Square Enix and Obsidian show Dungeon Siege 3

Square Enix gave Obsidian Entertainment the unique chance to develop a western RPG, and Dungeon Siege 3 is the result. Developers Nathan Davis  Alvin Nelson of Obsidian were present at Gamescom 2010 to demonstrate the action RPG that is to be the sequel to the earlier Dungeon Siege games and is simultaneously developed for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. This will result in more or less identical gameplay and no concessions will be made. The game will feature a similar control scheme regardless of platform.

Davis said that there would be several different classes to choose from, but the demo showed the guardian class. Unlike previous versions, you don’t assume the role of a single set character; instead, each class is tied to a certain character. It seems there will be no customization options.

The guardian will have two different combat styles (two-handed sword and double weapons) and the player can switch freely between both styles during combat. The two-handed style will wreak havoc upon your foe, but is slower and leaves you vulnerable. The combat style using double swords is more defensive and tactical. Each style will have several special maneuvers tied to it, and the player can empower them to unleash more powerful versions of the same skill. Aside from combat, the game features an emphasis on collecting loot, for instance gold and equipment to enhance the hero’s abilities. Items will increase or enhance different stats and abilities, but their level of strength will not be absolute. Stats with better numbers will not necessarily be better;  rather, your choice of equipment depends on your style of play in order to be most effective.

As the demo started, Davis explained the game would be non-linear and quest could be completed in whatever order the player thinks is best. Since there is a vast world to explore and finding your way through it might occasionally prove confusing, the designers opted to put in a trail that shows you the way to your current objective. This system is similar to those used in other games, notably Dead Space.

The game will also feature a branching storyline where your choices make for certain consequences that have a heavy impact on the progression of the story. Dungeon Siege 3′s story will not be a direct sequel to the earlier games, but rather be a completely new story set about 250 years after the original game. However, according to Davis, there will be some recognizable references to the first game, one of which was shown in the demo (a statue resembling the woman on the cover of the original game).

As the guardian character traverses through a forest and then a cave, fighting giant spiders and fishmen, he is introduced to a female character and initiates conversation. Dungeon Siege 3 uses a dialogue tree for the conversations, a funny detail being the symbol of an actual tree with branches being the interface representing the various options. After a short conversation, the female character joins the player on his quest. This character represents the archon class, and will also be a selectable character for the player at the start of the game. Her fighting style revolves around fighting with a spear and using deadly kicks. While Nelson was playing the game, Davis suddenly dropped in and controlled the second character, showing of the multiplayer aspect of the game. A second player can freely drop in and out during the game, and the AI takes over if there is no player to control the second character. It is thus far unknown what online functions the game will support, but Davis hinted there were plans to implement some.

It seems Dungeons Siege 3 might be a welcome break from both the old Dungeon Siege and the linear JRPG’s Square Enix is known for publishing. The game is set for a 2011 release.

Square Enix shows Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, published by Square Enix and developed by Eidos Montreal, will be the third part in the popular Deus Ex series. Rather than being a sequel it is perhaps best described as a reboot, according to game producer David Anfossi. In order to understand the Deus Ex universe and characters, and to get a gist of the recipe that makes Deus Ex what it is, the development team played through the two original games several times. After all, the game is met with high expectations and rightfully so: the earlier games were more than well-received and the Human Revolution trailer shown at E3 looked very promising. Making this Deus Ex feel like the previous games and fit in the series was an objective of critical importance. A development team of roughly 135 people from Eidos started to work on Human Revolution back in March 2007. Eidos Montreal and Square Enix constantly communicated and traded ideas during development. Although they act mainly as publisher, Square Enix is much more involved in the development process of the game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s visual style is very distinctive. Anfossi explains the main influences are both the renaissance and cyberpunk. Another influence was Blade Runner. The renaissance relation might not be clear immediately, but is certainly there. Picture a painting in renaissance style and imagine the effect candle-light has on the depicted scene. The gold motif that is so remarkably present in the game’s art style is a representation of this kind of lighting. This is contrasted by the heavy use of black both to represent the cyberpunk influence and the renaissance once again. The original trailer started with a medical dissection of a corpse somewhere in the 1600′s. The people attending this dissection all wear traditional black as often seen in clothing from this period. The room is illuminated with golden candle-light and creates a contrast between both colors that feature so prominently in Deus Ex’s art style. Besides this, the game features many other aspects that can be related to the renaissance; the study of anatomy is reflected in augmenting the human body and the high collar and shoulder motifs of main character Adam Jensen’s coat resemble renaissance fashion in a modern style.  The effects maybe subtle but are really there, and once you are aware of them they really start to make sense. The 16oo’s era the game takes after may not actually really be the renaissance but that doesn’t make it any less impressive.

