Avowed - Obsidian's new game, like Pillars of Eternity meets Elder Scrolls

[Raging Capybara]

I can't believe they are making a modern AAA RPG with a fucking E rating. How can you possibly tell a compelling story or have visceral combat with a rating like that? Fucking tragic. Starfield was bizarrely toothless too. Is this a Microsoft thing now? No more M rated games?

Sony released two God of War games without blood and tits.

They are all like that nowadays.

 

[ZMOT]

I can't believe they are making a modern AAA RPG with a fucking E rating. How can you possibly tell a compelling story or have visceral combat with a rating like that? Fucking tragic. Starfield was bizarrely toothless too. Is this a Microsoft thing now? No more M rated games?

"we want the broadest demographic"
meanwhile every 6yo gets GTA via a sibling or parent, if not buying that shit themselves.

 

[Snekposter]

"we want the broadest demographic"
meanwhile every 6yo gets GTA via a sibling or parent, if not buying that shit themselves.

I don't think an E rating allows for any sort of drug or alcohol use, either. So not only is there no blood or tits there's also nobody drinking or smoking.

 

[Asian tech support]

I don't think an E rating allows for any sort of drug or alcohol use, either. So not only is there no blood or tits there's also nobody drinking or smoking.

Contemporary AAA and wannabe AAA western titles are full of unnecessary zoomer profanity (but no actually edgy words). @Bog-standard Poster might be right; this game might be a weird repurposed family friendly VR title.

 

[Grand Wizard Wakka]

Is Obsidian capable of making a good game without Chris Avellone? It seems like their games were always carried by his writing, TBH.

 

[PAM Cooking Spray]

Is Obsidian capable of making a good game without Chris Avellone? It seems like their games were always carried by his writing, TBH.

It's not just Avellone that's missing, almost nobody from when FNV was made still worked there when Avellone went over a list of developers 4-5 years ago. Surely nearly everyone except sawyer is gone now.
Attributing Obsidian's old games to them is just brand worship, none of that talent is there.

 

[SiccDicc]

Is Obsidian capable of making a good game without Chris Avellone? It seems like their games were always carried by his writing, TBH.

No and they've gone all in on DEI so you can't really expect any talent to prosper. The thing with Chris is that I could appreciate him keeping his politics in check, I just wish we could have gotten his complete version of the Legion because that looked pretty cool and would have made a better opposing view to the NCR rather than the shallow puddle we got.

It's not just Avellone that's missing, almost nobody from when FNV was made still worked there

From what I understand is that most of those people were under contract and never renewed anyways, so that didn't really matter much. Obsidian has always operated from paycheck to paycheck and that led to some pretty awesome games coming from them because it was do or die to make a name for yourself, but now that they're "safe" they produce slop like this. Which, honestly, is kind of what's happened to the industry entirely at this point.

 

[PAM Cooking Spray]

It's not just Avellone that's missing, almost nobody from when FNV was made still worked there when Avellone went over a list of developers 4-5 years ago. Surely nearly everyone except sawyer is gone now.
Attributing Obsidian's old games to them is just brand worship, none of that talent is there.

Gone: (~51)
Larry Liberty
Jason Fader
Tess Treadwell
Matt Rorie
Joe Sanabria
Jason Sereno
Aaron Brown
Kevin Manning
Cochey Cantu
Roger Chang
Paul Fish
James Garcia
Ed Lacabanne
Megan Parks
Kristen Wong
Chris Willis
David Lieu
Mitch Ahlswede (but was a contractor on this, so wasn’t technically full-time)
Jessica Urquhart/Edge
Mark Bremerkamp
Scott Lawlor
Andrew Dearing (left, came back as contractor (?) Aug 2017-Jan 2018, thanks for correction).
Jon Pendergrass (may have been a contractor)
Fryda Wolff
Akil Hooper
Robert Lee
John Gonzalez
Travis Stout
JR Vosovic
Stephanie Newland
(me)
Eric Beaumont
Jessica Johnson
Casey Kwock
Eric Fenstermaker
Matt MacLean
George Ziets
Sydney Wolfram
Frank Kowalkowski
Mike Bosley
Jon Burke
Justin Reynard
Dan Rubalcaba
Rob Smith
Anddy Archer
Matt Campbell
Brian Fox
Sven Knutson
Javier Olivares
Erik Novales
Daniel Teh
Chris Tencati

Still There: (~19)
Mikey Dowling
Matt Singh
Brandon Adler
Brian Menze
Scotty Everts
Daniel Alpert
Sean Dunny
Seth McCaughey
Shon Stewart
James Melilli
Anthony Rogers
Adam Brennecke
Justin Bell
Dini McMurry
Josh, obviously
Charles Staples
Jesse Farrell (left, then came back)
Jeff Husges
Jorge Salgado

My edited version of the second list:

Mikey Dowling
Matt Singh
Brandon Adler (Probably gone)
Brian Menze
Scotty Everts
Daniel Alpert
Sean Dunny
Seth McCaughey
Shon Stewart
James Melilli
Anthony Rogers
Adam Brennecke
Justin Bell
Dini McMurry
Josh, obviously
Charles Staples
Jesse Farrell (left, then came back)
Jeff Husges
Jorge Salgado

 

[Kulmeister]

 

[Mega Black]

Is Obsidian capable of making a good game without Chris Avellone? It seems like their games were always carried by his writing, TBH.

