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6 months ago
Feature: My worst self
Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time. When people ask me about the first game I ever played, I tell them it was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. That's not accurate, but it was the first one I played that made me realise the unique power games had to transport me to…
9 months ago
Feature: The Loose Canon
There are more wonderful games being released on PC each month than ever before. In such a time of plenty, it's important that you spend your time as wisely as possible. Thankfully, we're here to help. What follows are our picks for the best PC games ever made.
11 months ago
Feature: Tabling a motion
I've recently started playing with a new Dungeons & Dragons group, drafted in after one of their numbers upped and left town. It's my second time playing table-top D&D, after a splendid stint a couple of years back with Jim Rossignol (late of this parish) DMing, and it's a properly good time. And what I've learned is that it becomes a much better time the…
1 year ago
Feature: Sympathy for the damned
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…
2 years ago
Feels like it's far too soon to be remaking Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic but a) they've rebooted the Spider-Man movies 48 times in 18 months and b) KOTOR is, in fact, 13 years old oh god I'm so ancient how did this happen help help. So maybe the time isn't too un-wrong for someone to take a crack at making one of…
3 years ago
After seventeen years in the scribbler's hotseat, writer and designer David Gaider has left BioWare. Gaider joined the RPG-builders back in 1999, putting in some time on Baldur's Gate 2 before moving onto Knights of the Old Republic. His contributions to the Star Wars universe include snarky murderous human-hating droid HK-47 (a terrifying vision of our machine-doomed future presented as comic relief) and Carth Onasi,…
Feature: Sometimes watching isn't enough.
I had twin criteria for this. The first was 'is it a decent game?' and the second 'does it meaningfully evoke the spirit, themes or characters of the movie in addition to having Quite Good Guns And Graphics?' The second saw quite a few games which would otherwise qualify ruled out. This year's Mad Max, for instance, was an agreeable murder-romp but it's much harder…
Feature: Here, there, underwear
Since the dawn of RPGs, two things have remained constant: heroes require armour, and players will always want to find out what happens if they strip it all off and run around. Some would call it a secret test of a game's devotion to world simulation - that if characters react, it says good things about the developers' devotion to detail. Others just think it's…
Obsidian's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II doesn't quite reach the level of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines on the Oh Gosh Imagine If It Were Actually Finished-o-meter, but it has folks who go to bat to it. Like Bloodlines, for a decade KOTOR 2 has relied on fans to fix bugs, restore and finish cut content, and improve support for modern systems.…
Feature: Level Cap
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.
Feature: The Book Of Gripes
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…
Feature: Memory And Motion
Star Wars started as cinema and ended up as something else - lots of things, from pillow cases to theme park rides. But chief among them, the form that best captures the core of Star Wars now, is games. The last Star Wars I enjoyed watching was released two years after I was born, in 1983, but since then games have given me dozens of…
4 years ago
Hey cats, it's hip to like Star Wars again rather than feeling dirty every time it's mentioned. Of course, once JJ Abrams releases two hours of lens flare and nonsensical deus ex machinas it will be deeply uncool to like Star Wars again, so make hay while the sun shines. Star Wars videogames certainly are: first we get GoG re-releasing a bunch of previously out-of-print…
5 years ago
We now live in a world where The Sims: Star Wars or Need for Speed: Tosche Station could become things. I'm not saying it's likely (though the former would not shock me in the slightest), but Star Wars is under new management, so who knows? For now, all we can say for sure is that BioWare, DICE, and Visceral are actively adding their own chapters to…
Feature: Back In Black (Isle)
Well, it's official: Chris Avellone has joined the Torment: Tides of Numenera team. Kickstarter's overwhelming monetary might has pushed another old band back together again, and now this one's ready to give belabored brain birth to another tale for the ages. And dimensions. And whatever other creative gravy giblets they can fit into their twisted turducken of a setting. But Torment's hardly the only thing on…
6 years ago
Feature: Rolling The Dice, Pt 1
Obsidian's a company that's always stricken me as bizarrely restless. Despite its near-legendary Black Isle legacy, the Project Eternity and South Park developer's rarely had an easy time finding a comfortable place in the industry. But then, when you think about it, that's not entirely surprising. Both RPGs and storytelling in games - Obsidian's wheelhouses - have spent countless years in constant flux. And though…
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II was utterly masterful. Sure, it had more rough edges than a Sarlacc Pit who's also a door-to-door woodchipper salesman, but the underlying tale mixed oppressive darkness, moral grays, and an eye for exactly what makes Star Wars tick to stirring effect. Personally, I think it far outstripped KOTOR 1, but to each their own. Naturally, though, I…
Feature: Turning from KOTOR2's dark side
Obsidian's legendary/notorious Star Wars RPG is currently on a daily deal sale 75% at £1.74/$2.49 off until Friday 6pm GMT/Saturday 10am PST, likely the cheapest it'll ever be on Steam. For that reason, today I'll be providing a guide to getting the Steam edition of Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords working well on modern machines. Widescreen resolutions, extra content, crash-dodging…
Vaguely controversial statement time! I far prefer Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 to KOTOR 1. I mean, BioWare's original Death Star laser blast into a rather bland Star Wars gaming scene is a classic for a reason, but KOTOR 2 - for all its flaws - showed sparkling glints of actual brilliance. Unfortunately, a lot of people skipped it due to BioWare's…
9 years ago
As spotted by a keen-eyed Eurogamer forumite, the KotOR 2 Restored Content Project has gone into open beta. You're just a 15MB download away. Details below.
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