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Pillars Of Eternity: Complete Edition Coming To PS4/XB1, Launching August 29

Backed it on Kickstarter and loved it on PC, but never got around to playing anything beyond the base game.

Since this includes all the expansions and the like, as well as being available physically, I might jump back in on this.
 
If anyone can do it Obsidian can (they made the excellent NWN2 interface after all), but I still think it's too early to call it a solved problem.

This port is entirely being handled by Paradox Arctic, a developer at Paradox Interactive formed in 2014 to provide post-launch support for War of the Roses. As far as I can tell they've not released any products of their own, and this might be some kind of teething project to get them accustomed to Unity and the Pillars variation specifically before developing their own game using that technology. That's pure speculation on my part but I think it makes some kind of sense.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
While I do think that's a more valid concern here than most, I think the market is different enough now that even if this does take off on consoles, it probably wouldn't mean extinction like what happened a decade or so past.
No but it's likely that then the games become more streamlined so easier to handle on the console. See Bethesda's Elder Scrolls evolution from Morrowind to Oblivion to Skyrim ending up at Fallout 4 with majority of RPG trappings gone.

Edit:
Backed it on Kickstarter and loved it on PC, but never got around to playing anything beyond the base game.

Since this includes all the expansions and the like, as well as being available physically, I might jump back in on this.
Seriously, why do that? Get the expansions and play on PC. The interface is going to be much better with KBM and performance on the consoles is not going to be pretty most likely.
 

hemtae

Member
No but it's likely that then the games become more streamlined so easier to handle on the console. See Bethesda's Elder Scrolls evolution from Morrowind to Oblivion to Skyrim ending up at Fallout 4 with majority of RPG trappings gone.

Sure. I'd be miffed if PoE2 was announced for a simultaneous console release and wouldn't even bother backing a hypothetical PoE3 but with digital distribution and development tools like they are now versus how they were in say 2005, I think somebody would step up with comparable RPGs if Obsidian and Larian streamlines all their games to mush.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Sure. I'd be miffed if PoE2 was announced for a simultaneous console release and wouldn't even bother backing a hypothetical PoE3 but with digital distribution and development tools like they are now versus how they were in say 2005, I think somebody would step up with comparable RPGs if Obsidian and Larian streamlines all their games to mush.
Somebody is a very general term. It took Larian a long time to get to the point where they made D:OS. Obsidian has been around forever. It will take years if Larian and Obsidian go more mainstream.
 

Anno

Member
This seems much more like a Paradox thing than an Obsidian decision. Josh's comment on the reddit thread was pretty terse; I wonder what he really thinks about it. Either way I think it's far more likely that Obsidian would do a different kind of game in the Pillars universe if they want to aim something at a multiplat release. Something turn based or a single character 1st/3rd person kinda thing.
 

thesaucetastic

Unconfirmed Member
Really curious how it'd control. Hopefully there's a sizeable CRPG audience on consoles.

I wish the damn DLC would go on sale for more than 50% off on PC though. /salty
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Really curious how it'd control. Hopefully there's a sizeable CRPG audience on consoles.

I wish the damn DLC would go on sale for more than 50% off on PC though. /salty
Don't worry, Paradox raised the prices but you will get that 50% and no more during the Steam sale. /s
 

KORNdoggy

Member
Is the game fully voice acted, or have they added that to the console release ala divinity?, because i don't think i can deal with reading so much on-screen text. Also the environments look awful, i get what they were going for, but they're like, hyper detailed, yet super bland at the same time. But yeah, voice acting is the make or break for me.
 

Arkkoran

Unconfirmed Member
Is the game fully voice acted, or have they added that to the console release ala divinity?, because i don't think i can deal with reading so much on-screen text. Also the environments look awful, i get what they were going for, but they're like, hyper detailed, yet super bland at the same time. But yeah, voice acting is the make or break for me.

Not fully voice acted.
 

Keinning

Member
Was interested before i remembered paradox is publishing it. Dear lord. Paradox and brazilian prices are not in good terms right now.

