Development Info Dung Lords expansion: The Orb and the Oracle

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Dungeon Lords

<a href="http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/the-orb-and-the-oracle-next-installment-in-the-dungeon-lords-saga-to-be-released-this-winter">Here's a press release</a>:
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<blockquote>JoWooD Productions and DreamCatcher Games, leading publishers of interactive entertainment software around the world, today announced The Orb and the Oracle will release in Winter 2008 for Windows® as the next installment in the bestselling saga, Dungeon Lords.
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“We have eagerly anticipated releasing a new installment in the Dungeon Lords saga,” said Byron Gaum, Global Product Marketing Manager at DreamCatcher Games. “We’re really excited to offer Dungeon Lords fans a new dose of the combat, magic and incredible quests that this fantasy RPG is known for.”
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Created by legendary RPG game author, D.W. Bradley, The Orb and the Oracle boasts a massive fantasy world filled with incredible action and meticulously detailed indoor and outdoor environments. Offering both single and multiplayer co-op game modes, the game is sure to engage RPG fans for hours on end!
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The game features an advanced and robust combat system coupled with devastating magic spells for a variety of ways to vanquish your foes in real-time. Set to the tone of an epic soundtrack, players should prepare themselves for an unforgettable journey.
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The Orb and the Oracle for Windows® will sell for an SRP of $39.99 USD. The anticipated ESRB rating is T for Teen. For further information please visit our website at www.dreamcatchergames.com.</blockquote>
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That's about it, really. Thanks <b>Arem</b>!

 

[Gragt]

Reading Dung Lord in the title, I was imagining some farmer creating an army of dung golems to take over the world.

 

[Trash]

I pictured a game called drug lords and thought it would be awesome.

 

[thesheeep]

Ehrm... standalone?

 

[Micmu]

Excuse me, but Dung Lords was a bestselling saga?
It was basically Big Rigs of the "action RPGs" with it's initial release and a real shit game afterwards, too.

Ehrm... standalone?

Haha, better to be.

 

[obediah]

Ehrm... standalone?

At $40, I would hope so.

But nothing in this industry surprises me any more. It could be $90, require Dungeon Lords, be buggier than DL, replace all the skills with some mini-games, provide 90 minutes of gameplay, mine your browser and e-mail history to plaster the dungeon with targeted adverts, require a USB dongle, and only allow 1 installation with a duration of 5 days.

 

[thesheeep]

Okay, according to krawall.de, there will be a sequel ("The Orb and the Oracle") and an addon (no name yet?) that explains the story between DL1 and The Orb and the Oracle, which is btw quite a strange long name for a H&S/Action-RPG game.
You'd usually expect such names from adventures.
Why not simply Dungeon Lords 2?

And also.. story between DL1 and 2? DL1 had a story? I played through it 2 times and didn't notice...

 

[JarlFrank]

"The Orb and the Oracle" is a great name. Too bad the game won't be.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

GameBanshee has first screenshots and a concept art piece. The Imperial City and Xardas are in.

 

[JarlFrank]

This looks so generic and shitty. Dung Lords at least was pretty dark and gloomy. This looks like Oblivion, only worse from a technical standpoint.

 

[Texas Red]

Extreme, easily penetrable shoulder pads FTW

 

[User was nabbed fit]

This looks so generic and shitty. Dung Lords at least was pretty dark and gloomy. This looks like Oblivion, only worse from a technical standpoint.

Jesus FC. I thought that WAS Oblivion and someone took a screenshot with some mods as a joke.

 

[Arem]

 

[Kingston]

That's one ugly-ass game.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

And the obligatory next-gen version as well...

 

[JarlFrank]

That cyclops looks shittier than anything I've seen before. It could be from 2003. Seriously, Bloodlines had waaaay better models back then. And the texturing sucks, too. Well, all textures in that game seem to suck. Dungeon Lords 1 did look better than that shit.

 

[Micmu]

jezus, this is truly the "next-gen" fad, where armor looks more gayass than ever.

 

[thesheeep]

That does look generic, indeed.
And the engine looks really like the one Oblivion used... with better water.

Good thing I have no problem at all with generic fantasy worlds.
But that cyclops really sucks. They should remove his chest-texture instantly. And remove his loincloth from the rest of the model so that it "waves" around instead of sticking to his legs. And re-do his face texture (or add more polygons to the face, so that the eye doesn't seems to be flat).

Other than that, can't say anything really negative about the graphics.

 

[Badgermaster]

STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM

Beat me to it.

 

[Hamster]

They should remove his chest-texture instantly. And remove his loincloth from the rest of the model so that it "waves" around instead of sticking to his legs. And re-do his face texture (or add more polygons to the face, so that the eye doesn't seems to be flat).

Or maybe they should work on roleplaying part of the game, not on stuff for graphic whores? :wink:

 

[Texas Red]

Isn't the first order of business to distinguish your product from everything else?

 

[Saxon1974]

Well maybe they spent all their time working on game play and role play aspects and not on graphics....Sorry I kid.....We wll now the game will be linear and massively buggy.

Im a fan of high fanstay, but every dam game that comes out now looks exactly the same. All of you are right, looks like Oblivion...Did they take the Imperial City from it and drop it in dungeon lords?

Now if this game has a decent world with interesting NPC's and isn't completely linear Im fine with these graphics, but we know it wont be.

 

[DemonKing]

How on earth did the original Dung Lords sell well enough to warrant a sequel?

It's really a shame, as I quite enjoyed some of Bradley's Wizardry games, and even Wizards & Warriors to a certain extent...but Dung Lords was mind-numbingly awful on all fronts (story, gameplay, graphics, sound etc etc)

 

[FrancoTAU]

Seriously, this is Dungeon Lords and everyone's criticizing the graphics??? What about the dogshit gameplay that is sure to be included?

 

[SimpleComplexity]

Give him one eye more and he is a supermutant.