April 24th - April 29th

Section: 

You've just got to love a successful MMO without a monthly subscription fee, if only on principle. Guild Wars has trundled along quite happily and successfully over the past year in the devouring shadow of MMO Overlord World of Warcraft, quietly developing a devout following. This week NCSoft celebrates its one-year anniversary with the release of Guild Wars Factions, a huge update with a new world, new professions, new creatures, new skills, new game types, new quests, weapons, items, pets, and so on. And, though Factions clocks in at the full price, let's keep in mind that a full year of World of Warcraft clocks in at a minimum of roughly $150.00 not to mention the price of the game itself. I think we see who is getting a better deal. So, the affordable and rewarding Guild Wars Factions claims our Game of the Week.


IMAGE(http://www.gametab.com/images/ss/pc/5229/box.jpg)

This week, on DVD, Final Fantasy nerds around the continent will once again debate whether Sephiroth is indeed the head canonical bad-ass for all the mythos of the series with the release of Final Fantasy: Advent Children. A few of these folks will go on to shed a tear just thinking about Aerith. Prepare thyself for a nerdgasm! More DVDs here.

PC:
SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars (04/24)
2006 FIFA World Cup (04/24)
Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods (04/24)
Shadowgrounds (04/25)
Paradise (04/25)
Guild Wars Factions (04/28)

XBOX360:
2006 FIFA World Cup (04/24)

XBOX:
2006 FIFA World Cup (04/24)
Painkiller: Hell Wars (04/25)
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (04/25)
Hustle: Detroit Streets, The (04/25)
Winback 2: Project Poseidon (04/25)

GAMECUBE:
Rampage: Total Destruction (04/24)
2006 FIFA World Cup (04/24)

PS2:
2006 FIFA World Cup (04/24)
Rampage: Total Destruction (04/24)
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (04/25)
Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (04/25)
Hustle: Detroit Streets, The (04/25)
Winback 2: Project Poseidon (04/25)
Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny (04/25)
Metal Saga (04/25)

GBA:
2006 FIFA World Cup (04/24)
Dr. Sudoku (04/26)

DS:
2006 FIFA World Cup (04/24)
Guilty Gears: Dust Strikers (04/25)
Lost Magic (04/25)
Top Gun (04/26)

PSP:
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (04/25)

Comments

I don't play Guild Wars, but I'm tempted to, just for their artwork. Rowwrr.

Ace Combat Zero! At least once finals are over.

Hooray for Guild Wars!

I love the Guild Wars artwork, music, and general style. It's too bad that the instancing drives me up the wall.

Will Top Gun DS play Danger Zone? This is kind of a deciding factor.

Can't wait to get my hands on GW: Factions, too Pity it might take a week or two to arrive here.
Aaaand... I'll ask again: any unused copy of Guild Wars floating around? A friend would like to try it out... Though if Factions really does rock as hard as it should, I might be able to convince him to splash out for it, full price.

hmm shadowgrounds looks pretty interesting, but I already ordered SP2... decisions

Oblivion is going strong... 115 quests done, more to go.

I saw the FF last year, it was awesome. So, I'll be picking up the DVD for the extra stuff.

What, no one is excited about Rampage?

I suppose I'll have to check out the Final Fantasy thing sometime soon though. From what I've heard from friends, it's not really anything too special, but it still looks pretty. And who doesn't like pretty?

Yoyoson wrote:

I love the Guild Wars artwork, music, and general style. It's too bad that the instancing drives me up the wall.

I was fine with the instancing, but the combat drove me up the wall. Duller than dirt.

GW was one of those games I really, really wanted to love, but unfortunately couldn't since the one thing that wasn't any good about it to me was the one thing you spent the most time doing.

I loved the skill variety, but the combat just didn't do anything for me.

I liked the Shadowgrounds demo more than I logically should have, so I have that coming.

I'll likely also pick up Lost Magic for the DS, but something tells me that this is *not* going to be that elusive 'good (non Mario) RPG on the DS' ...

Also thinking about Spellforce 2, the demo was decent. Decided *against* Guild Wars:Factions when I fired up the original and saw how long it had been since I played ... and how long it took to update everything!

Mike

txa1265 wrote:

Decided *against* Guild Wars:Factions when I fired up the original and saw how long it had been since I played ... and how long it took to update everything!

Well it's not as if you're turning the crank yourself to pump those bits
From recent experience with installing it from scratch on friends' machines (DL 90K client only etc.), You only need to go through a couple of zones for it to download most of the stuff. And if you just leave it logged in it should DL in the background, IIRC.

Smials wrote:

Well it's not as if you're turning the crank yourself to pump those bits
From recent experience with installing it from scratch on friends' machines (DL 90K client only etc.), You only need to go through a couple of zones for it to download most of the stuff. And if you just leave it logged in it should DL in the background, IIRC.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining about the download speed or anything. In fact, that system is excellent, like almost everything in the game. It is the fact that I just am not a big multiplayer gamer, and even less so for 'guild' style stuff. So I played the early quest stuff and faded away ...

I am so tempted to pick up GW:Factions, but I really do not think I have the time. I am still waist deep in Oblivion and it looks like I will be extremely busy over the next few months. I want to support Guild Wars but I get the feeling if I picked this up, it would simply be sitting on my desk for a long time. I just do not have the time any more for 1-2 hour 8 person instances completely uninterrupted. Yarrr. Decisions, decisions.

Shadowgrounds is a lot of fun.

The plot is totally derivative of Aliens and the monsters are a cross of that movie and Starcraft. However, its a very fun game thats light on complexity.

fangblackbone wrote:

Shadowgrounds is a lot of fun.

The plot is totally derivative of Aliens and the monsters are a cross of that movie and Starcraft. However, its a very fun game thats light on complexity.

Sounds great - exactly what I'm expecting .... light and fun. Loved the lighting in the demo as well.

Mike

No one is clamoring for World Cup? Its only the other 75% of the full-priced 'Road to the World Cup' they released at launch. Come on, $120 for a game that doesnt have half the feel of a $40 (if you buy new) copy of Winning Eleven (which happens to be backwards compatible) is a steal!

Video review for Ace Combat is up. Looks like more of the same good stuff.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player.p...

I am loving Guild Wars, and Factions. I usually play with my bro and my friend, and it's a good game for multiplayer questing, but also running solo missions. We all have Guild Wars: Prophecies and are around lvl 10, but when we aren't all online, I will play Factions solo. It's so easy to log off/on and zoning is so quick, that it isn't a hassle at all to switch characters or city instances.

I play Oblivion as well, but my problem with that is that I get motion sickness from playing that (even in 3rd person view) and it's not multiplayer. Guild Wars doesn't make me queasy, and it's fun for multiplayer. We aren't hardcore gamers either, and it suits us nicely.

Lastly, the models are nice to look at, especially the new Ritualist. Wowza!