I Think Obsidian is Trolling Bethesda

[Elfgore]

If someone told me that the announcement date was pushed forward due to the Fallout 76 issues, I'd believe them without too much evidence. I think the announcement trailer also really played up to that. Yes, all of it is factual... but come on. It's trying to say something. This is Fallout 2.0 for people who enjoyed New Vegas.

Only thing I can hope is it makes Bethesda pull their head out of their ass.

 

[Hawki]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3cRpYGVPsU

Definitely channeling Fallout.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3cRpYGVPsU

Definitely channeling Fallout.

And a gameplay video already!? Okay, things I took away from it in no particular order:

- Strictly first person. (But apparently does contain a character creator, so...maybe we'll see our characters in the menus? Cutscenes?)
- Single player.
- Silent protagonist. (This is a good thing. Fallout 4 showed why voicing character creations doesn't work well)
- Where ME has Paragon/Renegade and Alpha Protocol has Veteran/Pro/Suave/Thug, this one has Hero/Maniac/Moron. (I loved Malkavian in VTMB, so Maniac, obviously.) Interesting there's no obvious "evil" or sociopath/be-a-dick option.
- Gunplay, melee, weapon stats, damage types. Pistols, hammers, one handed scythes.
- Has bullet-time. (Well it is a console game too). Has lock-picking.
- Like KotOR/ME, two companions in the party, rest on ship. Unlike KotOR/ME, no romances.
- Like KotOR/ME, can use ship to travel between planets in the system.
- Companions give buffs to player while in the party. A "leadership" skill tree exists to optionally enhance them.
- There are conversation skills (Intimidate, Lie).
- Very Deus Ex-y, multiple ways to solve tasks, including non-violently. Maybe stealth is a thing?
- Dynamically take on negative traits, like a "Fear" of a certain enemy, granting a permanent penalty against them in exchange for a perk elsewhere. A very cool idea to really make a unique character with strengths and weaknesses.

And things learned from other sources:
- Co-created by Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain, the creators of Fallout.
- Unreal engine
- Rumoured Q2/Q4 2019 release. CP2077 is rumoured for a Q3 release.
- Player will get their own ship and meet all NPC companions within first third of the game. I suspect they'll have the usual selection of melee/ranged DPS and tank. Wondering if there'll be some CC/healing abilities.
- About the setting, from the Steam page:

Explore the corporate colony: Halcyon is a colony at the edge of the galaxy owned and operated by a corporate board. They control everything... except for the alien monsters left behind when the terraforming of the colony?s two planets didn?t exactly go according to plan. Find your ship, build your crew, and explore the settlements, space stations, and other intriguing locations throughout Halcyon.

Overall, it definitely feels like a blend of Shock-like and KotOR/ME, with a steam-punky sci fi style. A bit of a Fallout vibe, minus the post-apocalypse.

A final thought, since MS now owns Obsidian and this game is published by a 2K subsidiary (Thanks Geth), who owns the IP is an interesting one. Will this be a one-off or, depending on its success, might it spawn future sequels (and who will make/publish them)? Mass Effect is the only series that immediately comes to mind that switched publisher between its first title and its sequel.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Atleast, and this is me lowballing it, 50% of New Vegas was essentially made by Bethesda. Its fine to like the writing or setting better in NV, but lets not pretend that the actual gameplay is not literally Fallout 3. New Vegas did add proper aiming though, I will give them that.

Did anyone ever praise the gameplay mechanics of New Vegas for being so much more revolutionary than 3 though? The mechanics were the same, but the way it was essembled made NV a way better RPG experience. Speech was actually a proper skill.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Im officially hype for this game.

No romance is also good thing. instead of wasting time. concentrate on good level design and immersion.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Rage 2, Far Cry New Dawn and this game, sure is a lot of upcoming open world post-apocalyptic games with a bit of tongue in cheek and oversaturated colors. I mean, I don't particularly mind. It just stands out to me, like separate devs decided to make something Borderlands-y, since Gearbox isn't. Come to think of it, Gearbox should just announce 3 and we'll have four of these.

 

[Asita]

Yeah, you can count me in the "this feels Borderlands-y" group. Mind you, I'm quite content with that, as I quite like Borderlands.

Anyways, this trailer managed to pique my interest. I'll have to keep an eye on this game.

 

[Trunkage]

I didn't know Borderlands 3 was renamed... Anyway.

Hopefully, since they aren't trying to retroactively fit factions into 1950s pop culture, they could come up with something that at least interesting or original. They sort of did it in PoE, but that meant they didn't focus on how the factions interacted with each other, making the game disjointed.

"Good on you for shooting someone" is just as morally demaning as Fallout 3 morality system. Their trying to prove they don't have that morality system and utterly fail by showing they have a morality system. Over compensating at its worst. They also over compensating for the Bethesda 'don't move while talking" NPCs by having them jump all over the screen.

