November Best Bets
November's a big month for RPGs, with the launch of one of the most gigundous MMORPGs ever and a movie-licensed role-player that combines two of our favorite fantasies into one. Here are our RPG recommendations for November.Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
PS2 Xbox GC
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Publisher: EA Games
Release Date: November 19
If your idea of creativity is taking two existing ideas and mashing them together to create something new, at least EA picked some awesome inspiration: Final Fantasy X and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings, together again for the first time. The plot follows the story of the film trilogy, literally: you play as a "second Fellowship" of made- up elves, dwarves, and men who follow in the Frodo and the gang's footsteps, weaving in and out of their adventures and having plenty of your own. The random encounters are entirely taken from Final Fantasy X (EA's not even trying to pretending otherwise), with three guys casting and slashing on one side against a row of fantasy foes.
Here's where things might get a little messy for you: Since EA didn't have the
rights to the books (only the movies), it's still unclear how much creative license they'll
have to stray away from what's been placed on film or delve into the rich history of, say,
The Silmarillion. (In other words, don't expect to meet Tom Bombadil or
summon any Maiar.) There are also a few moments that will undoubtedly piss off purists
-- at one point, your "second Fellowship" helps Gandalf fight the Balrog at Khazad-
Dum...er, oh yeah, I remember that! -- but hopefully the creative reinterpretation doesn't
go to such extremes so often. If you're not so stuffy and can put those licensing and
purity issues, everything we've seen so far indicates The Third Age is gonna be a fine
RPG.
Everquest II
PC
Developer: Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
Release Date: November 9
Love, then hate. Lust, then revulsion. EverQuest isn't just a game -- it's a lover, and when passions flare, forests burn. And ardor will undoubtedly ignite over the sequel, the most ambitious MMORPG project we've ever seen. The graphics are leagues ahead of the competition (at least from a technical standpoint), but what about class diversity, group dynamics, instanced encounters, and all the other stuff that makes up the MMO meta-game? It's hard to tell, since the beta's been moving at warp speed, with tweaks and fixes coming at a machine-gun pace as Sony prepares to launch the next movement of their MMORPG magnum opus on November 8. We think you'll want to be a part of the world at least for a little while, if only to give it a test spin. Part of the fun of these massively-multiplayer games is being able to look back and say "I was there when you couldn't walk two feet without being killed by a bunny!" or "Remember how we all used to log off at 3PM when the PK-ing school kidz started terrorizing the countryside?" Don't expect such radical messiness this time around -- Sony's learned a lot since the last one -- but there's bound to be some wackiness. Besides, how many opportunities do gamers have to participate in giant social experiments disguised as global Ren Faire parties?
The Bard's Tale
PS2 Xbox
Developer: inXile
Publisher: VuGames / inXile
Release Date: Now
It might be a bit of a stretch to call The Bard's Tale a "gaming milestone," but it's at least an off-ramp marker. If nothing else, it indicates that games have matured enough to be able to poke fun at themselves, that there's now enough foundation and history in the computer role-playing universe for the concept of "satire" to evolve. The essential gameplay is pretty standard: You play a guy with a sword who goes through mazes and kills enemies in order to get to the end of the game. The game looks and feels a lot like Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath or any number of top-down action/RPGs. Without sound, you'd barely be able to tell the difference, except for the fact that you can summon a party of NPCs in this one and you can't in other games that look just like it. OK, fine, whatever. Turn the volume up, however, and you've got something else entirely -- the perfect example to throw at someone when they tell you sound is the least important part of a game. It's a parody and comedy revue the likes of which the game world hasn't seen since Lucasarts stopped making graphic adventures and canned the continuing adventures of Sam & Max. RPG vets will want to wade through its "tried-and-true" gameplay just to see what . While most stuffy RPGs stand at a distance from their audience, this one fosters a feeling of connection and camaraderie by winking and saying, "yeah, we hate that, too" whenever something stupid and annoying happens. Of course, stupid and annoying stuff still happens. It's hardly a perfect game, but we think it's one for your library anyway -- not necessarily because of what it is, but because of what it represents.
Also Consider: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, X-Men Legends
Keep Your Eye Out For: World of Warcraft
