Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity [BETA RELEASED, GO TO THE NEW THREAD]

[TheEntitledOne]

Well, frankly I find it difficult to be objective about Fallout or Fallout 2. Over the years since 1997-1998, I've played through Fallout six or seven times, and Fallout 2 at least a dozen times. I finally got tired of them sometime in 2007-2008. To this day, they're my favorite cRPGs of all time. I'm one of those rare beasts who prefers 2 to the original, though I freely admit the original is tighter and more pure, unlike DarkUnderlord 's mom.

I do however think it's okay for some locations not to yank down your pants and furiously turbo-suck your penis with how innovative and totally amazing they are. Not everything can be the downslope of the fucking rollercoaster. Some locations will be more humdrum than others by comparison. Vault City is the shit, though... great music, great atmosphere, filled with stupid pricks ruled by First Bitchizen Lynette, all of whom you'd like to kill but probably shouldn't (at least not right away). Good times.

I´m currently replaying Fallout 1, almost finished with the Cathedral (game), and although i love the game, i found it hard to put up with the archaic interface... stuff like having to kill my own npc followers because its the only way to get through a door they are blocking is just too "meta" for me to enjoy.

I don't think you needed to kill them. I always managed to make them move. Can't remember though.

Yeah, you usually manage to have them move away. Unless you are in some very narrow corridor, like in the place with the Gunners and the green goo.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Yeah, you usually manage to have them move away. Unless you are in some very narrow corridor, like in the place with the Gunners and the green goo.

I was stuck with them blocking my way in the elevators throughout the Military base, ended up having dogmeat fried in a force field and then killing ian (spelling?) with a shotgun to the nuts.

 

[Excidium]

That's why they tell you to save often.

 

[Rake]

http://kotaku.com/5968952/the-knigh...e-some-of-the-coolest-role+playing-games-ever

 

[Jaesun]

So.... the seven dwarves game was literally...... THE REAL Snow White and the seven dwarves? I just thought that was it's code name.

 

[Kalin]

You might think of Obsidian Entertainment as a mistreated genius, a talented group of game-makers responsible for unappreciated gems like Alpha Protocol and Neverwinter Nights 2.

 

[Aeschylus]

So.... the seven dwarves game was literally...... THE REAL Snow White and the seven dwarves? I just thought that was it's code name.

Seriously, that blew my mind. o_O

The article's perhaps a bit on the fawning side, but there's a lot of interesting tidbits in there too. Good read.

 

[Infinitron]

Unbelieving heathens of RPGWatch: http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/405064639945136650

crpgnut
Josh, we have rampant speculation over at RPGWatch about PE's total budget. Most believe that there is no way PE gets done for 4 million and that there is another form of money coming in (bank loan, private investors), can you comment?

JESawyer 2h
We're scheduling/budgeting it for the money we received during the Kickstarter. I don't know what that exact figure is, but Feargus would be a better person to ask.

 

[Hormalakh]

I didn't know Sawyer liked the teletubbies though. Tells you where this Project: Eternity game is going to go. Could be worse than DA2 and ME3 combined.

 

[Infinitron]

I didn't know Sawyer liked the teletubbies though. Tells you where this Project: Eternity game is going to go. Could be worse than DA2 and ME3 combined.

:moribund:

We have a thread about this in the News forum btw, take it there

 

[Arkeus]

You might think of Obsidian Entertainment as a mistreated genius, a talented group of game-makers responsible for unappreciated gems like Alpha Protocol and Neverwinter Nights 2.

Amusingly enough, while he spent some time ranting about KOTORII and whining about FO:NV, he didn't say anything about NWN2 and their expansions at all beyond them happening.

 

[Grunker]

You might think of Obsidian Entertainment as a mistreated genius, a talented group of game-makers responsible for unappreciated gems like Alpha Protocol and Neverwinter Nights 2.

 

[Excidium]

Somebody on Kotaku said something retarded!! WHOA

 

[Roguey]

You might think of Obsidian Entertainment as a mistreated genius, a talented group of game-makers responsible for unappreciated gems like Alpha Protocol and Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.

There I fixed it. A small group of people really like Alpha Protocol because of that whole narrative reactivity thing.

 

[Kem0sabe]

There I fixed it. A small group of people really like Alpha Protocol because of that whole narrative reactivity thing.

I enjoyed Alpha Protocol, even tho it didn´t make much sense story wise and the pacing was off. But NW2, well... i don´t think anyone can defend the game, expansions not whitstanding.

