Game News Divinity II: FoV - Nov 5th for Europe, Canada, AU

VentilatorOfDoom · Oct 2, 2010

Tags: Divinity 2; Larian Studios

<a href="http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=420632&fpart=1" target="_blank">Status update</a> concerning the international releases of Flames of Vengeance and/or the Dragon Knight Saga:
<blockquote>
As you can notice from our limited presence here, we're in the rush to complete all versions. Many a late night have been spent on finalizing everything but it looks like we're getting there. So a quick update: Yesterday we finished the English, French, German, Italian and Spanish Xbox360 versions and they are now at Microsoft for certification. That basically means that we can't find anything else anymore that needs to be fixed and Microsoft will now check if we overlooked something. This weekend the hopefully final PC versions of DKS are being built and if final QA works out, we should be ready in time for a November 5th release. We've sorted out Pan-European distribution including Canada and Australia, but US distribution is still up in the air, so unfortunately we can't give you a US street date yet, but we'll make sure you can at least get the PC version via digital means. Once we've built the DKS versions, we'll make all the FOV versions and then it will finally be done ! And we can take a break <img title="smile" src="http://www.larian.com/forums/images/graemlins/default/smile.gif" alt="\:\)" width="15" height="15" /> To answer the X360 questions above - yesterday we did a presentation to a number of journalists switching between PC & X360 - one of the things we did was showing side by side comparisons of Ego Draconis and The Dragon Knight Saga. It's really quite a big difference. It's not only the camera, the textures, the shading and the lighting, it's also the gameplay and the UI that make for a big improvement. We're really pretty curious what you all will think of it when it comes out.
</blockquote>
Spotted at: <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#15881">RPGWatch</a>

Cenobyte · Oct 2, 2010

Wow, this was posted on the Larian boards at the beginning of September or something :lol:

But to contribute something substantial, I can recommend the Expansion Pack. It includes a massive improvement of the graphics (for both the main game and the expansion), offers a large new campaign (can be played with the hero from the main game) and concludes the whole adventure in a more satisfying way. It also features some original quests which require a bit of thinking and intelligent use of the game's features.

Fun fact: The expansion is too big to comply with Microsoft's guidelines for downloadable content for the XBOX, and thus it is only available for PC. That's a huge :incline:

Morgoth · Oct 2, 2010

I have Flames of Vengeance lying around somewhere, but haven't found the motivation to play it yet.

VentilatorOfDoom · Oct 2, 2010

I had posted the wrong quote, is is fixxord now. thx cenobyte

SCO · Oct 3, 2010

I'm replaying Divine Divinity now. It's a surprisingly deep game, quest wise - not many grey moments, but lots of secrets.

Keep fighting the good fight germany, even if it has to be with Diablo clones.

(though i prefer gothic clones)

Ruprekt · Oct 3, 2010

The only games I've bought recently are Kraut titles. Drakesang, Risen, and Divinity 2.

DA:O I removed from inventory as a fuck you to Volourn.

DraQ · Oct 3, 2010

Cenobyte said:
Wow, this was posted on the Larian boards at the beginning of September or something

But to contribute something substantial, I can recommend the Expansion Pack. It includes a massive improvement of the graphics (for both the main game and the expansion), offers a large new campaign (can be played with the hero from the main game) and concludes the whole adventure in a more satisfying way. It also features some original quests which require a bit of thinking and intelligent use of the game's features.

Cool, my intent to buy it remains unchanged.
:smug:

How was the dragon mode improved and is it better to get the full pack or the expansion alone, as I've heard the whole pack is bit of a rehash rather than simply base+expansion bundle?

Fun fact: The expansion is too big to comply with Microsoft's guidelines for downloadable content for the XBOX, and thus it is only available for PC. That's a huge

Cenobyte · Oct 3, 2010

DraQ said:
How was the dragon mode improved and is it better to get the full pack or the expansion alone, as I've heard the whole pack is bit of a rehash rather than simply base+expansion bundle?

The dragon form doesn't play a major role in the AddOn. There are no major changes in this direction, at least that's my impression. Minor changes and improvements may be included, but the look and feel is the same.

Regarding the AddOn vs the remastered version:
If you don't mind playing the whole game again, then the remastered version may be the the better choice. They have completely remade the flying fortresses so that they should offer more in terms of varied gameplay, quests and puzzles. Also, this version includes better dodging (with this version it should finally be possible to dodge incoming arrows and special attacks) and reworked the enemy encounters and loot tables.

And btw, @ SCO, Larian is a Belgian developer

DraQ · Oct 3, 2010

Cenobyte said:
Regarding the AddOn vs the remastered version:
If you don't mind playing the whole game again, then the remastered version may be the the better choice.

I had enough fun playing the game to not mind that.

Fuck, I finished it in spite of the framerate going into fractions in menus, for fuck's sake.

They have completely remade the flying fortresses so that they should offer more in terms of varied gameplay, quests and puzzles.

Any more detail?

Fortresses were rather shitty due to monotony and poor dragon gameplay, but I'd rather see the flight/combat mechanics and gameplay sequences improved than thrown away.

Also, despite their monotony fortresses had pretty cool, surreal atmosphere.

Also, this version includes better dodging (with this version it should finally be possible to dodge incoming arrows and special attacks)

A welcome improvement, though I did use dodging successfully in the base version.

CraigCWB · Oct 3, 2010

Ruprekt said:
The only games I've bought recently are Kraut titles. Drakesang, Risen, and Divinity 2.

Drakensang was a good game that needed a sandbox mode. As it shipped it was too short for people to get much use out of (or to have much use FOR) all the nifty features. Divinity 2 needed more polish and higher production values. The graphics were OK but the game engine was clunky as hell and there's not much point in making an action RPG with a clunky game engine. And of course the story fell off a cliff before the halfway point. Risen? I was really kinda hoping it WOULDN'T be MOTS old Gothic. I liked that fine when Gothic came out but that was then and this is now. It's not a novel idea anymore, and reusing the same content over and over again for x number of chapters is just not something I want to see anymore. The games feel very small, no matter how long it takes to grind (yes grind) your way through them.

At least I can safely say I enjoyed all 3 of those more than every Russian game I've ever played, combined

It's a damn shame that the US game developers decided to turn RPGs into "casual gamer" products because we really do make the best RPGs and we always have.

Ruprekt said:
DA:O I removed from inventory as a fuck you to Volourn.

Well, I have no idea who Volourn is but I didn't even get all the way through Dragon Age. I'm started replaying Fallout 3 a couple days ago but it's pretty effing discouraging how little replay value it has considering it's a sandbox game and I haven't played it since it came out 2 years ago. Not a good sign that I can remember all the quest solutions and that I'm clicking through the dialog.

And PS about Fallout 3: I forgot how effing annoying minor stuff like visible texture seams is. What is it, the dark ages of 3D graphics or something? Bethesda hasn't figured out how to do 3D modeling yet? After 10 years? They need to contact the Drakensang or Risen devs and get some tips.

Ruprekt · Oct 4, 2010

Well, I voted Magic Candle II my fave RPG of all time... so you have me there.

MicoSelva · Oct 5, 2010

FoV hit the bargain bin here a couple of months ago, but I never got around to checking it out. DKS version looks interesting though, it will definitely join my collection at some point - probably not right away, though.