And while that is great and all, I eventually want Obsidian to make their own IPs in the future, or at least have a healthy weight between own IPs and external IPs in their portfolio.

This game can work. Please no forced characters though. Thanks.

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I second it, no forced npcs.

Are they going to have the game say 'Game over man, game over!' when you die?

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Excellent!

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That would rock.

This game can work. Please no forced characters though. Thanks.

Tell that to the facehugger attached to your face...

Haha.

Wait a second.  Obsidian has D&D games under their belts.  They have a Star Wars game under their belts.  And they're starting/about to start on an Alien game.

 

This place is like my second childhood.

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You take the words out of my mouth.

This game can work. Please no forced characters though. Thanks.

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Tell that to the facehugger attached to your face...

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It's the chestbursters you have to worry about!

Avellone writing on the story? Interesting to see what kind of Sci-fi story he could cook up once he breaks off from the Fantasy trend.

This game can work. Please no forced characters though. Thanks.

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Tell that to the facehugger attached to your face...

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'

*is hyped up*

 

 

*goes to rent Alien quadriology DVDs*

josh is a history guy, so we hope he not get so involved in setting's history that he becomes a prisoner to it... 'cause from what we can tell from the alien movies and comics is that pretty much anything other than alien and aliens movies were kinda horrible.

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Of course, JE isn't writing the story from what I understand. Someone else handles that part (Brian Mitsoda?).

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Yes, Alien and Aliens are pretty much the only interesting reference material.

 

The rest was rampant commercial exploitation of a great original concept.

je is the Big Idea guy, and no doubt he gots a supervisory role as lead.

 

...

 

dunno, the alien/predator universe ain't all that compelling as far as we has seen and we would hate for josh to gets all History Guy 'bout the story and setting when the source material has been kinda forgettable save for movie 1 & movie 2.

 

nevertheless, you gots space marines with traditional projectile weapons and synthetic peoples and a broad range o' potential tech skills in addition to all the traditional social and sneaky options... so we see possibility for crpg fodder. even so, it it always scares us when a developer starts spouting off 'bout minutae of setting.

 

*shrug*

 

HA! Good Fun!

Recognizing the difference between space jockey and predator races is more than minutiae, I think.

 

I also think that minutiae is underrated; it can be teriffic when it's not presented overtly. E.g. I was recently re-watching The Name of the Rose. There are a number of "details" in the film which add to the experience for those who care and take nothing away for those who don't.

 

The Benedictines, Franciscans, and the Dominican all wear robes that are appropriate for their orders. When Salvatore speaks his "all languages and none", he really is using understandable fragments of French, German, Latin, and Italian that form coherent phrases. Bernardo Gui is accompanied by secular soldiers who help carry out the torture and executions. When William and Adso are in the Aedificium, William comments that one of the books was annotated by Umberto of Bologna.

 

All of these details have importance and meaning to those familiar with Medieval and Early Modern history, but the main plot is explained so plainly that none of those details are required to understand what's happening. Similarly, the observance of helpful details in a franchise like Aliens can help excite the superfans as long as those details do not bog down, harm, or otherwise make the content annoying for casual fans or first-timers.

So, is the predator or a "synthetic human" playable PC options?

Predators won't be in our game. Our game only covers the Alien(s) license.

Recognizing the difference between space jockey and predator races is more than minutiae, I think.

 

I also think that minutiae is underrated; it can be teriffic when it's not presented overtly.  E.g. I was recently re-watching The Name of the Rose.  There are a number of "details" in the film which add to the experience for those who care and take nothing away for those who don't.

 

The Benedictines, Franciscans, and the Dominican all wear robes that are appropriate for their orders.  When Salvatore speaks his "all languages and none", he really is using understandable fragments of French, German, Latin, and Italian that form coherent phrases.  Bernardo Gui is accompanied by secular soldiers who help carry out the torture and executions.  When William and Adso are in the Aedificium, William comments that one of the books was annotated by Umberto of Bologna.

 

All of these details have importance and meaning to those familiar with Medieval and Early Modern history, but the main plot is explained so plainly that none of those details are required to understand what's happening.  Similarly, the observance of helpful details in a franchise like Aliens can help excite the superfans as long as those details do not bog down, harm, or otherwise make the content annoying for casual fans or first-timers.