Thankfully i still have the base game on my laptop. Perhaps the expansions will get 'discounted' (which in our case maybe is just not "abusive") and i'll get them. I'd love to support Obsidian but paradox is not making it easy for me.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
Not fully voice acted.

How much are we talking? 80%? i'm ok with say, item and environment/object descriptions being read only, or books you oick up etc. But is most of the conversation dialogue voiced, because it sounds like there is an awful lot of it?
 
How much are we talking? 80%? i'm ok with say, item and environment/object descriptions being read only, or books you oick up etc. But is most of the conversation dialogue voiced, because it sounds like there is an awful lot of it?

Companions and important characters in the world have some voice acting, but even their dialogue is only partially voiced. You'll have some lines of voice over, then some lines without voices, then maybe a few more voiced lines later in the conversation.

I would say 80-90% non-voiced sounds about right overall.
 

Arkkoran

Unconfirmed Member
How much are we talking? 80%? i'm ok with say, item and environment/object descriptions being read only, or books you oick up etc. But is most of the conversation dialogue voiced, because it sounds like there is an awful lot of it?

It's been a while since I've played, but I remember very little voice acting, usually during only important plot points. The vast majority is reading.

If I had to estimate, maybe 20% is voice acted.
 

Speely

Banned
Good. More people need to play this game.

Hope the controller support is ok. I play it with a Steam Controller and feel like that's the best way to play it, but that's way diff. Luckily it's RTWP so even if it's a bit slow it should be very doable.
 

Anno

Member
How much are we talking? 80%? i'm ok with say, item and environment/object descriptions being read only, or books you oick up etc. But is most of the conversation dialogue voiced, because it sounds like there is an awful lot of it?

Of the entire game? Like maybe 20%. A decent amount of the main plot and companion interactions/quests are voiced, but that's really about it.
 

hemtae

Member
Somebody is a very general term. It took Larian a long time to get to the point where they made D:OS. Obsidian has been around forever. It will take years if Larian and Obsidian go more mainstream.

There's been a lot of 90s style crpgs recently. I don't believe they'd all die even if Larian and Obsidian leave us. The market isn't like when Troika died and all we were left with was Neverwinter Nights 2, Dragon Age: Origins and Jeff Vogel for the better part of a decade.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
There's been a lot of 90s style crpgs recently. I don't believe they'd all die even if Larian and Obsidian leave us. The market isn't like when Troika died and all we were left with was Neverwinter Nights 2, Dragon Age: Origins and Jeff Vogel for the better part of a decade.

You have 4 studios, namely Larian with D:OS, Obsidian with PoE and Tyranny (PoE2 in Dev), inXile with Wasteland and Torment (couple more in Dev) and Harebrained Studios with Shadowrun, Battletech in Dev. This is it as far as anything of note is concerned. Larian, and inXile are on consoles already although inXile showing is pretty terrible there.
 

coopolon

Member
The fact that it's not obsidian doing this and it involves introducing radial menus makes me think it's unlikely to come to pc?

Disappointing if so, I just prefer everything to be in the living room these days.

I should try the steam controller again, I tried it before with this game for like five minutes using obsidians config and thought it was really clunky. But a lot of people report good experiences using it with this game.
 

Angry Guy

Member
Was just thinking how badly I wanted this, since my computer doesn't have the space and probably not the horsepower to have bought it from the GOG sale. Will support day one.
 

Arkkoran

Unconfirmed Member
The fact that it's not obsidian doing this and it involves introducing radial menus makes me think it's unlikely to come to pc?

Correct. In the reddit thread, a paradox rep stated they have no plans to bring the console UI and control scheme to PC.
 

hemtae

Member
You have 4 studios, namely Larian with D:OS, Obsidian with PoE and Tyranny (PoE2 in Dev), inXile with Wasteland and Torment (couple more in Dev) and Harebrained Studios with Shadowrun, Battletech in Dev. This is it as far as anything of note is concerned. Larian, and inXile are on consoles already although inXile showing is pretty terrible there.

