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

[Lemming42]

New Vegas is just an albatross round their necks at this point. It was a mostly different group of people in a different time and different environment, working under different circumstances. Lightning in a bottle stuff that's not going to be replicated, but is constantly casting a shadow over everything the current company does, to the point where for most people the name "New Vegas" is synonymous with the name "Obsidian", and the gaming public's only real opinion of the company is "Bethesda should rent Fallout out to them again". Which is doubly grim because if that did ever happen, you just know the result would be shit; the current staff can't replicate that incredible flash of success that the NV team managed 14 years ago.

 

[frajaq]

like it or not, this game will determine the future of obsidian. if you consider yourself an obsidian fan, please PURCHASE this day one and do your part.

I'm trusting the plan

 

[Comrade Goby]

like it or not, this game will determine the future of obsidian. if you consider yourself an obsidian fan, please PURCHASE this day one and do your part.

please die Obsidian

 

[Kem0sabe]

New Vegas is just an albatross round their necks at this point. It was a mostly different group of people in a different time and different environment, working under different circumstances. Lightning in a bottle stuff that's not going to be replicated, but is constantly casting a shadow over everything the current company does, to the point where for most people the name "New Vegas" is synonymous with the name "Obsidian", and the gaming public's only real opinion of the company is "Bethesda should rent Fallout out to them again". Which is doubly grim because if that did ever happen, you just know the result would be shit; the current staff can't replicate that incredible flash of success that the NV team managed 14 years ago.

A lot of people still think that new Vegas was made by Bethesda. Obsidian is not nearly the "household" name you think it is

 

[Trash Player]

Obsidian is known for Grounded for the general audience now. Not necessarily a bad thing for the company, it probably turns more profits than anything else.

 

[ArchAngel]

New Vegas is just an albatross round their necks at this point. It was a mostly different group of people in a different time and different environment, working under different circumstances. Lightning in a bottle stuff that's not going to be replicated, but is constantly casting a shadow over everything the current company does, to the point where for most people the name "New Vegas" is synonymous with the name "Obsidian", and the gaming public's only real opinion of the company is "Bethesda should rent Fallout out to them again". Which is doubly grim because if that did ever happen, you just know the result would be shit; the current staff can't replicate that incredible flash of success that the NV team managed 14 years ago.

What success, it was a shit game. Last Fallout game was F:T.

 

[Lemming42]

The critical and commercial success. Whatever you think of New Vegas (and I have plenty of my own criticisms of it), it's the last time - and perhaps the only time other than KOTOR 2 and whatever shitty South Park games they pump out - that Obsidian produced something that attained enough popularity to have a degree of genuine relevance in pop culture. And yeah, I would personally say that NV is of significantly higher quality than every other game with the name "Obsidian" on the box, and I'm saying that as someone with standards so low that I even liked Alpha Protocol.

It's a career-defining game for the company and it just doesn't seem like they're remotely capable of replicating it, whether that's because it was a perfect storm of things going right, because they had Bethesda's framework to build on, or perhaps because the current crop of people working there are just of lesser skill than the NV team.

EDIT: I forgot about Grounded. I do not know what Grounded is, only that it's popular.

 

[ArchAngel]

I liked NWN2 and expansions (especially SoZ) and Kotor 2 and out of more recent games PoE2 with turn based was also good.
Poe1 and Tyranny were passable.

 

[Butter]

It probably bombs and Obsidian will get shitcanned. But hey, it was quite a journey and even at their lowest point they were still making better stuff than most devs out there.

Grounded, Outhouse World, and Pentiment all made money. They probably have to fuck up twice in a row to get shitcanned.

 

[AlwaysBrotoMen]

I do not have any interest in this game. It looks too cartoonish.

 

[Spike]

I am very cautiously optimistic. I haven't played The Outer Worlds yet because of the endless grave warnings I keep receiving but hey, I have it for free on Epic

 

[quixotic]

I am very cautiously optimistic. I haven't played The Outer Worlds yet because of the endless grave warnings I keep receiving but hey, I have it for free on Epic

Do yourself a favour and continue to not play TOW.

