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Avowed is still in Alpha, duration of Alpha/Beta stage longest ever for Obsidian

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
uh...oh......bad news starts coming in now.

So Excited Flirting GIF
What is the bad news?
 

Godot25

Banned
This is a really "non-statement" because nobody has a clue what "Alpha" inside of Obsidian means. I mean. I remember playing Titanfall 2 Technical Alpha few months before release.
But it's cool to know that Microsoft is letting them cook in terms of last stretch of development. That is exactly what those type of acquisitions was about.

I expect Obsidian being silent until end of this year and then Developer_Direct at the start of 2024 with Towerborne, Avowed, Hellblade 2 and MFS 2024 and I expect Avowed to be out in may-june 2024. Which means that Obsidian has almost one year to finish a game which is plenty of time.
 
Curious how they will make a CRPG type of game in first person. I would definitely welcome more of a PoE3 than a skyrim / outer worlds type. But I will reserve judgement until we have more of a grasp on its style. PoE was so unique and fascinating, PoE2 was good, despite it having a tropical setting & native/colonial narrative rather than the original bizarro strangeland setting. As long as they step up from that awfully optimized Unity engine.. Do we know what all platforms it will release, besides day one Gamepass?
 

Godot25

Banned
Curious how they will make a CRPG type of game in first person. I would definitely welcome more of a PoE3 than a skyrim / outer worlds type. But I will reserve judgement until we have more of a grasp on its style. PoE was so unique and fascinating, PoE2 was good, despite it having a tropical setting & native/colonial narrative rather than the original bizarro strangeland setting. As long as they step up from that awfully optimized Unity engine.. Do we know what all platforms it will release, besides day one Gamepass?
Xbox Series X/S, PC only
 

Chukhopops

Member
Why? I'm currently playing it and it's no masterpiece but it's enjoyable enough. There are certainly things that could be better but trash? Nope.
Never understood the hate for it, and it’s not like there are a lot of other space RPGs to compare it to. It’s not perfect but it’s an 80+ easily.

When you read the reasons it’s mostly « short hair women » or « story makes capitalism look bad », and neither makes any sense once you actually understand the story.
 

ungalo

Member
The trailer was garbage but i still want to play it, what the guy said was reassuring.

And again i think TOW was good especially for people like me that missed Fallout New Vegas. What i desperately want from Obsidian is a true successor to FNV, it implies a more ambitious game than TOW in terms of content but TOW was kind of a good start. If Avowed is the same scale however, it's disappointing.
 

Topher

Gold Member
You're pretty much saying all games in development should go through multiple delays since that seems to have worked for Starfield.



Why?



Why would there be any danger of a 'Redfall situation' for a game that's reportedly coming along quite well, made by a studio with an excellent reputation and In a genre the devs are quite comfortable with?



Dev : "Our alphas typically take a few months for all our games and we've deliberately planned for a robust alpha/beta stage to make sure the game comes out very well "

You: "lies. Everyone knows alpha stage takes years and the game is in trouble"

If they get it done sooner then fine. I’m just saying take the time that is necessary. No one expected Redfall to be in the shape it was either.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Where are we today? With Redfall, it was "they should have delayed" and Miyamoto quoted over and over

"A delayed game is eventually a good game, a rushed game is forever bad"

But in this instance we're going to wring hands and say they ought to rush it?

Or just decide the game IS already getting delayed by a year, apropos nothing?

Cool Cool Cool Community GIF

Based on some of the responses, I'd say "we" are going with overreaction, over-defensiveness to posts expecting delays in a time when delays are more common than not.
 
