Pillars of Eternity

You look a little tired, friend. Let me just adjust this slider for you. There, wide awake. Now you’ve got some energy, how about listening to the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show? This week we’re talking about character creation. Which games spoil us with choice? And why do we always end up creating the same sneaky elf?

Tagged with feature, Mr Basil Pesto, Podcast, The RPS Electronic Wireless show, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Grand Theft Auto V, GTA Online, Mass Effect, Pillars of Eternity, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, State of Decay 2, Tekken 7, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Since its foundation in 2003, Obsidian Entertainment has worked with seven different publishers. Commencing with LucasArts on Knights of the Old Republic II, Obsidian has since signed contracts with Atari, SEGA, Bethesda, Square Enix, Ubisoft and most recently, Paradox Interactive. In fact, up until Pillars of Eternity [official site], every single game Obsidian had made was funded and distributed by a different publisher. This is…

Tagged with Atari, Baldur's Gate 2, Bethesda, Black-Isle, Feargus Urquhart, feature, interplay, Kotor ii, LucasArts, Neverwinter-Nights-2, Obsidian Entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Sega, Ubisoft, Alpha Protocol, Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Star Wars.

When Obsidian Entertainment started work on Pillars of Eternity [Official Site], the studio had two goals in mind. First, it wanted to recreate the style and tone of the classic Black Isle RPGs – particularly Baldur's Gate. Second, it wanted to modernise that style, taking advantage of today's technology, and avoiding mistakes made the first time around.

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At the Paradox Convention last month, I was hoping to see something new from Paradox Development Studio, the internal team responsible for the company's core strategy titles. There were new expansions for Europa Universalis IV [official site] and Hearts of Iron IV [official site], and the hiring of Jon Shafer is an interesting move, but no actual games were announced. I sat down with creative…

Tagged with feature, Fred Wester, johan andersson, Paradox Development Studio, Paradox Interactive, runemaster, Victoria, Crusader Kings II, Europa Universalis IV, Hearts of Iron IV, Pillars of Eternity.

Kickstarter's been pretty good for RPGs. We may not have seen the next big leap yet - Divinity: Original Sin 2 is looking pretty damn special, mind - but it's certainly breathed new life into the classics. Wasteland and Pillars of Eternity are both returning. Numenera went down well, despite a little over-promising. Divinity was superb. Have I left anyone out? (Oh yeah, don't forget…

Tagged with feature, GTA 5, RPG, The RPG Scrollbars, Pillars of Eternity, Quest for Infamy, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, Tyranny.

I've played a million beginnings and around a thousand endings, or at least that's how it feels. Imagine having seen the first act of Romeo and Juliet a hundred times but never having seen how it ends. That's my experience with all manner of games, from big story-driven RPGs to some of my favourite strategy epics. I've founded so many starter cities that have never…

Tagged with feature, RPS asks, Pillars of Eternity, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Stellaris, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Evil in Tyranny [official site] is so ordinary. That’s why it's successful, I think. In a medium prone to cartoonish overexaggeration, where villains are barely more than mustache-twirling caricatures, Tyranny tells a bleaker story. It’s the evil of numbers, the evil of tax collectors and bureaucracies and negligence and “I was just following orders.” A real-world sort of evil. The type that’s much harder to…

Tagged with feature, Obsidian Entertainment, Paradox Interactive, Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny.

I must confess, since finishing Siege of Dragonspear the other week, I've not actually fired up any RPGs. It's not for want of them to play. I'm particularly looking forward to finally trying Final Fantasy IX, which I missed back in the day, and Beamdog's recently announced interquel, Planescape Torment: The Nameless One And A Half. (It's very similar to the original, only now whenever…

Tagged with agdq, feature, RPG, Serpent in the Staglands, sgdq, The Age of Decadence, The RPG Scrollbars, Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, ultima vii: the black gate, dark souls 2, Fallout 2, Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, speedrunning, System Shock 2, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

What is the best RPG of 2015? The RPS Advent Calendar highlights our favourite games from throughout the year, and behind today's door is... Pillars of Eternity!

Tagged with best games, feature, Obsidian Entertainment, The RPS Advent Calendar 2015, The RPS Bestest Best Games, The RPS Bestest Best Games 2015, best pc games, Pillars of Eternity.

