Warnings and Things that You Need to Know

Warnings and Things that You Need to Know

Please be aware that Risen 2 was released during the traditional Fall period -- and specifically Fall 2012 of the gaming calendar -- which happened to coincide with the Beta Release of the new Xbox 360 Dashboard and Interface.  Because of this, gamers who have opted to sign up for an participate as play testers for the new Dashboard should be aware that they will randomly encounter forced reboots, patches, updates, and downloads, and the application of data packages that are related to the new Beta Test of the Fall 2012 Dashboard.

We bring this up to clarify the dangers that are associated with that process, and specifically to make the player aware that a forced update of the Dashboard software CAN cause problems with your game and can potentially result in corrupting your Game Save File if the game forces the reboot during an actual save. 

With that in mind, and as we should caution you with respect to forced events in any case, the player should be sensitive to and aware that in addition to player-initiated saves, the game itself uses save points that automatically initiate game saves, and because of that players should be sensitive to that sort of event.

Having a game save corrupted is the worse possible outcome to a save, so care should be taken to reduce the likelihood of such an event occurring by simply playing smart and taking those events into consideration.  The following tips will help in that regard:

(1) Dashboard Updates: If you are participating as a Beta Tester for the Fall 2012 Dashboard Update, you should be aware that your console will routinely notify you of the availability of patches and forced updates whenever you turn it on and log into your Gamertag for each session but that is NOT the only time that this can happen.

You should be aware that ANY TIME the development team flags an update or patch as live, you can (and will) receive a forced update notice, EVEN WHILE PLAYING A GAME.

When this event occurs you should reply by saying NO to the update, then save your game, back out of the game to the main menu of the game, then close the game completely.  Use the proper shutdown commands to completely shut down your console and then restart it so that the server then prompts you to download and apply the patch/update on a freshly booted system.

The reason you should always follow that procedure is to ensure that the update is being applied to a cleanly booted system in order to reduce the possibility of a memory error during the update due to system use of memory from the game.  There are some known bugs in Risen 2 that relate to memory and the use of the system memory by the game, and so approaching the patching process from a clean boot rather than simply exiting the game and applying the update is always the preferred method.

(2) Content-based Reboots: Occasionally when a player initiates a game update, patch, or purchases a new game and initiates the download process in the background, they can end up forgetting that such an action is pending and launch the game to play.  This is a bad idea, because often when the system completes a download it immediately and without asking, initiates the application and the installation of that content, which can cause Risen 2 to freeze and/or lock-up the system in such a way that the player is then unaware that the system is actually performing tasks in the background.

When this happens, the system appears to be locked up, but due to the lack of activity status LED's on the Xbox the player has no way to know that the console is still functioning and that any interference that the player initiates -- such as cold rebooting the system -- potentially can result in disastrous consequences.

In particular if the game is writing to the Dashboard files or even worse, is updating the actual OS files live, doing a forced reboot can potentially brick your console.  When you try to reboot it in this case, due to the damage that the reboot caused to the OS, you may find that your console will no longer boot!  The best way to handle this is to never play Risen 2 when you have pending downloads or when the system is updating.

(3)  The Game Save System: Attention should be paid to the Game Save System in the way of strategically using it.  The game sets aside an 8th slot for its auto-save function, leaving the player with a potential seven selected game save slots.  If you are following this guide, one of the game save slots (it is suggested that you use Slot 1) will be used to save the game after reaching the Pirate Tower, as shortly thereafter the player will need to make a key decision that causes them to declare their primary faction in the game.  This is one of the two "Points of No Return" in the game, so having a permanent save that allows the player to return to that point at a later time after the game has been completed using the first faction choice is a necessary asset. 

Once the player reaches that point, and makes that save, Save Slot 1 is no longer available for use.  During normal play the player should be using two save slots in rotation, so that if one slot ends up being corrupted the loss of progress is negligible, which means that in reality there are only actually four save slots that can be used for key saves.  One of those slots should be reserved for making a save when the player has reached the point where they have accumulated 62,000 XP (Glory Points) so that they can later utilize that save in order to unlock -- or work towards unlocking -- the Achievement "All Rounder" (30 GP) which in addition to requiring the player to have capped-off each of the skills, also requires the player to have purchased each of the abilities that are attached to each skill.

The use of the remaining save slots are purely your own call.

== Smart Game Play Environment ==

Risen 2 can be played from the optical drive with little or no real performance hit, but players should be aware that the game will play much smoother and, in most instances, load faster, when it has been completely installed to the console hard drive.  In addition to speeding up loads and reloads, it is suspected that installing the game to the HDD has the effect of eliminating some of the more annoying bugs in the game, among which is the random lock-ups that can occur on loading and reloading saved games.

