E3 2000 opens it's doors on Thursday which means it's time for Tarant and I to pack our bags and head to the show. This of course means that updates may come a bit less often for the remainder of the week, but be sure to stay tuned to hear all the latest Dungeon Siege news from the show.

Level Designer Sarah Boulian aka Calix gave a hint at a shipping date for Dungeon Siege:

We will definitely be shipping well before this time next year. =)

Calix

Hmm...kind of vague :) Spotted on the DungeonSiege.org message boards.

Chris Taylor commented on spells at the DungeonSiege.org message board today:

Spells work like this.

You find a scroll and read it. It becomes incorporated into the character. Some scrolls can't be used until the character is at a certain level in that skill, dark magic or good magic. When the character goes up a level (in that skill category), the spell gets better. Each spell is meant to perform a little differently than the others and have a different strategic importance (ie., in some cases a spell that causes damage over a large area but that is not very accurate is better than a powerful spell that is tightly focused).

Not all spells will be found/discovered/acquired early on. Really awesome spells of mass destruction (and you know we will have those, wink, wink, nudge nudge) won't be available until much later stages of the game. They will, however, be available in the multi-player game right from the start (if the designer of the multi-player map decided to make them available).

Chris

Awesome spells of mass destruction. I like the sound of that.

Achieving a good balance for character advancement rate can be very difficult. If it's too fast, the game can lose any sense of achievement. If it's too slow, the game quickly becomes an exercise in frustration. However, it often comes down to what the player prefers and that was the topic of our latest poll.

How quick do you prefer character advancement (skills, stats, weapons, armor, etc)?

Moderate and Steady. - 74.7%
Fast and Furious! - 5.7%
Hard. Make me earn it. - 19.5%

If you haven't already, head over to our Image Gallery and check out the Dungeon Siege screenshots. Then cast your vote in our newest poll and tell us what you think about them.

GameSpy.com released a Dungeon Siege pre-E3 Sneak Peak today which includes several gorgeous screenshots. Chris Taylor explains how the story begins in this excerpt:

"When the game first starts, the Hero is happily chopping wood on their little farm nestled in the mountains," Taylor explains. "These Krug Raiders come charging onto the farm killing everything (the cow and chickens ... yes, the chickens) and attack the Hero. Little do they know this is no ordinary farmer, and slice, chop, hack, down they go! Unfortunately the Krug have already set fire to the Hero's farmhouse, barn and crops. Nightfall comes, and the Hero, who has had his home destroyed, heads out into the world to seek vengeance... now all they need is some trusty companions and a pack mule! And so the adventure begins."

There's nothing really new in the preview, but it's worth checking out just for the screens.

Scott "GpMechanic" Bilas posted a game update at DungeonSiege.Org's message boards. Here's a short clip:

We've added a ridiculous amount of new stuff since Gamestock and Fanstock, but screenshots won't do it justice, so if you can make it to E3, be sure to stop by and check out Chris and Jake presenting Dungeon Siege.

Dungeon Siege Vault will be there to report on all the new features that have gone in since our last report from Gamestock. :)

Dungeon Siege Vault's Image Gallery has been updated with the new screenshots that Gamecenter displayed last week. The Featured Image has also been updated.

Dungeon Siege is Gas Powered Games upcoming action RPG that has drawn very positive comments from just about everyone who has had the chance to see it at publisher Microsoft’s Gamestock and Fanstock events. In advance of it’s major unveiling at E3 next week, we had the chance to find out from President, Game Designer and Project Leader Chris Taylor (1) what he’ll be doing there, and (2) what he’s interested in seeing:

1: I will be working the booth and demoing Dungeon Siege all day long!!

2: I want to check it all out, as much as I can take in. Too much to list! And of course I always enjoy seeing all my old friends and meeting all the people I get to know over email. It's going to be a ton of fun!

We also received brief answers to these same two questions from a second team member who will be at the show, Lead Animator Tito Pagan:

1: Checking out the competition. Call it R&D.

