Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[J_C]

At least we still have Sawyer.

I miss his kickstarter updates.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Chris responds to a 2house2fly tweet thread

I'm not sure what to make of the fact that his twitter is full of rants about video games, sexy kpop stars...and parenting.

 

[CyberWhale]

Well, as mentioned above, it seems he didn't follow his own advice in Dead Money (which I love, btw, it is DM>OWB>>>HH>>LR for me).

Btw, HH not only has Joshua Graham and the faction war, it also has the awesome Survivalist who literally became a god (for a specific tribe). Many characters more awesome than you are. There is a lot to like in HH (Joshua, the Survivalist, the map), it is just that it falls short in other aspects: constant ambush-like gameplay, stupid initial quests, underwhelming companions. I like playing it, but I wouldn't call it great overall. It does have some great pieces though.

Nice vertical environments that actually require some thinking while traversing are also a plus IMO.
Final fights/quests were a through disappointment, tho.

 

[Nano]

When was the last time 2house2fly posted here, anyway? I haven't seen him in a while.

Edit: Oh, yesterday lol

 

[2house2fly]

Well the Pillars 2 thread is dead and I don't have time for RPGs what with parenting and stalking Wheein.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/13/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-3-story/

Obsidian’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3 was about battling ancient, monstrous Sith lords

Once work wrapped on KoTOR 2, Obsidian was ready to make a third game in the acclaimed RPG series. Unfortunately, it never came to pass, but here’s what was planned, according to one of the writers.

Speaking to Chris Avellone at Reboot Develop, I asked if Obsidian ever had a story planned for Knights of The Old Republic 3, and it did. Here’s the basic premise, in Avellone’s words:

“When we finished the second one we were all trying to restore our lives back to sanity,” Avellone remembers. “We did start working on the third game pitch, because we always imagined the trilogy. Even when working on the second game, we [tried] to foreshadow what Darth Revan was doing in the second game, and he wasn’t always just ruthlessly and mindlessly blowing everything up. He actually had a larger plan because there was some greater manipulation and threat going on.

“The third game involved you, as a player character, following where Revan went and then taking the battle to the really ancient Sith lords who are far more terrifying than the Darths that show up. These guys would just be monsters. These would have a level of power that was considerable, but at the same time you’d be able to dig more into their psychologies, and their personalities, their history, and even how they dealt with the player, how they talk with the player, the different powers they cultivated and developed, and for some of them like – they’re the ancients, so they’re not just ruling a solar system, [but] swathes of the galaxy.

“So the places you travel to [you’d see] how they left their stamp on that world, or that solar system, or whatever collection of moons. You’d see how horrible that was. Part of that environment would tell a story about that. [That] would be a great, epic way to end the trilogy. The Old Republic are out there. We just didn’t get a chance to do it.”

These ancient Sith lords would be initially mysterious, but they wouldn’t be unknowable like Snoke in the newer films. Avellone thinks the issue with that character is that he has too much mystique, where these evil beings would have interesting and varied origin stories you could uncover. Avellone isn’t entirely sure why the game never happened, but he speculates that it could be down to internal politics.

“I think part of the reason, and I’m just speculating, is that I think there was a team internal at Lucas Arts at the time that wanted to do it,” Avellone says. “So obviously they would have gotten priority over us. So I think that was one factor. Another factor is I think that… BioWare tried to do it a few times. They tried to pitch it and tried to pitch it, and were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to do a third game.’ But it just never seemed to actually go anywhere.

“So I don’t know whether people didn’t think there’d be enough sales, [or if] they didn’t care about doing a single-player game. I know a ton of people who would want to play it, but obviously, maybe those numbers aren’t big enough, or whatever, so I don’t know what the deal was. So [the answer] is ‘I don’t know.’,” he laughs. “It wasn’t us!”

If you want to see more Avellone Star Wars stories, he’s currently working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, along with five other narrative designers. The official reveal is happening today.

 

[Abu Antar]

I thought the the third game would have you explore the far reaches of the galaxy like some kind of bounty hunter or something. I don't remember exactly, but hasn't Avellone said that KOTOR 3 was something else than what he is saying here?

 

[Monkey Baron]

https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/12/star-wars-jedi-fallen-order-story/

The lead narrative designer is Aaron Contreras, who also led story stuff on Mafia 3.

 

[Roguey]

“I think part of the reason, and I’m just speculating, is that I think there was a team internal at Lucas Arts at the time that wanted to do it,”

This was confirmed years ago. LucasArts had kotor 3 in pre-production while Obsidian was still working on kotor 2. They were in bad shape financially and needed slam dunks (it was canceled because they ran out of money).

 

[Abu Antar]

 

[Quillon]

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/16/aliens-crucible-rpg-terrifying-mass-effect/

Obsidian’s Aliens: Crucible RPG would have been like a “more terrifying” Mass Effect

During development for Alpha Protocol, work also began on Aliens: Crucible, a cancelled RPG from developer Obsidian.

“Aliens: Crucible was really sad to see cancelled, but I don’t blame Sega for it,” writer Chris Avellone told VG247 during Reboot Develop. “It would be like – this is going to be really rough comparison – basically Mass Effect but more terrifying.

“We wanted to make it. But by that point Sega, I think, was… the publisher/management relations had gotten to a point where they were just tired of dealing with [Obsidian]. Everyone working on Aliens: Crucible was really excited about it. It was shaping up to be a really cool game. The prototype was really cool. But then Sega’s like ‘nope!’”

