Soldak Entertainment, developer of Depths of Peril and Kivi's Underworld, has announced Din's Curse, an upcoming single player and co-op multiplayer action RPG for Mac and Windows. In the game players take the role of an adventurer cursed to walk the lands in a quest for redemption. Din's Curse features 141 possible class combinations, an infinite number of dynamically generated towns, and a game world directly impacted by player choices.

Choose one of 141 class combinations and journey
to an infinite number of dynamically generated towns with vastly
different problems. Every game is a surprise! Your actions have
real consequences in this dynamic, evolving world. Your choices
actually matter!

Din, champion of the gods, has cursed you into a second life of service because you selfishly squandered your first one while causing misfortune to those around you. To redeem yourself, you must impress Din by building a reputation for helping others. Travel the spacious western plains of Aleria and save desperate towns from the brink of annihilation. Until you're redeemed, you're doomed to wander the earth alone for all eternity.

In Din's Curse, you will explore an extensive underground, slaying dangerous monsters, solving dynamic quests, dodging deadly traps, and in your spare time, plundering loot. Quell uprisings, flush out traitors, kill assassins, cure plagues, purge curses, end wars, and complete other dangerous quests or the danger WILL escalate. Not all is as it seems though, traitors will gladly stab you in the back, renegades can revolt against the town, spies can set up ambushes, and items might even curse or possess your friends.

Features
• Uniquely created worlds for every game, with different monsters, items, quests, and even townspeople, give the player a new experience every time
• Explore a dynamic, evolving, living world
• Many hybrid classes to experience - 6 full classes, 18 specialties, 141 total combinations
• Your choices truly impact the game
• Surprising, emergent gameplay
• Co-op multiplayer to adventure with friends

Soldak Entertainment

Din's Curse

Din's Curse

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Buy Din's Curse

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In a recent forum post Basilisk Games revealed a new collection of feats available in the upcoming Eschalon: Book II. Based on weapon skill levels the feats add more depth to the game's combat system. Book II will continue the storyline from the previous game and feature a variety of new skills, new creatures, and a larger world to explore.

We've been working in new combat abilities in Book II. These are automatic feats based on your skill level in the following categories:

Swords: Chance for "Automatic Parry" directly following any missed attack.

Cleaving: Chance for "Great Cleave" - strikes targets adjacent to your primary target.

Bludgeoning: Chance for "Critical Pummel" - Maximum weapon damage x3

Piercing: Chance for "Rapid Strike" - delivering two separate attacks in one attack round.

Bows and Thrown: Chance for "Intense Focus", a precision attack on a vital spot delivering 3x damage

These automatic feats are granted once the player reaches skill level 10, and scaled up a bit every level thereafter. For example, at level 10 Cleaving I only saw a "Great Cleave" about 1 out of every 20 strikes, but at leave 17 I was seeing it more like every 8-10 strikes. It really encourages players to stick with a particular weapon group and master it. We'll talk more about this when it gets balanced out.

Basilisk Games Forums: Book II Combat Abilities

Basilisk Games

Eschalon: Book II

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Runic Games recently released a collection of concept art from its upcoming single player action RPG, Torchlight. The game will give players the chance to choose a character and venture from the safety of the town of Torchlight into randomly generated dungeon levels. Once inside they will find a variety of monsters, a large selection of loot to find, and quests to complete.

We have for you today the Alchemist in three of his super-hott mage-punk gear sets (I can hear Ash saying “Groovy” in my head). We also have a concept of one of the houses in the town of Torchlight from our earlier concepting stages – this one didn’t make the cut but is a great example of how the style has developed. Next, check out the set of props from the Crypt level –cobwebbed ghostly ruins of former glory. Lastly, a crackerjack set of weapons that would make any character salivate – epic shields, and barbed guns that look as dangerous as they are deadly (eXistenZ, anyone?).

Torchlight Artwork

Runic Games

Torchlight

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During the keynote speech at the Game Developer's Conference in Austin, Blizzard Entertainment's J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce briefly discussed Nomad, a squad based sci-fi title that never saw release. After becoming unsatisfied with the project the team involved decided instead to start work on World of Warcraft.

From Joystiq:

However, the most interesting part of the keynote was when they briefly spoke about Nomad, the canceled squad-based sci-fi game. Ten years ago, Blizzard put a lot of work in on the game, but eventually looked at it and said "Is this really the game we want to be working on right now? The answer ended up being "no," and the team went on to start work on World of Warcraft. Here we are ten years later with WoW going strong, and no Nomad in sight.

They'd mentioned this canceled game, along with a slew of others, at last year's DICE summit, but without any other information. Sadly, the only thing they had to show were pieces of concept art, including some by "The Bourbon Cowboy," Chris Metzen. The art itself isn't that exciting, but the words "squad-based sci-fi RPG" are exciting. Could this be Blizzard's next game? Possibly mutated into MMO form? Who knows when we'll find out, since one of the stats they flashed onscreen this morning was "Number of Unannounced MMOs: 1."

Joystiq: A Look At Blizzard's Nomad

Gamasutra: GDC Austin Blizzard Keynote

Blizzard Entertainment

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