Access to the Guild Wars 2 beta will be an extremely hot ticket for players looking for a fresh take on the MMO. We’ll have to wait and see just how different Guild Wars 2 really is, but who wouldn’t want to play as a giant lion man and wander around some of GW2′s extraordinary areas. Roll on March! Are you excited about Guild Wars 2?

“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

In a post on the Guild Wars 2 forums, spotted by Eurogamer, ArenaNet’s Stéphane Lo Presti said that currently “there is no public information about how to get in, as we’re selecting the candidates carefully,” adding that “”there won’t be any web page for getting into the closed beta.” If you see a page offering beta access at the moment, it’ll be a scam site.

The launch of the closed beta means that ArenaNet are on track with predictions they made in September, when they said that Guild Wars 2′s release date would be decided by the success of the open beta. ArenaNet recently revealed Guild Wars 2′s final profession, The Mesmer.

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.

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.

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.”

Peters uses an example where one character might create a Firewall, and another uses Ricochet through the flames to get a bouncing axe that burns targets. This seems like a neat idea, and something that will be really satisfying to use with a regular party.

Peters also explains that pets are now defined by their species and family. The two classifications determine what a given creature can do.

“Each family has three basic skills that define that family. For example, bears are hard to kill, drakes do AoE damage, devourers use ranged attacks, etc,” Peters explains. “These skills are automatically used by the pet. Each species within a family has a unique skill. For example, polar bears have an icy roar that freezes enemies, while brown bears have a roar that removes conditions.”

I don’t like playing with pets because I find them adorable, and suffer from guilt and depression when they die. The last pet I had was the badger in Neverwinter Nights. Let’s not even discuss Dogmeat.

But maybe you’re okay with with cold-blooded, make-believe animal exploitation! If so, you will be able to use every type of pet in the game. All rangers need to do is find and charm each species. “In Guild Wars 2, a single ranger can collect and use every type of pet in the game without having to worry about stables or leveling the pets from scratch,” Peters says. So exploit away.

There is a lot of other great information on the blog if you want an idea of how these characters will actually play. But I cannot tell you any more. I draw the line somewhere before talking about specific keyboard bindings.

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.

PC dominated the Best Strategy category: Starcraft 2 took the number one spot, followed by Civilisation V and Shogun 2: Total War. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was awarded Best Action game and Fallout: New Vegas took Best RPG.

World of Warcraft took Best Subscription MMO, beating Rift and Eve Online. One of PC Gamer’s faves – Minecraft – was awarded Best Downloadable Game. We’ll have Notch’s acceptance speech on the site as soon as possible.

League of Legends scooped Best Free-To-Play Game – considering the numbers and constant updates, it’s hard to disagree.

Portal 2 took Ultimate Game of the Year at the prestigious ceremony. Seeing as we have the ultimate version of Portal 2, we’ll take that as ANOTHER win for PC gaming.

Skyrim took the One To Watch award. We’ve been keeping a close eye on that one. And yes, it is indeed one to watch.

Best Action

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Runner Up
Portal 2
Third place
L.A. Noire

Best Mobile

Angry Birds Rio
Runner up
Fruit Ninja
Third place
Infinity Blade

Best RPG

Fallout New Vegas
Runner up
The Witcher 2: Assassin’s Of Kings
Third Place
Dragon Age II

Best subscription MMO

Winner
World of Warcraft
Runner up
Rift
Third place
Eve Online

Best Fighting

Mortal Kombat
Runner up
Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
Third place
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

Best Racing

Gran Turismo 5
Runner up
DiRT 3
Third place
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

Best Sports

FIFA 11
Runner up
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011
Third place
NHL 2011

Best Strategy

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Second place
Civilization V
Third place
Total War: Shogun 2

Best Music

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Second place
Rock Band 3
Third place
Child of Eden

Best Free-to-play

League of Legends
Second place
World Of Tanks
Third place
RuneScape

Best Downloadable

Minecraft
Second place
Limbo
Third place
Dead Nation

Best Shooter

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Second place
Halo: Reach
Third place
Crysis 2

One to Watch

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Second place
Battlefield 3
Third place
Guild Wars 2

Innovation of the Year

Nintendo 3DS

Outstanding Contribution

Sonic The Hedgehog

Ultimate Game of the Year

Portal 2
Second place
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Third place
Call of Duty: Black Ops

“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.

PCG: What kind of cool down will the battle suit skill have?
Jon Peters: It’s unknown at this time, but it will be similar to other Elite skills.

PCG: Can friends join you in the battle suit?
JP: It’s designed for one player, but one person summons the battle suit, then anyone can interact with it to get into it and use it.

PCG: What kinds of skills does the battle suit open up?
JP: We haven’t finalized those skills yet, but you will be able to spin around, punch guys, etc. Cool stuff like that.

PCG: Will non-asura be able to join you in the suit?
JP: Yes, player characters of any race can use the battle suit, not just asura.

PCG: Is the suit golem-like in nature?
JP: While the suit is about golem-sized and shares some design elements, it definitely looks different than your standard unmanned golem.

PCG: Will the battle suit be used by enemy asura?
JP: Yes. Battle suits can be used by PCs, but enemy asura (such as the Inquest) would definitely have access to their own suits.

PCG: Any chance of the asura battle suit being usable in PvP?
JP: In World vs World vs World PvP, absolutely yes! In competitive PvP the battle suit will get banned from tournaments.

Stock cd player, AC, anti-theft and gets 32 mpg on highways.

PCG: Tell us about the Asura, who are they?
Jeff Grubb: The Asura first appeared in Eye of the North, which was the last of our Guild Wars product. They were a subterranean race that were driven to the surface by the Great Destroyer, who was one of the harbingers, the heralds of Primordus, one of our elder dragons. The big thing that happened between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 is the awakening of the elder dragons, these very powerful, titanic elemental forces that are ravaging the world. Now the Asura were a refugee race. They were sent to the surface where they set up shop inside some old ruins, Rata Sum. Since then, it’s been nothing but getting better for them all the time. They have taken Rata Sum itself and carved out a huge cube of stone and magically levitated it so it is hovering above the surrounding areas. Rata Sum is now honeycombed with colleges, the schools, the laboratories, the support network, the arcane council, and in the depths, the golems. Servitor golems are still mining out and building new rooms for everything. They’ve been a very successful race.

The original Asura are diminutive, they have long ears and big eyes that fits with their underground nature. They’re the smartest kids on the block. Asura are magical but they approach their magic from an intellectual approach rather than a holistic one. They’re a race of mad wizards, highly competitive and very proud. They do not suffer fools gladly, and they really don’t hesitate before they throw you into the fools’ bucket.

'Does this helmet make my head look big?'

PCG: How have relations and social situations changed between Asura and the other races?
JG: I think the Asura have worked their way into the fabric of other races much more effectively than the other races have done so. The Humans and the Charr of course have been fighting for centuries, so when you see a Charr in Divinity’s Reach, it’s, “Oh my god, why is the Charr here?” The Sylvari are new, people still don’t know what to make of them. The Norn leave a swath of broken beer kegs—ha, no, a swath of adventure behind. But the Asura have moved in. There are Asura Gates in all of the major cities, so therefore, they are part and parcel of the components of the world. They’ve actually worked very well as far as working with other races. Which is a little bit scary because Asura tend to be a little manipulative as well.

RS: Well, I want to add a caveat to that, which is that they’re not doing that well with the Sylvari. They had terrible issues the first time they met a Sylvari, and they didn’t understand it was a sentient creature, and they did a whole lot of tests on it before they realized the talky mouth noises it was making were actually language and that it was intelligent. Then they had to go and make reparations to some extent, as much as an Asura ever would. And that has caused tension between the two races for the 25 years of the Sylvari’s existence. Because those two cities are very very close to one another, there has definitely been some squabbling. I wouldn’t say they have the same war as the Humans and the Charr, but they get along in sort of a testy way.

JG: I always put out the idea that the Asura have intelligence, but not necessarily wisdom. Whereas the Sylvari is the reverse: they have the wisdom, but they don’t have the knowledge of the world.

