It was only about two weeks ago that BioWare invited us over to their development offices in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to check out Dragon Age: Origins. If you consider it, you'd think that waiting for two weeks, for the NDA to lift, to tell all of you about our hands-on experience with the game isn't a very long time to wait.

You'd be wrong.

In reality, I've been itching every one of those days to sit down and tell you all about what an amazing game this is, and why I truly believe that Dragon Age: Origins is the next step forward in RPG gaming. And now that I can, you can finally hear about ZAM.com's hands-on preview with BioWare's latest foray into the fantasy RPG world.

Patch 3.3 is up on World of Warcraft's PTR, and our comrades at Wowhead have pulled the 3D models of a number of important NPCs and items from the Icecrown Citadel.

After the break, you can see Jaina Proudmoore's's new model, as well as Shadowmourne and Quel'Delar, in full 3D! Now there are a lot of models that aren't represented in Wowhead's initial batch—they're just digging through them for now. But we'll have posts up soon for T10, as well as many others.

To see more of the models from WoW's patch 3.3, click here!

Free-to-play, browser-based MMOs are nothing new. After all, RuneScape's been around for years and has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's most popular free MMORPG. Despite such competition, Sparkplay Media plans to take this sub-genre of online games to the next level with Earth Eternal, an MMO that puts players in the shoes of anthropomorphic animals and creatures instead of elves and orcs. I got a chance to participate in the game's closed beta and speak with members of the Sparkplay team, and it's clear the company is dedicated to putting out a fun product for its first release.

Sparkplay was co-founded in 2006 by CEO and Creative Director Matt Mihaly, to focus on the development of Earth Eternal and other projects. The company actually spun off from Iron Realms Entertainment, which Mihaly launched in 1996, to develop text-based MUDs (multi-user dungeon). "When we started the business, it was just me," Mihaly said, looking back on the creation of Iron Realms. "I was kind of casting around for how we could make money. I ended up pioneering the virtual goods model." This model can be seen in Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands, an MUD that was released in 1997. The game is still running strong and is touted on its Web site as "the most successful new MUD of the last nine years."

Space may be the final frontier, but Cryptic Studios is boldly going where no other game company has gone before.  Star Trek Online, the first MMO based on the legendary franchise, was one of the most exciting new games we previewed at PAX '09.  We got to experience first-hand Cryptic's unique blend of space combat, role-playing and epic exploration, and we're more stoked than ever to pilot our very own capitol ship when the game finally hits store shelves.  Taking a break from his primary duties during the convention, as Ambassador to Planet Nerd, Craig Zinkevich, Executive Producer from Cryptic, talked to us a bit about the game and gave us a taste of what it's like to pwn a Klingon battlecruiser with a full-spread phaser salvo.

As our stalwart crew engaged the enemy in orbit around a hostile alien world I quickly realized just how much a tactical officer really has to keep track of: positioning of the ship, relative energy levels between shields and weapons, firing arcs and reload times and some suicidal captain shouting highly illogical orders over his shoulder even as the bridge is rocked violently by torpedo volleys.  The over-zealous captain in this case would be our very own Andrew Beegle and, despite his lack of proper academy training, we ultimately triumphed against the bloodthirsty Klingons.  How did we do it?  Human intuition, you silly Vulcan.  Intuition that is on full display in the game's interface and makes it easy for nublets like us to quickly grasp the mechanics of interstellar travel and combat inside a gravity well.

Shadow looms over Mirkwood. On the western edge of the forest an ancient tower, Dol Goldur, harbors incomprehensible evil. To the brave souls who would dare stem the tide of darkness and challenge Sauron's dominion, remember: "There is always hope." As in level 65, baby. Nazgul? Bring it!

Lord of the Rings Online's newest expansion, Siege of Mirkwood, promises quite a few exciting features, and we were lucky enough to see many of them first-hand at PAX '09, showcased by Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel from Turbine. Some of you might know the end-game raid properly as The Necromancer's Tower from "The Hobbit," only briefly mentioned by JRR Tolkien in that book but later expounded upon in "The Lord of the Rings" appendices and "The Silmarillion." Apparently, one o' them no good Nazgul has taken up residence by order of The Dark Lord himself, and it's your job to send him packin'. Before we get to that, though, I'd like to cover some of the other elements of the expansion.

