Obsidian should make a RPG wherein you're a dude playing a RPG, and you have to figure out how to get past game breaking bugs in your RPG so you can keep playing to the end. It can be like Nanashi no Game but instead of death and horror it's frustration and crippling game bugs.
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Alfred J. Kwakis it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered Userregular
edited February 2012
but will there be love interests and difficult morality choices?
All this talk of old school RPG's makes me want to play one, so the question is: Baldur's Gate 2, Arcanum, or Planescape? I played BG ,1 both Fallouts, and Icewind Dale 1 and 2 back in the day.
All this talk of old school RPG's makes me want to play one, so the question is: Baldur's Gate 2, Arcanum, or Planescape? I played BG ,1 both Fallouts, and Icewind Dale 1 and 2 back in the day.
I suggest Bladur's Gate 2 - Planescape - NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, in that order. Can't comment on Arcanum.
All this talk of old school RPG's makes me want to play one, so the question is: Baldur's Gate 2, Arcanum, or Planescape? I played BG ,1 both Fallouts, and Icewind Dale 1 and 2 back in the day.
I suggest Bladur's Gate 2 - Planescape - NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, in that order. Can't comment on Arcanum.
Arcanum is fun. I'm on my third playthrough and I am still finding new things.
Although, I'm not sure why I am super-evil this time around. I think I only killed one dude who didn't attack me first.
I would seriously consider kickstarting a project where their only directive is to make a game that is less buggy than usual.
A reasonable person can only blame their publishers for so long until facing the realization that it doesn't seem to matter who is or is not publishing these buggy games.
And I say this with affection because their games usually manage to be pretty good any ways.
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
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Alfred J. Kwakis it because you were insultedwhen I insulted your hair?Registered Userregular
Arcanum is fun. I'm on my third playthrough and I am still finding new things.
Although, I'm not sure why I am super-evil this time around. I think I only killed one dude who didn't attack me first.
yeah, I really should try to track down a copy of Arcanum, I only heard good things (well, beside the game balance, that is)
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
I would seriously consider kickstarting a project where their only directive is to make a game that is less buggy than usual.
A reasonable person can only blame their publishers for so long until facing the realization that it doesn't seem to matter who is or is not publishing these buggy games.
And I say this with affection because their games usually manage to be pretty good any ways.
Kotor 2 was buggy
NWN2 was buggy at launch and quickly patched and the expansions were virtually bug free
Alpha Protocol I have heard is buggy? This confuses me because I never ran into any bugs, guess I was just lucky here
New Vegas was kind of buggy but let's be fair here they were working with FO3's engine, and it was far less buggy than FO3 is even now, and it also was patched up relatively quickly. Personally I finished a sixty hour play through with only one CTD and my companions vanishing a couple times. (This was probably the most prevalent bug at launch, which was fortunately easily fixed on PC by utilizing the console)
and Dungeon Siege 3 is virtually bug free from what I can tell
I know everyone loves to judge Obsidian based almost solely on Kotor 2's state of completion, but it's kind of weird to totally ignore their most recent work in light of stuff they did like seven years ago.
Whether you liked those games is another matter entirely especially in the case of Alpha Protocol since that one seems particularly divisive, but their games since have been by and large no more buggy than any other dev
I can't comment on Kotor 2 or NWN2, having never played them. I can say I didn't see too many bugs in Alpha Protocol either, at least none more harmful than UI glitches (inventory wigged out on occasion) and some shenanigans with sticking to cover that wasn't there. Game balance was a much bigger problem, and the chief reason it fits right alongside actual buggy games like Stalker and Arcanum in the "I love this, but have to front-load it with warnings when recommending to others" category. Still, I had less out-and-out technical problems with it than I did, say, Mass Effect 2.
New Vegas, however, that was a bit of mess. Given the engine I can't blame it all on Obsidian, but they definitely added a special something on top of Bethesda's usual problems. The saving glitch right when it launched was painful. Thankfully there was a workaround, and a patch fixed it in short order, but it was still a hell of a thing to boot up and find hours of progress just gone.
Edit: The hacking game wasn't too hard for me, though it was a bit sensitive and I remember the mouse cursor not lining up with where the pointer actually was.
I read somewhere that someone has the opinion I have of a "Kreia" type character. Basically that they want to see a character of that complexity make a resurgence.
I ran into two bugs honest to God bugs in all of AP. Both of them involved trying to go back to an earlier part of a level through a door which was supposed to be locked into a section of the world which no longer existed. It looked kind of like this.
