There's a new podcast available from BioWare on Dragon Age 2:

In the latest edition of BioWare’s Dragon Age 2 podcast, Victor Wachter speaks with Dragon Age Executive Producer Mark Darrah about the process of creating the Dragon Age games and with Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw about his recent trip to gamescom and what you can expect to see at Penny Arcade Expo this weekend. Other topics include ponytail, Varric’s chest hair and Hawke’s beard.

IGN is impressed with a short demo they played of Lair of the Shadowbroker:

The first true bridging downloadable content BioWare  has produced, Lair of the Shadow Broker will be playable at any point in your game after you travel to Illium. Because your decisions here will actually affect certain storylines in Mass Effect 3, and more importantly, you can finally resume your romantic relationship with Liara (if you successfully wooed her in the first game), this promises to be the best DLC for Mass Effect 2 to date. Lair of the Shadow Broker also houses more cut scenes and dialogue sequences than in any of the previous DLC offerings and will play out over a few hours. Yesterday I had the privilege of getting my hands on it for about 30 minutes, and that time left me wanting more.

Dutch site XGN has a video interview with TopWare's Joerg Schindler about Two Worlds II.  After an intro in Dutch, the conversation switches to English - I'm going to link via Two Worlds Vault who have the video and some commentary underneath on the finer details.

There's a story trailer with some gameplay towards the end for Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue over at Evil Avatar.

A couple of reviews for Elemental.  Strategy specialist Troy Goodfellow goes for a 'C' at GameShark:

A few hours with Elemental are enough to impress you. The world is generic, but the game map always seems alive. The continent is full of fantasy tropes like lost treasure and inns with mysterious quest givers as well as rival empires and dangerous random beasties. Then you advance your technology and uncover abandoned temples, dragon eggs, and new metals that make your soldiers the most deadly in the world. Stardock's turn based strategy game is one of the first to bring a fantasy novel backstory to life.

But a little learning is a dangerous thing and those first few hours are deceptive. By your second campaign you realize how many of these quests repeat from game to game, so fetching that dragon egg is not much of an adventure any more. The richness of the tech tree doesn't carry over to the magic system, which becomes repetitive and boring very quickly. By the end of the second few hours, you will have seen almost all Elemental has to show you.

Out of Eight says 5/8, which translates to 'C-':

As you might imagine, Elemental: War of Magic features magic. There are four main spellbooks: earth, air, fire, and water, plus summoning and enchantments and some advanced books that are unlocked with research. The spells come in tactical (for battles) and strategic (for the game world) flavors. Disappointing, most of the spell categories offer up the same types of spells: offensive weapons, attribute bonuses, and pets. I fail to see the difference between a throwing a fireball and throwing a boulder (so why have both?). Spellbooks fail to retain any source of individuality, save for a couple of high-level spells. Some of the spells are cool, though, especially those that alter the game world and inhibit enemy cities. Controlling a shard of a particular spellbook makes those spells more powerful, so there is some luck in that you find shards of the same type you set up your character with. I never found the need to specialize in more than two (and usually one would suffice) spellbooks, since each one has a number of tactical and strategic spells and there is significant overlap of spell abilities. Overall, I think the spells could use a lot more variety and individuality.

The debut gameplay trailer for Dungeon Siege III has been released at Gametrailers, with a little over a minute of logos and brief gameplay sequences.  As indicated in previews, there's a definite sense of height to some locations and, otherwise, it looks like you'd expect from a pretty hack'n'slash.

IGN has written a very positive preview for this game. They talk about the much better choice and consequence,  the enhanced game engine as well as the better flexible gameplay. As usual, an excerpt, telling about the choice and consequences:

Three opening scenarios multiply out to a full 16 different endings. That kind of scope is staggering, when you stop and consider the potential routes necessary to bridge you from one point to another through the game world. In fact, during our presentation, we were privy to the entire game schematic – a tangled mass of plot points, missions and interconnected events and scenes that looked more akin to a circuit board wireframe than anything.

