The 1099 interview Mike Laidlaw of Bioware about how Dragon Age is made and the probability of Jade Empire 2.

On this week's episode, the creative director of Dragon Age, Mike Laidlaw, joins host Josiah Renaudin to discuss how the team at BioWare creates such massive open worlds. Mike explains the different roles he's played at BioWare, the struggles of even starting a five-year AAA project, what a linear Dragon Age (similar to Uncharted) would look like, how he deals with Dragon Age reviews, and the possibility of a Jade Empire 2.

Arkane Studios' Raphael Colontonio, who worked on Ark Fatalis, Dishonored and Prey has left Arkane and is off doing, err... something else.

The last 18 years have been an amazing adventure - from starting Arkane in 1999, to making our first game, Arx Fatalis, to joining ZeniMax Media in 2010 and releasing the Dishonored series and Prey to critical acclaim - it is time for me to step out to spend some time with my son and reflect on what is important to me and my future.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the best and brightest people in the industry, and I feel extremely lucky to have been part of this journey with everyone at Arkane.

I’ve lived many magical moments. I’ve also been through the hard times. But, I can say that joining ZeniMax took things to the next level and gave Arkane the opportunity to emerge as a world-class studio. ZeniMax enabled us to make the best games that we’ve ever made. And I know there is even more to come.

ZeniMax strongly believes in Arkane’s ability to make great games, and is committed to supporting the studio. My long-time friend and colleague, Harvey Smith, will oversee the team in Austin and I will be around for as long as necessary to ensure a smooth transition to the new management team in Lyon.

I wish the best to everyone at Arkane, Bethesda, and ZeniMax. Without a doubt I will miss everyone.

As I close, I’d like to thank the Arkane fans for their passion and support. I proudly join them as Arkane Studios' biggest champion, and I look forward to playing the extraordinary new games the studio is working on.

-Raf Colantonio

RPS looks back at Tabula Rasa, the MMO Richard Garriott worked on before the MMO/MP/No-SP game he is working on now.

Tabula Rasa cost NCSoft a fortune, so sure were they that combination of a legendary developer and spaceguns in a World of Warcraft structure would be the MMO to end all MMOs. It didn’t exactly work out like that (and we’d see remarkably similar folly from them half a decade later, with WildStar). Which is a shame, as the fault was less with the game and more with impossible expectations – both from the people behind the game and from the millions of people they spent a couple of years convincing it would be the answer to their every prayer.

What a strange time 2006-2008 was. So many of us were so desperate for a World of Warcraft alternative, specifically because we spent our every waking hour for months playing World of Warcraft, loving it to bits, then burning out of it. How could any game using the same approximate structure somehow achieve that? We had all seen Oz behind his curtain by that point, and no self-proclaimed WoW-killer stood a chance.

Here are some reviews of Darkest Dungeon: Crimson Court.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I’m conflicted. Conceptually, The Crimson Court is very much my cup of blood, but the execution, particularly when it comes to the first mission and the curse, sometimes feels off. That said, Red Hook has clearly been taking feedback seriously, and changes have already been made to make things a little less punishing.

Twinfinite, 3.5/5

The Crimson Court’s new mechanics are fantastic additions to Darkest Dungeon, and they’ve definitely helped to keep things fresh with all these new twists and developments. While I do love how seamlessly the new content has been integrated into the game, it might need a bit of balancing before it becomes truly fun and engaging to play. As it stands, The Crimson Court feels too much like an unfair beginner’s trap which continues to punish players with devastating consequences that you can’t plan for. You’ll look on in helpless despair as your heroes fall to the Curse one by one, and you’ll eventually have to make the difficult choice of giving your last Blood vial to one favorite hero and leaving the other to die. You’ll also probably have to reset your game multiple times before you get lucky with your RNG attacks and resource gathering. But then again, I suppose that’s the name of the game.

IGN, 7.7/10

The Crimson Court pumps Darkest Dungeon full of disturbing blood-sucking enemies, a challenging new class, and a marathon-style new area that forces you to think differently about how to sustain your team over a long run. While there’s definitely enough new content in The Crimson Court to come back to Darkest Dungeon for, it’s more the kind of DLC that mixes things up for a new replay than an essential upgrade you should install from the beginning.

Total War: Warhammer II is teasing the Skaven according to PCGamesN.

It looks like the Skaven scourge will be confirmed for Total War: Warhammer 2 soon, as Creative Assembly are hosting an ARG. We don't know for sure it's the Skaven, but it's probably the Skaven. After all, the devs have been teasing the rat men for a while now.

