IGN has posted the final piece in their Reckoning review series, culminating in a score of 9/10:

Reckoning proves once and for all that great role-playing experiences don't have to sacrifice what matters most in any game -- gameplay -- while still remaining true to all of the minutiae that makes the best RPGs great. And while Reckoning certainly has its own flaws, I still found myself utterly satisfied with my experience and anxious to parlay the good news to fellow fans of the western RPG. Reckoning certainly isn't a game you should sleep on. Quite the contrary: Amalur demands your attention.

Joystiq has a piece titled The Rhythm of the Quest in Fallout 3 and New Vegas that argues Fallout 3 has more "rhythm" variation than New Vegas, which makes for a better game. As far as I can tell, this boils done to preferring the exploration in FO3 over F:NV - beyond that, I'm not sure I follow the argument. A bit on the underlying premise:

Video games have a certain rhythm to them. Really, they have several different rhythms to them. Musician and critic Kirk Hamilton has written eloquently on the subject, focusing on the moment-to-moment rhythms of games. But there's also a broader rhythm, which comes down to what you spend your time on overall. In Gears Of War, it's simple. You start a fight, you win the fight, reinforcements appear, you beat them, you explore the area, you move along, watch a cutscene, and then pick another fight to start the rhythm again. RPGs have these rhythms too, usually based around quest structure.

The conventional quest rhythm of the modern RPG started with the original Fallout, back in 1997, as so many things did. It was refined by BioWare in Knights Of The Old Republic, and in multiple MMRPGs. The game's main quest guides your character to a central location – a hub – usually a town, where multiple characters offer you quests. If you're like me, you load up on as many of these as possible, and then try to clear them up as efficiently as possible.

You'll be shocked to learn that while the Mass Effect trilogy will soon be ending, BioWare has hinted that may not be the end of the IP. It might be worth hanging on to your saves, according to BioWare producer Mike Gamble:

BioWare's Mike Gamble has told GamerZines that players should probably hold onto their Mass Effect 3 save files, because you never know what may come in future.

"Obviously I can't say anything, but it wouldn't be a bad idea," he said.

In an earlier article also at CVG, Gamble also talked about the range of potential options they have:

"Without going down any specific path, you can think of many, many different areas throughout the IP, throughout the history, where there are large wars to be won, battles to be had, and a lot of development to be done around where these races came from, how they came about.

"We have so much to draw from. We haven't made a decision about whether we'll do anything in the future, but if we were to do something, we just have a lot of information to choose from.

Anyone think they really haven't already started planning the next Mass Effect?

In other Mass Effect news...

• A new Facebook app called Mission Command offers in-game rewards
• Fans find the latest novel is filled with canonical errors

Pete Hines has tweeted the Skyrim Creation Kit is on track for release on Tuesday - plus there's a "surprise with it" it:

For our Skyrim PC fans, the Creation Kit is on track for release on Tuesday. And, we also have a special surprise with it. #whatcoulditbe!?

EA reports that in their 3rd fiscal quarter (which is the forurth quarter of 2011) they had 9.3 million registered users for Origin and 1.7 million susbscribers for TOR. The report contains a lot of other information, so if you are into that check it out here.

Thanks Countchocula

We've receieved news that a new indie game is in the making and it is named Ballikin. The developer states that the game is based on Minecraft, Diablo, Terraria and World of Warcraft.
The graphics of the game are in very 'old skool' 2D and it is currently in an alpha stage, so it is too early too tell if this leads anywhere, but check it out yourself to see if this  might be something for you.

A few magazines have hit various parts of the world with scores for Reckoning but this is the first time there's been something solid to link to. CVG has some snippets from the Official Xbox Magazine, which apparently scored Reckoning at 8/10:

According to the review the joys of Reckoning are in its freedom and emphasis on narrative, which the mag calls "fantastic, even in its side quests."

Although Reckoning has three main 'Destinies': fighter, rogue, and mage, "you can commit to one path or dabble in each," says OXM. "Just like in The Elder Scrolls, this system lets you determine your playstyle."

The game's flaws "come in trying to fit too much into its package" and "some quests grow tedious, especially those that involve fetching X of this or killing Y of that."

Before we get into a couple of previews, Kotaku has news the Mass Effect 3 demo for X360 will include "a limited time Gold access pass" for those that don't subscribe to Live.

