Pathfinder 1E What's this, then, Paizo? ANOTHER video game? By Obsidian?

[JRRNeiklot]

And Mask of the Betrayer is still among the best things ever for Neverwinter Nights (one and two).

I could never get past the stupid camera in NWN 2. I fought the camera more than I did the bad guys so I gave up on that game before getting out of the first town.

 

[Derren]

I could never get past the stupid camera in NWN 2. I fought the camera more than I did the bad guys so I gave up on that game before getting out of the first town.

Your loss. It is one of the few good stories about law vs. chaos them being just substitutes for good and evil.

 

[Raith5]

I really liked NVN2 - I remember really liking the story and the characters (except that chaotic stupid ranger). I really like those isometric fantasy games.

 

[Rygar]

If Obsidian is making a Pathfinder CRPG then WOTC has its work cut out for it. Obsidian's developers were once the core of Black Isle, so that team is effectively responsible for: Fallout, Fallout 2, Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2, Knights of the Old Republic 2, and Fallout New Vegas. They also have some of Troika, so they also have the minds behind Arcanum and Temple of Elemental Evil working there.

That's a very difficult studio to compete with, they're directly responsible for the lion's share of great RPG's for the last 15 years-ish. There's a very good chance this will put Pathfinder above D&D in the younger generation's minds. Brian Fargo's InXile might have been able to compete for WOTC, but they denied him the Torment license.

(Yes, Obsidian's game historically have had many bugs. Most contracts with Publishers stipulate that the Publisher is responsible for QA, not Obsidian, so the Publishers decide when the game ships. Assuming they're not beholden to a Publisher, it's reasonable to assume they won't have the defects that've plagued them in the past.)

 

[Rygar]

Metacritic says the critics prefered Fallout 3 while users prefered New Vegas, but a lot more reviews for the former.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/fallout-3
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/fallout-new-vegas


After forcing myself to finish the base game I didn't want to touch any expansions.
If they're that good I'll keep an eye open, if they're ever on sale. NWN2 doesn't seem to be on Steam though.

I'm not sure I'd trust Metacritic as a point of reference. Publishers don't have policies against their staff posting "Reviews", and there's a lot of discussion about the integrity of the Gaming Journalists. Metacritic has also been known to delete posts below a certain threshold for "Bombing" but never delete reviews above a certain threshold, I think Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age 2 was one where there was a big kerfluffle about user reviews being deleted.

http://kotaku.com/5891060/metacritic-says-it-removed-rule-violating-mass-effect-3-user-reviews

The kerfluffle being "What criteria makes a review invalid? A new person's first review isn't valid? How do we know that only those reviews were deleted?", also the questions surrounding Metacritic's comment about the scores being below the Journalist reviews, leading to questions about why Users Reviews should be inline with Journalist reviews.

 

[Ainamacar]

Some interesting updates. Based on an interview with Feargus Urquhart (Obsidian's CEO) earlier this year, it looks like a Pathfinder card game may have been on the radar.

Nothing stops us from being able to do those two different things. It’s going to make us look at Eternity as a brand. What else can we do with it? I want to hook up with the Pathfinder guys and see about doing a Pathfinder Eternity world book thing. It sounds a little weird, but… A card game. A board game. I’ve already been chatting with Cryptozoic Entertainment. We have nothing going on specifically, but they have a lot of experience in board games and card games. That’s what’s going to be transformative.

Based on this speculation, Lisa Stevens (Paizo's CEO) posted the following.

Another possibility is they could be making the pathfinder adventure card game into a computer game, similar to Magic The Gathering, and Warcraft's Hearthstone.

That said, i'd prefer a CRPG. by far.

You know what I say in life, why do you have to choose? Why not have both?

-Lisa

So, that's a tease.

I owe a tip of the hat to RPG Codex, where I saw this stuff.

Edit: From the same thread.

All will be revealed this weekend. Well, maybe not all.

Press release tomorrow. More details throughout the weekend. We are talking about more than one type of game. I think you guys will be happy.

Btw, they are NOT taking over Pathfinder Online. Let's squash that right now.

-Lisa

 

[Dannager]

Some interesting updates. Based on an interview with Feargus Urquhart (Obsidian's CEO) earlier this year, it looks like a Pathfinder card game may have been on the radar.


Based on this speculation, Lisa Stevens (Paizo's CEO) posted the following.


So, that's a tease.

I owe a tip of the hat to RPG Codex, where I saw this stuff.

Edit: From the same thread.

Edit: Aaaaaaand I'm dumb and can't read.

 

[outsider]

I'm a little more cynical.
Let's look at what Obsidian is known for:

KOTOR2 was okayish. They were in the unfortunate position of having to follow up KOTOR, which imo, is one of the greatest single player rpgs of all time. They didn't meet that mark, but that's not surprising. Almost nobody has made a game as good as KOTOR.

Neverwinter Nights 2, was again okay. I'd consider the single player campaign about as good as the single player campaign in the first NWN. They couldn't match the multiplayer, but again, NWN was one of a kind and hard to live up to.

Alpha Protocol is criminally underrated. I loved that game, as did everybody else I convinced to try it. Most people that disliked it wanted an rpg and hated the fps elements, or wanted an fps and hated the rpg elements. People that were fans of the original Deus Ex were the real target audience for this one.

Obsidian I would consider to be at least good at what they do(though their games are rather bug laden). The problem is they were stuck in the shadow of Bioware when Bioware was at it's height. You can compare just about any developer to Bioware at their height, and they'll look worse than they really are.

 

[Dragonblade]

KoTOR 2 was great from a story perspective, but the game was buggy and rushed.

If Obsidian is making a 2-4 player co-op BG: Dark Alliance style game, I'll not only buy it, I'll buy the console it will be on just to play it. I haven't dipped into the next gen consoles yet. And when I say co-op I mean in the same room, not this internet stuff. Gaming is a social activity for me and my friends.

I'm also intrigued by the Pathfinder card game if its done on iOS or something. I otherwise have zero interest in PC based games, especially MMO's.

 

[Dannager]

The press release is now available!

Important takeaways:

• This is a long-term license, not a one-off. We will be seeing multiple games.
• The first game is a tablet version of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and will be shown off this week at GenCon.
• (From Lisa) There almost certainly will be a CRPG in the future, but nothing to announce yet.