By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter
INQUIRER.net

ENTERTAINMENT software publisher Asian Media Development Group has begun selling the Eye of the North expansion of the online role-playing game Guild Wars.

GW: EN will be sold through retailers nationwide or through the website GuildWars.ph at around P2, 200. The game continues the storyline of the Guild Wars series, whose first expansions included GW: Factions and GW: Nightfall.

The latest expansion, which will be made available worldwide starting August 31, is also the next step toward Guild Wars 2, set to be released in 2009.

GW developer ArenaNet, a division of the Korean game firm NCSoft, plans to have a public beta test of GW2 in the second half of 2008.

GW: EN is set in the unexplored lands of the continent of Tyria. Three new races will be introduced in the game, namely the Norn, Asuras and Sylvari. While not yet playable in GW: EN, the three races will become playable when GW2 is launched.

The majority of the game will take place in the dungeons of that area. The dungeons have multiple levels, each with its own boss stages.

Players of GW: EN will need to have characters that reached level 20 in the previous GW installments. The expansion introduces 150 new skills, 40 new armor sets and 10 new Heroes.