Pending unscheduled Kraken attacks, the swashbuckling sequel, Risen 2, will hit shores on April 27. The pirate ArrrrPG will have guns, exotic monsters and plenty of sunshine, but there's some serious pedigree behind it. It's made by Piranha Bytes, the chaps behind the Gotchic series (before it was handed off to Spellbound with Arcania: Gothic 4). It's set in a series of archipeligos plagued by sea monsters and bandits, and it looks very shiny indeed. Check out the recent Risen 2 screenshots for a look at Risen 2's lush jungle islands.

Did Piranha Bytes decide to set Risen 2 on a series of pirate island so they could turn their studios into a pretend jungle? Possibly. The latest developer diary reveals more about Risen 2's factions and creatures and gives the devs the opportunity to squat in the middle of their cardboard forests like real adventurers. The inquisition return from the first Risen game, and it looks like we'll be choosing to side with them or the island natives over the course of the sequel. The RPG will come out in April. It looks interesting, but will we have tired by Skyrim by then?

Do you hear that faint wailing in the background? That's the sound of a thousand bank accounts going "noooo!" at the appearance of the Autumn Steam Sale. Thankfully for our wallets, it only lasts until Sunday, with dozens of new deals every day. Consider it a warm up for the monolithic Steam Christmas sale next month.

The sale kicked off yesterday, but you've still got six hours to grab some of the fantastic day one deals. The marvellous Orcs Must Die is just £2.99 / $3.74 (we gave it a score of 90 in our Orcs Must Die review). Portal 2 is selling for just £6.79 / $10.19. If you haven't played Mass Effect yet, the first game is £2.49 / $4.99, and Mass Effect 2 is 75% off at £4.99 / $12.49.

If you're more partial to an arcade explodathon starring Gordon Freeman, Renegade Ops is £4.99 / $7.49 (or you can grab a four pack for £9.99 / $14.99). All of Dejobaan's games are also on sale as well, including AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome.

These games are also on sale for the next few hours:

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Duke Nukem Forever
Test Drive Unlimited 2
Risen
Sam & Max series
Men of War series
Oddworld series

 
These deals will switch out in 5 hours and 42 minutes from the time of writing. Keep an eye on the Steam front page for the next set of deals then.

The original Risen found a niche, and the people who played it seemed to really, really like it. But in a landscape already filled with fantasy medieval RPGs, it was easy to miss. Its developers are trying to change that, by making its sequel not a fastasy, medieval RPG. This time, it's about pirates.

That means no shields, no bows and arrows, and no fireballs. It does, however, let you become a pirate captain, with your own ship (that, sadly, you can't steer), crew and pistols. And yes, with your own parrot that you can "launch to annoy people," says Daniel Oberlerchner, one of the game's developers.



Daniel is also fairly brutal when talking about the first game. He showed a bunch of footage of the game, deliberately setup to convince me that it sucked: it was ugly, it was buggy, it had terrible faces and awful lighting and wasn't designed with widescreen resolutions.

At least in these clips, the sequel certainly looks better. It's so much brighter, for a start. The sun is shining. As I'm typing, the pirate main character just kicked a crab on to his back and he's now whacking it with his sword while the crab tries to flip back over.

Man, pirates are dicks.



The game starts in the town of Caldera, the last standing human city in a world destroyed by monsters. Unable to farm anything around them, the city is entirely dependent on trade via visiting ships. That's where you come in: first, by protecting those ships from attacking monsters, but then by joining and climbing the ranks of pirates.



It is weird how similar a pirate-theme is to the traditional RPG setting, but instantly it makes me more likely to play it.

Risen 2 will be released in the first half of 2012.

Deep Silver have announced that Risen 2: Dark Waters is in development. The RPG sequel will [..]