Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

yes plz

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,159
Pathfinder: Wrath
iirc, Alpha Protocol's development was finished a good six or so months before its release. Sega sat on it waiting for some mythical, golden release window to present itself, and supposedly the development team weren't allowed to do any major changes or additions during that period.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,411
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
When Black Isle dissolved, his experience in Midway was quite bad. He came back into relevance as a game dev when he came back into Feargus' fold. And come back he did, by heading FNV.

His first project at Obsidian was salvaging NWN2 OC.

But anyway Sawyer seems to be in a new stage in his career now. He's not working on this thread's game, and I'm not sure he's ever going to work on a hueg AAA game again. So it might not make as much sense to speak of him as the living embodiment of nu-Obsidian anymore.
 
Last edited:

Nano

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
4,816
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
iirc, Alpha Protocol's development was finished a good six or so months before its release. Sega sat on it waiting for some mythical, golden release window to present itself, and supposedly the development team weren't allowed to do any major changes or additions during that period.
AP's development stopped in late 2009. FNV was in development for half a year at that point.
 

Egosphere

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2018
Messages
1,926
Location
Hibernia
Mask of the Betrayer is better than Torment. You're 15 years late.

I'm not going to argue that Obsidian hasn't made some great games in it's run, as they have. Mask is definitely one of them. So is New Vegas.

My response has more to do with the realization as to what Obsidian has become now. A husk of it's former glory.

Husk of its former glory? That's BioWare.

But Obsidian, going from NWN2 OC in 2006 to Deadfire in 2018? From Dungeon Siege 3 in 2011 to The Outer Worlds in 2019? Eh...

There's been a certain decline and there's been a generational turnover of talent within the company (the loss of Chris Avellone alone was a huge blow), but "husk of its former glory" is too strong an expression. They were never that great in the first place and the culture war stuff is distorting everybody's view of it.
Kotor 2, Mask of the Betrayer and FNV are their standout games released in a six year period. That period ended 12 years ago.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,411
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
That's why I said there's been a decline, but now compare that to the company that made Baldur's Gate 2 tripping over their dicks for almost a decade making Mass Effect: Loldromeda and whatever the hell Anthem was.

Obsidian released a pretty complicated isometric RPG just a few years ago and then threw in a surprise turn-based mode post-launch. Like, that's pretty cool! It's not complete sellout husk territory, not yet.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,623
However, it does appear that, as a consequence of Alpha Protocol being a commercial flop but Fallout: New Vegas a considerable success, FU decided to sideline Chris Avellone on future game projects, while placing Obsidian's future in the hands of his new golden boy, Josh Sawyer, with predictable results.

There was an entire thread where Avellone made it clear that he sidelined himself. Feargus wanted nothing more for him to do than just write for their RPGs so they could use "Writing by Chris Avellone!" as a selling point (including lying to Paradox by telling them Tyranny was a Chris Avellone Project) but Chris couldn't deal with Feargus's "notes."
 

S.torch

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
1,099
Because of perception of history of most people.

It has nothing to do with perception.

People who gave birth to the fantasy genre had a profound knowledge of history and other obscure themes that escape the mind of the modern man and most modern "scholars".
But they were not writing historical narratives, and it was never their intention to do so. They were writing fantasy and their worlds are presented like so.

These tired remarks about how in this or that fantasy world should have this or that "historical" object, method or whatever, are nothing but inane pedantry that pretends to know much but in reality knows very little.

None of that "should" be in, because that's not the point of fantasy as a whole (and in some worlds it even wouldn't have any sense). Of course, there are many other genres like the already mentioned historical fiction, or even subgenres inside fantasy itself that can have these things, but it is not a necessity by any means in the fantasy where nothing of that is their proposition.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,623

Did we ever figure out whether this is an actual thing that exists?
Plan ahead during your initial start-up process. Though most business co-ownerships don't begin with intentions of breaking up, you simply cannot forecast what the future will bring to your partnership. Include a buyout plan and exit strategy in your business plan and ownership contracts so that both parties are clear on the requirements for dissolving your partnership.

Avellone came on as a junior partner, so I imagine the terms he signed in the contract were not favorable to him in this regard. They all voted him out and gave him his money for his share in the company.
 