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I love minutiae, just not when it's forced down your throat. If a game (or whatever else) compels you to the point of looking up more details on its setting/world/etc, then having that information available to access is very appreciated. But assuming that everyone cares about it is a big no-no.

Recognizing the difference between space jockey and predator races is more than minutiae, I think.

 

I also think that minutiae is underrated; it can be teriffic when it's not presented overtly.  E.g. I was recently re-watching The Name of the Rose.  There are a number of "details" in the film which add to the experience for those who care and take nothing away for those who don't.

 

The Benedictines, Franciscans, and the Dominican all wear robes that are appropriate for their orders.  When Salvatore speaks his "all languages and none", he really is using understandable fragments of French, German, Latin, and Italian that form coherent phrases.  Bernardo Gui is accompanied by secular soldiers who help carry out the torture and executions.  When William and Adso are in the Aedificium, William comments that one of the books was annotated by Umberto of Bologna.

 

All of these details have importance and meaning to those familiar with Medieval and Early Modern history, but the main plot is explained so plainly that none of those details are required to understand what's happening.  Similarly, the observance of helpful details in a franchise like Aliens can help excite the superfans as long as those details do not bog down, harm, or otherwise make the content annoying for casual fans or first-timers.

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I couldn't agree more with this.

 

Details are often essential components of the whole, just as each dot in a pointillistic painting contributes to the overall greatness of the piece.

 

What I think is even more important is consistency and coherence. That's something Sci-Fi does very well. The idea is to build models (in the scientific sense) that make sense.

 

In the first movie, for instance, set designers were keen on explaining and rationalizing the function of each piece of decor and each prop.

That's a level of attention that makes a huge difference.

 

Video games often feel like silos.

In some of them, you are supposed to shoot lights in order to benefit from darkness, but you cannot pick up a weapon an enemy drops.

In others, you can pick up any number of weapons and ammo dropped by enemies, but you can't shoot a light with a shotgun or even a rocket launcher.

 

In some games, you can perform some incredible acrobatics, but can't jump over a tiny box on the floor.

 

The list goes on and on and on...

 

Game worlds tend to be very incoherent/inconsistent, even when you cleverly eliminate invisible barriers.

 

I know this is very difficult to achieve, but trying already goes a long way...

Edited December 21, 200619 yr by The Pilot

Recognizing the difference between space jockey and predator races is more than minutiae, I think.

 

I also think that minutiae is underrated; it can be teriffic when it's not presented overtly.  E.g. I was recently re-watching The Name of the Rose.  There are a number of "details" in the film which add to the experience for those who care and take nothing away for those who don't.

 

The Benedictines, Franciscans, and the Dominican all wear robes that are appropriate for their orders.  When Salvatore speaks his "all languages and none", he really is using understandable fragments of French, German, Latin, and Italian that form coherent phrases.  Bernardo Gui is accompanied by secular soldiers who help carry out the torture and executions.  When William and Adso are in the Aedificium, William comments that one of the books was annotated by Umberto of Bologna.

 

All of these details have importance and meaning to those familiar with Medieval and Early Modern history, but the main plot is explained so plainly that none of those details are required to understand what's happening.  Similarly, the observance of helpful details in a franchise like Aliens can help excite the superfans as long as those details do not bog down, harm, or otherwise make the content annoying for casual fans or first-timers.

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I love minutiae, just not when it's forced down your throat. If a game (or whatever else) compels you to the point of looking up more details on its setting/world/etc, then having that information available to access is very appreciated. But assuming that everyone cares about it is a big no-no.

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Don't tell me you want another run-and-gun shooter or another hack-and-slash RPG!?

 

Unless you write your own books or play your own games, something will always be "forced down your throat". It's called creative freedom and an author's intent to have you envision a world they imagined.

 

If I expect anything from these new games, it's some guts.

I hope SEGA will be smart enough to recognize originality can be a smart business decision.

Otherwise, we will end up with derivative gameplay laced with pretty graphics.

So, is the predator or a "synthetic human" playable PC options?

