Hellgate: London

Everybody wants Diablo III... but they're not going to get it. Fortunately, Hellgate: London continues to shape up to be an appealing alternative. Though the game plunks you down into London's grim future, the mixture of knight-like Templars and other updated fantasy warriors gives the game an instantly understandable hack and slash style. That, and London's sewers don't look a million miles away from » Read Full Hellgate: London preview

With deep role-playing elements and fast-paced first-person shooter goodness, Hellgate: London keeps looking better and bloodier. Today we got our first look at the Guardians and Blademasters, two never-before-seen classes from the Templar faction. Although both classes excel at up-close combat with melee weapons, they play quite differently. The tough-as-nails Guardians are the most defense oriented class in the game. They excel at soaking up damage and drawing the attention of surrounding » Read Full Hellgate: London preview

If there was any doubt that Hellgate: London will be dark in both its setting and its offbeat humor, its lost as soon as you begin playing. The search for a kids missing appendage took me from Covent Garden tube station, through randomly generated tube tunnels and desolate London streets, on to a final encounter with a 15ft hulking mass of flesh. Exactly why he'd jack the leg of a kid remains a mystery to us, but Lil Timmy promised hed give me the stump of wood (an entry-level melee weapon) he » Read Full Hellgate: London preview

There is nothing we like more than being consumed by a role-playing game ... or a first person shooter ... or the flames of Hell. Give us one game that does all three, and we surrender. Melding the genres of RPG and FPS, Hellgate places you into a nightmarish future in which the flame-scarred surface of Earth has been overrun by demons. You play one of the last human survivors, the Templar. And guess whose job it is to venture from the safety of the underground sanctuary to see how many demons » Read Full Hellgate: London preview

Last year Vivendi Universal bewildered many by letting some of the biggest talents in its games division (Blizzard's Bill Roper, Dave Brevik, Erich and Max Schaefer) resign. But being dynamic, self-motivated types with brains the size of goblin zeppelins, the day after quitting they all gathered, formed a new studio and came up with a preposterously great idea for a new game. That game was Hellgate London - a first-person, near-future RPG. It's the year 2030 and sulphurous demons have only » Read Full Hellgate: London preview