Game News Pillars of Eternity Released

[Haba]

Nope, so then you have a chance to get plenty more.

 

[hiver]

It's things like "confused" state being considered hostile by both own party AI as well as enemy AI that really gets my panties in a bunch. That's either intentional trolling or major Q&A fuck-up.

Turn off auto targeting in the options.

 

[Obama Phone 3]

How is Pillars of Eternity's writing? Is it at least Dragon Age: Origins caliber? For the record, I prefer Fallout 2's writing to Planescape: Torments' any day of the week. I've never played the Icewind Dale series or Baldur's Gate. Is Pillars better or worse than Icewind Dale?

 

[One-and-a-half-Ivan]

How is Pillars of Eternity's writing? Is it at least Dragon Age: Origins caliber? For the record, I prefer Fallout 2's writing to Planescape: Torments' any day of the week. I've never played the Icewind Dale series or Baldur's Gate. Is Pillars better or worse than Icewind Dale?

I find PoE's writing much more enjoyable than DAO's.

 

[hiver]

Writing is better then IWD, combat worse then BG2, possibly even BG. Its really a sort of improved Icewind dale.
While the story resembles a meeker version of MoTB.

 

[Jedi Exile]

Writing is good. DAO doesn't even compare (lol, that was one dumb game). It is worse than PST but better than BG2, something like that.

 

[GloomFrost]

How is Pillars of Eternity's writing? Is it at least Dragon Age: Origins caliber? For the record, I prefer Fallout 2's writing to Planescape: Torments' any day of the week. I've never played the Icewind Dale series or Baldur's Gate. Is Pillars better or worse than Icewind Dale?

Lol if you never played IceWind Dale what difference does it make if POE's writing better or worse?? But yeah just like everybody said POE's writing is a completely different league from DA:O but not as good MOTB or Torment.

 

[Eirikur]

I have a full week off from work now, so this would be an ideal time to give PoE a try if I had the motivation to do so. Whenever I read anything by Sawyer it rubs me the wrong way though (snarky politically correct hipsterism), and I figure his game would have the same effect. If I recall correctly he backed Sarkeesian/FeministFrequency and opposed gamers during GamerGate, so I don't feel like giving him my money.

I was going to ask if someone here was able to enjoy PoE despite disliking Sawyer as a person, or if he's injected much of his personality into the game, but by writing this post I convinced myself not to purchase it regardless.

Thankfully TW3 is right around the corner now.

 

[zero29]

I have a full week off from work now, so this would be an ideal time to give PoE a try if I had the motivation to do so. Whenever I read anything by Sawyer it rubs me the wrong way though (snarky politically correct hipsterism), and I figure his game would have the same effect. If I recall correctly he backed Sarkeesian/FeministFrequency and opposed gamers, so I don't feel like giving him my money.

I was going to ask if someone here were able to enjoy PoE despite disliking Sawyer as a person, or if he's injected much of his personality into the game, but by writing this post I convinced myself not to purchase it regardless.

Thankfully TW3 is right around the corner now.

it's absolutely possible to enjoy the game despite his involvement

 

[Brayko]

I have a full week off from work now, so this would be an ideal time to give PoE a try if I had the motivation to do so. Whenever I read anything by Sawyer it rubs me the wrong way though (snarky politically correct hipsterism), and I figure his game would have the same effect. If I recall correctly he backed Sarkeesian/FeministFrequency and opposed gamers during GamerGate, so I don't feel like giving him my money.

I was going to ask if someone here was able to enjoy PoE despite disliking Sawyer as a person, or if he's injected much of his personality into the game, but by writing this post I convinced myself not to purchase it regardless.

Thankfully TW3 is right around the corner now.

The Witcher games are the antithesis of "politically correct hipsterism"?

 

[Eirikur]

The Witcher games are the antithesis of "politically correct hipsterism"?

Are you fond of putting words in people's mouths? I never claimed that. Perhaps 'Kingdom Come: Deliverance' will be the antithesis to it. I never got a PC hipster vibe from the Witcher series though, not at all. In any case it's a discussion which doesn't belong here.

 

[Alchemist]

I have a full week off from work now, so this would be an ideal time to give PoE a try if I had the motivation to do so. Whenever I read anything by Sawyer it rubs me the wrong way though (snarky politically correct hipsterism), and I figure his game would have the same effect. If I recall correctly he backed Sarkeesian/FeministFrequency and opposed gamers during GamerGate, so I don't feel like giving him my money.

I was going to ask if someone here was able to enjoy PoE despite disliking Sawyer as a person, or if he's injected much of his personality into the game, but by writing this post I convinced myself not to purchase it regardless.

Thankfully TW3 is right around the corner now.

You do realize this isn't a solo Sawyer project right? A lot more people were involved in making this - different writers, designers, artists, coders, etc. To boycott the game in order to "not give Sawyer money" is a little ridiculous and missing the forest for the trees.

Sawyer's influence is mostly evident in the game mechanics - I haven't seen anything annoyingly political / hipster or whatever in the game so far. I don't agree with everything Sawyer says or believes in either, but I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. It's a legit return-to-form of the classic isometric CRPG.

