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| 30 SEP 2009 at 3:33pm |
| Deleted User | I could swear I started a thread for Risen a while ago, but I can't find it and the search-function doesn't want to tango.
In any case, for those who don't know the background:
The first Gothic game, developed by Pirhanha Bytes, was first released on March 15, 2001 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, published by Egmont Interactive. The North American release by Xicat Interactive, Inc. followed more than half a year later on November 23, 2001.
Two sequels followed, both also developed by Piranha bytes. Jowood held the IP. Well, mostly - you see they and PB had a disageement and split up.
To give you a bit of background on Piranha bytes :
Piranha Bytes is a German computer game developer founded 1997, known for their Gothic computer role-playing game series. Formerly the name of a now defunct company, the registered trademark and label "Piranha Bytes" was transferred during a management buyout. The company's legal name is now Pluto 13 GmbH.
After disagreements, Piranha Bytes split from JoWooD in 2007, their publisher at that time. Due to a contract between the two companies, JoWooD retained some rights to the Gothic name and to current and future games released under this trademark. The specifics of this contract remain confidential.
Until these events, the titles in the Gothic series were the only games Piranha Bytes had produced. They have since announced a new game named Risen, which many people expect to be a spiritual successor to the Gothic series.
So now, Jowood got Spellbound studios to develop Gothic 4, but they decided not to call it Gothic 4, but: Arcania: A Gothic Tale.
(If you're not confused yet by this point, just let me know. I could always try and confuse you a little further. )
So all of us old Gothic-ers, are chattering away, surmising as to what will REALLY be the "true" Gothic 4.
(If you went by name alone, seems there ain't gonna be one)
Since Risen is due out in a day or two, let me give a quick repeat of what was said in another thread, about opinions on the game so far, from those that have already had a chance to lay their hands on it.
No full reviews in English yet?, but a German magazine, Games Aktuell, gave it an 86/100 - I'll link you to Gametrailers for the great screenshots
http://forums.gametrailers.com/thread/risen---first-review--86-100/919692?page=1
Also, this Italian review gave it an 8. http://www.spaziogames.it/recensioni_videogiochi/console_multi_piattaforma/9667/risen.aspx
..and this is from a thread at RPGWatch that I'll link you to :
[size=14]The following articles are in German, with one notable exception.
Let's start with the print mags. GameStar uploaded a site-seeing tour split into 4 videos. Their review, not online yet, rewards Risen with 87%. "Risen is no unofficial Gothic 4. Risen is the return of Gothic 2. […] The best Gothic so far […]"
PC Games says something similar: "[…] the title is exactly what Gothic fans expect." - 86%
360Live gives the console version an 8.3/10. Their 2nd opinion 7.8/10. They praise the captivating gameplay but criticise the outdated graphics and the small font size.
According to GamePro Risen deserves 80%. "A fine RPG with lots of details, but also with a few quirks blurring the fun."
GamesAktuell thinks "Risen has become a very good RPG […], only suffering from minor weaknesses." - 9/10
And now online press. DemoNews offers positive first impressions without a rating.
Gameswelt likes Risen. "At the end of the day Risen does a lot [of things] right and few wrong." They like the usual Gothic formula and criticise a thin story, a couple of logic holes and minor technical glitches like sporadic clipping errors, incorrect camera position and frame rate drops in the city.
Xboxdynasty gets the credit for the first roasting of the XBox 360 conversion. They say the game has some interesting points, but the visuals doen't reach current gen niveau, which impacts the fun. "[The] graphics clearly kill the atmosphere and the mood of the game."
And finally an English article. World of Risen published a translation of their detailed Risen review. Clever as they are, the fan site left out the rating part. The piece is relatively spoiler-free and very informative. Especially the page about the technical stuff.
See the entire thread: http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8255
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| 30 SEP 2009 at 5:48pm |
StilerJourneyman
Posts : 1464
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, TN
Status : Offline | Out so soon, can't wait to buy it and will probably cave in . so many bloody games coming out now, this + Demon's soul (PS3 dark gothic rpg which has been getting excellent reviews) and then Dragon age right around the corner in early nov.