I hope that Obsidian isnt going to just try to be the opposite of Bethsheda. That's a terrible way to make a game. Also, be more like Alpha Protocol and less like NV please.

 

[Trunkage]

Atleast, and this is me lowballing it, 50% of New Vegas was essentially made by Bethesda. Its fine to like the writing or setting better in NV, but lets not pretend that the actual gameplay is not literally Fallout 3. New Vegas did add proper aiming though, I will give them that.

Did anyone ever praise the gameplay mechanics of New Vegas for being so much more revolutionary than 3 though? The mechanics were the same, but the way it was essembled made NV a way better RPG experience. Speech was actually a proper skill.

Oh, gawd, here we go....

You were definitely able to have more choices during the storyline in NV. But you had to tackle the game on Obsidians terms. They want you to listen to their story and screw everything else. Their desire to tell a story ruined the world map, locations, ability to explore and choices in how to engage with the game. It made the wastes feel lifeless unless you are interacting with a faction. Bethesda lets you do everything in any order but that leaves everything disjointed, like modules connected together. It's not interconnected. But they could tell stories that didn't have to tie to the overall plot, which has its advantages.

And I'm still deciding on this.... Whether the main story for F3 or NV is worse. Both I never cared for. Just because you build an army (which is cool), doesn't mean the overall conflict is profoundly stupid. A comparison would be watching the last season of Walking Dead taking on Negan. Just some toy models banging against each other because... we need to have a fight or its boring.

 

[Saelune]

Atleast, and this is me lowballing it, 50% of New Vegas was essentially made by Bethesda. Its fine to like the writing or setting better in NV, but lets not pretend that the actual gameplay is not literally Fallout 3. New Vegas did add proper aiming though, I will give them that.

Did anyone ever praise the gameplay mechanics of New Vegas for being so much more revolutionary than 3 though? The mechanics were the same, but the way it was essembled made NV a way better RPG experience. Speech was actually a proper skill.

Considering how much people called it the true Fallout sequel and bashed the fuck out of Bethesda despite it using the gameplay and hard work of Bethesda. People like to pretend Bethesda's Fallouts are terrible despite playing hundreds of hours of them.

 

[Dalisclock]

Atleast, and this is me lowballing it, 50% of New Vegas was essentially made by Bethesda. Its fine to like the writing or setting better in NV, but lets not pretend that the actual gameplay is not literally Fallout 3. New Vegas did add proper aiming though, I will give them that.

Did anyone ever praise the gameplay mechanics of New Vegas for being so much more revolutionary than 3 though? The mechanics were the same, but the way it was essembled made NV a way better RPG experience. Speech was actually a proper skill.

Considering how much people called it the true Fallout sequel and bashed the fuck out of Bethesda despite it using the gameplay and hard work of Bethesda. People like to pretend Bethesda's Fallouts are terrible despite playing hundreds of hours of them.

I generally liked Fallout 3(I haven't gotten around to Fallout 4 yet. Who knows when I will) but FO:NV felt more like the original games(FO + FO2), at least as far as factional consequences and writing went. It was still buggy as hell and I'll be first to admit even the original games were far from perfect(2 was buggy as hell upon release and still has a lot of obvious cut content, not to mention the shitty opening area). However, it felt like your alliengence to a particular faction in NV mattered and your decision who gets to run NV at the end kinda mattered as opposed to the stupid-ass "choice" you're given at the end of 3(before Broken Steel). You know the "Well, you can push the button and irradiate yourself because that rad-x and radaway suddenly doesn't work here because reasons" or "You can be a coward and ask the BoS Paladin to do it for you, dooming her to die", and the idea of sending one of your possibly immune to radiation party members(like the ghoul or the super mutant) in to just push to button at no inconvenience to themselves apparently couldn't be an option because fuck you, player. Suffer for our shitty writing decisions.

 

[Saelune]

Atleast, and this is me lowballing it, 50% of New Vegas was essentially made by Bethesda. Its fine to like the writing or setting better in NV, but lets not pretend that the actual gameplay is not literally Fallout 3. New Vegas did add proper aiming though, I will give them that.

Did anyone ever praise the gameplay mechanics of New Vegas for being so much more revolutionary than 3 though? The mechanics were the same, but the way it was essembled made NV a way better RPG experience. Speech was actually a proper skill.

Considering how much people called it the true Fallout sequel and bashed the fuck out of Bethesda despite it using the gameplay and hard work of Bethesda. People like to pretend Bethesda's Fallouts are terrible despite playing hundreds of hours of them.

