Game News Divinity II Addon announced

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Divinity 2; Larian Studios

Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance Addon has been officially announced.
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I copy the pressrelease from RPGWatch, a site civil enough to receive press releases.
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<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">Hamburg/Germany, March 04th, 2010 – Aleroth, once a war-torn city, now holds the next challenges for computer role playing gamers. Rivellon, the world of Divinity II: Ego Draconis, is still not safe. In Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance, the game’s official add on, players must face the evil once more.
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Soon they’ll recognize that many of the characters they met in the main game aren’t who they pretended to be. Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance continues where Divinity II: Ego Draconis left off. "In Flames of Vengeance, the player picks up the story of the Dragon knight and guides him to his ultimate destiny. Along the way several accounts are settled, and the answers to many questions in the Divinity universe revealed. We've also taken the opportunity to give the engine a solid overhaul, improving performance and graphics quality along the way", Swen Vincke, Creative Director and CEO of the development team Larian Studios, explains.
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Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance, the official add on to Divinity II: Draconis, offers more than 30 quests and about 15 hours of gameplay.
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dtp entertainment and Larian Studios will publish Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance for PC and on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft in August 2010.
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“Divinity II genuinely surprised me”, “1up.com” stated on Divinity II: Ego Draconis. “I had an absolute blast playing through Divinity 2: Ego Draconis”, said the reviewer of “Zeitgeist Game Reviews”. German magazine “GameStar” stated the game was “the RPG surprise of 2009 so far” and honored it with an award for special “quest quality”.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#14496">Not a cesspool</A>

 

[Droog White Smile]

Funny they didn't mention anything regarding the dragon form.

 

[Droog White Smile]

More details:

As there was a bit of lost in translation going in Moscow, let me explain a bit more what I was trying to tell ;\)

-We're working on improving performance, fluidity and solving whatever bugs still remained in the original game.
-We've increased the graphics quality in the expansion
-We're correcting some design issues people've had with the original game (e.g. impact of level on combat)
-The expansion offers more than 30 new and interesting quests (at this moment 36)
-In the Moscow presentation we showed off a couple of quests to make the point
-The story starts in the astral plane where you ended and brings you back to the city of Aleroth, which is now "open for business"
-You can start right away in the expansion area with a character you get to build in the character customisation screen, or you can continue playing from an old save-game. When the original story ends, you will then seamlessly continue into the expansion area, and to a player it will feel like a natural progression of the story.
-One design goal was to provide a similar experience as the first part of the game
-Another design goal was to allow you to become a really powerful dragon knight
-It's not a standalone add-on

We basically had three goals with the expansion pack:

1. If you haven't played yet, then you are in for a major experience when you play through the original game and continue into the expansion pack.
2. If you played already, then you are going to see the closing of many character arcs that were still open, get the opportunity for revenge if you felt bad at the end, and discover answers to questions you might've had.
3. Several people had comments about the game saying things like "if only this and that", so we tried to take care of the "if only this and that".

It's scheduled for an august/september release and that looks pretty solid as at this point the entire expansion pack is already playable. On that note, we're looking for testers which I think Lynn will announce soon.

Looks like it will be the same kind of add-on as Broken Steel for Fallout 3, only bigger.

 

[CreamyBlood]

I think I'm a little past half-way through the first one, Divine Divinity. I've attempted Diablo 1 playthroughs over the last many years but usually get bored after the fourth dungeon. Although DD had a really long first dungeon I persevered through it because I read, probably here that the game opened up and I've really been enjoying it. The best RPG I've played in years.

I'm just wondering if I'll like this new 3d version. I'm also at G2:NotR fan.

As for dragons, I'm probably one of the few that liked Drakken, Order of the Flame or whatever it was called.

 

[DraQ]

I think I'm a little past half-way through the first one, Divine Divinity. I've attempted Diablo 1 playthroughs over the last many years but usually get bored after the fourth dungeon. Although DD had a really long first dungeon I persevered through it because I read, probably here that the game opened up and I've really been enjoying it. The best RPG I've played in years.

