Albion Online is a fantasy answer to EVE Online

Ultima Online is my favorite MMORPG. I don't usually dig the genre too much, but when Chris brought up Albion Online by Sandbox Interactive, it looked similar, so I thought I'd have a go at it. What I got was a much different experience far more akin to EVE Online -- extremely dense and demanding, but still fun at a more casual glance.

Albion is a demanding crafting and PvP-centric game where skills and equipment dictate the totality of your character, eschewing a traditional leveling system. The more you do something the better you get at it, and it retains one very jarring element from game of old: when you die, your equipment is fair game. So everything you have crafted or are carrying around on your person is up for grabs if you are in a PVP zone. Which is, consequently, where you are also going to find all the best materials for better equipment.