Dark Messiah of Might & Magic announced

[Varsity]

Arkane Studios were one of the first Source licensees back in 2003, and today their game was finally named. Not Arx Fatalis 2 as was assumed, but the continuation of the long-running Might & Magic series (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/38078).

Ubisoft acquired the Might and Magic brand in 2003, and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is the second title Ubisoft will be launching as it restores this famed franchise to glory. Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is scheduled for a summer 2006 release and will be shown for the first time at the Games Convention in Germany on August 17, 2005.
Will it be on Steam? Unlikely unless it has a strong multiplayer component.

[Draknodred]

Another might and magic game? I hope this is of better quality than some of the ones I've played... =(

[joruussuun]

Awesome! I have high hopes for this... I remember playing World of Xeen (Clouds of Xeen, Darkside of Xeen...) years and years ago (Might and Magic 4/5 I believe) and having many months of good times.

[Everlost_MI]

I dug M&M 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8. 9 stunk to high heaven though.
BTW, did anyone play Betrayal At Krondor? I thought that was a decent game even though I hadn't and still haven't read any of the books. I enjoyed the combat and puzzles you had to go through to open up chests.

[Phades]

I dug M&M 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8. 9 stunk to high heaven though.
BTW, did anyone play Betrayal At Krondor? I thought that was a decent game even though I hadn't and still haven't read any of the books. I enjoyed the combat and puzzles you had to go through to open up chests.

Back in the day I loved Betrayal At Krondor. That was one of the first PC Rpg's that I actually finished. I never played Return to Krondor though. The books are pretty good. Raymond E. Feist is a decent enough writer. I really like the Magician books.

[Kefkataran]

Cool title at least. Here's hoping they can bring a revival to this once-fine series. Pull that off, and I'll be first in line.

[PIPBoy3000]

Source? That's a surprise choice. I only finished one of the M&M games and that was after seriously cheating. The gameplay is way too long (for me anyway) and it got pretty repetitive after 80 hour mark. Hopefully it'll get paired back to something around 30-40 hours, which seems to be the sweet spot (again, for me anyway).

I never thought Might and Magic's IP was particularly strong either - mostly traditional fantasy with a dash of science fiction thrown in at odd times. Still, I'm a sucker for Source games at the moment, so I may end up picking it up.

[Liquidize105]

I really want to see what it looks like.

Varsity seems to like Half-Life 2 alot. If so, you can be my junior :)

[Varsity]

I don't get it, is that an invitation? It reads like you are talking about me to someone else.

[Borys]

OH MY GOD !!!

OH. MY. GOD.

I'm the biggest M&M whore there is, I finished M&M 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Swords of Xeen, 6 - Mandate of Heaven, 7, 8, 9 and Heroes 2, 3, 4 all without cheating. I simply LOVE these games, I LOVE their length - up to 100 hours, love the leveling system, the trainers, the HUGE ASS maps and dungeons, the Wizard Eye, Water Walk, Fly, Incinerate, Mass Distortion spells... I LOVED New World Computing, Jon Van Caneghem...

I LOVED M&M: World of Xeen. I LOVED M&M: Mandate of Heaven and I even LOVED M&M 9.

AND I LOVED ARX FATALIS. It was the real and unofficial spiritual, gameplay and atmospheric succesor to Ultima Underworld 2.

I can't believe my own eyes. I simpy refuse to believe this news.

Sorry for this childlish response but I can't contain my happines right now.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

That being said - R.I.P. ARX 2.

[kathode]

I was a M&M whore myself until M&M 9. Oh god, so so bad.

Having said that, while I haven't seen this myself, I know someone who has. And he says it looked pretty damn good. So have high hopes.

[Liquidize105]

I don't get it, is that an invitation? It reads like you are talking about me to someone else.
How the hell did you get that? I'm saying I think HL2 kicks ass, am a huge fan of what valve did with the engine.

You report a lot of HL2.net's type of news, so you must be a fan too.

:confused:

[Varsity]

Evidently it's an American thing. ;)

[Borys]

I was a M&M whore myself until M&M 9. Oh god, so so bad.

Having said that, while I haven't seen this myself, I know someone who has. And he says it looked pretty damn good. So have high hopes.

I love you, Gavin. <3

I will buy both versions of Oblivion and enjoy them as much as I enjoyed Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind + XPacks!

PS Make sure Fallout 3 won't SUCK!

[Varsity]

Having said that, while I haven't seen this myself, I know someone who has. And he says it looked pretty damn good. So have high hopes.Anything to report? :D

[DevDict]

Damn those are good news. I played M&M 5, M&M 6 as well as Heroes Of and a few oldies. I must say M&M5 was my favourite.
Arx Fatalis was terrific. At that time I had a pitful computer and when I got something better, my disc turned out to be scratched. Anyhow a game published by Ubisoft, made by Arkane and using the Source and the M&M license... If that doesn't sound promising, I have no idea what does.

