Dark Messiah - "Elements" X360 Version

Dhruin

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Eurogamer is reporting that a brochure for an Ubisoft event in Paris has a logo for "Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Elements". It's an even bet whether this is an addon to Arkane's action effort or a console port. Elements is due to be demonstrated during Ubidays, so we'll find out soon.
[Update] ...And here it is. I missed a later Eurogamer newsbit that reveals Elements as an updated Xbox 360 port:
Ubisoft has revealed at its event in Paris that Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Elements is an Xbox 360 title.
It will be a port of the game that appeared on PC last year, but with new and additional content.
More information.
 
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I have still not seen any details around 'new & improved' but I doubt it will be much ... DMoMM was still a big disappointment for me. (but fun, I know)
 
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I don't see why they are continuing this crappy path. Wasn't Dark Messiah of Might and Magic pretty much a disaster? Whatever lousy sales it realized was due mostly to pre-orders and hype from the game's E3 showing last year. Haven't they learned their lesson from past spinoffs of the Might and Magic franchise? People don't want this crap.

Why can't Arkane just go ahead and make Arx 2?
 
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I don't see why they are continuing this crappy path. Wasn't Dark Messiah of Might and Magic pretty much a disaster? Whatever lousy sales it realized was due mostly to pre-orders and hype from the game's E3 showing last year. Haven't they learned their lesson from past spinoffs of the Might and Magic franchise? People don't want this crap.

Unfortunately I can't grab PC games numbers like I can for consoles / handhelds, but I think it did OK in terms of sales
 
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If you can accept the fact that Dark Messiah has got nothing to do with M&M and that it is not an RPG then it is really great game (which is why I usually refer to it as just Dark Messiah instead of its' full name).

Of course I would rather that Elements had been a sequel or an add-on instead of a console port of the PC game with a bit of added stuff but then again if I want to play Dark Messiah again sometime it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get the console version since a deep rooted bug in the Source engine makes it necessary for me to virtually cripple my machine if I want to run the game.
 
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If you can accept the fact that Dark Messiah has got nothing to do with M&M and that it is not an RPG then it is really great game (which is why I usually refer to it as just Dark Messiah instead of its' full name).

When playing Dark Messiah, I hadn't finished a M&M game, and certainly didn't think of it as a RPG ... yet I still don't think it was a great game. Fun? Yep. But not great.
 
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I'm looking forward to playing Dark Messiah again someday. I played it after the very first patch and still had a lot of fun despite some annoying bugs. I do belive there have been several patch updates since I played the game so I'm looking forward to playing it again as a more polished game.
 
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I picked it up in the "Bargin Bin" for $10.00 a couple of weeks ago. Going to give it a shot here in a few days.

As long as it's better than "Dungeon Lords", I'll be happy.
 
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When playing Dark Messiah, I hadn't finished a M&M game, and certainly didn't think of it as a RPG ... yet I still don't think it was a great game. Fun? Yep. But not great.
While I certainly respect your right to your own opinion I just have to point out that I didn't use the word "great" arbitrarily. One thing is to make 3 different career paths to follow, that has been done successfully many times. However, only a few games manages to make each path a completely unique gameplay experience (unique compared to the other paths in the same game).

I literally felt like I was playing 3 different games when I went through Dark Messiah as a warrior, a mage and a thief. Some areas that were a piece of cake as a warrior might pose a challenge for the mage and again be a breeze for the thief and vice versa. All but a very few encounters in the game played out very differently depending on which path I had chosen and that suggests carefully planned level design of a high quality caliber.

That is why I used the word "great" ... but hey, maybe I'm just into chopping off the limbs of my enemies or exploding them into a fine red mist ... on second thought, scratch the "maybe". I'm definitely into excessive gore and blood and guts and the whole shabang :evilgrin:
 
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Do you also find it different in a FPS using a shotgun vs. a pistol vs. a machine-gun?

I am replaying the game now and just completed the part where you have to protect the ship for take-off. There is exactly *one* solution, just as there is for pretty much everything in the game (except for the minor plot turns, of course). You kill everyone. *How* you do it is a matter of tactics. But then, I'm also replaying Soldier of Fortune II and I can use sniping vs. knife stealth attacks vs. blazing machine guns. Those give a different feel, but don't really make it much of a 'different game'.
 
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Following that line of logic there is also *one* solution to most RPGs (or 2 of you go for an evil ending in some games). How you reach the end is a matter of tactics, be it flinging spells, shooting arrows or whacking with a sword.

Then again, the ship protection sequence and a few other sequences in the game (particularly a sequence when you return to Stonehelm from the Spidertemple) are indeed primarily a matter of how you kill the enemies since they either pop up in front of you or have to be put down before they reach a certain point or kill a certain person. However, in most other sequences in the game you have free reins to proceed however you like, even by bypassing many fights along the way.

Different weapons in most FPS games is merely a matter of how fast, how accurate and how much damage you dish out based on the weapon you use. A game like Deus Ex provided a very different kind of gameplay experience if you used a stealth approach rather than a direct approach. Several encounters would still render your sneaking prowess more or less useless if you planned on taking them out (e.g. Grendles, Cyborgs and robots) but other encounters could be dealt with swiftly, silently and very efficiently by using the stun prod or the tranquilizer darts.

Such diversity transcends mere different tactics in my book, but that might just be me. I remember feeling like I was playing a completely new game when trying Diablo2 as a Necromancer after having played as a Paladin. The same was true all 3 times through Dark Messiah.
 
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I've only finished Dark Messiah as an assassin but I've played partial games as a spellcaster and a warrior. There's no difference between them whatsoever other than the method of dispatching the enemy.
 
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