-- Installing the Game to your HDD --

First you should be aware that installing the game to your hard drive on your Xbox 360 is not about piracy -- if you rent the game you cannot just install and play it from the hard drive, as playing any game that you install to your HDD requires the original game media to be in the optical drive of your console.  What it is about is speeding up the loading (and therefore game play) process for your gaming entertainment.  It also extends the life of your Xbox 360 since running the game content from the hard drive causes less wear, less heat, and less strain over-all on your system.

Installing an Xbox 360 game on a hard drive requires between 4 and 8 gigabytes (GB) of free disc space.  As mentioned above, after installing a game on your hard drive, you still need to have the game disc in the disc drive when you start the game.  According to Microsoft, installing games on your hard drive improves load times and minimizes game disc access.

Installing the game to your hard drive gives faster loads

To Install the Game on Your HDD

(1) Insert the game disc into the disc drive.  If you have your system set to auto-load games when they are inserted, the game will actually load after you put the disc in the optical drive; wait until it fully loads and then exit to the Xbox Dashboard before you proceed to the next step.

(2) From the Dashboard, select the Home Hub, and then highlight the game (upper left corner selection of the Home Hub screen) and hit 'X' to load the Game Details Page.

(3) From the Home Details Page move the active action-cursor to the "Install" box and hit the action button ('A').  The screen will then change to the white "Installing" pop-up, and you will see a progress bar along with a percentage installed display that you can sit and watch if you really want to...  I prefer to head for step four below immediately myself.

(4) Go make a sandwich, get a drink, or maybe some Smartfood while you wait for the game to install, which can take anywhere from three to eight minutes depending on the speed of your optical drive, whether the disc is dirty, and other factors that probably do not involve Bigfoot.

Once the installation is complete you have done all that you need to do in order to be kind to your Xbox 360 and save it wear and tear that is normally associated with playing games that make a lot of data calls to the optical drive!  From here on the console will detect that the game is installed to your HDD whenever you slots the disc in your optical drive and play it in the future, and so will pull the data from the hard drive rather than the optical drive, which you will notice is much faster, and probably helped save the world, you Rebel you!

== Delete the Game from your HDD after you are Finished With It! ==

You can follow the steps below to remove the game from your HDD after you have completed your play-through -- something you may want to do if you find you are running low on HDD space, we are just saying...  To delete the game:

(1) Insert the game disc for Risen 2 in your optical drive;

(2) If your console is set to auto-load upon insertion wait for the game to load and then exit out to the Dashboard and the Home Hub Screen;

(3) From the Home Hub Screen select Risen 2 by moving the action-cursor to the upper-left corner of the menu, and then press the 'X' Button to access the Game Details Screen and Menu.  From here you have the option of Playing Now, Rating the Game, and Deleting the game if you are using the old Dashboard, but if you are using the new Fall 2012 Dashboard you also have the option to Pin to Home, which will create a more convenient shortcut to the game that will allow you to quickly access and play it from just off of the Home Hub Menu -- we are just saying.

(4) Highlight the "Delete" box and hit the Action Button ('A') and then confirm that you really do want to delete the game.  You will then delete the installed disc content on your HDD but NOT the saves, DLC, or any other extras for the game, freeing up a huge chunk of space on your HDD so you can now install a different game to load and play faster, and how cool is that?

== Managing Game Content ==

There is one additional issue that you should consider when you go about managing the installed game content on your hard drive, and that is a combination of future DLC content and future game play.  Just because you have "finished" the game now does not mean that you will not want to come back later and play it again, so retaining certain key files that are installed to your console hard drive is really a smart choice.

With that in mind, instead of accessing the contents of the hard drive installed in your console from the memory menu interface and deleting the entire folder for the game (some players prefer to manage their installed content in that fashion) you should follow the instructions noted above, and use the 'X' method to uninstall the installed game disc content!

By utilizing that method you end up removing the installed disc data and content but preserve all of your game saves, installed DLC content, and other records (including the stat database), and as a result you can easily then come along at a later date and simply slot the game and play it, having fully preserved access to all of your progress.

This is a good idea for several reasons -- first, should the developers release additional DLC content you will be able to add that to your console and resume playing from the previous level of progress in game play, and second, when the sequel or next game in a game series is released, IF it has some Achievements that are unlocked for having played a previous game in the series, bang! You are covered!  Your old saves and special content are right there for the new title to find!  It would really suck to have to replay the entire game in order to obtain the maximum benefits of previous play -- an aspect of that sort of Achievement structure that gamers who played the Forza Motorsports franchise of games recently learned.