Game News Ubisoft E3 2016 Conference: South Park 2 looks surprisingly good, coming December 6th

[Infinitron]

Tags: South Park: The Fractured But Whole; Ubisoft

Remember South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Ubisoft's surprise in-house sequel to Obsidian's South Park: The Stick of Truth that was announced last year? You may be wondering why we never posted anything about it after that. That's because there was nothing to post - the project went into complete silence mode. Until today, that is, when it appeared in the middle of the otherwise predictable Ubisoft E3 press conference...and revealed itself to be a remarkably decent-looking turn-based RPG featuring tactical positioning and environmental interaction mechanics. No, really! Here's the entire South Park segment of the press conference:

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It's coming out this year, on December 6th. Dark horse candidate for RPGOTY 2016?

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Using farts to manipulate the turn order turns up to be the most innovative mechanic we will get from mainstream games.

 

[Roguey]

December 6th isn't a release date that inspires confidence especially considering they had to move to an entirely different engine within about two years or so.

 

[Bubbles]

December 6th isn't a release date that inspires confidence especially considering they had to move to an entirely different engine within about two years or so.

Planescape Torment didn't have a lot of dev time either, and it turned out well enough.

 

[Roguey]

Planescape Torment didn't have a lot of dev time either, and it turned out well enough.

They used someone else's engine.

 

[CRD]

First one was incredibly funny, day 1 on this.

 

[Bubbles]

Planescape Torment didn't have a lot of dev time either, and it turned out well enough.

They used someone else's engine.

From 2014:

Development on game engine Snowdrop started about five years ago, Cortes said, beforeThe Division was in development and before the specifications were known for either the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5524924/the-division-video-snowdrop-game-engine

Working with a proprietary in-house engine that has been in development since 2009 might not inherently be worse than using the Infinity Engine.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Last game was the first time I liked South Park in ages and felt like the true sequel to the movie. Still, like most things South Park, I probably would have liked it way more had it been released a decade ago.

 

[Roguey]

Working with a proprietary in-house engine that has been in development since 2009 might not inherently be worse than using the Infinity Engine.

They still have to make all the RPG tools stuff from scratch. Onyx was a finished engine with all the tools for making RPGs, still took over three years for them to make Stick of Truth.

 

[Bubbles]

They still have to make all the RPG tools stuff from scratch. Onyx was a finished engine with all the tools for making RPGs, still took over three years for them to make Stick of Truth.

 

[Roguey]

All right, but this brand new team still has to make a game even more complex and longer than Stick of Truth in less time than it took Obsidian to make theirs with no same-engine advantages that sequels typically have.

 

[Average Manatee]

Wasn't a sizable part of Stick of Truth's development period drawn out because Matt and Trey hadn't really gotten used to writing for games, forcing lots of cut content and wasted time? I expect now that they freshly understand everything from the beginning and have honed their skills that they'll have a much better time for round 2.

In any case this is a 2D (ish?), fairly linear jRPG with already-developed world and characters, and with fairly simplistic mechanics. I don't think 2 years is unreasonably short for the dev time.

 

[Rivmusique]

Looks alright, will probably play it. PC Principle's in, can't wait for reviews.

 

[Forest Dweller]

The Coon(e)

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Coon and Team t-shirts.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

I still don't get the title

Wait, the Fractured Butthole? D:

 

[J_C]

I still don't get the title

Wait, the Fractured Butthole? D:

Now that wasn't that hard, was it? :D

 

[Trash]

Is a group of faceless inhouse Ubisoft developers going to outdo Codex darling Obsidian in making an rpg? Will they be able to hold a deadline? Will QA be actually involved? We'll see at december 6th.

 

[Average Manatee]

By my understanding it was more like Obsidian guiding Matt and Trey in making an RPG really, with Obsidian handling all of the technical details and otherwise being in an advisory role for them. When you look at Obsidian games, you generally think good writing, good story interactivity, well thought out atmosphere and setting, and so on, but for Stick of Truth those either weren't present or were done by Matt and Trey anyway.

 

[DeepOcean]

Wasn't Trey and Parker idea to make an RPG akin to Paper Mario? I remember hearing that on an interview.

 

[Ringhausen]

It was originally supposed to be Skyrim in South Park.

 

[HoboForEternity]

the grid system remind me of radiant historia, which is one of the better JRPG i've played

or maybe HoMM-like, but toned down

 

[Zarniwoop]

Might just this one.

Yes the first one wasn't exactly super deep but the writing alone made it worth it.

 

[Fry]

Codex darling Obsidian

I don't think we're reading the same Codex.

 

[Grotesque]

but not with Obsidian!