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[Messofanego]

Only RPGs I've played this year are The Banner Saga, Child of Light, Dark Souls 2, and Transistor. I need to step it up with Divinity and now this.

Better than other years though, since I never play this genre.

 

[Stimpack]

Fallout 1 and 2 are my favorite games of all time, bar none, and I'm not trying to start a whole "thing" here, but I'm not super impressed with the graphics/art design. Somehow it manages to look worse than what we had in '97. I don't understand how that's possible, and it's incredibly likely that I'm just an idiot. Would someone mind explaining it to me? I'm not the only one who feels this way, right? Is it just insufficient funding? It seems like that would perhaps be rather cheap, but maybe it wasn't an important aspect of the game to them?

I'm not much of a stickler when it comes to these things, but I really loved the art in Fallout 1 & 2.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Fallout 1 and 2 are my favorite games of all time, bar none, and I'm not trying to start a whole "thing" here, but I'm not super impressed with the graphics/art design. Somehow it manages to look worse than what we had in '97. I don't understand how that's possible, and it's incredibly likely that I'm just an idiot. Would someone mind explaining it to me? I'm not the only one who feels this way, right? Is it just insufficient funding? It seems like that would perhaps be rather cheap, but maybe it wasn't an important aspect of the game to them?

I'm not much of a stickler when it comes to these things, but I really loved the art in Fallout 1 & 2.

You're not an idiot, it's mostly nostalgia

 

[zkylon]

How much cheaper?

likely 40 usd

like seriously people, don't be stupid, wait for tomorrow

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Fallout 1 and 2 are my favorite games of all time, bar none, and I'm not trying to start a whole "thing" here, but I'm not super impressed with the graphics/art design. Somehow it manages to look worse than what we had in '97. I don't understand how that's possible, and it's incredibly likely that I'm just an idiot. Would someone mind explaining it to me? I'm not the only one who feels this way, right? Is it just insufficient funding? It seems like that would perhaps be rather cheap, but maybe it wasn't an important aspect of the game to them?

I'm not much of a stickler when it comes to these things, but I really loved the art in Fallout 1 & 2.

Personally, while I get the complaints about the uneven look, it's a really really really massive scope RPG set in an ugly, burnt out 'real world'. As well, FO 1 & 2 (the entire franchise, even post-Bethsoft, really) always looked a bit ugly to me, but that's okay for the very same reason I have no issue with this game. I mean, its post-apocalyptic setting isn't really supposed to look good. Anyway, it's a first super-large project from inXile and a very low budget game that does more with its design than focus on aesthetic. That's not an excuse, that's simply the priority of the game coming through when it has only so much resource to support its ambition. There's a reason the runup to its release has promoted its insane word count. This game is about imagination more than simply soaking in big production value. That said, it could probably stand to look more cohesive, but this game is one of the very first to employ a crowd-sourced asset process in its development to keep costs manageable.

 

[CaptainGyro]

I am off on the day it releases and already have it paid for so I am pretty excited

 

[zkylon]

Fallout 1 and 2 are my favorite games of all time, bar none, and I'm not trying to start a whole "thing" here, but I'm not super impressed with the graphics/art design. Somehow it manages to look worse than what we had in '97. I don't understand how that's possible, and it's incredibly likely that I'm just an idiot. Would someone mind explaining it to me? I'm not the only one who feels this way, right? Is it just insufficient funding? It seems like that would perhaps be rather cheap, but maybe it wasn't an important aspect of the game to them?

I'm not much of a stickler when it comes to these things, but I really loved the art in Fallout 1 & 2.

bear in mind fallout had a bigger budget than wasteland 2 does, you know adjusted for inflation etc etc

w2's not a looker but it looks pretty decent imo

certainly does the job

 

[Shake Appeal]

Fallout has much more consistent art direction, but being an isometric 2D game in 1997 or whatever covers a multitude of sins.

I wish you could change the typography in WL2, though. Hoo boy.

 

[Stimpack]

Now it's not really that it's set in a wasteland. I enjoy that! It's more than things are rather.... round and cartoony. There's a lack of definition, and nothing particularly stands out to me. I've seen other Unity games that have that familiar look to it, but I don't know if the engine has anything to do with anything. As far as I know, Unity is somewhat versatile and shouldn't have any impact on the art. Anyway, the issues I have with the art seem glaringly obvious to me, but I've absolutely no artistic inclinations and I'm afraid I'm not able to articulate it as well as I would like to. Someone out there knows exactly what I'm talking about, though!