Creating a game the size of Deus Ex: Human Revolution isn’t easy. The player has to complete  a lot of missions and completing just the main mission directly should take up to twenty hours. However, the game is supposed to provide enough content to add up to about 35 hours. Anfossi explained the team heavily underestimated the writing of the game. With so many news items for the players to read or listen to, including newspapers, e-mails and television broadcasts, the writing process proved to be a more difficult process than originally perceived. Another aspect of the game that gave the developers quite probably their biggest challenge was balancing out all the different play styles and approaches: whether you choose to solve your problem using stealth, combat, social interaction or technical skill, the result should be equally fun and each approach should be viable. The people from Eidos are currently still working on this aspect.

A lot of Deus Ex fans have complained about the Health Regeneration system (similar to the ones used in Gears of War, Uncharted etc.). David Anfossi assured us this change wasn’t made to make the game more accessible, but rather give it a more constant flow of action. Typical Deus Ex situations would involve the need for backtracking when the player engaged in a firefight while on low health. This would break the flow of the game, so rather than constantly scrounge for med-packs it was decided to implement the regeneration system instead.

The first person shooter element of the game is prominent in combat situations, but the game is clearly much more than that. The player can complete the entire gaming killing only boss characters, instead opting to sneak by or talk to characters, giving the game elements of both stealth action games and role playing games. The game will resort to a third person view occasionally, specifically when in cover or during takedowns. These takedowns come in many different forms and will be a pleasure to watch and perform, especially if the player combines multiple augmentations for some killer maneuvres.

Art Director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête and level-designer Frank McCann were present at the 2010 Gamescom to demonstrate the Deus Ex gameplay. The demo showed a single mission. It revolved around  a group of anti-augmentation activists that had a single augmented member. This man died with the neural chip still implanted in his brain. Special Security agent Adam Jensen is sent to get into the police station’s morgue and retrieve the neural implant. McCann would play this same mission three times in a row, each time demonstrating a different approach. The first playthrough made heavy use of combat: McCann would have the Jensen character enter the police station and run directly into a restricted area, resulting in a firefight that lasted until every cop that stood in the way was down and Jensen arrived safely at the required destination.
The second time, Jensen used conversational skills to persuade one of the cops to let him in. The cop behind the counter was an acquaintance of Jensen, and using emotional leverage and facts from the cop’s past, Jensen was able to convince his old pal to grant him free access to the morgue. Last but not least, McCann went with the stealthy approach. Using his hacking skills to enter a backdoor entrance, Jensen needed to carefully evade both patrolling cops and security camera’s  in order to remain undetected. McCann got Jensen accidentally detected by a cop that wasn’t even looking in the right direction, proving the fact that it was still a game under heavy development.

The demo showed several different weapons, including a revolver, a non-lethal energy weapon and several types of grenades and explosives. Each of these weapons will have several upgrades, around 3 or 4 per weapon. There are also around 20 different augmentations in the game, each of which can be upgraded through their own sub-skill trees as well. With both weapon upgrades and augmentations, the level of customization is high. The graphics took some getting used to, and especially some effects were a bit on the bland side, but it is likely Eidos will improve the graphical quality before the final release. Despite this early stage of development, the game looked far from bad.

The game will be slated for a 2011 release on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

NAMCO BANDAI shows Inversion

One of Namco Bandai’s completely new games on Gamescom this year was the third person shooter Inversion. Producer Matthew Carch presented the press with a short gameplay demonstration for the first time. The game bears heavy resemblance to Gears of War in both gameplay and visual style, but will differ from the aforementioned and other third person shooters using an impressive gravity system.

The player will be able to lift up enemies from behind cover using gravity control in order to get a better shot for instance, but many objects in the environment can be thrown around or even relocated using the same system. One could for example lift up a nearby car and drop it in front of the player to create makeshift cover, or they can instead opt to launch it at foes and cause it to explode. Another example of the use of gravity is when the player enters gravitational fields on the side of buildings, causing the battlefield to shift 90 degrees. This allows the player to use the situation to circumvent cover or avoid enemy fire as well as creating a spectacular atmosphere. Carch explained the game would also feature battles in zero gravity zones, but this feature wasn’t present in the demo.

