Game News Backspace: Obsidian's unproduced "Sci-Fi Skyrim"

[undecaf]

"Bethesda is shit. Obsidian is shit. Sci fi is shit. Time Travel is shit. Skyrim is shit. New Vegas is shit. I'm glad this is not coming out because I know it's going to be shit because it'd be a new game New games are shit. Everything is shit. They should stop making games altogether. Who ? Everyone. Everyone is shit. So new games are bound to be shit. Man, old games are shit too. I'm replaying Baldur's Gate 2 and Fallout, god, what pieces of crap. But at least the latter one was turn-based."

- RPGCodex , every topic ever.

Everything is shit until proven otherwise.
That's how the world works.

 

[boltrek]

Obsidian have a serious case of unwarranted self-importance, what makes them think anyone cares about this? First they need to actually make a good game (no one decent expansion doesn't count )

 

[St. Toxic]

I wonder how many people actually read the article.

WUT? OBSIDIAN? DO NOT WANT!

Fixed.

 

[Zero Credibility]

You are mistaking blank for bland. Infinite Worlds is not supposed to give you everything on a silver platter, it's just a framework to use if you want a time-travelling, world-jumping campaign. If they had made the setting more detailed I don't think it would be of any use to me.

The only thing people come to that setting for is a rough framework so they don't have to invent the basics of how all that shit works. Details of the setting, its mysteries and its conflicts are made by the GM/the adventures/the worlds.

But it's not really a blank. We are not given just the rules about world jumping, we are given plenty of information about both main sides of the conflict, from their history to their motives. And I find both underwhelming, Infinity in particular. Seriously, they could have come up with anything, anything at all for this setting, and they come up with contemporary Earth, but now with world jumping tech!

 

[skuphundaku]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

As if anyone would back a Kickstarter for a Skyrim-clone.

I'm pretty sure tons of people would back an Obsidian-made Skyrim clone, not so many on the Codex but from the general gamer population, sure. It's still unlikely to happen though, because a Skyrim clone will require a considerably higher budget than anything that's been raised for a game on Kickstarter.

Say what? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/railboy/frontiers-explore-discover-survive

 

[boltrek]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

As if anyone would back a Kickstarter for a Skyrim-clone.

I'm pretty sure tons of people would back an Obsidian-made Skyrim clone, not so many on the Codex but from the general gamer population, sure. It's still unlikely to happen though, because a Skyrim clone will require a considerably higher budget than anything that's been raised for a game on Kickstarter.

Say what? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/railboy/frontiers-explore-discover-survive

It specifically mentions Daggerfall.

 

[Duraframe300]

Dimensional travel I would support, but time travel doesn't appeal to me. I guess time travel would allow them to use existing assets multiple times to pad out content though.

Dimensional Travel is an even bigger clusterfuck than time travel though. And there's not even that much interesting stuff you can do with it without a massive amount of logical errors.

 

[skuphundaku]

So, what are the chances of this being some kind of a foreshadowing for Obsidian's next Kickstarter?

It would be interesting if Obsidian tried to create a dynamic where they go up to publishers and tell them "Fund this game or we'll Kickstart it and take all the money for ourselves!"

As if anyone would back a Kickstarter for a Skyrim-clone.

I'm pretty sure tons of people would back an Obsidian-made Skyrim clone, not so many on the Codex but from the general gamer population, sure. It's still unlikely to happen though, because a Skyrim clone will require a considerably higher budget than anything that's been raised for a game on Kickstarter.

Say what? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/railboy/frontiers-explore-discover-survive

It specifically mentions Daggerfall.

So what? That just semantics. It's a kickstarted open-world game in the same vein as Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series. If you're getting hung up on details like that, you're going to totally miss the big picture, which is what matters.

 

[evdk]

While time-travel is a nice topic it is almost always handled retardedly.

Mostly because when media use time travel they get all detailed. Looper is a p. good movie, and in it time travel isn't the focus of a movie, it's just a plot device. Doesn't matter how it works. Most media that use time travel get all caught up in it making sense and end up coming up with all sorts of bullshit explanations and the film/whatever ends up digging its own grave.

Didn't Looper use such brilliant plot device as scarring a message into your own skin to send it to the future you. Who does not know about it despite mutilating himself because of it in the past.


The only good time travel movie is 12 Monkeys.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Has anyone mentioned that the game sounds similar to Buck Rogers?

 

[boltrek]

Shame that pulp sci-fi like Buck Rogers is pretty much dead, these days it's all slick, sterile and shiny, "modern" sci-fi rubbish like Mass Effect. I hesitate to even call modern stuff like ME "science-fiction", nothing about it is fantastic or alien, it borrows few tropes or familiaries from traditional sci-fi and is essentially modern society with some "futuristic" tech. No doubt to make it feel familiar and comfortable to dullards.

 

[Black]

Imagine, if you will, a massive role-playing game featuring guns, time travel, and a nasty alien invasion, all built on Skyrim's engine, with Skyrim's "Radiant AI" system.

Fallout 3 + its dlcs?

 

[Grunker]

While time-travel is a nice topic it is almost always handled retardedly.

Mostly because when media use time travel they get all detailed. Looper is a p. good movie, and in it time travel isn't the focus of a movie, it's just a plot device. Doesn't matter how it works. Most media that use time travel get all caught up in it making sense and end up coming up with all sorts of bullshit explanations and the film/whatever ends up digging its own grave.

Didn't Looper use such brilliant plot device as scarring a message into your own skin to send it to the future you. Who does not know about it despite mutilating himself because of it in the past.

