Well in Dark Messiah there is dismemberment (Decapitation as far as I have seen, today's the first day I played the game, thanks to everyone referring to it, and thanks for that :hubbahubba:) But I do hope its a little more gorey then Oblivion, but less then Fallout 3/NV.

I don't want to see graphic blood and gore. Let those of us that it disgusts at the least be able to turn it off.

Not like FO3. I want realistic dismemberment. I don't wanna shoot him in the leg with my bow, and have all of his limbs fly off.

This.

FO3 dismemberment was too clunky. Hit a foe in the arm a couple times and it'll suddenly gush blood and roll off. If they are going to include dismemberment, I hope they make it precise. For example, I'm a long sword user, but if I decide to hammer a foe down, I'd like to see his appendages mashed under the weight of my weapon. Visibile slash wounds and bruises (injuries) would also be really fuggin' sweet.

I think it's concept art only and doesn't reflect combat in game. I'm also not interested in dismemberment in games, it ranks high on my cheesiness scale.

its a RPG, so realism is top of my preference. The animations would be complex, but more blood and gore than O' please, dismemberment? well moderatly, like you might expect if you swung a claymore of a huge sharp axe at someone. Also, for magic damage too, like some visable charring on fireball/shock victims (light singing for ' flare' and the full Mr. crispy for immolating blast).

If anyone has played 'Destroy All Humans' that game had a neat animation for fire damage - the body turned briefly to a blackened skeleton that then fell to the ground as ash - that might be quite realistic for a high level mage weapon effect.

while we're at it, the audio needs addressing for combat - mortal wounding should elicite more than just a strangle 'ouch' kinda response - more like a blood curdling scream as the weapon hits home!

So that gets the game an 18 rating - but so what, i don't care if it gets a 30+ rating - more gore please!