The fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is in development ends months of heated speculation.

A Song of Ice and Fire is both a role-playing tabletop game and a novel quadrilogy. Now it seems that the game and novel is getting an HBO series with A Game of Thrones currently in production in Northern Ireland.

Of course, just because it is in production doesn’t mean the show will ever see the light of day.

The game is essentially Dungeons & Dragons with an equal amount of fantasy although it does reside in a medieval society. It’s a world of kings, heroes, assassins and heroes. Superstitions run wild but magic is, for lack of a better word, dead. It’s possibly because it had been outlawed and forgotten.

On October 19, 2010, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has officially unleashed the D&D Gamma World Roleplaying Game to the general public, although select stores had copies for sale a few days earlier.

Gamma World (retailing for $39.99) is very nearly as old a game as Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), with the first edition (based on a previous game called Metamorphosis Alpha) first released in 1978.

Perhaps you’ve made a long road-trip with your friends. You’re piled in a car with people you generally like, but there’s that one guy who’s so annoying that his very voice makes you want to crash headlong into a concrete divider just to shut him up. Well, that guy is half the characters in Ignition Entertainment’s Arc Rise Fantasia. And that’s a shame, because they’re spoiling an otherwise memorable trip.

On April 20, 2010, Ignition Entertainment USA invited Gamertell to a cozy preview session of its soon to be released addition to the Nintendo Wii library called Arc Rise Fantasia (ARF).

Coming from the studio that brought such quality games as Luminous Arc, ImageEpoch’s first and exclusive venture on the Nintendo Wii is set for an official release on June 22, 2010 and promises to provide a bonafide JRPG (Japanese role-playing game) experience.

After I first popped this game into my PSP, I played it for about two hours and decided that I was done with it. The major vice that turned me off from continuing this game was the gluttony of loading screens that accompanied early every battle and setting change. The loading screens may feature original artwork of the characters but having to look at them every 5 minutes is a bit too much. Also, it seemed as though one character in my party was constantly ganged up on by enemies causing me to lose my advantage in battles.

I’m not sure what changed but I decided to give this game a second chance and, to my surprise, I haven’t been able to put the darned thing down…

Ar Tonelico 2 is definitely a unique experience with a magnificent soundtrack to match. The voice acting is actually skillfully translated and even if you still don’t like it, you can easily switch to the Japanese track. Not many other games incorporate a dating simulation aspect that’s required to encourage growth of and between characters.

The battles are a fast-paced adrenaline rush that doesn’t allow the laziness of players who like keep one finger glued to a certain button during all battles like most other RPGs.

And find out why the phrase “pixelated fudgie bath orgy” is important…