Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the GameSpot story interviewing Lineage II's lead designer, Raoul Kim. This Unreal-engine PC MMORPG from Korean publisher NCSoft is the sequel to the world's best-selling massively multiplayer game, and the discussion centers on subject such as engine choice ("We looked primarily at three engines to use for Lineage II: the Unreal engine, the Quake engine, and the Lithtech engine.. the Unreal engine was the most attractive to us because of its powerful editing features and its outdoor-rendering ability") and continuing the signature large-scale battles of Lineage into the sequel ("..one of the main features of Lineage II is siege warfare.. it is now possible to attack the enemy during a siege by using a flying unit such as a dragon.")

Thanks to InsertCredit for their feature discussing the player-inputted choice for character names in videogames. They discuss some of the joys of DIY character naming ("Some people will buy an RPG, only to name the characters after their favorite profane words"), as well some more unlikely pleasures ("I became obsessed with buying used Final Fantasy VI cartridges for 100 yen at a certain game shop in Akihabara, just to see what all the characters had been named.") Taking a lead from this distinctly unconventional article, what names have Slashdot Games readers entered for characters in their favorite RPGs, and why?

WorselWorsel writes "The new edition of the seminal Dungeons & Dragons paper-RPG comes out this Friday and d20zines.com has this review. This is the first new edition of D&D since Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast. The last edition came out almost two years ago, and this time around the prices of three core books are up by $10 each. Since these are partially incompatible with older 3rd edition books, WotC is printing/making downloadable a short booklet explaining some changes." In addition to being a product review, it's a good overview of what's changed since 3rd edition, and really helps one decide if the changes are important enough to rebuy the core rulebooks.

Thanks to GamePro for covering the news that Natsume have picked up the U.S. distribution rights for the Japanese PlayStation 2 RPG adventure Chu-lip. According to the article about this 'unique' title, "As a young boy who's just moved into the town of Tsurukame, you must build up your street cred in a quest to impress the woman of your dreams - the thing is, and the story behind this is a little complicated, you must do this by kissing as many of the town's inhabitants as possible." The aim of this very bizarre game is apparently to "work out the daily schedule of each townsperson (or towns-creature), and what he or she wants from you in exchange for a kiss."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Philadelphia Inquirer article linking videogames to an alleged spree killing attempt. According to the article, "Investigators suspect the three teens arrested.. as they allegedly were about to launch a killing rampage in the small town, found inspiration in violent computer games.. [police] learned that the name the three reportedly had given themselves - Warriors of Freedom - is also an Internet-based combat game." But only a few media reports mention that the violent game connection was made by Jack Thompson, a Miami lawyer and outspoken critic of violent video and computer games - is this a case of shameless Googling to find any obscure game with a similar name and make a connection, or is there genuine evidence here?

Thanks to IGN RPGVault for a new interview with the ArenaNet team, developers of Guild Wars. These ex-Blizzard developers, whose company was recently acquired by Korean RPG behemoth NCSoft, talk in-depth about Guild Wars, which they call "..a competitive online role-playing game, which we believe to be a new genre." According to the article, "..gameplay options will include cooperative group combat, single-player adventures and large-scale guild battles.. [with] persistent characters but a non-persistent game world", and there will be no monthly subscription fee for this intriguing PC title, which is due out later in 2004.

Thanks to GameSpot for posting an article noting that MMORPG subscriptions from players in many European countries now have 17.5 percent VAT added, implementing "an European union directive on sales of electronically delivered goods and services" which became effective on the 1st July, and was something we mentioned a few weeks back. The specific reminder came as a "..news item on Sony Online's official sites for EverQuest, PlanetSide, and Star Wars Galaxies", and it'll be interesting to see how forcefully other MMORPGs will enforce this rule.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the IGN Xbox preview of Bioware's Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, the Xbox RPG that's now a couple of weeks away from release (and has a PC version shipping in October.) The article suggests that "..serious pen-and-paper role playing fans will appreciate all of the stat-heavy terminology deep within the game's menu system but run-of-the-mill Star Wars fans will still get a kick out of all of the Greedos, wookies and laser blasts going on", and according to another preview at GamePro, this title from the renowned PC RPG creators has a "..battle system [which] is perhaps KOTOR's most singular achievement - it looks like it belongs in an action RPG, but it's actually turn-based and not far removed from the Baldur's Gate fight engine."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to an RPGRadar interview with the creators of biblically themed PC RPG Eon Of Tears. This title, which the makers stress is not "..an edutainment title or a game under the pro-Catholic banner" is set to "show known events in a new, fantasy light." The main concept behind this early-in-development Evillusion-developed RPG is that the player will "...get a shot at the biggest events in the Bible: unleashing the ten plagues of Egypt, seeing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, leading the conquest of Canaan, or performing some of the miracles as Jesus Christ", and it's intended that your game actions affect your playable characters - "..a player that acts evil most of the time won't get to play Jesus, but Judas instead, or a Pharaoh's troop commander instead of Moses."

