It’s been an exciting week here at LoreHound! PAX East happened last weekend, and I wish I could have gone with iTZKooPA. But he was busy stalking game developers while there, and brought back a bunch of interviews which are in the process of being smoothed out and put online for everyone to see. I’m obviously biased, but I think they’re some of the best video interviews I’ve seen and and I’ve really been enjoying watching them. I can’t wait for the rest of them to be finished up! Thanks everyone for bringing these interviews to all of us who were unable to attend!

Now that I have gotten my PAX excitement out of the way, welcome to my very first weekly recap! Every Friday, barring strange and unexpected circumstances – which will hopefully be few and far between – I’ll be summing up the week and providing links to the week’s events. So if it’s been particularly busy and things have been pushed off the front page too quickly, you can catch up here. I’ll do my best to keep my commentary short and to the point, although I’m not entirely certain how well I’ll succeed as I can be rather loquacious and pithy when left alone. But, on to the show!

• Mike summed up TERA’s Closed Beta 5 with a preview of the Velika Invasion Event.
• PAX Interview with Executive Producer, Fernando Paiz about DDO’s upcoming expansion Menace of the Underdark. Enter the Druid! And Epic levels! Watch the second part here.
• Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes entered open beta, and Mike has a limited code to use for Easter goodies for those who sign up.
• I reported a deck builder for The Secret World, created by a poster on the Secret World official forums. I’ve already had hours of fun playing with this.
• PAX Interview with Todd Harris of Hi-Rez Studios about the future of Tribes: Ascend. Learn about future content and spreadsheets. Yay, spreadsheets!
• Mike talks about pre-orders for Guild Wars 2.
• TERA’s early start is now a lot earlier. Read what Mike has to say about it here.
• Randy reviewed Tangleroot Gorge, an adventure pack in Dungeons and Dragons Online.
• PAX Interview with Christina Sims in a brilliant Vanessa VanCleef cosplay. LoreHound exclusive!
• SWTOR delayed Ranked Warzones, an expected feature of patch 1.2. Read about Mike’s disappointment and watch the trailer for Explosive Conflict, the new Operation. Also, free gametime!
• PAX Interview with Lead Producer Andy Velasquez about Neverwinter, Cryptic’s upcoming D&D MMORPG. LoreHound Exclusive!

• PAX Interview with Todd Harris about the future of MOBAs and Hi-Rez’s upcoming game SMITE.

Rolling around the prefabricated wall to the other half of Turbine’s booth, Executive Producer Aaron Campbell schools iTZKooPA on Rise of Isengard, the upcoming expansion for Lord of the Rings Online. He learns where the epic storyline is progressing, details on the new social hub, the removal of stat caps, aspects of the largest raid in the game’s history and so much more.

Isengard will rise on September 27, 2011.

Executive Producer James MacCauley takes iTZKooPA on a whizzbang tour of FireFall. The dynamic duo preview the just-revealed Engineer class, detail the free-to-play title’s cash shop, jump into a dynamic event and discuss the all important library of loot.

Chris Lena and iTZKooPA catch up on the latest for End of Nations. Considering the pair originaly discussed the now free-to-play MMORTS over a-freaking-year ago there have been a few developments. Not only has Trion Worlds declared that the game is entirely F2P at launch, but it’ll contain standard RTS modes like 2v2 and 4v4, co-op RTS options and massive PvP battles scaling as high as 52 players. The title will be supported by the typical cash shop, which will offer everything from XP boosts to American flag skins as shown in the video.

Check out the video for more, including the beta status, overworld breakdown and one massive tank.