Despite all the teases, Skaven are the only race that haven't been confirmed, and are one of the most popular in the setting. Now there's an interactive image of a barren Empire town and a link to a cryptic message.

The message reads: "When our rivals tremble, [space] their kin." The missing word is "missing", and if you type it in you get a code to unlock a wallpaper that looks very Vermintide, though CE have confirmed it's not.
[...]

PCGamesN asked Julian Gollop how the XCOM remake influenced his design for Phoenix Point.

...

"You have to remember that the original X-Com was released in 1994, aeons ago," Gollop says. "Obviously a lot has progressed, not just in terms of graphics, but in usability and how games teach players."

The original X-Com, he points out, came with a chunky manual, and an equally heavy text description of how to play the game. Phoenix Point, by contrast, will be born into a world where Firaxis have figured out ways to make turn-based tactics more presentable and accessible.

"But actually," Gollop adds, "the underlying mechanics are still drawing from the original 1994 game."

Sometimes these mechanics are pretty much invisible. Take movement as an example. In X-Com you spent time units: two for moving straight, four for kneeling down, or five to take a snapshot (the attack from which Gollop's new studio, Snapshot Games, takes its name). Taking a turn was an act of addition.

[...]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is near to its first stretch goal and has a new update on building and developing characters.

Pathfinder builds character: A look at our Character Sheet

Dear Pathfinders,

Creating and developing your character is one of the pillars of any RPG, be it a computer game or pen-and-paper gaming. Most beginners find this process very complicated. A lot of them make their first characters with the help of experienced friends learning the rules, tricks, and nuances on the way. The Pathfinder Role Playing Game provides a deep, rich and complex system for character generation, which allows creating characters, which are interesting to play with, follow archetypes players want and feel useful not only in battle but also in exploration or social interactions. These characters could be quite simple, consisting of just one class, skills, and feats selected from recommended lists and some class features; or characters could be a complex build from several classes, each of them modified with archetypes, complete with carefully picked skills, traits, feats, and spells from myriad of rulebooks and equipment that complements the character's strengths.
[...]

Pillars of Eternity 2 has a new update that explores the E3 video in more depth.

Greetings, everyone! First up, some great news: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire has won the Best PC Game at E3 2017 from HardcoreGamer.com. This adds to the RPGFan.com Best of Show award we received at E3 a couple of weeks back.

Contratulations to the entire Deadfire team! Now on to the update. Last week, we said that we'd be back one more time with the E3 video to provide a deeper dive, and that's what we're doing. To help us with that, we're joined by Pillars II Executive Producer, Adam Brennecke! Adam is going narrate the video and point out some of the updated systems in play, as well as flag some key information you may have missed when he and Josh were talking to IGN. Without further ado, let's pass it over to Deadfire Producer, Katrina Garsten, to tell us more.

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That was a lot of great information! As Katrina said, we'll return in just a few more weeks to take a deeper look into the mysterious and always enrapturing videos that Game Director, Josh Sawyer, has been putting up on his social media feeds.

Let us know below what you thought of the features we discussed in the E3 video and what you'd like to see us discuss in future videos. We also want you to keep July 12th marked on your callendars as we'll be doing a Q&A stream over on our Twitch channel at 4:00PM PST/1:00AM CEST with Josh Sawyer and Lead Character Artist, Dimitri Berman. Until next time, everyone!

Be sure to join in on the conversation over at on our forums.

Hardcore Gamer checked out The Guild 3:

E3 2017: Build Your Own Dynasty in The Guild 3

So many fantasy games use the middle ages as a template that is easy to forget that life in this time period was not all powerful wizards assisting gallant knights in rescuing beautiful princesses from evil dragons. Life in the middle ages sucked. People took baths once a year, just about everyone except royalty was poor and life expectancy was short due to poor medical care, lack of hygiene, and wars and plagues breaking out all the time. And based on historical records, dragons and magic did not exist, though we like to classify that so-called history under the category of old fake news. The Guild 3 may not be 100% historically accurate (editor’s note: neither is your description of the middle ages or anything else in this article), but it’s more realistic than most fantasy games.

The Guild 3 is a combination of strategy game, eco-simulation, historical life simulation, and RPG all rolled into one. The Guild 3 starts in a version of Europe as the middle ages come to an end and make way for the Renaissance, where the despotic domination by nobles and clergy gives way to prospering, independent cities with a free trade mindset. The primary objective is to build a dynasty that will last for centuries. This is most easily done by finding a mate and creating offspring that will carry on whatever sort of empire the player starts to build for themselves, but should the player choose to create an unlovable wretch there is an option to adopt from the orphanage.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Game Watcher has interviewed Spider devs about Greedfall:

Greedfall: An Interview With Spiders' Marie-Cécile Jacq & Sébastien Di Ruzza [E3 2017]

[...]

