Although a lot of players might think that the MMO market is oversaturated, the number of online games showcased at this year’s E3 begs to differ. And the truth is that the producers have barely begun to scratch the surface of the true potential of the online gaming market, which is expanding with each passing year, despite some analysts claiming that this growth will eventually stagnate.

     Right now, World of Warcraft more or less dominates the online gaming scene. We can curse and criticize it as much as we want to, but Blizzard’s game has absorbed a vast majority of online gamers in such a way that other producers had to start trial periods for their MMO’s to get additional players to replace the ones that had left. Interestingly enough, the so-called niche MMORPGs, like the excellent EVE Online, are doing very good – their communities are tiny compared to that of WoW, but these are dedicated-on-the-border-of-fanatic players that wouldn’t give up their favorite game even if the end of the world was coming. Metaphorically speaking, World of Warcraft is kind of like the Borg from Star Trek. It’s assimilating, slowly but surely, any MMO player that crosses its path. And like they say, resistance if futile. This is why the main concern of game studios right now is how to dodge the WoW effect, since this game has become the de facto standard in measuring the quality of another MMORPG, at least as far as the players are concerned.

     Since the number of fantasy MMO’s is pretty high, NetDevil studios decided to put the human evolution on fast forward and present us with a possible post-apocalyptic future in their MMORPG aptly named Auto Assault, which will most certainly strike a vibe with the Fallout fans. Since most of the things I said in an earlier preview are still valid, I’m going to concentrate on the novelties brought by the retail version – technically, there’s no such thing as a „final version” for an MMORPG.

     First of, the graphics has received a substantial overhaul, with more particle effects and high-res textures, as well as getting a boost regarding performance. The particle effects are used to great effect in creating an authentic post-apocalyptic feel, along with the color pallete and the level design itself. And although it had some slow-downs, overall Auto Assault didn’t present any technicall issues and was rock stable, although too many Alt-Tabs will eventually kill it.