[edit] Yeah, I also have no clue as to whether or not it was just a budget restriction. It wouldn't entirely surprise me considering how much work goes into this kind of stuff, and it was crowdfunded. Which, again, isn't a slight on the game itself. Quite honestly, I've always been much more into story than I am into art. Hell, I've played numerous text adventures in my life, so ultimately it's not the biggest issue in the world.

 

[z1ggy]

Anyone got the email with the shipment info? The wait for the physical copy is killing me ;_;

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

yay!

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Fallout has much more consistent art direction, but being an isometric 2D game in 1997 or whatever covers a multitude of sins.

I wish you could change the typography in WL2, though. Hoo boy.

Yeah, the pre-rendered approach and low resolution for the time helps to gloss over the INSANE visual repetition and lack of variation in those games. As for WL2, pray for community mod support. I'm pinning a lot of my hope on UI and basic decisions to be helped out with that.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Someone out there knows exactly what I'm talking about, though!

I agree that it looks pretty mediocre, especially the character models and the plastic-looking 3-D for inventory items. But I'm fine with it. It's not why I'm playing the game, and I understand where their resources have gone.

 

[Madrugador]

Hard to believe we backed this more than two years ago.

Can't wait until tomorrow

 

[zkylon]

Fallout has much more consistent art direction, but being an isometric 2D game in 1997 or whatever covers a multitude of sins.

I wish you could change the typography in WL2, though. Hoo boy.

yup, i really hope someone mods it, it's a really bad choice of font lol

 

[Bright-Light]

How much would a laptop/pc cost that would run this game.

i currently have a lapt top, but it is not geared towards games. Im sick of missing out on these smaller games that dont make it to me ps4/xbox.

first Banner Saga, now this. Enough!!! I will not let this happen again.

So guys, any idea on how much?

 

[Alebelly]

You keep editing your post, haha.

Thank you!

 

[Carcetti]

After D:OS the bar is incredibly high for turn-based classic-style RPGs this year. Wasteland 2 better be mindblowing.

 

[Alebelly]

I am officially a yellow belly, died and tried, leftover from yesterdays toaster. Don't hunt me wrong, sucker!

 

[Stimpack]

I agree that it looks pretty mediocre, especially the character models and the plastic-looking 3-D for inventory items. But I'm fine with it. It's not why I'm playing the game, and I understand where their resources have gone.

Yeah, they're kind of blocky low-poly models. It's actually less of a complaint and more of just a question. It's this kind of stuff that really has me curious as to what the added cost would be to make higher quality models. It's most certainly coming from ignorance that I say this, but I would think that in 2014 this kind of thing wouldn't have much of a monetary impact on a budget. But it's almost 5 a.m., so I'm just going to forget about this for now and pass out for a while!

 

[Shake Appeal]

After D:OS the bar is incredibly high for turn-based classic-style RPGs this year. Wasteland 2 better be mindblowing.

Pretty sure it can pass D:OS's writing, world and quest design, etc. at a canter.

 

[The Smoking Bun]

It does look a bit uglier than Shadowrun Returns that's for sure. But perhaps that's the idea.
Shadowrun is slick and futuristic while Wasteland is just that, old and rusted

Will anyone be making themed (characters from other fictional universes) teams?
Custom avatars and all?

 

[zkylon]

i feel like divinity having like a fifth of the budget and boasting much better visuals in every single way is pretty telling that maybe the team at inxile is a bit inexperienced

tho tbh i don't believe for one second divinity was made with less than a million dollars, unless maybe in larianland the usd exchange rate is super favorable or something

 

[Durante]

After D:OS the bar is incredibly high for turn-based classic-style RPGs this year. Wasteland 2 better be mindblowing.

It won't match D:OS' combat system or interactivity, I can already tell you that.

But considering that nothing released in the past 10 years does that, that's not too bad.

tho tbh i don't believe for one second divinity was made with less than a million dollars, unless maybe in larianland the usd exchange rate is super favorable or something

Why would you? Swen put the total budget at ~ €4 million.

 

[pelican]

I completely missed this was coming out so soon.