I generally liked Fallout 3(I haven't gotten around to Fallout 4 yet. Who knows when I will) but FO:NV felt more like the original games(FO + FO2), at least as far as factional consequences and writing went. It was still buggy as hell and I'll be first to admit even the original games were far from perfect(2 was buggy as hell upon release and still has a lot of obvious cut content, not to mention the shitty opening area). However, it felt like your alliengence to a particular faction in NV mattered and your decision who gets to run NV at the end kinda mattered as opposed to the stupid-ass "choice" you're given at the end of 3(before Broken Steel). You know the "Well, you can push the button and irradiate yourself because that rad-x and radaway suddenly doesn't work here because reasons" or "You can be a coward and ask the BoS Paladin to do it for you, dooming her to die", and the idea of sending one of your possibly immune to radiation party members(like the ghoul or the super mutant) in to just push to button at no inconvenience to themselves apparently couldn't be an option because fuck you, player. Suffer for our shitty writing decisions.

I wont defend that ending of FO3, but I will defend the rest of the game.

 

[Saelune]

I want to be clear, my point here is that I think a lot of people just want to shit on Bethesda.

I don't think Obsidian is trolling Bethesda, and I think it is perfectly fine to like NV more than 3, or to prefer Fallout 1 and 2 over Bethesda's version of Fallout.

I just think a lot of people are dishonest about their real views.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I don't think Obsidian is trolling Bethesda

I think it is weird that this is even an opinion, like, do we actually think Obsidian or Private Divisions PR people are that petty? "From the creators of the original Fallout" is as close to a factual statement that you can possibly get, as both Cain and Boyarsky were the masterminds of the original Fallout. Equally "From the creators of Fallout: New Vegas" is also a factual statement, in that Obsidian did, in fact, develop it. There is nothing preceding or following those two statements that would suggest the trailer is taking a piss at Bethesda (such as a statement like "A game in the vein of Actual Fallout"), so I think you are absolutely right in suggesting that this is people seeing what they want to see, namely someone flipping Bethesda off.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I don't think Obsidian is trolling Bethesda

I think it is weird that this is even an opinion, like, do we actually think Obsidian or Private Divisions PR people are that petty? "From the creators of the original Fallout" is as close to a factual statement that you can possibly get, as both Cain and Boyarsky were the masterminds of the original Fallout. Equally "From the creators of Fallout: New Vegas" is also a factual statement, in that Obsidian did, in fact, develop it. There is nothing preceding or following those two statements that would suggest the trailer is taking a piss at Bethesda (such as a statement like "A game in the vein of Actual Fallout"), so I think you are absolutely right in suggesting that this is people seeing what they want to see, namely someone flipping Bethesda off.

Well, possibly not Obsidian, but I know there are definitely other video game developers and publishers [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKgEsuEBhqI] who are that petty [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnY0gBglivI]. So one can only hope.

But in seriousness, I can see these shots being taken in some form or the other. Mainly because common fan opinion is that Fallout New Vegas was better than Fallout 4 [https://www.kotaku.com.au/2016/01/fans-intense-love-forfallout-new-vegasmust-be-weird-forpeople-at-bethesda/]. I think if there was a shot, it was pointed at that. How people have been clamoring for Obsidian (it gets weirder every time I type the name) to take control since 2015.

I mean, how were they supposed to punch that up? "We know you wanted Fallout to stay with us ever since New Vegas released and it was announced that Bethesda took control again for Fallout 4. And that you wished we made Fallout New Orleans. But hey, we can give you a fallout experience without the name... So enjoy!"?

Fallout 76 being this big of a bomb... it's probably just serendipitous timing.

 

[Abomination]

I would put the reveal down more to circumstance than tactical timing. They would have used the same headline had Fallout 76 never been created.

Fallout has always been a cult classic, not for the gameplay but for the story and consequences to player actions.

I find it interesting that both Obsidian and inexile were purchased by the same company, got a sort of "getting the old band back together" vibe going.

 

[Trunkage]

Is anyone worried about this being released next year? They only just finished PoE 2 6mth ago. And they only got bought a little while ago. Seems like they won't come up with a polished product or that product is smaller than the average RPG.

 

[Pseudonym]

They aren't really trolling Bethesda but they are trying to get the fallout audience on board, including the part of it that didn't like recent iterations. I don't think Bethesda will care much, though. I don't think that just because people buy this they'll let other games lie. RPG's aren't nearly as competitive as some other genres as it seems perfectly normal to play many of them.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Is anyone worried about this being released next year? They only just finished PoE 2 6mth ago. And they only got bought a little while ago. Seems like they won't come up with a polished product or that product is smaller than the average RPG.

They've been working on it for a long time, in secret. This was developed by a separate team alongside other projects. PoE was crowdfunded so paid for itself, while this one seems to have a traditional publisher, though hopefully unlike Alpha Protocol, I hope Obsidian retained ownership of the IP.

They're only announcing it now because they were ready to show it off, but it's had a significant development cycle.