It seems like only yesterday when we were back in London, enjoying life without a care in the world. Since then we’ve been inducted into an ancient order, waded knee-deep through undead and dealt with myths and legends brought to life. And things are about to get much, much worse.

In Part One of our tour of Solomon Island, we arrived at the zombie infested town of Kingsmouth. With Part Two we ventured forth into The Savage Coast, tackled haunted amusement parks and investigated Illuminati academies. Our final look at the fog-enveloped isle takes us from government agencies to Indian reservations in search of answers. We also embark on our first dungeon crawl, stepping into Hell Rising.

While this draws an end to our time on Solomon Island, we’ll be keeping you up-to-date on The Secret World as the beta evolves. Make sure you also try out the new missions, as The Secret War ends and a new alternate-reality game begins!

Check out Part I of our ongoing beta coverage of The Secret World!

Solomon Island, New England. Enshrouded by fog and home to a long history of evil events, it’s little wonder that the darkness threatening The Secret World chose this place to emerge. While our initial tour of Kingsmouth saw us beating back sea monsters and zombies, our journey through the Savage Coast experienced haunted carnival rides and demons from Hell.

In order to take on these tougher challenges, we had to tighten our skills and build some better gear. We also ended up tweaking our inventory so that drinks and buffs were just a click away. All the junk we accumulated went to good use, feeding our insatiable appetite for upgrades.

Later on, we’ll finish our tour of Solomon Island with a visit to Blue Mountain. We’ll also pay a visit to one or two of the early instances available. For now, sit back and enjoy the roller coaster ride through The Savage Coast.

Freakin’ sweet! Seth MacFarlane and the Family Guy cast take their show into the world of MMOLOLs… the new genre coined by Family Guy Online (FGO). Does it live up to the promise of the shows, or the MMO genre at all? Beta is still coming out with updates, but we have the first look at this humor-based online game!

Last weekend saw the first beta weekend for The Secret World. While we've previously had small glimpses of the alternate reality that Funcom has created, this was the first time we could fully immerse ourselves in the mixture of new lore and old legends. 

But would all the stories and legends turn out to be true? Would Funcom be able to create an MMO that felt different to everything we had played before? Would we have an alternative to the high fantasy heroics that have dominated MMOs for so many years? Would we be able to dive into a deep, dark mirror world, or would we be left splashing in a shallow, superficial experience?

Answering these questions will take time, which is why we will report in each week with our continuing adventures. So far, our experience in The Secret World has been limited to the Templar starter area in London and Kingsmouth, the first of three zones in New England. Later we'll update you on our adventure, as we progress through to The Savage Coast and onward to the Blue Mountain.

While there are hundreds of thousands of players champing at the bit to get into The Secret World's beta testing weekend (that's today!), I'll begin this article by dampening the mood: the press beta began a few days earlier! Everything new you discover will be tarnished by the knowledge that I may have seen it first! Jokes aside, media beta access did begin just a little bit earlier this week, so I've spent the past few days re-introducing myself to The Secret World (TSW) and the wonderfully atmospheric town of Kingsmouth.

Welcome to Continent of the Ninth Seal, better known as C9! Currently in Beta, the action MMO brings to the table instanced PvE and PvP content in a fast-paced, battle-oriented format. Behind this Beta test lies a PvP tournament that awards the winner with $10,000 in real life... more than enough reason to get interested, right? I had the chance to give the content a new look; back in February, I tried out a shaman character. This time I thought I’d give more of a blow-by-blow experience for my Fighter character. Interested in learning more about a game that’s confident enough to throw down 10 grand to a skilled player? Read on!

ZAM is also having a Twitter contest to give away 5000 Gold Codes for World of Tanks! Just tweet / follow @Pwyff and @ZAMOfficial with what you're most looking forward to in World of Warplanes, and we'll select some lucky winners throughout the weekend! You may enter once per Twitter account for a total of two entries! Be sure to follow us, or we can't directly message you with your winning code!

How do you take a notoriously difficult game genre and translate it into an accessible, free-to-play MMO that millions will play? This was the problem that strategy game developer Wargaming.net faced - and beat - two years ago with World of Tanks, and it's the same problem they're facing this year with World of Warplanes. At PAX East 2012, I got the chance to sit down with Wargaming's CEO, Victor Kislyi, to talk about Wargaming's trials and tribulations creating an accessible aerial-combat focused MMO. I also got the opportunity to do a little stunt flying of my own, so read on!

Later this week, EverQuest II (EQII) players will finally be able to open the second book in the Destiny of Velious expansion, with the release of Game Update 63: Skyshrine. With over a hundred new quests, a level cap raised to 92 and new dungeon and raid content, the update also promises a substantial slice of story for players to feast on.

There’s been a steady build up to Skyshrine, it being the first major release of new content since Sony’s flagship MMO switched to a Free-to-Play model in December 2011. Since then, the development team has been hard at work developing new areas and bringing the continuing Ages End Prophecy saga to life. 

Although much of the Game Update has been available on the Test Server since mid-March, there’s no better way to experience a world than with the people who helped create it. Fortunately, I was invited on a tour of the Withered Lands and Skyshrine with the expert guides of EQII producer Holly Longdale and game designer Carlos Mora at the helm. As well as showing some of the incredible locations, they also shared some of the lore behind the game update.

With Aion's huge 3.0 expansion, Aion: Ascension, launching today, combined with the fact that they went "Truly Free" a week back, there's no doubt that there will be hundreds of thousands of players getting a little overwhelmed with all these new features coming. Of course, you can trust NCsoft to rectify that in the most community involved way possible, as NCsoft's Producer, Adam Christensen has created a fantastic introductory guide to Aion: Ascension. Let's get on with the guide!

ZAM is also having a twitter contest to give away about a dozen weekend beta keys for May! Just tweet / follow @ZAMOfficial or @Pwyff with what you're most looking forward to in The Secret World (one tweet per account, so two chances to win!), and we'll randomly select a few lucky tweeters throughout the day. Be sure to follow us, or we can't directly message you with your winning code!

This year's PAX East was a special event for the team at The Secret World (TSW), as this was their world first public hands-on demo with the game. As a member of the press, however, I've had the great pleasure to participate in not one but two hands-on previews with TSW, so I was more interested in what big changes had been made since February. If this is your first time ever hearing of The Secret World (get out from under that rock!), be sure to read my first two previews, as some systems (character progression in specific) are a little too deep to explain in every preview. A special thanks to Funcom's Junior Communications Manager, Tor Egil Andersen for putting up with all of my inquiries.