In the strangest statement since Rumsfeld's June 2002 NATO press conference, Square Enix and Obsidian Entertainment announce today a new coalition, to form a strong and stable development environment for Dungeon Siege III. The substances all parties were taking at the time have yet to be ascertained.
The game is going to be created "under the supervision" of Gas-Powered Games and Chris Taylor, that company's CEO and the human photocopier responsible for "developing" the Dungeon Siege concept.
As usual, Feargus "Thrice-Oleaginous" Urquhart, was also on-hand to proffer freeze-dried enthusiasm:
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Originally Posted by ActionTrip
"It Is an Honor and a pleasure to Be part of the legend of Dungeon Siege," Said Obsidian boss, Feargus Urquhart. "This partnership with Square Enix is a milestone for the franchise and Obsidian, and the qualities of two companies in terms of scenario will be visible throughout the game."
A milestone for Obsidian, Feargus? Are you sure you don't mean a headstone?
Has anyone checked the weather in Tartarus lately?
Works-In-Progress
~ Mods Released
~ Website
~ Jallama Reed is the New Pioneer. Jallama Reed is Life Under Siege. Jallama Reed is the Model of Tragedy. Jallama Reed is the Avatar of Us All.
Well even if it follows their usual standard, it couldn't be worse than the first two Dungeon Sieges.
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Two things I really liked about Dungeon Siege: The soundtrack and the name. It's a good name.
Unfortunately, that games are just boring. The first game played itself. All you really did was point to where your party went next. You literally just sat back and watched the fights.
They improved it a bit in the second game, but not nearly enough. It was still boring. Neither game had a story that kept me into them. They weren't bad, just not good either.
Obsidian is usually pretty good, so that has me interested, but not really excited.
How bizarre - take a moderately popular w-RPG franchise, offload it to a company now famous for botching franchises and team them with a j-RPG juggernaut.
Result? I would be amazed to hear they actually ship this title.
Truthfully, the only aspect of DS3 that interests me is the fact that George Ziets is once againg serving as lead creative director a la MotB, so at least the setting and story should be unique and enthralling.
Two things I really liked about Dungeon Siege: The soundtrack and the name. It's a good name.
The name makes no sense. How/why would you lay siege to a dungeon?!
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Originally Posted by Astrotoy7
Maybe we will also get a Chocobo or Moogle Cameo?
I find it sad how poor SE is trying to make profit in the Western markets by attempting to push aside EA and Activision, and all they get is "OMFG keep your Final Fantasy away from my (Insert Western Franchise Here)"
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Originally Posted by PastramiX
Truthfully, the only aspect of DS3 that interests me is the fact that George Ziets is once againg serving as lead creative director a la MotB, so at least the setting and story should be unique and enthralling.
I honestly can't imagine how deep of a story you can get in a dungeon crawler, but then I hated the combat in MotB and Planescape too. Maybe having lite combat would actually help a more enthralling story.
I dunno, the normal story-driven RPG precepts you'd expect Obsidian to follow would be precluded in a Diablo clone to my way of thinking (as in Dungeon Siege 1 and 2). So I figure they are either just slapping the name on essentially a totally different game than the first two, or they will be making a mindless slash 'em up clickfest with minimal story and character interaction (i.e a true sequel).
Module 1 Irenicus Dungeon has been released! Download it here
Module 2 is in development. More info is available via our forum
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Module 2's opening cutscene released - Watch it now!
This has been somewhat overlooked by all of the hubbub, but apparently the game was shown to a select few at the E3, so the development is actually in high-gear, instead of pre-post-production; no screenshots, though. Remember that elusive Onyx Engine, Obsidian's custom-made answer to a true RPG engine, that was first developed for the ill-fated Aliens: Crucible. Well, it's back, and apparently, it's a graphical and performance powerhouse. For example:
The preview actually lauded over the graphics, particularly dynamic lighting and shadows.
Animations were acclaimed as "smooth" and "realistic".
Biggest of them all, Obsidian boasted that there's no such thing as transitional loading times in the Onyx Engine.
Technically speaking, this doesn't sound like Obsidian's handiwork, but considering that this is their first foray into proprietary tech, perhaps all they need is a DIY paradigm. Of course, this doesn't really allay any fears concerning bugs, though.