I'd dispute the anything of note. Those are all around the 1 mil or so mark but The Age of Decadence and Underrail have both moved about 100k copies and a Pathfinder rtwp crpg just popped up on kickstarter and is looking to be easily funded at a 500k goal.
 

Staf

Member
I hope it does well but I do wonder about the controls.

Its's great that there is a trend to bring these traditional PC games to a wider audience though.


I have to say whoever the cRPG fans that buy these games on console and not PC are amongst the most intriguing and interesting gamers out there.

I'm one of them. It's my favorite genre and Baldur's gate 2 is my all time favorite game. I stopped playing PC games in the 2005 and went full console. I have no interest in going back to PC. Too much fidgeting.

Thanks for finding me interesting!
 
I'm one of them. It's my favorite genre and Baldur's gate 2 is my all time favorite game. I stopped playing PC games in the 2005 and went full console. I have no interest in going back to PC. Too much fidgeting.

Thanks for finding me interesting!


Your favourite game and genre is a pc only one so you went console only ?
 

peakish

Member
Happy for console owners, it's a really good game. Of course I'm also happy that this is completely separate from the PC version. It was such a relief to play an RPG whose UI was beautiful and not made to be read from ten feet away.
 

Donos

Member
you could already alter the text size in the PC version

That's well and all but especially Wasteland 2 and a little bit Divinity had tiny text for TVs on PS4 and the option to increase the size was not sufficient. Story / Text heavy games should not make me put out my binoculars.
 

Skeletron

Member
Thank you!! Backed the shit out of this when it was on Kickstarter but never had a PC to run it at anything but the lowest settings. Really looking forward to this.
 
I'll be honest, I hope this bombs. Publishers wanting console development is the reason this entire style of game went extinct and I don't think that happening again is worth a small group of console only people playing Pillars.

As long as they keep making these types of games I don't think there's anything to worry about. These games went extinct because the studios behind them either collapsed or transitioned to the development of different types of games to cater to the console market. If Obsidian or Larian or InXile or others give up on cRPGs again and start developing action games then we'll be in trouble. Porting PC games to consoles is fine and a niche genre needs all the sales it can get.
 

JP

Member
OK, I do need to ask as I can't find a proper definition anI've only started playing these games on the PS4.

Acronyms
CRPG = Computer Royal Playing Game?
WRPG = Western RPG?
RTWP = Real Time Something Something???

I have no bloody idea what the last one is but is there a difference between a CRPG and a WRPG? Would Skyrim be classed as a WRPG but not as a CRPG because it's a very different to this game but t does fit into the Western style of RPG?

Although they are very different in some ways these are also available on the PS4, what would people class these as?
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
Divinity: Original Sin
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Wasteland 2

Out of interest, I own all those games and I'll pre-ordering Pillars of Eternity as soon as it's available on PSN, Are there other games of those general type available on there? I know they are the main ones in this style but I was wondering if maybe there had been smaller, download only games that had been released which I'd somehow missed?
 

peakish

Member
OK, I do need to ask as I can't find a proper definition anI've only started playing these games on the PS4.

CRPG = Computer Royal Playing Game, correct
WRPG = Western RPG, correct
RTWP = Real Time With Pause. Exactly what it sounds like: Combat is fluid but you can pause it to issue commands to your characters.

I have no bloody idea what the last one is but is there a difference between a CRPG and a WRPG? Would Skyrim be classed as a WRPG but not as a CRPG because it's a very different to this game but t does fit into the Western style of RPG?
CRPG's tend to refer to RPG's on the PC (Computer RPG) in particular while WRPG is just any RPG from "the West" (as silly of a definition as that and it's JRPG counterpart is). The CRPG term trends towards a "classic" style of strategy and stat heavy games more than games which reduce their impact and are more action heavy. I wouldn't refer to Skyrim as a CRPG since it's focused on consoles (although the modding community might disagree) and more about the action instead of planning out builds but eh, subgenre definitions are never set in stone or even agreed upon by everyone.

