Category Archives: RPG

Lord British is back!

  March 12, 2013 - 11:37 am | Game Development, Game Previews, Retro, RPG
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I cannot tell you how excited I am about the news I received this morning! The person who probably shaped most of my childhood, the creator of worlds, the epitome of all that is great in RPG, has decided to grace us with a new game. Richard Garriot, creator of the greatest and longest-running RPG series in the history of computer gaming, has launched a Kickstarter project for his upcoming game (Hopefully October 2014) – Shroud of the Avatar, Forsaken Virtues.

As you can see from the early preview above, and from reading the Kickstarter project details, great stuff are coming our way. A true RPG’er wants to immerse himself in the game, not just hack away to fill an experience bar, and I think that from the meagre details available at the moment, they are doing a good job of it. I especially like the trade, crafting and housing system that they are planning, as well as the fact that it’s NOT BLOODY ONLINE DEPENDENT! If you want to play single-player, you can without a connection. If you want to be able to play this game again in twenty years, you don’t have to worry if the servers are still running. Hey Blizzard, EA and all you other money-grabbing bastards – take note.

The game seems to expand upon the ideals of the Avatar, the protagonist of the Ultima series, and Ultima and I share a long history. My first meeting with the Ultima series was actually a book, more specifically a novelized walkthrough called The Avatar Adventures. A friend of mine had the book at school when I was about 10. I read it voraciously in my lunch breaks and was then overjoyed when it turned out that my neighbor had Ultima IV on his PC. I then spent the next few months firmly robbing said neighbor of the use of said PC. Then, much later, when I finally had a PC of my own with an actual graphics card (a monstrous EGA card), I was lucky enough to find the complete Ultima collection at a second-hand store – a collection I still own today, which sits proudly on my shelf of all things gaming.

Anyway, go check out the Kickstarter, give Lord British and his cohorts your money, and help shape what is sure to become a classic!

Diablo 3

  April 2, 2012 - 3:45 pm | Diablo 3, Game Previews, MMO, RPG
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My Collectors Edition was confirmed on Friday night. I’ve taken 2 weeks off work and I’m ready to mould myself into my chair for at least 20-22 hours a day for that period. Yes, Blizzard has done it again – they’ve brought out another timesink!

They have added a few changes to the original formula though, with a level cap of 60 instead of 99. Hmmm, does this possibly remind you of Vanilla WoW? With news of a few planned expansions, we’ll probably see a few level increases as things progress, just like their ultimate moneymaker. The devs have stated that you should be able to get to the top level through the standard storyline, way before you finish Hell difficulty though. This should open up to more gear grinding and less level grinding – I guess to make their planned Arena battles fair they had to limit the level and skills available, making it a gear and skill grind.
Anyway, the Collectors Edition! Ohhh it’s so tasty! On top of the standard game, just look at the extra goodies you recieve:

  • Behind the scenes making of DVD (and Blue-Ray)
  • Diablo III Soundtrack.
  • The Art of Diablo III 208 page book.
  • Diablo skull and 4gig USB soulstone.
  • The full games: Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction come loaded on the flashdrive.
  • The soulstone USB fits into the skull as a resting place/decoration item.
  • “Aesthetic Artifacts” in Diablo III: Two special color dyes (Bottled Cloud and Bottled Smoke) and glowing Tyrael’s Angelic Wings. These items can be used through your shared stash on any of your characters as many times as you want.
  • World of Warcraft Fetish Shaman pet.
  • Starcraft II Battle.net character portraits

That skull is pure beauty. I can’t think of a single RPG geek that wouldn’t want Diablo’s skull (with the soulstone embedded) on his desk. It’s an absolute must-have.

Of course, Collectors will be limited. I had to try quite a few stores before getting myself one booked. If you’re a US citizen, you can still try Amazon and see if they have any left. Be sure to use my referral linky if you do though :)

Free MMO roundup

  December 5, 2011 - 1:28 pm | Game Reviews, Other games, RPG
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As the holiday season approaches a lot of us will have some free time on our hands. And what better way to celebrate than with some free games! I’ve collected a list of the current free-to-play and freemium titles that can be played, either with a client installation or on a website, leaving out those that are in Beta or pre-release. As I get time to playtest I’ll add reviews to the links.

