RainBlood, an RPG from Chinese indie developer Soulframe, has just been released in English translation. Bloodrain uses hand-drawn environments and characters (with a little help form RPGmaker) to create a plot-heavy RPG set in fictionalized China. In this single-player game, players will enter the town of Pang to uncover mysteries involving a plague on the city and hidden loyalties as they fight monsters and avoid would-be assassins. The game takes place in one day in Pang, but flashbacks, interior stories and a complex overall storyline promise to make the game more of an interactive novel than a button-masher.
I’m pretty excited to check it out, I love RPGs in general, and usually indie storylines prevent my friends from having to listen to me whine endlessly about how the game could have been better with more character development. I also love Chinese myths, but after two years of living in China, my Mandarin is still basically confined to reading a menu or buying a train ticket, so I’m pleased to see the release of the English version.
There’s also a sequel to Rainblood already in the works.
Publisher Paradox Interactive (ofMajesty 2, East India Company and Elven Legacy), and new developer Arrowhead Game Studio have released a new preview trailer for the upcoming console game Magicka.
If you watch game trailers and read games news as much as I do, you’re probably sick of hearing how this release is completely groundbreaking and new and the most epic awesomeness EVER. But Arrowhead Game Studios knows that a fantasy RPG really involves running around the forest in your bathrobe, waving a glowy weapon.
Yeah, sure, Magicka will also have a fancy elemental magic system, when you can combine your water power and your fire power and make a steam attack (could you also combine water and earth for a killer mud attack?), but I think they had me at “prancing around in a bathrobe.”
Arrowhead Games is brand new to me (Have you heard anything about them? Comment and let me know!), and Paradox Interactive also expects to release Arsenal of Democracy later this month and Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West later this year.
Slayer of Dragon RPG is a stripped-down system for tabletop storytelling by Grant Gigee. The focus is on fast, simple combat, with room -but not hard rules – for roleplaying and story. “The core of the game,” Gigee says, “is like rock-paper-scissors in the sense that there are many ways to achieve victory but no one ‘right’ way.”
Gigee’s game system attempts to bring tabletop roleplaying away from the dice rolling and swords of +1 towards playing pretend. The rules exist to keep group storytelling from devolving into playground claims of who killed who. If you enjoy creating stories and playing pretend more than rolling dice, this is a game for you.
Inspiration for Slayer of Dragon comes from across the globe. Gigee was influenced by the simple rule systems of European strategy games, and he tries to bring that clarity and accessibility to a tabletop RPG system. His other influence is a love of martial arts movies, from Kurosawa classics to the flimsiest B-grade films.
Instead of leveling and learning new skills, Slayer characters have “revelations” in which they tell the other players what their character has always known but never mentioned before. This method of leveling, like many other elements of Slayer, is a nod to Gigee’s love of martial arts movies.
“Slayer of Dragon RPG is designed to recreate kung-fu movies,” designer Gigee says, “So I needed it to be fast: fast to make characters, fast to get into the action, and fast to move from scene to scene. A complete session can be played in two hours, only a bit longer than the typical film takes to watch.”
Pokemon Diamond: This was the first game of the Pokemon series that i played on the DS. I got the chance to play the game at my cousin’s house and i simply loved it so i decided to buy it. The game was released by Nintendo and Game Freak in mid 2007 and is a role playing game. Its ESRB rating is everyone. The main story is that you (either a girl or a boy) are living in some strange town. A professor named Rowan sends you and one of your best friends on a mission to collect as much information on the Pokemons that live in that area as you can. After that you will go on to gather information on Pokemons by fighting and capturing them.
That was the story, now let us come to the good points of the game. The game features colorful environments as you have seen in Pokemon cartoons. One thing that i would really appreciate that has been done by nintendo is the introduction of Online gameplay. The story is full of twists and turns and it is long enough to keep you busy for hours.
Overall, it is a great game and the gameplay is full of variations. it is a must have for any DS owner.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was the first game in the all time famous GTA series on the PSP. There are small issues in the game but, it is a great game if seen from the PSP perspective. The game was released by Rockstar in 2005 just after the launch of PSP. The game takes you back to 1998 and allows you to play the character of Toni Cipriani who has just returned from abroad. On his reuturn he starts working for a crime family . After that you will be taking over different gangs, managing deals and all the stuff that Criminal can do. In this game you can drive vehicles from cars, bikes, boats to airplanes. The game is actually a remake of the original GTA 3 with the addition of bikes and a few new areas. The game gives you the freedom of roaming around the open world environment at your will. In the beginning only a small area is opened but as you will progress further in the game new areas will be unlocked. In the end i would say that this game is a must for every PSP owner.