Thanks OP.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

i feel like divinity having like a fifth of the budget and boasting much better visuals in every single way is pretty telling that maybe the team at inxile is a bit inexperienced

A fifth? Where did you get the number from? The budget for Divinity was around 4 million, I doubt inXile payed 17 million for Wasteland out of their own pocket.

 

[Honey Bunny]

Hard to believe we backed this more than two years ago.

Can't wait until tomorrow

Christ, has it been that long

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Christ, has it been that long

Pfft. That's not so bad...I was fifteen or so when this game came out on the Apple ][ and have been waiting over two decades for this. Two years ain't shit.

 

[zkylon]

Why would you? Swen put the total budget at ~ €4 million.

A fifth? Where did you get the number from? The budget for Divinity was around 4 million, I doubt inXile payed 17 million for Wasteland out of their own pocket.

ah ok i didn't back divinity so i was just thinking off the money they got from ks, didn't have the full picture

4m makes much more sense

 

[Munin]

So when MMX came out the devs backtracked on their modding promises because they realized that modders would need to buy Unity Pro to do anything meaningful. No mods of note ever came out for MMX. So I am guessing the modding situation with Wasteland 2 will be the same?

 

[Coreda]

Yeah, they're kind of blocky low-poly models. It's actually less of a complaint and more of just a question. It's this kind of stuff that really has me curious as to what the added cost would be to make higher quality models.

Some screenshots are from more recent builds than others, but also from browsing for screenshots most I've been able to source come from imgur originally (the devs seem to use it primarily), and imgur adds noticeable compression artifacts which is something to keep in mind. I'll be looking forward to seeing more raw pngs on release.

 

[okiemok]

My hands hurt as I have been sitting on them for so long waiting for the beta to end.

 

[zkylon]

tbh even if it's a little rough i think some of this stuff actually looks really good

very moody and lod isn't too shabby

 

[Kinthalis]

This is going to be the BEST weekend. It's like a second birthday

 

[Moff]

I'm impressed with the graphics actually, I think its much prettier than shadowrun.

 

[Corto]

Ranger Pandora presenting for duty!

 

[MightyHedgehog]

tbh even if it's a little rough i think some of this stuff actually looks really good

very moody and lod isn't too shabby

Yeah, the more I see, the more I appreciate. I figure it's their tight schedule and their focus on keeping things under wraps and limited to a few key moments and locations, mostly seen in the beta, I guess. Definitely looks nicer than any Fallout in the series.

 

[Honey Bunny]

Pfft. That's not so bad...I was fifteen or so when this game came out on the Apple ][ and have been waiting over two decades for this. Two years ain't shit.

Oh I'm not complaining about the dev time! Just that those years have gone by so quickly for me.

Can't wait to play it, I actually haven't touched the early builds and have mostly ignored any videos about it. I'm going in as fresh as possible.

 

[Alebelly]

Regulators, mount up!

 

[LiK]

Nice, thanks for OT

 

[FlyinJ]

Has anyone gotten an email that their boxed version has shipped? I backed this thing in the first few hours and I haven't gotten anything since I confirmed my shipping address a month or so ago.

 

[zkylon]

Yeah, the more I see, the more I appreciate. I figure it's their tight schedule and their focus on keeping things under wraps and limited to a few key moments and locations, mostly seen in the beta, I guess. Definitely looks nicer than any Fallout in the series.

tbh i think inxile's art team is just not as good as larian's, in no small parts since they're just crowdsourcing or whatever a big portion of their assets

also using unity vs proprietary engine

i like how fallout looks better tbh, but mostly because the art direction is so good in fallout

 

[epmode]

Can't wait.

GAF is always looking for a game with meaningful choices, where your decisions will have far-reaching effects and not just alter one or two lines of dialogue. According to inXile, this is that game. I hope it's not just empty marketing.

Has anyone gotten an email that their boxed version has shipped? I backed this thing in the first few hours and I haven't gotten anything since I confirmed my shipping address a month or so ago.

I haven't seen anything yet.

 

[panty]

Deluxe boxed version kickstarted ages ago.

Can't wait.

 

[The Smoking Bun]

To those who have played the beta: Any useless skills or dump attributes?
Can I survive with only 1 LUCK or 1 CHARISMA?

 

[UncleSporky]

I played some of the beta yesterday. I couldn't wait.

