just my observation on the game when i first ran the demo on my home computer.

for larian's info, my system specs;

AMD athlon 800MHz
256MB DDR266MHz RAM
20GB ATA100 Seagate HD
Nvidia Geforce4 MX440SE 64MB AGP graphic card
Creative SBLive! Value

Win Me
DirectX 9b
Nvidia Forceware 53.14
SBLive! Driver (can't recall but it's latest for WinMe)
Diskeeper Lite (memory resident program for defrag)

when i first run the configuration, it gave me 62fps even with FSAA on. so i left that on & ran at the default 1024X768 res. the demo loaded quickly enough.

however the first problem appeared as soon as i click on any item on the menu. the sound stuttered & the game lagged a bit before responding to my commands. is this the same sound hardware acceleration problem that existed in DD?

the same happened in the game itself. & it so happened that there is no control over the speed of scrolling. i hope this can be adressed in the full version. the audio stuttered & everything lagged to compensate. this is weird as Creative card is well known for its solid hardware acceleration. i haven't tried sliding down a notch for the sound hardware acceleration in Control Panel. will do that & some more tests this weekend.

zooming feature is quite impressive though it may not be much of an improvement from bullfrog's Dungeon Keeper series. the character details (marian, u've outdone yourself) are very very impressive especially when zoomed in. animations are very well done. lighting-wise i can see that shadows are not implemented as that may slow down the game a whole lot. the background isn't nice to see when zoomed in. it's very blurry & reminded me of the old doom look. now don't get me wrong, it doesn't look so bad but when a very detailed character is in the picture, u can't help but notice the big difference between foreground & background. not so consistent.

UI & navigation need some time to get used to, so i can't give much comment as i've spent only 1/2 hour in the demo. however putting points in new skills may pose problems for some. it took me a few minutes to figure out how to put points in. i hope this can be looked into. helping new players to spend less time in manuals instead of playing the game would help in generating positive outlook of the game.

about inventory system, i'm a tad disappointed that it's lacking when it comes to exchanging items between Hero & DK. do i have to drag things all the way from the inventory window to the avatar on top right? hardly friendly among soul-mates.

maybe a tutorial level will help. or the first few quests involve teaching new players how to get through the hoops.

all in all, the demo generates positive feelings & it's very solid. the minor problems (or could they be bugs?) hopefully will be addressed in full version of the game. especially the sound as i don't understand why that can happen. does it not use hardware acceleration?

sorry for bursting bubbles but i feel that the weakest part of the game is still voice overs. very very wooden. much like dictation rather than acting like u're in that moment. DK's voice acting is disappointing. he speaks of danger in a very nonchalant manner & i can almost see the character reading scripts with paper in hand while yawning. heck even the alomst as lousy guards' voice acting are better. slightly. sadly i acknowledge the fact that voice acts can't be changed as the game must be on its way to gold status.

anyway larians, thank u for the wonderful demo & i'll be looking forward to the full version.

sidenote: regarding $$$ & game prices. not all places have the same pricings as well as income levels. so when any speak about how others should do in order to buy games, please do in the tone of advice, not cynical nor overly critical. a typical game (we don't have local game publisher/distributor) would cost RM150 to RM200 & typical income would be RM800 to RM1500. see how much a game sets me back in my monthly budget. before anyone BOO me, consider everyone's situation & be appreciative of your own.

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......a gift from LaFille......