Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[docmars]

I spend about 3 hours by trying to find name of that action RPG that featured 3rd person view of a female main character, and it was action RPG, and it was something about either roman era influenced or about valkiries. And it has simple but passable graphic. The graphic of awoved kinda reminded me of that game.

Maybe Asterigos: Curse of the Stars? - Steam Link

I played it, really enjoyed it. If you're into souls-likes, it's solid. Great soundtrack too.

 

[Pathfinder: WoTR]

I'm just glad they put the Blue Men Group in this. A well-deserved cameo

 

[Paul_cz]

In Skyrim, every location is unique. Every cave, every fort, every camp, every dwarven ruins etc.

Technically true I guess, but given that there were so many and were built from the exact same repeated assets for each type, it sure didn't feel like they were unique. They were, in fact, repetitive and boring as fuck after a while.

Enderal did this so much better, on the same engine and with the same assets no less..

 

[Vox Machina]

lifeless art direction

Lifeless is not at all how I would describe the art direction in this game. It's got its own thing going on that stands in direct contrast to the dark fantasy RPGs that we've seen recently. And yeah everyone mentions the combat because the combat didn't look great at the first gameplay reveal and now it looks really good. So of course they're gonna mention that. Dialogue gets a mention because we've seen a very recent example of an RPG with terrible dialogue so it stands in contrast to that. And the exploration gets a mention because, well, it's good.

 

[Necrensha]

Lifeless is not at all how I would describe the art direction in this game.

 

[Vox Machina]

Lifeless is not at all how I would describe the art direction in this game.

~snip~

Not great, not bad. Art style isn't just "how does a random npc look" though.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

Not great, not bad. Art style isn't just "how does a random npc look" though.

Art style is expressed in the assets. If every character in this game looks like it was filched from Madam Tussaud's dumpster, whatever the intention of the art style was isn't going to matter.

 

[Vox Machina]

Not great, not bad. Art style isn't just "how does a random npc look" though.

Art style is expressed in the assets. If every character in this game looks like it was filched from Madam Tussaud's dumpster, whatever the intention of the art style was isn't going to matter.

It's a good thing that not every character does then.

 

[Ravielsk]

I don't know what the fuck has happened to games these days, may it be Starfield, Veilguard or Avowed, something looks so off. All of them have a certain plasticy, cartoonish look about them. Are these poor textures or lighting, I can't really put a finger on it, but these games don't look much better than some of the late PS3/360 games, let alone the PS4/One games. If you want to do cartoony stuff, do something like the new Zelda games, they are not going for the "real" fidelity at all but still end up being pretty. Hell, I still remember Skyrim looking way more impressive on PC than Starfield and Todd has put 16 or 32 times the detail in his space game. Sure, certain objects and interiors have higher visual fidelity but the environments and cities look so bland.

I would guess that its because modern 3d modelers lack classical education. Old teams were filled with people who went through classic artistic education where they had to start with pen and pencil and only later picked up Maya or 3DsMax. Modern teams are overloaded with people who skipped all that and went directly to 3d modeling and besides that they understand nothing of color theory, lightning, anatomy or anything really.

The end result is a large volume of super highly detailed objects and character models that look OK in the 3D editor but when put together next to each other they turn into weird plastic toys.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

It's a good thing that not every character does then.

In the SkillUp preview I scrubbed through, the only characters who avoided the wax-figure-on-a-hot-day syndrome were the aumaua and the protagonist.

So while you're technically correct, there's still a problem with the presentation if the game has to cover someone's eyes with fungal fucking growths for them to not look offputting.

 

[Haba]

It looks like shit, it sounds like shit, it plays like shit, it is made by shitty people but IT MIGHT BE TOO EARLY TO JUDGE IT TO BE SHIT. r00fles!

Hey, just another daily reminder: the game is absolute shit, the developers hate you and are only making the game to push woke agenda.

Hope MS kills Obsidian and carts off the entire company directly to the glue factory.

 

[TedNugent]

I see a lot of people on social media comparing Avowed and KC:D2 but I don't really see the similarities aside from that they're both first-person rpgs. Very different combat systems, rpg mechanics, environments, story, everything.

Who the fuck said this

 

[The people of Duckburg]

I see a lot of people on social media comparing Avowed and KC:D2 but I don't really see the similarities aside from that they're both first-person rpgs. Very different combat systems, rpg mechanics, environments, story, everything.

Who the fuck said this

Brickfrog did.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I don't know what the fuck has happened to games these days, may it be Starfield, Veilguard or Avowed, something looks so off. All of them have a certain plasticy, cartoonish look about them

This is because modern developers edit and test their character models and shaders with vitiligo on. They overlook what happen under the vitiligo, and then it is to late for remedies.

 

[Brickfrog]

I see a lot of people on social media comparing Avowed and KC:D2 but I don't really see the similarities aside from that they're both first-person rpgs. Very different combat systems, rpg mechanics, environments, story, everything.