I wouldn't say the game was particularly buggy or anything like that, and I indeed cannot sing the game's praises enough. But I also recognize that there's some laziness behind the implementation. The horrible porting from the 360 to the PC which Carrot mentions is one example. The element of laziness which annoyed the shit out of me was that they were lackadaisical about building cover points into the level. There are places where you can take cover to one side of a doorway, but not another, or pieces of furniture where you can hide on one side but not the other. It felt in places like a level designer couldn't really picture himself wanting to hide on the eastern side of that display case, so he figured, what the hell? Let's just not build in a cover point there, the end user will probably never notice.
I can't comment on Kotor 2 or NWN2, having never played them. I can say I didn't see too many bugs in Alpha Protocol either, at least none more harmful than UI glitches (inventory wigged out on occasion) and some shenanigans with sticking to cover that wasn't there. Game balance was a much bigger problem, and the chief reason it fits right alongside actual buggy games like Stalker and Arcanum in the "I love this, but have to front-load it with warnings when recommending to others" category. Still, I had less out-and-out technical problems with it than I did, say, Mass Effect 2.
New Vegas, however, that was a bit of mess. Given the engine I can't blame it all on Obsidian, but they definitely added a special something on top of Bethesda's usual problems. The saving glitch right when it launched was painful. Thankfully there was a workaround, and a patch fixed it in short order, but it was still a hell of a thing to boot up and find hours of progress just gone.
Edit: The hacking game wasn't too hard for me, though it was a bit sensitive and I remember the mouse cursor not lining up with where the pointer actually was.
Oh thank god, I'm not the only one who thought that ME2 actually did have bugs.
Arcanum is fun. I'm on my third playthrough and I am still finding new things.
Although, I'm not sure why I am super-evil this time around. I think I only killed one dude who didn't attack me first.
yeah, I really should try to track down a copy of Arcanum, I only heard good things (well, beside the game balance, that is)
Arcanum has the best Role Playing mechanics to ever bless gaming, but the game built around it isn't really all that good imo. Pacing is wack, combat is shit, it's ungodly buggy ect. It's still very much worth a playthrough thanks to it's awesome roleplaying though.
Why must all of the good roleplaying games be marred by time constraints?
Arcanum has the best Role Playing mechanics to ever bless gaming,
Can you explain what you mean by this, because the mechanics of Arcanum were pretty whacked.
I worded that badly. Mechanics related to combat were indeed whacked, but in terms of pure roleplaying it was the best out of it's kind. I'd say it's one of the only games that truly let's you play almost exactly like the kind of character that you want to play as.
What's the best way to approach Arcanum's combat system? Real-time (the default) seems ludicrously fast; I swing my sword like twice a second.
The combat is dumb as hell so just turn it to whatever makes battles finish the fastest. Real-time is sometimes broken in your favor and sometimes broken in the enemy's favor so just try out both and see what's the last amount of pain.
What's the best way to approach Arcanum's combat system? Real-time (the default) seems ludicrously fast; I swing my sword like twice a second.
The combat is dumb as hell so just turn it to whatever makes battles finish the fastest. Real-time is sometimes broken in your favor and sometimes broken in the enemy's favor so just try out both and see what's the last amount of pain.
Would it be poor form to link to an earlier (somewhat wordy) post explaining why I love Arcanum in spite of its many, many flaws? Well, it's here if you're curious, but the short version is it's challenging in ways few games dare to be. You start off as some pissant nobody who's lucky to be alive, and the game will try its absolute goddamn best to kill you from minute one. When the locals say "Nobody who goes to X comes back," that's not a clue to run out and go to X right away; they fucking mean it here.
Granted, in the mid-to-late game you can break it in half with dedicated mage/high DEX builds (and some tech too, though not quite as badly). But it's still a versatile RPG with rich lore and a damn good story. It's also hard as hell, the right kind of hard that makes me want to figure it out and keep going. I recognize that's niche appeal at best, even before you get into the uninspired visuals and clunky combat. But hey, sometimes love makes you crazy.
Also it's immensely satisfying to press a button and have your entire party preemptively beat the shit out of a plot-critical NPC. Group commands are a massive timesaver, even if the engine itself has some serious problems.
Oh thank god, I'm not the only one who thought that ME2 actually did have bugs.
Like that quickbar CTD they never fixed.
Which will probably still be in ME3
I was absolutely shocked when I found that error was still in the game when I started it up again last week. That's just outright lazy, unconcerned dev handiwork right there. Also gotten stuck on top of scenery where you aren't even supposed to be able to get on several occassions. Plus repeated and obvious graphical bugs like flickering overlaps on the edges of polygons.
