guild-wars posts

Guild Wars 2 trailers so far have tended to be on the side of area reveals rather than anything substantial. In this case, it's the home of the Charr, another one of the playable races. While they were primarily antagonists in the original Guild Wars, here they are much more benign. Lots of beautiful landscapes and menacing felids abound in this trailer, but once again there is nothing of any real in-game substance. Just some excellent art.

Download the Guild Wars 2 'Domain of the Charr' trailer
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Guild Wars 2 and the game's developer ArenaNet is slowly revealing more info about the upcoming fantasy MMO sequel. The newest video shows off the Thief profession as used by several different races via in-game cinematic footage.

As you can see, the Thief can use its hyper-speed abilities to take out even the largest of enemies. It can also used both melee weapons like knives along with ranged weapons like arrows and guns (including using them in John Woo-style dual shooting mode). There's also some stealth involved in the Thief profession. We will likely learn more about Guild Wars 2 in the months ahead of its release.

Guild Wars 2 is heading to PAX East 2011 this weekend and for those of you who will be attending the now sold out show in Boston you will get a chance to see a new build of developer ArenaNet's upcoming fantasy MMO sequel. One of the new features that will be seen in the PAX East build will be how the game handles crafting.

In a new post on the ArenaNet blog site, game designer Andrew McLeod writes about the eight different crafting disciplines that can be learned in the game. Characters can learn up to two disciplines at once. The blog entry also talks about how characters can gather the raw materials for making items in the game and the crafting stations which will be found in the major population centers in the game world. It sounds like the crafting system will be simple enough to use but will still allow for a ton of variety in making weapons and other items.

While it has yet to be added to the official Guild Wars 2 web site, developer ArenaNet sent over word today that its upcoming fantasy MMO sequel has yet another profession, the Thief. This is the sixth playable profession to be revealed for the long awaited game.

As one might imagine, players who take on the Thief professional will have characters that are designed to be quick and stealthy. What the Thief lacks in power and in armor is made up in being able to travel and vanish along with weapons skills that don't need any recharge. For more info about the Thief head over to our sister site Massively who got to check out the Thief at GDC 2011.

There is a new zone trailer for Guild Wars 2, and it covers the land of the Nordic-like Norn. Full of sweeping vistas, rugged wildlife, and treacherous terrain, it looks like a beautiful wilderness-styled zone. Of note to us are the snow-covered areas, such as the dwelling and the statues of bears, and the distinct architecture of the Norn. There's also an arena, just in case you forgot about combat while taking in all the beauty. once again, a relatively valueless trailer for story or game mechanics, but entertaining for the art style.

Download Guild Wars 2 'Norn Zone Preview' Trailer
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Much like Blizzard, the team at developer ArenaNet is known for taking its time when it comes to making its games. The MMO sequel Guild Wars 2 is certainly an example of that. The game was officially announced nearly four years ago and it still doesn't have an official release year, much less a release date. However this week the game's official FAQ has been updated with this statement, "We will be conducting small closed alpha and beta tests in 2011." The FAQ page goes on to say, "The feedback from these tests will determine when we will do public beta tests and ship the game.

While this is far from an actually release date window it sounds like ArenaNet and publisher NCSoft are at least getting closer to whatever milestone they want to reach for Guild Wars 2. In the meantime the game's official web site as well as ArenaNet's web site have been posting more details this week on how humans fit into the game's fictional world.


[Via Massively]

As promised, more info on the Guardian profession for the upcoming fantasy MMO Guild Wars 2 has been revealed. Eurogamer reports that the Guardian is actually a (sort of) replacement for the Monk profession in the original Guild Wars. Developer ArenaNet designed the new character "from scratch" to not be a healer but more of a offensive character.

ArenaNet's Jon Peters states that the Guardian profession is designed to be " ... more in-the-front-line, fightery, throwing up walls, shields and doing these other crowd control area block things." This is the fifth profession in Guild Wars 2 to be revealed (the others were Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior and Elementalist). Three more professions have yet to be named and described by ArenaNet.

Update: The official Guild Wars 2 web site has more info on the Guardian profession.

It's almost hard to believe that the first Guild Wars game was released just over five years ago in 2005, but has had an impact that continues to resonate as fans eagerly look forward to Guild Wars 2. This fifteen minute video briefly recounts the history of ArenaNet and gives fans a more intimate look at the designers and a game company that takes a very artistic approach toward development.

Download HD ArenaNet Guild Wars Retrospective Video (919 MB)
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While the team at developer ArenaNet are not giving us much clues as to when Guild Wars 2 will be released, the upcoming MMO has just made its second tie-in prose novel available. Guild Wars: Edge of Destiny is technically supposed to be released on December 28 but Amazon.com shows the novel as being in stock.

Written by J. Robert King the novel takes place a few years before the story events of Guild Wars 2 and tells the tale how the team of fantasy adventurerers known as Destiny's Edge came together. The characters in the team will appear in Guild Wars 2. The ArenaNet web site has a sample chapter of the novel to check out right now. It also has an interview with King about his work.

[Via Massively]

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.