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

[Cryomancer]

, and 90 or above metacritic,

Game journalists liking a game is a point against the game quality, not in favor.

Seriously. I rather play another FNV over the next generic linear action adventure with stealth elements. I don't care if a game journo which can't beat Cuphead tutorial sees FNV as a game inferior to FL3.

, their titles do extremely well with players and are top sellers everywhere.

Not truth. See Forspoken. Flopped hard. Despite game journos worshiping the wokism of the game. They managed to make a freaking isekai game to flop.

----------------------

 

[Dycedarg]

They dont appeal only to critics, its disingenuous to claim so, their titles do extremely well with players and are top sellers everywhere. What i want is for MS studios to invest in presentation and production quality instead of half-assing everything because "its free on gamepass".

I agree that Sony games have an audience. But it took them decades to carefully mold their studios into what they are today: a bunch of movie games factories. MS just aquired a bunch of new studios that couldn't be more different from each other. Even if they had the resources, do you think Inxile can make AAA games? Can Double Fine? Their best hope is to follow the Square Enix model where some teams do small scale projects while others work on the next Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

 

[Delterius]

They dont appeal only to critics, its disingenuous to claim so, their titles do extremely well with players and are top sellers everywhere. What i want is for MS studios to invest in presentation and production quality instead of half-assing everything because "its free on gamepass".

I agree that Sony games have an audience. But it took them decades to carefully mold their studios into what they are today: a bunch of movie games factories. MS just aquired a bunch of new studios that couldn't be more different from each other. Even if they had the resources, do you think Inxile can make AAA games? Can Double Fine? Their best hope is to follow the Square Enix model where some teams do small scale projects while others work on the next Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

The thing is though that I don't think Microsoft gave these studios a direction. Clockwork Revolution was a surprise, but Feargus always wanted to make a Skyrim Killer. The Starfield trailer gave me vibes that Obsidian and Bethesda are very much in touch. It seems more like Microsoft has a hands off approach and these studios are all trying to make AA first person shooters at the same time.

Larian and Owlcat remain the only light in the world.

 

[Roguey]

MS on the other hand, seems to accept any shit their dev studios come up with. Games with such low production values as Avowed and the inxile bioshock rip off, should have never been greenlit if their studios didnt have the technical capacity to make them look like they actually cost money to make.

Clockwork Cringe looks perfectly adequate. Not great, but that's a style issue. Most people can't approach greatness. Far more eye-pleasing than The Outer Worlds though.

 

[AwesomeButton]

But who in their right mind wants "AAA games" that are each like the next? It's the same as closing the respective studio. The good arrangement would have been for the studios to retain some freedom to make their style of games. And I guess Obsidian kind of have this, it's just that they no longer have the talent to make their style of games.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

They dont appeal only to critics, its disingenuous to claim so,

Never said that they only appeal to critics tho. Only that they're made to appeal to critics , so much that they just confirmed that they demand devs to score 90s on metacritic.. And it's true that they're huge successes, no denying that.

 

[Dycedarg]

The thing is though that I don't think Microsoft gave these studios a direction. Clockwork Revolution was a surprise, but Feargus always wanted to make a Skyrim Killer. The Starfield trailer gave me vibes that Obsidian and Bethesda are very much in touch. It seems more like Microsoft has a hands off approach and these studios are all trying to make AA first person shooters at the same time.

Larian and Owlcat remain the only light in the world.

True, but there's no way for MS to give all those studios a direction. They're probably testing them so they can separate the wheat from the chaff. And the best way to do it is to let them do whatever they want, within reason of course, and see which of them can be successful.

 

[Kem0sabe]

, and 90 or above metacritic,

Game journalists liking a game is a point against the game quality, not in favor.

Seriously. I rather play another FNV over the next generic linear action adventure with stealth elements. I don't care if a game journo which can't beat Cuphead tutorial sees FNV as a game inferior to FL3.

, their titles do extremely well with players and are top sellers everywhere.

Not truth. See Forspoken. Flopped hard. Despite game journos worshiping the wokism of the game. They managed to make a freaking isekai game to flop.

----------------------

Forspoken is not Sony first party.

 

[ArchAngel]

They dont appeal only to critics, its disingenuous to claim so, their titles do extremely well with players and are top sellers everywhere. What i want is for MS studios to invest in presentation and production quality instead of half-assing everything because "its free on gamepass".

