Piranha Bytes RPB - Details Emerge

Dhruin

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World of Piranha Bytes has released details on Piranha Bytes' post-Gothic project for Deep Silver, codenamed RPB. These come from a press conference at Leipzig with Mike Hoge and other Piranhas.
Yesterday, World of PB gave a summary in German and today, this post in English summarises the salient points:
As stated yesterday, the game is set on a volcanic and «forbidden» island. All character animations will be made anew, the game will have dungeons, traps, secret doorways and riddles. The developers are known for maintaining close contact to their fanbase and took up some suggestions like increasing the effectiveness of certain weapons when fighting particular foes, like a hammer for golems. Instead of having a myriad of items in virtually indistinguishable variations, the game will concentrate on fewer but clearly recognisable weapons, armour sets and items.

The new game is again made for a single player and the PC. At the moment no other platform is in development. Whether the game will be made for DirectX9 oder DirectX10 is still undecided. The graphics engine will consist of some licensed components but most of it is being developed by Piranha Bytes itself.
From the limited details so far, it sounds very much like a reimagining of the Gothic series.
More information.
 
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I still have faith in PB. This game does indeed sound like the reimaging of Gothic - I hope they succeed, and look forward to seeing the results.
 
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i am sure that after we save this forbidden island we will go on the continent and wreak havoc!! hahaha can't wait!
 
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I still have faith in PB. This game does indeed sound like the reimaging of Gothic - I hope they succeed, and look forward to seeing the results.

In a way it reminds me of the whole Far Cry / Crysis thing in terms of names and actual product ...
 
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Finally, we get a new PB game :) It sounds (too much) like Gothic, though, But it could still be good, though :)

I like the idea of having more unique weapons, set and items that do more damage to certain monsters. I hope they will made the game for DX 10, but with DX 9 support.

It will be interesting, too, to follow this game's development.
 
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with the unique weapons and the puzzles it might even become better than gothic, if I dare to say it
 
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well... since is coming long after gothic it has to be very very nice if they want it better than gothic! but for the visual part i think it will be better! i hope PB learned from mistakes! I hope this game will be better optimized and well tested!
 
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I think it sounds like a great game, as long as they don't try to make it the next Oblivion or Bioshock. Keep it simple and make sure it works right. When I saw them mention 'riddles' all I could think of was the Moredhel wordlock puzzles from Betrayal at Krondor. I always thought that was one of the coolest features of that game (or any other game ever done, for that matter) and nobody has done anything close to it since. Perhaps they'll try something similar.
 
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I think maybe finally they will get back to basics, meaning old school gaming. In the old rpgs or even Trials of the Luremaster etc. - there were riddles and puzzles to be solved e.g. answering a riddle gave your access to a certain area or a cool sword or some info. Puzzles and riddles belong more in the adventure genre these days, so maybe we'll see a crossover rpg adventure/puzzlegame game.
 
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I hate to say it, but the part that scares me is where it mentions the engine will be largely developed by PB. I wish they would just leave well enough alone after all the G3 engine problems...
 
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I'm sure they will do a great job. Btw, here's an interview made by IGN with Mike Hoge that was posted on WOPB. It's pretty informative.

I hate to say it, but the part that scares me is where it mentions the engine will be largely developed by PB. I wish they would just leave well enough alone after all the G3 engine problems...
Why? Genome was indeed broken, but G1&2's engine were really nice imo. So they're not hopeless yet.
 
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Wonder if they'll go back to the controls they used with the original Gothic, or keep it all mouse based?
 
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Why? Genome was indeed broken, but G1&2's engine were really nice imo. So they're not hopeless yet.

On todays PC's the first two games run smooth, but when Gothic 2 came out it was plagued with some pretty nasty memory leaks - the longer you played the slower it became. And even at the time, (although I liked them), graphics were a little dated
Don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE Gothic fan, I just think engine design is their weakest link.
 
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And even at the time, (although I liked them), graphics were a little dated
Don't get me wrong, I'm a HUGE Gothic fan, I just think engine design is their weakest link.

That's only true for Gothic 2 though which was outclassed by games such as Morrowind. Gothic 1 on the other hand was absolutely spectacular looking at the time of release in Germany (March 2001). Those large outdoor environments with no loading zones and over the top viewing ranges had not been seen in any other game to that date. 2001 was the time of claustrophobic Q3A engine games. Gothic 1 was completely unmatched at the time (including its steep hardware reqs to run it all on highest detail).
So their track record is Gothic = groundbreaking, Gothic 2 = competitive/slightly dated, Gothic 3 = competitive but deeply flawed. They said they wanted to go "back to the roots" so the new one has got to be groundbreaking again (hopefully ;) ).
 
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Yes I agree with everything you said... From the context you can see I was talking specifically about Gothic 2, not Gothic 1. In the parentheses when I said "although I like them," I was referring to the graphics in Gothic 2, not "them" as in the first two games. :)
 
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Oh, I see. Thanks for clarifying. I misundahst00dz dat den :biggrin: .
 
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No prob! :thumbsup:
 
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