http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/divinity ... ks;title;6

Some news from gamespot.

Looking good. I actually applied for a position as in-house tester with them, a month ago. Was a good interview, and I got a response from them saying that my application was "positive, but that we can't offer you a job opening atm." And that I will hear from them as soon as the QA team is expanded, but that the terms and conditions for that are outside their grasp for now.

I was befuddled. I think it means that I made a good impression and am 'in', but that they are still waiting for the publisher's ok and/or budget to get the testing process running. Sucks kinda because I still don't know what or how now and I have other applications running (though i would prefer doing this, obviously), but I guess it could be worse.

Some updates by the owner/director of development. I highlighted some of the things that stood out for me - different interfaces/inventories for PC and Xbox version etc. Important, if you ask me.

[quote]My next appointment took the slow train from Brussels, so that gives me some much needed room to give you all a new update... We just finished a two week “get in early and play the game every morning “ review session and I think the general feeling among everybody present in those review meetings was – bloody hell, this game is bigger than we thought. We were playing in god mode, using cheat keys without engaging in combat and it still took us a really long time to play through everything. I think I can safely say that we’ve reached at least one of our design goals and that was - make sure it’s dense enough with plenty of interesting stuff happening all the time, you know, the thing we call gameplay boosters. When you’ll finally get your hands in the game, there’s only one thing I can advise you and that’s to explore – there are plenty of detail layers and secrets within the world of Rivellon and quite a few of them are worth it. Mindreading also springs to mind as something which is worthwhile doing, there’s some really cool ones in there, at least I thought so.

There’s a lot of things going on at our studio for the moment and everybody is pretty stressed, but in general there’s a feeling of – if we manage to do this right, this could be a great game. Still plenty of opportunities for us to goof up, but somehow we managed to get something right. One thing which I think we’re getting pretty right is our dialog presentation. I’m talking about the entire voices/lip-synching/animations/cameras thing. An immense effort is being done to get all of that dialog presented to you in an entertaining way, and I’m really happy at how it turned out. Somewhere in the near future (how many times have I used that phrase already in the context of this project), you’ll be seeing video footage of those dialogs, and I hope you’ll agree with me that it’s been worth the effort.

[b]The user interfaces are also getting more and more complete, and the difference between the PC and Xbox360 user interfaces is pretty sharp. I play games on both systems, and I was happy to see that some schizophrenic part of me could appreciate the nuances the UI guys put in for both audiences. You look at one UI and you say – yep, most definitely PC RPG. You look at the other and you have this thing of, ok – works well for an Xbox360 RPG. The underlying functionality is the same, but it’s surprising how much the look needs to fit the platform for there to be… well, call it gameplay. The same actions with a non-appealing UI on a particular platform feel a lot different than when it is appealing. Don’t ask me why, I tried explaining people in the team multiple times: “you watch, when the UI will look nice and fit, this will be funâ€

short Q&A on the Divinity forum with the lead designer

[quote]Will we get to name our character? Like, first name and last name, and then get called that by the populace instead of just "Dragonslayer" and "hero"?

Yes you will get to name your character and no the populace will address you with your title which is Slayer.


How will we earn gold to buy weapons etc? Would we get it from Quests or do we have to do jobs?

Money drops as part of loot and money is given as a reward. Also there are enough junk and valuable items to be found in the world that you can sell to traders throughout the game.


What’s the estimated length of the game?

We think around fifty hours

Are you free to have conversations with any NPC?

Yes you are, we even encourage it with witty dialogs all over.

Is the game set in 1 city or are there several cities to explore?

There are several small settlements/villages and one city.

Does equipment still use durability, & is exp general or broken down?

Equipment does not use durability and XP is “spentâ€

Ego Draconis aka Divinity 2 finally has a proper website (not just the teaser website of before):

http://www.ego-draconis.com/

Beautiful music again. man, I'm looking forward to this game, and not just cause it's Belgian.

Collector's edition looking good:

http://www.rpgwatch.com/#12108

Short IGN preview from E3

http://pc.ign.com/articles/991/991372p1.html

English version of the game will be out in September, but the German version as soon as next month.

Also, 10 very nice new screens

http://www.msxbox-world.com/xbox360/scr ... conis.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09 ... y-ii/50967

Some gameplay with a scary dev giving comments