Risen ( GOLD Retail Oct 2ND )

[genci88]

Originally Posted by DiaperJe|\|i3

Yes, actually I have. I loved them both. Yet I still liked bioshock. Gasp! Guess what? I liked DX2 as well. I guess I'm just not a puritanical ******* like some folks here.

For all its faults, DX2 was a better game than Bioshock. It had an original story (unlike BS), and was more of an RPG than Bioshock could ever hope for.

And you know what? I probably wouldn't be so harsh on Bioshock if moron reviewers didn't give it 10/10 scores. It just pisses me off to see such levels of stupidity in the gaming press.

[Pirate Neilsouth]

The russian version has been fully translated into english , so it's exactly like the english version... Apparantly the files have been taken from the xbox 360 version again some person who did the stalker/cryostasis/divinity 2..

Clever sod!

Just waiting on the files

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Change the ConfigDefault.xml line Subtitles=Russian to what you want to use instead.

http://rapidshare.com/files/286098367/strings.pak


Intro File
http://www.sendspace.com/file/gtgruq
(Place in the "\Risen\Data\Extern\Videos" folder.)

[Ego]

Not that I want to break your hype machine ( :P ), but gimme one single reason I should pay for this game, considering there is absolutely no difference whatsoever (graphics wise) between it and Gothic, and the performance is absolutely **** compared to other games which look 10 times better...
It's being developed by one of the most sloppy developers in history, it's being published by a company not exactly known for its tripleA titles, and it's bound to be identical (or almost identical) with Gothic, only in a slightly different setting, with different characters who, judging by those screenshot look exactly the same with the ones from....yeah, Gothic. Again.

I'm sick and tired of PC games likes this. How is it possible to develop a game now, in this day and age, without AA and have the audacity to offer below 30 fps framerates on all video cards on the market with the exception of the new flagship from Ati, which is only a few days old....

[mastervampire]

Originally Posted by Ego

Not that I want to break your hype machine ( :P ), but gimme one single reason I should pay for this game, considering there is absolutely no difference whatsoever (graphics wise) between it and Gothic, and the performance is absolutely **** compared to other games which look 10 times better...
It's being developed by one of the most sloppy developers in history, it's being published by a company not exactly known for its tripleA titles, and it's bound to be identical (or almost identical) with Gothic, only in a slightly different setting, with different characters who, judging by those screenshot look exactly the same with the ones from....yeah, Gothic. Again.

I'm sick and tired of PC games likes this. How is it possible to develop a game now, in this day and age, without AA and have the audacity to offer below 30 fps framerates on all video cards on the market with the exception of the new flagship from Ati, which is only a few days old....

That.....was.....EPIC!

[Nosferatu]

Originally Posted by Ego

Not that I want to break your hype machine ( :P ), but gimme one single reason I should pay for this game, considering there is absolutely no difference whatsoever (graphics wise) between it and Gothic, and the performance is absolutely **** compared to other games which look 10 times better...
It's being developed by one of the most sloppy developers in history, it's being published by a company not exactly known for its tripleA titles, and it's bound to be identical (or almost identical) with Gothic, only in a slightly different setting, with different characters who, judging by those screenshot look exactly the same with the ones from....yeah, Gothic. Again.

I'm sick and tired of PC games likes this. How is it possible to develop a game now, in this day and age, without AA and have the audacity to offer below 30 fps framerates on all video cards on the market with the exception of the new flagship from Ati, which is only a few days old....

From Urban dictionary:

1. graphics whore

One who, in video games, values graphics above all and ignores all other aspects of the game. Also known for rejecting unrealistic graphic types such as cel-shading.

Stupid people, basically.
I can't play my SNES because the graphics suck too much.

[raystorm]

Originally Posted by Ego

Not that I want to break your hype machine ( :P ), but gimme one single reason I should pay for this game, considering there is absolutely no difference whatsoever (graphics wise) between it and Gothic, and the performance is absolutely **** compared to other games which look 10 times better...
It's being developed by one of the most sloppy developers in history, it's being published by a company not exactly known for its tripleA titles, and it's bound to be identical (or almost identical) with Gothic, only in a slightly different setting, with different characters who, judging by those screenshot look exactly the same with the ones from....yeah, Gothic. Again.

I'm sick and tired of PC games likes this. How is it possible to develop a game now, in this day and age, without AA and have the audacity to offer below 30 fps framerates on all video cards on the market with the exception of the new flagship from Ati, which is only a few days old....

