Any good RPG titles coming up this year?

[Web Janitor]

Yours truly hasn't been following the news.

Anything exciting on the horizon?

[Moondog]

Final Fantasy XIII-2

nope

[KitDreamer]

Supposedly Mass Effect 3 at some point but that requires Origin to play. Meaning I now have to get yet another download service just to play the final chapter of Shephard's story. Fan-friggin'-tastic. It's just gonna be another GFWL. By which I mean it'll sit on my PC and NEVER GET USED except for one game. I can't think of any games on Origin that I'd want that I can't get on Steam or by other means except ME3.

[Moondog]

Supposedly Mass Effect 3 at some point but that requires Origin to play. Meaning I now have to get yet another download service just to play the final chapter of Shephard's story. Fan-friggin'-tastic. It's just gonna be another GFWL. By which I mean it'll sit on my PC and NEVER GET USED except for one game. I can't think of any games on Origin that I'd want that I can't get on Steam or by other means except ME3.

DRM? What's that? ^____^ /consoleplayer


In terms of non-RPGs, however, and games with RPG elements, the following have attracted my eye.

The Darkness II, to be released on the 7th, Asura's Wrath, on the 21st (it's an interactive movie though), and then Silent Hill: Downpour, Ninja Gaiden III, and Dragon's Dogma in March.

The Darkness II is probably the one I'm looking forward to most (right now at least), because having played the original (It's ok) and read the comic (It's not bad), the sequel seems to be a big step upwards, and looks greatly improved.

[Lugh]

People who have played the demo have told me that Kingdoms of Amalur has the potential to be good. However, the malignant presence of RA Salvatore and Todd McFarlane means I'm adopting a "I'll judge it when I play the full game" stance, instead of jizzing myself.

[Soja]

Kingdoms of Amalur from the demo is, eh, decent. It seems to lack its own identity, being more a collision of Bioware, Bethesda and Blizzard tropes and game design than anything original. Other than that it seems like it will be a fairly solid game.

@Rusti: wait about five minutes after release for the Origin cracked version to come out, profit.

Also, Guild Wars 2.

[KitDreamer]

I liked ME1 enough to pay for ME2 right off the bat.
I like ME2 enough to want to pay for ME3 :|

[Auvic]

GW2 will come out someday or another.
Someday.

lolblizzardguy, whatever; but I've got my free copy of D3 already, whenever they actually release that, too.

[Familiar]

Definitely looking forward to GW2.

[Lugh]

I like ME2 enough to want to pay for ME3 :|

You can buy it, and then apply the crack that makes it unnecessary to use Origin.

Have I noted what a kick in the junk that is for people who love Origin Systems? EA is basically saying "Instead of new Ultima or Wing Commander games, we're just going to use their name for our terrible Steam equivalent."

[Web Janitor]

Guild Wars 2 was looking pretty interesting.

Who can't love a world that posits dragons as world-crushing titans only now waking from aeon long sleep to crush the race of man, and so very nearly succeeding?

Of all the shops out there, they seem to post some intelligent designs. I guess I'll still wait and see, in case it turns into Age of Conan - crippled and stillborn.

[Auvic]

Call me crazy, but the entire reason why I'm interested in GW2 is that it's an MMORPG with elements of active blocking/dodging in combat.

I mean sure - the GW storyline has yet to disappoint, but I'm beyond stoked for an MMORPG that doesn't measure skill in terms of which macros you've copy/pasted. Seeing as how GW2 has been in the works for so long, here's to hoping they'll do a good job of it. After all, the promise to the playerbase was that the game "would be released when it was finished"; so here's to hoping it'll deliver.

[Flamme Noire]

Final Fantasy XIII-2

nope

lol

[1337]

No one's mentioned SW:TOR?

[Moondog]

No one's mentioned SW:TOR?

muhmorpugers don't count.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning however is pretty decent, as far as action-RPGs go.

Speaking of RPGs, a new game in the Suikoden series (which owns) came out recently in Japan. I'm hoping Konami localizes it.

[Auvic]

I'm getting mixed reviews on KoA.
One guy said "It's what Fable wishes it could be", one guy said "It's pretty and all, but if I wanted to kill things, I'd rather just play Skyrim."

