It was to be expected i suppose, being beta and all.  With the server caps raised and fewer server overall, the beginner zones were completely packed.  We really didn't get a chance to do any WvW either due to some bug on Anet's side that cut the population caps in half.  That's what beta's are for i suppose and really i hadn't planned on playing much anyways since I'd like the game to remain fresh for launch.

Follow the zerg!

Every event was packed

Let us in!

Poor Gate of Madness folks

Another beta weekend event drew to a close leaving us feeling empty inside until the next one.  I managed to capture a ridiculous amount of pics and video that i have to sift through and try to make some sense of in the next few days.  Most of this will consist of WvW action, which VI spent the majority of it's time partaking in, but we also knocked out both versions of Ascalonian Catacombs.

The big update for this beta was of course the tiering of skills and traits, which I'm still not a fan of but understand the need for.  As a Thief, what this meant was that i was missing 2 very important traits for the build i really enjoyed during the first beta weekend.  Having 3 extra initiative and a 60% chance on criticals to cripple with pistols is freaking huge.  I'm essentially required to put 30 points into Critical Strikes to get that cripple now and must be level 40 for the extra initiative.  I understand why Anet did this and i adapted just fine without, but oh did i miss those 2!

Spent the entirety of Friday night doing nothing but small man WvW.  Now normally i wouldn't feel bad for opponents, but our sever was matched up against 2 new servers.  This unfortunately lead to hilarity and hijinks as our group was able to take on and defeat much larger groups since most of us had all of our elite skills.

Knock knock

Must claim the keep!

Watching oil kill people from the back

So many people forget to bring supply

Nice heart shaped fireball!

The night began like this

Then it got worse

Went to bed when we owned everything

Next day was much more competitive

We're surrounded!

In the short 7 hours we all got to play on Monday, VI decided to spend most of it in World vs. World PVP.  It's amazing how great MMO PVP can be when there's no silly PVP stat or gear.  I'm looking at you valor, resilience, or whatever the hell else devs are stupid enough to continuously implement.  Also the fact that there's no trinity eliminates the whole "whichever side has more healers always wins" nonsense that constantly happens.

With the way the world PVP map is set up, there's so much a small group of organized individuals can accomplish.  We decided to avoid the inevitable zergs and focus on capturing supply mules, smaller forts, and outposts.  After taking a small fort, we were able to hold off a large contingency of around 20 players with just 5.  Had we used proper defenses such as arrow carts (which are ridiculous btw), we could have held off the invasion for a long time.  As it stood, we were able to stand our ground for a solid 30 minutes before we were compromised.

It was an absolute blast finally playing a skill and tactics based game as apposed to a gear and numbers based one.  Once the game goes live and tactics along with alliances are hammered out, i have no doubts that this game with have one of the best PVP experiences ever.

The long awaited weekend was upon us and VI dove in head first into ArenaNet's follow up to the award winning Guild Wars.  This time however, what we have is an actual full fledged MMO.  Let me start right there and reiterate how fantastic that aspect really is.

The game world is outstanding in every detail possible.  I spent more time just exploring, which the game promotes with it's dynamic event system in place of quests, than i did actually fighting mobs.  That right there told me we might have something here.  It's freaking huge!  Just running around and finding stuff to do as apposed to following a lunch line to the next quest hub has me hooked so far.

As i said, i didn't really focus on leveling at all and yet still managed to hit level 20 just by exploring and doing random events.  This was deliberate on my part as i don't really want to rush myself in yet another beta and then get bored on release.  I enjoyed taking my time and just having fun.

I'm going to put this out there because i honestly believe it.  Divinity's reach is the largest and best looking city i have ever seen in an MMO.  Its obvious Anet put a lot of time and love into not only the city, but everything else i got a chance to see this weekend.  It remains to be seen how the game plays later on or if things change before release, but so far so good.

Incoming wall of pics.

Got a chance to try out TERA's beta this past weekend.  I'll start off by saying that i couldn't really get a fair assessment of the game because i had nothing but GW2 on my mind.  I also have no actual desire to purchase or pre-order due to GW2, so i was just playing to play and have fun.

The art style, graphics, and character models are fantastic and so is the game world.  I mean, it's freaking beautiful to look at.

The highly touted action combat is also really fun, with one exception.  I've made no qualms about not being a fan of animation locks.  I hate them with a passion.  I understand that it's supposed to make combat more dynamic but, for me it slows it down.

I made it to around level 10 before beta ended as i only played 1 day but i can say that if it were not for GW2, i could see myself playing this.  Oh, it's also a requisite to play a female character when playing a Korean MMO!