Tabula Rasa: Preview Smackdown!

As if the Warcry Impressions and Class Preview weren't enough. You heard me. As. If.

What? That's actually not enough Tabula Rasa coverage for you? All right then...how about two more previews and a Garriott infusion...? How about...

BAM!

Tabula Rasa Preview on About.com!

Running and gunning is a big part of the fun in Tabula Rasa. Although there are skills that require you to stand still, combat is fast and furious compared to what the bulk of MMORPGs offer. Arming a shotgun and getting in close to a group of Bane, knocking them back with the force of your blasts, is a lot more intense than I expected. I'm not sure what they have planned, but I could see something like player-controlled vehicles pushing it over the top. For a mix of RPG and FPS, it's the most well thought-out effort I've seen yet, even at the beta stage.

Read more here!

POW!

GameDaily's Tabula Rasa Hands-ON!

The above control points can be dynamically won and lost. For instance, players may log out with AFS controlling all the bases on the map, but log back in a few hours later and find that one (or more) of them have been captured by the Bane. Whatever missions and contacts (along with teleporters and hospital restore points) were available in that particular base won't be accessible again until the base has been recaptured. This lends an air of "expect the unexpected" to a genre that has in many ways become predictable.

Read it all here!

and...KABLAM!

More talking points from General British on EuroGamer!

"What I'm critical of, in our industry, is that over the last ten years most MMOs have included those exact same features... I'm a critic of is the MMO genre, the space - all the games we've produced," he says bluntly.

"Those fundamentals are serviceable, clearly - I mean, the genre has grown immensely, in spite of the fact that I think that the type of features which we offer players have not evolved very much."

The full article is here!

In a related story, I'll be cutting back on my caffeine intake.