Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars is not your typical MMO game and today the development team at ArenaNet have launched a new content update that ends with, of all things, a wedding. Hearts of the North is the second content event for the game that's designed in part to give players a transition to the events for the long awaited sequel Guild Wars 2.

The new quests in the game tell the story of one of Guild Wars's main characters Keiran Thackeray who was thought to have sacrificed his life at the end of the first Guild Wars content event the War in Kryta. In fact he he is alive and the Hearts of the North quests have your character looking for Thackeray. In the end you end up playing as Thackeray himself as he fights his way back to his true love Gwen and ends with a wedding ceremony between the two.

Players of developer ArenaNet's Guild Wars game have been racking up achievements in the games since the first title was released many years ago. Now ArenaNet has revealed that those achievements will figure into the game's MMO sequel Guild Wars 2. In fact you can go ahead and find out about what kinds of Guild Wars 2 rewards you can gain right now.

Today ArenaNet launched a Hall of Monuments Reward Calculator web page. All you have to do is put in your character's name from the original Guild Wars and the calulator will figure out the rewards that will await you when Guild Wars 2 is released. There's more info on this feature on a FAQ page and more info on the feature can be found on this news posts. You might be able to gain access to things like in-game pets, special weapons and armor pieces and more. You can even let other people see what kinds of rewards you get via social networking pages like Facebook.

Earlier this month our sister site Massively reported that developer ArenaNet was creating applications for smartphones and Apple's iPad that will link to ArenaNet's upcoming MMO Guild Wars 2. Today the game's official web site revealed more about its plans for the "Extended Experience".

As you can see from the image above the iPad and other devices (including the iPhone, the iPod Touch and smartphones using Google's Android OS) will let players see a 2D map and watch and chat with their friends as they play in the world of Guild Wars 2. But ArenaNet also plans to release " a series of apps that will share information with each other and the Guild Wars 2 system in ways that simply haven't been done before." Examples include using apps to examine a player's character (stats, equipment, achievements, etc.). Another app will let players place a finger on the 2D world map. That location will be seen by other players in the game world itself.

Guild Wars 2 will be joining the mobile app revolution, according to a report from our sister site Massively. During PAX Prime 2010 the site learned that the MMO game's developer ArenaNet is developing applications that will run on various smartphones as well as Apple's iPad device.

While it doesn't sound like you will be able to play the game itself through these apps, the development team plans to let you check up and message your friends that are playing the game through the software as well as follow your friends' progress on a map. More unnamed features for these Guild Wars 2 mobile apps are also in the works.

More and more of the Guild Wars 2 onion is being peeled off at the upcoming MMO's official web site. This week's update features the reveal of the game's necromancer player class which, as you might guess from its title, deals with the dark mystical arts.

Players who decide to pick the necromancer class will find a character that feeds on the life forces of others. If a necromancer "dies" in battle the character can continue to fight via a mystical Death Shroud form. If he or she kills off an enemy they can return to their body. They can also generate minions to battle for them. Developer ArenaNet will likely show off the class next weekend when Guild Wars 2 is shown in playable form at PAX Prime 2010.

The team at ArenaNet promised that the first actual live gameplay demos for Guild Wars 2 would be shown at Gamescom this week and it looks like that's indeed the case. While there's still no "official" footage of the upcoming fantasy MMO sequel from publisher NCsoft it looks like the Italian-based site Multiplayer.it has filmed a monitor with live gameplay from the Gamescom exhibit hall.

The video footage on YouTube is not exactly the best quality (people are walking in front of the camera at one point) but it does show quite a bit of combat and magic action from the demo build of the game along with what looks like some player controlled turret action. Hopefully NCsoft will provide a gameplay trailer that's much clearly and in higher resolution later this week.

[Via Massively]

It's been some time since the developers working on Guild Wars 2 wrote a manifesto on the official blog. With this video, they showcase all the features that will set it apart from all other MMORPG games and move the genre forward from the same old gameplay and experience.

Download HD Guild Wars 2 'Manifesto' Video (389 MB)
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If you can take yourself away from the launch of StarCraft II on July 27, you may also want to pick up something at your local bookstore. That's where you might find the first Guild Wars 2 prose novel, Ghosts of Ascalon, on sale. The previously announced novel from authors Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb is now set for a July 27 release date.

The official Guild Wars 2 web site now has a page devoted to the novel that includes an FAQ, a map of the book's fantasy setting of Tyria and the first chapter of the novel which takes place one year before the story and events in ArenaNet's upcoming MMO title. This should be just the first in a series of novels set in the Guild Wars universe. You can check out an advanced review of the novel at our sister site Massively which also has a chat with the book's co-author Jeff Grubb.

