There is no doubting that this 2004 release from Square Enix is the best JRPG on the PlayStation 2. At least, in my mind.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is a colourful and detailed re-imagining of the Dragon Quest franchise, with Cel-Shaded graphics and tons of monsters – many of them familiar – to fight it out with in turn-based combat.
This Enhanced Edition of Icewind Dale brings the Infinity Engine up-to-date, with nice zooming and screen movement options, and clearer icons, so playing the game has never been easier or more fun than this.
When Canadian company Beamdog/Overhaul Games decided to remake the Baldur’s Gate games, they began by remaking BioWare‘s Infinity Engine – the engine that underpinned the entire series. Calling their new improved version the “Infinity Enhanced Engine“… (A snappy name, I’m sure you’ll agree…), they then set about importing all of the original assets from Baldur’s Gate; remaking stuff where necessary; and created a whole load of new content in the process themselves, eventually releasing it through Atari as Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition in 2012.
Icewind Dale is the second Infinity Engine-based RPG, developed by Black Isle Studios and released by Interplay in 2000. It is based on the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, with a 2nd Edition AD&D ruleset.
Baldur’s Gate was the first game to use the BioWare Infinity Engine and was released by Interplay in 1998. It is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, with a 2nd Edition AD&D ruleset, and is therefore a fantasy RPG adventure with castles, magic and monsters in the grand sense of the fashion.
A brilliant sequel to the tile-based RPG of 2012, Legend of Grimrock II is more of the same atmospheric adventuring from developer Almost Human, but with 2014‘s new content and ideas.
Grimrock 2 begins after a shipwreck; on a beach, with rocky, exterior locations, which is a surprising and refreshing way to start a game like this. You can even walk in the shallow water, which is nice, and on the very first level the shallow water holds an important secret. Don’t miss it.
Arx Fatalis is a 3D Role-Playing Game developed by French company Arkane Studios and first published by JoWooD Productions in 2002.
LISTS: as decided by The King of Grabs, in order of greatness:
These are just an opinion, but please do feel free to comment with your opinions. Unless you’re a comment spammer. In which case: do feel free to f*ck off…
Bally Midway‘s classic Spy Hunter is a brilliant overhead race game with guns and bumping cars and speed boats and chasing helicopters, and general high-speed excitement. It is such a good game that it has been converted to pretty much every gaming system known to man.
Here’s our rundown of the top 10 Spy Hunter conversions…
1. Nintendo Entertainment System < Probably the most fun
2. Atari 800 << Better than most
3. Commodore 64 <<< Entertaining
4. ZX Spectrum <<<< A fun conversion
5. ColecoVision <<<<< Pretty good
6. Amstrad CPC <<<<<< Reasonable
7. Atari 2600 <<<<<<< Basic
8. BBC Micro <<<<<<<< Forgettable
9. Apple II <<<<<<<< Rubbish
10. PC MS-DOS <<<<<<<<< Utterly terrible
And, of course, not forgetting the utterly brilliant arcade original.
More: Spy Hunter on Wikipedia
You’d expect the Atari 2600 version of Spy Hunter to be the runt of the litter, and… it’s actually not too bad.
David Hoskins made this BBC Micro conversion of Spy Hunter for Micro Power, Sega and US Gold (not to mention Bally Midway) in 1986.*
It’s a strange conversion overall.
The King of Grabs 