Game News KOTOR II for Christmas?

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Obsidian Entertainment; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords

<a href=http://pc.ign.com>IGN</a> <a href=http://pc.ign.com/articles/522/522882p1.html?fromint=1>reports</a> that we may see <b>The Sith Lords</b> before Feb 2005:
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<blockquote>Though BioWare is no longer part of the development process, we still have very high hopes for this 2005 title. Oddly enough, there have been some rumblings that the February 2005 release date might end up becoming a holiday 2004 date. LucasArts is mum about it, but we're hearing that it's a distinct possibility</blockquote>Quality vs Christmas sales. Hmm, tough choice. Also, a new planet called Dxun is introduced:
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<blockquote>Dxun is the largest moon in the Onderon system, with dense foliage and inclement weather. The beasts that stalk the jungle are some of the most vicious predators in the galaxy, and many explorers have vanished not long after touching down on the surface.
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The trails are nearly overgrown, but many craters and wreckage from the Mandalorian War lie buried in the jungles... as well as the corpses of thousands of soldiers who died during the Republic's final assault on Dxun.
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Dxun is a moon to Onderon, but they are almost sister planets, and they even share a bit of the same atmosphere. Travel between them is a short shuttle ride away. There have been rumors of Sith activity in the area recently, and it all seems to be centralized near some ancient structures deep within the jungle. This area is thought to be extremely dangerous. </blockquote>You can check the new screens and concept arts <a href=http://media.pc.ign.com/media/608/608569/imgs_1.html>here</a>
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[Voss]

Nice robes on that guy..


Hmm. hope Lucas Arts doesn't force Obsidian into pushing out an unpolished piece of crap early.
I also hope those frog things aren't everywhere.

Some nice droid builds though.

 

[Jora]

Akari says that the possible Christmas release wouldn't affect the quality of the game in any way

Just thought I would take a moment to weigh in on this before too much guessing gets out of hand. It is true that the release date of the game may be in flux. However, it has no impact on when we at Obsidian would have to be done with our part. Our deadline to turn the game in for final approval is the same either way. It's more of a matter of Lucas Arts getting their part done in time (music, voice overs, marketing, etc.), as well as a number of other factors that determine when they think it would be best to release the game.

So a change in the release date will not affect the time we have to work on the game on our end. Just so everyone knows.

-Akari

 

[Spazmo]

Ah, but does LucasArts' part of everything include QA?

 

[dagamer667]

Given that the game uses the same engine and doesn't seem to make any major changes to gameplay dynamics, I'm pretty sure they'll get it out in time to capitalize on holidays.

 

[Spazmo]

That's silly, though. Most bugs in an RPG will come from all the stuff that'll be unique to the sequel: dialogs, scripts, areas, etc. Remember that Tim Cain wanted six months in QA for ToEE, a relatively simplistic game in these terms. For one that's going to be as big and--hopefully--as complex as KOTOR2, you need some serious QA.

 

[Sol Invictus]

LucasArts has much better in-house QA than Atari ever did. There aren't too many buggy LucasArts games, from my experience.

 

[Volourn]

KOTRO had its share of bugs.. Buggiest BIo game for me to date, in fact...

 

[voodoo1man]

Though BioWare is no longer part of the development process, we still have very high hopes for this 2005 title.

Funny. I have very high hopes for KOTOR II because BioWare is no longer part of the development process.

 

[Voss]

Thats a nice quote, actually. Too bad it can just easily read as we don't have enough time to finish the game as it is, so an earlier release date won't matter'

 

[HanoverF]

It will suck no matter when it comes out, might as well tap into that Xmas sales boost

 

[suibhne]

KOTRO had its share of bugs.. Buggiest BIo game for me to date, in fact...

That's right, since you never played BG2.

I have an uncanny feeling we've talked about this before. If you'd like to refresh your memory, visit here. (And yes, most of those are actual bug-fixes rather than user enhancements.)

 

[Volourn]

No. KOTOR was buggier. Deal with it. Period.

 

[Anonymous]

Volourn and his magical computer strike again.

 

[Volourn]

Funny that consideirng it was a different computer that I played BG2 on. Kinda dampens that theory.