I agree that Sony games have an audience. But it took them decades to carefully mold their studios into what they are today: a bunch of movie games factories. MS just aquired a bunch of new studios that couldn't be more different from each other. Even if they had the resources, do you think Inxile can make AAA games? Can Double Fine? Their best hope is to follow the Square Enix model where some teams do small scale projects while others work on the next Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

The thing is though that I don't think Microsoft gave these studios a direction. Clockwork Revolution was a surprise, but Feargus always wanted to make a Skyrim Killer. The Starfield trailer gave me vibes that Obsidian and Bethesda are very much in touch. It seems more like Microsoft has a hands off approach and these studios are all trying to make AA first person shooters at the same time.

Larian and Owlcat remain the only light in the world.

Larian is a joke. Lets see how much of a joke is BG3 when it comes out but what I have seen already does not make me hopeful.
Funny shit, one of the better RPGs I played in last few years has been WL3.

 

[Gargaune]

I saw the trailer and it really got me thinking about what it is, that seems so off about a lot of modern fantasy games.
At first, one might think that it is the designs, but those are actually pretty alright (shape-wise). What's so strange and incoherent to me is the extensive use of neon coloring.
Go through that trailer again and count every shot with neon coloring. It's almost every single one of them and I am really not sure whether that is deliberate or the result of some aesthetic trend.
Compare this to a classic game trailer like the one of Lands of Lore 2:

Spoiler

Now I am of course biased, cause I love that trailer, but both LoL2 and this game have outlandish fantasy designs.
However, one feels like it is rooted in reality, while the other one seems like it's taking hints from Marvel.
It might be about readability, but I gotta be honest: It kinda takes me out.

It's not any single technical element, but a general and encompassing artistic inclination towards the overly energetic and the trivial. "Neon colouring", those oversaturated contrasts, are a usual part of it, but they're not inherently an infraction, and you've seen them used to great effect in Cyberpunk 2077 (in those moments it's channeling Blade Runner). The bright colour palette, another common element, didn't stop The Witcher 3 from radiating grit and despair. Cel shading tech and stylised designs are often blasted as the poster child for this crap, but you need only have a look 1995's Ghost in the Shell to determine what atmosphere that look can evoke.

What you're seeing is a variety of techniques used in concert to realise a deliberate art style with varying degrees of "whimsy", developed by and for a sugar-high generation who disregard "edge" and gravitas as pensioner fodder. It's a matter of tone and sensibility that bleeds through to everything, from visual and audio design, to dialogue and pacing.

If it sounds like I'm being too harsh, it's because it's turned into an inescapable marker of stuff I'm not interested in. When I see something like The Outer Worlds' trailer, I don't really need to look into it any further, I can tell right off the bat it's not something that I'm going to enjoy as a matter of artistic sensibility, and nowadays, that seems to mean the bulk of the new mainstream. I never thought I was going to miss the days of gunmetal grey and giant-shouldered space marines, yet here we are...

 

[Infinitron]

But who in their right mind wants "AAA games" that are each like the next?

Not saying any of these games will be as good as Fallout: New Vegas, but for many years people (including on this forum) have said that the gaming industry was leaving money on the table by not making more games from that subgenre of RPG. That it was crazy that Bethesda was the only company making that type of game. Well, here they finally are.

 

[Gargaune]

The good arrangement would have been for the studios to retain some freedom to make their style of games. And I guess Obsidian kind of have this, it's just that they no longer have the talent to make their style of games.

But what is Obsidian's "style" of games and how have they gotten that reputation? 'Cause if we go back through their history, the only greats that come to my mind are NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, KotOR II, and Fallout: New Vegas, the most recent of which was thirteen years ago. Everything else has spanned the range from iffy to decent, and it seems a bit of a stretch to equate the Obsidian of today to the Obsidian of twenty years ago, let alone Black Isle before that.

Press and YouTubers constantly treat Obsidian as a legend, a "great RPG developer", though a more pragmatic assessment of their last decade or so would suggest just "RPG developer" to be more appropriate. Which is fair enough, nothing wrong with it, but the brand seems a bit overblown in context.

 

[Old Hans]

Gamemplay trailer was OK, but was it really informative?

it was the usual sizzle reel trailer for the big tech show. That is where the devs wanna hype everyone up with exciting next gen action like fighting skeletons inside a cave

 

[Nikanuur]

But who in their right mind wants "AAA games" that are each like the next? It's the same as closing the respective studio. The good arrangement would have been for the studios to retain some freedom to make their style of games. And I guess Obsidian kind of have this, it's just that they no longer have the talent to make their style of games.

Funny that modern forcingl-- strong praise of diversity is mainly done through totally single-minded (i.e. non-diverse) consensus of mandatory mixture of elements.

What can man do against such reckless hate, and where is Gondor again ffs...

 

[jf8350143]

They are suppose to show more on 14th? I feel like the trailer is fine for what it is, a action packed trailer to appeal to the general auidences. But the core part of the game can't be shown in the trailer and they don't have a 45 minutes show sole devoted to them.

