Wasteland Wasteland 3 Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Ivan]

Are skill checks still on a cooldown when exploring? Or is it more instantaneous?

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/wasteland-3-is-a-massive-upgrade-from-its-predeces/1100-6469334/

Wasteland 3 Is A Massive Upgrade From Its Predecessor
Set for release sometime in 2020 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Following the massive successes of crowdfunded revival projects for Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, developer InXile Entertainment is prepping another visit to post-apocalyptic North America with Wasteland 3. Similar to its predecessor, the upcoming post-apocalyptic tactical-RPG puts you in the role of a leader of a roaming squad of wasteland rangers. You'll explore the ruined wastes of the former United States of America, expanding your party and fighting bandits along the way. But eventually, you'll need to make some drastic choices that will--for better or worse--reshape the state of things in the ruins of the old world. During Gamescom 2019, we got the chance to dive into a short section of the game centering around a mission that tasked us to raid a bandit camp.

Moving away from the deserts of Nevada and the lush green locales of irradiated California, Wasteland 3 brings the Rangers further east to Colorado. In stark contrast to the previous games, Colorado is a frozen wasteland, making on-foot travel a significant challenge. This time around, the Rangers have a vehicle known as the Kodiak, a heavily armored--and heavily armed--all-terrain tank that can traverse the snow-covered landscape. Wasteland 3 is very much a continuation of what came before. However, the developers spent more time refining the core gameplay and sprucing up the presentation. Gone are the static character portraits and lines of scrolling texts, and in their place are fully voice-acted dialogue sequences, adding some gravitas to each interaction you have with characters in the post-apocalypse.


The Kodiak will help your team cover a lot of ground in the snow-covered landscape of post-apocalyptic Colorado.

According to the developers, last year's acquisition from Microsoft created a massive windfall of resources for their project. Speaking with lead level designer Jeremy Kopman, he described what happened when the game's budget had suddenly increased threefold.

"We spent a lot of time on [the production values], and then having Microsoft acquisition happen gave us more resources for this project," he said. "It gave us the chance to pause and redirect some aspects of the game. With that said, as far as gameplay and mechanics go, we didn't want the extra resources to change the game into something that's not Wasteland. However, this opportunity allowed us to get the game up to a much higher level than before, like having full voice-over and better visuals. It was an opportunity to expand the game that we wouldn't have had otherwise."

In the demo, we traversed the snow-covered landscape in our Kodiak in order to reach a bandit compound. To gain entrance, we had to use brute force to get past the guards. Utilizing using our squad's various skills and weapons, which included sniper rifles, heavy machine guns, and explosives. While you'll have plenty of choice in how you choose to engage with foes, such as using stealth or just letting loose with all your weapons, there are some opportunities to skip over fights entirely--either through some smart dialog choices or using your character's skills to open pathways around dangerous areas.

Much like the previous game, you'll control a party of unique characters with their skills and loadouts. While you'll often work together as a group to overcome the challenges, there are several opportunities for squad members to stand out and shine. As we ventured further into the compound, we found an alternate path into the following areas of the base. While we could take a different way, leading to several more combats encounters, this secondary path led us to an obstacle course filled with death-traps. Individual members of the party could use their unique lockpicking and beast-taming skills to overcome the bizarre challenges in the bandit obstacle course. Not only did this allow us the chance to learn more about the bandits and their hideout, but it also offered a pathway to the final encounter in the demo, allowing us to get the jump on the fiercest enemies in the base.


Your squad of Rangers will have to contend with all sorts of oddities in the wasteland.

Compared to its predecessor, Wasteland 3 looks to be a substantial upgrade compared to the previous game. This is especially noticeable during the core combat and dialog scenes. It's still very much in line with the previous game, yet it has an undeniably more modern look. I couldn't help but notice the similarities with other tactical RPGs like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and I think that's a great thing. While I enjoyed Wasteland 2, I can't deny that it felt somewhat unrefined in its approach, which sought to reinterpret the classic design of the 1990 game. Action and the flow felt more manageable, thanks in part to the more legible UI that made your planned actions and the reactions from enemies much more apparent.

