*sigh* Lews, you don't know how bad it is with German gaming mags. Graphical blenders get ratings high above 90% , even without story at all (Dungeon Siege) and games with less good looking graphics but with good story ... well, the editors seem to be biased to me, imho.

As an example : Brand new results from the Geman mag "Gamestar" (as posted by Titarius) :

Quote
Eingewöhnung: 1 Stunde
Solo-Spass: 15 Stunden

+ viele sinvolle Talente
+ große Spielwelt
+ zwei individuelle Charaktere
+ Kämpfe mit Pause-Funktion
+ Schlachtfeld als Nebenschauplatz

- Inventar-Wirrwarr
- Grafik von vorgestern
- anspruchslose Kämpfe
- simple Quests

Grafik: Ausreichend
Sound: Befriedigend
Bedienung: Befriedigend
Multiplayer: -
Preis/Leistung: Befriedigend

Fazit: Hässliches Rollenspiel mit Talent-Tiefgang

Gesamt: 71 %


My Translation (not 100% perfect) :

Cumulative Evaluation :

- Acclimatisation : 1 hour
- Solo-fun : 15 hours

+ many useful skills
+ big game-world
+ two individual characters
+ fights with pause - function
+ "Schlachtfeld" (meaning : Battlefield") as side stage

- Inventory - "Wirrwarr" (implicitely meaning : chaos)
- Graphics from the days before yesterday
- unpretentious fights (I translated "anspruchslos" with "unpretentious; originally it means implicitely "simple")
- simple Quests (yes, the word "Simple" is sometimes "simpel" in German ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/delight.gif" alt="" /> )



Graphics : 4
Sound : 3
Handlung : 3
Multiplayer : -
Preis / Leistung (meaning : what you get for your money) : 3

[Note : This is based on the German scale of school grades from 1-6, where 1 is best and 6 worst.]

Summary : Ugly Role playing game with Skill-deepness.



Well, that's my ugly translation. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" /> The German Gamestar is notorious or better : infamous for such tests / review, giving graphical shiny games *much* more points than others.

On a more serious note, the review complains about the inventory. Well, I fear we hvehad that in <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> as well.

My absolutely favourite of sentences from that *very* short test (only one page, as Titarius says) is the following :

Quote
Rollenspiel-Fans ohne großen Taktik-Anspruch finden mit Beyond Divinity neues Monstermetzel-Futter.


Translation (ugly, of course <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" /> ) :

Fans of role playing games without high tactical pretension will find with Beyond Divinity new Monsterhacking-fodder."

This sentence must be a "slash" into the face of Larian, because they always wanted a rather tactical game !



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