What if Obsidian picked up Mass Effect after ME3...

[cannot_aim]

No thanks, Obsidian has good ideas but they can never deliver. Kotor 2 was buggy and unfinished, Alpha protocol was nothing above mediocre, and New Vegas was boring.

Maybe like 2 years after the fact when the modders have come in and fixed all the things that obsidian screwed up then I would get it.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Obsidian makes good open worlds. Bioware writes good stories / characters. My ME should have or keep its focus on the second part.

I probably wouldn't play the fourth part of my most beloved game next to Portal

Bioware does not write good stories / characters. They are mostly cliche and about as unpredictable as the sun rising in the morning.

And since when is an unpredictable story bad? I hate those movies, where i pay full price but know 10 minutes into the film whats the plot, who dies and could actually stand up and leave.

 

[blizzaradragon]

I would be torn on this. For one I love Obsidian. New Vegas was soooo much better than Fallout 3, and while I loved the first KotOR and TOR they still aren't as good as KotOR II. On the other hand I also love Bioware, and it's nice to see them continuing their saga instead of having something passed off like Neverwinter Nights. Plus I think the Mass Effect IP in anyone's hands but Bioware's feels like a betrayal, like the series is cheating on their spouse with some young gun.

I'm surprised at a lot of people on here though that are jumping down Obsidian's throat. Yes their games have bugs, but that's usually due to development time being so small thanks to publishers. We'll compare New Vegas and Fallout 3. New Vegas had about 18 months of development time to make. Fallout 3, on the other hand, had a little over 4 years. Yet the amount of bugs between them isn't that much different. Yes New Vegas had more, but with less than half the development time and a larger game to boot I'd say that's pretty damn good.

It just irks me that Obsidian can't get past people crying foul when they have bugs but Bethesda can release an equally buggy if not more buggy product and everyone jumps on it and nominates it GOTY...

 

[JediMB]

Having recently replayed the KotOR games, and finding Obsidian's sequel superior to the original in almost every respect... including pure playability, as the original game had a nasty habit of crashing... I will have to say HELLS YES! (Also, there's Fallout: New Vegas weighing into my answer.)

I dream of a collaborative RPG project between BioWare, Bethesda and Obsidian. It could be a complete disaster, or the best modern WRPG ever.

 

[Gennadios]

The time constraints they were under meant that problems couldn't just be solved by re-writing a few errant lines of code, or tidying up a sloppily written script. There were entire sections of game and story which had yet to be properly rendered, animated, voice acted, etc.

You know, it's funny, but when Alpha Protocol shipped, for the most part feature complete but with some massive fails in terms of framerate stuttering and poor texture loading, something that *could* be handed over to a team of 2 or 3 people to fix lines of code and tidy up sloppily written scripts, guess what their justification for not releasing patches was?

SEGA refused to fund it.

There's a pattern with Obsidian, if a game doesn't sell enough to justify post release expansions or DLC, they won't even bother with patches.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I'm not embarrassed. It ultimately falls on their head, since they created the game. If LucasArts wouldn't let them make an official patch, make an "unofficial" one. Not like that has never happened before. They took the job, they made the game, they released it in a deplorable condition. Justify it however you like, it is still their mess. They can either take the steps to fix it, or they can not. They didn't.

You're being completely unrealistic in your expectations of Obsidian here.

The time constraints they were under meant that problems couldn't just be solved by re-writing a few errant lines of code, or tidying up a sloppily written script. There were entire sections of game and story which had yet to be properly rendered, animated, voice acted, etc.

If Lucasarts wasn't willing to fund extra money for post-game patching, where exactly Obsidian get the money to call back all the voice actors for extra recording, get the animation team working on all the scenes that were cut, the level designers working on fixing up unfinished levels, etc? Especially when there's going to be no financial return at the end of it?

Asking Obsidian to pay through the nose for Lucasarts' fucked up business strategy is completely unreasonable. Lucasarts forced Obsidian to ship the game early. Obsidian should have every gamer's sympathy for that. Obsidian should not have been obliged to then spend their own money and resources fixing a game that was only broken because of the publisher's fucked up reasoning. That's like getting the victim of a burglary to pay the costs of court, even if the burglar gets a guilty sentence...

I'm asking Obsidian to stand by the product they made. That's called integrity. Everyone knows that LucasArts is a pain to work with. They took the job. They owe it to us to finish it. They didn't finish it. So I'm done with them.

 

[RatRace123]

Then it would have an amazing story but be buggy as hell.

Still, I like Obsidian and their bugs usually aren't bad enough to completely ruin their games for me. I'd probably get it.

Actually I kinda want that to happen, that might be my best chance to play the Mass Effect game I really want. Which is basically a singleplayer RPG, but you get to choose from one of many races to have as your character. An Elder Scrolls game crossed with Mass Effect, basically. And with a story handled by Obsidian...

Well, let's just say pants changing would be necessary.

 

[Dirzzit]

Nope, nope, nope, nope.

Nope.

