Previews

[Starwars]

I don't think I will have much trouble with the whole "personality of characters" deal personally. Saying that it's the opposite of Alpha Protocol's rather intricate relationships feels rather like a duh comment, even if one completely disregards pretty much everything that previous information has indicated, why would on expect this level of intricate dialogues/choices in a Dungeon Siege game? I mean, yes, Obsidian opted for 4 characters instead of the open character creation of the past games, but still.

 

The lack of the whole choose your personality thing is also something that doesn't bother me a whole lot. Again, I think AP is pretty much the only game where I've found this approach satisfying. One reason is that I find the game very well-written (and so it's fun to explore the dialogue options) but the other is again that AP's dialogues are complex and bountiful. It feels like there is a genuine reaction to your personality style from other character, even going as far as to having special lines for when your Thorton changes back and forth between dialogue options. There is just no reason to expect this from a game like Dungeon Siege 3.

Mass Effect sure as hell never gave me the feeling of having any ownership over Shepard despite the whole Paragon/Renegade stuff, so I guess I don't know what to make of that comparison. I sure find the DS3 characters more interesting than Shepard at least.

 

As long as there are a few good choices to make, that's what will be important to me in terms of story/character interactions.

 

It's an interesting legacy that Obsidian carries now though.

Edited May 14, 2011 by Starwars

[Sannom]

(1) I don't think I will have much trouble with the whole "personality of characters" deal personally.

 

(2) It's an interesting legacy that Obsidian carries now though.

(1) It reassures me in fact, I was actually afraid that the character we were playing wouldn't have noticeably different dialogues because, well, the player is controlling them, but apparently it won't be the case, so all the merrier .

 

(2) You mean Alpha Protocol and New Vegas? Yep, definitely. But hey, part of Obsidian's appeal, to me at least, is that they do a lot of different kind of RPGs, both in setting and gameplay, they're not 'specialized' like Bioware and Bethesda.

 

Also, the only comment so far in that preview is full of win : "Hmm, how about some detail on the actual gameplay?".

Edited May 14, 2011 by Sannom

[Tigranes]

I don't expect much from DS3, to be honest, not in the way I do from titles like AP or TW2. DS lore was generic high fantasy to begin with and this game is built from the start to be a fun co-op hack & slash action RPG loot-a-thon. I'm just expecting that with Obsidian writing, the story segments will finally not be a pointless waste of time like it is in 90% of action RPGs but something worth the time spent on.

 

Obviously that's very different from the roller-coaster ride of dialogue webs like in AP, where half the game was playing dialogues.

[C2B]

DS lore was generic high fantasy to begin with

 

I disagree on that one. Strongly. At least its not as generic as your typical rpg high fantasy setting and has very much potential.

Edited May 14, 2011 by C2B

[Sannom]

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 ><

A french preview reports that now the left button is used for attacks and specials while the right button is used for movement and only for movement. Did you change your mind on the control scheme for PC?

[C2B]

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 ><

A french preview reports that now the left button is used for attacks and specials while the right button is used for movement and only for movement. Did you change your mind on the control scheme for PC?

 

Or it could be said previews are still from the same preview build he originally answered on. (Hopefully)

Edited May 14, 2011 by C2B

[funcroc]

OT: DSIII at E3 2011

 

- Mark Turcotte, Avault

Just booked our #E32011 meeting with #SquareEnix. Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dungeon Siege III anyone?

[funcroc]

Just Push Start

expect our hands-on preview of Dungeon Siege III later this week!

 

EDIT: http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?p=1612637

 

- Yeah, I work as a freelance reporter for Gamer.nl, the second largest gaming dedicated website in the Netherlands.

 

- No I havent.. am currently playing Dungeon Siege 3.. The Witcher 2 will most likely go to another staff member, who did do some previews. Formally I'm the strategy expert of Gamer.nl, but I play other games as well.

 

- Camera is terrible, but lets not go more of topic than this.. I'll have my preview due monday, so you can probably read it somewhere next week

Edited May 15, 2011 by funcroc

[MechanicalLemon]

Camera issues? That's worrying. That was my biggest gripe about NWN2. Hopefully Obsidian nails it down soon.

[Flouride]

Camera issues? That's worrying. That was my biggest gripe about NWN2. Hopefully Obsidian nails it down soon.

 

I never had issues with NWN2 camera. Maybe I'm just easy to please.

[WorstUsernameEver]

The IGN preview also complained about the camera and Obsidian has a really horrible track record on it so far (pretty much every game where they did the camera themselves, rather than just taking an already done implementation, had a bad camera). Hopefully it will be fixed before release, considering that I haven't heard complaints about bugs so far and a couple of previews have actually been positively surprised about the polish of the game (mostly Italian previews, but still).

[Oner]

TBH I don't see the issue after the Giantbomb quicklook. Yes, the camera just around twice...in an hour. So?

[Starwars]

Huh, wonder what problems those can be. That long GiantBomb video put to ease what fears I had on the camera really. If it's limited to odd-jobb bugs like that one shown in the IGN video then it's not gonna be a problem for me at least. But yeah, a bit weird since I know there's been at least one preview in the past that praised the camera and how it never "got in the way" of playing the game. Ah well, guess we'll see.

[Flouride]

TBH I don't see the issue after the Giantbomb quicklook. Yes, the camera just around twice...in an hour. So?

 

Unless the game is in First Person, there' always someone who will think that the camera sucks. No matter how well done it is. And to quote Volourn: That's a fact.