 

[Tyranicon]

Grounded, Outhouse World, and Pentiment all made money. They probably have to fuck up twice in a row to get shitcanned.

I wouldn't think that Obsidian is in danger if they make one flop, but who knows with how crazy the games industry is these days.

I also don't think that Avowed will flop. In fact, it probably has the best chance out of the shit three coming out this fall (VtMB2 and DA Veilguard) to be successful.

People are really thirsty for an openworld fantasy FPP game.

 

[S.torch]

This game is not open world though. Is "down your expectations".

 

[Tyranicon]

Oh right, it's hub-based, just like TOW. Well, that's way less interesting to most casual players, but probably the better plan with their "limited resources."

Good luck I guess.

 

[Roguey]

This game is not open world though. Is "down your expectations".

There was a lot of space to explore in the latest preview video. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference that it's not all one contiguous landmass.

 

[scytheavatar]

Grounded, Outhouse World, and Pentiment all made money. They probably have to fuck up twice in a row to get shitcanned.

I wouldn't think that Obsidian is in danger if they make one flop, but who knows with how crazy the games industry is these days.

I also don't think that Avowed will flop. In fact, it probably has the best chance out of the shit three coming out this fall (VtMB2 and DA Veilguard) to be successful.

People are really thirsty for an openworld fantasy FPP game.

DAV will sell the best out of the 3 just from the Bioware name. Obsidian's reputation among normies has improved since the Microsoft buyout, but they are still a small insignificant studio. For them to sell TOW numbers again is possible but to do better than TOW numbers is difficult unless the game looks amazing.

 

[PunchYouInTheFace]

Obsidian is known for Grounded

This is you when you buy statistics from Dollar Tree. Abject mental dissonance.

Avowed will be fine, the question is how high Microsoft and XBOX expectations are. 69 gorillion dallar?

 

[Lemming42]

There was a lot of space to explore in the latest preview video. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference that it's not all one contiguous landmass.

It's probably not a dealbreaker for anyone but it is confusing that they've gone with this system; I don't think anyone really appreciated it in TOW and Starfield has got to be the final nail in the coffin for anyone having the inexplicable idea of "we should make a Bethesda game but cut the map up into smaller disconnected chunks, some of which are virtually empty". It makes everything feel weird and disconnected, and it only takes one shitty hub to bring the game to a horrible screeching halt (TOW went one step further by ensuring every hub was the worst one).

People are really thirsty for an openworld fantasy FPP game.

I do wonder if the appetite for this type of game still exists in the way it did 10 - 15 years ago; Starfield's frosty reception is a gamechanger in that it raises serious questions about whether or not this genre has had its time in the sun, and if it can continue to exist without some serious innovation. I think the public are always up for "another Skyrim", but what they really want is the next Skyrim, something fresh that gives them the same feeling and same satisfying gameplay loop rather than just regurgitates the exact same model unchanged but smaller-scope and shittier.

We're also in a position where BG3 has gotten people thinking about the value of emergent gameplay and systems which allow for creative solutions to things. Obsidian pulling out their usual stuff of:

NPC: Hello, I am the Plant Queen. Why have you come here?

Player choice 1: [Attack] To kill you (ends quest, gives 30xp and item reward of Big Sword)
Player choice 2: [Speech] To talk (ends quest, gives 30xp and item reward of Big Axe)
Player choice 3: Goodbye

Might just not cut it at this point.

 

[SmoothPimp]

So, no involvement of Urquhart, Sawyer, Cain or Boyarsky in Avowed. Sawyer even explicitly is distancing himself from the game. It says a lot about Microsoft - Obsidian relationships and how old team perceive Avowed.

 

[Lemming42]

So, no involvement of Urquhart, Sawyer, Cain or Boyarsky in Avowed. Sawyer even explicitly is distancing himself from the game.

They should put this exact quote on the front of the box, it's the closest thing to a seal of quality.

 

[Takamori]

I would only buy this game full price if they promised to fire Pattel and Turd Ferg

 

[Quillon]

There was a lot of space to explore in the latest preview video. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference that it's not all one contiguous landmass.

