It might be obscured somewhat by the over the top nature of the Wasteland games, but inXile’s writing is up their with best studios in the brand. I think that a lot of people are going to be stunned senseless by what they can do with a big budget.
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Just like what Psychonauts 2 is for Double Fine – the best game in its studio history – I strongly feel like Avowed has the potential to be the same for Obsidian. The studio is now “unleashed”, and while game budgets will never be infinite, not even under Microsoft, this is still a very unique position for the team to be in. I think we just have to look at what the studio achieved in the past under much worse conditions, with limited budgets and restricted timelines.
Avowed will be the first AAA game in the studio’s history where they can fully focus just on the game. I do feel like this already shows in Grounded, but obviously to a smaller scale, given only ≈ 15 people are working on this one.
Just like Psychonauts 2, I don’t expect Avowed to be the technically most impressive game ever. I guess it’ll look really great, but the studio’s focus has always been on other areas. Obsidian can create games that are industry-leading in world building, story telling, quest design, writing, combat … And maybe this time, they also have the resources and time to do all that in a polished package.
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I could really go for CrossfireX right now. Xbox having an economy based shooter is great.
Yep
Im expecting great things from Avowed and if the details the sponger mentioned a while back are true, like being able to kill anyone, the mod support for console and world reactivity/physics, oh baby
Although it does make me wonder, this is being built on UE4 right? Is unreal good for mod support?
Kinda more shocked that they havent staffed up grounded more. Would had been something I had done once the initial great reception of the game came to try and launch it this year but it sems to be kept small for better or worse.
I played a bit co-op with my sister but the online stability was unnaceptable.
Well said!
From Obsidian I don’t expect state of the art graphics and animations on levels like ND , just a damn good looking game and I have no doubt we’ll get that. It’s like you said the world building,story telling, quest design,writing etc. For combat I hope they make it really fun. I am hoping they make it a whole lot better than BGS. I love BGS, but sword combat in Skyrim was not the best, the moves were fine I guess but when I hit a human enemy with a sword I’d like him to react to it, but in Oblivion and Skyrim it’s like you are hitting your sword on a wall, not good.
I have yet to play The Outer Worlds, but was melee combat better there than BGS games? Years ago there was this PC game, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic I think it was called, love the combat in that one.
The stuff Sponger said about it sound incredibly promising. I think this will get Todd Howard to notice them even more and get inspiration for TES VI, would not surprise me.
I don’t have much hope in first person melee combat ever being any good. Do we have any good examples?
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If the rumors are true this game will be very special.
The Outer Worlds has the best combat of any “Bethesda style” game. It’s also the best looking. I’m super excited for Starfield but Obsidian might be the best RPG studio Xbox has.
One thing I am hoping for in the future is special dedicated, Xbox versions of “State of Plays” specifically for individual games. If Xbox wants their IP to grow and be seen as important I think it’s vital for each big game to get it’s own space.
Halo needs it’s own show whenever they decide to reveal Campaign. Avowed will deserve it’s own space. So will Starfield. So will Fable. So will Hellblade etc. You can make something important by making it seem important, and giving it room to shine is one way you can do that.
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Like playgrounds let’s go streams?
Yes pls
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same but I think Dying Light 2 looks promising on that front.
Melee combat too? Really gotta play this game sometime soon now. I don’t like it when melee combat feels wooden, I prefer how Dishonored does this or Dying Light. Enemies really react realistic when they are hit.
Examples overall?
Dishonored 1 and 2, Dying Light 1 and 2, Dead Island, Riddick. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and more I’m sure.
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Yeah but I think Xbox should be the ones doing the stream not the developer.
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At this point there really isnt a good excuse for bad first person sword combat, as iconic as Skyrim is, even in 2011 it had bad combat
Incorporate parrying, dodging/sidestepping/backstepping and make hits actually feel satisfying with weight and impact behind them
Then you can focus on different weapon properties such as
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Daggers - Short Range, low damage but fastest agility
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Swords - Medium Range, medium damage, medium agility
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Hammers/Clubs/Axes - Medium Range, highest damage lowest agility
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Spears- High range, low damage, medium agility etc etc
Obviously these are very dumbed down generic examples but all these things are an absolute must imo for modern games like ES or Avowed, combine all the things above and you have the bulk of a good combat system with replayability
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Obsidian can make a text-based game that is still better than the walk-n-talk sad-in-the-woods games 
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I feel exactly the same way. Best melee combat that I have played is Dishonored 1 & 2 and Dying Light 2 looks real good.
Make it fun to watch as well, NO developer interview with Major Nelson and Paris asking questions. Give us a reason to care!
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I think having interactions with the developers and asking them about their games, their jobs, is still essential to show them we appreciate all they are doing for us.
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