Swen Vincke and I in the midst of a heated Divinity: Original Sin 2 rivalry. Granted, a somewhat strange rivalry, given that he is the CEO of Divinity developer Larian Studios and the game isn't even out yet, but it's a tense rivalry nonetheless. We've duked it out in the sequel's new PvP mode twice before, and this weekend at PAX East we went head-to-head again for round 3. The first time was at the PC Gamer offices just before Larian announced the game's Kickstarter, and the second was on the show floor of TwitchCon—which consisted of three matches (one against a different member of Larian) and was unfortunately unrecorded—and so far I'm undefeated.
I won't spoil the outcome, so you can watch the video above to see our pre- and post-game trash talk, along with an interview with Swen about the extensive changes Larian made to the battle-system since the last time we played. Or, you can watch the match in its entirety below to see exactly what went down, with all the gory detail. For the full experience, watch the first minute or so of the video above, then the full fight below, and swap back to hear the winner and loser's reactions.
Swen came ready to fight this time, and I'll admit I was really nervous. We shook hands before, and Swen looked me in the eyes and said "I'm not going to lose this time" with a confidence that made me genuinely believe him. Reworked abilities, a new height system, blessed and cursed terrain, and a whole lot of other changes meant I would need to learn quickly. He even brought tissues with "PC Gamer exclusive" written on them in Sharpie, saying they were "for my tears" after I lose. He wasn't messing around, and members of both our offices were watching as we loaded into the arena.
This was all in good fun, of course, and I hope Swen enjoys the competition as much as I do. I'm crossing my fingers for a round 4 in the near future, maybe on his home turf next time. GG Swen.
Divinity: Original Sin 2's audio is still in development, and as a result most of the sounds in this pre-alpha build of the game are missing from the video below.
