The Outer Worlds 2 - the Earth Directorate strikes back - coming 2025

[MoistCloister]

I have a feeling this is going to be a LOT better than TOW1...

Not exactly shooting for the Moon, are they?

 

[Infinitron]

I have a feeling this is going to be a LOT better than TOW1...

Not exactly shooting for the Moon, are they?

The Redemption of Leonard Boyarsky. You know you want it!

A Shoutbox discussion of what it would take to make TOW2 better:

Infinitron: @Grauken I "enjoyed" TOW too, but it's just kind of a simple game, just not much there
Infinitron The most important thing that could make TOW2 better is if they can get their game engine to create more ambitious New Vegas-style scenarios
Grauken: you're a stronger man than most of us if you managed to enjoy it
Grauken: needed a lot better writing overall, a looooot
aweigh: it's unreal
aweigh: the problem isn't the engine, or at least not completely. list of things missing from TOW that are present in bethesda and warhorse games: NPC inventories, NPC schedules, NPC A.I. routines, NPC dwellings and houses, dynamic faction system, day and night cycle (with corresponding scripting changes in NPC behavior). It may seem inconsequential but these things feed into each other to create systemic scenarios which are impossible in TOW
Infinitron: @aweigh I agree but I consider those things engine features
aweigh: part of the reason is also because of the segregated world spaces. Beth also separates inside and outside cells but NPCs can still travel between them
aweigh: well i am sure such things could be hacked into unreal engine, i don't think that's the problem. the "problem" is that i believe obsidian does not have those goals to begin with
aweigh: warhorse hacked all of that crap into the cryengine, which is notoriously difficult
aweigh: to work with
Infinitron: Weird thing in TOW there's a portion of the game where the factions on Monarch start patrolling the world map and getting into battles if they encounter each other, but you can easily miss it
Infinitron: Maybe a remnant of a more ambitious open world design that got cut
aweigh: you will never see something as cool as as an NPC traveling between towns in TOW, both because the game won't have systems for it but also because there will never be a world space built with such things in mind. certainly not in TOW 1, anyway. now, that said, obsidian can still fake most of these things. there's nothing preventing them from making special NPCs which can be interacted with uniquely only during specific quests, in order to allow different objectives during the quest. like say make a specific NPC attack-able, give one NPC a specific routine to allow you to follow them around and maybe harass them when they go to bed or search their property
aweigh: without having to implement such things at a base level
Grauken: based autism
Infinitron: I don't think it necessarily has to provide a Gamebryo level of simulation but they need to have set pieces like the NCR assault on the Powder Ganger prison and things like that
Infinitron: Not just hub fetch quests all the time
aweigh: TOW 1 wasn't that bad, all things considered. i actually finished it which is more than i can say for some games. to be honest i'm not really that worried about the gameplay for part 2, i'm more worried about the quality of the writing
aweigh: there were brief moments of actual good writing in tow 1
aweigh: very brief
Grauken: lmao, brief he says
aweigh: i don't really know how difficult it is to implement such things into unreal. i've never seen an unreal engine game with any meaningful AI stuff tho
aweigh: the thing seems to shit itself almost instantly the second a UE game gets ambitious

 

[Quillon]

Didn't expect this coming this early or Awoved slipping so much makes it seem early.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

And yes, you can dumb!

For all it's fault, i glad that Outer Worlds still carrying the whole 1 INT playthoughts and even improved on it by having Skill checks mixed with dumb options.

 

[Butter]

What triangle do I need to twist to get the dumb playthrough?

 

[Jermu]

trailer:

more action, more weapons, more.. graphics

okay I'm sold goty

 

[Quillon]

trailer:

more action, more weapons, more.. graphics

okay I'm sold goty

is that the trying to be funny way of saying "we're creatively bankrupt"?

 

[Roguey]

Look man I’m starving for scifi RPGs so I’ll probably play this but I doubt this is going to do anything different or better from the first game.

Boyarsky's taking a more hands-on approach as the full time creative lead (whereas before he stretched himself thin by doing that and co-directing), so if the writing sucks it's because he himself sucks.

 

[Ryzer]

I like the intro : " Remember the good game we made 15 years ago".

