Risen - Official Blog Launched

How awesome is that?

Damn, I wish I didn't read that spoiler. That's something they shouldn't even have revealed until the game shipped. It pretty much lost all it's effect. It's nothing extraordinarily but I would've liked to experienced it on my own.

Yeah there are too many unneeded spoilers in GS. :/

But maybe it's not even true. Could be a mistranslation.

Few things are in shorter supply than proper dungeon crawls with traps and puzzles, and I personally find those aspects requisites for doing it right.

I'm genuinely excited by the potential of this game, and trust me, that doesn't happen often anymore.

The last game that completely absorbed me was Gothic 3 - until I finally gave up in frustration because of bugs and a lousy combat system. There have been great games since that time, but the free-form genre has never been done better than with the Gothic franchise. One of the few weaknesses of Gothic 1/2 was actually the lack of meaty dungeons with this kind of content. The dungeons were always great looking, but were mostly just full of monsters and I don't remember anything like real traps and puzzles.

Wonderful news.

Gorath said:

But maybe it's not even true. Could be a mistranslation.

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Could be but I doubt. It was pretty much confirmed by a few german Risen fans.

We'll see. I was just guessing. Maybe I'll buy the mag next week. It comes with Knights of Honor and one of the Prince of Persia games.

Estel said:

Dunno why the fear, the first Gothics could have been easily mistaken for console-to-PC ports, with the arcadey combat and the somewhat clunky inventory.

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Not imo. The interface was a little clunky yes, but the overall feel and atmosphere of Gothic was nothing like any console game I had ever played.

Well, remember that a platform has nothing to do with the complexity, feel and atmosphere of a game - that's entirely up to the developers No-one forces a developer to "dumb down" gameplay just because he develops for a x360 for example. If anyone could deliver a real RPG to the x360 platform it would be the Piranhas, I think.

Of course, by choosing to develop the game for both PC and X360 will have some effect on the design of the controls (since it obviously has to be playable with a controller) - but actually I don't see any problems in the aspect for the Gothic series since the originals only use very few keys anyway.

Contratry to most people here (it would seem) I think it's a shame that the project will be handled like a PC game + x360 port instead of a true multi-platform project. I'm a professional game developer myself, and my job is developing and maintaining a true multi-platform engine for PC, X360 and PS3. There are certain tools available when you develop for, for example, the X360 that is also a *great* help in performance optimizing and debugging PC code! Also, by developing for the consoles there are certain rules about stability and user-friendliness that is enforced on us developers by Sony and Microsoft. The rules can be a pain in the a** sometimes, but I have to admit, that in the end it means a better performing and more bug free product for the end user. And this is something that I think the Piranhas could use - despite the fact that I absolutely admire them for their titles!!

I, too, especially loved the openness and freedom of G1, G2, and NotR. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring every nook and cranny and the ability to swim and climb. It was a treat to find hidden little treasures and take in the views from a high-up and hard to reach place. It was also a little creepy at the same time.