Role Play Convention This Week

Dhruin

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Omega writes that the annual Role Play Convention at Köln is on this weekend. We usually get some cRPG news during that period, and a look at the programme shows presentations or displays for Obsidian, Drakensang: The River of Time, Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance, Two Worlds II, Dragon Age: Awakening and no doubt more that I missed with my poor German skills.
More information.
 
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Was imho quite interesting - but I missed somehow 2 Worlds. I was much concentrating on the Add-On to Drakensang 2, by the way. ;)

Tomorrow I'll write a small summary of what I've seen, tonight I'm just far too tired for that.

Alrik
 
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Okay, here are some impressions.

Please note that my far biggest focus was on the new Drakensang 2 Add-Onn.

Interestingly, the Drakensang booth and the EA booth containing boh Mass Effect & Dragon Age stood relatively close to one another. Which looked like some kind of slight iron to me : Here the smooth, light-looking, lmost fairy-tale-like Drakensang - and there the grim-looking, dark and brutal and bloody Dragon Age - so close to one aother.

If ever one needed to see the ifferent approaches, there it was at first sight : There the bloddy Awakening logo on a massive, white wall, there he small and wooden booth containing some of the most beautiful temples I have ever seen on screen.

I knew Two Worlds would be there - but I still don't quite understand why I missed it. I've never seen it.
I don't know why.

The sound was far too loud in the rather computer RPG-dominated first hall.

Yesterday very late i played a tiny bit of Warband (Mount & Blade). I looked through everything a tiny bit, and it seemed to me as if one could play it solo and with people.

I took on a place whre someone had left a PC … I was standing within a … valley ? At least everything was surrounded by stoney hills or even small mountains.

I approached a place through running which looked to me (as I went from "The Outer Rim" to the core) as the following :

In the mddle there was a stone-built house ith a wooden roof and a small camp-fire like fire burning at one side - and i couldn't find any intrance in. I'd call the building in German language rather a building like a Kate.
This was the inner core.

Around it there were standing several people, from trained warriors to untrained warriors, and a riding teacher. I couldn't see no merchants the time bit I played long.

They were standing within a … I'd almost call it a corral, it was mainly a wooden fence with the shape of a huge circle, with several entrances.

This was the outer core.

By the way, the people were there for training, and I trained blocking with the sword with them. One told me the more i trained, the faster and better I could become.
Instinctively I thought he meant that this would be noticeable within the stats, but I played far too little to be able to confirm that.

Around the ring-shaped fence here was a kind of turf, where severy people (3-5, I guess) were riding around, and attacking wooden "models" of human shape from the backs of their mounts. The riding trainer told me I could use his horse for that, because he was too old and too stiff, but I didn't do it, because i was not familiar with the controls, the. I was glad I could run anyway. :D ;)

On the screen of another player I had seen that riing works quite smoothly. At least from a beginner's point of view (me).

The character can be created within a menu, and there seem to be several factions to chose from, it seemed to me.

Well, that's it for now.

I also played a tiny bit of "Monster Hunter", a game for the Wii. I was only talking to some people within a town, and I had more than enough problems using my controller (never had a console).

I was looking at Mass Effect, too. I was quite astonished at how "photo-relistic" the graphics looked like. Someone explaned it to me (staff ?). He seemed to know the game better, because maybe he had worked with it at EA ?

I tol him I'd like to see Mass Effect 1 *without* the installation limits, and he told me that the game hadn't been published yet in third form ( 1 - full game, 2 mid-price budget software, 3 - low-price budget software), and he told me he'd give this suggestion further on. He also told me implicitely that he didn't quite like Ubi Softs Internet-Connection DRM, and I explained to him that this kind of DRM was nothing for people in rural areas (@the international reader, please note that Germany still is a very, very much under-developed country in terms of broadband in rural areas).

Having just ended Drakensang 2 the day before the (beginning of the) RPC, I was so much used to the controls of it I just got kind of stuck when playing a tiny bit with Dragon Age - apparently The Awakening, I assume. The controls were so much … "ancient" like in BG1, I intantly thought. Or rather like NWN1.

