Game

[Human Snorenado]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

2014 tho? YEAH RIGHT

[close]

[Great Rumbler]

I could see it being late 2014, November or December, but there's no way it's coming out earlier than that.

[Damian79]

While i agree with you that the game will be delayed the game was delayed by ubi and the creators of south park.  Probably because the game wasnt funny.

http://blog.ubi.com/south-park-the-stick-of-truth-delayed/

[Great Rumbler]

[Fifstar]

 

[Great Rumbler]

Some new pictures to look at with your eyeballs:

[archie4208]

[a slime appears]

Wow that looks really fucking good. There's something special about the isometric design that I find enthralling.

[Great Rumbler]

Obsidian's Brandon Adler also had an update on the state of development:

We are in our Alpha phase right now.

We are currently going through all of our previously created areas and revising anything that we think needs more work - both art and design.

Programming is nearing feature complete. We are tracking to be feature complete in a couple of weeks. This means that we are feature locked and most of the programming team will be diverted into bug fixing, feature polish, demos, etc.

Narrative will have a full pass done in a few weeks, as well. We are almost completely finished with the first pass on our crit path narrative.

Audio and VFX are still a ways off and won't be finished until July or August. They come onto the project later than the other teams because they require that content exists in a locked down form before they can do their work.

Character Art is working on creature variants, armor variants, and other miscellaneous items. Soon they will be adding in unique armors and weapons. Also, they will be creating head and hair variants in the next few weeks.

Animation is finishing up the last remaining A priority tasks and is moving on to some of our B priority animations (special attacks and whatnot).

UI/Concept Art has most of the UI in at an Alpha level. Kaz is finishing up things like Scripted Interaction slides and special UI screens. Also, he has a ton of portraits and areas to paint in the near future.

Production is figuring out project finalization, localization, Kickstarter rewards, convention plans, expansion planning, and a ton of other small things.

[Great Rumbler]

[Himu]

No.

[Van Cruncheon]

I WANT THIS INSIDE MY MOUTH AND ANUS NOW

[Rufus]

So this is basically like Diablo?

Like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale.

[Great Rumbler]

It's an HD version of an Infinity Engine game.

[Van Cruncheon]

I WANT THIS POUNDING MY BUTTHOLE IN THE MANNER OF A FERAL BEAST

[Great Rumbler]

I WANT THIS POUNDING MY BUTTHOLE IN THE MANNER OF A FERAL BEAST

They're showing off the good stuff behind closed doors at E3, unfortunately. :'(

[Human Snorenado]

Supposed to release by the end of this year, right? I'll enjoy launch next June.

[Great Rumbler]

Supposed to release by the end of this year, right? I'll enjoy launch next June.

From their updates, it sounds like they're just about finished with content creation and about to move to polishing and bug fixing.

[Rufus]

Here comes the hard part. Flip a coin, brehs.

[Steve Contra]

Supposed to release by the end of this year, right? I'll enjoy launch next June.

From their updates, it sounds like they're just about finished with content creation and about to move to polishing and bug fixing.

So yeah, next June.

[Great Rumbler]

It's like the Infinity Engine hasn't aged a day. If you were a teeanger 15 years ago, when legendary Infinity Engine games such as Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment were redefining the computer RPG, Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity is probably exactly what you see in your mind's eye. In reality, those old pre-rendered backgrounds are now plasticky and microscopic on high-res monitors. Pillars of Eternity is how you remember those games looking: moodily lit, each isometric scene packed with evocative tiny details. And from the short demo I saw at E3, Obsidian has done exactly what its 73,986 Kickstarter backers want: create a 1999 RPG with a 2014 graphical shine.

Obsidian showed off an introductory area of Pillars of Eternity, which opens with your character traveling through the Eastern Reach with a ragtag caravan. A few minutes in and the caravan is attacked, people die, and you lead a couple surviving companions through some nearby ruins. It was a short presentation, about 20 minutes of gameplay, that assumes some baseline knowledge of past Infinity Engine RPGs. Obsidian didn't spend time explaining the basics of isometric RPGs or digging into stats or classes or even showing off dialogue. Instead, they focused on what's new and different.