FreeKaner

Prophet of the Dumpsterfire
Joined
Mar 28, 2015
Messages
6,941
Location
Devlet-i ʿAlīye-i ʿErdogānīye
It has nothing to do with perception.

People who gave birth to the fantasy genre had a profound knowledge of history and other obscure themes that escape the mind of the modern man and most modern "scholars".
But they were not writing historical narratives, and it was never their intention to do so. They were writing fantasy and their worlds are presented like so.

We are not talking about old fantasy settings, since they actually are appropriately done but modern interpretations of them or new settings and people's reaction to it. One of the two post-Tolkien fantasy settings, Warhammer, is a very well done fantasy setting that's also appropriately detailed and coherent. It also doesn't shy away from technology. Both logical and thematic coherence, as well as underlying thought-process basis (whether philosophical in nature or certain axioms) being applied clearly are important for fictional settings.

These tired remarks about how in this or that fantasy world should have this or that "historical" object, method or whatever, are nothing but inane pedantry that pretends to know much but in reality knows very little.

None of that "should" be in, because that's not the point of fantasy as a whole (and in some worlds it even wouldn't have any sense). Of course, there are many other genres like the already mentioned historical fiction, or even subgenres inside fantasy itself that can have these things, but it is not a necessity by any means in the fantasy where nothing of that is their proposition.

What "none" are you talking about? Speaking much, vaguely implying a bit and saying nothing. What's it that should not be in and why shouldn't it be in?
 

AwesomeButton

Proud owner of BG 3: Day of Swen's Tentacle
Patron
Joined
Nov 23, 2014
Messages
16,946
Location
At large
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Obsidian released a pretty complicated isometric RPG just a few years ago
Well pillars is almost a decade old
and then threw in a surprise turn-based mode post-launch
Oh, you're trolling.
The turn based mode was terribly implemented and pretty trash btw
He meant Deadfire, which is almost 7 4 y.o (how time flies), which is yes, more than a few years. The turn based mode isn't half as bad as D:OS' TB combat, thanks to the ruleset.
 
Last edited:

IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
1,870,519
Come on dude. Most video game companies don't release any good games at all. Old Obsidian had several, so what if there were some duds in the middle too?

Rough gem-era Obsidian: kotor 2, Mask of the Betrayer, Alpha Protocol, New Vegas

Polished turd-era Obsidian: Dungeon Siege III, South Park, Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Deadfire, The Outer Worlds, Grounded

Aside from TOW all of these have been enjoyable.
 

Nano

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
4,816
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
South Park isn't even an RPG. Why are people defending this game?
 

Flou

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
869
Location
Hellsinki
iirc, Alpha Protocol's development was finished a good six or so months before its release. Sega sat on it waiting for some mythical, golden release window to present itself, and supposedly the development team weren't allowed to do any major changes or additions during that period.

The official delay notice came in October and I believe the game was released in May. However I recall that the actual work on the game had stopped even before October and Avellone was quite available to work on FNV.

Development team weren't allow to do any changes at all to the game. This is something that created at least some negativity from the press towards the game, since they were expecting some changes to the game and none were made. Sega just decided to sit on the game and wait for Mass Effect 2 to come out and then release it next to Red Dead Redemption.

I remember Avellone actually tweeted about the Sega's decision not to allow any development to done to the game. He really liked to burn those bridges when he could.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,623
South Park isn't even an RPG. Why are people defending this game?

It's a western jrpg. :M

The official delay notice came in October and I believe the game was released in May. However I recall that the actual work on the game had stopped even before October and Avellone was quite available to work on FNV.

And he did work on it. But obviously someone can't come in as a lead months into development on a 18-month project.

I remember Avellone actually tweeted about the Sega's decision not to allow any development to done to the game. He really liked to burn those bridges when he could.

Sega already burned the bridge themselves when they announced there would be no Alpha Protocol sequel a month after it had been released. No intention of ever working with Obsidian again.
 

Sannom

Augur
Joined
Apr 11, 2010
Messages
951
Feargus talks too much in interviews, Chris writes too much for his games, they complemented each other!
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom