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Obsidian unleashes free-to-play tanks in Armored Warfare
Following the flatulence-laden release of South Park: The Stick of Truth, developer Obsidian Entertainment has revealed a new explosive game. Armored Warfare is the company's first foray into the wild world of free-to-play games and features modern tank battles. Armored Warfare is being published and distributed by Russia-based My.com, publisher and developer of free-to-play mobile games. The team-based PC title will feature player-vs-player and player-vs-environment gameplay and is expected to launch a closed beta sometime in 2014.
Obsidian behind new Armored Warfare MMO
From the here's-something-you-don't-see-everyday files, Obsidian -- known primarily for its roleplaying games -- is lending its name to a new MMO shooter thing called Armored Warfare. The game's website bills it as "a new free-to-play massively multiplayer online tactical military video game that puts you in control of some of the most incredible, modern destructive machines to grace a battlefield." Eurogamer speculates that Armored Warfare may be an extension of Obsidian's deal with Russian megapublisher Mail.Ru, which also includes the Skyforge partnership wherein the former company lent its name and its expertise to the Allods Team's latest sci-fantasy MMO project. In any case, you can watch the World of Tanks-style Armored Warfare announcement trailer after the cut.
Allods Team and Obsidian unveil Skyforge announcement trailer
Obsidian is getting into the MMO business, as we initially reported almost a year ago. Now, the famed RPG maker and developer Allods Team have officially announced the Skyforge project to western audiences via a new video. Yes, that's the same Allods Team responsible for Allods Online, and it's also worth noting that the game is bankrolled by My.com which is a subsidiary of Russian publishing giant Mail.Ru. Skyforge is a free-to-play sci-fantasy MMORPG "set in a brand new universe of gods and heroes who use futuristic technologies to fight off incredible creatures and protect their planet against space invasions," according to the announcement post on the game's official forums. You can view the trailer after the cut. [Thanks Feodor!]
Paradox Interactive to publish Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity
Obsidian Entertainment announced a partnership with Paradox Interactive to launch Pillars of Eternity. Paradox will handle the marketing and distribution of the PC game, which is slated to launch by this winter. Formerly known as Project Eternity, the game earned $3.9 million on Kickstarter in October 2012. The game was originally expected to land this spring before suffering delays. Obsidian launched South Park: The Stick of Truth earlier this month, following Paradox's announcement of Hearts of Iron 4 and Norse mythology-inspired RPG Runemaster in January. [Image: Obsidian Entertainment]
Fallout: New Vegas gets playable Enclave faction thanks to mod
The Enclave, a paramilitary organization claiming to be the last bastion and continuation of Earth's government in the Fallout universe, is now a joinable faction in Fallout: New Vegas thanks to modders Otellino, CNC and many others. The "For the Enclave" mod available via NexusMods allows players to join a splinter group of the original Enclave as it goes head-to-head against their former brothers-in-arms. The mod adds a five-part main quest, four side quests, new voice acting, a potential companion and even an Enclave radio station. Rookies need not apply, though; players who want to undertake this mission must be level 15, must have interacted with the NPC Benny, and must be running the most current version of New Vegas on Steam. The mod's description text also warns that it will be incompatible with most mods that alter Searchlight Airfield. [Image: Bethesda]
Metareview: South Park - The Stick of Truth
There may be friendly faces everywhere, but the South Park: The Stick of Truth launch trailer is prolifically NSFW, and it's slightly spoiler-y - but it's also pretty great. The game's not bad, either, according to our three-and-a-half-star review, which said, "If you can also forgive the repetitive nature of combat and some uninspired quests, it's worth taking up arms – or dildos – for The Stick of Truth's hilarious, disgusting adventure." Of course, we're not the only kid in the class. Head below the break for a sampling of what others had to say on The Stick of Truth.
