Wasteland Wasteland 3 + Battle of Steeltown and Cult of the Holy Detonation Expansions Thread

[agris]

What puts you off the most about Wasteland 3?​

the fact that it was developed by inXile. a studio most notable for its high profile failures, mediocre gameplay, and stereotype reinforcing literal pyramid-scheme funding model

 

[Lhynn]

 

[OSK]

Nothing puts me off. Wasteland 3 is a great game.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The humor.

The overall humor is extremely hit-or-miss, mostly airing on miss. The worst are when they try to be cheeky about the US. I'm not a fan of Reagan, but I'm increasingly becoming annoyed at jokes that mock Reagan. It feels about as low-hanging as making fun of Trump. That Wasteland 3 has entire segments in its post-apocalyptic themed game that revolve around, "Fuck Reagan, Fuck the Republicans" is a microcosm of what is wrong with W3 writing. So much humor is boiler-plate, Colbert Report/Dailyshow level satire. Even Bethesda's utter shlock is **slightly** better than this.

Wasteland 2 was already getting bad about it but 3 went full woke. I don't like Reagan either but rather than just making fun of Reagan the game also sucks the generalized dick of communism in the meantime, along with its other reddit takes on everything from religion to gender.

Fallout had a similar trajectory. I don't remember anything in 1 being particularly woke or politically preachy, 2 went in on the "retard-icans am I right" thing then by 4 and 76 you have the games fully praising communism and attacking everything the writers and their twitter pals don't like.

"Thing I don't like Bad, Thing I do like Good" isn't funny but it's all people like W3's writers know as humor besides pop culture references.

Note, it's not like W3 would be that good anyway even with better writing. I haven't played it but I've read that it's way worse than 2.

The flipside to the Gippers is the Morningstar, which is easy to miss but an excellent and moving tribute to President Reagan.

 

[ferratilis]

It's funny that people try to have a serious discussion about writing in a game where you can fuck a goat to get a buff, throw snowballs of frozen piss at enemies, and do all other kinds of wacky shit. Although you CAN have a serious discussion, but then you'd have to play the game, which is not something Codexers do. Everyone seems to focus on Reagan, instead of discussing Saul Buchanan. You don't need 200 IQ to figure out he's the only character with a plan and moral integrity to keep the society going. Despite what the trailers might have suggested, he's the one who cares about the Republic. Angela Deth is a naive and frankly stupid character who doesn't have a plan, her whole motivation is "patriarcy bad." If any of you bothered to play the game and focused on the main story, and took all the silly jokes for what they are: silly jokes, you'd have realized that the game is not as woke as you think. It's not woke at all. For example, if you choose to eliminate the Gippers, it's clear that the Wasteland is doomed, because they are the only ones with fuel. Therefore, you have to think about the well-being of the people.

It's not as black and white as Codex makes it out to be, and neither is the writing as shallow as you all make it seem (despite all the silly humor). If the game were like that, it would have given you hints that Deth's plan is the one to go for. But it's actually the opposite. As for the humor, I'd take this style of humor over Larian's any day of the week.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Why play WL3 when it's literally a console version of WL2?

Why try to speak on a subject you have no clue about?

 

[Roguey]

Glad this discussion was split because my thread was specifically regarding the lack of pre-release hype.

Remember, this thing won the 2020 Codex GOTY (deservedly so and I didn't dislike Like a Dragon and Abandoned Children).

 

[4too]

Eyes On The Prize



In agreement with ferratilis about the tangled web of factions.
The problems, the puzzles are a challenge, motivation, for playing the game.

When considering the DLC’s, tacking them on the end, for me, … no passion there.

At best a chess problem left uncompleted and saves soon lost in a drag to drop disk purge.

Choosing to do a from the start replay, and so will be playing the whole game.


