Wasteland Wasteland 2 Thread - Director's Cut

[Makabb]

Torment, Fargo says, is still scheduled for release in 2015, although he won't say when. inXile plans a Steam Early Access release, as it did with Wasteland 2.

What about a console version? "If the stars line up and it makes sense, we'll certainly consider it," Fargo says, rekindling memories of our chats about a potential Wasteland 2 console version. "It's not in our conversations here. It's not on a release schedule anywhere. It's just something to be thought about on another day."

Torment confirmed for a console game

 

[LESS T_T]

Update. New DLC for Wasteland 2: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/1150481

 

[Bubbles]

I'd rather play that than the base game. Engine seems a better fit for it, too.

 

[hiver]

"It was a little bit easier to stand out away from cover. Some areas didn't have a huge amount of cover. We have been adding more.

Jesus fucking christ...

It was a little bit easy in some areas to just stand out in cover. When it worked, it worked well. When we had the tough enemies, the ranged guys who used cover, and pushed the melee guys in between that, it felt pretty good. We've been taking that approach and amplifying it."

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.shacknews.com/article/89...wasteland-2s-xbox-one-and-playstation-4-debut

InXile's Chris Keenan talks Wasteland 2's Xbox One and PlayStation 4 debut

InXile Entertainment is headed to both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 later this summer, so we decided to talk with the studio's project lead to discuss the improvements the RPG will receive and how PC owners will benefit from its upcoming release.

InXile Entertainment announced they would be bringing its critically-acclaimed PC RPG, Wasteland 2, to both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 this summer in a special Game of the Year Edition. The game will feature a number of improvements to the PC version, including further squad customization options and the addition of Precision Strikes.

Seeing how PC players couldn’t stop talking about Wasteland 2, we thought we’d chat with InXile Entertainment project lead Chris Keenan about what makes the upcoming console release so special, what drove the studio to consider releasing it on consoles, and if PC owners of Wasteland 2 will receive any benefits from the its console release.

Shacknews: Wasteland 2 received much critical acclaim last year, even earning our #10 spot in Shacknews' Game of the Year awards. Was critical and fanatical response to the game the reason why inXile decided to bring the game to consoles?

Chris Keena: It certainly was a major reason why we chose to work on console versions. After the game was released, we were consistently getting messages from people who had heard about the game and had friends playing it, but either don’t have a gaming PC or only play games on consoles. Since the game was developed using the Unity engine, we decided to spend some time exploring what it would take to do a proper console version. The engine handled much of the under the hood tech needs and we felt we could make some solid changes to the UI and controls to make a great experience.

SN: There's a strong possibility console gamers may not have heard of or played the original Wasteland. For those who may not have heard of Wasteland, or played Wasteland 2 on PC yet, how would you best describe the game?

CK: Wasteland 2 is a party-based, turn-based tactical RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world. That’s the high-level one liner. You play as a group of Desert Rangers, who are tasked with trying to keep order in the crazy Arizona and California desert. The original Wasteland (created in 1988) was the game that spawned the Fallout series. Our CEO, Brian Fargo created Wasteland and couldn’t get the rights back to make a sequel, so he instead made Fallout.

Wasteland 2 harkens back to the more choice and consequence, turn based nature of Fallout 1 and 2. Our game world very heavily reacts to the choices that you make and changes your experience. With over 80+ hours of gameplay, it’s almost statistically impossible for two players to have the same experience. Within the first 30 minutes, you make a choice that can cut off a 2+ hour level.

In Wasteland 2, we committed to the idea of the world changing around you. Even to the point of you missing out on the second half of the game in California based on your choices. As a ranger, you’re supposed to be following a set of loose laws set up by the rangers, but you don’t have to listen to the general along the way. If you go rogue and start killing innocents, General Vargas will start to show his displeasure. If it keeps happening and word gets back to Ranger Citadel, Vargas strips you of your ranger star and sends a hit squad after you. Now in order to survive, you need to lay siege on Ranger Citadel. This has its own proper ending just as if you finished the game in a “normal” way.

SN: In your announcement, you said Wasteland 2 has been ported over to Unity 5 for the console version. What improvements should we expect from the game because of this?

CK: We’ve got a pretty nice list of new additions for the GOTY console version. First off, Unity 5 allows us to use a new shader called Physically Based Rendering. The short description is that it helps to simulate real world lighting situations better than the previous art pipelines. In order to use it properly, we’re going back over all environments and adjusting the materials of the objects to work properly. At the same time, we’re improving the meshes and textures so all scenes are getting a nice facelift. We’re also redoing all humanoid character models in the game. Combined, these two elements have a massive impact on the visual quality.

