After capturing IGN’s RPGVault “Outstanding achievement in music” award in 2002, our beloved composer Kirill Pokrovsky has once again been honoured with this prestigious award for the music in Beyond Divinity. Well done Kirill !!!

For details on the award, click here.

If you haven’t had the chance to enjoy Kirill’s music yet, or you simply want more, head over to our online shop & get the Divinity series soundtrack. You’ll get a signed version of “The Child of Chaos” novella, written by Rhianna Pratchett & a Divinity series audio CD signed by Kirill.

Patch 1.47 for the English version of Beyond Divinity has been made available on our support site. Click here to download it.

Beyond Divinity was thoroughly turned inside out by Kiya, Barnabus, Raze and Myrthos, resulting in the most complete guide ever. Their strategy guide is the ultimate resource including not only an exhaustive walkthrough, but also descriptions of all quests, skills, items, creatures, and even in-game mathematics.

Finally, after being made available to magazines as cover CD material, the "Beyond Divinity Strategy Guide" is now available as an exclusive download at The Locus Inn, featuring all the information you'll ever need about the game (and extra Divinity artwork!).

Download the Beyond Divinity Strategy Guide.

Graham Plowman a.k.a. “Plowking” on the Larian Forum has just released the second part of the “Dennis the Deathknight” movie. Based on Larian’s RPG “Beyond Divinity”, this movie features a Deathknight rolling “Sexual Harassment”, a hero threatening an imp, and a loss-fer-words antagonist. Click here to get shaken out of yer pants! (You need shockwave installed to see it.)

The Japanese demo is now available for download at the following links:

Mystixstudios
4Gamer

In case your Japanese skills aren’t decent enough and you haven’t tried out the demo yet, please follow these links to the English and the German demo.

Furthermore we would like to inform you that more localized versions of Beyond Divinity have recently gone gold in the following territories: Japan, Russia, Australia and Poland.

More localized versions (Czech Republic, China, Italy and Taiwan) will be released soon and will be announced here.

If your Dutch skills are decent enough, then head over to Gamesplanet where they put up a review of Beyond Divinity, giving it a solid 83%.

Here’s their (translated) conclusion:
“Those who are in need of a solid RPG that respects the successful formula of its predecessor, that makes atmosphere paramount, and that boasts numerous missions resulting in a seemingly endless game experience, should just go out and get Beyond Divinity. A must for RPG gamers.”

Follow this link for the full review.

DailyGame just finished reviewing Beyond Divinity and rated it 8/10. This is what they had to say:

"Gamers looking for dozens of hours of RPG gameplay can't go wrong with Beyond Divinity. It throws a few new twists into standard dungeon crawling gameplay along with a world so fleshed-out, you'll be hard pressed to not want to keep exploring."

Click the following link for the full review.

A new review of Beyond Divinity can be found at Gamerspot.gr. The reviewer was very positive about the game and rated the game 88%. Here's her conclusion:

"Wandering about in the enormous world of Beyond Divinity, you will be astonished by the detail in all the levels. You will enjoy the funny dialogues and the intelligent jokes while completing interesting missions. Beyond Divinity proves to be a worthy investment and promises many hours of enjoyable gameplay, rare objects (for the collectors) and a very interesting plot."

Click here for the full review.

This is a must-see! Graham Plowman a.k.a. “Plowking” on the Larian Forum has just released the first part of the Dennis the Deathknight movie starring the Beyond Divinity protagonists, killer bunnies and a very strange imp...
Click here to check it out!
(you need shockwave installed to see it)

A new review popped up over at PC Dome rating Beyond Divinity 90%.

Here's a (translated) snip:

“The role playing game fans who enjoyed the first part will certainly not be disappointed in the new game, but I would also recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new challenge after serious role playing games because at higher difficulty settings the player cannot use action game style and you often have to make use of the whole attack and defence repertoire against a serious opponent. Apart from that, I would also recommend that fans of Diablo and Sacred-style action/role playing games give it a spin (certainly for those of you who enjoy single player mode) because on the lower difficulty settings the game successfully combines action, an interesting story line and a sense of humour.”

Click here for the full review.

Two more international Beyond Divinity reviews popped up at JeuxVideo.com and GameZone.be. Both reviewers were very positive about the game as you can read in the following snippets:

Jeuxvideo (score: 16/20)
“(…) Vous découvrirez un jeu de rôle riche et intéressant. Les quêtes sont nombreuses, le scénario passionnant, les dialogues croustillants et le système d'évolution des personnages s'avère être très bien pensé. Bref, Beyond Divinity est un grand jeu de rôle, tout simplement !”

GameZone (score: 4.5 stars on 5)
“Het accent binnen Beyond Divinity ligt op het vechten, dit resulteert echter niet in een verwaarlozing van het verhaal, in tegendeel zelfs. Het verhaal zit goed en dankzij de goede sound effects en muziek is de sfeer op en top. Voeg hier nog de knappe graphics, een uitgebreid spreukensysteem en enkele handige features toe en je hebt een top RPG.”

A new review of "Beyond Divinity" can be found at the website of PalGaming.com. The reviewer was very positive as you can read in this snip:

"The game is a very long lasting and for the most part very well done RPG that blends quick and easy gameplay with lots of detail and sophisticated character development and story, the Divinity series is one that will definitely continue to get better as Larian iron out the kings. It's not particularly innovative but it does provide excellent gameplay that will keep any RPG fan happy."

Click here to read the full review.

GameBanshee has launched a new network site for both our rpg’s Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity, offering a walkthrough, a bestiary, a skill section, gameplay tips and many more things. Follow the links for the full details.

RPG Vault is featuring a 'Beyond Divinity' Wrap Report as Swen ‘Lar’ Vincke looks back on the development of our recently released RPG.

“We realized quickly that if we were going to use the Divine Divinity engine, we'd receive a lot of flak about the graphics in the game, given that they're 2D. The only way we could avert that, which we felt would result in destructive reviews, was by providing innovative gameplay. This was fine for us because there were a couple of things we wanted to try out, such as the skill system, the summoning dolls and the battlefields.”

If your Dutch skills are decent enough, you can head over to Telenet Games where they put up a review of Beyond Divinity, giving it a solid 81%.

Here’s what they concluded after playing many, many hours:

“Beyond Divinity has the same foundation as its predecessor and builds on it in a successful way. This is a pure old-style RPG with an amazing eye of detail and countless gameplay hours. It might be a bit hard to learn for beginners and has some minor flaws but this game should be obligated to every gamer out there.”

For the full review, click the following link.

eToychest put up a new Beyond Divinity review. They liked the game a lot and gave it a 90% score. Check it all out here.

Here’s their conclusion:

“If you liked Divine Divinity, you’ll love the follow-up. If you like RPGs, in general, you’ll love Beyond Divinity.”

A new review popped up over at IC games rating Beyond Divinity 84%.

Here's a snip:

“Larian Studios certainly have managed to develop a game that stands against the majority of RPG titles released recently and should give either fans of the previous Larian title 'Divine Divinity' or anyone looking for an RPG title an immersive and solid role-playing experience."

Click here for the full review.

If your Norvegian is any good, you might be interested to hear that Gamer.no just put up a review of Beyond Divinity. Here's a partial translation of their conclusion (thanks to Kristian).

“Beyond Divinity is a really well made follow-up to one of the most overlooked titles. You'll get more of all you liked about Divine Divinity, but with a number of improvements. The skill system is very innovative, and lets you customize your characters in detail. A good story combined with lots of laughing and phenomenal music, makes it easy to get carried away.”

Click here for the full review.

Another review of Beyond Divinity popped up on the internet with a very nice 4 out of 5 rating. The reviewer over at Globetechnology found it one of the best-looking, scariest games he's played in a long time. Here's a small piece of what he had to say:

"A fantastic looking and sounding game, the creepy soundtrack and vivid graphics will definitely make you shudder. However, it's the plotline - a very original take on the Diablo-influenced horror-RPG genre - that makes this game worth the investment."

Head over to Globetechnology to read the full review.

We just released patch 1.45 for the English retail version of Beyond Divinity.

This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patch. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.45

For more information or to download the patch, follow this link.