There are 11 classes in the game, but Obsidian focused on wizards, which have gotten a nice boost since the days of Baldur's Gate. "In the old Infinity Engine games, once you spent all of your spells, your wizard was kind of useless," said Brandon Adler, lead producer on Pillars of Eternity. "We wanted to avoid that, so one of the things we're doing is [giving wizards] rods and wands and they can shoot projectiles out of that and do a lot of damage." Wizards will start with a blast ability that will do AOE damage around the enemies they hit, which Adler said will be good for mopping up mobs.

Classes won't be restricted from using different weapons. A wizard, for example, could wade into battle with a sword, but stats would affect his skill with the weapon. He'd likely end up clumsily missing attacks until a monster gave him a good stabbing.

Obsidian skipped through most of the story in the demo, but I spotted the long blocks of dialogue, descriptive flavor text and multiple dialogue options that defined Infinity Engine RPGs. The big storytelling addition for Pillars are "scripted interactions" that play out like storybook sequences. Instead of animating small plot points in-engine, Obsidian paired illustrations with narrative text to tell short vignettes. The parchment background and flat presentation surprised me, at first, but I immediately liked it—it's a great callback to pen-and-paper RPGs more expressive than the engine's pulled-back isometric camera.

"Whenever we want to really emphasize something in the story we do one of these," said Adler. "It's very similar to [a choose your own adventure book]." One scripted interaction towards the end of the demo presented the party with a damaged stone wall. It was an ability check: with the right items or party skills, it was possible to break through the wall and take a shortcut.

I saw a few scripted interactions in the short 20 minute demo of Pillars, so I expect they'll be common in the full game. Pivotal story moments will still mostly be presented in-engine.

The last interesting mechanic Obsidian touched on was the disposition system, which works similarly to alignment in Baldur's Gate or Planescape. "You'll see diplomatic, honest, passionate," Adler pointed out at one point. " Depending on how you respond in various conversations, it'll track that throughout the game, and people will respond to you differently based on that. As an example, if I was to choose the cruel option and was a jerk to everyone, that'll get out ot the public at large at some point, and that'll change how people react to me. A priest may not want to deal with me because I'm cruel. Then again, somebody inside the village I'm dealing with will go 'I don't want to mess with that guy, so give him whatever he wants.' "

After the demo I got a few interesting details out of project lead Josh Sawyer. In the intro section I saw, it's possible (even likely) to have your two starter companions die or abandon you based on your decisions. The same goes for the rest of the companions you'll encounter throughout the game—they can die or leave your party, and it's theoretically possible (though extremely difficult) to fight through the entire game solo. Sawyer said no one at Obsidian had tried yet. If you do get all your companions killed or decide you don't like them, you'll be able to recruit other generic companions—they just won't have the fleshed-out personalities and story arcs of the eight companions Obsidian is focused on.

Pillars of Eternity is feature locked at this point and heading towards a beta phase, where quests and systems will be tweaked, art will be polished and bugs will be squashed. Backers will get their hands on a beta build of the game in the next few months before the final release in winter 2014.

Obsidian is intentionally keeping a shroud pulled over the story of Pillars of Eternity out of respect for backers who don't want to be spoiled. And everything rides on that story. Right now, Pillars of Eternity looks like the successor to some of the most legendary RPGs ever made. It just has to sound like one, too.

[Steve Contra]

Looking so good

This is so mine on Steam Sale

[Cerveza mas fina]

Just come out already

I played Shadowrun for my rpg fix but its not that hot, not being to save anywhere is really a bummer in such a game

[Human Snorenado]

I will buy this at launch, not waiting on a sale.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Launch will be around this time next year anyway

[close]

[Great Rumbler]

Just come out already

I played Shadowrun for my rpg fix but its not that hot, not being to save anywhere is really a bummer in such a game

Shadowrun's got save anywhere now, plus the Dragonfall campaign is better than the base game.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Just come out already

I played Shadowrun for my rpg fix but its not that hot, not being to save anywhere is really a bummer in such a game

Shadowrun's got save anywhere now, plus the Dragonfall campaign is better than the base game.