I'm sorry, Dave, I can't let you see that scene in the South Park game
A leaked image shows what European console players see instead of the scenes censored out of South Park: The Stick of Truth. Clearly, Michaelangelo's David is not impressed. The text below (see the NSFW full image below the break) describes in blunt detail what players aren't seeing, and that comprises seven scenes removed from the EMEA Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, each around 20 seconds long. In Australia it looks to be the same deal, except the still image is of a crying koala instead of David. When asked about the EMEA censorship, an Ubisoft spokesperson told Eurogamer "this was a market decision." As Eurogamer notes, Ubisoft's decision may be tied to ensuring the game was fit for release in Germany, where stricter guidelines on games are enforced. The Stick of Truth brings its mix of indelicate humor and Obsidian roleplay to retail shelves this week: first North America on March 4, then Australia March 6, and Europe March 7.
The trials of being the new kid in South Park
It's tough being the new kid in town. In South Park: The Stick of Truth, you have to put up with Cartman calling you a "douchebag" and demanding you pay exorbitant dues just to be part of his crummy little kingdom.
South Park behind-the-scenes shows importance of 'authentic crappiness'
A new behind-the-scenes video for South Park: The Stick of Truth has revealed just how the game came to land in the hands of developers Obsidian, as well as some ... enlightening information on the importance of the game's aesthetic and farts. Language NSFW. Obviously. Come on, it's South Park. Show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone noted that it's "harder than you think" to make a game look like the show; there's an "authentic crappiness" to the animation that Stone and Parker felt couldn't be pulled off until the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 came into existence. The two men also stress how important it is for the player to feel powerful. "In Zelda, you become master of the wind, in Infamous, you have electricity as your weapon. In Stick of Truth, we made it farts, which is probably not the biggest surprise." No, can't say it is.
Pillars of Eternity character sheet has +5 in Lookin' Good
Developer Obsidian has released new images and information for their upcoming RPG, Pillars of Eternity, and old-school roleplaying fans are in for a treat. Like the pen-and-paper tabletop RPGs that inspire it, Pillars of Eternity features character sheets brimming with stats and information. In the released image of Pallegina, we can see that she's an 8th-level Paladin of the Hylea race, which are apparently Godlike. We can also see she has a Con stat of 14, which gives her +28 percent Stamina and Health. Still following along? Good, because this character sheet is just getting started. There's also information on player characters' reputations, how long they've been active, how long they've been in combat, how many monsters they've slain, the most powerful foe they've slain, total damage dealt, etc. There's even an Export button - no official word on where it'll export to, though. Obsidian also released images comparing the concept art and final rendering of one of the game's enemies - a Cean Gŵla. Cean Gŵlas are the spirits of women who have died under "particularly tragic or traumatic circumstances," according to a post on the game's forums. Finally, a new image also shows representations of the gods Galawain and Woedica. Galawain is god of the hunt, while Woedica rules over law and rightful rulership. It won't be an eternity before you get to experience these assets and more - Pillars of Eternity is scheduled to release this year.
Knights of the Old Republic 3 was in pre-production at Obsidian
Another installment in the ever-popular Knights of the Old Republic series was in pre-production at Obsidian, creative director Chris Avellone told Eurogamer. Avellone said KOTOR 3 would have featured the character Revan more than KOTOR 2, from which the character was largely absent. "I always liked the idea that Revan, as smart and powerful as your player-character was, was actually even more of a brilliant strategist than became apparent in the first game," Avellone said of Revan's role in the first game. "The entire second game is littered with clues as to 'why didn't Revan destroy the infrastructure here? What was he trying to make sure was still intact? What did he/she see that no one else saw?'" The third game would have players tracking down Revan as a character deemed "The Exile." Allevone said, "it felt like we were pitching and pitching [to LucasArts] and it just wasn't going anywhere, and at some point people just drew a line and said 'it's just not going to happen,' which made us kind of sad, but, OK, if that's the business, that's the business." Obsidian's pitch to Disney in February 2013 for a new Star Wars game was different than KOTOR 3, according to Eurogamer. Obviously, this was before EA obtained the exclusive rights to develop and publish Star Wars games in May 2013.