Set for a full release sometime in 2020 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, Wasteland 3 is shaping up to be a solid follow-up that maintains the level of choice and agency from its predecessor--while also really seeing the stakes with its increased production quality. For more on Wasteland 3, be sure to check back with GameSpot for more info as it comes.

 

[Saduj]

The setting is what a twelve year old would think a fallout is

Uh .... you didn't play Wasteland 1, did you?

Nope,i haven't played it. Still the games have evolved quite a bit. I doubt that it is wise to market a post apocalyptical game with cannibals and shit to 12 year olds. On another had i doubt that there are many adults that will have fun playing a game filled with toilet humour for 50 hours. It feels like the devs never grew out of their teens. Zombra do you find this shit humourful?

I bought the original when I was fourteen. My twelve and eight year old brothers both loved it. The most notorious aspect of that game was the encounter where you end up killing a kid but we didn’t find that controversial as kids. We thought having enemies named “Biker Scum” was the edgiest part of the game. Back then kids weren’t so shielded. Bugs Bunny cartoons, which were ubiquitous at the time, contained much worse content for kids than Wasteland did.

Not sure you can say Wasteland 2 was marketed to 12 year olds considering it was a sequel to a 30 year old game. In any case, there was no toilet humor that I can recall....

 

[Zombra]

Not sure you can say Wasteland 2 was marketed to 12 year olds considering it was a sequel to a 30 year old game. In any case, there was no toilet humor that I can recall....

There was the one guy who gave you the mission to collect various kinds of excrement to make explosives with, with 1,001 conversational variations of the subtle, provocative double meaning in phrases such as "go take care of that shit". That sure never got old.

 

[Infinitron]

They gave that role to the Razer CEO guy who pledged $10k to the Kickstarter.

 

[Zombra]

Come to think of it, while I found Lt. Tan very dull and unfunny, in a way I am glad he was there. There was a poster on the official forums who was deeply affronted at the existence of profanity in the game, one of those puffed up sea lion type guys who is all "I prefer things Such-and-Such a Way, therefore I am Right and you are all Wrong" and posted 5000-word screeds at the drop of a hat. I think he even used flat earther style Inappropriate Capitals. Maybe Lt. Tan was inXile's way of saying fuck you to that guy.

 

[Saduj]

I stand corrected. Even after seeing the screen shot, I don’t remember that shit.

 

[Zombra]

I haven't watched any of the alpha videos for more than a few seconds. Is there evidence of equally "low" humor in W3? Anyone?

 

[Infinitron]

I haven't watched any of the alpha videos for more than a few seconds. Is there evidence of equally "low" humor in W3? Anyone?

How low is a foul-mouthed purple-haired psycho who talks to decapitated corpses?

 

[BEvers]

To be precise, he shoves his hands into the heads and uses them as sweary ventriloquist's dummies.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

How low is a foul-mouthed purple-haired psycho who talks to decapitated corpses?

One might say that it's allusion to the classics.

 

[Orma]

1. Do skills use still take an absurd amount of time? i.e opening a safe in wasteland 2
2. Why do you think combat is better?
3. Loading times?
4. Writing and dialogues quality? the videos showed less dialogue options

-No they resolve pretty much instantly now and are deterministic, so no trying over and over or save-scum

-Animations are faster, weapons felt better and there are new mechanics like aimed shots

-There was maybe 1 loading screen in the whole demo and I don't think it was long

-wasn't much of it besides the confrontation with the 'bad guy' at the end of the demo, which was servicable. You get the options to kill, arrest or even recruit him as a ranger, which I thought was cool

 

[Bohr]

A win for everyone

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.gamesradar.com/wasteland-3-gamescom-2019-preview/

"Go and make the best game that you possibly can" – How Microsoft is helping to evolve Wasteland 3
"Microsoft hasn't changed what game we are making at all", says InXile

Will Microsoft ruin the renaissance of the cRPG? That's been a question that I haven't wanted to confront for quite some time now, largely because I had feared what answer I might find. Microsoft acquired InXile Entertainment back in November 2018, and it's a move that left many worried that the company would interfere with InXile's desire to craft a particular style of RPGs. To make matters worse, it took just six months from the studio officially becoming a part of the Microsoft Studios group for it to announce that Wasteland 3 was to be pushed back to 2020.

