Hellgate: London and The Elder Scrolls IV are two hotly anticipated roleplaying titles coming at us in the upcoming year. Hands-On examinations of Hellgate are available at Gamespot, 1up.com and IGN. The Elder Scrolls is examined at Gamespot and IGN. From the 1up article: "'Since we're building an RPG, even though it's primarily played from the first-person perspective, we don't want it to be a twitch-fest,' he says. 'We're doing things that have soft-targeting, or area effects, or auto-locking, to make it where your success in the game isn't determined on your physical reflexes, or the dexterity of a fourteen year old. It's all about building up a character: your level, your stats, your skills, your equipment, your items -- it's the classic RPG in that sense.'"

The ever churning E3 information mill has revealed details on several upcoming Massive game titles. MMORPG.com has details on Ring of Ryzom, the first expansion for Nevraxs' massive game. Gamespot has details on NCSoft's Tabula Rasa and Cryptic Studios' City of Villains, as well as the new Everquest II content Spirit of Splitpaw and Desert of Flames. Update: 05/20 14:52 GMT by Z : Age of Conan and The Lord of the Rings Online have also been shown off on the expo floor.

Hironobu Sakaguchi elaborated for an issue of Famitsu, and Gamespot reports, on the two upcoming 360 titles that he's been involved with. He discusses details on Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, cluing already interested fans into the bad news that it will be quite a while before they get a chance to take the titles home. From the article: "Sakaguchi revealed that one of the two role-playing games is slated for release within a year from the console's launch, and the other is scheduled to follow within two years. However, he didn't disclose which game would be coming out first."

Square-Enix has released a New Advent Children Trailer for E3, dutifully hosted by Gamespot, and it is by far the most coherent and beautiful so far. You can finally get a sense of the story they're going to be telling, and can catch a glimpse of nearly every character from the game. From the article: "While the end of the trailer displays a date for the North American release, we've been told by Square Enix that they're still in talks with Sony Pictures Entertainment in regards to a release date outside of Japan. However, the release should be close to Japan's September date, so fans in the United States shouldn't have to endure for too much longer to get their Final Fantasy goodness."

IGN reports on a recent interview with Square-Enix president Wada, where it's revealed that the RPG crafting company is considering heavily supporting the Nintendo Revolution. From the article: "One area that Wada seems to be impressed with is a particularly controversial side of Nintendo's Online plan. In his comments posted at Impress Game Watch yesterday, Iwata states that Nintendo is going through with the idea of letting players connect only to players whom they've met in real life. While it's unclear how strict Nintendo plans to be with this idea (Animal Crossing DS is reported to allow for play amongst strangers), Wada applauds the move in his comments today, stating 'It gives the image of taking the real world seamlessly into the virtual world.'"

Nintendo President Iwata further discussed the realities of the DS wireless initiative, Gamasutra reports. At the press conference he also revealed that, indeed, the next-generation console will utilize a wireless link-up to connect to the DS. From the article: "One particularly interesting piece of news is that, though Nintendo will not charge for the new online service, other publishers will be able to with relation to particular software titles - an option that is likely to please third-party publishers who may want to launch more complex online-capable RPG games or other information-retrieval services and then charge a monthly fee for them. Iwata makes it clear that any charges will be obviously signposted, however."

hapycamper writes "Role playing games are evaluated from the perspective of a concerned parent in the latest two editions of the GamerDad Unplugged column. The articles discuss some of the finer points of table-top gaming from a parental perspective, with the first article discussing just what an RPG is and the second addressing some of the main concerns that a parent might have about their child playing an RPG." From the article:"So, the most important things a parent should be concerned about in a role playing game are the game players. Who is your child playing with? As mentioned, these types of games come straight out of the imagination of the players, especially the GM..."

Neverwinter Nights introduced a new generation of gamers to D&D style roleplaying. When Knights of the Old Republic was released it was arguably the best Star Wars tale told since the end of the original trilogy. Given the chance to create their own world, Bioware has produced an immersive action/RPG with a compelling plot, memorable characters, and entertaining gameplay. Jade Empire is a most worthy addition to Bioware's library of games. Read on for my take on one of the most original RPG's in recent memory.

mandrake*rpgdx writes "I'm looking into downloading/purchasing some map making software for my Table Top RPG group. I've heard about the free (GPL'd) AutoRealms and wondered if anyone with experience can compare it to commercial products like Campaign Cartographer, and if there is any Linux based map-maker I can grab?" The one I've been most impressed with, and might pick up at Gen Con this year, is Dundjinni. Anyone else have any software favorites?

Guild Wars, the first offering from NCSoft subsidiary ArenaNet, has gone gold. A preview of the game based on the last weekend of the Beta is available at 1up.com. From the article: "Once the wonder started to wear off, a creeping hangover of disorientation replaced it. Still standing there slack-jawed, the bustle of people going here and there with purpose made us suddenly aware of how clueless we were. Gathering our senses we fell into the familiar pattern of talking to the residents and picking up the quests of the day." Guild Wars is a unique MMOG offering, as it will not require a subscription cost, has almost no grind, and will focus on organized PvP. The game releases next Thursday, the 28th of April.