A:

  • 4Story - a fantasy-based PVP game with client.
  • Ace Online - a 3D sci-fi Shooter game with client.
  • Age of Conan – I actually played this one in Beta and at launch and it was HORRIBLE. Apparently they have now fixed the bugs, but not soon enough for it to be relegated to a freemium title. The free version is fairly crippled  - subscriptions are still available to unlock the rest. Of course, this is a fantasy game with a rather large client.
  • Aika Online - a fantasy adventure game with client.
  • Alganon – a fantasy RPG with client.
  • Allods Online - a sci-fi fantasy RPG with client – extremely popular.
  • Anarchy Online – an oldie, but still a goodie. A sci-fi RPG with client.
  • Angels Online – an anime-inspired fantasy RPG with client. Published by IGG, who has a ton of other small client-based MMOs shared under one login.
  • ArchLord – a fantasy RPG with client, heavily concentrating on PVP and seiges. Published by Webzen, who offers a range of other games with a shared currency that can either be earned or purchased.
  • ARGO Online - a steampunk fantasy RTS RPG with client. Heavily quest-based.
  • Atlantica Online - a fantasy RPG that uses turn-based combat, similar to Heroes of Might and Magic. Client based. A strong emphasis on player-created economy and crafting.

B:

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Mount & Blade – Warband

  November 10, 2011 - 3:50 pm | Game Reviews, RPG
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This is probably going to hurt.

Finally another post-worthy game. I found this little gem by accident when I was fixing a scrapped PC and found it installed after the recovery was done. Before now I’d never even heard

of the game, but boy do I wish I had known sooner.

Mount & Blade – Warband is a RPG like few others. You experience medieval warfare in gritty detail: pit fighting, tourneys, open field battles, village looting and even castle sieges.  Here’s an extract from their website:

In Mount & Blade: Warband, you play as an adventurer in the medieval land of Calradia, a fictional land devoid of magic and high fantasy, instead bearing many similarities to our world in the Middle Ages.

The game offers you a great deal of freedom in this world. You may roam around the map visiting towns and villages, trading, pursuing various quests, taking part in tournaments, or trying out a myriad of other activities.

You will soon notice that the world itself is dynamic. Caravans travel between towns, sometimes being waylaid by bandits; villagers take their goods to markets; armies

Storming the enemy before their bowmen reach that ridge

assemble to move across the land, besieging towns or castles and raiding settlements. Instead of giving you a fixed path to follow,

Mount & Blade: Warband lets you freely adventure in this world. In time, you will be well known in many places as you make friends and enemies with other characters, which in turn will allow you to affect events in profound ways. You don’t need to remain a penniless adventurer, either. You may obtain great wealth and power, become one of the trusted vassals of a king; conquer and own villages, castles and towns; command armies, and if you like, even lead rebellions and replace kings with other claim holders.

And who knows? If you are great and cunning warrior you might one day become the Ruler of Calradia.

The game itself seems fairly simple. Recruit some soldiers, battle bandits and rival factions, capture castles and cities, take part in the dusty arena or the glorious tournaments,  rinse and repeat. Warband takes this simple idea and turns it into a masterpiece.  Every step of the way, even on the most basic settings, seems like a new challenge. You swear your allegiance to a king – he now wants you to fight for him during his war campaigns, but he does give you some income and may even grant you control of a few fiefs. Go at it alone and others will treat you like a bandit. Denounce your leaders and start a new kingdom and everyone will be at your throat, unless you can convince them to grant you a peace treaty.

Castle sieges!

Once you are a ruler, things get even tougher. You have to balance out warring other factions, improving your cities, keeping your vassals happy (which is a doozy) and a myriad of other things. And just when you think you have everything under control, expanding your territory at a nice pace, a vassal will denounce his loyalty to you to join your rivals. Of course he’s kind enough to take all the lands you gave to him with him, leaving a gaping hole in the defence you thought was air-tight.

To summarize - Warband came as a total surprise to me. The graphics may be outdated but the sandbox feel of the game, the constantly changing atmosphere and the total replayability makes it a nail-biter. Coming from unknown developers and an unknown publisher (although it is now available on Steam!), this game deserves much more credit that it has received. Even better is the fact that there’s a Song of Fire and Ice (think Game of Thrones) expansion out for it too.

For all you medieval RPG/strategy gamers I’d definitely recommend giving Warband a try. I give 4 out of 5 MisGuilded stars. Just the occasional wonky physics, strange graphic glitches and downright silly AI on sieges prevents this from getting a full score.