fantasy posts

This trailer is something that most fantasy lovers will be giddy over, but will most likely go over the heads of those less buried in the genre. Standard epic music and flashy character designs don't really distinguish Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, even if it does look competent. Rather, it's the names associated: R.A. Salvatore (creator of several best-selling fantasy book series), Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn), and Ken Rolston (lead design on Oblivion). Despite these famous names, though, this trailer is merely alright. All flash, no detail.

Download the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 'Visions' trailer
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Hunted: The Demon's Forge is close to being released, and there are now two more trailers. The first details a little of the backstory behind the events of the game, while the second talks about the two characters and their various interactions while they slaughter fantasy monsters. It's almost all in-game footage, but it's also nothing new. Same footage, new context. Still, if you are getting excited for more fantasy slashing adventures, you'll definitely like this trailer.

Download Hunted: The Demon's Forge 'It Was Found' Trailer
Download Hunted: The Demon's Forge 'Power of Two' Trailer
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Stardock may publish plenty of independent titles, such as Sins of a Solar Empire, but that doesn't mean they are ignoring their own game development plans. Elemental is the first completely new game from Stardock in four years, and while the launch was rocky, it's still easily their best. Stardock has learned from classics - Master of Magic and Alpha Centauri being two major ones - to craft a supremely entertaining strategy game. It's surprising just how fantastic Elemental is, and it serves as competition (although not major) for the upcoming Civilization V.

Note: This review was written using the pre-launch version of the game. Any changes via patches since release will be noted in the review.

Despite the relatively mediocrity and poor reception of Age of Conan, developer Funcom has been hard at work on magical conspiracy MMO The Secret World. It may have been delayed, but it has certainly not been forgotten, and this trailer gives a glimpse into the modern, yet magic-suffused world players will join. The trailer only explores London, and showcases some of the areas, cutscenes, and characters that one will interface with when they get the game. Of most interest is The Fallen King, a hobo that purports to give visions of personal futures. This aims to show players the ropes of combat and grouping, and the trailer shows the results. While it's not all that fantastic looking compared to other upcoming MMOs, The Secret World certainly has our interest!

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

One of the first games we ever covered on Freeware Friday was the incredibly detailed Dwarf Fortress. Despite having been absent for a while, we've still been keeping track of the best freeware games around, and one of them is a game which acts almost as a tribute to Dwarf Fortress' incredible complexity. Goblin Camp may appear to be a clone, but it's much more simple. It takes the incredible simulation of Dwarf Fortress and distills it to its core essence, removing a lot of the barriers to entry that have built up in eight years of development. Plus, and this is a big plus, the interface is much better!

The Exiled Realm of Arborea, or TERA Online, has not really seen a whole lot in the way of revealing videos. No developer diaries, no behind-the-scenes goodies, just straight trailers. The Gamescom trailer is no different. It's nothing particularly new, but if you like beautiful landscapes, stunning special effects, and skimpily-clothed fantasy faces, it'll be a good two minutes. It's also entirely in-game footage. Interestingly, at some points in the video, the framerate actually drops significantly! Besides these two facts, there's nothing of note.

Download HD Tera Gamescom 2010 Video (127 MB)
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It's time for yet another Nexon free-to-play MMO! In this case, it's Dragon Nest, an action MMO that aims to give players two things: interesting, randomized dungeons and complete control over their character. Regardless of what the gameplay is actually like, we have to say that this trailer is sort of silly and campy. In a good way, though. It goes swiftly from more simple fantasy fare to dark fantasy and back again, and the art style's cheerfulness belies the rather gruesome monster designs. As always, this makes it interesting, although not unusual for Nexon.

Download HD Dragon Nest E3 2010 Trailer (211MB)
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The Disciples series has been missing in action for a while now. The last entry in the series was Rise of the Elves in 2003, with all releases after that being various "gold editions" and such. Thankfully, the series is returning with Disciples III this July, and it looks to be quite the grand return, if this trailer is any indication. It brings back memories of both Heroes of Might and Magic and Disciples II, and that makes us positively tingly with joy.

Download HD Disciples III Teaser Trailer (170MB)
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No matter how many times it's been reiterated, we just can't seem to leave the fantasy genre behind. It seems to be the default setting of both RPGs and MMOs, as witnessed by the fact that it's always a surprise when a new one of those comes out and it's not set in the fantasy milieu.

For my money, very few developers have used the fantasy setting to tell truly fascinating stories -- or, rather, stories that could only have been told in a fantasy setting. There are so many limitations inherent in the genre that don't offer a concomitant benefit that I don't know why we haven't moved on to doing more games in the modern urban setting instead. But let's take a look at what that genre offers us.

Every time a new MMO comes out, it is often heralded as the "WoW killer." The one MMO that will manage to dethrone Blizzard's impossibly popular epic once and for all. This is a ridiculous expectation for any game to have, and thusly, MMOs need to be judge on their personal merits rather than in comparison to how popular they will be beside World of Warcraft. Aion is one of these games, and while it is rather generic, it manages to offer up a good mix of storytelling, graphics, and gameplay that make it a game to at least try out.