As for gameplay systems, we’re adding a precision strike system (similar to aimed shots), quirks and perks, cleaning up enemy AI, additional crafting of each combat zone, visible armor and a UI overhaul to support controller inputs. Adding all of this new content requires a full balance pass as well, so we’ve taken player feedback into consideration and will be making those adjustments along the way. As you can see, it’s not simply a quick console port.

SN: Will PC owners be able to receive the improvements you're making to the Game of the Year Edition of Wasteland 2? For example, the Perks and Quirks feature and Precision Strike?

CK: Yes. All new improvements will be in the GOTY PC version. We’ll have more news in the future on what that means for those who already own a PC/Mac/Linux copy of the game.

SN: What kind of work are you putting behind improving the voiceovers?

CK: The plan is to add VO for all companion NPCs that journey with you in the world. Right now, they’ll bark dialog text but most of them don’t have an actual voice. Along with the CNPC’s, we’ve been going over the list of major characters in the game and working on casting for NPCs that we feel should have more of a voice. As of right now, we’re at over 4000 new voiced lines and it’s still growing.

SN: How does the PC point-and-click experience translate over to consoles?

CK: The honest answer is it doesn’t without a good deal of work. The thought of having to click around the world with a controller as you would with a mouse sounds absolutely horrible. We’ve been working on creating console controls that give the best experience possible, which means making adjustments to many of the systems when on console. As we look at each major gameplay element, we discuss what it would play like on a controller and if it doesn’t feel like a seamless transition, we modify it.


SN: Did you or have you run into any issues translating a game that's primarily interfaced with a mouse and keyboard to be used with a controller?

CK: Oh yeah. While we were making the PC version, we only trying to make a great PC game. There were no considerations for “if we put this on Xbox in a few years, this system won’t work”. We were razor focused on delivering what we promised to our backers. While that makes our job harder now, we have a very good design and engineering team looking at each of these issues and changing what needs to be changed.

Outside of UI modifications, some underlying systems like using a lockpick skill on a door needs to work differently. In the PC version, you would click on the lockpick icon on your hotkey bar, then click on the door you want to pick. We don’t have that option on console. Now, you can bring up a radial menu of your skills while pushing the thumbstick in the direction of the door. This highlights the object and assuming you’re close to it, activating that skill will unlock the door. It feels very natural while using a controller.

SN: Will the PC get controller friendly controls added in? (from Chatty member Horn)

CK: Yes. We’re adding an option you can check if you’re using a gamepad on your PC. This will update the UI to use the more console focused systems as opposed to fumbling around the PC UI with your controller.

SN: Considering all of the work that went into Wasteland 2 on PC, and now its console version, will it take another 16 years to get another sequel?

CK: Hah! 16 years? Wasteland 2 was 25 years after the original! That’d put us at the year 2040. What I can say is that if it’s going to take that long, the next interview will be with the new project lead at inXile as I’m pretty sure I’d be canned.

SN: No questions, but as an original backer I'll say huge kudos once again. As an original Wasteland / Fallout 1&2 player, this game scratched an itch for me that Fallout 3/NV (both of which I enjoyed immensely) didn't. (from Chatty member jimmy-buffett)

CK: I love that. To me, it’s the best type of comment we can get from a backer of the game. We set out to tap into the nostalgia of the original Fallout games so hearing that is as good as it gets!

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Can't say that I'm thrilled about their solution to the controlls issue. After watching the screen now I've started wondering how are they going to make that tiny log window readable on the consoles without obscuring rest of the game too much.

 

[Country_Gravy]

I hope that backers get the GOTY edition update free. I can't imagine they would screw their backers like that.

 

[Orma]

Yes. All new improvements will be in the GOTY PC version. We’ll have more news in the future on what that means for those who already own a PC/Mac/Linux copy of the game.

What? They haven't decided whether they want to sell their patch or not?

 

[J_C]

I love when games, which were not GOTY get GOTY editions.

 

[Infinitron]

It does increasingly sound like they might want to make it a paid upgrade for at least some people (perhaps those who have the $60 Digital Deluxe Edition will get it for free?)

Not sure about Kickstarter backers.

I love when games, which were not GOTY get GOTY editions.

PCWorld gave them a GOTY Award: http://steamcommunity.com/games/240760/announcements/detail/245776292203615166

 

[tuluse]

More voice acting and better graphics.

Consoles, consoles never change.

 

[J_C]

It does increasingly sound like they might want to make it a paid upgrade for at least some people (perhaps those who have the $60 Digital Deluxe Edition will get it for free?)

