Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming November 12th(?)

[Lemming42]

"Romances" in games are always weird as fuck because they're necessarily abstracted to the point of absurdity. Even for people who end up having an interest in the romantic lives of game characters, fanfiction seems like an obviously better vehicle to explore it given that A) you can pick any characters you want and B) you can actually write at length about what the characters are thinking and feeling, instead of having voice actors read out four lines of cringey dialogue that advance the relationship from "strangers who just met" to "soulmates" over the course of eighteen seconds.

Their other fatal downfall of in-game romance arcs is that they must involve the player character, and player characters are almost always a complete void in these games. I don't believe anyone could fall in love with Commander Shepard, because s/he is an absolute fucking nobody, a dumb military jock with no clear values or personality or opinions about anything (aside from having ten favourite stores on the Citadel). Oh yeah I bet Ashley was really swept off her feet by my dumb noncommittal statements on everything and inane boardroom-style leadership talk. "I hear your concerns, Williams, but we need to work together as a team" yeah she's wetter than an otter's pocket now. I bet Garrus was head over heels for me after he heard me say "I should go" for the twenty sixth time in a row while looking for quests.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Most of Shadowheart's allure comes from her being a D&D goth girl - "goth" has lost all of its meaning and has become the default style for cock teasing girls. Also, it speaks volumes of modern obsidian that people prefer to talk about Larian and Bioware in a thread devoted to their upcoming game.

Ngl, if obsidian were closed for good , I wouldn't care much outside of Josh and the people behind Pentiment and Grounded. I wish them the best for real.

I was super fan of them until outer worlds. Nowadays, they're barely better than Bethesda and Bioware. Avowed going to flop and they might be closed by 2026, at best, because they can't make games that doesn't like were made in 2010.. The more I got learn of them and how their CEO is big piece of shit, the less I gave a fuck about them.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

I don't think this game has romances.

It's going to so funny to see people complain about it in a post-bg3 landscape. despite bg3 having less ''romance content'' than most RPGs.

I don't think you'll see them. Obsidian will eventually finish production of this game and release it, but that's all. Everyone will forget about it a week after the premiere. That's why there won't be a subreddit where weirdos masturbate to a character fifteen years after its release.

 

[ropetight]

you have not played da:i or me:a

ME:A wasted all the romance budget in one ass.

Spoiler

Thats a pretty good looking ass to be fair. Which character is that?

Cora, the wannabe asari commando.

Oh, the Ass Effect!

 

[Fedora Master]

Which will feature the more derivative gameplay and cringe inducing writing? This or Dragon Age Dread Wolf?

 

[Old Hans]

Which will feature the more derivative gameplay and cringe inducing writing? This or Dragon Age Dread Wolf?

I'm hedging my bets on Avowed. This game doesnt even look good enough to have an awsome button

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Obsidian being closed immediately is much less likely than them being turned into Fallout franchise servants. Cycles between releases are getting longer and longer -- and having multiple studios assigned to working on big IP is one logical destination for BFCs (Big Fucking Corporations). Call Of Duty-style.

 

[Lemming42]

It's pretty clear that they no longer have the people/talent necessary to pull of something approaching New Vegas quality so I wonder how that'd go. Avellone seemed to want them to become Elder Scrolls workhorses but Bethesda seem resistant to farming out their franchises in that way. They'll probably want to take extra care with Fallout now that it's suddenly hot property again.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Avowed going to flop and they might be closed by 2026

Not necessarily imo. Avoweds issues will be blamed on it not having enough budget and going through mismanaged development, TOW2 is still in the pipeline.
Microsoft can also do two things from there on with obsidian. They'll have a team that has experience with making something like a bethesda game for some time now(TOW people seemingly stuck around) and they have Bethesda's franchises. Either they'll work as a support studio for them or take over Fallouts. The second option is seeing if they can get BG3 kind of success and publicity with PoE3. I don't think they'll let them build up TOW, imo it was a one trick pony(do you really think second game in a row revolving around "corporate people be silly" will work?) and Avowed just has no chance imo. plus any kind of sequels starting production in 2026 will probably coincide with TES6.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Well yeah, I meant back when Bioware was good.

At some point, it's necessary to intervene and assist those Codexers suffering under the delusion that Bioware was ever good.

