Wasteland 3 - Interview @Wccftech

@Wccftech An interview with Brian Fargo about the Wasteland series and Wasteland 3.

Yeah, that makes sense. I've noticed that destruction and physics in general seems to be much more detailed this time around.

Campbell: Yeah, absolutely. The nice thing is, that's an area we haven't explored much before. This is a new thing where the extra 10% that we're talking about, being able to iterate and polish, is enabling us to really kind of go to town with destruction. And we have ragdoll physics, we have kind of advanced shipping, we have barriers in combat that you can hide behind and get cover. And those are things that can actually get destroyed, leaving your characters exposed, vehicles can actually run over obstacles and crush them and knock things out of their way. So we've really, I think, done a lot of little things there that will add up to a really fun experience for players.

Another big new feature is the addition of player vehicles. How are these going to work?

Campbell: That's actually one of the areas in the game that I'm most excited about. You effectively dig your first one out of the snow. It's like this rusty baseline vehicle, and you can upgrade it throughout the course of the game, you find parts, you find technology, you're able to start kind of upgrading it. So it goes from kind of this clunker that's just barely hanging on to life all the way up to this rolling death machine with customizable turrets and upgradeable armor. We even go so far as to let you customize the hood ornament on the front of your vehicle. It's a really in-depth system and it's directly used in combat. It's how you traverse the roadmap, so you can drive around and do these different things and your vehicle's capabilities affect your party along the way.

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More information.

That interview needs some serious proof reading, some sentences doesn't make sense. And towards the end they talk about game length and they answer "around 15 hours just like WL2". That should probably be 50, which is quite a big difference.

Delaying for the sake of getting full voice overs or improving multiplayer is something I don't care the slightest about. In games with a lot of dialogue full VO are actually an annoyance to me. To have more time to polish the game is always a good thing though.

VO's is probably only good for the casual and younger players who are used to that. I like how its handled in games like Baldurs Gate - it just gives you an idea of how a specific character sounds. When you continue reading you kind of automatically read with that voice.

Interesting to get vehicles, it's way too rare in RPG's.

Originally Posted by vurt
VO's is probably only good for the casual and younger players who are used to that. I like how its handled in games like Baldurs Gate - it just gives you an idea of how a specific character sounds. When you continue reading you kind of automatically read with that voice.
.

Exactly, some voice overs are nice, a spoken line or two for every character. Full voice offers makes everyone sound like a stuttering maniac with a touch of Tourettes.

I can think of many other resources that can use the funds before voice acting. A little text is all I've ever needed.

While I also have no problem with reading, full VO is aiming at younger generations. While my daughter reads a lot, she says many of her classmates read nothing in their free time. My nephew doesn't voluntarily read either and neither does the son of a colleague. And these are well educated parents who have always put a lot into getting their kids to read. But the kids just stopped when they were teens.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
While I also have no problem with reading, full VO is aiming at younger generations. While my daughter reads a lot, she says many of her classmates read nothing in their free time. My nephew doesn't voluntarily read either and neither does the son of a colleague. And these are well educated parents who have always put a lot into getting their kids to read. But the kids just stopped when they were teens.

Yeah, It seems to be the norm. The funny thing is that considering they also seem to have shorter attention spans and generally want things to be more fast paced, they should embrace reading since it's so much faster than listening.

That is, if you're used to reading, which they obviously aren't. Point moot then.

Im not really sure why inXile thinks full VO would mean higher sales for this game. Is there really significant number of people that are genuinely interested in this genre and no-full-VO itself would be dealbreaker for them? I doubt it. I think its pity the companies like inXile and Obsidian are maybe clueless about who are their fans, ie. people who actually pay full price for their games.

Originally Posted by Andrew23
Im not really sure why inXile thinks full VO would mean higher sales for this game. Is there really significant number of people that are genuinely interested in this genre and no-full-VO itself would be dealbreaker for them? I doubt it. I think its pity the companies like inXile and Obsidian are maybe clueless about who are their fans, ie. people who actually pay full price for their games.

I don't know the sales for the console version of WL2, but since they are talking about consoles I'm thinking that full voice overs are almost mandatory these days? I agree the core fanbase probably doesn't care or at least doesn't care to the point it's a dealbreaker, but perhaps it's a necessity to get new fans?

Although like you point out, it's probably the genre itself that turns many people off, perhaps the addition of full VO means basically nothing.

Well, I'm 47 and I appreciate having full voice over. It adds to the atmosphere and really gives the characters personality imo. I'm really enjoying it in DOS 2, I thinks its also a nice touch that they even voiced the narrator.

I will admit to reading ahead when I don't have much time to play though.

I prefer full VO as well even though a lot of the time I skip pass some of it.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I will admit to reading ahead when I don't have much time to play though.

Maybe that's my problem, I NEVER have much time to play but enjoy many games heavy on dialogue. I've never even considered not skipping ahead. Hence the Tourettes result, where I only hear the first couple of words spoken in every sentence. Which in turn is more annoying than immersive.

Voice acting is expected nowdays. Ofcourse one can get a pass for that from the core audience such as us here, but if you're aiming wider, you'll have to accept that there are certain expectations. I personally could live without the full VO, but being honest, I think it can add a lot of flavour and personality to the game.

Could those funds have a better use? Perhaps, but then again having no VO means that your writing has to be more spot on. Then again a lousy VO can spoil decent text. Thankfully it isn't such a common occurrence anymore since videogames voice acting is taken more seriously nowdays. A professional actor can really help writers a lot to translate their vision to the player. A cinematic game such kingdom come would be a much lesser game if it didn't have such splendid actors. Orginal Sin 2 VO was quite successfull as well.

I suppose the vehicle is this game's "player stronghold".

Guys, guys! Its in the name: it is a WASTE!

Originally Posted by TomRon
Maybe that's my problem, I NEVER have much time to play but enjoy many games heavy on dialogue. I've never even considered not skipping ahead. Hence the Tourettes result, where I only hear the first couple of words spoken in every sentence. Which in turn is more annoying than immersive.

I feel your pain, too many games , not enough time.