I'm interested to see what they do with the companions. They follow the MC around but the trailer never show them fighting, or do anything at all. Some people think it's gonna be co-op, I don't really think that's the case but if they actually have co-op then I don't have any hope for the game anymore.

 

[Infinitron]

They are suppose to show more on 14th? I feel like the trailer is fine for what it is, a action packed trailer to appeal to the general auidences. But the core part of the game can't be shown in the trailer and they don't have a 45 minutes show sole devoted to them.

I'm interested to see what they do with the companions. They follow the MC around but the trailer never show them fighting, or do anything at all. Some people think it's gonna be co-op, I don't really think that's the case but if they actually have co-op then I don't have any hope for the game anymore.

The PC Gamer article explicitly confirms no multiplayer.

 

[AwesomeButton]

But who in their right mind wants "AAA games" that are each like the next?

Not saying any of these games will be as good as Fallout: New Vegas, but for many years people (including on this forum) have said that the gaming industry was leaving money on the table by not making more games from that subgenre of RPG. That it was crazy that Bethesda was the only company making that type of game. Well, here they finally are.

Here they finally are, when, for one thing, Skyrim is no longer the gold standard - it was surpassed by Witcher 3.

And for another thing, it's not really a "bethesda-style" rpg if we are being honest. By the look of things, Avowed will be to Skyrim what ToW was to nuFallout, and for that matter, what PoE was to the IE games. That looks quite sad for Obsidian, who in their good years could outdo Fallout 3, according to a significant proportion of FNV players (source: youtube comments).

 

[Infinitron]

what ToW was to nuFallout, and for that matter, what PoE was to the IE games.

This really isn't a correct analogy.

Yeah, Obsidian and inXile's first person RPGs aren't/won't be true open world games like Bethesda's RPGs, but I guess they're Bethesda-ish and that's something too.

Personally I compare the experience of playing The Outer Worlds to that of a very large expansion DLC for one of Bethesda's RPGs, like a much larger Point Lookout for FO3 or Far Harbor for FO4. A more strongly themed and tightly designed "pocket universe" operating by the same mechanics as the massive open world of the base game. I assume Avowed will be similar.

 

[AwesomeButton]

This really isn't a correct analogy.

Please, it was in their KS pitch. 74 thousand backers were more or less expecting an IE game.

 

[v1c70r14]

Out of all video games to get sequels Underworld Ascendant was the most unlikely but apparently Microsoft is listening to connoisseurs of indie cult hits. Shows that you can get the same type of content as you would from a game with soul funded by gamers from one of the biggest corporations around.

Clockwork Cringe looks perfectly adequate.

Before the logo dropped I thought it was a Bioshock spinoff for mobile by a Chinese studio.

 

[Infinitron]

This really isn't a correct analogy.

Please, it was in their KS pitch. 74 thousand backers were more or less expecting an IE game.

But it's not structurally different from an IE game the same way TOW is different from Fallout 3. Same sort of game world and distribution of content. In this respect, Pathfinder: Kingmaker actually diverges more from the classic Baldur's Gate formula than Pillars of Eternity did.

But then the IE games did have a wide variety of game world structures, from BG1's pseudo-continuous open world to BG2's hubs to Icewind Dale's linear combat crawls.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Personally I compare the experience of playing The Outer Worlds to that of a very large expansion DLC for one of Bethesda's RPGs, like a much larger Point Lookout for FO3 or Far Harbor for FO4. A more strongly themed and tightly designed "pocket universe" operating by the same mechanics as the massive open world of the base game. I assume Avowed will be similar.

That comparison is OK, if the customer has dropped his expectations.

About Avowed, I guess the thing that sours my mood the most is the news about the cut down race choices. I think it's a portent for how everything will be cut down to the bare minimum.

And it's not that you can't have a fun RPG without race choices, or with a lot of writing, or with a mandatory companion. Disco Elysium has all those traits. But that's not what Obsidian are about to deliver. When Obsidian announces cut races, spins the cut down open world as "emphasis on companions and story", you know what's coming is a husk of a game.

 

[AwesomeButton]

But it's not structurally different from an IE game the same way TOW is different from Fallout 3

I agree it's not the same kind of difference between imitating product and imitated product, but I still call it an imitating product. PoE wouldn't have survived on its own, if it wasn't name-dropping IE games (including Baldur's Gate). Nor would have ToW survived without the parallels with, and the name-dropping of the original creators of Fallout.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Somebody needs to do June of Rage to explain what the fuck went wrong with this project over the course of 3 years.

 

[Quillon]

how out of touch dumb af you have to be to make TOW again but in fantasy