Another remarkable gameplay element revolves around interactivity with buildings in the environment: if the player causes enough damage to a building’s support, certain parts may collapse and crush the enemies unfortunate enough to stand in the way. The game features a heavy focus on co-op, and Carch explained there would be a second character present at all times, and that a second player could drop in or out at any time. Co-op is going to support both online and offline (splitscreen) play. While the resemblance with Gears of War is very obvious, perhaps even a tad shameless, the gravity system seems like it could be a welcome change within the genre. From what the demo showed, it seemed much more than a simple gimmick and possibly earns the game a recommendation; however, time will tell.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

CD Projekt Red was present at the 2010 Gamescom to show a brand new demo of their new epic RPG The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The game is a direct sequel to the original The Witcher for PC, which was based on the Polish book series of the same name by writer Andrzej Sapkowski.

Like the original game, The Witcher 2 features a heavy focus on player decisions and their consequences for the rest of the game. The demo at Gamescom showed both scriptwriter Jan Bartkowicz and implementation designer Konrad Tomaszkiewicz playing the same part of the game on two different computers. It was a scene in which main character Geralt (the so-called ‘Witcher’) needs to escape the dungeon of Castle La Valetta, where he has been wrongfully detained (or so he claims). Because of choices the two players made earlier in the game, the context was different for each of them. For example, characters who are important in one playthrough might have gotten killed in another, thereby altering the storyline and objectives.

The writer and designer showed two different ways to escape the level, whilst showing off the dialogue and fist-fight system. Marek Ziemak, another designer, proudly narrated both players’ progress and explained how each of their paths could branch off in different directions depending on their decisions. These do not just affect direct results, but have considerable influence on long-term events as well. When asked about the branching plots and the overall length of the game, developers Ziemak and Bartkowicz showed a schematic representation of the storyline that visualized the many different branching points that are planned for the final game. The level of complexity seemed really impressive at first glance. With countless story branches and around 16 different endings, the game looks to be chock-full of replay value.

The developers took great pride in the game’s visual aspects, and the demo didn’t disappoint. The work in progress was perhaps somewhat rigid in some areas, such as movement and lip-synching, but gave a good overall impression. Earlier images of The Witcher 2 showed main character Geralt to look very different from his appearance in the first game, which caused an outcry among fans. The presentation at Gamescom made clear however that this altered appearance was simply because the sequel was still in an early stage of development.

After escaping the dungeon of the castle, the player enters an outdoor area that looked stunningly beautiful in this demo. A big, open world which, if the developers’ promise turns out to be true, players can explore every inch of.

The prison escape scene featured several fights, both armed and unarmed, and a familiar stealth system reminiscent of other titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum. Both aspects of the game seemed to work quite well. A final scene shown to the audience was clearly intended to end the presentation with a bang. A large, epic battlefield in which ghostly soldiers were fighting each other all around the player. The fighting ghouls disappeared when the player came close to them, only to introduce an absolutely menacing boss made completely out of battlefield debris like shields, cartwheels and a burning log for a head. Especially the boss’ attacks, like a hail of arrows and a bombardment of fiery rocks promised an exciting battle to say the least.

The Witcher 2 is going to be released on PC. No console release is currently in development. CD Projekt Red stated a console release was not out of the question and they kept the possibility in mind, but stated it was mostly a matter of “business reasons”.

On a side note: kudo’s for the Polish design team for their warm welcome including Polish beer. Since the presentation took place at nine o’ clock in the morning, the Nisute team kindly turned down the booze. Also, make sure you get your hands on CD Projekt Red’s hilarious press kit at Gamescom if you can.

Hermen Hulst talks History of Guerilla

In what was probably the highlight keynote of GDC 2010 and at the very least one of the most inspiring speeches this year, Hermen Hulst gave his audience an enlightening view on the history of his game studio, Guerilla.

It was an engaging story of how a tech demonstration led to one of the current generation’s most defining games. We see, no, live the troubles of an unknown, brand new studio trying to see their dream of their very own game being published realized. A simple tech demo, at that point in time still unrelated to anything Killzone, impressed Sony enough to give them a chance and start an ultimately fruitful partnership. We are introduced to the passion and ambition that lies strongly within the new developers: their choice of developing a 3D first-person shooter on a home console was a daring one indeed. Back in the early 2000s, the shooter genre was firmly rooted within the realm of PC gaming. It seemed like pushing your luck, but Guerilla came through. Killzone was released in 2004, and received mixed ratings. In general, Killzone perhaps didn’t rise above other titles in 2004, but Guerilla wasn’t willing to give up.