 

[scytheavatar]

They'll have a team that has experience with making something like a bethesda game for some time now(TOW people seemingly stuck around) and they have Bethesda's franchises. Either they'll work as a support studio for them or take over Fallouts. The second option is seeing if they can get BG3 kind of success and publicity with PoE3. I don't think they'll let them build up TOW, imo it was a one trick pony(do you really think second game in a row revolving around "corporate people be silly" will work?) and Avowed just has no chance imo. plus any kind of sequels starting production in 2026 will probably coincide with TES6.

You think Microsoft will have interest in making Fallout 5 a post apocalypse version of Avowed? Obsidian is a AA dev and doesn't possess the potential to scale up to being AAA. I think those hoping for Obsidian or Inxile to make Fallout 5 are out of touch with reality and with the demands of modern video game development, in reality if Microsoft really wants another studio to make a Fallout 5 their only option would be one of the COD studios. Although allowing them to make Fallout 5 brings out the question of how Microsoft can keep the COD game a year pipeline.

The second option is seeing if they can get BG3 kind of success and publicity with PoE3. I don't think they'll let them build up TOW

TOW is a bigger, more successful game than any of the POE games, why the freak would Microsoft kill TOW2 for more POE games? Makes zero sense.

If Avowed and TOW2 bombs, I imagine Microsoft will ask Obsidian to downscale and focus on making games like Pentiment and Grounded, which are some of Obsidian's most successful games ever.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I think those hoping for Obsidian or Inxile to make Fallout 5 are out of touch with reality and with the demands of modern video game development, in reality if Microsoft really wants another studio to make a Fallout 5 their only option would be one of the COD studios. Although allowing them to make Fallout 5 brings out the question of how Microsoft can keep the COD game a year pipeline.

Rather than handing off development of Fallout 5 to another studio, which would disappoint Bethesda Softworks while requiring that someone else further develop Bethesda's Gamebryo engine, Microsoft should look to Fallout: New Vegas for inspiration. InXile should have already been told to complete Clockwork Revolution before the end of this year, while given whatever resources are necessary to accomplish that, and then been instructed to create a Fallout: New New Orleans with the Fallout 4 game engine (or perhaps the later Starfield version of Bethesda's Gamebryo engine, or both), in a limited amount of time (no more than two years), so that it will be released well before The Elder Scrolls VI, much less Fallout 5.

 

[scytheavatar]

I think those hoping for Obsidian or Inxile to make Fallout 5 are out of touch with reality and with the demands of modern video game development, in reality if Microsoft really wants another studio to make a Fallout 5 their only option would be one of the COD studios. Although allowing them to make Fallout 5 brings out the question of how Microsoft can keep the COD game a year pipeline.

Rather than handing off development of Fallout 5 to another studio, which would disappoint Bethesda Softworks while requiring that someone else further develop Bethesda's Gamebryo engine, Microsoft should look to Fallout: New Vegas for inspiration. InXile should have already been told to complete Clockwork Revolution before the end of this year, while given whatever resources are necessary to accomplish that, and then been instructed to create a Fallout: New New Orleans with the Fallout 4 game engine (or perhaps the later Starfield version of Bethesda's Gamebryo engine, or both), in a limited amount of time (no more than two years), so that it will be released well before The Elder Scrolls VI, much less Fallout 5.

Even Fallout 4 is a massively bigger game than Fallout 3........ I am not sure if InXile has the ability to produce a Fallout 4 level game without exploding. Not to mention the silence on Clockwork Revolution makes me question how close the game is to getting released, if it is even coming out next year.

 

[Lemming42]

Even Fallout 4 is a massively bigger game than Fallout 3

Is that true? Fo3's landmass is slightly bigger iirc, and in terms of quantity of actual content such as quests and reactivity, Fo3 seems to have the edge. I suppose Fo4's weapon modding and settlement building stuff took some extra time and resources to develop but I wonder exactly how much, since they're done in the typically basic way that most new things Bethesda try are.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Obsidian being closed immediately is much less likely than them being turned into Fallout franchise servants. Cycles between releases are getting longer and longer -- and having multiple studios assigned to working on big IP is one logical destination for BFCs (Big Fucking Corporations). Call Of Duty-style.

Which, quite frankly, is the best we can hope for. They churned out F:NV in, what, less than 14 months? And it was one of their best games.