It's probably not a dealbreaker for anyone but it is confusing that they've gone with this system; I don't think anyone really appreciated it in TOW and Starfield has got to be the final nail in the coffin for anyone having the inexplicable idea of "we should make a Bethesda game but cut the map up into smaller disconnected chunks, some of which are virtually empty". It makes everything feel weird and disconnected, and it only takes one shitty hub to bring the game to a horrible screeching halt (TOW went one step further by ensuring every hub was the worst one).

And TOW and Starfield have a reason to have multiple smaller maps and it still made a big difference they didn't have "one contiguous landmass". TOW's maps wasn't big enough and Starfield's maps didn't have content/nor they were hand crafted. DAI had much bigger maps(with content) than TOW, still people woulda preferred one big one or I guess a few really big ones Witcher 3 style.

Also its funny journos keep asking them if they are afraid when they haven't questioned them not really delivering what people expected when they got bought out. Or are they asking all the MS studios? Since they haven't made a real flop yet like Redfall they are pretty safe imo. Soulless, barely meeting industry standards in prod quality but safe.

 

[Spike]

There was a lot of space to explore in the latest preview video. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference that it's not all one contiguous landmass.

It's probably not a dealbreaker for anyone but it is confusing that they've gone with this system; I don't think anyone really appreciated it in TOW and Starfield has got to be the final nail in the coffin for anyone having the inexplicable idea of "we should make a Bethesda game but cut the map up into smaller disconnected chunks, some of which are virtually empty". It makes everything feel weird and disconnected, and it only takes one shitty hub to bring the game to a horrible screeching halt (TOW went one step further by ensuring every hub was the worst one).

And TOW and Starfield have a reason to have multiple smaller maps and it still made a big difference they didn't have "one contiguous landmass". TOW's maps wasn't big enough and Starfield's maps didn't have content/nor they were hand crafted. DAI had much bigger maps(with content) than TOW, still people woulda preferred one big one or I guess a few really big ones Witcher 3 style.

Also its funny journos keep asking them if they are afraid when they haven't questioned them not really delivering what people expected when they got bought out. Or are they asking all the MS studios? Since they haven't made a real flop yet like Redfall they are pretty safe imo. Soulless, barely meeting industry standtards in prod quality but safe.

Was TOW really that bad? I heard it's fun to shoot around in, just don't expect New Vegas or much of an RPG in terms of mechanics.

 

[scytheavatar]

There was a lot of space to explore in the latest preview video. I don't think it's going to make much of a difference that it's not all one contiguous landmass.

It's probably not a dealbreaker for anyone but it is confusing that they've gone with this system; I don't think anyone really appreciated it in TOW and Starfield has got to be the final nail in the coffin for anyone having the inexplicable idea of "we should make a Bethesda game but cut the map up into smaller disconnected chunks, some of which are virtually empty". It makes everything feel weird and disconnected, and it only takes one shitty hub to bring the game to a horrible screeching halt (TOW went one step further by ensuring every hub was the worst one).

And TOW and Starfield have a reason to have multiple smaller maps and it still made a big difference they didn't have "one contiguous landmass". TOW's maps wasn't big enough and Starfield's maps didn't have content/nor they were hand crafted. DAI had much bigger maps(with content) than TOW, still people woulda preferred one big one or I guess a few really big ones Witcher 3 style.

Also its funny journos keep asking them if they are afraid when they haven't questioned them not really delivering what people expected when they got bought out. Or are they asking all the MS studios? Since they haven't made a real flop yet like Redfall they are pretty safe imo. Soulless, barely meeting industry standtards in prod quality but safe.

Was TOW really that bad? I heard it's fun to shoot around in, just don't expect New Vegas or much of an RPG in terms of mechanics.

TOW is a 6.5/10 game, it doesn't suck as much as it is aggressively mediocre. It is still probably a better game than Starfield which is 6/10 as it at least tries to be special while Starfield is a completely soulless piece of crap. But as a whole it feels like a really long tech demo of an decent game and that TOW2 would be that game.