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We've seen the E3 2018 gameplay demo—here's everything we learned, and more. Cyberpunk 2077 was announced all the way back in 2012, and for years we only heard scraps about CD Projekt RED’s open-world sci-fi RPG. All combined, though, the past six years of interview snippets paint Cyberpunk 2077 as a behemoth of a game, even bigger that The Witcher 3. Now we've finally seen it, and it looks awesome. During E3 2018, we were among the first to sit down and watch an hour-long demo that showed off a dizzying variety of Cyberpunk's systems, character progression, and combat. It was a stunning introduction to a world that we cannot wait to explore in greater detail. Here's what we learned, plus everything else we know about Cyberpunk 2077. What is Cyberpunk 2077’s release date? CD Projekt has mostly stuck with the "when it’s done" line, but we know that it plans to release Cyberpunk 2077 between 2017 and 2021, along with another, still unannounced RPG. Our guess, then, is that Cyberpunk 2077 will release in 2019. This is backed up by comments from a March 2017 financial results conferenceduring which CD Projekt developers said that progress on Cyberpunk is "quite advanced." That said, the "when it's done" motto is something CD Projekt is serious about (recall it delaying The Witcher 3). We could be looking at 2020, or even 2021. Is Cyberpunk 2077 an FPS? Dare we say that Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person shooter RPG? We dare. Though cutscenes and driving sometimes switch to third-person, Cyberpunk 2077 involves a lot of first-person shooting. With guns. Lots of guns. It's chaotic and fast-paced, but was less aggressive than, say, Doom. During a firefight in the opening moments of the demo, V, the main character, ducked and peeked around cover to spray a gang of organ scavengers with bullets from her automatic pistol. Like Destiny 2, numbers indicating damage dealt exploded with each landed shot—but enemies didn't feel like bullet sponges. We also love how agile V can be. Though there's supposedly quite a bit of variety in what abilities V has, in this demo she was an agile cyberninja. She could run and slide to cover and also trigger a slow motion bullet-time mode. She also had a quick dash that let her burst in a specific direction. When bullet-time and this dash were combined, she could quickly flank enemies and deliver fatal killshots. We also saw a ton of cool weapons, and yes, there are weapons other than guns, though again, there are a lot of guns. A street-modified Tech Shotgun could penetrate cover and enemies, which was a deadly combo when paired with V's upgraded optic implant that could show her enemies through objects. A Smart Rifle takes all the skill out of shooting by firing bullets that track enemies. You merely aim in their general direction and it'll lock onto multiple targets and fire bullets that automatically track their intended targets. So while of course this is still a CD Projekt open-world RPG, with all the expected trappings like exploration, dialogue, skills, and so on, it's also a shooter, in first person. PARTY MEMBERS? We know that you have at least one teammate who helps you in combat. His name is Jackie and he's a real badass. He's a big, gruff Latino man who can handle his own in a gunfight. During one boss fight, he picked up a car and used it as mobile cover. In another fight, he charged straight through a wall to tackle an especially tough enemy. He appears to be a main character and he accompanied us throughout the entire demo. It's not clear whether or not other party members can be recruited and swapped out. Does Cyberpunk 2077 have character creation? Yep. During the demo we got a quick peak of the character creation screen, which starts with choosing your sex. From there, you can customize hair, tattoos, and clothing. It doesn't look like you can change your character's bone structure, though—no deep menu of facial feature sliders here. You can also change your stats. There are basics like Strength and Intelligence, but also a 'Cool' stat that perhaps maps to charisma or one's ability to handle stress. The full list from what we saw in the demo: Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Reflexes, Tech, Cool. Notably, there are some important stats from the tabletop Cyberpunk not represented here, like Empathy. More on why that's significant below. We're sure Cool will have some other cute functions aside from charisma, as we speculate here. You can also change your backstory, which will affect how characters regard you and may open up new choices and story moments. You know, the standard RPG stuff these days. However you customize your character, you're still one specific person: V. Not 'Vee.' Just V. You're a mercenary, and that's most of what we know so far. Will there be romantic relationships? Also yep. Like in The Witcher 3, you'll be able to pursue romances as V. Because Cyberpunk includes character creation, these romance options will be more diverse than they were in The Witcher series. "There are a lot more options. You know, you're defining your own character here, which means defining their sexuality any way you want," quest designer Patrick Mills said in an interview with Game Informer. "With Geralt, you had a character whose sexuality was very well defined by the novels and the short stories and the previous games. But in this one, it's up to you to decide. We've got NPCs that are gay, we've got NPCs that are bi, we've got NPCs that are straight, because we want them to feel real and that they have preferences as well." Is Cyberpunk 2077 mature-rated like The Witcher 3? Yeah. Cyberpunk 2077 isn't for kids, and definitely seems to be leaning into its inevitable mature rating. In the first few minutes of the demo, V rescued a woman kidnapped by organ scavengers. She was found naked in a bathtub, and the game didn't flinch away from full nudity. In the demo, we played a female V who, during a cutscene that showed her morning routine, was wearing pretty skimpy clothing. There was also a ton of swearing, as expected, but also what sounded like masturbation jokes and more. Cyberpunk 2077 looks keen to capitalize on the 'punk.' How does dialogue work? In a lot of RPGs, dialogue sections basically put the game on pause while two characters talk stiffly back and forth. It's not the best way to deliver the story, and thankfully Cyberpunk 2077 has massive improvements in this area. While we're not 100 percent certain, all dialogue appears to happen in real-time. You can continue moving and looking around, but when you focus the camera back on the character you're speaking to, dialogue options appear on screen. There were usually three or four options at any time, which does suggest this system won't be as robust as in some other RPGs. We're OK with that, though, because this new system and the first-person perspective make for some incredibly tense exchanges. When V and her sidekick Jackie arrived at a Maelstrom gang hideout with the intention of buying a powerful piece of gear, the deal almost went sour. In the middle of the dialogue sequence, characters including V started drawing weapons and pointing them at one another. Meanwhile, dialogue prompts kept appearing that let you try to steer the situation: Do you try to keep calm or open fire? In this situation, we finally managed to deescalate by showing the thugs that we had the money and weren't looking to screw them over. In an earlier scene, V was apprehended by a group of corporate agents. These extremely deadly characters were looking for information, and mistook V as someone they were looking for. While they pinned her to the ground, they jacked into her cyberware and installed a lie detector app and began an interrogation. If we lied, they would know it immediately and there would be consequences because of that. This new system feels fluid and natural. There's no longer the clear distinction of entering and exiting a conversation with someone. Everything flows together. What kind of abilities can you unlock? Cyberware refers to augments that have all sorts of uses. During the demo, we visited a Ripperdoc who could upgrade and replace our cyberware. We opted for a Kiroshi Optical Implant that let us zoom in on objects and also analyze the environment, seeing enemy levels and getting detailed information about them. We also picked up a Subdermal Grip for our gun hand, which increases the damage we do when firing guns. The implants are wildly cool, but it’s strange that they don’t seem to have downsides in a game world which—at least in its tabletop incarnation—stressed the dangerous sides of cyberware with mental illnesses like cyberpsychosis. It’s a facet of the universe that we know the developers are aware of—the 2013 reveal trailer featured a woman getting arrested by C-SWAT for going off the deep end. On the tabletop, a character’s Empathy and Humanity stats dictated how much cyberware it was safe for them to use, but Empathy seems absent from Cyberpunk 2077. Later on we got access to some wild toys. One piece of cyberware let V ricochet bullets around corners to kill enemies behind cover. This was accompanied by a UI element that showed you the intended path of the bullet, so you could line up shots perfectly. We also got to see V's mantis-like sword arms, which she could use to eviscerate enemies. Other upgrades let V wallrun, use bullet time, double jump, and dash forward in short bursts. There's even robots you can control remotely, like a spiderbot that can climb walls and ceilings. We didn't get to see it in action, but once we acquired the thing it followed us through levels automatically defending itself during combat. At one point, V snuck up on an enemy and put them in a chokehold. From there, she could hack into that person's cyberware and access data about that person, some of which is just for lore. If enemies are connected together by a network, though, a bunch of new options open up. In this instance, V hacked one enemy's gun to make it stop working without him realizing. She killed the person she had put in a chokehold and then attacked the two remaining bad guys. As she finished off one, the other tried shooting only to realize his gun was jammed. His confusion created an opening for V to get in close and finish him off. We were told that some Ripperdocs will also let us suit up with illegal military-grade tech. We can only imagine how cool that stuff will be. Can you drive cars in Cyberpunk 2077? Sure can. Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in Night City, a fictional metropolis in Northern California. The city is, by all accounts, massive. It features six districts with no loading screens between them. To help you get around, there are vehicles you can drive in either first or third person. It was hard to get a sense for how realized this part of the game is—we're not sure if there will be all the depth of simulation you see in something like Grand Theft Auto V's driving and traffic. But it did look impressive and smooth. During one scene, V was ambushed by a truck full of organ scavengers from the first shootout. While her partner Jackie grabbed the wheel, V leaned out of the window to fire back. It was a cool moment of on-rails shooting as we flew through Night City at high speeds. CD Projekt RED says there will be many different vehicles, but we have no idea if you can pilot the cool flying cars some characters had. How interactive are the environments? Both in and out of combat, there were many ways we could mess with the environment. Out in the open world, for example, advertisements for products could be touched, giving you a market on your HUD where that item could be purchased. We used that to buy some soda from a vending machine that would heal us over time. In combat we saw light destructible elements in certain areas. When fighting a boss character in an exo-suit, for example, V shot a lift holding a car to drop it to ground level, creating some on-the-fly cover to hide behind. What does Night City look and feel like? Thanks to some awesome crowd technology, the Cyberpunk 2077's Night City feels alive and bustling. It was incredible watching V walk through streets and seeing hundreds of characters walking, playing, talking, and fighting. It's not clear how dynamic this world is, however. We passed by a crime scene in one neighborhood, and I'd like to know whether that crime scene will ever get cleaned up or if it's a static landmark in this area. What we really love is how deep the characters and their motivations appear to be. The world feels absolutely bursting with factions and cultures. During the demo, we were recruited by a 'fixer' named Dex to track down a piece of powerful tech as a way of proving ourselves a worthy freelancer for hire. That simple mission put us in the sights of a corporate agent in full damage control mode trying to reclaim a shipment of stolen military tech. It was a completely optional decision, but we decided to strike a deal with her and help her reclaim the kit and save face in exchange for the one item that Dex needed. We went to the gang hideout and decided to play it cool, offering to buy the gear instead of taking it by force. Things almost went bad, but we managed to convince their leader that we were straight and he gave us the item. As he plugged the currency chip into his computer, only then did he realize it contained a virus made by the Corporate agent—she had betrayed us all and got involved when she said she wouldn't. It's almost overwhelming trying to stay on top of who is who and what they want, but it also means Cyberpunk 2077 feels fleshed out and layered in a way that few RPGs ever achieve, at least based on what we've seen so far. Honestly, our heads are still spinning, and it's hard to say whether the full game will be able to feel as dense and intricate. We never expected that our first look would have so much to cover, which is hopefully a good sign of how much more is still to come for Cyberpunk. What else do we know about the setting? Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in the year 2077—which you probably didn’t need us to tell you—and as mentioned it's set within Night City, a fictional city between San Francisco and LA (as described here, although if it's really in Del Coronado Bay it would be well south of LA) that already exists in the Cyberpunk pen and paper RPG created by Mike Pondsmith. Here’s an except from the Night City sourcebook, describing Night City as it exists in Cyberpunk 2020: "A planned urban community founded in 1994 by the late entrepreneur Richard Alix Night (1954 - 1998). Established at the head of the Del Coronado Bay (dredged to current capacity in 1999), and facing the Pacific Ocean to the west, Night City is a modern city of the twenty-first century. Its wide streets and ultra-modern towers are home to over a million people, with another four-and-a-half million living in the greater Night City areas of Westbrook, North Oak, Heywood, Pacifica, South Night City and Rancho Coronado. An exciting and vibrant place to live, Night City is even more fun to visit; world famous for its slogan "The City on the Edge of Tomorrow," the area hosts almost nine million tourists, conventioneers and corporate travellers every year. A planned community with an advanced rapid transit system, its own Net LDL, and a Corporate Center boasting representatives from over a dozen of the world's most powerful megacorps, Night City is a shining example of Technology Triumphant over the Trouble of the Past." That’s an optimistic description, of course, leaving out the “mucky, nasty” parts of Night City, as Pondsmith puts it in the video above. Punks and corporate stooges of all varieties wander these foggy, once Mob-ruled streets, and by 2023, corporations are openly warring for them. Cyberpunk 2077 will show us what happened to the city in the aftermath of that war. “People have wondered what’s going to happen, there are clues and hints—if we told you more we’d have to kill you, as usual,” said Pondsmith during Cyberpunk 2077’s reveal in 2012, which you can watch below. “One of them is a big hint I left for everybody at the end of the fourth Corporate War, when I dropped a small pocket tactical nuke in the middle of the Arasaka Towers, and that left kind of a really large real estate space that we’re gonna be playing around with.” The event he’s referring to happened in 2024 on the Cyberpunk timeline, which means we step into Night City a little over 50 years after part of the downtown was destroyed and, presumably, rebuilt. Here are some of the other cool things from the Cyberpunk tabletop game we'd love to see, and for more on Cyberpunk 2077 itself, check out these photos of the pamphlet handed out at E3. Will there be multiplayer? As of E3 2018, we've learned that Cyberpunk 2077 won't launch with multiplayer, but might get some form of it after release. We first heard about multiplayer features back in 2013, but CD Projekt RED clearly knew the word could agitate its fans. "It will be a story-based RPG experience with amazing single-player playthroughs," reassured managing director Adam Badowski in a 2013 talk with Eurogamer, "but we're going to add multiplayer features." In 2017, CD Projekt CEO Adam Kiciński said that multiplayer features would ensure Cyberpunk's "long-term success," which caused some concerns given the current kerfuffle over microtransactions, especially with Star Wars Battlefront 2's loot box progression system going over so poorly. CD Projekt responded to the concerns with a tweet meant to reassure fans that they'll still be getting a Witcher 3-style singleplayer epic. "Worry not," it said. "When thinking CP2077, think nothing less than TW3—huge single player, open world, story-driven RPG. No hidden catch, you get what you pay for—no bullshit, just honest gaming like with Wild Hunt. We leave greed to others." But seriously, will there be microtransactions? CD Projekt says no. The E3 2018 trailer contains a little Easter egg which confirms that there will be no microtransactions in Cyberpunk 2077. (Enlarge the image and read the red text, in which CD Projekt responds to the question: "In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?") More details Cyberpunk 2077 quest designer says it's 'inherently political' (it's cyberpunk, so yeah). No loot boxes, obviously. In 2018, CD Projekt acquired a new developer to support Cyberpunk development. Witcher 3 composer Marcin Przybyłowicz is working on the soundtrack. Back in 2013, the idea was floated that they may record all dialogue in each character’s language—Spanish, for instance—and have the player use a translator implant to decipher it. Which sounds pretty cool. ‘Braindances,’ a form of futuristic, drug-like VR, will play a big role. "People live someone else’s life while sleeping in the gutter," lead gameplay designer Marcin Janiszewski told The Verge. And regarding how much focus has shifted from other projects to Cyberpunk 2077, back in September 2016 we learned that more people are working on Cyberpunk than ever worked on The Witcher 3 at the same time. Someone tried to extort money from CD Projekt by holding out of date design documents hostage. If you're interested in the pen and paper RPG, Cyberpunk 2020, you can pick up the roleplaying book for $30. Where can I find out more? We expect to hear more as 2019 approaches, so drop by our hub of all things Cyberpunk anytime you're curious about the latest updates. There's also a newsletter signup on the official site. source: pcgamer.com

