For players of the MMORPG Guild Wars, celebration of St. Patrick's Day means one thing: slaying hundreds of monsters to gather Shamrock Ale and Four-Leaf Clovers that NCsoft will provide. This year is no different than the last, so get ready to get drunk and collect those anti-Death Penalty clovers. Check out the full article for more details.

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.

If you want more details on the Guild Wars: Eye of the North sneak peek weekend, NCsoft has posted a list of things you can do once it becomes available. It's doubtful that you'll be able to play all the content given the amount of stuff the developers added, so you might as well focus on the stuff you know you'll enjoy right?

The most important thing to do is to secure yourself a slot for the sneak peak. Follow the short list below to be able to access the content:

1. Pre-order now via the Guild Wars In-Game Store, the PlayNC store, or one of our many retail partners.
2. Early access begins on August 24, 2007 at 12:01 AM Pacific time (-7 GMT). To travel to the Far Shiverpeaks and access the Sneak Peek content, speak with one of the following NPCs:
• Len Caldoron in Lion's Arch
• Minister of Maintenance Raiugyon in Kaineng Center
• Bendah in Kamadan

Note: Early access ends on August 26, 2007 at 11:59 PM Pacific time. All progress, items, skills, and Heroes you have unlocked and obtained during the Sneak Peek Weekend will be accessible again when the game goes live on August 31.

If you've already pre-ordered the game, here are the things you'll be able to do during the event:

• Be among the first to immortalize your character's accomplishments in the Hall of Monuments.
• Enlist the aid of two new races—the barbaric Norn and the magical Asura.
• Answer the challenge of the Norn Tournament and boost your reputation by defeating battle-hungry opponents.
• Train with the infamous Kilroy Stonekin in the art of Dwarven boxing.
• Venture into the newly discovered Depths of Tyria, overflowing with dangerous creatures and vast rewards.

So get ready Guild Wars players, this may very well be the last big hurrah of this game before the great exodus to Guild Wars 2. In case you'd want to find out even more info, click on our read link to head over to the Guild Wars official site.

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.

Some Guild Wars players are probably still shocked at Guild Wars 2's announcement. Why would ArenaNet make a sequel instead of continuously supporting a very successful MMORPG? They say it's to make the ultimate Guild Wars, but saying goodbye to a world fans loved would definitely be painful.

For now, all we can do is enjoy what's left and what's in store for loyal Guild Wars players. To celebrate GW's glorious days (and to promote the first and last true expansion, Guild Wars: Eye of the North), ArenaNet is holding the "Return to Tyria" Sweepstakes. Lucky winners will receive good prizes for their gaming needs.

• Grand Prize: Complete Alienware Area 51 Multimedia Computer System
• 1st Place (5 winners) : ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT Video Card
• 2nd Place (5 winners) : Logitech X-540 Speakers, Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard, Logitech G5 Laser Mouse
• 3rd Place (5 winners) : Sound Blaster Xi-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card

All winners, including ten 4th placers will also receive developer signed copies of Guild Wars: Eye of the North. To join, or see the specs of the grand prize gaming powerhouse, go to the Guild Wars site via the Read link below.

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.

 

In a previous article, NCSoft and ArenaNet it was said that Guild Wars 2 is already being made. It will not have a subscription fee like its predecessors so you can expect long hours of gaming for minimal cost.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North is, according to the developers from ArenaNet, the first true expansion of the game. It should be something to look out for. To play the game, you will need any of the previous Guild Wars campaigns such as Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall.

Jeff Strain, the co-founder of Arena Net, had this to say about their second release: "We felt it was extremely important to reward those people who have been playing Guild Wars since the game first launched in 2005." He added that they felt it was time for them to "begin filling in the details of the existing world" and that they are thrilled to add certain things that players have been asking for. So what have players been asking for?

The expansion will be set in the lands of Tyria, which was introduced in Prophesies. Guild Wars: Eye of the North will have 18 large, multi-level dungeons, 150 new skills, 10 new Heroes, 40 new armor sets, and new items, weapons and titles.

Guild Wars 2 is expected to go into beta sometime in the second half of 2008. If you can't wait that long, Guild Wars: Eye of the North is expected to be out by the holidays this year.

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.

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!