The Bard's Tale 4: Barrows Deep release date set for September

We took a look at inXile's upcoming Bard's Tale 4: Barrows Deep today and found it "a captivating dungeon crawler," which is really good news for people (like me) who have been looking forward to getting their hands on it. Also in the "good news" department, inXile announced today that the game will be released on September 18.

Like its 1980s predecessors, Bard's Tale 4 is a single-player, first-person, party-based RPG set inside sprawling dungeons filled with puzzles, traps, and monsters. But it "doesn't feel beholden to the past," Wes said in his preview, and that's good because those early games were viciously difficult. I've knocked off dungeon crawlers from Eye of the Beholder to Legend of Grimrock, and I don't think I ever even came close to finishing The Bard's Tale. But I sure loved knocking around in its tunnels.

The Bard's Tale 4 will be released on Steam and GOG, and is available for preorder now at bardstale.com. Preordering the Platinum or Ultimate edition will net you access to the beta, which went live today, and Kickstarter backers can get in on that action too.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.