It was my understanding the original, Factions and Nightfall are all standalone.

not sure this is fair, see i didnt really like guild wars 1, then i bought nightfall a few years laters and have to say it was a EXCELLENT play thru; the "hero pets" or whatever you call them gavet he game depth that i always thought it was missing;

for any first time buyer, id recomend you buy nightfall first, and if you like that then buy the others, as frankly its by far the best campaign.

I didn't realize Nightfall was standalone, and it seems that it is generally regarded as the best of the bunch. I'll change my advice to mirror yours then... buy Nightfall first and see if you like it before buying the others. The main point of my original advice was that it doesn't make sense to buy the whole set if you haven't tried any of them yet, and that still stands.

Personally, I don't think they could have addressed all of the reasons I hated GW in Nightfall, so I never tried it and never will. But to be fair, I'm not part of the target audience for the series. I hate MMOs (yes, I tried several of them before I formed that opinion), and I'm not a multiplayer gamer in general. I would rather play a singleplayer-oriented RPG than play GW. I was under the mistaken impression that GW could be fun to play mostly solo; maybe the expansions have improved on that, but the original got boring pretty quickly.

This comment was edited on Apr 23, 2009, 12:24.

I wouldn't say they are an essential purchase. It makes more sense to evaluate the original Guild Wars, then get the expansions if you like it. Personally, I hated GW, so I'm glad I didn't buy the expansions without trying the base game first.

not sure this is fair, see i didnt really like guild wars 1, then i bought nightfall a few years laters and have to say it was a EXCELLENT play thru; the "hero pets" or whatever you call them gavet he game depth that i always thought it was missing;

for any first time buyer, id recomend you buy nightfall first, and if you like that then buy the others, as frankly its by far the best campaign.

/Theo

its worth noting i aint no GW far boi, ive played through factions and nightfall only once , the first campaign broed me to death, but treated as a kinda diabllo game; its very good no sub fee's and a decent comunity to boot. i also for a while enjoyed watching the PvP matches

This comment was edited on Apr 23, 2009, 07:07.

I'd probably be interested in buying the Guild Wars Trilogy (I already have GW, but have no idea what my user name / pw is anymore, and I've switched providers twice since I played it.)

But fifty bucks? You've gotta be fucking kidding. Charge 20 for it and I'll buy it.

Creston

GW is very weak, but I am really looking forward to GW2. GW is instanced way too much, you need a world my friends!:)

Seriously... IL2 not worth $10? Really?

IL2 1946 is a virtual encyclopedia of simming awesomeness. 10 bucks is a laughably tiny price for such a mind-bogglingly amazing compilation. That is, IF you are a flight sim fan.

Guild Wars is like WoW with all the fun bits ripped out of it. You certainly get what you pay for.

Guild Wars is like WoW without the massive grind.

Which was a shame, cause I played through the rest of the prophecies campaign by myself and with random people online (joined a guild) and was richly rewarded for it.

GW has the best PUGs of any MMO I've played. Granted, the game was designed to be solo and PUG friendly, but I still liked the community.

Next to Ultima Online, GW is my favorite MMO. The PvP combat is especially thrilling; reminded me of a lot of FPS games in terms of teamwork and action.

Guild Wars' story-orientated approach I found to be much more engaging

I agree with you here - I've tried daoc, lotro, aoc and gw, and I found GW's "mission" based approach enticing. I loved the skill system, how you have to build a set of 7 skills to take with you (from a much larger available set) which meant you'd spend time out of the game thinking about (or googling for) possible kickass combinations to try out next time you play.

The game never punishes you for experimenting, lets you travel anywhere you've been before instantly - it's a liberating feeling. Compare that with endless horse travel in lotro.

Ultimately, my friends rejected GW due to the lack of a z-axis (no jumping and not being able to run down small hills) and the "unsolid" feel to player movement (possibly due to lag to Australia?)

Which was a shame, cause I played through the rest of the prophecies campaign by myself and with random people online (joined a guild) and was richly rewarded for it.