Anyway, head to CVG for Mass Effect 3 - The First 2 Hours:

Before all that, unless you're importing an existing Shepard, you'll have to make a brand new one, fiddling around with your eyes and nose until they look really strange, picking your class and backstory, and telling the game a little bit about some of your actions in the previous adventures - who lived, and who died, for example. Then you have to decide which of three different versions of ME3 you'd actually like to play.

Your choices are pretty simple, thankfully. Story mode dials down the combat but allows you to make all the big decisions throughout the game, choosing what happens at crucial - and not so crucial - moments, and who you end up making sweet, slightly creepy, dead-eyed zero-gravity love to.

Action mode offers you exactly the opposite experience, turning conversations into standard non-interactive cut-scenes, while providing you with a straight-up cover-based shooter, with no morality nonsense to get in the way of the headshots.

Role-playing mode, finally, is the traditional Mass Effect mode. If you're reading this, it's the mode you'll almost certainly end up playing. (If you're not reading this, what's on telly at the moment? Is it time for Diagnosis Murder yet?)

...and a similar preview at Eurogamer:

You can expect a linear path as Mass Effect 3 opens, but while the wide wonders of space are shut off for two hours at least there's a suitably epic feel to proceedings. Your favourite characters are coyly drip-fed into the story giving you repeated bursts of anticipation for what comes next, and it's all topped off by the reintroduction of Martin Sheen's Illusive Man. The settings meanwhile - both the vista of destruction on Earth and the desolate Mars base in the shadow of a gigantic brooding dust storm - really must be read as a statement of intent on the part of Bioware.

A new Risen 2 "Making Of" video developer diary has been released that looks at the animations. Watch it at VG247.

Focus has released a new trailer for Game of Thrones, which you can watch via RPS. There are also accompanying screens but they'll have to wait until I upload them. Here's the press release they sent over:

GAME OF THRONES PRESENTS RIVERSPRING IN VIDEO AND SCREENSHOTS!

Game of Thrones today unveiled a new video trailer and 8 exclusive screenshots!
The RPG for PlayStation® 3, Xbox 360® and PC based on the epic series by George R.R. Martin, which was recently adapted into a TV series by HBO®, presents today in details one of the many places the players will get to explore: Riverspring.

Today’s video and screenshots turn their focus to the troubled waterside town of Riverspring and Sarwyck Keep, the home of its ruling family. A vacant lordship and civil unrest greet Alester Sarwyck, one of the game's two main characters, as he returns home after a fifteen-year self-imposed exile. He arrives as the town mourns the passing of his father, the elder Lord Sarwyck, forcing Alester to consider reclaiming rule of Riverspring and restoring order to his lordship.

The township of Riverspring will be one of the many places the 2 heroes of the game – Mors, sworn brother of the Night's Watch, and Alester, the Red Priest – will have to explore but also to fight through. From King’s Landing and Red Keep to the Wall, an Epic quest awaits our heroes, guided by revenge, loyalty, honor, and family, along a twisting plot filled with betrayal and violence.

Discover all of this in May 2012 with Game of Thrones on PlayStation® 3, Xbox 360® and PC!

IGN has an update on changes to the Diablo III beta:

Blizzard still appears to be toying with how active skills are swapped in and out. In Diablo III, you'll eventually unlock six slots to assign active skills and three slots for passive skills. These function as your character build and are easily modified, letting adjust your class' strengths on-the-fly. Initially in the beta it was possible to swap out skills as often as you liked, though Blizzard was concerned this ease of switching encouraged you to play with the skill window open at all times. A later version required you to visit an altar in town to switch skills, locking out your ability to change skills in the field. In the current version of the beta, you can again swap skills whenever you like, though swapping triggers a 30 second cooldown during which swapping is blocked. 

The last set of results are for the indie RPG that we are looking forward to being released in 2012. The editors could not make up their minds and ranked three games as most promising and our visitors made some different choices.

Here is the game that both the editors and our visitors have in their top 3:

The game is a RPG zompocalaypse. It takes the frequently used zombie theme in a new direction that has not really been done up to this point. While there are a lot of zombie games out there, there are hardly any zombie RPGs with turn-based combat, skills, party members, a shelter to protect and expand upon and most importantly an evolving storyline where your actions influence the game.