The future isn't all shining, magical and fantastic, but that doesn't mean it can't kick serious ass.  In Fallen Earth, developed by Fallen Earth LLC and Icarus Studios, players will find themselves immersed in the post-apocalyptic hell of Arizona's Grand Canyon, circa 2156.  Nuclear war has ravaged the world and, in the aftermath, people have discovered that chivalry doesn't pay off as well as a couple of shotguns and an awesome motorcycle.  Get ready to don your best Mad Max Mohawk and Clint Eastwood snarl.

Perhaps the most impressive feature of Fallen Earth is the setting itself.  The development team has accurately recreated the entire Grand Canyon, based on satellite topography, and over 1000 square miles of unforgiving, non-instanced desert is available to explore.  The harsh landscape is populated by 70 towns, plus 10 non-instanced player-controllable PvP settlements.  Much of the game is focused around vehicles and mounts, but even driving a relatively speedy ATV we're told it will take around three hours of real-time to make it from one end of the game world to the other.  If you plan on hoofing it between locations you might want to stash a healthy supply of straight whiskey and cigars within arms reach of your keyboard, because the mutant monsters don't take kindly to non-grizzled adventurers.

One of the prevailing themes at PAX this year was free-to-play, persistent-world games that are not only highly innovative but also easily accessible to casual gamers. Among the stand-outs is Dragon Nest, being developed by Eyedentity and published by Nexon.  We had the chance to play-test a localized demo of the game and chat with assistant producer Matthew McCullough from Nexon.
   
Dragon Nest is an action-combat MMORPG with gameplay reminiscent of Devil May Cry, although charmingly colorful and less macabre.  Players can group to form four-person parties and battle their way through fast-paced dungeons complete with challenging boss fights.  Items and gold are dropped throughout the dungeon, but the real loot is awarded based on each player's combat acumen at the end of a boss encounter.  The game scores players with a familiar letter-grade system that takes into account style and combo points.

Aion, which has sold nearly four million copies in Asia and went gold in the United States on August 17th is about to enter it's open beta stage which will be held from Sept. 6-13. In preparation, the company has made the open beta client available through FilePlanet and GamersHell (available later this week), as well as via BitTorrent. Don't worry, we know how you feel; the next three days are going to be plagued with anticipation. To help you out (read: tease you) we've acquired five exclusive screenshots. Take a look and if you haven't already, make sure to read our official preview of Aion.

Today's MMO market is flooded with product. From a newcomer's point-of-view, it might seem that the pickings are slim, especially for someone who hasn't jumped into the world of "free-to-play" games yet. Just beyond the veil of traditional, subscription-based MMOs, there's an enormous library of transaction-based content to explore. The free-to-play and RMT (real money trading) gaming industry is booming; if you know where to look, you'll find dozens of new and established free-to-play MMOs.

At the same time, the sheer amount of these games can be overwhelming; like any other industry, developers try to capitalize on the success of proven business models. Some of the genuinely good MMOs can become tougher to notice, especially when they're buried neck-deep with products sharing the same, shiny packages.

That's why it can be easy to miss something like Perfect World International; the North American and European version of China's popular MMO, Perfect World. Its developers are intent on breaking away from the negative reputation shared by other free-to-play MMOs, which consumers often assume to be uninspired and shoddily-designed. In this preview, ZAM takes a look in-game to see what's different, and we speak with Product Manager Jonathan Belliss to find out why.

Back in 2004, when I first heard the rumors that Perpetual Entertainment was working on a Star Trek MMO, I wasn't all that excited on a personal level, but my MMO centric occupation kept me interested. You see, I wasn't a Star Trek fan back then. Sure I knew plenty about it. I'd even sat through an episode or two; however, I failed to grasp the appeal that brought so many die hard fans to the franchise. It wasn't until I saw The Wrath of Khan followed by First Contact that I understood the appeal. I was now a Star Trek fan eagerly anticipating the MMO. When Cryptic Studios acquired the license and art assets following the bankruptcy of Perpetual Entertainment in 2008, I thought that surely the MMO space was going to get its first taste of what I like to call, the "Duke Nukem Forever paradigm" (a game with massive amounts of hype, with no release in the foreseeable future). Fortunately for Trekkers everywhere -- that's not that case.

In the fall of 2008, I began learning about the direction that Cryptic was taking the game. Total Customization was the underlying theme and when Cryptic says customization, it's safe to believe that you'll have more options than you can shake a stick at. It wasn't until we saw the gameplay demonstration at GamesCom, in Cologne, Germany last week, that I realized how much customization Cryptic is giving the players with Star Trek Online. The game looks absolutely amazing and is exactly what Star Trek gamers have been waiting for. Keep reading for our gameplay impressions.