Sales of Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire were disappointing enough that Obsidian Entertainment would need to “re-examine the entire format of the game” before making a hypothetical third, game director Josh Sawyer has suggested. Writing in response to a fan asking after a third game, Sawyer explained that the sequel sold worse than the original, and he’d need to understand why before they were to do another in the same style. He makes clear that whether Pillars 3 happens is not a decision he himself has control over, but this does sound like the series is at least taking a break.

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Look! A ranking of the 50 best RPGs on PC. I know, you never asked for this, but here it is. It is 100 percent correct, we double-checked. The RPG is a broad and deep sea and fishing out the best games from its characterful waters is no easy task. But we are capable fishers on the good ship RPS, and know when to humanely throw back a tiddler or fight to heave up a monster. Enough of this salty metaphor. Here are the 50 best RPGs you can play on PC today.

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Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire didn’t set the charts ablaze the way I’d hoped, but that hasn’t stopped Obsidian from giving the piratical RPG some top-notch support. Released yesterday, Patch 5.0 is set to be the final major update for the game, marking the end of beta testing for its turn-based combat mode, overhauling the ship interaction UI and adding some new story stuff. They’ve even gone as far as roping in the original voice actors to provide new dialogue to help flesh out the main plot arc. Below, a video overview of the changes, plus a challenge for only the maddest of players.

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I have to admit, I m not the best at every video game, but I m just awful at Western RPGs. I never wrapped my head around Neverwinter Nights D&D style of play. I built my character incorrectly in Knights of the Old Republic and it made my playthrough excruciatingly difficult.

I ve passed on playing other popular WRPGs like Planescape: Torment just for the fear of having to deal with difficult to understand battle systems and poorly explained skill systems. Having grown up with JRPGs, I can easily figure out how to dispatch a sentient pile of thunder goo, but understanding the damage calculations on a Magic Missile was beyond me. But Pillars of Eternity is different.

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According to sources close to the deal, Kotaku report that Microsoft are just shy of sealing the deal on acquiring prolific RPG studio Obsidian Entertainment. According to Kotaku’s sources, things have proceeded far enough to make it “a matter of when, not if”. Obsidian are recently notable for the Pillars Of Eternity series – a throwback to Baldur’s Gate style party-based roleplaying – but have produced some excellent games over the years. While rough, Fallout: New Vegas remains my favourite Fallout game, and I’m curious what Microsoft could have planned for the studio.

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Hold onto your credit cards, folks. This year’s Amazon Prime Day is almost here – and now we know exactly when it will be taking place. There are even some deals going on right now> if you feel so inclined, so I thought I’d collect the best of the best PC Prime Day deals right here to save you the hassle of trawling through them yourself.

Of course, more deals will be announced as we get closer to the day itself, but below you’ll find handy answers to questions such as ‘When is Amazon Prime Day 2018?’ and ‘What kind of deals can I expect to see?’ and ‘For the love of PC, JUST TAKE MY MONEY, I don’t care on what!’ All right, so maybe that last one wasn’t so much a question as a general cry of despair in this age of lightning deals and blink and you’ll miss ’em discounts, but that’s where I come in. I’ll be regularly updating this piece with all the most relevant (and good>) deals as and when they get announced, but for now, here’s everything you need to know to prep yourself for Prime Day 2018.

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You look a little tired, friend. Let me just adjust this slider for you. There, wide awake. Now you ve got some energy, how about listening to the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show? This week we re talking about character creation. Which games spoil us with choice? And why do we always end up creating the same sneaky elf? (more…)

What’s your favourite paradox? My current one is ‘how can the many awesome games in The Humble Paradox Bundle 2018 cost so little money?’. Wait, that’s not a paradox – it’s just a really good deal. Looks like I need to finish this news post then head back to paradox school.

Fortunately I won’t need to enrol to enjoy the games on offer here. This bundle has 8 in total, with highlights including Obsidian’s RPG Pillars of Eternity and the surprisingly funny wizard brawler Magicka 2. This is Paradox though, so best of all is the selection of sprawling strategy games. Let’s dive in!

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Since its foundation in 2003, Obsidian Entertainment has worked with seven different publishers. Commencing with LucasArts on Knights of the Old Republic II, Obsidian has since signed contracts with Atari, SEGA, Bethesda, Square Enix, Ubisoft and most recently, Paradox Interactive. In fact, up until Pillars of Eternity [official site], every single game Obsidian had made was funded and distributed by a different publisher.

This is a highly unusual state of affairs, and has proved precarious more than once in the company’s history. But it has also provided Obsidian with a unique insight into how the world of publishing works, and how the relationship between developer and publisher has changed in the last couple of decades. This topic is especially pertinent today, as new methods of funding and distributing games have seen a significant shift in the power dynamic between developers and publishers.

I spoke to CEO Feargus Urquhart about how it all works (and doesn’t).

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When Obsidian Entertainment started work on Pillars of Eternity [Official Site], the studio had two goals in mind. First, it wanted to recreate the style and tone of the classic Black Isle RPGs particularly Baldur’s Gate. Second, it wanted to modernise that style, taking advantage of today’s technology, and avoiding mistakes made the first time around. (more…)