ranDom vIdeO game news

[Malcador]

12 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

That's because he doesn't want to pay child support on the hundreds of illegitimate children he's fathered. We gotta get Satan on the Maury Povich show.

You'd think Satan would be ok to intentionally be a deadbeat dad.

[BruceVC]

35 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

That's because he doesn't want to pay child support on the hundreds of illegitimate children he's fathered. We gotta get Satan on the Maury Povich show.

Classic  post, these comments have really made me LOL 

[kanisatha]

On 1/18/2022 at 7:21 PM, Chairchucker said:

With this purchase, Obsidian is not going bankrupt and having to lay off a bunch more staff. The Microsoft acquisition of Obsidian isn't the reason Obsidian aren't currently looking to make PoE3. JE Sawyer has been relatively open that in his opinion there is likely not a high chance of a PoE3 at this stage simply because PoE2 wasn't nearly as successful as they'd hoped. https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/669770197986590720/hi-josh-hope-youre-doing-great-world-of-eora

I needed a bit of time to reflect on what Sawyer says here before responding. Whatever way I try to slice it, I come away rather dispirited by what he says here about any possible future PoE game. Seems to me that he is pretty much closing the door to any new PoE game, at least in the foreseable future. Am I wrong? I certainly hope I am wrong, but that's what I get from his words here, even after re-reading them multiple times.

[Amentep]

The positive side I guess would be that as far as I recall, Microsoft has indicated they wanted to put out a lot of different styles of game with large and small teams and budgets. So I'd say the door isn't necessarily closed on any particular style of game.

But ultimately how it's all going to shake up is unknown. How these divisions are going to work at MS and how Avowed does being big unknowns ATM for the possibility of a POEIII.

[Mamoulian War]

22 minutes ago, Amentep said:

The positive side I guess would be that as far as I recall, Microsoft has indicated they wanted to put out a lot of different styles of game with large and small teams and budgets. So I'd say the door isn't necessarily closed on any particular style of game.

But ultimately how it's all going to shake up is unknown. How these divisions are going to work at MS and how Avowed does being big unknowns ATM for the possibility of a POEIII.

Well, that was long before they purchased Activision. With all of the IPs in their hands, they have in some genres almost a monopoly, which can impact very negatively their previous promises...

[Amentep]

12 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Well, that was long before they purchased Activision. With all of the IPs in their hands, they have in some genres almost a monopoly, which can impact very negatively their previous promises...

Oh sure, it could.  Like I said, everything is unsettled at the moment, so prognosticating is probably a futile effort.  I could see them wanting a wide variety of games for a variety of markets (dedicated console, PC, Mobile, cloud) and I could see them having a narrow field and using the draw of IPs to back either console or cloud gaming.

[Wormerine]

A group of rogue XCOM devs are opening their own studio dedicated to turn based tactics games. Those developers are mainly from art team, so the best part of FiraXCOMs. Hopefully they find right folks for the gameplay part. 

[melkathi]

Ooh, they are hiring. I wonder if they'll have a job opening for an in-house "jaded cynic"

[ShadySands]

The Activision deal isn't expected to go through until some time in 2023 so I doubt they're changing things around too much since it could fall through

[Wormerine]

My excitement for Hitman3 disappears as IOI found a way to hit a new Epic Exclusive low.


Not that the game has to be heavily discounted when it comes out on steam after being exclusive for a year, but it being deeply discounted on Epic but not on Steam feels quite offensive. I still somehow believe it is a mistake, as it just boggles my mind that they would attempt to sell the game full price on steam, while releasing on GamePass at the same time. 

[Zoraptor]

Why not milk the Gabe is God crowd for as much as you can?

If people insist on only buying on Steam they're asking to be exploited if not by devs/ pubs then by Valve; and why would developers be 'nice' to Steam when they leverage that market dominance and the presence of so many steam only drones to keep their cut higher than anyone else?