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| 30 SEP 2009 at 6:13pm |
| Deleted User | Yup, and for December I've got my eye on Venetica, (I'm just slightly irritated by the short cartoonish look of the characters, but, oh, well [smiley=shrug.gif] ) and I'm very definitely getting Divine Divinity 2, the moment it releases.
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| 1 OCT 2009 at 3:42am |
CrisGerSchattenjger
Posts : 2539
Joined: 28 APR 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | I have seen Risen and played a bit of it, and it is awesome. Totally cool. Uses the same lighting and many of the same style models ie ships, buildings and more as Gothic series.
A worthy sucessor to the series.
Admin
3D Worlds and Game Developers
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| 1 OCT 2009 at 2:57pm |
SpiritogreIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 81
Joined: 30 SEP 2008
Location: DE
Status : Offline | If only the char models were better...
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| 1 OCT 2009 at 3:41pm |
| Deleted User | Originally Posted By Spiritogre (1 OCT 2009 2:57pm)
If only the char models were better...
I must admit that the character models was the one thing that put me off most from the trailers I'd seen. This is supposed to be a warm , tropical island, and the characters are all dressed in warm furs, and very European-type clothing, besides that they do look so terribly Gothic-ish.
Since I'm a huge Gothic fan, I don't mind that too much, but I did hope for something fresher and newer, something that would fit better into a subtropical/tropical Island culture...
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| 1 OCT 2009 at 9:53pm |
CrisGerSchattenjger
Posts : 2539
Joined: 28 APR 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | Agreed Traveller, it was a bit odd...but i think they brought over resources and styles from the previous games..at least it felt that way. Still a lovely game truely.
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| 1 OCT 2009 at 11:58pm |
StilerJourneyman
Posts : 1464
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, TN
Status : Offline | woot, the demo is out:
http://risen.deepsilver.com/blog/pages/en/downloads/downloads.php
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| 2 OCT 2009 at 4:44pm |
| Deleted User | Got it this morning. Only started just now. Looking pretty, but a LOT easier than the Gothic games. I'm already regretting I'd set the game on medium and not hard, since I thought it would be hard like the Gothics.
Ah well, - I'll just enjoy the ride for a change...
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| 2 OCT 2009 at 6:42pm |
CrisGerSchattenjger
Posts : 2539
Joined: 28 APR 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | go Traveller! Enjoy the ride.
i have to work .....booooo
enjoy
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| 2 OCT 2009 at 7:38pm |
StilerJourneyman
Posts : 1464
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, TN
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By TheTraveler (2 OCT 2009 4:44pm)
Got it this morning. Only started just now. Looking pretty, but a LOT easier than the Gothic games. I'm already regretting I'd set the game on medium and not hard, since I thought it would be hard like the Gothics.
Ah well, - I'll just enjoy the ride for a change...
I just tried the demo this morning and the sea vultures were a breeze to get by, but then I found myself inside a cave just off the shore running into 3 goblins or whatever and they promptly sent me to the load screen after thinking it'd be easy. Still need to work on othe whole block/counter I suppose (this was on normal diffculty).
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| 3 OCT 2009 at 9:32am |
| Deleted User | Well, why I thought it was easy, is that I pretty much managed to make mincemeat of everything near the coast (You need to find yourself a hunter's knife, though - there's one on an out-of -the-way body)
I managed to beat those cute little gnomes, and they had some nice roasted meat on them...
However, once you get inland, the easy ride is over. Seems the beasties at the coast are still baby ones... :-/ If it makes you feel any better, I got my behind handed to me inland twice, once because I thought they'd be easy like on the coast, and once because I walked right into a bunch of beasties that I didn't see due to the storm S. Effects. ....and they eat you after they'd killed you....
Anyway, so far, the game runs very smoothly, and I haven't encountered any bugs yet.
One can see it was made by the makers of the Gothics, though. As far as I'm concerned from what I've seen so far, you could pretty much call it Gothic 4, because it does seem to have the old Gothic flavour and atmosphere, just with more modern-looking graphics and special effects .
