RPGWatch Feature - Divinity: Original Sin EE Gamescom Preview

If there is one stop I always make when visiting Gamescom is to visit Larian Studios (when they are there). This time Divinity Original Sin Enhanced Edition was presented on the show by Swen and Thomas using a demo in which they tried to show all the additions and changes in the short time available.

Divinity: Original Sin was released over a year ago. The game received quite a lot of credits and I suppose sold rather well as Larian Studios decided that they would overhaul the game to make it an even better experience. And they do not only bring this new experience to PC players (those who have the original game get this enhanced edition for free), but also to PS4 and Xbox One. To make it possible to use the game on these consoles quite some changes to the user interaction were needed. However PC players do not need to be alarmed, as long as you do not have a controller plugged into your PC you will be presented an interface for usage with a keyboard and mouse with a familiar look to those who have played the original. But also the PC user interface has been improved to make some of the new features possible. Swen states that the new controller interface works so well that at Larian Studios offices the team generally prefers to play the game with a controller on their PC instead of a keyboard and mouse.

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More information.

On top of this, Swen mentioned this today in a tweet:

This is going to be a very big week for @larianstudios. No wait, make that a very big month. Watch this space!

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If we can get an Enhanced Edition of Original Sin, maybe they should make a new version of Divine Divinity 1, too.

Good article Myrthos - you are on a roll

I don't like Larian's new found console love so much; they should concentrate on PC games - the best platform for RPGs.

HiddenX said:

If we can get an Enhanced Edition of Original Sin, maybe they should make a new version of Divine Divinity 1, too.

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I would definitely go for a reboot of DD using the D:OS engine, as long as they significantly improved the last half of the game.

Swen already mentioned last year that they had ported part of Divinity 1 to the new engine and that it is something he would like to do.
Not sure though if there is much money to make from doing that, given the effort needed.

Larian always has an issue with the second half of the game. The release date is always to soon. That also goes for D:OS, which is why they changed the second half of that as in the Enhanced Edition.

Love Larian and Swen. Hope the console players eat it up.

HiddenX said:

I don't like Larian's new found console love so much; they should concentrate on PC games - the best platform for RPGs.

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I would think you would, for no other reason then ensuring their success with more revenue.

rune_74 said:

I would think you would, for no other reason then ensuring their success with more revenue.

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More revenue to do what? Make more console games? I like PC games tailored for the PC for PC rpg lovers with real inventories made with love and science.

How many man hours and money (money they made off of PC players) are they wasting to make a fancy smancy console version? Money and man hours that could have and should have went into making the game better for PC players. Not with the useless nonsense bullshit they added, but by things needed and wanted to make it a better PC game. An overhauled character progression system since DOS has the absolute worst progression system of any game this company has ever put out.

They obviously want to be one of the big boys, and being one of the big boys means strong console sales. Strong console sales means consoles and the "console experience" govern how future games are designed, from lists for inventories, to dumbed down everything so console players and five year olds don't have to think, to commercials on Adult Swim that make no sense, to having more of a graphic simulator than a game.



Sure, kiss the computer rpg lover's asses when you want us to fund your game, but as soon as you get some success you blow the money we gave you on super console fancy game 2000 so Fuckface doesn't have to walk four feet and turn on a computer and play civilized with a keyboard and mouse.

For over a year things started to look good. It was like people developed good taste out of no where, and all of a sudden shit I liked started to be made again. Everyone talked the talk and walked the walk, and then…..fuck you, shit on your face, penis in your pooper…it was all a joke…we are all still console players who like absolute shit games with lists for inventories. Ha ha. Buy a steam box and Dark Souls 3, become a lemming, being a monkey-savage is where it is at, bro!

They killed barley?

Sorry Unregistered but you language, and you aren't even making a point.
I reported your post

HiddenX said:

If we can get an Enhanced Edition of Original Sin, maybe they should make a new version of Divine Divinity 1, too.

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I'd pay for that again, if only to support them.

I don't mind their detour to consoles, if it brings them in more money so they can keep on developing cRPGs.

Unregistered, yoi're getting reported for the extremely foul language. Posting vicious, offensive texts like that is not the way to go.

I like the guy and his post. Proper and just reaction at yet another backstab for pc gamers, after pulling their asses from the verge of bankruptcy, they're sticking it to us like this. Console and controller develpment from now on, they just couldn't stay away. Great success on the PC didn't give them a jolt to continue in the same direction, but instead they got greddy. What, you think their future games are going to be like Original Sin was? Very likely it's gonna be console designed from the start, a Dragon Age 2 or Inquisition from Origins.

I'm playing through Divinity II now, and I hope to pick this up in the fall/winter seeing as how I never got D:OS when it first came out.

Great article Myrthos, really upping my hype level here.

Also, unrestigered, you don't have any meds do you? Are you, perchance, off of them? Perhaps you should go back on.

Nephologist said:

I'm playing through Divinity II now, and I hope to pick this up in the fall/winter seeing as how I never got D:OS when it first came out.

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Don't forget to play the add-on. It's the best part of Divinity 2.

The bit about character progression sounds great, more diversity was sorely needed. I'm so looking forward to couch-coop.

What the freak are you talking about ? They have a true and blue pc interface. If you plug in the controller you get a console interface; unplug it and you get a true pc interface that is completely different. While they are not the first game to do this they are one of the few recent games that haven't given us a hacked up pc interface due to consolization (they did this in part since the pc release was first but also because that is the type of studio they are - they will in fact listen to legit complaints and if feasible address them). Anyway the intend to use this engine for the next few games so if you find the pc interface acceptable that is what the next game will have (the only major complaint some folks had was with inventory management because it was a bit clutter but I never found it to be an issue myself).

Nameless said:

I like the guy and his post. Proper and just reaction at yet another backstab for pc gamers, after pulling their asses from the verge of bankruptcy, they're sticking it to us like this. Console and controller develpment from now on, they just couldn't stay away. Great success on the PC didn't give them a jolt to continue in the same direction, but instead they got greddy. What, you think their future games are going to be like Original Sin was? Very likely it's gonna be console designed from the start, a Dragon Age 2 or Inquisition from Origins.

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While I don't like it per sey; as I noted above they intend to the use the current engine for the next few games so if they end up with a good console interface while retaining a true pc interface then the next few games the focus will be on the games and not the engine so to a degree it is a one time effort (and the time it appears to ahve taken was under a year from when they started playing with ideas for a controller intterface to the release of the xbox/ps4 version). So we can see like it or not the investment was relatively small for the potential gain not only with D:OS but with the next few games they release.
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While I personally hate controllers (which is why I abandoned playing darksoul because the kb/m interface really really sucks); I can understand why itmakes business sense and to be honest the interface they have derivied seems unique and well done.
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Having said all of this I hope they re-release DD in the D:OS engine and I suspect they will given how easy it was for them to convert the map of the first part (I think it took less then a week). Remember they are currently working on two new games with the D:OS engine.

HiddenX said:

I don't like Larian's new found console love so much; they should concentrate on PC games - the best platform for RPGs.

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Gorath said:

Don't forget to play the add-on. It's the best part of Divinity 2.

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That's what I keep hearing. I was tempted to just start with Flames of Vengeance, but not having played Ego Draconis and not knowing which skills are any good, I probably would've just screwed up any build I would try to put together.