They followed through with Killzone: Liberation, for PSP, renewing the formula and finding out more and more what they were capable of. Killzone was now officially a franchise, and with more positive reviews than its predecessor, Guerilla might just be on the right track.
Hulst reveals a trick of the trade: by highlighting both the good and bad points of their previous games, and focusing on improving the things that the gamers disliked most, they continuously strive after improving themselves as developers and the quality of their products. And the method seems to work: all the areas where the original Killzone failed were heralded as the best aspects of Killzone 2.

Even after all the bad rep caused by Killzone 2′s original trailer back in 2005, Killzone was back more than ever in 2009, when the sequel to the original hit the shelves and got met with critical acclaim. Guerilla was now officially part of Sony, and more successful than they’d ever been. With the same passion and ambition as before, but with a lot more experience and courage, the Amsterdam-based developer continues to improve. Killzone 3 is on its way, and if we’re to believe Guerilla, will be even better than its predecessor.

And at the end of this compelling recap, under deserved applause, we celebrate an utterly inspiring keynote presentation. To me, it stands without question as possible the most entertaining and interesting presentation at GDC this year. And inspiring is the keyword here – it might not have been technical, maybe not the most informative and definitely not showing any breakthroughs – but it was an experience, perhaps even slightly touching. I wish Guerilla the best, and congratulate them on their success so far, hoping they continue to strive for greatness in the foreseeable future.

Frogster/Runewaker on Free2Play MMO’s and the European Market

The Free2Play MMO is a successful concept in Asia. The number of free online rpgs from this part of the world seem almost endless, and many of them do pretty well in Asia, but much less so in both the United States and Europe. Hoping to expand their communities, many Asian developers try their best to conquer the Western markets, with limited success. One of the free MMOs that has managed to secure a foothold in Europe is Runes of Magic, from Taiwanese developer Runewaker and published by the Germany-based Frogster Interactive. Tony Tang (Runewaker) and Andreas Weidenhaupt (Frogster) took on the mantle of lecturers at the GDC in Cologne and discussed the problems of launching a Free2Play MMO in the Western world. During an extended Q&A they gave their respective perspectives on the process of introducing a new MMO in Europe, using their own success-story Runes of Magic, as an example. The major problem Asian developers encounter is mainly rooted within the mindsets of the players from Europe; the Free2Play tag these games carry easily scares off the Western public. European or American players instantly associate ‘Free2Play’ with ‘bereft of quality and/or support’. Tang and Weidenhaupt assured their listeners that it is a business-plan, not a grade of quality.

However, as the people of Runewaker and Frogster have witnessed first hand, free MMO can actually be quite popular, even in the west. Runes of Magic was especially redesigned to be tailor-made to the tastes of Western players. The game developed from an earlier project named Radiant Arcana. Only after the decision was made to try to launch the game in the west and a partnership with Frogster was formed, the game became what is now known as Runes of Magic, one of the most successful Asian free MMOs in Europe. A lot of communication between Frogster and Runewaker shaped the game to its current state, a process both Weidenhaupt and Tang labeled as being of vital importance.

For Runes of Magic to appeal to a western audience, several changes had to be made concerning the game’s visual style. In one of the more lighthearted moments of the lecture, Tang used one particular type of enemy as a brilliant example: the mushroom monster. Nobody seems to know why, but mushrooms are commonly used as enemies in Asian games. The number of MMOs that do not contain mushrooms in any way can probably be counted on a single hand. This particular example was just the first of many changes to come, as it paved the way for further modifications to fit the art style with Western tastes.

Probably one of the more important changes made to accomodate the western audience was paid content, the most important source of revenue for the game, since it is otherwise free to play. It was made clear that Runes of Magic wouldn’t sell actual game content and that the only paid content would be found in the Item Shop, that provides players with costumes, mounts, furniture and accesories, models and other options for customization. However, Runewaker originally intended to sell items that actually affected the effectiveness and powerlevel of player characters but was dissuaded to go through with this by Frogster, who explained another important aspect of the Western player’s mindset: a sense of fairness. European players don’t like it when they have to pay for stuff that would make them considerably more powerful, and be otherwise unable to achieve such equipment by just playing. In the end, granting the paying users more privileges when it comes to in-game effectiveness was deemed a bad idea, and the content of the gameshop was altered so as to only contain customizations and visual modifications.

