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Guild Wars 2's Point of No Return launches today amidst 'Heart of Thorns' expansion rumors
Last week we showed you the preview vid for Guild Wars 2's latest living story update. Today ArenaNet is publishing the full patch, as Point of the No Return has officially gone live. The firm says that "in addition to bringing the Season 2 storyline to its epic conclusion, Point of No Return delivers new gameplay and access to new treasures." Completing the story will get you the Carapace armor set headgear while fighting the Mordrem Vinewrath gives you a chance to loot the Carapace chest, according to the latest GW2 press release. In other Guild Wars 2 news, thanks to a recent ArenaNet trademark filing, clever Redditors have uncovered what they suspect is the name of the game's rumored expansion: Heart of Thorns. Think they're right? We've included the logo below. [Source: ArenaNet press release]
Perfect Ten: Looking back at the biggest MMO news of 2014
Well, my chums, here we are at the tail-end of 2014, having achieved all of our goals and new year's resolutions. Even better, we've survived what's turned out to be one of the wildest, rockiest, and most exciting years of MMO news in recent memory. This was the year of high-profile game launches, even more popular expansions, layoffs, and some epic-level studio face-palming decisions. It's easy to sit here and say that we predicted everything that was going to happen this year, but c'mon, you have to admit that you were surprised by at least one or two events in this industry. It's incredibly difficult to sum up the biggest news of the year without coming to grips with the fact that many stories aren't one-and-done; a lot of what I'm going to be talking about in this list happened over the course of weeks or months and still may not be fully over. That's how news stories are sometimes!
Guild Wars 2 season 2 to continue on January 13th
The living world episodes for Guild Wars 2 are taking a month off for the holiday season, as ArenaNet announced today that Season 2 will reconvene on January 13th for "moments that will forever change the course of Tyria." That doesn't mean that Guild Wars 2 will go silent during this time, however. Wintersday is scheduled to return on December 16th, although this time it will take place in Divinity's Reach. ArenaNet is also hosting a test of its ladder season from December 16th through January 13th, allowing players to compete for various rewards, and a WvW Sneak Attack event during this same period. Finally, there will be the game's "first-ever" ESL monthly championship on December 10th.
Guild Wars 2's Tangled Paths update goes live today
Episode six of Guild Wars 2's second season of living world content, Tangled Paths, arrives on production servers today. The continuing storyline sends players on an epic dragon egg hunt through "newly discovered underground caverns" in the Silverwastes. Players who've been piecing together the carapace armor set this season can look forward to a pair of gloves this go-round. Massively's GW2 expert, Anatoli Ingram, has been chronicling the seasonal plotline in his Flameseeker Chronicles column. Enjoy the fresh screenshots and slightly less fresh episode six video below.
Guild Wars 2's Echoes of the Past begins next week
ArenaNet has just posted a new trailer for the next installment of Guild Wars 2's living story, Echoes of the Past, which launches on November 4th. "Echoes of the Past will pick up the story from the cliffhanger ending of episode 4 and follow the heroes of Tyria as they continue down the road to war against the Elder Dragon Mordremoth," says the studio. The second season of the game's living story has been on hiatus since the beginning of September. Last week, Massively GW2 columnist Anatoli Ingram spoke with ArenaNet's Bobby Stein and Steven Waller about this season's living story plotline. Toli's recap of the ongoing Halloween event and gem shop controversy, as well as his own predictions for the living story, went live earlier this afternoon. Enjoy the video below, and tell me if I'm crazy in thinking the music track is tipping its hat to Revenge of the Sith.