On to the second most important feature in a video game: the gameplay. The preview seems to give the impression of a standard ARPG - but with a twist. Combat is much more tactical and complex, supposedly giving the player more freedom in killing demonic bottomfeeders; swordplay is all structured around stance-based attacks, which requires the player swap poses due to an enemy's attributes and tactics. It sounds vaguely similar to KotOR 2's lightsaber stances, but much more involved and contextually-diverse.
Obsidian also seems to boast class diversity, eschewing the troika of caster/archer/swordsman. They don't elaborate, however, but I hope it's not just based on the "more is better" paradigm.
Then there's the story. Basically, the game is, at it's core, an ARPG, but unlike others, Obsidian seems to champion C&C, like always. The story is also strcutured to not "get in the way" of the combat, but to simply enhance it. Yes, it's quite vague, but I'm expecting something generally good, even for an ARPG.
Oh, and there's multiplayer co-op, but that's not really important, right?
Biggest of them all, Obsidian boasted that there's no such thing as transitional loading times in the Onyx Engine.
I am unimpressed and unsurprised, as this is something the first Dungeon Siege pioneered (along with some other games of the time, like Halo). But if they manage to skip the initial loading as well, then that'll be an achievement in itself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PastramiX
On to the second most important feature in a video game: the gameplay. The preview seems to give the impression of a standard ARPG - but with a twist. Combat is much more tactical and complex, supposedly giving the player more freedom in killing demonic bottomfeeders; swordplay is all structured around stance-based attacks, which requires the player swap poses due to an enemy's attributes and tactics.
Sounds identical to The Witcher actually. The game is described as an ARPG, even though it doesn't feel very much like one. I realised that this is so because it eschews the hack-and-slash action for a stance-based system and other decision-making. DS3 using something like that sounds good, it's light on the learning curve and implementation and works well too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PastramiX
Then there's the story. Basically, the game is, at it's core, an ARPG, but unlike others, Obsidian seems to champion C&C, like always. The story is also strcutured to not "get in the way" of the combat, but to simply enhance it. Yes, it's quite vague, but I'm expecting something generally good, even for an ARPG.
Hint: Dungeon Siege's story didn't get in the way of the combat either. I still consider it a fine exercise in minimalistic existentialism.
I am unimpressed and unsurprised, as this is something the first Dungeon Siege pioneered (along with some other games of the time, like Halo). But if they manage to skip the initial loading as well, then that'll be an achievement in itself.
I remember this being one of the (few) things I was impressed about in Dungeon Siege. Not a single loading screen or area transition in the whole game, and all building interiors were present directly in the game world; no oddities like what looks like a small hut having a palace-sized interior. Would have been a definite step back if a sequel didn't have the same seamlessness.
(That and the seemingly endless desert that you could actually get lost in. Sure it was just a number of cells that repeated over and over in a semi-random fashion, but it didn't feel that way when first playing )
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Originally Posted by Sabretooth
Hint: Dungeon Siege's story didn't get in the way of the combat either. I still consider it a fine exercise in minimalistic existentialism.
Dungeon Siege had a story? That's one thing they'd do well to change in a sequel rather than stick to the original's concept, in my opinion. The original DS got pretty boring after a while when the only things to do were to admire beautiful the scenery and fight endless hordes of (functionally) near-identical enemies.
I remember this being one of the (few) things I was impressed about in Dungeon Siege. Not a single loading screen or area transition in the whole game, and all building interiors were present directly in the game world; no oddities like what looks like a small hut having a palace-sized interior. Would have been a definite step back if a sequel didn't have the same seamlessness.
Random nitpicking but it did have some loading bars, just they were rare and took less than 5 seconds even on old machines
And it had cool books. Probably not as good as in other role playing games but some of them were nice 30 second reads.
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Hint: Dungeon Siege's story didn't get in the way of the combat either. I still consider it a fine exercise in minimalistic existentialism.
The more recent Bard's Tale on PC/console is worth a mention here .....not only that but alot of it was delivered musically... a true RPG Sing-a-long!! DS has its moments, but it didn't have that.
