Today I have to confess something - while I enjoyed RPGs like Arcanum, Neverwinter Nights, Heroes of Might and Magic and Diablo A LOT, the Gothic series didn't impress me at all. In fact, I got bored after playing a few hours each of the 3 Gothic games released so far, but at least I had someone in the house who loves it, so the money for the purchase weren't "thrown off the window " at all. Expected to be released in 2010, Gothic 4 will come with a lot of changes, but first concept art pictures and even screenshots are already available!

<-250x250 Square - left->First of all, you should know that Gothic 4 will be called Arcania: A Gothic Tale, and Piranha Bytes won't be in charge any longer. In fact, the German developer that was behind the first 3 titles won't be involved at all in Arcania, because this time a German-French developer, Spellbound, will be the one to develop the universe around the same Nameless Hero as before.

The decision to move away from Piranha Bytes has a logical explanation, according to Dreamcatcher's global product marketing manager, Brian Gladman. "You could take a blank disc and put it in a paper bag and put Gothic 4 on the bag and you'd sell half a million units in Germany. The passion for the Gothic universe is at that level…The attachment to Piranha Bytes in German-speaking countries would be akin to the attachment to a BioWare in North America. Anything that Piranha Bytes does is gold in Germany, whereas here it's irrelevant. The decision to go with a new developer for this one was not taken lightly but taken with an eye to really reaching out," he said.

There are a lot of things left to find out about Arcania: A Gothic Tale, and you can bet we'll be there to tell you all about it, as soon as news emerge. Speaking for myself, I hardly wait to see first gameplay movies, because the screenshots look astonishing, as you can see in the two ones from this this article.

Did you get your hands on Hellgate: London so far? If you hesitated because this game had its share of problems, now you should be (almost) out of excuses, because the patch 1.2 has been finally revealed officially, after a previous release to an exclusive bunch, as a Beta. Anyway, before moving on and reading about this patch, I suggest you to go and read PlayerzBlog's review of Hellgate: London first.

To install the patch, simply click the "Update Available" button in the game. Now that you know this, let's see what changes brings version 1.2 of the Hellgate: London action RPG, shall we?

Since the list is extremely long, I will give you only the general changes here,leaving the rest of them for you to explore, if you are really interested.

"Based on the number and depth of balance changes to skills in this update, certain characters will be provided a "respec token" that allows them to reassign their skill points. This token is automatically placed in the character's inventory and can be used at any time.

• The timer and quest requirement have been removed from the mini-game.
• Fixed a bug where chat entry became visible in the Character Select screen after logging in and then logging out of the game.
• Fixed a crash bug associated with exiting out of the Character Creation menu.
• Players now only need to make a Normal Mode character to be able to make an Elite Mode character.
• Fixed a bug which caused audio and sound effects to sometimes stop playing.
• Adjusted difficulty of the Nightmare endgame. Decreased the ramp of the damage penalty that players face against monsters higher than their level.
• Fields from different sources can now stack. Please note that the graphics from new fields still override those of previous fields.
• Players must now wait 5 seconds before they can re-enter a Hellrift.
• Fixed a bug which caused weapons to disappear when swapping weapon sets in the middle of performing certain skills.
• Fixed a bug which caused the /played command to display the incorrect amount of time played.
• If a player dies during (or just before) a cut-scene begins playing or the game begins loading, the re-spawn options menu will come up after the cut-scene or loading screen is completed.
• Vendor inventories in Nightmare difficulty should now be stocked with Nightmare-level items.
• The Shock effect now deals damage immediately when it's applied.
• Several character and monster animations have been improved.
• Fixed known Blueprint exploits.
• Fixed a bug which sometimes caused files to require unnecessary patching.
• Fixed a bug which caused the mini-game to become stuck if the player zoned to town or quit the game immediately after completing a round of the mini-game."

The very looooong list with all the changes can be found on the official Hellgate: London site, so feel free to check it out!

With Mass Effect, Bioware managed to reach a lot of gamers, and the feedback was very good, starting with those playing it on the Xbox, to those using the PlayStation 3 or even PCs. The interesting part is that while the Bring Down the Sky module, recently released for Xbox 360 over the Xbox Live Marketplace, is available for a price of 400 Microsoft Points (roughly $5), those playing Mass Effect on the PC will get it for free!

The interesting part is that Bring Down the Sky won't be available in the Mass Efect for PC retail box, but registered BioWare community members will be able to get it for free!

Released on the 10th of March, Bring Down the Sky contains 90 minutes of gameplay for any particular character which includes a main story plot, a brand new alien race and offers up 50 achievement points.

At last, it should be remembered that more downloadable content for Mass Effect was promised, but there's no information about the time of arrival or pricing just yet.

Gothic 3, released back in 2006, managed to be well received by the public, especially since the first games in the series managed to draw attention and already gained the Gothic franchise a faithful crowd of followers. Even prior to its release, in October 2006, Gothic 3 was nominated as the best game of E3 by IGN, and now it seems that Piranha Bites will finally release an add-on for it! In fact, it's official, not only a rumor, so let's find out more about it, shall we?

Entitled Gothic 3 - Forsaken Gods, the official add-on announced today by JoWooD Productions will help you make a smoother transition to the upcoming Gothic 4 game, and will also answer some questions that were left unanswered by previous games.The story? Well, "Once more you take on the role of the nameless Hero and again you have to raise your sword in anger to save the world of Gothic. On your journey you will meet old friends - but be careful, some old alliances may not have lasted the test of time..." That makes things clear, right?

Well, Gothic 3 - Forsaken Gods is scheduled to arrive in the last part of the year, probably just in time for the holiday season. For now, this is all we got, but more information is expected to become public pretty soon, so be sure you subscribed to our news by email already, or at least keep us in your Favorites...

Do you like Sci-Fi novels? I always loved them, and it's always a pleasure remembering those times when I simply devoured books one after another, but unfortunately I don't have much time left for reading these days, so when I find about a new RPG game with a fantasy twist, such news always get my undivided attention...



In today's game, Persona 3 FES, your task is to "Lead a group of high school students with a dangerous extracurricular activity: exploring the mysterious tower Tartarus and fighting the sinister Shadows during the Dark Hour, a frozen span of time unknown to normal humans. And the end of S.E.E.S.' quest is no longer the end of the story-witness for the first time the aftermath of the final battle, and the students' struggle to find meaning in their new lives."

Persona 3 FES for the PlayStation 2 delivers two games on one disc - the original version, with new content and features, as well as a brand new chapter that features over 30 hours of gameplay, according to Atlus USA, Inc., Persona 3's producer.

The best part of the deal is that, if you played Persona 3 and still have your saved games around, you can transfer some of your old data to be used in the brand new chapter, so you can save some of your precious time.

Scheduled to be released on the 22nd of April, Persona 3 FES is going to be sold for $29.99, but there's only one problem, especially if you're aged below 18, or you don't like violent games, because this game was rated M for Mature with Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Suggestive Themes, and Violence by the ESRB...