Michael_Galt

I saw the gameplay estimates, so that was what kept my enthusiasm down, slightly. That being said, because I am such a completionist, I honestly thought that I would still get more gameplay out of it. In general, I have always played more hours than are estimated for the games I have played, and usually a significant number more. That being said, I think that I clocked in right around 45 hours by the time that I finished this, and while that isn't terrible... the problem is more that I don't feel the need/desire to replay it again. I beat Tyranny in probably about the same amount of time, then I immediately started replaying it with a different character and immediately could appreciate the difference in the story reactivity and the gameplay experience itself. And despite them being semi-similiar characters, the game and the epilogue were VERY different. I told a friend, "Yeah, my 2nd playthrough, I got exactly the epilogue that I was hoping for... but I had to do a LOT of stuff that I really didn't want to and make some seriously hard decisions." Sure! That is what I most like about RPGs. I like that they are essentially "choose your story" adventures that can make you examine philosophical, moral, or political issues. I love when there are serious companions that make you think of people you know or could imagine and actually identify or sympathize with and want to "get to know". If you haven't played Tyranny yet, I highly recommend it. I wish that it hadn't been marketed as "grim dark" and "evil has won, be as evil as you want to be". I don't play evil, ever. I don't like to. I can maybe get by with some lawful evil or neutral evil, but I want to play as a paladin, or desert ranger. I want to be the hero and to help people. That is why it took me 2 years to play Tyranny. But, it is completely possible to play a "good" character and still enjoy the game. I essentially played as "lawful good" and "chaotic good" and it was incredibly interesting and rewarding.

So, not going to lie, I had pretty high hopes for The Outer Worlds. Given who was involved in its development, I thought that it was going to be Arcanum/F: NV in space. Honestly, I still prefer Arcanum or F: NV to TOW. What had I hoped to see from those games that I didn't or felt like it wasn't delivered as well? Length and depth. With both F: NV and Arcanum, you can play them dozens of times, because there are so many quests and so many things to find/discover/uncover. It is impossible to do all that in a single playthrough. I am a completionist. I don't care what game I play, I try to milk it to its fullest potential, I want to squeeze absolutely everything out of it as I can. If I play it again, I will still try to get everything out of it that I can. Great RPGs in general, and F: NV and Arcanum in particular, have tons of juice to squeeze after a single playthrough. I have played both of those games MANY times (5+). I always found new things. I have beat TOW and honestly don't want to give it another playthrough, because I feel like it wouldn't be that much different. I obviously have a different experience by making different choices, but I feel like there is probably nothing that I missed (or, very, very little). I feel like there is not much more juice to squeeze. I briefly started a playthrough with a 2nd character, very different from my 1st, and could already see where it was going. I could imagine how the rest of the game would play out and it just didn't motivate me to keep playing. In terms of the sheer number of hours involved in playing either (being a completionist), TOW is nowhere near as long. Companions. To be fair, neither Arcanum or F: NV had great companions. Arcanum had companions who had interesting backstories and could have been really compelling, but they were almost free of banter, interaction, and reaction to the story. F: NV only let you have a single companion, effectively. Some of them were good and had a reasonable amount of development, but you still didn't get that deep character depth, development, and involvement. I was hoping that Obsidian would draw from their experiences making Tyranny and Deadfire, and we would end up with companions along the lines of Baldur's Gate 2 or the Mass Effect franchise - heck, Planescape Torment. I thought that we were going to get some seriously fleshed out, interesting