Intel's supposed 'Obsidian' UI for Tizen gets leaked, swiped and doubted
The pure version of Tizen 2.0 is far from finalized, yet there already seems to be an alternative skin designed to sit on top of it. While Intel's chips are currently capable of powering the new open source OS, the chip company is reportedly working on its own overlaid UI, known as Obsidian. Ars Technica got its hands on two videos of it in action, featuring notably flat and square icons compared to the circular ones we've seen in the pure version. There's a consistent bottom strip of three soft keys for calls, messaging and contacts, and a tilt action for icons and contacts when a notification in an app is received. According to Ars, Intel may also bring the aesthetic to Android, surprising as that may sound. You can get a detailed look at its present state at the source link, while we scratch our heads asking "really?" and "why?"
Obsidian and Allods team up to create Skyforge
If you've ever been curious about what would happen if you mixed the Allods Online team with Obsidian Entertainment, wonder no more! The two forces announced their partnership at the Russian Game Developers Convention where they unveiled their upcoming MMORPG, Skyforge. The game is planned to release for the PC in 2014. More details are available from the devs themselves in the video after the break, if you speak Russian. For those who don't, you can catch a few snippits of game video between the interviews and a stretch coming just before the seven minute mark.
Project Eternity unveils first video, dynamic environment in action
Obsidian upgraded that first Project Eternity screen from half a year ago into some fully-fledged footage this week. The video, as preambled by project lead Josh Sawyer, doesn't showcase any gameplay, but focuses on some of the RPG's dynamic environmental effects.As you can see - skip to 1:48 for the footage itself - these effects range from the subtle movement of leaves blowing in the wind to water levels rising and falling. The video briefly throws in some character animations before demonstrating a day-to-night transition."In a 2D game, this required our programmers and artists to come up with some creative solutions," reads Obsidian's description. "What they came up with surprised us initially and it continues to amaze us. While we are still working on refining some of the dynamic elements, we're very happy with the progress we've been able to make and hope you feel the same way."Project Eternity raised just under $4 million in Kickstarter backing last October, making it at the time the most funded game on the platform - inXile's Torment: Tides of Numenera, which has Obsidian's Chris Avellone on its design team, recently surpassed it.
What could have been in Obsidian's Aliens RPG
In 2009, Sega had three games in the Aliens universe under its control: Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines, Rebellion's Aliens vs. Predator and an Aliens RPG subtitled Crucible from Obsidian. Sega decided to cancel one of these projects – we assume through a sophisticated "close your eyes, spin around and point" method – and Obsidian's RPG got the boot.Back then Sega didn't offer a taste of what the game would look like, but now we have a video of some creepy-crawly creatures from Obsidian's Aliens RPG, courtesy of character animator Danny Garnett.In 2010, Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart said the Aliens RPG was basically a finished game when Sega pulled the plug. "That's how close we were," he said. "It looked and felt like it was ready to ship." We wish we could say the same about Colonial Marines.