 

[Grunker]

There I fixed it. A small group of people really like Alpha Protocol because of that whole narrative reactivity thing.

I enjoyed Alpha Protocol, even tho it didn´t make much sense story wise and the pacing was off. But NW2, well... i don´t think anyone can defend the game, expansions not whitstanding.

Welcome to the Codex. We quite like Mask of the Betrayer here.

(I'm not actually immensely fond of it myself as a game, but it's quite well-liked here)

 

[Infinitron]

I liked NWN2 OC when the game's plot turned into a clusterfuck of disparate factions attacking each other and the player. I think that stuff was mainly in Act 2, which is considered the best?

 

[Lancehead]

Alpha Protocol's speech mechanics were pretty good. I'd like to see the idea of exploration, info gathering (using skills like sabotage, hacking) offering new options in dialogue expanded in Eternity.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Welcome to the Codex. We quite like Mask of the Betrayer here.

(I'm not actually immensely fond of it myself as a game, but it's quite well-liked here)

I really disliked the OC, i´m not sure if it was down to the story itself or the bugs and technical problems, i didn´t replay it and it was a long time ago.

Mask of the Betrayer tho was pretty good, especially the pacing and how you ended the game, made it feel like i was replaying ToB. Still think that the best experience you can have with an Obsidian game is Fallout New Vegas, i loved everything in it... except maybe for the bugs.

 

[Grunker]

Alpha Protocol's speech mechanics were pretty good.

...and that was kindda it.

 

[Lancehead]

...and that was kindda it.

There was some other good stuff. Like mentioned above, the narrative reactivity, even though the narrative wasn't memorable at all. I like Heck and Sis; I think they're well done.

There's also some potential in the "hive" quest structure. In each of the hubs you can tackle the missions available in any order, and get the necessary info (without needing to complete all the missions) to unlock the main mission. Stuff you do in these missions can affect the main missions, like sabotaging so that the resistance is reduced in the main mission. Nothing ground-breaking, but potential there for non-linearity with decent amount of focus.

 

[coffeetable]

crpgnut
Josh, we have rampant speculation over at RPGWatch about PE's total budget. Most believe that there is no way PE gets done for 4 million and that there is another form of money coming in (bank loan, private investors), can you comment?

Eh? The staff breakdown posted as an early update implies there's a team of 28 working on PE (assuming the smallest pie chart segment corresponds to single dev). I've seen the cost of a developer-year estimated as $100k all-in, and 28 devs for 18 months is $4.2 million, which is in the right ballpark for their ~$4 million funding. It's also equivalent to ~80k man-hours of devtime, which again is in the same ballpark as BG2 (whose post-mortem claimed it had 90k man-hours sunk into it).

woo maths

 

[Dorateen]

But NW2, well... i don´t think anyone can defend the game, expansions not whitstanding.

I can defend it quite easily. Keeping in mind the context of the brand and franchise, NWN2 brought back the return of the classic fully controllable adventuring party and companion system. Unless you were a fan of the bioware model, playing a single PC with an idiotic "Expert Hirling" tagging along. You mentioned the expansions not withstanding, but each one made significant advancements in bringing the D&D computer gaming experience back to its roots. Culminating in Storm of Zehir with its open exploration, bleeding and death system, and party customization. This was all possible because of NWN2. The other developer would have never taken the game in this direction.

 

[Blaine]

Considering the unsalvageable beginning of NWN2's OC, it's difficult to fathom how anyone could suffer through it to reach the "good" parts. Some of you poor bastards must have been ravenous for any kind of cRPG at all. The engine was shit; the art direction (not the graphics, the ART DIRECTION) was shit; the bloom and saturation (or whatever) were fucking atrocious; the scenery, setting and characters were painfully generic; and the characters were shallow stereotypes. I did find the writing surprisingly inoffensive, if generic and crammed full of the usual fantasy tropes.

It's all well and good that they "brought old-school back" in some respects and managed to release some great expansions, but that's like adding glaze and sprinkles to a turd doughnut.

Of course I've come to realize that the Codex is willing to relish that turd for just the smallest taste of glaze and sprinkles, a depressing reality I may never come to terms with.

 

[Infinitron]

Some of you poor bastards must have been ravenous for any kind of cRPG at all

As a matter of fact, yes. It was the first D&D CRPG in 3 years at that point. And the only decent one since.