Dungeon Siege II Previews

A couple of new hands-on previews for Gas Powered Games' Dungeon Siege II have made their way to the web. The first is at Gaming Excellence:
Game progress is driven by a series of primary and secondary quests. Primary quests must be completed in order to move through the game while secondary quests are optional. When players accept a new quest, an update is added to their character's journal and a yellow directional arrow appears in the navigational compass pointing in the direction of their next objective. Apart from monitoring the status of particular quest tasks, the journal also provides a detailed map of the area as well as a valuable handbook containing information on all aspects of game play. As an added bonus, there is also a handy reference chart of all Aranna's (Bestiary) (monsters and such) in case you ever get confused over who is who.

And the second is at Gaming Nexus:
One area that really impressed me was the soundtrack for the game. The soundtrack from the first game was solid but this one feels even better. It's subtle and pulls you further into the game. One example was as I was entering the jungle to do a little (house cleaning) the score started faintly and slowly increased in volume to where I noticed it. It was such a perfect blending of music and game play that I didn't notice it at first and then it was like (Wow, that's some pretty killer music). The best way to describe it would be to compare it to eating a good steak. If the seasoning is perfect you really don't notice it, you just enjoy it versus eating something that's really strong and while it may be good it does kind of detract from the meal.