guild-wars-2 posts

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.

So far this year developer ArenaNet has been pretty quiet about its progress on its long awaited MMO sequel Guild Wars 2. But that should change next week. A post on the PC Gamer web site showed off a screenshot (shown above) of the Guardian profession in the game, something which until now hasn't been discussed.

But never fear; ArenaNet will have you covered. As posted by the developer's community manager, "We will have a full reveal of the guardian, along with all the goodies (pics, videos), next Thursday." That's actually this coming Thurday, January 27 for those of you keeping score at home.

[Via Massively]

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)
Check out all Guild Wars 2 downloads

PC gamers love role playing games in many different forms. Some prefer the huge sprawling single player RPGs while others like the fast pace of action-RPG titles. Still others like to gather with lots of friends and players in massively multiplayer RPGs. As Big Download continues our look into 2011's most anticipated PC games we give our picks for the top 10 RPG and related MMO games that we want most to play in the the next 12 months.

There are tons of sequels to previously released RPGs on this list. One developer, BioWare, has a whopping three games on this list. That includes perhaps the most anticipated MMO game launch in the post World of Warcraft world. Check out our top 10 list in order of their planned release date, plus two games that may or may not actually make it out in 2011, after the jump. You can also go back and check out our most anticipated 2011 games in the FPS and action categories.

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.

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.

It's been a little bit of a slow news day. Will things pick up tomorrow or will we have to start reporting news about Lindsay Lohan? Stay tuned:

• NyXQuest: Kindred Spirits is now available on Steam along with a demo for the platformer.
• Steam also has some puzzle games on sale including Everyday Genius: SquareLogic for just $2.50 and Turba for $4.99.
• Steam also has Rig N Roll on sale this week for $12.50.
• The free-to-play MMO King of Kings 3 is now officially live.
• PC Gamer's next print magazine cover story is on Guild Wars 2.

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.