December Best Bets [Quest]
World of Warcraft
PC
Developer: Blizzard
Publisher: Blizzard/VU Games
Release Date: Now
Well, they finally did it. Someone managed to create an MMORPG that's actually more than just a level-grinding meta-game. World of WarCraft is, simply put, the game everyone who's ever EverQuest-ed has been waiting for. It's fast, it's beautiful, and above all, it's way too much fun. While World of WarCraft is definitely built on the same MMO design framework that EverQuest more or less established years ago, Blizzard has distilled out all the un-fun crap (waiting around for mana to regenerate, forced grouping, over-specialization, obtuse quests) and amped up everything that made these games addictive. The classes are all cool (even "boring" classes like priest and warrior have a huge set of gameplay options). The biggest difference, however, is the quests: you're never left with no goals, no aim; in World of WarCraft, you don't feel like your sole purpose is to get more XP, which is something no MMO has really managed to do until now. Even the trade skills-potentially boring stuff like tailoring and gathering herbs- manage to strike the perfect balance between complexity and fun. If you're worried that the game won't run on an outdated PC set-up, don't be. It's designed for maximum performance, and it's a perfect example of how great art direction can make technological limitations completely irrelevant. It could be all the game you'll ever need.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Xbox
Developer: Obsidian
Publisher: LucasArts
Release Date: December 6
How do you follow up a triumphant success like Knights of the Old Republic-it out Star Wars-ed the new Star Wars movies, and it was an awesome role-playing game to boot. Fans of the first one should note that Obsidian (the new developer, taking over for BioWare) hasn't gone back to the drawing board-the game looks and feels a lot like its predecessor, with a similar engine and the same sort of diverging Light Side/Dark Side story line (only this time, your party-members turn good or evil right along with you). The only questions that remain as the game gets closer to release: is it possible to duplicate the same impact of the first KOTOR's "big surprise"? Are they even gonna try? Will you be able to do the same sort of sick, twisted stuff you could on the Dark Side in the last game? Can Obsidian nail the Light/Dark division as well as BioWare did? We're betting that yes, they can, 'cuz despite Obsidian's newbie status, they ain't a bunch of hacks-the team is made up of a bunch of RPG veterans that definitely know what they're doing. Even if the game isn't as explosively original as the first one, it's still shaping up to be a super-solid RPG.