GameWatcher: So take us into the world of Greedfall. What is going on here?

Marie-Cecile Jacq: It’s a fictional 17th Century. We were inspired by art, music and Flemish-style painting, as well as the fact that it was a time of discovery and scientific growth, although alchemy was also still a practice. You’ve got this mainland continent of three nations which represent three of the factions. One is heavy into magic, religion, and faith. Another is all about science and alchemy. The last is a merchant nation that was once an economic power, but is starting to weaken. There’s also a faction of sailors that control most of the transportation across seas and a mercenary faction that is happy to jump in and capitalize when conflict is about. In all of this, there is an outbreak of a weird disease affecting the entire mainland. It isn’t long after that the sailors discover this uncharted island that is entirely free from the disease. It leads every faction to rush there and attempt to claim land and gain resources. Every faction has a big reason to be there. Meanwhile there’s native people on the island that are immune to the disease, take part in an old and nature-driven magic, and are heavily defiant against all of these sudden invaders.

GameWatcher: And who are you in all of this? What role does the player play?

Jacq: You are a prince or princess of the merchant nation and faction and you’ve come to the nation with a dual purpose. Your cousin has established a merchant town and needs help as the governor of the merchant presence on the island. Moreover, your family has suffered from the disease. Your mother is afflicted and you leave home with just as much in not more stakes in the cure than anyone. The disease kills almost everyone, so you’re assuredly leaving her to her death, knowing something must be done.

Sébastien Di Ruzza: It’s not just you and the merchants either. There’s going to companions and party members in the game that come from each of the factions, including the natives. What you do for their factions will gain you influence and trust with them, while doing things for other factions or acting against that faction could anger them. You could just as well bring the companion of a scientist to a place controlled by the religious nation and gain some notoriety for having that companion in your company when dealing with religious characters. There’s a lot of flexibility and depending on how you handle it, you could become great friends with a companion or lose them outright as an available ally.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Pamela v0.2.1.2 is live on Steam:

Mega-Update: PAMELA v0.2.1.2 is Live – Crafting, Tutorial 2.0, and much, much more!

<Please note! This update will cause existing world save files to be deleted!>

Happy Thursday, Sleepers. Sit down, get comfortable, and grab a snack because this is going to be a long read!

Picture in your mind a snowball, rolling down a snowy slope. It starts out small, but before you know it you’ve got a ton of frozen destruction barreling down towards you.

That’s pretty much what happened with this update; with each passing day we squeezed in more new features, optimizations, and fixes, and this ended up postponing the update up until today. This is now *by a huge margin* our largest update since launch. Thank you for your patience during this period between updates; let’s dive into it!

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Hardcore Gamer checked out ELEX:

E3 2017: Will Reason or Emotion Prevail in Shaping the World of Elex?

As creatures with a higher level of cognition functioning, us humans are cursed by possessing both reason and emotion. Both of these traits are essential to experiencing life at its fullest, whether it be feeling the bitter pain of heart break or a fleeting moment of pure joy, emotion is a crucial part of the human condition. Likewise, the ability to reason is necessary to understand those emotions and to survive and prosper in general. These two sides of the same brain also play a role in our decision making; do we tend to act on impulse because it feels right or do we weigh the pros and cons of each option and choose based on which option seems more practical? For most people, the answer is both, depending on the situation and with varying results. Now imagine a post-apocalyptic world where your actions and decisions shape how it grows. Do we want to live in a world that is forged by the mind or the heart? The developers of Elex must have asked themselves the same question, as this is an element in how players can choose to progress.

Elex is an action RPG from the creators of the Gothic series. Players are thrust into an original post apocalyptic universe that blurs the lines between fantasy and science fiction. Here the players will encounter monstrous mutated creatures and interesting characters. This desolate world is a harsh environment, where action is never scarce due to the large number of denizens that would like nothing more than to send the player to an early grave. There are also several factions, groups of people joined together which formed their own cultures. In sharing this world with the various inhabitants, the player will have to make some difficult moral choices, and as this device has been used in other games we should all know by now no choice is without consequence. Head or heart, there is no right or wrong way to progress, though one will have to live with their decisions.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

Tobi and ESO are showing some Kingdom Come: Deliverance gameplay:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance - E3 build with Tobi and ESO

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Tobi and ESO are introducing the E3 2017 build of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. See the complex quest structure of the game, a fighting tutorial, a small skirmish and get new insights into the development of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. They are also answering questions about the game and are discussing interesting current topics. Let's take a look!

