The Outer Worlds Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[McPlusle]

You can't make a game like Arcanum if you have a big budget.

I don't know if that's entirely true. He probably could if it was his own budget. The problems arise when publishers, investors, venture capitalists, and other suits come in to fuck things up.

 

[Quillon]

Feargus & Brian Fargo are more excited than the "creative guys" ffs

What could possibly be the explanation for that? :thonk:

They should have been paid their dolla bills already, this is about getting excited for new games their studios are gonna make. Tho they could be excited for future royalties, anyway not the point.

 

[Vulpes]

Are the developers over at Obsidian creationists? It would certainly explain why their RPG formula hasn't evolved one bit since New Vegas

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Also, more from Playstation Access

It’s kind of sad that “10 Reasons Fallout Fans Will Love Outer Worlds” basically only means Fallout 3/4.

I worked with a guy awhile ago who said his favorite game was Fallout. I started talking about it and he “Oh yeah, I’ve only played 3 and 4.” And he played them on console.

Remember 2008 and when people were saying that Bethesda Fallouts will boost visibility of original Fallouts? Those people really existed. And I am upset just by remembering them.

 

[DalekFlay]

Are the developers over at Obsidian creationists? It would certainly explain why their RPG formula hasn't evolved one bit since New Vegas

Doesn't have to.

 

[jf8350143]

Jesus guys, they don't want a huge budget because the more money you spend on a game, the larger your audience needs to be. It's a Faustian bargain.

They are already making an action RPG, nothing wrong with making it with better production values and inviting more people at this point.

Goodbye stats, goodbye unvoiced protagonist, goodbye massively branching storyline. Hello Grand Theft Auto in space.

Yeah and BG3 will be action RPG right?

CP77 doesn't seem to lost anything RPG-wise compared to the Witchers, in fact gained more with custom character.

If TOW would be a big thing in the future, only unvoiced protag among those would be in danger imo.

Nothing indicates BG 3 will be a big budget AAA title. It will be most likely a AA title just like Outer Worlds. They are doing the publish themselves, when did that ever happen to a AAA titles?

And Witcher 3 has already lost half of the RPG elements when comparing to Witcher 2 and 1.

Even the dialogue option they show in CP 2077 is pretty weak.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Nothing indicates BG 3 will be a big budget AAA title

except for the number of people working on it I guess

 

[Quillon]

Nothing indicates BG 3 will be a big budget AAA title. It will be most likely a AA title just like Outer Worlds. They are doing the publish themselves, when did that ever happen to a AAA titles?

And Witcher 3 has already lost half of the RPG elements when comparing to Witcher 2 and 1.

Even the dialogue option they show in CP 2077 is pretty weak.

300 devs are working on BG3, its AAA alright. I was pointing out that "BG3 will be akshun arpeegee fo'sho" codex behavior, while nothing indicating towards it other than the game being AAA.

What did Witcher 3 lost other than the big branch in the middle of the story? And maybe alchemy system that I only used once to defeat the kraken(kayran?). They are pretty much the same games, one is bigger.

Can't judge CP's dialogue atm but custom character + possible pacifist playthrough means there'll be a lot of flexibility in between, incline as fuck.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Jesus guys, they don't want a huge budget because the more money you spend on a game, the larger your audience needs to be. It's a Faustian bargain.

They are already making an action RPG, nothing wrong with making it with better production values and inviting more people at this point.

Goodbye stats, goodbye unvoiced protagonist, goodbye massively branching storyline. Hello Grand Theft Auto in space.

Yeah and BG3 will be action RPG right?

CP77 doesn't seem to lost anything RPG-wise compared to the Witchers, in fact gained more with custom character.

If TOW would be a big thing in the future, only unvoiced protag among those would be in danger imo.

I mean, I’d bet good money BG3 will be an ARPG or something like DA:I that’s RTwP but feels like an ARPG. Of course, I’d love to be wrong.

I don’t know why anyone would bring up CDPR as an example of how RPG devs don’t need to water down their games to appeal to a mass audience. TW3 had an engaging story and some fun characters, but beyond that it was like every other open world action game. In fairness, CDPR has always been chasing a more casual audience.

Maybe Cyberpunk will end up having more RPG elements—it seems like things are still in flux—but Leonard explicitly said he doesn’t want to make their kind of game.

And why would he? It’s not his kind of game. The casual audience really dislikes being locked out of content. That means if he’s going to make a much bigger budget TOW2, he’ll need to eliminate much of the branching, the C&C and the reactivity. Which is the whole point of a Cainarsky game.

He’d also need to change the ratio of dialogue to killing people. The bigger the popamole RPG, the more time you spend in combat.

