Preview Wasteland 2 Preview in GameStar Magazine

[DeepOcean]

I hope will Wasteland 2 will trick console gaming Fallout 3ers and their kiddy allowance

This realy could happen!

I showed the WL2 Gameplay Video to my 16 year old cousin, and he said : "Wow, just like Fallout 3! When this game will be released?". After i told him that this game is TURNED BASED and have tons of unvoiced text to read he stares at me with with empty, "popamoled" eyes, closed the browser window and never talked about Wasteland 2 again.

BTW : He gave up Baldurs Gate during the character creation too.

I was more or less like him at that time (but Fallout 3 is too much bad taste ), gave up playing Fallout 1 demo when I discovered it was turn based but replayed years later and loved the shit of it, letting you loose on junktown without exposition about what the fuck is happening, no explanation about the interface and mechanics when you don't have any experience with TB games, that demo drove more people away than convinced them that Fallout was good. For some reason, cRPG developers have the tendency of hiding mechanics evn Shadowrun Returns do that, it is too much to ask for hard numbers for skills instead of generic "makes you better at shoot stuff"?

 

[Kem0sabe]

Boyarsky, Cain and Anderson formed Troika in 1998 after leaving Interplay where they created the classic RPG Fallout. Troika only created three games in the past six years: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (2001), The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003) and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004). These games catered to the niche RPG market, and although most were well received critically, the titles simply failed to generate enough revenue for the studio to survive. Arcanum was the company's best selling game, and it only managed to sell 234K units and generate sales of $8.8 million, according to the NPD Group. It was downhill from there; The Temple of Elemental Evil sold 128K units ($5.2 million) and Bloodlines sold a paltry 72K units ($3.4 million). It didn't help either that Bloodlines, which was published by Activision and powered by the Source/Half-Life 2 engine, was released at the same time as Valve's blockbuster first-person shooter sequel.​

Arcanum - 234K

The Temple of Elemental Evil - 128K

Bloodlines - 72K

Not sure what the time frame is on those sales numbers, but apart from Arcanum, those are pretty known ip's, and Bloodlines actually benefited from a lot of press for the simple fact it used source.

And they costed full AAA price upon launch, didn't received the same exposure as Wasteland 2 kickstarter and there was no digital market at that time. Bloodlines in particular was a buggy mess upon launch, was released along side with Half life 2 by the usual wisdom of Activision, Temple of Elemental Evil and Arcanum had no marketing (when I first saw them I thought it was some shitty unknown RPGs made by unknown shitty developers) and were both really unpolished and plagued by bugs upon launch. Troika was fucked many times by publishers, they didn't saw huge sales potential on cRPGs and didn't gave much support in term of marketing and QA to any of those three . Imagine how much sales Wasteland 2 is going to get and how much delicious butthurt by frustrated Biodrones we are going to get?

This.

And, btw those numbers 234k, 128k, 72k are NDP sales figures. There are from March 2005 .US retail copies only. In other worlds they have very little value as a tool to measure how W2 can sell in the future.

Yeah, i was not using them as a measuring stick for Wasteland 2, just as an example of how crpg's (the usual suspects excluded) don't usually pull big numbers, even when they rely on known ip's, (D&D, Vampire) and developers with established "cred" with the community (Troika/Fallout).

I think that with the price point they are aiming for and the reliance on digital distribution, they can and will achieve and surpass their sales target, the question is if it will be achieved in the long run or will they hit it early on, and how will that affect their development cycle for upcoming projects.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I was more or less like him at that time (but Fallout 3 is too much bad taste ), gave up playing Fallout 1 demo when I discovered it was turn based

I must confess I was like that too, never played Fallout 1, in '98 I gave up on the Fallout 2 demo (temple of trials) too quickly, although I had played turn based games before I did not like them at first. Could be an age thing, hats off to younger ones now who get it earlier.

 

[undecaf]

I think I still have my friends pirated copy of Fallout 2 from '98 in some of my drawers. I always loved how the game basically felt like an extension of the point and click adventuregames I played mostly at that time.

