PC Control Fix Coming for Dungeon Siege III

[Andy Chalk]

PC Control Fix Coming for Dungeon Siege III

Obsidian is preparing an update for Dungeon Siege III [http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Siege-III-Pc/dp/B002I0JJAW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308843343&sr=8-3] that will smooth out the bumps in the game's notoriously awful PC control scheme.

Dungeon Siege III seems to be doing pretty well for itself, all things considered. It's not setting the world on fire but as a fairly straight-up hack-and-slash action-RPG, it's not supposed to. It's supposed to be a fun, combat-heavy dungeon romp, and it is - unless you happen to be playing the PC version with mouse and keyboard controls, which by all reports suck. Bad. Really bad.

Bad enough, in fact, that Dungeon Siege III Lead Designer Nathaniel Chapman told Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-21-better-dungeon-siege-3-pc-controls-soon] that the studio is working on an update to address that specific issue. "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," he said.

"Actually this is one thing I would have liked to have spent more time on, and we are actually spending time on now. Basically, as long as PC gamers have a good way to control the combat they will enjoy it," he continued. "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."

As Chapman pointed out, PC gamers who are struggling with their M&K setup may find relief by plugging in a 360 controller, but for those who find that an imperfect compromise it's good to know that help is on the way. Dungeon Siege III is available now for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.


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[Irridium]

The controls are really bad. Some of the worst I've had the displeasure of using. Glad to see a patch is on the way. They should probably update the demo with this as well, since people will play the demo and get the idea that the game controls like ass. Which it does, but hopefully won't after this patch.

 

[vazzaroth]

Indeed. For the demo, I tried using my (Non stupid 360) gamepad to no avail. That might have just been the demo, but I even clicked "Enable gamepad"...

I lost all interest in the game at that point.

 

[deth2munkies]

Meh, another failport. Nothing new. I'll hold out for D3 to get my PC hack and slash on.

Oh wait, it's Obsidian...that explains EVERYTHING.

 

[Weaver]

I just don't understand how in the hell no one at obsidian realized that the controls were borderline unusable. I mean hell, if you're rotating the camera to the right while moving forward, then try to move backwards the camera starts rotating in the opposite direction. After this patch comes out I might actually get the game... providing they update the demo.

Also, i love this quote

as long as PC gamers have a good way to control the combat they will enjoy it.

Unlike console gamers who just eat up terrible combat? Or is it just opposed to all those games with enjoyable combat that had piss poor controls?

 

[Virgil]

There's no excuse for this. A patch is sorely needed, but frankly the studio owes it's PC customers an apology for the state this was released in. The mouse/keyboard controls and PC interface are really THAT bad.

The game is quite fun with a gamepad though, in that regard he's correct. If that had been listed in the system requirements, it might not have been so much of an issue.

 

[koroem]

Why do people keep buying games from Obsidian? You would think at this point people would have learned from the past.

Obsidian keeps flinging shit at people, and people throw money at them. Just stop buying their products, and let them die. It will be one less developer in the world pushing unfinished games and post release patches that break more then they fix.

 

[Woodsey]

Should have been done before it was released. If they're that abominable (which everyone says they are) it would have been picked up in testing. THEY ARE THE FUCKING CONTROLS. This is not the shit you patch post-launch. This is the stuff you fucking work on because its how you play the damn game.

Truly appalling.

 

[Ickorus]

The fact that a developer is willing to stand up and say they screwed up and then to fix said screw up is a really big step for the future of PC and console gaming in my opinion, it might even cause other developers to sit back and take a moment to make the controls work well when releasing a console port.

I don't know about anyone else but bad controls are just about my only problem with console ports and there have been several games i've held off on buying due to such problems. (Dungeon Siege III being one of the games)

EDIT: Fixed typos, my keyboard is fucked.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

A friend of mine owed me 50 euro and the easiet way of giving me that was to give me a new game on Steam and I wanted DS3 at the time.
I tried the demo on keyboard before the game was released and I felt like 50 euro had just been thrown out the window.

When the game was released I plugged in my 360 controller and lo and behold the game actually became worth owning. It was a giant relief to know that I hadn't wasted 50 euro.

Mind you DS3 is nothing like DS1 and 2 cept the lore.

 

[NLS]

Did they even bother to actually test or even play the game on PC before launch? Oh wait, it's Obsidian...

 

[seditary]

Was I the only one who had no problem playing it with M+K?

No strafe was annoying as shit but I handled it just fine.

 

[slacker09]

Was I the only one who had no problem playing it with M+K?

No strafe was annoying as shit but I handled it just fine.

You are not the only one, I didn't have any trouble with the Demo, which I figure would have the same problems.

 

[Godhead]

That's great Obsidian, you keep doing what you do. *goes back to playing Dungeon Siege 1 and 2 on Steam* Man those two games alone were more than enough for the $50 for nostalgia price alone. ^^

 

[Xanthious]

Another example of releasing an obviously unfinished product and just patching it post launch. This is the kind of shit that needs to stop. This is something they had to know about before launch but chose to throw it out there and hope for the best anyway.

 

[Worgen]

hmm well I might pick it up if they manage to make the controls not shit

 

[Nachtmahr]

It's a smooth, bug-free experience on the PS3. Obsidian said no bugs, and there really aren't any. And they are being pretty prompt about this fix, too.

I think they deserve credit instead of scorn. They did well with this game, in my opinion. I'm having great fun.

 

[Zipa]

If this was another company I might be more surprised, Obsidian however have quite the history of crappy PC ports.

 

[somonels]

Never mind the controls, this game is to diablo 2 as flavourless cider is to vodka. Torchlight had more character options than this.
Improved controls won't make this into a worthwhile game.