Game News Microsoft E3 2019 Press Conference: Cyberpunk 2077, The Outer Worlds, Wasteland 3

[Infinitron]

Tags: CD Projekt; Cyberpunk 2077; inXile Entertainment; Obsidian Entertainment; The Outer Worlds; Wasteland 3

With publishers increasingly opting out of full-scale press conferences in favor of more modest livestreams and Sony skipping out of the event entirely, Microsoft were left to dominate this year's E3 by default. With their recent acquisition of Obsidian and inXile, tonight's Microsoft press conference promised to be particularly relevant to Codex interests. In fact, The Outer Worlds was the very first game to appear, with a colorful but rather earnest anti-corporate trailer that also reveals that Dr. Phineas has been redesigned to look like less of a Rick and Morty ripoff. Wasteland 3 appeared later on with a light-hearted trailer featuring none other than Scotchmo from Wasteland 2, offering us an introduction to the wonders of post-apocalyptic Colorado and our first glimpse of real gameplay since the game was crowdfunded back in 2016.

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Those of you who find the tone of these trailers objectionable will be happy to know that the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer played it completely straight. Well, and then there's the part where Keanu Reeves showed up, because of course he did. It's a direct sequel to the 48 minute gameplay reveal from last August but with the male protagonist, who appears to have gotten a visual redesign. Things don't turn out so well for him, but Keanu makes everything better.

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Finally, there are release dates. The Outer Worlds is coming on October 25th and Cyberpunk 2077 is coming next year on April 16th, with the latter game now available for preorder as well. The Wasteland 3 trailer doesn't announce a release date, but it too has a new release window. More on that later.

 

[himmy]

CDProjekt Red is striking gold with this. Big name celebs in video games tend to get mixed reactions, but they went for one of the most universally liked actors working in Hollywood, so few people can fault them for that. They also seem to have placed him in a role that actually fits, rather than just having him as a cameo.

 

[deuxhero]

I missed who exactly Keanu Reaves was voicing in Cyberpunk. Remind me.

 

[Cross]

CDProjekt Red is striking gold with this. Big name celebs in video games tend to get mixed reactions, but they went for one of the most universally liked actors working in Hollywood, so few people can fault them for that. They also seem to have placed him in a role that actually fits, rather than just having him as a cameo.

They're learning from the masters:

Spoiler

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Meh, the Keanu Reeves cameo is pretty stupid, but other than that, the Cyberpunk trailer looks very cool. Doesn't tell us anything about the actual gameplay, but as far as cinematics go, CDProjekt still got it.

Outer Worlds, on the other hand, definitely looks more budget (since it is). The thing I didn't like about it is the emphasis on the "Stranger". Maybe I am forgetting, but Fallout/Arcanum/etc never emphasized your character much. I mean, yeah, you were the "Chosen one" in Fallout 2, but that was like village level bullshit, out in the world, nobody gave 2 shits about you. You were just some poor asshole stuck in the middle of big things. The emphasis on your character is more on the Bethesda/Bioware side of the retardation demarcation. I hope they tone it down a bit.

 

[Gwendo]

I hope they don't spoil Wasteland 3 by using too much weird humor. I don't like this almost parody vibe.

Cyberpunk reinforced its position in my "must have" games, as number one. The Outer Worlds is not convincing me very much. It seems it will be very similar to Bethesda's Fallout games, buy with wackier humor.

12 Minutes and Dead Light 2 are other games that sparked my attention. The fist seems interesting and intense, the second is a sequel to a game I liked very much, although I'm not getting a very good feeling from this one. It seems more juvenile. Blues on one side, reds on another. I guess they ditched the survival aspect of the game.

 

[DoomIhlVaria]

All three trailers struck me as obnoxiously juvenile. Am I getting too old for this shit?

 

[Elhoim]

I missed who exactly Keanu Reaves was voicing in Cyberpunk. Remind me.

Johnny Silverhand.

 

[Wunderbar]

I missed who exactly Keanu Reaves was voicing in Cyberpunk. Remind me.

Johnny Silverhand.

his brain chip holds 80 gb of data.

 

[luj1]

CDProjekt Red is striking gold with this. Big name celebs in video games tend to get mixed reactions, but they went for one of the most universally liked actors working in Hollywood, so few people can fault them for that. They also seem to have placed him in a role that actually fits, rather than just having him as a cameo.

Yeah, no shit. They are doing the right things to maximize profit. Whoop-de-doo.

Amazing we now have people praising business strategies targeted at them.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Isn't the Outer Worlds a console exclusive or something. I seem to remember a brouhaha a few months ago.

 

[underground nymph]

Cyberpunk trailer was good until Keanu. Who the fuck needs these celeb shits in games nowadays? Ah, the teenagers.
Wasteland 3 is probably going to be a poor written buggy shit.
OW - just meh.

