Auxilius

It saddens me to no end than this is the most active topic on the Obsidian forums.

I guess a lot of people already said it but you're bound to find a lot of people interested by an Alpha Protocol sequel on the developers' website. Of course, I also want an AP2 but I doubt Obsidian's will to do it. They have a lot of commands like the South Park RPG, or personal projects. Sawyer is working on something on its own, Avellone is getting more and more interested by a kickstarter project and who knows what Urquhart is up to? If there is an new AP, I guess we'll have to wait several more years. And by this time, the majority of gamers will have forgotten this game. I don't hope so though.

The key words here are "preview" and "review". Journalists tend to be harsher (truer?) in previews, because they are less controlled by publishers and the likes. For them, it's not a preview that is going to influence the results. It's all about reviews where the finals core appears, because it's more read. At least that's what I realized after years of reading. Of course I could be wrong but it's hard to think IGN won't deliver a 10 out of 10 score for a game where one of them is fully committed with.

Considering that an IGN journalist, Jessica Chobot, got a role in Mass Effect 3 as a "communications officer", We can safely assume that. How do IGN even expect us to take them seriously now? To rub it in, apparently, it's possible to get laid with her. Urgh, talk about creepyness.

I was 2 years old in 1988 so the Commodore 64 is hardly a part of my childhood or something I've fond memories of. When I see those games, even a retro-friendly guy like me thinks I couldn't play that ever. I don't have any tolerance beyond SNES graphics, probably because I met video games around its time. But I saw some Wasteland screens and for once, I can quite understand why the jazz is all about. It got a lot of details, making the universe sweet and way easier to submerge in. That's good worldbuilding. Maybe I should try it one day.

I'm cruising through Puzzle Quest: Galactrix these last days. I can understand why the game crashed. You can lose an easy fight or a load of health points just because the computer got a lucky streak. The mechanics are awfully repetitive. The fights are dragged on. You can spend sometimes 10 minutes on the same fight. This blend makes an awfully frustrating game. But for some reasons, I keep going on. Maybe it's Bile Fascination (dixit tvtropes) but I want to see more of this universe, even when the party is awfully bland and the story is vague, to say the least. It must be because it's still fun, despite the flaws.

On the ME3 matter, I just played the demo. I was so disappointed I didn't even reach the second half. Maybe it's just me but I felt like the drama was forced (what the hell were they thinking with this kid?), the dialogues came straight out from a B-movie ("This is not about tactics nor strategy", urgh, you sure are a real officer Shepard) and the cutscenes were stupid. When the Mecha Spider is hovering just behind those shuttles, were they really thinking they could just fly away. They didn't even look scared or on the run. Besides, why didn't it target the Normandy? Also, I don't want to talk about the (almost) complete lack of choices. NO. Concerning the graphics and gameplay, they're good. But for someone like me who prefers a good story above anything else, it got the taste of a huge failure. I hope it gets better later in the game but those character design decisions (Why babe up Ashley?) don't raise my hopes. I call it the Anti-Alpha Protocol. Good gameplay, good graphics, everything is glittering but there is nothing under it. That makes me sad because I thoroughly enjoyed the previous games.

Arcanum's lead designer is now working for the best company when it comes to stories and worldbuilding? Best video games news of the year! I remembered back in the day when Troika closed his doors and Tim decided to work with Garriott on... a MMORPG. I wept that day, men. I wept.

Well, such a project at least needs to speak to a small crowd, and I don't see 15 years old or more games do that. While there is a nerdgasm going on about Arcanum 2/PT2 (I'm part of it concerning Arcanum 2), I don't think that will happen because borrowing the license would be too expensive and would go against the idea of a kickstarter project to begin with: working free of pressure from publishers and copyrights. On this subject, if I listened to myself, I would fund someone for KOTOR 3, ignoring all SWTOR canon. Alas, the world spoken and we got a MMO. Even worse, the Exile is a young woman and not the bearded 40 years old world-weary man I grew to love. I guess that's the problem when your roleplaying doesn't mix with canon. If it is made, it will be all about the settings and the mechanics of the game. I guess Chris and errr. Urquhart? (sorry) will have to run a poll about it. After all, we're only asking Obsidian to work their normal magic with writing, plotting, storytelling and worldbuilding.

