Slowtrain

Yes, I'm sure thats why all the people who DON'T WORK FOR OBSIDIAN ANYMORE. Are thrilled with this game. Positive Reception so far from Ex-Obs guys (and girl) I know -Anthony Davis -Jean Eric-Khalife -Tess Treadwell -John Gonzalez Yes, I'm absolutly sure they are thrilled by their non-existant pay-checks. Totally.... NO You could say the same bull... about EVERY Obsidian Game so far. They were ALL partly made because of money. Of course, you can just keep deluding yourself.... eh? I'm not even being particularly critical.

that's the problem. some companies don't respect their gamers. I do agree with that. It's a difficult situation. It's generally easier to have respect for the usage wishes of some individual artist making digital paintings or t-shirts and putting them up on his/her personal website then it is to have respect for some giant publisher that we all know would like nothing more than to grab every gamer by the ankles, turn them upside down, and shake them violently until all the money falls out of their pockets. I think personally that game publishers need to start trying to establish a non-adversarial relationship with gamers rather than trying to choke them to death in an effort to wrign eveyr last potential bit of money from their bodies. Cruddy drm and registration schemes don't make anybody happy.

I remember it as being a somewhat odd and somewhat disturbing take on the Alice tale (which was all ready somewhat disturbing to begin with) and I wonder if it would be considered a safe-enough investment nowadays. I freely admit my memory may be severely lacking here as I played that game a long time ago. WHen was it released? 10 years ago maybe. ANd its not one of those games I've played repeatedly over the years, so maybe it's not as unsavory as I recall.

It was a just a thought on my part. It's hard for me imagine how anyone who actually creates something of their own that they feel good about and that requires a serious investment of time and labor on their part: a book, a game, a painting, a t-shirt, anything really, could justify or even consider taking someone else's comparable product of personal labor without permission. Its not even about money really. A lot of people on the internet allow stuff they've created to be used for free, but they expressly give that permission that such is the case. Or they don't. Or they say it can be free for personal use. Or whatever. The point is just respecting an individual (or company's) wishes) in regards to the usage of the product that they've created. That's all. It's pretty simple really.

yup there was. I vaguely remember looking in on it at some point, but don't recall hearing much about it. Couldn't tell you what my thoughts about it were at the time.

Or it could be the best RPG in a long time. Just because it's not fantasy nor scifi don't make it automatically a bad RPG. We will have to wait and see. (The following is just in general not as a reply to you) I for one find this project quite intresting, it differs from the normal fantasy & scifi rpgs by the setting alone, not to mention the humour that comes along with South Park. You don't have that much humour in rpgs. I don't think I've really laughed at all while playing most rpgs, only Alpha Protocol and Old World Blues had dialogue that actually made me laugh out loud multiple times. Not to mention this just adds some diversity to Obsidian's catalogue. 2 x fantasy (+ expansions), 1 post-apo (+ expansions), 1 scifi, 1 "real world" spygame and now a "real world" game based on a animated show. You really don't see that from the "competition". Bethesda is busy dishing out Elder Scroll and Fallout games, BioWare (Edmonton) seems to be stuck (for the time being) with Mass Effect and Dragon Age games and the Polish have their Witcher series. And yes, those series are all well received and are selling well, but still I don't think we can expect anything new and/or different from those companies any time soon just sequels... Sure. If the game turns out to be something like American McGee's Alice where the source material is warped and altered in interesting ways, then yeah, it could be cool. But the reality is that tv tie-in games are generally simplisitic cash-ins aimed to remove the money of fans of the tv show. You can go to almost any televison/cable web site and find games based on their series, games produced not to be good games, but simply to generate as much money as possible for as little investment as possible. Heck, you can order them off the back of cereal boxes in some cases. ARe there exceptions? Sure. American McGee's ALice is a prime example, though of course not based on an actual tv show. But they are pretty rare. The people who make tv/cable shows don't want too much stuff in a game that is different from or at odds with or is more interesting than the show itself. If Obs' South Park rpg is the next ALice, then yeah. I'd probably buy it. Not holding my breath though. edit: I should also mention that I personally don't believe that Amerian Mcgee's Alice could even get made in todays current game development world. except possibly as an extremely low-budget effort bya fringe developer or as a completely self-funded vanity project. Which of course, is why the current game development paradigm is creating such a huge number of dull games. If SOuth Park by Obs can do something like ALice than I would highly support it. I'm not convinced that will be the case even remotely.