A few days ago i review God of War 2. Now i am going to review the original God of War which gave birth to the God of War series. God of War is a fantasy action adventure game which was released by Sony’s American in-house game development studio in 2005 and its ESRB rating is Mature. God of War is one of the best games that the video game industry has ever seen and if you miss this game you are going to regret it for your life. The combat system in the game is very impressive and intense. In the beginning you only have one weapon which is a sword attached to a steel chain which is helpful for attacking enemies from a distance. The main character looks great and it matches and blends with the story. There are alot of great characters in the game. The story of the game is great with alot of twists and turns. Overall it is a great game and you anyone having a ps2 shouldn’t miss this game. I will give it 9.5 out of 10.
I am a big fan of action RPG games especially those involving fantasy. Such as God of War, Max Payne, Gta, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid. One of my favorite fantasy RPG games is Final Fantasy XII. I have a great respect for this game franchise in my heart. It is no doubt one of the best RPG video games that i have ever played on the PS2. The game has a rich cast of characters which will take you away from the real world into a totally different and magical world. The game offers a very engaging storyline with alot of twists and turns which keep you glued to your seats even after you have ended the game. The combat system is strategic and very complex. You will also get to explore a number of different environments. The graphics are also very good. Overall it is one of the best games that i have played so far and i will give it 9.3 out of 10.
Out from Ensemble Studios Publishged by Microsoft this was one of the heaviest myth based Game i’ve ever seen on Multiplayer Play. Based on Greek and semi roman Mythology the game has a Solid base and a Decent Texture Engine though u need some dedicated graphics to get rid of some stupid polygons.
Playing though Different civilizations os even more Thrilling.
Til today this one of the Most widley played Multiplayer Games in Clans and Online too.
Game Rating 7/10
Basic Requirements:
Pintium IV 1.6-2.6Ghz
512Mb RAM
64MB Graphics
and A Sound Card
TrollAndToad.com is an online shop for board games, Magic cards and the like. I got on their mailing list when I got my boyfriend’s Christmas gift there. If you haven’t gotten a gift for the gamer in your life, they’re running a holiday discount. From their holiday email:
Speaking of giving, we here at Troll and Toad want to make sure that
you are given a darn good deal for this Holiday season. By entering the
coupon code LASTMINUTE, YOU GET 10% OFF EVERYTHING ON WEBSITE
on Wednesday, December 17th!! Thats right, 10% off for anything and
everything we have on site coming this Wednesday! It’s really the least
we can do by showing the appreciation we have for you and the obvious
good taste you all have!
Too bad I was actually organized for a change, and already ordered my games.
Role Playing Games are really a hit in video games. Whether it’s in Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 or Playstation 2. It’s nice to see your character evolve to what you want. Take for example the game Fable 2, the character evolves to what you do to him. When you always eat meat and fatty foods to replenish stamina the character physical appearance became fat. Which there is a mini game which you must pursue a girl then marry her. Your Characters Attractiveness decline when you eat that kind of replenishment. And also, the character evolves in the decisions you make. If it became evil, corrupt or good.
Even in the final fantasy game series, your character is what you make it. You can have a strong character by fighting a lot or a magical character by enhancing your magic most of the time. Level up in terms of experience, that you will get when you encounter things or in a fight. It’s really fun to see your character grow. Take for example a character in Final Fantasy VIII, my favorite game thus far. The hero started as a student in a military academy. Who has a rival student which eventually became his greatest enemy in the end. The graphics was really ahead of it’s time, the game was first introduce in Playstation 1.
RPG really is for the explorer kind of players.
Zelda: A Link to the Past is one of the great classic SNES games in the Zelda series. The third installment in the “Legend of Zelda” series, it was released in North America in 1991. Though many games at that time were coming out with the now popular “Third Person” 3d perspective, this Zelda installment stayed with the favorite “Birds Eye” top down perspective that had worked for it so far. The battle system stays true as well, your sword and shield being all you ever need.
The game play is very similar to the other Link installments made before this, the only thing that’s changed is that the graphics got a bit prettier, the bosses got far more dangerous, and the world and storyline is much more involved.
I’ve played and re-played this game so many times, but it still offers challenges and pleasant surprises for me.
If you’re looking for this game to play again (and you don’t want to visit eBay and dig out your old SNES), it was re-released again recently for the Game Boy Advanced in a dual-game cartridge with The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords.
