Guild Wars 2 out later this year, beta expanding in spring
The first closed beta phase for Guild Wars 2 has ended, according to a new post on the ArenaNet blog. The team are now ready to “aggressively ramp up the size of our beta test events” from March onwards ahead of a full release later this year.
Guild Wars 2 beta goes live today for a select few
In an Ask Me Anything Q&A on Reddit yesterday, Guild Wars 2 systems designer Jon Peters revealed that the MMO “will officially enter Closed Beta Testing this Friday.” It will only be open to a few carefully selected candidates, for now.
“Based on the feedback we get from our current Closed Beta Testing, we will determine the next phases of our beta program in which we will open beta access to more people,” he wrote
Guild Wars 2 Mesmer revealed, can summon clones armed with magic shotguns
As expected, the latest Profession to be revealed for Guild Wars 2 is the Mesmer. As you might expect from the name, Mesmers specialise in using mind tricks and illusion to defeat their enemies. It’s a less subtle art than you might expect. Auras of invisibility and doppelganger companions are all standard fare for your average combat magician. It’s the portal/laser beam sword combination that really sells the profession. It looks perfect for some high level PvP trolling and, with skill names like “Chaos Storm” and “Mind Wrack,” feels like a powerful addition to the Guild Wars 2 roster.
You can find out more about the specific abilities the Mesmer will be able to wield on the new Mesmer section of the Guild Wars 2 site. Meanwhile, here are twelve new screenshots of the various Mesmer warriors from the trailer above.
Guild Wars 2 leaked video reveals Mesmer as the next profession
Prepare to be Mesmer-ized. Yes, the regal Mesmer is the final profession to join the Guild Wars 2 class catalog. GamesReactor Denmark seems to have accidentally jumped the gun, posting the class trailer this morning, a few days ahead of the planned Wednesday morning announcement time. While not the most surprising of reveals, the leaked video shows off some fantastic-looking skills like teleportation, ethereal exploding clones, and even an area-of-effect invisibility spell. I’m guessing someone in Denmark wishes they were a Mesmer right about now.
The leaked video has since been removed, but according Guild Wars 2′s official twitter account, more information on our favorite illusionists will be revealed Wednesday. I guess it’s time to dust off my collection of fancy suits and mind bullets.
ArenaNet explains Guild Wars 2 combos, pets, and some class features
Guild Wars 2 developer Jon Peters just posted some interesting information on specific gameplay systems that players will use in the game, including an exciting description of Guild Wars 2′s combo system and a good explanation of how pets will work.
Combos work by having one character, the Initiator, create an area of effect that modifies actions performed within it. The second character, the Finisher, then performs and action that takes on new properties within the area of effect. As anyone who had played Magicka could have told them, ArenaNet discovered that stacking combinations was “incredibly overpowered.”
PC cleans up at the Golden Joystick Awards
Whoa. When did PC gaming become so damn… award-winning?
PC has cleaned up at the Golden Joystick awards with a wealth of exclusives. And the non PC exclusive games that took an award? We get to play most of those too, only more anti aliased, and in a better resolution.
The best bit? Gamers voted for these. Real-life gamers with strong opinons. A record-breaking 2.06 million of them in fact. Well done PC gaming community – you rose to the challenge and pwned.
Click through for the full results. Don’t agree with some of the winners? It’s time for a furious debate. See you in the comments.
Guild Wars 2 beta to arrive “this year for sure,” new footage shows public quests and PvP
Lead content designer on Guild Wars 2, Colin Johanson has told Eurogamer that Guild Wars 2 is on track to go into beta by the end of this year. It’s currently in closed friends and family alpha testing. The success of the closed beta phase will decide the date of the open beta, and the eventual release date next year.
“If we tear through the beta and everything’s super positive then obviously it’ll come out faster. And if we go into the beta process and we see things we want to change, then we have the luxury of having the time to be able to sit down and fix that stuff,” said Johanson. “We really don’t know when release is going to be, because we want time to react to things and upgrade and everything.”
There’s no way to register for a place on the beta yet. The best way to keep abreast of beta announcements is to sign up for the Guild Wars 2 newsletter on the official Guild Wars 2 site. Johanson confirms one thing for certain, “we’re going to go into closed beta by the end of this year for sure.”
Guild Wars 2 got a showing at the Eurogamer Expo this weekend, and RPS have highlighted 40 odd minutes of footage, showing The Cynical Brit’s Total Biscuit battling through public quests and a bit of PvP as both a Sylvari Necromancer and a sneaky Norn. You’ll find the videos embedded below.
