I was actually looking forward to this game, but the demo utterly turned me off.  Then I find out how bizarre the co-op is, and the campaign is only around 7-8 hours?  What was Obsidian thinking with this?  And for god sake don't make me play a female character if I want to be an archer.... 
  
My hope was the focused nature of the hack and slash would give Obsidian a chance to really have a polished product for a change.  WOW was I wrong.  And what is happening to Square?  So strange to see a simple game with solid appeal just get mangled like this by veteran developers.

what exactly is wrong with playing a female character

@sdharrison said:

I was actually looking forward to this game, but the demo utterly turned me off. Then I find out how bizarre the co-op is, and the campaign is only around 7-8 hours? What was Obsidian thinking with this? And for god sake don't make me play a female character if I want to be an archer.... My hope was the focused nature of the hack and slash would give Obsidian a chance to really have a polished product for a change. WOW was I wrong. And what is happening to Square? So strange to see a simple game with solid appeal just get mangled like this by veteran developers.

I had the same reaction from the demo.

I just hate pre determined characters/genders in RPGs

Yeah, yeah thats...goes off to playFallout New Vegas

@sdharrison said:

I just hate pre determined characters/genders in RPGs

So, you're annoyed because you can't play a male archer?

@sdharrison said:

I was actually looking forward to this game, but the demo utterly turned me off. Then I find out how bizarre the co-op is, and the campaign is only around 7-8 hours? What was Obsidian thinking with this? And for god sake don't make me play a female character if I want to be an archer.... My hope was the focused nature of the hack and slash would give Obsidian a chance to really have a polished product for a change. WOW was I wrong. And what is happening to Square? So strange to see a simple game with solid appeal just get mangled like this by veteran developers.

Yea, Square has gone to complete shit. I dont know that I will be buying any of their games.  I am still blown away at how bad FF13 was.  Was hoping DS3 was going to be decent.  Just overall shallow.  Nothing about the loot makes me even care which is pretty much the whole point of the game.  Do they even change the what your char is wearing? 

@John1912 said:

Yea, Square has gone to complete shit. I dont know that I will be buying any of their games. I am still blown away at how bad FF13 was. Was hoping DS3 was going to be decent. Just overall shallow. Nothing about the loot makes me even care which is pretty much the whole point of the game. Do they even change the what your char is wearing?

Square Enix isn't developing the game. Obsidian is.

And honestly, Obsidian was never known for having stellar coding/QA in the first place.

sexist

But yeah they're killing themselves

@John1912 said:

@Hailinel: Yea, Im aware, but its published by Square, so it reflects on them. It seems to very much reflect the downward slide of shit they are becoming known for.

Hmm?

Final Fantasy XIII wasn't a bad game. I enjoyed it a lot, actually. Further, Dragon Quest IX is a phenomenal entry in that particular series. The Dissidia games are fun, if not for everyone. As far as upcoming games are concerned, Deus Ex looks great, as does the new Tomb Raider. Final Fantasy XIII-2 looks like it could be better than the original, and Versus XIII is still a long ways off, but from what little has been seen looks like the time might be worth it.

I've long been of the opinion that Obsidian doesn't make great games, with Fallout: New Vegas being the only exception.

Eek. My youger brother pre-ordered this from Steam a while back, as he had played the first two like an addicte, and he's getting really hyped up about it while it downloads... from the sound of it, he's gonna be really disappointed :L

It's pretty fun with some buddies on Hardcore, not $60 fun, but still fun.

@Hailinel said:

@John1912 said:

@Hailinel: Yea, Im aware, but its published by Square, so it reflects on them. It seems to very much reflect the downward slide of shit they are becoming known for.

Hmm?

Final Fantasy XIII wasn't a bad game. I enjoyed it a lot, actually. Further, Dragon Quest IX is a phenomenal entry in that particular series. The Dissidia games are fun, if not for everyone. As far as upcoming games are concerned, Deus Ex looks great, as does the new Tomb Raider. Final Fantasy XIII-2 looks like it could be better than the original, and Versus XIII is still a long ways off, but from what little has been seen looks like the time might be worth it.

To be fair, you are kind of an outlier Hailinel because you are very pro Japanese game design. Most people who prefer Western games don't resonate with Square anymore at all due to the feeling that they are losing touch with the Western market. That's not to insult you, but you are definitely in the minority.

I heard this game is the reason Rorie left Obsidian

jokies!

Most people who prefer Western games don't resonate with Square anymore at all due to the feeling that they are losing touch with the Western market.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

Yeah, yeah thats...goes off to playFallout New Vegas

Fallout New Vegas is great!!.. once was patched

Isn't this Obsidian's last game? I thought they closed up shop.

I love the pro-Square dude with an anime avatar who was offended that I wanted to play as a male protagonist.  Glorious.

@bartok said:

Isn't this Obsidian's last game? I thought they closed up shop.

Lol, certainly not. They're doing just fine.

@FlamingHobo said:

I've long been of the opinion that Obsidian doesn't make great games, with Fallout: New Vegas being the only exception.

Not a fan of KOTOR 2 or NWN 2, I gather?

Isn't this Obsidian's last game? I thought they closed up shop.

@Hailinel: Yea, Im aware, but its published by Square, so it reflects on them.  It seems to very much reflect the downward slide of shit they are becoming known for.

@sdharrison said:

I love the pro-Square dude with an anime avatar who was offended that I wanted to play as a male protagonist. Glorious.

I wasn't offended that you wanted to play as a male protagonist. It's a justifiable complaint, not being able to pick gender and class separately in a game where you have any form of customizable choices at all.

