Fire And Ice : GW2

With impeccable timing, now that IntPiPoMo is over, here's an all-picture post.

I was flipping through my screenshot folders the other day, looking for something I didn't find, when I noticed a whole sequence of shots from GW2's two most recent maps, Ember Bay and Bitterfrost Frontier.

GW2 has always been a spectacularly beautiful game. Over the years there have been many, many criticisms of the way the operation has been run and the direction the game has taken but no-one ever claimed the Art Department wasn't pulling its weight.

GW2 has always had a lush, overblown visual signature, but in the new lands we're discovering there's a fresh emphasis on special effects and spectacle.

Sunsets in Ember Bay explode as though yet another of Tyria's many dragons has awoken right in front of you. Every color seems supersaturated.

In Bitterfrost Frontier the tangerines and rose pinks give way to blues that shade to white. Indigo nights and snowblind days abound.

The snow softens everything to a blur although nothing in the game could be softer than this snow leopard cub, which you can rescue and have as a housepet.

And this last frame is the odd one out. I picked this thinking it was another Bitterfrost shot but it's not. I took this on the run through Frostgorge Sound. Everything old is new again when you look at the world with fresh eyes.