During GamesCom, Obsidian's Nathaniel Chapman and Gas Powered Games Chris Taylor sat down and talked with G4.  They talk about the game, and how it will be, not much new info there. But then they talk about this:

G4: So when you got access to the franchise, was there anything you were desperate to add or take away right from the start?

Nathaniel: I think the thing that felt very natural for us to add was what we're doing with story and companion and choice and consequence of dialogue. That felt like something that would bring a lot of value and the trick was to figure out how to do that without breaking what made Dungeon Siege great: the fast paced combat. So, that's been one of the bigger additions and something we've been excited to add to the game.

There have been a lot of other things that we've thought about keeping or changing, but really it's been very important to us that we stay true to what made Dungeon Siege great, like fast paced, fun gameplay with a lot of loot.

There's a substantial 25- minute interview with Travis Baldree and Jason Beck a The Cynical Brit. Topics include the succes of the original game and the plans for the sequel.

It looks like the PC version of Arcania: Gothic 4 might have some hefty requirements - particularly for the CPU. 

Alistair wrote in pointing out some comments by Desslock over at the Qt3 forums about revised, rather beefy system requirements.  I asked Desslock about the new specs he posted - apparently these were supplied by NA publisher Dreamcatcher (which is owned by JoWood, anyway) after they agreed the existing ones floating around the 'net weren't accurate.  Here we go:

Here are the revised system specs (note that a Core2Duo CPU isn't sufficient, and 3 GB RAM is also required to "comfortably play the game." The video card requirements are more modest and should raise less issues:

Processor Min: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz, AMD Phenom X4 2.2Ghz (or Tri-core like AMD Phenom X3)
Ram Min: 3GB
Video Card for minimum playability: Geforce 8800 GTX / ATI HD 2600 Pro
Video Card for best results: Geforce 280 GTX / ATI HD 4800 or higher

There's a review of the Saxons DLC for King Arthur over at Resolution Magazine, with the author wanting more inspiration from such content.  The score is 6/10 and here's an excerpt:

Having enjoyed King Arthur: The Roleplaying Wargame an awful lot a few months ago I was quite looking forward to seeing what the inevitable DLC or expansion would be. There were a couple of small downloads with new artefacts and units but that stuff never interests me on its own. As a larger package however though, it’s rather appealing. That’s kind of what The Saxons is and at the same time isn’t. Yes you get new artefacts, spells, ladies, heroes, quests and a few new units but at the same time there’s nothing meaty like a new map to explore. Instead it’s just a big chunk of ‘more of the same’. That’s not strictly a bad thing but I hope that any future DLC will be a bit more inspired.

Two Worlds Vault is reporting DRM details for Two Worlds II, sourced from PC Games Hardware and Gamers Global:

According to what Mariusz Szaflik from RP confirmed and Zuxxez told earlier GamersGlobal.de, the title will rely on similar protection as its predecessor: you activate the game via the internet or telephone up to 3 times (subsequent reinstalls on different systems or rigs will require you to contact the publisher) and play. The game doesn't require DVD in your drive to be played and similarly will not rely on Steam connection (for Steam-distributed copies).

Head over for the links, including Google translations of the original articles.

BioWare has kicked up a new trailer for their upcoming Lair of the Shadowbroker DLC.

IGN has a Diablo 3 preview with input from Jay Wilson that they've called a Status Update.  It covers a variety of subjects - obviously including the recent caravan/artisan updates.  Here's a snip on quests, which made me wonder if they've backed off on some of Leonard Boyarsky's influence a little:

In terms of the actual questing, Wilson commented on how they'll be structured and how they'll tie into each other as you progress through the game. "It's a very linear quest line. We actually tried a much denser, more complex quest system and we found that players who played Diablo games just didn't really want that. They wanted a more focused game. They wanted to stay focused on killing monsters, they didn't want a lot of weird side quests. We do side quests but we don't put them in the quest log, they're events that occur within a zone that you can go "Oh, this Hell portal need to be closed." And then you can close it and it'll go, "there's three more portals in this zone." And you can decide if you want to close those portals but it's optional, you don't have to."

