When I was a kid, one of my most prized possessions was a huge LEGO castle set that took me ages to build. According to my embellished memory, the building was at least 25 feet tall and contained roughly 10,000 Minifigures that fought for glory in epic battles held around the castle's walls. Ah, the wonders of imagination.

Aside from glancing at the newest sets on department store shelves, I haven't sat down and built with LEGOs in years. That's probably why I was intrigued to dive into the closed beta for LEGO Universe, the upcoming kid-friendly MMO that puts you in the shoes (or those weird square pants) of your very own Minifigure. I wanted to know if the game could match my memories of that castle from my childhood. So far, it seems to be doing a pretty good job.

I am Defiant.

Not only in faction, but in action. The gods mock us, and I hold no love for them. All that is holy to me resides not in the skies or in the piety of the sanctimonious, but in the steel of my blades and my resolve. I embrace all the worldly technology that will help me bring down the deceivers and save my home, my Telara, from the planar rifts and the foulspawn. I do my part by striking down my enemies from a distance, from behind, or in their face so they can see who brings their end. I am Kelari, I am a Nightblade and I am Defiant.

Scheduled for release on July 27, Need for Speed World (NFSW) is an ambitious racing-sim MMO developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts, based on the company's popular Need for Speed video game franchise. It's not the first to join the ranks of "massively multiplayer online racing games," or MMORGs as they're referred to in the MMO industry. The Trackmania series and Test Drive Unlimited are both successful titles in the MMORG arena, published across multiple platforms, from Windows to the PlayStation Portable.

Earlier this month EA hosted an open beta test for players, which ended last week. On July 13 and 14, the developers briefly revived the open beta for a final stress test and gave participants about $20 worth of "SpeedBoost" (the free-to-play MMO's version of RMT currency) to mess around with. We at ZAM thought this would be the perfect time to jump in-game and provide readers with an early preview of the MMORG's beta gameplay. In our first look at Need for Speed World, we cruise around the streets and find some familiar MMO staples and "level up" after winning a handful of solo and multiplayer races. We also get a little frisky with the police; it turns out that barreling through roadblocks and ramming cop cars off the road is just as much fun as it sounds.

The "combat in space" MMO genre is sparsely populated these days, but E3 2010 reintroduced me to an old friend. Jumpgate Evolution was shown behind closed doors, aptly named as the next step to the original Jumpgate released in 2001. The precursor came out to good (but not great) reviews. The game was hampered by a publisher that went belly up around the time of release, and a solid stable space game, complete with elements of Starlancer, Freelancer and Privateer, slowly faded from view.

When NetDevil announced the next iteration of the franchise, in 2006, around the fifth anniversary of the original, they promised better graphics, more immersive game play and a continuation of the story. Now, more than three years later, the game has been through a couple of overhauls and the developer finally felt confident showing the game off to the public. And from what I saw, their confidence was justified.

After hearing so much about a particular game, anticipation can build. You get this little tingling in the back of your brain telling you it’s itching to try it, while a different part of your brain argues that you'll just be let down again if you buy into the hype. The only sure fire cure is to play the final version.

Unfortunately, TERA isn’t quite ready for prime time yet, but I did get some hands-on time with it at E3 and even playing an unpolished version made my anticipation justified. A handful of media was led into TERA's darkened booth, off the show floor, where four people got to experience a pre-arranged session, led by game Producer Sam Kim and Associate Producer Stefan Ramirez.

I haven't been a fan of what I had seen of The Old Republic before this E3. Promises of a deep, story-driven MMO with BioWare's finesse and fully voice-acted scenes were only hinted at in previous showings of the Sith Inquisitor and Republic Trooper. Before this E3, all we got to see was "Go here and talk to this person," "Collect 10 of this doodad," or "Kill this many enemies" … in other words, the same old fare of any other sci-fi MMO, and not worthy of the hype previously lavished upon the game.

After E3 2010, I have to say that now I am impressed. While they still have more work to do, LucasArts finally let us get into the characters and gameplay a bit more, while unveiling some juicy tidbits that should have the Star Wars Galaxies skeptics breathing somewhat easier.

Maybe you're tired of your current MMO. Maybe you want something a little more action-packed. Maybe you've grown bored with treading on the bones and ashes of your enemies and thirst for new worlds to conquer. Well then, Fantasy Earth Zero may be for you.

Here are our top five reasons why you should be interested in the game.

The MMO field has become increasingly crowded over the last several years as more and more companies try to cash in on the popularity of a genre filled with the likes of World of Warcraft and other big-name franchises. But, while most continue to build on the RPG formula, few have taken on the challenge of satisfying the cravings of the real-time strategy gamer for a huge persistent world in which to play. Yes, there have been a few notable attempts, but most have been relegated to niche status.

Over the past couple of weeks, Blizzard has announced massive changes to the 10 classes in World of Warcraft that will be coming with the Cataclysm expansion. For a quick look at what they have said, here are the links:

• Death Knight
• Druid
• Hunter
• Mage
• Paladin
• Priest
• Rogue
• Shaman
• Warlock
• Warrior

MMORPG's can be confusing, especially to new players. So when Gamania set out to build an MMO for Cartoon Network's show Hero 108, they wanted to make it as accessible and easy to understand as possible; an MMORPG that would appeal to seasoned MMO veterans as well as one for people who don't even know what the acronym MMORPG stands for.