Thanks to GameSpot for their article indicating a major hacking incident on the PC MMORPG Ragnarok Online. According to the piece, developers Gravity initially "..reacted by rolling back the game's data a day, as a number of users had created items with game-master privileges", but then the problem worsened and revealed an apparent server-side hack, as opposed to the client-side hacking of Shadowbane, as "...a full list of user IDs and passwords was leaked to the general public... allowing anybody to gain access to any user account." There's also a very informative post on the GameFAQs messageboards detailing the spread of the 'user.txt' file around messageboards and P2P networks. The official Ragnarok site currently only has a form for players to reconfirm their identities via email, and has offered no official statement.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to IGN.com's article discussing the 10 biggest Playstation 2 rumors currently circulating. Subjects discussed include whether Final Fantasy VII-2 is really planned, if there's actually a sequel to Ico called Nico, the chances of Starcraft:Ghost ever appearing on PS2 (low, apparently?), the likelihood that UGO/Sega are working on an Astro Boy game, and, naturally, rumors about the PS3. As IGN so succintly puts it: "What's the truth worth when you have imagination?"

Thanks to several readers for pointing out a Sony press release announcing Champions Of Norrath: Realms Of Everquest for the Playstation 2. This action RPG, being developed by Snowblind Studios, who also made Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, promises "..a deep, single-player campaign, but it also includes a free online multiplayer component, allowing up to four friends to adventure together using their own Internet connections." As this title will clearly be using the engine from the well-received BG:DA, this could be a very useful addition to the console action RPG canon.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to Gamespot's coverage of the limited-edition GameBoy Advance SP set to be released alongside Konami's light-sensing portable title Boktai this July in Japan. And since the game is about vampires, it makes sense that the Boktai red and black two-tone GBA hardware should come in.. a coffin carrying-case? Neat. As long as your new GBA doesn't crumble into dust on contact with sunlight, it can join the myriad other limited-edition Japanese GameBoy Advances.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamesindustry.biz article rounding up the Japanese rumors that an XBox 1.5 will launch later this year. It seems Japanese magazines such as WAM and Dorimaga are reporting a smaller-sized XBox will be launched alongside the flagship Japanese RPG True Fantasy Live Online. But the article suggests that "..it's not expected that any changes will be made to the internals of the system, however - this is, by all accounts, a purely cosmetic makeover."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out that IGN Cube have hands-on impressions of Nintendo's latest 'communication game', Giftpia. This seemingly odd but addictive mushroom-chomping title is directed by Square veterans, and IGN ventures that "Giftpia may be billed as an RPG, but it's really more of an adventure.. there are no stats beyond your health meter, no random battles.. in a sense, Giftpia borrows a lot from Nintendo's Animal Crossing." Hopefully this'll include Animal Crossing's compulsiveness, as well as its saccharin-sweet style - in any case, the Japanese version of Giftpia is already released, and IGN mentions that "..shown off in English at this year's E3, Giftpia is almost guaranteed to see a US release."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to Gamespot's new interview with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima. It was conducted at E3, and he discusses his light-sensitive GBA game, Boktai, as well as the Metal Gear Solid remake/enhancement for Gamecube, Metal Gear:The Twin Snakes. Kojima particularly notes Japanese film director, Ryuhei Kitamura, who is directing the new real-time cut-scenes for the game, and says "Mr. Kitamura really respected and honored the original work... but what you'll see later on in the game is totally different. You'll be shocked." He also talks a little about Metal Gear Solid 3, saying "This time we said keep it nice and simple and go back to the basics."

psyco484 writes "A long-awaited patch (Build_45) to the PC action-RPG Anachronox has finally been released. Thanks to ex-Ion Storm programmer Joey 'Chinaman' Law, Anachronox now runs a lot better. Hope there's still a few fans out there, an excellent game with a good story. Read about it on the PlanetAnachronox forum, which also has a list of mirrors." Whatever you think of the game, adding new features like a Bricks Taxi short-cut service and fixing a heap of bugs, months/years after the Anachronox team got laid off when Ion Storm closed down, shows a lot of dedication.

easychord writes "RPGCodex are reporting that J.E. Sawyer has sneakily or accidentally leaked Fallout 3 concept art onto the Interweb. After the disappointing non RPG spin-offs in the Fallout universe and the confusion around Black Isle's Lionheart having the working title of Fallout Fantasy, is Fallout 3 becoming a vaporware holy grail?"

dayeight writes "Here's some info on a new Atari 2600 RPG, which is still early in development, and is developed by Paul Slocum, the genius who gave us the Synthcart (previous story) and Marble Craze." There's a downloadable demo ROM for this currently untitled game on the site, and the title's projected feature set includes "a large world, comparable in size to early Ultima series", plus the ability to "fight enemies from other Atari 2600 games."

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Gamespot news story indicating that the console (PS2 and Xbox) versions of Star Wars Galaxies are now on hold. Although they were announced at E3 in 2002, and may appear eventually, a Lucasarts spokesman said of the MMORPG: "We are currently focusing all of our efforts on the successful launch of the PC version of Star Wars Galaxies." Meanwhile, the Star Wars Galaxies official site at its publisher, Sony, has links to some new mini-previews and E3-released gameplay movies from this title, which also has a thorough fanpage at RPGPlanet.