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We had a fantastic chance to talk with Matt Wilson about The Agency during E3. While a great deal of the footage they showed was largely identical to the footage we'd previously seen, many of Matt's insights about the direction they're taking The Agency in were quite illuminating. From PvP to operatives to vehicular combat and the eventual beta, Matt was generous enough with both his time and knowledge, and let us in on lots of great news and background.

If you've been hungry for more information on some of the different aspects of this upcoming game, be sure to join us after the break for a great overview on this hot upcoming SOE property.

Webzen published a press release today announcing the start of Huxley's open beta test phase in South Korea. No word yet on when gamers in other regions will be able to participate. There have been hints that Webzen is backing away from the North American market, but today's press release reiterates the company's dedication to releasing Huxley "in markets around the world." This comes after an announcement that portal NHN will be distributing the game in North America and Europe, so we're pretty sure things are good.

The press release is full of not-quite-true statements that Huxley is the very first game to combine the FPS and MMO genres. PlanetSide and Neocron come to mind right away, and there have probably been others. Still, we're watching Huxley with curiosity. Its production values are sky high (just look at the recent cinematic trailer) and its Unreal Engine-powered graphics are impressive. Webzen plans to release the game in Korea in 2009, so we'll be waiting a while yet.

[Via Big Download]

I've made my name here at Massively reviewing MMOs; it's what I do. This week brought to my attention that not all the games here at Massively are as massive as you might believe – no I haven't gone and reviewed a game where you play as a tiny ant fighting other tiny ants...on a grain of sand. Though I must admit that it sounds like a totally awesome idea! It would rock, so consider it copyrighted. Instead, using my patented Random Augmented Nuclear Dart Yaw machine, or the R.A.N.D.Y Machine for short, I have managed to select a game that I don't think quite belongs here.

Every bit of news from The Agency gets us increasingly more excited about the possibilities that this spy MMO will bring to the table. In part one of a recent interview with Kevin O'Hara, Senior World Designer for The Agency, we learn even more about the environments, levels and combat mechanics of SOE's upcoming game.

One point of this interview that stuck out in our minds the most is the mention of an open vs. linear environment. This seems to be a big draw for many MMOs these days, where players are requesting more and more vast areas to explore, trying to escape the funneled experiences we get with more linear storylines. Thankfully, The Agency seems to tackle this concern by allowing more options in your questing experience, while still allowing a "cool-down" area to prep for the next encounter. The overall faster-paced feel of the game promises to set it apart from the traditional MMOs we know today.

Every Tuesday think "T" for Turpster and take the "a" in "day", capitalize it, remove the little bit in the middle, turn it upside down and you get a "V". Put the two together and you'll have TV for TurpsterVision -- the best Internet video podcast on Massively! (Never mind that business about it being the only video podcast on Massively...)

Another average week, another fantastic TV Episode. This time around I've decided to have a look at Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. I've heard a few good things about this title, but to be honest, I've heard far more bad things. I am not one to make up my mind on a game before I've played it, so I went down to my local store and picked up a copy. It just so happened that the Collector's Edition of the game was cheaper than the standard edition – go figure. I'm not complaining since I get a nifty little floating robot non-combat pet that follows me around!

To see the review as always you have to take the step into the void and join us on the other side of the break.

MMO Gamer recently got a chance to sit down with Kevin O'Hara, designer for the hotly anticipated SOE spy-thriller The Agency. Among the things O'Hara touches on during the interview are his thoughts on what subscription model they'll use (it's completely up in the air at this point), the wisdom behind directing the game at consoles (O'Hara believes the shooter gameplay will endear it to that audience), and how bosses in a spy game might be slightly atypical (you may travel to their volcano lair and win the day with a hand of poker instead of fighting).

One thing I found particularly interesting was the way they're trying to balance fast action with the fun and sense of place that comes from existing in a persistent world. The Agency as he describes it will have a "hub-and-spoke feel to it" where most of the mission-based content will necessarily be instanced. He also mentioned how PvP will be accessible at the touch of a button, tossing you right into the middle of a multiplayer map. In this respect I almost feel like they're paying too much homage to the game's shooter roots. If I wanted to jump into multiplayer deathmatch utterly lacking in context, I'd put in Call of Duty 4. I'm hoping they give slightly more of an incentive to make it akin to traditional MMO PvP. Just, ya know, with guns and spy gadgets.

Raph Koster's baby, Metaplace, will be undergoing another stress test this Saturday, March 8th, at 12 PM PST. Uberspace, a space-shooter, is the game they'll be using to test 'scalability, bandwidth, and instancing within a multiplayer space.'

Some have thought that we may have been a bit too hard on poor ol' Raph with our coverage of his GDC presentation, but bear in mind that we're tough on things because we only want the best to succeed. If you would like to be part of the stress test, get on over to Metaplace on Saturday and blast your friends. It's free and clear for everybody to try!

Yesterday we handed out some new The Agency screenshots from SOE's CES presentation. That was cool enough, but in case you still weren't satisfied, there's a video of the presentation up on GameTrailers. Oh, and it's embedded above, obviously.

The presenter calls The Agency "24 meets Alias meets Counterstike," and that seems appropriate enough. The game can be played either in first person mode, or in a Mass Effect-esque over-the-shoulder perspective. It looks like you'll be able to run through instanced encounters with other players and/or NPCs, and there are scripted heroic moments in addition to the usual shoot-'em-up stuff. Our favorite moment occurs when the player revives a fallen ally with defibrillators.

It looks like the game borrows a lot from single-player game conventions, so it's not super innovative, but it's still refreshing to see an MMO that's not an action-bar-based, numeric-stat-grinding, sword & sorcery, D&D-style DikuMUD clone.

In a business climate where a game like World of Warcraft can sustain a player base of over eight million paying subscribers, everybody wants their game to be an MMO. Call it a trend, call it the flavor of the month, call it whatever you want -- "massively multiplayer online" is a moniker that sells game units. Where we used to assign the term to the strict domain of UO and EQ clones largely dominated by elves of various sorts, all different kinds of games are jumping on the money train, and NCsoft's Exteel is really no exception. It's a game that, up until now, we had assumed would be just another MMO. I can safely say that we were quite wrong.

As of this afternoon, NCsoft has lifted the NDA restricting discussion of the Exteel beta, so we thought we'd give you a run-down of our impressions of the game as it has progressed so far, including a gallery full of screenshot love from the tutorial through our first few battles in the open beta.