The Bethblog has news that Skyrim 1.4 has been officially released on Steam and will be sent out for consoles soon:

Today we’ve taken Skyrim’s 1.4 update out of beta and made it available for everyone on Steam. In addition to bug and quest fixes, 1.4 adds launcher support for the Skyrim Workshop. Currently we’re putting the final touches on the Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop and will let everyone know as soon as they’re up.

As an update to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 users, we’re submitting 1.4 to the console manufacturers this week. When these updates are available, we’ll let everyone know.

The big news is the first video of the Creation Kit and Steam Workshop. Hit the link to go to the Bethblog to watch the video and here's a snip from the accompanying blurb:

The Creation Kit and Skyrim Workshop (mods.elderscrolls.com) are nearly here! To get PC players ready for its release, watch our preview video and check out a new diary from Production Director Ashley Cheng.

Here’s Ash…

With each game we release — Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and now Skyrim — modders continue to use our worlds as a canvas to build the most incredibly creative and fun mods in gaming. The fact that Morrowind’s modding community is still going strong 10 years after its release is a testament to how essential our community is to the success of our games.

We’re big believers that if we go the extra mile and make our games as moddable as possible, the game will only be better for it. So the gameplay of “do whatever you want” extends to “make the game do whatever you want.” As we were building Skyrim and its tools, we made it a goal to try and keep the transition from our previous titles to Skyrim as smooth as possible for modders. More importantly, we want to make it easier for more people to enjoy mods. So we teamed up with Valve and created the Skyrim Workshop. We couldn’t be more pleased with how it’s turning out. Mods are a big part of what makes our games special, so we urge everyone to try it out. We’re going to keep looking for ways to get mods to more people, and hopefully one day to our console audience.

With Skyrim Workshop, you can browse and search for the latest or highest rated mods, subscribe to any that interest you, rate your favorites and post feedback. Once you’ve subscribed to some mods, start the Skyrim launcher and you’ll see your subscribed mods automatically download. The launcher will even check if a mod has been updated and grab the latest version.

If you want to try making mods (and we think everybody should), the Creation Kit will be a free download via Steam under Tools. The Creation Kit has lots of new features, including the ability to build archives. Plus you’ll want to check out the Creation Kit Wiki, our online documentation and help file, for more details.

Of course, you’ll still be able to use popular fan-hosted mod sites like Skyrim Nexus to find great mods to play. We did not change any functionality to exclude the way mods worked previously. We even added a few features to help out — for instance, custom INI files can now be packaged into mods so you don’t need to backup your INI files anymore.

In other random Skyrim tidbits, Jeff Vogel has Many Thoughts on Skyrim, CVG wonders if the DLC will ever top Shivering Isles and Forbes says RPGs face stiff competition in the age of Skyrim.

EA and 38 Studios have released a launch trailer for Reckoning, which you can watch here courtesy for VG247.

In other news, Stuff.co.nz has a general interview with Big Huge Games' Sean Bean and Ian Frazier:

Frazier says the developers didn't want gamers to have to learn complex attack combos. He believes the combat system will appeal to both hardcore gamers and more casual players.

''We didn't want people to memorise 'X, X, Y, Y, right trigger, B, lightening' because the average person doesn't want to do that - or they can't. We didn't want to make that a requirement so instead we built all of the combat around contextual moves. Press X, press X faster, press X slower, hold X, hit X after you block, hit X after you roll. It's very intuitive. People have found it really easy to pick up the combat and they're soon able to do this plethora of awesome moves in the middle of a fight and just be tactical about it,'' he says.

There's a review of Avernum: Escape from the Pit over at Inside Mac Games, with a score of 8/10:

With the above in mind, it's hard to imagine how a good player would find the game difficult on normal settings. Well, before the difficulty was patched to be easier, things were very difficult. So difficult in fact, that many dungeons easily accessed from the beginning can destroy your party in a single round. That even applied to my well-developed party. However, I didn't really have any trouble going through and wiping them out after a little leveling up, and at this point my party hasn't found a single zone in the world of even slight difficulty. Now that the patch has been applied, those zones are likely much easier, but there's no way to tell.

Spiderweb has released v1.04 of the Mac version of Avadon:

We have updated Avadon: The Black Fortress for the Macintosh to v1.0.4. This update fixed a number of glitches and improves performance with Apple magic trackpads. You can get the newest version here. Just download and install it. Your saved games and registration won't be affected.