Which meant i couldn't do much, couldn't zoom in, and I was still so much used to the Drakensang controls that I jut coln't imagine any way to solve my problem. So, I din't find too much fun in plying it with isometric view, and losing the iorst encounter because i didn't kow how to use spells, special attcks etc. . Therefore I left the booth.

On another booth there was King rthur - the strategy game - to be seen, but I hesitated, because I didn't want to re-learn anoher set of controls. It did look very, very good, imho.

About TDE - before I come to the DraSa Add-On - a small ote . There is a box planned called "Dark Times". It takes place and explains a certain time a few times prior to DraSa, and it is set immediately after the (in)famous "Bosparan's Fall", the marking point after which all modern TDE years are counted.

The time will be several hundred years before the "Mage wars", the time that was about to be the setting of the cancelled LMK.

The box will contain lots of mterial (and with abour 50 Euros not cheap), and is planned as kind of a standalone product. The freedom will be rathr like Myranor: The players are entitled to invent quite a lot of things.

Structures are lost or don't exist at all or yet, especially the 12 churches of the modern Aventuria don't exist. That's why quite a lot of more Gods are thre, "available", but almost no real "churches" (except 1 or two, maybe". Gods sometimes even have different names.

Bosparan has just fallen, so many things are possible there. There are indeed "Dark Times".


About the forthcoming DraSa Add-On : It will indeed - like the press release said - take place "at a place that no Aventurian has set foot on since 3000 years".

The rumors have been busy, and the surprise effect (although I had quite anticipated it) was so big I'll put the name of the place into spiilers - even here, where the international audience/readers might not realize what kind of place this really is.

It's Tie'Sianna ! One of the very last realms of the Aventurian High Elves ! Which is great, because High Elves are believed to no more exist since several thousands of years ago!

So, the group - which seemingly can be imported directly into it from the main game - the international audience might perhaps even get both as one package (at least the time frame would fit; on the other hand it would me make angry again, you know me …) will have one of the far greatest personalities from Aventuria in the group : Philleasson himself !

He cannot be controlled, though. Even as a party member, he is independent.

The small place that was playable was one of the most beautiful temples I hve ever seen within a game. Everything breathes "beauty" … Well, it's no wonder, considering its background … ;)

I know a few bits more about it, but they either are unimportant for the interntional audience, or interesting only for insiders familiar with TDE and Aventurian history.

Well, that's it for more or less. I won a bottle of "light Ferdokian beer", or how I could call it, but I haven't opened it since then.

Ah, by the way, the - probabnly - "end-enemy" of the add-on is similar lgendary as the place itself … ;)

A few pictures are attached …

Last … I have seen a presentation of the forthcoming Divinity 2 Add-On. It will be … well, one of the hosts of the German C-RPG magazine called "Buffed, which mainly concetrates on WOW called it kind of "action = epic gameplay" in a sentence. He said that there would be a *lot* of action, and he said it so as i action = epic gameplay. I shuddered.

One scene is that one is inside of a haunted theatre within a town which name I've forgot but which is there in the main game, too.

The main character is the only one who is actually able to see and talk to he still playing actors … And he must assume a role, too !

So, he must go on stage …

The town's protected by a huge … well, what's the word ? It's like a kind of bell jar, like in Gothic 1, but this time for protection of the town, becaue Damian's flying fortress lurks above in the sky (and can faintly be see, atually, next to another, far smaller UFO), and the hero must find a way to go out of it for attacking the flying fortress without harming the protection spell in any way.

The town looks quite peaceful and light-clean. I haven't played the main game far, but the host said the town was much darker and monster-infested within the main game.

At one place they presented a huge tree within the town, which hurts everyone with some kind of lightning. It talks, and the hero must find a book - a dictionary, in fact - in order to be able to understand this tree …

They lso said that there were lots and lots and lots of side-quests (best Larian tradition, I guess ;) ) and lots of humour.
 

