests! And through these quests you proceed through the games storyline. Now, this game is played online, as is considered an MMORPG. Massively multiplayer as it wants to be, and in towns, it sure is. But should you leave town you are put into your own 'instance' of the world. So essentially anywhere there are monsters, it's only you, and if you partied up with other players in town, they'll be there too. But for random encounters or passersby, it's not going to happen. There are no other people outside of town or your party!!!!! I found this aspect annoying, but it was implemented so no one would interefere with your quests. Oh well. The game runs so smoothly. The framerate with all the settings maxed out (even antialiasing) was phenomenally smooth, and the world is sufficiently populated with all sorts of neat effects and details from terrain textures to monsters and spell effect blasts. For my character I choose a warrior, and for a second profession (you get to choose two!)I got a mesmer. This allowed me to run up and slash at enemies while casting hex spells that further drain their life or slow their movement speed. The game is primarily about how well you have developed your skills which is done by leveling up through experience, and distributing 'skill points' earned with each level, and by getting new ones for completing certain quests. The game is a full streaming one, meaning it's not the type where you have to download some huge patch everytime the game is updated, it's all done in realtime while you play. So you get all updates and patches while you're doing your quests and you would be none the wiser. Very cool concept, and I've seen it work a few times and noticed no lag whatsoever on my DSL connection. You get items such as gold or weapons by killing enemies. You can take the items to a merchant to sell or trade to other players in town, then use that gold to purchase other items or help with purchase of better armor. The catch with armor is that you need materials (which can be forged by combining item drops that enemies leave behind) to give the crafter, as well as gold to pay the fee to upgrade armor. This sort of scavenge/watch your inventory/get some gold/upgrade armor sequence can get repetitive and tedious, but like I said before Guild Wars it like Diablo II. Hack and slash, get stuff, exchange it, hoard decent items, get better stuff. The difference is in presentation, which is phenomenal, and the option (through parties) to play with other players. No wonder there is no monthly fee! Still, I've found the game fun because I like the rewards from putting time and effort collecting the necessary items/money to get top notch armor/weapons! So to recap: it's a beautiful game that runs fast (it can even be windowed or minimized just as quick, load times are lightning speed), that isn't really an MMORPG, is quest based, and can be sort of tedious without a party to talk with/help destroy things unless you enjoy the packrat mentality to power up!