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John Gonzalez (Guerrila Games) has rejoined Obsidian Entertainment as Creative Director

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Lead Writer on Fallout: New Vegas

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and Narrative Director of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West


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Humdinger

Gold Member
I like Horizon ZD's story, so credit there. He was involved in HFW's story, too, though, so points lost for that one.

He's joining too late to be of any help with Avowed, but maybe he can exert some benevolent influence on future games. One can hope.
 

//DEVIL//

Banned
If I asked you to name me a character not named Aloy from HFW you couldn’t do so without looking it up. You’ll reply to this with a name but we’ll all know you looked it up. The story is trash. The original was much better.
To be fair, even Aloy name is not memorable.
 
If I asked you to name me a character not named Aloy from HFW you couldn’t do so without looking it up. You’ll reply to this with a name but we’ll all know you looked it up. The story is trash. The original was much better.

Pretty easy, Sylens.

But nice try. HFW’s story is infinitely better than slop like halo or gears or outer wokes. Starfield’s story and characters were straight trash

Good get for Obsidian maybe they’ll move on from that terrible OW series they’re trying to make relevant
 
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There's a lot you can criticize about HZD & HFW, like Aloy's boring ass character and the extremely boring and janky combat mechanics - but honestly the story is pretty good, in fact one of my favorites, there's a lot of lore, depth and intrigue, especially in Forbidden West. I loved the whole history of the Far Zeniths, and Nemesis.
 
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You spent the better half of the day arguing with people about Spider-Man 2 not being woke, and then you go ahead and post stuff like this.

Fucks sake James, couldn't be any more transplant even if you tried. Give it a rest.

I argued about its wokeness not being a big deal, not that it’s lacking woke elements

But it is hilarious how many similarly woke games you’re a fan of and never call them out for it

I’m sure you’ll love Obsidian’s next two titles despite being littered with the same garbage that apparently ruins games like SM2. If those games are good or bad it’ll be on their merits beyond the modern pandering we see in full display in almost every single title
 
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ungalo

Member
There's a lot you can criticize about HZD & HFW, like Aloy's boring ass character and the extremely boring and janky combat mechanics - but honestly the story is pretty good, in fact one of my favorites, there's a lot of lore, depth and intrigue, especially in Forbidden West. I loved the whole history of the Far Zeniths, and Nemesis.
I dropped Forbidden West after 30 hours, all i can say is that i felt like there was a lot of work put into it (like any other aspects of the game) but that didn't make it good. There were so many tribes and all but they all seemed ridiculous to me. I think the world on a fundamental level is pretty ridiculous, might be this prehistoric post apocalyptic scifi blend with dinosaurs machine that take itself so seriously (not that i have anything against games that are trying to be serious but here i don't know...).
 
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but honestly the story is pretty good, in fact one of my favorites, there's a lot of lore, depth and intrigue, especially in Forbidden West. I loved the whole history of the Far Zeniths, and Nemesis.

Yup same here

I loved the whole far zeniths concept it elevated the game to me since the antagonists aren’t buried simply in audio tapes

Very cool designs

John is an industry legend and makes awesome lore.

Make Obsidian great again! Avowed and TOW ain’t it
 
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laynelane

Member
He's probably not gonna be involved in Outer Worlds 2 as well, cause that's far along to be given a 2025 date.

But there's always Fallout New Vegas 2. :messenger_smirking:

Do you think Bethesda would ever green light Obsidian working with the IP again? I'm not so sure. Not saying it's impossible, but there's been lots of time and opportunities over the years and yet nothing has happened.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Do you think Bethesda would ever green light Obsidian working with the IP again? I'm not so sure. Not saying it's impossible, but there's been lots of time and opportunities over the years and yet nothing has happened.

They're both under the same XGS studios umbrella now, I'm sure if it comes to it, Phil or Sarah Bond can grease the appropriate wheels.


The story was the worst thing in Horizon but NV was alright.

NV was all about the writing... and this guy was the lead writer. This is great for Obsidian.