Thief Gold has been released on GOG for $9.99:

Garrett, the main protagonist in Thief trilogy, is one of the gaming’s most appealing hidden anti-heroes. Sure, he’s a thief (and a killer!), but he makes it up with sarcasm, intelligence, and rougish appeal. Thief’s surprisingly elaborate storyline throws Garret between a rock and a hard place where he needs to restore the political and magical balance of the city by using silence, stealth, and thievish skills as a weapon. The chaotic Pagans and technological Hammerites are preparing to tear the city apart in their battles with each other, and it seems that only a little judicious theft can keep these titani forces from clashing. No matter who's the employer and who's the victim, he plans to stay neutral and is always upholding his beliefs with a simple key principle: always get the loot.

...and Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an article on installing it and a widescreen mod, fixing the non-working videos and so on.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun spent An Hour With King Arthur II, which was recently released on Steam and other digital vendors. Here's a snip:

I knew almost nothing of it going in, so I wasn’t expecting the roleplaying element to be in the form of a choose your own adventure book. Between Total Waresque battles, you’ll explore plague-ridden villages and demon-infested dungeons and make consequence-fatted decisions about how to handle the situations you encounter, leaving a trail of human triumph or tragedy in the wake of your attempts to best aid the land as a whole. If Commander Shepherd was the son of a King, was tailed at all times by a huge army and never left the British isles, (s)he’d be this guy. Except you see none of these grand tales of monster-troubling and (optional) peasant genocide.

Instead, you’re presented with oddly small text boxes, with a selection of decisions that usually bear an icon hinting what sort of alignment and faith (and thus eventual perks) they’re likely to nudge you towards, and that’s about it. I’m in two minds: the sleazy graphics whore mind thinks ‘but that’s not very exciting, is it?’, while the shrivelled mind that still remembers how to read, think and imagine offers ‘you are actually reading this stuff, thinking about how it affects your sense of right and wrong and who’s going to profit or suffer as a result of it, rather than just clicking through it. Go you!’  

A website called Swooping is bad has an interview with David Gaider. They made an interview with him at event called Thedas UK Con. They did the interview with David Gaider over Skype.
The interview deals with revelations about the Calling, the mages, a discussion of various npcs, among them Anders, Sandal, and also some info about Templars and the history of their order and more. Thanks to surfgirlusa_2006 on the BSN forums for finding this.

A sample about how the Magic Circles came to:

TUK: Were the Magisters trying to accomplish anything in particular with what they were doing in Kirkwall, or was it just a convenient location?

DG: It was a convenient location. It wasn't like they created Kirkwall in order to do something sinister, it's that Kirkwall having A) a ready available of sacrifices and B) a very thin Veil, I mean why do they put the Circles of Magi wherever there's a thin Veil? It's really dangerous, but it's sort of a chicken-egg thing. Even if they did build a Circle where there wasn't a thin Veil eventually over time the Veil would thin anyhow. And it happens to be that these are the more magical places, the thinner the Veil is the more magic you have available. It's arguable, you could say 'Well if we want to control mages, maybe we should them in places where there isn't a lot of magic!

TUK: [laughing] That would be too logical.

DG: Yes and no. The thing to remember as well is that the Circles were created to help Thedas as well. We had the Blights, and the first Circles were created shortly after the first Blight. The mages become vitally important when there's a Blight in order to combat the darkspawn. So it wasn't like the Chantry wanted to cripple the mages, they wanted them to have the power they needed to help humanity. But to give on one you lose the other, there's a bit of a conundrum. As to what the Tevinters were up to in Kirkwall, when they realized what they had available, you had some mentions of it in the codex. I don't know whether we'll ever follow up on that story. Ultimately they did not succeed because the slaves eventually rebelled, there was the giant rebellion. What you have left is the remnants of what they were attempting at the time.

A quote from David Gaider on the Dark Ritual:

TUK: Slightly related to that, will we see...some of the big decisions from Origins and Awakenings are do you go through with the Dark Ritual so that Morrigan has a child with an Old God's soul, and the Architect, whether or not you kill him. Will those characters come back later on, or those decisions come back and be relevant in the third game?

DG: When you're talking about decisions that the fans expect to be treated as sacred, the big decisions are the ones that....the small ones, whether a character lives or dies, or smaller side plots and stuff, that seems less important overall, but for the big ones like the Dark Ritual I don't think we can not respect the Dark Ritual. It's going to be tricky, and I think the problem we encounter with some of the big decisions is the level of expectation.