It’s the worst kind of hopeless optimism to pretend that market forces don’t exist. Sure, maybe there’s an executive at Microsoft who loves OG Fallout and wants to give Tim & Leonard $50 million to make whatever the hell they want. I guess it’s possible, but it seems pretty unlikely.

 

[Quillon]

The casual audience really dislikes being locked out of content. That means if he’s going to make a much bigger budget TOW2, he’ll need to eliminate much of the branching, the C&C and the reactivity. Which is the whole point of a Cainarsky game.

I've never seen any player, casual or hardcore, disliking branching paths, they may not look for it specifically but they don't dislike it. Don't put the blame on players for developers' laziness.

It’s the worst kind of hopeless optimism to pretend that market forces don’t exist. Sure, maybe there’s an executive at Microsoft who loves OG Fallout and wants to give Tim & Leonard $50 million to make whatever the hell they want. I guess it’s possible, but it seems pretty unlikely.

Thing is we can tell if its going the wrong way during development in such cases, people would quit jobs etc. all that drama. f.i. they wouldn't put Tim & Leo leading TOW2 to begin with, thinking they will cave in with the outside influence and make a 20% rpg/80% shooter game.

Right now there is this optimism around MS with gamepass; they want it to succeed and they wanna look good by letting the devs unleash their creativity and whatnot. Devs should be smart about it and use it before things go south, whenever that will be.

 

[Tigranes]

There are players who dislike branching paths - people who complain that they can only play the game once because reasons, and they want to see all the content, and the very thought of missing out makes them break out with brain measles. It is a retarded idea, and who knows whether this is 0.1% or 10% of the market, but it's out there.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Remember 2008 and when people were saying that Bethesda Fallouts will boost visibility of original Fallouts? Those people really existed. And I am upset just by remembering them.

I remember a lot about that period, especially the talk that "Fallout needed to change because it was too old fashioned", "Fallout is finally good thanks to Bethesda" and of course the insults that original Fallout fans lived in the past.

Of course I brought some of that up again when Fallout 76 was announced and the Fallout 3 and 4 fans were less than pleased.

 

[undecaf]

What a rotten fate that series has.

 

[fantadomat]

Remember 2008 and when people were saying that Bethesda Fallouts will boost visibility of original Fallouts? Those people really existed. And I am upset just by remembering them.

I remember a lot about that period, especially the talk that "Fallout needed to change because it was too old fashioned", "Fallout is finally good thanks to Bethesda" and of course the insults that original Fallout fans lived in the past.

Of course I brought some of that up again when Fallout 76 was announced and the Fallout 3 and 4 fans were less than pleased.

Ah,to be honest here it did boost the viability of the old ones. Some people bought them and a few of them even like them .

 

[Roguey]

Laney's still seething over Boyarsky with her private account. A reply to her from a comrade:

that's their pitch tho, it's a bunch of "yeah capitalism am i right" and then "hey check out our ugly stick"

"Ree, you should be lecturing the player instead of encouraging them to have goofy, apolitical fun. "

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

What? The SJWs are now jumping on this title now that it is getting public attention?
Actually missed out om that one until now but it is not surprising seeing as they also went for Cyberpunk 2077.

I can't wait until this trend finally dies down.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Game*Spark has an interview with Dan McPhee about The Outer Worlds!

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/the-outer-worlds/builds-best-guide

Here’s how The Outer Worlds adds to Fallout: New Vegas’s character builds
Obsidian is the link between the two sci-fi RPGs, and it shows

Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming RPG, The Outer Worlds, is getting a lot of attention for its apparent similarities to Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Its dialogue screens are nearly identical, it’s got its own version of VATS, and you can choose whether to play as a hero, villain, or psychopath. However, one element of the modern Fallout games that’s always been lacking is build diversity, and The Outer Worlds looks set to address that in a big way.

Sure, you’ve always been able to tailor your Fallout builds so that you’re proficient in a specific form of combat, or better at speech, hacking, or lockpicking, but these don’t fundamentally alter the way you complete missions. Try and complete a pacifist run of Fallout 3 or Fallout 4 and you’ll need to break the game, or run through tricky sections while spamming stimpaks, in order to progress through the main quest.

It’s no coincidence that Fallout: New Vegas – also developed by Obsidian – offers the most choice in terms of how you tackle missions and create your character. Roughly 30% of the team working on The Outer Worlds also worked on New Vegas, and that commitment to diverse character builds is clearly visible in the E3 2019 gameplay demo.

We start in Fallbrook, the only town on the planet of Monarch capable of shipping in goods from other planets in the system, thanks to a gang of smugglers at the Sublight Salvage and Shipping Corporation. The company is run by Catherine Malin, one of the few people in Fallbrook willing to give work to an outsider like us. We need to convince her we’re reliable, though, which prompts a variety of dialogue options to flood the screen. She’s tough, so we’d need to be very strong to intimidate her into giving us a job. Instead, we roll out the old PCGamesN charm.

