Couchpotato's Random RPG News

Lots more great stuff from the one-and-only George Ziets, Digimancer! We chat the real value of expansions, creating a tight narrative for a CRPG, how many choices are too many, behind the scenes at Mask of the betrayer, small vs. large studios, and much more!

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So we asked you all to post your answers to 10 questions we posed in our subreddit, and here is our response to a select number of them! Join Ted , Julian, Vijay and Ian on our very first video appearance on the OnceLost Games YouTube channel! We have a huge journey ahead of us, but we really want your input and feedback on how to make the best game we possibly can.

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Modern-day Nintendo fans may be able to enjoy the thrills of Diablo III on the move in 2019, but at the turn of the millennium, options for Nintendo-loving dungeon explorers were far more limited – although the outlook could have been quite different.

Following Diablo II's launch in June 2000, Blizzard's employees went in three directions. Max Schaefer and Tyler Thomson cajoled and badgered developers to join a team to work on Lord of Destruction; afterwards, most members of that team formed the vanguard of Diablo III's production. Another flock of employees drifted to the opposite side of the office and ran through iteration-after-iteration on 'Project X'.

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In the interview, Microsoft’s executive Vice President also mentioned the areas that he believes need more attention in the future, more particularly the gaming genres that require more focus. RPG fans will be happy to learn that the head of Xbox intends to step up on the RPG genre.
“One of the things that I’m really proud of that I see now is how RPGs are stepping up for us”, the executive said.
“Back in the day, when I think Mass Effect 1 which I worked on, Jade Empire, Fable… I remember we really staked out RPGs as something that was important.”

Spencer continued that while shooters have been going strong, the team intends to focus more on delivering role-playing-games in the future.
“Obviously first-person and third-person shooters have been strong, but it’s nice with Outer Worlds coming out, Wasteland… I think RPG is an area that we purposedly focused on and wanted to do more.

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The Waylanders official main theme, composed by Inon Zur, the Emmy award-winner and 3x BAFTA nominee. He is well known for his works on Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age Origins, Prince of Persia, Lineage II, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, Icewind Dale II, Crysis, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow.

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Does a conflict of visions lead to new ideas or simply to more conflict? Synedrion push for democratic ideals, a rational approach to dealing with the aliens, and the supremacy of technology and thought. With Synedrion's help, the Phoenix Project may be able to restore humanity to its former glory -- but only if it can convince Synedrion's political blocs to act.

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We are very excited to see you join this much improved experience BUT we have learned our lesson. This time we won’t make haste.

After we are finished working on all the remaining fixes of the issues which we’ve been collecting from you since release, we’ll start testing and confirming each fix with professional assistance before releasing one or more extensive patches, so that we can present you the most stable and polished Stygian experience.

We know that we have mentioned a series of fixes for November, but for the good of the project and the community, we need to use all the time we have for further quality assurance.

We’d like to thank you in advance for your patience and for the endless support you’ve been giving to this project.

Until we meet again in one of the forsaken alleys of our doomed Arkham.

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I have learned over years of experience that the player community is an incredibly valuable resource to draw upon when designing and refining a game. By working together, we can achieve great things. The biggest challenge with parsing community feedback is that with so many opinions, the takeaways are rarely unanimous. Diablo IV is still very much in active development, but we plan to keep you in the loop as we continue to design and iterate so that you can be a part of what we’re building. I am so incredibly appreciative for all the feedback we’ve received so far and I’m eager to dive into some of the most talked about topics.

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Greetings fellow spacers,

We want to let you all know that our Patch 1.1.1.0 has been released for all platforms! This is a hot fix patch to address some top community issues that have come in sine the launch of the game.

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Hello, friends!

Today, we would like to share with you the version 1.1096 patch and some news about the Atom RPG translation project.

Ever since our game hit Steam, many players asked us to translate it into their native languages. However, due to the sheer amount of text in the game and therefore exorbitant translator fees, this endeavor was never possible for our small team.

But then, some of our players, who specialized in certain languages contacted us and offered their help, and asked us only for what our team could provide.

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With v1.1.5.0, Grim Dawn has received a staggering update to itemization, over 6000 database changes. If that alone were not enough, v1.1.5.0 also features the Tomb of the Heretic roguelike dungeon for Forgotten Gods and a series of smaller dungeons that will lead you on a quest to uncovering its entrance. The claim that this is Grim Dawn’s largest update ever is no exaggeration. For just a taste of all that’s in store for you, you can read the changelog below.

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Greetings warriors of Calradia!