That said, I think Arcania's graphics look even better, from the screenshots etc. that I've seen so far.
Not that I'm complaining about Risen, it's looking good; and the character models do look rather better than I had expected.
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| 4 OCT 2009 at 5:47pm |
KarstenSorcerer Apprentice
Posts : 347
Joined: 23 SEP 2006
Location: DK
Status : Offline | I have only played the demo. but I immediately knew this game was made by the guys that made the Gothic games. Art direction is great, graphics are OK, the atmosphere in this game is great. The story seems great, too.
Spoiler AlertAnd apparently the storms, earthquakes and vulcanoes rising is because of mankind abandoning the Old Gods; caused something more sinister to rise it has.
I had some trouble with the combat moves, untill I learned how to deal damage. Sadly - the demo ended way too soon - just when the game got interesting...
Oh, well, the full game should be well worth the money...
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| 5 OCT 2009 at 11:57am |
CrisGerSchattenjger
Posts : 2539
Joined: 28 APR 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | What I love about all the Gothic games and Risen too, is that they really use the full capabilities of the computer game genre to bring in wonderful visual worlds with beautiful detail and effects plus some depth of story, ethos, lore and legend...and still keep it personal, and believable as a individual journey experience. They reall devote themselves to making special and rich games.
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| 5 OCT 2009 at 3:04pm |
InesrocksPrivate Detective
Posts : 682
Joined: 16 OCT 2008
Location: PT
Status : Offline | Back to my old question:
can you make a female character on Risen?
(I know... im hopeless)
p.s: I was supposed to be playing Drakensang by now... but I tried the demo and I really did not like it
Playing: Skyrim (ongoing)
Last Finished: can't recall, been too long.
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| 5 OCT 2009 at 3:08pm |
InesrocksPrivate Detective
Posts : 682
Joined: 16 OCT 2008
Location: PT
Status : Offline | ok.. just found out I can't:
http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showthread.php?p=10773010
damn.
for those who are playing, is the game like The Witcher in the sense you get in the story and you forget the actual gender of the player?
I mean, if it is a game like Oblivion, then I am bothered if I can't play with a female... but Witcher style game is different though.
Playing: Skyrim (ongoing)
Last Finished: can't recall, been too long.
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| 5 OCT 2009 at 3:43pm |
| Deleted User | Originally Posted By Inesrocks (5 OCT 2009 3:04pm)
Back to my old question:
can you make a female character on Risen?
(I know... im hopeless)
for those who are playing, is the game like The Witcher in the sense you get in the story and you forget the actual gender of the player?
I mean, if it is a game like Oblivion, then I am bothered if I can't play with a female... but Witcher style game is different though.
Hm, the game is not very "girly" really. (Ok, not that The Witcher was either) It's a lot like the Gothic games. You can't customize your hero at all in the beginning, you just have to play with who you get.
There's a whole subforum dedicated to the game here: http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=34
p.s: I was supposed to be playing Drakensang by now... but I tried the demo and I really did not like it
Hmm, I won't say anything, Ines... : ....all I'll say is that I'm glad you tried the demo first. I was wondering why you were being so quiet about Drakensang, but thought it might be due to your move to Paris, that you had not had time for it.
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| 5 OCT 2009 at 3:50pm |
InesrocksPrivate Detective
Posts : 682
Joined: 16 OCT 2008
Location: PT
Status : Offline | Yeah but what I take from having a female character is not the customyzing factor, it's just the freedom of having a female hero instead, and having the NPCs refering you as a woman... if you know what I mean.
But in The Witcher I didn't really care about it because of the story itself that sucks you in the character. It's like me playing George Stobbart... that doesn't bother me
I mean, is the story in Risen a main part of the game, or is it just an addition to the thousands of slaughtering beasts quests? *cough* drakensang * cough* :-[
Playing: Skyrim (ongoing)
Last Finished: can't recall, been too long.
