Guild Wars 2 media gets a bit hairy

Visit the world of Guild Wars 2's Norse-inspired, shape-shifting barbarian race the Norn in a new trailer and screenshots.

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It's shaping up to be a fine day for Norse-loving RPG fans. Hot on the heels of the first in-game Skyrim trailer come new screenshots and a trailer showing off Guild Wars 2's Nordic race, the Norn.

The eye candy comes as part of ArenaNet's 'Norn Week,' during which the developer has revealed a great many details on the shape-shifting barbarians. Lore fans will want to dive in for their fill of information on everything from Norn society to the theory that they might be a de-evolving branch of a anthropomorphic polar bear race who live in iceberg fortresses.

The subscription-free MMORPG is due to launch on PC "when it's done," published by NCSoft.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 24, 2011 11:04 AM

    Comment on Guild Wars 2 media gets a bit hairy, by Alice O'Connor.

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      February 24, 2011 11:12 AM

      Looks nice - I never played GW1 - any good?

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        February 24, 2011 11:18 AM

        [deleted]

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        February 24, 2011 11:19 AM

        Yes but flawed, GW2 is significantly different

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          February 24, 2011 11:21 AM

          I agree on the flawed part. Soloing was tough-ish unless you had a particular expansion, I forget the name. And the end-game appeared to be all about the PvP which is a shame.

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            February 24, 2011 3:27 PM

            Not really, the PvP blows away another other MMO on the market.

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        February 24, 2011 11:27 AM

        A nice alternative from WoW, but PvE was a pain until Heroes came along. GW2 should have some nice refinements from the start.

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      February 24, 2011 11:16 AM

      =O damn that looks good.

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      February 24, 2011 11:16 AM

      I wish they had included a clip of the transformation / available forms. I'm curious.

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      February 24, 2011 11:17 AM

      GW1 was a ton of fun for me, though it was one of the few games that i had a handful of friends that played so that helped a lot. For a subscription free MMO, it was awesome.
      On another note, it still makes me laugh that games try to use sex appeal.

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      February 24, 2011 11:20 AM

      I'm really liking the 720p videos. Jaggies be gone.

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        February 24, 2011 3:24 PM

        Our new video process and player is gorgeous.

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          February 24, 2011 3:37 PM

          Yes, thank you very much. The Shack really needed this pretty badly. I always hated having to go somewhere else just to see the same video at a higher resolution.

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          February 24, 2011 3:41 PM

          the player controls disappear when you go fullscreen :(

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          February 24, 2011 11:02 PM

          Any way to get rid of age gates when logged in and auto stream the 720p video?

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            February 24, 2011 11:12 PM

            Also how come there isn't any controls when in full screen mode? It's annoying when you want to skip ahead or reverse the video and have to minimize it first to get access to the progress bar.

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          February 24, 2011 11:08 PM

          Hmm. I click play, then 720p, then full screen and it's jaggie-city.

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          February 24, 2011 11:36 PM

          A suggestion/gripe- No controls on mouse-over while fullscreened. If you want to adjust volume or pause or anything you can't do it fullscreen.

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            February 24, 2011 11:37 PM

            Also, spacebar doesn't pause, which should be the default.

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            February 25, 2011 8:23 AM

            Yeah this is my one gripe.

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          February 25, 2011 8:14 AM

          [deleted]

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          February 25, 2011 9:39 AM

          I do like it better than the old version, but I wish it had controls in full screen and a pop out option.

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        February 25, 2011 8:00 AM

        I was just about to say the opposite =/

        - There's no way it's 720p. Lots of compression artifacts.
        - Fullscreen widescreen is still letterboxed
        - No fullscreen controls.

        Oh well, at least it's embedded in the page now...

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      February 24, 2011 11:28 AM

      My one fervent wish is that this game won't throw away all the really unique design decisions they made in the first one in favor of becoming WoW 2.

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        February 24, 2011 3:26 PM

        Have you been following much of the design process they've been blogging about. I don't play a lot of wow, but for the most part it seems pretty different from what I hear.

        The stuff under http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/ is pretty interesting, in particular the Combat and Events sections.

        Disclaimer: I got to play test this months ago and I am super fucking pumped for it.

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      February 24, 2011 3:27 PM

      Someone make the give me a beta invitation now, plzkthxbye

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      February 24, 2011 3:32 PM

      I just hope the focus is still the WAR part of the game. Very little has been said about the PvP and while the leveling / pve journey does sound cool, GW has always been a great pvp game and I hope that's not lost in the sequel.

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        February 24, 2011 10:49 PM

        Welcome to the club. Every current pvper in GW is currently worried GW2 is gonna turn into WoW2 with shitty pvp. I've read a ton of media on it, and I'm super skeptical.

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      February 24, 2011 10:55 PM

      One word, Vapor Ware.

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      February 24, 2011 11:22 PM

      what is this new pegi thing?

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      February 24, 2011 11:35 PM

      Pretty good boob physics.

      Have they said whether there will be a jump button? I played a trial of GW1 and there was no jump IIRC.

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        February 25, 2011 12:42 AM

        I'm pretty sure they've said it, but if not here's your hot scoop: you can jump.

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        February 25, 2011 4:52 AM

        Yes, in gameplay videos the players were jumping around.

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      February 25, 2011 3:42 AM

      looks very pretty... Arena Net have this knack of making their world look very beautiful, first time i played GW was way back in 2006 and the visuals just blew me away !!!
      game play has been much improved for this one and i wouldnt be surprised if GW2 attracts a significant chunk of MMO afficionados.... hats off to them !

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