A new review of Beyond Divinity popped up today at M2G. Rating it 84% here's their conclusion:

"Our conclusion about the game is the following: Beyond Divinity might be the game that will make gamers quit Diablo 2 or other RPG's of this genre and offers the gamer a great gaming experience. It has good graphics, great gameplay and very good sound and is once again a proof of the skilled crew they have working at Larian Studios. This game is very good and is a must-have for the RPG fans and can't be lacking in your collection."

Click here to read the full review.

The average review rating to date for Beyond Divinity seems to be converging to 80%, and RPGDot sticks to that trend with their review of Beyond Divinity. They gave the game 80% and the reviewer says that "Beyond Divinity offers fun and addictive gameplay with more depth than virtually any other RPG since Divine Divinity"

He also offers his opinion on the music in the game, and while he's no fan of the title track, he does say that "While the new title music isn't as impressive as Divine Divinity, many of the other tracks throughout the game are spectacular, with haunting melodies and soaring choral voices. I found the music compelling and would have played on just to hear the music in entirety."

Click here to read the full review.

In their round up of April 2004, Gamespy nominated Beyond Divinity as runner up for Game of the Month.

"Gamers who fixate on how much they get out of a game will have a hard time finding fault with Beyond Divinity. This sequel to 2002's underappreciated Divine Divinity is part! Diablo hack-and-slash, but with the detail of Ultima and the atmosphere of PlaneScape. When all's told, you could spend over 100 hours pounding through this adventure which binds your fate to the demon Samuel, and still have replay value left over thanks to its randomly generated "Battlefields." Like the original, Beyond Divinity offers a bounty of tried-and-true gameplay that's a value at any price."

For full details, head over here. Earlier Gamespy reviewed Beyond Divinity and gave it 8/10. (Click here for the review)

Just RPG just (pardon the pun) reviewed Beyond Divinity and gave the game a raving score of 91%.

"Beyond Divinity hits the RPG bull's-eye, with everything an RPG gamer covets - elaborate plotline, specialized creation of wide-ranging characters, huge world, 60+ hours for a run-through, infinite replayability, hundreds of main and side quests, oodles of NPC's, a genuine party to manipulate and level with skill and spell possibilities in the hundreds, party member summoning, staggering numbers of unique and improvable equipment and items, gigantic complementary battlefields, action or tactical combat, puzzles galore, and right-on humor. It's hard to imagine anything I've wanted in an RPG missing from Beyond Divinity."

To read the full review, go here.

Meanwhile, for our dutch friends out there, Gamez.nl reviewed Beyond Divinity and gave it 88%. Here's a quote:

"Met Beyond Divinity heeft het Belgische Larian weer een dijk van een RPG neergezet. De gameplay is zeer herkenbaar maar door de vele mogelijkheden toch origineel. De verhaallijn is uitstekend en met de nodige sarcastische humor aangekleed. De grootste kracht is wel dat je de RPG op verschillende manieren kan spelen zowel tactisch als het simpele hack & slash werk."

Go here for the full review.

IGN, the last of the 3 major game sites to review Beyond Divinity has just put up one of the most thorough reviews to date. They gave the game a strong 8.0 and said
"This is an entertaining and challenging RPG, with less of an emphasis on finger-twitching than thought."

The reviewer had a couple of issues we will be dealing with in a next patch and wrote in that regard:
"If the game balance had matched the creativity and attention to overall design put into this title, I would probably have given it a 90%, because the detail of construction and depth of the environment are truly excellent."

Click here to read the full review.

We have just released the English version of patch V1.42. For anybody playing with versions 1.4 or above this is a must-have patch. To all other players, we strongly advise getting this patch.

For more information follow this link.

Popular site Gamezone just reviewed Beyond Divinity and gave it a solid overall 8/10 score. Here's a snippet:

"If you have ever played Diablo, Dungeon Siege, or Baldurs Gate, than this game will become second home to you. The game has a very similar pace, but it does have a different flare to it by some of the gameplay additions such as solving puzzles and sneaking around. This helps break up some of the repetition that these games are well known for."

Click here for the full review.

After Gamespot, it's time for another one of the major sites to review Beyond Divinity. This time it's up to Gamespy and they rated the game 4 out of 5 stars saying:

"If you're looking for a lengthy (as in 100+ hours) RPG that blends quick and dirty gameplay with heaping plates of detail and sophisticated character development, no one else comes close to this series. Don't expect innovation, but remember that's only one-half of the equation. The other half -- exemplary gameplay -- is what Beyond Divinity has in spades."

Head over to Gamespy to read the entire review.

We just released patch 1.4 for the English retail version of Beyond Divinity.

This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patch. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.4

For more information or to download the patch, follow this link.

Gamespot just completed a very thorough review of Beyond Divinity and reported that they enjoyed the game. Here are a few tidbits:

"Beyond Divinity, like its predecessor, is a sprawling adventure that gives you the freedom to play as you wish. It's actually somewhat more focused than the first game, and it gives you clear-cut objectives that you're free to accomplish using your own devices."

"This is a good, solid choice either for fans of Larian's last game or for anyone up for a deep computer role-playing experience."

To read the entire review, head over to Gamespot.

And here we are with… the very final Peek of the Week at RPGVault. To close these series, our Project Leader’s (Swen Vincke) thoughts turn to our future. If you want to know what we are up to, please click here.

Realgamer just reviewed Beyond Divinity. Here's some of what they had to say:

"The puzzles are also annoyingly addictive, you get sick of wondering around aimlessly but deep down you know the answer lies nearby, the combination of battle, path finding and quest solving keeps the game fresh and no doubt you will still be playing this game in a few months time, another game to add to my 'games that stood out' list."

For the full review, click here

We just released a first patch for the English retail version of Beyond Divinity. The patch addresses a number of bugs and also introduces a couple of game enhancements. It furthermore brings the version number of the game to the same level as the German version. For more information or to download the patch, follow this link.

While waiting for Beyond Divinity to appear in your local store, you might want to try out the "Dennis the Death Knight" comic strip made by none other than forum member Plowking. The comic, based on Beyond Divinity, shows how hard life can be if you're soulforged to a death knight. Go check it out !

We’ve released patch version 1.31 for the German version of Beyond Divinity. This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patch. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.31

Click here to download the German patch.

The first English review for Beyond Divinity is online over at Fragland. Their score is a solid 81.2% and this is what they had to say: "Overall I had a blast with this game, it has been a while that I played a good story RPG and this is one. It took me around 80 hours to finish the game and even then I did not complete all sub quests and battlefields."

Click here for the full article.

Digital Jesters have teamed up with Larian Studios to Launch Special Fan Gift Set!

Digital Jesters have rumbled through the Larian treasure cove and have put together a special bonus pack! There are only 500 of these packs in existance, and each pack contains a Child of the Chaos novella, signed by the none other than the fine lady Rhianna Pratchett! Also as part of this exclusive pack, is a very unique Divinity Universe audio CD, with completely new music, carefully composed, and generously signed, by the talented Kirill Pokrovsky! The audio CD contains remixed tracks from both Divinity and Beyond Divinity. As as special bonus, you will be contacted in person by email, and Kirill Pokrovsky will write a special personalised message on the CD (10 words max).

This is a very special offering, never to be repeated!

Click here to enter the store!

We’ve released the third patch for the German version of Beyond Divinity. This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patches. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.3

Click here to download the German patch.

Together with UK publisher Digital Jesters we have released a video exclusive for all RPG fans and followers of the Divinity Universe. The six-minute video, 'Beyond Divinity', filmed a couple of months ago at a press launch, at the exclusive SoHo House in the heart of London's West End is an in-depth interview with the project leader of Beyond Divinity Swen Vincke.

Swen talks about the secrets, traps, monsters, battlefields and extensive character development possibilities in the sequel to the award winning and internationally acclaimed RPG hit Divine Divinity, which was released in 2002. Beyond Divinity, which is due for imminent release takes players on a fantastic quest in a land torn apart by corruption and dark magic, and is destined to absorb and thrill gamers with its unparalleled depth of adventure and advanced combat systems.

This exclusive interview video can be downloaded from the following links.

For the full text of this story click here

We are getting ready for the imminent launch of our RPG Beyond Divinity, by completely updating our FAQ section and releasing golden snippets of information. All you could ever ask for about the game has been answered... then all you need to do next is play the game.

