Saturday, April 30, 2005

 

The Single Player RPG Is Not Dead

Some people in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg are whining that the single-player PC RPG is dead. Well here's some release dates and info on RPG titles out now or due this year. Enjoy.

Heretic Kingdoms just came out in the US, I'm getting ready to review that game. Demo is here: http://www.gamershell.com/download_7167.shtml

Freedom Force vs the Third Reich is a strategy/RPG based on comic book heroes that just came out recently. Demo on FilePlanet or maybe other places if you search around.
http://www.fileplanet.com/150322/150000/fileinfo/

Dungeon Lords is out May 3 or 5 (can't remember) and it's a single or multi-player co-op (small party) action/RPG. Demo on GamersHell:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_8736.shtml

Restricted Area is a cyberpunk single player RPG for the PC that is coming out soonish in the UK/US. The German version is already out and has gotten some good press. There is an english demo for download, link to it on the RA website here: http://www.ra2083.com/
Looking at ActionTrip they list release date of May 10, so it may be out soon.

Guild Wars is multiplayer no-fee online game, but the PvE part is very soloable and could be treated like a (short) Morrowind style game.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is an FPS action game with RPG trappings that should be out in June.

There's something called "The Fall" which looks similar to Fallout. Not sure if this game is out yet or not, they got some kind of "extended version" on their web site but I've never seen this on US store shelves, it might be import-only at this point. Just looking at the web site it appears they at least have a German and a French version released so far.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion should be out later this year, it's got an August release date so far. Expect it to be similar to Morrowind but hopefully better.

An expansion to Sacred called Sacred: Underworld which is coming out this summer.

The Bard's Tale remake that was released on PS2 and Xbox is either out now or will be out soon for PC, and there is a demo for it available here:
http://www.pcgameworld.com/details.php/id/5833/

Dungeon Siege 2 should be out in August.

There's a combo RTS/RPG called Dragonshard that is based on D&D that is coming out this summer from Atari.

If Jade Empire does well (and it seems to be doing well) I wouldn't be surprised with an announcement soon for a PC port.

Gothic 2 Night of the Raven expansion should be getting a UK release soon so an english version. Not sure if they are going to release to the US but I bet GoGamer gets some import copies in.

And on that note Gothic 3 has been announced and will probably be out with the German version in early 2006, so maybe by late 2006 we'll get an English version.

There's something called Hellgate: London that will be a first person RPG similar to Diablo 2 in game mechanics that just got a preview here:
http://tinyurl.com/8z4b7 [ computerandvideogames.com ]
They didn't give a release date.

Geneforge 3 should be out this winter. Damn I can't wait GF1 and GF2 rocked. You can get them at http://www.spidweb.com with large demos available. The 3rd one is out now for Mac but will be out later for PC this year.

Dragon Age by Bioware should be out 2006.

NWN2 is in development. No release date yet.

Strategy First has an RPG in development called Golden Land that is single or multiplayer and supposed to have 100-120 hours of gameplay. Graphics looked kind of like Fallout ish but it's not a post-holocaust setting. No release date so far.

RPGDot lists something called ExMachina on their release dates page as a single-player RPG but going to http://www.exmachina-game.com/ it talked about a post-apocalyptic car combat game called Hard Truck Apocalyptic Wars. Like some kind of Mad Max game. Sounded cool but didn't sound like an RPG unless it's going to be like the old Autoduel game by Origin Systems.

There was something on the list called Forgotten Stories: Echos of Destiny with a November launch date, and the web site at:
http://www.oniric-games.com.ar/ForgottenStories/fs_index_en.htm
has a beta demo available. Looked kind of like a console-style RPG to me.

There were some other games I didn't bother researching that were on the RPGdot release dates page which is here:
http://www.rpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10055

So I think the rumors about the death of the single player PC RPG have been largely exaggerated.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

 

Currently Playing

My "now playing" list has somewhat changed:

World of Warcraft Ami is now level 41, Bip is 21, Xashi is 15... on Argent Dawn server.
Call of Duty Deluxe Ed. Great FPS set in WWII.
Heritage of Kings: The Settlers Was for review, have just quit playing it.
Guild Wars Beta, which is over now, I may end up buying it but not right away.
Jade Empire for Xbox. Great action/RPG set in mythical China.
Dungeons & Dragons Heroes for Xbox with Kim (co-op), great action/RPG.