Publisher bitComposer surprisingly released a demo their upcoming Jagged Alliance reboot called Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. Maybe they were a bit worried when Steam fumbled their 1 week exclusive on the demo. Anyway, the demo is only 354 MB small and the usual suspects should have it every minute.

So, the Demo is released. Contains: Tutorial. Laboratory in the Orta-Swamps. Weight: 354 MB. Voices: German and English. Text: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian. Will update the list as soon as I have more links to share.

WARNING: The demo is REALLY, I mean REAAALLLY, hard. The Level included is on maximum level of units.

 edit: The last sentence is new. ;) At the beginning of the demo level you should move away from the enemy and analyze the situation. There's a lot of work to do in the secured base ahead of you.

GameSpot caught up with R.A. Salvatore in an article format interview about creating the world of Amalur:

Though his skill brought imagined worlds to life on the page, Salvatore found crafting an interactive story hard to do. In print, the author is the one charged with supplying the heroes; in games, the hero is the player, meaning a game's story has to be flexible enough to let players project themselves into the story while maintaining enough richness and complexity to stand on its own.

In creating the world of Amalur, Salvatore looked toward existing human mythology and folklore in search of patterns of cultural behaviour. By studying the evolution of creation and destruction myths found in different cultures at different times, Salvatore was able to handpick different world views and customs and place them side by side, rearranging them like pieces of a puzzle.

"Why did some cultures succeed and others fail? Why did one thing work in one part of society but fail in another? I tasked my team of writers on Amalur to ask these questions and to research different mythologies from around the world and imagine what the world would be like if some of these stories were actually true. What would a real race of elves or dwarves behave like? We worked backwards, unraveling the stories we found and putting them together again." 

An update at the Classic Games Remade site discusses new tactical combat options for the upcoming Underworld Gold:

Underworld Gold has new combat rules that involve distance management, adding both realism and tactical depth. In previous versions only monsters were marked in or out of melee (a + indicated that they were in). Now the same goes for characters. This opened the door to a few extra tactical options.

- Any character can rush to the front.

- Characters in melee can choose to step back.

- Those behind the lines can choose to step in.

- Characters in melee can attempt to shove enemies out of melee.

- Party leader can order the party to press forward. This only uses up the leader’s turn and causes both monsters and characters to enter melee.

- Party leader can order the party to fall back. This only uses up the leader’s turn and causes both monsters and characters to leave melee.

GameBanshee has reviewed Atari's D&D Facebook game, Heroes of Neverinter:

Of course, just because Heroes of Neverwinter is a social game doesn't mean we don't think it's worthy of a full review - it's an official licensed Dungeons & Dragons game, after all. For what it's worth, Heroes of Neverwinter makes a good stab at capturing the fundamentals of D&D combat, and manages to provide an accessible and straightforward D&D experiences that stays true to the roots of the game. However, the relative lack of depth in gameplay, stripped-down options, and some particularly annoying design choices get in the way of what could have been (and still could be) an excellent Facebook RPG experience.

Fatshark sent out a canned producer Q&A on their post-apoc RPG, Krater. It's a bit long for this format but here we go:

Q&A with KRATER Producer Robert Bäckström

What is Krater?
Krater is a top-down roleplaying game in a colourful post-apocalyptic setting from Swedish developer Fatshark set to be released Q2 2012. It combines the combat mechanics of action-rpgs with the top-down tactics of the classic old-school RTS such as Syndicate. The rich world opens up for the players via exploration of the immense world map.

It is based on a new IP - Krater takes place in a gigantic impact crater, where a city has been built on the aftermath of a bomb. Teams of adventurers, called free-diggers, compete with each other to excavate valuable pre-armageddon technology from an endless system of tunnels, caves and bunkers.

Krater is set in the oddly unique world of lush post-apocalyptic Sweden, where genre-typical deserts are replaced by Nordic pine forests and red wooden cottages.

Could you tell us a little about the release schedule of the game? You mentioned that the main story comes is released as a trilogy?
Krater is a title that we plan to keep alive for a long time. All tools, the game world and its content is designed with this in mind. The paid content of the first year of the game is divided into three major campaigns (the main release and two DLC´s) along with a number of smaller content packs with characters and items.

In addition of the paid content the game will see a number of updates to extend multiplayer (coop and PvP) support as well a updates and additions to all ingame content. We will not force people to pay for the extra content in order to play - it should be an option if you like the main story and want to experience more of that or if you like to be the one with the coolest looking gear in multiplayer.

