Interview The Odd Couple: Obsidian, Square Enix and Dungeon Siege III

[Jaime Lannister]

Re: The Odd Couple: Obsidian, Square Enix and Dungeon Siege

Yes, now that Obsidian have proper publishing support by LucasArts everything will be good. Promise.</p>

 

[circ]

Let's get back to the NWN 2 engine. If Sirtech had made JA 3 using the NWN 2 engine, then maybe, maybe I would have thought something of it. But as it is, it's shit, and anything Obsidian did with it, no matter what the story, is just as shitty because they have no talented artists, and I'm not sure they have any talent in any other areas either. Except somehow staying a float with new shitty releases.

 

[1eyedking]

LOL. Now I understand why the guy thinks anime is teh shit.

Says the guy who proved he doesn't have a clue of art. Plus, memory fail. I don't like anime.

Just because an answer seems unlikely, doesn't mean it's illogical. You assume too much.

Jeez, I was talking about Radisshu.

And my Art is still better than your "art"

 

[Turjan]

Jeez, I was talking about Radisshu.

Sounds much better .

And my Art is still better than your "art"

Well, talking about quality is a completely different beast. And highly subjective .

 

[Ruprekt]

Obsidian always seem to make some really dumb and avoidable decision with their engines.

e.g. in NWN2 they chose to put normal maps on everything which causes massive slowdown and doesnt improve the visual quality (actually makes it worse).

 

[Xor]

Pretty sure Obsidian's programming department is one guy who took a CS class in high school.

Either that or it's run by a retard.

The latter is more likely and actually frighteningly common in the software world.

 

[1eyedking]

And highly subjective .

There's a certain degree of subjectivity, yes, but it's very quaint.

Jean-Jacques David's Oath of the Horatii, for example, buttfucks any Pollock mess made on a canvass from about every angle: force, emotion, style, technique, message, symbolism, resourcefulness, etc.

Modern "art" isn't art. It's just Jews and libtards playing at being artistes.

 

[circ]

Many years ago I found a cheap beat up old styrofoam lazyboy. It was extremely comfortable to sit on. I had some leftover paint, tiny canisters I had used for painting models, so decided to go Pollock on the otherwise pink lazyboy. If my last name had been Pollock, people would have sucked my cock to see that chair. Unfortunately, not everyone was appreciative of that comfy, pink and rainbow chair. My mom hated it. And one day, some years later, she had chucked it the fuck out and had bought me an expensive leather chair. And so ends the tale of the lost Pollock.

 

[Lockkaliber]

Why does people keep referring to those concept art pics as screenshots btw? If they somehow are screenshots the game looks awesome though.

 

[Turjan]

Jean-Jacques David's Oath of the Horatii, for example, buttfucks any Pollock mess made on a canvass from about every angle: force, emotion, style, technique, message, symbolism, resourcefulness, etc.

Modern "art" isn't art. It's just Jews and libtards playing at being artistes.

We will have to agree to disagree here. Even if I don't care for the stuff most people think of when they hear the name Pollock either, I don't really like that example of stiff formalism you brought as counterexample. Pollock is not only pouring paint on a canvas (see here for examples).

 

[Turjan]

Why does people keep referring to those concept art pics as screenshots btw? If they somehow are screenshots the game looks awesome though.

I don't know, either. If concept art resembled the game, Morrowind would look like this:

 

[circ]

Well that's pretty close to how Vivec turned out.

 

[Konjad]

Does Morrowind not look like this?

 

[Azrael the cat]

I played the game for about 12 hours, when it first came out, and I'd still immediately recognise that as Vivec. And be amazed at how closely the implementation matched the concept art.

 

[Turjan]

Well that's pretty close to how Vivec turned out.

I guess our definitions of "pretty close" are not quite that close.

Does Morrowind not look like this?

Much simpler. Because of the shitty engine, the city of Vivec is mostly dead on the outside, and everything is stashed into pretty much identical, separate and closed "cantons". Clothes are much simpler.

Here's an image of Vivec:

 

[Shannow]

The Spirit Eater was a good dumbfuck detector. Only those too dumb to learn the way it works and how to control it don't like it. It is pretty awesome once you figure it out, especially if you're playing an evil character.