Thanks Farflame!

Gamepressure has collected a lot of info about the Witcher series:

Behind the scenes of The Witcher trilogy with CD Projekt RED

Digital Dragons in Cracow have gathered top Polish video game developers, and more. We’ve took this chance to talk with some members of CD Projekt Red (both their current and former workers) about the Witcher series and some behind the scenes mysteries.

I’m fully aware that a lot has been already said and written on the Witcher video game series, and especially on its third installment. We’ve been told about the secrets behind the development of the games, about various nods and shoutouts hidden within, and things that were supposed to be included in the story, but in the end weren’t. But does this mean that the topic has been exhausted and there’s nothing more interesting left to be discovered about it? Certainly not! We’ve learned that during the latest Digital Dragons, where we had a chance to talk several CDPR members – both current and former. We’ve had three quest designers answering our questions about various plot related matters – Artur Ganszyniec, Pawel Sasko, and Blazej Augustynek.

What we got is a timeline of sorts, on which we were able to follow the evolution of the entire series, as seen from behind the scenes, through a series of trivia. We invite you on a journey following the history of CD Projekt RED – except this time you’ll be going via the backstage scenic route. A fair warning though – you will encounter many a spoiler before this editorial is done.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

If the recent summer sale was not enough for you, this weekly sale at GOG brings us over 70 games with a discount up to 90%. On top of that you get the Double Dragon trilogy for free upon your first purchase.

Update number 4 of Exoplanet: First Contact, which is currently in Early Access, has been made availabel last week.

Dear players, we gladly present to you the latest update! The new starting area was heavily overhauled and vastly expanded. We've added new locations, characters, quests and things to do in this area.

You're very welcome to hop into our Discord server[discord.gg] and tell us what you think about the new update.
Here is a brief list of changes with the most impact:

WORLD

• New starting scene
• Vastly expanded new starting area
• Started working on splitting the world into two distinct biomes
• New rocks and cliffs assets
• First version of distant land
• New NPCs
• New traders
• A new dangerous mushroom
• New sand textures
• Lots of minor edits and polishing.

More update info at the link.

Grim Dawn's Grim Misadventure #121 is about the necromancers in the expansion (to be released near the end of the year).

Hello and welcome to another Grim Miasdventures dev update. In case you have not been keeping track, we recently had a big patch (v1.0.1.0)! This update brought about some great quality of life changes to the game as well as a tuning pass. Most importantly of all though, it bridges some tech changes made for the expansion to the base game, which was a major step towards releasing the expansion later this year.

And on the note of the expansion, it’s time for another look! Today, we are going to dig deeper into what makes a Necromancer necromance.

Please note that as the masteries are still under development, the following information may change by release. Damage values are scaled by player attributes.
You learned to raise some skeletons, maybe drain a fool of their life essence, but there is more to the Necromancer’s vile arsenal. These powerful abilities await those who dedicate themselves to the mastery of death!

Blight Fiend
”Unmoved by the noxious fumes of decay, conjure forth an abomination made of corpses and rotting filth to rise up from the earth and subdue your enemies.”

This cheerful guy is just bloated with vile gases and poison and he will eagerly share them with your foes by vomiting up his insides. Upon death, the Blight Fiend erupts in toxic fumes. He can also learn to exhume poison around him, and to unleash a massive eruption of poison. A transmuter allows you to summon Blight Fiends more frequently to take advantage of their explosive tendencies, but they become temporary pets.

ShanePlays interviewed Rebecca Heineman about Bard's Tale I-III Remastered, gets an update on Dragons of the Rip and talks a bit about Dragon Wars. Burger's interview starts around 16:30. Podcast version here.

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CogConnected previewed Seven: The Days Long Gone at E3.

