Payday today, and I got the call it was available for pickup the other day. MSRP was $39.99 if I recall, and the Gamestop Hawaii markup was minimal - only paid $42.99 plus tax for it. I picked up Condemned for the PC too ($17.99) since it was on clearance and my buddy Aaron highly recommended it (he has the 360 version and we're both Sega fans).
Anyhow... GW:EN comes in one of those lovely double-thick DVD case things, with protective, "nobody's opened this before" white tape on top and bottom that thankfully comes off easily enough for the legitimate owner. The packaging art is amazing as always; Jora was a great pick for the box (the detailing on her hair is insane); her face looks strong, serious and reserved. The Guild Wars: Eye of the North title/logo combined with the lighting prevent the cover from turning into "OMG SHEZ HAWT" fantasy cheesecake, which I think is a very good move (as opposed to pandering to the "we want fanservice" crowd, although they'll see enough of her in-game). A strong female character that should be appreciable regardless of gender, the bear that should harden back to various previews of game concept art, lovely background. The cardboard wrapper/box's embossed front flap is a very nice touch, especially since that portion has an amazing slick-glossy coat on it. Provided my lighting is decent and my eyes aren't overly tired from work, it printed a bit darker in bits, but its much richer looking as a result.
Opening it up reveals the lovely installer disc, a "Playsmart" tip leaflet that NCSoft seems to be including with all their stuff now (good move, actually), a map of the game area, a full-color booklet ("Manuscript") with a nice bit of flavor for the story (history, NPC's, enemies, etc), NCSoft's usual assortment of trial keys (COH/COV, GW: Trilogy, Lineage II) and of course their product catalog. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am that Exteel is no longer featured in there (I believe they're still working on it, but sadly news has been scarce). New games being promoted are Guild Wars: Eye of the North (heh), Tabula Rasa and Aion. Aion looks prety, but to be honest I can't get excited about it right now due to the lack of news and the fact that I tend to prefer simpler, casual friendly play mechanics (I'm assuming Aion will be like most MMO's and stay on the complex side of things).
One big hurrah on the game key - its printed on a very cool ornate shield. What's the big deal? You have to tear off the perforated edges to open it up to read the key for registration. This is MUCH better than the scratch-off method seen in some other games, as the key is larger, easier to read, and you're just as certain that nobody's already used the key.
This is, my friends, a wonderful packing of a game, and a normal game at that, since GW:EN did not have a collector's edition that I know of. Nice, well done, luxurious full color on a lot of stuff (hint: full color/4CP is more expensive than just black and white), and incredibly well done external boxing considering that's the part most people are going to throw away (of course, it is a piece of retail-shelf level advertising, so it makes sense that its eye-catching). If this sounds good, let me assure you that both Collector's Editions I've gotten from NCSoft (City of Villains and Guild Wars Nightfall) have been really good, loaded with goodies for in-game and out, with Nightfall's CE being second only to the WOW: Burning Crusade's in my opinion (although I think WOW's cost noticably more... can't remember).
How is the game itself? No clue yet, as I'm busy typing this and might not get a chance to really play for a bit (took my Assassin/Necomancer from Guild Wars Factions into GWEN territory over the weekend for half-an-hour). But, given the track record ArenaNet has with me, I'm confident in my purchase. Its a bit of a pity that I've got so many ties in City of Heroes; makes it a bit hard to pry myself away to play Guild Wars... that being said, I always enjoy myself unlike my time in World of Warcraft (great game, don't get me wrong, but its not for me).