Speaking of which, a bit off topic. And this may or may not be an odd question. Was there ever a "feature" in Fallout 2 where if you named your character The Master, Arroyo would freak out - turning hostile after the temple (and possibly after the dialog with the elder) and screaming "The Master is back!" and such? When I was in the army, we a had Fallout 2 in NCO's rooms computer, and a fellow of mine who had never played the series had that occur to him. Can't recall what dialog options he chose with the elder, it's been ten years? I've never seen it again, and oddly enough it has bugged the shit out of me (yeah, the littlest of things...).

 

[Space Satan]

• Combat skills: Blunt Weapons, Bladed Weapons, Anti-Tank-Weapons, SMG, Shotguns, Energy Weapons, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifle, Handguns
• Scientific skills: Picklock, Safecrack, Alarm Disarm, Toaster Repair, Computer Tech, Synth Tech, Demolitions, Brute Force
• General skills: Silent Move, Salvaging, Hard Ass, B.S. Detector, Outdoorsman, Evasion, Leadership, Folklore, Animal Whisperer, Field Medic, Surgeon, Weapon Smithing, Field Stripping, Perception, Barter

WTF?

 

[Kem0sabe]

• Combat skills: Blunt Weapons, Bladed Weapons, Anti-Tank-Weapons, SMG, Shotguns, Energy Weapons, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifle, Handguns
• Scientific skills: Picklock, Safecrack, Alarm Disarm, Toaster Repair, Computer Tech, Synth Tech, Demolitions, Brute Force
• General skills: Silent Move, Salvaging, Hard Ass, B.S. Detector, Outdoorsman, Evasion, Leadership, Folklore, Animal Whisperer, Field Medic, Surgeon, Weapon Smithing, Field Stripping, Perception, Barter

WTF?

And your problem with these awesome skills is?

 

[undecaf]

What what the fuck?

 

[SwiftCrack]

i think about 500k in a first year at least..

If this happens this could be the real breakthrough for the Kickstarter/cRPG´s (again). Imagine the possibilities : More money for such games, full voiced over dialoges, cinematic sequenzes, Frostbite Egine, FPS Gameplay, modern UI´s... a Dream come true and the REAL incline!

this post is severely under-appreciated

 

[SwiftCrack]

• Combat skills: Blunt Weapons, Bladed Weapons, Anti-Tank-Weapons, SMG, Shotguns, Energy Weapons, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifle, Handguns
• Scientific skills: Picklock, Safecrack, Alarm Disarm, Toaster Repair, Computer Tech, Synth Tech, Demolitions, Brute Force
• General skills: Silent Move, Salvaging, Hard Ass, B.S. Detector, Outdoorsman, Evasion, Leadership, Folklore, Animal Whisperer, Field Medic, Surgeon, Weapon Smithing, Field Stripping, Perception, Barter

WTF?

Just to save you some disappointment, you won't be able to have $2.99 erotic novel romantic adventures either.

 

[Ramireza]

i think about 500k in a first year at least..

If this happens this could be the real breakthrough for the Kickstarter/cRPG´s (again). Imagine the possibilities : More money for such games, full voiced over dialoges, cinematic sequenzes, Frostbite Egine, FPS Gameplay, modern UI´s... a Dream come true and the REAL incline!

this post is severely under-appreciated

Maybe some ppl here noticed that i was not totaly serious?

 

[tuluse]

i think about 500k in a first year at least..

If this happens this could be the real breakthrough for the Kickstarter/cRPG´s (again). Imagine the possibilities : More money for such games, full voiced over dialoges, cinematic sequenzes, Frostbite Egine, FPS Gameplay, modern UI´s... a Dream come true and the REAL incline!

this post is severely under-appreciated

Maybe some ppl here noticed that i was not totaly serious?

There are some things you just don't joke about.

