Obsidian lead designer Nathaniel Chapman has stated in an interview with Eurogamer that the developers are currently working on a patch to improve the PC version of Dungeon Siege 3‘s keyboard and mouse controls. I’ve yet to play the PC version of DS3, but I was witness to Alec’s agitated bellowing about the PC controls (among other things), so I’m going to go ahead an assume that this is a good thing.



Chapman had this to say about the PC controls:

Actually this is one thing I would have liked to have spent more time on… Basically, I think as long as PC gamers have a good way to control the combat they will enjoy it. One review – I can’t remember which – said if you play with a game pad the combat is great, so right now we’re working on improving the PC controls through an update. I think if there are PC gamers who are having a negative reaction it’s less about what the combat is, it’s more how the combat controls.

Chapman was also, however, willing to talk about smaller changes that he would have made if he could.

I think our loot system has a lot of strengths but one of the weaknesses is that it’s not very clearly communicated what each of the stats does… I think having a more fleshed-out tutorial system for the stats and what they do and how they function would be a nice thing. Having more unique armour variants too. It’s always good sequel or DLC material.

And talk about bugs a little bit. This was his response to whether gamers have the right to expect bug-free games at launch.

So, I think there are two things. One is the rose-coloured glasses effect. I think older games were just as buggy [as newer ones], but we’re more tuned-in at looking for the bugs. I personally remember old PC games and even old Nintendo games that had tons of bugs. I think the big difference is that the core technology of games has gotten more complex and it’s very difficult to get out all the little bugs. Usually in an old 2D Nintendo game a bug is no more than a few lines of code to fix, whereas in a 3D game it could be something in the animation system stomping memory in the renderer. There are so many more layers that it’s very hard to catch all the bugs. On the flipside, I think more what gamers should expect when they go out and buy a game is that they get an experience that’s worth their money. But it’s very hard to say what that is.

You can read the full interview, “Reinventing Dungeon Siege”, here. You’ll be leaving RPS, of course. Don’t forget your coat! It’s cold out there.