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The next on is May, 7 & 8. http://www.rpc-germany.de/

The official web page says that there'll be the following video games exhibitors (in brackets names of their best known current products):

- Square Enix (Dungein Siege 3, Deus Ex 3, Tactics Orgre)
- Bigpoint (Poisonville [cancelled], Drakensang Online
- Gameforge (4Story, Cabal Online)

I'm surprised not to see EA there ... Or dtp ... But the RPC management usually releases their list of exhibitors late ... The current one is still from 2010 !
 
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Aren'ty the controls in NWN 2 and drakensang 2 identical?
 
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It is just listed on their web site : http://www.square-enix.com/eu/de/
More specifically : http://www.tacticsogregame.com/eu/
It is listed for PSP there.
Release date is said to be 25th od February.
And that a "first run" of the pressing will be a "premium edition", whatever this means … (To be found there in the news ...)

Aren'ty the controls in NWN 2 and drakensang 2 identical?

I don't know because I never played NWN2. I was always waiting for a complete package combining all add-ons into one package …
 
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Short notice :

- Bethsoft's "Hunted" will be playable

- "The Cursed Crusade" will be playable (dtp)

- new material about the TDE movie will be shown : http://www.rpc-germany.de/N702/das-schwarze-auge-exklusive-weltpremiere-von-preview-material-am.htm

- something "new" will be shown at the TDE workshop, yet no-one knows what this is (the formulation hints to something special)

- Namco Bandai will be there as well, others are : Bigpoint, Gameforge, Ankama, and - what I didn't know until now : "Burda:ic" , Burda is a company publishing a lot of magazines here

- Koch Media will be there

- Nintendo is expected to be there

- complete list : http://www.rpc-germany.de/C1657/ausstellerliste-2011.htm


What surprises me is the absence of EA. They have their German headquarters in Cologne, but why they aren't listed is a riddle to me ... They were there last year, showing Dragon Age 2 ...

Hasbro is listed there as well, and I think I remember they are the current holders of the (A)D&D license, no ? There is no hint, though, to *what* they'll show there ...

Those of you who are capable of the German language can take a look at the program pamphlet here : http://www.rpc-germany.de//customers/rpc/images/user_documents/RPC11-ProgrammheftOnline.pdf
 
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Winners of the RPC Award :

- Picture : http://twitpic.com/4upkcm

- Video games :

1. Mass Effect 2
2. Fallout : New Vegas
3. Black Mirror III

- Most Promising Product :

1. Drakensang Online
2. The Cursed Crusade

Pen & Paper :

1. TDE Dark Times Box (DSA "Dunkle Zeiten" Box")
2. Ctulhu "Berge Des Wahnsinns" ("Mountains Of Insanity" ?)
3. Warhammer 40000 "Freihändler" ("Freetraders" ?)

- Tabletop & Miniatures :

1. Hordes Primal
2. Warhammer Fantasy Orks & Goblins
3. Freebooters Fate Starterset "Piraten" ("Pirates")

And 3 prizes in the category of LARP equipment, but I don't list them, since I don't quite understand them anyway. ;)
 
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Aren'ty the controls in NWN 2 and drakensang 2 identical?
Drakensang 2 is RoT? I didn't noticed changes between Drakensang and RoT, and Drakensang brought the controls approach copied by, or also choose by DAO, but without the DAO tactical view. Ie DA2 is using the same controls than Drakensang series.
 
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Pictures from the RPC : http://www.pcgames.de/Role-Play-Con...-Role-Play-Convention-824367/galerie/1518052/

I don't like this style of taking photos, but - nothing to really be bickering about …

On this picture there is a member of dev studio of Dadaelic drawing a character of the upcoming (still in progress) TDE adventure game "Satinav's Chains" : http://www.pcgames.de/Role-Play-Con...ie/1518052/#?a_id=824367&g_id=-1&i_id=1518101

This picture shows Robert Vogel, someone everyone should know from the JediCon and the FedCon. ;) http://www.pcgames.de/Role-Play-Con...ie/1518052/#?a_id=824367&g_id=-1&i_id=1518123
 
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