Avowed - 30 minutes of uncut footage in 4K/60

Doesn't look great to me.

I really don't like the art style, but I can't quite put my finger on exactly why.

I'm also just not a WRPG kind of guy which is probably why the actual gameplay looks bad to me.

Hopefully it's good for the people that are excited for it.
 
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People graphics whoring when it's an RPG, if looks are good/serviceable, but story/mechanics/progression/choice are amazing, that's what's important in a RPG.
 
After Hellblade 2, I don't think I can handle another game walking this slow. Plus it looks like it's a dorkier RPG than the ones I like. Think I'll pass.
 
Honestly it doesn't look great or bad, its just middle ground. To me it looks like a game developed with Gamepass in mind. As long as the story and adventure holds up, it really shouldn't matter how it looks for most people. The studio has a pretty positive reputation at least. Just like Hellblade 2 was really short, I would expect sacrifices for this title, to make it fit the gamepass model, considering that is where most people are going to play it.
 
The HUD is customizable and you can disable almost all of the things there if you want.

They probably have everything enabled for floor demo purposes.



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That is the default HUD and how the game was designed around for. Also how they chose to showcase the game. So its fair to judge by how I see it.

Being able to turn stuff off is great, but some games arent designed to support turning HUD elements off. Not saying that this is the case here, but we cant say for sure if this isnt the case either.
 
looks tremendously boring, and combat doesn't look particularly fun. Worried about this one officially. Feel like I'm saying that a lot these days
 
Doesn't look great to me.

I really don't like the art style, but I can't quite put my finger on exactly why.

I'm also just not a WRPG kind of guy which is probably why the actual gameplay looks bad to me.

Hopefully it's good for the people that are excited for it.
When it comes to RPG, I only play WRPG.

I dont like the art style either. I cant pinpoint it either. It's got a bright cartoony look to it, but in slightly realistic way so it's not over the top cartoony like a mobile game, and not browns/grey like a Skyrim. And all the HUD and energy bars and numbers everywhere makes it look like a UBI game.

Gameplay has very standard looking hack and slash melee, plus strafing spellcasting attacks which makes it serviceable, but predictable. The swordplay has an odd stutter to it. I dont expect knights or warriors to slash swords at lightspeed like a ninja, but there's something clunky about how it looks when swinging. And watching the videos, many of those super sword jabs dont even look like they connect like there's bad hit detection.

I also dont like adventure/RPGs where they combine classic medieval settings with swords and spells with...... guns.
 
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This is the amazing next gen game that people were saying they are fine giving up 60fps for in the other thread?
Didn't you hear, it has lumen and nanite and RT. So what if it is mediocre looking, those buzz words alone make it "next gen". Ergo it will run at 30 fps on current gen consoles, while also looking worse than some last gen games.
 
Non existent melee gameplay

Enemies that are hardly reactive

Garish looking intrusive UI

Level design with no craftsmanship

Wooden, stilted NPC animations and performances with ridiculous art style

No. This looks downright bad
 
Forget graphics (insane they cant get this running at 60fps on Xbox).....but Jesus christ the combat/ enemy ai is boring af.
Yep. There are plenty of successful games with below-par graphics, but people love them because of their combat.

For Avowed, I cut a .gif of its melee combat from the other 31-minute video. Take a look:

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I wonder how this jump looks like in 3rd person, with the floaty feel and both arms out, even holding the sword and the book. So unnatural.

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Perhaps that's why Obsidian still has not shown anything in 3rd person mode yet. The animations would be extremely weird.
 
Perhaps that's why Obsidian still has not shown anything in 3rd person mode yet. The animations would be extremely weird.

They've shown little bit of third person game play at the summer showcase. It looked kinda like using a third person mode in a TES / Fallout game. I won't be using it. 🤷‍♂️
 
Image quality and environments are outstanding, but the game looks like it plays like a janky piece of shit. The melee combat looks AWFUL.

Also FoV is still too narrow, especially in battle.
 
This looks like Obsidian's version of Skyrim, which is one of my all time favorites.

But this footage doesn't get me all that excited. Looks good but not spectacular.

It's the little things.
1. combat looks like Skyrim which came out in 2011, I love Skyrim but it's 2024 now.
2. conversations still look badly lip synced.
3. monsters don't look gruesome enough.
4. for a UE5 game it looks too clean and even with Creation Engine Starfield looks better and more lived-in with the clutter.
5. grass fade out in-front of the character when crouching, 13:00
6. magic and fire effects looks a decade old, series of blobs of smoke and fire that goes away too quickly.
7. quest progression puzzles seems too basic, like burning spider web door at 12:00.
8. icons in the middle of the screen, annoying and simplifies exploration.
9. Companion: "That must have opened something" "Pull the lever over there"
10. Static water and no splashes even in fights 11:00

They have lots of work to do to climb above 80. But I greatly appreciate this much uncut footage half a year before the release. This is how it should be done. They just need to listen to criticism and do something about it now.
 
How much control you have over companions?

Can you equip them and change their skills etc?

Yesterday Dragon Age showed you can make a party that compliments you, even though you cannot directly control them.

Something like that here would be cool.
 
Graphics Looks like a poor mans skyrim without the budget. But maybe i am wrong, i hope i am wrong. Atleast the gameplay looks ok
 
Bethesda's Creation Engine gets a lot of shit, but when I played The Outer Worlds I really missed the physics, interactivity, and NPC scripting of New Vegas. I'm concerned that Avowed will feel similarly lifeless. Since this video shows a dungeon crawl, I can't judge the game's urban sprawls, but the environments here lead me to expect another static world. Wish they could use Bethesda's engine again.
 