Follow the link to Divine Goodness

Dear Brethren,

The Raanaar are the new race in the world of Beyond Divinity.
To celebrate this new race, you have been sent a message written in ancient Raanaar.
However, and very unfortunately, this seemingly modern technology cannot display, nor decode the message...
To learn its secrets and unlock the message contained within, visit the following link...

For direct access to the Raanaar Messenger visit this link

We are very glad to announce that after months of hard work, the English version of our long awaited new RPG Beyond Divinity has gone gold and will be in shops as early as April 27th, 2004.

To read more about it, click here

A detailed preview has been posted at Gry-Online. The article is in Polish but thanks to Mslynx and Boginka we know that their conclusion is very positive:

“Well, we have to wait patiently. For me Beyond Divinity is a 'must have'.”

The full article in Polish can be found here

We’ve released the second patch for the German version of Beyond Divinity. This patch will fix some issues that weren’t addressed in the previous patch. This game update will upgrade Beyond Divinity to version 1.2

Click here to download the German patch.

Gamespot recently had a chance to take a look at Beyond Divinity and wrote up some of their impressions.

"Beyond Divinity is very far along, and, if it can deliver what it promises, the game will offer even more in-depth role-playing and more addictive hack-and-slash gameplay than Divine Divinity."

Read the full preview.

The 33rd Peek of the Week is up at RPGVault and this time Lar talks about issues with the German patch and the copy protection of the game. Check it out here.

Gamespy has posted a new preview about Beyond Divinity. They don’t repeat the details from their last preview, but focus on some of the new goodies they saw during a recent play session.

Here’s a snippet:

“The biggest changes are the completely redone voiceovers: based on response to the demo, they've gone back to the studio, contracted new voice actors, and re-recorded all the dialogue. The new stuff sounds great, especially given the often hysterical commentary offered up by the main character's sarcastic soul-mate, the Death Knight.”

Click here to read the entire preview.

We’ve released the first patch for the German version of Beyond Divinity. This patch will fix various bugs and balance issues. Click here to download it.

Detailed information about this game update can be found in the accompanied text file.

Allaboutgames has posted a preview of Beyond Divinity and liked what they saw. Here’s their conclusion:

“Overall, Beyond Divinity is shaping up to be a great title, likely to please fans of the genre as well as likely to create new interest in RPGs. Hopefully this time round the game will gain a more widespread appeal than it's underrated original.”

Read the full preview here

A very praising Beyond Divinity preview has been posted over at PC Gameworld.

Here’s a snippet:
“For those of you who have never played Beyond Divinity’s oddly named but remarkably entertaining predecessor, Divine Divinity, stop reading this review and run out and buy it immediately.”

Their conclusion:
“So don’t wait and be the last to find out just why this game has received so much praise; download the demo and give it a try. We promise you won’t be disappointed.”

The entire preview can be found here

eToychest recently sat down with Swen “Lar” Vincke at the Game Developer's Conference, and asked some questions about the game and the direction of the Divinity Series as a whole. Read the entire interview here.

Here’s a snip:
“There’s a lot of humor in your games. Do you think RPGs could use more humor?
We couldn’t do it differently. We have a sarcastic sense of humor so in whatever we do it pops up. So naturally, it appears in our work. I think it’s one the reasons we just adore the Dragonlance novels, they don’t take themselves so seriously. Obviously we try to tell a serious story ultimately, the duality of the soul and all that’s involved, but there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be funny.”

They have written a detailed hands-on preview about Beyond Divinity too. Here’s their conclusion:

“Beyond Divinity looks to be an intense and deep single-player RPG that will satisfy even the most game play hungry gamers. The level of detail put into the game system is truly amazing and is quite possibly rivaled only by NetHack in scale. We’ll have to see how the game holds up once the public gets their hands on it, but it looks like Beyond Divinity will be a tough act to follow.”

The entire preview can be found here.

We are happy to announce the final 5 lucky winners of the Imprunner contest:

joliekiller - score: 59249 at level 25
Rachel - score: 193313 at level 31
gal - score: 122470 at level 20
razz - score: 74470 at level 27
Goldylocks - score: 39416 at level 21

All the winners will be contacted soon.
If you want you still can play Imprunner, but the contest to win a free copy of Beyond Divinity has ended. Hope you had fun with this little game!

Instead of the weekly Peek, RPGVault has posted 4 exclusive screenshots including a cool spell sequence.

HomeLANFed has posted one exclusive screenshot here.

Another selection of screenshots can be found at Worthplaying.

Gamers Europe has posted a hands-on preview based on some play from a press build of Beyond Divinity. Click here to read the full article.

Here’s their conclusion:

“If RPGs are your thing or you loved the original then chances are you’re going to enjoy this. It’s fun to play and doesn’t take itself too seriously which is rarer than you might think.”

We are happy to announce that Beyond Divinity is available in shops in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as of today.

Here's the Divinity news we grabbed for you today:

Last week, HomeLAN got a sneak peek at ‘Beyond Divinity' while attending the Games Developer Conference in San Jose, CA. You can read their impressions here.

“One of the big features is that whatever type of character you create has what is knows as a "Death Knight" created with you. You can control both your created character and your Death Knight but when either one of you die, the other dies with you. Ouch. Another neat eddition is "summoning dolls", which allow you to bring forth creatures that will fight with you.”

* * * *

VideoGamesLife has posted a fairly detailed preview about Beyond Divinity. Here’s their conclusion:

“Beyond Divinity promises a lot. We can only hope that it can deliver – if this is the case, then it could well receive the grandiose praise its prequel was so close to achieving. The preview code has revealed a few niggles, but if Larian Studios heed the advice, they could be onto a game that’s not simply divine, but is Beyond Divinity. Yes.”

Read the full article

* * * *

The chaps at GameBanshee could manage to fire away some questions at David. Click here for the full interview. Here’s a snippet:

GB: In comparison to the first Divinity title, how many different creatures will we be doing battle with in Beyond Divinity? Care to elaborate on any of the more powerful adversaries in the game?

David: We could now provide a lot more and many different monsters for the player to encounter because we are working with 3D characters. I'm not going to count them all, as you can sometimes choose whether to attack this or that NPC or not. I mean, if you want to slaughter imps and snails, or the friendly tibars and floogefrogs and lavacrawlers, go right ahead. Seriously though, you have your standard humans and skeletons, though their magic-using counterparts will prove to be a pain in the rear. Then there's a whole bunch of different elementals and demons, and an entirely new race...

Fragland has posted a preview of Beyond Divinity based on their playing experiences here in our office. Here’s their conclusion (in Dutch):

“Ik ben nooit echt een RPG fanaat geweest, maar na dit bezoekje aan Larian ben ik ongeveer helemaal bekeerd. Ik heb me zeer goed geamuseerd met de demo die we voorgeschoteld kregen en kijk dan ook vol spanning uit naar de release in maart dit jaar. De iets gedateerde graphics worden zonder problemen opgevangen door de goed uitgebalanceerde, originele en vooral verslavende gameplay en de sfeervolle geluiden! De RPG liefhebber mag weer beginnen aftellen tot de dag dat dit spel in de winkels ligt!”

Read the full preview

The street date for the English version of Beyond Divinity’s has been postponed to late April 2004. The main reason for the delay is Larian’s commitment to give the fans the RPG they want. With the release of the Beyond Divinity demo last month, the studio obtained a lot of a valuable feedback from the RPG community.

Read the full press release

Worthplaying has posted a preview of Beyond Divinity and liked what they saw. Here’s their conclusion:

“Beyond Divinity is more of an evolutionary expansion of a world and game that has had some good success. The developers seemed to be on a quest to make sure that all the good things the original game had going for it be preserved along with adding many things that make it even better. It’s almost as if the development team said, now that we had to get Divine Divinity out of the door, let’s add all the things we wished we had time to add the first time. And, for many gamers, this will be a very welcomed addition to their gaming collection.”

Read the full preview

Marian Arnold talks about the making of the cutscenes in Beyond Divinity. Read the full Peek of the Week at RPGVault.

We are very glad to announce that after months of hard work, the German version of Beyond Divinity has gone gold and will be in shops as early as April 1st, 2004.

