What makes this game..well for a start I really like the textures used on creatures. And the armours available to players. The designers have still struggled with dwarf armour particularly around the legs… which contributes to undermining the martial prowess of the dwarf. In my opinion all rpg games continue to give dwarves to long a torso and legs that are too short.

The architecture is a complete let down, poor understanding of how building elements go together erodes the believability at a subconcious level. But this is not just Dragon Age, its the low standard set by most game engines, and the Developers who employ them. I struggle with similar issues working in the digital film industry where the directors and bean counters undervalue the perfection in the environment that would truly elevate the average world.

Even so as a one of rainy weekend intense and bloody adventure the game is amazing a deserves all the awards it got.

At an interface gameplay flavour level Dragon Age appears to me as an attempt to bridge between a more serious game like Neverwinter Nights and a World of Warcraft audience. Purists I suspect will prefer the former whilst gamers sick of the cartoony nature of the later might be enticed by Dragon Age, but alas apart from the ontime adventure as you go through the story there is no massively multiplayer online game component to this.

As a last not: if you love dragons, you MUST play this game… check this out:

Fight Free Dragons in Game

New game by Ubisoft, hot on the heals of the movie release. How does it rate as an online role playing game? Predictably, like most games that have oodles of cash chucked at them this is little more than a marketing cash cow for the game company to ride the wave of enthusiasm for sci-fi following the success of the blockbuster film. Did I expect any different…perhaps… given the title ‘avatar’.. and the central them of occupying and acting as another creature from another world… I thought perhaps this PC game might might try to develop the genre in terms of RPG.  In many ways the game is quite constricting in terms of what role one can play, Commander Falco or Tan Jala and so forth.  Creatures include Viper Wolf and Thanator, vehicles such as the Samson or Banshee. Naturally the game looks great, how could it not based on ten years of film art development, and utilizing all the awesome skills of Weta digital and Peter Jacksons film companies leading design team. All Ubisoft had to do was implement the art and ADD some core game-play originality…but in this they failed horribly. Most disappointment is the lack of use of nature as anything other than disappearing foliage.

In years to come Avatar will be remebered as the ‘Star Wars’ of this decade, revolutionising the film industy…but the pc game or RPG, weather online game MMORPG or whatever…this Avatar game will not be rembered at all. If I was James Cameron planning my two sequels.. I would get a new game company, or at least insist upon some original thinkers at the game company being brought onboard to develop and revolutionise what a RPG game can really be about. Head hunting the likes of film set and game play designer Philip Thomas from Weta Digital, best known for his work on the Matrix sequels and ‘The Lord of the Rings’,  might inspire some groundbreaking development in both console and pc games.

Each class has specific strengths, weaknesses and special abilities which will help you on your role playing quests within the Diablo 3 world. We expect more classes to be announced but here is a brief overview of what we know so far.

The Barbarian

The Barbarian is the staunchest, toughest class available in Diablo 3, absorbing melee damage like a punching bag, he takes a pounding again and again and still gets up for more! The Barbarian can wield two weapons at once which is a tradition established in Diablo 1 & 2. Blizzard refers to the Barbarians as ” immense, relentless, dual-wielding furies of combat”.

The Barbarian’s Special Abilities

The Barbarian has some awesome moves, some new and some old. They include:

1. The Cleave
2. Ground Storm
3. Leap
4. Seismic Slam
5. Whirlwind

We’ll have more on the Barbarian for you soon.

The Wizard

In the early stages of role playing the Wizard can be one of the weaker classes, a little soft and squishy, but as you level her up, her abilities increase and she becomes one of the most powerful and awe inspiring classes available. She wields ice, fire and electricity to dispense her foe.

The Wizard’s Special Abilities

The has some really amazing tricks up her sleeve – used with a little thought they can get you and your fellow rpg gamers out of a tight spot!

1. Disintegrate
2. Electrocute
3. Teleport
4. Magic Missile
5. Slow Time

We’ll keep you updated with more news on the Diablo 3 Wizard class as it comes to hand.

The Witch Doctor

The Witch Doctor is a new class to Diablo 3 and looks to be a stunning combination of magic and spiritual powers. He can summon undead creatures to fight for him but also utilizes swarms of insects and mind control powers to dispatch his enemy.

The Witch Doctor’s Special Abilities

1. Firebomb
2. Horrify
3. Locust Swarm
4. Mass Confusion
5. Soul Harvest

I have to say “”Soul Harvest” sounds liek the freakiest and most macabre ability I’ve come across in a long while! I look forward to trying this one out on the evil beasties

We’ll bring you more news on the With Doctor and other Diablo 3 classes as it becomes available. Stay tuned.

Diablo 3 Uses Havok Physics Engine

The team at PC Role Playing Games is incredibly excited about the imminent release of Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 like many games we feature here is not what a purist would call a “Role Playing Game” but rather an Action RPG. We still think it’s cool enough to make our list and can’t wait to play it. Much of the astounding visual eye candy in Diablo 3 is produced using the Havok Physics engine – You can see some of it in action in the screenshot above showing monsters actually climbing up walls! Very impressive VFX! The actual game play will still have the top down ‘feel’ of previous Diablo games, however interacting with teh environment quite literally enters the 3rd dimension in this fantatic sequel to the Diablo series.

