More Baldur & Neverwinter, Soon-Ish

Yes, fantasy RPG sequels are inbound. It's pretty much a dead cert that Bioware won't be involved, as they're busy being owned by EA these days, and Atari seem to have clung on the Dungeons & Dragons license without 'em. Infogrames-in-disguise are definitely planning to revisit these two seminal roleplaying names however, though a developer's not been announced. Neither has a release date. Maybe not next year, according to Atari's Phil Harrison, but soon, and for the rest of your life. Or at least as long as Wizards of the Coast keep on letting 'em make D&D games, anyway.

There being a third Neverwinter Nights wasn't much of a shocker, given NWN2 expansions are still coming out in a slow, steady stream and, from what I gather, being fairly well-received. We'd also heard plenty of quiet rumours about a new Baldur's Gate, but the question is what form will it take?

Will it really be akin to the BGs of yore - which original devs Bioware are aiming to revisit with their own Dragon Age - or will it be more like the hacky-slashy-Diablo-y Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance thingums that proved to be an agreeably mindless romp on the last generation of consoles? I'd actually lean more towards the latter, otherwise Atari risks having two fairly similar games - unless they're planning on something like that Civilization IV/Colonization thing. Neverwinter Nights 3: Baldur's Gate? Nah, seems far too obtuse. So right now, I'd bank on BG3 being something different from the cRPG norm.

So that's Fallout and Baldur's Gate both sequelised for the modern age. Pretty much leaves Planescape: Torment, then. That could get messy...