When asked directly, both Weidenhaupt and Tang named strong communication and maintaining the community as the most important factors towards succes, and Runes of Magic’s story seems to reflect the truth behind this idea. If Runewaker leads by example and opens up the Westsern community to this particular genre, the entire library of Asian MMOs might try their luck here and follow in Runewaker’s footsteps. Success is not at all out of reach, and despite our stubborn misconceptions, the Free2Play MMO’s might indeed prove to be a successful and influential genre in the future, even here in Europe.

Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty: A review of the new king of RTS?

When it comes to Blizzard, I’m absolutely sure most anyone will agree that they are known for putting a lot of effort and time in their usually high-quality work, and it often shows. Blizzard might only have three real franchises at this point, all three of them are very good franchises. The WarCraft franchise, with World of Warcraft at its front, is incredibly successful, and many players are familiar with the dungeon-delving adventures in the world of Diablo. And then, there StarCraft.

StarCraft, to me, is something else. It is hard to maintain good balance in a competitive game if you also want diversity. Many RTS have failed on one of either points. Not that other RTS games are all bad, they have just never come close to the level of perfection that was the original StarCraft. With insane diversity between the three playable races and yet spot-on balance, the game did everything right. It deserved to be as popular as it did and I think many know of the Read more

Tom’s Crème de la crème of gaming: 2-D PLATFORM GAMES

A top 5 of (in my opinion) the best games in the genre

Ah, 2-D platform games, such a classic and well-loved genre. Everyone who has seen coverage of (or has been to) E3 this year knows that this genre is still far from dead with both a new Sonic and new Donkey Kong Country being announced. Now the new Sonic title far from impresses me but it needs to be said that I’m not a Sonic fan at all, and never have been. Still, as I’ve heard others put it much less delicately than I will, it seems the Sonic franchise was done with all these 3-D action platformers (many of these were truly bad) and so they brought us back to the past, to the original Sonic. In fact, the game resembles the old games SO much, it’s like nothing changed. It couldn’t interest me back then, and I’m sure it won’t interest me now. I know Sonic is (or, was) a well-respected franchise and perhaps can’t be absent from a top 5 platform game list. But this is my list, so it’s as absent as it can be.

Now Donkey Kong Country Returns however, ooh… Now that’s some serious business. I love the Donkey Kong Country series, and this new installment is more than welcome! So far it’s looking real good and I hope it can refresh the old yet fantastic platform series that preceded it. Donkey Kong Country is back and I can’t wait! Read more

Motion-sensing, role-playing games and the rise of Nintendo

Thoughts on E3 2010

E3 2010 is now over and now that I’ve recuperated from all the news and announcements, it’s time to make up the balance. It’s a shame I couldn’t witness it first-hand, but luckily we live in the age of internet, so I got my daily updates of game trailers, interviews and what not. And from what I saw, the E3 didn’t disappoint as much as I initially feared: in fact, I’m quite satisfied. My expectations before hand weren’t especially high, but I crossed my fingers and hoped Nintendo would redeem itself and make up for the lost years. And for me, they did. Nintendo stole the show. I’ve seen so many good things from them this E3 I don’t know where to start. I got the feeling Microsoft really wanted their Kinect thing to be a big deal, but from what I saw, it’s pretty dull. You’d almost fear they follow in Nintendo’s footsteps and try to be popular with all target audiences except gamers (I don’t think they will, fortunately). Read more

Retrospectator: Chrono Trigger

I’ll use this opportunity to present a second idea I had for a column series that I decided to call Retrospectator. I don’t know why, it’s sounds catchy to me and even makes some sense, I guess.

Anyway, like many gamers I’ve been playing games from a very young age up to now, so I’ve come across my fair share of games that lie behind us in the past. Like any nostalgic romantic I like to think back about the time when we played such gems as Donkey Kong Country, the old-school Mario platformers and old DOS point-and-click adventures (just to name a few examples).

When replaying such games, however, I often find myself thinking about these games differently than I did back then. Sometimes I simply don’t understand why I liked the game at all, and sometimes I don’t understand why I didn’t like it (and sometimes the game is just as awesome as you remembered it to be).

Also, because I am secretly a retro gamer with an undying passion for old games that everyone else left behind ages ago, I simply like to reminisce. Read more

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