This is the team that gave us Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and The Bard's Tale 4: Barrow's Deep – funded by fans through Kickstarter and Fig, it was able to move autonomously, seemingly unconcerned by what others in the broader RPG scene were doing. It's the studio founded by veterans of Interplay Productions, the studio that introduced children of the '80s to Fallout and Wasteland, and helped facilitate the evolution of the cRPG genre through the likes of Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate, and Icewind Dale. The last thing we need right now is for Xbox to stroll in and start interfering with a group of talented developers that are known for making niche games that are the result of a time warp, right?

As it should happen, that's exactly what Xbox has done; but not in the way that you might expect. "Microsoft basically came in, gave us a tonne of cash, and said go and make the best game that you possibly can," Brian Fargo, founder of inXile Entertainment, tells me before I get my hands on a new build of Wasteland 3. Fargo is laughing as he says this to me and I think I know why – Fargo knows that he's really got something special on his hands this time.

The return of the king
Not that Wasteland 3 wouldn't have been special without the support of Microsoft. It's just that with an influx of personnel, support, and resources that have flooded into InXile since November, the studio has been able to elevate the scope of Wasteland 3 beyond its wildest dreams – or, at least, beyond that which would have previously been possible. The game looks stunning, for starters; set in the freezing wastelands of Colorado, we finally get a post-apocalyptic game set in snowy alpines rather than desert expanses. The UI has been redesigned along with the character management and inventory systems (now shared among all of those in your party), in an instant exorcising the demons that plagued its predecessor. Combat too has been overhauled, feeling easier to manage and more intuitive – the wickedly fast turn-based combat making X-COM's action feel tame by comparison.

Fargo is keen to note that it isn't just the money that has made the difference here – although it certainly helps – it's something more invaluable than raw cash flow alone: InXile has been given time. "It's always the elephant in the room with game development, time. When you speak to the best developers in the industry – whether it is Rockstar or Blizzard – the biggest factor is always time. It's the same across the group, it's always time, time, time," Fargo tells me, explaining that for studios the size of InXile any amount of added time can make a world of difference. "We think a certain way about development and we are run very tightly as a result. We're not looking for three to six extra years, but three to six months. For a group like us, that can be night and day. Six months can make all the difference; six months could be a '10 on Metacritic' change for us."

The small delay to Spring 2020 means that Wasteland 3, a game that would have been otherwise nearing completion, is now seeing some huge quality of life changes being introduced to play that undoubtedly make it better than it was before. "The nice thing for InXile is that Microsoft hasn't changed what game we are making at all," Tim Campbell tells me, Wasteland 3's game director. "That is what some people I think were afraid of when they read about the acquisition. But really, Microsoft is just helping us do what we do but better, right?"

A voice in the wasteland
The most noticeable of these changes comes by way of the addition of voice-acting. Wasteland 2 was heavily praised because of its writing, it was a sharply penned RPG that brought a world defined by its quirks and dark humour to life. That's still at the heart of Wasteland 3, only now it has been vocalised – something that simply wouldn't have been possible before, as InXile worked with a modest budget and development timeframe. "We have hundreds of thousands of lines of dialogue in this game. That's not something... we wouldn't have had the physical resources to be able to voice all of that at all without Microsoft," Campbell continues. "Microsoft has come in and just made Wasteland 3 better. And that's an easy thing that I can point to, right, but it has been across the board."

"Microsoft has just been saying, 'do what you do, and do it better than before.' They don't want to change this game. They want InXile to be quirky and unique; they want Wasteland 3 to have dark humour, they just want to make it a better game – it's been really exciting to be involved in."

You can sense that when you play it – something early backers of Wasteland 3's original Fig crowdfunding campaign can do right now. The cinematic conversations and voice acting help bring new life to the world InXile has created, but it's the improvements to control, movement, and presentation that make you want to stay there. The overworld map is freaking gorgeous, while the menus and UI seems impossibly intuitive to navigate and use; InXile has learned a few lessons from Wasteland 2, and you absolutely see that reflected here.

