Last weekend at PAX East, I had the opportunity to check out TERA, an upcoming action MMO. Buzz has been in the air about TERA for quite some time, but it was only last weekend that I had a chance to go hands-on with it.

After what seems like a half dozen video game conferences, I finally got to get my hands on Firefall's PvE experience - instead of the versus gameplay that was always on display at previous events.  The good news is, despite the game being in closed beta for months and months, it appears the free to play game should hit a more open beta in the coming weeks.  

I was a huge fan of the original Orcs Must Die!, a tower defense like game from developer Robot Entertainment. It combined the unique strategy that tower defense games offer along with the action of a 3rd person shooter and splashed on a really attractive style. Sadly one thing felt missing and that was co-op play. But Robot Entertainment has heard the cries of its fans and will be including cooperative play through the game’s sequel in Orcs Must Die! 2. At PAX East Tally and I went hands on with PC version of the game, and even though the first game hit XBLA, we were told not to expect the sequel to.

The Behemoth's Castle Crashers is by all accounts the perfect arcade style co-op game this generation.  It offers catchy visuals, accessibility, and addictive gameplay elements that keep you coming back for more.  When I first saw BattleBlock Theater, the next game from the developer, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it.   It just didn't have that look that sucked you in that Castle Crashers had.  This is definitely a different game and my time with it at PAX East has given be a better understanding of just what BattleBlock Theater is...and isn't.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's first major content pack is upon us and with it comes two brand new cooperative missions.  We went through the original Spec-Ops missions extensively and for the most part, these are some of the best Call of Duty set pieces to date, especially since they are meant to be experienced with a buddy.  On top of these there's a handful of new maps for Modern Warfare 3's survival mode.

  A demo is out today for the Zipper Interactive created 3rd person shooter on the PlayStation Vita called Unit 13. The demo for this tactical game offers up the training mission which has an obsession with beards as well as one map with all six operatives playable.  The download weighs in at just under 1 Gigabyte, so it might...

"Let me sell you something."  That's the only phrase I can think of when I see the new Xbox 360 Dashboard, which is out now on your console via a free update.  The updated dashboard replaces the "New Xbox Experience" design which came out almost 3 years ago.  The latest iteration puts the dashboard in line with a new design philosophy at Microsoft brought on by Windows Phone 7 called "Metro" - square tiles that bubble up information to the user in a simple and clean design.  There's one problem with the implementation on the Xbox 360 though - it's anything but clean.

Dungeon Siege 3 received some DLC a few weeks ago, entitled “Treasures of the Sun.” We recently got our hands on a review code for it, and for those of you who are interested, we have some impressions to share.

(Re-post! A technical glitch erased the Battlefield Report. Here it is again, in case you missed it the first time...)
Over the last three weeks or so two shooter beta programs have been launched and closed. Here are my personal impressions of the Battlefield 3 open beta (Xbox 360 version) and the Ghost Recon Online closed beta (PC).

PlayStation Plus Members (and a few lucky members on our Facebook page) managed to get access to the Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One beta this past week.  It's a bit odd to have a beta for a platformer, something that's typically reserved for first person shooters trying to do balance and server tweaks before launch, but All 4 One game isn't your typical platformer.

The Zombies lore of Call of Duty: Black Ops has come a long way. Adding more difficulty and more personality with each map pack, Treyarch has built a legend within a legend - a game mode that will be talked about for years, and a backstory that most gamers love to play over and over again.

The second Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack was released yesterday, and we gave it a run-through on Combat Training. The pack includes four new maps for multiplayer (and the aforementioned Combat Training co-op/bot mode), plus one new Zombies map that may be the creepiest one since Verrückt.

When developer Arrowhead Games revealed that their first piece of premium DLC would be a Vietnam War themed pack of content - most of the gaming world couldn't believe it.  But anyone who has played the game knows, its exactly what to expect in the world of Magicka.  

Sometimes, the announcement of a title seems to be the answer to your prayers to the video game gods. LotR: War in the North was one such case for me. I’d been whining for some years about how the current generation of consoles suffers a shortage of truly great dungeon crawlers and fantasy hack-and-slash games. I think many of you share my lament in this area, and we’re quick to point to titles such as Balder’s Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath (both developed by Snowblind) as great games of this type on the last generation of consoles. When Snowblind announced they were working on a new title in the LotR universe, I was pretty darn happy. After getting some hands-on time with the title PAX East last weekend, I can safely say this game is living up to my extremely high expectations.

I would be a bloody liar if I said that Guild Wars 2 wasn’t one of my major reasons for going to PAX East. I’ve been playing the original Guild Wars since the launch of GW: Factions back on April, 2006. Guild Wars is the game I always fall back on when I’m in-between games, and as a result, I’ve logged over 2,000 hours in the game. It’s safe to say I’m pretty darn excited about the sequel. That may or may not have come across in the preview I wrote up last fall. Mike and I had the opportunity to have an interview/demonstration with the developers and Mike, Nick, and I all had a chance at other times during the event to try out the game for ourselves.