Dungeon Siege III Interview ( Interview )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Fri 03 September 2010, 12:00:35
More info on Dungeon Siege III - More info on Obsidian Entertainment
Another GamesCom based Dungeon Siege 3 preview surfaced, this time G4TV questioned Obsidian's Nathaniel Chapman and Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor.
G4: I noticed as I watched the demonstration that the way loot is presented to the player is very rooted in the game world, rather than a box popping up listing what's in a chest, or loot falling out of enemies as they die. How did that come about?
Nathaniel: We have a goofy term for it on the team, we call it "Pow!" It's basically the idea that when loot comes out of a monster it shouldn't just appear on the ground; it should explode out of them with, like, sparkles and a million particle effects. Just the idea that whenever you do something in the game, it should be awesome. With the loot, we didn't want it to feel like, "Okay, I'm opening up a window and clicking buttons to get my loot."
You see in the demo that when you attack a skeleton, bones fly off them. We just wanted to have that feeling that everything is visceral and in the world, that was really important to us.
The significance of loot exploding out of the enemies with sparkles and particle effects - I always underestimated it.
Spotted at: RPGWatch There are 7 comments on this article. Click here to comment.
MCA Blog Entries ( Editorial )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Wed 01 September 2010, 12:02:18
More info on Obsidian Entertainment - More info on Chris Avellone
Magnificent Chris Avellone keeps on sharing his wisdom and gives insight into the inner workings of a game developer company.
Project Directors are selected based on their ability to hold or create the vision for a project, motivate and inspire the team, and their ability to focus the game to the vision and the game pillars. Any individual on a team who has demonstrated these qualities at a senior level as they've risen through the ranks in their discipline (usually to lead status) is considered a candidate for Project Director. Rich Taylor, for example, consistently demonstrated strengths as a lead programmer, and also demonstrated good judgment and decisions on how to go about making the game he was leading (Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir, and now Dungeon Siege).
Lead Designers are selected for much the same reason - they're usually senior designers who've shown the same strengths in upholding the game vision, ability to motivate and lead a team, and can manage effectively. Like other lead roles, Lead Designers are not necessarily chosen for their design ability, and they may not be the best designer in their discipline, they simply need to understand the design pipelines, understand the toolset and its breakdowns, and how to manage a team - this is because leads spend more time managing the designers in their discipline than doing actual core design work. If they excel in design, as Josh does, then that's a bonus.
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Realism vs. What Designers Care About ( Editorial )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Sat 28 August 2010, 11:54:25
More info on Obsidian Entertainment
..., Verisimilitude, and the Responsibility of Expectations. Obsidian's Nathaniel Chapman ponders the issue.
Something that seems to frequently come up when discussing the design of a game system is whether or not some aspect of that system adheres to reality. Or, more precisely, whether the outcomes of that system accurately simulate the results that the person making the argument expects, based on their particular interpretation of reality.
Generally, these arguments come from players, or from non-designers, or less experienced designers, and will take the form of, "But XXXX isn't realistic!" or "Realistically, YYYY should happen instead". And, frequently, experienced game designers will turn around and say "Who cares?" and merrily go on their way designing an "unrealistic" system.
I wanted to give a quick explanation of why this is, explain what role I see realism as having in game design, and then provide a bit of a defense of "realism" as it relates to something I call the "responsibility of expectations" that is placed on any game design.
Spotted at: RPGWatch There are 42 comments on this article. Click here to comment.
Fallout: New Vegas : Robot Copulation Confirmed ( Game news )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Fri 27 August 2010, 23:39:04
More info on Fallout: New Vegas - More info on Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian is taking that romance concept to a whole new level.
According to ESBR Fallout: NV will contain "sexual activities with a robot".
This is an action role-playing game, set in a post-apocalyptic Mojave Desert, in which players assume the role of a survivor hero who investigates a mystery and performs a series of quests. Missions allow players to explore the Mojave Desert, surrounding casinos, and abandoned facilities; other quests involve combat with human and mutant survivors. Players use chainsaws, laser rifles, knives, and sledgehammers to kill enemies. Fighting can be frenetic and intense, highlighted by various camera effects (e.g., slow motion, blurring, screen shakes) and depictions of dismemberment, blood spray, and blood trails. In one sequence, players can choose to activate a collar bomb around a slave-woman's neck, resulting in depictions of blood and gore. During the course of the game, players will encounter male and female prostitutes: the screen fades to black as suggestive dialogue is heard in the background (e.g., "Nice charlies, too! Give them a shake for the Ben-man, will ya?"); there is also an extended sequence suggesting (no depiction) sexual activity with a robot (e.g., "Fisto reporting for duty . . . Please assume the position," "I suppose I should test you out . . . Servos active!" and "Something wrong with someone if they got to f**k a machine."). The storyline sometimes references a fictional drug called "chems," as well as "Day Trippers," "cracked out junkies," and "degenerate, drug-addicted killers." Players' Character can be seen consuming the drugs, which sometimes leads to a screen-blurring effect.
