Couchpotato's Random RPG News

The game is set in an alternate 1970's and revolves around the exploration of the Dome, a mysterious structure discovered in a remote desert. No one knows the exact nature of those who built the Dome, but the founders of this advanced civilization have come to be called the Forefathers.

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Escape into a far-out fantasy adventure as a young and talented warriorlock, whose next mission will bring him to battle his own demons in this stellar, story-driven romp with heroic and hopelessly flawed characters steeped in a twisted tale of mind over madness.

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The main advantage of creating your own game engine is that, instead of being a Swiss-army knife (second-best in everything it tries), you can craft it to specialise in what you need it to do. As you know, we created an engine from scratch for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. We had many goals when we started working on it, but three of them had top priority: of course it had to do what we needed in order to create a huge sandbox game such as this one, but it also had to be easily moddable, and on top of that, it had to be flexible enough to work on low-end computers. In this week's blog, we talk to Engine Programmer, Burak Dermanlı, one of the people responsible for the engine and its optimisation for all kinds of computers.

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As much as we enjoy speaking to game developers, they’re usually not the people in charge of the purse strings or the ones making the really big decisions. But most video game publishers don’t like to put themselves in the limelight and interviews with the execs in charge are rare and usually not very edifying. But Pete Hines is different. Bethesda’s vice president of PR and marketing is constantly offering himself up for interview and, for a man in his position at least, is always surprisingly candid.

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While the gameplay couldn’t live up to the premise of the first Assassin’s Creed adventure with Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, there’s no denying that the 12th Century Holy Land was a refreshingly different, and distant, setting. You’ve heard of the big names – Richard the Lionheart, Saladin – but it’s not a period of history that you tend to study in school, and outside of the grand strategy genre, isn’t somewhere we see all too often in games either.

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Arriving on Sept. 18! Order your copy today!

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We got to interview Creative Director, Alexander Mishulin and Owlcat Studios, the development team behind the game, and ask them some questions about the Kickstarter process, their post-launch plans, and everything else in-between. Here’s the full transcript.

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This has been a crazy week. Preparing for day one of the Kickstarter has taken a lot of energy and sweat, but we are happy with the initial response. After the first 24 hours of the campaign, we are sitting at $12K with 352 backers! We want to thank each and every one of you for your support.

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Kiro’o Games released a making of video for the action-RPG, Aurion: Legend of the Kori-Odan, showcasing how the game was evolved from its development in 2003 all the way up to its release in 2016.

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Today Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Community Manager Sarah Dawson spoke about the upcoming Edmonton Expo, shared the latest progress on the Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition build for GOG, and discussed plans for the future of Infinity Engine games and NWN:EE.

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Today, Obsidian Entertainment is known to many gamers as the developer behind world-class RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, but the company got its start in a galaxy far, far away. Founded in 2003 by former employees of Black Isle Studios, Obsidian’s first-ever project was a tall order: a follow-up to BioWare’s highly acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The good news was that the team would have access to the Odyssey Engine, d20 System, and other technology BioWare had used to make the first KotOR such a monumental hit. The bad news? Obsidian would have a little more than one year to complete the game in time for the 2004 holiday season.

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Venture into Black Marsh and experience Argonian culture like never before in Murkmire, The Elder Scrolls Online’s next DLC game pack. Explore what’s coming with this new zone and learn about the Update 20 base-game patch in this preview article.

This new DLC game pack brings an entire new zone to explore, a new main quest line to experience, a challenging new group arena to conquer, and more. Update 20 will arrive alongside the new DLC game pack and will bring big changes to Cyrodiil, new Music Box furnishings, and a series of Home Editor improvements and balance changes.

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Hostile plant life makes its entry into the world of Battle Brothers in this week’s edition of our dev blog for the upcoming ‘Beasts & Exploration’ DLC. Get your axes ready!

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“Something happened. You all know what, dear listeners. But I won’t talk about it aloud. Let it lose its power and turn its gaze away from us, like a demon that weakens until called by its true name… So, we now walk in the canopy of… this. No, wrong! We are in the eye of the storm! From the vortex of sand faces look upon us, faces of people you will hear of not just once or twice in the years to come. But today it will be me to tell you about them!”

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A little project update: we now have 18% of funding goal - thanks to our awesome 555 bakers! Please, let us know what do you think about this update and which topics you'd like us to cover in next updates.

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Bard's Tale 4 lead designer David Rogers walks you through the intricacies of combat in the upcoming role-playing game.

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First things first: we had to change the name so now the game is called Colony Ship. While it's not the most original name, it's the most straightforward one.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about what RPGs are really all about - monsters. As a wise man once said:

“As one would expect, the game shines the most during the fights against humans. This is true because of all the reasons that made AoD combat great – humans are the most tactically diverse in terms of abilities, weaponry, armour, etc, which makes almost every fight against them unique to some extent.