Indeed. Everyone who claims that disliking the spirit-meter-mechanic is a moron, is, in fact, a moron.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic ... 57#1158757

 

[Gromnir]

The Spirit Eater was a good dumbfuck detector. Only those too dumb to learn the way it works and how to control it don't like it. It is pretty awesome once you figure it out, especially if you're playing an evil character.

you got it reversed. as soon as the busted and simplistic mechanic were understood, it became, at best, no more than a time-wasting task that added little to obsidian's game save for a bit o' extra tedium. at its worst, the mechanic could make overland travel prohibitive. the spirit hunger mechanic also were often so nonsensical as to beggar the imagination. for a goody character, 10 minutes of gameplay could result in a greater increase in hunger than would supposed 3 days of travel? that same 10 minutes might also result in as many law points as were otherwise available in +20 hours of gameplay. a druid might actively lie, steal, cheat and murder his way through the game, but a handful of suppress attemptswould leave him unable to level in his chosen class cause he were too lawful? okie dokie.

obsidian labored over a mechanic to reduce the abuse of party resting, and they came up with spirit hunger? but yeah, the mechanic were a very effective moron-detector... so, congrats.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

After SoZ I kinda of hoped that Obsidian would make their own RPG, in which they show what they've learned from their previous games, with party-dialogues, overland map from SoZ etc.
Oh well.

I'd be happy to have an extended trading game set in a fantasy universe using the SoZ approach. With the trading itself and the politics/companies expanded greatly, of course.

 

[circ]

Here's an image of Vivec:

Cherry picked to show it at its worst. I ran around the place, and never ran into some panoramic wide view; and although I didn't see any of the open space market places as shown in the concept art, up close, it's a close match. Same goes for the denizens.

 

[Radisshu]

LOL. Now I understand why the guy thinks anime is teh shit.

Says the guy who proved he doesn't have a clue of art. Plus, memory fail. I don't like anime.

Just because an answer seems unlikely, doesn't mean it's illogical. You assume too much.

Jeez, I was talking about Radisshu.

And my Art is still better than your "art"

I don't think anime is the shit. I never said anime is the shit. I simply said all anime isn't shit.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

And highly subjective .

There's a certain degree of subjectivity, yes, but it's very quaint.

Jean-Jacques David's Oath of the Horatii, for example, buttfucks any Pollock mess made on a canvass from about every angle: force, emotion, style, technique, message, symbolism, resourcefulness, etc.

Modern "art" isn't art. It's just Jews and libtards playing at being artistes.

It's a bit subjective, yes, but in the end the kind I like is just better.

 

[Turjan]

Cherry picked to show it at its worst. I ran around the place, and never ran into some panoramic wide view;...

Sure. The ingame fog was very close, so you hardly ever saw more than the edge of the next canton at best.

...and although I didn't see any of the open space market places as shown in the concept art,...

That's because the game doesn't have any.

I know the reason why the game doesn't look like that, but our topic here is the difference between concept art and ingame screenshots. The art direction is close enough, but whereas the Vivec concept art conveys the image of a bustling city, the actual ingame place doesn't do that. Vivec in game is dead. Which in my opinion is a big difference.

At least nobody will call concept art that looks like that "screenshots".

 

[1eyedking]

It's a bit subjective, yes, but in the end the kind I like is just better.

Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is art yet I don't like it. Sfumato at it's best, but I find other kinds of paintings more appealing (the more dramatic ones, specifically).

In more or less the same vein I find Arcanum to fit the definition of a true RPG, along with both Fallout games, yet I think of it as quite mediocre, actually.

More examples? Most well composed symphonies are indubitably art, yet I find them boring and prefer the more compact appeal of sonatas, fugues, preludes, and suites.

 

[Radisshu]

Well that's pretty close to how Vivec turned out.

I guess our definitions of "pretty close" are not quite that close.

Does Morrowind not look like this?

Much simpler. Because of the shitty engine, the city of Vivec is mostly dead on the outside, and everything is stashed into pretty much identical, separate and closed "cantons". Clothes are much simpler.

Here's an image of Vivec:

Got to agree with you there, when I first found Vivec I assumed it was abandoned.

 

[laclongquan]

I l ike Morrowind well enough, but in the end, it's a dead world. Static. And that's why I left the game.

Dead world. Dead characters. Dead story. Dead dead dead dead.