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

[Atlantico]

Teaser-trailer looks like an indie-LotR clone, where you're playing the king of the Oathbrakers Oathkeepers.

It manages to look both generic and derivative at the same time.

The only point of this trailer was to announce the project and build hype. I guess one out of two is a passing grade.

 

[Luckmann]

the fact that Skyrim is bigger than the Witcher 3

Bigger in what aspect?

Is there some aspect in which it (unfortunately) isn't?

 

[Haplo]

Well, the world map in Witcher 3 seemed kinda very big. Empty-ish, sure. But pretty big. Perhaps bigger then Skyrim (but much fewer meaningful POI)?
And very pretty.

 

[Luckmann]

Well, the world map in Witcher 3 seemed kinda very big. Empty-ish, sure. But pretty big. Perhaps bigger then Skyrim (but much fewer meaningful POI)?
And very pretty.

It feels kinda big due to the general verisimilitude/realism of the open areas, but I sincerely doubt that it was bigger than Skyrim in the technical sense.

 

[GreyWardens Rock]

Nothing about it matters in the slightest if it is a WinSpyware exclusive.

 

[Tigranes]

One thing could really help Obsidian - as mentioned before, the Living Lands is supposed to be a strange and exotic region. If they would go all out and make a distinct and unorthodox setting, THEN they'd have a chance of capturing a wider audience.

Unfortunately, for the wider market, the reverse is often true. Straight up fantasy sells. Exotic doesn't.

I wonder how well Oblivion would have done if it hadn't retconned Cyrodill from jungle to temperate, 'you've-seen-it-before pretty & comforting' fantasy landscape. The same is broadly true for KCD and Witcher 3 - the main dish is the nice, temperate, vaguely European forests and plains. I would imagine it also has to do with the challenges of designing and implementing crazy biomes. Kudos to Morrowind for going all out on it, which remains unique to this day.

 

[Tacgnol]

I've never understood the obsession with huge mostly empty (or highly repetitive) worlds in these types of games.

Why not take a leaf out of the Gothic 1/2 book and instead create smaller but much more content dense worlds?

 

[NJClaw]

One thing could really help Obsidian - as mentioned before, the Living Lands is supposed to be a strange and exotic region. If they would go all out and make a distinct and unorthodox setting, THEN they'd have a chance of capturing a wider audience.

I don't think they are eager to try an exotic unorthodox fantasy setting, after what happened with Deadfire.

 

[coldcrow]

One thing could really help Obsidian - as mentioned before, the Living Lands is supposed to be a strange and exotic region. If they would go all out and make a distinct and unorthodox setting, THEN they'd have a chance of capturing a wider audience.

Unfortunately, for the wider market, the reverse is often true. Straight up fantasy sells. Exotic doesn't.

I wonder how well Oblivion would have done if it hadn't retconned Cyrodill from jungle to temperate, 'you've-seen-it-before pretty & comforting' fantasy landscape. The same is broadly true for KCD and Witcher 3 - the main dish is the nice, temperate, vaguely European forests and plains. I would imagine it also has to do with the challenges of designing and implementing crazy biomes. Kudos to Morrowind for going all out on it, which remains unique to this day.

Except that KCD plays in Bohemia.

 

[Ibn Sina]

Obshitian still chasing that skyrim dream a decade late. Arnt these kind of games redundent right now? Most big rpgs try to follow the witcher route.

 

[Tacgnol]

Obshitian still chasing that skyrim dream a decade late. Arnt these kind of games redundent right now? Most big rpgs try to follow the witcher route.

A lot of them want to combine The Witcher and The Skyrim approach. Problem is I don't think those approaches are compatible.

Doing a Witcher style narrative without a fixed character is almost impossible.

 

[Tigranes]

One thing could really help Obsidian - as mentioned before, the Living Lands is supposed to be a strange and exotic region. If they would go all out and make a distinct and unorthodox setting, THEN they'd have a chance of capturing a wider audience.

Unfortunately, for the wider market, the reverse is often true. Straight up fantasy sells. Exotic doesn't.

