The Pre-Order...

[Havral]

... And here's what you get.

Damn Yankees

The NORTH AMERICAN PRE-ORDER INCLUDES:

* A key that provides access to the Factions Preview Event on March 24th
* Access to Guild Wars Factions twenty-four hours before the official release date
* Exclusive in-game items—one unique item for each of the two new professions
* A "friend" key that gives one of your friends access to the Factions Preview Event on March 24th
* A 14-day, 10-hour trial of Guild Wars (original Prophecies campaign)
* A tactical guide
* A quick-reference card
* A CD that includes concept art, wallpapers, and in-game trailers

One bundle, but a pretty well-stacked one. Mucho useful if you don't own the original Guild Wars in that it gives you a 10-hour trial of the original Prophecies campaign.

Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys & The Rest of Europstan

THE EUROPEAN ONLINE PRE-ORDER (no box or contents)
Beginning March 3rd, European customers can visit their favorite online retailer to pre-order Guild Wars Factions online. The online pre-order will include:

* A key that provides access to the Factions Preview Event on March 24th
* Access to Guild Wars Factions twenty-four hours before the official release date
* Exclusive in-game items—one unique item for each of the two new professions
* A "friend" key that gives one of your friends access to the Factions Preview Event on March 24th


THE EUROPEAN BOXED PRE-ORDER PACK
The European boxed Pre-Order Pack will be available in stores on March 31st and will include all of the items available in the online pre-order plus:

* A tactical guide and quick-reference card PDF in five different languages
* A CD that includes concept art, wallpapers, in-game movies, and Factions music
* A Guild Wars Factions poster

So two packages: The online edition arriving later and is less-featured than the well endowed US package, and the boxed edition misses the beta event in its entirity and only has a poster that's not included in the US package. Plus, we have to print out the tactical guide and quick-reference card which is no biggie (Who actually reads the quickref that came with the original Guild Wars boxed package?)

So let's do a tally. If you're an European and order both packages (Like I'm planning on doing to feed both my accounts) you get:

* A poster, which the Americans are already bitching about. (That's good)
* No GW trial. (That's bad)
* Two accounts. (That's good)
* One account that misses the beta. (That's horrendous)
* Essentially the same as the rest of the package (That's expected)
* We only get PDFs of the card and guide in the boxed set. (That's... counterproductive)

Also, looking at the prices, Factions is priced higher than Guild Wars. Yeah, I know they're toting it as a stand-alone game that could slot into the original, but I'd think the prices should be more agreeable.

Ouch.

[WarBlade]

Nuke-hating Sheep Shaggers

THE MOUTH ISLAND / NEW ZEALAND OOBER DOOBER DOUBLE WHOPPER WAMMY PACK INCLUDES:

One lungful of fresh breathable oxygen at no charge and minimal effort.
wtf ever.

Also, looking at the prices, Factions is priced higher than Guild Wars.

Could it be that you're comparing a Factions pack with a comparable, yet slightly smaller, edition of Guild Wars? I'm looking at all the editions of Guild Wars and Faction available in NZ (all both of them) and Factions is priced slightly lower than Guild Wars here.

[Green_Gloom]

With only two extra slots (6 total) for merging a Factions and Prophecies account I'm doubtful that I'll get Factions until it hits the bargain bin. The amount of added slots came from Gaile during the latest chat in LA.

4+4=8 in my world.

[Havral]

I missed this earlier... The European box preorder does in fact include the ingame items for Assassin and Ritualist, exactly the same as the US box.

I thought I had mentioned something about the EU boxed pre-order missing the unique items here, but I guess I didn't.

Must learn to read things more carefully.

[KingOfPain]

AFAIK, there's some mis-print on the box info to be corrected. Check again.

KoP

[KingOfPain]

Hold on.. Fingers crossed

Full product list will be provided for each package on March 10th on the official website.

[Havral]

Hold on.. Fingers crossed

Full product list will be provided for each package on March 10th on the official website.

Yeah, gonna hold on until then before pre-ordering for my first account (I plan on getting the boxed pre-order). Details regarding buying in Europe are remarkably sketchy compared to the US, and I'd like to know what I'm getting into first.

[Lurker Wyrm]

I'll be getting my pre-order for the CE sometime in the next week or so (Suikoden V comes out on 3/21, so I'll put the order down when I pick that up, if not sooner). Europe is getting more in the CE package than North America is, btw.

Edit: Oh yeah, thought I'd share this shot with you guys to add a bit more insight/confusion to the Factions system.

Edit 2: Just tried it, and there are more screenshots to see if you change the file number (ranges from 81-100, but 90-93 are the ones with the in-game shots).

[Havral]

Awrighty then, those pre-order items in full, modelled by my resident psychotic geo/necromancer, Vortik Glommon.

The daggers, plays it safe, encourages poison play. Most interesting part? +1 to dagger mastery. Yum.


And now the staff, something that's useful to non-ritualists thanks to the 10/10 half recharge and cast. The +10 energy seems to be broken though. It also fires arrows.


That's right: Arrows.

[Zedd]

Read something nifty about the daggers -- I guess their double-attack triggers IW on each hit... As/Me could get interesting.