But then you have the monsters, which are more or less the anti-thesis to everything that makes AoD combat good. Sure, the first time a new monster type appears, you might be surprised by what it can do, and act accordingly to counter it. However, monsters don’t really go beyond 2 types (and even that is usually limited to “small scorpion”, “big scorpion”), and don’t present any tactical flexibility. They are simply one-trick ponies that stop being interesting dangerously fast. Scolopendras rush forward and hit you and poison you, and that’s it. Same goes for scorpions and ants. You’ve been to one of these fights, and you’ve been to them all…”

It’s a valid and helpful point, so naturally, we want to do better. In AoD/DR most critters were melee ‘fighters’, half of them poisonous, with high DEX (to close the distance fast) and two attack types. Predictably, this design didn’t bring anything new to the table and what little it did bring got old fast,

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Power issues around the booth cut my demo short, but I saw what I needed to see. Disco Elysium is dirty and biting while being painterly and flowery. There is stillness in the atmosphere, with tension and suspense lingering on the periphery. It is an RPG about navigating an urban world and your own thought processes. It is strange and disorienting, but also unique, well-written, and evocative. Even just this bite-sized sample was exciting.

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That's not to say there's no incentive for playing to your character's strengths, especially as you focus on specific stats, and you'll need to do so to unlock what the developers estimate is over 70 hours of dialogue-driven gameplay. (You'll need roughly three playthroughs to find the diverging paths that add up to that total, they point out.) No release date is yet set for this ambitious beast of a game, but I'm already prepared to buy on day one.

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I’m somewhat curious to see where Disco Elysium goes with its plot, since I was not able to get a great sense of it from the demo I played. It seems like one of the most direct conversions of a tabletop RPG system to a video game that isn’t just a D&D game, with a lot of open-endedness to explore or play through it however you see fit. Even if it seems like it might be a bit hardcore for me I’m still interested to see where it goes, but unfortunately we may need to wait a while since there’s no confirmed release window for the game on Steam.

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We have been keeping a close eye on community feedback, and wanted to describe some changes that we are planning to address concerns. We expect to make these changes by the middle of next week.We have been keeping a close eye on community feedback, and wanted to describe some changes that we are planning to address concerns. We expect to make these changes by the middle of next week.

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The Human Head Studios team is committed to delivering the best version of Rune to Steam Early Access. Rune blends intense Action-RPG survival gameplay with savage PvP and PvE battles, and after undergoing a series of closed betas and gathering feedback from the community, we’re confident we can make the game even bigger and better. With a heavy axe and large mug of mead, we announce that the game will now launch this Winter.

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C.S. Lewis once said “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” It’s a mantra that hits close to home for us here at Visionary Realms as we strive to make Pantheon the best game it can be. With that in the forefront of our minds the team went back to the drawing board, determined to improve the most maligned race of Terminus —The Skar. We sat down with developers Justin Gerhart, Forrest Imel and Jared Pullen to discuss what happens when you don’t quite get it right the first time.

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We’ve been developing the game for a while already. We have reached the pre-alpha stage and we are confident that Encased could become a great game. But we are a small team, and there is a lot of things that we’d like to add. With your help, Encased could become a way more ambitious, better fleshed out and polished project!

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Overall, The Banner Saga 2 is a fine game. The combat is fun and interesting, the characters and situations are well written, and the game's cartoon style gives it a unique look. But story-wise almost nothing happens, and since stories are one of the main reasons I play games (and RPGs in particular), I was a little disappointed with the experience. Still, it's tough to rate the middle part of a trilogy before playing the finale, and maybe the minimal events in this game will pay off in a big way when the trilogy concludes in The Banner Saga 3

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This week’s issue of Famitsu has one of the first Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition developer interviews. Producer Yosuke Tomizawa and Yoshito Higuchi, chief director of the original game, discussed the RPG.

The chat has some interesting discussion about how Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition came to be and the remaster itself. There’s also some talk about the possibility of other remasters/remakes and the next entry in the franchise.

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Battle Brothers Developer Blog #104 - The Schrat

Hostile plant life makes its entry into the world of Battle Brothers in this week’s edition of our dev blog for the upcoming ‘Beasts & Exploration’ DLC. Get your axes ready!

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INSOMNIA is a dieselpunk sci-fi RPG about the slowly degrading remnants of human society attempting to survive on an abandoned space metropolis.

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Shadows: Awakening proves that loot-focused action-RPGs can feature a deep narrative with meaningful side quests. The unique party system works in unison with the combat mechanics, allowing you to put together a devastating combination of attacks. Featuring a lengthy narrative, and reason to play through multiple times, this unassuming title may be the sleeper hit you have been looking for.