@Caesar Nu te aștepta să se dezvolte vreodată "designul" aici față de ce e acum. În mare parte se lucrează niște avatare pe dimensiuni mici, lumii nu-i trebuie decât o poză și ceva "efecte" sau "blur", doi termeni ce nu i-am înțeles niciodată pe comunitatea asta, adăugând un text deja se încarcă prea mult spațiul de lucru dar lumea nici acolo nu se oprește, deja și-au creat propriul stil de avatare, tot țin să cred că în noua generație de artiști grafici cineva din comunitățile românești de gaming o să fie denumit Avatar Designer și o să scoată prima carte numită "Arta Avatarelor".

Ai fost amuzant la partea asta se vede că nici tu nu știi ce s-a întâmplat acolo. Se observă ușor, dacă știi unde să te uiți, greșelile decupării "scutului" dintr-o altă imagine. Ai putea în loc să duplichezi scutul să-l refaci singur de la zero și așa ai putea avansa mai repede în viitor, Teodore.

TOPIC CLOSED Nu sunt permise topicuri de genul, citește regulamentul înainte de a posta. Dacă cineva dorește un userbar personalizat este liber să deschidă o cerere la secțiunea Photoshop.

Mulțumim de "gift" însă mai ai de lucrat. TOPIC CLOSED

The best RPGs on PC guarantee hundreds of hours of adventure in one of the PC's essential genres. Welcome to our round-up of the best RPGs on PC. Since PC gaming began developers have brought tabletop RPGs to life in their games. The genre has evolved a lot since then. You can still find plenty of swords-and-sorcery, orcs 'n dragons RPGs, but the genre has also gone into space, and even into the town of South Park. RPG elements have spread into shooters and third-person action games too. As a result, it's one of the most important genres on PC. Whenever we sit down to argue our way through a list of the best games, our first step is deciding what “best” even means. In this case, we’re identifying which RPGs are fun right now. It's the same approach we take without our overall list of the best games to play today. We don’t ignore a game’s impact completely—innovation and influence just has a lesser weight under our criteria. The RPG genre is tough to boil down: by the most literal definition, every game is a role-playing game. This list represents our best definition of the canonical RPG—games that likely emphasize story; that let you inhabit a customizable character through skill points, inventory, and dialogue decisions; that include complex, controllable relationships with companions or non-playable characters. Drawing these kinds of lines helps us provide a better service to you, we hope—though we've made some exceptions where we think it's worth it. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Release date: 2015 | Developer: CD Projekt Red Many RPGs focus on tales of lone, wandering adventurers, but few if any pull it off it with such artistry as The Witcher 3. That artistry is most apparent in the setting itself, which is so packed with breathtaking sunsets and wind-tossed groves of trees that, months later, I still find myself opting to go to destinations on foot rather than taking the fast travel points. But the true strength of The Witcher 3 is that it populates these memorable landscapes with NPCs doling out humble but memorable quests (by the dozen) that help create one of the most human RPG experiences on the market. In decaying wayside towns, the witcher Geralt might find impoverished elves struggling in the face of local racism; elsewhere, he might help a self-styled baron reunite with his long-estranged daughter. These quests deftly navigate moral issues without being heavy-handed or offering obvious solutions. Through it all, much as in The Witcher 2, Geralt usually plays the role of just another character on this troubled world's stage. In the process, this tale of monster slaying and inter-dimensional raiders becomes strangely and poignantly relatable. Divinity: Original Sin 2 Release date: 2017 | Developer: Larian Studios Outside of tabletop games, there are few RPGs that boast the liberating openness of Larian's humongous quest for godhood. If you think you should be able to do something, you probably can, even it it's kidnapping a merchant by using a teleportation spell and then setting fire to him with his own blood. Almost every skill has some alternative and surprising use, sometimes more than one, whether you're in our out of combat. You can enjoy this game of madcap experimentation and tactical combat with up to three friends, to boot, and that's where things start to get really interesting because you're not forced to work together or even stay in the same part of the world. Indeed, there are plenty of reasons to work against each other. The player is always in the driving seat, and with four players, collisions are inevitable. Just remember: if you freeze your friends and then start poisoning them, at least apologize after. Pillars of Eternity Release date: 2015 | Developer: Obsidian Entertainment There's very little about Pillars of Eternity that's actually innovative; in fact, its whole Kickstarter-funded existence is based on appealing to the nostalgia for aging Infinity Engine CRPGs like Baldur's Gate II. That usually matters little, though, since Pillars of Eternity pulls it off so damned well. The graphics lean a little too heavily on the 1990s, but the writing itself is masterful. Obsidian Entertainment uses it to weave a wonderful (if bleak and usually humorless) narrative that brilliantly touches on everything from religious conflicts to social struggles. It doesn't hurt that Obsidian infused almost every step of the world with its own story and smidge of lore, and a new patch introduced hours of additional voice work that make the experience even more enjoyable. It's also brutally difficult in parts, and even its easier modes demand a dance of pausing and barking out orders to multiple party members that many contemporary RPGs shy from. That's not such a bad thing, though, as Pillars of Eternity is a stark testament that such unforgiving designs still have widespread appeal in this age of accessibility. South Park: The Stick of Truth Release date: 2014 | Developer: Obsidian This really shouldn’t have worked. Most licensed games are bad on their own, but a role-playing game based on a crudely animated, foul-mouthed television show should be downright awful. Stick of Truth beats the odds, thanks to the way Obsidian applied the South Park license to some clever RPG tropes—party members are recruited through a Facebook-like interface, a quest sends you to retrieve “Mr. Slave’s Package,” status effects include being “grossed out,” etc. It’s not the deepest RPG on this list, but it’s one of the most immediately fun entries, and makes for a great introduction to the genre. Anachronox Release date: 2001 | Developer: Ion Storm Dallas Former id Software designer Tom Hall had a vision for his first, and only, Ion Storm game. He wanted to make a turn-based RPG, like Final Fantasy, but with a distinctly Western voice. It’s that tone that makes Anachronox so brilliant: few other games of any genre have dialogue as funny as Sly Boots’ negotiation with a sock-chewing mutant warlord, and no other game we’ve played lets you add an entire planet to your party. Ion Storm built the game on a heavily modified version of the Quake 2 engine, and it’s never looked like a normal game. But even today, the blocky character models still have personality, and the facial animations are surprisingly effective. Sly’s look of resignation as he’s thrown out of his own office window is brilliant, and he carries it with him throughout the adventure. The development cycle was plagued with issues and the final product rushed, but playing Anachronox now still feels like a revelation. It’s hard not to wonder what Hall’s planned sequels could have achieved. Kingdom Come: Deliverance Release date: 2018 | Developer: Warhorse Studios In this historical RPG set in the muddy fields of Bohemia, 1403, you play as a peasant called Henry who gets swept up in a war for his homeland. It's a detailed RPG, with a deep sword fighting system, hunger and thirst systems, crafting and more than a dozen equipment slots to fill with meticulously modeled gear inspired by the raiments of the time. It's also surprisingly open-ended. If you want to wander into the woods and pick mushrooms for meagre coin then off you go, just be careful of bandits as you explore the pretty rural locales. It's by no means perfect—there are plenty of bugs and wonky moments—but this is an RPG in the Elder Scrolls vein. A few bugs can be excused when the wider experience is this atmospheric. Grim Dawn Release date: 2016 | Developer: Crate Entertainment If you’ve rinsed Diablo 2 for every magical trinket and are looking for a modern fix, here is your game. Grim Dawn is a gritty, well-made action RPG with strong classes and a pretty world full of monsters to slay in their droves. It’s the distant brooding son of Titan Quest, sharing some designers and mechanics with that fine 2006 Greek myth ARPG. Like its cousin, Grim Dawn lets you pick two classes and share your upgrade points between two skill trees. This hybrid progression system creates plenty of scope for theorycrafting, and the skills are exciting to use—an essential prerequisite for games that rely so heavily on combat encounters. The story isn’t bad either, for an ARPG. Don’t expect twisting plots and decisions with consequences—this is very much a game about single-handedly destroying armies—but there is a neat faction reputation system that spawns harder mobs and villainous nemesis heroes as you become more hated by the criminals, cults and monsters that rule the wilderness. The local demons and warlords that terrorize each portion of the world are well sketched out in the scrolling text NPC dialogue and found journals. Ultimately, it’s about the monster-smashing and sweet loot, though, and Grim Dawn delivers on both effectively. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Release date: 2018 | Developer: Square Enix The smartest Final Fantasy game finally got a PC port in 2018. The game can't render the sort of streaming open worlds we're used to these days, but the art still looks great, and the gambit system is still one of the most fun party development systems in RPG history. Gambits let you program party members with a hierarchy of commands that they automatically follow in fights. You're free to build any character in any direction you wish. You can turn the street urchin Vaan into a broadsword-wielding combat specialist or a elemental wizard. The port even includes a fast-forward mode that make the grinding painless. Legend of Grimrock 2 Release date: 2014 | Developer: Almost Human Games We loved the original Legend of Grimrock and the way it embraced the old Dungeon Master model of making your party—mostly a collection of stats—explore the world one square at a time. The one drawback is that it was too literal of a dungeon crawler. The enemies might change, but for the most part you kept trudging down what seemed like the same series of corridors until the game's end. The sequel, though, focuses on both the dank dungeons and the bright, open world above, resulting in a nostalgic romp that's immensely enjoyable and filled with even deadlier enemies and more challenging puzzles. As with the first outing, much of its power springs from the element of surprise. One moment you'll be merrily hacking through enemies with ease, and the next you might find yourself face-to-face with an unkillable demon. And then you'll run, and you discover that there are sometimes almost as many thrills in flight as in the fight. Undertale Release date: 2015 | Developer: tobyfox Play only the first 20 minutes, and Undertale might seem like yet another JRPG tribute game, all inside jokes about Earthbound and Final Fantasy coated with bright sugary humor and endearingly ugly graphics. But take it as a whole (and find out that it isn't all bright and sugary after all), and it's an inventive, heartfelt game. It's a little unsettling how slyly it watches us, remembering little things and using our preconceptions about RPGs to surprise and mortify and comfort. More than a tribute to RPGs, it’s a tribute to RPG fans and an exploration of our relationship with games. Undertale certainly sticks out among all these cRPGs, but looking past its bullet hell-style combat and disregard for things like leveling and skill trees, it's got what counts: great storytelling and respect for player decisions. Tyranny Release date: 2016 | Developer: Obsidian Entertainment It isn't quite the accomplishment of its cousin, Pillars of Eternity, but Tyranny's premise sets it apart from other RPGs. Playing as an agent of evil could've been expressed with pure, bland sadism, but instead Tyranny focuses on the coldness of bureaucracy and ideological positioning. As a 'Fatebinder' faithful to conqueror Kyros the Overlord—yep, sounds evil—you're tasked with mediating talks between her bickering armies and engaging with rebels who fight despite obvious doom, choosing when to sympathize with them and when to eradicate them, most of the time striking a nasty compromise that balances cruelty and political positioning. The latter is achieved through a complex reputation system that, unlike many other morality meters, allows fear and loyalty to coexist with companions and factions. As with Pillars, Tyranny's pauseable realtime combat and isometric fantasy world are a throwback to classic cRPGs, but not as a vehicle for nostalgia—it feels more like the genre had simply been hibernating, waiting for the right time to reemerge with all the creativity it had before. Path of Exile Release date: 2013 | Developer: Grinding Gear Games This excellent free-to-play action RPG is heaven for players that enjoy stewing over builds to construct the most effective killing machine possible. It’s not the most glamorous ARPG, but it has extraordinary depth of progression and an excellent free-to-play model that relies on cosmetics rather than game-altering upgrades. It may look muddy and indistinct, and the combat doesn’t feel as good as Diablo 3, but if you enjoy number crunching this is one of the brainiest RPGs around. Path of Exile’s scary complexity becomes apparent the moment you arrive on your character’s level-up screen, which looks like this. As you plough through enemies and level up, you travel across this huge board, tailoring your character a little with each upgrade. Gear customization is equally detailed. Path of Exile borrows Final Fantasy VII’s concept of connected gem slots. Every piece of armor has an arrangement of slots that take magic gems. These gems confer stat bonuses and bonus adjacency effects when set in the right formations. Ideally you’ll want to build synergies between your gemmed-up gear and leveling choices to create the most powerful warrior you can. Doing so requires plenty of planning, but it’s an engrossing slow-burn challenge. Darkest Dungeon Release date: 2016 | Developer: Red Hook Studios You might begin Darkest Dungeon as you would an XCOM campaign: assembling a team of warriors that you've thoughtfully named, decorated, and upgraded for battle. How naive! Inevitably, your favorite highwayman gets syphilis. Your healer turns masochistic, and actually begins damaging herself each turn. Your plague doctor gets greedy, and begins siphoning loot during each dungeon run. A few hours into the campaign, your precious heroes become deeply flawed tools that you either need to learn how to work with, or use until they break, and replace like disposable batteries. With Lovecraft's hell as your workplace, Darkest Dungeon is about learning how to become a brutal and effective middle manager. Your heroes will be slaughtered by fishmen, cultists, demons, and foul pigmen as you push through decaying halls, but more will return to camp with tortured minds or other maladies. Do you spend piles of gold to care for them, or put those resources toward your ultimate goal? Darkest Dungeon is a brilliant cohesion of art, sound, writing, and design. The colorful, hand-drawn horrors pop from the screen, showing their influence but never feeling derivative. It's a hard game, but once you understand that everyone is expendable—even the vestal with kleptomania you love so much—Darkest Dungeon's brutality becomes a fantastic story-generator more than a frustration. "Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer," as its narrator reminds. Mount & Blade: Warband Release date: 2009 | Developer: TaleWorlds There are few games that get medieval combat right, and fewer still that add a strategic, army-building component. Fostering an army of farmers into warriors is great, but we love that Mount & Blade gives us the agency to be a hero figure on the battlefield and shape the outcome of a battle ourselves with our marksmanship or fast riding. The metagame of alliance-making, marriage, looting, and economics underpinning these battles makes Warband a satisfying game of gathering goods, enemies, and friendship. Even when the base game wears thin, Mount & Blade’s mods and multiplayer give you more to do, with some even moving the action to a galaxy far, far away. Neverwinter Nights 2 Release date: 2003 |Developer: Obsidian Entertainment We loved BioWare's original Neverwinter Nights from 2002 (and especially its expansions), but as a single-player experience, Neverwinter Nights 2 was in a class all of its own. Whereas the original had a fairly weak main campaign that mainly seemed aimed at showing what the DM kit was capable of, Obsidian Entertainment managed to equal and arguably outdo BioWare's storytelling prowess in the sequel when it took over the helm. The whole affair brimmed with humor, and companions such as the raucous dwarf Khelgar Ironfist still have few rivals in personality nine years later. And the quality just kept coming. Shades of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past reveal themselves in the masterful Shadow of the Betrayer expansion's focus on two halves of the same world, but Obsidian skillfully uses that familiar framework to deliver an unforgettable commentary on religion. Gothic 2 Release date: 2002 | Developer: Piranha Bytes Few games are as staunchly open-world—and unforgiving—as Gothic 2. The first time we played it, we left town in the wrong direction and immediately met monsters many levels higher than us, and died horribly. Lesson learned. It sounds like Gothic 2 is too punishing, but we love the way it forces us to learn our way through its world. Enemies don’t scale with your level, as they do in the Elder Scrolls series, and you’ll have to pay close attention to quest text and NPCs to find your path. Once you do—and overcome the awkward controls—there’s a huge, sprawling RPG at your fingertips, and while you may have felt weak and powerless at the beginning, you’ll be a true badass by the end. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Release date: 2012 | Developer: Bethesda Softworks Pick a direction and run. You’re almost guaranteed to discover some small adventure, some small chunk of world that will engage you. It’s that content density that makes Skyrim constantly rewarding. A visit to the Mage’s Guild will turn into an area-spanning search for knowledge. A random chat with an NPC will lead you to a far-off dungeon, searching for a legendary relic. You could be picking berries on the side of a mountain and discover a dragon. Oops, accidental dragon fight. And if you somehow exhaust all of Bethesda’s content, rest assured that modders have more waiting for you in Steam Workshop—that lively community has kept Skyrim in the Steam top 100 since its release, and given us endless ways to adventure through a great world. Some on the PC Gamer team keep a modded-up Skyrim install handy, just in case they feel like adventure. That’s some high praise. Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Release date: 2018 | Developer: Obsidian Entertainment The sequel to the marvellous Pillars of Eternity ventures to the archipelago of Deadfire. You, and your party of adventurers, need to pursue a rampaging god, but to reach it you first you need to learn to sail the high seas aboard The Defiant. On the ocean you can explore and can plunder enemy vessels for loot, which you can then use to upgrade your ship. When you dock at a port the game switches back to classic top-down cRPG view and you're treated to elaborate and beautifully rendered locations. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss Release date: 1992 | Developer: Blue Sky Productions (aka Looking Glass Studios) Designer Paul Neurath originally conceived of a dungeon simulator that would turn traditional role-playing conventions on their head. Called Underworld, he and his team, the future Looking Glass Studios, built a game that rewarded real-world thinking to solve puzzles and please NPCs. Ultima developer Origin Systems was so impressed by the three-dimensional engine (you could look up and down!) and first-person combat that it bought the rights to the game, and suddenly the Avatar was trapped in the Stygian Abyss instead of some faceless schmuck. Characters that are normally enemies are friends in Underworld, and we love that you may not be able to tell. Attacking a goblin might be a bad move, because he’s just as likely to be your friend. The first time we popped popcorn with a campfire and an ear of corn, we knew we weren’t in any old dungeon crawler. Underworld was a technological marvel in 1992, but while the graphics are dated, the feeling of exploring the Stygian Abyss is just as exciting today. Divinity: Original Sin Release date: 2014 | Developer: Larian Studios Divinity was a Kickstarter success story that still somehow took us by surprise. Unlike most RPGs, it’s designed with co-op in mind—you even control two protagonists in the single-player version, roleplaying different motivations through conversations. Larian designed encounters thinking that someone could always disagree, or ruin things for you, or even kill the NPC you need to talk to—meaning that quests have to be solvable in unorthodox ways. The writing in Divinity is consistently top-notch. Sure, sometimes you’ll have to destroy a goblin riding a giant mechanical robot, or talk to a dog to solve a quest. But that dog may have a heartbreaking story for you, and maybe you’ll cry just a little bit like we did. Larian commits to Divinity’s world, and that commitment pays off. This is the kind of freeform, epic, party-based RPG we haven’t had since the days of Ultima, and it’s exactly what we love from an RPG. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 Release date: 2005 | Developer: Obsidian While BioWare’s first KOTOR is a Star Wars classic, KOTOR 2 takes the franchise in a bolder direction. Instead of focusing on the Light or Dark sides of the Force, the Jedi Exile of Obsidian’s sequel deals in shades of gray. Alliances are made, then broken, then remade in the aftermath. Choices you think are good just turn out to betray other characters. The end result is possibly the most nuanced take on The Force in the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe, and definitely its most complex villains. Like many Obsidian early games, KOTOR 2’s truncated development meant that whole areas had to be cut out. A fan-made mod restores much of that content, including a droid planet, and fixes lots of outstanding bugs, showing yet again that PC gamers will work hard to maintain their favorite games. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Release date: 2004 | Developer: Troika It’s all about atmosphere—from the goth clubs where you meet contacts, to the back alleys where you scavenge for rat blood, to the haunted Ocean House Hotel (one of the best quests in the game). Bloodlines’ ambitious use of White Wolf’s Vampire universe means it looks and feels different from the other sword and sorcery games on this list. Unfortunately, that signature Troika ambition also means lots of bugs and some mechanics that just don’t mesh well. The endgame includes some particularly sloggy dungeons, but no other game truly drops you into a Vampire world. This is truly a cult classic of an RPG, and the fanbase has been patching and improving the game ever since release. Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Release date: 2014 | Developer: Blizzard Let’s face it: the real-money auction house was a bad idea, one of a few in the original Diablo 3 release. Blizzard nixed the cash auctions right before Reaper of Souls’ release, but it’s the addition of Adventure Mode that turned the game around from disappointing sequel to crowning achievement for the series. Instead of rehashing the game’s acts, Adventure Mode’s task-based milestones and randomized areas make the game feel fresh for much longer. It’s a standout mode, and it’d be hard to imagine playing Diablo 3 any other way. But RoS added another feature that changes the way we love our action RPGs: guild support. Having friends to talk to as you grind through a dungeon, even if they’re not with you, makes the game far less lonesome, and it’s that kind of small touch that justifies Blizzard’s always-online philosophy. Adding all this to the already-tremendous feeling of wiping out hordes of baddies with a well-timed ability change, RoS is the defining action RPG for us. It’s a game we’ll be playing for a long, long time. Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Release date: 2001 |Developer: Troika Games Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura was astoundingly buggy when it came out, and many of its battles were as laughably imbalanced as its title. Patches and mods have alleviated some of that pain over the years, but even then they weren't powerful enough to hide what a great mix of fantasy and steampunkery thrived under its surface. As we said in our enthusiastic review in 2001, "If you can’t find something to love about this game, dump your computer in the garbage right now." That assessment holds up. Arcanum was dark 'n' gritty before some such tendencies became all the rage, and its character creator allowed players to create everything from gnome gamblers who brandish self-explanatory Tesla-guns to outcast orcs lugging along rusty maces. Toss in non-linear progression and multiple solutions for quests, and you've got a winner that holds up 14 years later. Fallout: New Vegas Release date: 2010 | Developer: Obsidian While Fallout 3 was successful, it was a different beast entirely from Interplay’s classics. Obsidian’s take on the franchise moves the action back to the West Coast, and reintroduces elements such as reputation and faction power struggles. Obsidian expands on nearly every aspect of Bethesda’s take, making the game less about good or evil, and more about who you should trust. It also adds much of the humor that we loved from the classic games: How can you not appreciate a game that gives you a nuclear grenade launcher? New Vegas’ “Hardcore” mode makes survival in the wasteland more interesting, limiting the power of RadAway and Health Stims. It makes the game harder, but also more rewarding. If that’s not your thing, there are plenty of additional mods and tweaks available, including game director Josh Sawyer’s own balance-tweak mod. What we love the most about New Vegas is how it adds the Fallout feeling back into Bethesda's first-person RPG framework. Dark Souls 3 Release date: 2016 | Developer: From Software Name any similar-looking RPG made in the past five years, and chances are good Dark Souls will be named as an inspiration for its design. Still, Dark Souls 3 proves that no one does it quite so well as From Software. The spark of originality that was so compelling in Dark Souls 1 isn't quite as apparent here, the second sequel in just five years, but what remains is an impeccably designed combat-heavy RPG. It's far more responsive than its predecessors, demanding faster action and reaction without sacrificing the deliberate play Dark Souls popularized. Button mashing will get you nowhere but dead. Dark Souls 3 is the most approachable in the series thanks to frequent warp points, simplified online co-op and beautiful (and hideous) art that beckons you to explore every nook and corner. No game series manages to reward you so profoundly for scrutinizing its lore and unfurling its secrets, and Dark Souls 3's faster, tighter controls and animation make it the most fun Souls game to play. The Witcher 2 Release date: 2011 | Developer: CD Projekt Red The epic scale of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is remarkable, but it's the power of choice in an unrelentingly ugly world that makes it unforgettable. Moral ambiguity has never been so powerfully presented: the decisions you make actually matter, and the outcomes are often unforeseeable and rarely as good as you'd hope. One of the most impressive things about The Witcher 2 is the way it blends two very distinct experiences. Early in the game, Geralt must make a choice that will take him down one of two separate paths, each offering a completely different perspective on the game's events. If you want to see it all, you'll have to play it twice—and there's more than enough to make it a worthwhile effort. You might expect all your toil and trouble to eventually lead to a just and happy ending for all, but it won't. Geralt isn't a hero; he's really not much more than a bystander, trying to protect what little he has from the chaos that surrounds him. His quest is entirely personal, driven forward by a colorful, occasionally bizarre and surprisingly believable cast of characters that really brings the game alive. Geralt works alone, but he feels more like "one among many" than the savior-protagonists of other party-based RPGs. It's a fantastic and well-told tale, layered over very solid mechanical underpinnings: A flexible character development system, glorious eye candy, intense combat and more than enough secondary content to camouflage its very linear nature. It's dark, it's dirty, it's sometimes flat-out depressing—and it's brilliant. Dragon Age: Origins Release date: 2009 | Developer: BioWare Capturing that old Baldur’s Gate feel was goal number one for Dragon Age, and it comes pretty close. Ferelden evokes much of the Forgotten Realms without feeling like a rehash, and your relationship with your team has that old BioWare magic. The darkspawn feel like the kind of world-consuming threat that demands our attention, even if most of them are faceless hunks of evil for us to cut down. We love how Dragon Age treats magic in its world, in particular the quests that force us to choose how to best handle abominations, the result of a renegade mage succombing to demonic possession. But it’s the combat that feels most familiar, and most fun: the satisfying tactical depth of pausing your combat, issuing orders, and reacting to the results works like a modern Infinity Engine game should. It’s sad that BioWare will never make an RPG like this again—Dragon Age 2 was too streamlined, and Inquisition’s more open world—so in many ways, this is the last hurrah for the old BioWare, and a fitting end for its classic design. System Shock 2 Release date: 1999 | Developer: Irrational Games Lonely. That’s the defining emotion of Irrational’s debut game. You’ll hear audio logs from fascinating characters, many of whom are struggling to survive in a battle against the bio-terror creatures called the Many. But you won’t meet those people, because they didn’t make it. That loneliness is key because Shock 2 is all about taking things away from you. Ammo? Check: you’ll probably waste those on an assault droid when you should have saved them for later. Hypos? Yep. Think twice before you walk into that radiated room. But the biggest thing Irrational takes away, right at the halfway mark of the game, is hope. It’s the reveal of insane AI Shodan that turns your expectations on their head, and it’s one of our favorite moments in gaming. Irrational made games where the environment is the central character, and here, that character is the Von Braun. It creaks and moans as you pad quietly down its corridors. Every door you open yelps. Its security systems attack you as if you hurt their feelings. Staying on the good side of this character is hard, but Shock 2’s leveling system of earning experience points through exploration balances the risks and rewards. Some play through with all guns blazing, but the psionics skills balance well with combat, and Tech skills open new areas later in the game. There’s a lot of balance to be found in what on the surface looks like a streamlined action RPG skill system. Ultima VII: The Black Gate Release date: 1992 | Developer: Origin Systems The Guardian was one of the most terrifying things our young minds had ever encountered. His massive stone face emerging from the screen, with his actual, real-life voice taunting us, both tempting us to play more and horrifying us. It was a technological marvel at the time, but Ultima 7 stands the test of time because of the interactivity of Britannia. Most