Where did you get the idea having three characters simultaneously and a big roster to choose from? And is it fun to allow the player characters to die?
We have several inspirational sources for this. We initially wanted the players to design their team in the same way as you try to find the best and most optimized combinations of forces when you setup your army in table top games such as Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

We also wanted the characters to evolve in all directions (not only upwards in the skill trees) and come to life through the course of the game.

One thing led to another - if you have consequences such as death you will need to adapt the game mechanics for this. Loosing it all without tools to cope with the loss is not good game design while no risk at all removes the meaning of rewards in a sense.

To lessen the impact of injuries or death of individual characters we want the player to focus on their team. We think that a typical team will consist of 10-20 characters - enough to lessen the impact of losses but not too many to loose personality of the individual characters. The characters itself will act as a log of the team - where injuries and battle scars play an equally important role as awards and achievements.

How will character progression work?
All characters and abilities range from common to, in the initial release, rare which decides how many slots they have available for upgrades and abilities.

Upgrades increase you stats which affect your ability usage, hit points and damage output. Abilities are special skills that you perform with you character in addition to your normal attacks.

New characters are found in the world, received as rewards from quests or purchased as DLC´s.

How does the fact that Krater takes place in a dark future in Sweden affect the art direction and feel of the game?
We initially talked about putting the story somewhere in Europe and never really considered Sweden as a setting. But somewhere early in our design process we got to hear, through the musician Christian Gabel, about a Swedish post-apocalyptic movie set in the small town of Karlstad. He had come across a number of concepts and a manuscript for the film from the early 80’s which was canned before any filming had been done.

One of the concepts depicted a gigantic crater big enough for a society to be built inside it - an iconic setting that immediately got our attention. Shortly thereafter it was decided that we should put the story in Sweden and build the myth about Krater city.

The colorful setting of the world steams from two things. On thing is that vibrant colors in post-apo settings felt like a somewhat different take on the genre art style, which normally settle for a desert with lots of subtle earth colors.. The other thing is the fact that Sweden or at least Stockholm during the winter vey much looks like the classic post-apo world where everything comes in shades of white and grey. We felt the need to create a world that stood out from the dull winter landscape outside our office windows, an odd and amusing place that tickles your imagination.

What can you say about the music, will it be original tracks?
It turned out that Christian Gabel had started to work on how the soundtrack for the canned movie that inspired the game might have sounded like. But since there was no movie to use the soundtrack in we suggested that we should use the music in the game instead which turned out to be a brilliant idea.  All tracks are originally created and adapted for the game.

In conjunction with the release of Krater we will work together with a number of contributors and release a pretty lavish soundtrack as homage to the film. That release includes a booklet with the original cancept art and all Gabels tracks.

How long do you think it will take players to finish Krater if they only pursue the main quest? And what can you tell us about the scope of the game?
The main release will contain 200+ quests. Out of these I would say the 25% is main story quests.

It is very difficult to estimate the playthrough time because if can be defined in so many ways. Is it to unveil all corners of the map? Or to play all the quests? Conquer all the duungeons? How many times, some of the dungeons will look totally different every time you visit them. Maximize your characters? Another daunting task since there is a large number of combinations to try out.

Tell us more about the multiplayer support in Krater.
The initial release will contain customized 2 player coop missions. We aim to expand this to 4 player coop at a later stage. During 2012 we will also see a PvP update with both arena fighting and faction warfare.

Character progression from coop blends seamlessly with the single player game and vice versa.
You will be able to bring your single player team to play a coop mission with your buddies and anything you can put your hands on, you are allowed to keep,

How does crafting work?
You can create items for base materials but also upgrade existing items. You can get new items by, buying them, looting them, breakdown equipment, completing quests or by crafting them from other components.

New abilities are created by components you find from loot. These components are crafted into ability containers (where a rare container have more slots available than a common container). Any component can be combined in the container. You can for instance use two stuns and one damage component in a three slot container to create an ability with a minor damage output and a high degree of stun. Or you can use a cool down reducer instead of the damage component to further specialize the ability.

The character class decides how these abilities are delivered (the Bruiser can for instance use his cleave attack to affect several opponents with the effects his cleave attack is made of - in the above case stun and damage). The class also receive bonuses to components that are connected to you class - a medikus utilizes a heal ability better than when the damage dealer uses the same ability.