Why? I think it's more immersive that way.
Nothing more immersive than characters running around with weapons held under their chins all day, just like in real life.

Also, when the camera pops out of my head to speak to people, like in real life.
Good thing you can play through the whole game in third person
Good, so all my move sets and animations will only be slightly hobbled by the accommodation of first person.

How come?
Cause first person RPGs are a bizarre throwback that have been replaced by third person. In a post Witcher 3 / Elden Ring / Baldur's Gate 3 world, it makes no sense.

What's worse is that they don't sell as well and haven't since Skyrim. It put a lot of people (myself included) off Cyberpunk 2077. It's just bizarre to run around with weapons and items held up under your chin constantly in 2024.
 
Bethesda's Creation Engine gets a lot of shit, but when I played The Outer Worlds I really missed the physics, interactivity, and NPC scripting of New Vegas. I'm concerned that Avowed will feel similarly lifeless. Since this video shows a dungeon crawl, I can't judge the game's urban sprawls, but the environments here lead me to expect another static world. Wish they could use Bethesda's engine again.

Bethesda's engine they should allow to be used by anyone at MS. Some of the games will really benefit from it.

If game becomes a hit, you can release regular expansions with ease, using it.
 
How much control you have over companions?

Can you equip them and change their skills etc?

Yesterday Dragon Age showed you can make a party that compliments you, even though you cannot directly control them.

Something like that here would be cool.
There is an ability wheel for the blue guy, he burns down the web door after instructing him to do it, so there is that. During fights it looks like he fights on his own like companions in Skyrim, but it might be the player not bothering with his abilities.
Saw no inventory screen for him but it would be weird if you can't change his equipment.
 
Bethesda's engine they should allow to be used by anyone at MS. Some of the games will really benefit from it.

If game becomes a hit, you can release regular expansions with ease, using it.
Plus there's another Bethesda-owned engine, id Tech, that's shared between ZeniMax studios. It'd be awesome to see the Creation Engine shared in the same way.
Oh man, and imagine—every game using it would be so moddable!
 
There is an ability wheel for the blue guy, he burns down the web door after instructing him to do it, so there is that. During fights it looks like he fights on his own like companions in Skyrim, but it might be the player not bothering with his abilities.
Saw no inventory screen for him but it would be weird if you can't change his equipment.
Cool.

I feel this game plays more like Skyrim while Dragon Age has slightly more party focus given the franchise.

Lets see.

Plus there's another Bethesda-owned engine, id Tech, that's shared between ZeniMax studios. It'd be awesome to see the Creation Engine shared in the same way.
Oh man, and imagine—every game using it would be so moddable!
MS should make this happen. It will lead to more unique and interesting games.

Not everything has to be UE5.
 
Bethesda's Creation Engine gets a lot of shit, but when I played The Outer Worlds I really missed the physics, interactivity, and NPC scripting of New Vegas. I'm concerned that Avowed will feel similarly lifeless. Since this video shows a dungeon crawl, I can't judge the game's urban sprawls, but the environments here lead me to expect another static world. Wish they could use Bethesda's engine again.
Bethesda's engine they should allow to be used by anyone at MS. Some of the games will really benefit from it.

If game becomes a hit, you can release regular expansions with ease, using it.
Plus there's another Bethesda-owned engine, id Tech, that's shared between ZeniMax studios. It'd be awesome to see the Creation Engine shared in the same way.
Oh man, and imagine—every game using it would be so moddable!
Yeah Creation Engine is great, stuff fly when things go boom and it just makes everything more immersive. Skyrim in VR with some mods is an amazing experience even today.

But to me it seems like Microsoft's studios don't share tech. Goes beyond their engine. Look at Starfield's lip sync and then look at this and Avowed seems 10 years older, even a random store owner in Starfield have nearly perfect lip sync but a main companion here does not. If Bethesda is using software, let Obsidian use that too. If it's a budget thing then fix that, Microsoft is holding the wallet, just let them use what's needed to make the best games possible.
 
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Certainly a mixed bag on the visuals front. Best thing is the lighting with makes sense considering it's Lumen and RTX on PC. Both this and Dragon Age could go either way really, RPGs being what they are the characters, story, and progression systems will make or break the game.
 
I cant imagine this running on UE5 let alone only 30fps, something fishy going on here.
Game looks straight from the Xbox360 era with higher resolution & effects.
.....maybe I'm blind.....or to old.....
 
"It's a first-person, single-player game, you don't necessarily need that 60 frames."

Then show the game in 60fps, lol.

You don't need 60fps to play in first person, but apparently it's quite nice for showing the game. Go figure.
 
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Imagine they started development in a post-BG3 world. We'd likely be getting a Pillars of Eternity 3, instead of this wish.com half budget Skyrim w/colors.
 
How much control you have over companions?

Can you equip them and change their skills etc?

Yesterday Dragon Age showed you can make a party that compliments you, even though you cannot directly control them.

Something like that here would be cool.

If they don't deliver what you want, try Dragon's Dogma.
 
At least the footage is pristine it looks like it could be decent I just wish the combat was better it looks too janky and mediocre like a mobile game but the exploration looks cool I'm kinda digging the environments.
 
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