anything could be picked up or talked to, and as we painted a portraits of ourselves in the game, we wondered if we’d ever finish the game’s plot. But Ultima’s story sucks you in, starting first with a double homicide to solve and expanding into a religious battle for Britannia’s soul. Black Gate’s dialogue design still hold up today, and inspired Divinity: Original Sin a great deal—particularly the way it handles new converts to the world’s competing religion. This is without a doubt the best installment of one of the most legendary RPG franchises ever. Deus Ex Release date: 2000 | Developer: Ion Storm Austin Do you want to run in the firefight, guns blazing, or do you want to sneak around and flank? Do you want to snipe? Or maybe you want to hack some terminals and get droid reinforcement? Or, what if you talked to that NPC guard over there and convince his team to take a lunch break? Deus Ex’s world is so freeform that the choices seem endless. While it looks like a shooter, Deus Ex is all about role-playing elements. Fire a gun you’re not skilled in and your aim won’t matter—you’ll most likely miss. The leveling system rewards experimentation, and some of the later upgrades make your Denton feel like a superhero. Even the weapons you use can be modified and “leveled up,” turning a standard issue pistol into an unstoppable killing tool. The attention to detail here is perfect, and no one element of the game ever truly feels forced. Deus Ex’s world is built to reward exploring every dark alley and ventilation system, because you never know where you’ll find a new clue. And there are a lot of clues—every note you find or sign you see seems to hint at some new conspiracy, and we love how the alliances in the game feel constantly in flux. The NPCs you meet are just believable enough to make this conspiracy-laden world feel lived-in. Human Revolution looks better, but this is the smarter, more open-ended game. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Release date: 2002 | Developer: Bethesda Game Studios The release of Fallout 4 demonstrated that some cracks are starting to appear in Bethesda's usually reliable open world model, but that model seemed earthshaking back when Morrowind hit literal shelves way back in 2002. There was a magic in knowing you could tromp all over the island of Vvardenfell without even encountering a loading screen save upon entering buildings, and in seeing that the NPC population seemed to have lives beyond their interactions with you. Plenty of other games have achieved similar effects in the years since, but the wonder of Morrowind is that it still holds up all these years later—even more so than its technically superior successor Oblivion. A lot of that appeal springs from the delicious surrealism of Vvardenfell itself, where racist elves hang out in twisty mushrooms like smurfs in an acid dream, and where the more traditional castles of occupying foreigners clash with the landscape like pueblos in Scandinavia. The AI might often seem primitive by today's standards, but the stories the tell often rival those in prettier contemporary RPGs. It thrives still, thanks in part to its own strengths and a dedicated modding community that creates countless new adventures and keeps it looking more modern than it actually is (even going so far as to port the entirety of Morrowind into newer game engines). Mass Effect 2 Release date: 2010 | Developer: BioWare BioWare’s first Mass Effect felt like a KOTOR clone, and not in a good way. The universe was a place we wanted to live, but there were too many systems and menus to dig through to get there. Still, it terrified us to hear that BioWare had streamed back so much and put more emphasis on the shooting mechanics. Turns out, it was for the better: Mass Effect 2 trims just enough fat to let you focus on what matters: the optional Loyalty missions for your team. Instead of an exercise in galactic exploration, Mass Effect 2 plays out like a sci-fi Ocean's Eleven or Dirty Dozen. Recruiting a team to take on the Collectors puts the focus on small, interesting stories. Each Loyalty mission gives you insight into your companions’ motivations, making every member of the Normandy's crew an unusually deep character. Once you've grown to know and love them, the endgame suicide run is one of the tensest final missions ever. It's rare for a game to spend more time on character arcs than its central driving narrative, but Mass Effect 2 pulls it off. This is some of the best writing in BioWare's history. Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition Release date: 2011 | Developer: From Software Yes, Dark Souls breaks a cardinal rule of RPGs: you can beat it without leveling. But only if you’re really good, and only if you understand its systems perfectly—that its crafting system matters, that certain items can be obtained only by fulfilling obfuscated quests. In a genre where systems are king, Dark Souls reigns because it’s all about systems. Just learning how each stat affects your character’s build is a process deeper than most D&D-themed RPGs, but it’s ultimately just as rewarding. So is discovering the rich lore of Lordran, which is told through cryptic conversations and subtle environmental clues. The depth of Dark Souls' world carries over into exploration, too. Everything is connected brilliantly, and secrets and shortcuts—including massive hidden areas and features—await the most dedicated adventurers. Dark Souls' summoning system is also unlike anything else in RPGs, but you can unplug and beat the whole game solo, or learn to love being invaded and fighting off another player. Don’t let the rumored difficulty keep you away from one of our favorite RPGs. Fallout 2 Release date: 1998 | Developer: Black Isle Studios The original Fallout was a huge success for Interplay, but it’s not as big of a world as you’d expect. The sequel expands that world considerably, and adds more moral ambiguity to a game where right and wrong are already hard to tell apart. Playing as a tribal villager instead of a native Vault dweller gives you a different world perspective—you’re not as naive to the world and its dangers, which makes it all the darker when you start twisting people’s expectations and motivations. The search for the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (GECK) fits the warped 1950s feel of the wasteland more than the macguffin of a water chip in the first game. And it’s nice to not have such a time limit hanging over your head: you can take your time and get to know the people of the wastes, instead of rushing to an abandoned vault. If you’ve never played the classic series, we recommend you start here, and then the original. Baldur’s Gate 2 Release date: 2000 | Developer: BioWare One problem with AD&D is that low-level characters are pretty boring. Baldur’s Gate 2 solves that problem by letting you carry over your party from the first game, or start fresh with level 7 characters. It makes a huge difference: instead of wimpy fighters and frail wizards, you get powerful, useful spells and warriors that can take a punch. It also helps that the scope of Amn is enormous, with more quests and content than most other comparable RPGs. BioWare’s Infinity Engine handles the quests and the combat perfectly, highlighting the game’s focus on strategy and tactics in combat. It’s hard to imagine controlling a six-person party without pausing and giving orders, and any newer game that relies on real-time decisions makes us long for the Infinity Engine. Yes, this is where RPG romances come from, but the courtships never feel contrived here, and BG2 still has some of the most memorable companions of any game. If for some reason you’ve never played a table-top RPG, Baldur’s Gate 2 captures the sword-and-sorcery experience almost perfectly. If you have the original version, you can easily mod it to run at modern resolutions, or you can try the Extended Edition that also includes new content. Planescape: Torment Release date: 1999 | Developer: Black Isle Studios There is no other story in gaming like the Nameless One’s. His is a tale of redemption in the face of countless sins, a tale of not knowing who you are until you become the person you’re trying to be. The tattoos the Nameless One wears are marks to remind him of who he is, who he was, and who he wants to be. That open-endedness is central to what makes Planescape: Torment so captivating. At a literal level, you spend the game trying to discover who the Nameless One is, but your actions also help to define him. It’s one of many RPG tropes that Black Isle sought to subvert—others include the fact that rats are actually worthy foes, humans are often worse than undead, and you don’t have to fight in most cases. Most importantly, that your goal is not to save the world, as in countless other RPGs. You simply need to figure out who you are. The Nameless One’s companions are some of the best written, most enjoyable NPCs ever coded. Most have been affected by your past incarnations: pyromaniac mage Ignus was once your apprentice, though it’s more impressive that he’s constantly on fire. Or Dak'kon, who swore an oath of loyalty to you, even though you’re not sure why. Others are just interesting, well-rounded characters: Fall-From-Grace is a succubus cleric who prays to no god and, though a creature of evil, wants to do no harm. The best is Morte, a floating skull whose sarcastic wit is sharper than his bite attacks (skulls can’t equip swords, of course). These characters would be odd in any normal high fantasy world, but Torment uses the Planescape AD&D campaign setting, the strangest world TSR ever designed. And so it’s fitting that Torment is light on conflict and heavy on story—though when combat does erupt, BioWare’s Infinity Engine handles as well as in the Baldur’s Gate series. This is the one role-playing game we’d recommend to anyone interested in the genre, a game that best represents what we love about RPGs. Arx Fatalis Release date: 2002 | Developer: Arkane Studios Arkane’s goal with its first game was to create a dungeon experience as detailed as Ultima Underworld, right down to the magic system, which required you to memorize runes and draw them in the air with your mouse. Stealth is critical, as is the crafting system that takes Underworld’s “everything is important” ethos and expands it. Arx is slow and deliberate, forcing you to consider encounters from different angles: should you use force on the snake women, or sneak past and avoid conflict? Many of the design seeds that show up later in Arkane’s Dishonored are planted here, but there are a lot of old fashioned mechanics we’d love to see more of. The mouse gesture magic system seems awkward to use, but we love tracing a rune and watching our foes crumble in the aftermath. We’d love to see Arkane revisit the dungeons again, bringing what it’s learned from making Dishonored (and the sublime melee combat from Dark Messiah of Might & Magic) to an Arx Fatalis sequel. source: pcgamer.com