companions who would develop over time and have fascinating backstories and really interesting banter and reactions/interactions with the story and player actions. The companions weren't complete trash... but honestly, I find absolutely nothing memorable about any of them. Anomen, the noble who has struggled to do well for his family name and honor Helm, who is arrogant but internally conflicted about his status and sometimes the actions of the Church of Helm. Viconia, who is jaded, distrustful and contemptuous, but can be convinced that life is valuable and that there is value in trying to help others. Aerie, who is wounded and hobbled by fear, with a heart of gold, who can be given confidence and learn to be strong. ME's Garrus, Miranda, Morgan, Grunt and the list could go on. Any of the Planescape Torment companions. All of these companions genuinely interested me and I was invested in them. Ellie, Vicar and Parvati were the only companions I could even stand in TOW (I liked SAM... but he had zero personality), and while I didn't dislike them, I also found them to be very vanilla and not at all interesting. Customization. This game doesn't even get close to F: NV or Arcanum in either respect. There are a billion character builds for either game. In both of them, I played Doc Holiday - physically weak, fragile, but very fast, great with handguns, super lucky, and a gambler. I literally got rich in both games gambling as my Doc Holiday character and would gun people down with my pistols if it became necessary. I played a sniper/scout, a brawler, a thief, a scientist and a talker in each game. No gambling in this game, so no Doc Holiday. Stealing is possible... but it is honestly pretty easy, in general (with pickpocketing being ridiculous). In my first playthrough, without trying very hard, I managed to be a scientist talker sniper thief. Didn't have great charisma, but could pass most dialogue checks with my intelligence or knowledge. Was pretty damn effective with "long rifles". Was super smart. This doesn't get into items. There were TONS of cool schematics in Arcanum, and it is impossible to master all the different tech branches in 1 playthrough. In F: NV, there are also tons of options for mods to weapons/armor, unique/special weapons/armor, and things of that nature. At the midpoint of TOW, I was literally already bored with the weapons and armor I had found, and it didn't really change from there. Bad guy. To me, Jon Irenicus remains the absolute best bad guy of any cRPG. He was interesting, believable, and actually scary. He was also slightly sympathetic and definitely understandable. His voice actor was incredible. Arcanum's bad guy was not nearly as interesting, but he was still good. Who you wanted to designate at the bad guy for F: NV depended entirely on your perception of who would do the best for the Mojave, or who you philosophically supported most, as an organization. TOW? As far as I can see, there is really only "1" bad guy... and he is pretty pathetic (and not really that bad, per se). He is hardly developed. You don't even know who he is until late in the game. Defeating him is... anticlimatic. Beating Jon Irenicus was HARD. Beating the bad guy in Arcanum was HARD. Beating the key bad guy in a cRPG should be really hard and you should feel invested in defeating them.... I just didn't feel that way with TOW. The universe in general. Both F: NV and Arcanum had some genuinely interesting NPCs. So did Planescape Torment, Mass Effect, and a number of great RPGs. Sidequests that were really interesting and compelling. I didn't feel this with TOW. There were a few here and there with a bit of development and backstory, but for the most part, the side quests were to go kill something or fetch something, and that was about it. The majority of the NPCs simply had no development or backstory. There might be more, but that is all I can think of right now. Honestly, though it took me 2 years to play it, I vastly prefer Tyranny to TOW. I prefer Deadfire to TOW. I had thought TOW actually had a chance of dethroning BG2 as my favorite cRPG... but I honestly don't think that I would put it in my top 10. Definitely not in my top 5. This isn't to say that TOW "sucks" or is a bad game. It is a good game. I would give it and 88 out of 100. But, I had hoped that it was going to be a 96/97/98/99.

