NCsoft has revealed the fun games, quests, and presents you can expect in the MMORPG Guild Wars come Wintersday event. As Grenth and Dwayna fight over control of weather, you can head over to the full article for more details.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North, the only true expansion to the much successful MMORPG Guild Wars, is NCSoft's last hurrah before moving on to the sequel. With that in mind, let's celebrate hundreds of battles we fought in the different arenas of Tyria, Cantha, and Elona.

Here's a trailer shown during E3 that showcases the different new places that will expand the currently existing continents. Plenty of fresh and ferocious monsters are also joining the fray to give us more creatures to hunt.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North will be released during the third quarter of this year. Be sure to look out for it in the coming months.

The folks at NCSoft's Guild Wars really want you to buy stuff from them, it seems. In fact, they're adding a pretty sweet incentive for people who spend cash on Guild Wars goodies. NCSoft will be adding bonus mission packs to Guild Wars accounts that have spent US$ 29 or more in the online store.

If you spend US$ 29 on the official Guild Wars store between 12 p.m. of July 5 and 12 p.m. of October 31, your account will receive a permanent set of additional missions, which equate to extra rewards and tons of fun.

Here's the description of the mission pack, which will let you play through important moments in Guild Wars history:

Earn unique rewards as you go face-to-face with Palawa Joko and his undead army as one of the key figures in the Battle of Jahai. Experience part of Cantha's turbulent past as you witness the violent Tengu Wars. Learn firsthand how the White Mantle rose to power in Kryta. And, finally, discover what became of Gwen after the Charr invaded her home and the Searing destroyed everything she'd ever known.

Of course, the mission pack won't come till after the promo period. Expect Palawa Joko to make his less-than-graceful entrance sometime this November.

Getting tired of kicking other PvPers to the ground? Has winning lost the excitement it once provided? Test your mettle in Guild Wars' Hard Mode, then. If you're looking for new challenges and - of course - rewards, then this new mode for NCSoft's popular MMORPG is what you're looking for.

Any player who completes a campaign in the standard mode can try their hand at the Hard Mode. You get sturdier henchmen and followers, but your enemies will also get a boost to their levels as well as their AI. If that doesn't faze you, here's a look at what you can get in Hard Mode:

Increased Title Ranks

• Advance your rank as a Sunspear, gaining powerful new skills tailored to your profession along the way.
• Increase your might against the minions of Abaddon by progressing through the ranks of the Lightbringer title track.

New Titles

• Earn your place as a Guardian of Tyria, Cantha, or Elona by completing all of a campaign's missions in Hard mode.
• Defeat all of the foes in each explorable area to attain the status of a Vanquisher, and track your progress on the World Map.

Increased Rewards

• You will find a larger number of both rare and uncommon items in your Hard mode adventures.
• You will also acquire more experience points, and even more gold!

New Items

• Elite Tome (double click while in a town or outpost to learn any elite profession skill already unlocked on your account)
• Non-Elite Tome (double click while in a town or outpost to learn any non-elite profession skill already unlocked on your account)
• Passage Scroll to the Underworld (can only be used in the Temple of the Ages, Zin Ku Corridor, or Chantry of Secrets)
• Passage Scroll to the Fissure of Woe (can only be used in the Temple of the Ages, Zin Ku Corridor, or Chantry of Secrets)

Try it out guys. And don't forget your lockpicks. They'll be invaluable when you encounter locked chests in Hard Mode. Bring a lot, though, because there's always a chance that they'll break. Any ranks you earn in the Treasure Hunter and Lucky title tracks will increase both the chance that the lockpick will work, and that it will remain intact after each use.

Always complaining about the weapons in Guild Wars and their perceived shortcomings in beating the hell out of your enemies? Well then, if you think you can do better, this post's for you.

Time to let those creative juices flow fellas, because NCSoft has just announced that they're hosting a Design-a-Weapon contest for your beloved RPG. No idea as to what kind of weapon they're looking for? To give you a general idea, check out that image right there, that was last year's winning Axe design by Peter Walthius of Netherlands.

So if you can do a whole lot better than that, here are a few contest details you might want to know:

• NCSoft is looking for new designs for various weapons: swords, axes, bows, hammers, spears, rods, wands, scythes, staves, and daggers, shields, and focus items that are also used in combat
• You can draw inspiration for your designs from the regions of Tyria, Cantha, or Elona
• All you have to do is send them a drawing, sketch, or printed image of an original concept for a new weapon, shield, or focus item and submit it to the dev folks for judging.
• Prizes/perks: If they choose your design, it will be placed permanently in the Guild Wars world's arsenal of weapons and you will be given website recognition. Oh and you'll get Guild Wars goodies too, of course.

More details can be found behind that read link below, so if you're interested and would like to show the folks at NCSoft the insanely wicked ideas you have for weapons, head on to the Guild Wars site now for more details.

It's the time of the year once more when Guild Wars players are treated to an exciting celebration of Canthan New Year's Festival. To those not familiar with this, it is a great celebration wherein Canthans flock to Shing Jea Monastery to honor the particular animal who will watch over them during the coming year.