The mission is simple enough: there’s a meat factory nearby that’s making a lot of money, and Catherine wants it. How you go about the task – and indeed if you even want her to end up with the factory – is up to you. We’re told that you can blast right through the front gates, acquire a disguise to simply walk in, or look for a hidden entrance and sneak in undetected. We decide on the last option and set off towards the factory.

At this point we learn more about our current build. Obsidian says it is developing a new type of character concept, one entirely based on leadership qualities rather than combat, stealth, or dialogue. The leadership build is about making your companions stronger – both in terms of dealing and taking damage – and benefiting from their skills in turn.



For example, one of our companions is a fast-talking field medic called Ellie. This means we get a few medic skills while she’s in our party, but also some speech skills – most notably, lying. Our other companion in the demo, Nyoka, is an alcoholic big game hunter, so our weapon skills and stealth abilities are buffed as a result.

En route to the factory we come across a group of marauders, which is an excellent excuse to test the leadership build in combat. We start things off with a headshot, before activating one of Nyoka’s combat abilities, in which she fires a barrage of bullets that instantly remove two enemies from the equation. By the time we’ve taken aim at another marauder and squeezed the trigger, it’s time to use one of Ellie’s abilities: she fans her six-shooter, wasting another target. It’s rare that an RPG has your companions do all the hard work, but the leadership build appears to allow just that, with the majority of damage dealt in this brief skirmish having come from Nyoka and Ellie.



Casing the meat factory, we find the promised hidden entrance through its sewers, and emerge among its pig stock. The gestation crates here don’t hold any normal hogs though, instead they contain ‘cystipigs’ – genetically mutated swine that grow meaty tumours, which drop off when they become too bloated and are turned into affordable meat products. Thanks to their sheer size, we’re able to hide behind these porcine behemoths to avoid detection by factory workers and patrolling robots.

Eventually, we make it to a control room where we can either hack a terminal to take control of the robots, or use the intercom to address the workers on the factory floor. We opt for the latter and are presented with a ‘dumb’ option, reflecting our build’s low intelligence. As in Fallout: New Vegas, if your character is sufficiently stupid you’ll occassionally encounter ‘dumb’ speech options, and in some cases won’t be able to respond with anything other than ‘hnnng’. Further down in the dialogue options we see a skill check for ‘lie’ with a little human icon next to it – this means that one of our companions (Ellie) has boosted our skill points for fibbing, allowing us to pass this check. Through this quirk of the leadership build, we convince the workers that their boss has just invited them all to dinner – a thought they all find repulsive, so they down tools and flee the area.



We sneak past the remaining robots to reach a terminal on the opposite side of the factory, but as we’re too dumb and our companions aren’t gifted hackers, we can’t use it to shut down the place down without alerting the owner.

Unfortunately that’s where our demo ends, but it’s clear that build diversity is returning from Fallout: New Vegas in a big way. Obsidian has already teased the notion that you’ll be able to complete the whole game without killing any NPCs – or, indeed, by killing every NPC – and the leadership build is another example of the studio’s focus on flexible gameplay.

The Outer Worlds release date is October 25. For everything else we know about the game so far, hit that link.

 

[McPlusle]

As in Fallout: New Vegas, if your character is sufficiently stupid you’ll occassionally encounter ‘dumb’ speech options, and in some cases won’t be able to respond with anything other than ‘hnnng’.

Yes, thank you New Vegas for inventing low-INT dialogue. For fuck's sake, you can't trust any of these people to have played the first two Fallouts, can you?

 

[Fedora Master]

They really decided to go with this ???Strange Woman??? as the poster ???Girl??? for their game, huh.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Roughly 30% of the team working on The Outer Worlds also worked on New Vegas, and that commitment to diverse character builds is clearly visible in the E3 2019 gameplay demo.

Is.. Is that true? 30% ? I always see people say that almost no one that worked in New Vegas is working in TOW...

 

[Quillon]

Game*Spark has an interview with Dan McPhee about The Outer Worlds!

They should have made that "need to eat/drink/sleep/perma-cNPC-death" into a separate "hardcore mode" instead of the hardest difficulty level :/

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Game*Spark has an interview with Dan McPhee about The Outer Worlds!

They should have made that "need to eat/drink/sleep/perma-cNPC-death" into a separate "hardcore mode" instead of the hardest difficulty level :/

put it on easy, scrub

 

[Quillon]

I don't wanna deal with having to eat-drink etc. which I didn't find fun in NV if I decide to experience the hardest combat.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Strange Woman

Tell me more