To read more about it, click here

GameZone cornered us for an interview about our soon to be released fantasy RPG 'Beyond Divinity'. Here’s their conclusion:

"With approximately 300 quests, an upgrade to key elements of the game, and more tactical combat, Beyond Divinity promises to do what any good sequel will do - take the foundations laid by its predecessor, up the ante, and create its own place in the world."

We’re warming up with Beyond Divinity hitting the stores in just a few weeks. Here's the Divinity news we grabbed for you today.
Allen "Delsyn" Rausch over at GameSpy did a preview of Beyond Divinity. Head over to Gamespy to read what he had to say.
Here's a little teaser for you:

“…Beyond Divinity offers plenty of true role-playing features. The game contains dozens of side quests, puzzles to solve, dialogue with a number of creatures, and a running storyline. The game even holds a number of random quests and dungeons that ensure that no two games of Beyond Divinity will be alike.”

Some of our guys are very busy at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Jose, California, but Patty at Silvencrossroads managed to corner them for an interview about our soon-to-be released game. Head over to Silven Crossroads to read the entire interview.

Here’s a snippet:

“Silven Crossroads: The Summoning Dolls sound interesting. Will they only be available as treasure? Or can they be purchased (for some hefty price)? What about upkeep costs – what are they? How many different dolls are there?

Swen: Summoning Dolls are, or can be, virtual powerhouses in the game. They cannot be purchased anywhere; you must find them. A total of four Summoning Dolls are available in the game, each has its own abilities and can be much more powerful than the main character. You can level up your Summoning dolls by sacrificing skill points from the main characters, making them even more powerful. Summoning Dolls must recover periodically, and have limited range. That is, they can only travel within a limited range of where they were originally summoned. This range increases as the summoning doll increases in levels. They can be resummoned but resummoning is tied to the player’s skill and skill levels. It will be necessary to have points in Summoning skill in order to resummon a Doll. Summoning Dolls add another aspect of the game and give the player yet another option in how to play the game.”

PlayXCess recently had the opportunity to preview Beyond Divinity and they wrote a fairly detailed article. Here's their conclusion:

“Beyond Divinity boasts more promise than a certain ‘delightful’ chocolate bar; and will have to commit a grand faux pas to be anything less that a very capable and solid RPG title. The preview code that I played was most encouraging, and the death knight character makes for some unlikely comic relief. Put away the razors, for soon it will be time for the beard; and Beyond Divinity may well be one of the bushiest yet.”

Spanish gamesite De Juegos previewed the Beyond Divinity demo. Unfortunately my Spanish skills are at a very low level. If you master this language, click here to read the entire article.

Focus, the French publisher of Beyond Divinity, has created a thorough website about the game, entirely in French of course. You can also download the French version of the Beyond Divinity demo there.

The power is shut off at our offices and other misadventures ensue as our tired team reaches for the finish line.
Read the entire article at RPGVault

Just RPG has posted a preview of Beyond Divinity based on their experiences with the demo. Here’s their conclusion:

“I feel that gamers that enjoyed Divine Divinity will find much to like within Beyond Divinity with the improved graphics, excellent story and interesting new features.”

Read the full preview here

Yet another Beyond Divinity preview has been posted over at www.toase.net
You may read the whole preview here

Here’s a snippet:

“The skills and class systems have been made a lot more complex, which results in even more flexibility when levelling your character. There is a more comprehensive skill tree this time around, but you can dip in at any point if you have the Ability score and level prerequisites”

It is our utmost pleasure to inform these five lucky people that they have won the Beyond Divinity Contest:

ezekiel - score: 250069 at level 54
Caleb - score: 400608 at level 52
davis - score: 193551 at level 46
Yannos - score: 104710 at level 34
jilin - score: 152249 at level 28

If you want to enter this weekly contest and have a shot at your free copy of Beyond Divinity too, please click here to play Imprunner, the only way to compete. Have fun, and maybe your name will be in this list next time!

Yet another preview based on the demo has reached us, in Greek! If you master this language (language skill level 3 needed), feast your eyes on their website.

WarCry recently had the opportunity to preview Beyond Divinity and they wrote a fairly detailed article. Here's some of what they had to say:

“Beyond Divinity may be the first attempt ever to cross the blueprint of the buddy film with a traditional fantasy RPG. The interaction between both characters is exploited fairly effectively. Whenever you meet other characters, the knight frequently gives his rather tactless opinions, which generally involve ignoring or slaughtering people in trouble. The real question is will you be able to steer him towards the lighter side?”

Head over to WarCry to read the entire preview.

With Beyond Divinity about to go gold very soon, you can imagine how hectic it is in our offices nowadays. Swen Vincke, project leader for Beyond Divinity, is talking about the many duties he has to face in this final race.

Click here to read the entire Peek of the Week at RPGVault.

Prestigious and respected writer Rhianna Pratchett has written a 50-page plus novella set in original fantasy realm of the the Divinity universe. The novella, Child of The Chaos, weaves a masterful tale, exploring magic and riftrunning between worlds, and capturing the imagination and essence of the game.

The novella will be offered by Digital Jesters as a special bundle retail pack and pre-order gift to UK gamers, with European gamers being able to receive the novella from the official Beyond Divinity website on game launch for a nominal postage cost. Stateside gamers won't be left out either, as North American publisher Hip GamesTM is offering the special retail pack through Best Buy (US).

Read the full press release here

We are happy to announce the 5 new winners of the Beyond Divinity Contest, which you may enter by playing “Imprunner”. And the winners for this week are:

Atlas - score: 93593 at level 36
Behnam - score: 57205 at level 24
Beef - score: 49670 at level 23
Xtream - score: 33455 at level 21
Morbo - score: 23174 at level 16

If you want to win your free copy of Beyond Divinity too, please click here to play Imprunner. Good luck!

Lead Animator Marian Arnold reveals how he added some rather unusual arms in Beyond Divinity. Read all about it at RPGVault.

These are very busy times for Larian Studios but the chaps at JustRPG managed to corner us for an interview. Here’s a snippet:

JustRPG: What are some of the major improvements you are doing in Beyond Divinity in comparison to Divine Divinity?
Swen: (…) We basically balanced the game so that an experienced RPG player will find it quite a challenge if he doesn't visit the Battlefields. We use the Battlefields as areas where players can earn extra experience should they find things a bit too difficult for them. You can always enter the battlefields. Each battlefield has a certain level and you need to find special objects in the world to advance the maximum accessible level in the battlefields.

The following link will take you there.

Another praising Beyond Divinity preview has been posted over at Playerofgames.com. The writer thinks the
demo promises significant improvement overall, with the combat a bit more complex than our first instalment.

Here's his conclusion:

"My final thoughts would have to be well done Larian, Beyond Divinity looks like its going to be a significant improvement on the original, game play is improved, combat more of a complex affair and the party system is good, not perfect but good. I enjoyed playing this demo, far to short!"

You may read the whole article here.

A more than flattering preview of Beyond Divinity has been written by Patty Estill of Silven.com. The preview is based on the newly released demo, so for those of you still doubting whether to download it or not: may this article change your mind.

You may read the entire article here. The following fragment illustrates what to expect:

“All in all, Beyond Divinity is shaping up to be a very welcome addition to your RPG library. My biggest problem was when I reached the end of the demo – because it was the end! And I so wanted to continue to explore this exciting universe.”

We are very happy to announce that today the demo of Beyond Divinity is publicly available. Containing the beginning of the first act of Beyond Divinity, the demo presents a golden opportunity to taste some of Beyond Divinity's gameplay before the game is released. The demo is available in German and in English. To get it, click here.

Beyond Divinity’s beta testing is progressing rapidly, and we're in need of fresh cannon fodder. If you'd like a shot at trying out the game before it hits the shelves, and live in Belgium (or very close by), then send a short mail to test@larian.com. Please include your name, age and place of residence, as well as a short description of which rpg's you've played before.

For security reasons all testing is being conducted in-house (Oudenaarde, Belgium), so you should only apply if you are physically capable of reaching our office. We are located in Oudenaarde (20 kms from Gent) in Belgium.

In the 28th Peek of the Week, Yann Popo talks about the story behind Imprunner, the free mini-game that we released last week.

Read all about it at RPGVault.

