first impressions
Preview: My Time at Evershine promotes players from cozy townie to ‘adventurous’ town manager
Pathea Games has something of a "type" when it comes to the game it likes to make. My Time at Portia and the multiplayer-friendly...
First Impressions: The War Within breathes new life into World of Warcraft
After being mostly disappointed with Dragonflight, I was wondering if my decision to return to World of Warcraft for the Worldsoul Saga was a...
Tarisland unlocks its epic spider boss for extreme squishing
Following a patch last week that gave players a helping hand through the Arcane Realm floor challenge, Tarisland opened the doors of a new...
Hands-on with Arc Games’ Fellowship, a new game trying to distill the MMORPG dungeon experience
For many folks, one of the more entertaining aspects of playing an MMORPG is running through its dungeons (though of course that varies from...
Wisdom of Nym: The actual storytelling issues with Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail
I'm not exactly surprised that basically any controversy vis-a-vis Final Fantasy XIV's most recent expansion is pretty much completely focused on the story (with...
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s Arcadion brings the noise
There has been a question that has kind of been bubbling in the background of the entire premise behind Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, and...
First Impresions: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail is a dense summer getaway for the MMORPG
I finished up Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail's story a while ago, but I've been spending a couple days turning over what I think about...
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail’s relatively smooth early access isn’t a sign of doom
On Sunday evening, I had to log out from Final Fantasy XIV to take care of an errand. This is not unusual. It is,...
First impressions of ASKA, Sand Sailor’s brand-new colony-building survival sandbox
Thanks to the press preview hosted by Thunderful and Sand Sailor, I recently had the opportunity to play around with survival sandbox ASKA a...
First Impressions: Tarisland’s interesting gameplay isn’t enough to surmount shoddy temport quality
When we issued our 2024 predictions for the MMORPG genre during our annual year-end articles, I said that Tarisland would be a sleeper hit,...
Massively Overthinking: Unfair stigmas that follow MMORPGs
A few weeks back, our team was discussing the intersection of survival sandboxes, MMORPG virtual worlds, and gankboxes - and how hard it is...
SGF 2024: Hands-on with NCsoft’s long-awaited Throne and Liberty, launching September 17
Most of the games I played at Summer Game Fest were more enjoyable than I expected - including Throne and Liberty, which was probably...
SGF 2024: Hands-on with New World’s controversial Aeternum reboot, which is still an MMORPG
How's everyone recovering from all this New World Aeternum news coming out of Summer Games Fest? It's been kind of a confusing time for me, as...
Hands-on with V Rising: PC vs. PS5, multiplayer, and progression impressions
You might think given the last few pieces I've written that I might have a thing for vampires. I vehemently deny this. It is...
First Impressions: Elder Scrolls Online story, not scribing, is Gold Road’s apex
If you followed my series of Choose My Adventure columns from last month, you'll know that I ended up making Elder Scrolls Online my...
Progress Bar: Wayfinder is in a much better place as an offline game
Normally we're the sort of gamers who advocate for more MMOs and multiplayer games, not less. We're also all about games being preserved. Therein...
First Impressions: Corepunk’s MOBA-esque closed alpha was fun – with lots of room to grow
I've got a pretty good poker face, especially when nobody can see my face. So I've been pretty subtle about my excitement for Corepunk...
Second Wind: V Rising’s 1.0 build is a fangtastic revamp of the vampire survival sandbox
It doesn't seem possible that V Rising burst onto the scene almost two years ago, but here we are. I sometimes struggle to get...
Second Wind: World of Warcraft’s radically casual new endgame
Today we're going to be dusting off Second Wind, a column where we revisit MMOs of the past. It's an older column, sir, but...
First Impressions: Gigantic Rampage Edition’s classic Clash mode and the game’s overall plans for the future
I admit that when I was first invited by Gearbox Publishing to get my hands on the resurgent Gigantic, I was mostly awestruck. I...