I wonder how well Oblivion would have done if it hadn't retconned Cyrodill from jungle to temperate, 'you've-seen-it-before pretty & comforting' fantasy landscape. The same is broadly true for KCD and Witcher 3 - the main dish is the nice, temperate, vaguely European forests and plains. I would imagine it also has to do with the challenges of designing and implementing crazy biomes. Kudos to Morrowind for going all out on it, which remains unique to this day.

Except that KCD plays in Bohemia.

Most players won't have any idea what Bohemia looks like or why it's different from France. The point is that they get this:

as opposed to, say,

 

[Joseph Stalin]

One thing could really help Obsidian - as mentioned before, the Living Lands is supposed to be a strange and exotic region. If they would go all out and make a distinct and unorthodox setting, THEN they'd have a chance of capturing a wider audience.

Unfortunately, for the wider market, the reverse is often true. Straight up fantasy sells. Exotic doesn't.

I wonder how well Oblivion would have done if it hadn't retconned Cyrodill from jungle to temperate, 'you've-seen-it-before pretty & comforting' fantasy landscape. The same is broadly true for KCD and Witcher 3 - the main dish is the nice, temperate, vaguely European forests and plains. I would imagine it also has to do with the challenges of designing and implementing crazy biomes. Kudos to Morrowind for going all out on it, which remains unique to this day.

Except that KCD plays in Bohemia.

Most players won't have any idea what Bohemia looks like or why it's different from France. The point is that they get this:

as opposed to, say,

Yeah, most developers, when they hear "fantasy setting" imagine just "fantasy creatures", while leaving everything else generic.

 

[undecaf]

Skyrim is about two things: Hype and Size. The hype you can not replicate. The size you can.

That's true, but I think it somewhat important to try and understand why exactly players like and go back to a game like Skyrim.

I don't think I do, fully, but I would guess it's that the game is not really "driven" by anything but the players whim and being servile to that to a fault, along with rewarding it. The stories and missions are all curiosities to give at least some sort of reason to do anything in the game beyond simply "because you can". And the skill system supports that by making anything you do affect your character - more so in earlier TES games where even simply running around would affect your character.

I think, if Obsidian really wants to make that rumoured "Skyrim clone", they need to find a balance between their usual staple of story/mission driven games and the whim-driven servility of letting the palyer do "what he wants" (which TES games are designed for specifically rather than quests and stories) and rewarding that kind of gameplay.

They did somewhat swell job on it with New Vegas, but as everone knows it didn't quite hit home with the Bethtard crowd. "Not free enough, not enough to do in the world."

 

[Ismaul]

someone pronounce this

Héamecwyn/mecwyn/myqueen - illustrious queen, elven queen of the Aedyr Empire married with the ferscönyng.

"he a my queen"?

trannies confirmed

if the game doesn't have guns why even set it in pillars universe

Man, so far I've yet to see a single pillar. I'm more upset about that part, less the guns.

don't fret boys
the pillars be in your queen's robes

 

[NJClaw]

Skyrim is about two things: Hype and Size.

It's also about the catchiness of the "Dovahkiin Dovahkiin" song and of the "Fus Ro Dah" thing. Both these things easily impress themselves on weak-willed minds, instilling ideas of epicness and adventure. They are impossible to forget, and you can go around screaming "Fus Ro Dah! Lol I'm such a nerd", while being validated by other weak-willed individuals around you.

I guess you can include that in the "hype" aspect, but I feel it's something more specific.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

One thing could really help Obsidian - as mentioned before, the Living Lands is supposed to be a strange and exotic region. If they would go all out and make a distinct and unorthodox setting, THEN they'd have a chance of capturing a wider audience.

Unfortunately, for the wider market, the reverse is often true. Straight up fantasy sells. Exotic doesn't.

I wonder how well Oblivion would have done if it hadn't retconned Cyrodill from jungle to temperate, 'you've-seen-it-before pretty & comforting' fantasy landscape. The same is broadly true for KCD and Witcher 3 - the main dish is the nice, temperate, vaguely European forests and plains. I would imagine it also has to do with the challenges of designing and implementing crazy biomes. Kudos to Morrowind for going all out on it, which remains unique to this day.

Except that KCD plays in Bohemia.

my favorite part of italy

 

[Tacgnol]

They are impossible to forget, and you can go around screaming "Fus Ro Dah! Lol I'm such a nerd", while being validated by other weak-willed individuals around you.