Alpha Protocol wasn't great in terms of QA, but I certainly wouldn't call it buggy. The whole game worked 100% OK for me, which is a lot more than I can say for ME2 which somehow got rave reviews anyway despite glaring glitches. Of course, Obsidian didn't have tons of cash to pay off reviewers for good reviews like Bioware does through EA.
I liked Bioware when they made Mass Effect 1, but the more games they make, the more obvious it becomes that they care less about fixing problems and making quality games. Not that Mass Effect 1 was the most polished game ever, but it was still pretty ambitious in size; ME2 feels so cramped and linear in comparison, yet still almost the only things actually improved were the combat and the graphics. Almost everything else was a lateral step or a downgrade.
It's a damn shame that Obsidian doesn't get the kind of budgets Bioware does. Not least of all, Obsidian can write romance options that don't make you feel like an idiot for bothering with them or seeing them.
The whole bug problem isn't exactly new. Black Isle games were buggy too. Fallout 1 and 2 had some pretty big game breaking ones when they were released. Planescape was surprisingly buggy too considering how none of the other Infinity Engine games had that many problems.
But bugs can be fixed, bad writing cannot, or at least not yet.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
Oh thank god, I'm not the only one who thought that ME2 actually did have bugs.
Like that quickbar CTD they never fixed.
Which will probably still be in ME3
I was absolutely shocked when I found that error was still in the game when I started it up again last week. That's just outright lazy, unconcerned dev handiwork right there. Also gotten stuck on top of scenery where you aren't even supposed to be able to get on several occassions. Plus repeated and obvious graphical bugs like flickering overlaps on the edges of polygons.
Coupled with the fact that ME2 PC's UI and general PC-ness (graphics options, hacking minigames, no weapon quickswapping, etc.) are lacking compared to ME1, it makes me wonder why some people maintain that Bioware's inhouse work on ME2 was superior to the ME1 port.
After DX:HR, I'm convinced that if you're making a multiplatform RPG and your lead platform is a console, fucking hire up Nixxes and let those wizards handle the PC shit.
Zxerol on
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HonkHonk is this poster.Registered User, __BANNED USERSregular
ME2 was kinda buggy on 360 too.
I would often get clipped behind objects so that I couldn't walk back into the level again. Pretty annoying at times when I didn't save often.
Oh thank god, I'm not the only one who thought that ME2 actually did have bugs.
On more than one occasion, my Shepard would just start slowly rising into the air as I walked. Up and up, until eventually I would get stuck half-clipped through the ceiling, helpless until I gave in and reloaded. I would also regularly get this thing in combat where Shepard would suddenly face 90 degrees to the side instead of in the same direction as the camera. This had a number of interesting side effects.
I read somewhere that someone has the opinion I have of a "Kreia" type character. Basically that they want to see a character of that complexity make a resurgence.
Is it me? I'm pretty sure I have that opinion. I'm almost sure of it, in fact.
Maybe they should pick a small one. I'm super easy going when it comes to bugs in games, but holy shit, the three games I played that I believe they made (KOTOR 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, and New Vegas) have all had horrendous bugs. I stopped playing all three because of the game breaking bugs I encountered hours into gameplay. That's why it surprises me when I see so many Obsidian supporters.
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Have you ever heard Chris Avellone talk about love interests in games?
right, right, that's a Bioware thing
Borderlands. They do that in Borderlands and its so satisfying.
Podcast with Avellone also discussing kickstarter.
(He totally namedropped Archer)
it got old after awhile
I would really love to see someone do another game in the Planescape universe. I mean, is anyone doing anything with the Planescape IP right now?
Not really, no - but that's small potatoes next to the fact that nobody's doing anything D&D right now.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I suggest Bladur's Gate 2 - Planescape - NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, in that order. Can't comment on Arcanum.
Arcanum is fun. I'm on my third playthrough and I am still finding new things.
Although, I'm not sure why I am super-evil this time around. I think I only killed one dude who didn't attack me first.
A reasonable person can only blame their publishers for so long until facing the realization that it doesn't seem to matter who is or is not publishing these buggy games.
And I say this with affection because their games usually manage to be pretty good any ways.
yeah, I really should try to track down a copy of Arcanum, I only heard good things (well, beside the game balance, that is)
Kotor 2 was buggy
NWN2 was buggy at launch and quickly patched and the expansions were virtually bug free
Alpha Protocol I have heard is buggy? This confuses me because I never ran into any bugs, guess I was just lucky here
New Vegas was kind of buggy but let's be fair here they were working with FO3's engine, and it was far less buggy than FO3 is even now, and it also was patched up relatively quickly. Personally I finished a sixty hour play through with only one CTD and my companions vanishing a couple times. (This was probably the most prevalent bug at launch, which was fortunately easily fixed on PC by utilizing the console)
and Dungeon Siege 3 is virtually bug free from what I can tell
I know everyone loves to judge Obsidian based almost solely on Kotor 2's state of completion, but it's kind of weird to totally ignore their most recent work in light of stuff they did like seven years ago.