And soon I will be starting up (for reviewing):
Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition
Dungeon Lords

If you would like to discuss these games send me a shout.

 

Xbox 360

The first 6th generation* console to come out is going to be Microsoft's sucessor to the fairly successful Xbox platform, which has been confirmed to be dubbed Xbox 360. This new console unit will feature ATI video technology and an Intel processor, probably in the 2.5+ ghz range but I haven't seen firm specs on that yet. There is supposed to be a $300 base model and then a "deluxe" version for $400ish, that's also rumor and I don't know what the difference will be. The pictures that have been released so far are of a thinner, smaller, silver rectangular unit that is concave on top and bottom. Here is an image of the Xbox 360 on top of an Xbox for a size and appearance comparison. One thing that is exciting is that there are rumors that the Xbox 360 will launch with wireless controller technology as the default, so no more dragging cords all over the living room!

As mentioned in that blog entry, the Xbox 360 most likely will not be backwards compatible with the Xbox games you have today. That's kind of a real bummer in my opinion, but I can live with it. However, if the device were backwards compatible I would definitely be pre-ordering it and having my grubby little hands on it on day 1. But if not, it all just depends on the launch titles and whether or not any of them sound worth buying a system for.

As for Sony and Nintendo, they both have consoles in the works, but we're looking at late 2006 before we see those, at least in the US. Microsoft has a great opportunity here to gain momentum before the juggernaut Sony comes on the scene. Lets hope they do a better job than Sega did with the Dreamcast which was in a similar position in 1999.

* Here's the breakdown of console generations based on my own ideas.
1st generation - Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 4800, others.
2nd generation - Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Master System
3rd generation - Super NES, Sega Genesis, Sega 32x, Sega CD, Turbo Gfx16
4th generation - Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation
5th generation - Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox
6th generation - Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Revolution

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

 

GameTZ

There is a really cool web site that I've been a part of for quite some time but have only just recently re-joined and started using frequently again. The site is http://www.gametz.com. Each user gets their own page there, mine is here. The site is a huge database of game traders, what they have available, and what they want. It facilitates game trading by showing you match-ups for what you have compared to other's wants and vice versa. You can set up an Offer, where you suggest a trade to another user of the site, and it records what everyone agreed to do. It also helps by facilitating tracking of the packages, and everthing. Very cool stuff.

You can also enter in music CD's, or DVD movies, or even books for trade as well. There is an active community and the site has a bunch of cool forums to read about games. The site also has reviews online for a bunch of the games and the user-written reviews on that site are usually better quality than you'd find on say Amazon, because there is an editor process so the reviews must conform to a certain standard.

If you want to find a way to get something out of that game you never play anymore, check out GameTZ, and tell 'em Knight37 sent ya. Oh yeah, the site is free to use in a limited fashion, but to initiate trades you need to pay a subscription which is fairly resonably priced, or you can also try offering up something to someone in the Subscription Time forum and someone may trade some subscription time to you for something you have. If you're reading my blog then I'll set you up with a free week or two just for participating on my blog. ;) Reply with a comment to this post with your GameTZ user name.

 

Heritage of Kings: The Settlers

I did a review of Heritage of Kings: The Settlers, for Game Chronicles Magazine. You can find it here. The bottom line is, it's a pretty good RTS for a beginner or for people who want a slow paced game that concentrates on building up your settlement and economy, rather than on a lot of combat. 7.5 out of 10.

 

Major Nelson Talks Up the Xbox

Just wanted to spread the word about a really cool blog for Xbox fans, MajorNelson.com. As a Microsoft employee, he posts stuff about the Xbox and has an RSS feed, and he also does a "podCast" (audio-blog). Listening to his weekly audio blog is a highlight of my week. You can pick up on all kinds of new stuff coming out for the Xbox and Xbox Live using by tuning in here.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?