The RPG would have seen players flying to an alien planet where they’d find one of the ships or installations – like what they find in Prometheus – left behind by the Engineers, as well as a valley of creation and weapon testing facilities.

“But as you’re entering the atmosphere, [you realise] that this planet is incredibly unstable, so your entire crew gets blasted all over the planet,” Avellone explained. “And you land and the player, and some marines, and your squads, and scientists – and the weird thing is that when Prometheus came out, I saw some of the similarities, [and thought] ‘oh, we had a character like that’. But the entire world was more violent and there were a lot more Aliens running around. It was more a question of survival, and ‘how do we recover all the supplies, and desperately try to make a base?’ It was fun to set up.”

One of the things Obsidian really wanted to nail with Aliens: Crucible was a sense of fear, even during conversation. Where most RPGs pause the action while you have a chinwag, here the xenomorphs could arrive at any time, interrupting your plans.

“The biggest challenge we had was how to keep the fear going even in conversations,” Avellone remembered. “You can make conversations stressful and frightening. How do you do it so that an alien could be attacking you at any moment? You can’t take shelter in a conversation with two talking heads while you try to figure out what to do.”

The game was a fair bit into development and featured conversations, combat, and even hacking. Much like Mass Effect, combat would be real-time with two AI characters supporting, and you could give them simple orders to get them to engage specific enemies or hunker down, for example. It’s easy to imagine how this would have worked in the Alien universe, since there are already plenty of established xenomorph variants, the enemies are durable and smart, and that acid blood is a ready-made status effect.

If you’re wondering what that looked like, here’s some (very early) footage:

 

[Fairfax]

These articles are milking 2 questions at a time. It seems he has little time and/or patience for longer interviews these days.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Not even with former owner like me?

Dammit Chris, I thought we were frands.

 

[Prime Junta]

https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/16/aliens-crucible-rpg-terrifying-mass-effect/

Obsidian’s best games are the ones they never made.

 

[Ismaul]

https://www.vg247.com/2019/04/16/aliens-crucible-rpg-terrifying-mass-effect/

Obsidian’s best games are the ones they never made.

The next one's always gonna be the best!

Until concrete details come out anyways. Remember the hype for The Outer Worlds? Troika back together! etc.! Now it's like meh.

 

[Alienman]

I agree, but Aliens though.

 

[Ismaul]

Alienman gonna Aliens, man.

 

[Morgoth]

https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/0...ens-rpg-was-aiming-to-be-a-horror-mass-effect

"A Horror Mass Effect"

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Some person named SquizzOC is going off on Chris in The Outer Worlds reddit, saying they were an affidavits? at his wedding

https://www.reddit.com/r/theouterwo...ldnt_work_with_senior_management_at_obsidian/

Seems pretty yikes and personal (obvi since its reddit it could also be total lies)

 

[Prime Junta]

An affidavit is a signed statement where you assert something to be true. In this case, Chris was marrying a 'strayan, so the US government naturally had to make sure it was an actual marriage and not a way for the third-worlder to get a residence permit in Kwanzania.

Also, interesting data point in the drama that keeps on giving. So MCA, how much E did you do when still on the payroll?

 

[pomenitul]

you need to have witnesses validate the relationship and sign a statement, I was one of two that I know of

Way to maintain your anonymity, assuming any of this is in fact true.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I’m sorry but fuck him. He was kicked out because he was constantly drunk and high on ecstasy in the office and refused to write for the games they were contractually obligated to produce.

He was drunk and or high as hell when he kept writing in that (RPG Codex) thread. No proof on that, but a guess based on how ridiculous it was.

 

[Prime Junta]

As an aside, I wonder what form that affidavit would take? "I attest upon my honour that the individuals in question are regularly fucking. I personally attended on the following occasions..."

 

[Roguey]

Preservin'

I’m sorry but fuck him. He was kicked out because he was constantly drunk and high on ecstasy in the office and refused to write for the games they were contractually obligated to produce. I’m tired of the world sucking his dick because he worked on a few good games, which were majority written by other people.

Yes their executive management team had issue, mistakes were made, but he needs to get over Obsidian and move the fuck on, they clearly have.

I used be friends with him, literally signed an affidavit for his marriage (his wife lived with me when she first got to the states after a brief stint at a Disney program in Florida). I’m just tired of him bad mouthing a studio I have friends still at. He’s not hurting the executive management, he’s hurting the employees at this point by tarnishing their reputation.

Also, he’s doing amazing things, grow the fuck up and move on from it.

His wife is from Australia and she’s great, but when there’s a marriage like that you need to have witnesses validate the relationship and sign a statement, I was one of two that I know of.
He’s not a bad person, but he’s like a high school ex that can’t get over the past.

He was drunk and or high as hell when he kept writing in that thread. No proof on that, but a guess based on how ridiculous it was.

Aside from us day drinking and him going back to the office fucked beyond belief? That’s how I know. He’s also required to have a handler at Dragoncon now because of his drug and alcohol problem. Literally missed his panel and then stumbled into someone else’s and stole the mic. They no longer welcome him back unless he has a handler to stick with him and keep him out of trouble.

Some friend!



Surely there's more people who can discuss the Dragoncon incident. I mean a crowd of people had to see that, right?

Edit: Apparently this was something that may or may not have happened in 2013 and a cursory glance shows no one mentioning it at all. Sounds suspicious. Then again DragonCon is one big nerd orgy and I suppose there could be a "What happens there stays there" policy (which this guy is breaking ).