2: The competition and other RT3D titles. This will give me/us a way of gauging just how bad ass we are and confirm further if we’re on target with a potentially A1 game in both gameplay and visual appeal.

We expect to be watching Dungeon Siege even more closely after its showing at E3 so stay tuned for lots more news and information about it as development progresses.

Horizons Vault launches with a brand new interview.

Set in a sprawling and varied gameworld. Horizons: Empires of Istaria is a far-reaching persistent online world being developed by Arizona-based Artifact Entertainment. Since being announced last August, it has it managed to garner both considerable interest and a very active fan community by promising to bring fresh ideas, novel twists and some unique races to a game environment that will also contain many familiar fantasy-based elements.

We were, of course, right at the front of the line for information when the game was announced, obtaining the very first Horizons interview. We have hosted the very busy official Horizons message boards since that same time, and have also been following development very closely.

Today, as we celebrate the opening of our new Horizons Vault site, it is our pleasure to present a new Horizons Interview with David Allen, the game’s Executive Producer as well as CEO of developer Artifact Entertainment.

As at our other dedicated sites, Horizons Vault will focus on the player community with complete game information, thorough community news coverage, the message boards, concept art, screenshots, humor, reader and community participation features, humor and much more. New content and features will be appearing on the site very shortly. Enjoy!

The Dungeon Siege screenshots that have been released to date have certainly garnered very favorable reactions from all quarters. However, as anyone fortunate enough to have had the chance to see the game in person will surely attest, it looks significantly better when running live. Still images simply cannot do complete justice to a game that is predicated on the concept of action and lots of it.

Lead Animator Tito Pagan is an experienced game maker with almost a decade in the industry and a dozen published titles to his credit. At Gas Powered Games, he heads up the animation team that is charged with the task of making the critical action and the character movement elements in Dungeon Siege look great. In our latest Dungeon Siege Developer Profile, we meet Tito Pagan who reveals an unusual pre-gaming background and offers a number of interesting insights into his job.

Computer based RPGs have been moving more and more towards playing with groups online. Of course, Dungeon Siege will also offer multiplayer support so we thought it would be interesting to find out who you play online with most often.

When you play an online RPG, do you most often:

play with friends? - 41.3%
find a group when you log on? - 20.0%
play solo? - 38.6%

Be sure to cast your vote in our latest poll on the right side of the page.

Anarchy Online Vault Opens For Funcom’s Sci-Fi Online World

By the year 29,475 AD, mankind has reached far into the stars, populating many worlds in the Milky Way. Among these is Rubi-Ka, a barren desert planet plagued by sandstorms and heavy winds. Located on the distant edge of the galaxy, it is made important by the presence of Notum, the substance that powers nanotechnology. For many years, the planet and the extraction of Notum have been controlled by the powerful galaxy-wide Omni-Tek corporation, but not without constant conflict against rebel clans opposing its regime.

Based on this long-standing conflict, Anarchy Online is developer Funcom’s massively multiplayer persistent online world that will receive its first major public exposure at E3 next week. With beta testing slated to begin shortly and a projected release date of late this year, Anarchy Online promises to become the first major online world with a far-future science-fiction setting.

With publicity and activity set to ramp up sharply, we are very happy to announce the launch of Anarchy Online Vault to provide complete news and information coverage of this exciting title to the online gaming community. As our launch feature, we are pleased to present the first Anarchy Online Developer Journal in which Producer Tommy Strand provides a very personal look at his game. Here is a snippet to whet your appetite:

I’m often asked: “What will make Anarchy Online different from the other games out there or the games in the near future?” Let me share with you the answer I usually give: First of all, we are 'it' this year. There won’t be any other big online games coming out in 2000.

To top that, we offer the first persistent science-fiction world. We focus on the social setting, but give the player the option to choose a single-player experience in a multiplayer setting. We have created a system where the player can enter at any time, and still have stuff to do. Our first focus was to abolish the “camping” feature; the second was to enable play during a lunch break without having to run around searching for monsters - or someone to team with in order to conquer the monsters on your level.