Disciples III has been reviewed at IGN, with a middling score of 6/10:

Disciples III: Renaissance is a pretty, but relatively shallow experience. Exploring the world is fine, but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. The combat system can turn into a repetitive ordeal, though it is entertaining at first. It also seems like Renaissance is long for the sake of being long, not because there’s an interesting story to tell. If you really enjoy strategy RPGs, particularly the Disciples series, you might enjoy Disciples III. There’s a bunch of content here to play, but you should really try the demo first to see if it will keep your attention.

Lar has a new update on the Flames of Vengeance forums.  The X360 improvements, possible demo and patches for Divinity 2 are addressed:

Hello all,

To my shame, I once again realize that the pressures of everyday life at Larian stopped me from posting more regular status updates, something I had decided to do some time ago. Quick update about what's keeping us busy:

Submission of the Xbox360 version of The Dragon Knight Saga: Honestly, you won't recognize the game if you played it previously on Xbox360. It's much much smoother, the user interfaces have changed significantly, the camera has changed completely, it's been balanced specifically for the X360 this time and above all it's much more fun. It's also very very big, as the content of Flames of Vengeance together with the revised Ego Draconis content make for a very big game. I'm too biased to make an objective judgement, but I hope that when you get it in your hands, you'll have as much fun with it as the testers seem to have.

Polish, Russian, French, Italian, Spanish, English, German versions: We love localization, yes we do ! My god, what a job - with the FOV content now added to it, just verifying if a language integration worked out well has become a huge logistical operation.

Monkey Labs 2 & 3: Lots of commotion here in Belgium about educational games with the start of the new school year, and our Monkey Labs games are getting quite some attention, especially now that the government seems to take an interest. We've got two more slated for release end of September, and then there's another two coming a bit later, so those too are keeping me busy.

Next games: In the midst of the rush of releasing the 18 versions, there's still our next projects to take care of too, as more and more team members are ready with their jobs on our current productions. Up to now we've been fooling around with ideas and concepts, but pretty soon decisions will need to be taken about how these will materialize, though I fear it will take some time before we'll be able to talk about them.

Demos: Lots of pressure on our shoulders to come up with demos for The Dragon Knight Saga so that's probably going to take some of our time too very soon.

Patches: When all versions will finally be finished, we'll be able to lift the existing released content to the level of the latest builds, which will be about time. I regret tremendously that we couldn't release any patches before, but it was out of our hands, something we'll not allow to happen again.

That's all I have time for now, I'll try to give a longer one next time round.

Cheers

Lar

A site called Grupo97 has an interview with Paul Neurath, co founder of Looking Glass Studios, about the famous studio.  More recently, Paul's current company Floodgate Entertainment co-developed NWN: Shadows of Undrentide and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, though this isn't part of the coversation.  I'm not sure much is revealed but it's a walk down memory lane for fans:

Over the years people usually realize and accept both errors and successes committed in the past. Looking Glass main successes are evident, but what about errors?

We surely made many errors over the 10 years we were in business. All companies do; more so if they do anything interesting. We did try to learn from our errors.

Some of the errors we made…

- We should have dialed back somewhat the level of depth and complexity we put in some of our games, and put more emphasis on accessibility. We did learn from this, and Thief was the result.

- We did not put sufficient emphasis on pure visual pizzazz for many of our games. Fight Unlimited was an exception; but for our other titles the level visual eye candy, and providing fast and smooth frame rates, was not on par with the blockbusters of the time. This hurt our sales.

- We spread ourselves too thin in terms of genres. Nearly every blockbuster studio of that time had a tight focus, such as only doing PC first-person shooters, as often as not just a single franchise. We did 3D fantasy games, 3D science fiction games, flight simulators, sports games, and others genres. In hindsight, we were slightly crazed to try to tackle such a wide palette as a small company, and it meant that we could not build the level of expertise in any single genre as we otherwise could.