An ancient Asura past-time: Wack-a-golem

PCG: You also mentioned that Asura are kind of going to be an enemy in this regard with the meta-krewe Inquest.
JG: Well, you talk about being a krewe, the krewe being the basic unit of, you have a prop, you bring a bunch of Asura together for a krewe, and you disperse them—it’s like movie production. The Inquest, at its core, is a method by which you organize so everybody gets knowledge. Which is to say, the Inquest gets knowledge. And in order to do that, they’ve made some major changes to the way Asura function. You no longer are working on your project, you’re working on part of a project that we tell you to. You join us, you’re part of the group, you’ve got the eternal NDA, you don’t leave the Inquest, you belong to us, we will recruit you, we may recruit you even if you don’t want to be recruited.

Most Asuras will not experiment on sentients. That’s one of those things that’s just not a good thing. The Inquest don’t have that limitation. They are more willing to not just manipulate, but to harm others because they’ve made the judgment that they’re superior and therefore have the right to do what they will without worrying about you. If and when they screw up, they don’t hang around to deal with their messes. In Metrica province in one of the early areas, there’s an area that was an Inquest base. They were experimenting with things no Asura should mess with. And the area is a magical Chernobyl right now, and yes, your story takes you into that. They are essentially knowledge without wisdom.

PCG: Are they a group of outcasts?
RS: Oh goodness no! They’re very integrated and very powerful. When you have that many Asura working together toward a common goal, you really have a force to be reckoned with. The Asura as a people are ruled by an Arcane Council. In theory the Arcane Council is supposed to be the best and the brightest among us, but in reality it’s, some of the best and the brightest that really couldn’t get out of the politics and are stuck with it. The Inquest actively looks for those positions, they’re actively trying to get the race as a whole to listen to their ideas and to sort of work for their krewe. In an Inquest magical future, the Inquest are the Asura—that’s all there are.

JG: They see themselves as the future of the Asura, and the Nightmare Court are outcasts, and the Sons of Svanir are the rowdy guys that, if they don’t make trouble, will be tolerated. The Inquest are Lex Luthor in Metropolis. They have tangible political power.

RS: And it’s hard for any other Asura to really discount them. You can devalue their methods, you can disagree with their ethics, but wow, do they get results!

Looks like Half-Life 2's Dog got an upgrade.

PCG: What type of player would enjoy the Asura?
JG: There will be a lot of smart people going into the Asura, a lot of people who have personal drives for making their character the best. One thing—and this ties in with what Ree just said—the animations for the warriors are really cool. We didn’t expect this. Most of the Asura you’re going to encounter will be from the magical side. There are Asura warriors, there are Asura guardians, but most of the guys you encounter will be from the elementalist, necromancer magic user-type school and professions. As a player character, you can play anything, and we saw a lot of people in the demos at GamesCom and PAX playing Asura warriors. In part because they look really cool as a little guy in full-plate armor with a huge sword!

RS: One time at GamesCom, I was standing and watching the people on the screen, and they were fighting the big dragon. The big demo dragon had come up, and someone had just made an Asura with a gigantic blue afro, and he was doing the roll on the ground. People were running over to his character instead of watching this gigantic fight going on behind him. “The dragon is going to kill you all—ooooh, afro!”

JG: The laugh animation is very good for the video story. He literally throws himself on the ground and rolls around.

RS: And wipes some tears.

PCG: Are we going to see any more of an emotional side to the Asura through this process? We’ve seen that with other races.
JG: Oh yes. There are Asura love stories.

RS: In fact one of the early Asura story chains has to do with a male and a female Asura who are in love, and the female Asura undergoes a horrible laboratory accident and they have to deal with it.

JG: There are Asura love stories.

RS: I think we said earlier that one of the things an Asura parent might say is that their child is their finest invention.

PCG: What led to the decision to make Rata Sum a levitating city, rather than returning them to their roots underground?

Jeff Grubb: Well, one is a superiority thing. They’re above it, they’re basically showing off. But another reason is that Tyria is a very plastic landscape. The type of thing where land either sank beneath the waves, or rose up between the waves. Primordus, the one who drove them from their underground lairs, is still underground, they’re still dealing with that. The idea of the most defensible position is off the ground. And with that comes an implied portability. It’s not just Rata Sum—you go out into the Metrica province, which is right outside, and you’ll find floating buildings out there. You’ll find a lot of their structures have power stones under them to levitate so that, if need be, they can move them somewhere else. Could Rata Sum move? It would have to be a really big threat. It would have to be like a dragon champion taking up residence right on top of them. But the idea of, it’s a much more defendable position than on the ground.

PCG: Are we going to see a lot of the subterranean roots of Rata Sum? Like underground elements specifically.

Ree Soesbee: There’s an underground area of Rata Sum—Rata Sum has some deep clefts that you can stand at the top of and look down on and see golems and Asura working to clear the mines.
JG: Asura are a spectrum, so there are Asura who feel that, when they were driven to the surface, they lost knowledge, and so there is stuff to be found down below. The old labs, the old cities, and some of our story gives an insight into that recovery of lost knowledge. This is one of the problems for the Asura: they’re a race of mad wizards who are all individualists, who are all going off and making individual discoveries, and then stuff gets lost. And some of Asura feel, we should be moving back in. We should be moving down below—if we can take care of the elder dragons. Once that’s taken care of, that’s one more area we can expand into. But we’ve lost stuff when we had to book it out of there.

PCG: Will players get to experience the recovery of some of this lost knowledge?
JG: Yeah.
RS: We have dynamic events and so forth that will take you into the underground, but we’re not actually taking back the old Asura cities right now. They’re just far too dangerous.
JG: It’s more likely to be something similar to Oola’s old labs.
RS: Old labs and so forth. Individuals who have found things under there and are doing stuff with it that you have to investigate.

PCG: Since Asura always want to be the best and brightest individuals, is this going to be reflected in the size of the city? Are we going to see a massive thing here, kind of a “we can build the biggest city” attitude?
RS: I don’t know that it should be in any way correlated with the Asura that “bigger is better.” I just don’t think that’s the case.
JG: We are short, you’re freakishly tall.
RS: In their opinion, they have the best city of course. It has the most magic, it has floating things, it has brilliant lights, it has magnificent architecture, it has wonderful gardening, the works. The area around it is lovely—it has views, and it has exceptional laboratories, and I can say with 100 percent certainty that the Rata Sum laboratories are second to none in the world, and that’s the most important thing to them.
JG: It’s also close to mass transit and schools.

PCG: Well, speaking of mass transit, let’s talk about Asura Gates—are they going to be a method for traveling around the world, of getting from place to place?

JG: Yes. In Eye of the North, they had of course built their central transit hub right over a strong source of arcane energy, which, by the way, turned out to be an elder dragon. And when the Great Destroyer arrived, they used that hub to spread through the underground and bring about the devastation. Now, the Asura has fixed that hub, but they are still using Asura Gates to transfer across the world. So there’s an Asura Gate in Divinity’s Reach, there’s an Asura Gate in Hoelbrak. So the end result of this means that, if you’re playing a Norn, and you want to play with your friend who’s an Asura, you can get to Rata Sum without too much problem. From a social aspect, it means that the Asura are infiltrating and investing much more in the other races. So there’ll be an Asura Gate in the Black Citadel. They have it away from everything else, they keep an eye on it, they’re very suspect of the whole idea that here’s one more gate into our city, but there is an Asura Gate in the Black Citadel.

PCG: How about these colleges that you mentioned? What’s their significance for Asura players?

JG: If you’re playing a Charr, you choose a legion in your initial story. If you’re playing a Human, you choose a social class. If you’re an Asura, you choose your initial college. Each of the colleges has a different outlook on the universe, how they’re going to solve everything. The Asura believe in the eternal alchemy: that everything is a big machine, a big equation that can be solved, a big machine where everything interacts with everything else. How they approach it depends on their college.

The College of Statics is more traditional, more conservative; those Asura who want to go in and find old knowledge that is lost tend to be of this college. This is where you’re going to find people who are looking for the ancient artifacts, etc. They tend to be more stable, they’re more structural—the floating castles and labs are a good example of their type of thinking. They’re still using magic inherently—that’s part and parcel of being an Asura—but they’re using it in a very stable fashion.

The College of Dynamics is much more active. Much more energetic, much more explosive. They are experimenters. Their belief is to move everything forward. They are the ones who are building new creations. They are the ones who are coming up with radical new plans and if it does not necessarily work, the important thing is to what we learn from what we’ve done to move forward. An experiment where you learn is a good experiment even if it isn’t what you intended to learn. They are much more into energies, and devices.

