Monokli

Seriously? When in the world had DS open maps? It was a corridor game from the beginning. You mean that everything was on one map? Yeah, thats also the case here. DS was NEVER EVER open world. Heh... I know this subject has been beaten to death, but I just wanted to say that this isn't correct (in a less hateful way than Renevent, I guess, heh). The Multiplayer map (Utrean Peninsula) that came with DS1 was an open ended map (for the most part... some caves/dungeons were linear, but there was always a way around them if you didn't want to take them). The map was huge, too... On par with Sacred 2 I would say. That being said, however, I never expected DS3 to be an open ended world. The cramped corridors don't really bother me, to be honest. =P And to top that: It sported non-euclidean geometry so you could have different full-blown maps (such as Utraean Peninsula) interconnected with teleporters. The Siege Engine allowed ease on the assets plus a very interesting way to design maps. The original map in the Dungeon Siege demo was up to Stonebridge (dev_name: Besieged Town), and instead of being a corridor, it was a linear series of wide open spaces up to the crypts first farmhouses plateau->corridor to bridge->two plateaus with farmhouse, phrak ballista boss, a bear cave with a living bear bearing the game's FIRST MAGICAL ITEM EVER!!! Altan's Leather (+health, good Armor, worth using until the mines and maybe some more), a small lake on the lower corridor->corridor to edgar's house->edgar's basement with krug scavenger boss->Corridor with a cave branch leading to a krug scout boss->broken bridge with a branch below the waterfall to some gold->forest area with alpha grey wolf->corridor to krug camp->krug camp->corridor to crypts, along with a smaller crypt containing a skeleton ambush with the awesome Puller Staff as a loot(Second magical item EVAR), ->crypt graveyards->crypts sporting at least two hidden buttons/levers and the first magical bow(Heart Stopper) coming from the end boss, the mighty ruby gargoyle. -> From then you get to the outer graveyard,meet some nasty black skrubbs (they deal tons of damage)->Descending to the tower (beautiful panorama), the tower has the shaman boss, with possible magical item drops->continuing to the Krug Siege Camp->Krug Siege Camp with plenty of hidden stuff on the shore(Yes there is a shore)->Then you got to stonebridge. As for the Utraean Peninsula, It was great, however there was only one good route to follow which closely resembled the first game's progression of enemies. (farms, crypts, places with krug grunts and chuckers->spider dungeon->route to mines->Second Town (mining town) There was however a motherload of side areas to visit. In dungeon siege 2 some people imported the whole friggin Utraean Peninsula, with monster level scaling, and custom maps. It was finished recently, got it's own music pack (the add-on) and is needless to say loaded with awesome. Let's see if ds3 with it's sparkly engine can match these feats as well.

dunno but it sucks. Frickin pc haters

whoa! is the game out then?

I'd say other people would switch these two words. Opinions! Lol! +1Win for you!

Learning Curve.... Bah! I grew up on Diablo2! (And dungeon siege ofc) I also find it quite easy to fit into most game control schemes.

I only exploded at points where the interviews/english previews were saying rock-solid what system we can expect. I still hate that they picked the worst aspect of the series and threw out all the best (or so it seems from now, opinions may or may not change when the game comes out). I do these kinds of rants for fun.

Translations?

At least they are an OK publisher.

what are u on about dungeon siege 2 was great you only menssion dungeon siege 1 which was good but no where near as good as the second one Except for the power system, which was kind of lame. Such a shame obsi decided to pick the worst possible element from the series to base it's gameplay on.

The dungeon siege 2 soundtracks used were a nice touch

I'm back by the way!

Seems likely based on that preview, but then again, AFAIK, preview code that was sent by the publisher was before Obsidian did a polish pass on the PC controls, so it's all very likely to change. Doubt they'd remove the option, tho'. Keeping options if both are viable and not (too) imbalanced on any side is good practice

Since GPU is the same thing (Processing unit), then it should theoretically be measurable. And it would eliminate confusion, thus would be better system for us.

Are there both WASD and Point&Click?

No NPC healer was mentioned: Only free abilities to heal yourself. It is more customizable if you can chose only two from a number(n) of self_healing/mana_restoring skills, which allows for n!/((n-2)!*2!) different variations instead of only one as it currently is. Connection to loot is the "health orb" which is a loot that restores some of your health when picked up. It does not remove tactical health and energy management. While I said that these skills are free, I mean it in the sense of mana_cost/orb_cost free. Casting_time, recharge_time and applied negative effects are the real costs of them, and depending on how strong they affect you, using them will be a hard decision: vs regenerating boss for example you might not want to switch to your power recharging stance if it reduces your damage output too much. If something is imbalanced then balancing it is favorable compared to removing the feature altogether. Also what would I still do? OFF: good night folks! school tomorrow. See ya later

Funny stuff. From the Eurogamer preview, it looks like DS3 has quite a bit of humor. That's fun stuff. I don't expect any problems about the atmosphere. (I didn't expect the azunite inquisition though...)

