Interview Dungeon Siege III Interviews

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Dungeon Siege III; Obsidian Entertainment

<p>With the release date of Dungeon Siege III being imminent, here are two interviews.</p>
<p>Firstly, lead designer Nathaniel Chapman <a href="http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Nathaniel+Chapman%3A+Dungeon+Siege+3/" target="_blank">answers questions to Suicide Girls</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>KD:</strong> Where do you think many developers have gone wrong in trying to bring hardcore PC RPG franchises to consoles, and how did you solve that challenge?</p>
<p><br /><strong>NC:</strong> I think one mistake that a lot of developers make is that they try to take the mechanics that work on the PC and just directly map them onto a console controller. Then when you inevitably hit the fact that the console controller just doesn&rsquo;t have enough buttons to support the variety of input that you have on a computer game you just start cutting. Like, &ldquo;We have to simplify the number of spells, we have to simplify the mechanics, we have to cut down the amount of stuff that we let the player do.&rdquo; Then I think you end up losing part of what makes the games interesting, which is the ability to choose between those different options. You want to have all those different options available because if you do there are situations where one option is best or another one is best. So you end up, I think, watering down the experience if you take that route. That was one thing that motivated our development of the stance system in Dungeon Siege 3, which is basically that you hit a button and it swaps you to a different stance and the face buttons get mapped to new abilities, because we wanted to have a lot of abilities available for the player to use at any one time without having to go through any menus to remap them or anything like that. So with one hit of a button you now have three new abilities available. It&rsquo;s sort of akin to hitting Shift on the keyboard and now all your keys do something slightly different. That was one of the examples of how we tried to keep the complexity of a PC RPG while molding it onto the console controller instead of just cutting stuff from the PC RPGs to make it work on the consoles.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udRPAGtNGcw&amp;feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">Secondly there's this video interview.</a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/103374-dungeon-siege-iii-interviews.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>

 

[circ]

Suicide Girls? What the hell is this emo shit?

 

[Excidium]

Isn't that the website with nude tattoed models?

Anyway, I hope this shit sells so Obsidian can use that engine for something good next time.

 

[Prosper II]

http://i.imgur.com/hxyQl.png


um. D & D + emo girls proof of concept? good nought.

 

[BlaineMono]

I've given the DS3 demo a try earlier today and I must say the game is quite unique in a strange way, meaning everything about it is really really bad.

Don't want to go through all my gripes, but since the interview is about Obsidian's vision of bringing teh hardcoer RPG to the consoleville and design challenges involved, here's my favorite example of Obsidian's firm grip on I dunno, reality? Its cock?

Anyway, DS3 features the dialogue wheel. Because dialogue wheels are apparently very console friendly. But instead of a standard retarded choice of good/evil/asshole responses you get up to four unrelated topics of conversation. You know, just like in every other CRPG since KOTOR, but arranged in a cool square pattern around the dialogue wheel instead of the old boring list.

The wheel's function? It points at your mouse cursor.

It's not that much of a wheel too. More of a knob. And that's what Obsidian's design strategy is all about - you take a PC hack'n'slash game, poke it with your knob until the design goo comes out, then tell everyone that the goo is there to preserve the complexity of the genre.

 

[Ruprekt]

I get the feeling the game might be fun with a controller. But since I'm not going to spring for an xbawx controller... I'll never find out.

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

Some of these RPG devs should pick up a sports title

 

[Roguey]

KD:
Do you see this game as a reboot of the franchise?
NC:
Yeah. Certainly in terms of core gameplay I think it is a reboot. It’s much more action and a little less automated and tactical. It’s a lot like Fallout 3, in a lot of ways, where it is a reboot but it doesn’t feel like a reboot. Bethesda stayed really close to the feel of the first two games even though the gameplay is totally different. It still feels like a Fallout game.
...
That’s one of the things where having a sequel is nice because you can build on top of the stuff that you’ve already done. So, like Fallout 3, they had Oblivian, and so they had all the stuff that they’d done in Oblivian and they could make ranged combat and guns feel really good in Fallout.

The Champ Man's certainly not going to be showinghis face around these parts any time soon.

 

[Achilles]

Ouch. I wonder if Obsidian is circling the drain.

 

[Metro]

The sad thing is it really wouldn't have been that hard for them to make better PC controls and at least attempt to optimize the UI.

 

[Jasede]

KD:
Do you see this game as a reboot of the franchise?
NC:
Yeah. Certainly in terms of core gameplay I think it is a reboot. It’s much more action and a little less automated and tactical. It’s a lot like Fallout 3, in a lot of ways, where it is a reboot but it doesn’t feel like a reboot. Bethesda stayed really close to the feel of the first two games even though the gameplay is totally different. It still feels like a Fallout game.
...
That’s one of the things where having a sequel is nice because you can build on top of the stuff that you’ve already done. So, like Fallout 3, they had Oblivian, and so they had all the stuff that they’d done in Oblivian and they could make ranged combat and guns feel really good in Fallout.

The Champ Man's certainly not going to be showinghis face around these parts any time soon.

 

[Cabazone]

The sad thing is it really wouldn't have been that hard for them to make better PC controls and at least attempt to optimize the UI.

Does-it really matter at this point ? I mean, Obsidian is doing a game who focus around combat. Problem : combat is already the focus of approximately 99% of games existing; which, by the force of it, make combat a very boring thing. Other problem : Obsidian's games, while having sometimes greats qualities, also distinguish themselves by having worse combat than the 99% other game in question. Conclusion : this project was doom from the beginning.

 

[Mastermind]

So with one hit of a button you now have three new abilities available.