I prefer the term "Artificial Person" myself.

Indeed.

Predators won't be in our game.  Our game only covers the Alien(s) license.

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Okay, so is the "artificial person" a playable PC option?

Recognizing the difference between space jockey and predator races is more than minutiae, I think.

 

I also think that minutiae is underrated; it can be teriffic when it's not presented overtly.  E.g. I was recently re-watching The Name of the Rose.  There are a number of "details" in the film which add to the experience for those who care and take nothing away for those who don't.

 

The Benedictines, Franciscans, and the Dominican all wear robes that are appropriate for their orders.  When Salvatore speaks his "all languages and none", he really is using understandable fragments of French, German, Latin, and Italian that form coherent phrases.  Bernardo Gui is accompanied by secular soldiers who help carry out the torture and executions.  When William and Adso are in the Aedificium, William comments that one of the books was annotated by Umberto of Bologna.

 

All of these details have importance and meaning to those familiar with Medieval and Early Modern history, but the main plot is explained so plainly that none of those details are required to understand what's happening.  Similarly, the observance of helpful details in a franchise like Aliens can help excite the superfans as long as those details do not bog down, harm, or otherwise make the content annoying for casual fans or first-timers.

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I love minutiae, just not when it's forced down your throat. If a game (or whatever else) compels you to the point of looking up more details on its setting/world/etc, then having that information available to access is very appreciated. But assuming that everyone cares about it is a big no-no.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't tell me you want another run-and-gun shooter or another hack-and-slash RPG!?

 

Unless you write your own books or play your own games, something will always be "forced down your throat". It's called creative freedom and an author's intent to have you envision a world they imagined.

Is Obsidian making a linear JRPG?

What a minute? "Forced down your throat?" Do we get infested with an Alien queen or is it a lousy drone?

"Similarly, the observance of helpful details in a franchise like Aliens can help excite the superfans as long as those details do not bog down, harm, or otherwise make the content annoying for casual fans or first-timers."

 

that is the rub. how much is too much?

 

and yeah, knowing space jockey actual name and spellings is not stuff known by people who has seen the alien movies... and we can't think of anybody that would bothers to use the "proper" names of the three non-human races from the alien universe in a casual conversation when talking 'bout aliens stuff. am not suggesting that simple use of "correct" names is a bad thing, but this is the kinda thing that we sees as symptomatic from the folks who gets a little too involved in a setting. is like those star trek fans who gets all worked up 'cause in the new star trek series they screwed up some minor detail 'bout andorians. who cares, other than the nutters? consciously alter story to makes the nutters feel better? mistake.

 

and please keeps in mind that as we pointed out already, ALIEN minutae ain't really same thing as rl historical minutae. bust your hump to get Alien's accuracy when the alien source material is pretty much crap is not really same as simply avoiding stirrups in Gladiator or somesuch... and josh's example makes us wonder if he sees difference.

 

...

 

yeah well, we didn't expect josh to heed our advice, and am not sure that he would recognize the problem in any event.

 

is our opinion that slavish devotion to aliens canon would be a mistake, but is simply an opinion.

 

HA! Good Fun!

I'm not convinced that having greater-than-normal attention paid to obscure and arcane knowledge about the setting poisons the game.

 

A complaint that Josh would try too hard to get some obscure fact about Aliens right seems just as absurd as a complaint that Star Trek didn't try hard enough to get the andorians correct. One shows a fixation on detail that is unreasonable, and the other shows an unwillingness to invest in a setting in the first place, or at least a belief that the setting isn't worth getting into. That Josh knows the formal names of Predators doesn't indicate that he's going to overdo it.

 

I certainly expect Sawyer to know what he's doing when he oversees an Alien game, and that entails getting intimately acquainted with the setting. Are we going to demand that of him and then recoil when he shows that he knows something relatively obscure and unimportant? It's not like he's going to come on the forums and spill everything important and central and relevant to the game, but that he bothered to dig into the material enough to know unimportant formal names and titles is in no way indicative of an approach to making the game that makes such things important. If anything, it shows that he's acquainted with those concepts that will best serve the game, because if he knows the arcana, he probably knows the important stuff pretty well too.