Guild Wars: Eye of the North - Sneak Peak Weekend First impressions.

Well, I took part in the Sneak Peak event just over a week ago, and thought maybe I should jot down my impressions of the expansion pack for those that didn't take part.
First off, GW:EN is the first true expansion pack for Guild Wars, the previous "expansions" have been stand alone games which didn't require you to already have GW installed. This new expansion is not standalone, and is only open to Level 20 characters.
The initial plot has earthquakes occuring in the various entry cities (Lions Arch, Kamadan, Kaineng Centre) and silvery coloured Oozes and Rats fleeing the sewers and into the towns (you'll see these things buzzing around in town even now). A mission giver will tell of a chasm opening up outside of town and off you go to investigate. I don't know how this goes from the other entry towns, as I only went through from Lions Arch, but once you find the chasm, less than a 5 minute walk from town, you'll gain entry to Below Lions Arch. Down here you'll meet up with a few undead creatures (Hellhounds, Undead Monks and Sorcerors) before stumbling across a bunch of dwarves and a single floppy eared Asura (you may have seen Asura mini-pets already in town) named Vekk who seems to be voiced by Brain from Pinky and the Brain.
A vicious enemy, the imaginatively named "Destroyers", are rapidly introduced and you are sent fleeing to some sort of warp gate which takes you away from (immediate) harm, and into the new area in the far north Shiverpeaks.
The plot from here seems to involve getting support from the three races found in the North to face the Destroyers. The three races are the Norn (a race of agressive humanlike people who's only difference from the humans is their large size and ability to transform into bears), the Asura (a small race of creatures who apparently know alot about the warp gates, and originally driven from their homelands by the Destroyers some time ago), and some human refugees from the fall of Ascalon.
During the Sneak Peak weekend, only the Norn related quests were open, and these proved to be good fun. I found the rewards gained in killing creatures and fighting the Norn I met to be alot more engaging than the previous installments of GW, and got me fighting everything I could, rather than avoiding combat to save time getting to new areas, and in the 2 days I played (no more than 10 hours I'd say) I picked up a couple of new skills and a new title on the Norn title track (Slayer of Imps).
Story-wise, it was great seeing Gwen, the little girl we met just outside Pre-Searing Ascalon, alive and well and leading the human outpost, perhaps here I'll find a use for the broken flute and preserved Red lily I've been carrying for the last year and a half. When I saw her, I actually had them in my inventory and got a "I can't believe you kept that all this time" comment, but ot much more. Perhaps they'll come into play later.
The various Norn that you meet at the spawn points and also the collectors, can all be fought, and should be too, in order to gain reputation among the Norn and more information. Also, after killing numerous enemies, it is worth checking in with each Norn you can find to raise your reputation further. For some reason, I actually found this to be a nice touch, and it actually made it feel like I was getting somewhere rather than randomly being allocated a new rank every now and then.
Pretty much everything else is as it was in the earlier installments, you can gain heroes (in fact the first dwarf and Asura that I met under Lions Arch joined me immediately) as in Nightfall etc, but there doesn't seem to be any new mechanics to learn this time round. The plot thus far seems quite engaging, as it has in all previous installments, but I've found thus far that the plots seem to get more and more disjointed as I play through the game, but that perhaps is down to me rather than the game.
In short, if you liked the other GW installments have got bored with or finished them, and you've got some spare cash to throw at it, go get it, I doubt you'll be disappointed.
The price listed on the PlayNC store online is £24.99, 5 quid cheaper than Nightfall is currently retailing on the same site. There's an alternative of buying Guild Wars Platinum though which contains the original game plus the Eye of The North exansion for £34.99, which is a good deal I guess if you don't have the original Prophecies campaign.