There's still nothing quite like the original Guild Wars. It came out before World of Warcraft had crystallized the face of the modern MMORPG, and was as inspired by Magic: The Gathering as it was by Everquest or Ultima. It turned out as more of a co-op ARPG with shared town hubs, dual-class deckbuilding, and a cutscene-driven narrative—and that unique confluence of inspirations may be why it's still popular today. So popular, in fact, that it's even a surprise to developer ArenaNet.

The game's recent remaster, Guild Wars Reforged, launched Wednesday as a free update for existing players and an inexpensive way to get in for newbies. While most Guild Wars fans are on to the game's more traditionally MMO-ish sequel, Reforged still brought the game's concurrent player peak on Steam up to over 5,000 at time of writing, according to SteamDB.

That may not sound like a lot, but it's floated for the last several years at around 200-600, and since the game came to Steam relatively late in its life, there's likely a big contingent of people playing on the standalone client available on ArenaNet's website (anecdotally, that's how I play both Guild Wars games when the mood strikes).

The population surge was met with surprise from ArenaNet, which shared a post on X saying, "Demand for Guild Wars Reforged blew past our projections, causing long downloads for some non-Steam players. We’re adding servers & exploring new options to fix this before the weekend. Thanks for your patience!"

Mercifully, it doesn't sound like anything game breaking or even unexpected when an online game gets such a sudden spike of players. If anything, I'm just happy to see people diving into the original Guild Wars; the remaster doesn't look like a huge iteration on the original game, but the chance to see pre-Searing Ascalon abuzz with novice players once again is a tantalizing prospect indeed.

There are a lot of things from Fallout: New Vegas players would like to see in the Fallout TV show as the series visits the Mojave for its second season. The Kings. Whatever's left of the NCR. That one megalomaniac toaster who wants to set the world on fire. And also Veronica Santangelo, the Brotherhood of Steel scribe who can be recruited as a companion.

While it's possible Veronica might get a shout-out in Fallout's second season, she won't be played by Felicia Day, who voiced her in the videogame. As Day explained in a recent YouTube video, "Sadly, I'm not in this season," although she is the right age to play Veronica as she would be in the show's 2296 setting, 15 years after New Vegas.

Reminiscing about the role, Day explains she was cast after starring in her webseries The Guild. "I'd never really done voiceover before. Getting the script that was like this," she holds her fingers an inch apart, "was kind of intimidating." Veronica, like most of the companions in New Vegas, has a lot more backstory than the companions in Fallout 3 did. In her case, that backstory involves a relationship with a woman the Brotherhood frowned on because they believe it's their duty to repopulate the world. "And that's why I chose to destroy the Brotherhood," Day says. "Sorry, Veronica."

Day rates New Vegas as one of her favorite games, up there in her top five with Skyrim, World of Warcraft, Stardew Valley, "and probably Tetris," but also considers it among the best parts she's ever been given. "Veronica is one of the best roles I've ever got to play, not only because of the depth and the volume of stuff I got to do, but I feel like I was integral to the story in a game that truly is one of my favorites. Of course, I always play with my character. I did have some of the other companions here and there, but… I always go back to myself," she laughs. "That's really self-centred!"

As well as her role in New Vegas, Day has appeared in games like Guild Wars 2, Stray Gods, Date Everything, and Dragon Age 2, where she appeared as the elven assassin Tallis in both the Mark of the Assassin expansion and the webseries Dragon Age: Redemption, which she also wrote.