RPGCodex: A Year in Review
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Bewitched
With an enthusiastic lead up and lots of sound promises, The Witcher finally arrived in the hands of the pessimistic Codex, and was met with great acclaim. Well on the forums anyway, since the newsposters overslept the release date. There are some who would say the Witcher owes much of its popularity to the fact that it sells boobs to the people who want them most, and they'd be at least half right.
But the truth of it is, behind the boobs, behind the motion captured action swordplay lies one of those RPGs "they just don't make anymore" if you listen to Codex whinging. In a nutshell, that's an RPG that doesn't insult your intelligence, throws some interesting challenges at you, and most importantly, has a world that responds to your choices and actions. Best of all, most of those choices are squarely in the grey area of morality, so paladins and panto villains need not apply. There's way too much to be said about The Witcher, so rather than bang on here, take a look at Cardtrick's comprehensive review, or dive headfirst into the überthread that's like a unstoppable katamari with 50 pages worth of Witcher rants stuck to it.
Obsidian: The Masquerade
All this time, Obsidian Entertainment have been hiding behind their reputation as Bioware Junior, but this year finally saw the truth exposed with Mask of the Betrayer. Initially met with much skepticism, as anything with "Mask" in the name ought to be (Son of the Mask, KISS Unmasked, Leonardo di Caprio's "Man" in the Iron Mask, etc), it soon became apparent that this expansion to the lacklustre Neverwinter Nights 2 offered something altogether special.Taking part in the spirit-filled land of Rashemen - a fresh setting yet to be explored in a cRPG - while also taking the player for a ride across the Planes, the expansion suprisingly offers a first-rate roleplaying experience. In fact, even replaying it is not enough to discover all consequences which are behind the various choices, as evidenced by Vault Dweller's review. Taking all into account, the hivemind's verdict is that the Mask of the Betrayer is so good it warrants buying the original NWN2, even if you won't touch the rather mediocre original campaign.