The said festival, with the Celestial Pig being honored this time around, will begin at Noon PST on February 16 and will end at the same hour on February 19 (20:00 GMT Friday to 20:00 GMT Monday). Take note that the celestial animal will arrive on February 18 and will sample the delicacies prepared for it. Should the Pig enjoy the feast, the festival will then culminate in dancing, fireworks and the showering of gifts.

Here's the breakdown of activities:

• Every festival brings with it a variety of problems that can only be solved by enterprising young adventurers willing to undertake a quest or two to ensure the festival runs smoothly.
• For those who can't wait for the appearance of the Celestial Pig to find out how their fortunes will fare in the coming year, a fortune teller will be on hand to peer into your future and provide you with a very real, and legally binding, fortune.
• For you racing fans, make your way to the rollerbeetle racing arena and sign up for the next available race. You will be outfitted in your very own rollerbeetle racer, complete with its own set of racing skills.
• The Celestial Feast will give players the chance to participate in a cooking competition as they help chefs from across Cantha prepare various dishes for the five-course feast to be presented to the Celestial Pig. Chefs will reward player generosity with Lunar Tokens, while the Celestial Pig will reward everyone for each properly prepared dish.

We know it's pretty exciting and, if we may add, it's promises to be quite rewarding as well. Prizes unique to the festival will be given away, such as Sugary Blue Drink, Champagne Poppers, Bottle Rockets, Sparklers, Red Gift Bag, Lunar Fortune, and Lunar Tokens. Meanwhile, similar celebrations will also be held at  Lion's Arch and Kamadan.

Busy this weekend? Unless you got really lucky and lured a hot girl to go out on a date with you (which could also happen to be your first), then we suggest you get busy instead with Guild Wars.

For every Elite Skill that you capture in Tyria, Cantha, and Elona, you will be awarded with double the number of Experience Points. To bag these points, you can opt to use existing characters, or new ones. What's important is that you double that XP! So, set this as a date. Event starts at Noon PST on Friday, January 12, and runs until 11:59  p.m. PST on January 14, Sunday.

So save yourselves the trauma of a first date. This is one experience that you wouldn't mind coming back for, we're sure.

Another week, another slaughter. If it weren't so morbid, it would probably make a pretty good slogan for the PvP smashfests that happen during NCSoft's Double Fun Weekends. Guess it's time to introduce this week's slobberknocker.

This weekend, you'll be able to pump up your Champion Points and GvG faction by further dominating the Guild Wars PVP fields. Starting Noon PST of Friday till 11:59 p.m. of this coming Sunday, aspiring masters of the realms can earn twice as much GvG faction for every unique kill, winning match, or flawless victory.

Guilds who aspire to greater heights may also pick up twice as many Champion Points. They'll do so when both competing guilds have a rating greater than 1200 on the Ladder rankings. Like it or not, you definitely know what's going to be in store for competitive gamers: all-out war across the battlefields of Elona, Cantha and Tyria!

The community of Guild Wars gets frequent news from The Scribe and this time around, we hear of some interesting new developments that have sprouted in the game: recent events, and some new info that might prove very useful for you players.

The Emblem Contest has just recently finished, and now the Emblemers have created around two dozen new symbols to be used as icons for the various guild of Tyria and Cantha. They are all going to be available soon, including those Emblems from the winners of the contest. There are lots of themes seen on the Emblems, some of which include weapons, or animals. Even skulls.

The Scribe has also noted some random acts of kindness. One was of a newbie trying to look for the fastest way through the Flame Temple Corridor, and got help from Kazami Kashibuchi, who showed him the way. Another of an Elementalist who had been asking about how to get some new armor, and was given a detail account by Kilandria Kitathas on the different ways to get them.

And then there's an account about some hippos, the Pigmy Hippopotamus. They are found on Istan, and Rangers that specialize in Beast Mastery can charm these animals. They've got thick, leathery skin, and a big mouth (yep) perfect for attacking. There's also some info about the Flamingos. While they aren't the stealthiest companions (face it, they're pink), they're actually quite fierce in battle.

So, until the next update from The Scribe, go out and guild up, and watch this space!

Buy: [Guild Wars Nightfall]

And the treats just keep on coming. The guys over at Guild Wars just concocted another fun weekend for Guild Wars fans, so if you're an avid visitor of Tyria and Cantha, this is way more than good news for you.

So what exactly are these treats? Let's see, boosts will be given to Alliance Battles, double Balthazar, Kurzick/Luzon faction points for every kill, and double Kurzick/Luxon faction points for every win. But if you think the fun ends there, you're dead wrong. The battle line movement is said to be sped up. So players can expect the shift every hour, instead of the line being accelerated every three hours. Sounds good, don't you think?

So when will this happen? Good news is, you don't have to wait too long for this event as the fun starts at noon PDT, on September 15, and will last until the 17th. So better get your fiery dragon sword and go on a slashing spree this weekend. After all, this weekend fun treat won't last forever.