Baldur's Gate is a series of role-playing video games set in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. The game has spawned two series, known as the Bhaalspawn Saga and the Dark Alliance, both taking place mostly within the Western Heartlands, but the Bhaalspawn Saga extends to Amn and Tethyr. The Dark Alliance series was released for consoles and was critically and commercially successful. The Bhaalspawn Saga was critically acclaimed for using pausable realtime gameplay, which is credited with revitalizing the computer role-playing game (CRPG) genre.
Chris Avellone is an American video game designer and comic book writer. He worked for Interplay and Obsidian Entertainment before working as a freelancer. He is best known for his work on role-playing video games such as Planescape: Torment and the Fallout series.
Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California. It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Parker, Darren Monahan, and Chris Jones.
Minsc is a fictional character in the Baldur's Gate series of Dungeons & Dragons role-playing video games developed by BioWare. He originated from the pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons sessions held by the lead designer of Baldur's Gate, James Ohlen, and was expanded upon by the game's lead writer, Lukas Kristjanson. His video game debut was in Baldur's Gate as a companion character who can join the player's party. He also appears in the sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, the expansion, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the 2015 game Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, the 2023 game Baldur's Gate III, as well as in promotions relating to the titles. Minsc is voiced by Jim Cummings in his original video game appearances, and by Matt Mercer in Baldur's Gate III.
Tactical role-playing games, also known as strategy role-playing games and in Japan as simulation RPGs, are a video game genre that combines core elements of role-playing video games with those of tactical strategy video games. The formats of tactical RPGs are much like traditional tabletop role-playing games and strategy games in appearance, pacing, and rule structure. Likewise, early tabletop role-playing games are descended from skirmish wargames such as Chainmail, which were primarily concerned with combat.
An action role-playing game is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre.
Dragon Age is a media franchise centered on a series of fantasy role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The franchise takes place on the fictional continent Thedas, and follows the experiences of its various inhabitants.
Western role-playing video games are role-playing video games developed in the Western world, including The Americas and Europe. They originated on mainframe university computer systems in the 1970s, were later popularized by titles such as Ultima and Wizardry in the early- to mid-1980s, and continue to be produced for modern home computer and video game console systems. The genre's "Golden Age" occurred in the mid- to late-1980s, and its popularity suffered a downturn in the mid-1990s as developers struggled to keep up with changing fashion, hardware evolution and increasing development costs. A later series of isometric role-playing games, published by Interplay Productions and Blizzard Entertainment, was developed over a longer time period and set new standards of production quality.
Divinity: Original Sin is a role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios. The fourth main entry in the Divinity game series, it is a prequel to the original game Divine Divinity, and to the other main games in the series. It was first released on Microsoft Windows on 30 June 2014.
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition is a remaster of the role-playing video game Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and its expansion Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. The game was launched on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition features new content and widescreen compatibility.
Pillars of Eternity is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive. It was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux on March 26, 2015. The game is a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, along with Planescape: Torment. Obsidian started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter for it in September 2012. The campaign raised over US$4 million, which was the highest funded video game at the time. The game uses the Unity engine.
Expeditions: Conquistador is a squad-based tactical role-playing game developed by Danish developer Logic Artists and released by BitComposer for Windows, Linux and Macintosh on May 30, 2013. The player takes the role of a Spanish conquistador leading an expedition to Hispaniola and Mexico in 1518 to 1520. The game features resource management, a branching storyline, and interactive fiction elements. Expeditions: Conquistador was partially funded by Kickstarter. The Windows Phone version of the game, a strategy adventure game with a branching narrative, was released in April 2012. Logic Artists has released two further Expeditions games: Expeditions: Viking in 2017, and Expeditions: Rome in 2022. THQ Nordic acquired the Expeditions Series intellectual property (IP) in November 2018.
Lords of Xulima is a 2014 role-playing video game developed by Numantian Games, released on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It is the first title released by Numantian Games, an indie game development studio based in Madrid, Spain. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Lords of Xulima initially released on Steam for Windows, followed by Mac and Linux.
Serpent in the Staglands is an old-school isometric computer role-playing game developed by independent game developer Whalenought Studios for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux. Using the tagline "a 90s CRPG in every way but the release date", The game resembles several classic games such as Fallout, Baldur's Gate, and Darklands. The game is notable for being "brutally old-school", lacking several features seen in modern RPGs such as introductory or tutorial levels, automatically updated journals and quest-markers. It also has a distinct pixelated graphics style. The game uses the Unity Technologies' Unity engine.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker is an isometric role-playing game developed by Russian studio Owlcat Games and published by Deep Silver, based on Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder franchise. Announced through a Kickstarter campaign in 2017, the game was released for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux on 25 September 2018.
Baldur's Gate 3 is a role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios. It is the third main installment in the Baldur's Gate series, based on the tabletop role-playing system of Dungeons & Dragons. A partial version of the game was released in early access format for macOS, Windows, and Stadia on 6 October 2020. The game remained in early access until its full release on Windows on 3 August 2023. The PlayStation 5 version was released on 6 September 2023, with the macOS version released shortly thereafter on 22 September 2023. The Xbox Series X/S version is planned for release in late 2023. The game received critical acclaim for its narrative, gameplay, and player choice.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is a third-person action role-playing game published by Wizards of the Coast and developed by its subsidiary Tuque Games. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing system, the title of the game alludes to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, although its story and gameplay are not related to those earlier titles. The game was released in June 2021 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Divinity is a role-playing video game series developed by Larian Studios. The franchise was introduced in 2002 with Divine Divinity. The franchise received more mainstream attention following the critically and commercially successful release of Divinity: Original Sin (2014).
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones is a tactical role playing video game developed by Cultic Games. 1C Entertainment published it for PCs in 2019. It takes place in a Lovecraftian setting.
ELEX 2 is an action role-playing video game developed by Piranha Bytes and published in March 1, 2022 by THQ Nordic. It is the sequel to ELEX, and players control the same protagonist, Jax. They must unite the world against a new threat: invading aliens.