Someone is angry! lol I understand what you are saying though. The game looks like a Gothic sequel under another name and those benchmarks look brutal for a game that doesn't look all that special. We'll just have to wait and see if people who have the game now are experiencing major bugs like Gothic 3 and how it performs on modest pc's.

So the game doesn't use AA either which is an annoying trend for me since I play on a 1366x768 hdtv and I use AA to help things out with the jags.

[lumpyhed]

Sounds like 3D performance will be in the gutter till GT300 then

[Pirate Neilsouth]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/gtgruq
(Place in the "X:\Risen\Data\Extern\Videos" folder.)
or
http://rapidshare.com/files/286478792/intro.rar

Open the INI folder, edit the ConfigDefault.xml and search for Russian, you should get two results close to one another for the audio and text localization the game will use, edit at least the text string to the language you want to use and if you have the audio pack files edit the other one as well.

Download strings.pak
http://rapidshare.com/files/286098367/strings.pak
Place the file in "X:\Risen\Data\Compiled\ "
or
http://rapidshare.com/files/286469315/strings.pak


English audio file (compressed with 7-Zip):
Part 1: http://www.sendspace.com/file/nvug85
Part 2: http://www.sendspace.com/file/amrak4
Place the file in x:\Risen\data\compiled\
or
http://rapidshare.com/files/28649457...lish.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/28649522...lish.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/28649625...lish.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/28649884...lish.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/28649815...lish.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/28648285...lish.part6.rar


Tada! full english

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Originally Posted by Ego

Not that I want to break your hype machine ( :P ), but gimme one single reason I should pay for this game, considering there is
blah blah blah.

Ok. I'm liking this. A lot.

The atmosphere is incredible, the graphics are gorgeous, the audio is great and the combat is slick and considerably much improved over Gothic 3. Tons of quests and items and loot... I like it so far.

With the recent "big" rpg's we've been treated to recently like Oblivion and Fallout 3, playing this is really a very positive change, theres a lot of dialogue in this title, and theres a lot of humor in the dialogue as well.
Even at the very beginning much of what you say has an effect on how the world and the story unfolds, theres a lot of choices and consequences here.

Not at all like the aforementioned rpg's where everything is laid down for you and you can do nothing but experience it, here you're an active participant.

As that norwegian review stated, this will probably go down as one of the greatest rpg's in recent time and maybe all time.
Definitely purchase this title if you like rpg's at all.

The world feels so living and breathing, it is like when I played Gothic II for the first time, a slight revelation in what is good game and world design. I get the feeling that I can live in this world
Back to The Island I go

[Exposed]

Is the English version of this game released on October 2nd or just the Russian?

[Homer Simpson]

Originally Posted by Exposed

Is the English version of this game released on October 2nd or just the Russian?

Yep.. Play have stock and are already shipping in the UK

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Originally Posted by Exposed

Is the English version of this game released on October 2nd or just the Russian?

English

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Originally Posted by raystorm

...any wild boars so far??

Welcome to Gothic 4, urmmm.. I mean Risen... home OF THE ****ING BOAR RAPE! God damn it. Seriously, great game - about to be uninstalled due to the pathetic combat (what started as enjoyable quickly became tedium of the highest order) and hideous "it's a boar!! you go die now, kthxbai!!" bollocks mentality of the ****nuts at PB. I don't give a **** if "it's realistic!!!!111 you couldn't fight a full grown boar in real life!!11" If I wanted realism, I'd go and hunt a ****ing REAL boar. I want an enjoyable game, which Gothic 4 (uuurr... Risen... sorry) is, if only you completely remove the combat.

****, even combat against "humans" is EXACTLY as bad.

Block. They hit and hit through your attack. "Urgh!!" you stumble back. You try to dodge, they swing and hit you. "Urgh!!" you stumble back, with half your health gone in the process.

Rinse repeat for three swings, you die, reload, try it all again.

[Ego]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu

bla bla

If I choose to complain about a game being identical in terms of visual representation with another game in the same genre I do so not because I'm a graphics whore; it bothers me to replay the same thing, visually speaking, just because it's not made by ZE AMERICAKNZ, and therefore is cool, and trendy. I couldn't care less if the game is truly something else, and it still holds that spark that made older games shine if it's god damn unplayable, and it looks the same with another title I have already played some time ago. I can also accept having my rather powerful PC raped if the tradeoff is worth it. It is not in this particular case.