It feels kind of sparse at the start, like they are really not trying to impress you. I guess I am used to a lot of modern games opening up with a huge city full of possibilities, lots of people to talk to, lots of minor quests you pick up, worldbuilding. Here you start in an area with like 5 NPCs and they don't have much to say, and you're immediately off on a mission that continues in this way for a bit. But at the same time, maybe that's how an apocalyptic wasteland should feel.

Once you get to the first major branching point of the game and get to one of those areas, it starts feeling a lot better.

I really like how much the game acknowledges the choices you make. I guess some spoilers for stuff near the start of the game:

Spoiler

at Highpool, I did some saving and loading to see what might happen if I tried certain things like digging up the town graveyard in full view of someone who lived there. I dug up a little boy and his dog (references to the original Wasteland), and the guy started yelling at me, sounded like he was about to go hostile if I would've dug up one more grave. I went back to an asshole I'd met earlier who'd told me the boy was his nephew, and he was pretty pissed at what I'd done and attacked me. I reloaded my save and dug up the grave of the town mayor, who was apparently a pretty big deal, because the guy watching the graveyard freaked the fuck out and everyone in town went hostile and charged at me. And then, after I killed them all, someone left alive at Highpool radioed the Rangers and told them that I'd massacred everyone, at which point they asked me whether this was true, and I was able to tell the truth or lie. I lied about it and said I wasn't even anywhere near Highpool, because I was actually worried they might kick me out of the Rangers.

So that's really awesome. I feel like not enough games give you that sort of choice, with acknowledgement of those choices.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

To those who have played the beta: Any useless skills or dump attributes?
Can I survive with only 1 LUCK or 1 CHARISMA?

You can, but if you want to play a certain way 1 charisma is a bad choice. If you want to be able to talk your way out of situations you need Charisma, so if you choose the Smart/Hard/Kissass Perk do that with a character with high charisma. Also high charisma gets you more XP outside of fights IIRC.
Luck is bit different, you can absolutely survive with 1 Luck but then you'll need, well, more luck in real life. But if there is a "dump attribute" it is definitely luck.

 

[Carcetti]

Pretty sure it can pass D:OS's writing, world and quest design, etc. at a canter.

I don't know about that. Every coop session of D:OS seems to end up in me and my friend going 'WTF did that just happen! Awesome!' and I really like the humor in it.

 

[UncleSporky]

To those who have played the beta: Any useless skills or dump attributes?
Can I survive with only 1 LUCK or 1 CHARISMA?

Yes, both of those are total dump stats, if you're a min-maxer.

This guy gives a really good rundown of all the stats and skills and their relative usefulness.

Personally I think it's a good idea to have a leader type character with high charisma and int and low combat skills, and at least one fast, strong melee guy.

You can, but if you want to play a certain way 1 charisma is a bad choice. If you want to be able to talk your way out of situations you need Charisma, so if you choose the Smart/Hard/Kissass Perk do that with a character with high charisma. Also high charisma gets you more XP outside of fights IIRC.
Luck is bit different, you can absolutely survive with 1 Luck but then you'll need, well, more luck in real life. But if there is a "dump attribute" it is definitely luck.

Actually from what I hear, those skills do not scale off of charisma at all. The only skill that really goes with charisma is leadership.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Oh I'm not complaining about the dev time! Just that those years have gone by so quickly for me.

I agree, even with the delays, it's been a really brisk few years for me, too.

tbh i think inxile's art team is just not as good as larian's, in no small parts since they're just crowdsourcing or whatever a big portion of their assets

also using unity vs proprietary engine

i like how fallout looks better tbh, but mostly because the art direction is so good in fallout

Yeah, I can see that. Even with scant few screenshots of the final release build, WL2 already evokes a stronger sense and greater spectrum of mood over the flat, relatively neutral look of FO. The Mark Morgan score can only take it over the top.

Can't wait.

GAF is always looking for a game with meaningful choices, where your decisions will have far-reaching effects and not just alter one or two lines of dialogue. According to inXile, this is that game. I hope it's not just empty marketing.

If anything, I wonder if it might cause the choice paralysis-prone segment of us to constantly doubt their decisions causing more stress than enjoyment. Ha.

I haven't seen anything yet.

I don't think anyone has, but if it's going to arrive on launch day, shipping confirmation has to be today. Not that I'm hung up on having the physical copy before I play the digital one, but it's nice to relive the glory of opening up a box and poring over its contents before diving in.