Developer ArenaNet continues to reveal more and more info about its highly anticipated MMO sequel Guild Wars 2. Today the game's official web site officially revealed another character class for the game, the Ranger. As one might expect this class is very much skilled in ranged combat via his (or her) bow but ArenaNet has thrown something different in the mix.

That would the the addition of pets for the Ranger. There will be 12 different types of pets to pick from and there will be a variety of types available from land to air to water-based animals. Pets can evolve over time by gaining evolution levels (20 in all) and more abilities that are specific to each pet. All in all these animals sound like they won't be pack mules.

Fresh off the info dump on the nature of healing and death in Guild Wars 2 earlier this week, the ArenaNet team give out some more info nuggets on its upcoming fantasy MMO sequel via a new developer Q&A on the ArenaNet web site. Game designers John Stumme and Ben Miller go into more detail on some of the mini-games that are planned for the sequel.

When asked if any of the games will have balls (ok, stop snickering back there) Stumme states there will be a new Norn mini-game that's kind of like basketball. Stumme says, "The only difference is that the ball in this case is a heavy keg of ale." Heck, that's a game we want to play in real life. Other topics in the Q&A include if Guild Wars holidays will show up again in the sequel and some discussions about waypoints and travel. But hey; ale as a ball. Gotta love that.

The official Guild Wars 2 web site continues to offer up regular updates that reveal more interesting features for the upcoming MMO game. This week the web site talks about something deep: death. In other MMO games the death of a player character is not good. Developer ArenaNet, however, has a different idea. According to game designer Jon Peters, "As weird as it might sound, we decided to look into what would make dying a more enjoyable and memorable play experience."

For example a player in the game will go into a "downed mode" if he or she loses all of their health. They will still be able to use some skills in order to stay alive. If you do finally die you can come back to life via any discovered waypoint and you spend some gold to be revived. Peters states, "Why should we debuff you, take away experience, or make you run around for five minutes as a ghost instead of letting you actually play the game? We couldn't think of a reason." Peters also goes into some detail on how Guild Wars 2 will handle healing characters.

So ArenaNet is developing the MMO sequel Guild Wars 2. But there will apparently be more to do than just go on quest, kill monsters and collect items. The latest blog post on the ArenaNet web site reveals the game will offer up some rather unique mini-games to pass the time.

One of them is the bar brawl where people can fight each other with their hands and feet. The kicker is the several types of ale you can drink that can give you certain abilities such as "allowing the player to belch out a noxious gas cloud." Other mini-games include taking out targets in a shooting gallery and snowball fights. The ultimate reason for these mini-games? "We have created such a wide range of content and activities that you can find something to do regardless of your play style or mood."

E3 2010 is over and done with but that was an event for the game industry. No public folks were allowed. That's certainly not the case with the Seattle version of Penny Arcade Expo (also known as PAX Prime since the launch of PAX East last March) which has now become the biggest single game oriented event in the US in terms of attendence. The 2010 edition of PAX Prime will be held September 3-5 this year.

The PAX web site has been updated recently with word on some of the exhibitors that will be at the show. They include big time exhibitors like 2K Games, Capcom, EA, Ubisoft, and more. Also on the list is NCsoft who bypassed E3 this year and have already confirmed it will be showing off live demos of the upcoming and highly anticipated Guild Wars 2 for the first time in the US at PAX this year. Musical guests like Anamanaguchi, Jonathan Coulton, Metroid Metal, MC Frontalot, the Minibosses, The Protomen, and Paul & Storm have also been confirmed to play at PAX Prime this year. Registration is still going on but we suspect that, like last year, it will be a sell out before the show begins.

The 2010 edition of E3 has been over for a week now but we are still recovering from checking out all of the titles that we saw at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There were also lots of games that were there we didn't get to see unfortunately. But most importantly of all were the games we know are being made but still didn't make it to the show.

E3 is unquestionably the single biggest event in the game industry but for a variety of reasons some highly anticipated PC titles were not even shown in trailer form at the event. So which games went missing? We just happened to have created a handy list of titles that we think could have made an appearance of some type at the show.

As the master of a multitude of different weapons and access to different shouts, stances and charge moves, the Warrior class in Guild Wars 2 can stand against just about any threat - as this video demonstrates. What's also interesting is that it looks like warriors will also pretty handy with a longbow, and will be able to light arrows on fire for an area effect. We wonder how this skill will balance against the ranger class. We'll find out soon enough in the coming months, but if you want to enjoy this video in all its glory, we highly recommend downloading the HD version, which is available in 1080p resolution.

Download HD Guild Wars 2 'Warrior Skills' Gameplay Video (1.37 GB)
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