That's right - soon you will get your chance to see if Beyond Divinity lives up to its promises!

The Beyond Divinity demo is scheduled for release online on March 3rd and will be simultaneously released in French, German and English.

The demo contains the beginning of the first act of Beyond Divinity and offers you a a first sampling of all the changes that were made to the Divinity engine.

Visit our site on March 3rd 2004 at 12:00PM GMT to see why the specialized press is starting to get more and more excited about Beyond Divinity.

To read the full press release, click here.

Gamespot recently had the opportunity to preview Beyond Divinity. Here's some of what they had to say:

"It also appears that the strong sense of humor that permeated Divine Divinity has carried over in to Beyond Divinity. The death knight, for instance, offers plenty of surprisingly colorful commentary, and other characters will have a lot of fun at the death knight's expense. The developers at Larian certainly look like they're prepared to take what they started with in Divine Divinity and are ready to bring it up a notch.”

Head over to Gamespot for the entire preview.

Our QA-manager, the terrible El Shrimpo, has been keeping a diary about his arduous work. Needless to say, for those who know the Shrimpdude, it’s all in his own carefree way. He’s been posting ‘em over at Spelletjesgarnaal, but you may also read the last few:

6. Game Over
5. Ouch!

The following diaries are in Dutch only (translations can be found in the forum)

4. Kiya
3. Magic
2. Crash!
1. Helleuh!

From now on, every Friday we will announce the winners of our weekly "Beyond Divinity contest", which you may enter by playing "Imprunner".

This first time, we chose to reward those that played “Imprunner” until their fingers bled, namely the imprunners that achieved the five highest scores.

...And the winners are:
Stefan - score: 466618 at level 57
Ize - score: 282234 at level 53
Meltor - score: 205628 at level 46
Tovi - score: 184464 at level 52
DoritoOfDeath - score: 181280 at level 46

Next time, we will randomly choose five winners, though you will have to reach level 10 in "Imprunner". Good luck!

Fragland.net sneaked into our office and played a bit of Beyond Divinity.
After that, they were pretty enthused and posted a preview. Here's a snippet:

"I've never been a true RPG lover, but after this visit to Larian I must say I've altered my perception of the genre. I've had a great time with the demo we got to play and I'm really looking forward to the release in March this year."

Of course, he meant April ;)
In case you missed it, there's also an English interview with Lar on the same site...

Last week the people at Fragland.be visited us in our offices and had the chance to take a closer look at Beyond Divinity. Here’s their conclusion:

“Ik heb me zeer goed geamuseerd met de demo die we voorgeschoteld kregen en kijk dan ook vol spanning uit naar de release in maart dit jaar. (...) De RPG liefhebber mag weer beginnen aftellen tot de dag dat dit spel in de winkels ligt!”

After having played the game for some hours, they fired away some questions to Lar.
Here’s a snippet for you:

“6.Kun je ons een voorbeeld van een 'Battlefields'-quest geven?

Battlefields quests zijn hele simpele quests, de meesten zullen in de aard zijn van “haal dit en ik geef je dat” of dergelijke. De bedoeling is eigenlijk dat wanneer je het moeilijk krijgt dat je kan wegspringen en in een ander universum weer op krachten komen. In de Battlefields kan je je karakter ook verder ontwikkelen (dus meer ervaring opdoen, nieuwe skills aanleren, potions en andere items kopen enz) om dan terug naar de “echte wereld” te gaan en verder te spelen.”

Head over to Fragland.be for the full interview and preview (in Dutch).
Please go here for the English version of the interview and the preview.

In the 27th Peek of the Week at RPGVault, talks composer Kirill Pokrovsky about his contribution to the second adventure in Beyond Divinity, our new role playing game set in the award-winning Divinity universe. Click here to read all about it and listen to the first released piece of music.

We are pleased to present you the second Beyond Divinity newsletter. In it, we offer insights into a strange and mysterious race, and we also announce the winner of the fantasy chess set. Check it out here.

Realgamer has posted an interview with Christophe Heerinckx, assistant producer on Beyond Divinity.

Here’s a snippet:

What enemies can players expect to encounter when playing Beyond Divinity?
Christophe: On the whole: smart ones. Seriously though, as you find yourself trapped in a demon’s Universe, you could guess some creatures here will be the stuff nightmares and feverish dreams are made of, though not all of them will be aggressive towards you. Humans and other earthly creatures will be included as well, of course, but I think many players will marvel at the wondrous organisms our graphics team came up with.

Head over here to read the full interview.

RPGVault took a closer look at our upcoming RPG Beyond Divinity. The article describes the character development, the skill system, the party system, the Battlefields and more.

Here’s their conclusion:

“This game is shaping up to be a solid effort that combines the best of fast-paced combat-oriented RPGs with a decent storyline and inventive questing. The new elements, such as the party system, the summoning dolls and the completely fresh setting, all look like positive additions. The story aspect may be the key to the project. If it proves to be strong and compelling, Beyond Divinity has the potential to provide a role-playing experience that does honor to its well regarded forerunner.”

Read the full preview here.

This week’s Peek is a rather unusual one. Lead Artist André Taulien demonstrates that creating even a small element can be an exacting task. Head over to RPGVault and read more about it.

As a free Valentine's gift, Larian Studios is pleased to announce the release of Imprunner, a very addictive game.

In Imprunner, you guide your imp through an ancient ceremony, laid out to capture the heart of your loved one. Seduce your mate by collecting a vast amount of mushrooms and challenging the Floogefrogs.

Play Imprunner and win your copy of Beyond Divinity! Larian Studios will be giving away five copies of its upcoming RPG each week, until the release of Beyond Divinity. The winners will be announced weekly on the Beyond Divinity website.

To read more about it, click here.

Wicked Toast had the chance to have a closer look at Beyond Divinity. Here’s a snippet:

“Belgian developers Larian Studios brought us Divine Divinity towards the end of 2002. Generally regarded as one of the more entertaining and innovative crop of RPG's it received a great deal of acclaim.

Building from the original game Beyond Divinity attempts to address the concerns players had on the original whilst enhancing what was great about it and adding new features to a genre that has become quite crowded of late.”

Click here to read the full preview.

This week’s Peek is mainly focusing on what the Larian team is currently working on in many areas. Read all about it at RPGVault and you might want to check out the new wallpaper.

If you want to learn more about the development process of the boxcover and the logo for our new RPG Beyond Divinity, then head over to RPGVault. Marian tells you all about it.

Gbase.ch has posted an interview (in English) with Kris Taeleman, programmer for our current RPG 'Beyond Divinity'.

Here’s a snippet:

Gbase: Where are the main differences between Dvivine Divinity and Beyond Divinity regarding the skill system?

Kris Taeleman:
We have a much more extensive skill system now, where the player can create his own skills by boosting different properties of the generic skills. In Divine Divinity you only had the choice of choosing a skill, not to enhance different attributes of the skill. In Beyond Divinity, the player will have a much larger list of skills available to choose from. To learn the different skills you have to find teachers. Teachers are Npc´s that enable a certain path in the skillsystem. The player will also find books in the world that enable these paths for him. Once the path is enable, the player can put skillpoints in the skill so he can use the skill.

Click here to read the full interview.

The first Beyond Divinity newsletter has just gone online and involves the latest information on our upcoming RPG. And to show that we take the Divinity Community seriously, we are giving away a free Fantasy Chess Set worth £400!!! It's really simple to enter this contest. All you need to do is decode the Divinity language. Click here to read what it is all about.

And Gamespot Greek has posted a preview of Beyond Divinity. If your Greek is polished enough, head over to Gamespot.gr. Thanks to Lucretia!

The Russian website CRPG has just put up an interview with Kris Taeleman, programmer for Beyond Divinity, in which he unveils more details on the game. Among other things, Kris mainly talks about the combat system.

Here’s a snippet:

CRPG: “Does the game give us access to any special attacks? In what manner are they used? Do the heroes have a stack to queue commands issued by the player?”

Kris: “The special skills can be accessed in two ways. First by assigning your secondary skill on the right mouse button and second by assigning your primary skill. So for example you will be able to put a fireball spell as your default attack mode. This way it’s possible to give the commands in real-time as well as in paused mode.”

Read the full interview here (in Russian).

