Dungeon Siege Expansion Showcased

Thanks to several readers for pointing to the press release announcing Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, the official expansion pack to Gas Powered Games' popular PC FRPG. There's also an interview at IGN PC which offers more details on this Mad Doc co-developed expansion, promising "..a completely new series of fabulous locations.. UI enhancements, new monsters and a massive amount of new stuff throughout the game." Meanwhile, the original Dungeon Siege is still proving popular with fans and mod makers, with the Copperhead sci-fi total conversion a current favorite.

FRPG?

[Gunsmithy]

On the MGS website for Dungeon Siege, it seems that FRPG is a "Fantasy Role Playing Game." Isn't that kind of redundant? Most all RPGs are fantasy, except for Leisure Suit Larry. ...well, that's fantasy too, but you get my drift.

Re:FRPG?

[parliboy]

As opposed to a Sci-Fi Role-Playing Game perhaps?

Re:FRPG?

[Gunsmithy]

Sci-Fi is a type of fantasy. :P
Same basic concepts, different time period.

Re:FRPG?

[Repton]

Well ... Perhaps. But for most people, "fantasy" means magic and mediaeval technology.

So it's useful as a way of distinguishing it from games like Fallout or (perhaps) DX.

Re:So when ...

[Gunsmithy]

Well, if they port it over to the Xbox, you can technically play it on Linux. [slashdot.org]

Re:So when ...

[quinkin]

Umm, well no not exactly.

That exploit is regarding ways to run linux (and possibly copied games) on an unmodded XBox.

A rather different issue to running DS on linux (XBox linux or otherwise).

Karma: +5 Pedant.

Q.

Interesting.

[Mensa Babe]

Of course it is not WorldForge [worldforge.org], no doubt, but for a proprietary software it sounds quite interesting. I also had no idea it is so popular. Could it be because of PR and marketing? I do not really think so.

Re:Snore....

[tprime]

Now that RPGs are pretty, the development of the plot seems to have fallen off. I too have finished DG, and also cannot remember the names of the characters in my party. I do remember:

Brian the Fist
Samson
El Cid
Marcus
Omar
Merlin

from the original Bards Tale
Damn I miss Bryan Fargo

*shrug*

[August_zero]

It was a pretty game, and it was decent, but very plain, and it got dull rather quickly. Maybe if the expansion is loaded with "80% more FUN!!!!" and "50% less Click!" I may consider it. But personally I find the Aurora (NWN) engine a lot more verstile and interesting.

Re:*shrug*

[zeno_2]

I worked at a company who did tech support for the microsoft games when Dungeon Siege came out. We were all pretty excited for it, but the hype really didn't last that long. What it seemed like to me is that if you played the game for a fairly good amount of time, you could really create a character that was really good at melee, range, and the 2 types of magic. There was no difference in characters that I could see. In my opinion the game really just isnt' that fun unfortunately.

I also got NWN when it

I the real problem was it had an ending

[DrSkwid]

After all, what's the point of levelling when there's no where to go.

I'd got spells in my backpack I was looking forward to using but never got enough xp and here I was finishing the game.

I played it like an RPG, working out how to max my stats for best effect but then I was too goddam tough but what was one to do?
"I think I'll let my healer go so I can make the game a bit harder"
or
"perhaps I should leave the donkey behind so I can carry less stuff so I can make the game a bit harder"

and before I'd decid

ulp

[August_zero]

The Mod commuinity is what really makes NWN a treat. I agree that the basic campaign that came with it was not all that great. CLiche and boring at the beggining and the end, though there were some good bits in the middle.

If your looking for some great, user created mods, check out the Penultimate and Penultimate re-rolled series. [ign.com]
They are definately worth a download.

Is It Too Late To Wish?

[robbway]

If they would completely replace multiplayer with low-lag, story-driven, and continuous multiplayer mode, where you could save your stats and stuff, maybe people would be drawn in.

On the positive side, the original game is now priced under $20, and there is extensive information for modding on the official site which was available before release. It's pretty impressive for a Microsoft-ware to encourage mods and not lock you out of everything.

Re:Is It Too Late To Wish?

[Quinn]

There's a beta of the SecureChar [securechar.net] system, but it looks like it'll only ever run on the biblically-genred Elemental [the-elemental.net] mod.

Server-based characters would greatly enhance the playability of Dungeon Siege. Right now, anyone can hack themself up to god status, so why bother playing multiplayer? I was hoping Dungeon Siege would be a hi-res version of Diablo II, but without a Battle.net equivalent, it falls flat.

The single-player story is teh sux, making it little more than a beautiful engine demo. (And it is a b

Best game I never played.

[darkmayo]

This guy was just a few clicks away from being completely automatic. More than once my little guy would run off by himself without my control and run through a chunk of dungeon just leading from one monster to another...

not sure if they ever fixed that.. since the excitement of not doing anything waned thin real quick.