Guild Wars 2 teases upcoming festivals, living story season conclusion
ArenaNet's Colin Johanson has penned a new Guild Wars 2 dev blog teasing just what the remainder of the fall season will bring for the two-year-old MMO. Outside of ANet's e-sports push, the game's buzz has been relatively subdued since the second feature pack released in early September. That will change tomorrow, October 21st, with the arrival of the much-loved Halloween festival; Wintersday, the winter festival, is scheduled to kick off on December 16th. "Both of these releases," Johanson says, "will feature the same content as last year but with refreshed rewards, giving you fun new festival-themed items to earn." Season 2 of the living story itself returns from intermission on November 4th, having been on hiatus for just under two months. Johanson promises the plotline will feature "stories with roots deep in the very heart of Guild Wars lore" and an "unforgettable" final episode for the season.
Guild Wars 2's living story season resumes in November
A cryptic lore-only press release from ArenaNet this morning delivered this curious Guild Wars 2 news: The second season of the game's living story content will resume on November 4th, leaving just under two months between yesterday's feature pack release and the next leg of the playable plot. But if the teaser pic is any hint at all, we're likely to snag a new zone, at least. Here's the message: The fate of Tyria hangs in the balance. The world's races are uniting against the Elder Dragon Mordremoth. Their first lesson – there is no sanctuary. At the culmination of the first half of Season 2, Tyria's leaders had gathered for a secret summit at the Grove, at the base of the sylvari's sacred Pale Tree. They proved an easy target for Mordremoth's forces, facing a surprise attack by the Shadow of the Dragon. Tyria's heroes are now scattered across the world but in pursuit of one goal: how to bring the battle to Mordremoth. The secret may lie in a vision delivered by the Pale Tree moments after she was badly wounded by the Shadow of the Dragon. What did the vision mean, and will a united Tyria be enough to thwart the threat from this powerful Elder Dragon? The fight continues...
The Daily Grind: What's your desired update pace?
This year as a whole might be light on the total number of MMO releases, but it feels as though it's been an absolute bonanza for updates. I've experienced more than a couple Tuesdays where several of my MMOs are patching in new content simultaneously, leaving me with a delicious conundrum of what to play first. What I'm curious about today is how much and how often you think that MMOs should update. Would you have very frequent content drops, such as Guild Wars 2's living world episodes, even if they're not huge? Do you prefer a once-a-month patch that contains a lot to chew on? Or would you rather see MMOs package a huge chunk of content for a once- or twice-a-year expansion? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Guild Wars 2's living world mid-season finale launches today
Guild Wars 2's latest content update, The Dragon's Reach: Part 2, launches today, opening a brand-new explorable area within Dry Top and adding PvP perks. Says ArenaNet, A historic summit is about to take place in the spreading shadow of Mordremoth's advance, but not all of the world leaders have agreed to attend. Can you convince uneasy allies to come together and cooperate, or will lingering tensions spell Tyria's doom? The launch brings to a close the first half of this current living world season; the storyline will resume "this fall. PSA: If you log in while the story update is active and access the story journal, you can unlock the content for your account permanently."
Part two of Guild Wars 2's Dragon's Reach lands on August 12th
Ready to dive further into Dry Top in Guild Wars 2? You'll be able to do so in a week. ArenaNet has just put out a new teaser video announcing the next part of Season 2's Living Story, The Dragon's Reach: Part 2. It goes live on August 12th, and while the Elder Dragon Mordremoth advances, not all of the leaders of Tyria's factions are willing to work together to fight this threat. Of course, we know you're here to analyze what you can from the trailer. So jump on past the cut and do just that. It promises plant-based hijinks, but let's be honest: You probably guessed that. But there's a bit more going on, and you... well, you'll see. We'd hate to spoil the whole surprise, after all.
Guild Wars 2 teases Entanglement, season two's next episode
Have you played through Guild Wars 2's latest living story installment yet? No? Well, hurry up because episode 2 arrives next week on July 15th. It's called Entanglement, and its associated teaser video arrived in our inbox last night with merely this cryptic introduction: There are secrets hidden within the newly revealed area of Dry Top, just waiting to be discovered. Continue your adventures in the Maguuma Wastes and take a stand alongside your fellow heroes against an ancient, growing threat. Evil grows in the video below.
