07 | October | 2012 | "DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!"

Even if you’re not a fan of turn-based RPGs, DOOM RPG: Evil Unleashed should be on your list of games to play before you’re worm food. Why? Well, between the intentionally retro visuals, great use of music (from a few sources) and reworked art assets from the original game and a solid level of difficulty, the game is a pretty nice surprise that will eat up your free time. Created by thespazztikone in the nicely versatile open-source game engine O.H.R.RPG.C.E. (Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine!) and hopefully going to get polished up a bit more and updated with more episodes, the game hooks you in right away with a surprising amount of voice acting and a nice, slow buildup to the actual gameplay. Once you get into the combat and hear that familiar level end tune when you’re victorious, expect a grin to spread as the hours fly by.

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I really thought this RPG series was gone for good after the flawed open world Eldar Saga on the Wii, but it looks as if Marvelous AQL is giving it a new go on the Vita with Valhalla Knights 3… in Japan at least. If you can read Japanese, definitely check out the official site for info on the game, which is still a work in progress, but expected to be released sometime in 2013. These screens look fine to me, showing off decent draw distance and some generic, but otherwise nice looking fantasy characters and environments.

My bet is if it’s good and what looking like a multiplayer component for up to six (or is that seven ?) players runs smoothly, we could see it hit North America at some point. Granted, that all revolves on the game being marketable here, as some gamers only have long memories when it comes to bad reviews. I’ve liked many aspects of the Valhalla Knights games so far, but hope AQL can pull it together with 3 and make something that feels complete in every area. If they do, I’s gather Xseed will be the ones to tackle the localization and publishing chores, as they’ve handled the other titles that have arrived in the US. More updates to come…