Dungeon Siege Expansion Pack - by Arislyn on 07:26 12 Aug 2003
Gamespy released this preview of the new Dungeon Siege expansion pack. It looks like Gas Powered Games will also be coming out with a sequel, Dungeon Siege 2.
I'm looking forward to this. DS is, by far, one of my favorite action/RPGs.
Gamespy released this preview of the new Dungeon Siege expansion pack. It looks like Gas Powered Games will also be coming out with a sequel, Dungeon Siege 2.
I'm looking forward to this. DS is, by far, one of my favorite action/RPGs.
Dungeon Siege Expansion Pack - by Arislyn on 12:26 31 Oct 2003
Yes! The DS expansion pack is scheduled to hit the shelves on or about Nov. 12. I was thinking about buying Divine Divinity, but the 12th is just around the corner...I think I'll hold out for the expansion, instead. *grins*
http://www.dungeonsiege.com/index.shtml
Yes! The DS expansion pack is scheduled to hit the shelves on or about Nov. 12. I was thinking about buying Divine Divinity, but the 12th is just around the corner...I think I'll hold out for the expansion, instead. *grins*
http://www.dungeonsiege.com/index.shtml
Dungeon Siege Expansion Pack - by EvilLuke on 16:21 31 Oct 2003
I've played Divine Divinity, and honestly didn't get really into it. Ended up taking it back to the store.
It wasn't particularly bad, but it wasn't particularly good either. I didn't see anything in it that made me go, "You know, if I stick with this I bet it'll really take off."
DungeonSiege on the other hand I started enjoying right away, so if you liked it I'd imagine you'll like the expansion. Unless the really drop the ball, but I doubt it.
EvilLuke
I've played Divine Divinity, and honestly didn't get really into it. Ended up taking it back to the store.
It wasn't particularly bad, but it wasn't particularly good either. I didn't see anything in it that made me go, "You know, if I stick with this I bet it'll really take off."
DungeonSiege on the other hand I started enjoying right away, so if you liked it I'd imagine you'll like the expansion. Unless the really drop the ball, but I doubt it.
EvilLuke
Dungeon Siege Expansion Pack - by Arislyn on 17:22 31 Oct 2003
Thanks for the heads up on Divine Divinity. If it's so-so, I'll just wait until the price drops to $10 and pick it up when I have nothing better to play. It's already down to $20, which is why I was considering it in the first place.
*grins* Oh, I have been dying to play the DS expansion. I can't wait to see what new things have been implemented.
Thanks for the heads up on Divine Divinity. If it's so-so, I'll just wait until the price drops to $10 and pick it up when I have nothing better to play. It's already down to $20, which is why I was considering it in the first place.
*grins* Oh, I have been dying to play the DS expansion. I can't wait to see what new things have been implemented.
Dungeon Siege Expansion Pack - by Arislyn on 08:48 09 Dec 2003
Well, I am now the proud owner of the DS expansion pack and there is but one way to describe it:
*lets her head fall back in ecstasy, a bit of drool dripping from the corner of her mouth as she shudders with pleasure...a la Homer Simpson*
Gas Powered Games has taken all the fun that I loved in DS, streamlined it, and added some new features. So far, my personal favorite new feature is the "re-distribute" button. What this does is automatically make sure that all characters have equal number of healing/mana potions with excess healing going to fighters and mana to spellcasters. If you only have one or two mana/healing, then the program automatically favors the correct class in handing out goodies, leaving fighters with no mana and casters no healing. (Casters have access to a healing spell immediately in play.) This is so much easier than pausing the game and opening 8 inventories to juggle around the various potions. Just click a button and BOOM!, you're done.
Another great addition is a new pack animal that not only fights, but is pretty darned good at it. Your loyal tragg (a sort of reptilian beast o' burden) will charge into battle to gore your enemies with tooth and claw...adding another fighter to your group.
The addition of backpacks is quite nice, too. Much like the Horadric Cube in Diablo, it gives you extra carrying capacity..though it lacks the nifty transmogrification abilities of the cube.
