In single-player, the plan is for the computer to do the same, creating dynamic encounters where every character has their own story, and none of them can be trusted. In multiplayer, you and your friends can work together or compete as you see fit, with bastardry including planting contraband on each other and calling the guards, or dying a green poison potion red and passing it off as a health potion. While it is prettier and has better production values than the original, the focus of the thing is on massively expanding the core RPG features, with the big selling point being a party that often has conflicting goals. I'm also a big fan of what Divinity: Less Original Sin is trying. After years of not liking the Divinity games at all (though respecting their ideas and goals!), it was great to play one that cut right to the core of the series' problems and strengths - great concepts, now with a rock solid foundation. My favourite thing about Divinity: Original Sin wasn't that it was a great game - though it was - but that it gave me another great example of something finally clicking. Even if it does look like it's going to be depressingly shooty-based rather than going back to more fittingly exploratory type RPG action. BioWare's skill at creating characters alone is enough to draw me in to see what the Andromeda galaxy has to offer, and I can't wait to see what else is out there. Also, here's a trailer about our new galaxy of opportunity that just features Humans and Turians shooting each other.') But I still have faith. ('We wanted our aliens to be weird and crazy and like nothing you've never seen before, but then we gave them trousers because people got squicked out talking to naked people and basically they're now crocodiles in battle armour. cautiously optimistic about this one than I was a few months ago, thanks to some not very good trailers and some very weird announcements. Hopefully the devs got the notes from early on, notably that the intro was terrible and should be burned in fire. The world of Numenera is a fascinating place that feels like an ideal replacement to Sigil and its Planes, and I loved my initial experiments with its combat system - the focus not being on bashing hundreds of enemies, but tight, intricately written encounters that can be solved in a zillion ways, from pointing out that your enemy is staggeringly out-classed, to fiddling with the scenery and turning things like light bridges and defence systems to your advantage. but having admittedly only played a bit of the Early Access version (not wanting to spoil too much), I have really high hopes. It takes balls with their own gravity wells to compare your new game to one of the smartest and most beloved of all time. Here are some of my picks for the games I'm most excited to get my hands on in 2017. Next year though? Whoooo-boy, do we have a lot of awesome stuff on the way. Awards are coming later this month! But in terms of big, BIG, BIG releases, it's been kinda quiet. That's not to say we've had nothing, not least Early Access versions of many of these games.

As far as RPGs go, it's also been fairly quiet, thanks to lots of stuff deciding to stay in the oven for a few more months. (FX: 'Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.') It's not been the greatest of years, from just about every celebrity you might have loved deciding to peg it, to America electing the Curious Orange.

Top fantasy rpgs 2017