The time and budget those guys had for Chaos Chronicles was laughable compared to what Obsidian got. Plus the manpower. Plus the experience. Plus the asset resources.
And a 13-day pipeline for a single 3x3 area speaks for itself. Baking shaders, baking lightmap, the 2D touches. That process can easily be kept down at 10 days max without the extra steps for 2D.
One thing that can be said to the absolute advantage of 2D is performance. That could be a good reason to use 2D, to maximise your target hardware range but would they really need it at this age? Perhaps, perhaps not, I have no idea.
At any rate, discard Chaos Chronicles. There are plenty other examples. When people with far less resources make far better looking games, you gotta start questioning.
Surf Solar Heresy detected ITT.
If Obsidian said "we are doing 3D but completely in the style of 2D IE games, see our example here", it wouldn't change a thing.
There would be a shitstorm. Including from you, probably. TITTY ANGLES, OBSIDIAN'S UNDERSTANDING CAMERA CONTROLS IS FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED, etc.
Well, I'm running forth an ideal in my head here. Of course Obsidian would TOTALLY fuck it up with PERSPECTIVE and retarded camera. They had absolutely no reason to have such craptastic view with NWN2 + expansions or DS3 but oh no, they just can't help it. Just take a look at Wasteland 2 for heaven's sake. The game looks ugly and not the least for its cheap European shovelware look but also because of the absolute shit camera angles. Brian & Co can delude themselves all they want about it. We all saw the game videos and how shit got obstructed behind stuff ALL THE TIME due to perspective when it wouldn't in an orthographic render or a low-FoV angle.
Otherwise, of course I am mighty happy we are getting a beautiful 2D game (WL can suck my ass with its cheap Euro shovelware look). I am only lamenting all the things that could be but are not.
Case in point, Sawyer talking back and forth about what a great game Darklands is and how he would love to make a Darklands game. But he should tell us all, if he is
sucha great fan of Darklands, how come not a
single game he has been heavily involved with carry any influence from it? Why do their games end up simplistic crap console games over and over again, compared to mechanical elegance of Darklands? How is that
any different from Todd Howard telling the world, pre-Fallout 3, that he is such a great fan of the original Fallouts? And heavens forbid he develop an actual Darklands title. His treatment of a DL game wouldn't be much different than Bethesda's treatment of FO, what with is full submission to console crap design and idiot-proof balancing. He certainly talks way too much about design theory when not a single game he has been involved with had any mechanical depth or joy. He certainly has the skill but he is too far gone to use it right.
Dear, I'm loaded today.