A couple of spells that make life easier have been added. Now, instead of just being able to transmute extra, unwanted equipment to gold, you can also transmute them to either healing or mana potions. There is also a spell that will transmute everything on the ground near you to gold, so there is no having to cast transmute multiple times.
Set items (just like in Diablo) have been added. However, so far I have only seen evidence of 1 set, and it makes sense within the game context. It is supposed to be your character's parent's equipment. So, I'm not sure if there are many different ones you can find, or if this is the only set out there.
Imbued items are items given magical abilities so that as soon as they are donned, you get a permanent, ever-active buff spell (well, permanent so long as you wear the item). For instance, you may get a ring that increases your chance to hit with ranged weapons by 5%, or a bow that increases your damage to undead by several points.
Many new spells have been added, but I'll not try to go into all of them. The main new ones are orbs that orbit the caster for a period of time, shooting bolts o' death at enemies while leaving the caster free to do other things, spells that allow the caster to change into new forms (cave bear, barkrunner, etc.), new summoning, and glyphs that place damaging symbols for enemies to run into. There are others, but they are single, specific spells. (The above were sort of groups of spells).
Other than that, play is exactly as it was in DS. Oh! One other thing that makes life easier....hot keys. You can now assign a hot key to a specific combat configurment, so instead of pausing the game, clicking over other spells for your casters or what have you, you simply set the arrangement up once, set it to a hot key and then easily switch between multiple, fighting configurations.
Very, very cool.
The best part is, if you don't have DS, it is included with the expansion. So, you are basically getting 2 games for the price of an expansion: about $30. You can't beat that!
Well, I am now the proud owner of the DS expansion pack and there is but one way to describe it:
*lets her head fall back in ecstasy, a bit of drool dripping from the corner of her mouth as she shudders with pleasure...a la Homer Simpson*
Gas Powered Games has taken all the fun that I loved in DS, streamlined it, and added some new features. So far, my personal favorite new feature is the "re-distribute" button. What this does is automatically make sure that all characters have equal number of healing/mana potions with excess healing going to fighters and mana to spellcasters. If you only have one or two mana/healing, then the program automatically favors the correct class in handing out goodies, leaving fighters with no mana and casters no healing. (Casters have access to a healing spell immediately in play.) This is so much easier than pausing the game and opening 8 inventories to juggle around the various potions. Just click a button and BOOM!, you're done.
Another great addition is a new pack animal that not only fights, but is pretty darned good at it. Your loyal tragg (a sort of reptilian beast o' burden) will charge into battle to gore your enemies with tooth and claw...adding another fighter to your group.
The addition of backpacks is quite nice, too. Much like the Horadric Cube in Diablo, it gives you extra carrying capacity..though it lacks the nifty transmogrification abilities of the cube.
A couple of spells that make life easier have been added. Now, instead of just being able to transmute extra, unwanted equipment to gold, you can also transmute them to either healing or mana potions. There is also a spell that will transmute everything on the ground near you to gold, so there is no having to cast transmute multiple times.
Set items (just like in Diablo) have been added. However, so far I have only seen evidence of 1 set, and it makes sense within the game context. It is supposed to be your character's parent's equipment. So, I'm not sure if there are many different ones you can find, or if this is the only set out there.
Imbued items are items given magical abilities so that as soon as they are donned, you get a permanent, ever-active buff spell (well, permanent so long as you wear the item). For instance, you may get a ring that increases your chance to hit with ranged weapons by 5%, or a bow that increases your damage to undead by several points.
Many new spells have been added, but I'll not try to go into all of them. The main new ones are orbs that orbit the caster for a period of time, shooting bolts o' death at enemies while leaving the caster free to do other things, spells that allow the caster to change into new forms (cave bear, barkrunner, etc.), new summoning, and glyphs that place damaging symbols for enemies to run into. There are others, but they are single, specific spells. (The above were sort of groups of spells).