It's also because InXile has been able to utilise departments within Microsoft to further smooth out the wrinkles in development. It's worth remembering that, up until November, this was to be a game published solely by Deep Silver – Wasteland 3 isn't an Xbox One exclusive, far from it – and yet the game is able to improve because of the company's involvement. "It goes beyond more time and resources, right?" Fargo continues. "Microsoft has a user research lab, which is going to give us feedback on the UI and what people are experiencing. And they have their localisation groups and their QA groups… I could go on, but you have to understand that it is allowing us to make a more robust product. Wasteland 3 players are going to get something much better than we could have done with just our limited resources."

If you find yourself lamenting the direction that Bethesda has taken Fallout in with Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 – a route that is almost unrecognisable to where the series first started – then maybe you should give Wasteland 3 a try. You needn't play the two previous games to have a good time, you just need to keep an open mind. The truth of the matter is that when it comes to Bethesda's RPGs, the charm and the quirks are gone, the depth and the detail sacrificed, and the character of the world is as bland as the colour palette overlaid on top of it. This would be difficult for me to reconcile with, were it not for Wasteland 3 off on the near horizon. It's a game that is decidedly old-school in its ethos, created with the sort of technology and budget that would have been unfathomable in 1988. This is the return of the king, the series that started it all with a sequel in better shape than I could ever have dared to dream it could be.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

I dunno. This franchise has never managed to interest me. It's weird because I love Fallout.

 

[ScrotumBroth]

Just casually took a shit on Bethesda, seems like low hanging fruit at this point.

 

[Ivan]

I dunno. This franchise has never managed to interest me. It's weird because I love Fallout.

The LA content has a stronger Fallout feel than the Arizona half. I loved the environmental puzzles you could tackle to solve certain quests.

 

[Curratum]

We all saw how much Microsoft helped them with the Director's Cut of BT4...

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Wasteland is getting a cute crossover with a new Xbox game! Maybe Pillars of Eternity will have one too since it seems like all the Xbox games are getting them!

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

"blood sprays".... "cute crossover"
Who are you?

 

[Infinitron]

https://screenrant.com/wasteland-3-preview/

Wasteland 3 Preview: Prepare Yourself For The All-Mighty Kodiak

It’s hard to ever feel completely safe in the post-apocalyptic wilds, but driving the mighty Kodiak through the snowy crumbled terrain of Wasteland 3 feels almost cozy. This massive durable vehicle in the newest sequel to the historic franchise is one of its most compelling new features, but a special preview of the game offers up some additional developments in the tactical gameplay and exploration, and it all feels like a pronounced upgrade from Wasteland 2.

It’s fairly well known by now, but inXile’s sequel was an early-stage Kickstarter success story, raising nearly $3 million and attracting gobs of attention for the original Wasteland, a formative CRPG from 1988 developed by Interplay, and whose influences can be felt in multiple games to follow (Interplay would later develop the original Fallout). With Wasteland 3, though, inXile (whose studio was recently acquired by Microsoft Studios) seeks to court gamers from all walks of life, not just the very particular niche beholden to the CRPG banner.

Their growing library includes such hits as the Planescape: Torment spiritual sequel, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and this proven track record carried Wasteland 3 to its successful Fig campaign, out-performing their Kickstarter goal for the prior game

The Wasteland 3 preview build offered us a mission for a Ranger Squad looking to bring balance to the wilds. The setting for the mission is Aspen, Colorado, but this time, players get a heavily armored vehicle to carry them to each new engagement. In a twist that is completely gob-smacking the first time, entering a hostile environment proves that the Kodiak isn’t just a mode of team transportation a la Final Fantasy’s classic airships, but a true-blue controllable combat unit which can crush enemies, fire at them from its mounted weapon, or provide immediate mid-fight cover.

It’s fascinating just to watch the Kodiak trundle into a battle, where it can pulverize otherwise viable cover to debris. Jeremy Kopman, lead level designer, needs to weigh and consider the increased potential offered to players with the Kodiak, beyond simply having a hulking war machine as a optional unit: "...with each [encounter], we want to ensure the player can use its overwhelming power in clever ways."

