Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

Continuing in the rich tradition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance throws RPGamers into the port town of, you guessed it, Baldur's Gate. With darkness fallen upon the town, players realize they must stand in the way of one of the greatest threats to strike Baldur's Gate and the region of the Sword Coast. With a mix of action and adventure, the latest AD&D campaign will be quite engrossing. With a multiplatform release, gamers who own any next-generation system can pick up this title.

BlackStone: Magic & Steel

XiCat Interactive sends North American RPGamers an early Christmas present this year by porting Ex-Chaser across the Pacific, now called BlackStone: Magic & Steel. Set in the fantasy world of Zedan, players attempt to collect pieces of the mysterious BlackStone to prevent them from getting into the hands of conspiring dark mages. The game is very similar to the popular Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, and support for up to 4-players is included.

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Just your luck. You land on a far off island as big as anything you've seen. You're forced into work for the occupying forces and spy on the disgrunted natives. And the natives don't have much love for Outlanders such as yourself. At least you have some choices available to you - you get to choose who you are your race, class and abilities. You get to choose where you go, and you can spend hours roaming the enormous world of Morrowind. Of course, the gods themselves may have their own course plotted out for you... Morrowind is one of the most critically acclaimed RPGs of the year, one that sports a world where you can do almost anything you can imagine. Except boring things.

Metal Dungeon

Denizens of cyborgs threaten the safety of the planet while the rest of humanity hides within dungeon like-bunkers. What if the cyborgs decide to invade one of these bunkers as well? RPGamers get the chance to assemble a benevolent team of cyborgs to battle this intrusion in Metal Dungeon, one of the first console-style RPGs to hit the Xbox. Featuring customizable characters, huge dungeon crawls, and support for up to 4 players at once, Metal Dungeon looks to break new ground with a familiar style and futuristic setting.

Shenmue II

Shenmue II picks up where its predecessor left off, with the game's lead character Ryo Hazuki heading off to Hong Kong in search of Lan Di, the man who murdered his father. Much broader in scope than the first installment, Shenmue features exotic locations, interesting characters, more minigames, and a meatier story. The North American Xbox release includes a DVD containing the movie version of the original Shenmue.