Arcanum

Once upon time, three guys sick of the corporatization of the video games industry founded a little company called Troika Entertainment. Surviving only seven short years and three glorious games, Troika defined what a PC RPG could be and should be. As the core team of my all-time favorite game, Fallout, Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson created one of th best gaming experences I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. What made Fallout, and ultimately Arcanum, so great was not just the ambiance of the setting and music, but the detail placed into converting a table top pen and paper RPG into a computer game that still felt like those live sessions at a friend's.

While Fallout's futuristic wastes scorched by the visions of a 1950's atomic storm appeal so much to the sci-fi lover in me, Arcanum's setting has always felt so much more real to me. Maybe it is the romance of the late Victorian setting with its string quartet and gas light lamps, the almost wild west feeling which lingers in the air. Moreso though, it is the underlying conflict, technology versus magic, Tolkien's world versus our own, which draws me so strongly to Arcanum. Now if I can just finish the damn thing...