Other than that, play is exactly as it was in DS. Oh! One other thing that makes life easier....hot keys. You can now assign a hot key to a specific combat configurment, so instead of pausing the game, clicking over other spells for your casters or what have you, you simply set the arrangement up once, set it to a hot key and then easily switch between multiple, fighting configurations.
Very, very cool.
The best part is, if you don't have DS, it is included with the expansion. So, you are basically getting 2 games for the price of an expansion: about $30. You can't beat that!
Dungeon Siege Expansion Pack - by Arislyn on 14:42 21 Dec 2003
Hmmmm...well, I've finally reached the point in the game where I've discovered a couple of irritating things....but they are still nothing that is terrible enough to make me change my mind about the overall quality of DS.
Here's a little forewarning, though, for everyone.
The game is in a 3D environment with a camera positioned above and behind the party. Now, you can control this camera. However, the game automatically tried to adjust it depending on what is in your way, etc. This isn't a big deal for most of the game since a large portion of it is set outdoors. Also, a good number of the dungeons you enter have rooms large enough that a camera swinging around is only mildly annoying.
Later in the game, though, you reach a point where you are in some pretty tight quarters, and that is when the camera gets annoying. You will be in the middle of battle and, suddenly, the camera will swing around to try and keep your main character in focus....only to position itself smack in the middle of a wall so you can't see jack.You then have to pause the game and spend a few moments trying to get the camera to adjust so that you can actually see the battle. But, once again, as soon as you unpause it will try to compensate for character movement and you once again find yourself staring at a big, ol' mess of black screen.
In my opinion, it's annoying but that is about it. I also figured that those of you who get motion sick easily may have problems with the camera. I've known people who simply couldn't play things like Everquest, Descent or other camera swirl-y intensive games because of this.
The other problem I've run across is the fact that the environment sometimes does not lend itself well to figuring out how to get from point A to point B. An area may look like you ought to be able to cross it, but you can't. And, the overhead map doesn't deal well with multiple layers. For instance, I'm in a cavern area right now with a lot of ramps that go up and down and bridges that cross here and there. It all looks the same, especially on the overhead map. So, trying to get to certain places requires a lot of guesswork just because you aren't sure whether that section of map is actually above or below where you want to be.
So far, those are the only two complaints that I have about DS. It's still well worth the money, in my opinion.
Hmmmm...well, I've finally reached the point in the game where I've discovered a couple of irritating things....but they are still nothing that is terrible enough to make me change my mind about the overall quality of DS.
Here's a little forewarning, though, for everyone.
The game is in a 3D environment with a camera positioned above and behind the party. Now, you can control this camera. However, the game automatically tried to adjust it depending on what is in your way, etc. This isn't a big deal for most of the game since a large portion of it is set outdoors. Also, a good number of the dungeons you enter have rooms large enough that a camera swinging around is only mildly annoying.
Later in the game, though, you reach a point where you are in some pretty tight quarters, and that is when the camera gets annoying. You will be in the middle of battle and, suddenly, the camera will swing around to try and keep your main character in focus....only to position itself smack in the middle of a wall so you can't see jack.You then have to pause the game and spend a few moments trying to get the camera to adjust so that you can actually see the battle. But, once again, as soon as you unpause it will try to compensate for character movement and you once again find yourself staring at a big, ol' mess of black screen.
In my opinion, it's annoying but that is about it. I also figured that those of you who get motion sick easily may have problems with the camera. I've known people who simply couldn't play things like Everquest, Descent or other camera swirl-y intensive games because of this.
The other problem I've run across is the fact that the environment sometimes does not lend itself well to figuring out how to get from point A to point B. An area may look like you ought to be able to cross it, but you can't. And, the overhead map doesn't deal well with multiple layers. For instance, I'm in a cavern area right now with a lot of ramps that go up and down and bridges that cross here and there. It all looks the same, especially on the overhead map. So, trying to get to certain places requires a lot of guesswork just because you aren't sure whether that section of map is actually above or below where you want to be.
So far, those are the only two complaints that I have about DS. It's still well worth the money, in my opinion.