The College of Synergetics is much more theoretical. They’re a little more mystic. They’re dealing with primal building blocks. They’re saying, “What is magic? How far can you divide magic before it stops being magic? How does everything interact with everything else?” They’re very much about the spaces between the cogs. They’re about how different systems interact, they’re the ones who were looking at larger ecosystems, or interactive personal systems, or how the planets spin around the sun. An example I’ve been using has been, think of it as three branches of engineering: the school of statics is civil engineers, those of dynamics are chemical engineers, and those of synergetics are nuclear engineers, because they’re working with forces they cannot necessarily examine firsthand.

PCG: Tell us more about golems. Are they still a major part of the Asura and Rata Sum?

JG: Very much so, and there’s a wide variety of golems. The most traditional golem you see will be the big radio-type golem that you see in the demos right now. It looks like an old RKO radio, that’s what it reminds me of. But there are other types of golem forces they use as well.

RS: And one thing that can be pointed out is that the Asura are very efficient in the use of golems. Where the Humans have the Seraph to protect Divinity’s Reach, and that’ll be a team of five or six guys going about and handling trouble, the Asura have one Asura who does the same job—but he has multiple golems who assist him in keeping down trouble and in handling problems in the city. And the peacemakers, who’re the city guards for the Asura, are really very efficient in their use of those golems, and how they bring that technology to bear for the benefit of the city.

Want the rest of the interview? Check back Monday for more goodness when we detail the culture, conflict and softer side of the Asura.

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.

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…

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.

“This allows players to use the mouse to dodge and lets players bind dodge to a single keystroke,” writes Peters. “If you are moving in a direction, the dodge will take that into account and dodge in that direction. If you are not moving, you will dodge backward. Dodging now also evades attacks, making it a more effective and understandable way to avoid big creature attacks or to get out of AoE spells. ”

The second big change affects the way players gain new abilities. weapon skills are no longer bought from trainers, but earned through using a weapon. This should hopefully remove the need for players to go hunting for a trainer mid-quest to try out new powers, and avoids situations where you can’t afford all of the skills that your character can use.

“Non-weapon skills are learned in a different way,” Peters adds. “The second half of the bar will be unlocked using a collection mechanic similar to Guild Wars. We want players to make fun choices about how they build their character, so the new systems will help promote this.”

The demo will let players experience the start of the Charr personal story, which is set in their Charr starting area on the fiery Plains of Ashford. There players will get to meet the “newly prolific karma vendors” who will dish out bonus rewards to players who complete multiple events.

Sparkfly Fen will also be available as a high level zone that players will be able to explore as Sylvari and Asura characters. It’s safe to expect to see some more enormous boss fights, which ArenaNet say have been improved with better camera angles and more spectacular skills.

Owen and Graham are at Gamescom this week, and they’ll be hunting down as much new Guild Wars 2 info as possible. Sadly for Owen, an infamous underwater thief, Peters reveals that “you will be able to steal underwater, just not in this current demo.” Aww.

ArenaNet have dropped more info on how dungeons will work in Guild Wars 2. The world of Tyria will contain eight instanced group missions, made gradually available from level 35 onwards. Each dungeon has a story mode and an exploration mode. Once dungeon’s story has been completed, groups will be able to pick their choice of three advanced explorable versions of that dungeon. Each version will come with different challenges, including new boss fights and enemies.

The dungeons are completely optional, but come with their own background and storylines and are packed full of loot. The trailer above sets up the catacombs, inhabited by the ghosts of a dead army, cursed by their jerk of a king to defend the city until the end of time. VG247 have eight minutes of footage of a team battling their way through the catacombs. It also gives us a glimpse of the underwater combat ArenaNet recently revealed. You’ll find the video embedded below.

Find out more about Guild Wars 2′s dungeons in the latest blog post on the Guild Wars 2 site. Find out how the game’s shaping up in our Guild Wars 2 preview.

Contestants were tasked with making a 1-minute video designed to convince people to play Guild Wars 2 at launch. As Guild Wars 2 has what is probably the most rabid fan base I’ve ever seen, it’s no surprise that ArenaNet received almost 500 submissions (enough video for more than 4 full-length feature films).

The two grand prize winners are:

Icelandic Viking by Leo from Iceland

News Report by Dan from the USA

See the full list of winners and more details on ArenaNet’s official blog.

PC Gamer US Podcast 273: Tell us some tales, Chuck Jordan

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Mad scientists, rejoice! The latest profession announced for Guild Wars 2, the Engineer, will let you mix chemicals, create robot monstrosities, and otherwise wreak general mechanical havoc on the world around you to your heart’s content! Described as a “master of mechanical mayhem,” the Engineer looks to be a mind-blowing mash-up of multiple Team Fortress 2 classes and Belle’s dad from Beauty and the Beast with a thirst for war. These tinkerers have a wide array of weapons and tools at their disposal to help allies and control enemies, along with some crazy mechanics that let them swap out their skill bars and use temporary weapons on the fly.

I was sold as soon as I read “explosives, gadgets, alchemy, and all manner of deployable devices” in the introductory infortmation posted on ArenaNet’s official blog. Describes some of the varied weapons, tools, and skills in the Engineer’s arsenal, and gives us a pretty decent idea of how the class will work.

The Engineer is an improviser. As far as I’ve seen from playing the game at events, no other profession has as many ways to completely swap the tools at their disposal as the Engineer does. Backpacks, turrets, weapons, elixirs–this profession can change it all!

Backpacks

Like the Elementalist, the Engineer can completely swap out the set of weapon skills on their bar on the fly by activiting different kits, instead of by switching weapon sets mid-combat. It’s unconfirmed, but it certainly sounds like the Engineer’s Backpacks will function similarly to the Elementalists’ different “attunements”–which allow Elementalists to swap out their entire weapon skill set mid-combat–since the blog describes Backpacks as completely replacing the Engineer’s current weapon skills with skills from the Backpack kit.

For example, Engineers will be able to activate a Bomb Backpack, which replaces their weapon skill set with skills that let him throw smoke bombs, concussion bombs, and fire bombs. Other Backpack kit options listed are Mine Kit, Grenade Kit, Tool Kit, and Med Kit.

Left to Right: Health Kit, Flame Kit, Bomb Kit, Mine Kit

Weapon kits

Sometimes the mad scientist just needs a flamethrower right away, and simply can’t wait. That’s where the weapon kit Utility Skills come in handy. One click, and a brand new weapon pops into the engineers hands–again, swapping out the players’ full weapon skills bar.

The Flamethrower is a short range AOE torcher that gives players skills like Immolate (which lights nearby enemies on fire), Air Blast (which’ll deflect ranged attacks), and Backdraft (to pull enemies in close enough for you to burninate them). The Elixir Gun is another option that lets players “shoot elixirs” at allies to support them.

For full-time use, Engineers can equip a rifle, two pistols, or a pistol and shield combo as their standard weapons.

Turrets

Ah, the classic immobile friend of warmongering mechanics across all games. GW2′s Engineer as a bunch of different types of turrets, all designed to defend and control an area in different ways. It sounds like the Engineer will be able to have multiple turrets up at once, but only one of each type at a time. The Engineer can pack up turrets to move them around with the fighting, although there is a cooldown between deployments. Each turret also has a unique overcharge skill associated with it.

The Thumper Turret does constant AOE damage, but can be overcharged to do a sudden massive attack that also knocks down all surrounding enemies. Other turrets listed are the Rifle Turret (likely single-target DPS), Net Turret (likely ensnare large groups of enemies), Flame Turret (likely cone-based DPS turret), and Healing Turret (which should heal, or else ArenaNet’s naming convention is all messed up).

I can't help it: the Health Turret (left) reminds me of Macinarium, and the Rifle Turret (right) of a creepy man's shoe.

Elixirs

This is where the mad scientist part comes in. Engineers can chug pre-mixed potions during battle to gain temporary effects, but not all of them are well-documented. One elixir in particular gives the Engineer a random Elite power from another profession (much like the Thief’s Steal ability in PvP).

Tool Belt

The tool belt is an extra skill bar above the weapon skill bar that’s designed to “enhance the effectiveness and functionality of the Engineer’s utility and healing skills” by granting access to unique skills customized to to whatever the Engineer is currently doing. For example, when you equip a turret, the tool belt has a skill that lets you self-destruct that turret.

With the Mine Kit, you get a skill to detonate all your mines. With the Grenade Kit, you get the Grenade Barrage skill. With a Med Kit out, your tool belt has a self-healing skill.