With new missions, ten clubs, four world-famous acts and more. GTA Online's much-anticipated After Hours nightclub update is live on PC. Featuring real-world performers The Black Madonna, Tale of Us, Solomun and Dixon, the update brings with it ten purchasable nightclub locations—available on Maze Bank Foreclosure. Budding proprietors can fill venues with resident DJs, podium dancers, lighting rigs, and back of house staff. Likewise, players can invite up to 30 other clubbers inside for a boogie or a bust up. Entry fees can be set between free and $100. Be warned: bouncers will eject those who sneak in without paying. I've yet to jump in myself (expect more words on After Hours later this week), but Rockstar Intel provides this handy breakdown of club prices. The cheapest, located on Elysian Island, comes in at $1,080,000. The most expensive, the West Vinewood Nightclub, costs $1,700,000. Changing your club's name, decor, staff, and security detail among other possible tweaks costs extra—which Twitter person Nuro reckons maxes out at $5,072,400. Acquiring resident DJs requires players to complete that performer's missions—a snippet of which is teased above as The Black Madonna decks a policeman. "Once the DJ’s set-up missions are complete," explains Rockstar, "the DJ will become the club’s resident DJ, seamlessly changing over from the current resident." To this end, look out for Solomun at launch—today, July 24—Tale of Us on July 31, Dixon on August 7 and The Black Madonna on August 14, each of whom dictates the tunes on any given night. Next week, look out for new radio station Los Santos Underground Radio which will be updated with new DJ mixes following each DJ's residency. Interestingly, nightclubs double up as a business venture and hubs for your other businesses. Guest List members are also in-line for a "GTA$350,000 bonus on the house", as detailed on the Rockstar Newswire. After Hours also adds seven new vehicles—including the Dinka Jester Classic, the Party Bus and Mammoth Patriot Stretch—with more coming down the line. And if you're simply here to shake yer bum—be that in your club's VIP area or its dancefloor—After Hours adds a range of dance moves, such as Uncle Disco, Salsa Roll, Find the Fish, and Raise the Roof. I recognise the last, but I'm clueless about the others. If Rockstar adds Dad Dance I'll be good to go. source: pcgamer.com

