The Year of the RPG continues to steam along with more and more quality titles releasing as the months march along. This week is no exception, with new titles coming out and old favorites being updated. Add in a dash of general news about some and it works out to another great week for RPG fans.
Chris is off this week, so we tapped Suzie to sit in and cover the week's worth of RPG news.
Here's a round up of the biggest RPG news this week.
VoidExpanse Released
People looking for something outside the typical 'sword and board' RPG experience will want to check out VoidExpanse that officially launched on Steam this week. Coming in at a cool $13.49, VoidExpanse takes players into space and has been favorably compared by our readers to games such as Solar Winds, Drox Operative, Armada, Space Rangers and Ev Nova.
VoidExpanse is described by developers as an "ARPG set in a procedurally generated universe". It includes both single- and multiplayer, cross platform multiplayer, cooperative play and more. Folks looking for something outside the 'norm' may want to consider it.
Victor Vran Continues Updating, Adds Multiplayer
Victor Vran continues to roll along in development. Since being released in February 2015 for early access on Steam, the game has been updated several times, most notably this week with a new multiplayer component. Four players can work together in the game that now also includes a new zone, new weapons and a brand new boss.
Fans of ARPGs will want to give Victor Vran a look.
Van Helsing III Headed to Steam in May
ARPG fans have lots to look forward to after Neocore Games announced this week that the third and final chapter of The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing will be released on Steam in May. The storylines that have remained open throughout the trilogy will be wrapped up, with players finally learning a lot more about Van Helsing's erstwhile companion, Lady Katarina.
If story plays second fiddle to action, fans of the series will be happy to note that a whopping six new playable classes are coming to the series. Neocore released a spotlight video featuring two of the new classes, the Phlogistoneer and the Umbralist.
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Said to Take 200+ Hours to Complete
One of the more prevalent characteristics of rabid RPG fans is the proclivity to have a "completionist" experience with the games played. Completionists look forward to finished each and every main and side quest, delight in revealing every dark corner of the game world, find every collection piece, talk to every NPC, gain every achievement. The point is to complete everything that developers throw into the game.
This week, The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt Senior Game Designer Damien Monnier revealed on Twitter that the game should take a completionist about 200 hours to get the job done. This includes fifty hours of the main story arc quests and fifty hours of side quests.
@Ryldux mmmm hard to say, if you do everything I d say 200+ hours.
— Damien Monnier (@Bacon_is_life) March 29, 2015
That should give Geralt plenty of time to grow and epic beard!
Nekro: Fans of Dungeon Keeper Will Want to Check it Out
RPG fans who like to walk the wild side will want to check out darkForge Games' Nekro where players take the part of an evil necromancer with a bent for world domination. The developers themselves compare Nekro to epically evil titles like Dungeon Keeper, Myth: The Fallen Lords and Citizen Kabuto. Scheduled for release in May, Nekro is currently available on Steam for Early Access play.
Dragon Age: Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon Coming to Other Platforms in May
Patient console players who don't own an XBox One will be happy to hear that the first DLC for Bioware's Dragon Age: Inquisition, Jaws of Hakkon, will be released in May. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and XBox 360 players will finally be able to see how the DLC stacks up to the overall game.
So that's it from our end. What did we miss? Let us know in the comments!