Fisto reporting for duty . . . Please assume the position.
Thanks to the Bitcher for pointing this out!
Spotted at: Destructoid There are 145 comments on this article. Click here to comment.
New Vegas is Nearly Done & Won't Tank Like AP ( Interview )
posted by Jason on Fri 27 August 2010, 06:26:05
More info on Fallout: New Vegas - More info on Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian's Josh Sawyer did some candid speaking with Strategy Informer about Fallout: New Vegas.
Strategy Informer: Speaking candidly for a minute - your last game, Alpha Protocol, wasn't received that well. Has that affected the development of New Vegas at all?
Josh Sawyer: Well whenever you put that much time and effort into something, and there's all that negative opinion on it, it's kind of sobering and we think "Ok, this isn't a fluke here, we made some mistakes that we want to learn from". Personally I felt all along that we want to make the gameplay experience feel good - I know that sounds like a very simple thing but in some cases I feel like designers sometimes kind of internalise their opinions about something, and don't think from the perspective of the players. Is the player going to enjoy shooting? Is the player going to enjoy doing this kind of thing in the game? Are these objectives clear to them?
They seem really basic but sometimes I think they can be really difficult to pull off, and I think with Alpha Protocol people criticised things that were really basic gameplay elements. For New Vegas I was like "ok, we don't want to reinvent the wheel here", what can we just improve upon? A lot of people liked Fallout 3, so shooting mechanics, VATS, stealth... don't just break the mould and start again, how can we take what's there and improve upon it? We want players who are coming into it to feel like this is similar to what they've seen, but better.
And when asked how far along the game is:
Josh Sawyer: Oh it's done. We're actually getting ready to submit. The only thing we've been doing recently is fixing bugs, stabilising frame rates, certification at Sony and Microsoft and that's it! We're getting ready.
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Fallout: New Vegas Interviews ( Interview )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Thu 26 August 2010, 18:29:09
More info on Fallout: New Vegas - More info on Obsidian Entertainment
Two interviews with associate producer Theresa Treadwell surfaced. Here are the usual excerpts:
AusGamers did an in-depth interview:
AG: In terms of the companion system, what was the decision behind expanding that to the extent you guys have? Obviously there were examples of it in the other games, but it seems you guys have crafted a deeper, more robust system here...
Tess: Yeah, so one of the things Obsidian is known for is our companions (the other is our writing and story stuff). And that's a big deal to us, to have companions who feel like people; you know they have a story, they have a personality, you know, they all talk a certain way. So in our game, the first thing we tried to address is the complaints and frustrations people had with the companions in Fallout 3. You know, they'd get in the way, or they wouldn't equip what I wanted them to, or they'd just let themselves die... So with ours, we've got a really quick and easy companion wheel. It's just one click and you can tell them "use a Stimpak", "go over here", "get away from me", you know.
I know.
Whereas GayNerds stay true to their formula, not only with a site that looks gay but also by asking gay questions:
GN: Game development is one of the holy grails of nerdery. How did you get into it?
Tess: I started out poking around in hex files for PC games, working as a translator on fan patches for Japanese and Korean games, pretty minor stuff as a hobby. As a university student, I played Natural Selection (Half-Life total conversion mod) obsessively and got on the QA team, which was probably the tipping point; once I got my degree, I landed a job with an MMO publisher as a community manager, and was eventually shanghai’d into becoming a producer. And here we are!
Excellent! Another one with an extensive background in playing turds is responsible for our future RPGs. That's certainly a good sign!
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Dungeon Siege III Preview ( Preview )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Thu 26 August 2010, 12:10:41
More info on Dungeon Siege III - More info on Obsidian Entertainment
Another GamesCom-based preview surfaced over at G4TV.
Dungeon Siege 3 begs for comparisons with Diablo 3. Both seem to utilize a relatively large amount of color on screen, especially for dark, dungeon environments. Loot is also a big part of both games. In Dungeon Siege 3, they've tried to give loot as much of what they call "pow!" as possible. So, instead of opening a chest and being met with a pop up window showing you its contents, the items fly out of the chest one by one and land at your feet. Likewise, if monsters drop money or items, they'll appear to be knocked out of them as they die. It's a really great effect that adds a sense of dynamism to combat and exploration.
To make things simpler, there are no identify scrolls. You automatically know how powerful a weapon is and can even see its sell value before you pick it up, meaning you'll spend less time wondering whether to pick up that giant axe that takes up half your inventory and more time exploring dungeons and killing monsters.