What you need to know about Guild Wars 2's second season living story
The wait for Guild Wars 2's Season 2 is finally over! Today, players will dig into the next arc of the living story with the new Gates of Maguuma content (or save the content for later by unlocking it in their story journals). What exactly is in store? If you don't mind a few spoilers, we've got some of those answers for you right now. Back at E3 2014, ArenaNet Associate Game Director Steven Waller and Studio Design Director Chris Whiteside gave us a recap of the first season, but they also gave us a preview of the second. And yes, that next step is through a portal into a whole new zone!
Guild Wars 2's Gates of Maguuma open July 1st
Guild Wars 2 fans have been not-so-patiently awaiting news about the inbound second season of story content, which arrives beginning next week on July 1st with the Gates of Maguuma update. ArenaNet has today released a teaser video to prime players for what the new plotline will entail. Says the studio, In this teaser, you'll see that the Zephyrites have been met with trouble and there are rumors of a disturbance in the tangled western reaches of Brisban Wildlands. When players log in on July 1, they will work together with their fellow GW2 counterparts as well as Marjory, Kasmeer, Rox, Braham and Taimi to discover what is going on. In addition, when you log in to experience the start of Living World Season 2, you can unlock the story content permanently in your Journal to play in the future. The teaser video is included below.
Lion's Arch Lament dissected for Guild Wars 2 fans
The destruction of Lion's Arch formed the centerpiece of Guild Wars 2's first Living Story finale, an event with a big emotional impact for players who had grown accustomed to the city's presence. How do you summarize such a huge event? With music, of course. A new development blog on the official site details the creation of "Lion's Arch Lament," music that commemorates the destruction while at the same time walking through the history of the city in just a few moments. The piece starts off with an homage to the music most strongly associated with Lion's Arch in the original Guild Wars, then ties in Scarlet's Theme and the city music from Guild Wars 2 to herald its return and destruction. If you're familiar with the game's music, you should give the post a read and listen to the song; it's likely to stir at least a few emotions about the city and its loss.
Jukebox Heroes: Guild Wars 2's living story soundtrack
I'm going to make a bold statement here that might net me some haters, but here goes: I think that Guild Wars 2 is better off now that it's cast off Jeremy Soule and moved on to in-house composers. Soule's soundtrack was great in parts, but he's not the be-all, end-all of good video game music. And his company's unexplained decision to yank the soundtrack from its store (and not even offer a digital version) irks me beyond the telling of it. Good luck finding it! So today I'm going to give tribute to the two men who have been forging ahead -- spectacularly, I might add -- with scoring Guild Wars 2's ongoing living story updates. Maclaine Diemer and Leif Chappelle have been whipping up a wide variety of tunes to go with the various story elements and events. To ArenaNet's credit, the studio has been posting these downloadable tracks for free on SoundCloud. And while rumor has it that Diemer and Chappelle are already composing music for season two, I thought it'd be worthwhile to go back and share some of my favorites from their season one portfolio. I won't be dipping into Super Adventure Box, however, as we did that last year.