I completely concur. I beat it over a weekend, and kept wondering when it was that I was going to find some unique armor or get to make it. Honestly, I felt disappointed in the armor/weapon customization of this game. Nothing felt truly unique or awesome. I wish there was some way to "order directly from the manufacturer" or to contract someone to build you an amazing weapon or armor for a very high premium. Or, way more schematics. Everything felt very "samey".

That does help. Temperment still doesn't seem to make exact sense, but I am assuming that the tutorial or gameplay will make it pretty clear... hopefully. It sort of sounds like "constitution", but not exactly.

I actually did forget that. Now this makes me even sadder, because I honestly enjoyed gambling in 3 different Obsidian games, and it was done well in each of them. It seems borderline preposterous to me that I won't be able to gamble in what is essentially a "space western" with a bit of punk in it. I just hope that they don't make stealing impossible/worthless, considering that is something that I enjoy doing in an RPG as well... but I have heard 0 mention of it in anything I have read or watched regarding The Outer Worlds... so should probably assume that it isn't going to be in the game. And since there is no "luck" attribute like in Arcanum or FO:NV... that means it probably isnt in.

That actually makes a lot of sense. More "temperament" = more "time dilation" or something to that effect. I really hope that isn't the case, because I think that I am really going to want time dilation (aka, VATS), and I don't like the idea that I might have to dedicate an entire attribute to it rather than it just being a composite of several which have other utility outside of combat. Unless this is ALSO useful outside of combat... maybe for conversations and technical tasks? Also, the dictionary doesn't agree with you, unless you are talking about something that the developers said: temperament noun the combination of mental, physical, and emotional traits of a person; natural predisposition. unusual personal attitude or nature as manifested by peculiarities of feeling, temper, action, etc., often with a disinclination to submit to conventional rules or restraints. Well, through more Googling, found out there will indeed be no mini-games OR gambling... that makes me sad. Arcanum had gambling. FO: NV had gambling. I enjoyed gambling in both... so, no Doc Holliday character this time. I am not counting information provided in video interviews. I know that people love being illiterate nowadays, but I don't have the time or patience to sit through hour long interviews where the interviewer will inevitably ask a bunch of stupid questions so I can potentially get a couple answers I actually care about. I miss the day when journalists actually had to know how to write articles and I could read in 10 minutes what it took them an hour in real time to say. And while I fully grant that there is a difference between being crowd-funded versus not (in terms of information dissemination), there really has been very little put out. This is the only game coming out this year that I am interested in (since Wasteland 3 got pushed to 2020 and Cyberpunk 2077 is set for the same time frame - Q2), yet I know LESS about this game than I know about either of those games. I know A LOT about Cyberpunk 2077, which was not crowd-funded, and it comes out nearly a year from now. I know way more about WL3 and it comes out at the same time. I don't even know what temperament is, and apparently neither does anyone else... and this game is hypothetically going to be released in a little over 3 months. I understand that Obsidian had to keep their cards close to their chest for a while, for a variety of reasons... but how do they expect to build hype when there is so little information out there regarding a game they are releasing in Q4?

So... I went to that Wiki, and there is basically nothing there. I don't care about the corporations or companions, we'll see what they are like in-game. I have really only seen some limited amount of information about combat and dialogue options, and not much else. We are less than 4 months away, and besides some promo trailers and a bit of gameplay, it is pretty sparse on the information. I know that this game has been in development for a while, so that strikes me as quite odd. I would think that they are literally in the final stages of polishing and QC right now... which means that we should have tons of information. Yet we don't even have a character creation screen or explanation of the combat system, attributes, minigames (if there are any), etc. I'm not whining about this, I just find it odd. I feel like they are not going to meet the date they set for release, given how relatively little has been shared.

Interesting - thanks! No idea what "temperment" is... as an attribute. Normally that is some sort of thing that you "earn" based on your actions, decisions and statements. I can't see how you would "put points" into having a certain temperment. And I find it somewhat odd that so little has been revealed, but it is supposed to release in October. Does anyone else think that is overly ambitious and it is likely going to get delayed? I mean, Wasteland 3 has revealed more, and they pushed their date from late 2019 (basically the same time) to April 2020... which is probably a bad idea, what with Cyberpunk 2077 coming out then as well (they should probably wait until June or something).

Do we know what they are yet? I haven't seen a whole lot of information on the interwebz regarding The Outer Worlds, and am very curious about this. I still yearn for the days of Arcanum, where "beauty" was a an attribute and making your character beautiful or ugly had real consequences. I sincerely doubt that in today's politically correct world that Obsidian would have enough courage to bring beauty back as an attribute... but who knows? What about "luck"? A feature in many RPGs I love (especially Fallout and Arcanum), will I be able to play my Doc Holliday character again? Rolling around with low charisma and constitution, but high agility, luck and a pair of pistols, stealing everyone's money in card games and games of chance... and shooting those who mistake my physical frailty for weakness and vulnerability. Are there any good screenshots of the character creation screens?

Oh hell yes. Cyberpunk 2077, Wasteland 3, BG3, and The Outer Worlds?? Maybe the next couple years aren't looking so bad after all...

I am also having this problem. I tried deleting the local files, as well as checking the integrity of the game files, and neither has worked. I logged out and am repeating all those steps, just to see if I get a different result... And crash. I have attempted to attach the files. Can't attach all files but can send in DM if Obsidian person reaches out. output_log.txt

Hey everyone. About to start my 3rd playthrough, but the last time that I really played was probably August or September. Has there been any significant changes since then that I really need to be aware of? I've tried to keep on top of the updates, so I know that all the DLC has been released, which adds new areas and lots of boss options (and high level options in general). But, in terms of rebalancing, or story or gameplay outside of the DLC stuff, is there any really big things that I should be aware of? I plan on playing as full on "melee mage" (a paladin/mage combo). I want to stick to staff for melee and magic for range. That is about it.

I just appreciate that there was humor. Humor is good. I like humor. Now let me have humorous interactions with my party of NPCs... and even better. Let me have humorous romance options? Pretty please. Let me have a miniature giant space hamster????? Pretty, PRETTY please!

I didn't. I thought that it got locked. Can I still edit my OP as well? I just think that if I do that, the rest of the thread will become confusing.