Offering a challenge to the player by putting limits on his abilities and forcing him to pay attention to a certain number of parameters. That's not frustrating, that's what some players want. Why do you think that regenerating health has become the one thing linked to dumbing down those last years??? Free self-heals/mana-regen buffs with fixed recharge timers should be limited enough by themselves, but combined with the punch to fill method, can provide a skilful alternative. An energy refilling free skill with 8 seconds of recharge to refill one third of the energy pool and an extra sixth over time (One half) but you need two seconds to cast it should have enough drawbacks in combat, and should reward you appropriately. A free regeneration stance with a speed, armor, damage or energy penalty (you use up more energy per skill) to go with is limiting enough to provide challenge, and is more flexible than the current purplish orbs of awesomeness. Yes, but still no. Its not more flexible. I don't even understand what you mean by "flexible" in here. Also please stop talking like your some kind of gameplay god and elevate whatever you say to be the "right" answer for design. Because A: You're not B: It's not. Edit: What I'm saying is. Your opinion is totally ok. Saying its somewhat a superior system at every turn is not, especially because its in no context to how DSIII works and is designed. Yeah there were some mistakes there(my bad), so to clarify it: I said I think (addressing your second point, thanks for reminding me | | ) that a system where you have a selection of free self heals you can choose two from by either being "in town" or at a specific NPC, gives you more options instead of taking them away, is more customizable, can easily be expanded, works anywhere even if the loot is crap (hence the less focus needed on fine-tuning drops each level ->faster development process), adds a new depth to combat, (Do I use my weaker self-heal skill or I punch mr skeleton #0264a5 for energy for the stronger heals). And saying again that if it is an additional option, then you are not forced to do this, and you can still go into a pack of Klasks shouting Xeria's name to gain energy that way. If you however prefer the little more "laid back" playstyle of planning before attacking, you can conjure additional resources and thus you options for preparing the battlefield widens. It's not dumbing the game down if done right (if done horribly wrong, then yes but otherwise no)! It's even adding more to the mix. It may not be the tree of specialties from DS2, but it makes health&energy management possible. An effort, yes, but possible. And I am not a game designing god, never will I be, I'm just somebody who has been studying it for some time by now.

Custom Character Creation is a must have in these days. DS3 should really not devolve back into diablo 2. At least as a fix/patch/content update.

I'm actually getting it in the stores. Preorder stuff can be hacked in if push comes to shove.

Offering a challenge to the player by putting limits on his abilities and forcing him to pay attention to a certain number of parameters. That's not frustrating, that's what some players want. Why do you think that regenerating health has become the one thing linked to dumbing down those last years??? Free self-heals/mana-regen buffs with fixed recharge timers should be limited enough by themselves, but combined with the punch to fill method, can provide a skilful alternative. An energy refilling free skill with 8 seconds of recharge to refill one third of the energy pool and an extra sixth over time (One half) but you need two seconds to cast it should have enough drawbacks in combat, and should reward you appropriately. A free regeneration stance with a speed, armor, damage or energy penalty (you use up more energy per skill) to go with is limiting enough to provide challenge, and is more flexible than the current purplish orbs of awesomeness.

What positive quality can you find in it c2b? Frustrating the players? Frustrating the devs?

self-heal should always be accessible freely, though a certain downtime is accepted. Don't ever want the character to run out of self-heals right? So unless orbs drop/fill like candy, then you can be screwed, which puts unnecessary hassle to the designers doing levels and loot, so it's generally a bad mechanic. E-managements and Self-heals, and even complete orb revamping with empowered spells and stances prepared for combat would however no longer encourage power-hoarding like in DS2 (it is something I didn't like at all, though powers were an interesting mechanic in general.), and would be a better mechanic overall.

IIRC the purple orbs only extend the effects of defensive skills to the whole party. How do you acquire these orbs? Experience/damage a'la ds2 powers?

And the defensive stances use the rare purple orbs up, so it also suffers from the same problem as the powers now... Or did I miss them telling us that they are free? Did you try dodging those Ice Archers while occasionally stopping to throw a grenade? that's pretty fast paced right there. I wish the rest of ds1 was like that. Magic without fireball is meh. Firerain, Fireball Rain, Meteor Shower, Fireshot, Firespray, Explosive Powder, Bomb, Cluster Bomb, Fireblast, Meteor, Flame Blades, Cyclone of Fire, Summon Black Dragon Those were a variety: They can be added as prefix skills: example is where you throw explosive powder at first, but you can either spec it to bomb for big bang, or cluster bomb for the many bang effects. being dungeon siege enough will depend on how moddable the game will be: If done right, then returning the game to it's roots won't be much of a problem. Custom Character creation is much needed just like a way to add the old DS spells back in.

In Dungeon Siege, you will have to try playing a multiplayer type game (LAN preferable) solo, there you will see some interesting challenges around the time you reach glacern (playing with combat or nature mage is preferred for they are micro intensive). Those Ice Archers deal high damage which your robes barely reduce, (It's less problematic with ranged players, but it's still there) and you have to dodge those shots if you want to survive. Your assessment of Dungeon Siege's difficulty is somewhat incorrect. While you can indeed steamroll through it with a strong and well-equipped party, it is more because of the monsters themselves not the variety of options to deal with them. The monsters will only come to attack range, and fire away, until you or they are dead. In dungeon siege 2 there are trickier sorts, such as those who summon are more often encountered, there are those who conjure curses on you, life stealers, ambushes, and exploding melee mobs (note: they hurt). It is also possible in the system to generate challenges that require very good use of the party to overcome. Potions can be restricted and even removed. No drops of tear from me. Like I said before the passive regeneration which is something you oppose so fiercely, can be replaced with active health and energy management, which can and should take skill to use. One point you apparently skimmed over is the problem of variety: Are you really fine with 10 or so skills per character and fixed autoattacks for each mode? when you had so many spells/powers/specialities/gear to choose from?