People insist Sawyer is the real big brains behind Obsidian but everything people talk about regarding their games was usually a product of Avellone's direction or creativity, and given how he seemed to have nothing kind to say about the management after he left I can only assume they were stifling more than helping.

 

[King Vidiot]

The release date for Avowed has been pushed back to February 18, 2025.
https://x.com/Xbox/status/1819495487155982486 (archive)

This is probably a good thing. Even though the gameplay they show in the latest deep dive looks a lot better than their earlier previews, I was expecting the game to feel a bit unfinished if they had to release it this year.

The deep dive I linked above also confirms that the game will have a 3rd person camera mode.

There is also a new story trailer:

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

Guess what game just got a released date?

The release date is February 18



Avowed Xbox site

Gameplay

 

[Hermiöne Granger]

guess what, it release as a empty box with no game disc, and the fucking asking price is nearly 100 dollars. if you gonna ask for this much money, then get the fucking game on a disc and also include the fucking soundtrack on a cd. if not then fuck off, i have had enough of this greedy shit.

 

[Deus Exica]

I wonder if this is going to flop. The original promise of being Obsidian's Skyrim was shattered, it has that same Veilguard-esque corporate DEI not-quite Fortnite but still extra gay art style, all of the gameplay looks extremely unsatisfying and unappealing.

 

[eDove]

It's daring that they plan to release it around the same time as Asscreed's gay nigger sim.

 

[Anon88]

I wonder if this is going to flop. The original promise of being Obsidian's Skyrim was shattered, it has that same Veilguard-esque corporate DEI not-quite Fortnite but still extra gay art style, all of the gameplay looks extremely unsatisfying and unappealing.

Eora is quite possible the worst setting I've ever seen in fiction so it blows my mind they're having Avowed take place in that world. I'm fully expecting this to sell terribly as the only people who liked pillars did so because of the old style rpg gameplay it had. I'm honestly not even sure who their target demographic is for this game other then maybe Bethesda fans.

 

[ColonelCadaver]

I'm calling baldur's gate-esque "female-oriented musical melodrama" mixed with recent obsidian "tried and trite set of locations with two bland warring parties and moral dillema with no moral dillema" with either no ships or degenerate stuff on the rocks.


Also, make it a loading screen.

 

[Super Hans v2]

The original promise of being Obsidian's Skyrim was shattered,

Obsidian is setting themselves up for disappointment by not openly stating it's not a Bethesda-like. People are expecting Skyrim 2 when it's more Fantasy Call of Duty.

 

[Deus Exica]

Eora is quite possible the worst setting I've ever seen in fiction

I have seen people say this but I never played Pillars. What makes it so shitty aside from the obvious terrible art direction?

and trite set of locations with two bland warring parties and moral dillema with no moral dillema" with either no ships or degenerate stuff on the rocks.

I wonder what the factions could even be fighting about because the game has a baby rating, so it can't have gore, or war, or slavery, or sexism, or drugs, or genocide, or racism, or anything else you'd probably build a conflict around.

Obsidian is setting themselves up for disappointment by not openly stating it's not a Bethesda-like. People are expecting Skyrim 2 when it's more Fantasy Call of Duty.

I think they're clearly trying to hide it a bit. They only said it was an Outer Worlds style level based world in an interview after the previews so I'm sure tricking people is the whole point.

2025 by the time this shit comes out and Obsidian won't even be able to make a seamless open world on par with a game that came out in fucking 2011, by Bethesda no less. What a fucking embarrassment.

 

[Anon88]

I have seen people say this but I never played Pillars. What makes it so shitty aside from the obvious terrible art direction?

I dislike Eora because a lot of the stuff they try to do that’s unique comes off as pointless and not at all unique. For example, they have an enemy type called a Xaurip but it’s just a kolbold, there’s Godlikes which are just demigods and Orlans who are just furries. They have a whole pantheon of gods but not a single one of them comes across as anything you couldn’t see in any other setting. Lastly, they even made the setting be more colonial era then medieval and sometimes it feels like that but a lot of the time it doesn’t really feel any different from fantasy. There’s just nothing here that stands out at all to me.

Largely though my biggest issue with the setting is that there’s so much lore. They talk about their gods and their history and their culture, it’s way too much and they just won’t shut up about it. You get really sick of it quickly and just want them to shut up. So, it’s an ok at best setting you’re not going to be very invested in with way too much backstory that going to bore you. Sure, there’s a chance Avowed might cool it with the lore dumps but seeing they have the same writers as the Pillar games I kind of doubt it.