NCSoft has announced that they will be releasing the next chapter in the Guild Wars saga, Guild Wars: Factions in the second quarter of 2006. Factions will expand Player vs Player combat in the game, in addition to expanded areas, professions, items, and monsters. To celebrate the beginning of the expanded Player vs Player combat in Guild Wars, NCSoft and ArenaNet will be running a special free-for-all PvP weekend. Starting January 20 and ending January 22, it will be open to all. For those who do not have a Guild Wars account, NCSoft will be giving free passes to the event on the Guild Wars website

"We're excited to be offering this free preview of Guild Wars: Factions to players throughout the world," said Patrick Wyatt, co-founder of ArenaNet. "Factions is a huge step in the continued evolution of the game, and I think gamers are really going to be excited about the new features they're going to see!"

Guild Wars originally shipped April 2005, and reached more than 1 million units shipped by September of the same year.

• Guild Wars Official Website