GW2 is definately worth keeping track of!

Side note: Nightfall is a definitely a "richer", more polished, less generic campaign than Prophecies (though I really enjoyed prophecies after say the first third of the game). I'd recommend starting with Nightfall.

This comment was edited on Apr 22, 2009, 17:56.

Guild Wars is like WoW with all the fun bits ripped out of it. You certainly get what you pay for.

back when, i remember keeping up with the original guild wars and its release date and ended up getting it soon after it was available for full price. it sucked that i became bored with it so quickly. i probably put less than 10 hours into it. i remember the lack of freedom of movement was very disappointing; trying to walk down the side of a small hill and being stopped dead in my tracks by something invisible was aggravating. it felt very constricting and gave it an almost linear quality that i couldnt get over.

i enjoyed city of heroes though, and spent the better part of a month playing it.

Looking over the prices for everything is a bit weird. They want $20 for City of heroes? Are you kidding? Everyone knows that game is going away as soon as the new Marvel MMO and Champions shows up.

And $50 for Guild Wars Trilogy? To be fair amazon sells it for the same price new but the alternate (used/new) has it for about $30. (Actually it looks like the lowest price there is $40 for a copy you can play online...)

If you buy each of the 3 titles used you'll pay approx $23 (probably closer to 30 after shipping...)

Full priced games on steam are rarely a good value. The only thing I'm even considering is $5 purchases. I love buying old games for $5 on steam. But even a $10 game gets the big ole pass from my wallet. Buying old games for $10 plus is a hurdle for me. I wanted to buy that IL2 1946 game for $10 from GOG but I couldn't do it. When I saw that game along with 3 others and it broke that magical $5 barrier, bam! Sold!

I like how you spent all that time and energy detailing what a cheap-ass you are.

Seriously... IL2 not worth $10? Really?

Why the heck is the original Guild Wars still 30 bucks?

Man, I would kill for some GW2 news right now.

$30 vs. $50... no wonder I don't buy shit on Steam.

Looking over the prices for everything is a bit weird. They want $20 for City of heroes? Are you kidding? Everyone knows that game is going away as soon as the new Marvel MMO and Champions shows up.

And $50 for Guild Wars Trilogy? To be fair amazon sells it for the same price new but the alternate (used/new) has it for about $30. (Actually it looks like the lowest price there is $40 for a copy you can play online...)

If you buy each of the 3 titles used you'll pay approx $23 (probably closer to 30 after shipping...)

Full priced games on steam are rarely a good value. The only thing I'm even considering is $5 purchases. I love buying old games for $5 on steam. But even a $10 game gets the big ole pass from my wallet. Buying old games for $10 plus is a hurdle for me. I wanted to buy that IL2 1946 game for $10 from GOG but I couldn't do it. When I saw that game along with 3 others and it broke that magical $5 barrier, bam! Sold!

I kinda wish I could migrate my already-bought MMOs to steam and have a handy-dandy all-in-one client/updater instead of having lots of different installers to keep track of.

Oh well. Can't afford a sub right now anyway, Runes of Magic ftw.

I've been meaning to get Guild Wars Trilogy from GoGamer but it's consistently out of stock.

$30 vs. $50... no wonder I don't buy shit on Steam.

They all play very differently and have their own character to them. Personally I've played trials of WOW and LOTRO online and found them to be boring and unrewarding, whereas Guild Wars' story-orientated approach I found to be much more engaging. To each their own, though I'd certainly recommend checking at least one of them out - Nightfall is probably the easiest to get start with. I'm very much looking forward to Guild Wars 2.

I wouldn't say they are an essential purchase. It makes more sense to evaluate the original Guild Wars, then get the expansions if you like it. Personally, I hated GW, so I'm glad I didn't buy the expansions without trying the base game first.

This comment was edited on Apr 22, 2009, 14:48.

I've already got all the Guild Wars games and they're too pricey to justify buying again. However, for anyone that hasn't got them they're an essential purchase. I really need to start playing them again, as I never completed Factions or Nightfall.