Other features at Anarchy Online Vault will include game information, news, message boards, concept art, screenshots, humor, reader and community participation features, humor and much more. New content will begin to appear in the very near future.

In advance of the activity that is sure to begin with Funcom’s showing of Anarchy Online at E3, we invite the online gaming community stop in at our brand new Anarchy Online Vault where the excitement will be centered. Enjoy!

With the 2000 Electronic Entertainment Expo still a couple weeks off, people are already trying to predict what the top games will be at the show. Yesterday, Gamecenter.com released it's top 5 picks from the show and of course, Dungeon Siege was among them. Here's why they think it's going to rock:

Chris Taylor and company at Gas Powered Games are promising some unique takes on the tried-and-true RPG mode of gameplay. Dungeon Siege will feature all the standards of the genre, such as parties, quests, spells, and so on, will be there, but they'll be wrapped in an entirely different package. Taylor is promising there will be no load times in the game--as you enter a new area, the old area simply fades away--which will create a seamless gaming environment.

In addition, Dungeon Siege is going to feature true 3D environments and characters, which should make for some amazing graphics. And since Taylor made his mark with Total Annihilation, he's also incorporating a lot of real-time strategy elements into the mix, including waypoints, party formations, and drag select. Other cool additions include pack mules--which will carry all your goodies, so you won't be hampered by a limited number of inventory slots--and the ability to have up to ten people in your party.

But beyond that, the RTS elements should create some ultra-intense combat sequences. And in the end, that's what Dungeon Siege is all about: it's the ultimate monster-bashing dungeon-crawl. We can't wait.

Along with their prediction, Gamecenter also posted five new incredible screenshots that you just have to check out. **drool**

Stormbringer from DungeonSiege.Org sent word that they are running a contest for Dungeon Siege fans. Here he explains the details:

All anyone has to do to win an official GPG/Dungeon Siege t-shirt autographed by Chris Taylor and 7 of the GPG team members is e-mail me an original piece of art at guy@dungeonsiege.org. Chris Taylor and Jake McMahon (VP of GPG) will be judging the art along with Steve Cherrier (Arbuthnot Communications), Chris Liu (Test Lead at Microsoft on Dungeon Siege) and I.

If you fancy yourself an artist, you may want to try your hand, take a shot, 'Siege the day' as the sayings go.

Dark Zion Vault Launches For Wombat Game’s Newly Announced Online World

As the online persistent world category continues to grow and evolve, one of the most exciting aspects to watch is the way each new project reveals different design ideas and influences. For this reason, it can be pretty difficult knowing that a potentially exciting project is in progress, but still waiting patiently until its developer is ready to unveil it. A bit earlier today, Wombat Games formally announced Dark Zion, a game we’ve been waiting to learn about for some time, and one that seems certain to attract considerable interest from the online gaming community.

At a time when game makers with experience creating online worlds are at a premium, Wombat’s co-founders include Rick Delaschmit, former Lead Programmer of Ultima Online, and Jason Spangler who held the same position on the Ultima Online: The Second Age expansion. In addition, the team’s Creative Consultant is the internationally acclaimed New York Times best-selling author Tad Williams.

To bring the online gaming community the best possible coverage of this exciting new title, the IGN Vault Network announces the opening of our latest dedicated site, Dark Zion Vault. And as the highlight of our launch, we are pleased to present the first-ever exclusive and very extensive interview with the game’s principals at Wombat Games. Here’s a brief summary of the game to pique your interest:

Dark Zion is a player-driven, player-controlled persistent online world. Players will have an unprecedented level of control over their environment; beyond building a character, a player will have the opportunity to build a business, a town, an army, even an entire society. There will be no arbitrary quests or super-imposed events; the story is the success or failure of the world at large.

Other features at Dark Zion Vault will include game information, news, concept art, screenshots, humor, reader and community participation features, humor and much more. New features and content will begin to appear in the very near future.

We invite all members of the community who are interested in the future of online gaming to stop in and check out the coming excitement from Wombat Games and best-selling author Tad Williams at our brand new Dark Zion Vault. Enjoy!