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

[Van-d-all]

I don't think a simple mesh transform would have been outside the capability of their technology.

Because it's not. It's a development scope kind of decision IMHO. No variable width meshes, are insanely easier to make look right. Children on the other hand, are obviously cut to avoid controversies.

 

[Junmarko]

I am a rootless cosmopolitan

No fatties though, apparently body positivity is not a thing in The Outer Worlds.

Body Positivity. Another woke buzzword. This is the shit "rootless cosmopolitans" think about as they travel the world.

 

[Perkel]

Doing groundbreaker and the more i play the more bored i am.
This is Pillars of Eternity writing all over again, sterile and boring.
The company angle seeping through every dialog are completely killing any sense of character characters have.

It is like playing looong boring office meeting.
That game theme should be quest for some place or planet not whole fucking game.

It is fascinating how complete newbs like Owlcat can completely outpace and leave Obsidian in dust in therms of writing.

Redirect power to Edgewater or the Deserters, what did you choose?

To edgewater and then removed head of edgewater.
Such a amazing choice "rolls eyes"

 

[Van-d-all]

This is the shit "rootless cosmopolitans" think about as they travel the world.

Nah, they're clearly too occupied plotting the death of western civilization to care about low rank shills.

 

[hiciacit]

whats ace wlw

More importantly, I found this interesting and posted about it in the other thread:

Someone extracted a word list of words supposedly "banned"/filtered by the game: https://pastebin.com/jTDiYsAy

I'm not putting this shit on my HDD, can anyone check if this is accurate and words like

Spoiler

"Beaner", "Bimbo", "Cunt", "Darkie", "Dyke", "Faggot", "Feminazi", "Gays", "Gringo", "Hitler", "Homo", "Kaffir", "Lesbo", "Mongol", "Muslim", "Nazi", "Prostitute", "Queer", "Rape", "Retard", "Tranny", "Transexual", "Transgender"

etc. are also "unavailable"?

And if true, what does Obsidian have against the "Gays", "Muslim", "Queer" and "Transgender" anyway?

I see that "Queef" is still available. Just about what this game sounds like too.

 

[Prime Junta]

Body Positivity. Another woke buzzword. This is the shit "rootless cosmopolitans" think about as they travel the world.

Did you parse that as me advocating for body positivity?

 

[Roguey]

This. You become a writer by living, not by reading. You live a lot, and then, if you had it in you, you will be a writer. But the problem of graphomania has been around forever.

By his own admission, Chris Avellone was a fat meganerd when he wrote Torment.

You are expecting the writer, a valley girl, to have enough self-awareness to pass a Turing test. That itself is folly my friend.

Though Starks led the team, Boyarsky was the official narrative lead and they've indicated he wasn't phoning it in, unlike Sawyer on Deadfire. The buck stops there.

Wtf is a Southern Baptist? Don't expect everyone to know American muggle culture(?)...

Christians who started out pro-slavery but became pozzed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention#Recent_history

it's that there are no non-white people in the entire game, just whites inhabiting a broad range of character models.

Outer Worlds is actually based..?!

 

[Prime Junta]

By his own admission, Chris Avellone was a fat meganerd when he wrote Torment.

To create anything of value, you need an inner life. It doesn't matter how you get it. If you're a turbonerd you can get it by devouring masses of culture, preferably of higher than shit-tier quality. If you're a Hemingway you can get it by drinking shittons of whiskey, traveling the far corners of the earth, meeting lots of people, fucking some of them, and beating up some others.

But you do not get it if you stay in a safe middle-class bubble subsisting on safe pre-chewed popular culture and the twittersphere.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Though Starks led the team, Boyarsky was the official narrative lead and they've indicated he wasn't phoning it in, unlike Sawyer on Deadfire. The buck stops there.

Boyarsky is the valley girl I was referring to...

 

[just]

boyarsky was at blizzard for 10 years. that had to leave a mark on his soul

 

[RK47]

Redirect power to Edgewater or the Deserters, what did you choose?

if you direct to Edgewater - u can convince Reed that he's shit at his job and have Adelaide replace him.

 

[Junmarko]

Did you parse that as me advocating for body positivity?

You read a lot of womens magazines too by the sound of it.

 

[Terenty]

I finished it. It's okay.

Even fanboys cant muster "it's good"

 

[Daidre]

It's not that Parvati is a coconut, it's that there are no non-white people in the entire game, just whites inhabiting a broad range of character models. (No fatties though, apparently body positivity is not a thing in The Outer Worlds. Surprised nobody's complained about it yet.)