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News recently broke at the Nintendo Direct that several classic PlayStation-era Final Fantasy games –VII, IX, X, and X-2– would be ported to Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. One hotly debated cult classic is curiously missing, and not for the first time: Final Fantasy VIII. The game is something of a Marmite item for gamers, dividing fans of the series straight down the middle. The title, however, still has a significant following and, minus VII, would generate just as many sales as the rest. So, why is Final Fantasy VIII missing, and what does Square Enix have against our favorite emo boy Squall?

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Yet fighting through these obstacles is worth it, because Valkyria Chronicles 4 is more often than not a clever and challenging war game. The great character design and engaging combat system make for an experience that can be rarely found today. While the aesthetic is strong, I wish that the narrative could match the rest of the game. Because if it did, it would be an equal to the excellent Valkyria Chronicles, instead of a weaker imitation of it. Even so, this is an experience worth playing, and one that has me excited for what the future of the franchise holds.

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"This just in - A package courier found shot in the head near Goodsprings has reportedly regained consciousness and made a full recovery."

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When online multiplayer was first conceived, it’s doubtful anyone truly predicted how wildly popular it would become. Beginning with PCs very early on and entering consoles around the sixth generation (the Xbox, PS2, and Dreamcast era), it seemed like many single-player titles had to have some kind of online multiplayer component. As time went on, largely solo titles like Assassin’s Creed and Tomb Raider received substantial online modes in addition to their offline content. Whether multiplayer felt tacked on in many of these titles is moot; the point is that everyone wanted a piece of the online cake.

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With talents from studios such as Remedy, Supercell, and Bugbear, Action Squad is a “story-driven game studio” filled with passion and a desire to bring rich narrative and compelling gameplay to players. The Finnish studio is currently working on Iron Danger, an RPG with one foot in the fantasy genre and the other in technology, drawing on mythology and modern machines alike to craft a unique world and engaging story.

OnlySP recently had the chance to speak with Heikki-Pekka Noronen, the studio’s lead programmer, about Iron Danger’s inception, inspiration, and innovation regarding story, gameplay, and world building.

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In an interview published on the latest EDGE magazine (November 2018, issue 324), Narrative Director Mel MacCoubrey explained the research work into Ancient Greek literature that Ubisoft Quebec did for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. She also said that the game won’t have the same ‘grimdark’ tone throughout it all as lots of triple-A games, mostly because of the funnier and more imaginative side quests (the main quest will be more serious and accurate to history).

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As we played through Odyssey's opening chapters, we noticed the game repeatedly go out of its way to give the player the ability to choose. Kassandra and Alexios may be its protagonists, but the next Assassin's Creed is all about you living your own odyssey. For the most part, it works, but some of the new innovations suffer from solely focusing on the player's needs and not those of the game's characters.

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It appears that Ubisoft is currently giving away the Spartan Starter pack for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Gamers can simply visit its official website, register or login and acquire their free content. However, there are some additional details that you should read so… keep reading.

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For the love of god, just make Dragon Age and Mass Effect a proper game. Don't "live service" them, just give us complete packages at launch, and maybe a few sizable reasonably priced expansions down the line, and then move on. I don't want content split into pieces and drip fed for years on end. Not for these games.

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How do you juggle a story with thousands of smaller sub-stories, hundreds of characters and locations, six years of narrative backstory, five years before that of prequel story, and millions of main characters all experiencing that story in different ways?

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It is that time of life where another Grim Misadventure is upon us.

Last time, we gazed upon the Oathkeeper’s virtuous arsenal that was emblazoned within the class art.

Today, we’re going to take a deeper look into just what makes an Oathkeeper your number one choice for divinely inspired monster-slaying.

We’ve already shown you one of the iconic abilities featured in the Oathkeeper mastery, the Aegis of Menhir.

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InXile Entertainment founder Brian Fargo had pledged to buy back Interplay, the company he co-founded in 1983.

Speaking on Twitter, Fargo framed his promise as a "stretch goal" for InXile's forthcoming PC game, The Bard's Tale IV.

"I'm asked what would we do if 'Bard's Tale IV' PC is a big hit," Fargo said, before adding that he will attempt to acquire Interplay if the game sells more than two million units within 18 months.

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Wasteland 30th Anniversary Edition is a remaster of the original game that started it all. Developed and published by inXile Entertainment, the remaster finally has a release window, check out the details below.

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In the first part of his interview with OnlySP, Iron Danger lead programmer Heikki-Pekka Noronen explained how the Action Squad Studios team is taking a highly iterative approach in trying to create an RPG unlike any before it. In this second part, he delves deeper into that process, as well as the transmedia ambitions the developer has for the project.