[Soja]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning does a very good job at making you feel like a badass. This isn't about "lol what's better, Skyrim or KoA," it's more like "is KoA a decent RPG?" and you know what? It is. Probably worth the brand new price of $60, if you don't mind the fact that the game can be experienced entirely in 70 hours if you skip every conversation and play on easy (derp, I mean "Normal").

[Xachariah]

My only grievances with KoA are the same ones I have with a lot of other action-RPGs:

Stealth characters (I like to be a sneaky bastard) get screwed thanks to a lot of "AND NOW BATTLE" ambushes and situations where you pretty much will only go unnoticed if you put every single point you have into stealth (and that's thanks to the milestone perks that reduce their sight range). There are a few areas that seem to consist almost entirely of mass ambushes. Not really all that difficult to survive, unless you're like me and forget A) that you have a shield and B) to buy healing potions/make more, but still irritating.

You generally get one of two options: Take Quest, Do Not Take Quest. For a game that actually lets you attack NPCs, if you like (which is good, because I'd've never gotten that goddamn medallion if it weren't for being able to butcher the guy holding it and running like hell), and offers you moments of "Welp, hey, you wanna go ahead and turn coat?" there are fairly few, that I've so far encountered, situations where it actually gives you the option at all.

and then there's the Elder Scrolls issue where you can be the most hypercompetent of all possible guilds, but at least KoA lets you rebuild yourself if you decide to.

Can't really think of any other issues with the game off the top of my head, so I'd say it's pretty good. The only 'issues' are partially just a matter of playstyle, and the game does give you the opportunity to go running back to a Fateweaver to change your setup if you feel you need to.

Oh, and fuck crudoks. Just fuck 'em. I also dislike the Fae for reasons ranging from fantastic racism to "... and it's somehow a surprise that the villain of the story might possibly be unhappy with how it ends and want to try something else? Is this just a very bloody Broadway show? Where's the audience? Viewing boxes?" I haven't asked them much about their culture, though, because after about the first town I just got tired of asking everybody everything.

[The Turtle]

Well just to answer, because this is my humble opinion: Kingdoms of Amular, Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, The Witcher 2 (for councils), Final Fantasy Versus 13 (if that comes out this year, forgive me if I am wrong) andddddddd I am sure some more will be coming out soon, like usual.

[DMD]

As far as KoA goes, in my humble opinion goes like this.

1- Actual game play. I agree with most of what Ix said, it's defiantly geared more toward tank types than archers or sneaks, I haven't tried the mage yet.

2- Graphics wise, it looks great. Bright and fairly happy  as opposed to the constant grim dark that most games have been lately. But not as "fuck me did a gay japanese game designer's closet explode ?" bright and colorful as the last few FFs.

My biggest problem has been content of the game/story itself. All the crafting trees seem like a huge time sink to me, I haven't spent a single point in the skills or made a single item so far, just use what I find and sell the rest. Don't think I've even bought a single weapon or armor and I do fine.

Slightly worse than the that though is the quests. SO far as best I can tell, there's really only two basic kinds of them, the Fetch item(s) x and the clear out dungeon/ area ,kill X number of this opponent  ones. Not only do the quests seem really uniform and bland but just like in Skyrim, they pile up quick, to the point I have so much to do or I could do that it kills interest in actually doing any of it after more than an hour or two at a time of playing the game.

[Moondog]

I like Kingdoms of Amalur.

It's basically 'What if Fable didn't suck?'

It's no Skyrim, but it's fun, and a good time-sink.

Recently, I've been replaying Mass Effect 1 (Adept, baybee) and I have to say it really feels like BioWare put a lot more thought and care into the original game than the sequel. It has its problems, especially in how loose the gameplay feels, but over-all, from the voiced and detailed codex, to the sweeping vistas of the citadel (some of which have optional cutscene viewing examination points just in case you want to look at it), it just feels more like a breathing universe.

[Levistus]

Dragon's Dogma, Witcher 2 for the 360 (with extra content), and potential Skyrim DLC featuring Morrowind and Cyrodil.
thalmor 4 life

[The Turtle]

Lookin' forward to Witcher 2, actually...Though havent heard much 'bout Dragons dogma.