Random video game news... renewed!

[Gorth]

5 hours ago, MrBrown said:

Games should have a "random but reasonable" button. I remember trying random in Outer Worlds, and everything that came out looked like a person who just went to a punk concert and then got beaten up.

In the Mass Effect games and Dragon Age games I went with the default characters (both male and female). Didn't feel like spending 72 hour to create something even remotely attractive of either gender. Don't get me started on the Bethesda games

I guess it's part of why I love a game like Guild Wars 2. Lots of customization possibilities, although I wish facial makeup/scars was handled better. Then there is the dress up your character part where Guild Wars really truly lives up to its nickname "Fashion Wars 2"

[MrBrown]

https://www.inverse.com/gaming/bethesda-strike-zenimax-xbox-microsoft

[Mamoulian War]

I really love this board. Almost every day, I learn something new. Today, I have learned, that Bethesda has employees, who test their games for bugs. Who would have thought, that this is reality in this Universe

[Sven_]

On 11/12/2024 at 1:17 PM, Wormerine said:

I mean how lite are we talking about? There is a bit more agency and build variety (so stuff like, will your rip open a door, or sneak in through the vent just around the corner). Side content is a bit more robust, and potentially allowing for more variety of approaches. Quest design isn't Deux Ex, though. Systems in Cyberpunk a more complex than in Witcher, but it is not a systemic game that allows for emergent solutions. And Cyberpunk is way too cinematic, to give players an objective, sandbox and let them loose. In the main quests you mainly follow objectives and watch cutscenes inbetween gameplay sections.

Thanks, gonna try it when I have upgraded my PC. Speaking of which, found an analysis of Gothic that was uploaded today.

Game makers back in the day: "Let's let people forget that they're just playing a damn video game!"
Game makers today: "Screw that. If we're lucky, the 2,000 bucks GeForce hardware will do the job we can't."
 

 

Edited November 13 by Sven_

[Wormerine]

22 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

To be honest/fair,I don't really care what my avatar is

In an RPG I do, if it is an RPG with a decent amount of visual fidelity. Even in Outer Worlds, where I can't see my character in gameplay, I did appreciate having an option to make him look how I wanted to roleplay him - and seeing the avatar in the menus did reinforce the character I was roleplaying as.

I can't be bothered to do much customisaiton in soulslike games though - it gets covered by armor anyway.

[bugarup]

On 11/13/2024 at 2:30 AM, LadyCrimson said:

I remember in Hogwart's, one of the youthful male avatar face options strongly reminded me of a childhood "boyfriend", which made me laugh, and I picked that one. That's about as deep as I go.

My very first Shepard looked very much like lady who owned craft beer store on my that time home-work route. Very nice lady, was fun to chat a little while shopping at hers. My one true Shepard forever. 

[MrBrown]

remaster of warcraft I and II

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/13/24295730/warcraft-remastered-battle-chest-1-2-3-reforged-upgrades-windows-mac-blizzard-battle-net

Edited November 14 by MrBrown

[LadyCrimson]

Dunno if someone posted this in the past but this looks right up my alley.  We shall see.

 

[MrBrown]

Avowed on battle.net. I guess MS buying acti/blizz changed something. https://eu.shop.battle.net/en-gb/product/avowed

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, MrBrown said:

Avowed on battle.net. I guess MS buying acti/blizz changed something. https://eu.shop.battle.net/en-gb/product/avowed

Huh. Interesting. Are they looking to make Battle.net, Microsoft's 2nd digital shop? As it is, Battlenet would need a serious overhaul to host more than a handful of games, and if Avowed is a one off, it is a really random one. As far as we know it doesn't even have multiplayer, right?

Also pretty pricey - at £60 I am having some serious expectations. Also, £20 extra for some skins and playing "5 days earlier".

[LadyCrimson]

^ Wait, does this mean you'd need a bnet account to play it? Or is it just the store purchasing option?

.... Steam doesn't mention it, so I hope that means no on it being attached to bnet itself.
...it's $70US on Steam.
...it's $90US for the pre-order which gets you 2 skin packs, artbook/soundtrack, and "up to" 5 days earlier access. >.>

Yeah...that makes me expect more from it, quality wise, than I originally was. Like length, replayability, that sort of stuff.

[Sven_]

I still don't understand the elevator pitch of Avowed.

I mean, obviously, it was "Pillars, but like Skyrim" at some point. But after the reboots it obviously was scaled back and changed. But changed to,... what? Another Action/RPG-Like power fantasy, this time taking place in the same universe as that CRPG you had never played if you aren't me? Pillars, but like The Outer Worlds?

If I wouldn't be following Obsi -- if this wouldn't be an Obsi / Eternity game -- I probably wouldn't have it bookmarked at this point. 

Edited November 15 by Sven_

[Wormerine]

4 hours ago, Sven_ said:

I still don't understand the elevator pitch of Avowed.

I mean, obviously, it was "Pillars, but like Skyrim" at some point. But after the reboots it obviously was scaled back and changed. But changed to,... what? Another Action/RPG-Like power fantasy, this time taking place in the same universe as that CRPG you had never played if you aren't me? Pillars, but like The Outer Worlds?

Yeah, I am also not quite sure what to make of Avowed just yet.

I am not sure "Pillars, but like Skyrim" was ever a thing - at least not in the way that I would interpret it. The quote is from before Avowed was being worked on and the meaning of the quote might not be any deeper than "what if we do a first person game in Eora setting".

The roumors had it that originally Avowed was more coop focues, but that direction was scrapped midway through development, and the game switched gears to become a more traditional singleplayer Obsidian game.

