2K Games announces Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World will be on sale August 1

Beginning straight after the events of Dungeon Siege 2, the player character returns to find their actions in the previous game have not been well received. Along with a new threat, the player must embark on a new quest to save the world from evil.

Players can choose from a set of premade characters if they did not play or finish the original Dungeon Siege 2. Otherwise, there is also the option to import existing characters into the expansion.

New content includes a few hundred combat modifiers that can appear on items, new armour, weapons and classes. The new Blood Assassin class uses a combination of ranged and magic attacks, while the Fist of Stone class is comparable to a battlemage. There is also the option to reallocate skill points by talking with certain characters in town. Quite handy if you run in to trouble against a specific type of enemy.

With all new content and dungeons to "siege", Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World should keep many fans satisfied. It is expected to ship on August 1.

Trailer links:
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In sad news for RPG fanatics, Neverwinter Nights 2 will not be released until October, following an announcement by Atari today.

Not from sheer bloody-mindedness though, rather the company is determined to ensure NWN2 is the best damn RPG evah, and so the developer is taking a bit of extra time and care on all the fiddly bits around the edges:


Seems there's two ways to deal with this - either run mad through the streets and burn big papier mache models of the Atari logo in effigy, or take a deep breath and realise it's only another month. I mean seriously guy, cool it.

Interview with the modder behind the Oblivion controversy

With the games industry still assessing the fallout from the infamous Hot Coffee mod, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board's (ESRB) decision to re-rate The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from "Teen" to "Mature" in May of this year took many by surprise. The reason for the re-rate? Pixelated breasts - courtesy of a topless Oblivion mod.

Truth be told, the ESRB's re-rating of Oblivion wasn't entirely about the breasts; it was based upon "more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating... as well as the presence in the PC version of the game of a locked-out art file that, if accessed by using an apparently unauthorized third party tool, allows the user to play the game with topless versions of female characters." Developer Bethesda copped the decision on the chin, responding via a press release, "Bethesda Softworks made what it believes was a full, accurate, and comprehensive submission on Oblivion to the ESRB months before the game's release... Nothing was hidden from the ratings agency."

The point of this little history lesson? Gaming website Game Politics has tracked down and interviewed Maeyanie, the author behind the controversial topless Oblivion mod.

Here's an excerpt from the interview:


The full interview with Maeyanie can be found here. And before anyone even thinks about emailing me to ask where they can download the topless mod, NO, I won't be giving you a link. Filthy little blighters!

EA announces a new Lord of the Rings RPG for the PC, Xbox360 and PlayStation 3

Electronic Arts has unveiled their new project, Lord of the Rings: The White Council, at the company's annual summer press event. It has been known since January 2006 that EA was working on a Lord of the Rings role-playing game, but no further details were revealed. Lord of the Rings: The White Council is also the proper name for EA's Project Gray Company, a "next generation" role playing game that was announced back in April.

The development team is well prepared, with many of the developers having worked on previous Lord of the Rings games. Along with rights to the books and films, EA has given the development team enough time to make a quality role playing game true to the Lord of the Rings experience.

In the Lord of the Rings, The White Council was a group of elves and wizards formed to contest the growing power of Dol Gulder, the fortress of an unknown necromancer. During the events of The Hobbit, Gandalf discovered that the necromancer was in fact the dark lord, Sauron. After informing the White Council of this fact, Gandalf and the Council chased Sauron until he vanished, later to reappear at his fortress in Mordor.

According to Steve Gray, Executive Producer of The White Council, the game takes place in a massive open world where the player can go anywhere they wish, much like the Elder Scrolls games. Characters in the game world are powered by the same technology used in The Sims 2, so we can look forward to seeing some interesting NPC actions.

The main storyline of the game is seperated in to a series of quests that can be undertaken at any time. Along with these, there are a multitude of optional quests throughout the game world.

At EA's press event, it was further revealed that Lord of the Rings actors Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee will be lending their voices and likenesses to the game.

Despite the game being in development for over two years now, EA have not released any specific details about its release date.