When did it get patced? I played it last month.

[Great Rumbler]

Just come out already

I played Shadowrun for my rpg fix but its not that hot, not being to save anywhere is really a bummer in such a game

Shadowrun's got save anywhere now, plus the Dragonfall campaign is better than the base game.

When did it get patced? I played it last month.

It was patched to include save anywhere back in February, not sure why you weren't able to.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Im pretty sure I cant save anywhere, maybe only with the dlc?

[Great Rumbler]

No, they went back and patched it into the original campaign, as well.

[Himu]

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-ex-pillars-of-eternity/2300-9224/

[Himu]

If anyone can find a video preview of the game in that same GB QL build, withOUT the players rushing and talking over it, that'd be great!

edit:

So far, I'm actually way more impressed with Divinity. Pillars of Eternity seems to be going for nostalgia way too much for my liking. I love Baldur's Gate. 2 is my favorite crpg. But the animations feel out of 1999, even the interface, text, ui. It feels too masturbatory to me. It still looks great, and like a true Baldur's Gate spiritual successor, and I guess I had my expectations a little too high here, but I didn't exactly come away from that video impressed.

[Squiddy]

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/quick-look-ex-pillars-of-eternity/2300-9224/

Goddamn I am excited for this game.

GOTY.

[Great Rumbler]

I'm perfectly fine with this being an HD version of an Infinity Engine game, and that's what they've billed it as from the start.

[Himu]

True enough.

[Squiddy]

Yeah, nothing wrong with an evolution of an old classic.
What I particularly enjoyed about that quick look were the "cut scene" sequences which reminded me of pick-your-path Fantasy novels.

Great way of guiding the player without making it feel forced.

[Phoenix Dark]

[Great Rumbler]

Youtube's compression destroys a lot of the detail, I would imagine.

[Great Rumbler]

Have you seen the screenshots posted earlier in this thread? Because the actual screenshots look far better and show a wider variety of locations, which are more interesting than the early sections shown in the gameplay videos.

And they probably couldn't have done the game at this fidelity in full 3D, considering the budget they've got to work with [about $3 million, once fees and physical rewards were accounted for].

[Himu]

The graphics really aren't that hot. Looks really bad in some places. The read the text while everyone is standing still nostalgia trip also looks awful, antiquated, and outright archaic.

[Phoenix Dark]

Graphics look dope to me. Environments look like a painting, and the character models are good enough.

[Himu]

Backgrounds are the only thing I can compliment this game visually on.

[Great Rumbler]

The read the text while everyone is standing still nostalgia trip also looks awful, antiquated, and outright archaic.

[Himu]

7:48 on the ign video. Looks terrible and OLD.

[Great Rumbler]

Anything other than maybe having the characters move around a bit would kind of be wasted at that zoom level. You certainly couldn't show nuance like a character's facial expression. Other than doing a Bioware-type scene of people talking, which really wouldn't work for a variety of reasons, I'd rather get all that information through text instead of spending time and effort to visually fluff up the talking parts.

[Himu]

The text isn't the problem. The image being static is. It's like the world pauses when you're in dialogue.

Feels like an 90's game.

I know that's what it's like in infinity engine games, but there's nostalgia, and then there's this. The game might as well come on compact discs for maximum nostalgia at this point. After all, that's how we gamed in the 90's! We need to recreate EVERYTHING! I understand the want to appeal to nostalgia, but I thought this game was an infinity engine game in a 2010's skin, not a 2010's game in an infinity engine skin. It has all the quirks and  of a game made in 1998. It's like Blizzard making Diablo 4 with Diablo 2's UI and 1024x768 resolution mode as a bonus feature. The very premise is laughable.

Compare that Pillars of Eternity video to Baldur's Gate 2.



