http://www.arena.net/blog/the-big-beta-weekend-preview

Tournament PvP, improved chat, improved UI, and lots more. :)

Was just going to post about the PvP tournament. Now what have you to say about sPvP now podcast guys? I still can't get over that you guys don't really like it, makes me sad.

ITERATE ON, YOU CRAZY DIAMOND.

Oh man, WvW sounds way more exciting than it already was, but I remember too well how my computer tanked the last time I tried playing in a large group to risk it yet. Fuck. Everything else seems in line with the improvements we've already heard about, though that's not to say they aren't generally fucking awesome (excluding skill tiers).

Also...

@Dark_Lord_Spam: Just to make sure... yet again, that is Boromir right?

Also could WvW get anymore exciting?

I love the idea of an underground dungeon in a PvP map with a totally pitch black area. The battles that are gonna happen down there over the years will be nothing short of amazing. The tiered trait system has me concerned, but I will wait to pass judgment til I play it.

Argh I really shouldn't play this weekend...

Never have I been so excited about chat bubbles.

@RobbieMac said:

@Dark_Lord_Spam: Just to make sure... yet again, that is Boromir right?

Yup.

Most excited for the Mystic Forge. Sounds interesting, although I'm guessing the chance of it actually giving you something decent is incredibly low.

Can't wait, three more days! Virtua Charvis will live again!

Cant wait. Getting off of work early to play haha! I have the monsters ice cold in the fridge!

I am so excited for this weekend.

@RobbieMac: I know, it makes me sad too : / - I wish I was more into sPvP, but I'm just not convinced. BUT I committed to doing zero PvE this weekend, and spending all of my time in Structured and WvW, so I'll probably have something to report for next week's podcast (and you'll be there as well, right? - I'll message you next week to confirm).

@Chavtheworld: I'll see you there : P

@Jayzilla: I think you pretty much nailed in there - on both points.

From the beta forums:

KNOWN ISSUES: BETA WEEKEND EVENT 2

• Crash
  • The game client may crash when closing.
• Events
  • Diessa Plateau: on rare occasions, the trained skelk may not appear at the start of the “Protect the trained skelk gathering kindling for Raintimber Mill” event, stalling the event.
  • Queensdale: on occasion, the centaurs encountered during the “Battle for Beetletun” event may become stuck on the sprinklers.
  • Snowden Drifts: the bridge’s collision may remain in the game world after the bridge has been destroyed.
  • Wayfarer Foothills: once minotaur morale falls below 30% during the “Drive the stampeding minotaur from Borealis Forest” event, newly spawned minotaur may retain their Determined buff, making them invulnerable, and stalling the event.
• Hardware Compatibility
  • We are currently optimizingGuild Wars 2, making ongoing improvements to the game’s frame rate. Presently, the game is CPU-bound on most high-end systems, so lowering graphics settings or upgrading your video card may not have a large impact on performance.
    • On older or lower-end machines, it is recommended that you try disabling reflections to improve frame rate.
  • Forcing anti-aliasing through AMD Catalyst™ Control Center or AMD VISION™ Engine Control Center typically results in a black screen when playing.
  • Windows TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery) will sometimes restart a user’s graphics drivers if they become unresponsive, resulting in a notification that the graphics driver has been restarted.
  • Currently, adjusting the core clock speed of the GPU or CPU typically results in lower performance.
    • It is advised that you leave core clock speeds at factory defaults.
  • AMD CrossFire™ and NVIDIA® SLI™ are not currently supported.
    • These features should be disabled while running the game.
  • Enabling NVIDIA 3D VISION® may cause a crash on some systems.
    • If you experience a crash while this setting is enabled, it is recommended that you disable it in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
  • AMD Eyefinity Technology is not officially supported at this time, and players using systems with Eyefinity enabled may encounter problems.
    • If you experience issues while using Eyefinity, it is recommended that you disable the feature in the AMD Catalyst Control Center or AMD VISION Engine Control Center.
• NPCs
  • Occasionally, multiple NPCs may overlap with each other while walking.
  • Interacting with walking NPCs may cause them to stop, disappear, and then reappear at another point in their path.
• Personal Story
  • Party members must be on the same map in order to enter a story instance together.
  • On rare occasions, a player’s personal story may not progress correctly. Restarting these instances and trying again should allow you to continue.
  • While progressing through your personal story, some of the recorded audio lines will not match the text that is displayed. This is due to changes made after the lines were originally recorded, and will be corrected in future versions of the game.
  • Additionally, during your personal story, some of the NPCs will not have accurate (or any) lip-sync animations. This is an additional effect of lines having been changed after they were originally recorded.
• Parties
  • Parties attempting to travel simultaneously to a map that is near capacity may be split between the main map and the overflow map.
    • To prevent this from happening, parties should try sending one player ahead to the map first, with the remaining party members following a few seconds later.
    • If a party is split when traveling, players can right-click on the portrait of a separated party member and choose “Join in…” to reunite with them. Party members will be unable to travel to the main map if it is full, so players in the main map will need to travel to the overflow map to reunite the party.
  • Some players may experience issues with the kick feature.
• Renown Regions
  • In some cases, the voiced audio of a scout’s description of nearby renown regions is not played.
  • Queensdale: on rare occasions, the shell game in the "Support the citizens of Beetletun " renown region may not function correctly.

• Skill Challenges
  • Queensdale: Carnie Jeb’s skill challenge may not reset immediately, causing it to be unavailable to other players for several minutes.
  • Queensdale: Scout Watchman Rebec points to the wrong area on the world map when describing and guiding players to a skill challenge.

• User Interface
  • Some users may see the Black Lion Trading Company UI panel opened when logging in after having the panel opened when logged in previously.

LOCALIZATION KNOWN ISSUES

• Audio
  • About 1% of the French and German audio is missing and will play in English.
  • Some audio is outdated and will not match the subtitles.
  • Anytime female player characters address themselves or are addressed by an NPC with nouns like “friend,” “shaman,” “hero,” etc., the voiced audio will not reflect the gender correctly. The subtitles should, however, reflect the correct gender.
• Commerce Panel
  • The Gem Store and Trading Post tabs are only partially localized and will be displayed in English.
  • Some text is cut off.
• Events
  • Some Events have not been localized and will display in English.