Well met, and welcome to GamesBeat’s first PC Gaming Weekly newsletter. Thank you for joining us on our expanded dive into the industry’s’ first and most diverse platform.
And we’re going to start this adventure by talking about one of the giants of PC gaming, who recently announced his retirement plans just days following the release of one of the best games of his 36-year career.
Brian Fargo said that he’s preparing for the next chapter of his life after his studio, Inxile Entertainment, ships the postapocalyptic role-playing game Wasteland 3 in 2019. He didn’t say what he’s doing next, but he’s a stakeholder in Fig, the crowdfunding company that gives backers equity in the game. He’s passionate about crowdfunding, choosing it to back Inxile’s projects since 2014’s Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, which came out last month and, in my opinion, is one of the best RPGs of the past 20 years … and maybe the best game he’s helped make.
I should know. I’ve been playing Brian’s games for as long as he’s been making them.
When old farts like me think about the RPGs of the 1980s, we talk about Ultima, Wizardry, or even Might and Magic. These are the building-blocks for games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Age. But when I think about the games of my youth, it’s one of Fargo’s classics that warms my heart: The Bard’s Tale. This series was much like Wizardry and Might and Magic, but Fargo’s innovations came from the magic music of the Bard class, a city full of dungeons and traps, and some silly humor (like battles with four groups of 99 Berserkers). His Interplay studio went on to make three Bard’s Tales games, and I admit I spent more homework time than I should have exploring these worlds.
The Bard’s Tale helped foster my lifelong love of role-playing games, helping me make friends and tell stories. Thank you for the magic, Brian.
–Jason Wilson, GamesBeat managing editor
P.S.: GamesBeat’s dastardly duo Jeff Grubb and Mike Minotti see if they can play nicely together in Overwatch’s Uprising event.
From the PC Gaming channel
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Old Time Hockey is like EA NHL’s beer-league cousin
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AMD releases 6-core Ryzen 5 desktop processors for gamers
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GamesBeat embraces our first love: PC gaming
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Battlegrounds surges past 1 million copies sold on Steam in a mere 16 days
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The Franz Kafka Videogame’s inspiration comes from literature
Inspiration comes from many places, and in the case of Denis Galanin, a lone Russian game developer, it came from literature. After years of development, Galanin and Germany’s Daedalic Entertainment have published The Franz Kafka Videogame. It’s a puzzle adventure game available on Steam for $ 10. Galanin is a one-man studio, based in a place […]
Beyond GamesBeat
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In the age of shareable gaming, every open-world game should have a photo mode
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In the Company of Heroes: An Interview with ‘Overwatch’ Designer Jeff Kaplan
We discuss new characters, the importance of the meta, and the social responsibilities of game developers in the 21st century.
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