Obsidian is good, but bioware is better. (IN MY OPINION, you'd think that'd be a given)

 

[Frankster]

Damn obsidian is getting a beating in this thread :S

Personally I've always been sympathetic to them in that each game I played from them had hints and flashes of genuine greatness and I always rated their writing as amongst the best for western rpg devs.

Say what you will about Alpha Protocol, but the premise was good and your decisions and actions had a massive impact on the story with real repercussions. If it had the production values and QA to back it up it would have been the best western rpg of that year.

But despite my warm feelings towards them though, I feel giving mass effect series would be an unbridled disaster that would destroy obsidian in a torrent of fan rage.

 

[Condiments]

I really want Obsidian to be given the time to release a product with no interference or outside meddling. Why? Unlike most other RPGs developers these days like Bethesda and Bioware, they have genuine ambition that extends beyond making their game accessible to the average joe. They have stories with actual themes, complex RPG mechanics and choice systems, and emphasis on player choice. Not flashy games with 'CINEMATIC MAJESTIC IMMERSION' where the space marine/fantasy hero saves the day for world/galaxy ending ancient threat. Its just unfortunate that this very ambition is often their Achilles heel as they are unable to fulfill what they set out to make.

I'll take any flawed ambitious game or the same rehashed crap over and over again. Obsidian will always get respect in my book.

 

[lordtec]

I'm not embarrassed. It ultimately falls on their head, since they created the game. If LucasArts wouldn't let them make an official patch, make an "unofficial" one. Not like that has never happened before. They took the job, they made the game, they released it in a deplorable condition. Justify it however you like, it is still their mess. They can either take the steps to fix it, or they can not. They didn't.

You're being completely unrealistic in your expectations of Obsidian here.

The time constraints they were under meant that problems couldn't just be solved by re-writing a few errant lines of code, or tidying up a sloppily written script. There were entire sections of game and story which had yet to be properly rendered, animated, voice acted, etc.

If Lucasarts wasn't willing to fund extra money for post-game patching, where exactly Obsidian get the money to call back all the voice actors for extra recording, get the animation team working on all the scenes that were cut, the level designers working on fixing up unfinished levels, etc? Especially when there's going to be no financial return at the end of it?

Asking Obsidian to pay through the nose for Lucasarts' fucked up business strategy is completely unreasonable. Lucasarts forced Obsidian to ship the game early. Obsidian should have every gamer's sympathy for that. Obsidian should not have been obliged to then spend their own money and resources fixing a game that was only broken because of the publisher's fucked up reasoning. That's like getting the victim of a burglary to pay the costs of court, even if the burglar gets a guilty sentence...

I'm asking Obsidian to stand by the product they made. That's called integrity. Everyone knows that LucasArts is a pain to work with. They took the job. They owe it to us to finish it. They didn't finish it. So I'm done with them.

Right because after one game that is rushed by an external entity you call it quits? Jesus fucking christ the whine in this thread off the charts. Its an 8 year old game people. MOVE ON. This isn't 2004, this is 2012.

Its star wars, the most beaten dead horse around and yet people still find a reason to ***** years after the fact. I still find it amazing people still ***** about Episode I over a decade later. Its just a game, nothing to obsess about.

If I can get over my disappointment when Simcity finally died with Simcity Societies in under a year, then people should be able to move on from a forced release in 8 years. Seriously, holding obsidian responsible for KOTOR II is the same level of whine of Episode I's debacle.

Welcome to the internet where you make a game that isn't good enough in people opinions (which may or may not be your fault) and it is remembered for the rest of eternity, Make a very good game and you only get enough good rep until the next game, if it is a great game you get enough rep to make one game that is a little bit less. A lot of people don't like KoTOR 2 because you know at the end that much is missing, even if you have no internet. I'm still sure that they could have made the ending much better.

Star Wars isn't a beaten dead horse. It is a beaten old horse that just refuses to die. (And thanks to George it is mutating and smells worse than a dead horse) (still like TOR though) Live with it, if there are going to be 3 things that survive the end of the universe, it will be Star Wars, Star Trek and the guy trying to make a profit out of them. (the bad rep that Obsidian has for KoTOR 2 will be stitched to Star Wars, so it will also survive)

BTW, I don think most people wouldn't really remember KoTOR2 if TOR hadn't just reminded everybody about it.

 

[Ironbat92]

Well, Bioware will probably keep the franchise and lore going after 3(last time I checked this series still makes millions of dollars), but if Obsidian does make a Mass Effect game, it will disappointing and not up to snuff with the trilogy Bioware made(examples include Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Fallout: New Vegas).

 

[wolf thing]

they'd give it great writting and deep story's but because of studio pressure it will have to be released before it is finished and everyone will blame them because there fuck tards who dont know what a publisher is.

 

[Twilight_guy]

First thing I'd do: "Oh Obsidian, getting the table scraps of other developers again... sigh"

I'd sure they'd do fine. They can make some pretty good stories even if there programmers kind of suck at fixing all the bugs... sorry guys it's true.