Wasteland 2 - Life Beyond Release

I only played for around 4 hours, but I saw no bugs. The combat is just too bland imo. Turn based systems can do so much more, and inXile dropped the ball with it here. I wasn't expecting X-COM, but something more than what we got for sure.
 
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I've just finished the Hollywood area and its quest lines.

Until Hollywood I'd say that it's absolutely safe to play. I haven't encountered any obvious bugs. For Hollywood there are still some rumors about broken quests, but for me everything workd out in the end. But indeed when playing Hollywood I had a feeling of something there wasn't finished/polished yet, though I can't explicitely name it. Might be that I'm just biased from reading forum threads about bugs in these areas that have been fixed in the meantime.

With combat I'm still having fun, though indeed it's quite simple. It could be so much better if they added more options.
 
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Confused by these posts; the last update indicated they were just now doing the CE and it would take a month to sign and ship so I suspect no one has them yet...

Don't feel bad I havent got mine yet either….not a huge deal to me though as I have a huge backlog of games anyway and not enough free time.
 
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If Hollywood still feels out of place, perhaps I should start playing Xulima till one more Wasteland 2 patch is made then…

Dunno. If next patch won't happen before next year, won't wait. Any rumors on ETA?
 
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Now I'm confused.
A crappy product? How come?
No matter what, going through this product is educational.
It defines what people mean when they speak "old school" gaming.
The experience is worth this bit of information.
 
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I'll play the game that's definite, it's installed and acidifying on my HDD.
Just didn't have time for it because of too many releases in a short interval and it's not the only game I had to put aside for later.

But it was the first post I've seen saying it's a "crappy product". Sadly, there was no explanation later why the poster says it's crappy. Usually when I say something is crapware, there is an additional info why I think that. Here... It was not stated.
 
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Mercy has hated this game from the time it was in Beta. I'm ten hours into the game and have yet to see a bug. I love it. My RPG of 2014 so far, just ahead of Might and Magic X.

Seems like we like the same kind of games. I knew there was something about Austria that is awsome. First you gave us the Austrian Oak and now you have intelligent old school gamers. Austrian Oak=Arnie from his body building days :)
 
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I'll play the game that's definite, it's installed and acidifying on my HDD.
Just didn't have time for it because of too many releases in a short interval and it's not the only game I had to put aside for later.

But it was the first post I've seen saying it's a "crappy product". Sadly, there was no explanation later why the poster says it's crappy. Usually when I say something is crapware, there is an additional info why I think that. Here… It was not stated.

I have no ideia why the guy thinks Wasteland 2 is crappy, but my opinion does not diverge a lot from that, so I think I can advance a few examples of why I dislike it. First of all a warning: I don't like the so-called old school RPG games. Not the fueled-by-nostalgia new ones, neither the really old-school ones. Mind you, it's not an age thing, back when they were "new school" I already didn't like them, although I was a pen & paper role player. Among other things I always felt the kind of game that now is labeled "old-school" (or, sometimes, isometric perpective tactical RPGs) captured what I considered the lesser points of role playing, giving too much importance to mechanics, die rolls, the "skeleton" of the game, and downsizing the meaty bits, the story, the setting, the immersion. But this an opinion that I previously exposed and discussed in previous posts, so I will not go that way and try to point out why I didn't like Wasteland 2, besides the fact it's not my kind of game.

1- Performance problems. Maybe it's my fault (or my PC's fault), but I've played games that demand much more than this one without a hint of lagging. This one had quite a lot. Maybe more people have the same problem.

2- The map. When you are travelling it feels like the Fallout map. Ok, Mr. Fargo was involved in that game, but I guess he - or someone else in InXile - still carries a chip on the shoulder for having sold the rights to Bethesda. It shows. Not just the map, but that's the example I recall. Maybe it's time to move along, for their benefit and of the gamers.

3- Juvenile humour. Jokes about goats knocking down characters and not-so-subtle references to the A-Team annoyed me (there are also more examples of these, but I present two). If they think they are funny, they are wrong. It's the same problem I have with the Risen series: I should love those games, but I can't overcome my disgust by those pathetic shots at a humorous atmosphere.

