Company News Go work at Obsidian on the Aliens RPG

[Forest Dweller]

skyway can't stand it when people don't pay attention to him.

 

[Andhaira]

That is teh thrid rpg?

 

[Rhalle]

Blizzard, the last big PC developer.

Whodathunkit?

And after the D3 and Starcraft ports, I guess the number of big PC developers then officially will be zero.

 

[Andhaira]

Well, Bioware is still around though its not a free company anymore

Maybe gariott will buy off Origin's rights and make a big splash.

What was teh third rpg obsidian was working on btw?

 

[Twinfalls]

'Paris, Texas' RPG

 

[Azrael the cat]

I actually like Obsidian's games...but...

"Free bottled water, sodas, coffee, energy drinks and more"


You know that you're screwed in the recruiting race against Bioware and Bethesda when you're throwing out 'we don't force our employees to die from dehydration' as a significant recruitment point...

 

[Jim Cojones]

Guy's, whats the third game from Obsidian?

Lost Souls

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Blizzard, the last big PC developer.

Whodathunkit?

And after the D3 and Starcraft ports, I guess the number of big PC developers then officially will be zero.

It'd actually be even more interesting if Blizzard fought tooth and nail for PC gaming till the very end.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Hmm, so apart from Protocol and Aliens, there is another Obsidian game in development.

It may well be in a conceptual stage.

@Skyway
I think the real problem is not so much that Obsidian is attempting to make a flashy simplistic mainstream game, but that they will likely be unable to deliver on the flashy part as well.

I mean, in a typical mainstream game, you might think, "OK, the gameplay might be shallow, but atleast it will look cool." And Obsidian games are never good on presentation.

Terrible music (MotB aside), terrible artwork, terrible graphics, cinematics suck, a few good voice actors, the rest terrible, none of that cool movie-like factor that comes into big-name mainstream games. Their trailers are absolute fail, and the company fails at hyping their games. They can't play on the mainstream playground either.

So they are going to fail on two fronts. This studio is gone.

 

[deranged]

- Proficiency in C/C++ and Microsoft Visual Studio

I would only program unmanaged C++ if it was to avoid anal rape in prison...

 

[MetalCraze]

I actually like Obsidian's games...but...

"Free bottled water, sodas, coffee, energy drinks and more"


You know that you're screwed in the recruiting race against Bioware and Bethesda when you're throwing out 'we don't force our employees to die from dehydration' as a significant recruitment point...

I'm sure that financial crisis is to blame.

 

[Pastel]

Guy's, whats the third game from Obsidian?

Lost Souls

If only...

Lost Souls is the cancelled PS:T sequel btw.

 

[bat_boro]

Maybe it's Baldur's Gate 3 or NWN 3, that third unknown RPG

 

[doctor_kaz]

I was wondering about the Aliens RPG the other day. Specifically, wondering if they were still working on it. I still can't figure out how this will be an RPG as basically every RPG other than perhaps Fallout has abilities that are based upon some kind of sci-fi or supernatural powers, something that doesn't exist in the Aliens universe (at least not with the humans). That's a very interesting idea when you consider the Alien franchise is practically dead -- unless there is a movie coming out soon that we don't know about yet. If they are hiring a function like "engine programmer", then that means we probably won't see it until maybe 2011.

My guess is that the unnamed game is a 4th Edition D&D game.

 

[Kiree]

I was wondering about the Aliens RPG the other day. Specifically, wondering if they were still working on it. I still can't figure out how this will be an RPG as basically every RPG other than perhaps Fallout has abilities that are based upon some kind of sci-fi or supernatural powers, something that doesn't exist in the Aliens universe (at least not with the humans).

It will be a spiritual sequel to Alpha Protocol.

 

[Deleted Member 10432]

Terrible music (MotB aside),

KotOR II's music was excellent.

none of that cool movie-like factor that comes into big-name mainstream games.

I'm not sure how much more a game can rely on cinematics than KotOR II does without being an actual film.

And possibly OEI are trying to actually make some money, for once. Which, to be quite honest, churning out Codex-approved stuff isn't going to do.

 

[Shannow]

I was wondering about the Aliens RPG the other day. Specifically, wondering if they were still working on it. I still can't figure out how this will be an RPG as basically every RPG other than perhaps Fallout has abilities that are based upon some kind of sci-fi or supernatural powers, something that doesn't exist in the Aliens universe (at least not with the humans). That's a very interesting idea when you consider the Alien franchise is practically dead -- unless there is a movie coming out soon that we don't know about yet. If they are hiring a function like "engine programmer", then that means we probably won't see it until maybe 2011.