I am not past first planet, but are there Asians in-game? I do not remember seeing any on screens and videos.

Having someone vaguely Chinese/Korean-looking sprouting slogans would be a bit... interesting I guess.

 

[Van-d-all]

It's not that Parvati is a coconut, it's that there are no non-white people in the entire game, just whites inhabiting a broad range of character models. (No fatties though, apparently body positivity is not a thing in The Outer Worlds. Surprised nobody's complained about it yet.)

I am not past first planet, but are there Asians in-game? I do not remember seeing any on screens and videos.

Having someone vaguely Chinese/Korean-looking sprouting slogans would be a bit... interesting I guess.

Grundbreaker captain is quite clearly ethnic Chinese. There's also an Asian vendor there. Conversly though, the whole place is depicted as the last oasis of free will.

 

[Longshanks]

Best recent actiony-close-to-RPG I've played is RDR2 and this game looks nowhere near that level.

Eh what?

Ok not close for some RPG definitions (including mine for the overall game), but at times it felt more like one than many openworld action RPGs. Mostly due to world building and emergent or emergent-seeming gameplay. if it makes you more comfortable let's say best recent actiony-game-with-rpg-elements. What it seems to have over TOW is better writing and a far better realised world. It could have been truly great if R* had decided to advance their game design and also lean further into a more serious sim.

The only decisionmaking RDR2 has is absolute windowdressing. Missiondesign is so painfully linear that you literally fail the mission if you run 5 meters in the wrong direction. Yes it has some crafting and some barebone stats system, but so does every other AAA production nowadays.

You cant put that game on the same level as TOW in terms of roleplay mechanics. TOW may be a bit more surface level compared to classic rpgs, but there are almost always several ways to solve missions and the amount of C&C even in one quest surpasses that of the entirety of RDR2.



It has been said several times in this thread: If you want to criticize the game, do it properly. So far the Codex has been doing a very poor job at that imho.

Of course you're correct, it's why I said RDR2 is only "close" to an RPG and as I later clarified only in parts and those parts certainly do not include the main story (I already alluded to this - "could have been truly great if R* had decided to advance their game design").

I gave the specific aspects I consider RDR2 to do better than TOW. They do not include reactivity and RPG elements. As I said in my first post, TOW's attempt at these is the reason I might consider playing it. The world building and writing don't seem too enticing to me, whereas these were the aspects that drew me to RDR2 despite other design weaknesses, hence the contrast.

I'm not looking to trash TOW, simply stating the reasons I may or may not play it and referencing a game I have played recently (one of the few). Unless I do decide to play I won't be posting about it again.

 

[Prime Junta]

Did you parse that as me advocating for body positivity?

You read a lot of womens magazines to by the sound of it.

Gotta know the tune to which the devil is dancing, bruh.

Spoiler

More seriously: I am naturally curious and find myself quite often trying to get inside the heads of people. This means I spend a lot of time and effort trying to understand how they think. I'm also pretty good at this and I pick up the jargon quickly. I understand capitalist economics quite well (classical, neoliberal, Keynesian), I understand how the woke-net thinks and works, I've even been able to overcome some of my disgust to figure out what makes so-called 'race realists' tick, and yes I do keep an eye on women's magazines too. Half of humanity are women, it would be pretty remiss of me not to even try to understand the popular culture and entertainment that's directed at them.

Spoiler

I could probably larp a fairly convincing SJW, Sailor Woedica, or libertarian. For a while anyway, it's really tiring and I prefer to be at least a little bit sincere.

 

[Daidre]

Grundbreaker captain is quite clearly ethnic Chinese. There's also an Asian vendor there.

Oh. I checked it out - wow, so Parvati is Indian with asexual crash on Chinese lady. It is so... inclusive.

 

[DeepOcean]

boyarsky was at blizzard for 10 years. that had to leave a mark on his soul

Maybe it was in there where he learned how to create vapid, souless, consumer ready pop culture for man children.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Did you parse that as me advocating for body positivity?

You read a lot of womens magazines to by the sound of it.

Gotta know the tune to which the devil is dancing, bruh.

