Guild Wars Nightfall Preview Underway

**Crandaeolon** · 09-22-2006, 21:12

The free preview event for GW: Nightfall started today and will last for a few days:

http://www.guildwars.com/events/inga...rldpreview.php

Anet has upgraded the GW engine to DX9 specifications, and the new environments and characters look a bit more detailed now, without loss of performance. The art itself is also nicer than in the previous games, with a distinctly African flavor. I don't know how they actually did it, but things like foliage, rocks and water look better now, and it still runs as well as before.

Nightfall is supposedly a PvE-oriented release, and so far the improvements seem quite marked. There's a new henchman control system, and customisable henchies called "heroes." Their attributes, skills and gear are fully alterable, and players can also directly control their skill usage and positioning.

I'd recommend trying out the preview to any fan of action-RPG games and also people who were "on the verge" about the original game (mostly those who favor PvE over PvP.)

**Mithrandir** · 09-22-2006, 21:19

Wow, there's a name of ancient times...

How are you Crand ?

-Mithrandir (Glorfindel)

**Crandaeolon** · 09-22-2006, 21:46

Hey Glorf!

If MTW times are considered ancient now, Shogun must be like... precambric. Amoebas copulating in mud puddles, or something.

I'm mostly playing GW now, the competitive scene is a couple orders of magnitude larger than in TW. Winning the MTW championship thingie was like stealing candy from babies in comparison, no offense to the other ancients.

The guild I'm in, Storm Bearers, is within a stabbing distance of the bi-annual $100k championships, and it looks like I'll stay in GW for the time being. GW might also be a good stepping stone for a career in game development, real life busywork permitting. (One can dream of course, in reality I'll probably end up working for Nokia like 99% of ofher Finns...

)

I'll check MTW2 out of course, maybe we can get some games going there. Ah, the good old times...

Edit: sent you a PM, otherwise you might slap me with a ban-stick for going off topic...

**Xiahou** · 09-22-2006, 23:35

Originally Posted by Crandaeolon

Nightfall is supposedly a PvE-oriented release, and so far the improvements seem quite marked. There's a new henchman control system, and customisable henchies called "heroes." Their attributes, skills and gear are fully alterable, and players can also directly control their skill usage and positioning.

Good to hear- I thought Factions was pretty heavily slanted towards PvP, which I only occasionally dabble in... my main interest is in the PvE element. I sorta wish they'd come out with some content to flesh out and add some depth to the areas we already have too between expansions.

Nevertheless, Nightfall sounds like something that might (hopefully) get me interesting in GW again. Any word on whether or not the henchie improvements will carry over to the other campaigns as well?

**Crandaeolon** · 09-23-2006, 01:17

The customisable heroes are exclusive to Nightfall (they are obtained in the Nightfall PvE campaign), though you can bring them to the other chapters as well. General henchie control will be a global improvement to the other chapters, though it's limited to simple movement commands.

You can have a maximum of three "heroes" with you, and they can be controlled with more precision. You can pick their skillbars from all of the skills that you have unlocked, including skills from previous chapters. They're limited to a single class, but customisation makes them much more powerful than standard henchies.

**Snowhobbit** · 09-23-2006, 16:49

I've actually found that I can change my hero's secondary proffesion

I'm soo locking forward to the release of nightfall

**Crandaeolon** · 09-23-2006, 17:30

Ah they're dual-class like players? Didn't know that, maybe I should have played a bit more.

(I'm going to buy Nightfall anyways, so didn't feel it very important to check out the PvE stuff. Will see to that with the full release.)

**Lehesu** · 09-25-2006, 19:10

I am also excited about Nightfall, but I am not playing the preview event. Spending time on characters that will ultimately be deleted hurts my soul.

**Navaros** · 09-30-2006, 07:31

I missed the preview due to hardware issues but I've read a lot about it from players who played it.

It's great there might finally be some Henchmen who don't suck to an abysmally bad extent, as all the Henchmen in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 do.

On the "sucks" side of the coin, it sucks:

- You can't name your Heros - that's extremely lame.

- Every Hero in your party takes loot drops away from you just like Henchmen do. You should be able to go into their inventory to take back the drops they took, but apparently you can't. That's a scam in my view.

- The ability to customize Heros' appearance and gear is very limited.

- Heros and customizable Henchmen should be retroactively added to all Guild Wars games for free rather than being a "new game-specific" feature. Especially since the back of the original Guild Wars box falsely advertises Chapter 1 by calling the Henchmen "skillful" (obviously nothing could be further from the truth or else "Heros" wouldn't be the main selling point of Chapter 3).

**John86** · 10-01-2006, 05:05

Originally Posted by Navaros

Especially since the back of the original Guild Wars box falsely advertises Chapter 1 by calling the Henchmen "skillful" (obviously nothing could be further from the truth or else "Heros" wouldn't be the main selling point of Chapter 3).

I beg to differ!

https://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6025/gw026vq7.jpg

Yes, I do like to brag.

**ajaxfetish** · 10-04-2006, 06:12

I'm excited for it. I never did pick up factions, so I've felt in a bit of a backwater lately, since GW's the main game I've been playing. Nightfall I do plan to buy close to release, with the hero henches and easier class altering being the main draws so far for me.

Ajax