We’re as excited as you are and can’t wait to get our hand on this game! We’ll keep you posted on any developments and as always make sure you are the first to know

Currently FX Labs is developing Inferno, a game based on Dante’s Inferno, a game based on Dhoom 2, the most valuable property in Bollywood, as well as a game based on Archie Comics. It plans to release various titles in partnership with leading property owners in India. Plans are also underway for launching an MMOG that would appeal to India’s growing pool of online gamers.

This is the cover of Indias role playing pc game, also don’t miss India’s best MMORPG – Supreme Destiny.

This game is a wonderful place for fans of Lord of the Rings so long as you don’t mind polluting the wonderful world Tolkien created with a Dungeons and Dragons/World of Warcraft aesthetic and can cope with variations to the actual flavor of the original book. That said if you can distance yourself from actual Middle Earth, and see this as a separate but similar place, this is one of the most enjoyable online massive multi-player role play universes to explore. The first release Shadows of Angmar contains twelve epic quests called ‘Books’, and with each expansion or update more Books are added. Thus the recently released Mines of Moria which has received awards for best PC Game expansion, contains two new Books or quests with another five expected in updates.

With less races than similar games, only having Elf, Dwarf, Human and Hobbit, and a standard range of classes albeit with less emphasis on magic classes; Burglar, Captain, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master, and Minstrel. (the expansion Mines of Moria adds Rune-Keeper and Warden). LOTRO relies on a less intricate and quite original character development system than traditional DnD type role playing PC games, to bring variety and individuality to this role playing PC game and a texture which is more Tolkienesque. In some ways the game is a simplification of the kind of traditional skills and feats systems as found in DnD and a game like Neverwinter Nights, but within the simplicity there emerges a great variety of less structured options.

Having chosen a class, players then develop a vocation, where each vocation incorporates three professions. For example if you are learning to be a Woodsman you are able to learn the professional skills of forestry, farming and wood crafting. Another point of difference is that when a character has gained enough experience to go up a level in expertise, they don’t just click a button but must go to non-player characters in the game to ‘purchase’ skills. For example at the blacksmith, this represents having been regularly to the blacksmith to train. One great idea that has no bonus value for you character but adds an interesting layer to the way role play evolves is the character naming system. While you get to create your own name, the game engine adds prefixes and suffixes based on things you have achieved in game, such as ‘Spider-Foe’ if you have slain a great number of spiders. Thus Howlin (a Dwarf) would become ‘Howlin Spider-Foe’, or perhaps even ‘High Warden Howlin Spider-Foe’.

Neverwinter Nights was published by Bioware but the current version Neverwinter Nights II is an Obsidian product. The game now has had two expansion packs released, ‘Mask of the Betrayer’ during 2007 and in November 2008 ‘Storm of Zehir’. Overall this is a very engaging and addictive game with a fascinating storyline.

The rule set is based on Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 so that players create a character race from the following list; Dwarf, Elf, Human, Halfling, Planetouched, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc and within each of these there a sub-races such as Drow a kind of dark elf. After choosing a race players then elect what class or classes their character will be such as Bard, Barbarian, Wizard, Sorcerer, Rogue and so on. As the play the game and gain higher levels ‘Prestige’ classes become available such as Eldritch Knight, Pale Master or Weapon Master. The classes determine what skills and abilities you character can develop but also what strengths and weaknesses physically. A wizard for example will not be able to suffer much physical injury or ‘hit points’ before death, whereas a fighter is much more resilient. On the other hand a fighter will not resist spells cast on him as easily as a mage. Skills available include learning spells, how to craft and make magic items, picking locks or pockets, survival and tracking in the wilderness.

Having made your character you start the game and set off exploring the game world, killing monsters, completing quests and gathering items and treasure – all the time gaining experience and getting new and more powerful skills and spells. The adventure story that comes with the game is a pick a path type adventure where you meet characters that can be interacted with but depending on your characters morals an attitudes you may have a different outcome to another player. This adventure game can be played multi-player on a network, in which case you and your friends form a party and travel together to complete the story as a team.

The game can also be used to join free MMORPG worlds. There is a large community of creators who make persistent worlds using the tool-set which are online 24 hours a day. Some of these emphasize play style which is action based and others require a commitment to role playing and staying in character. One of the longest standing, popular and largest of these is Forgotten Realms, but other beautifully constructed worlds are Shores of Haldun and Return of Middle Earth II. There are many others too which make great choices as role playing PC games.

World of Warcraft was created by Blizzard Games and is the fourth game in the “Warcraft” series.  The series started with the original Warcraft which was a real time strategy game (RTS) – not a role playing game. Warcraft II and Warcraft III followed and both exhibited the RTS style of play – typically top down, resource and army management types of play. It was World of Warcraft that broke the mold and took blizzard fully into the RPG game world. Although Diablo I and II are also produced by Blizzard, and can be classed as RPG, they are not what purists would consider a full immersive RPG as the options for  character development are somewhat limited by comparison.

Although World Of Warcrawft is PC based it is important to note that the game requires an internet connection to be played and that the environment is not based on the users PC but in teh perpetual world controlled by the server. In this way the game developers can create new regions in the virtual perpetual world, putting in new challenges for role players to overcome and new treaures and bounty for the gamers to find. For many players the World Of Warcraft has become an addictive  second life – some even claiming it is preferable to the real world!

A key part of any roleplaying game is “Leveling” you character but this can be difficult and extremely time consuming. Obviously for many this is all part of the fun but for those who want fast track their progress a MMORPG Leveling Guide can help.