Meeeesmeeer.
It's been mentioned in the books several times - Queen Jennah is a Mesmer, even. So I'm confident they're in.
So I will definitely be playing a Sylvari Mesmer. Not sure what my Ranger will be. Human, maybe.
Also Ranger is suitable for Norn, that's what profession Eir is 😛 If I have a Warrior it will be a Charr. Battlekitty!
Originally posted by Ushgarak
Seems they have a new demo to show off at PAX East next month. Should get some enthusiasm going again! Already half a year since the last one... geez.
Yeah about time, since I'm not invested in the backstory or Guild Wars 1, those demos are the only things I bother to check, so it's been quite a dryspell for me.
http://www.gamespot.com/special_feature/most-anticipated-2011/day-3/index.html
Not much new stuff here, but there is a small mention of Winds of Change, at least. Which is, well, not GW2, but since the GW:Beyond stuff is to set things up for GW2, it's still relevant!
It's 'Human Week' at the GW2 site as they reveal lots of info about the Human racial choice.
A lot of lore stuff being released for the die hard fans, but for the more mechanically inclined, this first part has a sample of the background voice files in human areas:
http://www.arena.net/blog/against-the-wall-humanity-in-guild-wars-2#more-4220
GW2 makes a claim to be 'extensively' voiced, rather than the 'fully' voiced approach that The Old Republic claims, but if this is a general indication of the amount of effort going just into background noise it is a good sign. I've heard nothing similar from TOR yet.
Cannot stand their pronunciations of 'seraph' or 'centaur' though.
http://www.arena.net/blog/designing-humans
That female armor that they're showing in comparison to the Mesmer Elite Kurzick...I want it.
Obviously, I can see the many and varied quality differences between the GW and GW2 model they have in the sdie by side comparison, but for the benefit of someone lacking my clearly awesome perceptual abilities could you describe what the differences are?
Aside from the shorter skirt and more cleavage. Which I am all for, obviously; if that's the new GW2 art direction then fair enough.
Though it's hard for the, ahem, untrained eye to see, advancements in normal mapping allow for a more nuanced appearance of the model, giving it an overall more realistic look, visible around the eyes and nose, in the way the boot fabric seems to pull away from the the thigh, and the detailed appearance of the gold ornaments. Texture resolution has been doubled, possibly tripled, allowing for much more detail in the clothing fabric, particularly visible in the front of the skirt. Better shading algorithms gives smoother gradation, as opposed to the patchy old shaders, and makes the skin appear warmer and more alive.
Right! Yes, obviously I saw all that.
It didn't exactly leap out of the page at me though. In all honesty, when I just skimmed the article at first I assumed they were both GW2 shots, until I read the text above more carefully.
I suspect for the average punter you need a bit more contrast for a comparison shot.