I was not talking about economic viability in this post at all. Because Fallout 4 "sold better" does not make it a "better" game. That is the result of aggressive and successful marketing. Lots of inferior products outsell better products because the inferior products are marketed better. You can go to any aggregate score website, and F:NV scores better among consumers than does Fallout 4. That is what makes it a better game. Given the fact that nearly 40% of the people who responded to this poll listed F:NV as their #1 favorite game by Obsidian... it is clear that people here want more games like F:NV than Fallout 4. I don't think that people work at Obsidian because they hope to become multi-millionaires, they work there to work on the types of games that they like and enjoy. Provided that they are able to afford the things they enjoy in life, they are probably content to not be making boatloads of money, but being able to make great cRPGs. I'm all about capitalism and ambition, but sometimes you have to pick your values over potentially making more money. It isn't clear in the op's first paragraph what the point of your post was, its buried somewhere in the body of the thing. In fact, I'm not seeing a cogent idea anywhere, until the fourth or fifth paragraph, where you tell me the point is "I like F:NV". Your real idea is even further away, spread across two or three more paragraphs. The title is at least misleading, don't you agree? I tried to find the lesson in your op, couldn't find one. My cautionary tale's better, I think. You can't expect people will meander with you through a haphazard formatted, stream-of-consciousness post. I mean, anybody can make a poll what their favorite obsi game is. You should have just stopped there m8. Also, I have no idea why you're talking about capitalism and multi millionaires in response. Again, I apologize for failing to put that in the OP. Without editing the OP to include what I wrote later, after I realized that I had not explicitly talked about that... really no way to "solve" that problem. I feel like editing a post days after writing it... is bad form. The point of the poll for the favorite Obsidian game was meant to serve as a tool for helping Obsidian to get real feedback from their dedicated community. The people on these forums would more than likely be Pillars of Eternity backers, right? Except, despite the fact that those are those most recent games, there is a clear indication from the community that they might like POE, but in general, they LOVE F:NV and they really like KOTOR 2. This remains the case despite the relative old age of those games. The age of those games does not diminish the story-telling they did, or the quality of the writing. The point about the financial success of non-Obsidian titles is moot in this argument. There are tons of games with ridiculous premises, that are horrible games by any objective standard of story-telling or intellectual stimulation, but are INCREDIBLY successful financially because they let people do something they want to do, but can't do in real life, or not as easily as they can in that game. Obsidian games, have, by and large, been about excellent writing and storytelling. When someone who works in the videogame industry applies to work at Obsidian, they KNOW that the games that Obsidian makes are not the types of game that sell 50 million copies. They know that if they go to Comicon that year, they will not find 1/2 the cosplayers in costumes from Obsidian's games. They go to Obsidian because intelligent, thought provoking RPGs are the types of games they enjoy and want to make. They go to Obsidian to "boost their resume" before applying to another major videogame studio that maybe DOES make those games that sell millions of copies, because they know that if they show that they worked at a studio known for making great games, they are much more likley to get accepted into the "big leagues". Now that Obsidian HAS been acquired by Microsoft and they DID get their "dream project" approved... I just hope that they don't make a game that has nothing in common with F:NV and KOTOR 2, but rather make a game that combines the best features of all their best games. Both Bioware and Bethesda have strayed a long way from their roots, and financial successes or not, their latest games have NOT gotten very good consumer reviews and are generally considered to be worse games than what came before those games. This is in spite of having plenty of money and large teams for development. I just HOPE that Obsidian doesn't make their "dream project" into Fallout 4/76 or ME: Andromeda, whether that is more financially successful or not. Is that selfish of me? Yes, it is. I want high-quality, well-written RPGs. That is the only type of video game I play. None of those equals no video games for me. I can survive without video games... but I would like for that to be an option, as opposed to a non-option. I would happily pay 2 - 3 times the normal price of a video game if I was sure that it would be a quality RPG. Right now I am VERY tentative about this new project because of some of the things that Tim Cain said a year ago. It doesn't SOUND like a game that I will like, if it adopts a lot of those philosophies. If I DON'T like it, and it is the "new Obsidian", then I can probably write off future Obsidian games the way that I have Bioware games and Bethesda games. That would mean that I would have only CD Projekt Red and inXile to look forward to their games, and MAYBE Harebrained Studios, but maybe not. I prefer Obsidian games to the games of all of those studios. That means I would be left with studios that I like less.