The simple solution for someone who wants to play it is to (1) but on Epic to save yourself 50% or (2) rent it on gamepass for ~80% discount- legally you're renting it from steam anyway, you just aren't being charged monthly.

1 hour ago, ShadySands said:

The Activision deal isn't expected to go through until some time in 2023 so I doubt they're changing things around too much since it could fall through

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the EU will actually block the sale on competition grounds.

ARM/ nVidia will be blocked too, for that matter.

[Malcador]

1 hour ago, Wormerine said:

Not that the game has to be heavily discounted when it comes out on steam after being exclusive for a year, but it being deeply discounted on Epic but not on Steam feels quite offensive

What's offensive about this ?  Just go buy it where it's cheaper.

[BruceVC]

2 minutes ago, Malcador said:

What's offensive about this ?  Just go buy it where it's cheaper.

I think Wormie is saying its offensive that it seems we pay more for games on Steam and maybe they could discount more like Epic 

[Chairchucker]

5 hours ago, kanisatha said:

I needed a bit of time to reflect on what Sawyer says here before responding. Whatever way I try to slice it, I come away rather dispirited by what he says here about any possible future PoE game. Seems to me that he is pretty much closing the door to any new PoE game, at least in the foreseable future. Am I wrong? I certainly hope I am wrong, but that's what I get from his words here, even after re-reading them multiple times.

While we may sometimes not like it, the bottom line is games need to make money. PoE2 didn't do that, or at least didn't do that well enough to justify a third. Also, Sawyer said something about being a little bit burned out. Would have to find the full comment, might've been on Something Awful.

[Hurlshort]

Thoughts and prayers for Obsidian Engineer recovering from tuberculosis.

[Zoraptor]

Hobbies: playing Cornelius Hickey from The Terror Season 1 and attempting to blow up James I of England.

[Chairchucker]

Hmmm maybe it wasn't Something Awful that Sawyer said that on.

Here's basically All The Stuff He's Said Since POE2

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3856099&userid=17931&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

Notable entries that are kinda about 'that stuff I mentioned'.

 

"This is one of the causes for me being burned out on directing these games. I don't write things to be contrarian or subversive, but nor do I really have any particular interest in conforming to the way in which fantasy stories are most commonly told. You don't fight Eothas in a boss battle at the end of the game because the focus of the story was always on figuring out what he was doing and dealing with implacable gods. If I had wanted it to be sUbVeRsIvE, I would have set the player up for a fight and pulled the rug out from under them. I knew that some players might expect to fight Eothas, but what would the right course have been? To decide that the story isn't really about dealing with implacable gods, but actually about beating the **** out of them? That you should fight some other manifestation of Eothas for no particular reason? Telling the player explicitly that he can't be defeated (which we strongly suggested, but players habitually ignore anyway)?

I don't think I'm particularly clever or novel. I don't make these choices in an effort to wow/stun people with my radical takes. The stories I help develop focus on exploring ideas more than they focus on big confrontations. At times, that can be against genre conventions, but I'm not doing it to blow your ****in' mind, man. In the case of Deadfire, it just didn't feel appropriate to fight Eothas. Maybe that was just the wrong story to tell or I set up to be told in a poor manner. "

 

"And to put this all in perspective, the first game sold pretty well. The second game cratered on release and slowly picked up steam, finally becoming profitable in early 2020 (IIRC). Both games reviewed very well. Whether you think it's justified or not, they are the most (professionally) highly-rated Obsidian games to date. Professional reviews of the game were strong and it still sold poorly, both compared to the first title and compared to our competitors. Frankly, PF:Kingmaker, DOS2, and BG3 are all wildly outperforming Deadfire. I've said this before, but if we ever revisit the Pillars universe in this "style" of game, I think it will mean re-examining our approach. If the conclusion is to that we need to change the formula and the format significantly, it draws into question why we would even go back to the series. "

 

Neither of those were quite what I was thinking of, so maybe it was in his tumblr

[Wormerine]

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

What's offensive about this ?  Just go buy it where it's cheaper.

