2004 was widely considered to be one of the best for PC gaming in years, with a number of highly anticipated titles generally hitting the mark. From Rome: Total War to Sims 2, City of Heroes to Half Life 2, 2004 put PC gaming back in the gaming headlines for all the right reasons. Unless, that is, you were a fan of single player cRPGs. Oh, there were a couple of better-than-average action-RPGs and Troika's Vampire: Bloodlines generally hit the right notes - but that was about it.

So, what are the prospects for 2005? Will cRPG fans be forced to replay old classics yet again - or will there finally be something to cheer about? We take a 3-part look at all the anticipated cRPG releases for 2005 (hit the respective links to our database for a comprehensive list of news and links for each game).

A quick disclaimer: while these articles aim to be reasonably complete, there's going to be some projects we've missed and international releases will vary. All the release dates were taken from the respective official sites or developer interviews but release dates are always fluid: some developments will run late, some won't find a publisher and some may never be released.

The Headline Acts

Every year there's a handful of titles that have a higher profile than the rest of the market. They may be from a successful franchise or respected developer, the screenshots may have piqued the gaming public's awareness - or perhaps the hype machine has just been working overtime. Let's take a look at a rather subjective list of this year's biggest cRPGs, in rough order of release:

The original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was hugely successful, combining the monster status of the Star Wars license with BioWare's proven ability to craft commercially successful RPGs. With BioWare interested in creating original properties, the sequel was handed to newcomer Obsidian, founded by five industry veterans from Black Isle Studios - BioWare's old publisher. Released in December for the Xbox, the reviews have been strong although there has been some criticism for a perceived lack of innovation, performance issues and bugs. Assuming the bugs are squashed, the PC version should shine with higher resolutions and a little more horsepower under the hood.

It's hard to get a clear picture of Dungeon Lords. Lead Designer D.W. Bradley is the obvious drawcard, having gained a reputation for his work on some of the Wizardry titles. That "hardcore" reputation seems at odds with the emphasis on fast-paced action combat, although Bradley also promises a large, free-roaming world (German publisher dtp has drawn a comparison with Gothic) and a complex story with multiple factions. Co-op multiplayer is undoubtedly another major feature. The production obviously hit some hurdles late in 2004, with Dreamcatcher placing prominent ads and announcing a public beta and demo - none of which eventuated.

Freedom Force was a revelation - breaking a long hoodoo of failed and cancelled superhero games on the PC, Irrational combined sensational comic-style art with great characters and fun, squad-based strategy play. Throwing cars at villains, using lampposts to smash them into orbit and destroying buildings was simply a joy. Freedom Force vs The Third Reich promises improved graphics through the upgraded GameBryo engine, more hero creation options and special attention to the multiplayer modes, along with a classic comic-book story involving time-travel and Nazis - what more could you ask?

After the enormous RTS hit Total Annihilation, Chris Tayor (no, the other one) founded Gas Powered Games and turned his attention to developing the action-RPG Dungeon Siege for Microsoft. The result was a 3D party-based game with a graphical engine that was a tour-de-force for the time but the gameplay was highly linear and streamlined, almost playing automatically. Dungeon Siege 2 sets out to improve on the original with more focus on story and characters, larger towns that act as hubs to provide a little more freedom, an improved skill system and a new scripting engine to give the designers more flexibility creating scripted events.

Already released on the Xbox, inXile decided to go back to the future for their first project by attaching The Bard's Tale name to an action-RPG built with the Snowblind engine (Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance and others). Irreverent humour is the key feature along with Gary Elwes voice work, although the decision to streamline gameplay (no inventory management, items automatically converted to gold) may turn off seasoned RPG players looking for a little more depth.

Piranha Bytes' Gothic series has developed a cult following worldwide, despite different publishers mishandling the various English releases. The trademarks of the Gothic series are large, open gameworlds, a gritty atmosphere, detailed NPCs that go about realistic daily routines and an action-combat system built on both character stats and player skill. Gothic III is expected to expand on all of these, with a significantly larger gameworld including desert landscapes and a reworked character combat system - all built with a new engine. Interestingly, the guilds will play a reduced or optional role but the full details have yet to be revealed. Whether Gothic III will make 2005 or not is a matter of speculation but the team has certainly hinted that Christmas 2005 is a possibility - I've got my fingers crossed.

Silver Style Entertainment's The Fall: Last Days of Gaia had a difficult release in Germany, with numerous technical issues causing problems. The team has been quick to address these issues with a string of patches hitting in quick succession. No US or UK publisher has yet been announced but Lead Designer Carsten Strehse has indicated on the forums that a likely partner has been found. If you like the idea of a traditional party-based RPG in a post-apocalyptic environment, the English version should be fairly polished by the time it is released. German reviews have been generally positive, with particular praise for the strength of the quests and story.

When The Witcher was announced, the stunning graphics showing off brooding fantasy landscapes were all the more fascinating because CD Projekt was using BioWare's aging Aurora engine (NWN), albeit with a completely rewritten renderer. The Witcher is based on the stories of Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski and offers a dark storyline coupled with action-oriented combat with combo moves, motion-captured animation and the Karma physics engine. Staying true to Sapkowski's writings, the main character is cast as a male swordsman and it will be interesting to see if CD Projekt can build a satisfying character development system around this limitation.

It might be a bit of a stretch to include Oblivion in this list because there's no official release date and Bethesda has been very selective in the material released so far. That said, Oblivion has been in development since 2002 and developer interviews are clear the major engine features are in place and the team is working hard on content, so the end of 2005 would seem possible. The enormously successful Elder Scrolls series has long set the benchmark for huge, free-roaming gameworlds but listless NPCs, repetitive dungeons and other issues divided opinion on the last instalment, Morrowind. Bethesda has a slew of changes planned, including a complete overhaul of combat to a direct action model and the Radiant AI system, which should give life to NPCs. The small handful of early screenshots have been incredible and if Bethesda can pull everything off - and assuming players embrace the new combat system - this will the one of the biggest releases in recent years.

In Part 2 tomorrow, we'll take a look at the remaining bulk of titles for 2005. Part 3 will wrap up with some major indie titles, expansion packs and looking further ahead.