- We were undercapitalized for what we were trying to do. As an small but ambitious studio we tried to push ourselves and do a lot; but often with not quite enough capital. It was a risky strategy that ultimately contributed to our demise.

I could go on, but that’s probably enough to mention for now.

Shamus Young has kicked up the second part of his Mordin Solus series that he started a few weeks back.  I'm still not sure we're he's going with it, because this second piece is still recapping the history of the Mass Effect universe:

The Salarians discovered the Krogan and introduced them to the world of interstellar travel and galactic future toys. With space age guns and armor they were more powerful than ever, and their natural aggression made them want to fight the Rachni. All the Salarians had to do was equip them and give them a lift, and they had an almost endless supply of fearless bloodthirsty badasses to throw at the Rachni problem.

This was a very Salarian solution. You can probably see the unintended consequences coming, but the idea had a clever simplicity about it that let the Salarians defend the galaxy without putting their fragile butts in direct combat.

1C has announced King's Bounty: Crossworlds will be available from September 17:

MOSCOW, Russia — September 1, 2010 — Leading Eastern and Central European publisher 1C Company and Katauri Interactive announced today the release of King’s Bounty: Crossworlds, a new game in the award-winning King’s Bounty series.

The title will be released on September 17, 2010 and features a massive update to King’s Bounty: Armored Princess (Orcs on the March) along with two new campaigns, dozens of new quests, new items, spells and creatures.

Fans of the King’s Bounty series will be thrilled to see their requests were answered as King’s Bounty: Crossworlds also includes a full-scale game editor.

As in the multi-award winning 1st game, the player has many options to battle both new and old enemies. Various skills and abilities, as well as a flying steed, will help to overcome the hordes attacking the kingdom. The Princess is also accompanied by her tamed dragon, the dragon will do its best to protect the Princess during the battles, starting with simple attacks and finishing with fire breathing and volcano summoning.

King’s Bounty: Crossworlds features:

• 2 brand new campaigns (Champion of the Arena with boss battles in a gladiatorial tournament and Defender of the Crown with battles in unique tactical arenas with a random selection of enemies and allies)
• Orcs on the March – extensive update to the original King’s Bounty: Armored Princess
• New creatures to slay or use in combat
• 70 new items, 8 new item sets, including one for the pet dragon and 3 component artifacts.
• 7 new quests allow players to continue their journey
• 50 new abilities and skills
• 13 new spells
• Game Editor for King's Bounty: Armored Princess

There will be three versions of the game available:

• King’s Bounty: Crossworlds Platinum Edition – contains King’s Bounty: Armored Princess, all the new content, plus the original King’s Bounty: The Legend.
• King’s Bounty: Crossworlds Game of the Year Edition - contains King’s Bounty: Armored Princess, all the new elements and is a standalone product.

And finally as a present to our longtime fans the last version - King’s Bounty: Crossworlds – requires an installed version of King’s Bounty: Armored Princess and adds in all the new features, campaigns and the editor.

Duck and Cover sends words that you can grab a 12-page preview of Chris Avellone's All Roads graphic novel for iPhones and iPads via iTunes.  Here's a snip from the accompanying blurb:

Get a sneak peek at Fallout: New Vegas—All Roads, the graphic novel available exclusively in the Fallout: New Vegas collector’s edition from Bethesda Softworks. All Roads introduces the world of New Vegas, a town of dreamers and desperados being torn apart by warring factions vying for complete control of this desert oasis, and a tells an intriguing tale of loyalty and violence that leads right up to the beginning of the game.

Written by Chris Avellone, the game’s Senior Designer, All Roads is tightly integrated into the story of New Vegas, even containing clues to in-game missions for the sharp-eyed reader. Artists Jean Diaz (Incorruptible) and Wellinton Alves (Shadowland: Blood on the Streets, Nova) and cover artist Geof Darrow (Hard Boiled, The Matrix, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot) stunningly interpret the world of New Vegas.

