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

Beans00

Erudite
Shitposter
Joined
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Messages
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Step 1 - State that there is no difference between the 5-star rating system and the 1-10 scale:
So there really is no functional difference in using a 1-5 system and a 1-10 system with you rate games.

Step 2 - Immediately point out a difference between the 5-star rating system and the 1-10 scale:
I haven't even gotten into why rating scales which are curved towards the latter half of 0-10 scale are stupid.

Step 3 - Call the other person stupid and act like you don't wanna engage despite having engaged and struggled to come up with four epithets of which three are effectively synonyms:
But again, I was just roasting you and had no desire to actually address your shitty, low effort, smooth brained, half baked post regarding video game ratings.

Your Resident Zoomer tag isn't encouraging, but come, let us be friends, kumbaya and all that crap, and I shall help you overcome your condition.

The distinction lies precisely in how the two systems are customarily used by the public, with the 1-10 scale being - as you say - "curved" towards the latter half in practice. This might be down to the scale being familiar across various school systems and the pass/fail threshold embedded in the public psyche, or maybe something else, but you are correct that 1-10 basically translates to 5-10 with the lower grades reserved for "this pisses me off on a personal level." You'd be tempted to think it's just the 5-star scale multiplied by 2, but you'll find that many people actually reserve 10/10 for milestone titles, 8/10 and 9/10 match 4 stars sometimes, others even 7/10 gets thrown in there, and things become even more haphazard below that, i.e. too many choices and standards leads to pointless ambiguity. Things get even worse once users remember the existence of decimals. The 1-10 scale does the job, but far from ideally.

The 5-star system doesn't seem to carry the same baggage, and it's 3 stars midpoint is generally accepted as a mark of safe mediocrity, the bread and butter of our existence. Three stars means a hotel is decently comfortable, a videogame is okay to kill some time with absent a better alternative, or that your Codex posts have significantly improved from their current state. Also, since we're dealing with personal opinion and provided you don't give in to the temptation of "half stars", the limited granularity is useful in reflexively forcing the rater to be more decisive and abstract with their assessment. If a simple Like/Meh/Dislike is too reductive and a (genuine) 1-10 scale is wasted on an audience unfamiliar with your likes and dislikes, a 5-step scale strikes a bit of a balance.

More importantly, however, you're getting upset over a misunderstanding. Same as you wouldn't use metres to measure temperature, games like Fallout: New Vegas can be rated on either the 5-star scale or (suboptimally) on the 1-10 scale, but The Otter Worlds can only be measured on South Park's Couric scale.


Itschon hates everything that isn't underrail. Don't worry about him, he is heavily autistic and very sad about the armenia being shit on by azerbaijan and turkey so he uses this as an excuse to crusade against every non underrail game.



That said I....heavily disliked outer worlds(and liked underrail) I just don't feel the need to post essays and waste my time debating why outer worlds sucked.
 

Beans00

Erudite
Shitposter
Joined
Aug 27, 2008
Messages
1,734
So is TOW better than F4?


I played fallout 4 for the first time only because i was morbidly curious about this(I only played both games in like 2020-21?).

Combat is about the same in both -> bad.

Fallout 4 is like watching american dad. I'm sure it's entertaining if you're 12 or braindead, and occasionally there's something moderately entertaining but for the most part it's the worst kind of stupid.

The outer worlds is like watching the big bang theory. It's stupid and cringe while being pretentious. It also feels like the same thing over and over again.
 

