This a new rpg developed by the makers of the Gothic series (except the last installment, 4th). While the gothic series had some of the best stuff ive seen in any game when it comes to living and breathing world the game was notorious for its buginess, for gothic 3, the community actually made many patches and the last one was 800mb in size (talk about devotion).

So the original devs are prepping a new game, new universe, new place in a game called Risen. Check out some of the footage @ gametrailers.com

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/risen/10213

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/48638.html
Harbor trailer.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/48640.html
Riverbank trailer.

Can already see the countless hours melting away at this game.

not to talk too much trash about risen, but having watched the riverbank trailer, there are a few things I wish had been fixed in games that still hasn't.

1. Flying enemies: Flying insects don't just hover in one spot. Usually they're on the ground, or they fly around. So how come flying insect stuff in games just hovers in one spot until it sees you?

2. Creatures don't look the same. Take 2 boars, put them next to each other, and they look completely different. can't we at least get some variance in texture maps?

3. Creatures turning. When a creature turns, it doesn't pivot around its axis. It places its feet where it wants to go and arcs its body, but if a foot is on the ground it stays where it is, it doesn't 'slide' around in a semicircle.

4. Walking: When things walks forward, their feet stay where they're placed. so how come when you see creatures in games walking, they do a moonwalk looking thing? If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the dwarves or whatever at the end of the riverfront trailer and watch their feet.

Anyway, it's not really a criticism of this game, more games in general. They're just little minor annoyances that should've been fixed 10 years ago.

Definitely going to wait on reviews for this game. Gothic 3 was so buggy.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/risen/do ... 30804.html

Risen demo available, downloading it right now. I'll post my thoughts after i have given it a spin. The download itself is about 1,2Gb.

Unfortunately the demo is bugged and cant be installed. Heh. The installer rolled a 1 and critically failed.

Ok i got some play time in now with the demo (had to download it from a different source). What i can say is that the game looks good graphically, the environment has that semi realistic look (with grass and plants and trees that look really good with the lighting effects) and the inventory and items in backpack have a slight artistic touch so overall the games graphical side is really good.

Unfortunately i cant shake the feeling of been there and done that. I was immedietly butchered by some wolves and boars which reminded me that this is indeed a spiritual successor to gothic series and stuff dont just roll over and die, have to work for your kills.

Since the demo is so short i cant really tell much but from what i learned from Gothic series it shares the same fundamental characterstics with Oblivion and Morrowind which would be a large amount of linear fetching quests that are fun for about 15minutes (hence the reason why i never finished any of these games).

It got a very good review in my gaming magazine, 87%, which is high but not a total classic in their rating (94% is the highest they ever awarded iirc; and 90 is extremely good).

Pros:

- Good story
- Challenging combat
- Freedom in picking skills
- Atmospheric open world

Cons:

- Some continuity bugs

I'll be waiting to hear more about it. If it's really as good as that seems to imply, I'll check it out though. Having never played Gothic I really don't know what to expect.