Dungeon Siege III

When I talked of the new Fallout game, I mentioned I was a fan of Diablo II. Truth be told, I like my hack ‘n slash sub-genre. The games may not be smart or well-written, but they are mighty fun. With Obsidian, the people behind the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas, behind the helm, you can expect that there will be some well-written dialogue – this is still an action RPG, though. There is a thrill to being one guy versus the forces of evil, armed only with wits, some stats to determine dice rolls, and an arsenal of magical weapons. Obsidian Entertainment are pretty busy as they develop the third entry into the Dungeon Siege series.

Obsidian promises that each individual class will be truly unique – items, skills, and even animations will be exclusive. However, Obsidian has only shown off two classes and failed to mention how many more the final copy will have. Given the multiplayer co-op focus of the game, it seems like an advisable choice. As a Diablo II fan, this is what made the multiplayer so fun in that title – each class filled a niche and it felt wrong to try to make a paladin fit the niche of an amazon.
Dungeon Siege III does not have an announced release date as of yet.

Fallout Online

Not much to say about this game at this stage in the game – it’s the Interplay addition to the Fallout franchise, it’s an MMO, and beta sign-ups are up.
Don’t expect to see Fallout Online until 2012.

Monkey Island 2: Special Edition

Apparently Monkey Island: Special Edition managed to sell enough to get an enhanced remake. If you know of  Monkey Island, there’s not too much to say about this. It’s LeChuck’s Revenge, you can play either with the old-fashioned graphics or with updated graphics, and now there’s a commentary mode that Valve popularized with their Half-Life games.
The expected release is July of this year.

John Carpenter

Not really PC news, but I am a bit of fan of the horror genre and I think John Carpenter is damn fine at what he does. As I wrote this update, I was watching his contribution to Masters of Horror, Cigarette Burns. However, Carpenter has been involved with the development of F.E.A.R 3. I was a fan of F.E.A.R, but never enough of a fan to get the expansions or the sequels. I’m rather uninterested in it, in fact. But nevertheless, I feel that getting a chance to hear Carpenter discuss F.E.A.R 3 and horror in general is not something to pass up, so here’s a link to the IGN article.
It’s also interesting to see that the horror director likes his fast-paced action games. I wonder how he feels about the survival horror genre.

Jumpgate Evolution

Jumpgate Evolution is an MMO that hopes to dethrone EVE Online from its niche. Jumpgate is a space-based MMO. And it’s a bit more of a traditional online game than EVE is, which makes it more appealing than to me. Like EVE, the in-game market seems to play a big role – with good missiles costing money. If the EVE experience is too much like a simulation for you, you may want to lookout for Jumpgate which is sounding a bit more arcadey.
Jumpgate Evolution does not have an expected release at this point.

Red Faction: Armageddon

The successor to Red Faction: Guerrilla is returning to the roots of the series with some more caves. The destruction that has been a gimmick at the core of the series since the start is still important. However, what Volition seems to be most happy about the their magnet gun – you shoot object (or person) A and object (or person) B to make one fly towards the other. It’s another way to destroy the environment and to use the destroyed environment as a weapon. Additionally, the nano-forge rifle is used to repair broken objects in the environment to use them as cover.
Rejoin the Mars rebellion next March.

The Witcher II

I enjoy The Witcher, I’ve read some of the books, played a bit of the game, and like the setting. The Witcher II is seeing some simplification with how the game handles – the E3 demo was done on the PC with a 360 controller. The game is, naturally, seeing some added features to the basics behind the game: dialogue options are now timed and have lasting effects on the story, the combat system is more fluid looking, and the gameplay still has a lot of focus on timing. Geralt’s skills in sword play, magic, and alchemy can be improved as you level. Alchemy, for those unfamiliar with the universe, is essential for any witcher. Witchers, who specialize in hunting really big and scary monsters always keep potions that they’ve brewed themselves to enhance their abilities.
Geralt’s return to the gaming world is not yet dated.