The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition - Obsidian's first-person sci-fi RPG set in a corporate space colony

[Prime Junta]

Once again I just have to stand in awe at the Codex's "ability" to crap on a good game and make it seem like the worst game ever.

Fluent. Bro. Listen.

TOW isn't the worst game ever.

TOW is mediocre.

Mediocre means that there's nothing horribly wrong with it, but there's nothing really right either. Mediocre is spending a lot of energy to make something that's not really worth making in the first place. Mediocre is decline. Mediocre is worse than bad, because bad usually has at least a spark of worth in it.

Stygian is an honourable failure. They tried to do something worth doing, but they weren't quite good enough to pull it off.

TOW is a dishonourable success. They had the proven creativity, ability, and resources to make something truly great, but they settled on something that's just okay.

This really is at the core of . It's not that they've forgotten how to make games, it's that they've gotten too chickenshit to try.

 

[Nano]

I've never seen Prime Junta so angry before.

 

[Prime Junta]

I've never seen Prime Junta so angry before.

I'M NOT ANGRY!!!

 

[AwesomeButton]

TOW is limp dick game development.

It's also a cultural movement.

EDIT
Citation:
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2...t-read-the-reviews-and-whats-next-for-the-ip/

Kurvitz said ZA/UM is less a studio and more a cultural movement in the vein of Dadaism or Fluxus, and they’re just using video games as their medium rather than theater or painting.

 

[Riddler]

This really is at the core of . It's not that they've forgotten how to make games, it's that they've gotten too chickenshit to try.

To be fair, it could be a bit of both.

 

[toro]

ToW is so mediocre and bland that I prefer to shitpost in the Disco Elysium's thread.

 

[Shackleton]

Yeah, I've really been trying to like it but I've just got to Monarch and I'm just... bored. Nothing is interesting enough to keep me hooked. Story is meh, combat is meh, everything is just so bland. Looting is unexciting, guns are all peashooters and it doesn't matter because everything dies so easily anyway. I enjoyed the first five hours or so but after that it just all seems so dull. The conversation with the Asian dude in Monarch, I found myself speedreading it and just mashing space to get through the convo, then I quit and have no desire to start it up again.

They played it safe and in doing so, made it terribly boring. Such a shame, I dared hope this might actually be a good game.

 

[Lacrymas]

IT BEGINS

Spoiler

That's a heterosexual encounter for gay/bi dudes. And ones without taste at that.

 

[ciox]

Have the elite researchers of the codex figured out a way yet to see what your actual critical chance is? Skills like Long Guns say they increase it by up to +190% or so, while base weapons all say their crit chance is 20%, does that mean my crit chance is nearly 60% just because I upped a skill a little or what is even going on here?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

This really is at the core of . It's not that they've forgotten how to make games, it's that they've gotten too chickenshit to try.

To be fair, it could be a bit of both.

If you watch that Gamasutra interview with Cainarsky from yesterday, Leonard was pretty clear-eyed about the game's core flaws (or at least what I consider its core flaws). He mentioned they had to cut a bunch of content as well as some mechanics fairly early, in the interest of making a more polished product. He straight up said he can't really enjoy The Outer Worlds for what it is, because every time he plays it he imagines how much better it could've been. I think we've all had that same experience with it, albeit to a greater or lesser extent.

If anything, the problem with The Outer Worlds is that Tim and Leonard know *too much* about making games. They know they made three flawed masterpieces at Troika and it drove their business into the ground. They know you only get one chance at a first impression. They know you don't get to make a sequel when you release an ambitious game that's full of bugs and doesn't sell very well right off the bat. They know the development process is a lot easier when you cut content early and often. They know a polished mediocrity will net them a bigger bonus than a flawed work of genius.

 

[Prime Junta]

All true Kyl Von Kull . I don't even hate them for selling out, as I said earlier we're all whores one way or another.

But I am still gonna call 'em like I see 'em.