Although they are very different in some ways these are also available on the PS4, what would people class these as?

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls: Action RPG, Hack n' Slash
Divinity: Original Sin: CRPG, turn based RPG
Torment: Tides of Numenera: Haven't played it, off hand thought is CRPG.
Wasteland 2: CRPG
 

J Jizzle

Member
This is good news for Obsidian, I hope it works out for them.

Pillars 2 is looking absolutely baller so far too (even closer to the BG2 itch in my eyes) so if this sells well enough the sequel is likely to follow.
 

Donos

Member
Growing up, i was a pc guy with no money so always played "old" games after i got a new PC/laptop) but with the PS4 and getting a kid i didn't bother to build a new one. But i still follow all the nice PC projects/games that are coming out and put them on a "to play when you build a new PC in 10 years" list.

So, i'm glad that i can still play these games on console.
Divinity OS was really nice. Wasteland 2 unfortunately not (to many technical things that bothered me).
Diablo 3 on console? No way...probably going to be shitty... then i played it and it was really awesome (i platinumed it).

Bring them and i gladly buy/play them. BG2+ToB is ptobably still my favourite game.
 

Nikodemos

Member
RTWP = Real Time With Pause. Exactly what it sounds like: Combat is fluid but you can pause it to issue commands to your characters.

Worth noting that the 'RT' part of RTwP is often not real-time at all. Many 'real-time' systems run on non-real-time combat such as round-based, phase-based or some form of 'stopwatch' (each action takes a specific amount of time to complete, see the UFO series by Cenega/Altar) mechanics.
 

Mivey

Member
Worth noting that the 'RT' part of RTwP is often not real-time at all. Many 'real-time' systems run on non-real-time combat such as round-based, phase-based or some form of 'stopwatch' (each action takes a specific amount of time to complete, see the UFO series by Cenega/Altar) mechanics.
Pillars calculates the speed at which the characters and enemies react from your other stats. You will see sometimes that it seems like time is slowing down for you when you fight against monster with high reaction times, when in fact you characters attack at the same time intervals, it's just that it get's scaled down to not overwhelm you.
So that's quite real-timey. More so than the old Baldurs-Gate games, that calculated initiative to determine who attacks first, but used fixed rounds.
 

Anno

Member
How would you compare this game to Divinity?

Quite a bit different but I think they have wide crossover appeal.

- Not as systemic. Nothing like 1-shotting a boss because you snuck around piling up oil barrels then set off a nuke or shocking a water field to stun a guy.

- More story and roleplay focused. The tone of the story is also quite a bit different. Less lighthearted in tone and far less of a grand scope.

- Pausable real-time combat instead of strictly turn based.

Those are probably the big three differences to me at least. I preferred Pillars to Divinity in the end but thought both were excellent, and again I think more people than not will enjoy both even if for slightly different reasons.
 

GRaider81

Member
I'm one of them. It's my favorite genre and Baldur's gate 2 is my all time favorite game. I stopped playing PC games in the 2005 and went full console. I have no interest in going back to PC. Too much fidgeting.

Thanks for finding me interesting!

You've missed a lot of great games!
 

The Wart

Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck1Q9Ek5r-Q


jesus christ almighty, this is beyond imagination of horrible. Why in gods name did paradox decide to do this if such travesty is the result? I mean this is literally making a port that doesnt work and isnt feasible just for the sake of porting. Phisically it can be done, but my god, look at that monstruosity

I mean... it seems like a complicated setup and the person playing probably wasn't familiar with it. I'll be interested what "high level" play looks like with this control scheme. But it's hard to imagine positioning a party of 6 in a big fight would be anything but painfully tedious.

That video is also a stark reminder what huge strides they've made making combat more readable with PoE2.
 

JP

Member
Really pleased with that, would happily pre-order today if it was available on the PSN now.

I do hope that there will be an option to adjust the camera in the game like there is in Torment: Tides of Numenera, I do prefer a wider angle than was shown there.
 
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