The demo begins in the high tech metropolis of ‘Hallard', capital of The Vetrall Empire and headquarters of the tyrannical Emperor Drugan. The world is nonlinear, vast, and brimming with monsters and magic. Player freedom is at the core of Seven. Built from the ground up via the power of Unreal Engine 4, the game features an impressive parkour mechanic that enables players to freely climb up or across any obstacle, regardless of height. As a master of thievery, Teriel can complete a variety of quests and form relationships with a plethora of the city's inhabitants. From scaling massive buildings, breaking and entering, and plundering valuable trinkets, Teriel proudly leads a life of crime. Following a period of loot seeking and pickpocketing, Teriel accepts a challenging job that leads him to the treacherous island of Peh; which serves as a massive prison housing Vetrall's most fearsome criminals, monsters, and enemy factions. Along the way, Teriel crosses paths with a mysterious individual who plants a demon in his head named ‘Artanak.' With a newfound mission in hand and a demonic companion possessing his mind, Teriel sets off for the dreaded island.
[...]

You can get the Clicker Strategy RPG Realm Grinder for free on Steam now:

About Realm Grinder

Grow your kingdom, build alliances, and explore one of the deepest idle RPG's ever!

Use your money and influence to grow your kingdom from a single farm to a huge realm that earns wealth even while you're not online! In Realm Grinder, the player is given an incredible array of choices in how they build forge their new kingdom.

KEY FEATURES:

Choose to align yourself with a dozen different factions, each of which has their own distinct play style. Will you align with the elves, who reward tapping for treasure, or the demons, who give massive bonuses to the most powerful structures?

Further fine tune your strategy by choosing unique upgrades, buildings, and spells to invest in.

Continue to unlock new and exciting systems like new factions, research, reincarnations, excavations, and way more. Months and months of unique content!

Achievement hunters will be delighted with the broad range and depth of the achievement system. And it's not just eye candy! Many strategies rely on collecting trophies in order to boost certain upgrades.

The Ash of Gods Kickstarter campaign managed to get funded in the last 3 days of the campaign and in the process managed to achieve two stretch goals as well, which were at $80K and $85K. These stretch goals are 50+ additional side quests and more epic battle music respectively.

SO WHAT WILL BE IN THE RELEASE?

It will be the story of Thorn Brenin and his circle of people, flavored with a good number of secondary quests (events) that can (and will!) happen to them on their way to the final goal. The quests will reveal more about the heroes and the events taking place in the game world.

Hopper Rouley will follow in Thorn's tracks, allowing the user to see the consequences of the decisions he or she took on behalf of Brenin. In all likelihood, we won't have resources to create the ability to manage Hopper's team or let it participate in battles, although we're going to give it our best try; but only time will tell. At the very least, Hopper will play a large role in the story.

Cutting down on Lo Pheng's storyline is a lot harder for us. We wanted to show the other side of the conflict, but our initial stretch goals proved too ambitious. We want to preserve his influence on the story through the decisions of the players, and not turn him into an ordinary NPC. We'll only know for sure how we're going to handle the Lo Pheng storyline around August. We'll definitely write about it in more detail closer to the time.

As far as localization is concerned, the release will have two official versions—Russian and English. We'd love to get help from the fan community to translate the game into German, French, Polish, Spanish and Portuguese. Unfortunately we won't be able to pay the usual localization rates for all the above-mentioned countries, but we are definitely willing to encourage this process with the help of some nice prizes.

We'll also record an additional battle track for the game, which will help to make the battles slightly more diverse from an audio perspective.

Spells and effects are highlighted in this update for Pathfinder:Kingmaker.

oday we will be talking about spells – lifeblood of more than half of the Pathfinder classes. Since the release of their signature product, Paizo published numerous rulebooks for the Pathfinder RPG, both hardcover giants, like Ultimate Magic and Advanced Player Guide, and innumerable softcover Campaign Settings, Player Companions, Modules, and Adventure Paths. And most of them do contain spells, some of them only one, and some whole packs rivaling the basic assortment provided in the core rulebook. For us, when making a Pathfinder CRPG, this provides a treasury to draw from.

And as we do draw from it, and see the ideas of all these spells come to life on our screens, they blend together to give you a myriad of tactics to solve problems, overcome obstacles and defeat enemies our game will provide you aplenty. For in Pathfinder spells are not just elemental attacks of different shapes and colors, but a diverse set of tools and instruments for enormous amounts of possible situations. And those who love their elemental attacks will also find them in abundance, as some situations require precisely tools like these.

Is one of your companions injured? Poisoned? Dead? There are spells for that. Cannot find a secret door? There is a spell for that too. Found a secret door, but cannot open it? Again, there is a spell for that. Are you feeling the strong urge to set somebody on fire? There are a lot of spells that do exactly that. While setting someone on fire, you mistakenly set your companions on fire too, and now they're dead? We’ve already discussed, spells can fix that. Cannot see your enemy? There is a spell for that. Still cannot see him, because he's behind the wall? There is a spell for that. Still cannot see him? You’ve probably been blinded. Do not worry; there is a spell for that. There is a whole school of spells that allow you to see enemies even where there aren’t any. Got too cold? There’s a spell for that. Are neighbors too loud? There’s a spell for that. Mysterious rash..? There’s probably a spell for that.