Back in January, ArenaNet’s Regina Buenaobra said that “the release date continues to be: when the game is ready.” The game’s been in development since 2007, but it looks as though we’ll have to wait a little while longer.

We saw it recently, and it’s shaping up very nicely indeed. Find out more in our Guild Wars 2 preview, and check out the recent fly-through trailer showing off the City of Lion’s Arch. There’s currently no way to sign up for a beta. We’ll let you know when sign-ups begin.

The latest Guild Wars 2 footage shows off the extraordinary city of Lion’s Arch. Guild Wars 2′s artists are responsible for some of the most spectacular concept art in the world. It looks as though ArenaNet are determined to try and bring that art to life. Keep up with the latest Guild Wars 2 news on the official Guild Wars 2 site, and our Guild Wars 2 news feed.

That’s for Tom’s huge preview of the swords-and-Forcery MMORPG: he played the game for a ridiculous two days, as both the Bounty Hunter class and the Imperial Agent, and he has some opinions to tell you.

Elsewhere in previews, Rich has slain or at the very least slewn the forces of Chaos in Relic’s first blockbuster action game: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. And Tim’s had an extensive play of Guild Wars 2 and wants to tell you about how its ambitious dynamic world works in practice.

Meanwhile, our team of imaginary-battle-hardened critics review Crysis 2, Homefront, Shift 2: Unleashed, and the belated PC version of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Which is now free of the preposterous DRM Ubisoft put on the last one, by the way.

In Extra Life, we’ve got a guide to being better at Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer, reflections on the genius of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, a report on the furry additions to City of Heroes, and tales of what we’ve been up to in Bulletstorm and Shogun 2: Total War, amongst much else.

If you like games, buy this magazine about games. If you like this magazine about games, subscribe to this magazine about games – it’s pretty cheap. And if you hate paper, subscribe to the digital edition to get it cheaper still.

Personally, I think that ArenaNet has some of the best concept and game art in the entire games industry. Here are two pieces of official Charr art for you to drool over.

What? You demand even more, bonus Charr eye candy?! Well fine, have a laugh with a couple of screenshots I took while playing the PAX East demo build.

Personally, I prefered my Charr Guardian's more colorful armor style.

Bonus female Charr shot for all your ladies out there!

Read on for an interview with Guild Wars 2 dev Jon Peters on the new form of devastation the Commando will bring to the battlefield..

PC Gamer: How would you describe the Commando’s role on the battlefield?

Jon Peters: I would say that, just like every profession in the game, he can fulfil lots of different roles. He can do a lot of damage, he can be a healer, and then, quite literally, a tank, when he hops into his tank.

PC Gamer: What other kind of weaponry will be at his disposal?

Jon Peters: He tends to use a variety of different guns, like flamethrowers, bazookas, knives, walkie talkies, grenade launchers. Vehicle-wise he has a couple of different options. In the air he’s got a helicopter. Underwater he’s got a submarine. On the land he tends to go between motorcycles, submarines and the tank.

PC Gamer: So it’s fair to say he’s slightly faster than guys on horses.

Jon Peters: It’s fair to say he’s definitely the fastest profession.

PC Gamer: As a one man explosives expert, and a trained killer with nerves of steel, does the Commando have any need for team mates?

Jon Peters: Not really. He can basically take on anything in the game on his own. He doesn’t require a group. He tends to destroy everything before anyone can get to him.

PC Gamer: Does he feel fear? If so, what scares him?

Jon Peters: Commitment. He doesn’t like to get involved too much, unless there’s killing involved. He tends to be immune to fear, which makes him really good against necromancers.

PC Gamer: What’s the Commando’s greatest weakness? Does he even have a weakness?

Jon Peters: He doesn’t really have any weak points. Those Commandos that do tend to get cut from the team.

PC Gamer: How does the Commando let off steam in his spare time?

Jon Peters: As you see in the video, they like to do recreational swimming. They also like to work on their camouflage and their vehicles, and take landscape pictures from their helicopters.

PC Gamer: Is there anything the Commando can’t do?

Jon Peters: Melee combat is their weak point, but that doesn’t tend to matter. They’ve normally killed everything before they get close.

PC Gamer: Can the Commando go commando?

Jon Peters: That’s something we’re not talking about yet.

PC Gamer: Will there be a future reveal on that?

Jon Peters: Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.

PC Gamer: The Commando’s motto is “if it bleeds, I can kill it.” If it’s, say, undead, and it doesn’t bleed, then can he still kill it?

Jon Peters: The good thing is that everything in the game can be bled, so that lets the Commando pretty much kill everything, but in future we may introduce some none bleeding types to see if that has any balance impact for him.

PC Gamer: Are you worried that the ability to call in a predator air strike, and drive a tank, might perhaps unbalance the game in some way?

Jon Peters: Not terribly. We try and make every profession overpowered. That’s one of our rules, if everyone is overpowered then no-one is overpowered, so I think it should work out pretty well.

PC Gamer: Given how powerful they are, what happens when a Commando fights a Commando in PvP?

Jon Peters: We haven’t really tested that yet. We’re a little worried about it.

PC Gamer: What’s the best thing about being a Commando in Guild Wars 2?

Jon Peters: The submarine is a lot of fun. It’s good to go underwater and blow stuff up!

For more on Guild Wars 2, check out the latest in-game footage, or head over to the official Guild Wars 2 site.

Damn, and here I was looking for Jaina Proudmoore.

What is current-gen?
First, let’s set some ground rules. For the purpose of this discussion, we’ll say that “current-gen” MMOs have been lead by World of Warcraft and have, in general, the following characteristics (not an exhaustive list):

• Questing: Quests are gathered in central hubs, and tell their stories by asking you to complete a series of fairly straightforward tasks that have very little, if any, lasting effect on the world or its population. (WoW dips its toe into the next-gen pond with its phasing tech, but it’s not used consistently enough to really break the mold.)
• Instance: Dungeons, raids and other group content exists in a space reserved only for your group, whether it be 5, 10 or 25 man.
• Crafting: Gather stuff to make stuff
• PvP: Battlegrounds of set teams, smaller-scale arenas for competitive play (Best displayed in WoW) and some open-world PvP.
• Combat: Swing, miss, swing, block, etc. Stand there and hit your opponent until one of you falls. Shield Wall? Yeah right, they’ll walk right through you.

 
The future leaders
So what does a game have to do to distinguish itself from MMOs past and break into that fabled barrier of the “next-generation” of MMOs. Each of the contenders today (Rift, Star Wars: The Old Republic, TERA and Guild Wars 2) seem like they deserve the title, but do they really expand on the aspects listed above to a significant degree? What makes each of them different?

Rift – Public Quests done right

And all I wanted to do was to hand one tiny quest before moving to the next zone.

Rift is the first of the games we’re talking about today to launch (it came out earlier this month) and has all of the systems required in our list above to consider it as a previous generation MMO. So what does it bring to the table to support it’s claim to revolutionary greatness?

Its biggest claim to fame is definitely the rifts themselves. These dynamic group events take place all over the game world, and allow NPC armies to dynamically take over portions of the map at any time. If left unchecked, they can take out quest hubs and build fortresses. You may even find that your favorite Mudder’s Milk vendor is briefly visiting the land of the dead instead of tending to his usual cart in the bazaar.

This is, in my opinion, easily the best version of a public quest system that’s ever been made, and it’s a lot of fun to have to battle your way through hordes of undead invaders just to hand in a quest. The game’s questing system is really quite standard, although very polished. The crafting is similar to what we’ve seen in countless MMOs before, just with recycling thrown in. And while the PvP is fast-paced fun, it’s mostly the types of content that we’ve seen before.

Verdict: A very fun game, but “revolutionary”? “Next-generation”? Nope, sorry. Not quite cutting it.

Guild Wars 2 – Dynamic Events and Combat Combos

Are you sure you don't have a quest for me? Not even a little one?

By hiding the same quest ideas in a different package and obscuring/removing/improving the “holy trinity” class system, Guild Wars 2 claims to give the player unprecedented flexibility. It’s said that players will be able to bring who they want to adventure with, rather than worrying about making sure that they have a tank, healer and DPS–since multiple classes will be able to fill those roles. Wait, this is starting to sound familiar: isn’t this what Rift’s flexible soul system is supposed to do too?

I know, I know. There’s the knockdown system, where players can fight their way back from the brink of death, Left 4 Dead-style. That’s both innovative and interesting. Plus, the dedication to letting players heal themselves effectively removes some of the burden of the trinity class design. Two points for Arenanet.

