Who would want to play a gnome? Well, I guess Pev isn't too tall...

Asura ("gnomes") and Sylvans ("elves") aren't available yet. But everything is fairly well represented other than that, obviously quite a lot of humans and norns - sometimes hard to tell apart as like in the original you can change your height somewhat which is the only physical difference. These seem to be the most common mainly because I haven't really moved away from my starting area that much yet; go to the Charr starting area and of course there are a lot of Charr. I think Charr will be one of the more popular races in all honesty.

As for the zoom yes you can zoom out quite a bit further than I did, I tend to like the closer view though so it feels more like 1st person but I can still see my char and the dye job I've done on the armour etc. I tend to play most games like that if they give me the choice. I think you can go full on 1st person if you like but not 100% sure of that. I do tend to zoom out more if I'm in a big battle and using my elementalist, just to try and keep track on enemies and friends alike.

The towns really are amazing and I too love the map zoom. When you go into the map as well there are actually different layers - for the overworld map there are 3 layers ("dungeons", normal and some kind of top layer) and in the towns there are the same layers but the "dungeons" one is usually the lower level - where the scum live really. Divinity's Reach for example is layered in that circle effect so you have your bottom area which is mostly just for quests and to make it feel like a city, the middle layer which is more shops and crafting and then the top area which is where the rich live, that garden in the video is and the law enforcement is. Oh and also the top tier armour/weapon merchants.

I did play a bit of PvP as I said and I quite enjoyed it, however hardcore pvpers from the original may not be impressed though I haven't read anything about it so genuinely couldn't say how it has been received. However from what little I played in the original it was much more know your class, know your skills, know every other class and skills etc, you really had to study to do well in it. However now it seems a bit more forgiving which is great for me as I really am not a PVP player. It now seems more like a mix of team deathmatch with king of the hill thrown in. Your character is jumped up to level 50 and given a skills template and appropriate gear, which you can change as you unlock it via "glory", the PvP currency so you can literally go into PvP the first time you log in without having to "waste time" levelling up. Glory is earned individually like experience for capturing things and killing people and you also gain some if your team wins the round overall.

There are currently 2 maps available and when you port in you get a little tutorial the first time (you still essentially have your island which is the hub for all pvp, including pvp rewards etc) and then choose what you want to do. I think there are other modes available but I just went for the basic one. Anyway, you port into the map which is still 8v8 and you can get points by killing other players or by capturing areas. To capture the area it's a case of standing in it until it turns your colour. You don't need to stay in it, it will continue to earn you points as long as it's your colour but if someone from the other team stands in it it will become contested and eventually go over to their colour. There also seemed to be NPCs on the maps that get assigned to your teams and if killed earn you points. And there were also catapults that you can take out for points - I'm not sure but I think they can actually damage the other team but I was just running round wildly really. You have to finish players off as well as you still have the "rally" mechanic from the PvE where you are downed and either slowly bleed to death or get resurrected by a teammate/by killing someone, so to avoid that you can go up to a downed enemy and press "F" to finish them. I did get a brief vid of my PvP exploits but it was in my first game so there's not a lot to really show it. I don't think the WvW is available yet but that could be really good fun as my understanding of it is that it's pretty much two huge armies that just charge

Anyway a few more vids - still a couple more to put up as well. And there is going to be at least one more beta before release so start putting in any requests that you want to see. Niall has made a thief on my account but I haven't seen it played/played it myself so that is an option or if you want I can delete one of my chars to try the other classes/races (if the races get unlocked). I have yet to try the Warrior, Necromancer, Engineer or Thief. There will be some more Guardian videos in my next post as I gave it a bit more of a chance and really started to get into it.







5 more vids to post, will get those up in the next few days. Not sure if I had my graphics on max or not before but I do now so you can see it in the most glorious glory it will ever be available in

Waiting for the Men's finals to start up again at Wimbledon so let's get the last 5 videos up for you. There are a few more Guardian videos; after giving it a bit more of a chance the Guardian is actually quite a lot of fun to play. He basically really shines in the random events where there are lots of players around so your defensive skills really shine. On your own he lacks the outright damage to work too well.

definitely my favourite playstyle as far as looks and damage go with the Ele
I switch between elements a little bit here to include the Water healing spells to help my allies
very much turns into a protective warrior, stopping the enemies hurting your allies as much so they can concentrate on damaging them, such as placing shields around an area or placing glyphs on the ground to cause the enemy to take more damage
more of a hang back and damage from a distance gameplay whilst being able to heal and buff your allies as well. You'll see a random ball of energy I shoot forward. You can detonate this to heal people in the area.

http://www.arena.net/blog/play-asura-an ... kend-event

Not this weekend but the following we have another beta weekend and get to try out the Asura and Sylvari finally!

Beta weekend is here, made an Asura and Sylvari - previous characters are already wiped. I've made an Asuran engineer and a Sylvari necro. Made character creation videos again and played both out of the very early quest to level 2, now pursuing the necro path a little. Having some server problems tonight though so will probably not bother trying again, been booted out (and think the server crashed as lost some level progress) twice.

Beta weekend over and still loved the game. I didn't play as much as I'd have liked to but got some solid hours in on the Sunday. Btw, anyone wanting to continue char names over from GW - log into your account before 31 July - names will then be saved until the day after launch.

Anyway took a few screenshots and more vids which I'll upload as I can be bothered Played the other classes I hadn't tried so as well as Asura engineer and Sylvari necro I made a Charr thief and a Norn warrior. Warriors do an insane amount of damage! Thieves are essentially assassins and have a lot of moves involving shadowstep for getting into and out of the battle. Since I've already shown off Lions Arch and Divinity's Reach I'll get the other cities uploaded. Charr are in the Black Citadel which is basically the tutorial area from the original game so I was particularly interested looking around there and seeing the old ruins of Ascalon off in the background.