Risen 3: Titan Lords - Officially Announced

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Despite information being leaked earlier this week Deep Silver has now officially announced the next Risen game called Risen 3: Titan Lords. Here are the details.

It is also now safe to post screenshots so check out our gallery here.
Risen 3: Titan Lords – Piranha Bytes Return To Their Roots With Classic RPG

Piranha Bytes, the creators of Gothic and Risen, return to their origins with a new, classic RPG. Risen 3: Titan Lords pulls the player in to a handcrafted role-playing world full of rugged charm where every decision changes the course of the story. Risen 3: Titan Lords is set for release in August 2014 for the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft and for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system as well as Windows PC.

The key element of the cult Gothic series as well as Risen is the vivid world and the freedom to explore it. The world of Risen 3: Titan Lords will be diverse, authentic and full of life, providing the player with an authentic, classic RPG experience.

“Like a carpenter with a handcrafted piece of furniture, we put together the story, the characters and the landscape until it all fits and the player has the possibility to discover things all around the place. You can try out and find things that others might not. Exploration is the key to our game”, says Bjoern Pankratz, Project Lead at Piranha Bytes.

The world of Risen 3 is abandoned by all gods and suffers from the Titan Wars when a new threat rises from the soil. A young warrior is attacked from the shadows and deprived of his soul. He sets off to reclaim what is lost amidst the darkness that is spreading throughout the world. The banned Mages could be powerful allies on his quest. To get their help, he needs to find the Mage sanctuary on Taranis, also known as the Island of Thunder. Protected by the Guardians, the Mages search the mines of Taranis for crystals loaded with magic energy. Will the player join the Guardians to get in contact with the Mages? Or will he choose one of the other guilds in Risen 3 to reach his goals?

Official Website: http://risen3.deepsilver.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/risengame
Twitter: www.twitter.com/deepsilver
More information.
 
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August? Wow, I guess I thought it would take a bit longer.

I've enjoyed the last two games quite a bit and will definitely be playing this, but I feel like were in the middle of a bit of a resurgence of PC gaming, especially RPG gaming, so having "Windows PC" listed as what seems to be an afterthought is a little worrying.

I wonder if Risen 2 sold better on "the Xbox 360 games and entertainment system from Microsoft", or even on the "PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system"? (where I guess it still didn't sell well enough to warrant a mention of the manufacturer)
 
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Interesting, they target last gen consoles.

Found Risen 1 a bit dull and never played Risen 2 (only the demo, didn't like it much). I hope they really can find to their old form (Gothic 1+2). Although I think it's funny they say they would make "classic RPGs" - action-games with RPG elements don't really fit the description for me. ;)

Oh well, at least they still do stuff.
 
Well, they're using the same engine as Risen 2, so they might as well release it on XB360 and PS3, but it seems a bit odd to not target XBOne and PS4.

Anyway, my RPG schedule for 2014 was already fairly full at this point, but I should be able to squeeze in Risen 3, simply because it's a PB game. I'll make room if I don't have any.
 
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The architecture is quite different on XB1 and PS4 - so I can understand them not wanting to go that route, since I don't think their last few games have been hits on consoles.
 
yeah it seems strange to me that they're not releasing on the next gen consoles. Although the architecture is different to the old ones its almost exactly the same as the PC so I wouldn't think porting is that much effort in dev time. I expect we will see an announcement some time in the near future

Anyway, hooray more Risen! I loved the first one and thoroughly enjoyed the second as well (although I hope they go back to more of the style of the original for number 3).

On a side note I played Arcania recently and was really surprised by how much I enjoyed that too. It actually felt a lot more like a PB game than I was expecting
 
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XB1 and PS4 have the same architecture as the PC so they shouldn't have a problem releasing it for those consoles.
 
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No, they don't have the "same" architecture - they have a SIMILAR architecture. Porting from PC to those isn't a matter of just choosing a compiling platform - it takes a lot of effort, especially when it comes to UI and performance balancing.
 
Really dont see their reasoning for targeting the last gen consoles.
With the massive technical limitations that brings they are pretty much guaranteed to disappoint the pc crowd which has allways been their main fanbase and considering none of their console games got a warm reception on those platforms the chances of it being a hit on those are not too good either.
 
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It's the same engine and essentially the same game. Not releasing it on consoles like last time would be like throwing money out of the window.

As in, moronic.
 
Or they could update the graphics, remove a ton of loading screens and perhaps even add a proper combat system then release it as a nextgen title.
Just because it is the same engine does not mean it can only handle map sizes etc a 360 is able to run.
 
