eye of the north

Eye of the North is now live! You can buy the expansion direct from within your Guild Wars client by clicking on the Guild Wars Store icon, or you can pop into the centre and play it on our centre account to check out the new goodies.

To start your journey to the Far Shiverpeaks, you need to talk to an NPC in one of the major towns in each chapter:

Characters from the original Guild Wars campaign wishing to travel to the Far Shiverpeaks for the first time should seek out Len Caldoron in Lion’s Arch and accept the “What Lies Beneath” quest.

With the release of the Eye of the North expansion today, I'm pleased to announce that it is available to play in the centre. If you log in with our centre account, you'll have access to all three Guild Wars chapters as well as the Eye of the North expansion.

Why not pop in and try it out? We've got each Guild Wars chapter for sale, and they come with a free day pass, so you can spend some time progressing in the game.

Well, the Eye of the North preview weekend is over. All in all, I'm pretty impressed - it's a worthy expansion, and was a lot of fun. I'd like to highlight the 'expansion' aspect of it. I came across a lot of characters who weren't level 20, who were complaining about the difficulty.

ArenaNet have always been clear - unlike previous chapters, Eye of the North is an expansion for existing players. There are no new classes, and there's no beginner area to get used to the game and to level up. The moment you step in, *boom*, the action starts.

Despite the freezing temperature of the mountains, the Norn ladies seem to wander around in fur bikinis. The blokes have full plate mail armour. Bizarre I say.

The Norn are a suspicious bunch. You'll come across a fair few of them when exploring Far Shiverpeaks - usually next to a resurrection shrine. Initially, you have no reputation with the Norn. When you try to talk to them, they'll demand you prove yourself by fighting them.

The Sneak Peek weekend has begun, and I've returned to the Far Shiverpeaks in Tyria to hang with my dwarf homies and kick some Charr butt ;-)

I've stuck up a post detailing the trip north at http://www.theaubergineroom.com/travelling_to_the_far_shiverpeaks_in_eye...

Keep an eye on the Guild Wars forums, as I'll be sticking some more detailed posts up in there as I discover and explore more of the far north.

If you're playing Guild Wars at all over the weekend, lookup Laurana the Foxy in game.

Cheers,
TOM

So with the Sneak Peek weekend upon us, it's time to have a look at Eye of the North. As I was already in Kamadan, I spoke to the NPC Bendah. He gives you a new mission - apparently a fissure has opened up on the cliffs behind Kamadan! We must investigate!

Instantly Kamadan starts shaking with an earthquake - note this is a shared realm so this affects everyone in that district. Lots of people start chatting in Local, wanting to know what's going on. It's pretty good fun :-)

Just ahead of the Sneak Peek preview weekend, ArenaNet have published a final couple of goodies to help you get the most of your early access.

First up is the Eye of the North manual, in PDF format, which you can download from http://eu.guildwars.com/images/manual/GWEN/manual-en.pdf

And then is the final Eye of the North map, available as a JPG from http://eu.guildwars.com/images/uploads/gwen-mapposter.jpg