 

[Spazmo]

Allow me to put forwards a new theory: Volourn's computers aren't stupid. It's just Volourn who's stupid.

 

[Volourn]

That's your new theory? That isn't new. In fact, it's also a fact. It's a law. You are proving how dumb YOU are too by not knowing this obvious stuff.

 

[Jedi_Learner]

Thank you to the Obsidian apologist who gave me the link to this topic. So this topic is proof that Lucasarts made Obsidian Entertainment rush Knights of the Old Republic II?

But what about the Obsidian developer Jora quotes?

Just thought I would take a moment to weigh in on this before too much guessing gets out of hand. It is true that the release date of the game may be in flux. However, it has no impact on when we at Obsidian would have to be done with our part. Our deadline to turn the game in for final approval is the same either way. It's more of a matter of Lucas Arts getting their part done in time (music, voice overs, marketing, etc.), as well as a number of other factors that determine when they think it would be best to release the game.

So a change in the release date will not affect the time we have to work on the game on our end. Just so everyone knows.

-Akari

http://forums.obsidian.net/index.php?s=0db5b2ebab3303348fb7ac27e4330e51&showtopic=1380&pid=40844&mode=threaded&start=#entry40844

I'm calling you Obsidian fanboys out!

Stop blaming Lucasarts because Obsidian Entertainment were so fucking incompetent.

Next year you Obsidian fanboys will blame Bethesda for everything when Fallout: New Vegas comes out. Just watch.

 

[racofer]

I've already said this over nine thousand times, all in vain.

 

[Darth Roxor]

O SCHNAPPS

 

[bat_boro]

 

[MetalCraze]

Next year you Obsidian fanboys will blame Bethesda for everything when Fallout: New Vegas comes out. Just watch.

Watch what? They are already blaming Bethesda for making poor Obsidian do a game similar to F3 and forcing Obsidian to do it like Bethesda wishes in just a year while at the same time going like "oh it will be better than F3 for sure, because it is Obsidian".

 

[bat_boro]

Watch what? They are already blaming Bethesda for making poor Obsidian do a game similar to F3 and forcing Obsidian to do it like Bethesda wishes in just a year while at the same time going like "oh it will be better than F3 for sure, because it is Obsidian".

Well, that would be just stupid, because we actually don't have any clue about what the game would look like. The only thing we know is that it is based on the Fallout 3 engine (which is, again, not a bad thing, as there are a lot of games based on Gamebryo). I mean, it's not even an official sequel to Fallout 3, it's rather a spin-off game/series and thus it has a great potential to be something really, really special AND different. I mean, it sure is wise on Bethesda's part to offer Obsidian a contract, as they make quite different games from Beth and I really doubt if it really is any good from a bussiness point of view to have a game competing with their own series.

So, yeah, I think Obsidian have a great chance and all the freedom in the world to make a good game. They have a finished engine, an established world, although a great freedom with it to make whatever they want to, and some great writers on their team.

I don't think anyone with half a brain would actually blame Bethesda if Obsidian fuck up this time, because there is really NO excuse now.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm sure they've worked for some time on the game, let's say some 3-4 months. If we presume that the game is going to hit shelves November next year (as was the case with FO 3 if I remember right) that still means some 16-8 months development time. With should be enough to produce a good game, given the fact that you have a finished engine and some assets (eventually)

 

[MetalCraze]

Oh fanboys will blame Bethesda, you'll see. It's like blaming LucasArts for KotOR2 because they signed a contract for 12 months with Obsidian, yet fanboys still blame LA.

Also you are forgetting that Obsidian is incapable of making really good games and they will only rape Fallout franchise further as we can f.e. 100% expect the worst combat imaginable (I won't be surprised if it will be worse than the abomination of F3) and not too good writing.

 

[Silellak]

I don't suppose it occurred to people that there's a middle ground, where both Obsidian and Lucasarts share the blame?

Obsidian for both accepting such a short contract for game development and also for not keeping their ambitions in-check, knowing the limited development time.

Lucasarts for going forward with releasing the game despite knowing it needed a few more months of development time on Obsidian's end to properly finish and polish.

Imagine that? A logical middle ground between Obsidian haters and fanboys!