RPG Vault

В мережі з`явився перший патч для Eschalon: Book 1.
Що виправляє:
“FIXED: Pressing “T” while holding a shield crashes game.
FIXED: Skill point exploit in Character Editor.
FIXED: Typos…I won't list them all, but any posted in the support thread or emailed to me are fixed immediately.
FIXED: Pressing “J” while the inventory window is open no longer causes text to overflow from the Quest Journal.
FIXED: Map barrier errors…I won't list them all, but any posted in the support thread or emailed to me are fixed immediately.
FIXED: Several skill description inconsistencies.
FIXED: No longer lose items left in mixer when pressing Esc.
FIXED: Magick Journal should display all spells properly.
FIXED: Space bar exploit.
FIXED: Inventory tooltip focus problem.
FIXED: Creatures on edge of screen occasionally not responding to attacks.
FIXED: Camping on beach no longer hangs system.
FIXED: Bashing object while container window is open no longer crashes game.
ADDED: Keystroke 'x' opens Inventory, Equip Window, and Stats window all at once. Oh yeah, this is nice!
BALANCE: Made a small change to allow the maximum recovery rate for MP to be 1/3 rounds, rather than 1/4 rounds.
BALANCE: Increased arrow quantities for merchants.
BALANCE: Balanced empty-handed bashing/Fire Dart bashing/Lock Melt to be a bit more even.”

патч v1.01 (~1 MB | exe)

Також розробники шукають тестерів Mac-версії гри.

Похваливши загалом, IncGamers розкритикувала Hellgate London за дуже велику кількість багів. Оцінка 7.5/10.
“…You play Hellgate as a character who uses weapons and/or spell casting to fight off countless waves of bad guys. Each monster you kill has a random chance at dropping something. The something dropped could be currency, weapons, armor or various other potentially useful items. You can then pick up the items and use or sell them. That, in a nut shell, is what you will spend most of your time actively doing in Hellgate. Sound boring? Just see if you can stop. I mean, at 2 am , when your eyes are drying from staring at the computer screen you swore 3 hours ago you would only spend 5 more minutes staring at, just try to go to sleep. If you are like me (and I do not say this with pride) you will dream of the game when you finally do stop…

…I must painfully point out that, while Diablo (I and II) is my favorite game series of all time, it was not met with universal acclaim when it hit store shelves (in some cases receiving 7 or 8 out of 10). Hellgate seems to be receiving similarly (although a bit lower) rating thus far. I understand that it is frustrating to have games released that are not perfect (but what game ever really is?). If stability is the main factor in rating a game, I would agree that Hellgate deserves some low marks. However, if the true mark of a game is the ability to entertain and keep you drawn in, Hellgate is a semi-flawed gem that, once polished and patched, will be played by some for a very long time.”

Трохи похваливши, YouGamers поставили в своїй рецензії на NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer 77/100.

“While the original campaign told a story written and paced for teenage gamers, Mask of the Betrayer is better suited to more mature gamers: there are many disturbing themes, and the player is faced with tough decisions. A world of shadow hides unspeakable secrets, and the player will have to make choices between corrupting power and personal integrity. In some ways the story reads out like a drug addict's: after a certain point in the story, the player will constantly fight an urgent, consuming desire, and giving into it is destructive to both the player and whoever they face. This can get pretty creepy, and at times frustrating; Mask of the Betrayer is much more of an adult's game than the original campaign was [odd, considering ESRB gave it a teen rating - Ed]
The story is told mostly through interaction with Rashemen's various inhabitants, living and incorporeal. The writing is of high quality throughout, although I have to say it's somewhat wordy. To really get into the plot, you'll have to read page after page of dialogue, books, notes, and so on with a fair bit of focus. Perhaps then you get the satisfaction of guessing the various possible outcomes behind dialogue options, and make informed rather than random or alignment-dictated decisions…

…Mask of the Betrayer is a great epic level fantasy role playing campaign, based on aging and limited technology, with two glaring flaws: a dysfunctional multiplayer mode and a very high barrier of entry. That said, if you finished Neverwinter Nights 2, this expansion is definitely worth getting.”

