Big changes are on the way for World of Warcraft's Talent system. With the release of Mists of Pandaria, the old Talent system is being turfed and a much simpler set of Talent options will take its place. After years of adjustments to Talents, opinion varies over whether they're making it better or worse. These are my first impressions of the new system, and whether it really limits player options.

One thing Star Wars: The Old Republic does a little differently is crafting, with companions that alleviate some of the tedium typically associated with crafting in MMORPGs. If you want to get off to a good start with your SWTOR character's crafting skills, we've put together an introduction to the game's crafting system.

Ideally a game gives players an enjoyable challenge without being frustratingly difficult. Of course, we all have different ideas about how difficult a game should be, which makes finding the right balance a delicate art. MMORPGs are often accused of having become too easy in recent years, so this week we address the difficulty dilemma.

With more 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue, Star Wars: The Old Republic earned a Guinness World Record for being the largest entertainment voice-over project to date. Other MMORPGs have offered relatively small amounts of voice dialogue, but SWTOR has voice-overs for all its quests, which is very large undertaking. Will this become the new standard for MMORPGs, or will gamers be willing to go back to reading? Here are my thoughts on the subject.