Game News Dungeon Siege III Release Date Announced

[catfood]

And you aren't?

Yeah but they still make the odd game I enjoy.

Everybody on this site enjoys some new games made by some new developers. Wether they admit it or not (wanting to gather KKK points) is their problem, but the idea is that this forum is like a theatre: everybody takes a role and plays it.

 

[Mangoose]

I don't understand how you can whine about the darkspawn tunnels while slobbering all over these H&S with stats games, it's the same crap.

Because non-twitch-based combat (meant for tactical set-piece battles) is mind-numbing when fighting spam enemies, whereas in twitch-based combat it is fun to slash through hundreds of weaklings.

 

[J_C]

What's to hate? How about those really amateurish looking combat animations? Fuck, even something like Rastan Saga from 20 years back beats that, and it was a 2D sidescroller. Voice acting sounds solid though. Anyway, it's like Obsidian needs to primarily fire all its producers, because they seem to get these really inane ideas about 'cool stuff' that then gets implemented by people that don't seem to know jack shit, and the result is a buggy, ugly, unplayable piece of shit.

I don't think that those animations are bad, but to tell you the truth I have low standards, when it comes to graphics and animations. Maybe these animations don't measure up to your standards, but they are fine for me.

 

[commie]

Nothing wrong with a mindless ARPG once in a while. Torchlight was pretty good stuff, Torchlight 2 is coming, along with a LOTR looting ARPG from Snowblind, Grim Dawn from ex-Iron Lore staff (makers of Titan Quest), Dungeon Siege 3, Sacred 3... these are good times for those who like this stuff.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Are we not allowed to get an action RPG once in a while?

Once in a while, yes. I like them too, but they are all pretty much the same; (Dungeon Siege at least was a good moddable platform for the Ultima remakes so that's a Diablo-like that ended up being much more than the sum of it's parts); and with indies getting on the Diablo-like bandwagon, they are coming so thickly that they are becoming shovelware.

I'm actually hopeful that Obsidian at least will give a story and a bit more depth to the repetitive 'clickety-click against the mobs' gameplay of this type of game. Hopefully the engine will be good for mods as well.

I don't understand how you can whine about the darkspawn tunnels while slobbering all over these H&S with stats games, it's the same crap.

Because non-twitch-based combat (meant for tactical set-piece battles) is mind-numbing when fighting spam enemies, whereas in twitch-based combat it is fun to slash through hundreds of weaklings.

This. In a 'proper' RPG you expect a different, more elaborate challenge and the mechanics are suited to fighting small groups. In H & S, because of the simple clickety nature and more dynamic combat allows for more enjoyment in cutting a swathe through a bunch of skeletal or goblin hordes.

 

[Roguey]

Wasn't this announced about 6 months ago? Not a lot of development time.

More than New Vegas. I guess having the engine ready to go helped.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Chances of DS3 being anything interesting are minimal. This is the first run of an inhouse engine, and a H+S at that. Why wouldn't they dumb this down as much as possible and try to rake in as much cash as they can (not that this is a good idea - Obsidian needs to make money by differentiating themselves from Bioware/Bethesda, not by being their less well funded cousin)?

I'd assume that their planning would be to make as simple a game as possible. They're trying out a new custom engine, so they'll be learning as they go somewhat, which means they don't want to do anything trick design-wise. And they will need to recover the costs of developing the engine. On the upside, they'll then have a paid-for engine for their next few games, which will allow them to take more risks and make more creative games.

Add to that Feargus has always, expressly, favoured that strategy: play it safe on a new/expensive project, experiment when you've got settled tech. They did the same with NWN2 and their best work, even if you include the Black Isle days, has been their 'slam dunk' projects: PS:T, FO2 (well, they didn't work on FO1 but 2 was still a decent effort imo), MotB and NV.

I'm not expecting anything much from DS - good surprise if I'm wrong, but I just can't see this being anything but a hack-n-slash. The upside is a settled inhouse engine should make for a few more NV-quality games in the next few years.