As the dragons finally return to their nests to hibernate and the ghosts don their chains to help remind misers of the meaning of the season, we approach the end of another year. As is tradition, that is time for we at the guild-house to award both quests and questers the ceremonial Scrolls of Honour™. (Chorus of affordable angels) Scribed upon only the finest vellum…

Tagged with feature, Lords Of Xulima, RPG, Serpent in the Staglands, The RPG Scrollbars, Divinity: Original Sin, Fallout 4, Final Fantasy XIV, Pillars of Eternity, Raven's Cry, Shadowrun Returns, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Undertale, Wasteland 2.

An entirely objective ranking of the 50 best PC RPGs ever released. Covering the entire history of computer role-playing games is a daunting task and attempting to place the best games in such a broad genre in any kind of order is even more daunting. Thankfully, we are equal to all tasks and below, you will find the best fifty PC RPGs of all time.

Tagged with Anachronox, Avernum: Escape From the Pit, Baldur's Gate II, Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, best games, Best RPGs, Betrayal At Krondor, Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, Din's Curse, Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, feature, FTL: Advanced Edition, Legend of Grimrock II, NEO Scavenger, Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Platinum, Pool of Radiance, risen, Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut, Space Rangers 2, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition, The RPS Bestest Best Games, Ultima Underworld, Wasteland 2 Digital Deluxe Edition, Wizardry VIII, ZangbandTK, ADOM, ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery), Brogue, Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition, Darkest Dungeon, Darklands, Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Diablo II, Divinity: Original Sin, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, Dragon Age: Origins, Dwarf Fortress, Fallout, Fallout: New Vegas, FTL: Faster Than Light, hand of fate, Mass Effect 2, Pillars of Eternity, Planescape: Torment, Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, Sunless Sea, System Shock 2, The Banner Saga, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Titan Quest, torchlight, Ultima VII, UnReal World, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Wasteland 2.

One of the most gratifying things about the recent-ish RPG revival is that they've almost all done well enough to warrant developer interest after release. (Oh, if only the adventure one had been as... no, no. Wrong column.) Call them Enhanced Editions, Director's Cuts or whatever else, they give their creators a second chance to fix mistakes or expand their worlds - and that's pretty…

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What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we'll be offering our picks - based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 7 of the sale.

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As wonderful as RPGs are, some tropes and cliches and just general bloody annoyances really do spoil the fun. Some of them might only crop up occasionally, others just won't go away. Some, you might think, are just petty irritations. But no! All these incontrovertible sins must be destroyed at once! Here's a few of my least favourite offenders. What others would you add to…

Tagged with Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, feature, Game of Thrones, The Book of Gripes, The RPG Scrollbars, The Worst Parts Of RPGs, Ultima, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut, Pillars of Eternity, Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic, World of Warcraft.

Once at primary school I tried to convince my teacher that we needed a new word - or at least that we needed one that might exist already, but that we’d somehow forgotten. This is going to be a piece partly about words, and “fantasy” was one that I was never totally happy with. It lacked, as I saw it, the generic precision of “science-fiction,”…

Tagged with feature, landscape, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Pillars of Eternity, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

I take roleplaying seriously. That's not to say I have a cupboard full of lucky dice or a handcrafted elven tunic - what I mean to say is that when I play an RPG, I try to make all of my decisions based on my character rather than the systems. I'll pass up a huge pile of loot if I don't think that taking it…

Tagged with feature, Obsidian Entertainment, Paradox, roleplaying, RPG, Pillars of Eternity.

Pillars of Eternity is out. You might have noticed. I'm not terribly far into it myself yet, but in between a spot of bear-bashing and wolf-wounding, I was struck by how very RPG Inn the first inn I visited was. Truly, the Black Hound Inn in the town of Gilded Vale is the archetypal RPG inn. I knew, the second I stepped foot in it,…

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Now that people have had a weekend to spend with Pillars Of Eternity, it feels a bit more appropriate to offer thoughts on parts of the game that would otherwise have been spoiling revelations or moments within the opening few hours. Not core plot events, or twists that may occur, but just the basics – basics I wanted to leave out of my review because…

Tagged with feature, Obsidian Entertainment, RPG, Pillars of Eternity.