The Forgotten Realms is not just Dungeons & Dragons' most popular setting, but one that belongs to everybody. One where the story told by your dungeon master across a dining room table is every bit as valid as the one projected onto a cinema screen in Honor Among Thieves.
It's no surprise, then, that it's proved a perfect playground for videogames - a medium where the storytelling is shared between you, the player, and the professional writers who've put together your dialogue options. From Baldur's Gate to Neverwinter, in RPGs and action games, developers have been sending us to the Realms for decades now. And in the absence of a passing bard, we're your guide to the very best of it.
Infinity and beyond
The most respected videogames in Dungeons & Dragons history are a peculiar-yet-perfect set of isometric RPGs kicked off by Bioware Baldur's Gate defined the shape of the Western RPG as we know it, setting the stage for Dragon Age: Inquisition and The Witcher 3 many years later.
In fact, we're so familiar with its innovations today that it can be difficult to appreciate just how strange and experimental Bioware's pitch was back in 1998. The prototype the studio brought to publisher Interplay was an unprecedented fusion of tabletopstyle RPG stats and fast-moving isometric combat, the latter inspired by the rise of speedy strategy games like Command & Conquer.
Feargus Urquhart - then a producer at Interplay's Black Isle division, later the head of Obsidian - took a chance.
He pushed to grant Bioware the Dungeons & Dragons licence, and it proved an ideal pairing. Characters flowed straight from the Canadian developer's tabletop sessions into Baldur's Gate, providing the story with both its villains and memorable companions, such as the dunderheaded yet endearing barbarian Minsc, who is set to return in this year's Baldur's Gate 3.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2023-Ausgabe von PLAY Magazine UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2023-Ausgabe von PLAY Magazine UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
NOT SO SILENT
With a Silent Hill renaissance on the horizon, the Western developers who worked on the most recent four entries - Silent Hill: Origins, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and Silent Hill: Downpour - talk to James Winspear about keeping a light aflame while the fog rolls in
Late night with the devil
My, my, what manner of BAFTA is this?\" said Andrew Wincott, slipping into Raphael's dulcet tones with ease as he accepted the BAFTA for Performer In A Supporting Role earlier this year.
NCE BITTEN, THRICE SNEAKY
We base-jump towards our first taste of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, talking with series producer Noriaki Okamura about our hands-on with the remade Virtuous Mission section of the classic stealther.
Crimson Desert
Devils may cry, and so might you after this
Spine
Looking to equal gun-fu classics
Lost Records: Bloom & RageTape 1
Hitting play on Don't Nod's coming-of-age tale
PS5 Pro to launch
PS5 architect Mark Cerny finally revealed' one of the worstkept secrets in gaming history - stick 7 Nov in your calendar
Batman: Arkham Asylum
15 years!? Holy depressing passing of time, Batman!
The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road
Keeping us engaged with the carat-and-stick approach
Alan Wake 2: Night Springs
Keepin' it weird