The Hottest Games Coming in 2007

INTRODUCTION

2006 was a great year for gamers, bringing us some great and innovative games. But everything has to end and, as we all know, every ending means a new beginning. It is now time to raise our heads, look forward into the distance and try to figure out what the future holds for us and what we should expect to see on our screen in 2007. Every year has it’s own agenda and we, as gamers, always have our own list of games that we wait so eagerly to their release. This list is supposed to justify the huge amount of hours that we spend by staring at a bunch of pixels on the screen :)

Many publishers and developers try to draw gamers’ attention by promising innovative and groundbreaking new features in their upcoming games. Games that will reinvent genres and set a new threshold for future games to follow, leaving their mark on the game industry forever.

I must say some truly look extra ordinary and I am sure we have a lot to expect from 2007 in terms of innovative gameplay, fascinating graphics, amazing atmosphere and astonishing sound effects. My fellow gamers, I bring you the top 10 hottest titles in the PC gaming industry for 2007.

10.   Silverfall

2007 does not have too many exciting classic RPG titles, and that's too bad. Silverfall sure looks like a great RPG game that we should surely check out once released.

Silverfall offers a huge world with rich history and a pretty deep storyline. The inhabitants of Nelwë learned the art of magic since the beginning of time. They researched the power of the universe and managed to find a way to harness the powers from the very essence of it, making a few of them powerful enough to be considered as elementalists, warrior magicians and necromancers. After a long and stable reign, the sorcerers’ power is being threatened by the goblins’ steam inventions, technology and iron works. Now, each camp tries to prove it’s worthy and, as the player, you’ll have to choose between Science and Nature, the two main powers in the universe of Silverfall.

Silverfall will offer us a unique character building system, as the developers describe it. This system will give the player the freedom to customize his character’s attributes and weapons. At the beginning of the game, just like in any other RPG, you will create your character. You will choose your race and sex from the four main races offered (humans, Elves, Trolls, Goblins). The race you choose will, of course, affect the skills and abilities of your character, while the sex will affect the story and your quests.

The game has above 120 (!) skills for your characters, which ensures a high replayability value for the game. Skills are not limited for certain classes, which means you can combine skills and create a scientist troll, an elementalist elf warrior and so on.

A nice addition in Silverfall is the companions you might encounter along the way. Those will help you during your travels across Nelwë and their efficiency is totally up to you and the way you choose to treat them. You’ll have a relationship gauge with each of your companions that will indicate how good your friendship really is. The higher the gauge, the more effective and deadly the companion will be in combat. You build that relationship during your quests and dialogues. The companions you choose will also affect the secondary quests you’ll receive, adding more depth to the game. An extremely dedicated companion will provide more quests than an indifferent one. During combat, you can also order your companion to attack, defend, stay etc.

You’ll also face some choices during your quest and those choices will affect the game in many different ways. For instance, different allies for the final battle (The goblins of Cloudworks will help you if you choose technology, the Beast-men of Gaïan if you select nature), weapons and armor, two separate skill trees, Silverfall appearance will change according to your decisions as well, merchants will sell different merchandise and more…

To sum it up, Silverfall looks like a deep and addictive kind of game. It has a wonderful and fascinating fantasy story, great world and lots of places to visit, interesting skill tree, innovative gameplay and nice cell-shaded graphics. If all goes as expected, we’re looking at a perfect Hack and Slash title!

By:   Monte Cristo, Atari
Genre:   RPG
Release Date:   March, 6th 2007
Web Site:   Silverfall

  
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