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Hazzzah! My husband lovingly bought me the 3 day preview package for Guild Wars Eye of the North and like a little sheep I baaa’d in the field with all the other GW’sheep and it was fun.

First thing I did was enter Esmee Weatherwax into the GW:EN field - she was to be my most representative sheep, as you do.
She entered a cave and was given a number of minutes, I think it was 2, to exit this cave before it fell in on her and her heroes, much rather like a Tomb Raider style timed cliff-hanger.
Esmee got out OK, but was then confronted by the most terrible thing: lag. I’m not talking about teeny weeny fluffy bouts of lag, I’m talking big mo’fo’ing slimy 10 foot tall with razor sharpend rabid infested teeth LAAAAAG and it never stopped.
In fact there was lag pretty much all the way through the 3 days and only seemed to subside toward the end of the stint.
Anyway I digress, Esmee survived the lag and took it all in her stride.

I won’t go into all the details, but the things which stuck out most, and which I liked a whole lot were these:

• New heroes, including Gwen!!

• Solo Missions, lots of them given out by key NPC’s in main outposts. Some of them I completed, some of them I didn’t.

• Reputation Titles: Lots of those too, I only managed to get 2 though: ‘Slayer of Nightmares (3), which is given out for Norm reputation points. And Delver (1) which is given out for Dwarven reputation points.

• Skills: During many quests you are given extra skills which I presume are a preview for new skills coming up in either Eye of the North or Guild Wars 2. One set were skills used with Brass Knuckles - very effective I must say, even on Esmee who is a Mesmer.
  The second set of skills I got were shapeshifting, although my sprite didn’t change form visually she did ‘in spirit’. Those skills were WASSUM and I enjoyed them the most. Another set of skills given out were the Deldrimor Title Track skills and the Ebon Vanguard Title Track skills.
  I didn’t use either as they didn’t complement my particular character, Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support being a major exception if I were able to raise the stats, but I could see the other skills benefiting melee/physical dmg classes perfectly.

• Reputation in the Field: Like in Nightfall one is able to gain reputation in the field by speaking to a shrine guardian, I know they’re not called shrine guardians but that is the term I shall use, and then killing lots of creatures.
  What is new about GW:EN is that when when you have killed enough monsters in increments of 25 you can then go to a new shrine guardian who will reward you, depending on number of kills, with more rep points. Not only that, he/she will also up the amount of points you get per kill. Also for each 25 you kill you acquire a temporary buff and even MORE rep points, which all goes towards your titles. It’s just one big rep fest if you ask me… and it’s bloomin’ great. Note: This system isn’t just for one particular species of foe, it goes for all the foes on the current map…. Fab.

So, with regards to GW:EN my score for overall goodness would have to be 8.5/10 - and this is why it’s not a full round 9 or 10/10:
I didn’t feel as if I were somewhere new, which is what I personally look for in an expansion pack. I realise that the story of Tyria had to be complete, I presume lots of peeps wrote to the game makers with unanswered questions and so FORCED the Tyrian story to be continued, and this is all well and good, but I wanted something a little more: possibly a new landscape or greater props and all the good things which Factions and Nightfall provided.
But I’m not going to let that ruin anything, I for one will still be buying GW:EN because I think it’s worth every penny. And I will give it good reviews to anyone who may ask, so don’t you worry about that. And I’m sure that when the full release goes live it will offer many more things than the preview provided. So booya and fudge!!!