4too

 

[9ted6]

It's funny that people try to have a serious discussion about writing in a game where you can fuck a goat to get a buff, throw snowballs of frozen piss at enemies, and do all other kinds of wacky shit. Although you CAN have a serious discussion, but then you'd have to play the game, which is not something Codexers do. Everyone seems to focus on Reagan, instead of discussing Saul Buchanan. You don't need 200 IQ to figure out he's the only character with a plan and moral integrity to keep the society going. Despite what the trailers might have suggested, he's the one who cares about the Republic. Angela Deth is a naive and frankly stupid character who doesn't have a plan, her whole motivation is "patriarcy bad." If any of you bothered to play the game and focused on the main story, and took all the silly jokes for what they are: silly jokes, you'd have realized that the game is not as woke as you think. It's not woke at all. For example, if you choose to eliminate the Gippers, it's clear that the Wasteland is doomed, because they are the only ones with fuel. Therefore, you have to think about the well-being of the people.

It's not as black and white as Codex makes it out to be, and neither is the writing as shallow as you all make it seem (despite all the silly humor). If the game were like that, it would have given you hints that Deth's plan is the one to go for. But it's actually the opposite. As for the humor, I'd take this style of humor over Larian's any day of the week.

A DLC main plot centers around a mantra of Religious People Are Stupid and multiple sideplots throughout the game like those involving the robot commune specifically tell you with no room to disagree that communism is good.

I remember WL2 making reddit remarks about religion but I can't remember much political wokeness in it while WL3 has both in spades.

The flipside to the Gippers is the Morningstar, which is easy to miss but an excellent and moving tribute to President Reagan.

Heartfelt tribute when the polite dialogue choice is literally called asskissing. It's not genuine.

As for the humor, I'd take this style of humor over Larian's any day of the week.

Picking between Xile humor and Larian humor is like comparing Borderlands 2 and 3 humor. Just don't pick either of them, they're both brain rot.

 

[OSK]

A DLC main plot centers around a mantra of Religious People Are Stupid

It's a cult. It literally says so in the title of the DLC. If I start shitting on the Heaven's Gate dumbfucks, are you going to cry?

 

[9ted6]

A DLC main plot centers around a mantra of Religious People Are Stupid

It's a cult. It literally says so in the title of the DLC. If I start shitting on the Heaven's Gate dumbfucks, are you going to cry?

While shitting on them would you say every religion is the exact same? Because that's what WL3 does.

Game's full of the writers winking and nodding at the player as they signal their beliefs. Look at these maniacs, religion am I right? Look at these Reagan worshiping retards, cuckservatives am I right? Check out this robo communist utopia, now there's an enlightened society!

Even if you don't mind or agree with those takes they're objectively there in the game pushed in your face. Saying WL3 isn't woke is like saying BL3 isn't woke. Everything in its writing from characterization to humor is bog standard run of the mill Reddit & Morty material.

 

[MerchantKing]

What really puts me off is the stronk women characters. At least you can kill them. I didn't like the forced edgy characters with their cutscene dialogue either.

 

[Roguey]

While shitting on them would you say every religion is the exact same? Because that's what WL3 does.

Game's full of the writers winking and nodding at the player as they signal their beliefs. Look at these maniacs, religion am I right? Look at these Reagan worshiping retards, cuckservatives am I right? Check out this robo communist utopia, now there's an enlightened society!

You're being awfully thinskinned about this.

Fargo's original idea for the Reaganites in Wasteland 2 would have made you madder (the statue was slowly sinking into a tar pit as a metaphor for the modern Republican party). This is the toned down version. Game devs are largely libs, always have been.

Additionally, if you want to take over Colorado yourself in a bloodless coup, appeasing the Reaganites is the only way to do it unless you have the awful DLC no one likes. They provide the oil, the commie robots can't/won't do it.

 

[Sweeper]

Dicked around for an hour. The decision to give attribute points on each level up (after the 2nd one) is a perfect encapsulation of everything that's wrong with nuRPGs.
Oh, and con per level is retroactive.
The character building is completely and utterly irrelevant. Well done inXile.

 

[9ted6]

What really puts me off is the stronk women characters. At least you can kill them. I didn't like the forced edgy characters with their cutscene dialogue either.

"Angela Death" should've been your first red flag.

Game devs are largely libs, always have been.

Does that excuse woke game writing? They don't have to use the game as a political vehicle and force me the player to nod along in agreement to play.

 

[Roguey]

Does that excuse woke game writing? They don't have to use the game as a political vehicle and force me the player to nod along in agreement to play.

You're not forced to agree with any character or faction, it's a role-playing game.