Game Trailers has an exclusive video showing footage from this new DLC for Dragon Age: Origins. Thanks to vilnii from the Bioware forums in this thread.  And according to Chris Priestly, Bioware has been doing this:

Some might think we have been dropping new DA2 monsters into recent DA:O DLC (Golems & Witch Hunt for example).

Small spoilers in the trailer - so be warned.

Also, thanks to Lord Glenwing in this thread at the Bioware forums.

Games Radar has looked at the Mass Effect games and made a list of features they think should be in Mass Effect 3. One of these is the unmasking of Tali:

We just hope that when you finally lift the veil from her face, she doesn’t turn out to be too pretty. Here’s the thing. Tali is smart, she’s funny, and she’s kind of geek when it comes to ship technology. So she’s pretty much the perfect in-game soul mate for anyone who’s been following an RPG trilogy for about five years.

At the very least, Tali needs some kind of horrible skin condition and perhaps a disturbing lip scar, something weird enough to make her shy about unmasking, but not so hideous that you’ll wind up racing through your radial menus for the option to back out of the conversation.

Game Trailers has a video interview with this games lead designer, Bioware's Mike Laidlaw. Topics covered are how the framed narrative will work, how you'll be able to import your saves from Origins and Awaknings, how the controls will work and much much more.

An eight-minute video interview about this game can be found at Gamereactor. They've talked with Peter Molyneux from Lionhead Studios during GamesCom. Subjects covered are why he isn't proud of Fable II,  that you can have children in Fable III, and how they can end up in an orphanage - and much much more.

A bit of a warning: The pattern on the jacket that Moleyneux is wearing can cause seizures when he is moving around, especially for those os us that are sensible to light.

Jack Emmert has been interviewed at Gamasutra, again spending a fair bit of time explaining what Neverwinter isn't and not so much explaining what it is:

So was Neverwinter originally conceived as a co-op RPG, or as an MMO?

JE: Neverwinter was, at least initially... I'll be honest, my initial version is far different. My initial version was a flat-out MMO that would essentially be different zones in Neverwinter, and there would be various entrances and critters scattered throughout. And my initial idea -- and again, we flushed this down the toilet because this was a while ago -- but it was essentially going to be a dungeon that would be instanced between you and your friends. Any real story, per se, was all about exploration.

And there would be stories you would stumble upon, like, "Oh hey, these goblins are trying to relocate the tribe," or "Oh hey, these bandits are trying to look for a particular artifact." But you wouldn't go to a contact to get a mission, per se, as you would in World of Warcraft or Champions Online or whatever. It would be more exploration. But we decided that it would be something else, and I'm entirely for that, because it makes sense.

Thanks, Lucky Day!

Craig from IndieRPGs points out their review of Eschalon: Book II.  The score is 4/5, although I thought the text read lower than that.  A snip on dialogue and quests:

You have no Charisma or Personality stat, so there are rarely more than one or two ways a conversation can go. Most conversation trees give you two branches at a time: one “I’m ending this conversation” branch, and one “I’m continuing this conversation” branch. That’s mostly it. Consequently, the hand that guides conversations forward never manages to stay out of sight. You will always know that you are talking with a “Give a Side Quest” or “Advance the Plot” marionette. For a game so plainly about exploration, the inability to meaningfully explore other characters is a major oversight.

This stinginess with dialog options extends to the quests. Just to be clear: the non-dialog-driven quests in Eschalon are nicely non-linear, with multiple ways of achieving the same objective. Entering Port Kuudad, for instance, can be accomplished in a wide variety of different ways, few of them immediately apparent when you first arrive at the outer gates.

But once you start talking to NPCs, all this non-linearity goes out the window. Eschalon reprises one of the problems that plagued the original Baldur’s Gate: encounters that always devolve into fights no matter what you say or do.

Here's an interesting - but completely unsubstantiated one.  Belgian game site Gamemania.be lists Drakensang: The River of Time, pictured with an English box and Eidos as the publisher.  Looking through UK sites I couldn't find another reference to back it up but it we'll keep an eye out.

Thanks, Alrik!