That's funny, in Dark Alliance 2 if you held the trigger you had 4. It's funny that this game is pretty much the definition of "dumbing down" AND it's produced by Obsidian.

 

[Rivmusique]

My favourite part is how they did everything they claim they didn't do in the newspost quote. It boggles the mind how they can blatantly lie. "Hardcore RPG" indeed...

 

[Shannow]

KD:
Do you see this game as a reboot of the franchise?
NC:
Yeah. Certainly in terms of core gameplay I think it is a reboot. It’s much more action and a little less automated and tactical. It’s a lot like Fallout 3, in a lot of ways, where it is a reboot but it doesn’t feel like a reboot. Bethesda stayed really close to the feel of the first two games even though the gameplay is totally different. It still feels like a Fallout game.
...
That’s one of the things where having a sequel is nice because you can build on top of the stuff that you’ve already done. So, like Fallout 3, they had Oblivian, and so they had all the stuff that they’d done in Oblivian and they could make ranged combat and guns feel really good in Fallout.

The Champ Man's certainly not going to be showinghis face around these parts any time soon.

Bullshit. It's exactly like FO3. The only difference is one of scale. A sequel is supposed to improve upon original design, not change it. Fucking assholes.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

First off: This is Dungeon Siege. No, I don't want another interactive screensaver.

Secondly: Did anyone here play the full game? Because you are currently judging it by the Prolouge of an Obsidian game, :/

Also DSIII has 9 abilites available on the controller. Not just 3. Twitcher 2 also only has like 6 doesn't it?

 

[Shannow]

First off: This is Fallout. No, I don't want another boring turn-based RPG.

Secondly: Did anyone here play the full game seven times? Because you are currently judging the gameplay by the Torrent of a Bethesda game, :/

Also comparing FO3 to other consolized crapfests like Arcania makes it look less like a turd.

 

[Roguey]

A sequel is supposed to improve upon original design, not change it. Fucking assholes.

Shacknews: How did you approach the issue of gameplay mechanics, given the decision to bring the game to consoles as well as PC?

Todd Howard Feargus Urquhart: The gameplay was a big thing of course. This is going to be a console game. So, some people said, "Why is it a console game? Why couldn't it be a PC game?" That's more of a business kind of thing. I mean, if you want to make a big game right now, it's going to be a console game. It's not going to be a PC game unless it's free-to-play or an MMO.

So, now that we're on the consoles, we need to figure out "What's the gameplay?"

The gameplay needs to be a little bit more action[-oriented]. It needs to be a little bit more: "I'm button punching." A little bit more: "I can evade. I can block. I can do all these things."

So, literally, you take those two things: The world is Dungeon Siege 3 [and] the 'play' has to be console. And that's kind of how we put it all together.

 

[godsend1989]

Great game if u have someone to play with the camera is isometric just like every Diablo clone because this is dungeon siege btw u don`t have the see the entire battlefield so fuckheads who complain about camera suck it more.

Combat is very tricky so far u can roll with space to dodge attacks i`m playing the hottest bitch in the game the one with the guns.

You guys should play the game first don`t listen to all the fagots around here the game is not great but not bad either is a H&S after all and runs smooth yes u heard right is smooth like Torchlight i cant think of any game smoother than that.

Ok the point is they trow us so many garbage games this days that mediocre games are considered great. Dungeon Siege 3 is a The Chosen - Well of Souls ripoff.

 

[Mastermind]

u

The opinion of any faggot that's so lazy and stupid that he can't even spell out a 3 letter word is completely worthless.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

u

The opinion of any faggot that's so lazy and stupid that he can't even spell out a 3 letter word is completely worthless.

True. But apart from that he's reasonably correct.

I played the demo with the melee dude and didn't like it at all. Now with the full game I'm also playing with the pistol/rifle/shotgun packin' mama and now that I've gained a few levels, I'm really starting to enjoy it.

No question though, the game plays infinitely better with the controller.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Yup, the game does get more enjoyable as you progress. The controller helps, too. The prologue is shitty shit, though, the way prologues tend to be.

Also, the combat and character development mechanics may not be among the best, but they're definitely better in DS3 than in TWitcher 2. Just sayin'.

 

[circ]

Does it?

It's literally unplayable with its current camera control scheme. I just have to wonder, do they have deafmute monkeys doing their play testing and design?

 

[Shannow]

Does it?

It's literally unplayable with its current camera control scheme. I just have to wonder, do they have deafmute monkeys doing their play testing and design?

I'm sure the atrocious interface and controls magically become awesome if you play more than 5 minutes. And the story that starts off with you running into a burning building, down corridors cutting through 10 pussy assassins that killed 40 heavily armed "heroes", will definitely develop into the most intelligent epic ever told in an open exploration world. The camera has 4 diffent options, you just need to fiddle a bit with those and you'll suddenly have free mouse-look with working wasd controls. After that you can map all your skills to your 5 button mouse. If you go with the times (which means sucking up shitty, badly ported console slashers) you'll like DS3 so much you'll want to play it 7 times. Just imagine how much fun you'll have smashing barrels and picking up loot.
The playtesters played more than 5 minutes on their consoles, too, and they obviously deemed it a worthy AAA title

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Does it?

It's literally unplayable with its current camera control scheme. I just have to wonder, do they have deafmute monkeys doing their play testing and design?

Sorry, I don't get it, what's wrong with the camera? Push stick one way, camera rotates that way, push stick the other, camera rotates the other way. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

I've turned off auto tracking camera, perhaps that's it?

No one is saying this is a great game, just an enjoyable little hack'n slash (with guns) and much better than the demo would suggest.