Everyone’s getting ready to go to the War, War Never Changes, and I’m just sitting here gliding.
One of the downfalls of being a Patient Gamer is missing out on that communal experience — that rush of, “Did you beat that boss?” / “Man, I’m having trouble with this part… ” / “That cutscene was SO COOL!” that a lot of us engage in after a huge launch.
I wish I could be part of it, I really do. But I have absolutely zero patience for the bugs, crashes, and roughness that accompanies so many major games at launch these days. So, most of the time, I hang back, buying titles months or years after they debut, and enjoying the best versions of them, like fine wine on a summer deck.
Which is why I have to give credit to ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.
GW2 has been zero-downtime for years now — they never go offline for server maintenance on a scheduled basis. Even for the launch of Heart of Thorns, the game’s first expansion pack, there was zero scheduled downtime. I can only remember one instance of unscheduled downtime in the years I’ve been playing. The vast majority of bugs are fixed within an hour or two, and the game runs smooth. Like you expect and deserve it to.
So what I’ve been doing these days, after the sheer chaos of BL29, is gliding. Just soaring along, catching updrafts, letting the enormous trees of the Maguuma jungle sail by like giants walking past.
I’ll have more thoughts on the expansion once I’ve experienced more of it — it is meaty — but, for now, all of my friends can kill Super Mutants and cheers themselves with Nuka-Cola, and I’ll just be sitting here gliding.
Speaking of which, be sure to check out the Fallout 4 Launch Party being hosted by Orion at RESET Interactive Ultralounge! Co-sponsored by our friends RESET and PNP Games, we’ll be kicking things off with a special edition of the Level 1 Scrubs podcast to talk about all things Fallout. At 5 PM, the doors open for a fun evening of trivia, prizes (including games from our good friends at tinyBuild!), and even a Fallout-themed menu! Zip up your Vault-Tec suit and dodge the Deathclaws on your way to RESET at 1931 Pembina Highway, it’s sure to be a blast.
Jesse Mackenzie is the Managing Editor for aybonline.com. He can be reached at jessem@aybonline.com, and his opinions are his own.
