RPG

Canadian publisher Strategy First released a number of smaller PC games in the 1990's and in the early part of this decade, both from third parties and their own internal development studios. They created the Disciples turn based strategy RPG series and produced two games in the franchise before they filed for bankrupcy in 2004 and shut down their internal development studios. Strategy First announced in 2005 that Disciples III would be handled by Russian developer Akella.

This week Akella announced that they have now acquired the rights to the Disciples series from Strategy First (Financial terms were not disclosed). Akella continues work on Disciples III with a planned release date in the first quarter of 2009. It is not clear if Strategy First will continue to be the US publisher for the game.

Blizzard must love making us skwirm. The developer officially announced their action-RPG sequel Diablo III last June. Most of the time, that means the game's maybe 12 to 18 months from release at most. For Blizzard, that means . . . well not much really. They tend to announce titles and let their fans wait and wait and wait until sometime in the next decade they finally get around to releasing the title (or in the case of Warcraft Adventures or Starcraft Ghost, cancelling it).

We are not bitter. We were just wondering why Blizzard announces games and keeps releasing new screenshots like the four new images that appeared today for Diablo III on the game's official web site and then allows us to keep waiting for the game's release. And that waiting continues.

This video illustrates how combat will be handled in Dragon Age: Origins. From the looks of things, combat sticks very close to the Baldur's Gate roots but with some very nice streamlining.

Download the Dragon Age: Orgins Darkspawn Combat HD Video (40 MB)

Games from Blizzard Entertainment not only have great gameplay and terrific CGI cut-scenes they also have some of the best music soundtracks in the industry. Earlier this week we reported that a free song from the Diablo III CGI trailer has been made available for free on iTunes and today Blizzard announced that soundtracks from a number of their older games have now been made available via Apple's music download service.

Some of these tracks have only been available until now in collector's editions of Blizzard games or on sale at part Blizzcon events. Six soundtracks are currently available for Starcraft, Diablo II, Warcraft III and three World of Warcraft soundtrack albums. Blizzard's podcast can also be downloaded via iTunes.

There were many PC titles this last weekend at PAX08, but out of everything that I got my grubby hands on, Demigod was easily the biggest surprise. The fine folks from Gas Powered Games and Stardock were there in full force and as much as I love Sins of a Solar Empire, it seems like Demigod is my new favorite real-time strategy underdog.

Just as Sins is a strange blend of RTS and Civ-style games, Demigod is a blend of RTS and various PC RPGs. Given my penchant for games that blend RPGs into a genre I already enjoy, I'd always been interested in what Demigod had to offer. After playing it at PAX08, I'm ready to lay down my pre-order directly to Stardock's Impulse service. Follow the image above for plenty of discussion on GPS's newest creation, Demigod.

Updates S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky to v1.01. The patch optimizes the performance of Clear Sky approximately 5%. In addition to that the patch improves the overall stability of the game and fixes potential load/save issues. Further the balancing of the multiplayer mode has been changed.

Download the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky v1.01 Retail Patch (57 MB)
Download the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky v1.01 Direct Download Patch (58 MB)
*Steam users should not need to download the patch

It's well known that Bethesda Softworks' upcoming post-apocalypse RPG Fallout 3 was in danger of being banned in Australia for its depiction of drugs in the game (an edited version of the game has now been approved by the country's ratings board). But that doesn't mean the developer/publisher has smooth sailing in other countries where the game is being sold.

In a chat with Computer and Video Games, Bethsoft PR head Pete Hines, while dodging specific questions about the Australian situation, did state, "The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different 'hot buttons'." As an example he stated, "In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine." In the end, Hines stated that such issues don't really affect their development plans, saying. "We just go through and make the game that we want to make."

One of the most gorgeous upcoming MMO's, AION, showed off its stuff at PAX 2008, and Big Download has the two videos shown there ready for download. The Classes trailer demonstrates the different classes and their abilities, while the Territories video takes viewers on tour of the lands following a winged, flying, character. Both videos are beautiful and show off what AION has to offer.

Download the AION Territories HD Video (402 MB)
Download the AION Classes HD Video (205 MB)

The game's release won't be for several weeks yet but Bethesda Softworks is already talking a little bit about their plans for downloadable content for Fallout 3, their upcoming open world post-apocalyse RPG. In a chat with Shacknews, the company's PR head Pete Hines gave some hints about their plans for post Fallout 3 content.

The game itself heads for stores on October 28 and while Fallout 3 should have hours and hours of gameplay by itself, Hines states that their plans for downloadable content will add even more play time to the game. He states, "The type is really--we want stuff that's going to be several hours. Not just like a one-off thing, but something like where you can download it and play it for X number of hours. It'll be similar to what we did with Knights of the Nine in Oblivion, where it's like whole new quest lines, new stuff, that kind of thing." As previously announced at E3, only the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Fallout 3 are scheduled to get downloadable content after the game ships to stores.

Penny Arcade Expo was the first public showing of Demigod, the upcoming RTS-action-RPG from developer Gas Powered Games and publisher Stardock. Showing off the game to the vast PAX audience was good enough of an excuse to get Stardock to release some new screenshots of the game as well.

Actually make that a boatload of new screenshots; over 50 in fact. The new shots have been added to our gallery which should give you an idea of the look and feel of Demigod where you control one unit (either an assassin or general) to battle against others in a tournament setting. As with other games from Stardock you will be able to check out the beta of Demigod when you pre-order the title.The first "engine test" should beging later this month.

Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, the sequel to the action RPG Divine Divinity, puts players in the role of a dragon slayer, then gives him a major identity crisis by cursing him with the ability to transform into a dragon for aerial combat. This trailer shows off the graphics some some of the combat that will be featured in the game.

Download the Divinity 2 HD Trailer (76 MB)

It's almost a certainly that we have many, many, many months before the release of Blizzard's fantasy action-RPG sequel Diablo III but at least you can get a free listen to some of the music created for the game ahead of time. Apple's iTunes download service has offered up the "Diablo III Overture" as a free download as part of their Discovery Download program.

The theme, credited to the Russell Brower and the Eminence Symphony Orchestra was used as the music for the cinematic Diablo III trailer that was used to introduce the game last June. Of course you can check out that trailer right here at Big Download which also happens to be free. The wait for playing Diablo III is, of course, priceless.

Blackstar is an upcoming MMO that emphasizes space and ground combat. Players will be able to select from different races to throw down in an intergalactic war. This early trailer shows a little bit of how the game will look.

Download Blackstar HD Teaser Trailer (108 MB)

We have three trailers illustrating some of the features and humor gamers can expect from DeathSpank, and upcoming episodic adventure role playing game based on a character from the Grumpy Gamer comics. Described by the designer and Grumpy Gamer Ron Gilbert as a "mix between Monkey Island and Diablo," the game is being published by Hothead Games. The same company also publishes the Penny Arcade Adventure series. According to the official DeathSpank website, the release date was recently updated from "soonish" to "soonerish."

Download the DeathSpank Items HD Trailer (22 MB)
Download the DeathSpank Armor HD Trailer (22 MB)
Download the DeathSpank Fight HD Trailer (21 MB)

Are you ready for some hot and heavy toolset screenshot action? Of course you are; it's Labor Day, after all. BioWare has you covered with some new screenshots showing off some of the mod tools that people will be able to use for their upcoming fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Origins.

As we have previously reported, the game's toolset will allow folks to make their own single player adventures for Dragon Age: Origins a script editor available to change creature AI and combat for making "detailed action sequences full of heart-pounding party-based tactical combat." The toolset will be released alongside the game when it ships in the first quarter of 2009.