Guid Wars vs Guild Wars: Factions?

Was looking for a new game to play with for awhile and I think I want to try out Guild Wars. I was at Best Buy looking and there's two platinum editions.. Guild Wars and Guild Wars:Factions. I take it the two don't go together like the expansion packs... What are the differences between the two? Which would you recommend for a newcomer?

Edit... Ok so after looking at the descriptions of them more. I guess Factions is like an expansion of sorts... The Factions platinum edition comes with Guild Wars gold edition. The normal platinum edition comes with with the Eye of the North expansion. So I'm still undecided on which package would include the most content for new players.

Both games are stand alone games. You don't have to have one to play the other. You really can't go wrong with either of them, but I would recommend getting the original GW. It is cheaper (i think), it is more new player friendly, and the main story part of the game is longer than factions. That is just my recommendation, but you can't go wrong either way.

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy GW.

Guild Wars, Factions, and Nightfall are stand-alone products. Eye of the North requires at least one of those to work.

I'm not sure which to recommend entirely. The Factions platinum edition is cheaper and will have more content, but the Guild Wars Platinum edition will let you use heroes, making it easier (or even possible) to solo areas if there are no players around.

Kinda annoying that they wouldn't offer a platinum edition with factions/nightfall. That would be easy to recommend.

Get Guildwars Proph + Factions if you want good PvP experience.

Get Guildwars Proph + Eye of the North if you want good PvE experience.

Thats what it basically breaks down into.

Edit... Ok so after looking at the descriptions of them more. I guess Factions is like an expansion of sorts... The Factions platinum edition comes with Guild Wars gold edition. The normal platinum edition comes with with the Eye of the North expansion. So I'm still undecided on which package would include the most content for new players.

SuperBeast

I would go with the Factions and the original GW. Because EOTN is for more upper level PVE play (which you won't be able to do just starting out), and if you get factions you will have access to two more professions, more skills, and more options to play the PVP aspect of the game