Besides the infamous Creeper, Endermen are the next nuisance of most inhabitants of Minecraftia. Endermen, for those that don’t know, love teleporting around your home and steeling blocks. Here are two epic fan made pieces of these mystical creatures.

Although it looks like a Pokémon version of the Enderman, it’s still a really awesome picture of the creature getting angry. Someone probably looked at it. The picture is by deviantART artist Hiji-K, who also has a comic to go along with this drawing.

This epic piece of work, actually done in Minecraft, is a feat by Ludolik. I didn’t know Endermen can bleed. Makes be feel a bit sorry for killing them. OK, I’m over it. The artist has made the word save available for download if you want to tinker with it.

There are three male protagonists in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V.

The long-awaited Gamer Informer cover story on GTA 5 has fans giddy with excitement and speculation. Fans use these characters in a “groundbreaking way” according to the December issue of the magazine.  Just what does that mean? We’ll have to wait for the 3 p.m. EST digital copy release.

In the 18-page story they will introduce us to the three guys in the picture, how we use them and go over the re-imaged map of Las Santos; the biggest open-world Rockstar has created to date.

I’ll keep tweeting new information and sum up everything up in an Examiner article, so keep a lookout for that. For now, check out the full cover image from Game Informer.

GTA V has a release date of Spring 2013.

Ah yes, that infamous moment when the counter on GuildWars2.com hit zero and my buddy and I raced into the world of Tyria knowing the life we used to know is gone forever… and here I am giving ArenaNet another idea to keep me, and the rest of the Guild Was 2 community, glued in this alternate world.

Note: Not actual sizes; there are no giant frogs in Guild Wars

Long ago, some 250-odd years according to the Mouvelian calendar, a lone ranger and her amphibious friend, The Frog, would occasionally march into Lion’s Arch, the main city in the original Guild Wars. This ranger, all decked out in purple armour, and The Frog would cause every hero across the land to gather in this city to eat sweets, set off fireworks and most of all hear what these two mysterious beings had to say.

For those unfamiliar with the original Guild Wars, and me for that matter, it was Gail Grey, then the Community Relations Manager for ArenaNet, walking into Lion’s Arch as a level nine ranger and the person who sparked my interest in Community Management. What better way to interact with us, the players, then inside the game? Some players probably don’t use Twitter, or even — *gasp* — Facebook. How cool would it be to see Community Managers Regina Buenaobra or Martin Kerstein in Guild Wars 2 taking on your questions, hearing your thoughts or commenting on your ideas?

Another thing, bring back The Frog, or another riddle-speaking being. This omniscient frog would never directly say what he means, but offer hints and roundabout descriptions of new things to come in Guild Wars. Our amphibious informant also fit in so well within the lore of Tyria; The Frog essentially became the “fly on the wall” around the world, claiming he gets all his information through The Tad-Pole Network.

The Frog kept the players guessing and eager for the next update. It was common to see “what do you think The Frog meant by this?” or “dude, I think we’re getting <insert wanted item, functionality or fix here>!” in Guild and All chat after The Frog bid his farewell and gamers had a chance to read the chat log that was plastered over every fan site and forum around the WWW.

Between Gail Grey’s visits and The Frog’s riddles, it sent Guild Wars apart from other MMOs. It added a huge emotional attachment to Guild Wars by ArenaNet taking the time to come visit and, subsequently, tease us with new content information. Time and time again ArenaNet proved they want to listen to us by answering tweets, Facebook comments and Reddit posts, but at some point the developer needs to go where every player gathers — inside Guild Wars 2.

It’s been five years since ArenaNet announced that Guild Wars 2 was under development. I remember it pretty clearly, and I didn’t like it.

“Guild Wars 2 Professions” by serphiroth101 on DeviantART

The popular Guild Wars community website, GuildMag, asked bloggers to reminisce on the 2007 announcement of Guild Wars 2 for its fourth Blog Carnival.

To be honest, at the time I didn’t like that ArenaNet was giving up on Guild Wars to create a sequel. At least that’s how I felt.

It had been only two years since I started playing the original and I had just started to feel comfortable in structured PvP. My guild — my home in Guild Wars — Inyurface Gaming was a constant sight in Heroes’ Accent; challenging and holding The Hall of Heroes. I had turned into a decent Monk for my team, evening helping my guild reach the top 40 on the Guild Ladder.

Mystical Sparkle decked out in Obsidian armor

After playing through the PvE campaign many times and spending a lot of time in Random Arenas (so to completely unlock every skill, rune and weapon mod for my account) I had many skills memorized. It had come to the point where the icon of a skill told me to run or attack an enemy; it allowed to me to focus on positional strategy over reading the skill’s description as the opposition casts it. This allowed me to use Healing Seed (when it was meta for a Monk to have it… yeah a long ass time ago) on a teammate and stand beside them as an enemy Necromancer is casting Spiteful Spirit, for example.

With the news of Guild Wars 2 broke, I will admit I was bummed out, let-down and, sadly, depressed. It meant I had to learn whole new game mechanics, skills and strategies. All the time and effort spent in Guild Wars was thrown out the window along with all my accomplishments; my tiger emote, all the cool weapons and armor I had purchased, gone. Just like that.

