Games

InXile Entertainment have launched their Kickstarter campaign for their roleplaying game, Torment: Tides of Numenera . This game is a spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment , the 1999 PC game which is widely regarded as the best (and certainly the best-written) computer RPG ever made. Eschewing traditional fantasy conventions (no elves, no dwarves, precious few action sequences), the game delved deeply into themes of identity, responsibility, consequence and if people can every truly change themselves. It sold modestly but has attracted critical acclaim like no other RPG in history. Since inXile do not have the rights to the Planescape setting, they are instead setting this game in a different universe altogether. The setting is Numenera, a pen-and-paper setting conceived by Monte Cook, one of the chief designers on the 3rd Edition of the Dungeons and Dragons game. The setting is Earth, approximately one billion years in the future. Our world has been rendered almost unrecognisa...

inXile have released the first gameplay video for their upcoming, Kickstarter-funded, retro-RPG, Wasteland 2 . Wasteland 2 is a stand-alone sequel to the original, released, way back in 1988. The new game features similar turn-based combat and text-based descriptions of events, but also a vastly more advanced graphics engine based on 3D models. It'll be interesting to see how this old-school style of gaming resonates with modern audiences, but there's a lot here that looks promising (particularly the fully-customisable UI). The game is due for release at the end of the year.

Min-Liang Tan, the founder of pro-gaming peripheral company Razer , has given $10,000 to games developer Brian Fargo as an apology for pirating his game Wasteland a couple of decades ago. Fargo has been using the 'Kickstarter' system to raise funds for a potential Wasteland 2 and has recently passed his first goal of raising $900,000. In a Tweet, Tan said "I'm sorry for playing on a pirated copy of Wasteland years ago, I hope this makes up for it." Fargo's startled reply was: "Wow.. I just saw that you donated 10k... You more than made up for it. I am most grateful...You are forgiven... ;) Thanks for the support." Fargo is legendary within the video games market for founding Interplay in 1983. He directly wrote and created Wasteland (released in 1988) and later worked on games such as the original Fallout , which was directly inspired by Wasteland . He also worked on the Baldur's Gate franchise. During the numerous tumults that shook Interpl...