Nathaniel Chapman

You must be kidding me. I can

You control a character in the host's game, and that XP/progress is saved with the host's. So you do gain XP, but you don't take it back into your local game. If you continue to play with the host, however, you will always have your progress/loot/etc.

A little worrying that you don't know what MLAA is.. It's supposed to be a powerful SPU based anti-aliasing technique, distributed through Sony's EDGE development tools. It was developed by Sony's Santa Monica studios. I didn't google that so I hope my memory hasn't failed me. I don't really know that it should be particularly worrying to anyone. I'm the lead designer not the lead engineer on Onyx

Not sure what you mean by mlaa. The game plays well on the PS3 and should be pretty equivalent between the two console platforms. I'd recommend getting it for whichever console you prefer generally.

We make fun of him cos' we love him. His later gear does look pretty sweet tbqh.

Uh, uhm, I, uh, really enjoyed, uh, doing this. Uh.

If you like the journal you should also check out the Dark Horse comics when they are available!

Can you tell us how the abilities are mapped to the mouse & keyboard? Currently, specials are mapped to RMB, ala Diablo 2, and you can toggle which ability is on RMB with the keyboard or Ctrl+Mousewheel. We are looking at some potential other casting options, too, but no promises on that as of yet. The RMB method works really nicely, actually. In some ways I prefer it to using the abilities on controller ><

Here's the full shpiel: Power orbs are built by 1) taking damage 2) blocking damage 3) using special abilities. You can spend power orbs in 3 ways: 1) Using an empowered attack. On 360, for instance, RT+A will do a special attack that drains a power orb and is generally very powerful, and knocks enemies down. 2) Using an empowered ability. If you hold RT + <special ability button> it will do an empowered version of that special. But, in order to do that, you first have to Master the ability by using it a number of times. Once you've mastered the ability, you can use the empowered version of it. Some of the empowered versions are just beefed up versions of the base ability (For instance, Empowered Shield Pummel for Lucas knocks down a group of enemies in a cone in front of him vs. standard Shield Pummel, which only knocks down one). But, some are extra special. For instance, Anjali's empowered Summon Jackal detonates her Jackal in an AoE explosion that deals heavy damage and knocks down. 3) Using a defensive ability. All defensive abilities cost 1 power orb and are buffs that last 30 seconds. If you master a defensive ability, you earn the empowered version (like with standard abilities). If you empower a defensive ability, it costs 2 power orbs and the buff is applied to the whole party. Yes, this means that a full party can stack their defensives on top of each other. Yes, that is a fun thing to do in co-op

I think we can figure out the mouse scheme for moving at least. It looks like we will have to hold down something to make the character move forward, while the cursor's position will indicate the direction. I'm betting on a key of the keyboard, it's more comfortable than the mouse and it leaves two buttons ready for attacks. I suppose the attacks and abilities will work the same way. So, not really 'point & click', more like 'point'. Also, I think the cursor is obviously not the last version, it's kinda ugly and too small for my tastes. It wouldn't be more comfortable because you still need your keyboard hand for using ability/stance hotkeys while moving. You can't really map 3 different abilites per stance on a mouse + Attack. I'd think it just supports holding the mousebutton down for movement. Edit: Scrap that, I think I get now how you mean it. You can either click once to move to point or click and hold and your character will drive towards the cursor. You can attack enemies by either clicking them, or holding shift and clicking (much like Diablo/Torchlight, Shift is basically the "attack in place button").

word brother.

You don't say... Katarina is one of my favorite characters. The way her guns combine with her magic is actually really fun. For instance, she has a spell (you can see her use it once in the trailer) where she plops down a purple AoE on the ground at her feet that doesn't do damage but pushes enemies back when they hit it. You can create chokepoints with it, protect yourself from melee attacks... it's definitely a very cool combo. She also has a great "one-two punch" combo where you can curse an enemy, and then if you kill them while the curse is up they detonate, damaging enemies around them. Pretty fun.