This newspost is a bit out of the ordinary but after watching Mike prostrate himself for hours and hours, the news redaction at Larian finally cracked and decided to give it a go:

Vote for Mike !

Mike, the man behind the tactical AI in , needs your help. In another life he is the singer of the amazingly good band Denizen. As it happens, Denizen is participating in a poll and winning the poll will make the members of the band multi-millionaires.

Since Mike has graciously agreed to donate half of his the proceedings to the further development of the AI in the Divinity universe, we agreed to support him. That's why we're appealing to all Divinity fans to help out Denizen.

If you want to support Mike & Denizen, head over to the demopoll (www.demopoll.be) and vote for Denizen - "True till tomorrow". Mike's morale can only go up because of it, and that, ultimately, can only be good for . You might want to listen to his music too, it really is quite good

Vote for Mike !

RPGDot.com managed to corner Thomas “Bronthion” Lenzen and subjected him to a no nonsense interview. Here’s what poor Thomas had to say:

RPGDot: Tell us more about these mysterious crystals in the game
Bronthion: The crystals you’ve mentioned suddenly appeared all over Rivellon, and they had mysterious effects on the areas and on the people nearby. Nobody knows where they came from. There are recent reports about some very strange things going on in the world of Rivellon. And so the people of Rivellon are looking for brave women and men to investigate... Do you hear their calls? If you are brave enough, simply take one step forward and answer to them...

Read the full interview here.

The French website JeuxVideo took a closer look at Beyond Divinity and was happy with what they saw. Here’s a snippet of the preview:
“Ce qui surprendra au premier abord les fans du premier volet, c'est la création du personnage. Elle est beaucoup plus complète qu'auparavant : ainsi, il est possible de définir combien de points vous voulez mettre dans chaque statistique (force, intelligence, dextérité, survival, constitution, vitesse). 3 configurations par défaut sont prévues pour le guerrier, le ranger et le magicien, mais libre à vous de faire un magicien-archer en mettant quelques points en dextérité par exemple.”

Belgian gaming site Spelletjesgarnaal managed to scoop a hands-on preview by sending some journalists to our in-house tests. For all you Belgian and Dutch people out there, here's what they had to say:

“Hoewel de game nog wat tweaking nodig heeft, liet Beyond Divinity ons een erg positieve indruk na. Larian heeft de beste elementen uit Divine Divinity behouden, de negatieve kantjes weggewerkt en enkele leuke vernieuwingen toegevoegd. De eerste Act smaakte alvast naar meer, véél meer. Voor de RPG liefhebbers zou 5 maart wel eens een hoogdag kunnen worden!”

In this week’s Peek for Beyond Divinity, Frederik De Caster fills us in on the process of recording the voice actors. Check it all out at RPGVault.

Our QA Manager for Beyond Divinity talks about how finding and fixing bugs can sometimes lead to amusing results. Click here to read this Week’s Peek at RPGVault.

Gamesplanet just put up an interview with Lar. Click here to read the full interview.

Here’s a quick taster (in Dutch)...

9: Werkt het spel ook weer met een systeem van eigenschappen van de speler? Kan je als speler in het begin kiezen wat voor een personage je bedient?
Je keuze in het begin bepaalt eigenlijk enkel de looks van je karakter, die sterk kunnen verschillen. De keuze van je karakter bepaalt weliswaar helemaal niet welke skills of spells je kan aanleren tijdens het spel, net zoals in Divinity 1 blijft de speler hier volledig vrij in tijdens het spel, z’n keuze is zelfs nog vergroot!

Edbis.com took a very close look at Beyond Divinity and like what they saw.
Here’s a snippet:

“Once again I am here to give you news of yet another game that has great promise. This time we return to Larian Studios with there next title, Beyond Divinity. Now you might think this being a sequel to Divine Divinity, but you would be slightly wrong. Beyond Divinity is set up in the same universe as their previous title, but that is where the similarity ends. The back story of this game is that you are a servant of the divine, lucky you, and in a battle against the evil hordes you get captured, unlucky for you. While in the lair of the nasties you get soul-forged to a death-knight. This death-knight doesn't like this soul-forging business and together you must set off to reverse the forging process. The only way to do that is learn the skill of riftrunning. Riftrunning is the ability to transcend universes, basic dimension hopping, and once that is complete the soul-forge that bound the two of you is broken. Why does this sound like a bad prison break movie?”

Head over to Edbis to read the full preview.

We're looking for people who'd like to have a shot at trying out Beyond Divinity before it hits the shelves. If you're interested and live in Belgium (or very close by), then send a short mail to test@larian.com. Please include your name, age and place of residence, as well as a short description of which rpg's you've played before.

For security reasons all testing is being conducted in-house (Oudenaarde, Belgium), so you should only apply if you are physically capable of reaching our office. We are located in Oudenaarde (20 kms from Gent) in Belgium.

Lead Animator Marian Arnold talks about character icons in our newly re-named RPG “Beyond Divinity”. Click here to read this Week’s Peek at RPGVault.

Silven Crossroads has posted a preview of our next new role playing game set in the Divinity Universe: Beyond Divinity. Click here to read what they had to say.

Here’s a little teaser for you:

“What is Beyond Divinity? First and foremost, it is the highly-anticipated sequel to the award-winning role-playing game of 2002. Beyond Divinity is set in the Divinity universe, but with some new twists to the story. The heart of every true RPG lies in its story. It is the underlying reason that motivates the player to take certain actions, follow and complete quests, and continue further into the universe of the game world. Without an immersive story, the hero is left floundering, or worse. Beyond Divinity will provide that necessary element, a rich storyline that takes the player to fantastic universes where he or she will encounter some interesting plot twists. Beyond Divinity also holds a trump card – the game includes a random quest generator. We’ve seen it before in an RPG, but not for a very long time. (Editor’s note: more on this feature will be found in the review of this game after its release).”

We hope you’ll all enjoy your holidays and wish you the best of luck for 2004!
If you didn’t download our beautiful Beyond Divinity 2004 Calendar yet – especially created for you - please do so now. Click here to grab it.

Have some fun tonight!

GenGamers has posted a second part of some new artwork from Beyond Divinity, our next new role playing game. The images can be found right here.

Graphical Designer Alex Van Ooteghem describes the creation of the mushroom-themed imp village in the 20th Peek of the Week at RPGVault.

With money tight at this time of the year, it’s always nice to get something for nothing. Not content simply to be publishing one of the best RPG’s for some time, we are aiming to make it an even happier new year – by offering a host of downloadable goodies.

Located at www.beyond-divinity.com, the newly unveiled boxshot is accompanied by new exclusive goodies. Alongside a beautiful Beyond Divinity 2004 calendar, Larian has created a special 'fansite’ kit which allows anyone to host a Beyond Divinity Website.

A Merry Xmas to all of you!!

A few weeks ago the folks at RPGDot were invited to our offices to ask questions and have a first look at Beyond Divinity.

The 1st part and the 2nd part of this series, with many questions and answers, can be found here and here. In the 3rd part, which can be found here, they focused on the first report of their gaming session and now they bring you the 4th and final part in this series.

Here’s a snippet for you:

Having a party really adds a lot more strategy to the game. Knowing that, the Larians balanced this and made the opponents harder to kill. The game now offers less Hack & Slash but when it does, the fighting is harder at times.
What adds to that is that the enemies have a better AI. What we saw is that when their hitpoints drop below a certain percentage they start running away. If you follow them you most likely will be running into other enemies and have to fight them also.

Click here to read the full article.

Scriptwriter Fabrice Lété talks about the scripting function in our newly re-named RPG “Beyond Divinity”. Click here to read this Week’s Peek.

Nine new pieces of concept artwork from Beyond Divinity can be found right here at GenGamers.

One of France's major gaming websites, JeuxVideo, took a very close look at Beyond Divinity and like what they saw.

Here's their conclusion:

"Beyond Divinity privilégie le fond sur la forme et nous offre un jeu qui même s'il n'est pas une tuerie graphique, est très intéressant à jouer et nous a fait très forte impression (remarquez, j'étais déjà fan du premier volet alors...)."

Head over to JeuxVideo to read the full preview.