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In the end, The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep is trying to balance being a sequel to arguably one of gaming’s most hardcore RPG series whilst keeping the essence of those games intact and bringing it to a new audience. It’s love for the prior games is clear whilst playing and in its own right is a fantastic modernisation of the genre that is easy to recommend beyond nostalgia for the past.

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Shadows: Awakening is basically Diablo III, but with a clever mechanic that makes it less of a clone or rip-off and more like an interesting variation on a theme. While it’s won’t usurp Diablo III as the game you’re supposed to compare all isometric action-RPGs to, it’s still one of the more addictive games of the year, and will engage anyone looking for a realm or two where they can run around, hack monsters, and then steal their stuff.

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Valkyria Chronicles 4 slightly changes the series’ formula. It shakes things up by adding an entirely new class, the grenadier. We are accustomed to characters using guns of all sorts in the game. But this time, we have another ranged alternative that is great about hitting a certain area from a distance. The grenadiers are here, and they become essential pretty much from the moment Riley arrives to aid Squad E.

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After the release of the train wreck that was Assassin’s Creed Unity, many fans, including myself, had begun to grown disillusioned with the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Here was a game that was poised be the first truly next-gen title in the series, and it was constantly hyped up as the next logical step in the evolution of the franchise.

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Tri-Ace has announced Resonance of Fate 4K / HD Edtion for PlayStation 4 and PC (Steam). It will launch digitally worldwide on October 18 for $35 / €35 / 3,700 yen.

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Bethesda may have just trademarked the name for Elder Scrolls 6. On Sep. 10, ZeniMax Media inc, parent company behind all Bethesda releases, filed a new trademark for “Redfall.” The filing is for a “computer game software for use with computers and video game consoles” and that’s pretty much all we know.

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Should you be one of the many who has spent some time with The Council, then you are no doubt sitting back patiently waiting for the release of the next chapter. Today, that chapter has got itself a release date and details.

‘Burning Bridges’ – The Council’s 4th episode – will be releasing to those who have purchased the Complete Season or the Season Pass on September 25th. If you are preferring to roll with each episode as and when they drop, then you’ll need to wait until the 27th September in order to get your purchase in.

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Pathfinder: Kingmaker will challenge players as both adventurers and rulers as they will be able to claim explored lands and carve their own kingdom from the wilderness. Kingdom founding will go beyond simple stronghold-building to become a true reflection of the hero’s character and choices made throughout the game. Each kingdom will be a living thing shaped by alignment, choices, allies and the hero’s ability to lead his or her people.

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See what critics have to say about Divinity: Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition!

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This is your grandpappy’s old-school RPG, but it is made for the modern day. It’s made for RPG lovers of all types, ages, and experience. Bard’s Tale 4 follows squarely in the footsteps of giants without missing a beat. It has taken all those classic features and brought them into modern game play. It feels both fresh and true to its roots, at the same time. I highly recommend this to veterans and newcomers to the series alike.

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If you’re expecting The Bard’s Tale IV to be an action-RPG on par with some recent blockbusters, you may be disappointed. This is not a cinematic experience with bleeding edge graphics and breathless action and combat. However, if you approach the gameas a super-enhanced, classic dungeon crawler that both fits into the legacy and moves the needle on a well-respected, beloved franchise, then you will be pleased by its story, puzzles, nuanced combat, excellent music and varied environments. With its return to Skara Brae, Kylearan’s Tower and other familiar locations, The Bard’s Tale IV serves as both a sequel and an introduction to some of dungeon crawling’s iconic landmarks and its intact sense of humor reminds us that not every adventure needs to be deadly serious.

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First of all, thank you for your patience and for your ongoing support. We are here to update you on the short-term road map for The Bard’s Tale IV so you can get a sense of what’s coming. We had a few more problems during yesterday’s release then we had hoped for, and we apologize for the inconvenience. We will try hard to solve all of your issues as fast as we can.

One of the biggest concerns has been the delay in delivering the final keys of the game. Both our partners Crowdox and Xsolla faced a situation where these were not distributed as planned and it took them some time to sort it out. Our partners have assured us that all remaining issues should be resolved by today.

We are also aware that some people are experiencing problems with dropping framerates, missing widescreen support, FOV sliders, or unusual high loading times between certain areas. In addition, a small amount of people are encountering a black screen on load. Thank you for all the feedback you have been provided so far, and we want to make sure you see what we are doing with it. Please take a look at our patch notes below for detailed information.

We are working around the clock to solve these issues as soon as possible. Also, we would like to ask you to let us know if there are any other issues that influence your personal gaming experience in a negative way. We have spent a lot of love, time and effort into the development of The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep, and there is no bigger reward for us than if you are enjoying it.

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