RPG General News - Summer of RPGs

PC Gamer thinks this has been the best summer for RPGs:

This has been the best summer for RPGs and I want to live in it forever

I'm going to hide from autumn by starting another playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3.

Like many of you, I suspect, each year sees me juggling more and more games in an effort to play all of the good stuff and avoid the dreaded FOMO, and when 2023 dawned I was well and truly in burnout mode. But it turns out that the solution to this was a summer fully immersed in some gargantuan RPGs, and I now find myself refreshed and once again excited about videogames. 

We've been inundated with RPGs of all shapes and sizes these last few months, but a quartet of heavy-hitters has dominated our hobby: Diablo 4, Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Each of them long-awaited, from prestigious studios and part of a long legacy of mostly beloved games. The latest in the most popular ARPG series of all time, a sequel to a 20-year-old CRPG that we still talk about today, the first brand-new game from the master of sandbox RPGs since the Elder Scrolls began, and a second chance for a lavish but somewhat disappointing tabletop adaptation—big deals, the lot of them. 

Within these four games is something for nearly every RPG-lover, whether you like to simply smack monsters around with your mates or you want an epic yarn you'll be playing for months. I can't pretend I ended up loving them all, but there's no denying that each has proved to be an ambitious, mammoth undertaking that's kept their legions of fans exceedingly busy this summer, and that's something to celebrate.

Diablo kicked things off, with a basic loop that remains exceptionally compelling. Murdering hordes of monsters is still just good wholesome fun. The return to grisly, gothic horror was also much appreciated, as was a central villain who was more than just large and angry. I could have done with more distinct locations and more flexibility when it came to character builds—Path of Exile remains unrivalled in this regard—but what we got was still a polished, tight ARPG that I'm looking forward to watching develop, once Blizzard figures out how to make its seasonal structure more compelling. 

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Thanks Couchpotato!