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Gorgon

Member
Outer Worlds 2 is in development so somebody does 🤣

Well, at least MS does. MS stated they wanted to make The Outer Worlds into a big AAA IP. I get their perspective and the original game ain't bad, but I don't think it's something that is "big IP" material. And quite honestly I'm starting to get a bit worried about Obsidian, because The Outer Worlds feels a bit like an attempt at Fallout in Space type of humour that actually didn't deliver that well, and Avowed seems to be going into colourful cartoonish comedy territory too in terms of atmosphere and tone. Some of the screenshots look like the environments are made out of plasticine, and that's not because of the quality of the trailer video but actual art direction (even though certainly far from finished). I think the game will be good and many of the features they mentioned are a plus in my book, but I'm really not very impressed with what Avowed seems to be going for. We know that the game had several conceptual design reboots, but I'm not sure they ended going with the right decision here. But I'll be there day one (on Game Pass).
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I thought the initial reveal of this was fine, but the more I hear about it the less I like. If the game is what Urqhart says it is, which is basically Outer Worlds with swords, I'm out. Maybe InXile was the dope RPG dev team all along....


Where are we today? With Redfall, it was "they should have delayed" and Miyamoto quoted over and over

"A delayed game is eventually a good game, a rushed game is forever bad"

That's not really what Miyamoto said, and it's not true anyway. Quotes like this seem just like damage control. It is like they know it went over like a lead balloon (which is understandable, because people expected a certain type of game that it's not) and are trying to convince people it is worth being excited about. It probably won't work, and this messaging is TERRIBLE besides. Nobody gives a shit about what alpha/beta is to these people. It reminds me of when Everwild was revealed and Rare was like "oh yea btw we don't really know what this game is yet", and now N years later it is just nowhere to be seen.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
I thought the initial reveal of this was fine, but the more I hear about it the less I like. If the game is what Urqhart says it is, which is basically Outer Worlds with swords, I'm out. Maybe InXile was the dope RPG dev team all along....

Started out as Obsidian's take on Skyrim and then they "pivoted" away from that which is really disappointing. I'm not out yet necessarily, but my hype over the game isn't what it used to be.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
If they get it done sooner then fine. I’m just saying take the time that is necessary. No one expected Redfall to be in the shape it was either.

As it stands today, the ‘time that is necessary’ for them is a release in 2024, according to their roadmap. And there’s not even the slightest shred of evidence that this is threatened.

2025 or ‘delay’ takes are certainly weird.

Are we going to talk about games being delayed for one year in every thread about every game here now?
 

Topher

Gold Member
As it stands today, the ‘time that is necessary’ for them is a release in 2024, according to their roadmap. And there’s not even the slightest shred of evidence that this is threatened.

2025 or ‘delay’ takes are certainly weird.

Are we going to talk about games being delayed for one year in every thread about every game here now?

There is nothing weird about it. Delays are common, damn near the norm. This game isn't being treated any differently. I don't get the push back, frankly. It isn't that big a deal.
 
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Gorgon

Member
I expect it to look better next time we see it. Same thing happened with Starfield.

Yes, but Starfield didn't change a jot in terms of what it was going for in terms of tone and atmosphere. Avowed was announved as Obsidian's Dark Fantasish Skyrim with a trailer that matched into what for all purposes looks like Scooby-Doo fantasy at certain points. Difficult not to expect dissapointment when the project all of a sudden takes a 180 degrees spin. Good or bad isn't the question, but it would (and it did) cause a divided community due to those creative changes. Still I doubt it will be a bad game, since my personal issues at the moment are simply creative direction ones (and they have the right to do with their game whatever they want).


They better not touch Lizard man. His character model is too good.

Looks good, yeah. It's clear from the trailer that some things have a much more finished look than others.
 
Never understood the hate Outer Worlds gets. It was made on a tiny budget and turned out to be good. Not great or anything, but a good RPG. With Bill Gates money and all the time in the world that they need, the sequel will be even better.

As for Avowed, isn’t it good that they’re getting the longest alpha they’ve ever had? Clearly alpha stage for them is different than alpha for other studios.
 

Diddy X

Member
Never understood the hate Outer Worlds gets. It was made on a tiny budget and turned out to be good. Not great or anything, but a good RPG. With Bill Gates money and all the time in the world that they need, the sequel will be even better.

