Gamers' Creed

Games Radar has a handy list of role-playing games on the iPhone, while there is a head-scratching omission of Mass Effect, it does contain a decent amount of RPGs. Ding!

The Gist: Fans of old-school RPGs will find more mojo in The Quest than they can shake their wands at. This expansive, open-world, first-person hack-and-slash adventure deluges you with customizable freedom. Your character can be one of several races, and all of your abilities can be tailored to your own whimsy. Feel like being a spell-casting wizard who wields spiked armor and carries a badass broadsword? No problem. There’s a massive story to follow, but it’s just as awesome to roam around the lush terrain and cause mayhem with the human and inhuman populace of the realm.

Saving Throw: Ghetto-3D graphics are both detailed and super retro-licious. 

CVG has a hands-on preview of Diablo III. From what the author writes, the game sounds like it's shaping up quite nicely. Naturally, it's a Diablo game, so certain game design elements are a given. Still, since the lead designer was previously the lead designer of Company of Heroes, I'm anticipating a great game. It may be a while before we see it, but this preview certainly whets the appetite. Slash!

Diablo is famed for randomisation. Here, the desert level I played wasn't randomised - but the dungeons I happened across were. In one, as I entered the ceiling began to collapse, the rock supports starting to buckle under the pressure. A time limit appeared: four minutes before I'm buried alive. It becomes a race - to see how much loot I can scavenge before fleeing for the exit. As I fought, I began to see tactical opportunities: bringing down the roof on the monsters by hacking at the struts as I went. As the clock ticked down, my clicking became all the more frantic - particularly after I lost my way back to the entrance.

RPS has an interesting post. Back when Knights of the Old Republic 2 was released, people noticed that the ending completely sucked. That's because executives at Atari attended "Satan's School of Customer Service" and forced the developer, Obsidian, to cut content and release the game early for Christmas. Ugh...

Anyway, a couple of guys released a mod that enables the lost content, which makes me want to play the game again so that I can experience it the way the designers intended. Now I have to decide whether I want to make Mission cry. Jerk!

There’s two main projects – the unfinished but workable Gizka Restoration Project, and now theTSL_Restored_Content_mod which can now be explored. Created by Zbyl2 and DarthStoney, it’s been years in the making, and now ready for us to check out.

For those of you who read the brilliantly written review of the game "Pathologic" on RPS last year, you'll be interested to know that there is a sequel to the game due out in October called "The Void." Based on the review, it sounds fantastic. In fact, it sounds even better than Pathologic. In a vast sea of derivative game design, this game, and its predecessor, literally shits on the mold. Crayola!

When you encounter your first Predator a Sister guides you through battering it with colour until it dies, then she congratulates you. COOL! You think. And so you get into the habit of unthinkingly crushing Predators you find with colour. Before long a Brother gives you a reprimand, telling you flinging colour around is taboo. Then the colour itself starts whispering at you, telling you you’re wasting your soul. Then you pick up from a conversation about something else that there’s a relationship between colour spent in an area and the Predators that appear. Suddenly, you’re not sure if killing Predators is a mistake. Suddenly, you’re thinking.

Just as Pathologic was really a story that had the confidence to lie to the player, The Void is a game that has the fearlessness to mislead you, to obfuscate the rules of the world and make you rely on your own intuition and experience. In a year where mass-market games development is trying harder than ever to ensure even the most casual gamer is never confused or lost, I find Ice-Pick’s attitude here much appreciated.    

This is interesting, even though it was created by metrosexual game designers... CVG has news of the release of the first chapter of Fable 2 for Xbox 360. The download is free of charge and contains the childhood and young adult sections of the game. Sashay!

After completing the chapter, players have the choice to then purchase the next installment or the entire game (in select regions). The five episodic instalments are fully compatible with Fable II's DLC packs, Knothole Island and See the Future.

Rumblings from 1UP.com and Kotaku state that Obsidian Entertainment's espionage RPG, Alpha Protocol, may be slipping its release date. It is still listed for release Oct 6th, but apparently, Amazon and GameStop now have the release date set for June 2010.

Since there has been no official word from Obsidian, or its publisher, Sega, it's not yet certain which date is correct. If the new release date is accurate, it will be yet another game that misses the magical Fall/Christmas sweet spot for sales.

RPS has a review of Volition's FPS, Red Faction: Guerrilla. The game is set on a Mars colony where you play a guy who is part of a revolutionary freedom-fighting group. Revolt!

I like Red Faction Guerrilla a lot… but I think that stops just short of actual love. Which is odd, because I was suspecting I’d adore this. While reviews have been “only” in that 85% region, the word of mouth among the chattering classes have been Dark Horse For Game Of The Year. After playing it at a press event earlier in the year, I was convinced it’d go that way. I still smile at that moment when blowing up my first tower-stack, I managed to make it fall to crush another target I was planning to take out. That’s joyous. 

CVG has a hands-on preview of Assassin's Creed II. So far it sounds like an improvement over the first one. Sneak!

It all looked and played brilliantly, but it would have been nice to try out some of the game's bigger new features. Like the flying mechanic, or getting to play through one of the Prince of Persia-style hidden areas we saw at GC. Especially considering Ubi acknowledged the first game as being repetitive and and overly simplistic, and promised far more variety in the sequel's 50 mission types.