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Obsidian hires Tim Cain (Fallout / Arcanum / Troika)

Famassu said:
It's not "part of the charm", it's just a by-product of making a game that has a ton of choice in pretty much everything, always has been, always will be. The more choice & freedom you add, the harder it is to polish a game. There's a reason why games like Fallout had bugs when they released Fallout 1 and why New Vegas still has them. It's impossible to make the games bug-free. These bugs don't affect everyone, they are totally random and Obisidian is HARDLY the only one suffering from them. Personally, I didn't confront any game-breaking/extremely annoying bugs in either Fallout 3 or New Vegas, but a lot of people have.
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Making games with lots of choice and consequences is a fucking nightmare. The shit gets confusing before one line of code is even written. This is the reason why games like these are rare.
 
jim-jam bongs said:
Why do people keep going on about how buggy Obsidian games are when their last game, coincidentally also their first game to be built with in-house technology, was rock-solid?

Obsidian are a studio who have never been given much of a chance. That isn't to say that there aren't probably a lot of practices and methodologies they've adhered to during development which would have caused problems, one thing I do think is that they keep refining and iterating on ideas right up to the 11th hour and that gets them into trouble.

I just think that a lot of the work they've done has been nothing short of miraculous given their history. Look at the fact that a big chunk of the people who made New Vegas had to be laid-off because of the awful royalty arrangement they entered into with Bethesda which meant that they haven't enjoyed any of the success the game did. Look at Alpha Protocol which was molested horribly by Sega during development who then wiped their hands of the game as soon as it was released. It just doesn't seem that they've had the advantage of a smooth project cycle for any of their games.

A lot of people still feel burned by things which they bought years ago like KOTOR 2, but the fact that games like it have remained unfixed until the community has come along to do the work isn't actually Obsidian's fault. If you look at the huge updates for New Vegas which they've managed to pump out at the same time they were finishing up the (amazing) DLC, it becomes pretty clear that, when they are given the opportunity to support their customers they will do so enthusiastically.

And again DS3 was made when things were a little more stable around the study, and benefited from a short and focused dev cycle. The result is a technically polished and rock-solid game. Obviously it's not as ambitious as New Vegas, but the point is that they're not only capable of producing technically sound games, they actually do a better job when they write more of the code.
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Gorgeously put.

People, relax and come aboard the Obs love train! Tim Cain just got on!
 
yeah, the amount of bugs is so worth considering the ridiculous complexity of what's actually happening in both the context of the game and under the engine/code. i'm more than happy to support that with every dollar i give them.

someone needs to put the cause/effect tree of Alpha Protocol, that shit is like a work of art and probably the most complicated conversation rpg system this generation.

i've always said it since i first played, but AP is going to be a super classic and going to be aped a lot in the future, what it did is the future of good rpgs
 
lolol!

hey i'm the one who asked about the Latin in NV on there, i still think Legionaires shouldn't be addressing us with "ave" as that was reserved for those of higher social rank. but ill take his word for it

it's really cool he addresses all those questions
 
Its so nice to see all the love for Obsidian here apart from the few haters. Too bad it doesn't translate to them getting good sales usually and when they do get it they get nothing in return (see NV).

As long as they don't go down i am not too fused though. I'll continue to enjoy one of the best rpg developers out there (would have said the best but cdproject red are giving them a run for their money lately).
 
duckroll said:
Can't wait to see what his next project is. I'm still so mad that Sega canned the Aliens RPG. Fuckers. :(
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I'd like to see him make a small experimental RPG some time, just him and not the rest of the creative leads. I have a feeling it would probably be extremely technical, which I love, but without being overbearing about shoving mechanics in your face all the time.
 
Vlodril said:
Its so nice to see all the love for Obsidian here apart from the few haters. Too bad it doesn't translate to them getting good sales usually and when they do get it they get nothing in return (see NV).
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Didn't New Vegas sell really well? I thought I remember reading that it did...could be wrong, though.

Edit: Never mind, misread. So they didn't get much from New Vegas? =(
 
Sawyer is quite possibly the best rpg system designer in video games today. With NV he finally got a chance to prove himself. All of his other lead projects (besides IWD2) have fallen through. NWN2 OC doesnt count because that was Ferret Baudoins show with Sawyer only coming in at the very end after Baudoin left for Bioware.
 
water_wendi said:
Sawyer is quite possibly the best rpg system designer in video games today. With NV he finally got a chance to prove himself. All of his other lead projects (besides IWD2) have fallen through. NWN2 OC doesnt count because that was Ferret Baudoins show with Sawyer only coming in at the very end after Baudoin left for Bioware.
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his philosophy is great too, there was a really great statement he made on how videogames can tell stories in a way that gets you to critically think about certain themes and come to your own conclusions because you are the one engaging and making them, rather than simply be lead to the 'right' answer through non interactive media such as film or books.
 
My favourite Sawyerism is the idea that a perk should always have a disadvantage associated with it which directly affects the advantage it confers. So instead of +25% melee damage being balanced by making the player weaker with guns, you make melee weapons wear out faster, for example.
 
duckroll said:
Yes, it's a fact that Xenoblade zealots threadshitting RPG threads are hilarious. But the time will soon come where they will be purged.
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Well, you're not talking about me, so cool!
 
jim-jam bongs said:
My favourite Sawyerism is the idea that a perk should always have a disadvantage associated with it which directly affects the advantage it confers. So instead of +25% melee damage being balanced by making the player weaker with guns, you make melee weapons wear out faster, for example.
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yeah that's obvious as the Sun in the game he made. in New Vegas almost everything, including non skill related choices, has a negative reaction associated.

i love how many quests you fail simply by going through the motions of playing
 
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