4- Outdated graphics. OK, it's isometric perspective, but they could have done better. Wasteland 2 was developed by pros and was a long time in early access, it wasn't like Jagged Alliance Flashback, launched before it was a finished product.

5- Voice acting. I like voice acting. Indeed, I love voice acting. I'll rather have a game with not quite that good voice acting, than one which is "silent". Wasteland 2 is neither. Sometimes there's voice acting, sometimes there's not. In that case I think I would rather have total silence (the fact that this was more or less the rule on the old days - again Fallout as an example - does not mean that it still has to be like that).

6- Dialogues. Too long, too boring (I suppose it's a pretensious attempt at a quality narrative, old-school-quality and all that jazz… Bah, quantity does not mean quality). Also there's problems with the user interface, sometimes the text is so long that we have to scroll up and down to understand. Worse than that, player characters comunicate with NPCs through key words. And that is not quite dialogue…

7- Soundtrack. Can't remember if there is one. So, either there isn't or it was kind of bad.

8- Bugs. There are a few, even in the begining of the game (I didn't went too far, so I don't know about Hollywood). Anyway bugs don't bug me that much if they are just a few. They sure were not Wasteland's biggest fault.

9 - Combat. Boring and repetetive. Also, for a tactical RPG it is quite simplistic. Granted that there are special skills that give characters an edge on combat, but simpler things that every characters should have, like sprinting or lying down or taking cover. Nah… Just walk or crouch. That's enough for a shooter, not nearly enough for an isometric turn based RPG.

10- Quests. I only played through a couple of big ones, but I found them almost the same. Maybe that changes along the story, but I felt (and I think other share this opinion) that they rely too much in boring puzzles and "dungeon" crawling (dungeon meaning, in this case, any kind of corridor maze, or some scenario like that).

Well, that's it.
 
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The one thing that is bugging me a bit is that I am going to have to wait an extra month for my signed special edition and survival pack. If the game came out in Sept. then you would think they would get the special edition to their largest donors faster. People that get the game on sale can play sooner then a $500 donor if I want to wait for all the goodies and map and manual. Which I do.

Gave my buddy the GoG key and he really enjoyed the game. Well WL2 should be nicely polished by the time I play :)
 
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I think the common thread here is Physical delivery. Many of the KS I have backed have misunderstood what it would take to deliver the physical goods. They are software developers not manufacturers … they have no clue how to make a physical product, or even what one will cost to be made.

Yes, that's all true… I think Brian Fargo is learning that publishing a physical game is not as easy as he thought. We all know the evils of game publishers when they invest in game development, but they do serve a purpose. It might be wise for Brian Fargo and the others to partner with one when a game is nearing completion… That way, they have no hand in development and only take a cut of the physical sales.

Many of the issues Swen Vincke at Larian Studios discussed in relation to the release of D-OS had to do with the handling of the physical goods and customer addresses and shipping and how much extra stress it added. My thoughts for future KS stick to the digital game and avoid any thing physical like the plague.

Other than the terrible map, I was very pleased with the way Larian handled the physical goods… I received my boxed CE within a week of its digital release; I would not hesitate to pledge towards another CE from Larian. However, unless a developer has a proven track record, I agree that all physical KS rewards should be avoided like that plague.
 
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While I don't share thoughts one some stuff you dislike, for example I really don't care for graphics much although won't miss to point out great graphics (and some I can't know how it looks and feels like till I fire up the game like the map), thank you for this post!
It's awsome for people who prefer some things over other to get better oriented when it comes to buy or not to buy Wasteland 2 (yet).
 
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I think the common thread here is Physical delivery. Many of the KS I have backed have misunderstood what it would take to deliver the physical goods. They are software developers not manufacturers and my impression is most have little or no clue what it will take to get the physical goods in to the hands of their customers, and as the result mess up the physical delivery side of their KS pledges big time. The one and only KS I pledged for physical stuff I am still waiting for after an August launch of the game, all the digital KS that I backed that have been released I have gotten. So while the idea of physical goodies may sound neat remember these are software developers not manufactures so while they know how to make a great game(we hope) it is just about guaranteed they have no clue how to make a physical product, or even what one will cost to be made. So I think they screw themselves in most cases when charging for a physical product at what basically is a cottage industry level of production.

