People News Colin McComb has joined Larian Studios

[Zed]

hope it's not another divinity game they'll be working on, not that I have very high hopes regardless

 

[Bladderfish]

Fuck. One has to wonder about Swen's sanity here. I love the Swen, but McComb's only game as a lead was a commercial and critical disaster. I played all the way through it, hoping it was going to be good, but it wasn't. It was 4 out of 10 material. Unworthy of its predecessor.

Why employ the guy whose only true test was, at best, mediocre?

And even though I agree that DOS2 had some SJW nonsense in it, there wasn't so much that it was ruined the game. Torment was the opposite.

Still, everything dies, I guess.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Told you to never trust Belgians. They are second only to Sweden in Europe. And lets be truthful here, all Larian games have shit stories, signs were there, look at fucking Dragon Commander absolute dogshit political drama.

 

[Zanzoken]

Larian the best non-indie RPG studio atm

I agree with this but at this point it's kind of like being the tallest midget, isn't it? The mid-major studios who participated in the Kickstarter cRPG renaissance have all failed. Larian may have failed the least but I am not really itching to go play D:OS again, or try its sequel.

Anyway, I guess we'll see if Swen knows what he is doing. It appears he is going "all in" for a third time now by expanding the studio so much. You have to wonder though why he would bring in McComb and the other dude after Numanuma failed so spectacularly.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Best non indie rpg developer in the west is still CD projekt, they shit all over the meager efforts that larian and obsidian managed to release.

 

[Infinitron]

From Colin's blog: http://colinmccomb.com/its-official/

IT’S OFFICIAL!
MAY 16, 2018 by COLIN

I’m happy to announce that I’m working with Larian Studios (makers of the excellent Divinity: Original Sin 2, among a host of other titles) as a senior narrative designer. The new project is really cool, the team is awesome, and they’re fully committed to making the best possible game. I am really, really excited to show it off (when the time is right).

For those curious or concerned: I finished my alpha work on Wasteland 3 (and found a little extra time for some revisions) before turning over my files. I parted on amicable terms, and I legitimately hope that the game does well. I wish everyone on the team the very best, with the hopes that we work together again someday. (also, I’m still damn proud of the work we did on Torment)

Given that I’m waking up to work with Europe at 6 am, my workday ends at 3 pm, so I’ll also have plenty of time to work on 3lb Games stuff as well. We’re updating our VR space shooter Space Dragon soon, and we’re working on another VR title that’s… well, I’ll wait til we have some GIFs to show off.

It’s looking like a fun summer.

So he's not moving anywhere.

 

[ScrotumBroth]

From Colin's blog: http://colinmccomb.com/its-official/

(also, I’m still damn proud of the work we did on Torment)

Major butt hemorrhaging incoming.

What are the chances he used "work" instead of "game" on purpose?

 

[baud]

Honestly the RPS guy is more of a kiss of death than Colin. I don't know what Larian is thinking, but they might as well hire homeless guys from the park, they have greater credentials.

Or perhaps he's just been hired because of his contacts with other journalist? So that Larian's game get good coverage by game "journalists". I remember that games with writers from RPS tended to get good coverage on RPS, when I was still getting news there.

 

[Zeriel]

Best non indie rpg developer in the west is still CD projekt, they shit all over the meager efforts that larian and obsidian managed to release.

I'm not sure I'd still call CDPR an RPG developer, to be honest. They're moving more towards action games with RPG elements. Maybe once upon a time that would have still earned them the moniker, but considering even Call of Duty has "RPG elements" now, I'm not so convinced.

I agree about the quality of their games, though.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Larian seems to be on good terms with WotC, so I'd rate them the most likely of any major studio to develop an official D&D CRPG. The D:OS engine should also work well as a base for a D&D game.
Maybe an official sequel to Planescape: Torment?

No more Black Hounds please. PnP labels are ticking time-bombs. If they aren't riddled with some evangelist drool, they'll start encroaching on success.

In-house is the way to go.

I disagree. I think the best CRPG are those constrained in some fashion by an already established game and rules. These people always think they can design their own system from scratch and while it sometimes works its mostly ends up being a colossal waste of time and resources. I think we could have more good games if studios were not always trying to also create an entire RPG system and world and lore with every game they make. I would have preferred some studios simply making AD&D modules using the ToEE engine or infinity engine the last 15-20 years over what we have instead. We would have dozens of good games instead of a handful IMO.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

A quick reminder

jesus, is that the same guy in all the pictures? I guess so, right? wtf

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I mean, they are obviously going to try to make again Larian a bethesda alike the moment they can

Nah, they will probably try to reach for a Bioware fanbase, now that BW itself is dead. D: OS 2 was already obnoxiously clear about that (still have mental scars after that one time when my character accidentally gave skeleton a blowjob - wtf Larian, I've never asked for this)
Eh, maybe that's a good thing. At least it will keep these people distracted. Before Larian gets bought by EA. And shot.

This is the correct analogy. Specifically, Larian are now what BioWare was in 2001 - the undisputed kings of isometric roleplaying. With the fairly underwhelming commercial reception of PoE2, it's clear that no other model comes close. Expect clones, lots of clones.