[Sannom]

jeuxvideo.com, the french site who really hated the PC controls, posted a lot of screens taken from that preview. I'm worried about those, depicting the interface for merchants :

 

 

 

I find it cluttered, and there doesn't seem to be any option to only show one specific kind of equipment or at least the equipment relevant to a specific character. I think it will be a pain for me to go through all this!

 

There are other screenshots too :

 

- Katarina asks you to act as if you know her. Old friends, lovers perhaps... it would be hilarious if people saw a family resemblance between her and Lucas .

- Jeyne Kassynder was quite the looker, although there is something cold about her.

- some callback to the webcomic, Martel remembering Reinhart from Stonebridge.

- Reinhart is apparently a teacher of magic at the Collegium.

- Some lore about the Manx family it seems, since it mentions the son of a character named Merik. Apparently the son, name Gerhart (I can feel a pattern here) started having dealings with goblins, and Merik, who hated that race because they betrayed him two times in his lifetimes, cut all ties with him. I wouldn't be surprised if the 'Manx' name was the name of Gerhart's mother.

- Translation : "What... she's just behind me, isn't she?". Classic.

Edited May 15, 2011 by Sannom

[Oner]

- Translation : "What... she's just behind me, isn't she?". Classic.

That just looks so ridiculous.

[Starwars]

Gotta say that the game looks pretty sharp on PC, and yeah... That last screenshot is all kinds of hilarious, haha.

 

Some way of sorting the shop's inventory, sorting by categories or whatever would definitely be welcome. That said, it'll kinda depend on how many items any given vendor will stock as well. I'm mainly glad that it's not just a list. Seeing the items spread out like that makes gets me in a shopping mood way more than the lists of something like New Vegas.

 

Also, wasn't it confirmed in one of the walkthrough videos that Reinhart was the son of Merik (some guy from the older games)?

[WorstUsernameEver]

Also, wasn't it confirmed in one of the walkthrough videos that Reinhart was the son of Merik (some guy from the older games)?

 

Descendant, I think. Dungeon Siege III takes place 150 years after Dungeon Siege after all.

 

EDIT: Posted in another topic, I guess I can post it here too Italian videopreview of the game. Footage is from the PS3 version as if the button prompts and the fact that it's written there didn't make it obvious enough.

Edited May 15, 2011 by WorstUsernameEver

[MechanicalLemon]

- Translation : "What... she's just behind me, isn't she?". Classic.

 

Funny stuff. From the Eurogamer preview, it looks like DS3 has quite a bit of humor.

 

Despite this, the game itself is surprisingly funny, with lots of pithy descriptions and sly in-jokes for fans. Most notably for those who loved the previous game and it's lovable roving inventory system, there's the "pitiful corpse" of a mule left by the roadside, crushed by the weight of "many suits of armor, sacks of gold and impractically large battleaxes".

 

Elsewhere a mechanical constable, basically a steampunk Robocop, boasts of providing "feline wrangling services" along with his violent law enforcement duties. In another particularly daft moment, you meet a character called Baron Barrenbaron.

 

[Monokli]

- Translation : "What... she's just behind me, isn't she?". Classic.

 

Funny stuff. From the Eurogamer preview, it looks like DS3 has quite a bit of humor.

 

Despite this, the game itself is surprisingly funny, with lots of pithy descriptions and sly in-jokes for fans. Most notably for those who loved the previous game and it's lovable roving inventory system, there's the "pitiful corpse" of a mule left by the roadside, crushed by the weight of "many suits of armor, sacks of gold and impractically large battleaxes".

 

Elsewhere a mechanical constable, basically a steampunk Robocop, boasts of providing "feline wrangling services" along with his violent law enforcement duties. In another particularly daft moment, you meet a character called Baron Barrenbaron.

 

 

That's fun stuff. I don't expect any problems about the atmosphere. (I didn't expect the azunite inquisition though...)

[Starwars]

Also, wasn't it confirmed in one of the walkthrough videos that Reinhart was the son of Merik (some guy from the older games)?

 

Descendant, I think. Dungeon Siege III takes place 150 years after Dungeon Siege after all.

 

EDIT: Posted in another topic, I guess I can post it here too Italian videopreview of the game. Footage is from the PS3 version as if the button prompts and the fact that it's written there didn't make it obvious enough.

 

Thanks for posting that. The game definitely looks best on PC but it still looks pretty nice and the framerate is smooth as hell which is good considering the type of game it is. Do they mention anything new or is it same old?

[WorstUsernameEver]

Thanks for posting that. The game definitely looks best on PC but it still looks pretty nice and the framerate is smooth as hell which is good considering the type of game it is. Do they mention anything new or is it same old?

 

They mostly complain about the game's lack of customization, they didn't really like the characters, button mashing, characters' playstyles too similar.. but game has a lot of potential. I dunno, the conclusion kinda came out of nowhere and seemed to contradict the tone of most of the preview.

 

EDIT: Also, co-op camera complaints.

Edited May 15, 2011 by WorstUsernameEver

[Oner]

EDIT: Also, co-op camera complaints.

Aha! Couch co-op camera problems. It all makes sense now.

[Tigranes]

Isn't it because some people prefer splitscreen? I hate splitscreen.

 

Inventory may be OK because the icons so clearly delinate what item is for what character, etc. It worries me more that the shop has like 15 items with the same icon. As long as it's easy to really quickly scroll the shop inventory and also hover & tooltip each item it should be OK.

[Sannom]

It worries me more that the shop has like 15 items with the same icon.

 

Ah, to be fair and perfectly clear, the second screenshot, which features '15 items with the same icon' is actually the 'sell' interface, that's the loot the player has accumulated, not what the merchant is selling to the player. The first screenshot has very little repeating icons.