Guild Wars 2's final beta weekend unlocks two never-before-playable races

The weekend of July 20th will play host to Guild Wars 2's final beta weekend, just a touch over a month before its highly-anticipated August 28th ship-date. New to this pre-release swan song will be the ability to finally play as Tyria's two previously locked races: the Asura and the Sylvari. Fans of steampunk gnomes and photosynthetic, tree-hugging elf people rejoice!

The techmage Asura will get to check out the starter quests in their home province of Metricia, which includes the capital city of Rata Sum. The Sylvari will get to explore the Grove, an appropriately foliated capital that isn't so much a city as it is a whole bunch of trees with stuff in them. These newcomers will join the existing humans, norn, and charr from previous betas to round out GW2's quintet of playable races.

Personally, I don't see the point of including any other races in a game that lets you be giant, Viking werebears. But that's just me. Which of the new races are you most interested in trying out?

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Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.