After reading through 25 pages, I suppose what people really want is something like Academagia. A text-based adventure where you can talk your way down to the ending with a lot of skills, paths, possibilities and content, kind of like thse books where we were the hero, except with less cruelty toward the reader and a virtual dice. Hell, they even describe the game like this: "Our game rewards relationship building, research and knowledge over violence". Gameplay is also threw out by the window but people seems to be fine with that. I wonder... Something like that could work for a kickstarter project.

I'm less than thrilled by this idea since I think South Park is just a dumb and trashy cartoon disguised as a satyre. Besides, Obsidian's strenght comes from their writing team but it's the SP creators who will write the scenario. At least, Obs will get some good money to fund a better project out of this. Like people said above, my expectations, for once, aren't high.

Isometric sure seems to be the new black. Why?

That's a must, yup. I can't feel like the hero is my own character if he starts talking with his own voice. It's not even about role-playing, it's about immersion.

Hello everyone. I have been an Obsidian fan since KOTOR 2 but it's this thread that convinced me to join your community. Already, I warn you about my english that may be a little broken at times. It's the sad life of a not-native english speaker. Anyway, that's a great opportunity to give my ideas. Thank you! First, I read through this entry and a lot of people are asking for a new Planescape Torment game. while this would be interesting, I don't know if there are legal issues. Besides, I can understand if Obsidian would be more interested by a new IP, since the majority of their catalogue is made of sequels. Second, apparently, Mr. Avellone wonder if Obsidian should try another genre of video games. RPGs are my favorite games so I can't say I'm overjoyed by that but if they want to try something new, I would love some kind of space opera. It's a genre that has been forgotten since ages (Except by Egosoft and some recent indie developers but all of them go for sandbox style). It's a good medium for one of those finely crafted stories we all know and love. Games like Starlancer or Freelancer did a great job at this back in the day, but I think more could be done on this matter. Besides, there is no need to create a bazillion of stellar systems. Actually, if there is enough story content, a much smaller scale could be employed and that would work. Third, since it's a game that could ignore publishers, you people don't need to go for great graphics ala Witcher 2. I saw people asking for isometric views. That could work. Arcanum is my favorite RPG of all times (Don't worry, KOTOR 2 is a close second) and such a perspective could give time to the team to create much more content. It would be deep, long, innovative and permits way more stories and storytelling than ever before. We would have a coherent and living universe. At last, my own ideas I'd like to see in a RPG one day . Personally, I'd love a game where politics are involved. My favorite quest in Arcanum is where you're must convince the Caladon council to forge an alliance with Tarante. My favorite quest in NWN2 is the trial. And of course, there is so much ways to talk down people in Mask of the Betrayer than I love the game whole. That's also why I loved characters like Atris or Marburg where your mission is actually to show them your worth just by talking. So here is a starting point, may it inspire you: - The setting is the Enlightnment, around 1600. European empires all want a slice of the new world that was discovered by Christophe Colomb. That's where the hero comes in. With no past nor allegiance to come with, he starts a quest for a better life on these new lands. He's doing some quests on his way, make some friends, create his team then a small band of followers. That's when imperial powers start to wonder if they could use him to their advantages. He's contacted by France, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, etc. He could choose to work for one country, for everyone, ignore them or use all of them with a lot of cunning to achieve his plans. I will stop there because there are a lot I could say on this (Create an army, open consulates, train ambassadors, meet the queen in one epic talking showdown like in Deus Ex: HR, etc) but I will stop this. It would be a RPG mixed with some Risk. I think the Crossroad Keep in NWN2 got a lot of potential. Maybe it's the time to expend on this. It could be isometric but hey, I'm not a designer so I don't have a clue how these things work. If my ideas are too complicated. I would love an Arcanum 2 in a diesel-punk setting. Nobody do diesel-punk this day. It could attract curious people and it would give the opportunity to work on subjects that always have been ignored before. Finally: NO ROMANCE. Please! Romances in games are bad. It always comes out of nowhere and it seems the only thing a PC has to do to achieve success is to give one nice line to the romance interest here and there. It can be okay if it's a emotionally challenging real arc with a lot of pathos but otherwise, please, no. Besides, romances tend to be consuming. See what happened with other studios. It's like they are making games for the romance. It's a bad way to write a game and it's a bad way to PROMOTE a game. See Fable. Thank you for your time. I wish you the best success. P.S: Oh lord my english...