Guild Wars 2 launches August 28, or August 25 for fans who have pre-purchased, but today - Friday, June 20 - marks the beginning of the final beta weekend for ArenaNet's MMORPG. The title is generating a lot of hype in the gaming community, and here are 5 reasons why.

Sylvari and Asura

Over the past 3 beta weekends players have been able to choose from the charr, humans, or norn races. ArenaNet had locked out sylvari and asura - apparently it tested the races in-house - but players will finally get to play the races over the weekend.

Sylvari is a tree race, relatively new to the Guild Wars universe, while the asura is a super intelligent - but incredibly small - gnome-esque race.

New player vs. player map

Player vs. player (PvP) in Guild Wars is fun, and allows players to level exclusively through the mode if desired. A new map, called Legacy of the Foefire, plays on nostalgia from the original Guild Wars, according to ArenaNet, and will be playable during the final beta weekend.

It isn't a World vs. World vs. World map so don't get confused. This is for the four vs. four PvP where teams battle to control three points.

Talking of World vs. World

World vs. World vs. World (WvWvW) is a cross-server, three-way battle and is ongoing. Fights last for two weeks and then immediately start over as players battle for control of keeps. It's vital that servers work together; therefore, large guilds like Reddit are often necessary.

ArenaNet is introducing sentries into WvWvW during the weekend: solitary NPC guards are worth points if defeated, though it'll not be an easy task.

Jeremy Soule

He isn't new to the final beta weekend per se, but Jeremy Soule composes the music for Guild Wars and manages to instill nostalgia for a game not released. Previous work on atmospheric titles, for example, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, means that players will be immersed in the world of Guild Wars 2 and it'll definitely be present during the final beta weekend.

We're a month from release (almost)

Yes, the final beta weekend is a sad occasion because there are no more weekends to look forward to, but the August 28 release date is almost a month away, and that means we'll have years to play Guild Wars 2 - not just weekends. For players who have pre-purchased (pre-ordering, effectively), the date moves forward 3 days to August 25.

The final Guild Wars 2 beta weekend runs from June 20 to June 22, beginning at 12PM PDT. For players looking for the server a community is rolling on, check out the Google Doc covering every community playing over the weekend.