Whether you liked those games is another matter entirely especially in the case of Alpha Protocol since that one seems particularly divisive, but their games since have been by and large no more buggy than any other dev
New Vegas, however, that was a bit of mess. Given the engine I can't blame it all on Obsidian, but they definitely added a special something on top of Bethesda's usual problems. The saving glitch right when it launched was painful. Thankfully there was a workaround, and a patch fixed it in short order, but it was still a hell of a thing to boot up and find hours of progress just gone.
Edit: The hacking game wasn't too hard for me, though it was a bit sensitive and I remember the mouse cursor not lining up with where the pointer actually was.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I wouldn't say the game was particularly buggy or anything like that, and I indeed cannot sing the game's praises enough. But I also recognize that there's some laziness behind the implementation. The horrible porting from the 360 to the PC which Carrot mentions is one example. The element of laziness which annoyed the shit out of me was that they were lackadaisical about building cover points into the level. There are places where you can take cover to one side of a doorway, but not another, or pieces of furniture where you can hide on one side but not the other. It felt in places like a level designer couldn't really picture himself wanting to hide on the eastern side of that display case, so he figured, what the hell? Let's just not build in a cover point there, the end user will probably never notice.
Like that quickbar CTD they never fixed.
Which will probably still be in ME3
Arcanum has the best Role Playing mechanics to ever bless gaming, but the game built around it isn't really all that good imo. Pacing is wack, combat is shit, it's ungodly buggy ect. It's still very much worth a playthrough thanks to it's awesome roleplaying though.
Why must all of the good roleplaying games be marred by time constraints?
Can you explain what you mean by this, because the mechanics of Arcanum were pretty whacked.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I worded that badly. Mechanics related to combat were indeed whacked, but in terms of pure roleplaying it was the best out of it's kind. I'd say it's one of the only games that truly let's you play almost exactly like the kind of character that you want to play as.
Granted, in the mid-to-late game you can break it in half with dedicated mage/high DEX builds (and some tech too, though not quite as badly). But it's still a versatile RPG with rich lore and a damn good story. It's also hard as hell, the right kind of hard that makes me want to figure it out and keep going. I recognize that's niche appeal at best, even before you get into the uninspired visuals and clunky combat. But hey, sometimes love makes you crazy.
Also it's immensely satisfying to press a button and have your entire party preemptively beat the shit out of a plot-critical NPC. Group commands are a massive timesaver, even if the engine itself has some serious problems.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
I was absolutely shocked when I found that error was still in the game when I started it up again last week. That's just outright lazy, unconcerned dev handiwork right there. Also gotten stuck on top of scenery where you aren't even supposed to be able to get on several occassions. Plus repeated and obvious graphical bugs like flickering overlaps on the edges of polygons.
Alpha Protocol wasn't great in terms of QA, but I certainly wouldn't call it buggy. The whole game worked 100% OK for me, which is a lot more than I can say for ME2 which somehow got rave reviews anyway despite glaring glitches. Of course, Obsidian didn't have tons of cash to pay off reviewers for good reviews like Bioware does through EA.
I liked Bioware when they made Mass Effect 1, but the more games they make, the more obvious it becomes that they care less about fixing problems and making quality games. Not that Mass Effect 1 was the most polished game ever, but it was still pretty ambitious in size; ME2 feels so cramped and linear in comparison, yet still almost the only things actually improved were the combat and the graphics. Almost everything else was a lateral step or a downgrade.
It's a damn shame that Obsidian doesn't get the kind of budgets Bioware does. Not least of all, Obsidian can write romance options that don't make you feel like an idiot for bothering with them or seeing them.
But bugs can be fixed, bad writing cannot, or at least not yet.
Coupled with the fact that ME2 PC's UI and general PC-ness (graphics options, hacking minigames, no weapon quickswapping, etc.) are lacking compared to ME1, it makes me wonder why some people maintain that Bioware's inhouse work on ME2 was superior to the ME1 port.
After DX:HR, I'm convinced that if you're making a multiplatform RPG and your lead platform is a console, fucking hire up Nixxes and let those wizards handle the PC shit.
I would often get clipped behind objects so that I couldn't walk back into the level again. Pretty annoying at times when I didn't save often.
Is it me? I'm pretty sure I have that opinion. I'm almost sure of it, in fact.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
especially those videos she did before she became famous