ItsChon

Resident Zoomer
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Step 1 - State that there is no difference between the 5-star rating system and the 1-10 scale:
I quite literally considered putting in the disclaimer (going by your rating system), but I didn't add it in because the post was getting wordy enough as is. You can see as much here, where I went out of my way to address the poster instead of saying "when rating games".
So there really is no functional difference in using a 1-5 system and a 1-10 system when you rate games.
If you hadn't jumped in mid conversation, you would have probably understood what I was referring to, but whatever.
Step 2 - Immediately point out a difference between the 5-star rating system and the 1-10 scale:
The post you quoted has nothing to do with the differences between a five star rating system and a 0-10 rating scale. The statement you quoted is referring to the tendency to curve 0-10 rating scales, which is something I was discussing earlier in the thread. There are differences between a five star rating system, and a 0-10 rating system, and I obviously know those differences, so it's disingenuous of you to act like I'm contradicting myself for cheap internet points instead of actually giving the other poster the benefit of the doubt and trying to understand what they're trying to say.
Step 3 - Call the other person stupid and act like you don't wanna engage despite having engaged, and struggled to come up with four epithets of which three are effectively synonyms:
Only low effort and half baked are synonyms. Shit (bad) and smooth brained (unintelligent) are two different adjectives.
The distinction lies precisely in how the two systems are customarily used by the public, with the 1-10 scale being - as you say - "curved" towards the latter half in practice. This might be down to the scale being familiar across various school systems and the pass/fail threshold embedded in the public psyche, or maybe something else, but you are correct that 1-10 basically translates to 5-10 with the lower grades reserved for "this pisses me off on a personal level." You'd be tempted to think it's just the 5-star scale multiplied by 2, but you'll find that many people actually reserve 10/10 for milestone titles, 8/10 and 9/10 match 4 stars sometimes, others even 7/10 gets thrown in there, and things become even more haphazard below that, i.e. too many choices and standards leads to pointless ambiguity. Things get even worse once users remember the existence of decimals. The 1-10 scale does the job, but far from ideally.
I agree with everything you said here. Still, it's important to note that just because how the 0-10 scale is used doesn't mean the scale is bad, it just means the people using it are using it incorrectly.
The 5-star system doesn't seem to carry the same baggage, and it's 3 stars midpoint is generally accepted as a mark of safe mediocrity, the bread and butter of our existence. Three stars means a hotel is decently comfortable, a videogame is okay to kill some time with absent a better alternative, or that your Codex posts have significantly improved from their current state. Also, since we're dealing with personal opinion and provided you don't give in to the temptation of "half stars", the limited granularity is useful in reflexively forcing the rater to be more decisive and abstract with their assessment. If a simple Like/Meh/Dislike is too reductive and a (genuine) 1-10 scale is wasted on an audience unfamiliar with your likes and dislikes, a 5-step scale strikes a bit of a balance.
Again, I agree with most everything you said. Please find the post where I am shitting on 5-star rating systems. I think five star rating systems are often used far better than 0-10 systems due to aforementioned curving issue.

That being said, properly implemented 0-10 scale is superior to the 5 star rating system, because even if an audience is unfamiliar with the reviewers likes and dislikes, they can still get a rough idea of the games quality by just dividing by two. 0-10 is superior because it allows for precision and nuance, as well as comparing games.
More importantly, however, you're getting upset over a misunderstanding. Same as you wouldn't use metres to measure temperature, games like Fallout: New Vegas can be rated on either the 5-star scale or (suboptimally) on the 1-10 scale, but The Otter Worlds can only be measured on South Park's Couric scale.
1-10 is not sub optimal if implemented correctly. Also, I wasn't upset over a misunderstanding, I wasn't upset at all. I was just exercising my Codexian right to shit on someone who made a bad post and has shit taste in video games.
 

ItsChon

Resident Zoomer
Patron
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Itschon hates everything that isn't underrail.
List of great RPGs that aren't Underrail off the top of my head.

Baldur's Gate
Icewind Dale
Knights of the Old Republic
Kenshi
Disco Elysium
Planescape: Torment
Age of Decadence
Dungeon Rats
Tales of Maj'Eyal
Knights of the Chalice I
Knights of the Chalice II
Don't worry about him, he is heavily autistic and very sad about the armenia being shit on by azerbaijan and turkey so he uses this as an excuse to crusade against every non underrail game.
I crusade against shit RPGs. You will not find a single post where I am saying anything but praise for the RPGs listed above.

Also I will just note, Beans has been obsessed with me for months now and has pinged me many times on Codex discord trying to engage with me because he has repressed homosexual feelings for yours truly. He loves showing up in threads just to talk about me, and has expressed interest in my physical appearance. Let's just say I won't be surprised if he ends up sending me pictures of his penis and professing his undying love and affection. With Fork and SDG and Fluent banned, someone needs to take their place.
 

