First Guild Wars Game Gets Significant Graphics Update

ArenaNet has released a major update to the original Guild Wars game. The 13 year old game gets new options where the draw distance doubles and more details are visible at a great distance.

The changelog can be found on the Guild Wars Wiki site. New features include the ability to play the game in windowed fullscreen, 8x msaa and 16x anisotropic filtering. A checkbox for advanced options has appeared in the graphics settings menu.

With those advanced options it is possible to lock the level or detail at the highest setting, regardless of the distance from the player. It is also possible to double the draw distance. The developers indicate that vegetation is rendered from even greater distances.

Other tweaks include improvements to the chat system and a doubling of the maximum number of friends and ignored players. In addition, some bugs have been fixed. YouTube user WoodenPotatoes showed the differences in a video.

Guild Wars is a mmorpg that has been playable since April 2005. In addition to the usual mmorpg elements, the game has an emphasis on player-to-player combat. Players can form groups called guilds and challenge other guilds to battles in pvp arenas. The sequel, Guild Wars 2, was released in August 2012.