But the true revolution in GW2 is the dynamic event system. The game does away with traditional quests and quest hubs–no more running to a town, talking with 20 people to get tasks then running out to do them all. Instead, players will explore the world and be auto-granted quests as they discover events happening that need to be addressed naturally in the world around them. This is fantastic, as long as there are measures taken to stop people from griefing the events to limit everyone’s progression.

There will also be some old-school quests, but they’re mostly in the personal story, which itself is a great addition: adding more personalized RPG moments to the MMO.

Verdict: Revolutionary, and the next logical step in questing design.

Star Wars: The Old Republic – Let your grunt grind while you handle the story

Alright STOP. 'Saber time.

Speaking of story, this game’s marketing team can’t stop talking about “story”. Want to a fun drinking game to play while listening to a Bioware designer talk about The Old Republic? Take a drink anytime they say the word story–you’ll be passed out within a minute. “The STORY is an central and important part of TOR, just like the STORIES in our previous games. We believe that providing a strong STORY is key to keeping players invested in the world around them and the STORY of their character.”

For all their talk, they’re backing it up. From what I’ve seen, this is really the first MMO that’s trying to incorporate the story into an MMO to the extent that you could mistake it for a single player RPG.

That’s great, but LOTRO also has a great story (not as personal, but great nonetheless), and it launched four years ago. Voice acting? EQ2 and DCUO have already been there.

There are some real hooks in this game: the inclusion of housing from the get-go, companion characters that join you around the world, space combat (mini-games) and flexible roles in combat. The trouble is that it’s all been done before. A lot of these features have been included in previous MMOs, but not all together, and not to the same extent.

Next-gen combat system? No way. I want to see lightsaber on lightsaber combat with movement and swings that matter. It does have Force power combinations that let a team of Jedi decimate their opponent–this is getting closer to next-gen, but it doesn’t cross the threshold. But combat isn’t the end all, be all of an MMO–it’s simply one cog in the gears that make the game work.

The companion system borders on next-gen. Not only having them follow you around, interacting with your conversation choices and building a relationship with you, but also how it integrates into the crafting system. Your lackeys do most of the heavy lifting and boring time sensitive work so you can focus on the fun parts of the game. In the end, though, it’s still just an automated crafting system.

Verdict: What we’re looking at here is a top-of-the-line current-gen MMO, not something revolutionary and next-gen.

TERA – You shall not pass!

Well I guess you get to pass if you kill me. But that's it!

Let me blunt for a moment: TERA takes combat to a whole new level. First, honest-to-goodness collision detection. Tanks and off-tanks need to create a literal shield wall in front of the more squishy members of your group. Successfully position yourself and enemies simply can’t get to your squishies. The combat in TERA is very action-oriented, and adds a great deal of excitement to the game.

I was lucky enough to play TERA at PAX Prime last September, and was blown away by the speed of the combat, and the necessity of movement around the battle field for my survival. Many monsters have “tells,” such as leaning back on their hind legs before they do a big AoE stun, that require you to roll out of the way with your skill and swipe them from behind.

Sure, collision detection has been done before in Warhammer, and action-combat has been done in DC Universe, but not to this same level of fidelity–especially when you consider the entire combat package as a whole. This is new.

Verdict: It’s frantic, alright, but is this the signal of the next generation of MMOs? I’m not so sure.

So now what?

So far, I haven’t been convinced of the validity of this “next generation” phrase people are throwing around. I’m enjoying Rift tremendously, and it’s THE fantasy MMO to play right now. I can’t wait to play TOR, TERA and GW2–but none of them really shatter my understanding of what an MMO is. Right now, I think that Guild Wars 2 will come the closest to doing so, with its evolution of the event/questing system and innovations in the combat system. But, even then, I can’t quite bring myself to call it a “next-gen” MMO just yet.

Each of them has evolved one or two game mechanics to an astounding level, but where’s the game that does it for everything? That, my friends, will be when we finally have ourselves a next-generation MMO!

Here are the eight disciplines, as outlined in the blog post on the Guild Wars 2 site.

• Weaponsmith – Weaponsmiths craft melee weapons, such as swords, axes and hammers.
• Huntsman – Huntsmen craft ranged weapons like bows and pistol, as well as torches and warhorns.
• Artificer– Artificers craft magical weapons such as staves and scepters.
• Armorsmith – Armorsmiths craft heavy armor pieces.
• Leatherworker – Leatherworkers craft medium armor pieces.
• Tailor – Tailors craft light armor pieces.
• Jewelcrafter – Jewelcrafters craft jewelry, such as rings and necklaces.
• Cook – Cooks can prepare food which characters can eat for temporary combat buffs.

 
You’ll be able to craft entirely new items, or modifications to existing ones. The example given is of a blade handle that will grant your weapon a chance to poison enemies it strikes. Materials can be gathered from salvaging kits, that let you break down useless items, looting, and the harvesting of ore, plants and trees around the world.

Commonly in MMOs you need a specific skill to harvest a certain type of material, but in Guild Wars 2, players will be able to gather any materials they find. Game designer Andrew McLeod explains why. “We wanted gathering nodes to be sought after by every player, so that when players are grouped together they don’t need to feel guilty by making the group wait for them while they run off after an ore vein on the side of the road.”

Like other MMOs, You’ll still need to find recipes to build advanced items, and crafting new items will level up your crafting ability. There will be 400 levels in each discipline, which sounds like a lot, but ArenaNet are committed to cutting down on the grind. McLeod says “our intent is that you should never have to make something you consider worthless while leveling a crafting discipline.”

The videos also show one of Guild Wars 2′s dynamic events, and a few of the skills available to the newly announced Thief class. The footage is from a GDC presentation filmed by GameTrailers. You’ll find all four parts below.

We all knew that CoD:BLOPS was a pretty poor offering design-wise from Treyarch, but this video really shows the extent to which the game’s multplayer is broken. Here, 500 kills are racked up in one game alone, thanks to the abuse of the spawn points, a helicopter gun-ship and a ballistic knife. The commentary gives a good overview of just what’s going wrong here.

This week, the infamous Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw reviewed Two World II. There’s much mocking to be had of course, but he does pose the question of where exactly is the second world? Answers on a postcard please (or in the comments).

It was GDC this week, and without a doubt the most exciting thing on show was Battlefield 3. It’s loud, it’s violent and more beautiful beyond your wildest dreams. You can see it in HD glory for almost three minutes. That not enough? Take a look at this shaky-cam footage for even more Battlefield.

GDC also saw a great talk on Guild Wars 2, which conveniently was filmed for your viewing pleasure. Starting with Character Creation, the four-part video takes a look at the new faster-paced combat, the exciting new dynamic events, and how death has been retooled for Guild Wars 2 (it’s got a Second Wind-style system as seen in Borderlands). The game certainly looks like a great entry to the MMO genre, and we can’t wait for its (sadly TBC) release.

We all love Lego. We all love Star Wars. The third game in the Lego Star Wars series still hasn’t lost it’s trade mark charm, and even been based on non-original-trilogy material can’t dampen the smile this new trailer provokes.

A new trailer for Tropico 4 has landed. If we’re honest, it’s not all that interesting. BUT it does have music guaranteed to get you shaking imaginary maracas to. What better way to start your Sunday morning than with some ultra-happy Caribbean beats?

It’s awards season at the moment, and over in the land of film we’ve already seen the likes of the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards. But of course, it’s not just our less-interactive cousins that get given tokens to symbolise that they’re better than the rest. This year’s GDC was host to its own award ceremony, which incorporated the IGF awards. The ceremony is over two hours long, so we recommend you go get breakfast sorted now and watch it over a nice cup of coffee and a bacon sandwich.

Finally for today, we’ve got a couple of new Operation Flashpoint: Red River clips. The game is looking much improved compared to its ‘meh’ predecessor, with some great looking explosions. Catch some dirt flying from incoming mortar rounds, and watch how you can deal the pain yourself.

Until that issue of our magazine arrives on your doorstep, sate your thirst for Guild Wars 2 info with this 10-minute video of raw, bloody combat of multiple professions in Guild Wars 2!

My personal favorite thing to do with videos like this is watch them frame-by-frame, trying to spot little bits of info, easter eggs or hints in the background. And I know some of you (I’m looking at you, Guild Wars 2 Guru folk) are doing the same. What insight are you able to glean from this?

