Tuesday 13 March 2012

Guild Wars 2 pre-order/collector's edition!

What's that you say? This blog is about games that have come out a long time ago? Well this is my blog and I've been waiting for this game for FIVE YEARS.

Ahem.

Pre-orders will start April 10th. I'd recommend doing it through ArenaNet/NCSoft for two reasons: they probably get more money that way, and you get two extra days' head start by preordering through them instead of retail.

So what's in each version? Read on.

All pre-orders:
  • Access to all beta events (running through the year until release, but remember your progress will be wiped upon release)
  • Three-day head start (grab your character name before the good ones are taken)
  • Hero's Band item (+2 to all attributes -- probably good early in the game and useless later on)
Digital Edition ($49.99 normal edition)
  • The game (that's it)
 Digital Deluxe Edition ($69.99)
  • Summon Mistfire Wolf elite skill (temporary pet summons; a little weird to give a permanent, gameplay-affecting character option as a bonus, but whatever)
  • Rytlock miniature (minipet of Rytlock Brimstone, a Charr warrior and important NPC)
  • Golem banker ("mechanical man-servant" that allows you access to your storage from anywhere for five days)
  • Chalice of Glory (one-time glory point boost for PvP rewards)
  • Tome of Influence (one-time influence point boost for guild rewards)
Collector's Edition ($149.99)
  • 10-inch painted Rytlock figure
  • 112-page Making of Guild Wars 2 book
  • Custom art frame (less fancy than it sounds)
  • Art portfolio and five art prints (not sure what "portfolio" means, may just hold the prints)
  • Best of Guild Wars 2 soundtrack CD (nice!)
System requirements have also been revealed, but may change over time as the game is fine-tuned.
  • Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better
  • Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 or better
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI Radeon™ X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)
  • 25 GB available HDD space
  • Broadband Internet connection
  • Keyboard and mouse
All right, infodump complete. What do I think?
I think that one-time-use digital bonuses are slightly disappointing. It's nice to get a head start, but the Tome and Chalice are nothing you can't earn by playing the game normally. The golem banker is a bit weird -- it says you get five days' access to the banker, which presumably means it's another one-time-use item but it lasts for five days. If that's true, also a little disappointing. I'd rather see lasting items, even if they're only display pieces for my home instance.
The miniature is better, but I'm a little weirded out by an elite skill being given away as a collector's edition bonus. If it's better than other elites, people will cry "pay 2 win". If it's the same as other elites, it's still an option others don't have. If it's worse than the others, no one will use it and what's the point.What I'm hoping for is that it's a reskin of another elite.

Physical items? Awwww yeahhhhhhh. Rytlock figure looks awesome, and if you've read the already-released book Edge of Destiny, you'll know Rytlock is a pretty cool dude. The making of book is nice. Soundtrack CD is probably awesome -- don't really know yet, but I have faith in Jeremy Soule to produce good music (he did GW1, Skyrim, the first 3 Harry Potter movies, and most of BioWare's music up to and including Knights of the Old Republic). I'm not too sure what "art portfolio" means, but it's probably a case to hold the prints, rather than something that contains more art. The frame itself looks pretty simple compared to its description, but it's actually way awesome -- most collector's editions come with art prints but no way to display them.
 I'm a little disappointed that the art book isn't included, but it's been out for, what, two years now? It makes sense to include all new stuff.

As for the system requirements, they're about what I expected: very accessible to almost anyone who calls themselves a PC gamer. I am a little worried by the processor requirement -- my current laptop only has a 2.13 GHz i3, which is one of the 3 types listed under minimum. Hopefully I can get a new computer soon to see this game at its best.

As for the price, again, it's about what I expected. Normal price for just the game, high price for collector's edition with a bunch of cool physical stuff. The only weird one is the digital deluxe. With three of the five bonus items being one-time use and one being a tiny cosmetic item, I'm a little hesitant to recommend that version to anyone.

One more thing: if pre-orders are up on April 10th, hopefully that means we'll know the release date by then.

Well that ended up being a little longer than I expected. What do you think of the options?

1 comment:

  1. It's been a very long wait for Guild Wars fans but the release date looks to be sometime this summer probably in July or early August. This is according to the game store in town that I have my pre-order copy reserved at.

    For the miniature Rytlock and elite skill Summon Mistfire Wolf, you are paying a $20 premium to the Digital Version of the game. That is, if we exclude the one time use items and the 5 day use Golem Banker. So if you got an extra $20 and want more bling go for this version. Hard core fans will probably pay the extra for the Collector's Edition.

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