“Riftrunner” has been renamed to “Beyond Divinity”! Click here for more details about the name change and the official press release.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Swen Vincke, the project leader for “Beyond Divinity” said “We had a lot of people who didn’t make the immediate link with Divinity when they heard the name ‘Riftrunner’ so it made sense to put the word Divinity in the title. The new name also reflects our attitude towards the game – a golden opportunity to develop further the gameplay mechanics we started to explore in Divine Divinity.”

A couple of weeks ago, RPGDot.com visited us in our offices and had the chance to play Riftrunner and fire away many questions to Lar. The 1st part and the 2nd part of these series, with many questions and answers, can be found here and here. In the 3rd part of their article they focus on the first report of their gaming session of Riftrunner.

Here’s a quick taster…

“The part of Riftrunner we played had a large share of side quests and puzzles. In the small area you start in there is even a side quest that refers to the Count of Monte Christo. So if you know the story then you might get a clue on how to solve this somewhat hidden quest. Yes indeed, like in Divinity if you don’t check out everything you might miss some of those quests that are also referred to as ‘Easter eggs’.
If the rest of the game is like this part with respect to the quests and the puzzles then it will keep you occupied for a long time.”

Click here for the full article.

Creating roofs in Riftrunner isn’t as simple as you might think. Marian Arnold tells you all about it in the 18th Peek of the Week at RPGVault.

Steward Temmerman takes us through the process for creating pre-rendered objects in the 17th Peek of the Week at RPG Vault.

A while ago the nice folks at RPGDot.com visited us in our offices and had the chance to play Riftrunner and fire away many questions to Lar. The first part of their article, with the first questions and answers, can be found here. In the second part they continue with some more Q&A. Here’s a snippet for you:

RPGDot: How do you learn skills?
Swen: First you need to know about the skill by learning of its existence. This happens by talking to teachers and reading books. Then you need to acquire a certain level in the skill. This you do through your skillpoints, just like you did in Divinity. Certain teachers can teach you skills up to a certain level. If you want to reach a higher level in a skill, it’s possible that you need to find a better teacher.

Click here to read the full Q&A and stay tuned for the visit report to our studios next week.

Learn more about arrows, upgrades and how to use them in ranged combat. Kris Taeleman, Effects Programmer for Riftrunner, tells you all about it. Click here for the 16th Peek of the Week at RPGVault.

Last week our friends at RPGDot.com visited us in our offices, had the chance to play Riftrunner and then fired away many questions to Lar. In the first part of their Riftrunner article, they focused on the questions and answers. Here’s a snippet for you:

RPGDot: When is the demo scheduled?
Swen: The demo is going to be released in the beginning of February. This demo will probably be available in English only, depending on how the localizations go. The demo will contain a large part of Act 1. In the demo you will be exploring several dungeon levels, finding Easter eggs, surviving the mazes, traps and combat monsters while trying to find your way out of the place.
The first act is rather linear and is made in this way to make it easier for you to learn the game. The other acts are not as linear as Act 1.

Click here to read the full Q&A and stay tuned for the next part of their visit to the Larian Studios.

Yann Popo, Effects Programmer for Riftrunner, tells you a tale of a polymorph spell and an apprentice wizard. Read all about it in the 15th Peek of the Week at RPG Vault.

Gamespot Benelux posted a preview of Riftrunner along with some new screenshots.

Here’s their conclusion:

“Het eerste kwartaal van 2004 heeft nog maar zelden zo veraf geleken. Deze nieuwe titel uit het Divine Divinity-universum ziet er nu al veelbelovend genoeg uit om alle rollenspelliefhebbers het water in de mond te doen krijgen.”

Click here to read the full preview.

The new Riftrunner Peek of the Week and two new screenshots are online at RPGVault. If you want to know what it is about this time, please go and have a look over here.

We're very happy to announce that Ubi Soft is going to distribute Riftrunner in the German speaking territories.

Here's a bit from the press release:

"Our publishing agreement for Riftrunner will strengthen our portfolio in the role playing genre with a very interesting product. At the same time the Belgian RPG experts can rely on our marketing and distribution. An optimal placement of the product for the large fan base is therefore guaranteed”, says Ralf Wirsing, Business Development Director of Ubi Soft Germany."

Read the full press release here
English translation - click here

Three new Riftrunner screenshots of Act 2 have been released. At the same time, we made a little collection of the screenshots which have been distributed in the last 2 months. Head over to our screenshots gallery and check them out!

Edbis RPG posted a preview of Riftrunner. Head over to Edbis and read what they had to say.

Here’s a little teaser for you...

“Riftrunner is not an action-RPG, a strategy-RPG, or anything but a full on RPG; and these days that almost makes it seem like a new concept. A personal and urgent quest, an original setting, and a focus on gameplay and character development should make this game even better than its predecessor. It will be released in the first quarter of 2004 – expect a demo before that. In the meantime, if you haven’t played Divine Divinity, check it out.”

RPGVault has posted their 13th Peek of the Week on Riftrunner. Mike Slembrouck, Programmer for Riftrunner, takes a turn to tell us about how tactics are implemented in the game. Read it all here.

Kris Taelman, Effects Programmer for Riftrunner, brings the 12th Peek of the Week at RPG Vault to you. Kris reveals something more about the Disease Skill and shows you an additional screenshot. Click here to learn more about the skill.

PC Zone Benelux just put up an interview with Lar in which he reveals a little more about Riftrunner. Additionally there are two exclusive screenshots.

Here’s a quick taster (in Dutch)...

PCZone.nl: Welke gameplay-elementen uit Divine Divinity zullen we ook in Riftrunner tegenkomen? Wat voor nieuwe elementen zitten er in en in hoeverre speelde de feedback van fans mee in het tot stand komen van deze veranderingen?

Swen Vincke: Riftrunner zal een nog hogere graad van interactiviteit hebben met de wereld. Het zal wederom mogelijk zijn objecten vrij rond te bewegen, objecten te combineren, om andere objecten te maken zoals in Divinity 1. Riftrunner zal nu ook party members bevatten zodat de held er niet langer alleen voorstaat om zich door een horde aan vijanden te vechten. De karakterontwikkeling in Riftrunner zal er ook compleet anders uit gaan zien; we waren niet helemaal tevreden over het systeem in Divinity 1 en aan de hand van feedback van de fans zijn we nu een nieuw systeem aan het ontwikkelen.

Click here for the full interview.

RPGVault has posted their 11th Peek of the Week on Riftrunner. Steward Temmerman, Character Artist for Riftrunner, explains how the nasty creatures in the game come to life. Check it out here.

Our friends at GamingZone has questioned Lar about our upcoming RPG Riftrunner - Here's a quick taster...

How much freedom does the gamer get in Riftrunner, do the choices of the gamer have an influence on the game? Or does it just come down to giving the right answer to the question that has been asked?

The main storyline is rather linear, but around it there are tons of extra quests that the player can complete who could offer another outcome. The influence of your choices will heavily depend on the rewards you get and how the people look at you. So don't be surprised to see the prizes of a trade suddenly double. The gamer has the freedom to create his character the way he wants without any class-binding restrictions.

Click here to read the full interview.

Player of Games just put up a new interview with Lar in which he discloses a little bit more about Riftrunner and Divinity 2.

Here’s a snippet:

On Divine Divinity 2 are you guys planning a complete overhaul graphics engine, AI etc and how big a job would this be?

Our focus is mainly on Riftrunner at the moment, but there are some modules we are working on that have Divinity 2 in mind. For example, much of the effort we’re currently putting in to the RPG engine will be further developed and transferred to Divinity 2. We believe the RPG engine is one of the most important elements for an RPG player. Work on the 3D engine and all the pretty stuff is also under way. Of course after Riftrunner we will listen to the feedback, and implement any constructive points.

Read the full interview here

Yann Popo, Effects Programmer for Riftrunner, brings the 10th Peek of the Week at RPG Vault to you. Do you want to read about why the Stoning skill has a rather unusual form? Then please read on here, Yann tells you everything about it.

RPGVault has posted their 9th Peek of the Week on Riftrunner. Ike Casteleyn, Application Frameworks Programmer for Riftrunner, talks about the character customisation and all the options you will have in the game. Check it out here!

The 8th Peek of the Week at RPG Vault is brought to you by Yann Popo, Effects Programmer for Riftrunner. Yann talks about the implementation of particle effects in the game and shows some of his work with screenshots. Check it all out here!

