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

[aweigh]

what's this about a "Patriarch"?

is this game pozzed now too?

 

[CyberModuled]

what's this about a "Patriarch"?

is this game pozzed now too?

Based on the older setup, the Patriarch is more or less the ruler of Colorado who asks/threatens the Desert Rangers to come to Colorado to establish a base there to keep his nation from falling apart with the threats that if you don't, one of his children might nuke the Rangers.

I think what MRY is talking about more is the game seemingly dropping a thematic approach of the children of the Patriarch (though they all still seem to be present).

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

what's this about a "Patriarch"?

is this game pozzed now too?

Patriarch loses its negative inferences when women are removed from the command hierarchy.

 

[aweigh]

Based on the older setup, the Patriarch is more or less the ruler of Colorado who asks/threatens the Desert Rangers to come to Colorado to establish a base there to keep his nation from falling apart with the threats that if you don't, one of his children might nuke the Rangers.

I think what MRY is talking about more is the game seemingly dropping a thematic approach of the children of the Patriarch (though they all still seem to be present).

Sounds interesting. Nice.

 

[DeepOcean]

Game seems better than Wasteland 2 but I hope the "humor" isn't LOL Random, that Vic Buchanam thing seems like something straight from Borderlands and that worries me. I know the argument that Wasteland was always supposedly to be wacky but being wacky shouldn't be the same as being shit. I guarantee you that spending 40 hs witnessing a game falling over himself trying at all costs to be funny and failing hard at it will get really tiresome and no amount of "But mah wackyness." arguments will make that any less awful.

There is interesting wacky like Flash Gordon and 60's scientific fiction comic books and retarded wacky like anything coming from Boderlands, I hope they can distinguish between the two. I just wanna play a game where I don't wish to shoot every character I meet on the face because of extreme doucheness. Really liked that they finally did what Fallout 1 did, the whole retro apocalypse but they chosen the 80's instead of the 50's as backdrop, it could be interesting to see where they go with it. This could be interesting, curious to see if George Ziets work save this one.

 

[Zombra]

[reasonable reservations about Wasteland 3 maybe being too silly]

I hope so too. Or rather, I hope they strike a strong balance. Nonstop jokes (in a narrative context) stop being funny real quick. But - Wasteland 2 had good pacing. Scary stuff, kinky stuff, batshit goofy stuff, scenes of horrific mass murder, normal straightforward people, freaks, religious types, understated cowboys, emotionless murder bots, etc. I suspect we are seeing the highlight reel of ridiculousness because they're not going to advertise "and then there's this guy who's really normal and boring". Time will tell of course.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

It wasn't non-stop jokes and memes in WL2 so not sure why would anyone expect it now.

 

[fantadomat]

It looks like shit from 12 year olds for 11 year olds. Lost any interest in it.

 

[Infinitron]

I like that it's clear they started out thinking everyone would be "V" something and then lost steam.

Maybe the V is only for boys. Heroic V names for boys (Victory, Valor!), more idealistic names for girls. Hypothesis can be checked if there's secretly another daughter.

As for the inspiration for the names being different - new generation, new rules? I mean there's a reason they turned out bad.

 

[Orma]

I feel like they tried really hard to make the latest trailer ''serious'' and emotional with the gay music etc, after the previous wacky one

 

[LudensCogitet]

i saw the new trailer and it was surprisingly bad. I'm not hating on the game as I am actually quite hyped for WL3 and I liked the previous trailers, but the trailer shown at the Xbox event had:

- bad narration/voice over
- Low FPS noticeable in the footage
- they didn't use V-Sync and there was camera stuttering when it panned around

Seemed really amateurish.

I'm kind of heartened that the trailer didn't "work" in some sense. It felt like they were trying to force a blockbuster "non-stop action" vibe for something that just doesn't have it, which means it might actually be an RPG.

Can you imagine if someone came to Microsoft with a trailer that actually showed what someone from the Codex would want to see? It'd be 10 minutes of repeating the same interaction to show the c&c, a bunch of menuing, and a run down of tactical combat scenarios.

I mean, I'd watch that trailer.

 

[luj1]

I feel like they tried really hard to make the latest trailer ''serious'' and emotional with the gay music etc, after the previous wacky one

They 'tried' but it still looks shit. You dont achieve 'seriousness' by hanging corpses on a Christmas tree. Their art director is obviously an uneducated plebeian.

The contemporary vocals are a thing now, btw. Used to attract maximum hipsterdom and the widest audience possible. Sign of desperation and lack of confidence in your product.

 

[ironmask]

That new trailer almost does everything from this parody video of movie trailers.

I hate "emotional" remixes of classic songs. It feels more pretentious then emotional.

 

[LESS T_T]

With pre-order and X019 announcement, Wasteland 3 has now entered the first page of Steam Top Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=popularwishlist&os=win

It was at a very low (lower than 100 IIRC) position last time I checked.

Is it selling well? For now, with release months away, not really. On the global top seller list it's lower than D:OS 2 without discount. (To be fair D:OS 2 is always selling well. It's almost comparable to Skyrim.)

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Sailor Woedica]

If Xbox is helping INxile this much with making their game extra glowy I can't wait for how much more amazing Obsidian's next rpgs are going to be!!!

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

"Go and make the best game that you possibly can" – How Microsoft is helping to evolve Wasteland 3

What impact will Microsoft have on the renaissance of the cRPG? That's a question that many have been unable – or otherwise unwilling – to confront for some time now. With Wasteland 3 set to launch of May 19, 2020, that question will be answered one way or the other.

The reason this has even became a topic of conversation is largely down to Microsoft acquiring InXile Entertainment back in November 2018. It was a move that left many worried that the publisher would interfere with InXile's innate ability to craft a particular (and rather niche) style of RPGs.

This is, after all, 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 May 19, 2020 out of Winter 2019 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.

 

[Alienman]

Anyone remember that first kickstarter pitch?

 

[Andhaira]

Thomas Beekers looks & sounds just like one would think someone with his name would look and sound like:

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Atchodas]

I want to be excited about this game, but then I remember WL2 release ....

 

[DeepOcean]

I'm not even expecting a revolution from this game, just Wasteland 2 second half with better combat and more polish. Is even possible for them to screw that up?

 

[OSK]

I'm not even expecting a revolution from this game, just Wasteland 2 second half with better combat and more polish. Is even possible for them to screw that up?

I'd still suggest waiting for the director's cut.

 

[Morkar Left]

Is it Zyklon B(eekers)?

 

[SniperHF]

but then I remember WL2 release

I really don't get this. And it's said about a lot of DC/EEs for whatever reason.

I played every single version of WL2 from pre-release to DC. If you enjoyed the DC of WL2 you would have enjoyed the initial version of Wl2. Maybe to a slightly lesser extent, but not that much.
The differences in gameplay are vastly overstated.

 

[Atchodas]

I really don't get this

Release version had save-breaking bugs where if you did not follow exact steps to complete some quests those said quests would get bugged and you could not progress trough the game, it happened on numerous quests in Act2 to the point where they would fix some quests in a patch just so you play trough it again complete the quest that was bugged in previous patch and get stuck in and break your save game in a town right after that. The second part of WL2 on release version was bugged mess.