 

[Grunker]

Look man I’m starving for scifi RPGs so I’ll probably play this but I doubt this is going to do anything different or better from the first game.

Boyarsky's taking a more hands-on approach as the full time creative lead (whereas before he stretched himself thin by doing that and co-directing), so if the writing sucks it's because he himself sucks.

Which it will, so he does

 

[Roguey]

Which it will, so he does

But Fallout..! Arcanum..! Bloodlines..!

Creative types typically degrade as they age, but I remain cautiously optimistic.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Boyarsky's taking a more hands-on approach as the full time creative lead (whereas before he stretched himself thin by doing that and co-directing), so if the writing sucks it's because he himself sucks.

Interesting. I thought he semi-retired like Tim.

 

[Grauken]

Which it will, so he does

But Fallout..! Arcanum..! Bloodlines..!

Creative types typically degrade as they age, but I remain cautiously optimistic.

He was satisfied enough with the "quality" of the first game to let it get published as is.

 

[Infinitron]

Not exactly. Leonard was visibly disappointed with the state of The Outer Worlds in interviews and retrospectives during its development and after its release.

Question is if he now cares enough to try harder and not phone this one in.

 

[Grunker]

Which it will, so he does

But Fallout..! Arcanum..! Bloodlines..!

Creative types typically degrade as they age, but I remain cautiously optimistic.

 

[Orange Clock]

Look man I’m starving for scifi RPGs so I’ll probably play this but I doubt this is going to do anything different or better from the first game.

Boyarsky's taking a more hands-on approach as the full time creative lead (whereas before he stretched himself thin by doing that and co-directing), so if the writing sucks it's because he himself sucks.

So are we to expect a long-nosed merchants breeding experiments? Or maybe blowing up some buildings and blaming it on some “terrorists”?

 

[Roguey]

Question is if he now cares enough to try harder and not phone this one in.

I wouldn't say he was phoning it in, just got caught up in that thing Adler/Avellone talked about

Brandon Adler did weigh in on production decisions, but he wasn't always listened to. For example, he told me that in all future titles, Josh should not do any companion design or writing for a long list of reasons (which made sense - the biggest point was the time it consumed vs. overseeing the project as Project Director). That said, Brandon doesn't run Obsidian, and while his instincts may be correct (I agreed when he told me his opinion), he doesn't have the authority to make that happen vs. the "owners".

This time around Adler's in charge and Boyarsky's just leading the writers so it looks like they're finally giving Brandon's method a try.

 

[Butter]

Brandon Adler sounds like the smartest man at Obsidian.

 

[Roguey]

Brandon Adler sounds like the smartest man at Obsidian.

I wouldn't say it's universally applicable. Planescape Torment was directed and largely written by the same guy. Pentiment was a small enough game where it wasn't a problem. For a big team-game like TOW, probably not the best thing to do. The larger the team, the more the roles should be specialized, probably.

 

[Child of Malkav]

This type of self-conscious style of '''''humor''''' is so cringe.

I'd take this over the bullshit we see today in the other trailers. Mostly out of desperation.

 

[Butter]

Brandon Adler sounds like the smartest man at Obsidian.

I wouldn't say it's universally applicable. Planescape Torment was directed and largely written by the same guy. Pentiment was a small enough game where it wasn't a problem. For a big team-game like TOW, probably not the best thing to do. The larger the team, the more the roles should be specialized, probably.

My introduction to Adler was him tard wrangling in the Pillars documentary.



In an age when Obsidian devs are dispassionate 9-5ers, there's no real room for anyone to wear multiple hats. These clowns are barely qualified to do a single task, let alone moonlighting.

 

[BlackheartXIII]

TOW2's appeal would likely represented on Avowed reception.

 

[v1c70r14]

But Fallout..! Arcanum..! Bloodlines..!

Diablo III.
The Outer Worlds.

 

[Infinitron]

Can love stand the time in tests? Here’s a sneak peek of The Outer Worlds 2 episode from Secret Level, the new gaming anthology series on Prime Video.

 

[Fearlessjay]

I was wondering. After the awfulness of Avowed this was a big surprise in that it actually looks good. Didn't realise Boyarsky was still involved.