But sure, by your standards, Fargo was always woke. Angela Deth was one of the starter characters in Wasteland after all. But that was released back in 1988 so why are you bothering with Fargo games still?

 

[Infinitron]

One of the downsides of long tail backlog gaming culture is that each year a new generation of tryhards tries out games for the first time and solemnly declares them to be woke even when they already got the anti-SJW seal of approval years ago:

Maybe it was all removed, but I don't think I've encountered anything yet that felt like a commentary on modern politics.

There's the explanation why is W3 the only major recent American game without a whiff of wokeness.

 

[9ted6]

Does that excuse woke game writing? They don't have to use the game as a political vehicle and force me the player to nod along in agreement to play.

You're not forced to agree with any character or faction, it's a role-playing game.

Is there a point where you can say your character's sincerely religious in a way that isn't self-satirizing or played up as Low Int Dialogue? Can you tell the robots that communism is a bad ideology in a serious and reasonable way? If you can't then the game is forcing you to agree with the things it directly tells you or at least leave it unchallenged. That's what woke games do.

The Angela Deth thing's not woke, it's just an example of the edgy shit MerchantKing mentioned, but then again a stronk independent feminist named Angel of Death who wants to literally smash the tyrannical Patriarchy isn't very subtle.

One of the downsides of long tail backlog gaming culture is that each year a new generation of tryhards tries out games for the first time and solemnly declares them to be woke even when they already got the anti-SJW seal of approval years ago:

I didn't think WL2 or DA Origins were SJW when I first played them. Origins was a top Codex RPG but a large consensus now is that it was always a bad game with woke writing. Hindsight can put things in focus.

 

[Litmanen]

If you can't then the game is forcing you to agree with the things it directly tells you or at least leave it unchallenged. That's what woke games do.

Every game/work of art has its creators ideologies in it. They are, indeed, products of their brains.

If you don't like the ideology behind the game, don't play it. They are not forcing you.

 

[9ted6]

If you can't then the game is forcing you to agree with the things it directly tells you or at least leave it unchallenged. That's what woke games do.

Every game/work of art has its creators ideologies in it. They are, indeed, products of their brains.

If you don't like the ideology behind the game, don't play it. They are not forcing you.

Sure but don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining. The game is decisively woke and has a clear ideology behind it. Devs outright said if the game had come out later it would've had more political commentary.

You can also find complaints about its characters and writing from 2020.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/719040/discussions/1/3003298578171620877/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/719040/discussions/1/2923353981934179489/
Eurogamer praised the game for being woke.
https://www.eurogamer.net/wasteland-3-review-a-devilish-satire-of-post-apocalyptic-america

 

[Litmanen]

The game is decisively woke

Sadly, this doesn't concern me. For me it's just a game.

 

[Roguey]

Is there a point where you can say your character's sincerely religious in a way that isn't self-satirizing or played up as Low Int Dialogue?

I don't believe there's any game that does this. It's irrelevant.

Can you tell the robots that communism is a bad ideology in a serious and reasonable way?

You're not really there to have political discussions. You can be a friend to the robots or hostile to them. There's a character from Wasteland 2 who thinks all robots should be killed because they're dangerous and each one has the potential to resurrect Cochise, and the ones he sends you after don't prove him wrong. If you fall for one robot's sob story it goes on to murder more people. If you kill it, the machine intelligence tower claims you killed "an innocent." From their perspective it is, but that's not an objective point of view.

 

[9ted6]

The game is decisively woke

Sadly, this doesn't concern me. For me it's just a game.

That's fine like I said, all I'm arguing about here are the people saying it isn't woke or that no one thought it was until recently. I'm not saying anyone should hate the game if the woke shit doesn't bother them but that it is indeed there.

 

[Roguey]

That's fine like I said, all I'm arguing about here are the people saying it isn't woke or that no one thought it was until recently. I'm not saying anyone should hate the game if the woke shit doesn't bother them but that it is indeed there.

If Wasteland 3 is woke, then so are Wasteland 2, Fallout 2, Fallout, Wasteland.

 

[jackofshadows]

Yeah a woke game and a game written by libs are two different things.WL3 in particular isn't preachy at all I'd say.