After waiting for a year, it is frustrating to then see devs charge 2x for a Steam copy then an Epic copy. It is not the end of the world. I installed the game through GamePass and will buy it later down the line on deep sale. Now if only IOI wouldn't hold my saves hostage through their always online nonesense. 

4 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I think Wormie is saying its offensive that it seems we pay more for games on Steam and maybe they could discount more like Epic 

I think @BruceVC that you will be happy to learn that as Hitman3 didn't give me the expected £35 pricepoint, I decided to spend this money on God of War instead.  

[Wormerine]

43 minutes ago, Chairchucker said:

Hmmm maybe it wasn't Something Awful that Sawyer said that on.

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/625546847907364864/hello-i-dont-play-many-games-i-never-played

Maybe this?

[Chairchucker]

21 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/625546847907364864/hello-i-dont-play-many-games-i-never-played

Maybe this?

Ooof. Yeah that looks like it. An extremely disheartening post.

[Lexx]

Jeez, PoE2 became profitable in 2020 -- 2 years after release. I knew it was running bad, but didn't expect this bad. Personally I feel like it's because the majority of players were tired of the top-down-classic-rpg-esque stuff? Like, PoE1 relied heavily on nostalgia still, which then everyone got their fair share fulfilled with. Also we got the new Torment game, which also kinda ran into the same direction. So at the end of the day, I really think the majority of generic players just were tired of it or thought it's going to be just more of the same.

Then again, if I remember right, they decided later to do full voice acting for PoE2, which sure as **** was not cheap. So this probably also blew up the budget crazy high and then caused unrealistic expectations?

[ShadySands]

I dunno, I think the other isometric games of the time did well enough for that not to be the issue. I mean, I didn't like PoE very much but I still gave Deadfire a shot and thought that it was much better in most respects. Maybe others didn't give Deadfire a chance not because of isometric but because of the first game.

Edited January 21, 2022 by ShadySands
put Deadfire when I meant isometric, I was drunk

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, Wormerine said:

 

I think @BruceVC that you will be happy to learn that as Hitman3 didn't give me the expected £35 pricepoint, I decided to spend this money on God of War instead.  

You a good man, if I ever come to Belfast I am taking you out for dinner and free drinks. And yes we can even go dancing 

 

[Chairchucker]

3 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I dunno, I think the other isometric games of the time did well enough for that not to be the issue. I mean, I didn't like PoE very much but I still have Deadfire a shot and thought that it was much better in most respects. Maybe others didn't give Deadfire a chance not because of Deadfire but because of the first game.

Yeah, and Sawyer mentioned some of the other more successful games from the same period, so I agree with you that it can't be entirely down to the top down perspective, nor to the party.

[Bartimaeus]

5 hours ago, Lexx said:

Personally I feel like it's because the majority of players were tired of the top-down-classic-rpg-esque stuff?

 

5 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I dunno, I think the other isometric games of the time did well enough for that not to be the issue. I mean, I didn't like PoE very much but I still have Deadfire a shot and thought that it was much better in most respects. Maybe others didn't give Deadfire a chance not because of Deadfire but because of the first game.

What ShadySands said in my case. Was very excited for another BG-esque isometric party-based game that was supposed to be a spiritual successor to BG2...BG2, after all, is one of my top ten favorite games of all time and I still enjoy it - and then I actually played it. They had tried to "improve" on so many different things over BG2 that it felt like they'd miss something critical: BG2 was fun...and PoE was not. I couldn't get into PoE's new setting, I couldn't get into the writing style, I couldn't get into the voice direction, and most importantly, the gameplay made me want to curl up and die because of how annoying and demanding every single battle was, no matter how minor. I didn't even consider buying the second game - not unless it had a completely different set of creative leads at the helm. But I do wish it did better, since people clearly loved the series and got something out of it that I didn't, and I obviously want the isometric CRPG genre to not be completely dead.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Bartimaeus