Spukrian

Savant
Joined
May 28, 2016
Messages
831
Location
Lost Continent of Mu
The problem with The Outer Worlds, well, two problems actually:

1. People expected more from Cain and Boyarsky.
2. False advertising mentioning Fallout New Vegas led to unfair comparisons.

That's why a lot of people care about this game despite them thinking it's mediocre.
 

IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
1,870,558
Yeah, from Boyarsky and Cain you expect a broken overly ambitious mess that has many memorable gaming moments when it's not crashing every 15 minutes, instead what you got is the most polished RPG to ever launch but there's nothing memorable about it whatsover.
 

Gargaune

Arcane
Joined
Mar 12, 2020
Messages
3,641
Fair enough, ItsChon, your rebuttals are well taken. I might quibble over some of them, but there's little point splitting hairs. I've just had an upset stomach for a couple of days now and it's making me cranky.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I also consider FNV to be pretty good...

RetardedDancingDonut.gif
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,762
I prefer Steam for big games (ugh I'm going to have to download and use Galaxy so I don't have to download and then delete 60 gb worth of installation files in 4 gb chunks) but any port in a storm.
Good news for me, Amazon is selling Steam codes for the same discounted price as GOG so I was able to acquire it without having to fool with Galaxy. :cool:

I'll be able to give this a proper assessment many months from now.
 

Late Bloomer

Scholar
Joined
Apr 7, 2022
Messages
3,993
If anyone has ever wondered how to polish a turd. A how to article.

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition Is Much More Than Just a Visual Upgrade


https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/03/03/outer-worlds-spacers-choice-edition/

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition Is Much More Than Just a Visual Upgrade​


When The Outer Worlds was released to critical success, we at Obsidian Entertainment were excited to see our community thoroughly enjoy this RPG that we felt was fun, fresh, and concise. Now that we’ve announced The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition, an upgrade for the new generation of hardware, we thought we’d go over some of the cool changes we are bringing in and the thought process behind it. If you aren’t familiar with the game, here’s a quick recap:

Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the edge of the galaxy, you awake decades after your planned date only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the colony. Explore the various planets and locations of Halcyon, including the mysterious Gorgon Asteroid and the delightful distillery on Eridanos. As you encounter various factions, all vying for power, the decisions you make determine how the narrative unfolds.

Since its release, over 5 million lucky spacers have explored the celestial bodies of Halcyon and taken an active part in the power struggle rocking the colony. Everything was going just fine. But then, just over a year later, the Xbox Series X and S arrived in people’s living rooms, pushing the boundaries of console gaming ever further. In a sense, the game was released in between two console generations. When opportunity insists on striking, it’s best to use a Prismatic Hammer.

Outer Worlds Spacer's Choice screenshot

Living on in the new console generation

With the release of this new generation of consoles, we wanted The Outer Worlds to live on for future spacers to enjoy. We wanted to make The Board proud and prevent this must-play RPG from aging prematurely as new games come rolling in, while at the same time providing a relevant, modernized space colonist experience for all newcomers to Halcyon. The technical capabilities introduced with the Xbox Series X and S made it clear there was room for improvement! Not just in how the game looks, but also regarding how the game feels.

This meant brushing up what were already some of the strengths of the core game: an engrossing storyline influenced by the in-game choices you make, quirky yet endearing companions – each with unique abilities and their own missions for you to help them complete – a freely diversified combat system yielding high-intensity encounters with your enemies, and much more…

Outer Worlds Spacer's Choice screenshot

The road to making the definitive version of The Outer Worlds

So we grabbed our spacer’s dev kits and got to work. Of course, we worked on visual improvements such as bringing 4K, 60FPS graphics, volumetric lighting, improved special effects, better particle physics, and enhancing the environments with increased asset density and visual storytelling.

But we also strived to create a smoother gaming experience by making the combat and companion AIs smarter, improved the open-world sensation through better depth, reworked the vistas already in the game, and updated weather variations. On top of that, we reworked character models and animations to improve the feel of the game. Finally, we thought this Spacer’s Choice Edition would make even more sense if it included the base game’s DLC expansions, Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos, so we did just that. Now the experience is even richer! And we increased the level cap to 99, to give players even more ways to build their character from the seven branches of the skill tree.