Also, **** you regarding the stupidity comment. Measure your ****ing words before extending those fingers towards your elitist PC keyboard.


Gothic could have been awesome, up until the point I had to use a program made by a fan of the game which was launched before the game and reserved 100Mb of memory, so that when the game crashed while saving, this memory would be "released" and the savegame wouldn't get corrupted; if until that point I wouldn't get a crash, fall through the ****ing map or just get stuck in a leave of grass.
No thanks, not again. Not even a metric ton of patches made that game fully playable, and I have extremely low hopes for Risen as well. I hope I'm wrong, because technical aspect aside, I like the Gothic series.

Also, for the elitist doctor House lookalike, I wish the second screenshot wasn't watermarked, to lol a bit at the confusion:

[aop]

My little brother called Piranha Bytes "Boaranha Bytes" after Gothic 3. I wonder why the hell they had to add boars. Gothic 1 and 2 didn't have them and they are maybe the most used cliche animal in RPGs. Gothic 2 had many more imaginative monsters (Field Raiders etc). Gothic 3 made me think why the hell they ditched those designs and returned to more common beastiary.

[spindoctor]

Originally Posted by aop

I wonder why the hell they had to add boars. Gothic 1 and 2 didn't have them and they are maybe the most used cliche animal in RPGs.

i think rpgs add boars now in a humorous attempt to mock the genre cliche (and themselves in the process) a little bit

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Took a look at the image itself and yes it maybe 4gb+ but over 2gb of that is actually the protection! . The game itself is only 1.88GB

[GanjaStar]

Originally Posted by Pirate Neilsouth

Took a look at the image itself and yes it maybe 4gb+ but over 2gb of that is actually the protection! . The game itself is only 1.88GB

does it stutter is the question?

[genci88]

Originally Posted by Pirate Neilsouth

Took a look at the image itself and yes it maybe 4gb+ but over 2gb of that is actually the protection! . The game itself is only 1.88GB

Is that supposed to be bad?

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Will let you know in a few hrs

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Originally Posted by genci88

Is that supposed to be bad?

Well im usually wary when a game is half the size of the protection used

Still , it was pointless using it

[genci88]

Originally Posted by Pirate Neilsouth

Well im usually wary when a game is half the size of the protection used

Still , it was pointless using it

All methods of copy protection are useless in this day and age anyway.

But hey, as long as it doesn't have DRM (online activation), I'm happy.

[Sundance Kid V2]

Originally Posted by Pirate Neilsouth

Took a look at the image itself and yes it maybe 4gb+ but over 2gb of that is actually the protection! . The game itself is only 1.88GB

seriously that one huge ass protection

[Ego]

Which doesn't exactly work, either

[Pirate Neilsouth]

This is a REALLY nice game , it's what gothic 3 should've been.. The graphics are nice , not noticed any stuttering thus far. Frame rates are perfectly playable for me atleast , probably 35-40+. ( everything maxed )

First impressions better than divinity 2!

Don't like the overusage of HDR , some of the characters are blindingly bright

[saguy]

Originally Posted by Pirate Neilsouth

This is a REALLY nice game , it's what gothic 3 should've been.. The graphics are nice , not noticed any stuttering thus far. Frame rates are perfectly playable for me atleast , probably 35-40+. ( everything maxed )

First impressions better than divinity 2!

Don't like the overusage of HDR , some of the characters are blindingly bright

I was stung with G3 so I am nervous about ordering it. Neil would you say that this is a definite must buy.

[Pirate Neilsouth]

Originally Posted by saguy

I was stung with G3 so I am nervous about ordering it. Neil would you say that this is a definite must buy.

Yes!

When i first played gothic 3 i was so angry with the stuttering and low frame rates i actually returned it to the store next day.

[saguy]

Originally Posted by Pirate Neilsouth

Yes!

When i first played gothic 3 i was so angry with the stuttering and low frame rates i actually returned it to the store next day.

As much as I hate paying more for games on STEAM it is probably the only option as there is mail strike in London.

[Pr()ZaC]

Risen Test

While the large gaming magazines still discuss whether Risen is innovative enough or not and whether it therefore is a good game or not, the fans are already sure of their opinion: Risen is, in many parts, exactly what they wanted. A lot from the first two Gothic games and on top of that we get a modern interface and accessibility. For the fans this is enough innovation. The devs don't need to develop the Roleplaying-Wheel anew. New tires with a better profile are enough.

