Renzatic on 2/10/2009 at 02:13
Actually, I almost like the new system better. It works sorta like the old Gothics in that when you're moving left or right, you'll swing your sword in that direction. You're just moving now instead of standing still. The new dodge moves are also quite nice...and very necessary, considering the bastard AI does it to you constantly. Even though the controls are quite different, the end result plays out very much like the old combat system. Score there.
And the rest? Well, it's everything I knew and loved about Gothic, wrapped in a semi fantasy Greek Mediterranean setting. I can't give it much higher praise than that. Sure, the animations aren't anywhere close to being the best, the main character comes off sounding a little stilted, and yeah, Piranha Bytes should try and do something beyond their usual "three factions...WHICH WILL YOU JOIN" setup they've been doing since forever, but those are ultimately minor complaints. If the rest of the game plays as well as this first hour, it'll end up being yet another one of PB's grand unsung classics.
No doubt about it, I will be buying Risen as soon as I can.
Edit: When you're on the beach at the very beginning, wade out to the deep sea and watch what happens.
spritex on 2/10/2009 at 06:00
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Edit: When you're on the beach at the very beginning, wade out to the deep sea and watch what happens.
The first thing I did, LOL.
mothra on 2/10/2009 at 06:26
seems all ttlg adventurers had the same idea :)
Manwe on 2/10/2009 at 09:21
What the hell, I can't force anti-aliasing from the control panel. I thought we got over this kind of crap like two years ago for fucks sake... Did anyone manage to get AA working ?
mothra on 2/10/2009 at 13:33
what for ? AA is rubbish, just increase resolution. a quick look at the german boards did not wield any information on AA.
oops, there you go:
Quote:
Risen: Engine details
The setting of Risen is based upon the almost completely new developed DirectX 9 engine which is visually similar to the Genome Engine used in Gothic 3. Render techniques like improved Depth of Field, Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, Cascade Shadow Mapping plus Soft Shadows as well as FP16 HDR Rendering including adaptive Tone Mapping and new water shaders definitely put the graphics beyond Gothic 3 level. Among other things HDR is one reason why Risen did not get official support for Anti-aliasing either.
Risen: 2-3 cores of a Quadcore are used.
Risen: 2-3 cores of a Quadcore are used. [Source: view picture gallery]
For the new developed Seamless World Streaming system a single Thread or ideally a single CPU core is responsible - during streaming the framerate drops for a short time only instead of heavy stuttering like in Gothic 3. According to the task manager Risen indeed uses the capacity of two cores most of the time. Sometimes even three during streaming. Nvidia's Physx Engine plays a role as well. It is used again but in the CPU instead of the GPU version.
Thirith on 2/10/2009 at 14:06
Quote Posted by mothra
what for ? AA is rubbish, just increase resolution.
Most of the screens I've had don't support infinite resolutions. YMMV. Also, I'm sure I'm not the only one who likes to have AA activated, because they like the look and feel of it.
Renzatic on 2/10/2009 at 14:34
For those of you waiting on the Xbox360 version, I'd probably go ahead and pass. All reviews based off the 360 rev, (
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/risen-review) like the Eurogamer 4/10 review here, talk of a broken game, severely gimped from the PC version. The screenshots where he bitches about the game never actually looking that good are from the actually looks that good PC version. The 360 version looks (
http://www.gamepro.de/_misc/galleries/detail.cfm?pk=55598&fk=1231777##) more like this, a muddy mess sporting half the draw distance a quarter of the texture resolution. Shame really, PB could've found an entirely new audience if they spent more than 5 minutes on the console port. As is, it looks like a huge sloppy rush job that'll turn off a whole bunch of people.
On another note, I'm pretty sure forcing 2x AA from the control panel worked for me. Could've been psyching myself out, though. I'll double check it out
Edit: Yup. (
http://users.chartertn.net/greymatt/risen_aa.jpg) AA works for me.
Manwe on 2/10/2009 at 15:25
Quote Posted by Renzatic
On another note, I'm pretty sure forcing 2x AA from the control panel worked for me. Could've been psyching myself out, though. I'll double check it out
Edit: Yup. (
http://users.chartertn.net/greymatt/risen_aa.jpg) AA works for me.
It doesn't for me :(
What system do you have ?
Quote:
what for ? AA is rubbish, just increase resolution. a quick look at the german boards did not wield any information on AA.
This is rubbish. AA is only the most important technical feature in a game. And I can't increase my resolution beyond 1280 x 1024 which is the standard resolution of my LCD screen. And even if I could increase my resolution to a ridiculously high enough level that there was no jaggy left, it would demand too much power compared to a simple 2x AA.
Quote:
Render techniques like improved Depth of Field, Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, Cascade Shadow Mapping plus Soft Shadows as well as FP16 HDR Rendering including adaptive Tone Mapping and new water shaders definitely put the graphics beyond Gothic 3 level. Among other things HDR is one reason why Risen did not get official support for Anti-aliasing either.
Translation : "Blablabla we're stupid we like to sabotage our own game by not having AA". Seriously what do I care about soft shadows, fancy shaders and HDR. I won't notice any of these if there are jaggies everywhere. I'll take AA over this crap anytime.
Bah I'm sure they'll fix it eventually in a patch or a new driver or whatever, I wasn't really planning on buying the game yet anyway. It's just a really stupid thing to do not to include AA in a PC game.
GRRRR on 2/10/2009 at 15:30
Its just great, im constantly crying nerd tears of joy onto my keyboard while playing. True Gothic 3. But i miss the stubby little ponytail and pornstache of the old main character :(
Tips time : As soon as youre in the city Breaking and Entering wields huge rewards, lotsa quests require it too. Its not just a few silver pots like in Gothic 2, cleaning the place out will make ya filthy rich. Its great fun too. Didnt try pickpocketing tho. Theres a sneak ring buried in a chest in the city. Of course i found it AFTER i spent the points and money for the sneak skill -.-.
Renzatic on 2/10/2009 at 15:41
Quote Posted by Manwe
It doesn't for me :(
What system do you have ?
Just an 8800GTS 512 and the newest Win 7 Cuda drivers. Ain't nothing special or fancy here.
I do have to agree with Manwe a little bit here. Since I can play at much higher resolutions than he can, a lack of AA isn't exactly a deal breaker for me. Still, the option is always a nice thing to have. Specially when just about everyone is used to seeing it in about every other game out right now.
