Guild Wars Preview Event Impressions

HomeLan Fed is offering up two separate articles that provide their impressions of this weekend's Guild Wars World Preview Event. You'll find the first article here with a snippet to follow:
For the free preview weekend, ArenaNet gives players a chance to play in a solo mission with AI controlled party members as well as monsters. Your mission is basic; slay the monsters in your path and make your way to a guarded town. When you first start the game (after downloading the small client and then waiting for the client to download the rest of the game files) you get some help from a friendly guy who gives you access to a melee weapon. Once you get your hands on that, you venture out into the fantasy wilderness. Once there you combat a wide variety of creatures, include a nasty (and huge) Venus Flytrap plant, some zombie animators, a few bowman, and some large orc like creatures. You also gain an AI party member (ours was a monk) who helped to not only fight the creatures but also was necessary to gain access to our final destination in the first mission.

And the second article can be found here, with another quick snip to follow:
Our encounters in our cooperative missions included clearing out a village full of undead zombies, protecting a village leader from monsters and escorting a floating (eye) from one village to another. Unlike combat in MMORPGs the combat in Guild Wars is handled in real time. In addition to ranged and melee weapons like hammers, bows and the like there are also magical powers you can use to slow enemies down, reduce their health and confuse them. As we mentioned yesterday, the monsters in the game are quite varied and we encountered everything from small and pesky zombies to huge orc creatures. After accomplishing a mission the game switched to an in-game cut-scene that advanced the overall story of Guild Wars further.