Graphics: 4 (could have used a bit more work, they’re a bit jumpy sometimes)
Sound: 3 (music is still the same, but still wonderful)
Gameplay: 5 (always fun, always challenging)
Storyline: 4 (surprisingly deep for a Zelda game)
(Note: All ratings are on a 1-5 basis, with 5 being the highest)
Much to my and many friends’ dismay, it seems that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, expected at first to be available for Christmas, won’t be out for this year in the end, but for a yet undefined date, somewhere between February and April 2006. This is bad news for those who were awaiting it with impatience, and a hard blow for MicroSoft, the game being one of the big titles planned for the launch of the Xbox 360.
Take-Two said that the game won’t be released until it’s fiscal Q2, which means some time between February and April of 2006. The company’s President and CEO, Paul Eibeler, says that the delay is to ensure quality of the product. According to Eibeler, the game’s developer, Bethesda Softworks, requires “additional development time to ensure the title meets gamers’ high expectations for this popular franchise”.
Rendez-vous next year, as we say in my country. And now, I need to find another Christmas gift for my boyfriend. Drats.
For these moments when you want to play a game online but don’t have much time to dedicate to it everyday, here’s one of these little “management/roleplay” games that will only demand you a few minutes of your time: Renaissance Kingdoms (also available in French at Les Royaumes Renaissants). It’s free (unless you want to take a paying account, in which case the character will be a Noble), it’s played online in a simple web browser, and you don’t need to do more than your share if you don’t want to.
The basics are simple: your character starts as a peasant in the Renaissance setting. The first goal is to feed him/her (simple bread is the poor peasant’s friend when starting!), and to find ways of earning money, the most common being hiring yourself at a mine, as soldier in the local army, or by cultivating your little parcel of soil. More interaction with other players and within the game is of course possible: you can put offers to hire people to work for you, craft items and sell them later on when you reach a certain level, chat with other players in the various taverns where you can also buy food, and so on.
So, as said, not very complex, not very demanding, you can stop whenever you want, and it can be fun to give it five minutes here and there (if you plan on not playing for several days, park the character at a church: at least he’ll be fed and you won’t find him dead from starvation!). At least it has lasted me for more than one week already, which isn’t that bad at all for such a little thing.
Everybody remembers Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind? Yes? No? You should! Not only have these games marked their time, but the fourth opus of the Elder Scrolls series is now to come soon… very soon… on our beloved machines. I’ve seen a pretty snazzy demo of the game recently, and both my boyfriend and I were in awe while watching it. Not only were the graphisms stunning, but they also leave room to much interaction with the background and the items pertaining to it (even animals, too; the demo showed one NPC ‘shooting’ her dog with some kind of calming spell, and it was quite funny to watch).
We played through much of the same areas we saw at X05, which is basically the training area for Oblivion. At the start you’ll pick your race and customize your character’s appearance, eventually you’ll pick a birth sign, and a little while after that you’ll be charged with selecting your major skills and attributes. When you go to pick all your final attributes you’ll also be given the choice to change any of the conditions you’d previously selected, right down to your character’s name.
As you select what kind of character you want to be you can pick warrior or thief presets from a list, modify them, or create and name your own class, much like in Morrowind. Unlike Morrowind, Oblivion gives you the chance to try out some of the game’s skills before you finalize everything.
On our way through the training catacombs we were able to pick locks. These sequences switch to a different screen where you’re tasked with tapping tumblers into an unlocked position. As the tumblers move upward you need to press A at their apex to correctly fix them in place so you can open the container or door. Your security skill determines how difficult the tumblers are to manipulate and how many tumblers you’ll need to tap. You can also tell the game to automatically resolve the lockpick sequence instead of doing it manually, but this seemed to result more often than not in broken picks.
An article a tad bit technical, about the various character and skills possibilities, but doesn’t it make you wish that it was already available? For me, it sure does.
I love the role-playing video game genre. The Final Fantasy games are as much a staple of the role-playing genre as good old fashioned Dungeons and Dragons. Some of the FF games are much better than others. I think the most beloved of all the Final Fantasy games is Final Fantasy III (or FF VI in Japan). Other great FF games are VII, VIII, and X. Here is how I rate them:
1.) Final Fantasy III- The most engaging storyline, the most memorable characters, and the most excellent gameplay of all the Final Fantasy games. Just imagine if this one had graphics that were worth a bean. One of my most favorite things about this game is that there are 15 playable characters, and it seems like most of them have a pretty neat story as well as cool abilities. This video game would make a pretty fantastic movie (when I make my millions, that is my first order of business, to make this into a story).