I'm just wondering if I'll like this new 3d version. I'm also at G2:NotR fan.

As for dragons, I'm probably one of the few that liked Drakken, Order of the Flame or whatever it was called.

You might be surprised.

A cool game overall.

 

[DaveO]

I'll probably eventually do a Let's Play of Drakan with videos and commentary. I know of at least a few videos already, but I do believe I'd be the first with the D'Rynn dragon character mod.

 

[DraQ]

I'll probably eventually do a Let's Play of Drakan with videos and commentary. I know of at least a few videos already, but I do believe I'd be the first with the D'Rynn dragon character mod.

I generally don't use mods modifying the tone of the game so drastically. Rynn might have been a bimbo in skimpy chainmail worn over bare body while prancing around fucking cold looking, snowy mountain peaks, but at least she did fit somewhat.

A mod where you would fly as a rider-less dragon, especially if someone hacked some extra interactivity and some inventory, would of course be spiffy, same with some RPGish mod set during dark wars without cloned Rynns running around.

 

[Droog White Smile]

Just reinstalled the game today, hoping to finally beat it this time. Was a bit surprised to find out that the new 1.03 patch completely screws up the quick save functionality. See here and here. Did they even test the patch at all?

I'm rolling back to 1.0 and I recommend everyone not to update as well. (Although, sadly, the US version is already pre-patched to 1.03, unlike the UK/AUS version). It's unbelievable how buggy this game is, even after more than half a year since the original German release. Not to mention the awful performance.

 

[DraQ]

Was a bit surprised to find out that the new 1.03 patch completely screws up the quick save functionality. See here and here.

Those people are a bunch of morans. Sure the quickload is broken, buggy and often loads the wrong save, but the save file is there, isn't corrupted and can be freely accessed via manual loading. It also tends to update what game thinks of as quicksave, so the chances are it will allow you to use quickload normally for a while.

Yes, from the quality of code POV the game is undeniably shit, it did however surprise me positively by automatically detecting and resolving the situations where you get stuck between objects - a crucial feature in a game running on bethesduh engine.

 

[Droog White Smile]

Was a bit surprised to find out that the new 1.03 patch completely screws up the quick save functionality. See here and here.

Those people are a bunch of morans. Sure the quickload is broken, buggy and often loads the wrong save, but the save file is there, isn't corrupted and can be freely accessed via manual loading.

The second link leads to a post by one of the developers, is he a "moran" as well? Anyway, yes, you can quit to the main menu and load the save manually, but this is extremely annoying.

Yes, from the quality of code POV the game is undeniably shit, it did however surprise me positively by automatically detecting and resolving the situations where you get stuck between objects - a crucial feature in a game running on bethesduh engine.

First, I did get permanently stuck a few times in the 1.0 release. Second, FFS Gamebryo isn't Bethesda's work, they're just one of many licensees.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

patch 1.02 worked fine

 

[Droog White Smile]

patch 1.02 worked fine

The 1.02 patch seems to be for the German version only. (And it's probably the same as UK 1.0).

 

[DraQ]

The second link leads to a post by one of the developers, is he a "moran" as well?

I have only read several "HURGLGHLGHLCORRUPTSAVESGLBRRRGL!" posts before making my mind.

First, I did get permanently stuck a few times in the 1.0 release.

I have always either wriggled free or got teleported out by the game.

Second, FFS Gamebryo isn't Bethesda's work, they're just one of many licensees.

For some reason I have always thought it's their. I blame the quality of code.

 

[DaveO]

Sorry about not explaining the character model hack for Drakan, Draq. It only modifies the appearance of the character. She can't fly even though she looks like a dragon and has wings.

 

[DraQ]

Sorry about not explaining the character model hack for Drakan, Draq. It only modifies the appearance of the character. She can't fly even though she looks like a dragon and has wings.

I know, I downloaded it once. Looks pretty neat too, but simply doesn't mesh with the game right.