Guild Wars 2

The control & movement system is going to be significantly changed. In particular, mouse movement in the form has been removed from the game; however, target locking will still function. Control of combat is more active; including blocking skills that are "held down", ground-targeting for spells and attacks, and hit detection that allows one player to block area-based damage from reaching other players. Guild Wars 2 is a true 3D environment which allows characters to jump over obstacles as well as swim and dive underwater. New animation coding allow separates tracks for upper and lower body components, allowing players to activate more skills while running or jumping for smoother combat immersion.

Flight is not be a featured character capability in Guild Wars 2.

Game engine

Guild Wars 2 uses a heavily modified Guild Wars game engine which includes support for true 3D environments, more detailed environments and models, better lighting and shadows, new animation and effects systems, plus new audio and cinematics engines and a more flexible combat and skill-casting system.

Gaile Gray has indicated the game supports DirectX 10, but not require it to play. Guild Wars 2 utilises the Havok physics engine to provide ragdoll animation and destructible environments, as well as occlusion culling technology licensed from Umbra Software to optimise 3D object rendering

Story

Guild Wars 2's story is set exactly 250 years after Guild Wars Nightfall. Tyria has been drastically changed due to the rise of the Elder Dragons that woke up throughout the past 200 years by creating tidal waves, shattering mountains, or twisting the earth as they rose. Various races, including the Asura and Norn, were all forced out of their homelands by these Elder Dragons.

Other than the Elder Dragons' awakening, other major events happened as well. The Charr have conquered Ascalon (save Ebonhawke), but before his death King Adelbern unleashed the Foefire from Ascalon City, turning all humans within its reach into undying ghosts who sees all living beings as threats that must be eliminated. This left Kryta as the final human kingdom in Tyria, which is now under siege by centaurs and torn by political unrest. Lion's Arch was flooded by Zhaitan's rise and eventually rebuilt as a city for all races, and now has the sole accessible portal to the Mists.

Though the Norn and Asura were pushed from their homelands, they have found new homes in the Shiverpeak Mountains and Tarnished Coast (respectively), and thrive in their new lands. The Charr have overthrown the Flame Legion and denounced all worship of gods as they built a new city over the ruins of Rin. A new plant race has recently appeared in the form of the Sylvari, birthed from the Pale Tree which was tended to by Ventari and Ronan until their deaths.

Cantha, united by Emperor Usoku, was turned into an isolationist nation that exiled all non-human races. The Tengu, in response, fled north to Kryta and isolated themselves within the Dominion of Winds. Ever since Usoku, no contact as been made with Cantha and the only knowledge that it still exists comes from sporadic sailors that wash up on the Tarnished Coast. Elona was invaded by Palawa Joko 60 years after Nightfall; the Order of the Sunspears were destroyed and the Elon was diverted causing a famine that forced Kourna and Vabbi into submission. The northern borders of Elona are under constant siege by Zhaitan's forces, but the Order of Whispers still manages to go to and from Elona.

Event system

Guild Wars 2 uses an event system to replace quests seen in either Guild Wars or traditional MMOs. Most of these events happen with or without the presence of players, while others are triggered by speaking with key NPCs. Whether events are succeeded or failed, they spawn new events from the same chain until either end of the chain are met. Active events as well as completed events influence the persistent area the event is in. Rewards for events are given based on participation rather than being solely dependent on success.

Some events may overlap. For example, one event can be to escort a caravan to a nearby garrison, but when players arrive at the garrison it may be under attack. The two events may have nothing to do with each other, but in order to receive the rewards for escorting the caravan, players must save the garrison, resulting in you doing two events at once.

System Minimum Specifications :
OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or better
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon 64 X2, or better
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 25 GB available HDD space
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7800, ATI X1800, Intel HD 3000, or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)
Additional Info: Broadband Internet connection