The prologue for After Reset is going into the pre-release phase. In a backer only update the following was shared:

I can’t even believe I’m saying that but… it looks like we’re ready for your evaluation! Yippie-ki-yay :) The prologue is on Steam and we’ve fixed most of the bugs reports from the relevant bug reports discussion.

Now you can play it completely from the beginning, through various plot branches and some sandbox to final rescue from the Gyes bunker. Please, check the build during the next 2 weeks and pin the bugs you might find.

After fixing them I am going to:

• enable one decent cool twist/quest (hidden for the beta-test to surprise you later);
• add sound effect for the cave blast;
• enable gratz-message when player successfully gets out to the Great Desert;
• switch on the new background scene for the main menu when player competes the prologue (going to make it dependable on player’s progress like it was in KOTOR).

Guys, I need you votes for the following decision after you complete the prologue: are we ready for the official release? That implies we will fix the bugs you report and I’ll enable those minor adding and contact journalists, youtubers, etc.

I would strongly prefer to release it asap but I need your feedback and approval before that important move.

Meanwhile, our lead programmer asks to give him a month to upgrade our engine and rework our GUI from scratch on it as well as interaction code. His offer is to make that work free if he doesn’t meet the month deadline. Though, I wound not rather take his offer because those upgrades are not evident for players and I am afraid it might lead to endless development and his lost of enthusiasm.

So I would prefer the following path:

• 2 weeks of beta test by you, guys;
• 1 week of fixing and tidbits enabling;
• 2 weeks release;
• 1 month of updates/fixes/engine upgrade/gui rework/further content adding;

Guys, please, share your thoughts and vote the next step: are we ready for the release or should we wait?

One of the companions that can join your party in Pathfinder: Kingmaker is Jubilost Nartropple.

The name of Jubilost Nartropple is known to each and every educated person in all of Avistan. Or rather Jubilost himself won't accept the idea that someone, who does not know his name, could possibly be called an educated person. A renowned adventurer, who traveled the Inner Sea region back and forth, prolific writer and tireless explorer, Jubilost likes to brag, that every good household is bound to have at least one of his books - whether it's an expensive illustrated atlas or a cheap collection of cooking recipes. He doesn't care that those envious of his many talents call him haughty and rude - after all he can insult them much worse - and in a dozen different languages at that!

Version 17 of Vigilantes is available now. Two new features that are added in this version are rackets and gang strategy AI.

Rackets are bonus providing enemy facilities, which are located in city districts. There are currently eight racket types. Three of these are main bases, of which each gang starts with one, and the remaining five rackets can be purchased and built by the gangs throughout the city. Each racket provides different local (adjacent tile) and global bonuses, and income.

The Gang Strategic AI directs the gang's actions on the strategic, city map level. We wanted to avoid giving each gang a set of rigid orders, (such as acquire upgrade x on day Y) which they would follow regardless of what the player is doing. Instead, we invested some time to build a system which would allow the gang to use their financial resources to react strategically to the player, choosing which upgrades and rackets best suit their current needs.

PC Gamer thinks The Temple of Elemental Evil is a true D&D game:

Why The Temple of Elemental Evil is the most D&D game ever made

It may not be the *best* D&D game, but The Temple of Elemental Evil is the truest representation of the tabletop experience.

There's a drinking competition at the village inn, and I do like to get drunk in video games. My half-orc barbarian has the most hit points and the least intelligence, which probably makes him qualified for entry. Half a dozen locals and guests join in, and every time the innkeeper shouts “Drink!” they knock back an ale and drop a bunch of HP (non-fatally, of course). In the end it comes down to the barbarian and a traveler named Kobort, who eventually topples to join the rest of the competitors sleeping on the floor. 

Then I have my rogue go round and loot all their stuff. Even clothes. Nobody seems to mind. It's a fair punishment for getting fall-down drunk. They're lucky I'm not drawing schlongs on their foreheads. For the entire rest of the game I recognize NPCs I beat in this competition because they stand around town in their medieval underpants. That's just how it goes in The Temple of Elemental Evil.

