TERA was always going to have trouble trying to win me over. After trying out a series of Asian MMOs in the past without success I was beginning to give up on this unique facet of online gaming. But then discovered that En Masse was attempting a "westernization" of TERA, Bluehole Studio's first MMO. Would this be the holy grail of an eastern MMO finding success with a western audience, or would it flounder like others before it? 

During the TERA Europe Sneak Preview Beta, I spent the weekend digging into the game with the aid of a Human Sorcerer. What I found surprised me; among the rough edges of an unfinished beta were some interesting ideas, including a radical take on MMO combat. Combine that with gorgeous graphics that had me hammering the screenshot button, and you have the recipe for an interesting few days.

Futuristic FPS fans unite! The newest addition to the family, Aeria Games' Repulse has finally entered closed beta testing, although it seems as though anyone that registers on the website can access the game, so it's really an open beta test.

Regardless, for those of you who want to jump right into Repulse with some phat loot, you might want to pick up ZAM's awesome 7-day Engineer Starter Pack to kick off your first-person adventures! Once you've grabbed your key, mosey on over to the Repulse Pack redemption page to get your account credited. But hurry! You have just 15 more days left in this beta test period!

Tomorrow marks the official launch day of Star Wars: The Old Republic, but chances are high that many of you have already had your invites come during early access, which ran from December 13th to the 20th. While I did manage to write extensively about my SWTOR closed beta experiences here and here, some of you might still be hesitant about committing to another MMORPG. So, with those of you in mind, ZAM Staff Writer Mike "Krelumian" Schaffnit and I decided to hop into SWTOR's early game access to document our "official" preview experiences with SWTOR's launch day client.

Mead, mounts, and merriment! The Fae Yule Celebration is in full swing right now in Rift, and News Writer Paul "LockeColeMA" Cleveland has been playing around with the festive fun for weeks. Read on to see his reactions, and check out our wikibase guide to cover all your bases in the newest world event!

Game preview events are always a dangerous thing. Sometimes I'll get plunked down in front of a pre-constructed instance with a pre-constructed character, surrounded by developers who get a little nervous when I say things like "experimental play styles" or I preface sentences with "what happens if…" It's not to say that these events are bad things; it can just get difficult to form a decent opinion when the events are designed to deliver an optimal experience. In this way, when 38 Studios and Big Huge Games invited me to San Francisco for a high-level preview of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning to supplement my initial low-level experiences, well, that got my attention.

It's here! It's finally here! Six years of non-stop development on Star Wars: The Old Republic is finally coming to fruition as early game access kicks off for the lucky players who preordered up to four months ago. For the rest of us lowly peons who preordered a little bit later, don't lose hope! Access will be staggered out throughout the next week, so keep your eyes glued to your inboxes. 

In preparation for the beginning of early game access, ZAM and Torhead have some features and articles to keep you entertained:

• New to Star Wars: The Old Republic, but familiar with World of Warcraft? Check out Torhead's "SWTOR for the WoW Player," where they highlight all the similar and dissimilar features between the two.
• Want to plan your character build all the way up to 50? Torhead's got a sleek Skill Calculator, complete with damage estimations!
• ZAM recently hosted a phone interview with SWTOR Game Director James Ohlen on the past, present, and future of SWTOR!
• Check out Part I and Part II of ZAM's in-depth preview of Star Wars: The Old Republic!

Exciting times are coming for inhabitants of Lord of the Rings Online as Turbine is getting ready to launch Update 5: Prince of Rohan. A large content update, Prince of Rohan will feature some fresh technology - the new Instance Finder - in addition to some epic new dungeon content for progression hungry players. Of course, Turbine's developers were equally excited to be showing off LotRO's new features and content, so I hopped on for a tour with Senior Producer for LotRO, Aaron Campbell, self-titled "Master of the Epic Story," Jeff Libby, and Content Designer Dan Ouelette to see what LotRO's coming update has in store.

Yesterday, I went in-depth with SWTOR's story and gameplay, as well as how it all fits with the MMORPG genre. Today, I'll be talking about some of the secondary systems in Star Wars: The Old Republic, as well as giving some of my overall thoughts on the game. Let's get into it!

Big Huge Games and 38 Studios have just released another video for their "Hero's Guide to Amalur".

In this latest video we get a in-depth explination of how the games unique take on class builds and talent freedom redefines what we expect from RPG combat. 

With a massive open world to explore and immersive action combat, Reckoning is looking more and more enticing as a must have purchase for next year!

About a month back, I had the distinct pleasure of heading to Montreal for a world first public hands-on experience with Funcom's The Secret World. It was also the first time in a while that I found myself struck with pre-event giddiness. While most of this excitement stemmed from my eagerness to finally try one of my most anticipated MMOs of all time - I'd even highlighted TSW's character progression and story in my "Making an MMORPG" series - I'll also admit that there was a little bit of fear somewhere in the mix. While I had yet to hear or see anything negative come from the team, I couldn't help but dwell on Age of Conan's poor post-launch reception (although AoC has since done great things with its subsequent expansions and recent shift to free-to-play) in addition to my propensity to be crushed when games don't meet my sky-high expectations.

Regardless, I soldiered up and bravely marched into the Funcom Studios, determined to delve into as much of The Secret World as I possibly could; to really assess if this was a game worth all the internal hype I piled on top of it. And now, with the NDA being dropped today, I'm very happy to say that my expectations have been met. And exceeded.