But it is hilarious how many similarly woke games you’re a fan of and never call them out for it

Because unlike you, I don't change stances based on whose publishing the game :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
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Because unlike you, I don't change stances based on whose publishing the game :messenger_tears_of_joy:

You sure about that, broseph? Like I said, you'll be the first one praising Avowed, TOW2, SoM, etc while calling out SM2

Me? One of my next gaming purchases will be a Microsoft game and it's also got tons of woke in it, but hey, the game seems pretty good inspite of that.
 
Do you think Bethesda would ever green light Obsidian working with the IP again? I'm not so sure. Not saying it's impossible, but there's been lots of time and opportunities over the years and yet nothing has happened.

To me, the return of John actually indicates that Obsidian will be turning into a Fallout factory. Count on it being their next game. And it may return the Fallout series to greatness again, rather than what is devolved into. Fallout hasn't been good since NV

Maybe small side projects if MS lets them work on it, like Pentiment.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
You sure about that, broseph? Like I said, you'll be the first one praising Avowed, TOW2, SoM, etc while calling out SM2

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I don't call out Spider Man 2, I call out your flip flopping. I can find posts about you flip flopping just from today, can you find any of my posts in any recent SM2 topics where I'm calling SM2 out for being extra woke? And no, pointing out the BIPOC mission that you forgot doesn't count, that was me reminding you of stuff that happened in the game.
 
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I don't call out Spider Man 2, I call out your flip flopping. I can find posts about you flip flopping just from today, can you find any of my posts in any recent SM2 topics where I'm calling SM2 out for being extra woke? And no, pointing out the BIPOC mission that you forgot doesn't count, that was me reminding you of stuff that happened in the game.

Yeah this scene specifically bugged the shit out of me when playing the first time, I talked about it in one of the topics last year as well.

A normie should not be able to out-sense Spider Man, no matter if she trained between Sm1 and 2 or not.

michael jackson mj GIF
 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
Maybe for fallout he had creative freedom.


And maybe for horizon he had a lot of constraints.


Maybe.
 
You sure about that, broseph? Like I said, you'll be the first one praising Avowed, TOW2, SoM, etc while calling out SM2

Me? One of my next gaming purchases will be a Microsoft game and it's also got tons of woke in it, but hey, the game seems pretty good inspite of that.

Indy? Tons of work stuff like what?
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
New Vegas writing including storyline, characterization, quest design and even smaller dialogues were top notch.

Horizon 1 story was alright, characters kind of sucked. HZW was just outright bad.

Actually every single modern Sony sequel was much worse vs their first games. TLOU, Horizon, Spider-Man, God of War.
 
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laynelane

Member
They're both under the same XGS studios umbrella now, I'm sure if it comes to it, Phil or Sarah Bond can grease the appropriate wheels.

Didn't Bethesda retain some level of independence after the acquisition? I ask because it's always seemed like the stopping point for a sequel to New Vegas is Bethesda itself. I suppose the other question is whether Phil or Sarah would step in. New Vegas is critically acclaimed and a fan favourite, but both Fallout 3 and 4 outsold it. Fallout 4 by quite a lot too. I suppose time will tell, though, and anything can happen.
 
Didn't Bethesda retain some level of independence after the acquisition? I ask because it's always seemed like the stopping point for a sequel to New Vegas is Bethesda itself. I suppose the other question is whether Phil or Sarah would step in. New Vegas is critically acclaimed and a fan favourite, but both Fallout 3 and 4 outsold it. Fallout 4 by quite a lot too. I suppose time will tell, though, and anything can happen.

here's the deal - Bethesda is working on Elder Scrolls next

They don't have a studio positioned for Fallout. And Fallout TV series was a big hit. Microsoft is going to go all in on Fallout for gaming, and they have a very obvious choice developer who can work on it in parallel with Elder Scrolls.

This is a no brainer thing that I imagine is happening. John coming back cements that, too. They wanted his talent back to take over the Fallout series.

This is a slam dunk. Count on it.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Didn't Bethesda retain some level of independence after the acquisition? I ask because it's always seemed like the stopping point for a sequel to New Vegas is Bethesda itself. I suppose the other question is whether Phil or Sarah would step in. New Vegas is critically acclaimed and a fan favourite, but both Fallout 3 and 4 outsold it. Fallout 4 by quite a lot too. I suppose time will tell, though, and anything can happen.

I guess, but MS was able to sway them to publish Indy as a console exclusive at launch despite it being veery originally announced as a multi-plat game. So there's some sway there.

