Early impressions on Path of Exile beta

Hello there!

I've been fortunate enough to get accepted into beta testing for Path of Exile, and I thought I'd throw out some thoughts on my experiences with it so far.  To the best of my knowledge and from what I could find through forums, PoE testers are not under any form of NDA.  If I'm mistaken here though, let me know and I'll remove this right away.  PoE will also switch from closed to open beta "soon"!

For anyone new to Path of Exile, short and sweet description follows.  PoA is an online only action RPG, with a lot of similarities to games such as the Diablo series, Torchlight and Titan's quest.  It is in closed beta testing for a full year already, with open betas right around the corner.  Once released it will follow a free to play business model, sustaining itself on "ethical microtransactions", hopefully meaning there will be no way to "pay to win" as many F2P games unfortunately end up as.

Review: Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony

Jamestown, released June 2011 from Final Form Games.

Bullet hell shooters, now here's a genre of games that puzzle me.  In these games you control a small craft typically armed with ridiculous firepower faced against scrolling levels chock full of enemies firing swarms of bullets at you, pretty much covering the entire screen in death.  Its your job to find your way through the levels without taking a single hit, preferably while also killing as many enemies and picking up points as possible in the process for a high score.  Why would one expose oneself to such sadistic punishment ?  The answer is of course, because its incredibly satisfying to beat them.  Really, that moment when you've failed over and over, but finally get through a level after several minutes of one hundred percent complete concentration and adrenaline.. That's why.