D&D: Tactics rolls towards PSP

Ah, Dungeons & Dragons. The classic paper-and-dice game once beloved of geeks and weirdos everywhere (and yes, we do mean us), its very name recalls a time when men were men, teenagers were dwarfs, and pretending to be someone else meant roleplaying, not online stalking.

Given our fondness for the ancient title – the spiritual granddaddy of endless modern roleplaying games, after all – it has been pretty remiss of us not to mention before that it's coming to PSP.

Happily, new screenshots have just arrived from Atari that give us the perfect excuse to do so.

And strip us of our +5 Banded Armour and call us a kobold if they don't bring those memories flooding back.

As even a cursory examination of the screens will reveal, dungeons and indeed dragons will feature in D&D: Tactics. Indeed, for good or ill, the game is largely a back-to-basics affair, enabling you to take a party of six adventures into various danger-filled environments, to do battle using a turn-based combat system built around the D&D 3.5 ruleset.

This being 2006, however, you can't simply lead a band of freelance grave robbers like in the D&D of old. No, here you're caught up in a conflict between two competing dragons set on becoming gods.

And this plot isn't just for cut-scene purposes. As it unfolds and you make your decisions, your alignment will change from good to evil or vice versa, which it's claimed will have a material impact on the story.

Most of the time though you'll be romping through adventures, wielding your +2 Staff of Debagging and so on, and managing a hand-picked and multi-talented team of hardy souls.

All the D&D base character classes are in there: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer and Wizard. There are also two Psionic classes, the Psion and the Psychic Warrior. (Sadly for office warriors, there's no Psionic Organiser available – ho ho.)

As is essential in any RPG, characters will be fully customisable, and you'll be able to create and store as many as you like.

D&D: Tactics will also offer multiplayer modes. A co-operative mode will enable a group of gamers to play the single-player campaign with their friends as a team, in true D&D around-the-kitchen-table style. There will also be a Deathmatch mode set in special party-versus-party arenas, and the promise of new dungeon maps to download.

In fact, all that's really missing is a 12-sided dice bundled inside the box. (It'd be nice to have something to lose behind the sofa, just for old time's sake.)

Being developed by Kuju Entertainment right here in the UK, D&D: Tactics should emerge blinking into the light by Christmas 2006.