This year at PAX East, the showfloor was bursting with MMOs, Free-to-Play (F2P) games, and F2P MMOs. We went hands-on with some and were shown the demo for others. If you missed our impressions of these games before, sit back and relax while I round them up for you and break them down.
Raiderz Hands-On Impressions: I'd heard pretty much nothing about this game before PAX East. After spending some hands-on time with it, I can assure you that it looks gorgeous and may be a perfect game for Monster Hunter fans who'd like to hunt monsters in an MMO atmosphere.
Model: Free-to-play
Status: Moving towards beta
Release: Sometime later this year
Neverwinter Preview: Despite my worries about how Neverwinter would be faring after switching publishers, the game is looking absolutely amazing. It feels like a true blend between a D&D adventure and an action game. The level of polish and I saw was absolutely astounding considering the game was in its pre-alpha stages!
Model: Free-to-play
Status: Pre-alpha
Release: Sometime later this year
Firefall Hands-On Impressions: Nick went hands-on with this game (again!) at PAX East. This time he got to look at the PVE portion of the game, and found it to be a solid experience. It's more of a hybrid between MMO and shooter, but it's MMO elements make it worthy of a spot in our round-up.
Model: Free-to-play
Status: Beta
Release: Probably sometime this year
DDO: Menace of the Underdark Preview: I had the opportunity to be walked through some of the areas of the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons Online expansion, Menace of the Underdark. There's certainly a whole heck of a lot of new content here for any DDO player, whether they're currently playing the game, or are thinking about jumping back in.
Model: DDO is Free-to-play; MotU Expansion is a one-time digital purchase
Status: Beta in May
Release: June 25
TERA Hands-On Impressions: Though the release of TERA has been highly anticipated, I never had a chance to go hands-on with the game before this year's PAX East. My first experience playing the game was jumping into one of the end-game 5-person dungeons! The result? I had a really good time!
Model: Box/digital purchase (30 days included) ~$15/month subscription after first month
Status: Pre-launch phases
Release: May 1st (Head-start April 28th for pre-orders)
Whew! So as you guys can see, MMOs will be out in force this year - and many of them F2P. Which ones are you looking forward to, and which ones will you be playing?