The Final Day of ZAM's E3 2010 Awards

We saw more than 20 MMOs at the recent E3 2010 convention in Los Angeles. We participated in the spectacle by attending parties, touring booths and watching the booths babes ... and the games, of course. So that is why each year, we honor the best of the best from each show. Over the next few days, we'll unveil our winners. Here is the schedule:

Today:

  • Best Real Life Game
  • Best Fantasy Game
  • Best Sci-Fi Game
  • Best in Show

Day 1:

  • Best Party
  • Best Booth
  • Best Family Game

Day 2:

  • Best Trailer
  • Biggest Surprise
  • Best Demo

So stay with us all three days as we unveil the winners. In case you missed our coverage, you can check out the E3 index page.

Jumpgate Evolution E3 Preview

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.

TERA Hands-On at E3

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.

ZAM's E3 interview with Jumpgate Evolution

As E3 came to a close just recently, more and more of our ZAM exclusive video interviews are now finishing up their preview polish and are ready to be viewed by all! This time we sat down with Jason from NetDevil to chat a little bit about Jumpgate Evolution, a ship-based MMORPG that's been long in the making. Most interestingly, the team announced that they had almost completely scrapped certain parts of Jumpgate Evolution because they wanted to make sure that the game was as good as they wanted it to be at launch. This is, obviously, a refreshing change from the normal rhetoric gamers are used to, about MMORPGs releasing early in order to meet specific demands or meet promises made to the community, and if you check out the interview, you can see just how much thought the team has put into this game. I'm definitely excited about this one, so check out the interview after the jump!

SOE's DC Universe Online E3 Trailer

Epic music? Check.

Awesome montage of superheroes and villains? Check.

Voiceovers ending with that cheesy inspiring one-liner? Check!

SOE's E3 trailer for their upcoming superhero MMORPG, DC Universe Online, is showing off its great potential while still paying homage to all those great superhero movie trailers we all know and love. So if you were groaning and moaning about having yet another super-hero MMORPG in the market, you should check out this special E3 trailer for DCUO and maybe you'll see what kind of difference this particular superhero MMO will bring to the table.

Bullets galore in SOE's E3 trailer of The Agency!

More and more E3 coverage on the way! This time it's Sony Online Entertainment's PS3-oriented, spy-themed MMORPG, dubbed "The Agency." It's interesting, actually, that a game that seems to focus on spy activitiy just happens to have a lot of explosions and crazy shootouts as the focal point of their latest E3 trailer. Perhaps this is an indication of the direction that SOE wants to push The Agency towards? Either way, The Agency does promise to be the first spy-themed FPS-oriented MMORPG of its kind to launch on the PS3, so that makes the trailer worth checking out on its own. It's just up to you to decide if The Agency revebrates with that James Bond type of spy activity - and even then, is it Daniel Craig James Bond, or the Pierce Brosnan style? Check it out for yourself!

Swordsman Online's E3 reveal trailer

At this year's E3, Perfect World Entertainment also announced that they were in the process of developing a brand new MMORPG set in Louis Cha's world famous "Swordsman" book series. This MMORPG, which currently goes under the working title of "Swordsman Online" will aim to bring Ancient China to life, complete with ancient Chinese martial arts and combat. How PWE plans to implement this style of combat remains to be seen, but if you check out the trailer, you'll have to admit that some of those moves are pretty sweet looking. Could Perfect World Entertainment's Swordsman Online be the first MMORPG in North America to pull off that action-fps MMO hybrid, or do you think TERA Online will claim those honors first? Check out the trailer after the jump and you be the judge!

PWE debuts their new Forsaken World trailer

At this year's E3 gathering just last week, Perfect World Entertainment rocked the house by showcasing trailers from two of their upcoming MMORPGs. The first, Forsaken World, was announced a little while back, but the PWE team also brought a playable demo along with them to E3, alongside this special E3 trailer that showcases some of the upcoming playable races in Forsaken World. So what do you plan on being when the Forsaken World closed beta begins in Winter? A Kindred, an Elf, a Stoneman, or perhaps a Dwarf? Let us know after you watch the Forsaken World E3 Trailer after the jump!

Star Wars: The Old Republic Hands-On at E3

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.

ZAM hits the Show Floor at E3

The video and editorial teams at ZAM are invading the Los Angeles Convention Center this week to check out the newest and hottest MMOs at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Granted, some of the big publishers will not be here, such as Blizzard, NCSoft and Funcom, but we have more than 20 meetings schedules with various developers and publishers to see what they have in the works. Check out our appointments below.