Posts tagged first-impressions 
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR, a wretched operation of Scum and Villainy, part 1
Sometimes it's good to be me. When I mentioned that I had not had a chance to test out the latest operation in Star Wars: The Old Republic Rise of the Hutt Cartel on the public test server, one of my Twitch followers known as Jedi Consular put me in touch with the Memories of Xendor guild. You ...
Hands-on with Neverwinter's Control Wizard
This past weekend was Neverwinter's second beta event, and with it came a number of new additions. The Foundry was open for business, the tutorial was expanded, the level cap was increased, and new zones were available to explore. Above all that was the availability of a fourth class over the ...
Neverwinter Days: Beta blitz
Welcome to Neverwinter Days, a fresh new column that will be pulling on our +1 boots of game exploring while we go tramping through dungeons and fantastic locales. I'm fairly excited about this game and wanted to explore it from top to bottom while bringing you along for company. Neverwinter ...
Path of Exile hands-on: The sequel Diablo II deserved
Like many gamers in their mid-20s, I spent countless hours in my teenage years smashing through dungeons and hunting for loot in Diablo II. The deep itemisation system made building effective characters a real challenge, and periodic ladder resets kept the loot-hunting economy fresh. Fast-forward ...
First impressions of Neverwinter's beta
Neverwinter is all the rage these days among MMO fans as the promise of a Fourth Edition D&D MMO in the Forgotten Realms setting has many old-school tabletop gamers jumping at the opportunity to get into the early testing stages. Thanks to last week's short press beta and this weekend's first ...
Neverwinter's Cloak Tower: A photo essay
We've seen a lot of clock towers in MMOs, but I have to say that Neverwinter's Cloak Tower was a first for me. We got an up-close and personal look at this low-level instance at a recent press tour, and the first question on my mind was, why cloaks? The backstory of the tower explains it: ...
Not So Massively: Jay Wilson steps down, layoffs at Gas Powered Games
Gas Powered Games laid off 80% of its workforce this week as the studio's future became uncertain. CEO Chris Taylor revealed that if his Kickstarter campaign for new action RPG Wildman fails, the company will have to close its doors. Jay Wilson stepped down as Diablo III's Lead Game Designer to ...
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Starting fresh in DC Universe Online
I'm not going to lie to you, gentle readers -- I did not have high hopes for DC Universe Online when I signed in. Why not? Lots of reasons. For starters, Champions Online turned out to be very good, and I'm not in the habit of expecting good luck twice in a row. My last outing with a licensed ...
The Daily Grind: How long do you need to play a game before you get a fair impression?
First impressions are tricky things. Play a game for a little while and you'll get an idea of what the game is like, but you might miss some important parts that give it context. The combat doesn't change once you finish the tutorial in DC Universe Online, but you have a lot more powers and ...
First Impressions: Make mine Marvel Heroes!
Sometimes it's best to meet a game at its level instead of trying to project wishes and dreams on it. That's the attitude I tried to take while giving Marvel Heroes a test drive. Instead of thinking of it as a superhero MMO in the vein of, say, DC Universe Online (blasphemy for them Marvel ...