Based on Robert Howard's classic Conan the Barbarian series, The Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures is in production by Anarchy Online developer Funcom. On top of the setting, Funcom apparently plans to shake up the traditional massive formula. From the article: "Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will be a PC 'online action RPG' that will be a mix of 'story-driven single-player experience and a massive and brutal multiplayer endgame.' According to Funcom game director Gaute Godager, it will begin as a single-player RPG adventure, and when that portion's story is complete, it will let players bring their characters into an MMORPG universe."

Gamasutra has up responses from its frequent feature, the question of the Week. This week's question was a call for the best of the best. "For any genre of your choice, what is the game that defines that genre for you?" From the article: "For the RPG, simply Final Fantasy 6. It has the best story, greatest variety of characters, tons of different music, and added many secret areas. It was the first game to truly to define a real experience of an RPG to the player. -Anonymous" What games would you refer to as Genre Defining?

Grymalkin writes "A man is in custody for allegedly stabbing 3 people to death in King of Prussia, PA last week. Now it appears that the district attorney believes there may be a link between the murders and the Dungeons and Dragons RPG. From the article: 'I mean, you have many, many stab wounds and those 'Dungeons and Dragons' fantasy games involve swords and knives and daggers and things of that nature. There may be a connection but I can't say for sure.'" Wow. There are a lot more D&D players than I thought there were, what with all the stabbings and all.

GameBanshee has an interview up with Leonard Boyarksy, one of the founders of the late Troika games, describing the last days of the much missed RPG developer. From the article: "It became apparent in January when the last of our possible deals that we'd been pursuing fell through. When we started looking six or so months ago, there was a lot of initial interest but our projects could never seem to get past the marketing department."

Among the many announcements made at the GAMA Trade show this week, one of the most exciting is the revelation that Shadowrun 4.0 is on the horizon, to be released at this year's Gen Con game fair. Other news includes a World of Warcraft board game, an "Ultimate" version of Rifts, the Production Schedule for Dungeons and Dragons for 2005, a City of Heroes Table-Top RPG, and a 10th Anniversary Settlers of Catan edition. From the Shadowrun Website: "The core mechanics are completely revised to be simpler and more streamlined for quicker, easier and more consistent play. Matrix 2.0! An all-new level of wireless "augmented reality" overlays the real world, unleashing hackers to be mobile digital wizards."

Nyrath the nearly wise writes "RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are traditionally played on a tabletop using miniatures. The problem is that the players are only supposed to see those parts of the map that they have explored. Gamemasters are reduced to drawing explored sections of the map on the playing surface with dry-erase markers or using cardboard tiles representing stretches of corridor. Some fellows have an expensive but elegant solution. They map out the playing area in a laptop using software such as Tabletop Mapper, which allows to game master to dynamically hide and reveal sections of the map. The laptop is attached to a 1600 lumen DLP projector mounted on the ceiling and projecting an image of the visible map onto the tabletop. The miniatures can then be moved on a dynamic map. The eye candy factor is vastly increased, gamemaster labor is reduced, and the players have more fun. The elegance is that this is an intuitive enhancement of the traditional gaming experience, instead of an unfamiliar new user interface to be mastered."

Alice's Wonderland blog has more coverage of the Game Developer's Conference this week. "Storytelling Across Genres: Bioware's Perspective" covers the way in which Bioware concocts the RPG magic they're so well known for. Next Generation Game Design details a talk by Peter Molyneux about where Lionhead and he are going to be taking games in the future. From the post: "Possibly a right proper experiment this, and kudos to Peter and Ron for having the guts to try it: at this stage it looks like it could go either way, and creating a whole new genre (Real Time Strategic Gods and Morals Sim?) is always going to be risky. I very much look forward to the result. "

The folks at RPGDot and MMORPGDot always run "game of the year" polls among their readers and staff members to determine the best interactive RPG experiences of the year. They've now run their course, and all the awards have been given out. For RPGs, they have the categories of Best Graphics, Best Sound, Biggest Surprise, Biggest Disappointment, Most Anticipated, Dream Game (mm...Torment 2), Best Console RPG, and Overall Best RPG of the Year. Vampire: Bloodlines, the dark RPG from the late, lamented Troika appears to have garnered many of the top honors. As for Massive Games, the categories included Best Graphics, Best Sound, Biggest Surprise, Biggest Disappointment, Most Anticipated, Dream Game, Best Expansion, and Best MMORPG Overall. World of Warcraft pretty much swept the categories for the genre.

Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of enjoying the "Dear Friends" concert of Final Fantasy music in Rosemont, Illinois. Composer Nobuo Uematsu is well known among game players for the intricate melodies that create the backdrop for most of the Final Fantasy titles. Even the older titles, 8-bit compositions though they were, made for evocative soundscapes. When taken into the hands of a skilled orchestra Uematsu's works are incredibly stirring pieces of music. Read on for my impressions from the start of the first U.S. concert series composed entirely of video game music. Update: 02/25 21:08 GMT by Z : Coincidentally, GamesIndustry.biz has an interview with Nobuo Uematsu available for perusal today.

Anonymous Coward writes " Microsoft today announced that Hironobu Sakaguchi, video game legend and president of Mistwalker game studio, has joined with Microsoft(R) Game Studios to develop role-playing game (RPG) video games exclusively for the next- generation Xbox(R) video game platform. Sakaguchi is best known as the creator of the "Final Fantasy" franchise, which has sold more than 60 million units worldwide, and was executive vice president in charge of game development at Square Enix Co. Ltd. until February 2001."