I always think of them as Big Bang Theory Nerds. I think that show is a lot to blame for that subculture.

 

[The Jester]

but I sincerely doubt that it was bigger than Skyrim in the technical sense.

 

[The Wall]

You're overthinking Skyrim, broz! Remember, intelligence stat was thrown out. Gamers are like women, it's all about how you make them feeeel. Skyrim made people feel good. Also, just like women, gamers don't know what they want. How many are bitching that hard difficulty is too hard while complaining game is too easy? Gamers, just like rest of humanity, are women. Beings cursed with fucked up heads

Nothing and no-one can be loved by everyone, except Skyrim & pizza. Game that is pure-blood RPG, with Daggerfall's sense of scale and simulation, and decent graphics would sell millions. Wouldn't outsell Skyrim, but would make devs millioners. That should be just good enough, no? Maybe that will be Kenshi2, KCD2 or WayWard Realms

P.S. Also, lol @ "Skyrim was YUUUGE!". It was smaller even from Oblivion. Made people feel it was yuge, and that's all that matters: how you make peeople feel

 

[Luckmann]

but I sincerely doubt that it was bigger than Skyrim in the technical sense.

The thing is, how are these measured? A "meter" in Skyrim is clearly not the same as a meter in Twitcher 3.

You're overthinking Skyrim, broz! Remember, intelligence stat was thrown out. Gamers are like women, it's all about how you make them feeeel. Skyrim made people feel good. Also, just like women, gamers don't know what they want. How many are bitching that hard difficulty is too hard while complaining game is too easy? Gamers, just like rest of humanity, are women. Beings cursed with fucked up heads

Nothing and no-one can be loved by everyone, except Skyrim & pizza. Game that is pure-blood RPG, with Daggerfall's sense of scale and simulation, and decent graphics would sell millions. Wouldn't outsell Skyrim, but would make devs millioners. That should be just good enough, no? Maybe that will be Kenshi2, KCD2 or WayWard Realms

P.S. Also, lol @ "Skyrim was YUUUGE!". It was smaller even from Oblivion. Made people feel it was yuge, and that's all that matters: how you make peeople feel

Yeah, and despite the core map of Witcher 3 only covering one biome/region and one proper city, it certainly felt like it was so much bigger than Skyrim. Hell, even that not!-French region added in Blood & Wine felt bigger than all of Skyrim. When you go to Skellige, the new area feels tangibly different, despite using much of the same assets as Velen.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

but I sincerely doubt that it was bigger than Skyrim in the technical sense.

eh, these comparisons are bunk.
If Skyrim was truly 15 square miles, you'd be able to run from any point to any other point on the map(assuming a straight line) in about 5 real life minutes(Skyrim has a 1:20 timescale.) A quick search suggests it takes about half an hour of real life time to do so. Sure, it's not a straight line, but still.

Simply comparing the 'size' is meaningless.

 

[jackofshadows]

Not to mention that Skyrim has tons of dungeons which makes feel overall world size much bigger while TW3 has very limited amount of dungeons.

 

[The Jester]

Not to mention that Skyrim has tons of dungeons which makes feel overall world size much bigger while TW3 has very limited amount of dungeons.

Skyrim is like 3 dungeons copy and pasted across the whole map. With shit puzzles like dragon claws and animal matching.

 

[Avarize]

One thing could really help Obsidian - as mentioned before, the Living Lands is supposed to be a strange and exotic region. If they would go all out and make a distinct and unorthodox setting, THEN they'd have a chance of capturing a wider audience.

Unfortunately, for the wider market, the reverse is often true. Straight up fantasy sells. Exotic doesn't.

I wonder how well Oblivion would have done if it hadn't retconned Cyrodill from jungle to temperate, 'you've-seen-it-before pretty & comforting' fantasy landscape. The same is broadly true for KCD and Witcher 3 - the main dish is the nice, temperate, vaguely European forests and plains. I would imagine it also has to do with the challenges of designing and implementing crazy biomes. Kudos to Morrowind for going all out on it, which remains unique to this day.

I'd take jungle over Skyrim, AC Valhalla or the Viking island in Witcher 3 every time. If I want to see pine forest and snow I can look out the window.