ComputerGames.ro опублікував доволі велику рецензію на The Witcher, поставивши 86/100:

“True, The Witcher isn’t the first RPG to offer choices and consequences that influence the storyline, but in this case they are faithful to one of the distinctive features of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy universe…: there are no “good” and “bad” characters; you will always have to choose the lesser of two evils. Moreover, the consequences of your choices won’t become apparent right away, but after a few more hours of playtime, sometimes even stretching between acts. I have to admit that I was skeptical when I first heard about this choices & consequences deal, thinking it was just a PR gimmick (and I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one).
Fortunately, I was wrong and CD Projeckt stayed true to their word. I think I clocked at least 80 hours of playtime with The Witcher, mostly because I replayed large segments of it in order to see what other paths the story could have taken. By their very nature, some choices will probably allow you to see, at least generally speaking, what the consequences will be, but others will have surprising results.

…Thus, in many ways, The Witcher is the game which probably a lot [of] RPG fans hoped for. The story, atmosphere, the relationship between choices and consequences, the graphics, musical score and the non-linear nature of some quests clearly define it as a reference RPG for years to come. And there are also some interesting innovations, like the character development tree and the combat system. But what prevents The Witcher from entering the gallery of truly great titles is what pretty much plagues other diamonds in the rough: lots of crashes, long and frequent loading times as well as an artificially limited freedom of movement.”

З`явився патч v1.6 для Two Worlds. В доволі невеликому розмірі умістилося чимало виправлень:

v1.6 patch details (PC/Xbox 360):

Improved single player framerate
Interface - repeat changes selection left stick hold added
Game HDD cache cleaning possibility - RB + A + B during game launch
Achievements for 5 elements is fixed
Map interface improvements - only one open quest at the time, quests selection box better visibility, hero location on map better visibility, quest name on tooltip
Hit info fonts larger
“BACK – Show Instruction” text disappears
Double saving multiplayer characters to protect character lost from power-off or hard-locks
Interface - no controls after “server refused connection” is fixed
Doubling gold in multiplayer is fixed
Doubling objects in multiplayer is fixed

Сайти IGN, TeamXBox та Eurogamer відмітились майже одностайно позитивними рецензіями на Mass Effect.

На IGN поставили 9.4/10:
“There are three primary character classes in Mass Effect; the solider, the engineer, and the biotic user. Hybrids that mix various aspects of each are also available. The kicker is that they all play vastly different from one another in combat. Based on your class, you'll have access to various powers (the biotics have more than a passing resemblance to the force powers you used in Knights of the Old Republic), technical skills, weapons and armor. The biotic class can use every power, but can only use light armor and pistols. The soldier only gets a single biotic power, but can use any weapon and heavier armor. The engineer, an afterthought class in many other games, steps up in Mass Effect to be a force of its own. He or she can hack locked consoles for info or loot, but can also be a powerhouse in battle. Many of the enemies in Mass Effect are mechanical in design and the engineer has skills geared specifically for taking them down.”

На TeamXBox - 9.6/10:
“Right off the bat, you’ll notice that Mass Effect utilizes a unique dialogue system to progress the story. Essentially, you’ll begin speaking to another character, and a circular dialogue tree will appear at the bottom of the screen before they are finished talking. This allows you to queue up your responses so the conversation flows more realistically and naturally than in previous games. It’s a good system, although there were times that I accidentally chose my response while tapping X to get through some of the lengthier conversations. Make no mistake about it, this is an RPG in every sense of the word, and features some of the longest conversations in recent memory. I actually turned on the captions so I could get through them a bit faster, allowing me to move on to the next part with a simple tap of the X button…

Of course, none of that “shades of grey” stuff really matters when you’re in combat, which is where you’ll spend a good deal of your time. Unlike the previous BioWare console RPGs, the combat is in real-time, so you’ll have to rely on your third-person action skills as much as your tactical knowledge. It’s basically a third-person action game when you’re in combat, with the right trigger firing your weapon and the left zooming in your weapon. The interesting thing here is that certain classes are trained in the use of certain weapons and will be able to improve their skills (and unlock new ones) as they gain experience…”