Homepage www.kratergame.com , contact press@fatshark.se , follow www.twitter.com/fatsharkgames and like www.facebook.com/fatsharkgames

BioWare has announced an "all star" cast for Mass Effect 3, including the return of several stars from the previous games:

BIOWARE RECRUITS ALL-STAR CAST TO TAKE EARTH BACK IN MASS EFFECT 3

In a series known for delivering one of the most cinematic experiences in all of interactive entertainment with an emphasis on high quality digital acting, BioWare is aiming to once again set a new bar with Mass Effect™ 3. Today, BioWare, a Label of Electronic Arts Inc., unveiled the cast for 2012’s first blockbuster game, Mass Effect 3. The ensemble will see the return of fan favorites, including Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale as Male and Female Shepard and will introduce Freddie Prinze, Jr. as James Vega, a marine who will help Commander Shepard take Earth back.

“We are absolutely thrilled with the passion and emotion the entire cast brought to their performances in Mass Effect 3,” said Casey Hudson, Executive Producer of the Mass Effect series. “In a story where Earth and the entire galaxy are at war, we needed to take the performances to a level of dramatic power and intensity that we’ve never previously attempted. This extremely talented cast delivered.”

The star-studded cast for Mass Effect 3 includes the return of Golden Globe winner Sheen (“The Departed”, “Apocalypse Now”), Seth Green (“Robot Chicken”, “Family Guy”) as Joker, Tricia Helfer (“Battlestar Galactica”) as the Normandy’s A.I., Yvonne Strahovski (“Chuck”) as Miranda, and Carrie-Anne Moss (“The Matrix”) as Aria T'Loak. Other returning fan favorites include Meer and Hale as Male and Female Shepard, Ali Hillis as Dr. Liara T’Soni, Keith David (“Platoon”) as Captain Anderson and Lance Henriksen (“Aliens”) as Admiral Steven Hackett. Prinze, Jr. (“24”) and Jessica Chobot (G4 TV), as news reporter Diana Allers, are the newcomers to the series.

“I have always loved science fiction and I have always loved games and Mass Effect is really the first time both come together successfully,” said Prinze, Jr.- “It is a completely immersive game where you really feel like you’re part of this journey inside this universe. It will make you think, you will care about the character you are playing, and you will care about the characters that you bring into battle with you.” 

Deep Silver sent us a press release announcing a pre-order bonus DLC for Risen 2 titled Treasure Island. Those who pre-order from "selected territories at participating retailers" before the April release will get Treasure Island for free, otherwise worth 800 points / equivalent in real money:

Story DLC “Treasure Isle” exclusive pre-order bonus for Risen 2^TM: Dark Waters

Ahoy, mates! Free booty for all pirates! Experience an exciting new story in the pursuit of Captain Steelbeard’s treasure in the pre-order bonus for pirate RPG by developer Piranha Bytes

31st January 2012 - Hampshire, UK/... Deep Silver today announced a special pre-order bonus that will be available for free for everyone who buys the engrossing pirate RPG Risen 2: Dark Waters before its release at the end of April.

The DLC with the fitting name “Treasure Isle” offers exclusive additional content for the intrepid adventurer. The player will embark on an extra story questline to uncover Captain Steelbeard's legendary treasure – a quest that will continue a plot element from the first Risen game and finally bring it to an exciting conclusion.

The story of the DLC revolves around Harlok, a cook on Steelbeard’s ship Elenor, who stole the secret clues that lead to the pirate captain’s hidden treasure. However it is only with the help of the player that Harlok is able to find it.

This quest will take the hero and Patty, Steelbeard’s daughter, to an unknown island that offers new environments to explore with many puzzles to solve, treasures to loot and mysteries to unravel. The player will discover a legendary item (only available in this DLC) - offering his character a permanent stat boost.

This exclusive pre-order bonus DLC with a value of £8.00 / 800 Microsoft Points, will be made available in selected territories at participating retailers.

Interested to know what collection of games you and we are looking forward to most in 2012? Then find out how you and we voted. And the following is from the editors number one.

Combat mechanics will see progress too: magic spells and ranged weapons are out, voodoo,  muskets and dirty tricks are in. You can, for example, throw a parrot at an opponent or use voodoo magic to make one enemy attack another.
Other novelties: the first island will be relatively small, to make things easier for new players - after that the game opens up more and more. Storytelling will be more cinematic, companions will used more often.