Also, I think some of that Todd Howard animosity towards Obsidian was overblown, he's been on record that there's no such dislike like that.


While posing the question, host Greg Miller joked that Howard didn't have to answer at all given his rumored disdain for New Vegas. Taking the cue, Howard once again put it on record that he is not and has never been an Obsidian hater.

"First I'll say, [Obsidian] did an amazing job with New Vegas," said Howard. "And I'll say to everybody, that's a game that we published … and I would say Feargus [Urquhart], who runs Obsidian, is absolutely one of my favorite people in the videogame industry … New Vegas is a very, very important game to us, and our fans, we think they did an incredible job. If anything, the show is leaning into the events [of New Vegas]."
 

laynelane

Member
here's the deal - Bethesda is working on Elder Scrolls next

They don't have a studio positioned for Fallout. And Fallout TV series was a big hit. Microsoft is going to go all in on Fallout for gaming, and they have a very obvious choice developer who can work on it in parallel with Elder Scrolls.

This is a no brainer thing that I imagine is happening. John coming back cements that, too. They wanted his talent back to take over the Fallout series.

This is a slam dunk. Count on it.

Wouldn't that involve Obsidian abandoning all their titles, their current and future IPs, to focus solely on Fallout? They're not a huge studio and working on Fallout would take resources away from everything else. Again, not saying it's impossible, but there's definitely some stumbling blocks there.
 
Wouldn't that involve Obsidian abandoning all their titles, their current and future IPs, to focus solely on Fallout? They're not a huge studio and working on Fallout would take resources away from everything else. Again, not saying it's impossible, but there's definitely some stumbling blocks there.

I'm pretty sure they don't have any other titles beyond Avowed and TOW. They were likely discussing Fallout for at least a year or so since the TV series hit

Guessing it is their next project, they've been pretty busy with two games set to release this year

But yes, it would involve them abandoning their other new IP....which MS is ok with because Fallout is a way bigger IP that's currently dormant
 
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poodaddy

Member
You spent the better half of the day arguing with people about Spider-Man 2 not being woke, and then you go ahead and post stuff like this.

Fucks sake James, couldn't be any more transplant even if you tried. Give it a rest.

I argued about its wokeness not being a big deal, not that it’s lacking woke elements

But it is hilarious how many similarly woke games you’re a fan of and never call them out for it

I’m sure you’ll love Obsidian’s next two titles despite being littered with the same garbage that apparently ruins games like SM2. If those games are good or bad it’ll be on their merits beyond the modern pandering we see in full display in almost every single title
Would you guys just fuck already? The sexual tension is getting to be too much man, "will they, won't they?" Just go deep inside each other so we can all get back on the same page again, Chasing Amy style.
 

laynelane

Member
I guess, but MS was able to sway them to publish Indy as a console exclusive at launch despite it being veery originally announced as a multi-plat game. So there's some sway there.

Also, I think some of that Todd Howard animosity towards Obsidian was overblown, he's been on record that there's no such dislike like that.


I've always thought that so-called animosity was overblown. Actually, I thought it was completely made up by fans who really want a New Vegas sequel and put that forward as an answer to why it's never happened. I could be way off here, but Bethesda comes across as a company that simply prefers making games their way. People can criticize the engine, say this or that is outdated, complain about how long games take to come out etc. but it doesn't faze them whatsoever. That attitude, or way of doing things, seems fairly consistent throughout their history. If anything, New Vegas was an outlier which is why I'm unsure about the possibility of a NV sequel.

I see your point about Indy, but game distribution ties into different factors than IP management and may be governed by different rules according to the contractual set-up they have. Still, it does prove MS can and will intervene when they choose to. You're right about that.
 

laynelane

Member
I'm pretty sure they don't have any other titles beyond Avowed and TOW. They were likely discussing Fallout for at least a year or so since the TV series hit

Guessing it is their next project, they've been pretty busy with two games set to release this year

But yes, it would involve them abandoning their other new IP....which MS is ok with because Fallout is a way bigger IP that's currently dormant

I see your mind is made up lol. It would make business sense (considering the renewed and new interest in the IP due to the show as you said) and, more importantly, it would make a lot of people happy - so, I hope you're right.
 
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