Last year it was Divinity: Original Sin that took the 'under-the-radar RPG you must play' award, and with Pillars of Eternity any fans of old school isometric stat-crunchers can get their happiness-caps on; as the return of Neverwinter Nights' developers Obsidian mark a high point for the genre all over again. Often referred to as 'pen n' paper RPGs' (in that you really do need some extra equipment to track everything effectively), the Obsidian used Kickstarter to fund this project, precisely so they could deliver a top-down nerd-a-thon with as much fan-service as possible. Everything from crafting specific items, naming your heroes, seeing every piece of clothing represented on their character models to deciding which spells combine best, what tactics to deploy in battle and which weapons work best against what enemies - it's an old-school RPG in every sense of the word. In the end you'll put in close to 80-odd hours across the campaign (before doing it all over again with a new build) as this return to the genre's roots reminds everyone why such a passionate approach really does soar far higher than anything Final Fantasy's done in years. Let's find a way to get it on consoles, please?
