Yesterday, ArenaNet released a cool video for Shadow of the Mad King, the Halloween event heading our way on October 22nd. It’s worth watching for the baby costumed quaggans alone.

We also found out a little more about the event. Shadow of the Mad King will be a four-act event, with the first act starting on October 22nd, the second on October 26th, the third on October 28th and the final act on October 31st. We don’t know the details of what will change between each of the acts, but it’s safe to say it’s probably worth checking out each of them.

More information on the new event items being added to the Black Lion Trading Company was also revealed:

All kinds of tricks and treats are coming to the Gem Store this Halloween. Costumes that grant spooky skills, tonics that transform you into ghouls and ghosts, creepy crawly minis to follow you around. And don’t forget to pick up your free devil horns before they disappear!

The Black Lion Chest is getting a spooky upgrade for Halloween. Between October 23 and November 5 each Black Lion Chest you open has a chance to give you one of six exclusive Halloween-themed weapon skins!

Free devil horns? Those will look rather silly on my charr main– in other words, a must have!

ArenaNet also released a wallpaper of one of the awesome artwork designs for Shadow of the Mad King. To check out the wallpaper, video, and all the details, head on over to the event’s official page.

That’s right– Guild Wars 2 players will be getting a Halloween event! Not only that, but our first major content update as well:

Halloween has a long history in Tyria, and in times past was always marked by the spirit of Mad King Thorn cavorting among the people unleashing his own brand of insanity. However, it’s been over 250 years since he was last seen, and for most people he is merely a figure of folklore. Despite this, rumors persist among the populace that something wicked this way comes.

Shadow of the Mad King is the first major game release for Guild Wars 2 and will go live on October 22. This new game update will include a number of new features for all of our players to enjoy, new content to explore and see, and a week-long Halloween event.

The Halloween event will begin October 22nd and end October 31st, bringing with it festive decorations, mini-games, dynamic events, and new goodies available at the Black Lion Trading Company.

The content update will also be bringing paid PvP tournaments to the game, which are a more competitive option for PvP teams. Paid tournaments offer players better prizes and cost a ticket to enter, which are available at the Gem Store and through winning regular tournaments. Tyria will also be seeing a bit of an upgrade, and new jumping puzzles, events, bosses, achievements, and mini-dungeons will spring up on multiple maps.

Check out all the details for Shadow of the Mad King, including some very cool artwork images, on ArenaNet’s official announcement page.

With BWE3 coming this weekend, Arenanet will be wiping all characters and will also be adding both the Sylvari and Asura race. Since launch is only a month and a half away, what will you being doing this weekend? Will you be checking out the new races or will you be trying out multiple classes to figure out what you’ll be playing at launch?

Beta is a great time to get prepared for how you’ll be playing once the game goes live. Since there is no public ongoing test server, there are tons of changes from Weekend Event to Weekend Event. Rumor has it that a few of the classes, namely the Engineer, have gone through some major changes. Are you an engineer itching to get your hands on a flamethrower again?

Regardless of your chosen class or race, there is a lot of content to be tested. Arenanet is opening up new pvp maps, adding new things to W3 and allowing players to choose between two brand new races. There is certainly a lot to be tested and most likely, you won’t have time to check all of it out. If you’re a min/maxing Junkie then you might want to focus on one single area and get the most out of your time.

Here are two things that would most likely be important to discover, keep reading to see if you agree.

World vs. World
New objectives have been added to the Mists of W3 called Sentries. A good place to start is to find all of their locations and see how many points or experience they give. These may be good places to hit as a low level player to receive some quick rewards.

Asura and Sylvari are Now Available
The final two races are now available to play, and if you plan on playing one at launch, now is your opportunity to explore and learn the maps. If your objective is to level as fast as possible, you might want to learn the flow of the map so that you can get the most out of your time at launch, gain levels and skill points faster, and crush your opponents in W3 swiftly.

There is one caveat that is worthy of testing. The bulk of anyone’s experience comes from events and events are more rewarding when there are more players available. The more people around, the faster events are completed which gives you more experience. Typically in other MMO launches, you want to stay ahead of the tide of players so you don’t run into competition. In GW2, this is not an issue, and staying at the crest of the wave might be more beneficial (assuming you don’t have a large guild to level with).

So this weekend you can test which is faster, leveling with the masses or shooting out ahead. The Sylvari and Asura maps will most likely be more crowded and give you the opportunity to test this.

Assuming that you’ve spend a lot of time throughout all the Weekend Events playing GW2 and you won’t be playing just for the pure joy of the game, what will you be doing this weekend?

Yesterday we discussed exploring the world of Tyria and getting rewarded by planting flags farther and farther away from other flags. We also got a hint that there will be treasure maps as well! Well here’s another screenshot from Curse’s database of a treasure map that plops down an X on your map and you’re left to find it and then an event starts as soon as you get there.

Just another example of something cool that Arenanet is creating for us!

Finally Beta Weekend is almost here! We get a full update on what will be going on by Arenanet’s Dave Campbell

We’re counting the days until the first public Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Event, which begins on Friday, April 27, at noon PDT (GMT-8) and ends on Sunday, April 29, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-8). Hundreds of thousands of players from around the world will get their first taste of Guild Wars 2—and rest assured, we’ll be playing alongside them!

There are a couple important things you need to know about this Beta Weekend Event:

• The only way to absolutely guarantee your access to this or any future Beta Weekend Events is to pre-purchase any edition of Guild Wars 2.
• Customers who have pre-purchased the game will receive an e-mail next week with instructions on how to download the client and participate in the Beta.
• This is a public event, which means that you’re not bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). So go ahead, feel free to take screenshots, shoot video, blog, tweet, write, or compose a rock opera to share your Guild Wars 2 experience with the world.

The rest of the blogs gets you pumped up to explore the world and take part in PVP. What we do see is that ArenaNet is still not ready to beta test the Asura and Sylvari races as only the Human, Norn and Charr will be available to play. This may suggest that we’ll be seeing many more Beta Weekends before Guild Wars 2 will be released.

This weekend the major gaming news sites received their event invites for Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet will be allowing them to report on what they see and experience in game. What portions of the game they will be shown hasn’t been released but It’s safe to say that most of it the die hard fans have already seen at the major conventions last year. Some limitations will more than likely still apply as the NDA is still in effect. Hopefully new and exciting information will be released to further the drooling us eager fans have, as we try to act patient waiting for the release. It is all an act though as who can truely be patient waiting for this amazing game?

Unfortunately while the invites have gone out the event has yet to start. Luckily the wait for this is short and the event is due to start within a couple weeks. Until then you can head over to youtube and watch some the convention videos of Guild Wars 2 to cure your itch. Maybe it won’t cure the itch but it may satisfy it for a brief time. If anything it is amazing how much of the game has already been shown to the world.