 

[Space Satan]

Well, I guees skills with that names were in original Wasteland. I never played it so I can only guess.
Toaster repair - traditional repair.
Brute Force - bash door, force lock.
Folklore -Speech?
Hard Ass - Intimidate?
Animal Whisperer -bonus damage vs animals?
they could easily go with simple names for skills.

 

[Infinitron]

Animal Whisperer = Animal Empathy

Folklore is the backer skill, it's not Speech.

Toaster Repair is just Toaster Repair.

The real question is why Brute Force is categorized as a scientific skill.

 

[Excidium]

The real question is why Brute Force is categorized as a scientific skill.

For lulz

 

[undecaf]

The real question is why Brute Force is categorized as a scientific skill.

It takes a lot of calculations on physics to determine how hard exactly you need to and should kick the door so that it opens and that you don't break your ankle. Force, mass, velocity, gravity, probabilities.

 

[Dantus12]

Toaster Repair is a Easter Egg from the original Wasteland .Those that repaired Toasters would get special rewards.
I mean this as potentially unique items . If it functions by the same principle in W2 is still a big secret.
Brute force is breaking locks, it's not a definitive science category it's more a knowledge ability , possibly because some locks cant be opened by "finger abilities."
Speech abilities are:
Savoire Faire persuasion based, but doesn't work on all NPC' s
Hard Ass: beating someone up or my guess being rude-unclear yet.
and Bullshit Detector : detecting lies.
Folklore is for campaign backers, so far exclusive additional knowledge about the world , and details about the world and it's inhabitants .
--------

 

[Excidium]

Hard Ass is probably intimidate with a cool name

Like BS Detector is empathy/sense motive/etc with a neatso name

I used to cringe at the "Brute Force" "skill" but it's all just funky names.

 

[Space Satan]

What Animal Whispering is for? There are no mounts in the game as far as i know. Taming dogs and other animals as possible companions?
i can see toasters as a king of currency in barter.

 

[Excidium]

What Animal Whispering is for? There are no mounts in the game as far as i know. Taming dogs and other animals as possible companions?
i can see toasters as a king of currency in barter.

Social skill for dealing with animals.

 

[Dantus12]

What Animal Whispering is for? There are no mounts in the game as far as i know. Taming dogs and other animals as possible companions?
i can see toasters as a king of currency in barter.

Prevents animals from attacking and makes it possible for some to follow us.
Direct:
A heart for animals is not bad thing , because then they follow us thru the game and prevent other animal atacks.

 

[Infinitron]

Space Satan Don't try to make too much sense of the skills. Discovering what they're good for is part of the experience in this particular subtype of CRPG.

 

[Space Satan]

Space Satan Don't try to make too much sense of the skills. Discovering what they're good for is part of the experience in this particular subtype of CRPG.

Really? On Codex? Guessing, gossiping and theorizing is like 99% of content over here.

Prevents animals from attacking and makes it possible for some to follow us.

What is the point of preventing their attack.they are a goddamn walking experience. And, it seems, crafting materials. And food.

 

[serch]

what about puggilism and brawling? didnt make the cut?

 

[Dantus12]

Space Satan Don't try to make too much sense of the skills. Discovering what they're good for is part of the experience in this particular subtype of CRPG.

Really? On Codex? Guessing, gossiping and theorizing is like 99% of content over here.

Prevents animals from attacking and makes it possible for some to follow us.

What is the point of preventing their attack.they are a goddamn walking experience. And, it seems, crafting materials. And food.

I don't know, maybe getting crafting components isn't directly tied to animals, maybe recycling like the Field Striping skill is sufficient for the needed upgrades
or the success is more character skill based than related to itemization. Nothing in the article about crafting from animal remains.
"Toaster Repair is a Easter Egg from the original Wasteland .Those that repaired Toasters would get special rewards.
I mean this as potentially unique items . If it functions by the same principle in W2 is still a big secret."

 

[undecaf]

what about puggilism and brawling? didnt make the cut?

Could go with Brute Force.