Have you ever found yourself holding a gun in a dark alley wanting to waste somebody in order to go to jail? Do you find yourself gluing black cardboard bars to your outside windows of your apartment to make it seem like you are in the big house? Have you ever just wanted to see what it’s like to be corn-holed in dark cell by an overweight Latino man named Jose? Have you ever walked around the house holding on to your wife’s pocket asking her to call you “little bitch boy”? If you answered yes to any of these questions then read on, because I have an RPG game that you might just want to play. A game not only you will be happy playing, but it should also give your family the peace of mind knowing you aren’t in the joint getting a dirty cock meat sandwich.
PRESS ‘A’ TO SKIP CUTSCENE. OOPS, YOUR CONTROLLER’S CAUGHT FIRE.
Once again we hear from Korean Developers Softmax. After a surprisingly successful release of MagnaCarta: Tears of Blood for the PS2, the series continues on the 360 with MagnaCarta 2. This is a interesting take on your usual Japanese RPG. The main character is a mysterious young man – Juto – who has lost his memory. And within a matter of minutes his relaxed lifestyle has been turned upside down and he finds himself on a quest to revenge a fallen comrade, help a princess regain her throne, and destroy the powerful usurper and his army. Cookie cutter you say? Perhaps. Wanna see how it all pulls together? Click on this thing down here…
Risen will probably be brushed aside as “oh, just another RPG”, but fans of the genre shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss it as such.
Simply put, Risen is this year’s The Witcher – a dark, gritty European made RPG tailoring to a more hardcore crowd. Risen is developed by Piranha Bytes, the German game development studio behind the Gothic game franchise. To explain Risen in a nutshell, I’d say it is akin to Fable, the Elder Scrolls games, and The Witcher all rolled into one game. There are tons of quests, tons of items to pick up, and tons of monsters (and people) to fight. All the while you’ll be gaining experience and leveling a number of different skills – magic, axes, swords. If you can get past the difficulty curve and the shoddy voice acting, you’ll find a pretty solid RPG underneath, and one that is certainly worth your time.
Did you miss out on The Witcher last year? It won RPG of the Year at a few outlets. The PC game has been tweaked and re-released with some nice updated (both in your face and behind the scenes). We’ll have a review for you soon, but in the meantime, check out the trailer.
A recent Bethesda podcast confirmed some new details on their upcoming RPG. The game will have over 200 different endings and will be twice as big as previously thought. Wow. Thats a big deal. Talk about replayability. I’m sure the endings won’t be drastically different, but thats still impressive. There are plenty of other details listed and they can be found here; a recap of their recent podcast.
Soma Bringer will be crossing the vast Pacific Ocean and landing in the US of the Nintendo DS in the near future. It should provide a ton of RPG fun for Nintendo’s handheld for US gamers, just as it has in Japan.
Another trailer from last night’s VGA’s. This one is for the Action RPG, Borderlands, from 2K Games. The title is set in an alien world that looks like a cross between Lost Planet and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The answer is 42 people. The answer is 42. Anyway, the game is coming out in 2008 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
EA sent over the first batch of screenshots from the new DS title, Orcs & Elves. The RPG looks very good and will ship November 13th with over ten hours of gameplay. From the fact sheet:
Orcs & Elves offers a breathtaking dungeon-crawling experience for any fantasy RPG gamer, featuring an Award-winning storyline spanning twelve sprawling levels within an ancient Dwarven kingdom.
As a young half-elf, a player will explore the ancient mountain-citadel of Zharrharag, a massive Dwarven fortress riddled with ancient treasure, powerful weapons, and waves of ruthless enemies.
The game will utilize the DS touch screen for puzzle solving and inventory management. I’m looking forward to checking this game out when it ships.
At the Penny Arcade Expo (better known as PAX), gamers got a chance to see a developer walkthrough of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. This two part video shows character creation, the opening cinematic, and some gameplay.
I’m honestly not sure why they made this an initiative based RPG (not turn based, as pointed out by the developer in the second part of the video). I would have expected an action/adventure type of game, which probably would sell more. I’ll be interested to see some more gameplay as development progresses. I’m sure it’s got a great story, but the gameplay could be iffy.
I’ve never been a big history buff. I learned about Joan of Arc way back in grade school and high school and haven’t really revisited that time period since. But Jeanne d’Arc brings me right back. What was once a bore is now a fun gaming experience. Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Jeanne d’Arc for the PSP:
Presentation and Graphics: Jeanne d’Arc utilizes both anime cut scenes and cell shaded character gameplay which works out great. The anime cut scenes look just like watching a movie, as expected. During gameplay and in-game cut scenes, the backgrounds are all layed out nicely with a distinct cell shaded feel for the characters. With everything together, it’s one of the better looking PSP games I’ve seen. The character animations are minimal, but they look pretty good. 4 of 5
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