Not sure about Kickstarter backers.

I love when games, which were not GOTY get GOTY editions.

PCWorld gave them a GOTY Award: http://steamcommunity.com/games/240760/announcements/detail/245776292203615166

I stand corrected.

 

[Athelas]

More voice acting and better graphics.

Consoles, consoles never change.

They're adding a few voice barks for companions like plenty of older isometric RPG's had. Not seeing the problem.

I don't think I've seen anywhere near as many complaints about WL2's graphics as I did on this forum, so I'm not sure consoles are to blame for that.

 

[markec]

I don't think I've seen anywhere near as many complaints about WL2's graphics as I did on this forum, so I'm not sure consoles are to blame for that.

People here bitch because they know better unlike modern hipsters, who turned into hardcore gamers overnight, think that old school game needs to look like its done in 1997, and W2 looks worse then Fallout from 1997.

 

[cvv]

I don't think I've seen anywhere near as many complaints about WL2's graphics as I did on this forum, so I'm not sure consoles are to blame for that.

People here bitch because they know better unlike modern hipsters, who turned into hardcore gamers overnight, think that old school game needs to look like its done in 1997, and W2 looks worse then Fallout from 1997.

No it looks worse than the original!

 

[prodigydancer]

More voice acting and better graphics.

I'm not sure if I like the new look or not. E.g. new character models are more detailed but their arms are now too short.

 

[Country_Gravy]

More voice acting and better graphics.

I'm not sure if I like the new look or not. E.g. new character models are more detailed but their arms are now too short.

T-Rex Portraits?

 

[Doktor Best]

Fuck them if they charge money for the patch they promised us since shortly after release when everybody told them their balance is shit. I will not pay for this, i already regret paying for an unfinished game. Torrent it is then.

 

[ArchAngel]

If they charge more money for the GotY edition to us that already own the game (and I was a KS backer even) and if it costs up to 10$ to upgrade I will seriously consider it but I will pirate their future projects. If it costs more than 10$ I will pirate WL2 GotY and pirate their future projects. WL2 was of less quality than they promised and they talked about adding things like perks after release from before the game was released and one expects we get for free things that should have been in the game from the start.

 

[Gord]

It does increasingly sound like they might want to make it a paid upgrade for at least some people (perhaps those who have the $60 Digital Deluxe Edition will get it for free?)

Not sure about Kickstarter backers.

I originally just wanted to wait until after the big balance patch before getting it, but with this talk about the GOTY edition and no confirmation yet on whether it will be free for people that already own the game, I'll rather wait a bit longer...

I wonder if sea can say anything about it?

 

[taxalot]

I don't think I have properly reviewed a game on this website. I usually withhold my opinions to myself, mainly because they are quite often the same than other people who have more skills at writing and the english language than I do, and have been more brilliantly put into words by fellow codexers. But I have a bit of free time today, and I figured that I would try.

Wasteland 2 : A failed review.

I guess it's important to state your background before attempting to talk in detail about a game that is all about being how games used to be. I have played and replayed Fallout 1 & 2 each quite a few times, but I'm fairly inexperienced with Wasteland 1, a game I started playing but gave up on for no reason that I can remember.

As such, I entered Wasteland 2 with Fallout 1&2 expectations. In this game, it was possible to progress without killing anyone (or almost not killing anyone), if I do remember correctly. Combat was often avoidable if you had the right skills, so of course I decided that in my party of four I would have one guy very good in combat, one average, and the other two focusing on the decent set of skills such as lockpicking, healing, computer science, disarming traps, alarms, and the such. That was a cruel mistake, which explains why I consider this review to be a failure. I had a mindblowingly awful party, and felt too lazy to restart. Wasteland 2 is very much combat oriented. VERY MUCH. I have read it compares much more to Jagged Alliance than to Fallout and I'm inclined to agree. Combat seems to be very much the focus of the game and is, in many instances, absolutely avoidable. If you didn't focus enough on battle skills you are going to be in for a hard time.

