Gamestock 2001: Dungeon Siege update

In Microsoft's upcoming role-playing game Dungeon Siege, you play as a simple farmer who gains skills in his travels throughout the gameworld. Both the character models and the gameworld are in full 3D, but the game has been designed so that there are no load times at all, so there's no load screen to interfere with the flow of the game. Dungeon Siege also has a strong real-time strategy feel, as its interface closely resembles popular games in the genre, and character placement plays an incredibly important role as well. Heavily armored warriors should stay in front of the party, while the weaker characters should stay in the back where they can't receive as much damage. And some of the scenarios resemble missions from a real-time strategy game as one of the first tasks you underake is the successful defense of your farm from enemy attacks. As you travel through Dungeon Siege, you can mix various classes' skills and abilities. For example, you can initially build of a character as a warrior by learning basic warrior skills, but if you want to learn some magician-like abilities later in the game, you can. For more on Dungeon Siege, take a look at our previous coverage, which includes an interview with a member of the development team.

Dungeon Siege is scheduled for release this summer.