So, what are you waiting for, spacer? Halcyon calls to you! Get in your space pods, put yourself to cryo-sleep, and come play this hit RPG in its definitive version. The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition arrives on March 7.

If you already own The Outer Worlds base game (excluding via Xbox Game Pass) and its associated DLC, Peril on Gorgon and Murder on Eridanos, for Xbox One, you will be able to upgrade to The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition on Xbox Series X | S for a reduced purchase price.*

Outer Worlds Spacer's Choice upgrade path

*Based on Private Division’s suggested retail price for The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition. Actual price may differ. Limit of one upgrade per account. See platform store for details and terms. Players who own the digital version of the base game for Xbox One must be signed into an Xbox Series console using the same Microsoft Account they used to purchase the base game and its associated DLC for Xbox One.
 
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Duraframe300

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Messages
6,395
If anyone has ever wondered how to polish a turd. A how to article.

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition Is Much More Than Just a Visual Upgrade


https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/03/03/outer-worlds-spacers-choice-edition/
Wait they raised the level cap to 99?

WTF?


And we increased the level cap to 99, to give players even more ways to build their character from the seven branches of the skill tree.

Yeah, not sure that's the outcome buddy. Might as well cheat and give yourself every skill you'd want.

Is this the largest raise of a level cap ever? (jrpg's nonewithstanding)
 
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IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
1,870,558
Guess we'll see if they have anything in store beyond the visuals once patch notes drop. That being said, as an RPG, TOW is unfixable. But I always thought it could be salvaged into a fun RPG-lite-looter-shooter. All the components are there, just need some improvements to combat and some sawyering with the Supernova balance.
 

Ryzer

Arcane
Joined
May 1, 2020
Messages
7,751
Jesus Christ the cringe from the trailer :prosper:, I'm torn between the mediocre animations or the childish lines or the self-approval from journos ratings. I feel like this game is addressed primarily to fat redditors or children. That cannot be something else.
 
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orcinator

Liturgist
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Jan 23, 2016
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Location
Republic of Kongou
2. False advertising mentioning Fallout New Vegas led to unfair comparisons.
There is nothing false about the advertising. FNV is a game with bad gameplay that's carried by storyfag shit while Outer Worlds had bad gameplay and nothing to carry it.

So is TOW better than F4?
I think it's marginally less retarded in the plot department but is basically worse in every other way (and that's before you add the porn mods).
Yeah I find all these rpg shooters mediocre and boring.
People really need to realize that Call of Duty but you never take cover after playing for 30 minutes because you have dozens of stimpaks and can regenerate forever is worse than Call of Duty where you have to take cover.
Which is being unfair to Outer Worlds because they give you like 30 adreno(chrome) vials right at the start.
 

ItsChon

Resident Zoomer
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
People really need to realize that Call of Duty but you never take cover after playing for 30 minutes because you have dozens of stimpaks and can regenerate forever is worse than Call of Duty where you have to take cover.
Which is being unfair to Outer Worlds because they give you like 30 adreno(chrome) vials right at the start.
That's the thing, Call of Duty is a way better shooter than TOW. The mechanics that make up a good shooter are not conducive to a RPG system.
 

IHaveHugeNick

Arcane
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
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Gameplay-wise, I think the biggest mistake they've made was including those big open-air areas. Similar to KOTOR, TOW was at its best when you were diddling around space stations and stuff, while roaming around Monarch and such was paaainful and budget constrains were constantly showing.
 

Zboj Lamignat

Arcane
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Feb 15, 2012
Messages
5,778
I understand that this is a gamepass fodder game from a gamepass fodder dev, but still, are they fucking retarded with that price or what?
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
36,762
:lol: Universally negative reviews because the "performance upgrade" was a lie (it's the exact opposite, tanking fps for no real gain).

On the plus side, they didn't delist the old, superior version. I bought it early for nothing, but better safe than sorry (the jerks refused to even clarify if it would still be available in the future).
 

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