Many of the issues Swen Vincke at Larian Studios discussed in relation to the release of D-OS had to do with the handling of the physical goods and customer addresses and shipping and how much extra stress it added. My thoughts for future KS stick to the digital game and avoid any thing physical like the plague.

This. I pledged $200 for the Kickstarter Codex drive and yet gave all my physical goods for one of their raffles since I didn't want to deal with that.
 
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Seems like we like the same kind of games. I knew there was something about Austria that is awsome. First you gave us the Austrian Oak and now you have intelligent old school gamers. Austrian Oak=Arnie from his body building days :)

I'm actually American. I'm just married to an Austrian and have settled down in Vienna. Its a really nice country though :)
 
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Now I'm confused.
A crappy product? How come?

Crappy is certainly an exaggeration. It ain't the RPG to top all RPGs (but then again no game ever really is) but I found it to be a solid game. Definitely fun, more so if you like the post apocalyptic setting. Good story with enough injections of surrealistic extremes that fit the intended tone. Interestingly enough I did not encounter any bug that I can remember (there were a few glitches but nothing that I can now recall, after a month or so that I finished the game).

The character stats system & skill system can be a bit problematic depending on your type of play (I do not particularly like the very constraint character progression) but because it is open and moddable you can actually make your characters progress as you think best fits your RPG style (which I did, with some XML editing skills :). Definitely worth the money (I am a happy Kickstarter).
 
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I pretty much disagree on all of MigRib's points except the simplistic combat. I don't disagree that the graphics are pretty poor, but it doesn't matter to me. Long dialogues? Great! No voice acting? GREAT, that means longer dialogues... ;)

Bad humour? It made me smile...and so on and so on. I do respect his views and understand them since he has explained in other threads what he wants from a game, it's just that I often want the opposite. :)

WL2 is my GOTY. I would probably argue that D:OS is a "better game" but I had more fun with WL2...
 
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Great and after DA3 I went on Xulima instead of Wasteland 2... Why thankyou all for that!

Hopefully watchers vote on best games won't begin soon.
 
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The one thing that is bugging me a bit is that I am going to have to wait an extra month for my signed special edition and survival pack. If the game came out in Sept. then you would think they would get the special edition to their largest donors faster. People that get the game on sale can play sooner then a $500 donor if I want to wait for all the goodies and map and manual. Which I do.

Gave my buddy the GoG key and he really enjoyed the game. Well WL2 should be nicely polished by the time I play :)

Definitely ridiculous and then they wonder why the enthusiasm for Kickstarter (or crowdfunding in general) is dwindling....

Elite Dangerous is now sort of doing the same thing. Game is released on December 16. Physical copies not shipping until next year. WTF?!? They've had over two years to figure out what to put in the boxes, arrange production runs and ship the crap on time or preferably maybe even a couple weeks early (ED is now a fully online game anyway so what's on the disk is pretty irrelevant).
Absolutely amazing how many of these KS devs trample all over their backers' trust and good will. Do they think we don't notice? Do they believe we're slobbering fanbois enough to forgive them everything, no matter how broken the promise may be? Or is this all some secret S&M cult I'm not aware of where you pay to get treated like shit on purpose? :biggrin:
 
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I have to say that the combat is far better than any of the IE games or KoToRs, or NWNs. It is also way better than the Fall Outs in my opinion.

The game has good chardev, mainly due to scarcity and opportunity costs, but it is a good carrot in my opinion. I never played the original WL but this game, to me, feels like a spiritual successor to FO. The quests, the atmosphere, the mods for weapons, are all extremely well done.

I would have loved to see more combat options, feats, more mods for weapons and armor, etc, but as it I really can't complain. I liked the combat in D:OS more, but I like the chargen and chardev in this game more.

Edit:
And it is absolutely fantastic to see my type of games being popular and loved once more.
 
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