Space Siege - Preview @ GameSpot

In more Space Seige news, GameSpot has posted a preview of Gas Powered Games ' Dungeon Seige successor, giving their impressions of a presentation with Chris Taylor:

Like Dungeon Siege before it, Space Siege will be an action role-playing game, but this time, it transports its action out of the underground and into outer space for a full-on sci-fi makeover...

...The focus on just one character is very different from previous games by Chris Taylor, particularly Dungeon Siege II, which offered control of up to eight players at any one time. Taylor says that having so many characters was an open option in his previous game, but it was one that players always took advantage of for fear of missing out on something. The result was that things became unmanageable, especially when it came to managing inventories. This time, he wants to place the focus on one character, which he hopes will not only strengthen the narrative (comparing the hero to John McClane in Die Hard), but also simplify things for novice and advanced players alike...

...Aside from speaking specifically about the game, Chris Taylor spent much of the presentation talking about his revised ethos behind game design. Influenced by recent successes, such as Half-Life 2 and specifically BioShock, Taylor says his thinking has done a full U-turn since Dungeon Siege II. His previous opinion on the importance of game design over storyline has now been reassessed, with a much greater emphasis on narrative and character development. He also made the point that modern game design has moved away from creating ways of punishing players to developing a model that rewards them as regularly as possible. This means eradicating the old "game over" screens, removing manual save/load systems, and allowing regeneration points that allow players to carry on where they were even when they've died. All of the above will apply to Space Siege.