The other huge story of the day, of course, has been Tim’s look at the latest Unreal tech; which looks fabulous. Take a look at those screenshots and be pleased that you’re a PC gamer, because this stuff is going to be on PC a whole load sooner than console. You can see some grainy footage of it in action with shaky-cam-vision here.

But of course, GDC isn’t the only thing happening this week. The wheels keep turning, and the news keeps flowing. You need your daily fix of short, sharp news, and we’re going to give it to you. Get it all after the jump.

• Homefront has gone gold!
• The awesome looking film Battle: LA is getting a tie-in game.
• Thirty minutes worth of Guild Wars 2 footage from GDC makes it online.
• The guys at Digital Extremes talk The Darkness II.
• Two World II is delayed. Again. That’s twice now.
• You can now pre-order pre-owned games from Game. Yes, you read that right. Pre-order pre-owned.
• Old Man Murray returns to Wikipedia! Huzzah!

In local news, the night shift has just begun, and me and Owen are ready to take shipment of GDC stories from Tim in San Francisco. It’s the last day of the conference, so we’re all excited for any last-minute bombshells those sneaky developers might be waiting to throw. And if they do, be assured we’ll have them online for your reading pleasure speedier than a rodent in a sombrero. It’s been an awesome week at GDC, but it has to end somewhere.

What have been your favourite stories from GDC this year? How has our coverage been so far? Let us know in the comments.

Norn week continues on the Guild Wars 2 website with the release of a new video showing off the Norn’s icy homeland, the Shiverpeaks, and their evergreen hunting hunting grounds. ArenaNet have also thrown up some new screenshots of the shapeshifters, showing a glimpse at what looks to be the Norn bear form.

So far ArenaNet have revealed a bit about the Norn temperament, saying that they’re an honourable and optimistic race who pride themselves on their hunting prowess. They promise to play differently from the other Guild Wars 2 races.

Lore and Continuity Designer Ree Soesbee says “The norn are absolutely not ‘big humans.’ They have their own culture, their own ethics and morality. A norn seeks to master herself and drive her own body and soul to greatness through constantly testing her own physical limits.”

Guild Wars 2 lead writer Bobby Stein says “The norn starting experience is tonally very different from the human one. The happenings in Wayfarer Foothills, while dangerous, are more about hunting and celebration rather than outright war.”

Norn players will be fighting some unique foes in their homelands, including a race of giants called the Jotun, former slaves known as The Dredge, and a clan of rogue Norn who worship the Ice Dragon. You’ll find more information on the new race on the Guild Wars 2 blog.

Posting on the Guild Wars 2 Guru forums, ArenaNet’s Regina Buenaobra said that “the existence of friends and family closed alpha and closed beta this year has changed nothing about the release date. The release date continues to be: when the game is ready.” There’s currently no way to sign up for the Guild Wars 2 beta, in spite of a series of scam sites claiming that there is. We’ll let you know when ArenaNet start offering beta invites.

ArenaNet have recently revealed the Guardian profession, and have been talking about how combat will work in Guild Wars 2. We’ve had some first hand experience with Guild Wars 2′s scraps. Read our preview for a taste of ArenaNet’s refreshing take on MMO combat.

[via Massively]

This extends to reviving players, too. “From level 1, every profession has the ability to revive everyone else. This means that players don’t have to rely on one profession in case someone is defeated both during and after combat.”

There are a few other key differences between Guild Wars 2′s combat system and other MMOs. One is a lack of any allied targeting. Typically you’d expect to be able to target a healing spell or buff by clicking on an ally in the world, his health bar in the group section of the HUD. In Guild Wars 2, all friendly abilities must be aimed. “Everything must be done using positioning, ground targeting or other unconventional methods.”

“Instead of watching red bars, we want you to watch your allies in the world.”

With player positioning playing such an important role in combat, player mobility is even more important. Arrows can be dodged, double tapping on a key will cause your character to roll, and spells can be cast on the move. Peters says Arenanet’s aim is to “create a combat system that is more like a first person shooter where finding real cover, flanking and other more realistic fighting techniques find a lot more use.”

“In a first person shooter there can be a variety of weapons, from sniper rifles to rocket launchers to machine guns and shotguns. No one looks at these weapons and says, “They’re all the same, they all just do DPS.” Why should an MMO be any different?”

For more on Guild Wars 2, check out details on the recently revealed Guardian class, and our Guild Wars 2 preview, or check out the official Guild Wars 2 site.

Here’s a summary of the Guardian’s skills and specialties. You’ll find full details over on the Guild Wars 2 site. Below you’ll also find four videos of the Guardian’s abilities.

Skills

• Spirit Weapons—The guardian can summon spirit weapons to fight at his side for a limited time. Spirit weapons cannot be attacked by enemies and can be commanded to inflict a powerful attack before disappearing. For example, Hammer of Wisdom can be summoned to fight alongside a guardian, then commanded to knock down an enemy and vanish.
• Symbols—The guardian places symbols on the ground, where they inflict damage to enemies or deliver a benefit to allies. Symbols persist for a few seconds and then go away. For instance, Symbol of Faith is a hammer attack that leaves a transient symbol on the ground, giving allies the Vigor boon.
• Wards—A ward is a marked area on the ground that stops enemies from passing through while allowing allies to move freely. For example, a staff-wielding guardian can create a Line of Warding in front of him that keeps enemies from reaching the allies behind him.
• Aegis—Guardians are adept in the use of Aegis, a removable boon that blocks the next attack. Guardians have access to this boon through the virtue of Courage.

 

Virtues
Guardians also have their own range of ‘virtue’ abilities which offer passive combat buffs. The benefits of these virtues can be exchanged for an area of affect ability that confers the effects of the skill onto the allies around the Guardian. The virtues come in three flavours, including:

• Justice—Every fifth attack causes burning. Use this skill to make nearby allies’ next attacks cause burning. (This disables your Justice for 30 seconds.)
• Courage—Every 30 seconds you are granted Aegis, blocking the next attack. Use this skill to apply Aegis to all nearby allies. (This disables your Courage for 120 seconds.)
• Resolve—You regenerate health. Use this skill to remove conditions and apply Regeneration to all nearby allies. (This disables your Resolve for 120 seconds.)

 
The Guardian’s Skills

For more Guild Wars 2 information check out our Guild Wars 2 preview.

Yes, it might have released back in 2003, but the seminal MMORPG EVE Online has been evolving ever since. We sent Rich to Iceland so he could catch up on the latest from developers CCP. Turns out they’ve been busy and still have a five-year plan of concepts and mechanics that they’re yet to implement. That’s a half a decade of content folks, all deciphered by Rich’s brain, using words.

But don’t fret if you have no interest in space, or MMOs. We still love you. We’ve got our hands on the most exciting games coming to PC and written hands-on previews just for you: Crysis 2, Total War: Shogun, Guild Wars 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Batman: Arkham City all feature.

Then there’s our Game Of The Year Awards. 2010 proved the PC’s strength and diversity. We reward PC Gaming’s new classics over 18 pages. You might be surprised at some of the choices too.

Onto the reviews; recently described by a reader as “simply astonishing”. This month you’ll get our verdicts on Call of Duty: Black Ops, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, Deathspank and more.

In our Extra Life section, Jaz searches for a wooden leg in Arcania: Gothic 4, Tom writes a letter to God after taking Supreme Commander to the next level, and Craig feels the true stress of a Football Manager. We take a look back at League Of Legends in Update and suck all the replay value out of Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.

You can buy the magazine and have it delivered with free postage right here, but if you’re the kind of person who likes getting things early, for minimum of effort, why not subscribe?

Updated with clarification from ArenaNet

In discussing Guild Wars 2′s business model–which continues the stand-alone, subscriptionless model of the original that required players to purchase the game, but not pay a monthly fee afterward–Flannum told us that he believes subscription fees can cause a developer to get lazy, because they’re making money whether they actually support the game or not. He continued, “The thing I would say [about not having a subscription fee] is that we actually have the continued support development model that encourages us to make cooler things than anyone else… If we have to sell you additional content like microtransaction content or anything like that, we have to give you something that you’re going to want to buy. We have to earn your money.”

“We don’t get to say, ‘Oh well, you know, we don’t have to release this content this month, since they’re all going to give us their subscription fee anyways. Let’s just wait until next month and release this cool thing.’ We’re actually kind of bound because if we need income, if we need this game to make some money, we better provide things that people want to buy.