Guild Wars 2's Festival of the Four Winds launches today
As promised, today ArenaNet will update Guild Wars 2's western servers with the Festival of the Four Winds, a Chinese-themed patch that will return the Zephyrite festival to the game and mark the game's launch in China. Says the studio, The Zephyrites have returned to Labyrinthine Cliffs in their large-sailed flying ships to support Lion's Arch in its time of need. Although Lion's Arch suffered a devastating blow as a result of Scarlet's nefarious plans, Captain Ellen Kiel of the Captain's Council is grateful to see the Zephyrites return with their generous offer of materials and moral support. And to help reinvigorate trade and provide some joy to its citizens, the Zephyrite Master of Peace and Queen Jennah of Kryta are hosting a festival to honor Lion's Arch. Visit Labyrinthine Cliffs and experience the rush of Aspect movement skills, take part in the Sanctum Sprint, or enjoy one of the brand-new events; then take a hot-air balloon to Divinity's Reach and enjoy the reopened Crown Pavilion, including a new version of the Queen's Gauntlet, the Boss Blitz. Join Braham, Rox, Marjory, Kasmeer, Taimi, and Scruffy as they enjoy the festivities and usher in the return of Lion's Arch services! We spoke to ArenaNet Game Design Lead Mike Zadorojny and Associate Game Director Steven Waller about the update and how players will gradually aid in the rebuilding of the Tyrian capital.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Let the Guild Wars 2 season two speculation begin
The new car smell has worn off Guild Wars 2's feature pack, which is great because it's not a car and that was getting a little weird. Whatever your opinion might be on GW2's living world, players have gotten used to biweekly content updates, and while it's refreshing to have a break every now and then, people are starting to draw comparisons to drought conditions while scavenging for any hints as to what might be coming next. ArenaNet has been busy with the Chinese beta and feature pack release, but letting us roll around like tumbleweeds for a bit is probably a good way to dry up any lingering burnout from the first part of the Scarlet arc. In the aftermath of the Battle for Lion's Arch, we were nevertheless left with a lot of information to sift through and a few pointers as to where the story might take us next. At the very least we have enough to fuel speculation, which is my second favorite pastime (right after fearing people off of cliffs in Edge of the Mists).
Time for some thrilling heroics in Guild Wars 2
If you're curious about the conclusion of Guild Wars 2's first seasonal living world arc but are too busy leveling up your 15th alt or throwing your savings into the Mystic Toilet to experience that conclusion yourself, fear not: Friend of Massively Richie "Bogotter" Procopio will do the hard part of playing through the final leg of the story for you. His new 18-minute video will lead you through the showdown as he resists the tug of the gripping plot to make sure to use a bunny finisher and dance on corpses. It should go without saying that there be spoilers ahead, but just in case: big spoilers ahead!
Guild Wars 2's Battle for Lion's Arch has begun [It's live now!]
Fans of Guild Wars 2's living story villain Scarlet Briar -- all five of you -- will likely be disappointed by the finale launching today in ArenaNet's core MMO, but everyone else will be letting out a big cheer and enjoying some fresh loot piñatas. Marketed as the "final showdown with villain Scarlet Briar," the Battle for Lion's Arch patch will allow players to try to reclaim the beloved capital city that's been under siege for the last two weeks. Players will engage in a desperate struggle to take back one of the game's most important cities and a major hub for players. The city of Lion's Arch has fallen to a vicious surprise attack from sylvari super villain Scarlet Briar, backed by her army of Tyria's dark forces and an arsenal of war machines. Her weapons of war include the massive airship drill Breachmaker, which continues to bore deep beneath the city's harbor. Under the shadow of this mechanical monstrosity, players must now rally to reenter Lion's Arch to challenge Scarlet's army, and perhaps face the villain herself. Massively's Anatoli Ingram spoke with ArenaNet's Colin Johanson last week about what to expect from the update. [Update: The patch has now gone live! Read the full patch notes and check out Richie "Bogotter" Procopio's video comparing the brand-new tormented weapons to their GW1 originals.] [Source: ArenaNet press release]
Watch Lion's Arch fall in Guild Wars 2
Lion's Arch is a center for both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. It has endured through countless trials. And now it's nothing more than ash and wreckage. Whether you've had a chance to experience the latest patch to Guild Wars 2 or have yet to sift through the damage, you can watch it fall in the latest trailer out of the ArenaNet community team. Admittedly, the trailer doesn't go into full detail showing the lengthy siege that took place, but you can fill in some of those details yourself. And it's quite a sizable chunk of destruction, razing familiar features across the city and reducing the game's iconic location to little more than rubble. Click on past the break to see the devastation unfold before your eyes. [Source: ArenaNet press release]