For this reason, my experience of Wasteland 2 has been very mixed. The difficulty curve was for me shaped like two bells, one for each of the major zones you explore. As I found out that my party wasn't suited for combat, I had to lower the game difficulty settings a lot to be able to just survive, and yet this is hardly my first turn based RPG. On the other hand, it made combat very challenging. The mechanics are your usual turn-based RPG mechanics, with a hit percentage according to distance, ability to spend all your points or not, a decent cover system, and not much of a stealth gameplay besides when you lay out your party on the zone trying to stay undetected for optimum battle positions. It somehow reminded me a lot of Shadowrun's, not in the details, but in the grander scheme of how it feels and looks. Except I liked Shadowrun's better, for its linearity allowed for a more balanced experience. The fights in Wasteland 2 are fairly enjoyable, but tend to overstay their welcome in a few instances where enemies are numerous and sometimes not particularly dangerous. The final battle of the game, against fifteen or twenty enemies who are almost harmless taken individually and only pose a moderate threat when they close on you together is not only underwhelming because of this issue, but also takes an incredible amount of time to complete even though it is not difficult. And you spend most of it watching the computer AI (in more way than one) acting erratically and moving around quite awkwardly. This happens more than in one instance, though, and it results in an experience that can get boring once in a while. But other than this issue, the battles which are the meat of the game play nice. There is a wide variety of weapons and although I heard some feel overpowered compared to others, more power to you if you don't exploit this. My party was trained quite diversely, some specializing in guns, others in sniper rifles and energy weapons, with a group healer that needed to be both mobile and secure. As a result, it made it necessary to adapt to the strength and weakness of both my party and the enemy, and I am quite certain that there is decent replay value in there with different kind of parties, as in all good RPGs should have.

As I started winning fights, I started gaining levels and decided to upgrade dramatically my fighting skills, as a result the game became much more easy to manage in the last third of Arizona. Difficulty spiked again when I arrived in California, but with now a different issue : my points spent in combat, not being spent on the other skills made my "utility/dialog" characters rather useless : meh in combat, and terrible in non-combat skills as all of a sudden the locks became impossible to pick. That's fair game, except in a few instances where it seems your options are "picklock this chest" or "kill the fuck out of everybody", both solutions my party being ill-suited for it. The Bastion was one particular offender, offering me only solutions that I hated and could overcome only with incredible difficulty. There's definitely balancing issues in the final parts of California, and I hope the next patch fixes that a little.

But overall, the game DOES offer you a lot of options to progress, and it delivers on what it aims to do. Most of the times, I wasn't wondering which solution was the easiest or the only possible for my party, but felt the best morally to me. Yes, there's choices and consequences and I think the game does a decent job out of that although said consequences are usually restricted to the area where those choices are made. You can tell separate people designed separate areas and that few interactions were made between those areas, although it happens. Still, I was very curious of how the end slides would appear and work, and I was not disappointed. It's not perfect. You can tell some situations are forced and have no subtlety at all, like the choice between helping Highpool and Agricultural center, but I felt that it worked and Hiver can nitpick all he wants.

The game is moving to Unity 5, and I am hoping that it makes the game look a lot better because to be honest, it looks and works like a mess. Framerate vary a lot depending on the amount of NPCs in the area that you are in, and yet there is not so much to display even though the maps can be quite large. On the technical side, I also had a few CTD and I almost had to give up near the end of the game because the door to the radio tower in Griffith made the game crash each time I clicked on it for zero reason. Also, after two failed attempts, I was able to skip the battle against Dugan and the Scorpitron because the third time, well, they wouldn't attack and the battle wasn't initiated. I awkwardly walked to the helicopter and made it to the final part of the game.

But it's not all about polygons and light effects ; and I'm afraid to say that Wasteland 2 is an ugly game. The interface feels like it's unfinished, although you get used to it after a while and looks very basic. On the other hand, the outdoor areas seem both low detailed and cluttered in several instances. It's hard to describe, but the game looks dirty and unpolished. When you zoom out (and you play most of the game fairly zoomed out), you get to see identical textures, hard to read scenery, and general ugliness. You DO get used to it after a while, but once again, as soon as you're starting to feel okay with Arizona you move to California and once again feels like puking.
The writing makes it up partly for the ugliness. Wasteland 2 is no Planescape Torment, but what needs to be there is there. The dialogs are clear and concise, although a lot of dialog options repeat themselves sometimes. No, I don't need to hear for the 30th time who are God's Militia. I still click on these, hoping to learn something new, and I don't. Still, the quests are nicely explained, and although it's all variations on things we already know, it is nice to play things you already know when you haven't played things you already know for years. If I'm being clear. It never strikes gold, but it shines, very often. If good enough is good for you, then Wasteland 2 will make you happy with the quests. The humor is there too, and I got quite a few chuckles out of Scotchmo's one liners.

