Björn Pankratz (game developer) playing guitar with his wife.

[Traggey]

Yeah, Gothic is better than Risen.
But Risen was not buggy at all. Gothic is more buggy, but it is by far the better game.
You also need to know, this developer doesn't make games for american market. This are german games and they don't want to dump it down just because the americans would like that. Risen is a bit more casual than Gothic, but even a good game.

The graphics in Amnesia are also dated for a game from 2010. And as the dark side already said, it is totally irrelevant.
The devs also wanted an old-school style. This is a reason for the animations. They wanted!
It is not because they are not competant enough to make ultra real animations, it's their special style and people really like that.

But yeah, Risen is not so good as Gothic. Gothic was made more for a special niche.

---

How can anyone stand those shitty Gothic games? Ugh, the first one was bad enough that I wanted to kill puppies and actually eat authentic Asian food.

I already told you, it's NOT a game for american casuals.

This is why you don't like it. It's just made for a small group of decent people who understand art in games.

I do in no way consider myself a casual gamer, nor am I american.

I've been playing games since I was about 2 years old and I'm currently attending a school for games development, well I'm starting in september anyway.

There is nothing I love more than brilliant story telling in games, however playing an RPG where the camera has to change position every single time a character finishes a sentince, the AI is not clever is enough to walk in a straight line when it needs to and the combat and questing system acts like an MMO from eight years back there is seriously something wrong with the game. The animations were choppy as hell which wouldn't be a problem for me if it wasn't for the fact that the characters flail their arms around constantly when they speak as if they're trying to use sign language, however the lips? They don't move at all, arms are better for speaking after all.

I played for a little more than half an hour of the game, if you check part 2 of my let's play ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcvGzgpp...ature=plcp ) you'll see the game gets no better further on, it's a terribly slow burner and all I did during that half an hour of gameplay was run back and forth talking to people trying to follow a storyline which is barely event existant, I mean COME ON they don't even let you know what your characters name is!

I'm a graphics whore, they're important to me, I do 3D modeling myself so it's something I'm very passionate about.

HOWEVER, when I say that graphics are bad, I don't mean ''OMG NOT ENUFF POLYGONS'' I will be refering to the way the engine renders objects and how well the arts style works. My favourite game of all time is Final Fantasy VII, I think that game looks amazing, it has an artstyle that works.



^ I would choose THIS, anyday over the picture below.



Is it just me who find these ''hardcore'' gamers that believe themselves know stuff about how the gaming world actually works annoying? I've been spotting them all over the internet over the last five years and 80 % of the times these people have no idea what something alike a texture, or a rendering feature such as anti-aliasing is.

if you ask me, ''hardcore'' gamers, are the ones developers and people whom enjoy games should listen the least to.

[Bridge]

Is it just me who find these ''hardcore'' gamers that believe themselves know stuff about how the gaming world actually works annoying? I've been spotting them all over the internet over the last five years and 80 % of the times these people have no idea what something alike a texture, or a rendering feature such as anti-aliasing is.

if you ask me, ''hardcore'' gamers, are the ones developers and people whom enjoy games should listen the least to.

I basically agree that "graphics are unimportant" is a stupid concept that has inexplicably become popular among elitist gamers, but I don't think having technical knowledge is really important. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion and even if somebody who doesn't know anything about 3D graphics says something looks unappealing to them their opinion is still exactly as valid as someone who has studied it for years. The only thing that's important is aesthetic appeal and that's what I consider good graphics. I think Morrowind has some of the best graphics in any game ever and that game is considered by some to be almost unplayable without graphics mods (which I don't use). The level design and use of colors is just so good, almost every area is like a painting (I even like the character models, though the humans are a little inexpressive). It doesn't need high res textures and advanced graphical features to be "good" in my opinion. Sharp graphics with sophisticated lighting and rendering features can only make something better but they cannot come before aesthetics.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

they don't even let you know what your characters name is

That doesn't count, because not knowing your characters name is a well known running gag of the Gothic series.

Piranha Bytes main problem (in my opinion) is that people expect them to make huge open world RPG games with todays graphics standards and a bazillion of NPCs and quests and whatnot but they only have ~20 people and a tiny fraction of the budget for example Bethesda has.
So they need to crunch and cut corners whereever they can and outsource tons of stuff (like the animations and most environment assets for example) and in the end they still only suceed in making a mediocre game riddled with bugs because they just can't stem such a project with the manpower and budget they have available.
It's sad, really, because the people there are really talented (One of them taught me almost everything I know about 3D modeling). Sometimes I wish we could go back to the times of Gothic 1, were it was still possible to make big games with a small team because you didn't have to pour most of your time and money into making the graphics look acceptable to the mainstream crowd. (I mean technical wise, not aesthetically).

[Googolplex]

@Traggey
Oh my god, this is laughable. Did you always play games like this?
You make stupid sounds when playing a game. How the hell can you concentrate on story?
Of course, there are some things in Risen 2 we don't like. For example the quick-loot inventory when open a chest or trade. I also said that it is more casual than Gothic, and the action-cutscene on the beach was breaking the epic gameplay. And there are less puzzles than Risen 1 or the old Gothic series.
But it is nevertheless a really good adventure RPG. You have your own ship, your own crew, there are 10 different isles with an interesting story. The gameplay is really excellent (old-school).
Gothic is better, but Risen is similar. And after all a very good game.

