Dungeon Siege 3 - Preview Roundup
 

Hey, a sudden avalanche of Dungeon Siege 3 previews - and apparently the game might be due in May, though that sounds too soon to me given the lack of exposure to date.
Let's kick off with Rock, Paper, Shotgun:
Eurogamer, with a snip on the engine:
On to Gamespot, with a form of after-action-report, though I'm going to quote the summary because George Ziets rocks:
NowGamer:
Strategy Informer:
[quote]
Since this is the first Dungeon Siege coming to home consoles the controls have also been re-imagined for use on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 pads. Obsidian’s solution to cramming all your typical hot bar abilities on to a controller is a pretty elegant one. …More information.

I hated the original Dungeon Siege for lack of story and loved Dungeon Siege 2 for it was better. If obsidian can do better dialogue and story I'm sure I will love the game. Don't ruin the game obsidian. Just expect an insane amount of bugs as every release from obsidian has them.

Obsidian certainly is notorious for the amount of bugs present in their games but to be fair, similar to Troika, Obsidian has long suffered from publishers rushing their work and forcing them to finish their ambitious games in an unreasonably short time-frame. Let's look back at just two examples of Obsidian not being given an appropriate amount of time to "finish" their games from a polishing/bug-killing standpoint: Kotor 2: 18 months. Fallout: New Vegas: 2 years (I think). Alpha Protocol, while not "polished" in some respects, wasn't really "buggy," at least from my experience with the game and compared to their other projects where they weren't given enough time. Either way, I'm usually willing to forgive Obsidian for the bugginess of their games because they make pretty unique and enjoyable RPGs, and I'm fairly confident they will do a good job on DS3 (although I'm not too excited about this one because hack n' slash games typically don't appeal to me).

DS3 a stop gap ?
I find it hard to believe Blizzard will pull out better story and dialogs than this.
As far as I'm concerned, accepting a quest from a puppet is worse than following landmarks.
Hail Obsidian!

Blizzard's writing has been pretty good lately. They also do awesome cut-scenes, and those are a legitimate way of conveying story. That said, I doubt D3 will be as good of a true RPG as DS3.

It's a bit disappointing to quote that DS3 will evolve to join the mass of RPG with a single character. Not that I don't like but nothing can match diversity.

I'm a sucker for Obsidian games, so this will be a day 1 buy for me. This company can do me no wrong. But I hope that the game will be more polished than the previous ones.

From the Obsidian forums (aka, I didn't spot this, just reporting this, credit goes to C2B there for finding this), Golem.de has a video attached to their preview.

I keep forgetting that DS3 is being made by Obsidian. I am so bored with action rpgs lately that I avoid any news on them at all, but since it's Obsidian I'll be buying this one as soon as it's released.

I hope it will be buggy and I hope it will be grand. It seems the buggier the release the better the rpg part is :P Some of my all time favorite rpgs were a buggy mess when they were released like with Fallout 1, 2 & NV, Bloodlines, Arcanum, etc.

Last year we saw a deep rpg series go shallow (arcania) and this year we will see a shallow rpg get deeper… how things have turned on their heads.

If they hold their hands over their ears whenever Chris Taylor speaks, the game has a good chance :)

Vampire: Bloodlines was a day one buy for me… sooooo yeah, day one buy. ;) Honestly, it's Obsidian and a few European developers… that's it for non indie RPGs. Altho there are some good Japanese developers. that classic western RPG feel is almost dead.

…and hopefully Deus Ex 3 ;)

Also a day 1 purchase for me.
And also because of Obsidian, since I hated previous Dungeon Siege games.

I'm not a fan of any dev team/studio but i feel quite isolated now it's about Obsidian:

• For me Obsidian isn't Fallout 1 but Fallout 2 and if FO1 is a top favorite I never enjoyed FO2 and never been able played much of it.
• For PS:T it's for me one of the bad beginning I would quote as an example to avoid, boring and repetitive fights, pedant dialogs and repetitions too, tedious exploration and repetitive places, weird mood that didn't catch me at all. I don't know if the intent was to mimic PK Dick interrogations about mind world vs real world, but I enjoyed a lot ton of PK Dick books and not at all PS:T beginning.
• The whole Icewind Dale series, well some fun fights design but tedious series from a RPG point of view.
• BG2: DA well is this really noteworthy? Well ok, I never played it.
• Kotor 2 as far I remember never been highlighted as better than Kotor 1 and in fact I remember it's more the reverse that was highlighted.
• For NWN2 I don't remember so many gamers was fan of it and remember more that I had to struggle to defend it. It's still a game I would say good and more but with a bit too many weakness.
• MotB has a huge writing for me and many good gameplay design point in particular the morale choices with no clear black/white answers. But the soul meter and some other points wasn't amazing design points just had the big plus to be original. But this game, certainly among my top favorites, also show writing weakness, if the global story could build well your compassion for some of your companions, it's also strange the total failure to make any of them attaching.
• Alpha Protocol: I just tried the game, and still have to understand what's so fun in it.
• FNV: Ok this one seems quite good from the few I played, that's only two for me among a long list, with MoTB.
• DS3: Morph a party game to a single character game, that's a very bad point to them.

So really no I don't see any reason to be a fan of Obsidian.

My god. You, sir! You are a poet. And with it such superior reasoning. I mean how could someone doubt all your fine brought up points. Nobody could compare.

But, dear Sir. You seem to live in a world that is full with flawless game companies. If you may direct me to them?

My biggest concern for this PC game is that it has been consoleized. The reviewer at Gamespot actually played it on a PC but used a Xbox controler??? I will have to wait for more info on how the PC controls work. Otherwise the game looks like it could be a lot of fun.