In this week’s blog, we want to take a step back from Bannerlord (just for a brief moment!) to show you something we have been working on recently: our new look website! There are still a few small tweaks and touch-ups to do, but we wanted to take this opportunity to share it with you now so that we could hear your thoughts and feedback before decommissioning our current site.

http://betasite.taleworlds.com/

The new website is a little more with the times and brings with it some much-needed improvements over the current site, such as mobile and tablet support. The change has also provided us with a nice opportunity to show off some of our new artwork, which is never a bad thing! Overall, we think you will find the new site to be a little more visually appealing and user-friendly.

We look forward to hearing what your thoughts are on the site, so make sure to leave a reply in the comment section to let us know what you think!

Next week, we will follow up on this post by introducing you to our new forums, explaining what the changes will mean for our current forumites and detailing all of the new features that will be made available to you (spoiler alert: there’s a lot!).

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Former Bioware general manager Aaryn Flynn has elaborated on some of the issues presented by the Frostbite engine, comparing EA's internal technology to an F1 racing car for both its huge power and the difficulty of extracting a peak level of performance.

Flynn was one of the keynote speakers at Reboot Develop Red in Banff, Canada, just a few hours drive from where he is currently building a development studio for Improbable. His talk was broadly about the value of good, efficient tools in making the best games, with Flynn describing the subject as "the most important thing to game developers nowadays."

"Games are still made by people," he said at the start of the keynote. "The more you can give the people building these games high quality tools to help them do their jobs better -- to help them be productive, try new things and experiment -- you're much more likely to have success in this industry."

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New Features

Weekly Buffs

Starting today, the Caligari Sector will have an unique bonus rotating weekly. With each freshly activated buff, players will gain an advantage in different activities. Weekly Buffs reset on Mondays with Glory.
The full list of the weekly buffs can be found here.

New Event: Edict of Termination

The Caligari Conclave has identified eight enemies of the Imperium as primary targets in need of immediate elimination. In His name they shall be obliterated from existence.

Enemies of the Imperium can now spawn instead of Villains during Missions. By defeating them, players are rewarded Fate, Credits, and gear - however, if all eight Targets are eliminated, the rewards are much more valuable - gather Favour, Loot Chests, Psalms, and Consumables!

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It's taken 18 years for a sequel to be delivered to Shenmue 2 - a genuine classic for sure, but also a major flop when it launched. By all rights, this sequel shouldn't exist - especially when it's created with a fraction of the resources enjoyed by the original games. But exist it does! So how did Yu Suzuki bring this game to market and crucially, how good is it? Is this a worthy sequel? John Linneman has answers.

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What I remember most about Dark Souls is the cold. This is impossible, of course, and may seem to fly in the face of the game's most celebrated maxim - is not Dark Souls the game that commands us to praise the sun? Nonetheless, eight years since From Software's Gothic labyrinth of an RPG overturned an entire industry's notions of challenge and myth-making, everything I love and dread about the game seems to resolve itself into a question of temperature. The huddled damp of Firelink Shrine. The shivering darkness of New Londo. The ashpiles of the Kiln, where long-ago-melted iron pillars stream sideways like windblown icicles. Even Anor Londo, the heavenly citadel on which the sun never quite sets, is a frigid place, its god rays brightening the marble but failing to pierce the skin.

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What’s clear is that BioWare has its work cut out. Normally the quality of a brand new BioWare RPG would be a safe thing to bet on, but from an objective standpoint, it’s at least understandable to grasp the skepticism of players and some fans. The studio’s last couple of games haven’t quite hit the mark we’ve come to expect from such talented teams. I’m hopeful and optimistic that BioWare’s leadership recognizes that significant and effective change needs to happen going into the next generation. That starts with making sure the next Dragon Age is exceptional.

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The Dedicated W3EE Mod Team has released a brand new version of The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition. In case you weren’t aware of, this is a complete and comprehensive rework of The Witcher 3, offering a much higher quality experience than the original game ever could.

Version 4.75 updates the friendly HUD, makes toxicity fever blur deactivate in cutscenes and makes free Aard casts not drain NPC stamina.

This latest version also comes with a number of fixes. For instance, it fixes 3D marker toggle keybind not being in the input settings file. It also fixes alt yrden not working on flying creatures and the incorrect white raffard potion toxicity levels. Furthermore, it fixes the meteorite silver armor abilities.

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JFarrell71 said:

"In case you weren’t aware of, this is a complete and comprehensive rework of The Witcher 3, offering a much higher quality experience than the original game ever could."

I use mods. I love and have loved a lot of mods. For some games (like Thief) mods are everything.

But the arrogance of modders can be breathtaking.

