I came to E3 knowing that I would have a chance to look at Guild Wars. But it was on the very bottom of my list of games to look at. From what I know about it was that it was just another fighting game. While we were at NCSoft we got tossed into a room to be shown the game. I didn't really want to see it but they wanted us to see it. I'm really glad that I was there. This is going to be the biggest massive warfare game of the year.

To start off we saw our character thrust into a battle. He was a little warrior. Dressed with nice armor, a shield and a fine sword. we headed out to one of the battle grounds. We appeared into a staging area where there were many other players standing around chatting. Then we hit the battlefield and promptly got our ass kicked. lol Wouldn't you know it but some of the beta testers had in only a few days gotten good enough to kill one of the developers that was playing the game. To their embarrassment a little bit they explained about how the fighting is all about skill. It's not about uber weapons or magic items. The items do help but the majority of it is skill. So we tried again.

Within just a moment of dying we were back on the battlefield. No need to reequip, put our armor back on or heal up. Death simply means that you are going to have to respawn. Kinda like UT2004, Quake or Doom. The difference here is that you can build on your character. Very much like in Diablo except without the item loss or the dead body pickup.

The game was fast paced. We were in 20 minutes about to go into two separate battles and get our ass kicked and kick a little at the same time. The graphics like I said are very pleasing to look at. So pleasing in fact that they caused no eye strain. That's something important to note if you like to play for extended periods of time. Also having to do with time is the fact that really if you only have 15 minutes to play you can do so. Within a minute of being in the game you can find yourself a fight. Get into it and get out with having accomplished something.

Another thing I really like about this game is that there will be no monthly fee. Zero, Nothing. You pay for the game to buy it and that's it. There will of course be expansions in the future you can buy. But they will not be required if you don't want them.

Now for something incredible. They can update all of the game graphics, items layouts everything on the fly! The dev team can be sitting in their offices and decide to add some new armor that is very unique looking. They add it to the game for people to use. Most games this would be a patch that you would download next time you start up the game. Not with Guild Wars though. With this gam,e the firast time you run into someone with the new armor it will auto stream the graphics and other details that go along with it right to you. This all happens on the fly. They can even add an entire new area to the game with all unique items. Once they give people access you will be able to use it right away. As you are playing the server will stream new content to you using your unused bandwidth. I'm sure you modemers out there are thinking "Crap" This is going to kill my connection. But it's not. It's really an amazing technology that I believe will become one of the standards of the future.

This game gets my top choice of all games that I am most looking forward to. It's looking so good that I'll be buying this for myself and my two sons to play. Hell... Even my wife who is not a gamer was very impressed by the game.

My prediction for this game is that it will be huge. I can't wait for the retail release. They are saying the second half of this year with an estimated price of $49.99. As soon as it is released I'll be the first one in line.

For more info see the official site at http://www.guildwars.com/

the game gets boring and repetitive, i played it in alpha testing/beta testing

I'd have to respectfully disagree..at least so far. I'm having a blast with it. Having no experience with MMORPG's, perhaps my exposure to what other games have to offer is limited, but I've been playing both solo and with a friend of mine and we've been having a great time. I will say that so far, it is more fun playing with people, though it's certainly big enough to enjoy on your own. It just really starts to click playing with more players. I haven't explored the PvP portions of the game yet, so I'm just talkinga bout the PvComputer RPG.

The graphics are beautiful, gameplay easy to get into, but not so simplistic that it's dull (again...yet....I've only had it for a couple of weeks).

On a side note, because the graphics are soooo gorgeous, my FreeGameCam is coming up with some beautiful screenshots. Markee, how do we submit these for ScreenShot view without having the constant stream of shots being fed by the web? (so that we can preselect the best shots for you to select from to post on the site?)

JW

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