Guild Wars (PC)

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Things I Hate About MMORPGs, Number Four: There's no bloody privacy. You're constantly surrounded by other players, killing the same monsters in silence, brawling their way through to the same destination. It does somewhat ruin the euphoria of overcoming a particularly dragon-fiend if there's a queue of people behind you waiting to do the same, or if there are eleven people next to you is doing exactly what you're doing. Plus, adventuring in a party as is so often necessary occasionally gets wearing; sometimes, when that one idiot keeps running off into another group of enemies or the monk is too self-obsessed to heal anyone else, you just want to tell them all to go to hell and go out adventuring on your own.

Adventuring with NPCs affords a bit of isolation

And in Guild Wars, you can. Once you leave the 'hub' sections, the cities and temples and other locations where you and your fellow adventurers can gather for festivities, you're in your own, personal gamespace - only you and your party are there, so there are no other bloodthirsty players killing monsters a few feet away. And should you not wish to be in a party, you can go out on your own (though usually with little success), or even better, hire NPC henchmen to back you up and do your bidding, which also means you'll have best picks of the items. Sadly, later in the game, the NPC henchmen do tend to die quite horribly before you've ventured more than a few steps outside - but at least the option is there, and certainly in the game's earlier stages, it's a valid one.

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Things I Hate About MMORPGs, Number Five: Ugly characters. This one might seem a bit facetious, but I'm seriously fed up of fighting alongside blue women and scary troll-beings. In Guild Wars, everybody is absolutely gorgeous, from the cute lanky long-haired Ranger with floppy hair to the butch Warrior with the buzzcut to the skinny necromancer with the Mohawk. There's a good reason why Guild Wars players tend to strip their characters and dance in their underwear upon completion of a quest, as illustrated by many of this review's screenshots (all of which, I may add, are in-game). All characters, male and female, are beautiful, and I don't care how superficial I sound by saying that this makes playing the game that bit more pleasant.

A treat for the eyes

So there we have it, kind reader: Guild Wars is awesome. It's a beautiful playing experience, as well as a treat for the eyes (these screenshots from my under-specced PC don't do it justice), a technical marvel and a fantastic way to pass the time during the long summer months ahead. The fact that such a beauty of a game is practically free only adds to the reasons why everyone should play it. If you ever want live testimony or a (reasonably) friendly person to adventure with, my player name is Maes Troy - I wish you the greatest success.

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