So, yes, I liked the game although it seems like I didn't enjoy it properly because of a bad party. I _will_ have to replay that properly, on the Ranger difficulty setting or even the last one whose name I can't remember.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/1223310

Game of the Year Edition Coming Free to All Owners

Greetings, Exiles,

A big announcement for all of you who have supported us from the start, but before we jump into that we wanted to let you know we are in the final stretches of preparing our Kickstarter for our next big game, The Bard’s Tale IV. If you loved Wasteland 2, nothing speaks more to that than continuing to support our independence in making these types of games, and we’d love to have you back! You can sign up to get an alert when we launch the Bard’s Tale campaign over on our official website. And now on to our big news…

You may have caught word of our plans to release Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition on PC platforms, as well as Xbox One and PlayStation 4 - and if you haven't, you can check out some tidbits on the PlayStation blog, or watch the Xbox One or PS4 trailer. But while that's all well and good, we've been asked by many of our backers and fans over the last months: what about those that made Wasteland 2 a reality in the first place, or previously purchased the game?

We’re very happy to announce that the Game of the Year Edition will be coming as a FREE UPDATE to all owners of Wasteland 2 on Windows, Mac or Linux. Whether an original backer, a late backer or someone who purchased the game later on, we will be providing Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition as an upgrade to your PC version of the game, available to you when it launches in late summer of this year!


Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition will include a huge set of improvements on the original game. Wasteland 2 will be making the jump to Unity 5, the latest version of the Unity game engine, and benefits from updated environment textures, completely redone character models, and Physically Based Rendering for more impressive lighting. We’ve added a ton of new voice-over to enrich the game's cast of characters, including your trusted companions.


The Game of the Year Edition also provides major updates to gameplay.

One feature we're very proud of is our new Perks & Quirks system, which we've teased a little bit previously with Eurogamer. In the GOTY Edition, you'll be able to customize your squad of Desert Rangers with over 80 Perks & 20 Quirks, which let you fine-tune your characters throughout the game with unique bonuses and trade-offs. For instance, with Way of the Squeezins you'll become a little bit dependent on that special sauce, but gain some short-lived combat bonuses; Raised in the Circus will make you more nimble in combat, but you can bet there's a downside or two to looking like a clown.


Our fans have also pointed out that one feature they loved in previous RPGs is the ability to do more finely targeted attacks. Well, we've been hard at work on that too. Our new Precision Strike system lets Rangers target individual body parts on enemies to gain the edge in combat.

Wasteland 2's Precision strikes will tend towards less random and more reliable. With Precision Strikes, you'll be able to inflict debilitating status effects on your enemies to turn the tactical tide. For example, aiming for an enemy's torso will reduce their armor value, letting you hit them harder with your other squadmates, and firing on their head (or CPU, as the case may be) has a chance to stun or even send them into a psychotic state where they won't be able to tell friend from foe. With Precision Strikes the battlefield becomes much more dynamic and chaotic.

Finally, to improve on the gameplay experience and ensure the above features are fitted in seamlessly, we're also overhauling game balance, item drops, and reworking the majority of combat encounters throughout the game. You'll need all your training and smarts to master the new dangers of the Arizona wastes.


We'll have more to talk about as we get closer to release, as we're not quite ready to show off these features in the flesh, but if you’re hungry for more right now, Eurogamer has the most expansive interview on the Game of the Year Edition available, with me and Brian explaining the update and showing examples of the upgrades. You can also read more on Gameranx andShacknews.

Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition is coming to you free as our way of thanking you for all your support. In an age of paid DLC and microtransactions, we’re thankful that you’ve given us an alternative way to make games we love. We’re very proud of what you’ve helped us accomplish and very happy that our business model is based on mutual trust and support, and this is part of that.


Of course, that's not all for us. While the Wasteland team is hard at work and Torment is moving along in full production, we're also positively boiling with excitement to show you more of our third project, The Bard’s Tale IV, which we will bring to crowdfunding later, so keep your eyes open for more news on that. With your continued support, it's going to be a crazy and awesome year for us!

Chris Keenan,
Project Lead
@RangerKeenan

 

[Diggfinger]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/1223310

Game of the Year Edition Coming Free to All Owners

Greetings, Exiles,

We’re very happy to announce that the Game of the Year Edition will be coming as a FREE UPDATE to all owners of Wasteland 2 on Windows, Mac or Linux. Whether an original backer, a late backer or someone who purchased the game later on, we will be providing Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition as an upgrade to your PC version of the game, available to you when it launches in late summer of this year!

Yeeesss

the GOTY looks cool and the perks/quirks stuff + the precision strikes should give the game a healthy dose of Fallout-ness...


Now I just need a computer that can run it

 

[Crooked Bee]

Looking forward to hating on the BT4 Kickstarter.

 

[Kem0sabe]

GOTY improvements are free... so what? dont tell me you are happy they arent charging money for a patch? Modern game development has rotten ur brains.