Former Diablo 3 dev regrets pushing back against more complex skill system that "would have been probably better than what we have today" for ARPG veterans

One of the highlights of any RPG is its leveling and skills system, especially if a title lets the player create their own, custom character. Different games take different approaches to this, with the more traditional titles taking inspiration from the TTRPGs of old by using classes. Others attempt more modern approaches, using skill point allocation or even usage improvement systems to allow people to play exactly what they want.

Using their geography education, some in-game maps, and a screenshot from the recent live-action series, one Fallout superfan has been piecing together the approximate location of every single known vault and placing them onto a map of the USA. And now, a canceled version of Fallout 3 has filled in even more information. 

Following the tradition of some of the best RPGs, allows players to recruit and travel with a host of companions to build a team taking on any enemy. However, there is one character it appears could have been joining the party to take on the Absolute. As more mods are created for the game, more details are emerging about potentially cut content from , including a certain bard who was meant to play a larger role.

One of the developers behind No Rest for the Wicked recently talked about the usefulness of early access releases, suggesting that even well-regarded titles such as Dark Souls could have benefited from this practice. Early access is becoming increasingly popular in gaming, and No Rest for the Wicked is just one of the many recent projects to use this release model.

The developers behind Fable card game spin-off Fable Fortune and the digital adaptation of dungeon-crawling board game Gloomhaven have revealed a new upcoming co-op RPG… only to announce at the same time that the upcoming game’s development has been put on pause amid layoffs at the studio and difficulty finding funding.

Dark Souls, one of the most widely acclaimed video games of the last two decades - perhaps all time - and progenitor of one of modern video gaming’s most influential and oft-copied-rarely-bettered genres, the Soulslike, would’ve been a better game had it launched into early access. That’s the suggestion from the head of Ori and the Blind Forest developers Moon Studios in the wake of launching their own early access Soulslike, No Rest For The Wicked.

Rising Up is a free, sub-fifteen minute browser game that’s a bit like Streets of Rage, where you play a balding office worker and beat a giant scanner to death within the first 30 seconds. This, I believe, should be enough to tempt you into dunking it enthusiastically into your next break coffee, but if you need more convincing, let’s do it.

Following the official reveal of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, IGN was able to speak with Tobias Stolz-Zwilling (Warhorse Studios's PR Manager) to get some extra details about the newly announced action RPG sequel.

Uncapped Games, a new studio comprising developers who have worked on iconic real-time strategy series such as StarCraft, has announced it is working on a new game set to shake up the real-time strategy genre. Led by StarCraft 2’s former lead multiplayer designer, the Tencent studio has shed light on the unnamed project in a new half-hour documentary.

AI Roundup, April 19: In today's AI news, Cisco announced their new security product called HyperShield which uses AI to safeguard applications, devices, and data of businesses. The system primarily focuses on protecting the IT environment. In other news, HarperCollins has partnered with audio AI company ElevenLabs to develop audiobooks. All this, and more in our AI Roundup today.

One player has found a moon that represents what players were hoping for when they bought the game. Prior to its launch, one of the main selling points for was its 1000 explorable planets, with a mix of hand-crafted and procedurally generated environments across them. Unfortunately, upon its release, players complained outside of the set Points of Interest on a planet — which usually indicated explorable locations such as bases, labs, or outposts — that many of these environments felt empty, and that they would often have to jump back to their ship to enter another point of interest, rather than staying on land, due to each landing zone only generating a set radius of a kilometer or two in which they can explore before getting a "" message.

Moon Studios may be known for its hit Metroidvania games, but its new action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked, is now available in early access, and former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra believes its "bold direction" is what the genre needs to "stay relevant."