Who the fuck said this

The 3 hour video right above my post that you quoted. A bunch of rando shitheads on my twitter feed as well.

 

[Roguey]

I don't know what the fuck has happened to games these days, may it be Starfield, Veilguard or Avowed, something looks so off. All of them have a certain plasticy, cartoonish look about them. Are these poor textures or lighting, I can't really put a finger on it, but these games don't look much better than some of the late PS3/360 games, let alone the PS4/One games. If you want to do cartoony stuff, do something like the new Zelda games, they are not going for the "real" fidelity at all but still end up being pretty. Hell, I still remember Skyrim looking way more impressive on PC than Starfield and Todd has put 16 or 32 times the detail in his space game. Sure, certain objects and interiors have higher visual fidelity but the environments and cities look so bland.

I would guess that its because modern 3d modelers lack classical education. Old teams were filled with people who went through classic artistic education where they had to start with pen and pencil and only later picked up Maya or 3DsMax. Modern teams are overloaded with people who skipped all that and went directly to 3d modeling and besides that they understand nothing of color theory, lightning, anatomy or anything really.

The end result is a large volume of super highly detailed objects and character models that look OK in the 3D editor but when put together next to each other they turn into weird plastic toys.

A few years back, a bitter artist claimed that Obsidian's art directors were all bad at their jobs https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/obsidian-general-discussion-thread.84849/post-7735055

 

[Tyranicon]

A few years back, a bitter artist claimed that Obsidian's art directors were all bad at their jobs https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/obsidian-general-discussion-thread.84849/post-7735055

This is confirmed by the fact that we have eyeballs.

 

[AwesomeButton]

First glaring problem - the environmental lighting they set up in this Unreal Engine 5 game makes it look not that far away from a Gamebryo game.

Still a bizzare discrepancy in the levels of detail of environment and characters, like what you get when you put a "4K textures" mod on Witcher 3 or Skyrim.

Is Hansen the one I have to thank for the above? As usual, whoever doesn't have anything to show professionally, is the one to shout the party line talking points loudest.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

A few years back, a bitter artist claimed that Obsidian's art directors were all bad at their jobs

Art directors who don't listen. - A studio art director who is toxic. - Project art directors who cannot give clear direction. - Project art directors who only want to work with their friends.

Having seen this dude's portfolio, and now this litany of complaints, I can't help but think "failed artist turned art director runs an emotional support circlejerk".

 

[docmars]

Games like Elden Ring, Witcher 3 and even Breath of the Wild ARE already Skyrim-likes....... there is not much point in cloning the Skyrim formula alone when it is already outdated, as Starfield showed.

Nobody has been able to replicate the Skyrim formula

What are your thoughts on Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon? It's still in EA, but it's shaping up to be a pretty great looking dark-themed first-person RPG, inspired by Skyrim's game mechanics. I tried it earlier on and it was good, but I decided to wait for the full release.

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/

 

[Late Bloomer]

What are your thoughts on Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon? It's still in EA, but it's shaping up to be a pretty great looking dark-themed first-person RPG, inspired by Skyrim's game mechanics. I tried it earlier on and it was good, but I decided to wait for the full release.

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/

I too will be wating for full release. It certainly looks promising though. From the limited time I have spent watching content on the game, I feel it will be more point A to B than Skyrim. I am curious what their plans are for level scaling. I am not a part of the crowd that hates it. If done correctly, it opens up the world for exploration and adventure. If every area is hard coded to keep you walled in based on mob difficulty, then it's not really an open world. I had mixed feelings on their previous game. But this one looks to be enough of a departure in regards to gameplay that I am going to keep an eye on it. The theme helps, thats for sure.

 

[Sweeper]

inspired by Skyrim's game mechanics.

What do you think about it newfren, that's the question.

 

[Thalstarion]

A lot of artists are also harassed, guilt tripped and brainwashed into believing that they can't draw conventionally attractive men and women so you end up with a glorification of ugly/niche aesthetics and an obsession with 'diversity' there as well.

I'm sure at least some here have seen the nutty purity spirals over skin tone colour in fan art of canon characters too.

 

[docmars]

inspired by Skyrim's game mechanics.

What do you think about it newfren, that's the question.

It should be out of early access by around mid 2025, so fingers crossed it'll be in good shape by then. I'm planning on giving it another go next year for sure!

 

[Tyranicon]

I am curious what their plans on for level scaling.

From what I've experienced there's either no level scaling or it's light enough to not be very noticable.

Either way, the game is very much on the easier side of the difficulty spectrum, because the enemy AI can be cheesed fairly easily. Maybe it's harder with a melee build, I found sword and spell to be trivial, and the raven spell (blind) kind of nukes any challenge the game can present.

However the devs seems like they're going to rework combat entirely, so who knows?

I find the EA version enjoyable so far.