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| 5 OCT 2009 at 4:00pm |
| Deleted User | Sadly i didn't have time to play Risen much this weekend, maybe someone else can tell you about the story, but from what i've heard from other gamers, it's a lot like Gothic 2 . To me so far storywise it seems a lot like Gothic 1 - if you want me to i can find some plot summaries of those for you.
Your hero is not quite as much an individual as Geralt is, but yes- it probably wouldn't have worked if he was a girl, there are no female fighters in the game, and though i hadn't really thought of it before, i suppose the (Gothic) games are pretty sexist in that sense.
(Oh, btw, I'm talking about Risen here as if it is part of the Gothic series, because that's pretty much what it is in all but name - even the combat and leveling systems are the same as the Gothic games)
I've been thinking: I know it's only coming out in a month or so, but you might be interested in Venetica, Ines.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/venetica/news.html?sid=6198509&mode=previews
Venetica seems to have a strong story, and you get to play a girl in it.
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| 5 OCT 2009 at 8:39pm |
InesrocksPrivate Detective
Posts : 682
Joined: 16 OCT 2008
Location: PT
Status : Offline | ohh ill be paying close attention to that game! when is it coming out?
I just saw some videos and im in the love with the game... how can it be possible you might be asking... well.. I just smell this is the game ive been waiting for!
Playing: Skyrim (ongoing)
Last Finished: can't recall, been too long.
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| 5 OCT 2009 at 9:13pm |
| Deleted User | Originally Posted By Inesrocks (5 OCT 2009 8:39pm)
ohh ill be paying close attention to that game! when is it coming out?
I just saw some videos and im in the love with the game... how can it be possible you might be asking... well.. I just smell this is the game ive been waiting for!
Oooh! Yippee! They've made the release date earlier..- it's now 29 October! [smiley=rockin.gif]
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| 6 OCT 2009 at 11:38am |
ThaumaturgeJourneyman
Posts : 999
Joined: 11 MAY 2006
Status : Offline | That's strange - I thought that it had been released already. o_0
Unless, of course, you are referring specifically to Ines's region, or I've been confused by an earlier release on the consoles, perhaps, or some other error on my part...
MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
*ahem*
Sorry.
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| 6 OCT 2009 at 12:22pm |
InesrocksPrivate Detective
Posts : 682
Joined: 16 OCT 2008
Location: PT
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Thaumaturge (6 OCT 2009 11:38am)
That's strange - I thought that it had been released already. o_0
Unless, of course, you are referring specifically to Ines's region, or I've been confused by an earlier release on the consoles, perhaps, or some other error on my part...
hmm from what ive been searching the game has been relased but in German... the English version hasnt come out yet
Playing: Skyrim (ongoing)
Last Finished: can't recall, been too long.
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| 6 OCT 2009 at 4:25pm |
| Deleted User | Originally Posted By Inesrocks (6 OCT 2009 12:22pm)
Originally Posted By Thaumaturge (6 OCT 2009 11:38am)
That's strange - I thought that it had been released already. o_0
Unless, of course, you are referring specifically to Ines's region, or I've been confused by an earlier release on the consoles, perhaps, or some other error on my part...
hmm from what ive been searching the game has been relased but in German... the English version hasnt come out yet
Yes, unfortunately that is often the problem with these German-produced games. It is out in German already. The same thing happened with Drakensang, and Divine Divinity has also been out in German for some time now.
Sadly, my German is not really good enough to follow conversations properly, so... [smiley=shrug.gif]
..I'll just have to be patient and wait.
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| 6 OCT 2009 at 4:54pm |
ThaumaturgeJourneyman
Posts : 999
Joined: 11 MAY 2006
Status : Offline | That's strange - I thought that I had seen it at a shop, but perhaps my memory is glitching. :/
On the other hand, it appeared to be available on at least one online shopping site.
Note the "ships in 1 working day" and "In Stock" notices. o_0
Nevertheless, I want to try the demo before considering buying the game - now it's just a matter of deciding on whether I want to spend more (I believe) to get the demo - and just the demo - sooner, or wait and see whether a local magazine doesn't put it on next month's coverdisc...
MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
*ahem*
Sorry.
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