Click to enlarge

Spiderweb Software has added a collection of new wallpaper images to its website. The images feature scenes from the popular Avernum RPG series, which recently concluded in Avernum 6. The game wrapped up loose plot threads from previous games and revealed the fate of the underground realm and its popular characters.

Avernum 6 is the final game in the popular and long-running Avernum series. Explore a gigantic world, with a fascinating storyline, hundreds of quests, multitudes of side dungeons, and many hours of adventure. The game features clever enemies and dozens of interesting scripted encounters. Learn over 50 spells and battle disciplines. Hunt for hundreds of magical items or craft your own powerful artifacts.

Avernum is a world underground. It is a nation of people living in an enormous warren of tunnels and caverns, far below the surface of the world. Once a prison colony for rebels and thugs, it is now a wild frontier, full of adventurous souls looking for wealth, fame, and magical power. Avernum's sole link to the surface world: a single magical portal, small and difficult to maintain.

And then the Blight came. Almost overnight, the mushrooms Avernum needed to feed itself withered and died. Then the denizens of the low tunnels, the savage, reptilian Slithzerikai, emerged. Sensing weakness, they struck, destroying much of a weakened Avernum and creating waves of hungry, desperate refugees. Now chaos and hunger stalk this land, and none seem to be able to find a solution or a way to stop the Slith Horde.

In the midst of all of this chaos, you joined the army. You had a good, simple reason: Soldiers get food. And yet, through a run of good (or bad) fortune, you find that you have a chance to discover and confront Avernum's enemies. The nation of Avernum is rapidly approaching its final destiny, and you will be at the center of events. Can you save your homeland? And, if Avernum survives, what will become of it?

Spiderweb Software: Avernum Desktop Art

Spiderweb Software

Avernum 6

Click to enlarge

Mac|Life has posted a new review of the Mac version of Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition. Bioware's latest fantasy role playing epic challenges players to take on the role of a Grey Warden and defend the land of Fereldin from the monstrous Darkspawn. Mac|Life gave the game a score of 4.5 out of 5.

From the review:

BioWare has never made a casual RPG, and the robust Dragon Age is no exception. You’ll customize your character and their specialization, leading to variations like a berserker fighting style for your warrior, shape-shifting or healing abilities for your mage, and improved lock picking for your rogue. Since you can add more characters for your party and switch between them as needed, you end up with broad yet specific control over every encounter.

Managing your party effectively requires you to directly control one character and assign behaviors to the other members of your party. For example, if you want your archer and mage to provide covering fire while the others attack with swords, just open the Tactics menu and assign a behavior, and the character will follow it as needed.

But when in doubt? Go bananas. Dragon Age’s graphics and sound are as good as anything else currently available, so even if you get trounced, you’ll look good doing it. The lighting and models create a perfect fantasy/adventure feel, while the world itself is massive without being overwhelming. Top this off with easily 50-plus hours of gameplay, downloadable game expansions, and tons of weapons, items, and armor, and you wind up with a gaming experience that’s truly great.

Mac|Life: Dragon Age Origins Review

BioWare

TransGaming

Dragon Age: Origins

Click to enlarge

RPGWatch has posted a new preview of Soldak Entertainment's Din's Curse, the company's upcoming action RPG. In Din's Curse players take the role of an adventurer cursed to walk the lands in a quest for redemption. The game features 141 possible class combinations, an infinite number of dynamically generated towns, and a game world directly impacted by player choices.

What really sets Din's Curse apart is the dynamic world and events. For starters, it's a very interactive world with chests, stashes, barrels, doors, switches, traps, altars, secret plans and more. Chests are often trapped, doors are sometimes stuck (and need to forced open), barrels are often explosive or full of acid. With a bit of care, you can use many of these to your own advantage – such as luring mobs near the explosive barrels and setting them off with an arrow. Discovering secret plans will yield a quest or information about an uprising.

Then there are the dynamic events. The dungeons are always in motion as the monsters battle each other. Left to their own devices, some monsters rise above the pack to become more powerful – they may raise their own army, build devices like Earthquake or Darkness machines, send assassins into town or even invade. Ultimately, you might simply encounter a more dangerous enemy, or it could even lead to some of the quest-givers in town disappearing. The degree of all this varies (you guessed – it's all random); I've had quiet worlds that were straight forward and others full of cave-ins and uprisings.

As a simple example, I was playing a relatively quiet world and cruising along with ease. I was on the 9th level of the dungeon, hoping to kill Blazebiter soon - I'd discovered his plans to build an Earthquake Machine earlier. Suddenly, I fell through a hole down into the 10th level and right into a swarm of monsters. I died. Rushing back down to reclaim my soulstone, level 10 was proving to be difficult. Unfortunately, that gave Blazebiter time to finish his Earthquake Machine – and the first earthquake brought the ceiling down. Dead again. And failed the quest.

RPGWatch: Din's Curse Preview

Soldak Entertainment

Din's Curse

Buy Din's Curse

Click to enlarge

TopWare Interactive and Reality Pump recently released new content for Two Worlds II, the upcoming fantasy RPG. The update consists of several new screenshots from the game. Two Worlds II will send players to the unexplored land of Eastern Antaloor and will feature detailed graphics, an active combat system, and a complex storyline.

Two Worlds II presents a totally new gamer experience, one in which 2 years of intensive development has enabled quantum leaps in all spheres: completely overhauled AI and balancing standards, experienced authors, the active combat system and the brand-new engine all combine to provide an unforgettable experience where excitement, sheer enjoyment and graphics rule. “Two Worlds II” simply sets new technical benchmarks in the RPG genre, thanks not least to its seemingly unlimited number of dynamic light sources, micro-detail Parallax Mapping, 24 Bit HDR Post Processing, Space Ambient Occlusion and Human Eye Accommodation.

Rescued from prison by former enemies, the player once again assumes control of the unnamed hero, only to find the world of Antaloor has been forever changed in their absence.

Boasting a diverse, living world and a limitless open narrative, Two Worlds II could very well be the next sleeper hit of the genre. Antaloor is a mythic world of pristine savannahs and mordant swamps, celestial cities teeming with life that will rise or fall entirely depending of the player's actions, as the reign of the implacable despot Gandohar threatens to throw the world into a state of irreversible decay.

Worthplaying: Two Worlds II Screens

Two Worlds II

Buy Two Worlds II

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.