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Game Watcher interviewed Julien Desourteaux about the Action RPG Werewolf: The Apocalypse:

Werewolf: The Apocalypse - An Interview With Cyanide Studio's Julien Desourteaux [E3 2017]

The World of Darkness series of games and entertainment has always been a rich tapestry of lore and imagination that has allowed gamers to undertake the roles of many mythical creatures of the night in various unique settings. Most people are probably familiar with the popular role-playing games, Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, but these are just a couple entries in a grand library of great games that have come from White Wolf Publishing. Fortunately, White Wolf has teamed up with Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studios to bring another of their grand franchises to PCs and consoles. This time, it’s Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

In a world where various factions are ushering the destruction of nature, werewolves stand as the primal bastions against the end of the world. What began as a pen and paper role-playing experience is now becoming an interactive journey that will have players delving deep into the powers of the werewolf to protect the natural and spiritual world. At E3 2017, we caught up to Cyanide Studio game designer Julien Desourteaux to speak about how he and his team are bringing Werewolf new life as a video game. Desourteaux shared the interesting world of Werewolf with us, as well as how players will take on the role of the Garou to defend the forces of nature, or give into their bestial blood and wreak havoc.

[...]

GameWatcher: The original context of Werewolf is that there is cataclysmic event known as The Apocalypse that the werewolves, known previously in the series as the Garou, are fighting against, right?

Desourteaux: Correct. In the original pen and paper game, their mission was to kill those who would move the world towards the Apocalypse either wittingly or unwittingly. It’s always been sort of a fiction that plays at the edge of reality where these mythical creatures are fighting a problem very much inspired by real-world issues. For the purpose of our game, we’re going with an action-RPG to convey that world. It’s based upon a lot of the rules of the pen and paper game, but we’re reworking the gameplay mechanics to make it a far more moving and visceral thing.

GameWatcher: Could you expand upon that? What kind of mechanics will players be using as they step into the fur and claws of the Garou?

Desourteaux: So the main three mechanics behind Werewolf: The Apocalypse are combat, exploration, and interaction, and at the center of all of that is rage management. Rage is a factor that has to be maintained by the player because if the Garou’s rage gets out of control, they will frenzy. There are pros and cons to that. Certainly it’s great for combat, but there could be consequences as well. For example, you won’t be able to tell friend from foe. You will fight all present and that could lead to attacking an ally. You can’t go back until there are no more threats present. Likewise, if you’re in dialogue with a character and you’re overcome by rage, your character might eviscerate an important character.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

PCGamesN talked with Dr. Mitu Khandaker, creative director at Spirit AI - they are creating an engine to engage with digital characters:

Natural dialogue with NPCs is closer than you think

I mean, dialogue trees are fine, I guess. Your character asks a question, the NPC gives a response, you learn what you need to, and for a moment it almost looks like a conversation. But they’re hardly perfect. Playing through Mass Effect: Andromeda, I was reminded how interrogative they make me feel: “YES BUT WHY ARE YOU OUT HERE STUDYING THE REMNANT?”

They can also make conversations feel like passive lore-dumps. Real people don’t tell you their life story at your first meeting, and thank God, because it can get pretty boring. I wish an NPC would turn around and tell me “the mating rituals of my culture are none of your business. And no, we won’t bang, okay?”

These are among the problems that Spirit AI are trying to fix with their Character Engine. It aims to achieve something that will still feel like a distant dream to many players: natural-seeming conversations with AI characters, in which you use text or even voice chat to speak, and they answer as a real person would, creating their dialogue on the fly.

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Thanks Farflame!

PCGamesN reports that Endless Space 2 got a new questline:

Endless Space 2's new hero is trapped inside a neutron star

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As you might infer from its title, the Stellar Prisoner’s new questline concerns a mysterious figure who is literally imprisoned in a neutron star. It also appears that neutron stars will be objectives in a battle arena mode, conferring special bonuses to whomever controls them.

Features include:

• Neutron Star: a battle arena that provides bonuses to players who control this special node.
• A new quest triggered upon the discovery of the Neutron Star.
• A new Endless Virtual hero.
• A new Cravers Prime hero, unlocked by the community during an ARG.
• Two new, unique planets.
• Modding improvements, including the ability to edit visuals (hero, quests, events) and textures (planets, ships).
• General performance and AI improvements - there's a full set of patch notes here on Steam.

Thanks Farflame!

COG checked out Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord at the E3:

E3 2017: Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Preview – Mount Up and Take Charge Again

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Preview

Let’s start off with some truth; I was not a fan of the first Mount & Blade game. Admittedly, I never played any of the expansions, sequels or spin-offs, maybe one of them would have been more appealing to me. However I do know there is a huge, rabid following for Mount & Blade – so it wasn’t a fault of the game, it just wasn’t a game for me. So, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I was set up for a meeting with TaleWorlds Entertainment to discuss Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Needless to say, after that hour long meeting, I was pleasantly surprised and honestly can’t wait to get my hands on the full version.