Fallout: New Vegas 2 ideas, courtesy of Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart
Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart has a few ideas on where a potential sequel to Fallout: New Vegas could be located and how it'd have to be "separate" from what the team at Bethesda is currently working on."If I think of going from Fallout 1 to Fallout 2, we tried to associate the two areas somewhat closely," he told RPS during an interview back at DICE. "It wasn't just 'Oh, we're gonna do this 2,000 miles from here.' So I think if we were to do Fallout: New Vegas 2 – or just a new Fallout – we would probably separate it from what the internal team at Bethesda's doing. We'd keep it on the West Coast, because we're West Coast people. They're East Coast, so it makes sense."As for possible locations, LA seems to be high on Urquhart's list of places – or, as it's known in the cannon, the Boneyard. "And we need an interesting confined area. So I mean, it could be LA. Fallout LA. That could be interesting. It'd probably be The Boneyard, which is from Fallout 1. It could be very different. It could be almost a Walking Dead meets Fallout-like thing because of all the radiation."Of course, the onus is on Bethesda to greenlight a new Obsidian game and, according to Urquhart, the two studios are still on good terms. Still, with new consoles looming in the horizon, it's a tough time for publishers and developers – do they continue to make games for the established consoles or put their eggs into the next-gen basket?"We talk to Bethesda all the time," Urquhart said. "And I think the challenge here doesn't just apply to Bethesda specifically, but to a lot of publishers in general. But basically, what does all the [current] console crap mean? The challenge in this period of time has been, you have this console transition, and it's strange that they're still not announced. But that always creates a disruption in the industry. And now you mix in [the emergence of] mobile and F2P stuff, and it's left a lot of people reeling."
South Park: The Stick of Truth trailer features crossdressing and wizard crap
If the actual game proves as funny as its trailers, then Obsidian's South Park: The Stick of Truth will be doing very well. Our favorite parts from this video are Cartman on Kenny's enthusiasm for the Princess role, and a Mickey-taking cameo from Mr. Hankey.
Obsidian's Project Eternity Kickstarter concludes at $3.9 million
That's it! Obsidian's Project Eternity Kickstarter has finished with $3,986,194 pledged. This means Project Eternity, an old-school fantasy RPG project from the longtime developer, has earned more contributions than the $3.3 million by Double Fine Adventure, the Kickstarter project that kicked off this whole "year of the game.""It's all smiles and gratitude over here at Obsidian," CEO Feargus Urquhart told us. "It is incredible what crowdfunding can make possible."Other recent mega success stories in Kickstarter funding include Uber Entertainment's $2.2 million for Planetary Annihilation and the $8.5 million by Ouya.
Obsidian's 'Project Eternity' Kickstarter surpasses $2 million
Obsidian has raised over $2 million for its Kickstarter, Project Eternity, with 20 days left to raise even more money. Project Eternity is on track to surpass its final announced stretch goal of $2.2 million, which will add French, German and Spanish text translations, along with a new faction and region. Goals beyond $2.3 million are "coming soon."Project Eternity currently has a tentative release window of spring 2014. The Kickstarter for the project was announced on September 15 and reached its $1.1 million goal in 24 hours. Obsidian is currently working on the South Park RPG and it previously developed contract project Fallout: New Vegas, along with the original intellectual property Alpha Protocol.
Project Eternity won't take forever to develop, gets spring 2014 window
Project Eternity, from Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment, has more than $1.5 million in pledged funds on Kickstarter and 28 more days to collect more. With the immensely positive response, Obsidian senior programmer and Fallout creator Tim Cain has begun planning for launch.Right now Project Eternity has a tentative release window of spring 2014 and will feature "additional content" that can be explored with multiple characters, Cain tells Eurogamer. The budget may be smaller than previous Obsidian games, but Cain says that's just fine."Those budget numbers are just right for what we are trying to make," he says. "We have an engine already, and we aren't using an established IP with pre-defined game mechanics and an art style that we have to mimic. Both of these things save us a lot of time, because we are now free to make those elements ourselves."Project Eternity is an exploration-based, real-time tactical game with a pause system, but it's going to have surprises beyond its Dungeons & Dragons-inspired roots. Obsidian is making its own RPG mechanics."I like turn-based combat too," Cain says. "I like the tactics involved in the precise movement, orientation and use of abilities. But it can tend to be slow with a large party of characters. Real-time-with-pause is faster and can feel more engaging, but I have found the abilities to be harder to use well. One reason for that is because many RTWP RPGs were made based on paper-and-pencil games that used turns, and their abilities were made for opponents that were not moving. I feel that RTWP can be an excellent combat model if the abilities are designed with respect to that model, and not converted from another system."
