Gamescom 2016: Interview Lineup & Appointments

Aug. 15, 2016

It’s that time of the year when we go to Germany to find out what smaller studios are up to and be blown away by unexpected announcements. Last year, wedrank a lot of beerand covereda tonof exciting RPGs including Dark Souls III.

It’ll be some busy times as you can see, but we have left time on Thursday to go around the floor and drop by other titles, as well as see the big Sony hitters such as God of War andHorizon: Zero Dawn.

Please let us know if there’s any title you’d like us to check out or any questions you’d like us to ask!

Fexelea

MMO raider by day and guide writer by night, Fex enjoys multiplatform gaming, good books and animes, and streaming with a cold beer.

Updates for today!

After that we got time with Bethesday for Dishonored and Prey766253251964481537

And we got to play The Surge – combat is very fluid and fast!766278793447153664

Yeah. Thanks.

But you forgot to post the most important picture!

Gwent Limited Edition Wild Card Amber Ale.

Save one for me.

Long day ending with some more beers with cd project red.

Hope you guys enjoyed the pictures today!

Time for Vampyr and The Surge

Time for

Torment: Tides of Numenara up next!

I hope they got something to show you.

time!

up next!

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Perhaps you could interview the guys from Farming Simulator 17 while you’re waiting? I’ve heard that it got some great RPG elements.

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Lots of waiting involved for appointments so sneaking posts in.

Ah. Cool. Can’t wait until your articles arrive.

Do you ever relax?

Time for

Thanks for all the questions!

Please feel free to post more. And remember toBookmark this pageto get a feed of the articles.

I dont really have any questions for anything. not too many games out there that are catching my eye besides ds3 dlc. and of course my feverish dreams of getting a true sequel to digimon world ; – ; rip my dreams

Tyranny:

I’m not asking about the story because I want to find out for myself.

I’m currently playing through Neverwinter Nights 2 (which has several notable similarities to Tyranny as you’ve described it so far in it’s 4 character limit, default lack of friendly fire, and abilities that can be more or less spammed every fight) and while the story/writing are great the combat is repetitive and gets quite boring. All you have to do is let the tank run in first and then spam your abilities. Without the flexibility of combat challenges and player solutions provided by larger parties, how do you intend to keep the combat interesting, especially for veteran players?

You said increased difficulty means improved enemy tactics instead of larger numbers. Thank you, too many games take the easy way out and just swarm you or crank up damage recieved instead of having better AI. How do you approach creating AI that adjusts like that? How do you approach balancing the game with enemies (who will presumably out number you much of the time) who will go for the high threat healers/casters first without them just wiping them out and dooming the players party in the first couple rounds?

Questions about Elex:

Note that Elex is both the name of the game and a substance.

• How do the factions discover the capabilities of Elex? Is this a given or do we get to see the apocalypse and how Elex became important?

• Given that the factions occupy or get to own their own territory, it appears to be that Magalan is a big open world. How big is it?

• What gets into creating a new futuristic fantasy world and its lore? Do we get to read about the lore or is it more of a “show, do not tell” approach”?

• The player starts as an Alb. Given the specific nature of the various factions, can the player become part of another faction and use their abilities, much like a class?

• The Berserkers are magic based, but, given the illustrations, appear to be much like sword wielding warlocks. How would you describe their combat and magic abilities? Are there different specializations? How many abilities are there? What’s the progression mechanism?

• The Berserkers are transforming the wastelands into woodlands. Do we only see a snapshot of that change or can we witness ongoing changes to Elan and the rest of Magalan?

• The Albs appear to be a technology driven faction. Do they posses mental powers? How much of the technology of Xacor can we see and use? How do these progress?

• It looks like the Albs are aggressive conquerors. Do they use technology to their advantage, like developing stealth skills, to infiltrate? Or do they operate like traditional armies?

• The Clerics, like the Albs, appear to be a technology based faction. What are the differences between the two, appart from Elex powering the Cleric’s machines? Is the religion of Ignadon based on myths, or does Calaan exist? How does following their god give them an advantage?

• The Clerics appear to be an industrial faction. Are the other factions dependent on their industry, or do all factions have an independent economy?

• The society of the Outlaws appear medieval. What makes them worthy opponents to the Elex-using factions?

• Are the Outlaws of Tavar a kind of outcasts developed into a guerilla faction, or are they just what their name implies?

• Can the player select between a male or female PC? Is the player based on a preset character? Do we get to know or experience the background of the player? Or is the player, like in Risen, a nameless character?

• Is there character, weapon and armor customization? How does that work and how deep are those?

• Is Piranha Bytes using an in-house engine? Does the engine allow modding? If so, what do the tools allow to be created?

• Risen got mixed reviews. How is Elex going to shake off that past with a relatively small team?

We can dream up some questions? Oh! In that case I have some.

Questions about Dishonored 2:

• Because Emily and Corvo have different goals, some missions must be unique. How much of their playable story line is mutually exclusive?

• Daud is canonically spared by Corvo. Does he play a role in Dishonored 2, and if so, what role?

• Although Arkane never claimed Dishonored to be an RPG, it certainly feels influenced by the genre. Should RPG fans look forward to Dishonored 2 and why?

• Agency in Dishonored was felt through game play by following different paths and being more or less lethal. How much agency have the two protagonists in Dishonored 2 story-wise?

• Dishonored got a lot of praise. It’ll be hard to exceed that. What are the improvements in Dishonored 2?

• The “chaos” system appears to be back. Some critics of the first game noted that stealth was favored (both in difficulty and game ending). If Arkane felt that this was correct then how does violent game play in Dishonored 2 addresses that critique?

• Dishonored was the brain child of Raphaël Colantonio and Harvey Smith. Now that Raphaël Colantonio is directing the new Prey, how much does that impact the look and feel of Dishonored 2?

Questions about the new Prey:

• There seem to be similarities between Prey and the original Alien movie. Was that an inspiration? What makes it different from the typical survival horror game? Is it perhaps more like a psychological thriller?

• RPG elements seem to be a dirty word these days. Is it fair to say that Prey is a hybrid of a FPS and a story driven RPG? If so what can RPG fans look forward to?

• We know that there are no separate levels and missions. How does the story progression work?

• The protagonist can be male or female. How much customization do they have or doesn’t the game require that, because of the first person perspective?

• Being partially a shooter, how do combat and weapon customization work? Is there a weapon skill progression?

• The player can learn skills from the aliens. How does that work? Is there skill progression? Can you give an example?

Don’t be shy with questions. This is one of the few times a year we can sit down with the people who make the games you’re interested in playing so now is a great time to ask any thing you might be wondering about.

Oh! You do Dishonored 2 and Prey as well!

Looking forward to those.

We were just talking about Vampyr ourselves. If it incorporates what Dontnod has done in the past with Life is Strange then it could really be a good game. The vibe is so compelling. When we saw it demo’d at E3 we were really engrossed.

Yes, I need more of this “Vampyr” in my life. It looks super interesting.

I’m hoping one of those two Namco //unannounced// parts is the Dark Souls 3 DLC. I mean, you’d think, right? They said it was planned for a fall release, and we’re getting kinda close.

Looking forward to news about Torment, Divinity and Kingdom Come especially.

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