As we played Age of Conan in a darkened room somewhere in developer Eidos’ HQ, lead designer Jason Allen Stone suggested the magnificently ugly face of our barbarian might be corrected by limiting the range of his facial customization. We do hope not: our frog-faced, beady-eyed, pseudo-Egyptian machete-wielding murderer was a glorious sight to behold.
Few games allow you so much character in a single human face. You might only be able to play humans in Age of Conan’s online fantasy world, but they are humans with genuine, monstrous charisma. They are, after all, escaped slaves turned adventurers - why should they be pretty?
Ultima creator Richard Garriott considered a tabletop version of the pioneering open-world RPG series but isn't sure it would sell: "May be worth finding out"
The Witcher 3 director's new vampire open-world game sure sounds like it took a page from the D&D and Baldur's Gate playbook: "Sometimes it feels like playing a paper RPG"