[Kelegacy]

OH MY GOD !!!

OH. MY. GOD.

I'm the biggest M&M whore there is, I finished M&M 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Swords of Xeen, 6 - Mandate of Heaven, 7, 8, 9 and Heroes 2, 3, 4 all without cheating. I simply LOVE these games, I LOVE their length - up to 100 hours, love the leveling system, the trainers, the HUGE ASS maps and dungeons, the Wizard Eye, Water Walk, Fly, Incinerate, Mass Distortion spells... I LOVED New World Computing, Jon Van Caneghem...

I LOVED M&M: World of Xeen. I LOVED M&M: Mandate of Heaven and I even LOVED M&M 9.

AND I LOVED ARX FATALIS. It was the real and unofficial spiritual, gameplay and atmospheric succesor to Ultima Underworld 2.

I can't believe my own eyes. I simpy refuse to believe this news.

Sorry for this childlish response but I can't contain my happines right now.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

That being said - R.I.P. ARX 2.

I LOVE your enthusiasm. I never beat 6-9 but I do own them and played 7 to death. I cant go back to 6 now that I've played 7 and up...the framerate is horrid...you just dont walk smoothly like later versions--it's a bit jumpy.

I hope the Ubisoft gang (publisher's I know, but oh well) can pull this off and overhaul the franchise back to its original glory. I hate dungeon HACKS like Diablo, but dungeon crawls and FPRPG's really do light my candle. Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder were my firsts I think. Wide open games like M&M are even better. (though sometimes WAY too many enemies in certain M&M areas. Like a warzone when coming into new zones)

[Borys]

I LOVE your enthusiasm. I never beat 6-9 but I do own them and played 7 to death. I cant go back to 6 now that I've played 7 and up...the framerate is horrid...you just dont walk smoothly like later versions--it's a bit jumpy.

I hope the Ubisoft gang (publisher's I know, but oh well) can pull this off and overhaul the franchise back to its original glory. I hate dungeon HACKS like Diablo, but dungeon crawls and FPRPG's really do light my candle. Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder were my firsts I think. Wide open games like M&M are even better. (though sometimes WAY too many enemies in certain M&M areas. Like a warzone when coming into new zones)

:)

Oh, I didn't mention that I also finished Ishar 1-3, EotB 1-3, Lands of Lore 1-3, Ravenloft 1-3, Dungeon Master 2, did I?

Warzone - exactly. That's when you use fireball or pummel them with millions of arrows.

[Sykus]

This is great news. My wife and I love M&M, but were really disappointed in the last one. My wife ran into a bug that made it impossible to finish the game about halfway through, and gave up in disgust.

But I have to admit these quotes trouble me:

"It is also the world’s first fantasy action game to feature a complete first-person combat system."

"Dark Messiah™ of Might & Magic, a new first-person action game"

Is this game going to have the same play style as the others? It is almost sounding like it's going to be an FPS....

If so, I say "BOOOO!"

[DevDict]

M&M 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were FPS.

[Borys]

M&M 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 were FPS.

ALL M&Ms were FPS.

[Sykus]

Unless you're defining "FPS" as something other than "first person shooter", no, the M&M games were definitely NOT FPSs. They were first person and 3D, but the gameplay was not in any other way comparable to Doom, Quake, Half-life, and the other legion FPSs out there.

For one thing, combat could be paused and was menu-driven, at least to a degree, both features that FPSs lack. For another, the game had multiple characters controlled by the player at once, and FPSs, pretty much by definition, have the player controlling only one character at a time. I could see an argument that a game like Morrowind is an FPS. M&M? No.

Maybe they're just going to try and make it more "action-oriented" by removing the ability to pause combat, so when you're trying to ready the spell you need, you're constantly beat on?

[DevDict]

ALL M&Ms were FPS.
Thanks for clarifying: I didn't remember whether the earlier games were FPS or not.

Sykus, you worry too much.

[Oblivion]

how is this a surprise? it was announced that Ubi was going to continue the M&M and HOMM franchise a while ago. I am sure I read it here at EvAv. still, it is too cool :)

[Kefkataran]

I gotta admit, I really love seeing Borys's enthusiasm too. :) Makes me want to dig out my old M&M collection and play through some of the old ones.

[Kelegacy]

M&M were FPRPGs, to me. Not FPSs.

[Borys]

FPP of course, stupid typo.

[Butters66]

I got really excited when I heard they were remaking the Bard's Tale. Those original games were awesome. They are what got me hooked on computer games to begin with.

Then I played the new one. Sure it had some comedy, but the interface totally sucked. It was a tremendous disapointment.

Here's hoping UBI doesn't Bard Tale us...

And ... now the M&M is back on the rader, who's ready for Wizardry 9? I love that series as well.