Spoiler

More seriously: I am naturally curious and find myself quite often trying to get inside the heads of people. This means I spend a lot of time and effort trying to understand how they think. I'm also pretty good at this and I pick up the jargon quickly. I understand capitalist economics quite well (classical, neoliberal, Keynesian), I understand how the woke-net thinks and works, I've even been able to overcome some of my disgust to figure out what makes so-called 'race realists' tick, and yes I do keep an eye on women's magazines too. Half of humanity are women, it would be pretty remiss of me not to even try to understand the popular culture and entertainment that's directed at them.

Spoiler

I could probably larp a fairly convincing SJW, Sailor Woedica, or libertarian. For a while anyway, it's really tiring and I prefer to be at least a little bit sincere.

I strongly recommend you to RP/larp as an actual psychopath for a medium to long period of time if you haven't already. The experience is fascinating, although maybe a bit too emotionally taxing.

 

[Haplo]

How does the combat compare to FNV? Even in FNV the combat was so easy that I could not travel with a companion. I found the combat challenging enough on the hardest setting when solo though especially against deathclaws and cazadores in the early game. Having a companion in FNV was like a IWIN button. They should really balance the difficulty on HARD so that going solo is really hard, but fighting with a companion is still challenging.

Its much faster-paced, more dynamic then FNV. A LOT more fun too.

But gets easy really fast. Guess you'd have to not optimize your character and gear choices, maybe then would have some challenge. Or go to Scylla right after Edgewater. But then I guess once you get some upgraded kit and some levels, you'd struggle to find challenges throughout the rest of the game.

I guess melee could be more challenging. Abusing the ranged sniping makes the combat much easier.

 

[cvv]

I wonder what there reasoning is here. "Let's save money by hiring brainlets for our most important department, that is the only reason we still are in business"?

I don't think it has anything to do with money. If you look at the press this game got, people are very happy with it

1. Most vidyas have always had absolutely trash tier writing. Developers have always considered writing unimportant because gamers don't give shit about writing and reviewers don't either so why should they? Plus even most gamers who do care can't tell good writing from their own fat ass anyway. They'd happily munch on a Larian game or a nuObsidian game proclaiming something about well written story and dialogues. And it's usually not due to stupidity but due to a lack of perspective. Nobody reads great literature anymore so nobody has proper reference points. If you only ate at McDonald's all your life you wouldn't have a clue about high-tier cuisine either.

2. Developers are under pressure to hire more women and since finding a quality female coder is on par with finding a Big Foot all those new female hires pile up in their art or writing departments. So while in the golden days games were written by neckbeard engineers today they're written by college age dangerhairs. I.e still trash but a different kind.

 

[just]

boyarsky was at blizzard for 10 years. that had to leave a mark on his soul

Maybe it was in there where he learned how to create vapid, souless, consumer ready pop culture for man children.

maybe he came up with the title reaper of souls as a cry for help
but you didnt listen

 

[Riddler]

I wonder what there reasoning is here. "Let's save money by hiring brainlets for our most important department, that is the only reason we still are in business"?

I don't think it has anything to do with money. If you look at the press this game got, people are very happy with it

1. Most vidyas have always had absolutely trash tier writing. Developers have always considered writing unimportant because gamers don't give shit about writing and reviewers don't either so why should they? Plus even most gamers who do care can't tell good writing from their own fat ass anyway. They'd happily munch on a Larian game or a nuObsidian game proclaiming something about well written story and dialogues. And it's usually not due to stupidity but due to a lack of perspective. Nobody reads great literature anymore so nobody has proper reference points. If you only ate at McDonald's all your life you wouldn't have a clue about high-tier cuisine either.

2. Developers are under pressure to hire more women and since finding a quality female coder is on par with finding a Big Foot all those new female hires pile up in their art or writing departments. So while in the golden days games were written by neckbeard engineers today they're written by college age dangerhairs. I.e still trash but a different kind.

I'm not looking for high art here, just passable writing and that has been accomplished many times in games. Consider Mass Effect for example, its simplistic popamole produced by Bioware, yet somehow they manage to create three different ideological factions (The council races) and give them a relatively fair shake, with examples of both successes and failure modes of all three. This is not fucking rockets science, this is the level of knock off B-list star wars books.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

I'm not looking for high art here, just passable writing and that has been accomplished many times in games. Consider Mass Effect for example, its simplistic popamole produced by Bioware, yet somehow they manage to conceptualize three different ideological factions (The council races) and give them a relatively fair shake, with examples of both successes and failure modes of all three. This is not fucking rockets science.

Agreed. The consistency at which the gaming industry fails to achieve even a basic level of competence is the real absurdity here.