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Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a vast action game filled with epic battles and hand-to-hand combat. There isn’t a story, per se, the story is more about the journey you choose to take. One of my criticisms with the first game was the steep learning curve and lack of direction when you first start playing. The developers realized this and have introduced a set of objectives that you’ll work towards completing when you first start the game. Each objective is designed to introduce players to different game mechanics, which should do a better job of easing new players in (and re-introducing returning players).

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Thanks Farflame!

New Game Network checked out Kingdome Come Deliverance at the E3:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance Preview - E3 2017

The open world western RPG formula is one that may be on the cusp of growing a bit stale, on account of the heavy amount of titles populating this realm of late. There has been a number of games that seem to be trying to out “Game of Thrones” each other with elaborate magic systems and fantastical, epic environments. But what about a game that completely wipes out the fantasy and stands on the strength and epic nature of authentic medieval history alone?

Warhorse Studios has set out to do just that with its new RPG, Kingdom Come: Deliverance. The extremely short version of the game’s summary might be “Skyrim without the magic and dragons,” but the subtle carvings of complexities within seem to stretch well beyond this simplified description. The game takes place in Medieval Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic). You aren’t a flame-wielding superhero in Middle-earth here, or even an important figure in some crazy alternate history timeline. You’re just an average shmo and blacksmith’s son, trying to survive the gritty everyday life of medieval Eastern Europe - and avenge the death of your family at the hand of a foreign king. The game takes place during the conflict between Bohemia and Hungary in the era of the Holy Roman Empire, 1403. History buffs such as myself are sure to take notice at the historical influence, but that’s not to say fantasy RPG traditionalists wouldn’t find plenty to enjoy as well. After all, the truth is often stranger (and often more entertaining) than fiction, is it not?

It was clear during the E3 2017 presentation I attended that the developers have poured a lot of effort into the gameplay. But perhaps more notably, they’ve conveyed a passion for history, and a desire to provide a rich, authentic scene by gathering countless details about late medieval Europe through intricate means. We’re not just talking looking at Google pics and glossing over old history books here - historians have actually been called upon to assist in creating an accurate backstory involving a German-backed Hungarian rule over Bohemia. Medieval engineers have been consulted to provide blueprints and rundowns for the modelers and artists to design castles, homes, and other structures of the time period more accurately. Works of art from the era have been studied and emulated for the art style of the game’s map system. Real historical figures have been included; and wardrobes, dialects, mannerisms, and daily routines of NPCs are all meant to reflect society at the time as well. Essentially, this seems to be shaping up to be a “medieval adventure simulation” more so than a straight RPG.

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Another gameplay video for ELEX:

ELEX Gameplay Demo (New Open World RPG Game) 2017

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About Elex:

Advanced in technology, civilized and with a population of billions, Magalan was a planet looking to the future. Then the meteor hit.

Those who survived are now trapped in a battle to survive, a struggle to decide the fate of a planet. At the center of this fight is the element “Elex”. A precious, limited resource that arrived with the meteor, Elex can power machines, open the door to magic, or re-sculpt life into new, different forms.

But which of these choices should be the future of Magalan? Can technology or magic save this world? Or will this new power destroy all those left alive amongst the ruins?

Thanks to the open world, players have access to all five regions of the game world right from the very start. Go where you want, choose your battles and your allies. The only thing in the world that will stop you are the mutant creatures that live in Magalan’s Elex-polluted landscapes. Walk, run, or punch your jetpack into action. If you can see it, you can reach it. Open world role-playing has never been more open.

Find a companion, choose a faction and influence the world. In Elex there is no traditional class system. Instead you must earn the trust of experienced teachers to develop the skills you select. But, skills alone won’t be enough to survive in this harsh and challenging world. Your attitude towards the people you meet will influence those around you. Will you make an ally or an enemy? Is now the time to show emotion or take the course of logic? Every choice will forge the future of your game.

From swords and axes to bows, crossbows and harpoons, Elex offers one of the widest selection of weaponry in the history of role-playing. Pick up a shotgun, power up a plasma rifle or unleash a flame thrower – there’s a weapon and combat style for every fighter out there. Be it a hammer, a rocket launcher or the power of magic, Elex balances science, fantasy and brute force to let you choose the combat style that fits your role best!