Last Monday Japanese gaming site Famitsu posted part-1 of an interview with legendary fighting gamer Daigo “The Beast” Umehara. The interview was specifically about Daigo’s new book “Willpower to Keep Winning” and additionally a few things about the author himself. For anyone who has competed in fighting games or have had the privilege of watching any of the footage, you know that Daigo is seen as a mysterious, god of fighting – seasoned,... 

Can you recall which game sucked you in the hardest (if you’re the type that actually cares for reading)? For role-playing gamers the answer is probably a hard one – because you have options, but for the casual gamer it may take some thought. Recently I was disheartened after learning that the majority of Mass Effect and Dragon Age players were skipping through the dialogue to get to the end. Knowing that we are in the age of “tl;dr”... 

One of these days I am going to be able to bring up an MMORPG in conversation and it won’t descend into a discussion on Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, or Ultima Online.  I really, really wish we could bury these fossils and leave them out of conversation when dealing with newer games on the horizon. My fellow keybinders, can we please change the song on that broken jukebox already? Come on we all know the pattern and the tired dance... 

If you’ve been playing MMORPGs for as long as I have, you know that The World of Warcraft, while being the most successful of the genre, managed to set a hard rift in the timeline of MMO games. What do I mean? Well prior to WoW the MMORPG standard was one way, then after Blizzard changed the game to cater to a more casual crowd – well most developers since have tried to adopt a similar model. Well the problem has been that there is only one World... 

Recently I ran into a friend that was considering buying a new game but needed some convincing. He wanted a game that would last the mile along with providing some quality entertainment whenever he turned it on. This made me think of all the games I regret buying and why it was that I was of this opinion. Worthwhile games are based on a few factors: Replayability, gaming experience and length of gameplay. When I think of all these factors there are... 

**Spoilers Abound… you have been warned.** Could Mass Effect 3, one of the greatest RPG series of our time, have the greatest ending ever – masked in speculation, emotional backlash from fans, and an answer waiting in a future DLC? I believe the answer is yes as even I was angered and emotional over the crappy ending. But as I replayed the events of the finale and thought about everything that led up to it I smiled despite myself at the... 

Think about it, all of our friends and family give bonuses and negative effects to our lives very much like a power-up in a video game does. Am I the only nerd to think of this? I want you to sit back and think of your immediate circle and what it is that they bolster in your life and make you better (we aren’t doing negatives this round). Pull out some paper and do the equation like this… The Girlfriend: (Classic Carebear) +5 to Empathy. Friend#1:... 

One of the most intriguing things about Mass Effect deals with one alien girl who stole the heart of many a male player. This girl has never shown her face and still has managed to be one of the most popular (if not THE most popular) romance option for people playing. The girl’s name is Tali-Zorah and she hails from a race of aliens known as Quarians whose lack of an immune system forces them to be in suits their entire lives if they aren’t on... 

What part of a game makes you beg and plead the developer(s) for a sequel? I often wonder this and I think about the great elements that a game offers and why I can’t get enough of it. The only way I could make sense of the question was through questioning each element and figuring out what was it that made me want more. Is It The Character? Considering that Final Fantasy was one of the best RPG’s to spout multiple sequels this seems... 

Nothing spreads faster than a false, toxic rumor. Bioware’s Star Wars The Old Republic suffered this truth after releasing their first major patch (1.1) on the 18th of January only to have PvP exploiters ruin the party for everyone. In a matter of minutes after the patch was released, the official forums exploded with threads of people calling it the new NGE, saying that they quit and posting a blatant lie that the turrets on the planet Ilum...