The old fans of the Gothic series hope for a game, that possesses the typical features of the first two games: Among these are a dense story that is parted into chapters, lots of unique NPCs with diverse quests, that ideally have multiple solutions, and a world that invites to explore. Oh, and did I mention a combat system with tactical elements that rewards practice? Besides these fans, there are the people who liked Gothic 3 and only complained that it was unfinished but didn't have any complaints about the gameplay. Do Piranha Bytes manage to please both the old fans and the people who liked G3 with their new game?

Where am I?

Typical for Piranha Bytes, the story begins with a pre-generated nameless character. Therefore there's no character generation and you immediately delve into the story. The first minutes of the game might already be known to some of you from diverse previews and videos. In contrast to Gothic 2 and 3, where you were sent out with a clear goal that had a connection to the whole story, Risen feels more like Gothic 1 again: in the beginning you stand on the beach without any knowledge or possessions, and have to find out about the story and relationships first. In order to not send beginners completely unprepared into the gameworld, the tutorial character Sara gives some hints about combat, the direction you have to go to and how to use items. People who don't like that can just leave Sara alone and explore the island by themselves.

Already in the beginning you will meet quite some factions that you can join. But, during the first chapter, you don't have to decide yet.

To join a faction, you typically have to solve certain quests that, in the end, lead to you joining that faction. The rest of the story will then be seen from the viewpoint of that faction. This way, the game clearly goes back to the same faction-system that was used in Gothic 1 and 2. The replay value thus comes from the different quests and viewpoints of the different factions instead of just the sheer size of the world. While Gothic 3 gained attention mainly through size, Risen returned to a smaller, more overlookable world. In order to have enough interesting places for the different quests and to show the player many new locations during the main quest, the island of Faranga, on which the hero stranded, has many nooks and crannies. On multiple layers there are swamps, grasslands, forests and canyons, and waterfalls show the height differences more clearly. That way they show on the one hand the wildness of the island, and on the other hand also show the soft romantic natural side of the gameworld. High cliffs and mountain walls additionally seperate the island and prevent you from seeing all of the gameworld at once. Behind every road turn the player sees a different panorama. There are peaceful farms, dark swamplands and sometimes thick, sometimes sunny forest areas. Additionally, there are many caves, temple ruins and dungeons. In Risen, all of them are designed by hand. No cave and dungeon looks the same as the other. Normal caves are usually inhabitet by gnomes or wolf hordes. Dangerous ghouls wait in dark ambushes to surprise the player. Dungeons, on the other hand, of which there are plenty because of the temple ruins that appear everywhere, contain worse things. There are not only dangerous traps which sometimes have to be disarmed by magic, but also stronger and more dangerous enemies. Ash-beasts are only one of them. The dungeons aren't as deep as the Old Mine in Gothic 1, and the ancient cave-rooms of the temples aren't as high as the Temple of the Sleeper, but the secret subterranean buildings, which you will undoubdetly find during the game, nonetheless have a certain Sleeper's Temple feeling to them. Hot lava flows in chasms deep under half destroyed bridges, hallways lead down to unknown dark depths and protection mechanisms show the player that he's only an intruder.

But before you can enter these places, you will be sent square across the island. Not only the camp of bandits in the swamp is a place you'll often visit, there's also the harbor city that offers many quests. Here - and even more in the volcano fortress - you will see the old quest structure you know from the first two Gothics. Quests that partly relate to each other which can only be solved after talking to some different people are there as well as quests that you can solve cleverly. The possibility to solve quests in different ways isn't used that often, most quests only have one solution. The harbor city itself is very diverse, multiple streets seperate the city into different parts which all have their own flavor. There's a multitude of characters living in these city quarters. The models of the male NPCs are also quite diverse and aren't reused all too often, so that you won't get the impression of talking to a clone army. Sadly there are only two models for the few female characters in the game, which both have rather strange proportions (lol Piranha Bytes and women) which really show during animations. Still, the animations have improved from Gothic 3. While in Gothic 3 characters often did hectic movements during dialogues, they seem more natural in Risen. The plastic-look of Gothic 3 is gone, too, NPC-faces and clothes look more organic, more real. Hooked noses, scars, full beards, fat and slim persons, bald and furry (yeah I intentionally chose this word instead of, say, hairy ). The variety is quite large. The voice actors aren't reused too often, either. Optically, the NPCs remind of the old Gothic games. The models are, of course, more detailed, but the dialogues and the general design of faces and clothes have the same rough charme of the characters from Gothic 1 and 2.

Thanks JarlFrank.