Took a few extra hours, but it's available to download on Steam and GoG. The Next update includes third-person perspective and multiplayer—still described as playable with a 'small group of friends' rather than stating the specific number of players. As Pip told us when she got some hands-on time with it last week, you can play with friends right from the start of the game, including the tutorial. As for running into other players randomly, the notes say the following: Communicate with other players vocally using a headset, and / or converse using text chat on PC. While wandering the galaxy solo, continue to experience chance encounters with strange floating orbs. So it sounds like you see your friends as fully realized characters, but see strangers as orbs. I think? I guess we'll find out today, as soon as two players who aren't friends run into each other. New mission types have been added, including photography missions (which sounds like just the sort of thing I'd enjoy), hunting, archaeology, freighter attacks, and more. The patch notes state that creature movement and AI has been improved as well, and it also sounds like sentinels may now be easier to battle. Base-building has been expanded with hundreds of new parts and teleporters can be placed anywhere on a planet. Players can also own multiple bases, and they can be built anywhere. Since you can now see your character in third-person view, a character creation tool has been added, available on space stations. You can play as a Vy'keen, Gek, Korvax, Traveler, or Anomaly (human). You can also customize specific parts of your appearance like your head, torso, gloves, boots, backpack, and so on. (Note that playing as a certain species doesn't mean you will automatically be able to read the language of that species. I watched a console player streaming, and he played as a Gek but still couldn't understand their language.) Rather than a single freighter you'll now be able to command a fleet, and even conduct real-time missions with them, call them in to help out with space battles, and get their assistance while exploring systems. Crafting has been overhauled as well, with new resources to find and a system based on a planet's biome and classification. There are also resource refineries to convert raw substances into other materials. Visual improvements include new clouds, ringed planets, improved hazardous storms, and planetary changes that will allow for bigger and deeper oceans and buried ruins to discover and explore. There are also changes to the UI and scanner, and an improved build menu, plus enhancements to the audio and sound effects. Hello Games is also planning weekly community events, and have set up a pretty nice looking Galactic Atlas website to pinpoint community hubs, events, and discovery stats. source: pcgamer.ro