I guess, I really wanted to Like DoS and DoS 2 but they are truly fucking awful. The much celebrated combat is gimmicky and way overdone in that it completely breaks immersion for their to be constant barrels of acid or poison or whatever all over the god damn world.... in every nook and cranny their are these unexplained barrels of chemicals and shit. It would have been interesting if they existed a couple or three times in specific battles, but the way it was done was really annoying. I could not believe people thought it was good design.

Not to mention the other horrible design aspect of collecting pieces of string, and balls of ear wax or insect gonads to complete my baking and sewing kit. God its fucking tedious as fuck. I could not take more than 15 hours of it.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

From Colin's blog: http://colinmccomb.com/its-official/

(also, I’m still damn proud of the work we did on Torment)

Major butt hemorrhaging incoming.

What are the chances he used "work" instead of "game" on purpose?

I don't know..if he is an English speaker he used the word work instead of game because otherwise the sentence would make little sense (or mean something completely different, at best)

 

[ScrotumBroth]

There would obviously be a full stop after game.

The point is, he's proud of the work, but not (vocally) of end result, which is the only remotely interesting bit in otherwise generic statement.

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

Honestly the RPS guy is more of a kiss of death than Colin. I don't know what Larian is thinking, but they might as well hire homeless guys from the park, they have greater credentials.

Or perhaps he's just been hired because of his contacts with other journalist? So that Larian's game get good coverage by game "journalists". I remember that games with writers from RPS tended to get good coverage on RPS, when I was still getting news there.

Sven and his god damn schemes.

 

[Zeriel]

Honestly the RPS guy is more of a kiss of death than Colin. I don't know what Larian is thinking, but they might as well hire homeless guys from the park, they have greater credentials.

Or perhaps he's just been hired because of his contacts with other journalist? So that Larian's game get good coverage by game "journalists". I remember that games with writers from RPS tended to get good coverage on RPS, when I was still getting news there.

Sven and his god damn schemes.

If that was legitimately his plan it would be pretty retarded.

"Let me hire a bad writer to get favorable coverage from a website with MAYBE an influence of 10k purchases."

He could get better results by writing a single check to a Youtuber.

 

[DeepOcean]

NumaNuma writing with D:OS 2 gameplay design?




Oh Father, why did you forsaken me?

 

[Grauken]

D:OS 2 writing with NumaNuma gameplay wouldn't be much better

now, TOEE gameplay with PST writing I could get behind

 

[DeepOcean]

When Larian is done gentrifying RPGs, I will miss Bioware.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

I disagree. I think the best CRPG are those constrained in some fashion by an already established game and rules. These people always think they can design their own system from scratch and while it sometimes works its mostly ends up being a colossal waste of time and resources. I think we could have more good games if studios were not always trying to also create an entire RPG system and world and lore with every game they make. I would have preferred some studios simply making AD&D modules using the ToEE engine or infinity engine the last 15-20 years over what we have instead. We would have dozens of good games instead of a handful IMO.

I would prefer neither. How about nuking fantasy generic shit out of the orbit and doing any other thing, just for a change.

 

[Eyestabber]

Yet another shit sjw writer to join their recent hire of a shit sjw writer in the form of Adam Smith.

You all know how all this is going to end, more sjw shit all over larian's questionable content.

Adam Smith is a shit sjw writer now? Damn, what happened after The Wealth of Nations??? =/

 

[Junmarko]

I think the best CRPG are those constrained in some fashion by an already established game and rules.

Rule-sets can be easily adapted, Cain did it with GURPS<S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Bigger concern is for the lore/setting, it's just extra baggage. Everything you write needs to be approved twice so that it's "canonically sound" - pain in the neck for writers.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I think the best CRPG are those constrained in some fashion by an already established game and rules.

Rule-sets can be easily adapted, Cain did it with GURPS<S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Bigger concern is for the lore/setting, it's just extra baggage. Everything you write needs to be approved twice so that it's "canonically sound" - pain in the neck for writers.

then just use open source D20

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I disagree. I think the best CRPG are those constrained in some fashion by an already established game and rules. These people always think they can design their own system from scratch and while it sometimes works its mostly ends up being a colossal waste of time and resources. I think we could have more good games if studios were not always trying to also create an entire RPG system and world and lore with every game they make. I would have preferred some studios simply making AD&D modules using the ToEE engine or infinity engine the last 15-20 years over what we have instead. We would have dozens of good games instead of a handful IMO.

I would prefer neither. How about nuking fantasy generic shit out of the orbit and doing any other thing, just for a change.

there are all sorts of RPG's being made nowadays. Yeah, most of them suck, but that is not much of an argument for these people to keep making up their own shitty RPG systems. I just think making a good game is already hard enough. To add also creating an entire RPG and world to go along with it seems to make it that much more difficult. Yeah once fallout happened, what else?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

There would obviously be a full stop after game.

The point is, he's proud of the work, but not (vocally) of end result, which is the only remotely interesting bit in otherwise generic statement.

yeah I apologize, I knew what you meant, I was just being a dick.