Combat looks to be complex, yet accessible. The developers at Obsidian wanted to transfer the PC hotkey system to the console. In doing so, they've created a dual-stance system. Changing your combat stance from single to double-handed changes what skills are available through your hotkeys. As you kill enemies your skill globes will fill up, allowing you to spend them while using skills. Holding down the skill button will siphon more energy from the skill globes, making the skill much more powerful.
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Ausir's Fallout: New Vegas Preview Part II ( Preview )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Mon 23 August 2010, 16:28:55
More info on Fallout: New Vegas - More info on Obsidian Entertainment
After the first part Ausir continues to tell us the tale of his GamesCom adventure. Of course he managed to get onto the Bethesda list of suspects already.
I wanted to try out the Hardcore Mode, but I was not able to due to one simple fact – for the purposes of the demo, my Courir's inventory was filled with thousands of rounds of ammo for various weapons, which made me nearly unable to move once I switched the mode, and by the time I would drop them all, I wouldn’t have any time left to actually play. Although the time I had for playing the game probably wouldn’t allow me to see any actual effects of things like dehydration anyway. So to continue playing, I had to switch back to Casual. Looking through gameplay options, I also noticed that the kill cam now has three modes – player view, cinematic and off. Guess which one I chose? Of course me going through the game’s menus instead of just walking around Freeside and doing the quest for the King alarmed the Bethesda people again, so they approached me, but saw that I wasn’t breaking any of their rules this time.
...
While I personally look forward to playing the full game, and will likely enjoy it (or am I writing this only because I got a t-shirt?), I still predict that many people will be (and in many cases already are) disappointed by it – some because it’s still too much like Fallout 3, some because it changed too many of the things they loved about Fallout 3. While I doubt it will be very attractive to people who aren't already fans of the series, it will most likely appeal to most fans of Fallout 3 and to many of the fans of the original games who were not that fond of Fallout 3, especially those for whom the weak story was the main turnoff in Bethesda’s game.
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Was Obsidian the Smart Choice for Fallout: New Vegas? ( Editorial )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Mon 23 August 2010, 09:53:13
More info on Fallout: New Vegas - More info on Obsidian Entertainment
... is a question raised by GameZone.
Fallout 3 is a very tough act to follow. Released in 2008 to stellar reviews and huge sales, it’s a real modern classic. As the sequel to two equally féted 2D RPGs, Fallout 3 had a lot to live up to itself, making the switch to both three dimensions and a new developer, following the 2004 collapse of Fallout’s old publisher, Interplay.
The series’ new minders handled the challenge skilfully, taking the unique post-nuclear flavor of Fallout - think Mad Max meets 1950’s Public Information films - and mixing it with Bethesda’s trademark massive, open exploratory worlds of myriad challenges and plotlines. They also assuaged fan fears that it might abandon the series’ turn-based roots, by incorporating strategy into the combat in the form of Action Points - played as a straight FPS, Fallout is punishingly difficult, but the player can pause the game at any time and use slowly recharging Action Points to take precision shots.
Fallout 3 featured the surroundings of a ruined Washington DC, but in New Vegas the setting has moved to—no wild guesses needed—Las Vegas, an area somewhat less affected by the nuclear war and very different in tone and feel.
Does the team at Obsidian have what it takes to make New Vegas a Royal Flush? Or will the new Fallout be little more than a glorified add-on to a tired old game? The jury’s still out - and the evidence for both scenarios is almost equally powerful. Let me help you make your mind up.
Yes, let him help. Don't hesitate to utter your own opinion on the subject, smart choice y/n?
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Ausir's Fallout: New Vegas Preview Part I ( Preview )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Thu 19 August 2010, 15:17:03
More info on Fallout: New Vegas - More info on Obsidian Entertainment
Somehow Ausir managed to sneak into Germany, paying a visit to the GamesCom. This merry adventure apparently resulted in him writing a preview.
The demo starts with no map markers on the world map, so I ventured blindly in various directions. One of the places I managed to find nearby was the Crimson Caravan Camp.
The Vegas office of the Crimson Caravan is headed by Alice McLafferty, who was also in charge of the company's operations in Hoover Dam in the canceled Van Buren. She is normally in charge of the Hub HQ of the company, but the New Vegas branch has been underperforming lately, and she came to clean it up. She also mentions that the New Canaan Mormons (another Van Buren reference here) are in charge of most northern trade routes, while the Gun Runners control most of the gun trade in the area. She gives you a quest called You Can Depend on Me to deliver an invoice to doctor Hildern at Camp McCarran. There are also lots of brahmin in the Crimson Caravan camp, which confirms that the big horners are not the only domesticated animals in the area.
Spotted at: Ausir's Wiki There are 101 comments on this article. Click here to comment.
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