Obsidian Mailbag

The response to last week's article was about what I prospective: Lots of people indignant about how under the weather Fallout: New Vegas ran. (If it did.) And past other people being outraged that the first group was outraged. The latter were upset with the former for… experiencing bugs? Not enjoying them? I don't know.

But I want to address a hardly a of the objections to my column. Like so:

I didn't experience whatever of the "problems" you supposedly had. The gamy ran great for me!

Sol… are the roost of USA lying? Are these thousands of irritated gamers start out of some vast conspiracy to make Obsidian feeling bad, just because?

As I said last week, Microcomputer hardware is a labyrinthine business and I'm sympathetic to the effort it takes to get things running on totally of those opposite machines. If you're non unrivaled of the stilted people, past rejoice and enjoy your game. Just if you want Pine Tree State to enjoy the game then you want to ring mail me your computer, because it doesn't body of work right this one.

It's non Obsidian's fault the game crashes! Your computer sucks!

In the process of doing this column, my website, my video series, and my webcomic, I finish up playing a whole sle of games. Over fifty a twelvemonth, if we admit demos and different games that I toy with for a few hours and leave about. None of those games look to malfunction the way of life New Vegas does. New Vegas is the most buggy lame I've played in years.

You didn't let the cat out of the bag virtually the good parts of the bet on, you just raged on about bugs! This was completely biased and unbalanced.

If you look carefully at the end of this column, you'll notice that in that respect is ne'er whatever review score. That's because this is an opinion bit written by a pundit and non a review written by a journalist. If you want a review, past Russ Pitts has you covered. (Hint: His only complaint is that the game is buggy.)

Merely I actually disapproval this absurd mentality that you're not allowed to discuss the bad parts of the game unless you balance information technology out with the upright. I can only gues what IT must be like to experience a conversation with these people.

Allan: Man, I couldn't stand Leonardo da Vinci DiCaprio in Origination.

Bob: YOU DIDN'T MENTION HOW GOOD THE Exceptional EFFECTS WERE. YOU ARE BIASED AND YOUR Persuasion IS INVALID.

Allan: WTF!?!?

Everyone already knows Obsidian sometimes has bugs in their games, you're antimonopoly a sizeable obvious troll-type person.

Thusly, everyone knows more or less this soh we … shouldn't talk over it? The fact that "everyone" knows about it should be a pretty big hint that this is a widespread problem. It's good as valid a issue for conversation as Bobby Kotick, DRM, operating theatre any of the other things I talk well-nig all workweek.

But more importantly, everyone doesn't roll in the hay about the problems with Obsidian. Fresh gamers are growing up or joining the hobby all close to us. A college freshman playing Parvenue Vegas right right away would have been thirteen years old when Obsidian free KOTOR II. And believe it Beaver State not, most people smack the escape key when the developer and newspaper publisher splash screens seem. Non everyone follows this stuff, and an article discussing the conduct and trajectory of this company would be both interesting and informative for those sorts of people.

This ISN't fair to Obsidian, they inherited a buggy engine from Fallout 3!

It's true. Fallout 3 was a mess. I dog-tired fourteen hours on a video serial publication, nitpicking that game from start to finish. I also made fun of it in my comic. Believe me, I have it off all about the problems with Radioactive dust 3. I don't know wherefore that game got a pass from so many people, but it didn't get a pass from me.

But that doesn't mean we should ignore the problems with New Vegas. As long as consumers are paying for the stake, they have a rectify to expect that the spirited (remember that you can't rejoi games) actually work properly.

You're inappropriate! New Vegas is in reality an awesome game!

I didn't say anything about how fun the game is. I consort that it is far superior to Fallout 3. But wouldn't it glucinium more than fun if it was more stable? Wouldn't that be better for all of us, including Obsidian?

It's not Obsidian's fault! You should blame the publisher!

Then why is BioWare able to release stable games, even when dealing with those same publishers that allegedly ruined Obsidian's work? Why cause other developers working with (say) Atari not give birth the same problems that Obsidian did?

When a task is begun the developer agrees to a given timetable and budget. "We'll make X game in Y months using Z dollars." A contract outlines these obligations, and they sign it. Every unmatchable of their games has come from a different publisher, for a different enfranchisement, exploitation different tools. The only coarse element in all of the insane Obsidian games is Obsidian Entertainment itself. They have got unsuccessful to present a stable game four dead of fourfold like a sho (discounting the expansion packs, which were reportedly moral) so I think it's time the blame fell along the people doing the over-promising and under-delivering.

You're pick happening Obsidian! I love their games and you're equitable a big mean hater-chee.

I'm writing about the game and the company because I care close to them. If Epic had released Gears of State of war games that war-torn save files, crashed, glitched out, and suffered from wonky mechanics so I'd believably leave it to experienced fans to write about IT, because it's not my thing. Only I'm an RPG fan, thusly I'm committal to writing about Obsidian.

There aren't that many steely-nucleus western RPG developers left. Shouldn't we be hard-to-please better? Premier person shooter fans stern beak and select among many games and developers, but fans of freeform exploration, branching plots, and complex leveling mechanics put on't have that some options. I preceptor't require to see Obsidian go nether. I want to see Obsidian deliver a top-notch plot that's not infested with bugs and glitches. This is bu non leaving to happen as long as gamers continue to accept grinder-criterional quality and make excuses for them.

Sherlock Young is the guy behind Twenty Sided, DM of the Rings, Stolen Pixels, Shamus Plays, and Freebooter Warning. Beat that, fanboy.

https://www.escapistmagazine.com/obsidian-mailbag/

Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/obsidian-mailbag/