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Sniper dev unveils debut trailer for next-gen RPG Lords of the Fallen
Polish-based developer City Interactive, which recently rose to greater prominence through its Sniper: Ghost Warrior series, revealed the first trailer for its next-gen project, Lords of the Fallen. The Xbox One, PS4, and PC game is spearheaded by former Witcher 2 producer Tomasz Gop, who left CD Projekt in 2011 to join CI. There he's looking to once more craft a deep, dark and challenging RPG. "Challenge is what defines Lords of the Fallen," Gop told Joystiq. "Players who are going to be taking time to cross that gap between doing random things at the beginning because they don't know the tactics, to being a fully-fledged, skillful Lords of the Fallen player at the end, is how we look at fun, entertainment and pleasure from playing Lords of the Fallen." As the trailer hints, there are elements of From Software's Souls games in Lords of the Fallen's combat; fights look to reward tactical players and punish those who go rushing in. However, Gop said the combat draws inspiration from a number of challenging, medieval-themed games, including older, more obscure games like Moonstone, Vagrant Story and Severance: Blade of Darkness. The game's wide array of inspirations includes Borderlands, which Gop drew parallels to when describing the class-based supernatural action skills - "We like to think of them as sort of a smart bomb." Unlike Borderlands, however, classes in Lords of the Fallen are not set in stone. Instead, skills are tied to weapons and gear, making classes a "very relative construct in Lords of the Fallen, the weapon actually representing some sort of profile or allegiance," as Gop put it. The player-definable approach to classes may again resemble the Souls games, but unlike From's RPGs there's a clearly defined character and story in Lords of the Fallen. The grizzly hero in the trailer is Harkyn, a man journeying a world that has seemingly forgotten the terrible 'Fallen God' it once fought against - but will remember soon enough. "We do want to tell the story and brag on the world that we have. We want to show it to the players," Gop said. Lords of the Fallen drops onto Xbox One, PS4 and PC sometime next year.
Witcher 2 senior producer Tomek Gop leaves CD Projekt Red [update]
As CD Projekt Red crams The Witcher 2 onto the Xbox 360, it does so without senior producer Tomek Gop. The developer's LinkedIn profile indicates that he left CD Projekt Red sometime in June, after being at the company since March 2006. His time there included stints as a producer on The Witcher 2 and the RED Engine, and as a "production coordinator" on the first Witcher. GOG PR manager Lukasz Kukawski told VG247 that Gop had apparently left not only CD Projekt Red, but the game industry in general, though no information was provided about his future plans. Update: CD Projekt confirmed Gop's departure in a statement to Joystiq, also including a note from Gop saying that his reasons for leaving were "mainly personal." And as for leaving the game industry, Gop said "though possible, I wouldn't bet on it. It's addictive..." Also, Lukasz Kukawski is the PR manager for Good Old Games, not CDP. We've corrected that reference.
CD Projekt exercising caution before bringing Witcher 2 to consoles
During a recent press conference, Polish video game developer CD Projekt discussed the possibility of its upcoming RPG sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, getting a console port. Speaking to Eurogamer, CD Projekt CEO Marcin Iwiński said that while the game's technology does support multiple platforms, it'll be a matter of "we'll see" in the months following the May PC launch. "We know how many players, especially in the UK as well as in the US, play on Xbox 360," he said. "We are pretty good at maths. That's all I can say for now." The Witcher 2 senior producer Tomasz Gop, also likely to be a math pro, explained that the porting process isn't a last-minute consideration. "We're doing a reality check every half a year or so. We take a level from the game and we try to put it inside our engine, because it's console capable on Xbox 360 and PS3," he said. "It's doable." Gop noted that developing for consoles alongside the PC version hasn't been an option, prompting the team to exercise caution first. "Three reasons: time, people and money. We have not released any console games yet. That's why we're approaching this topic with even more caution."