Alec Meer has penned a Wot I Think review of Kings Bounty: Crossworlds.  Ultimately it ends up his favourite KB title but not without some criticism and boredom:

I wish Crossworlds did more, especially given the melodramatic title. It’s showing us the same core stuff, the same core places and the same core fights, and I really need it to move on after three years. But this is as far as it could sensibly push what it is capable of, and it goes much further than Armoured Princess, the staid and unambitious middle-child of this vital series, ever did.

As such, it’s the title I’m going to nod to whenever anyone asks me which KB game to pick up. It mightn’t have the anecdotal power of the first, but that surprise delight was also hamstrung by a dreary, grindy second half. Crossworlds is a game you can tackle in peppy chunks, enjoying a series of fresh experiences rather than one over-long one. This is the status quo-perverting wonder that made King’s Bounty sing, now extended to its strategy rather than just its setting. It might cling to safety in the broadest sense, but it’s impossibly clever and cartoonish where it matters.

Ossian Studios has announced their new project - an iPhone/iPad game titled The Shadow Sun.  Here's the announcement at their site:

After working with Dungeons & Dragons and The Witcher over the past few years, Ossian Studios has turned its RPG talents to creating a new fantasy game and world of its own design. We are pleased to announce The Shadow Sun™: a dark heroic fantasy that brings together the high adventure of classic D&D, combat inspired by Fable, Zelda, and The Witcher, and the fear of otherworldly horrors of H.P. Lovecraft.

This is a world in which magic is wielded by only a few, where a cataclysm a millennium ago still fuels hostilities between the civilizations that remain, and where much of the lands beyond the fringes of human settlement remain a deadly unknown. It is also a world that has felt an alien touch upon its sun, shrouding it in ever-increasing shadow with consequences that are only now becoming horrifically apparent.

The Shadow Sun brings a full 3D, true Western-style RPG to the iPhone and iPod touch. Combining the excitement of dynamic, visceral combat with a gripping story, it will redefine role-playing on the platform. Stunning, finely detailed graphics and a captivating musical score couple to create an immersive experience to rival the best PC and console RPG titles.

Features:

• Enter a story full of complex characters, intrigue, danger, and shocking surprises.
• Explore the decadent imperial city of Shar and the exotic desert lands around it.
• Battle enemies using magical powers and dozens of weapons.
• Play as male or female with a character system that allows you to evolve your character’s abilities exactly how you want.
• Ally with one of several companions to adventure with and fight alongside.

Make your role-playing choices wisely through dialogue or action, and become either a hero or a villain.

Larian has kicked up some new Flames of Vengeance screens at the official site.

BioWare has kicked up a character profile for Finn (and Ariane, which we may have previously missed) for Witch Hunt, the concluding DLC for Dragon Age.  There's a small render and a paragraph description for each.

GameSetWatch has a feature on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky called Diamond in the Rough, with author Tom Cross arguing the game is a sort of first-person survival tower-defence game:

Stalkers and mercenaries populate the next zone, and an army base guards the only path to safety from the passage between zones. It’s a cruel, relentless sprint from the entry point to safety among the Stalker faction, the military hounding you every step of the way. I died many times here, cut down by a heavy machine gun I couldn’t see. Immediately following my escape, I was enlisted by the Stalkers to help them take several enemy locations. Again, the new weapons and increased numbers of my foes lead to my death, again and again.

It’s in these situations that Clear Sky looks to be a brilliant mixture of tower defense and classic Stalker survival horror shooter. Locations borrowed from the first game are chock-full of deadly new enemies. New items and weapons are no match for the ever-ready forces of the zone, but if I help the Stalkers kill enough military units and mutants, I might be able to buy new items, weapons, and armor. Maybe then I’ll be able to join up with Freedom or Duty, make some real money, and participate in the huge battles that are the highlights of the late game in Clear Sky.

Blue's points to updates at the Diablo 3 site, with a crafting page now online.  It links to the previously-released caravans and artisans video clip  but also provides screens and descriptions.