Fell right into my trap and missed my point entirely

I almost wrote "inb4 someone critizes Looper for having "unrealistic" time travel", but that would have made it too obvious.

The only good time travel movie is 12 Monkeys.

Twelve Monkeys is a good movie about time travel. Looper is just a good action flick with time travel in it. See how one should dwell quite a bit on the mechanics of it all and one shouldn't?

Anyone dismissing Looper because it doesn't "explain time travel right" is as disgusting a nerd as nerds come. I can just picture these guys shaking their heads going "the kessel run in under 12 parsecs? That so unrealistic, man."

 

[evdk]

Fell right into my trap and missed my point entirely

I almost wrote "inb4 someone critizes Looper for having "unrealistic" time travel", but that would have made it too obvious.

That's not unrealistic time travel, that's unrealistic plot. If all you say about it is "MST3K LOL" then either shoot a comedy or don't bother with time travel beyond "he came from the future!" Terminator style.

 

[Grunker]

Fell right into my trap and missed my point entirely

I almost wrote "inb4 someone critizes Looper for having "unrealistic" time travel", but that would have made it too obvious.

That's not unrealistic time travel, that's unrealistic plot.

No, it's a single, irrelevant plot device that plays an extremely small role in the movie that you use to argue that a good action flick is shit. The grade a sign of a person who evaluates films on irrelevant nitpicks.

 

[boltrek]

Donnie Darko

 

[evdk]

No, it's a single, irrelevant plot device that plays an extremely small role in the movie that you use to argue that a good action flick is shit. The grade a sign of a person who evaluates films on irrelevant nitpicks.

I absolutely love nitpicking movies, how did you know?

BTW I've never said Looper is a shit movie, for that I would have to see more of it than a few scenes while doing something else. I just remember this one detail because I felt it was retarded. The movie might be the next Citizen Kane for all I know, but this particular bit would still be nonsensical.

 

[hiver]

nah, its pretty simple and shit. actually. boring.

 

[Grunker]

No, it's a single, irrelevant plot device that plays an extremely small role in the movie that you use to argue that a good action flick is shit. The grade a sign of a person who evaluates films on irrelevant nitpicks.

I absolutely love nitpicking movies, how did you know?

BTW I've never said Looper is a shit movie, for that I would have to see more of it than a few scenes while doing something else. I just remember this one detail because I felt it was retarded. The movie might be the next Citizen Kane for all I know, but this particular bit would still be nonsensical.

Definetely ain't no Citizen Kane (fortunately, that would have been one boring-as-shit action movie), but it's one of the best pure action movies we've had in a long time. Reminds me of good 90's action flicks.

 

[villain of the story]

The only good time travel movie is 12 Monkeys.

12 Monkeys still contained too much Hollywood crap but yes, it's a good film and possibly one of the rare examples of a very good adaptation of something that precedes it.

 

[tuluse]

Dimensional Travel is an even bigger clusterfuck than time travel though. And there's not even that much interesting stuff you can do with it without a massive amount of logical errors.

You literally can't have time travel without a huge paradox meaning your entire story is based around a plot hole.

How is dimensional travel a bigger clusterfuck than that?

 

[villain of the story]

Also; Obsidian promised us an espionage Role-Playing game inspired by Syriana, Jack Bauer, Jason Borne and James Bond.

And they delivered a game that bore a similarity to neither but was still called "Espionage RPG".

Just try to adapt that scenario to a sci-fi time-travel setting.

I think not.

 

[Roguey]

I can just picture these guys shaking their heads going "the kessel run in under 12 parsecs? That so unrealistic, man."

Time for random trivia
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kessel_Run#Development

In the revised fourth draft of A New Hope in 1976, the description for "Kessel Run" is put as follows:

"It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!"
Ben reacts to Solo's stupid attempt to impress them with obvious misinformation.​

So it implies that the puzzling speech of Han Solo is "misinformation" and not truth, and it has nothing to do with the nature of the Kessel Run in any respect. Han means nothing other than impressing Obi-Wan and Luke with pure boasting. Indeed, even in the final version of the script, the parentheses attached to Han's line state that he is "obviously lying."

Alec Guinness was too subtle.

 

[evdk]

Alec Guinness was too subtle.

Odds are the script writer didn't know that parsec is not a time unit either and the line just means to show that it's improbably quick.

Anyway I like the desperate "skirting the area full of black holes" retcon the most. It's so dumb it's cute.

 

[Monty]

Time for random trivia
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kessel_Run#Development

In the revised fourth draft of A New Hope in 1976, the description for "Kessel Run" is put as follows:

"It's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs!"​

Ben reacts to Solo's stupid attempt to impress them with obvious misinformation.​

So it implies that the puzzling speech of Han Solo is "misinformation" and not truth, and it has nothing to do with the nature of the Kessel Run in any respect. Han means nothing other than impressing Obi-Wan and Luke with pure boasting. Indeed, even in the final version of the script, the parentheses attached to Han's line state that he is "obviously lying."

Alec Guinness was too subtle.

Can see a monumental derail in this thread's future.... but it's difficult to agree with this interpretation. It's one thing to imagine a captain exaggerating the performance of his ship (ie the claim is far-fetched), it's another thing to believe he would confuse measures of distance and time.

Think they made a ridiculous attempt to explain away this mistake in the Star Wars books. I vaguely remember some feeble explanation that the "12 parsecs" was a measure of the corners he cut through the Kessel Run, his skill and speed allowing him to get closer to the black holes than others had previously, so shortening the distance through the Kessel Run.

edit: evdk too quick.