@im ugly still gettin' hoes Scuze, o să-ți dau block pe forum, nu pot suporta să văd persoane cu probleme mintale, consider că nu merită nimeni să se nască cu astfel de probleme iar când le văd mi se face super milă și mă pune într-o stare proastă știind că unii trebuie să trăiască așa.

Topicul acesta n-ar trebuii să aibă ca și tematică Photoshop-ul? E ciudat să apară așa random un topic free chat în secțiunea asta. @Cristina

Câștigătorul ediției a șasea este: @Aqqua S4F felicitări! Contactează-mă în joc pentru a-ți transfera banii. Concursul ia o pauză pentru o perioadă nedeterminată.

@KroGeN S4F Nu-i locul corect. @MariussixTm & @YAHOVA încă mai aveți șanse de câștig.

Câștigătorul ediției a șasea este: @KroGeN S4F, felicitări! Contactează-mă în joc pentru a-ți transfera banii. __________________________________________ EDIȚIA #8 ● Găsește locația din următoarea poză: https://i.imgur.com/7NHLf4m.png Hint: Drum principal în LS Premiul: 100.000$ Model de postare: Nickname: Poză:

Câștigătorul ediției a șasea este: @Fleskes, felicitări! Contactează-mă în joc pentru a-ți transfera banii. __________________________________________ EDIȚIA #7 ● Găsește locația din următoarea poză: https://i.imgur.com/xGQWuz9.jpg Hint: În interiorul zonei roșii: https://i.imgur.com/7bkKIfN.png Premiul: 100.000$ Model de postare: Nickname: Poză:

Câștigătorul ediției a cincea este: @Aqqua S4F, felicitări! Contactează-mă în joc pentru a-ți transfera banii. __________________________________________ EDIȚIA #6 ● Găsește locația din următoarea poză: https://i.imgur.com/1b1yVZE.jpg Hint: Vestul LS-ului Premiul: 100.000$ Model de postare: Nickname: Poză:

Câștigătorul ediției a patra este: @AIM RoLLz, felicitări! __________________________________________ EDIȚIA #5 ● Găsește locația din următoarea poză: https://i.imgur.com/FmvuQJA.jpg Hint: Clan zone LS Premiul: 100.000$ Model de postare: Nickname: Poză:

Câștigătorul ediției a treia este: @ExYn, felicitări! __________________________________________ EDIȚIA #4 ● Găsește locația din următoarea poză: https://i.imgur.com/6zyUKMv.jpg Hint: Est-ul LS-ului. Premiul: 100.000$ Model de postare: Nickname: Poză:

Câștigătorul ediției a doua este: @PeeWee, felicitări! __________________________________________ EDIȚIA #3 ● Găsește locația din următoarea poză: https://i.imgur.com/lxiK90q.jpg Premiul: 100.000$ Model de postare: Nickname: Poză:

Câștigătorul primei ediții este: @qazdawn! Felicitări! __________________________________________ EDIȚIA #2 ● Găsește locația din următoarea poză: https://i.imgur.com/000Ko4W.jpg Hint: În jurul LSSI HQ Premiul: 100.000$ Model de postare: Nickname: Poză:

Nick in joc: Adrian28 Nick pe forum: Adrian28 Level: 95 Factiune: SFPD Parere despre event: Frumos Raspuns: Washington Alte precizari: -

EDIȚIA #1 ● Găsește locația din următoarea poză: https://i.imgur.com/TavVLw7.jpg Premiul: 100.000$ Model de postare: Nickname: Poză: Succes tuturor!

Salut B-Zone! Văzând că nu prea mai sunt evenimente în desfășurare pe forum de ceva timp m-am gândit să preiau un tip de eveniment care mi-a plăcut foarte mult înainte, și anume Găsește locația / Find the spot. În ce constă acest eveniment pentru cei care nu cunosc? Simplu: O dată pe zi voi posta în acest topic o poză făcută pe serverul de SA:MP RPG1 într-o anumită locație mai strânsă și nu chiar ușor de identificat din prima. Ce trebuie să faceți voi? După ce postez o ediție nouă, voi postați tot în acest topic, după modelul pe care o să-l postez mai jos, o poză cu voi, pe serverul de SA:MP, în aceeași locație ca și în poza mea. Pentru a avea șanse cât mai mari de câștig, poza voastră trebuie să fie cât mai asemănătoare cu a mea, aceeași poziție, același unghi. La edițiile cu o locație mai grea de găsit o să ofer și un mic indiciu. Mici reguli: * Poza trebuie să conțină numele și serverul de jos. Imaginea nu trebuie editată. * Trebuie să reproduceți poza făcută de mine, să fie cât mai asemănătoare cu a mea, aceeași poziție, același unghi, nu din mașină sau de la distanță. Nu țin cont de rezoluție sau alte modificări asupra jocului. * Odată începută ediția aveți voie să postați o singură dată. Nu aveți voie să editați postarea după mai mult de 5 minute de la postare. * Nu faceți postări aiurea ce n-au legătură cu participarea la concurs, dacă aveți vreo întrebare/critică/sugestie mi-o puteți transmite printr-un mesaj privat sau direct în joc. * Imaginea trebuie încărcată pe imgur.com. PREMIUL: 100.000$ pe ediție. Modelul de postare pentru a participa: Nickname: Poză: Prima ediție o să înceapă într-o postare ulterioară. Succes tuturor!