Grim Dawn Developed by Crate Entertainment Published by Crate Entertainment PC — Steam, GOG, DRM-free Released Feb. 25th, 2016 Grim Dawn has quite a history. In April of 2012, about a month before Diablo III would release to excitement, skepticism, and dismay, Crate Entertainment quietly launched a Kickstarter campaign for their game to a horde of hungry …
Somewhere amongst the harsh, arid terrain, which buckles and cracks underneath the pressure of the traitorous Sun, her believers are weeping. She has left them to the mercy of chaos, deserted them in a realm where vicious sand scarabs unleash their sting, and haunted spirits threaten to swallow their faith. A beacon of hope emerges …
Divinity: Original Sin is a fantasy role-playing game developed by Larian Studios and published by Focus Home Entertainment. It has a single player campaign, but, and this is something I believe is missing from many games these days, it also has the ability to play local multiplayer. In addition, it allows you to choose your ‘style’ of adventure. Are you more focused on story and exploration? Try ‘Explorer’ mode. Like combat? Choose the ‘Classic’ mode. Looking for something more hardcore? Take the challenge of one death with the ‘Tactician’ mode. Finally, the ‘Honour’ mode caters to the MOST hardcore of fans, combining the ‘Classic’ mode with the ‘Tactician’ mode.
With Girl Power in Gaming, we’re exploring the role of females in our favorite hobby for the month of September. The series will attempt to explore gender dynamics, pre-assigned roles and both positive and negative examples of female characterization in the digital world. In many Final Fantasy titles, and RPGs in general, the game begins with …
Only one game this year has the nerve to blend a traditional first-person dungeon crawler RPG experience with the kind of fun that meticulous map-making, restaurant management, stone collecting, and town development can provide. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight is making its way to the West, containing all the swordplay, spellcasting, and hardcore buffing and debuffing …
It was a great many years ago when most of us entered the bustling metropolis of Midgar and first encountered the virtual version of a living breathing post-apocalyptic nightmare. It was a place of steaming machines, surreal emerald lighting, and an omni-present police state operated by the most powerful corporation in the world, all perched …
It’s been a full ten years since the last numbered Kingdom Hearts entry, and as such, Kingdom Hearts III has been the product of much anticipation since dropping its first few tidbits back in June 2014. Finally we now have our first look at the game in proper form, with dynamic, action-packed gameplay being showcased and a split-level …
One of the great epic RPGs of the previous generation, and perhaps of all time, Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that’s staggering in it’s length and depth. Boasting a massive campaign, two huge open worlds and an almost absurdly daunting 500 side quests to complete, Xenoblade establishes itself very quickly as a game that will require a sizable investment of time and effort for anyone ambitious enough to tackle it.
I played the first two Fable games without mercy. I loved the story, the characters, the combat, the writing. They were great games, and they will always remain that way. Then, Fable III was announced, and they had this grand promise of “be the King”, and that was what drew me in. But what should have been an experience that rooted me to my seat, left me questioning my decisions, while forcing me to play through it again really only left me with a feeling of ‘oh’.
This is probably the most low-hanging fruit I could have selected to cover, but let’s face it, this game has a Metacritic average of 83 on PlayStation 3 and 82 on Xbox 360 and has sold over 6 million copies, but is still one of the worst games many gamers have played. All the more baffling because it’s not just a bad game, but a complete and total embarrassment to the Final Fantasy name that, until this point, carried a serious pedigree.
Let’s get right down to it. If you like strategy games, RPGs, and anything in between and have never played Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2, you should. If you have played SMT: DeSu 2 and you liked it, you should still pick up Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker, the enhanced 3DS remake of the 2009 DS title. Despite being a sequel and a remake, DeSu 2 RB has a lot to offer old fans and new comers alike and is exceptionally approachable to those unfamiliar with the franchise or even the genre.
Imagine you woke up one day, intent on going to see your friend’s new invention at the Millenial Fair. You run into, literally, a young girl about your age at this Fair, and she tags along all day, until eventually you’re able to see the invention. Turns out, your friend made a teleporter. So you …
Is there anything that Mario can’t do? Nintendo has placed the iconic plumber in as many professions as the Japanese publisher has deemed marketable to a mass consumer base. He’s been a race car driver, referee, golfer, and even a giant gorilla tamer. Obviously, Mario can do anything if he sets his mind to it; a true renaissance man.
When my co-editor suggested we do a monthly theme exploring the concept of long-form gaming, and our most treasured journeys therein, it took almost no time for me to seize upon the opportunity to write about not just my favorite game of the previous generation but very likely the most important and influential gaming experience I’ve ever had the pleasure of enduring: From Software’s Dark Souls.
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper launched quietly last week, but as a mobile-only title in a long-standing series that focuses primarily on console releases, that’s hardly a surprise. However, there are definitely a few reasons you should check out this title, even if you’re adamantly against the typical free-to-play model of mobile gaming.
There’s a particularly telling moment toward the end of Final Fantasy VIII that really lets you know what kind of finale you’re in for. After a climactic space battle with the sorceress, Adel, players are blasted through time, 1000 years into the future, to face their true foe. When they arrive they find the last members of a dead army, their dead army, still valiantly committed to fighting the war against evil. Unfortunately, they have failed. As the party traverses a desolate landscape, littered with their dead comrades, a mournfully operatic tune evokes a sense of menace to this already horrific future. Finally the player crosses a giant chain, one of many, that holds Ultimecia’s Gothic castle aloft in the sky.
There are very few series with such a strong and fervent following as Final Fantasy, and Square-Enix is now leveraging their passionate fan base with a new title called Final Fantasy: Record Keeper.
One of the most common requests that has reverberated from the RPG community has been the desire for a true Chrono Trigger successor. What fans have spent years pining for was the dream of a modern game that featured all of the great ideas which made CT the instant classic that it was: time-travel, vastly different timelines, paradoxes, and choices that showed consequences over the course of thousands of years. What very few people realize is that this highly anticipated ideal of a game has already come and gone under a different title: Final Fantasy XIII-2.
When the teaser for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children first burst upon the scene in the fall of 2003, it would have been a staggering understatement to say fans were excited. In fact, fans of gamings flagship fantasy series were positively chomping at the bit for any new information regarding the sequel. The teaser was sparse but the morsels it did offer gave the public some pretty major bits, such as a recut of Sephiroth burning Nibelheim, shots of Vincent, Barret, and Tifa, and the return of the Turks, all scored to a new version of the iconic One Winged Angel theme from FFVII’s final battle. Was Square setting the bar a bit too high right out of the gate? Just how could they possibly match the insane hype they were already building almost two years prior to release?
A voice actor may have just pulled the rug out on Square-Enix and Disney as far as Kingdom Hearts III is concerned. Bill Farmer, who voices one of the franchises central characters, Goofy, tweeted earlier today that the game would have a 2015 release.
Xenosaga, Episode III: Thus Spake Zarathustra Monolith Soft Namco Bandai PS2 With the abridged and anticipated close of the Xenosaga series on the horizon, the final volume had the unenviable position of wrapping up two games of plot, starting and completing its own arc, and cramming in the major beats of the remaining three planned …
As mentioned in the first part of this series, Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht had debuted to middling sales in spite of its high critical acclaim. Unfortunately, this lead to interference from Monolith Soft, and Episode II was heavily altered leading up to its release.
It’s time to check your backs for the Darksign because with the release of Crown of the Ivory King, From Software has essentially closed the book on Dark Souls II. This final episode in the Lost Crowns DLC takes place amid the snowy vistas of a frozen kingdom, and levies some of the heaviest challenges yet.