What's the general consensus regarding this game? Is it looking awesome, both graphically and gameplay-wise? I bought it mainly because I'd played a little of GW, liked that it was non-subscription and the general mechanics of the thing.
Awesome, but bear in mind that you're asking the people in the Guild Wars 2 thread what their opinion on Guild Wars 2 is, so I don't know how you can expect anything but positive bias.
That said, feedback is overwhelmingly positive amongst gaming sites (for whatever "Gaming Journalism" is worth) and pretty much everyone who gives it a fair shake ends up walking away impressed and eager to play.
Graphically it's fantastic, not as technically impressive as something like TERA, but it more than makes up for it with an amazing art style. Less polygons, but the ones they have are put to good use. It's definitely a great looking game and there's quite a few screenshots in this page if you want to oogle them.
Gameplay-wise, it's leaps and bounds ahead of your standard MMO. It's very action-oriented and requires you to stay on your toes at all times. No rotations, no spamming auto-attack, no standing around soaking up damage, etc. You can read
Jira's awesome mega-FAQ if you need more details.
Suffice it to say, around these parts, we're pretty pumped. The only people who really seem to take issue with GW2 are those who are biased against it (MMO Loyalists) or, surprisingly, huge GW1 fans (the game is just too radically different from the first).
Where can I listen to this podcast you guys have been doing, Retro, Hawkian, et al.?
We recorded it last night, Grizz is likely editing it and getting it hosted sometime today. Gonna try to get it up on Youtube this time too.
