Video games in the RPG (Role-Playing Game) genre are among the most popular with hardcore video gamers since they offer a lengthy, deep gaming experience often taking at least 20 hours to complete with plenty of sidequests and other incentives to continue playing long after the final boss has been defeated. With winter and the holiday shopping season right around the corner, video game publishers are starting to push out their crop of great video games for fall 2010. Check out our guide to the top fall 2010 RPG releases.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (Nintendo DS)
The Golden Sun series started off on Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. At the time, it seriously pushed the handheld’s graphical limitations with quality 3D graphics seemingly on-par with console RPGs of the PlayStation One era. Battle scenes featured graphically-intensive summons that could blast away an entire party of monsters in a single blast. Other unique quirks included the ability to use magical abilities outside of battle to solve environmental puzzles. Since 2003, however, the series has remained dormant. On November 29, 2010, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn will bring the RPG series to the Nintendo DS with a whole new cast of characters. You’ll play as the children of the original protagonists’ in a world set 30 years after Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
Fable III (Xbox 360 and PC)
The third iteration in the Fable series aims to do what its predecessors have set out to do along: create a fantasy universe where the player has a real impact on the storyline and the world through a series of complex moral decisions and character growth. Players can rule as a benevolent, kindly king or a cruel and greedy monarch with no regard for his people’s well-being. While the beginning of the game is spent seizing the thrown from another corrupt king, the bulk of the game will focus on your role as leader and making important decisions for the progress of your kingdom.
Fallout: New Vegas (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC)
Fallout: New Vegas will be the fourth game in the Fallout RPG series. Unlike traditional RPGs, Fallout doesn’t take place in a fantasy setting filled with mythical beasts, deep dungeons, and mysterious forests. Instead, it places you in the middle of a post-apocalyptic, wartorn setting. In the case of Fallout: New Vegas, you’ll be exploring a desert wasteland, the center of which is the ruins of Las Vegas. In addition to typical RPG elements like upgrading abilities and leveling up, Fallout: New Vegas features an extra-challenging hardcore mode which challenges players with tasks like consistently eating, sleeping, and drinking to avoid fatigue or death as well as limits on ammunition and cash carried.
