BWE3-There is so much I want to say, but I can only say so much.

BWE 3 was fantastic!  In spite of traveling with family for vacation,  I was able play a great deal.  I have soo much to say, I going to break it down into a couple of posts.
So without further adieu...

I made a human guardian to show one of my nephews what they looked like.  As I was running around Queensdale I notice the music sounded very familiar.  As a matter of fact, it reminded me alot of the starter area music outside Ascalon city in GW1.  I'm not a 100% sure but I think it's either the same song or the GW2 music is a version of the GW1.  If this is the case, that is so cool.  Anyone know for sure?

Old Friend, New Fun

What an odd team we are.

Here we are checking out Divinity's Reach.

During this beta event I got to play with a ole friend of mine.  We hadn't played an online game together since the end of WoW's WotLK expansion.  We had an absolute blast, he on his Charr warrior and I on my Asura warrior. He had never been anywhere other than the Charr areas.  He was blown away by the magnitude of the city.  We wandered around just taking in all the sites and being a general nuisance, er I mean well behaved pair of warriors.

I think I've heard of this book before.

 As we wandered around Divinity's Reach we found some book carts and clicked on a few.  Guess what I found..."Edge of Destiny" by Sangjo of Lion's Arch.  We also found another book called "Flora to Faun Over".  I love Arena Net's humor. 

We then went all over Queensdale doing quests, finding vistas and just messing around with all the weapons a warrior can use.  We also learned you can't trade with other players but you can mail them stuff and it reaches them immediately.  I'd loot a socketable stone with +3 power and I didn't need it so I'd mail it to him.  We both look forward to playing GW2 as our metaphorical "bowling night" when the game goes live.

Later, we found a cave way on top of the hills right of Queensdale's dam and there were a group of kids pretending to be members of Destiny's Edge.  I followed one of the boys in and it was a mini event.  I had to answer questions about each member of DE.  When I got enough questions correct the event completed and the kids went on playing.  A fun little find.

Graphics

I just wanted to comment on how good this game looks on an old system.  I play GW2 on a HP Pavilion dv7, a laptop no less.  So, to get a good frame rate I need drop my setting to the lowest setting possible.  Nevertheless, the game still looks good.  The top pic is at the lowest settings, the bottom pic is at the highest settings.  There is a difference in quality but I play with my screen zoomed out so it's not too terrible.   Arena Net has done a great job on making sure people with older systems will be able to enjoy this game without having to purchase a new system.

Sorry for the extra space but Blogger hates putting pictures side by side for some reason.

Before I had to finally log off I decided to wander around Queensdale and take screen shots.  Below are some of my favorites.

BWE3 was a great way to end my beta time.  I have never been part of a beta before and probably will never participate in one again.  Nonetheless, this was a unique experience to see the game before it goes live and I'm thankful Arena Net did this for all those who prepurchased.

In the next post I'll talk about the Asura and their zaniness.  See you soon.