 

[scytheavatar]

Even Fallout 4 is a massively bigger game than Fallout 3

Is that true? Fo3's landmass is slightly bigger iirc, and in terms of quantity of actual content such as quests and reactivity, Fo3 seems to have the edge. I suppose Fo4's weapon modding and settlement building stuff took some extra time and resources to develop but I wonder exactly how much, since they're done in the typically basic way that most new things Bethesda try are.

The graphical level of Fallout 4 is beyond anything Inxile or Obsidian has ever created..... compare Fallout 4 to the graphics we see on Clockwork revolution. And like I said the silence on the game makes me question what state it currently is in and if it will actually end up being good.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Obsidian being closed immediately is much less likely than them being turned into Fallout franchise servants. Cycles between releases are getting longer and longer -- and having multiple studios assigned to working on big IP is one logical destination for BFCs (Big Fucking Corporations). Call Of Duty-style.

Which, quite frankly, is the best we can hope for. They churned out F:NV in, what, less than 14 months? And it was one of their best games.

Yeah, but how many years of experience with the setting was behind those 14 months? Successful projects are rarely something out of the blue.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

You think Microsoft will have interest in making Fallout 5 a post apocalypse version of Avowed? Obsidian is a AA dev and doesn't possess the potential to scale up to being AAA

Bethesda's tes/fallout team was also relatively small by AAA standards, iirc Obsidian right now is about the same size it's just that they're handling 3 projects at once. Also an intermediary option exists that it'll simply be a support studio for Beth. However who else does MS have? As someone said CoD devs, but they're needed to provide the steady stream of CoD money, on top of that you probably want people who made an RPG once somewhere in there. Like it or not Obsidian starting to rev up FO5 preproduction in a month or two from now is somewhat likely.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

It's pretty clear that they no longer have the people/talent necessary to pull of something approaching New Vegas quality so I wonder how that'd go. Avellone seemed to want them to become Elder Scrolls workhorses but Bethesda seem resistant to farming out their franchises in that way.

I'll think MS would intervene by now if they'd try again and handle that a little differently. Sure, Skyrim still brings in SOME money. But the buzz is off. Kids that were made when Skyrim was born are going to high school soon.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

You think Microsoft will have interest in making Fallout 5 a post apocalypse version of Avowed? Obsidian is a AA dev and doesn't possess the potential to scale up to being AAA

Bethesda's tes/fallout team was also relatively small by AAA standards, iirc Obsidian right now is about the same size it's just that they're handling 3 projects at once.

At first they were definitely intending Avowed to be some kind of Skyrim killer. They've just been walking back the expectations and downgrading the features and the scale with basically every new piece of information, until it finally got to a point that it all looks like AA level shovelware.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

At first they were definitely intending Avowed to be some kind of Skyrim killer

It's hard to say what they intended at first, I think it was still planned with the possible PD investment rather than Microsoft's backing, so the message it's a bit of marketing trickery - just like TOW pretended to be Beth game but competent while irl being much smaller in scope, so was Avowed. That being said I think we'll only know if, most likely Patel gets fired and decides to talk about it in a decade or two.

 

[Silverfish]

Which will feature the more derivative gameplay and cringe inducing writing? This or Dragon Age Dread Wolf?

Avowed will have more derivative gameplay (it'll be Skyrim with all the features removed just as Outer Worlds was for Fallout), but Dread Wolf will easily take the cringe writing crown.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I think "skyrim killer" first came from a leak by Chris Avellone. Something in the likes of Chris Parker getting to direct his own Skyrim.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Which will feature the more derivative gameplay and cringe inducing writing? This or Dragon Age Dread Wolf?

Avowed will have more derivative gameplay (it'll be Skyrim with all the features removed just as Outer Worlds was for Fallout), but Dread Wolf will easily take the cringe writing crown.

I mean, the game is called Dread Wolf. That already reeks of some furry chunni edgelord cringe.
"My character is a level 20 wolfman rogue named Dread who's a pretty cool guy and doesn't afraid of anything. He can teleport behind people and one shot them with his katana. Nothing Personal kid"

 

[Bulo]

Todd's comment convinced a lot of people that we will be seeing a "filler" (ugh) Fallout game in the near future. What makes you think he wasn't just talking about Fallout 76 expansions?