“There are not many subscription-fee games that have equaled [what we've put out for the original Guild Wars since Prophecy shipped] so I think our content model ensures that you’re getting your money’s worth, because as the consumer you have the option to say ‘You know, I’m not going to buy that. That’s not good enough.’ Whereas the monthly fee [business model] takes it out of your hand. You better be getting something good every month for that–but that’s just not the case with a lot of games.”

We asked Flannum point blank if they would be releasing more dungeons post-launch that would be purchased as microtransaction purchases. Flannum confirmed to us that they’re definitely open to the idea–and more. “Yeah, we’re going to look at what the demand is. Look at what players want more of and we’re going have to release that stuff, because that’s the stuff that players are going to be willing to pay for, and that’s the stuff that’s going to make our company profitable.”

ArenaNet has already revealed that they’ll be selling Transmutation Stones, one-time consumable items used to customize your gear, in their cash shop. And although they won’t confirm if traditional cash shop items like XP boosts and fast travel consumables will also be sold, Flannum’s responses certainly makes it sound like there will be–if there’s demand for it from the playerbase.

But for now, ArenaNet has only hinted that they might sell dungeon content as DLC and confirmed that they will sell the transmutation stones. [See below for clarification] What do you think? Would you mind paying for an extra dungeon here and there if it means more fresh content coming out for GW2 on a regular basis, or would you rather they stick with the one-time-only payment and slow down development between expansions?

UPDATE:

Eric Flannum sent us a note to clarify a couple of things about their plans for Guild Wars 2 post-release content:

“We haven’t decided on what exactly we are or aren’t going to offer for money post-release. We’re open to whatever our players seem most interested in. If, after release, you guys would like more story content, more dungeons, more events, more maps or whatever, it’s something that we have to consider because ultimately making you happy is what makes us successful.  Whether we release that in DLC (like the bonus mission packs in GW1) or whether we do it through expansions (Like Eye of the North) is yet to be determined. As to whether or not there are going to be items like XP boosts available in the in game store, I can only reiterate what we’ve said before (and will continue to say,) that we’ll release details on it when they are available, and that our core philosophy of not requiring you to spend additional money to play the game and not making the game difficult or painful to play in order to encourage you to buy things from the store still stands.”

Catacombs Concept Art

Ranger Concept Art

All you have to do to earn one of our coveted jewels is answer a simple question in the comments section of this post: If you were a monster in the Guild Wars universe, say a troll or one of the afflicted, how would you get back at the adventurers for wrecking your cozy dungeon? Remember, GW2 lets you utilize environmental weapons as well as combine various powers for unique effects, so go crazy with your ideas!

On the prize table are:

• 2 huge, canvas concept art posters
• 1 “The Art of Guild Wars 2” concept art book
• 1 Guild Wars “Ghosts of Ascalon book”
• 3 Guild Wars 2 hats
• 2 copies of Guild Wars Trilogy

The contest ends Thursday, October 21 and winners will be selected shortly thereafter. Contest is restricted to US Residents only.

Eyeing up the list, there’s a few neat items. You can’t go wrong with something like the Fiery gloves of the human god Balthazar, or the Living Longbow (it must be hard to miss with two of you aiming), but I have already found a firm favourite. One which I fear may cause me to go back and play the first game, just so I can earn it. It is this cat. EPIC CAT.

There’s plenty of dangerous and fun sounding things on the list, including a black widow spider pet, a cute robo-golem thing, an antique rifle and an eternally burning torch, but which is your favourite?

Download and enjoy.

This week we cover:

• Valve selling items in Team Fortress 2
• StarCraft 2 gets it’s first patch–who get’s nerfed and who doesn’t?
• Blizzard gives more privacy options for their Real ID
• Final Fantasy XIV launches, with a creepy warning
• Guild Wars 2 cover story issue starts hitting subscribers, will totally rock your world.
• Interview with Markus Pearson A.K.A. Notch, the creator of Minecraft.

   
  Want to subscribe to us on iTunes? Follow these instructions to add the podcast to iTunes manually:
  In iTunes, go to to the advanced menu and select “Subscribe to podcast” and copy and paste this URL into the box: http://www.pcgamer.com/feed/rss2/?cat=29038
  Push OK, and that’s it! The podcast will now auto-download whenever an episode is released.

  ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/10/01/pc-gamer-us-podcast-242-%e2%80%93-craftastic/feed/ 30 http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/28/pc-gamer-uk-november-issue-guild-wars-2/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/28/pc-gamer-uk-november-issue-guild-wars-2/#comments Tue, 28 Sep 2010 11:54:39 +0000 Jaz McDougall http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=16225 [..]]]> Issue 219 is a magazine, but it’s also a handy one-handed mace if rolled up correctly, or even a makeshift oar for a raft. You can use the disc to reflect light at a vampire, or use the plastic wallet to store loot. Issue 219, then, is a lot like your character in Guild Wars 2; it can take on any role you need it to. Guild Wars 2 is our cover story this month, and inside, we lay out exactly how versatile your virtual war specialist can really be. It’ll be in shops tomorrow, and here’s what else you can expect.

  

  You also get a four page feature on the very hardest difficulty mode in Obsidian’s upcoming RPG shooter Fallout: New Vegas. Will Porter writes lots of things about it, and one of them is that it “feels how its already worthy predecessor was meant to.” It’s a rough old desert in the world of Fallout, and Obsidian understand perfectly how it hard it should be to survive there.

  We’re also bringing you new info in Shogun 2‘s campaign mode. We saw a battle in action, and it’s a gorgeous display of wind, water and steel that really shows off how much the Creative Assembly have worked on their Edo aesthetic. This month, we’ve reviewed Puzzle Quest 2, Front Mission Evolved, City of Heroes: Going Rogue, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, Tidalis, Quake Live, Dead Rising 2, Worms Reloaded, and we didn’t not review RUSE. Maybe.

  In extra-life, Rich McCormick reveals his meanest StarCraft 2 strategy ever, Jon Blyth plays Magic: The Gathering in his secret den of shame, Tom Francis enters a disturbing, parallel Far Cry 2 where nobody can speak, Tony escapes a pack of in-bred psychopaths by jumping out of a hotel window (and then plays some Dark Corners of the Earth), and I came up with a decent excuse to print a screenshot of my World of Warcraft character wearing his Scarlet set and bunny ears in theViolet Hold dungeon.

  When it hits shelves tomorrow, you’ll be able to buy it here. You can also subscribe here.

  ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/28/pc-gamer-uk-november-issue-guild-wars-2/feed/ 26 http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/27/commence-freakout-guild-wars-2-is-our-next-cover/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/27/commence-freakout-guild-wars-2-is-our-next-cover/#comments Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:40:07 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=16201 [..]]]> The reclusive masterminds at ArenaNet break their silence in this issue’s exclusive look into the dungeons of Guild Wars 2. Once you’ve read our story, you will be certain of one thing: it’ll be unlike anything the MMO genre has ever seen.

  Also within: previews Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Diablo III, lose-proof build orders for winning in StarCraft II, and a detailed examination of OnLive – is PC gaming’s innovative game-streaming service worth your time? Reviewed: R.U.S.E., Dead Rising 2, Worms Reloaded, City of Heroes: Going Rogue, and the scariest game we’ve ever played.

  

  Click the image to embiggen!

  ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/27/commence-freakout-guild-wars-2-is-our-next-cover/feed/ 25 http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/21/guild-wars-2-will-let-you-track-your-friends-on-an-ipad/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/21/guild-wars-2-will-let-you-track-your-friends-on-an-ipad/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:00:57 +0000 Tom Senior http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=15583 [..]]]> ArenaNet have revelead have revealed details of what they’re calling the ‘extended experience’ for Guild Wars 2. What this means is that you’ll be able to follow your friends’ in-game actions and interact with them via apps for smart phones and generic digital tablets. They’re offering functionality far in advance of Blizzard’s mobile armory and auction house – allowing you to track a friend’s every move in-game. Read on for details.

  The technology was demoed recently at PAX, and showed players following their friends’ in-game activities through a top-down map view via a downloadable iPad app. The app connects to the Guild Wars 2 server directly, and shows the position of friends and enemies dynamically as they move around the game world. You can then start two way chat with your friends in the game, and even ‘ping’ locations on their in-game world map, letting you highlight useful information like the location of traders and the appearance of dynamic events like world boss attacks.

