Hello and welcome to the 12th edition of Formerly Hardcore, ZAM’s column on Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. For this week’s column, we’re going to do some speculating. On Thursday, August 6^th at gamescom, Blizzard will unveil the newest expansion for WoW. If you’re like me and there’s 15+ hours of flight between you and gamescom, they’ll be livestreaming it on their dedicated gamescom page. Now the question is: where will this new expansion take us and what changes will it bring to the game? Quick spoiler alert for those who haven’t fought Archimonde at the end of Hellfire Citadel and seen the cinematic afterwards – we’ll be talking about that right after the jump.

To some, space is an unforgiving void full of danger. But to intrepid explorers, it’s a source of unlimited mystery and wonder. With Odyssey, EVE Online’s 19th expansion, due to land on June 4th, CCP is aiming to satisfy that desire to venture into the unknown.

With the spacefaring MMO heading into its second decade of operation, it’s fair to say that EVE is riding the crest of a wave of success. The previous expansion, Retribution, was met with thunderous applause at EVE FanFest back in April, earning executive producer Jon Lander a standing ovation from fans and becoming the most successful expansion to date.

As Lander heads on to focus on CCP’s mobile efforts, the baton has been handed to lead game designer Kristoffer Touborg and senior producer Andie Nordgren. But there’s no sign of a change in direction – the focus remains on building out the sandbox in a way that provides new features while encouraging the style of gameplay that EVE Online has become famous for.

The galaxy has been abuzz with excitement since BioWare announced "Rise of the Hutt Cartel" earlier this week. While the announcement created excitement, it also left members of both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire with questions.

Here we are. It's the eve of the eve of the first anniversary of the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic and what do we wake up to? Presents!