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What impact will Microsoft have on the renaissance of the cRPG? That's a question that many have been unable – or otherwise unwilling – to confront for some time now. With Wasteland 3 set to launch of May 19, 2020, that question will be answered one way or the other.

The reason this has even became a topic of conversation is largely down to Microsoft acquiring InXile Entertainment back in November 2018. It was a move that left many worried that the publisher would interfere with InXile's innate ability to craft a particular (and rather niche) style of RPGs.

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We've just released a new update which addresses a number of reported issues, including performance improvements, and bug and balance fixes. Check it out and let us know what you think!

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You might remember the encoded teaser pic we’ve posted recently. The suggestion mentioned in the comments was right: those numbers are the disguised date of the first major content update. Today we are going to talk about it and about many other innovations awaiting for you in mid-December.

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After 20 plus years, PC role-playing classics Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment were released on current consoles earlier this fall, giving younger gamers a chance to experience some of the most highly regarded and influential games of the ‘80s and ‘90s.

But that isn’t the end of the classic Dungeons & Dragons fun, as December will see the console release of Neverwinter Nights, another classic RPG from BioWare.

Beamdog, the company behind these six re-releases, put out an updated version of Neverwinter Nights, subtitled Enhanced Edition, on PC back in March 2018. While it’s been a long time coming, Beamdog and publisher Skybound Games will finally be releasing the game for the first time on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

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Season 19 is the Season of Eternal Conflict and with it come an awesome array of killstreak rewards! Inspired by the war waged between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, you‘ll earn increasingly powerful effects as you unleash destruction upon your foes. So rack up those kills and clear the battlefields in the name of Sanctuary!

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Expand your The Surge 2 experience with the JCPD Gear Pack and get access to 1 brand new armor set and 4 new unique implants. Unleash fury upon your enemies with the official JCPD Team Zola armor thanks to its stamina-oriented set bonuses. Find the enemies that equip the set, cut the various parts off and equip them for yourself in your fight for Jericho City!

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Many western RPG developers dabble with creating fantasy RPGs, but few have mastered the genre the way BioWare has. Many have tried to emulate what the developer started with the original Baldur’s Gate, and few have been able to duplicate it. I’d even say BioWare out BioWare’d themselves when they created Dragon Age: Origins, one of the, if not the, most popular fantasy RPG game of last generation.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released roughly two years later, and it appeared to eclipse everything Dragon Age had achieved. It didn’t help that that same year, Dragon Age II released to lukewarm reception at best. BioWare changed the game’s playstyle from turn-based, classic RPG to action-RPG. That probably wouldn’t have been so bad if it didn’t also limit the player-character’s race to human only. At that point, it wasn’t too different from a JRPG.

Despite the differences in gameplay between Origins and Dragon Age II and the rise of Skyrim popularity, Dragon Age still has something over Skyrim, just as it does many other fantasy RPGs that try to take its place: engrossing narrative.

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Taken individually, Dishonored's unique art style, brooding setpieces, engaging story, and innovative design are enticing enough. Woven together, however, Arkane delivers one of the most distinctive, engrossing titles I've played in years.

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GreedFall celebrates strong reception with new trailer and end of the year discounts! GreedFall stormed into players’ hearts and minds with its release earlier this year, marking itself as an RPG to be remembered. With reviewers praising its “intriguing world” and “inventive” quest design,

Spiders Studio have proved their ability to craft a spellbinding game. Get a taste of the overwhelming response in today’s new Call to Adventure trailer. With its deep RPG mechanics, impactful decision making, and compelling companion characters, GreedFall has reminded players of the sense of wonder and adventure that can be found in this most beloved of genres. As one reviewer put it, GreedFall is an “RPG fans owe it to themselves to try”.

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Last week we discussed the upcoming changes to the Atlas system in Path of Exile: Conquerors of the Atlas. Since then we've received a lot of questions regarding those changes and we've answered some of them in this news post.

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Hello everyone! Just a quick news to give you some information about our progress, and what our teams are currently working on. Some of you are already following our roadmap so you’ll be aware of most of these points, but we wanted to share them through this news as well to share our progress with everyone.

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In order to help you guess theme of our next game we are starting "Grail Hunting". The rules are simple - if you are active enough and reach the necessary amount of reactions on each #grail_hunting post - you will uncover one or more pieces of the picture. Good luck, Pathfinders!

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The original love letter to Dark Souls and its extraordinary fan community gets a deluxe hardcover edition.

Shipping costs will be charged during our post-campaign survey and will vary based on pledge tier, which will affect the size and weight of the package(s). We will do our best to be economical with the shipping, however each copy of the book is roughly 1kg (2.2 pounds) so expect the cost to be non-trivial.