 

[Shadenuat]

What does it have to do with pretty bland writing and uninspired quests and roleplaying system tho? Or difficulty?

You can make smaller game but that still draws you in. If anything, if game is smaller, every quest should have been Tarant/Caladon negotiations, not bringing cigarettes.

 

[Hot Coldman]

What does it have to do with pretty bland writing and uninspired quests and roleplaying system tho?

For some reason fo RPGs, cant speak for other genres, that's par the course for huge multi million dollar
"aaa"

 

[Nano]

They know you don't get to make a sequel when you release an ambitious game that's full of bugs and doesn't sell very well right off the bat.

Pillars 1 played it safe and the result was a flop sequel. Not that Pillars 2 was a lot more ambitious than Pillars 1, but there you go.

 

[Prime Junta]

What does it have to do with pretty bland writing and uninspired quests and roleplaying system tho? Or difficulty?

You can make smaller game but that still draws you in. If anything, if game is smaller, every quest should have been Tarant/Caladon negotiations, not bringing cigarettes.

They're playing it safe.

 

[toro]

This really is at the core of . It's not that they've forgotten how to make games, it's that they've gotten too chickenshit to try.

To be fair, it could be a bit of both.

If you watch that Gamasutra interview with Cainarsky from yesterday, Leonard was pretty clear-eyed about the game's core flaws (or at least what I consider its core flaws). He mentioned they had to cut a bunch of content as well as some mechanics fairly early, in the interest of making a more polished product. He straight up said he can't really enjoy The Outer Worlds for what it is, because every time he plays it he imagines how much better it could've been. I think we've all had that same experience with it, albeit to a greater or lesser extent.

If anything, the problem with The Outer Worlds is that Tim and Leonard know *too much* about making games. They know they made three flawed masterpieces at Troika and it drove their business into the ground. They know you only get one chance at a first impression. They know you don't get to make a sequel when you release an ambitious game that's full of bugs and doesn't sell very well right off the bat. They know the development process is a lot easier when you cut content early and often. They know a polished mediocrity will net them a bigger bonus than a flawed work of genius.

Unfortunately neither one of them know how feminine or attractive women really look.

 

[Hot Coldman]

What does it have to do with pretty bland writing and uninspired quests and roleplaying system tho? Or difficulty?

You can make smaller game but that still draws you in. If anything, if game is smaller, every quest should have been Tarant/Caladon negotiations, not bringing cigarettes.

They're playing it safe.

Yes this is the safest Obsidian RPG to date and I cant see them going back now that they've dumbed down this far. Meh. We'll see ;-)

 

[Shadenuat]

Playing it safe means not overextending, not just making everything shallow.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The game itself is a better commentary on capitalism than the actual content inside the game.

 

[The_Mask]

The game itself is a better commentary on capitalism than the actual content inside the game.

I fully agree with this statement.

 

[JDR13]

Parvati is the internet favorite companion because:
All the companions are boring as fuck, but Parvati is the only female companion that can be visually identified as a (gamebryo-esque potato-replica of a) human female.

I like her because she's a clone of Kaylee from Firefly. That's probably the only reason though.

absolutely not. kaylee might be sweet and kind but she has a pair of giant steel testicles. she knows what she wants, she speaks her mind, she's a natural engineering genius and she fucks like crazy. basmati is a retarded frigid wimp too scared to speak to people. fuck off you bloody fuck bloody.

And we have the idiot of the day here...

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

And we have the idiot of the day here...

and here we have the retard of the century.

 

[JDR13]

And we have the idiot of the day here...

and here we have the retard of the century.

Says the fucking moron who can't see the obvious.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Playing it safe means not overextending, not just making everything shallow.

I mean, are we just gonna pretend that there's no overlap here? You really have to thread the needle to avoid overextending yourself without making everything shallower.

 

[Quillon]

And we have the idiot of the day here...

and here we have the retard of the century.

Says the fucking moron who can't see the obvious.

my dad could beat both your dads!!!