На Eurogamer - 8\10:
“Forced to stumble towards a conclusion, I'd say that despite the niggles, Mass Effect is most definitely a great game with an awful lot going for it - but one that doesn't quite deserve unquestioning praise. For what it achieves in delivering a compelling narrative and wonderful atmosphere, BioWare deserves a huge amount of credit, as there are few games that come anywhere near it in this regard. The dialogue system, and the impact it has on individual missions and the game as a whole is exceptional, adding greatly to the potential replay value. Where it doesn't quite hit the mark for me is in the action stakes. Although it underpins the game with all sorts of excellent ideas that ought to make it a deeper, more intelligent and immersive experience, the simple truth is that the minute-to-minute combat simply isn't as intense and involving as you'd expect from a game in 2007. Throw in some grumbles about the somewhat unoptimised state of the frame-rate, texture pop-in and v-syncing terrors, and it's a game that just falls short of our expectations. An eight, then, but a good one…”

Сьогодні (а точніше вже вчора) вийшла рольова гра Eschalon: Book I, а разом з нею і її демо.
Eschalon: Book I - Демо-версія (zip (exe), 60,4 мб)

На сайті Games Radar був опублікован короткий матеріал про констуктор персонажів з Mass Effect. Журналісти відмічають його потужність. Для прикладу було створено 12 різних персонажів, а також заснято це все на відео. Але на скріншоті і так все видно непогано.

Подивитись відео на Games Radar

На сайті Worthplaying з`явилась рецензія на The Witcher. Оцінка 8.6/10.
Частина:
Although the fighting sounds complex, the action-oriented feel of combat works with some practice. Motion-captured moves performed by a professional swordsman behind Geralt's blade treat you to a visual show that is part Schwarzenegger's Conan and part Errol Flynn. It isn't a clickfest as you might find with Diablo or Oblivion, but your reflexes will be tested when you start chaining together attacks….Signs are also part of the witcher's bag of tricks; they act as quick and dirty magical abilities that aren't exactly considered magic, but they're useful enough to witchers. Signs range from a gust of wind that can stun foes, allowing Geralt to kill them quickly without the swordplay, to setting foes on fire, making signs a potent complement to his weapons prowess…

Despite its faults, The Witcher is a diamond in the rough as a mature, gritty and atmospheric RPG that heads into territory not often explored. The modern, tongue-in-cheek additions to the fantasy tale of Geralt's journey and the choices that shape it build a unique experience that might keep you awake into the wee hours simply to find out what happens next. Games have grown up along with their players, and The Witcher is the kind of title that the genre deserves to have.

На сайті Eurogamer з`явилась рецензія на останнє доповнення к грі HoMM 5 - “Tribes of the East”. Оцінка 5/10. А я к на мене то доповнення дуже непогане.
Частина:
The [Orc] army's special trait is their Blood Rage (”borrowed” from World of Warcraft's warrior class, if I remember correctly.) The more damage that the Stronghold faction causes in battle the more blood points their units get. These blood points act as both a defensive barrier, being used up in the place of damage, or are used to level up Blood Rage, which we guess gives you damage bonuses. Unfortunately, we found it very hard to find out exactly what effect this has, as it differs from unit to unit. (We even looked at the manual to try and work it out, a desperate step for a reviewer) It's a perfectly solid mechanic, forcing you to attack relentlessly with units rather than defending, it's also just a little too obscure as you don't know how much it's helping….

How is it so tough? Well, even on the normal difficulty level you start with very few troops and the enemy creeps are just slightly too high-level. You bleed soldiers in every encounter, and every enemy stack seems rather too high-level, so you have to choose your fights exceedingly carefully. Weirdly, the new campaigns give you a taster of all the factions, which indicates that the expansion was aimed at luring new gamers into the franchise before the inevitable sequel in the next twelve months or so.