JasonWinter

It wasn't just big booths and big games making all the news at PAX South 2017. At big conventions, even the little guy can get noticed, and sometimes make a name for themselves.

Fate is a fickle thing. One minute you're chasing a fairy in an open field, and the next starving villagers are mobbing you for your food.

If you're a gamer and a child of the '80s like me, you probably spent a fair amount of time curled up with Choose Your Own Adventure books. If you're super-nerdy, you might have gotten into some of the more advanced titles that added actual gameplay systems – dice, combat, equipment, etc. – beyond simple decision-making. My favorites were the ones based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Car Wars.

Hyper Universe is Nexon's new entry into the MOBA space, a free-to-play side-scrolling game with a colorful cast of characters and multiple levels of action. It's developed by CwaveSoft, a Korean developer founded by a former head director at Nexon. I had a chance to try it out this weekend at PAX South, and my overall impression is … well, it's a MOBA.

It's been a rough past few months for Trion Worlds. How rough? So rough that another gaming news website needs a “Mess Roundup” page to try and keep up with all the problems and negative news surrounding one of its titles.

Dauntless was the game I was looking forward to seeing the most at PAX South. Phoenix Labs' giant-monster battler captured my, and a lot of other people's, attention with its splashy debut at the Video Game Awards late last year, and I couldn't wait to take my turn to hunt down a giant monster and mount its head on my virtual trophy wall.

It's a new zone! And earlier than expected! ArenaNet originally promised Guild Wars 2 players a new Living Story update every three months, but Rising Flames and Ember Bay came ahead of schedule, just two months after we got Out of the Shadows and Bloodstone Fen. Was it worth the wait... er, non-wait? Well, kinda-sorta-wait?

The Q2 2016 NCSoft financials were released a couple weeks ago, covering the period from April to June, and they weren't pretty for Guild Wars 2. In fact, as far as the game goes, they're pretty lousy – if you consider $4.75 million per month lousy.

The RPG presence at QuakeCon 2016 was muted, but we did score some time with Pete Hines to talk about all things Bethesda. No, there are no Elder Scrolls VI spoilers.

After a solid week-plus in Guild Wars 2's much-anticipated update, Out of the Shadows, I've got conflicted feelings. It's nice to (finally) have something new to do again that isn't raid-related, but I don't think the update is the kind of transcendental chunk of content that's going to radically transform people's views of the game.

Today marks the launch of Out of the Shadows, the first Living World story episode since Heart of Thorns launched. Our own Jason Winter went hands on and came back with this report...

ArenaNet's communications policy is terrible and needs to change while there's still someone to communicate with.

The only thing worse than players being angry about an MMO is for them to not care enough to be angry.

That's my totally canonical explanation for the preview encounter I ran last week, part of the Stronghold of the Faithful raid wing that goes live today for Guild Wars 2. Unlike the previous boss battles I'd had the opportunity to check out, this was more of a “gauntlet”-style encounter that required the players to continuously push forward and face down an endless wave of enemies while trying to complete their objectives.

Everyone knows that more content means more players and more revenue for an MMO, right? Or is that not the case with Guild Wars 2?