I respect your opinion, but I hope you know that you just slapped some of the greatest RPGs, and action-RPGs of all time in the face? How could you do that? Fallout 2? Icewind Dale? Mask of the Betrayer? Really?

Leaving aside that you're mixing in some Interplay games - I can't relate to your taste at all. I won't respond on every point, because we obviously just have completely different taste, but I'm perplexed by the DS3 thing.

They're taking a game with an irrelevant party that practically played itself and adding full dialogue and choices -- and you're focused on the irrelevant party? I don't think you can see the forest for the trees.

The problem seems to be some people cant enjoy an rpg if it only has one character.
Bioware comes under attack for only allowing you to have a party of three.

You grab me a smile, be happy. :)

I probably didn't wrote well but MotB is in my top favorite I wrote it in the post, despite it has some strange weakness like non attaching companions.

For FO2 and IWD series and I'm surprised you didn't include PS:T that RPG players have an obligation to enjoy, yes I don't consider them as top, for me FO2 is missing something fundamental that has FO1 and not FO2, a magic touch that's been lost.

Yeah my preferences seems not shared a lot… but if I pick top ten favorite RPG of all time of people posting they are blind fans of Obsidian I wonder how many Obsidian RPG had really end in their top ten. In fact I'll make the exercise for curiosity.

It's your opinion that party is irrelevant in Dungeon Siege I would like to see the arguments.

For me the fights was working very well and wasn't at all the problem of the game. this was making them quite different to any diablo like with single character. So I wonder what makes party irrelevant here.

I don't care much they repeat once more a schema (single character back view) I see too often in modern RPG (it's quite close to first person or over the shoulder), to lost one quite more rare.

I never did finish Dungeon Siege because I'm not all that into hack & lash games but from what I played party members didn't add any unique qualities that were needed in which your main character couldn't do so they were irrelevant. In other party based rpgs party members usually added unique qualities and that isn't even including games where you have interaction between characters. I could be entirely wrong with the above because I didn't play enough.

Mmh, let me think:
- The party in DS1 was totally automated. They fought totally on their own, if not made the active party member
- You could deactivate some of the automated functions in DS2, but they were in the game
- None of the NPCs were remarkeble characters. Something you criticised about NWN2MotB
- The party was optional in DS2 anyway.
- The was no party interaction of any kind
- Because of the skill system, no abilty was really unique.
- Insta reanimate after fights doesn't increase the meaning of a party

I only used 3 chars in DS2 anyway, because the game got too easy with a bigger party.

If you always controlled only one character I highly doubt you made it through the tougher fights. Your remark apply to BG1&2, IWD,… So what?

You are making a confusion between the game quality and a gameplay system, those negative points you are quoting don't come from the system but from the game quality that could be improved.

Drag the game from a more rare system that has a good potential to the routine standard system of modern RPG, here what I complained.

EDIT:
To answer more precisely to your points:

• Sure optional party, like in all RPG with party, I don't remember one where some players brag they made it with a single character. This doesn't defeat the party meaning.
• There was many companion comments during exploration.
• For unique skills companions, it's just a remark agaisnt RPG with party.
• Reanimate after fights have been also used by your so well beloved Obsidian and it's wrong that it destroy the party meaning. When during a fight you lost a companion your fighting team become weaker and this could make you lost this fight.

It seems you don't like party RPG, some players enjoy and it's a shame to see one more join the RPG modern routine.

No, because the AD&D system used in those games is far more tactical and the individual skills available are far deeper and more interesting. This makes BG2 much better as a part-based game - but DS lacks the tactical elements and the party adds almost nothing.

Can't speak for Sir_Brennus but I *love* part-based games. However, we're talking about arguably the most dull hack'n'slash game ever with the epitome of a generic party. I'm not *wanting* the party gone but the addition of real RPG elements is much more interesting than the loss of a generic party system. You do like the additional RPG elements, right? Surely you didn't like DS as it stood?

I think a lot of players here enjoy party based RPG's. Dungeon Siege is just not a very good example of of a well executed one though IMO.

I enjoyed DS2, I also enjoyed DS2 expansion. For DS1 it's long ago and I'm not sure I finished it, just remember some big fights.

Myself I found a lot of tactical value in DS2 fights, and I wonder why the classes in DS2 are considered here as all the same, it makes no sense, just check them in some guide.

In DS2 there was a tournament area, with only tougher and tougher fights to win, no quest, nothing, just some reward and medals. It was great, because DS2 fights was great. What to say, you didn't found tactical values in fights, too bad for you, but if I did found tactical values it's because there was tactical values, that sort of stuff is hard to imagine from nothing.

I consider DS2 and its extension a quite underated party action RPG. For me there's Torchlight, D2 and then DS2, Din's Curse and Alien Shooter 2. Other like Titan Quest or Fate are very far behind.

That said, once again, the game could be improved and keep a base of Party and Hack&Slash.

single character game? Pleh! *vomits his lunch* No thanks, to me this just turns it into YADC (yet another Diablo clone)

I think you all forget about the complexity of the human mind. Why argue with a man over something, maybe at that time his mother was nice, and now no more. Maybe His olfactory system was delighted with various aromas, or everything was so dull around, that this game seemed complex. there are tons and tons of possibilities.

So please stop your brain from coming up with arguments and arguments, and accept the fact that your perception was rare and lucky.

Ja

I'm not suggesting you imagined it - we simply disagree. It's not unlike when you just like you couldn't see the value in Alpha Protocol, only we're the other way around.