Still hoping for an advanced JA2 clone *fingers crossed*

 

[fastpunk]

Terrible music (MotB aside)

No. Just no. MotB, SoZ and KotOR2 all had excellent music. That's 3 out of 4.

terrible artwork

KotOR2 and NWN2 OC had indeed mediocre artwork. But MotB and SoZ were both very good in this regard. Levels like The World Serpent temple, Yuan-Ti temple ruins, the Priory of Depths, Mulsantir and its Shadow counterpart, the Sunken City and Imaskari ruins in general look excellent, even with NWN2's old tech. Also, I find their games are chromatically consistent with the overall tone they try to set, which is something not that many devs manage to do in this gray and brown next-gen market.

It's too bad that they've always worked with old tech. I imagine the jump to UE3 is going to be difficult. Different standards, different requirements for modeling and animation etc. It's a totally different focus. My 2 cents: they need to do AP and Aliens and learn from their mistakes, they need experience with newer tech. Of course, they'll never be the "OMG 10/10 best game evah, did you see those graphics!?!?!!1!" next-gen developer, but they've got the opportunity to be one of the good ones.

 

[Wyrmlord]

My 2 cents: they need to do AP and Aliens and learn from their mistakes, they need experience with newer tech. Of course, they'll never be the "OMG 10/10 best game evah, did you see those graphics!?!?!!1!" next-gen developer, but they've got the opportunity to be one of the good ones.

Yes, they need to learn, but how many games do you make just to learn from them, before you actually start implementing what you know?

Chris Avellone once said that the reason the cinematics in MotB looked so good was because they learnt how to make Bioware style cinematics through KotOR 2 and NWN 2. Those games were the first time those specific devs had to work with full 3D cinematics, considering their previous game was a simple text 2D Icewind Dale 2.

So that's two games just for "learning", before they even started to show results with it. So they are doing all this, while those big name devs who know how to make fancy flashy mainstream games get an edge over them.

 

[Longshanks]

So that's two games just for "learning", before they even started to show results with it. So they are doing all this, while those big name devs who know how to make fancy flashy mainstream games get an edge over them.

This is weak reasoning, and contradicted by the example of Troika - omg, Bloodlines' graphics and animations will suck, because they've only made 2D text-based games previously. It would be more sensible to question their ability to make a quality action game, rather than worrying about the graphics and other presentation aspects as skills for the latter are much more easily transferred and are not part of core design. Graphical quality is more about focus than anything, the art style is where talent comes into it. AP may not quite be up with the very best looking games (as VtmB wasn't, though it did have better facial animations than any other), but neither was Fallout 3 or Mass Effect. I'd put money on facial animations being of better quality than Fallout 3's.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Their ability to make a quality action game is already questioned, and the only remote hope for such a game would be in the presentation, which will also likely be not good.

Have you even seen what they have said about the game's mechanics? It really sounds like a second-rate shooter.

 

[Andhaira]

I duno, what I hear about Alpha Protocol sounds sweet and actually made me interested in the game as opposed to being against it earler. I had thought it would be a 'realistic' action-rpg shooter. Now, it appears to be Deus Ex on steroids. Stats, cool powers, etc etc.

It is still single player and rela time, yes, and that sucks. I prefer a party based rpg with turnbased combat. but hey, as long as the combat is stat driven I can live with it. They also better have Katana's and specific Katana powers (Soul Slice: Slash at the air and send a cutting wave of soul enegery to cut your opponenets soul to ribbons!)

 

[Mister Arkham]

Maybe they're trying to pick up The Black Hound as an official product...

And what's this about Lost Souls? I've not heard of that one before.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

A proper Aliens RPG would be a mix of Jagged Alliance 2 with X-Com and 3D. But since this IS multi-plataform, I deem it FAIL already. Probrably going to be another Deus Ex wannabe. But then again, RPGs have been dead since 2004, Obsidian is just going with current tendencies.

 

[Jim Cojones]

And what's this about Lost Souls? I've not heard of that one before.

RPGWatch: Do you feel it would be a good idea to make a sequel to PS:T? If so, how do you envision it? If not, how about another game in the Planescape setting?

Chris Avellone: A long time ago, I did kick around the idea of two sequels. One was "Lost Souls," an adventure that allowed the player to experience the events surrounding Torment (both past and future) but the Nameless One wouldn't be in it - it would, however, feature Deionarra, some of the members of the player's first party (Xachariah), Fall-From-Grace, Ravel, Trias, and other major characters and see the Planescape universe from a different perspective. This didn't go much beyond a one-page vision statement, though, and I never submitted it for serious consideration.

One I felt less strongly about (but still liked) was "Planescape: Pariah", which allowed the player to take on the role of Dak'kon and try to unify the githzerai and githyanki, but again, that never went past the vision doc stage.

The reason I never submitted either one was because a direct sequel somehow feels wrong (I feel the game stands on its own, and I don't want to drag a rake through the first game).