As for Avowed, isn’t it good that they’re getting the longest alpha they’ve ever had? Clearly alpha stage for them is different than alpha for other studios.

I'm hyped for OW 2, first one was good.
 
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Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Never understood the hate Outer Worlds gets. It was made on a tiny budget and turned out to be good. Not great or anything, but a good RPG. With Bill Gates money and all the time in the world that they need, the sequel will be even better.

As for Avowed, isn’t it good that they’re getting the longest alpha they’ve ever had? Clearly alpha stage for them is different than alpha for other studios.
Laugh Lol GIF
 

nowhat

Member
Never understood the hate Outer Worlds gets. It was made on a tiny budget and turned out to be good. Not great or anything, but a good RPG.
I admit at least personally it was a matter of expectations. Yes, I knew it was going to be a smaller game, I'm down with that (if anything, modern games tend to be too bloated). The gunplay sucks, but I wasn't expecting otherwise. And a new IP always has more challenges. If it were a no-name small studio that made it I would have been more forgiving. But it was advertised as "from the makers of New Vegas". And... from that perspective, it certainly didn't deliver.
With Bill Gates money and all the time in the world that they need, the sequel will be even better.
We'll see. In terms of production value, it probably will be. But in terms of things not so dependent on budget, like the writing and world building... Obsidian had the opportunity to excel at both in the first game, and they failed IMHO. I'm not sure a larger budget will be able to fix that.
 

gothmog

Gold Member
There is nothing weird about it. Delays are common, damn near the norm. This game isn't being treated any differently. I don't get the push back, frankly. It isn't that big a deal.
He both created and sustained the drama.
 
Never understood the hate Outer Worlds gets. It was made on a tiny budget and turned out to be good. Not great or anything, but a good RPG...
i'd say more resented than hated: it was a good-sized chunk of an rpg that sold for full price. the game contained mechanics & items that served no purpose because it was obviously uncompleted...
 

Kydd BlaZe

Member
Why? I'm currently playing it and it's no masterpiece but it's enjoyable enough. There are certainly things that could be better but trash? Nope.
Exactly. Calling Outer Worlds “trash” is complete hyperbole. I get that people didn’t like it, but calling it TRASH is an absolute stretch. Personally, I thought the game was fantastic. Limited in scope, yes…but I thought that was because Obsidian just didn’t have a huge budget for it. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed The Outer Worlds and I’m definitely looking forward to the sequel as well as Avowed.

Avowed definitely looked early in this trailer, and I do agree that another layer of visual polish is needed. I certainly expect it to look much better given that it’s a UE5 title.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Alpha? Ouch.
Pre-alpha. I am not sure how OP got it wrong, it clearly says they haven't hit alpha yet.

There were a lot of rumors about this game struggling to find its direction and switching directors and all that. It's not surprising they aren't further along, but what matters in the end is whether or not they have the vision for it now.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
What little "gameplay" they have shown honestly does not inspire confidence.

It gives off very strong Outer Worlds vibes (+ medieval fantasy).
Which is awful, since that game had the most aggressively mediocre gameplay ever combined with some of the most cringe writing and "huehue capitalism bad" humor.

I still hope it will at least be decent, but man, that Microsoft Extended showcase video gave me all the wrong vibes, incl this fake greasy interview vibe.
If they are going to have a longer alpha/beta period, that will at least mean there are higher chances of a better result, so that's good.
 
We'll see. In terms of production value, it probably will be. But in terms of things not so dependent on budget, like the writing and world building... Obsidian had the opportunity to excel at both in the first game, and they failed IMHO. I'm not sure a larger budget will be able to fix that.

Recently, their Pentiment had good writing. I mean, writing was what carried it apart from few other touches.

Even Pillars games had enjoyable writing. So I am not too concerned about that.

I did however wanted a proper, big rpg from them. The Outer Worlds I was disappointed it didn't had even more planets.

I would want 100+ hrs of content to be fully satisfied. Quality of their games I am happy with.
 
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