  

  Future plans for the technology include a ‘hero viewer’ function that will let you tap on any player in the world and view their stats, kit and details of the quests they’ve completed so far. There will also be marketplace features that will let players participate live in auctions. Some of these features will be familiar to anyone who has used the World of Warcraft Mobile Armoury app, but what sets this technology apart is the real time connection to the game world itself, and the fact that information can be shared both ways. ArenaNet plan to allow players to use these services to access wiki content without having to exit the game and boot up a separate web browser.

  

  While it’s still impossible to play the game on a smart phone or an iPad, there will be more ways than ever to interact with the game while not actually playing it. For those without smart phones or iPads, ArenaNet have also announced that they plan to release web versions as well, so now there will be no excuse for missing raid night.

  ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/21/guild-wars-2-will-let-you-track-your-friends-on-an-ipad/feed/ 10 http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/27/pc-gamer-us-podcast-237-consolidate-the-dakotas/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/27/pc-gamer-us-podcast-237-consolidate-the-dakotas/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:54:23 +0000 PC Gamer http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=12570 [..]]]>

  At PC Gamer, we hate redundancy. We hate redundancy so much that we won’t even tell you how much we hate redundancy. But we hate it. That’s why during this weeks podcast, we decree that the two Dakotas shall be consolidated into one. And in between our political proclamations, we discuss all manner of PC gaming news, including:

  • Elemental’s disappointing launch and Stardock’s responsible reaction to it
  • Cryptic announces upcoming co-op Neverwinter RPG
  • Final Fantasy XIV’s decision to limit weekly XP gain ( Josh’s FFXIV musings )
  • Portal 2′s latest videos show off some complex puzzles and mind-bending solutions
  • Guild Wars 2 announces Necromancers, and they look as nasty as ever
  • A new Steam survey reveals our deepest, darkest secrets

  Download it here!
  
  Note: While we continue to work on fixing the persistent iTunes feed problem, please follow these instructions to re-add the podcast to iTunes manually:

  In iTunes, go to to the advanced menu and select “Subscribe to podcast” and copy and paste this URL into the box: http://www.pcgamer.com/feed/rss2/?cat=29038
  Push OK, and that’s it! The podcast will now auto-download again.

  ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/27/pc-gamer-us-podcast-237-consolidate-the-dakotas/feed/ 24 http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/26/guild-wars-2-necromancer-class-announced/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/26/guild-wars-2-necromancer-class-announced/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:10:48 +0000 Tom Senior http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=12464 [..]]]> ArenaNet have announced the fourth profession for Guild Wars 2, and it’s the classic maestro of the dark arts, the necromancer. They’ve also released a video showing off a few of his evil, evil skills.

  I played a necromancer in the first Guild Wars. In fact, I play a necromancer in any game that will let me, but I’ve never before had the opportunity to play a necromancer who is also a three foot tall teddy bear.

  He looks so cute and defenceless, as though he’d never hurt anyone. But then he casts a circular curse that kills his enemies in agonising pain. Not satisfied, he then he summons an apparition of the grim reaper himself to frighten those who made it through back into the circle of death. He’s brilliant. Like an evil ewok.

  The necromancer will be able to summon underlings as well, including bone minions that can be ordered to self destruct from range, turning them into travelling bombs. Necromancers will have access to ‘Well’ powers, area of effect abilities that can buff nearby allies, and will be able to use the ‘Death Shroud’ ability, which activates automatically when their health runs out, turning them into a spectral form with its own unique abilities.

  The Well skills and the Death Shroud are good reflections of ArenaNet’s philosophy that characters in Guild Wars 2 should be flexible, and not confined to a single job on the battlefield. The Well abilities make necromancers good support characters and the Death Shroud means that they should be durable enough to tank if needed. Head over to the official site for more information, including a few more videos showing off the dark arts. I particularly recommend the video of the Grasping Dead skill, in which a trio of necromancers defeat their enemies with an undead mexican wave.

  ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/26/guild-wars-2-necromancer-class-announced/feed/ 6 http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/30/personalizing-your-experience-in-guild-wars-2/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/30/personalizing-your-experience-in-guild-wars-2/#comments Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:33:06 +0000 Robert Hathorne http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=9064 [..]]]> At San Diego Comic-Con, I had a frantic hallway chat with Guild Wars 2 lore man Jeff Grubb and lead designer James Phinney. I learned a good bit about how making Tyria persistent will yield significant changes for many GW2 systems, but no change sounds quite as exciting as the ability to hurl a jar of bees at your opponent.
  

  We can only assume those were incendiary bees.

  Okay, hurling bees sounds a little silly, but it’s a great example of how persistence is affecting the traditionally instanced, and thus static world of GW. The ever-changing world makes every player’s experience that much more unique by way of dynamic area events. Jeff tells me “In order to get a jar of bees, you need to get honey from the honey combs, and then we have some bee hives over here, and a whole story grows up about that. It’s a very dynamic world, and because of this event, other events may not occur or other events may happen.” It’s a small scenario that’s part of a goal both Jeff and James mention several times: a huge, epic story, with a personalized feel. They aim to achieve this with a combination of large and small events.

  In a larger example, Jeff tells me about a centaur attack on a garrison. “What a lot of MMOs do is, if the centaurs are attacking the garrison, there’s really just a whole bunch of centaurs outside. What we do when the centaurs attack is, if they take the garrison, they seize it and burn it to the ground. Now you’ve got a new problem–you have to get the garrison back. When you get it back, you’ve got another problem–you have to rebuild the garrison. It works over a cycle of events, and one of the big goals is so you don’t always see the same world when you step out the door.”

  

  You really let the orphanage burn? You monster!

  Just because Tyria prime will be a constantly changing landscape, GW2 has by no means abandoned instances. While the big story tends to be out in the persistent world, the more personal story will often be found in instance–don’t worry, you can bring your friends along too.

  James says “you might be starting up going into an instance that’s very personalized to you, like you let this orphanage get destroyed. You go back to this part of town, and it’s obliterated. You might be going in there to do a quest that has to do with your story, but you can bring people in there with you. Even though it’s your quest and you’re the one trying to get the really specific reward, they actually get points for helping somebody else do a quest.” Because you get to chose who comes into instance with you, and everyone gets something out of the deal, the team is hoping to alleviate the “you stole my kill” mentality that often plagues GW1 battles. “It’s looking at: how do we create reward systems, and how do we create ease of use that makes it so everything is friendly, that makes it like ‘dude, we’re just playing together.’”

  

  We

  During the GW2 panel, I also learned that a new level of clothing customization is in the works, allowing you to further personalize your experience. Excited character artist Kristen Perry eagerly announced “You know all those outfits you see the NPCs wearing? Well, most of them, you’ll be able to wear too.” While fashion probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think GW, Kristen says sometimes “you just want a sensible pair of shoes;” if that spells a more vibrant and ‘alive’ world in the long-run, I’m all in.

  If you’re wondering why I haven’t touched on guilds, it’s because ArenaNet hasn’t either. All James could tell me was, “We’re putting a much greater investment into social tools in guilds and guild management than we did in GW1.” Hopefully, we’ll learn more about guilds when GW2 goes hands-on at gamescom and PAX. If you’re curious about what’s been going on in Tyria for the 250 year lore gap between GW1 and 2, Comic-Con also saw the debut of Ghosts of Ascalon, which was co-authored by Jeff Grubb and Matt Forbeck.

  ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/30/personalizing-your-experience-in-guild-wars-2/feed/ 9 http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/01/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-42/ http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/01/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-42/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:23:36 +0000 Tom Francis http://www.pcgamer.com/?p=4992 [..]]]> Trust me, I’m Machiavelli: We kick off season two of our podcast with talk of our new site. Tim, Tom, Graham and Craig discuss why Guild Wars 2 will be genuinely different, the crushing disappointment of APB, the cleverest thing about Portal 2, how drama works in The Old Republic, why Bethesda should use the Rage engine for the next Elder Scrolls, the ridiculous inconsistencies of Singularity, and how the PC fared against the consoles at E3. The true identity of the podcat is also revealed. One Twitter question demanded a photo of where we record our podcast, so there’s a grainy phone pic below the fold.

  Download the MP3 here, subscribe here, and find our older podcasts here.
  

  

  Tim, Tom, baby Boomer and Graham. Taking the pic: Craig.

  ]]> http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/07/01/pc-gamer-uk-podcast-42/feed/ 14