2.) Final Fantasy X- This game has a great magic system, which is much like Final Fantasy III (probably why it is so great). It has a great story and memorable characters. Although, I felt like the ending was disappointing. It had excellent side quests. The final bosses were not too challenging (that may have been a tribute to my time spent leveling up, but I wasn’t too impressed, regardless). Overall, though, I had a blast throughout the entire game.
3.) Final Fantasy VII- This game had pretty decent graphics (if you look past the outrageous polygon-pop). The story is quite good. The magic system is pretty interesting (though a little tough to learn at first). The characters are lovable and enduring.
4.) Final Fantasy VIII- This game had great graphics, and neat movie sequences. However, it had a very confusing story. It was difficult to identify with the characters, and the magic system absolutely stunk. Since the magic system stunk and the Aeons were so powerful, I would give up on my magic attacks and regular attacks and just use my Aeons over and over again (it would take forever to watch the little Aeon video clips, so after awhile it would get quite tiresome). If you have the opportunity to buy this game, don’t; rent a movie instead. The only redeeming feature of this game is its cool graphics and beautiful movie scenes.
I had already blogged in here about the “good vs evil” choices in video games, giving Fable as an example (and an interesting one). Well, PC owners, rejoice, for this game is now going to be available on our dear computers, and not only on Xbox anymore: on September 20th, Fable indeed goes gold, as announced by GameSpot, and not only in its original version. New spells, quests, armors and regions to explore have been added, to answer the often-voices reproach that the game wasn’t of “epic-length” enough.
Last year’s ambitious “choose your own adventurer” role-playing game, Fable, is about to complete its long journey from the Xbox to the PC, as Microsoft Game Studios today announced that Fable: The Lost Chapters has gone gold and will hit stores September 20.
[...]
Though it was fairly well received, one of the common knocks against the game was its less-than-epic length. This prompted developer Lionhead to go back to the PC release and add new spells, quests, armor, enemies, and regions to explore. An Xbox version of Fable: The Lost Chapters is expected before the end of the year as part of the Platinum Hits line of games with a $19.99 price tag.
[...]
Fable: The Lost Chapters is rated M for Mature and will retail for $49.99 on the PC.
Here’s something that definitely needs to be kept under the eyes—at least by myself, and probably by lots of RP gamers out there.
“Elveon” means “The book of elves” and is based on a comprehensive fantasy saga which goes back to the times of the rise of the advanced Elvish civilization. The gods have left the world of Naon in a rush, it is the place they had wanted to transform into their paradise. The Neamas, the elves of the ancient times and fellows of the gods have remained there all alone. A smouldering conflict is gaining more and more importance and a new era starts which is marked by envy, malevolence and relentless wars that prevent the gods’ descendants from entering upon their inheritance.
More information is available on the official website, www.elveon.com.
We’re still working with 3D People, and a new Heretic Kingdoms game is in the works. For this one, we’re working on it from the beginning, so we are able to attempt much more. We’re keeping several of the factors that worked well in the first one, such as the simplified healing system, and the Attunement system – although the latter is being improved. The new system is broken into streams of development – it gives the player greater control over how and which Attunements the player learns. In effect, it provides a bespoke class system which the player has control over.
One thing that we’re taking a step backwards on is the character attributes. In the first game, we wanted to keep it as simple as possible. But one thing has become apparent from post-release feedback – the core audience (which is inevitably a Hardcore audience) for these games actually enjoy a little bit of the “spreadsheet full of numbers” – perhaps because it allows them to identify the character in an easy to understand fashion. So we’re providing more of a conventional attribute system, although it will remain simple and accessible.
The next Heretic Kingdoms game will have an open world. We always wanted it for the first game, but it was always going to be too expensive. This time, we can make it happen. The linear structure has its place, but it’s nice to be able to offer the player a world to explore. And similarly, we’re able to give the player more choice as to their starting character. There should be a choice of gender at the very least. We’re also exploring ways to make the world more dynamic… I shouldn’t say too much about this, because at the moment we can’t be sure which elements of this will work.
This, of course, is far from being an official announcement, and the game would still be a good year away or even more than that, but still, it’s something.
Everybody remembers Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind? Yes? No? You should! Not only have these games marked their time, but the fourth opus of the Elder Scrolls series is now to come soon… very soon… on our beloved machines. I’ve seen a pretty snazzy demo of the game recently, and both my boyfriend and I were in awe while watching it. Not only were the graphisms stunning, but they also leave room to much interaction with the background and the items pertaining to it (even animals, too; the demo showed one NPC ‘shooting’ her dog with some kind of calming spell, and it was quite funny to watch).
