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.

In a quick double update, Scapes has posted new information on TERA times two. Both updates have to do with the south-eastern region of TERA, called Allemantheia. The city is called the "Desert Jewel", but I live in Arizona, and this desert doesn't have any jewels that I know about.

This is the city of the elves, center of their culture and racial identity. Built soon after their arrival on Shara, it reflects much of the people it represents. Aloof, mysterious, unknowable, visitors to the city have been known to stop and stare at some feature for hours, then suddenly realize the statue they've been studying is actually a doorway.

Official Allemantheia Page: http://www.tera-online.com/about_tera/world/world_allemantheia.php

Also! We promised screenshots, so please use the link below to head to ZAM's screenshot page for TERA. The two images have already been posted there on the top-left.

TERA Screenshots @ ZAM: http://www.tera-online.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9670

A nice compilation of questions that have been posted across various TERA forums, covering a fairly broad range of TERA categories. I was quite happy when I came across this, especially when I read details on a release date for TERA.

There is also a interview with TERA Online Sr. Producer Brian Knox. Once again quite a bit of information, including details on the death & penalty system, as well as computer requirements to run TERA.

Hopefully y'all enjoy this as much as I did!

Full interview at http://obsoletegamer.com/tera-online-qa/

The tenth installment of the official Screenshot of the Week was released just today by Scapes. It features an instance dungeon which some lucky testers were able to experience during the last Focus Group Test.

Click read more to check out the foreboding architecture and nightmarish monsters.

The life of an Enforcer in San Paro is not easy, especially if you have the driving skills of a 12-year-old and are up against ruthless criminals bent on terrorizing the city. At least that was my first hands-on experience with All Points Bulletin (APB), the upcoming MMO shooter from Realtime Worlds. I managed to infiltrate their offices in Boulder, CO, last week to get a look at the near-gold build of the game, then interrogate the lead designer in a secluded office until he gave me all the extra details on the game.

Last year, Dungeons and Dragons Online turned the MMO world on its head by not only announcing that they were going to a hybrid free-to-play business model, but also by demonstrating that a free-to-play game, even one that started as a subscription title, can be extremely successful. At this year’s LOGIN conference, the ZAM staff caught up with the game’s Executive Producer, Fernando Paiz, to talk about the future of DDO both in the short term with Update 5 and in the much longer term, going over subjects like additional races, classes, and – in a surprising move – a new type of content that’s going to be added to the game.

Many things are hinted at in this conversation, and obviously plans at Turbine can change, but if you’re interested in the future of Dungeons and Dragons Online and where the team is headed, make sure you give this article a read!

It seems like the folks at Guild Wars 2 have set a blistering pace for the release of game information over the past month. With the unveiling of the Elementalist and the corresponding gameplay associated with this epic spellcaster and beyond, we’ve learned more about the game than we had garnered throughout the past few years since the title’s unveiling. From skills to dynamic events to combat, we’re starting to really see what kind of systems we might expect in the game.

However, one of the areas that we’re still trying to learn more about is the actual world that exists in Guild Wars 2. We do know a few key facts regarding elder dragons and chronology, but the GW2 designers and storytellers have remained fairly hush-hush on everything regarding the newest race – the Sylvari – and some of the more in-depth, character-based interactions that players will be experiencing while playing their new avatars.

So while the ZAM team was in Seattle for the LOGIN 2010 conference, we took a trip out to the ArenaNet studios to find out exactly what’s going on in the latest iteration of Tyria. We definitely learned some new tidbits… so much that we had to split our interview into two different articles! We were lucky enough to sit down with the "lore gurus" Bobby Stein and Ree Soesbee, so they had plenty to say about the different ways they've gone about building their expanded world. Additionally, we’ll be releasing another interview on combat and gameplay soon, so stay tuned folks; we have a whole GW2 blowout on the way!

Riot Games has unveiled the newest champion coming for the game: Akali, the Fist of Shadow. Her addition will bring the total number of champions to 51. She is tentatively scheduled for release next week.

Well, ArenaNet's been asking its fans to Digg, facebook link and promote Guild Wars 2 to their friends in any way possible. And just like when they successfully complete a quest, ArenaNet has awarded them with some loot...in the form of a new screenshot. It's the Elementalist casting the Static Field spell. Check it!

The mysterious Guild Wars 2 picture we posted about a few days ago is becoming clearer. It looks like this mysterious photo is a Guild Wars 2 teaser and will experience periodic Twitter updates, each one of which will make the picture a little bit more understandable. The new image was posted via Guild Wars 2's twitter today.

This update seems to be a mage character, in the center of the painting, using some sort of lighting spell. But who is she? And who is the big guy behind her with the axe?

But the big questions still remain: What is its significance? Is it future box art? Is it a depiction of new characters? We'll keep you posted as more clues arise.