 

[Tigranes]

Writing is quite good and there are characters, conceits and lines which have a Torment feel - the whole soul schtick, some key characters, the 'describe what they look like and do etc' style, and so on. But that's certainly not to say it's as good as MOTB and Torment, because the quality is not as consistent and so there's a lot of fairly mundane stuff. It's definitely good though.

 

[Ninjerk]

How is Pillars of Eternity's writing? Is it at least Dragon Age: Origins caliber? For the record, I prefer Fallout 2's writing to Planescape: Torments' any day of the week. I've never played the Icewind Dale series or Baldur's Gate. Is Pillars better or worse than Icewind Dale?

Mostly really good. Lots of infodumpy PCs shoving the setting in your face b/c they're trying to start a brand, but none of said dumped info is inherently uninteresting. There is a major event in the game whose resolution is EXTREMELY WTF because it feels like you're being punished for caring about the plot. Some time afterwards there's a really well-written optional quest with an associated (hidden) dungeon.

 

[Brayko]

They should have focused on better narrative and left the infodumps in the novelization. Not game breaking or anything but would have been better imo.

 

[V_K]

I humbly disagree. Rich lore is arguably the best part of the game. The only thing that bothers me is that some classes (spellcasters mostly) seem to be somewhat disengaged from the setting.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

20 hours in. The game is truly remarkable in almost every way.

Spoiler

The Pellegrina introductory quest was an example of Obsidian doing what Obsidian does best. A guy hires you to deliver a package. Upon delivery you find out that the guy who hired you has crossed the Defiance Bay equivalent of the mafia. The mafia enforcer gives you three options - leave with no harm done, work for them, or fight them. You go back to the guy who hired you and you can choose again. I picked the option that made the most sense - I got the hell out of there. No way in fuck am I going against the most powerful noble house in Dyrwood, but I'm not going to be a toy to be used by them either. I was very happy with how things played out. If I wanted to, I could have been the classic Biowarean hero or psychopath, but Obsidian let me do things differently.

After spending a good 10 hours running around Defiance Bay doing every sidequest I could find, and a few main quests here and there, I'm back on the critical path, back into the wilds, exploring once more. I'm done for tonight, but I can't wait to get back from home tomorrow to play some more.

Only an Obsidian game can make me feel like this.

 

[Copper]

Lots of infodumpy PCs shoving the setting in your face b/c they're trying to start a brand

This is something I'm hoping isn't as overdone as some people are implying, and is a completely dumb idea to begin with. It sounds like Mass Effect, but all codex entries are actual conversations you have with people. Or if Planescape had gone full aspie on the metaphysics of the planes.

 

[Irenaeus]

Lots of infodumpy PCs shoving the setting in your face b/c they're trying to start a brand

This is something I'm hoping isn't as overdone as some people are implying, and is a completely dumb idea to begin with. It sounds like Mass Effect, but all codex entries are actual conversations you have with people. Or if Planescape had gone full aspie on the metaphysics of the planes.

It's not that bad, people just don't like to read.

I have a full week off from work now, so this would be an ideal time to give PoE a try if I had the motivation to do so. Whenever I read anything by Sawyer it rubs me the wrong way though (snarky politically correct hipsterism), and I figure his game would have the same effect. If I recall correctly he backed Sarkeesian/FeministFrequency and opposed gamers during GamerGate, so I don't feel like giving him my money.

I was going to ask if someone here was able to enjoy PoE despite disliking Sawyer as a person, or if he's injected much of his personality into the game, but by writing this post I convinced myself not to purchase it regardless.

Thankfully TW3 is right around the corner now.

Game isn't SJW. Eric Fenstermaker, Lead Narrative Designer, is a bro.

 

[Copper]

Well, hopefully. Because this does sound like the kid who was always the understudy suddenly trying too hard when asked to step up and make something fresh.

 

[Tigranes]

*yawn* ain't as much word-dump as torment. stop fapping off to sawyer and/or sawyer's voodoo doll, he ain't make game all by himself

 

[Ninjerk]

Honestly, I'm toying around with Triple Crown and possibly TC Solo playthrough starts, and it isn't as bad as it seemed on first playthrough. The Hollowborn epidemic is presented much better than I remembered (just a few days ago!). I think the excitement of trying to get deep into the game quickly caused me to give the introductory parts less attention than maybe I otherwise would have.

 

[Irenaeus]

Nice. I did the introduction with 3 characters as I was learning to play the game and I was liking it more each time.

 

[Copper]

*yawn* ain't as much word-dump as torment. stop fapping off to sawyer and/or sawyer's voodoo doll, he ain't make game all by himself

Uh, right back at you, holy defender of the Obsidian order?

 

[Tigranes]

I don't give a shit about Josh Sawyer, never have. Or you wanna lynch me for liking their games? I think that's less perverted than OMG SAWYAH.

(Of course, I was talking to the Elrikur guy, but hey, I guess you just owned up.)