/ Previews / RPG / Gothic / Page 3
	This page contains "graphic" material and may not be suitable to people who get squeamish when buzzwords describing a game's 3D engine are used.

One of my interview questions was "What, if any, types of sub quests will be made available to the player?" The answer to that will blow you away. Chief Designer Mike Hoge describes some of the sub quests from Gothic, 'Let's see... We have "Bring my dead cat to the graveyard", "I can't sleep, read me a story", and "Let's sing a song, I'm stupid." Cool, eh?' Just when I was getting excited about these quests, Tom stepped in and said, "Eeh, Mike? We have to talk…" I sure hope whatever they do, the sub quests Mike listed make the final cut. They sound so cool! (Note: In case you didn't catch on, Mike was kidding around. See, the Gothic team has a "sense of humor", a quality that allows them to joke around and find humor in things, for those not familiar with the idea).

Mike also ran us through a sample battle; his original text can be seen in the full interview (last two pages of this preview), but I'm going to sum it up here. Let's say you run into three goblins (referred to as gobbos by Mike). They're wary of you for a few reasons, mainly because of your sword, your armor, and your stench. Hey, it can be hard to find a shower with good water pressure in prison. One of these gobbos might try to get behind you while his little gobbo buddies occupy you from the front. Being the smart RPG geek you are (well, I am a geek at least), you turn quickly and slice through the gobbo as he jumps at you from behind. The two remaining gobbos poop their non-existent gobbo pants and run for help. As you chase after them through the caves the ground begins to shake and the gobbos cheer as a huge troll hits you in the head with a rock and charges. If the troll had been a native enemy of the goblins, he could have finished your job on his own, but unfortunately for you, trolls get along well with goblins. The blow from the rock knocks your sword from your hands, and the troll lifts you high into the air. Staring down his throat you hold your breath in an attempt to ignore the horrific stench. You close your eyes and pray, but it's too late… your head is now working its way through the digestive tract of the troll. You can rest soundly knowing you gave him an upset stomach and gas for a week, but your sword is now gone as you are reborn at the altar to try again.

No preview would be complete without a listing of buzzwords describing various attributes of a game's 3D engine. Since I don't know what most of these words mean, I'll let Tom list the buzzwords, because he does it so much more eloquently than I can. Tom says, "Facial animation and expression, softskinning meshes, realtime shadows, particle system, motion capture animations, day and night shift, lense flairs, volumetric fog, cloud shadows and many other things as our programmers said ;-)". All I know is if all of these words are listed on the back of a box accompanied by pretty screenshots it's probably worth buying. Just check out the screens, and you'll see how realistic of a world Piranha Bytes is working to create.

Since what you can see on screen is so important, the team is taking great care to make sure the environment is realistic. If you leave your weapons on the ground, people will come pick them up. An orc may have to pick up his axe off the ground before attacking you, and facial animation will make sure Gothic isn't a world full of ventriloquists. Speaking of boobies, I went ahead and asked if the character would ever get a chance to play with a woman's boobies. Alex answers in complete seriousness, "This would never be the real thing using input devices that are common today. As soon as everybody uses "feel-it-sensomatic-gloves" I'd like to include this feature :)". I was disappointed, and then Tom chimed in also, "Perhaps we include the orc-centerfolde of the month for you, o.k.?" Then, no longer disappointed, I was just confused and decided not to pursue any of Tom's fetishes for orcs.

Keeping the serious tone the interview obviously had, I just had to include a question about llamas. No 3DGN article is complete unless llamas, monkeys, or goats are mentioned, so I asked, "Will you include an easter egg that shows llamas with "3DGN" spray painted on the side just for us? Pretty please?" I think it was the additional "Pretty please?" that made them feel sorry for us. Alex said it was an exceptional idea and he'd discuss it with the creature designer. Tom cried out in pain, "Why me??? What have I done wrong in my last life?" To this question, another person whose opinion really matters (Eric Rasmussen) answered, "I think the addition of llamas is a splendid idea. What RPG is really an RPG without them? I mean, come on you know? What the hell do you mean I can't respond to my own question? My opinion counts too!" (Editor's note: I'll have to remove that before posting, hope I don't forget.)