What you're saying is totally laughable. The camera doesn't change position every time. Especially we're talking about Gothic in first line!
The animations are wanted old-school style! The characters should mediate a special language, only german cultures could understand.

An other thing is that you haven't played the game. Yust an half hour, so you can't talk about the story.
The graphics are fantastic, please notice they just use DirectX 9.
And I have seen some 3D models by you and they are not better. In fact they would be too ugly for a game. That you prefer a kitschy Final Fantasy style does say all about that.
But it's your opinion. I also have to say that a game "never" is just for Fun. You can't expect that a game automatically gives you a lot of fun. You need to understand, that every game needs enough time and intention by the player. Otherwise you are playing wrong and this is why you call it a bad game. But it's not because of the game.
Can you say me any other better game?
Final Fantasy?
Skyrim?
World of Warcraft?
Diablo?

Gothic and Risen never should be a standard RPG for big mass. It's for a small group of people who like this special niche.

---

And that you don't know the character's name isn't because the developers forget it.
The name isn't important. Notice that a real hero doesn't need a name.
Oh... where are you? I'm Pascal. Lol, this would be artless.

---

@the dark side
Sorry, but this is not correct.
A good game with bugs is better than a Call of Duty without bugs.
And also notice that the only game with bugs from PiranhaBytes is Gothic 3.
The previous Gothics and the Risen series are almost free of bugs.
And even Gothic 3 is free of bugs with actual Community-Patch 1.75.
Yeah, teh community did a patch with over 1000 fixes and improvements!

But it's right. It's totally insolent to release nn unfinished game like that.
But if it is a good game, I'll pay money.

You have a wrong notion about this games. Yust because Traggey played like a troll, you shouldn't believe the game is so bad as he said. There are also some trolls in the internet who are playing Amnesia as they would make the game ridiculous.
But this are just childish trolls, never understanding the sense in games.

---

And a proper game never should have action.
Action is a typical american flavor, but it will ruin EVERY kind of immersion and atmosphere.
I'm glad that Gothic and Risen have slow story telling, slow combat and a decent gameplay.
It's not a helicopter bullfight with explosions and zombies. I said already, it's for a small niche who understand art in games. Not like the global world wants like the action bloody splatter cinematic shit.

[eliasfrost]

Sorry to say Googol, but all Gothic games and all Risen games are filled to the tip with bugs, although most (but far from all) were removed due to unofficial patches (like Piranha bytes ever arsed themselves to fix anything anyways).

But I have to say though, that one of the best developers (in terms of quality over games) is in fact realitypump (Two Worlds), don't get me wrong, both games suck big hairy donkey balls but the improvement from two worlds 1 and the sequel is immense, the amount of work they put into actually improving and listening to feedback is amazing and something we just don't see that much anymore. I actually look forward to Two Worlds 3, might be playable after all.

[Googolplex]

Sorry to say Googol, but all Gothic games and all Risen games are filled to the tip with bugs, although most (but far from all) were removed due to unofficial patches (like Piranha bytes ever arsed themselves to fix anything anyways).

I know, work by the community isn't official. Gothic 3 was released as an alpha version. This is really annoying and I understand poeple.

But the rest of all isn't full of bugs. Especially Risen 1 is a very well programmed game. They learned much after the Gothic 3 disaster. And even Risen 2 is nearly bug free.
The previous Gothic titles have some bugs, but you can play them without being annoyed.
Even, the first two are masterpieces in every single detail.

Perhaps only people in germany are able to understand the mediation of these games.
It's as I said, not made for global marketing. It's a niche.
But I can't believe that the only difference is the language and people would not feel the game because of that...

[Kman]

And I have seen some 3D models by you and they are not better. In fact they would be too ugly for a game.

Ok that made me laugh

In other news, there's too much actual shit in this post that sorting out a reply would forever, and I bet you'd just write me off as some stupid American casual gamer who can't appreciate art and ignore everything I said. Anyways, since you're obviously under the impression that you're part of some small elite group of people that appreciate art in games (lol) why don't you just join a forum with those people? I doubt you'll be missed.

[Googolplex]

Anyways, since you're obviously under the impression that you're part of some small elite group of people that appreciate art in games (lol) why don't you just join a forum with those people?

This is why I'm here, Kman.

Early, the Frictional forum was exactly this kind of place.

[Googolplex]

I doubt you were ever welcomed in though.

I came before you! So you can't say welcome to Me.

[Googolplex]

Whether I came afterwards or not, I still seem to not be as ridiculed as you, and whilst I'm certainly ridiculed by some, I have yet to see it. I see you ridiculed on a daily basis, and nor was I saying welcome to you, nor would I ever say that to you, even if I had arrived before you.

Oh yeah, you're welcome. All people love you 100%.

Congrats, Robosprog