Okay, it wasn’t really gone, but it felt like everything I worked for was obsolete.

Luckily, ArenaNet introduced the Hall of Monuments in the same breath as Guild Wars 2. The HoM allows players to turn their achievements in the original game into rewards for the sequel. Although I can’t directly bring my tiger emote into Guild Wars 2 —  the one title I worked the hardest on; some people may shake their head at that notion, but “rank” is the reward for success in one aspect of PvP in Guild Wars — but at least I am rewarded for the title and the cool armor and weapons I have collected over my time in Guild Wars.

Times change

Although the press release suggests Guild Wars 2 will go into Beta in the second half of 2008, it wasn’t until April 2012 that the public got their first Beta event. In that time (it’s hard to pinpoint the exact time, but we’re talking at least three years ago), my guild slowly started to move over to League of Legends; a game I’m not to fond of. I eventually traded my keyboard and mouse for an Xbox 360 controller; Call of Duty: Black Ops became my game of choice, along with a few other friends.

Today, I’m more than excited for the release of Guild Wars 2. I’ve swapped back to my trusty keyboard and mouse for the last public Beta event and stress test — on that note, I’d like to publicly thank the PR rep for ArenaNet for hooking me up with a Beta code — and thoroughly enjoyed my time in the game.

Being able to jump in Guild Wars 2 makes the game seem more free, and the same goes for being able to move while casting skills. Not to mention we finally have something similar to an Auction House (boy, was it annoying to sell or buy something through spamming a “WTS” or “WTB” message respectively). The new game play and the small part of my personal story that I got to play was so exciting that I didn’t want to stop playing — although I forced myself to; it’s unhealthy not to take a break.

In my opinion the announcement of Guild Wars 2 was premature, but I’m glad it took ArenaNet another five years to build a public Beta and another few months release the game (it officially launches this year on August 28). It allowed me some time to work on what I wanted to accomplish in Guild Wars; to compete in the highly competitive Guild versus Guild, to get the best looking armor for my toons and to become part of a tightly knit group of players.

Now it’s time to do it all over again and I’m excited to start!

What was your first thought on Guild Wars 2?

This post is apart of Guild Mag’s Blog Carnival. You can read the entry I did for the first Blog Carnival or read more blogs from this Carnival here.

This is a continuing blog post of my time in the final beta event for Guild Wars 2. Follow the Better Late Than Never or Guild Wars 2 tag to continue reading.

During the heyday of the original Guild Wars, my PC was top-notch, characters had to walk around even the littlest bump, and scenery was enjoyed in passing. In the sequel, low graphic settings are recommended for my PC, leaping takes on a whole new meaning and there are quests that let you enjoy the detail in this massive world. The times have changed.

A view from one Vista just outside Soren Draa

After completing my first Guild Wars 2 quest by helping Calcutician Doola, my floppy-eared Asura dusts himself off and takes in the senery outside Soren Draa. It’s amazing even on the lowest graphic settings; ample green trees make up a lush forest, wildlife roaming the forest entrance and players coaxing the wildlife into fights. It all put a smile on my face.

My PC, built for the original Guild Wars some-odd five years ago, isn’t top of the line anymore, which made me doubt its power to run the sequel. Dwayna must be looking out for me because I can play, but on minimal settings.

For those that are technically savvy, my rig is an Intel Core 2 Duo running at 2.66GHz with an ATI Radeon HD 3850 graphics card with 256MBs of RAM. My system barely meets the minimum recommend specs for the beta.

Even though I can’t see the sparkles in the water or the criss-cross of cloth in my armor, the game is still fun.

Working out combos with my different skills to pulverize any Moa Bird or Jaguar that got in my way was entertaining to say the least. There is a ‘dodge’ command which is effectively a jump (or flip in the case of the Asura) backwards or sideways that evades an attack — on a side note, I suggest binding ‘dodge’ to another key than double tapping a directional key; it’s just faster. Jumping has gone from being a foreign concept in Guild Wars to a full-fledged tactic in Guild Wars 2.

Jumping is not only a combat tactic though. In Guild Wars 2, there are quests called ‘Vistas’ where players need to jump their way to the top of buildings to see the surrounding landscape. Some are easy to find your way up, others not so much. At the top there is a floating scroll that marks the Vista. Upon reaching the scroll, it will trigger a small cinematic that circles the building you are on (top picture showcasing one cinematic). It is quiet breath-taking.

Empty interconnected triangles means the Vista is undiscovered. Start climbing!

My Asura manages to jump his way up to a few of these Vitas around Soren Draa. It is funny when I did manage to find my way up because other players sitting there would seem surprised to see another toon up there.

The Vistas I found are small in comparison to some it seems. Some of these landscape quests are quiet high off the ground which makes these jumping puzzles very intriguing to complete.

The fact that my PC can handle Guild Wars 2 means I can (thank the Gods) play this game and save my coins for a new computer down the road. By adding the jump mechanic, the MMO gives combat and exploring a more free feeling; if I can jump, I feel like I won’t get stuck in a small crater or I can find a higher advantage point over my enemies.

Don’t miss my next post where I go over playing the Mesmer!