Category: TC

Divinity

Divinity: Original Sin Review

I enjoy when things don’t take themselves too seriously. As someone with an almost pathological inability to maintain a professional attitude even in the most dire of circumstances, I love it when we manage to get a game that throws off the ultra-dark, gritty, and generally grey landscape that video games find themselves in so often. Fantasy RPGs are one of the most likely perpetrators of Operation AngerRage, with the Witcher series being a great example. Fantastic games and all, but damnit, I don’t always want to have to check myself in for counselling every time I want to save the world. With this in mind, I was delighted to see that Divinity: Original Sin didn’t have that same level of seriousness. True, it is a grand, sweeping epic with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, but it at least knows how to have a laugh along the way. Read more …

Skyrim-Mounted-Combat

Great Combat is its own Reward

This week has been an interesting week for me. I have spent most of it in a building that was hundreds of years old, surrounded by medieval weapons and armour, explaining to members of the public how said weapons and armour would be used in combat. Every day, Monday to Friday, I have been teaching people not only how their ancestors beat the ever loving crap out of each other, but also showing them how to do it each other, complete with ways to turn a sword into a tool of testicular shattering force. So my days have been filled to the brim with violence and death in a way that may or may not be healthy. Read more …

PZO1113GMScreenFull

Obsidian finds partner in Pathfinder

I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret. Come in close.

Ready? Okay. Here goes.

I’m a huge geek. Just thought I would let you know that. It’s good to get it off my chest, actually. I already feel lighter for having come out with it.

I don’t mean that as a “Oh, I play video games so I must be such a geek” kind of way. I mean it in a “I have had to purchase an entire shelving unit just for my comic book action figures” kind of way. In a “I have three copies of Star Wars (the original trilogy, mind you) on DVD and yes, it was intentional” kind of way. In a “I spent hundreds of pounds to spend last weekend strutting around Manchester in a shiny gold suit at Discworld Convention” kind of way.

No part of that last paragraph was an exageration.

No part of that last paragraph was an exageration.

But there is one thing I do that still surprises people. That makes people realise just how far gone down the geeky path I really am. That makes my wife cringe when I talk about it in public.

I play tabletop role-playing games. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, tabletop (or pen and paper, depending on who is throwing the labels around) RPGs are, in many ways a precursor to the video game as we know it. In fact, if you’ve played a video game with hit points, you’ve experienced that influence first hand. The term covers a wide range of rulesets and settings, from the technomagic dystopian future setting of Shadowrun to the high fantasy classic that is Dungeons and Dragons to settings and rules based on your favourite TV shows and books.

Specifically, I play a game called Pathfinder, which is a revision of the most well known RPG on the market, Dungeons and Dragons. I have played it since it was in open beta and have played nearly every week for the past seven years. I have played multiple campaigns, or stories, both as a player and as the creator of the story, destroying nations and saving the world countless times along the way. You could say I am a big fan of the ruleset.

“But Trent, you glorious and handsome example of manliness,” I hear you ask. “This is a VIDEO game website. Explain this nonsense you are spouting at us!”

"And how can we too develop your keen fashion sense?"

“And how can we too develop your keen fashion sense?”

Well, as it turns out, Pathfinder publisher, Paizo Publishing, has just announced a deal with Fallout: New Vegas and South Park: Order of the stick developer Obsidian, meaning that the company responsible for the fantastic Neverwinter Nights 2 now has the rights to develop video games based on the Pathfinder ruleset and setting. In fact, there has already been a game announced that is based on the Pathfinder Cooperative Card Game, due out on tablets within the next year. As that announcement, made at an annual convention of tabletop RPG publishers from all around the world, specifically referred to this as the “first” game being developed under the license, it is very likely that the we’ll see more and more titles announced in the coming months as Obsidian seems very keen to utilise this intellectual property.

This is good news, not just because it means that I am going to get to play a PC game set in the very deep, varied, and fun setting, but also because we should get a return to form for the company that had such great success working with Wizards of the Coast to bring us games based on their widely known Dungeons and Dragons brand. It seemingly signals the permanent end to the partnership that also brought us Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, with Obsidian jumping ship to join up with D&D’s biggest rival in the industry.

Making getting more of this increasingly unlikely...

Making getting more of this increasingly unlikely…

There is a lot that can be said for this decision and a lot that we can speculate on. The Pathfinder brand is now five years old, which is relatively old for the market, and it doesn’t have the kind of name recognition that Dungeons and Dragons does, which has just released the fifth edition of its ruleset. This would, theoretically, give Obsidian a boost in exposure as they ride the publicity generated from such a release. However, it is likely that Wizards of the Coast, who publishes Dungeons and Dragons, wants to focus on their existing MMO, Neverwinter, which has so far struggled to find the player-base that they were hoping for. The fact that Obsidian is instead in bed with rival Paizo could speak to their feelings toward the fifth edition rules that have just been released (I haven’t seen them yet so I can’t comment) or it could just be a desire to team up with someone new. The PR from both Paizo and Obsidian has been exactly what you’d expect from them, so there isn’t much you can read into just yet.

We’ll likely have to wait until the release of Pillars of Eternity this winter before we find out anything more concrete about future Pathfinder games from Obsidian, but, at least for me, it is a very exciting prospect. Paired with last year’s release of Shadowrun Returns based on the very popular Shadowrun setting and rules, it could be a sign that developers are going to get more and more adventurous in what sources they mine for upcoming RPG titles. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to bring the wide variety rules to life for the masses.

thelastofus

You got Video Games in my Movies

Video games have become a huge industry. There is no denying that. When gaming first exploded onto the scene in the 80s, I doubt anyone could have foreseen a time when games would sell for more than $1 billion the way Grand Theft Auto V did last year or a time when games would elicit the kind of emotional reaction that The Last of Us continues to with its recent HD remake. Gaming is likely the fastest growing entertainment industry out there right now, making this a golden age for those of us who love to spend our days wrapped up in virtual worlds.

This is the kind of success that Hollywood has been dreaming of for decades and there has never been a cultural trend that Hollywood wasn’t poised to exploit. As we speak, Maisie “Arya Stark” Williams is rumoured to be in talks to play Ellie from The Last of Us, Nathan Drake’s poised to make the leap to the big screen in an Uncharted movie, and they just keep bringing the Dead Island movie back from the dead. And if I hear about Michael Fassbender’s supposed casting in an Assassin’s Creed movie one more time, I don’t know what I’ll do. Read more …

Featured Image

Love Stories to Learn From

Maybe it’s a sign that I am growing soft as I get older. Maybe, beneath my crusty, cynical outer coating, there has always been a fledging romantic struggling to get out. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m less than a week away from getting married. Whatever the cause, I’ve been thinking about romance in video games a lot lately.

It has been mentioned that video games are the most interactive of all media, that because we control the main character, we are more prone to feel whatever it is that they feel. For me, this has never been more true than in the love stories. Oddly enough, it is the romance in video games that have given me the greatest lessons in love. So, in order to celebrate my wedding next week, here are the love stories that have had the biggest influence on me over the years. Read more …

Crowdfunding Gone Wild

Kickstarters Gone Wild

Laos and Nicaragua.

What do these two small nations have in common? Is it pirates? Is it that I had to check the spelling of them twice just to write the opening line to this article?

Or is it the fact that they all have a military budget smaller than what has been raised on Kickstarter for a single game? Read more …