Most Anticipated CRPG of 2011

Dragon Age 2, but of course.

 

Witcher, Skyrim and Mass Effect 3

 

Skyrim

 

Skyrim for me too

 

Skyrim, open world ftw.

 

A year full of sequels... but, out of those, The Witcher 2, Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2, in that order. Skyrim and Diablo 3, well, just no.

 

Does Star Wars: The Old Republic count? Sure, it's a MMO... but for crying out loud, people, it's a Bioware RPG based on the Old Republic - that is a formula for win and awesome!

Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2 and the Witcher 2 are definitely going to see some time on my computer, sure . However, at the moment SW:TOR is the game that has got me the most psyched up.

 

Dragon Age 2.

 

I voted Skyrim. But looking forward to the Witcher 2 and Diablo 3 also.

 

DA:O didn't exactly leave me wanting for more, Oblivion kind of put me off of Bethesda produced RPGs, especially since Fallout 3 wasn't much of an improvement, never tried ME because the first part had that silly online activation that I really don't like and part 2 couldn't even be called an RPG anymore, by most accounts.

That leaves The Witcher 2 for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the first game, even though it was not without its faults, so I'm looking forward to seeing what CD Projekt did with the sequel. Hopefully they managed to maintain the feeling that your choices were real moral choices rather than the standard Bioware Good-Neutral-Bad choices.

Diablo 3 isn't an RPG, it's a hack & slash. Deus Ex was more of an RPG than Diablo was.

 

I voted Mass Effect 3. Its the last part of the story, and that made it win out. As for Skyrim...the more i read about it, the less hopes i have for it. It has even less skills that Oblivion now. Mysticism and some other ones have been removed. If they keep this up The Elder Scrolls 8 will only have 3 skills. Will see how it goes. I will buy it anyway.

Side note: I think Drakensang 2 should have been on the list too. It might not be the best looking rpg out there, but it has a complex rule system, and plenty of charm. Thats a breath of fresh air these days, where the norm seems to be dumbing down games.

 

Wasn't Drakensang 2 released last year already?

 

Aah, Drakensang 2 ... now that you mention it, I haven't played it yet even though I liked the first part (and even though I really should play it, almost as a patriotic duty, since it is a German game). Game graphics, especially of the cities, by far beat Dragon Age.

As for me, I probably look forward most to Mass Effect 3, Witcher 2 and then Dragon Age 2 - in that order. And then there is the big wild card, Deus Ex 3 (which should have also made it to the list IMO).

The Witcher was the new discovery for me last year. Outstanding game, but totally underrated and it really went under the radar for many gamers - very much undeserved IMO. If Witcher 2 retains its qualities without screwing up badly something else ... what a prospect.

 

What is this Drakensang 2 game that you are talking about? Drakensang: The River of Time was released last year and it is a prequel to the 2008 game Drakensang: The Dark Eye. Also there is an expansion, Drakensang: Phileasson’s Secret, but I do not know if it has been released yet.

Additionally there is another game in development which uses the same ruleset and world; The Dark Eye: Demonicon. But apparently the release date has been pushed back to 2012 from 2011, if it will ever be released that is.

 

Yeah it came out last year in some european countries. Its not out in the UK and the US yet though, so I figured it would be elligable since its only...well...half released yet. And yes, its the river of time. I didn`t bother writing down the whole title, thats all. The next one is aparantly going to be a browser game. MMO crap. So the series dies with the prequel.

 

Erod, it is Drakensang: The River of Time - it is often referred to as Dragensang 2 because it it, prequel schmequel, still the second Drakensang game. In fact, before using the term lazily, I myself implicitly scolded Rawgrim for being imprecise for using the wrong name

 

Arguably, Deus Ex 3 is not an RPG, or at least I wouldn't classify it as such. But then again, Diablo 3 is on this list as well...

I have high hopes for the Deus Ex prequel as well, the trailers are very atmospheric, reminiscent of Blade Runner. They're only trailers, though, so I'm waiting until the game is out and people start talking about gameplay and story before getting too excited about it.

 

Skyrim. Witcher second

 

I voted ME3, but I'm interested in all of them (except Diablo 3, which looks just like Diablo 2, but with new wallpaper for the Skinner Box). I'm currently playing through The Witcher, and enjoying myself -- hooray for someone figuring out how to incorporate some actual gameplay in a single-character focussed Aurora Engine game! Assuming CD Projekt can keep the good ideas coming (and work out some of their misogyny/maturity issues), The Witcher 2 could be the best fantasy title of the year.

Skyrim is currently on probation: Oblivion was very disappointing, and whilst Fallout 3 was excellent, Bethesda are going to have to sit down and really think about immersion, and how to do it well in a TES game. I'd suggest making armour that actually looks like proper fantasy/medieval armour, rather than day-glo flourescent green space marine armour would be a good start. That, and working out their combat system (hint: start with a 3rd person perspective, and go from there). Manual blocking was a good step up from Morrowind's random system, but melee doesn't work well from 1st person, and anything designed to be 1st person tends to end up playing like an FPS. This is not a good thing for a fantasy RPG.

As for DA2... well I just don't know. It all hinges in whether the Fighting game/RTS switching works, or just turns the game into a dog's dinner of jack-of-all-trades ambition. It could be brilliant; Jade Empire with swords'n'sorcery. BioWare, though, either need to grow some cojonnes and deal with the controversy monster head-on, or find a better way to represent romance than some pants-on dry humping. Again, here's a hint: no game ever sold fewer copies because Fox news declared it to be evil. That's why everyone at Activision owns two yachts.