Guild Wars 2 meets Mech Warrior in the Asura battle suit
As the small guy on the block, you occassionally need to hire some muscle to get things done on time. The Asura of Guild Wars 2 are doing just that–except they’re building their muscle. The newly announced Asura Battle Suit racial skill will put the players in the husk of a golem, allowing you to feel as mighty as the Norn without losing that cute physique we’ve come to love. It’s only a matter of time until one of the tinkering Asura figure out how to mount some rockets launchers on those shoulders. We squeezed Guild Wars 2 game designer Jon Peters for all the extra info he’d give on these magical mech warriors.
Guild Wars 2 Asura interview part two: Love and Inquest
Asura may be tiny, but this interview with ArenaNet’s Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee (game and content designers for Guild Wars 2) was so large we had to split it into two parts. Part 1 focused on the magical floating city of Rata Sum. In this section we focus more on the lore of the minuscule warriors along with a few bonuses. Read on to get more info on the amazing race that connected all of Tyria.
Guild Wars 2 Asura interview part one: Rata Sum, the floating city
Yesterday, NCsoft and ArenaNet released a metric ton of info on the egotistical race of mini-geniuses known as the Asura, one of the many playable races in Guild Wars 2. Earlier this week, we sat down with Game and Content Designers Jeff Grubb and Ree Soesbee to talk about the smallest sentient beings of Tyria. In part one of this two-part post, we gleam insight on the Asura capital city, Rata Sum, and the golems that act as the brawn to the Asuras’ brains.
Guild Wars 2 trailer and screenshots show off the Asura
The Asura are the tiniest of Guild Wars 2′s races, and the most likely to frolic around the place making merriment. They seem to live in a giant stone Rubik’s Cube held together by magic and giggles. They do demand some respect, however, on account of their exceptional intelligence, engineering talent and tendency to roll around battlefields in giant magical mech suits with golem companions.
They’ve got quite a torrid history, too, detailed in the updated Asura page on the Guild Wars 2 website. The Asura used to live underground, until they accidentally burrowed into the home of an Elder Dragon champion known as The Great Destroyer. That did not end well. Now they live in gravity-warping palaces that hang above the planet and use their high-tech portals to travel from land to land.
ArenaNet reveal more about how they set about creating the Asura’s extraordinary homelands in their Asura environments blog post. You can see how the concept art turned out in the five screenshots below, which also show some of their pleasingly stompy magical golems.
Guild Wars 2 will let players host their own PvP arenas
That’s according to MMORPG.com, which caught up with the developers over PAX. No real details are available on exactly what form these will take, thought MMORPG.com reports the plan is “for players to be able to create and host their own servers or games with specific rule-sets”. The obvious is for would be arena and PvP matches, but there’s no reason it couldn’t extend to other modes too.
These servers are unlikely to be player-hosted dedicated servers though, with simply allowing groups to claim and configure an instance much more likely – and while a full on supported modding community would be incredible, it’s far more likely that your management will be about selecting presets and locking strangers out with a password. With ArenaNet in charge though, nothing is certain…
Guild Wars 2 trailer shows sea dragon, huge robot, shouty giant
The new Guild Wars 2 trailer may start out slow, but don’t let it fool you. At around the two minute mark a bloody great dragon jumps out of the sea, then the epic score kicks in and and the real action begins. There’s some satisfyingly physical combat on show, along with some of the enormous bosses they mentioned before. In addition to the sea dragon there’s a gigantic steampunk robot who fires eye beams and a massive, stompy giant who bellows in the faces of the party in a true brown trousers moment.
Plus there’s airships, classical music and someone firing two pistols in slow motion. What more could you possibly ask for? Check out our preview to learn more.
Guild Wars 2 Gamescom demo to reveal major skill changes, Charr starting area, giant bosses
ArenaNet designer Jon Peters has been writing on the Guild Wars 2 dev blog about a number of big changes and additions we can expect to see in the Guild Wars 2 Gamescom demonstration this week. Read on for news on the new skill system and an overview of the new areas and bosses ArenaNet will be showing in Cologne.
PC Gamer US October issue: Batman: Arkham City hands-on
The Bat Signal shines on the sky above Gotham! PC Gamer’s plucky reporters are on the scene to cover the Caped Crusader’s ass-kicking adventures in Batman: Arkham City in a huge hands-on story that covers a ton of new crime-fighting gadgets and Catwoman’s debut. You’d think that’d be the best thing in the issue, but what’s this? The amazing Deus Ex: Human Revolution review! You may need a brain augmentation to grasp how great this game is. You’ll also find our hands-on adventures in Guild Wars 2 and Tribes Ascend, tips straight from the developers to get you started right in Age of Empires Online, and a smorgasbord of our favorite demos from throughout PC gaming history! Bonus: this new-and-improved PC Gamer comes augmented with super-thick paper strong enough to stop a bullet. (Warning: do not use PC Gamer as body armor.)