 

[Paul_cz]

Keanu and Mads are my favourite actors working right now and both are getting big game roles, good news for me.

 

[Zed]

Keanu for the god damn win. Cyberpunk securing the top of the hype charts. They've already showed off an hour of gameplay so a cool cinematic trailer was the right move. Marketing-wise the strongest move throughout E3.

WL3 trailer sucks ass. Why is inxile going for whimsical humor? They should hire someone funny first. Who does this appeal to? Not CRPG fans and not the mainstream rick n morty idiot audience. No wonder it was thrown in as a quick filler.
Inxile will probably be culled first when Microsoft starts noticing a recession after all their buyouts in a year or two.

It's impressive that Obsidian managed to implement Bethesda-level animations and physics in a non-gamebryo game. I'm not liking anything that I'm seeing from this game. But even if nothing appeals to me aesthetically it can still turn out to be a fun game, of course. Time will tell but I'm not gonna stand in line to find out.

 

[Keye_]

Isn't the Outer Worlds a console exclusive or something. I seem to remember a brouhaha a few months ago.

https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/20/18274456/epic-games-store-exclusives-outer-worlds-control

 

[Tigranes]

Keanu Reeves, whatever. Since when did a Hollywood cameo, even a thematically appropriate one, mean anything for a video game's quality?

In terms of the trailers, Cyberpunk looks proper AAA, and of course CDProjekt is the only one of three that's ever proven their ability to deliver an RPG blockbuster.

I actually thought Obsidian's trailer itself was well done (even fitting in the good old C&C slogans), but the visual design is still garish and the game itself still a step (or three) below blockbuster (e.g. animations), and the trailer can't really hide that.

WL3's is the least impressive, but then, especially from the perspective of wowing the E3 crowd, WL3 the game is also the least impressive. They don't really have a whole lot to work with there.

 

[CyberWhale]

It's impressive that Obsidian managed to implement Bethesda-level animations and physics in a non-gamebryo game. I'm not liking anything that I'm seeing from this game. But even if nothing appeals to me aesthetically it can still turn out to be a fun game, of course. Time will tell but I'm not gonna stand in line to find out.

Just one more proof that what a portion of us was saying all along is true - developers like to take a dump on gamebryo (which is far from perfect, but good enough for its purpose) to hide their own inadequacies. Obsidian had laughable animations in Unreal Engine games like Alpha Protocol as well, and game quality aside - Fallout 4 does look magnitudes better than The Outer Worlds despite being developed on a refined Gamebryo instead of Unreal.

Static vegetation in one of those combat scenes looked downright embarrassing - as if I was watching a Fallout: New Vegas expansion trailer. And that game didn't look cutting edge even when it was announced almost 10 years ago.

 

[Davaris]

All three trailers struck me as obnoxiously juvenile. Am I getting too old for this shit?

Nah... If you've outgrown the AAA industry, its time to move up .

http://www.roguelikeradio.com/

WL3 trailer sucks ass. Why is inxile going for whimsical humor? They should hire someone funny first. Who does this appeal to? Not CRPG fans and not the mainstream rick n morty idiot audience. No wonder it was thrown in as a quick filler.
Inxile will probably be culled first when Microsoft starts noticing a recession after all their buyouts in a year or two.

It fits with 1950s kistch. The daggy part of the 1950s that makes people cringe. They did the same with F3.

 

[Fenix]

All three trailers struck me as obnoxiously juvenile. Am I getting too old for this shit?

Nope, it's this media shit that gradually get juvenile every day.

 

[Fenix]

Wasteland 3 trailer -

Obsidian's The Outer Worlds - that animal looked like something from some channel for kids. All these negroes and women around.... reducer\shrinker like Duke Nukem had back then! yay! (actually no).

Cyberpunk - I like Kianu, but such marketing moves have no power over me. Also didn't follow it, so my question to the experts: I have read somewhere in comments, that combat there is like that - you can shoot foot or head, there is no difference, IS THAT TRUE?
IS THAT TRUE?

 

[aris]

My problem with the gameplay I've seen of cyperpunk so far, is that it doesn't seem to know if it wants be to Deus Ex Human Revolution, Max Paine or GTA in terms of its gameplay, and it doesn't know if it wants to be sunny San Andreas or dystopian blade runner in terms of its art direction. I have very few hopes for this game.

The most promising one looks to be The outer worlds.

 

[Roguey]

Fargo's going all-out with the damage control.

Looking pretty low-budget, that's our inXile.

 

[LESS T_T]

I wonder when they gonna announce Wasteland: Frostpoint. It's supposed to come out this year. Maybe at Tokyo Game Show, since the publisher is Japanese?

 

[hexer]

Ummmm... what?

 

[Azalin]

Cyberpunk Keanu trailer 4.377 million view so far,Outer Worlds 206k,Wasteland 3 4,817 views,lol.Good thing Fargo sold the company when he did because it looks like that thing is going to be DOA