They practically look identical. When this game was revealed, I had hoped it was Baldur's Gate with 2010 presentation, polish, and pizazz with the spirit and depth of an IE game. Instead, it's literally a new IE game. What new does it have to offer? Why should I buy this and not Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition instead?

[Great Rumbler]

Constantly shifting your eyes between a paragraph of text and dialogue at the bottom half of the screen and your characters doing stuff on the top half wouldn't be very much fun, so unless it's actually a cutscene instead of just a talking part then I don't see that there's really a need to do anything with the characters.

Why should I buy this and not Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition instead?

Because you've already beaten BG2 a dozen times and want to play a new game instead?

[Bebpo]

Looks good enough for me.  If you want huge expansive worlds and branching of old rpgs on a budget of less than 100s of millions of dollars, you gotta do it in that same graphical style.  I'd rather have the scope and quality of the world/gameplay than pretty graphics.

[Himu]

It's much less about graphics than it is about presentation. You say to have the scope of old RPGs you need the same graphical style and yet Divinity just came out.

[Great Rumbler]

They're both isometric, in large part because doing it isometric is cheaper than an over-the-shoulder camera with a wider view of up-close environments, characters, and objects.

And Divinity also has talking scenes where people just stand around, by the way.

[Bebpo]

Yeah I haven't played enough Divinity (just the opening tutorial) since I haven't had much gaming time, so dunno about that one.  Isn't Divinity more about gameplay though?  Does it really have a Obsidian scope of huge world to explore with tons of people to talk to and dialogue choices up the wazoo with real consequences and branching ways to get through every quest?

[pilonv1]

Divinity has that except the branching.

[Great Rumbler]

The dialogue choices in Divinity don't really have much affect on things, for the most part. It's more about how a quest is solved through your actions. It does have a pretty big world, though, with a lot of sidequests to do. Combat in Divinity is incredibly fun, lots of depth and interesting ways of taking down tough enemies. I'd say that side of it is where it really shines.

[Rufus]

This game's a throwback. It's deliberately 90s. That's what they got the money for in the first place.

[Freyj]

The dialogue choices in Divinity don't really have much affect on things, for the most part. It's more about how a quest is solved through your actions. It does have a pretty big world, though, with a lot of sidequests to do. Combat in Divinity is incredibly fun, lots of depth and interesting ways of taking down tough enemies. I'd say that side of it is where it really shines.

Kind of fits the Divinity series in general. Great gameplay, world exploration, questing, but the dialogue and story is just so so compared to its peers.

[Great Rumbler]

I like the actual dialogue, it's wordy and not-too-serious in a way that makes it interesting compared to "Generic Serious Fantasy Dialogue" that you get in a lot of RPGs, it's just that there's not a lot of branching within the dialogue tree for the most part. There are a few instances where you need to employ one of your dialogue skills to either avoid combat or get something you want, but they don't come up too often.

[toku]

Why does Himu-chan have to be such a hater 

[Great Rumbler]

Why does Himu-chan have to be such a hater 

Going from "OMG AMAZING I NEED THIS GAME NOW!!!" to "Looks awful, not even interested anymore" is a long-standing Himu tradition!

[Himu]

To be fair, that was the first actual snippet of gameplay we've even seen. Everything we've seen - or at least I've seen - before this round of demos, are screenshots, not actual gameplay with a HUD and everything displayed. And I'm not impressed a single bit by this demo. The footage released before was fine, because we saw potential, but not really what the game was about. We got nothing but 5 second clips and pre rendered bgs snapshots for almost literally two years. Then the actual gameplay footage is released and it looks like something from 1999, and in a bad way.

[Himu]

Definitely. Seems to lack ambition or scope. Instead of expanding on IE games they seem to be trying replicate them. In 2014.

[Phoenix Dark]

Which game raised more on KS? I'd imagine the Divinity folks had a larger team.

The game looks exactly like what they told everyone they were making...so I don't see the logic behind complaining. This is what they sold to investors, this is what investors wanted. And considering you knew this...