I'm not really a sing-a-long type of guy but the 'Bad Luck to be You' tune you kept hearing was really catchy.... It was just awesome how NPCs hassle and makes jokes at your characters expense for the whole game.
YouTube Video
"When you think you're out of luck....in the bollocks you'll get struck!"
Interesting that they have been working on it for 18 months. Not much other info other than "we'll talk about that at a later date".
Module 1 Irenicus Dungeon has been released! Download it here
Module 2 is in development. More info is available via our forum
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Module 2's opening cutscene released - Watch it now!
Atrocious ground textures, lack of texture blending, lack of antialiasing, absolutely generic fantasy archetypes, yep looks like a 2010 game to me alright.
See
Screenshots, Dragon Age 2
Screenshots, Fable III
Atrocious ground textures, lack of texture blending, lack of antialiasing
They did say that they were shots from a console version. Not that you'd be expecting a Crysis-killer from the PC version of course.
Module 1 Irenicus Dungeon has been released! Download it here
Module 2 is in development. More info is available via our forum
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Module 2's opening cutscene released - Watch it now!
See
Screenshots, Dragon Age 2
Screenshots, Fable III
Well, you did pick the best of the best there.
Also, trailer at Gamesradar, which looks better. Also, Gamesradar guy complaining about it looking more like a JRPG than a WRPG. Okay, the guy wants another generic fantasy world to look at. Me, I wouldn't mind something else for a change. Besides, the first screenshot made me think of NWN2, not Final Fantasy.
The graphical quality seems to be slightly more improved than DA2, and if we take BioWare's stammering excuse of "N-n-now, it's just pre-alpha; we swear! WE SWEAR!", then I suppose the same excuse can be applied here. Still, it's odd considering that all of the previews have been praising the landscapes and lighting schemes, which considering Obsidian, is an oddity by itself.
At least it seems to have a more inspired art direction than Dragon Age, which is definitely a plus; the spectre... thing is reminiscent of the spirit-eater tentacles in MotB.
This one actually looks pretty good and actually representative of gameplay, even though the selected target graphic looks identical to the one used in NWN2:
This screenshot makes me about as excited to play the game as I am to poop tomorrow.
That's unusual, you seem genuinely impressed with recycled cliches in the Black Ops thread
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Originally Posted by sabrez
That one scene where the heli goes haywire and you crash into a building looked cool...
I don't have a huge issue with the Gfx from what has been posted thus far(2 images?). DAO managed to be a decent game whilst looking pretty lacklustre - as long as the interface and story are up to scratch, that what makes or breaks an RPG, surely?
Module 1 Irenicus Dungeon has been released! Download it here
Module 2 is in development. More info is available via our forum
Follow us on Twitter
Module 2's opening cutscene released - Watch it now!
Looks pretty good, actually. Still, the thing you don't see is the controls and such. But, yea. Marketing people got me again! I wants it, and I don't know anything about the gameplay! AHHHHHHH! Marketing... sigh.
Ooh, that reminds me of my old days playing Gauntlet. Any chance of it being multiplayer (never played the original two)? If so, then this might be a definite buy if reviews are good.
Just in case you thought SWK had forgotten about Dudgeon Segue and Obscenix...
There’s been a fair amount in the gaming news recently about Dungeon Siege III, produced by Obsidian and Squeenix, in case you’ve been watching inconsequential little things like the politics of the Middle East instead of the defining events in the history of the world. Ahem.
So, having trawled through half a dozen pieces or so, here’s the Official SWK Prediction, so you can all point and laugh when we’re horribly wrong: It’s going to be a total mess, which will dive-bomb horribly.
And here’s why, with a helpful roundup of all the info we've found so far.
Works-In-Progress
~ Mods Released
~ Website
~ Jallama Reed is the New Pioneer. Jallama Reed is Life Under Siege. Jallama Reed is the Model of Tragedy. Jallama Reed is the Avatar of Us All.
This game got my interest, oddly enough. I don't care much for Diablo-style combat or the Dungeon Siege brand, but what I've seen and read so far makes me mildly optimistic. Dragon Age 2 and especially The Witcher 2 are higher on my list when it comes to fantasy RPG's, but I'm going to look out for this game. Should I feel ashamed?
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