I post plenty over here, too.

Definitely not. There are definitely some fights that will require figuring out the mechanics and properly using your abilities to overcome. I just finished my Hardcore playthrough, and there are some fights that absolutely require substantial tactics and very, very solid execution on Hardcore. Obviously if you don't want to deal with them being that hard, you can always play on an easier difficulty - but Hardcore is very fun if you like a serious challenge. If we don't need to eat and drink it's not hardcore. P.S. : Completely unrelated, but is Leona's voice actress the same one that voiced Vera Keys/Christine in Dead Money (and Lieutenant Boyd and many other female NPCs in vanilla New Vegas)? EDIT: This preview seems new to me. In Hardcore we (as in the developers) eat your frustration and drink your tears.

Definitely not. There are definitely some fights that will require figuring out the mechanics and properly using your abilities to overcome. I just finished my Hardcore playthrough, and there are some fights that absolutely require substantial tactics and very, very solid execution on Hardcore. Obviously if you don't want to deal with them being that hard, you can always play on an easier difficulty - but Hardcore is very fun if you like a serious challenge.

Hey, you can still strain it with NWN2 if worse comes to worse zing!

That's actually one of my favorite moments in that area. You can actually keep guessing and you get increasingly comic responses.

We encourage you to develop IRL romances while playing the game. For instance, you can use our co-op feature to gain influence with your romantic partner, bonding over the corpses of spiders, swamp slugs, Lescanzi mercenaries, and Dakkenweyr.

from everything i've watched and read, I've come to the conclusion that there are no AI players running around, you control one of 4 heroes (only 2 have been announced) If someone else joins your game they join the game as one of the other heroes. If you are just playing by yourself only one hero is present in the game and the other 3 heroes are lying dormant somewhere. I'm not 100% sure about this but at least a good 95% This is not correct. There's another AI player running around with you in SP.

i would have hoped that it has satisfying gore like Dragon Age 2... Let's hope it has at least our fair share of corny sex cutscenes! We need 'em! I thought it'd just been said this was intended to be suitable for kids?!?!? On a slightly different note with something like skeletons in the game it'd be possible to have some pretty extreme non-gory violence. Heads smacked off the screen, bodies hopping around on one leg etc. It's not graphic violence\gore but comedy. Oh, we've got that. Skeletons break apart and go flying all over the place.

I don't think that the inability to hack off limbs (well, except on skeletons) is really a depth issue. It's more of a stylistic issue than anything, honestly. We just don't want it to be that kind of game. I also don't really believe in toning down gameplay depth for kids. I grew up playing some pretty darn complex games, and I really doubt the need to condescend to younger gamers.

They've been taken across the three platforms, depending on where you saw the footage/screenz.

This is true. We also keep our co-op revival mechanic in single player (basically, you have to run over and help your buddy get up for a couple seconds without getting hit) and the AI will help you get back in the fight if you die. If they manage to get to you (which can be VERY hard on higher difficulties )

Honestly, DS3 is the kind of game we want people to play co-operatively with their kids, younger siblings, squeamish significant others, etc. While I love F3 and their super-gore as much as the next guy, it's just not appropriate for the atmosphere and kind of experience we wanna provide with DS3. It's definitely not something my girlfriend would want to play co-op with me. However, that's not to say combat isn't impactful - we do have ragdoll, and it is glorious and awesome. And the skeletons do break apart when you kill them

Every level, you get 1 Proficiency point, and 1 Talent point. On some levels, you also get an Ability Point. You use these to buy Proficiencies, Talents and Abilities respectively. Each ability has 2 proficiencies associated with it, and each proficiency has 5 ranks, so it sounds like you've got that correct. Again, remember you can only spend 5 points *between* the two, so you can't max out both. There are 10 talents, and they are general passive improvements to your character - not linked to specific abilities. Each of these also has 5 ranks.