I think a lot of pirates are simply people who have never spent time and effort and sweat creating someting. Once you've done that and realized the significance of your investment in that creation, I think it becomes much more difficult to morally justify taking other people's hard work without their consent. But until you've actually created something of your own, which some people never do, maybe it's harder to make that empathetic connection. DRM schemes are still the wrong approach to controlling piracy though, imo. And money-sucking corporate greed is still a problem. Too think otherwise is naive.

I'm not really sure it's an apt comparison. The potential consequences are far more extreme. So much so it pretty much renders such a comparison pointless. However, I agree with Hurlie: it's a company's product; they spent time, money, effort developing it; they can chooose to protect it how they want, even if it's short-sighted and stupid. ANd I, likewise, can simply choose not to play their silly games and schemes, and spend the hours of my life elsewhere, which I do so choose, 99.99% of the time.

None. The choice is completely understandable, especially given the current economic climate. I'm sure everyone who works for Obnsidian is thrilled. Everyone likes their paychecks at the end of the day. And if I worked for Obsidian, I'd probably be thrilled as well, totally and utterly, even if I totally and utterly hated South Park as a TV show. But I don't work for Obsidian, so, personally, I'm not thrilled. Hopefully, word wil come down soon of another project that is a bit more interesting.

Geez, with melodrama like that, would you prefer they handle the Real Housewives of Orange County for their next game? I fully understand that in this day and age, a mid-level developer takes whatever work they can. Money is money. But really, is this any different from a Jersey Shore rpg or A Ghost Adventures rpg pr Big Bass Adventure WHite Water Fishing or whatever? Sure, if someone likes South Park or Jersey Shore or Ghost Adventures or Big Bass fishing then they're probably all fired up a potential game. But, for me, speaking personally, it's a disappointing direction for Obsidian and hopefully not an indicator of the direction of other future projects.

I'm hoping for a Jersey Shore adventure rpg, maybe with some hacking and turrets.

If you're on the internet and you're not overreacting, then you're using it wrong.

Nice to see obsidian trying to corner the pottymouth market. Waiting for a deer hunting game next, crossbows and black powder rifles. Or maybe Big Bass Fishing Adventure. Well, as long as it makes them money, I guess. Everybody needs to stay in business.

I think its the dialogue writing. I felt the same way in Fallout 3. I enjoyed the game. Running around blowing stuff up and exploring was fun, but I foudn talking to any of the npcs extremely tedious and did it as little as possible. Bethesda does a good job with the whole open-world explore and conquer thing (Oblivion being the one exception) but they write much much worse than any of those Saturday night Syfy channel original movies. I don't know if it's a lack of skill/talent/training or if they just don't care enough to bother doing it well.

We are all Volo.

I'm just somewhat astonished that Volourn likes anything even remotely connected to a Bethesda open-world rpg. Next thing I know Volourn will be posting that Skyrim > Bioware.

I'm keeping any expectations tuned down to a level suitable for a Bethesda rpg. With that approach, I'm sure I'll enjoy it well enough.

Bioshock: Alien Invasion! Same game, change the title, add plasmids. Would sell millions. Leave XCOM dead and buried.

The reviewers gave Oblivion best-ever ratings as well and we see how that turned out. Critical over-reaction is par for the course.

I think a better use would be to make a game that appeals strongly to fans of the IP gameplay while trying to expand the fanbase to appeal to newer gamers. Or, make a lower-cost game that aims strictly at a niche market and doesn't need huge sales to turn a profit. Either one could make money.

Dude, you should really be working on some Zippy the Pinhead-esque web comic. It would probably be the hottest thing on the internet.

If you're going to reboot a classic franchise that only a handful of old fans have even heard of, then you'd best make it appeal to those fans at least. Otherwise the IP name buys you nothing cause nobody outside the handful of old fans has even heard of it. At which point you're simply better off launching a new IP with much ado and fanfare and blaring of trumpets.

That top big gun drawing looks like some insane gonzo one-legged screaming psychedelic chicken. EVen Bioware can't make those!

Morrowind was Bethesda's writing high point. By far. Although Daggerfall was reasonably solid. I'm not really complaining though. As long as the narrative provides a sort of overarching structure to hold the gameplay together, that's good enough.

The main narrative appears infantile but in a Bethesda game who cares. Beyond that everything looks fine. Voicework and animations are good enough.