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Or they could update the graphics, remove a ton of loading screens and perhaps even add a proper combat system then release it as a nextgen title.
Just because it is the same engine does not mean it can only handle map sizes etc a 360 is able to run.

Meaning it wouldn't be the same engine - and they'd have to rework everything and then port it to next-gen platforms using even more resources and time on platforms they're not familiar with. They are a very small team compared to most developers of titles on this scale.

They know exactly what the 360 can handle - since they've released Risen 2 using that engine - and they'll obviously keep to that now.

Given the modest success of the Risen games, going big now and doing so much work on the technical side would be, again, moronic. There's no way they'll sell this to the larger market efter Risen AND Risen 2 both have been so underwhelming on consoles.

Sure it would be nice for us - but they have to stay realistic.

Also, for me, the technical side wasn't the problem with Risen 2 - as I thought it was quite beautiful and appropriate for the setting. The foliage thing was the only technical problem I felt it had - and that was easily fixed.

Nah, I think they're making the right choice.

I just think the actual game design sounds a bit underwhelming.
 
They didn't evolve since Gothic series. Risen 1 and 2 were horrible to me. Boring, outdated, cluncky gameplay. I won't even bother to try a demo of Risen 3.
 
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They didn't evolve since Gothic series. Risen 1 and 2 were horrible to me. Boring, outdated, cluncky gameplay. I won't even bother to try a demo of Risen 3.

If they didn't evolve - but stagnate - I take it you consider the Gothics to be boring and with clunky gameplay?
 
Interesting. I've played Risen 1 for a few hours but stopped because I was frustrated every porcupine could kill me almost instantly, but I think I was doing something wrong. Might give it another try now but read the manual first ;)
 
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I quite enjoyed Risen 1. Except from the stupid arcade-style final boss fight.

I din't like the Risen 2's pirates & vodoo setting, cause in Gothic-style games I virtually always play a mage character. So I missed the fireballs.
I just began to like the vodoo stuff until I realized that it was in great parts useless. And guns. I don't like guns in Fantasy-RPGs.
And I hated that no matter what faction you joined in Risen 1, you always started as an Inquisitor. For me that was like playing a separate story with another character.

So I'll take a look at Risen 3. Hopefully there will be a demo.
 
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Meaning it wouldn't be the same engine - and they'd have to rework everything and then port it to next-gen platforms using even more resources and time on platforms they're not familiar with.

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A game engine is basically just a set of tools so it would still be the same engine and a grafix update aswell as larger world spaces does not require a "rework of everything" unless you move platforms in the middle of development.
They must have known when they started on this game that the next gen toyboxes were right around the corner and could no doubt obtain a dev kit or some such.
Even if they are re-using every single asset from risen 2 they would still have to come up with new play areas and could have adjusted those to take advantage of the increased ram, hd space and cpu power of the new consoles.
Considering the abysmal launch titles the new consoles came with they could probably even have secured a nice faustian bargain with sony or microsoft to further cut costs on their end.
Ofc this is all baseless speculation in the end but i just cant help but be disappointed by what will undoubtedly be another mediocre offering failing to please both fans and whatever other imaginary audience they are aiming at.
Just stick to pc dagnabbit! *shakes kane*. We stopped being a niche audience quite some time ago.
 
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Once again, if they upgrade the engine - they have to rework everything to work on last-gen consoles, whether they do it from the beginning of development or not. It's a lot of extra work for minimal gain.

They would also have to do a lot of work to implement the game on next-gen hardware - because they have no experience with the new consoles - and they have new architecture.

It seems to me you have a very unrealistic understanding of the challenges involved here, and I don't really see the upside of having a debate with you about a fantasy scenario that's not relevant now.

If you think it's trivial to upgrade the engine significantly and create all assets with increased fidelity, rework the new engine for last-gen and implement it for next-gen - that's fair enough.

I don't agree and we don't have to.
 
Also, I understand that PC gamers want games made for them alone - but unfortunately money is important to a lot of people in this world. Consoles represent a huge share of the market - and it's only natural for developers to want to have their game bought and played by as many people as possible.

While I'd be glad to have everything designed around my hardware and platform of choice - I consider it excessively selfish and irrational to expect developers to ignore their own income for the minority.
 
I am not a game developer (or a programmer) but i do know that programming for consoles is almost unilaterally done in c++ for both the old and new gen.
It is my understanding a piece of code that runs on a 360 should be able to run on an Xbone and the lack of bacwards compatibility is not a technical issue but a business decision.
But yes i may very well have an unrealistic understanding of the challenges involved.
 
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