So far what interviews highlighted to me that a special "Avowed" feature, is allowing less player agency than what I have come to expect from Obsidian - companions are mandatory, and our role quite strictly defined. Allegiedly, that allows to integrated companions better into the story, as one doesn't have to account for them not being with the player (or dead). However, I would think that if they pulled something extrodenary, they would try to showcase it, which I don't think have been the case so far.

Eh, we will see. I am hoping for the best, expecting the worst. Let's just say, that Microsoft's track record hasn't been great.

PS: Also: “Skins” for companions? I assume than, that there will be very little systemic depth to them. No inventory at least, it seems. 

Edited November 15 by Wormerine

[MrBrown]

13 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Also pretty pricey - at £60 I am having some serious expectations. Also, £20 extra for some skins and playing "5 days earlier".

Don't forget 5$ more total if you want to upgrade to the deluxe edition, instead of buying it first.

EDIT: looks like they removed the upgrade option, but it was there previously. Maybe someone noticed the math doesn't match. Or that they'd run afoul of laws somewhere with that.

Edited Friday at 01:46 PM by MrBrown

[Hurlshort]

Avowed is Skyrim with muskets. 

Honestly I'm not worried. It will probably share a lot with Outer Worlds. Art style, writing, etc. But we spend too much time trying to put things in boxes.

[Wormerine]

9 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Honestly I'm not worried. It will probably share a lot with Outer Worlds. Art style, writing, etc. But we spend too much time trying to put things in boxes.

I think it is more about scale of the title, than the design.

But yes, in principle, I have no issue with a game abandoning expected features in pursuit of something new. In fact, I did like more unusual Obsidian games (like Alpha protocol). However, I am still waiting to see what makes Avowed tick.

As I keep mouling over Avowed popping on Battlenet - it might be an attept to give the game more spotlight. Sure as heck it is easier to notice on Battlenet, than on a busy platform like Steam.

Edited Saturday at 12:00 AM by Wormerine

[Sven_]

15 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Avowed is Skyrim with muskets. 

Honestly I'm not worried. It will probably share a lot with Outer Worlds. Art style, writing, etc. But we spend too much time trying to put things in boxes.

It's not about trying to put things into boxes.


It's getting sold people on an exciting idea. So far, the only people I'd guess to be at least some invested in this would be Obsidian regulars and like the two blokes who played Deadfire (like @Wormerine and me).   And even us, we don't know actually why.  

Compare this to Warhorse, who are really pushing what's actually unique about KCD II  -- or Larian last term promoting the (very D&D) idea of a game where (almost) anything would be possible. Or heck, anything! It's almost as if Obsidian are still wondering themselves at this point. Given that the game was supposed to come out this month already, that'd be curious.

Edited Saturday at 05:56 AM by Sven_

[Lexx]

The way I see it, nobody really cares about Avowed. Not sure if it's marketing failure or if nobody has any trust in it. Even me... I guess will check it out, but am I really hot on it? Nah, not so much.

Also, it will just not compete with Skyrim. Forget it. The reason why Skyrim is still as popular as it is ... is because of it's modding community. Avowed runs on UE(?), so forget about that right away. People will play it once and then that's it. Same deal as with Outer Worlds. Nobody is talking about that one anymore now either.

[melkathi]

UE isn't the best choice, it's Spacer's Choice.

[Hurlshort]

The Outer Worlds seems to have done pretty well for itself. It surpassed expectations. It will get a sequel. It was well-reviewed. I understand that Avowed has higher sales expectations, but I doubt the expectation is Skyrim. I was just making a joke, since Fallout 3 was always referred to as Skyrim with guns. 

Heck, Starfield didn't hit Skyrim levels, and that includes tons of modding stuff. It seems like an unrealistic expectation. I just hope it sells well and tells a great story. It's hard to judge that pre-release. The Outer Worlds certainly didn't have a ton of buzz before release, but it came out and surprised people.

[Lexx]

Of course you'll need a game base first that players want to make mods for. That's the bare minimum you have to do.

Actually Outer Worlds had a huge hype on release. Everyone was expecting FNV in space and it got a big amount of positive/hype reviews from "professional" reviewers.

[uuuhhii]

remember when it is released people complain outer world are far too cartoonish stupid absurd and lack subtlety

last few year prove it is not

Edited Saturday at 04:41 PM by uuuhhii

[melkathi]

Starfield just seems so bland. I don't even feel any energy to try it.

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

The Outer Worlds certainly didn't have a ton of buzz before release, but it came out and surprised people.

Eh, I am curious how OW2 will do. My impression was, that Bethesda's Fallout76 fiasco generated a lot of buzz for OW, and a lot of "Fallout In space, Bethesda killer etc." headlines, in spite of devs trying really, really hard to communicated that it is not on the scale of Fallout: New Vegas. The game did get a good critical reception, and it sold reasonably well. We will see if it was a one off, or if the audience returns for the sequel.

[Azdeus]

6 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

The Outer Worlds seems to have done pretty well for itself. It surpassed expectations. It will get a sequel. It was well-reviewed. I understand that Avowed has higher sales expectations, but I doubt the expectation is Skyrim. I was just making a joke, since Fallout 3 was always referred to as Skyrim with guns. 

Heck, Starfield didn't hit Skyrim levels, and that includes tons of modding stuff. It seems like an unrealistic expectation. I just hope it sells well and tells a great story. It's hard to judge that pre-release. The Outer Worlds certainly didn't have a ton of buzz before release, but it came out and surprised people.

Fallout 3 was Oblivion with guns I'll have you know, or sometimes FINO

Starfield was both really, really bad as a game and as a modding platform from what I read, alot of modders said that it was too messy.