Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa will further enhance this fresh combat system with "instanced" missions spawned specifically for your battalion. This mimics the team-based play found in the shooter Battlefield 1942, and instanced missions appear in almost every MMORPG, but it will be on a much more massive scale here.

Even the visual style is a departure from the MMO standard: the concept art is Ghostbusters meets Aliens, via the Blade Runner universe. Not an elf or fairy in sight. You'll get a good look at it, too: the HUD has been stripped away to a bare minimum; you'll be immersed in the world, not your inventory sheet.

So far, Tabula Rasa looks like a hotspot for a vacation from your fantasy addiction. This unholy fusion of two genres will likely spawn a massive 12-letter game-genre acronym along the lines of MMOFPSRPGBLB, but we're nonetheless intrigued to play it. We're dying to know whether Garriot's plan is crazy or genius.