But seeing as you decided to go ahead and attempt insult me in the most absurd manner possible (what does my avatar have to do with anything? She's not even an anime character), whatever, dude.

what exactly is wrong with playing a female character

@FlamingHobo said:

I've long been of the opinion that Obsidian doesn't make great games, with Fallout: New Vegas being the only exception.

Not a fan of KOTOR 2 or NWN 2, I gather?

I have to look up the demo, but Dungeon Siege II was one of my favorite hack'n'slashes ever. This looks way too different for my tastes though.

@AnimZero said:

@FlamingHobo said:

I've long been of the opinion that Obsidian doesn't make great games, with Fallout: New Vegas being the only exception.

Not a fan of KOTOR 2 or NWN 2, I gather?

@bartok said:

Isn't this Obsidian's last game? I thought they closed up shop.

Lol, certainly not. They're doing just fine.

@owl_of_minerva said:

@bartok: Nope, the layoffs were standard practice, every company does that after finishing projects after they're done ramping up to release. I don't know why it was considered newsworthy in Obsidian's case. Edit: I also thought that Dungeon Siege III, even if it is lacking a bit of content for a fullprice game, did make some very good design decisions which improved the ARPG genre by making the action mechanics less trivial and a decent challenge. I'd be surprised if Diablo III doesn't make similar moves, although of course everyone will hop on board because of the Blizzard name. The Obsidian-hating makes me sad. They've made just about the only decent CRPGs in the past 5 years, not including indies.

What do you expect from consumers that think Mass Effect 2 is the cutting edge of story development

what exactly is wrong with playing a female character

I've long been of the opinion that Obsidian doesn't make great games, with Fallout: New Vegas being the only exception.

@FlamingHobo said:

I've long been of the opinion that Obsidian doesn't make great games, with Fallout: New Vegas being the only exception.

I know it's not a popular opinion, but Alpha Protocol is without a doubt and by far my favorite Obsidian game ^^

as much as we want obsidian to be a good developer, because they usually write good stories, they actually suck at making games. they've had plenty of chances to make good games and failed, so if they go under, it's something i will have seen coming for a long time.

Also, why the hell did they think the thing people were craving so much from a Dungeon Siege game was that trademark Obsidian storytelling?  Not to get to off topic, but it reminds me a bit of MMOs that make a big deal out of story.  There are genres FOR that.  In this case, hack and slash is going to move units based on it's gameplay and addictiveness - NOT mediocre branching stories for characters you care nothing for.  And HOW do you make your entire marketing campaign ABOUT CO-OP and then release a frustrating and poorly implemented co-op mechanic?  GOD who was in charge of this project?!  It's baffling.

I've long been of the opinion that Obsidian doesn't make great games, with Fallout: New Vegas being the only exception.

Obsidian does one thing, and only one thing, better than the other major western RPG developers. The characters and stories are in general leagues far more interesting and better than those produced by their rivals. But that's the only thing that they're better at. Even though Fallout: New Vegas is a better game in its storytelling than Fallout 3, it is also a bug-riddled mess of a game that I couldn't bring myself to play more than an hour of before giving up in utter frustration.

How Obsidian continues to get funding for projects despite their completely incompetent QA and bug fixing practices, I have no idea. As a QA engineer and former game tester, I find their ineptitude fucking embarrassing.

I really liked Neverwinter Nights 2...

@Hailinel said:

Obsidian does one thing, and only one thing, better than the other major western RPG developers. The characters and stories are in general leagues far more interesting and better than those produced by their rivals.

Unfortunately it's at the expense of everything else. They may have great characters and stories, but their graphics, gameplay, stability and everything else you can think of is sub-par. Sometimes beyond bad.

I bought the game and I love it. What now?

Has Obsidian ever made any actually good games? Every Obsidian game I've ever played has been both buggy and unpolished.

Has Obsidian ever made any actually good games? Every Obsidian game I've ever played has been both buggy and unpolished.

@Jimbo said:

@ikwal said:

Has Obsidian ever made any actually good games? Every Obsidian game I've ever played has been both buggy and unpolished.

I haven't played DS3 yet, but everything else they've made has been good or great. If you value polish above all else then you won't like Obsidian games. Plenty of other developers out their making polished turds though if that's more your thing.

There's a difference between "unpolished" and "unplayable." I found Fallout: New Vegas to be the latter.

Has Obsidian ever made any actually good games? Every Obsidian game I've ever played has been both buggy and unpolished.

what exactly is wrong with playing a female character

They will be fine if one game fails, people are so over dramatic.

@Jimbo said:

@ikwal said:

Has Obsidian ever made any actually good games? Every Obsidian game I've ever played has been both buggy and unpolished.

I haven't played DS3 yet, but everything else they've made has been good or great. If you value polish above all else then you won't like Obsidian games. Plenty of other developers out their making polished turds though if that's more your thing.

There's a difference between "unpolished" and "unplayable." I found Fallout: New Vegas to be the latter.

@AnimZero said:

@FlamingHobo said:

I've long been of the opinion that Obsidian doesn't make great games, with Fallout: New Vegas being the only exception.

Not a fan of KOTOR 2 or NWN 2, I gather?

Both were killed in my book by absolutely tragic coding and endings - KOTOR 2's was boggled by time constraints, NWN 2's by GODDAMN FUCKING LAZINESS. I've pretty much given up on Obsidian after Alpha Protocol, they are Troika all over again and another proof that devs only offering brilliant designers and writers do not work.