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The first part of our big Diablo IV interview with Game Director Luis Barriga and Art Director John Mueller. Here we discuss story, lore, and the new-look Sanctuary.

The second part of our big Diablo IV interview with Game Director Luis Barriga and Art Director John Mueller.

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When Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines first launched in 2004, it was lauded for the quality of writing found in both the main story and character dialogue. Critics called it a flawed masterpiece with one of the main flaws being how stiff, unresponsive, and nonsensical the combat was throughout the game.

Ranged weapons felt frustrating since accuracy was based on skill points instead of the player's actual aim, knockback felt unfair and happened often, and combat scenarios with multiple targets often ended in death for the player. Truncated development timelines, which also led to a hefty amount of bugs, didn't help the situation.

"They tried to do many things at the same time. Thanks to the Source engine, there was a rather competent shooter laid on top of this third-person type of perspective, which I think they had a hard time getting right," Florian Schwarzer, senior producer at Paradox Interactive tells Gamasutra. "That was on top of what this essentially a short distance wrestling system with the feeding mechanic on top of a fully articulate stealth game. I think if you do something like this today, you're going to have a hard time. I think back then it was almost impossible."

Now, more than 15 years later, a sequel to Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is coming in 2020. While the writing is still the primary focus for a big part of the fandom, the teams at developer Hardsuit Labs and publisher Paradox Interactive are trying to rework the combat into something better while still keeping in line with the essence of the original game.

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Breakdown of cutscenes from Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018) and it´s DLCs. Kingdom Come: Deliverance contains more than 5 hours of cutscenes that were created in less than 3 years. This is selection of my personal work - cutscene editing, composing, lightening and polishing of my favourite scenes. Video depicts development process of cutscene creation from „cinematic designer´s“ perspective. Kudos to all animators, sound designers, other cinematics and all colleagues at Warhorse that helped us with cutscenes and worked like hell to bring this ambitious indie project to life. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is realistic medieval RPG released at 2018 that sold more than 2 million copies.

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There are more topics I could discuss -- like how the equipment is generally boring but the cut scenes are excellent, or how there's way too much running back and forth during quests but the save and load times are fantastically short -- but they just continue the trend. Greedfall was pretty well balanced for me. It had about as many things that I liked as it had things that I didn't, and so I find it tough to be overly enthusiastic about the game.

It took me about 60 hours to complete the Greedfall campaign. Some parts I found to be entertaining, but other parts were downright dull. I didn't hate the time that I spent with the game, but I was happy when it finally ended, and I had no desire to try it again or hunt for achievements. So I wouldn't recommend Greedfall at its current price, but it's something you might want to check out when it goes on sale, or if some DLCs are added to spice things up..

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As you know from our annoucement, we're working on Vaporum: Lockdown (a prequel to Vaporum), due to release in 2020. The community has received Vaporum very well, but has also given us a lot of suggestions on how to improve the game, or even add original situations and gameplay elements. Based on that, we decided to call upon you, Vaporum and dungeon crawler fans, to join forces in the creative process in making Vaporum: Lockdown!

We're announcing the Lockdown Level Design Contest!

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The companions were given a brief description and the location they can be found in the game.

- Tamika, residing in Prospect Park, is described as a “fiercely independent individual.”
- Agathon can be found in a workshop on Broadway that masquerades as a bookstore. He is “quiet the scholar and very ambitious.”
- D’angelo belongs to a “uniquely cursed clan” and is usually found hiding in sewers or abandon buildings due to the clan’s curse distorting their appearance.
- Hope has a “unique gift of perception” and can be found in an internet cafe in lower Manhattan.

Players can expect each companion to react differently to the “distinct clan” the player’s character belongs to.
The trailer also confirms the new release date of December 11.

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Lots of great discussion here on game narratives. We also get into BTS stuff on Dungeon Siege 3 and some problems George has with his favorite game, Planescape: Torment.

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The road to Trudograd is long and full of sorrow…

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Today we have finally deciphered classified radio transmissions from the Dome and learned details of the next major Encased update. The most important information is that the patch will be available on December 14th! You won’t have to wait until Christmas or New Year's Eve to start a new adventure. Experience a completely reworked prologue and see the real wasteland in the first story act.

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Lead a team of four Troubleshooters of dubious loyalty, who obey orders from Friend Computer, a paranoid and irrational artificial intelligence. Inspired by the classic games of the CRPG genre, experience the first adaptation of the cult role-playing game!

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Hello dear readers! December's here, and that means we have yet another batch of amazing stuff to share with you. Take a chair, grab a cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) and let us tell you of the newest developments in Solasta.

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