Our friends at RPGDot just put up an interview with Marian Arnold, Graphical Artist, in which he talks about his role in Riftrunner and the current status of the game. Additionally there is a new screenshot from Act 2.

Here’s a quick taster...

RPGDot: The only thing about Raanar we know are those special gloves (weapon) - could you tell us a bit more about this race?

Marian: Sure, they are a warrior race, which inhabits the world in which you have been thrown. And they have nice Runes too! And if Lar stops pointing with that gun at my head I'll tell you everything else you want to know about them.

Click here to read the full interview.

We're very happy to announce that the new and promising UK publisher Digital Jesters has secured the UK publishing rights to Riftrunner. Here's a bit from the press release that went out today:

"Bold new publisher Digital Jesters continues its plans to dominate the PC sector, with the announcement that it has secured the UK publishing rights to Riftrunner, the latest game from one of the format's premier RPG series.

Developed by Belgium-based Larian Studios, Riftrunner is an extension of the team's own award-winning Divine Divinity, which was published to great success in August 2002. Divine Divinity was Game Spy's runner-up to RPG of the year, and currently boasts a rating of 4.5 from Moby Games, the videogames industry's equivalent of the Internet Movie Database."

If you want to know more about Digital Jesters and the cool team behind it, check out their website.

We have added three exclusive Riftrunner screenshots to seal the deal with Digital Jesters.
Check them out here

The 7th Peek of the Week at RPG Vault is brought to you by Stijn Valkenborg, Character and Effects Artist for Riftrunner. Stijn discusses implementing visual effects and shows some of his work with some screenshots. Check it all out here.

AllRPG has questioned Lar about our upcoming RPG Riftrunner - Here's a quick taster...

AllRPG: What are some of the areas you are working on Riftrunner that were considered weak in Divine Divinity?

There were some areas that we weren't 100% happy about in Divinity. Now that we have the chance to rectify them is actually pretty cool and goes some way to satisfy our perfectionist attitude. This time around we also have the chance to spend more time on the actual gameplay rather than the zillions of features which were necessary to get the engine running - that makes a big difference.
Divinity 1 did originally have party members in it but we had to drop the feature because we were running behind schedule. Now we've been able to put them back in. Riftrunner will benefit from having a more balanced equipment and trading system. That's one of the first things that was addressed when this project started. We learnt a lot about balancing in Divinity 1. Our in-house systems to do balancing are a lot better now.

Head over here to read the full interview.

Our friends at Fragland just put up an interview with Lar in which he discloses a little bit more about the Riftrunner universe.

Here’s a snippet:

How big will Riftrunner be, with the implemented random quest generator and unlimited new character development ?

The pre-made world of Riftrunner will be roughly the same size, but with the additional randomly generated maps and quests it will become a lot bigger.

The following link will take you there.

RPGVault has posted their 6th Peek of the Week on Riftrunner. Alex Van Ooteghem, Graphical Artist for Riftrunner, tells us creating the unusual flora in the game wasn't easy. Check it out here!

Gaming Chart just put up a new interview with Lar in which he talks about Riftrunner, the Divinity Universe and our future games.

Here’s a snippet:

With the great amount of freedom that players will have to choose the course and nature of their adventures in Riftrunner, why did the developers feel it was important to implement a storyline that is at least partly predetermined?

We feel it is necessary for the player to have a goal or a set of goals in the game at all times - we feel it is not very good gameplay to just drop a player in a world and not explain to him what he has to do. People easily loose interest if they don’t have something to focus on. But we feel it is equally important to let players discover things for themselves and get rewarded (in the form of getting quests) for the exploration they do.

Click here to read the full interview.

The press wheel has been well oiled and is starting to gather momentum. Our friends over at GameGuruMania have posted their articulate interview with our Project Leader Lar. Click here for a Riftrunner treat.

Click on the link below to check out some brand new screens and the latest Lar interview on RPGRadar.com

Here's a quick taster...

RPGRadar: What goals have been set for Riftrunner, and how does it expand upon the Divinity universe?

Swen Vincke: Our main goal was to start from the Divinity 1 engine and heavily improve it. After Divinity 1 there was a feeling of “this isn’t done yet” in the team, we weren’t ready to just throw away the engine we had worked so hard on for several years. For the people who worked on Divinity 1 the main goal is to do an even better job than before. Divinity 1 gave Larian Studios a lot of experience in dealing with the complexities in making an RPG, we want to put this experience to good use now.

We are looking for designers, programmers, 3D modelers and producers. If you want to be part of our team, then head over to our jobs page and check out the profiles to see if you've got what it takes.

Last night we had a chat over at RPGCodex in which Riftrunner fans had the opportunity to ask questions to our team. If you couldn't make it but are interested in what was said, head over to RPGCodex and read the chatlog.

RPGVault just released the 5th Peek of the Week on Riftrunner. Frederik De Caster provides you an introduction to the story scripting in our new rpg Riftrunner. Read it all here and watch some more screenshots.

Our friends at RPGCodex will be hosting an IRC Chat to discuss Riftrunner. Many of the Larian development team will be present to answer questions about the game, the current state of development, what our plans are for the future, and basically anything else that might crop up. The chat will take place this coming Tuesday.

When: Tuesday, September 16th at 8:00PM EST (GMT-5)
Where: #rpgcodex on irc.gamesnet.net

Hope to see you all there!

RPGVault continues with their second part of the very interesting RPG Roundtable and has been questioning leading RPG developers about character development. Our own Lar was involved at the table. Click here to read what Lar had to say about the subject.

RPGVault just released the fourth Peek of the Week on Riftrunner. Frederik De Caster tells us more about the object interactivity in Riftrunner. Check it all out here.

Planet Divinity is celebrating its second birthday. To commemorate the event, we talked to our in-house alien experts and they agreed to release a recently discovered fragment of an ancient Raanaar artifact that has a certain relation to one of our oldest fan sites. Click here to reach Planet Divinity and discover how the Raanaar write.

RPGVault has posted their third Peek of the Week on Riftrunner. Frederik De Caster, Content Editor for Riftrunner, explains how to make the world seem alive along with some screenshots. Check it out here.

RPGVault just released its second Peek of the Week on Riftrunner. This week Marian Arnold speaks out on the avatars in Riftrunner and why the system we use now is a lot better than the system we had in Divine Divinity. Marian also offers a look at some instances of the avatars. Click here to see it all.

IGN’s RPGVault started a peek of the week series on Riftrunner. For starters, they serve a small treatise on Nemisis written by Thomas “Bronthion” Lenzen, our lead story designer. Nemisis is the planet on which a large part of Riftrunner takes place. RPGVault also managed get some work in progress screenshots of the imp village on Nemisis - Check it all out here.

Just-Rpg just put up a new interview with Lar in which he discloses a little bit more about the Riftrunner universe. There's also two new screenshots. Head over there and read why Riftrunner will be better than Divine Divinity. Here is some of the interview:

JustRPG: What are you doing in Riftrunner that you were not able to do in Divine Divinity?

Lar: There were a lot of things we weren’t happy about in Divinity and having the chance to rectify them is pretty cool. Divinity 1 originally had party members in it and we had to kick those because we were running behind schedule. Now we’ve been able to put them back in. This time around we also have the chance to spend more time on the actual gameplay rather than the zillions of features which were necessary to get the engine running – that makes a big difference.

As of today the Riftrunner website is available in both French and German. We've also posted a couple of new screenshots from Act 1 which we've named "The Spider, the bait and the Knight"

They tell the adventure of a certain player who thought he didn't need his sturdy death knight companion when exploring the depths of Samuel's citadel. Luckily for him the black knight has a vested interest in the survival of his soulmate (especially since they have been soul forged by a demon)

You can view the screens direct from this link

IGN's Rpg Vault questioned us thoroughly about Riftrunner and managed to get quite some answers.

Here's some of what they had to say after concluding the interview:

"In our 2002 RPG Vault Awards, Divine Divinity was named in a pair of categories, Surprise of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Music, and also merited an Honorable Mention for RPG of the Year. In view of this recognition and the numerous other accolades it received, we'll be watching Riftrunner even more closely in the months to come."

Click here to read the full interview.