In some cases that might mean including larger than usual sections of cover and other objects that it can smash through, opening up new paths for the on-foot PCs to take, or closing off a path to funnel enemies into a kill box. In others, the player might be able to use gas grenades or other area denial weapons to smoke out fortified enemies, then run them down once they’re in the open. Smushing all the enemies in one run can be fun at times but would get repetitive after a while.

While we didn’t encounter anything as imposing as that during our time with the game, we did get to meet a cult of lunatics called The Breathers, ruled over by Victor Buchanan, the son of the Patriach. They’re holed up in Aspen, and are basically a violent and unpredictable faction of hallucinogen-huffing freaks in diving masks. Each member of The Breathers has a continuous stream of gaseous drugs pumped into their suits, and they’re accompanied by vicious robots, including buzz-saw-wielding metal spiders (these automatons are probably fully sober).

Combat in Wasteland 3 will probably look familiar to fans of the updated Shadowrun series or the recent tactical RPG Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, with the recognizable look of the AP-fueled movement in the former and the stealth potential from the latter. While you can go always go the guns-blazing route, enemy encampments with spread out snipers and guards can be whittled down one by one, an especially smart decision in areas where the Kodiak can’t travel and your team is outnumbered. Additionally, as is common to the Wasteland franchise, certain engagements can be circumvented or altered through the use of dialogue choices and such. In our playthrough, we were able to talk our way out of a boss battle, which required voluntarily taking hallucinogens and talking a psychotic rainbow-haired monster into accidentally blowing themselves up.

In another unique first for the series, Wasteland 3 will feature two-player co-op at launch, which is set to mix in with the turn-based gameplay in a way that can kind of be understood in single-player. Essentially, since entering combat only pulls in any enemy units within range, players can split up and take down an enemy fortress in pieces, locked into their own instanced battles. “Many scenarios already give an advantage to those who tactically spread their team out,” Kopman describes. “And, similarly, coordinating carefully with a co-op partner will give a distinct advantage such as flanking an enemy before combat begins. Similarly, if you leave guys behind (or your co-op partner is way off somewhere else) beginning combat with a split group could create a challenging situation. Communication is going to be key in either situation.”

For those who may not arrive to the game well-versed in CRPGs or turn-based tactics, inXile wants to draw in these players, the ones who never got into X-Com, the recent Pillars of Eternity games, or even the classic Fallouts. Just in our brief time with this build, Wasteland 3 sports a slick and friendly UI with a lot of approachable information and details sensibly positioned up front. There’s also what looks to be an exciting amount of loot, all of which affects a character’s look, allowing you to create a wild-looking squad sporting heavy armor, laser rifles, hobo shotguns, and baggy pants, with many wearable items affecting character stats and movement. At the start of a match, we were disappointed to discover that the heavy protective gear we had just put on only allowed us to take two steps per turn.

Upgradeable skills in Wasteland 3 involve your typical lock-picking and computer hacking and such, and the Animal Whisperer skill happily makes a triumphant return from Wasteland 2. This time, however, tamed animals can even pile into the Kodiak alongside your crew, which means you can fill it out with a menagerie and become some sort of deranged traveling Dr. Dolittle, if it suits you.

With a uniquely wintry post-apocalyptic setting, a fascinating armored vehicle, and the potential for some entertaining co-op tactical shenanigans, Wasteland 3 is one to watch out for.

Wasteland 3 is currently slated for release in spring of 2020, with versions planned for PC/Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One platforms.

 

[StaticSpine]

I dunno. This franchise has never managed to interest me. It's weird because I love Fallout.

The LA content has a stronger Fallout feel than the Arizona half. I loved the environmental puzzles you could tackle to solve certain quests.

I quote because this is so true.

 

[Neerasrc]

Early prediction:
Cyberpunk 2077 is very weak mechanically. No hope in vampire. Result: 2020 Best rpg: wasteland 3 hahah Hey, fargo. You're okay again.

(How did that happen. I did not understand too.)

 

[Daedalos]

WL3 will b GUD

 

[Kem0sabe]