It’s interesting because most of the little map areas were pretty standalone. They could have just cut some and ended up with something tighter more people liked.
I think I played the first few big encounters thrice, got to the next big area twice, and finished it once - recently, in anticipation of the Wasteland 1 re-release and Wasteland 3. I thought it was a pretty fun game, although it faded as it went.
Definitely a game that rewards foreknowledge of the companions so you can optimize your party build.
Recent party:
- Shootah Monkey
- TheSarah PalinExperience
- Barb War
- F.U. N.
- Ralphy (
lol)
For some reason I thought I finished Wasteland 2, but after checking my achievements on Steam I also must’ve dropped the game after reaching L.A. Regardless, I’m still quite excited for the sequel as Inxile delivered a pretty solid game last time on a tight budget and schedule, so I expect this one will be considerably stronger with that Microsoft cash.
Apologies for the double post, but backer keys are going out now.
If you’re finding it a little tricky to see where your download is supposed to be (like I did), after signing into Crowd Ox, look on the top left side of the screen for the “digital downloads and keys” section to reclaim your backer key.
Huh. Apparently I’ve already gone through Crowd Ox to get my Bard’s Tale IV key and my Wasteland 3 beta key and my GoG copy of Stasis. I don’t remember going through Crowd Ox for all that stuff. Weird.
What’s keeping you? I played the Director’s Cut from beginning to end and absolutely loved it. Except for the inventory management (which is a disgrace in both Wasteland 2 and Bard’s Tale IV) it felt old school in exactly the right way to me. I thought the game was quite beautiful in its own way, the music was fantastic and, above all, the combat system turned out to be surprisingly deep (may not become apparent on lower difficulties). It does have its fair share of issues (lackluster crafting, boring skill progression, awful side quests, etc.), but I certainly regard it as a diamond in the rough.
Bard’s Tale IV didn’t hook me; I always meant to get back to it but kept being drawn away by another game. Watched Onward on Disney+ yesterday and now I’m back into Pathfinder: Kingmaker in tb mode to give it another try (after it also not grabbing me early on).
I think the problem is the sheer number of games available these days. A game like WL3 would have to be something outstanding to pull me in and away from what I’m currently playing, and at a price I’m willing to pay to have it do so. I’d love for it to be that good a game, so willing to hear what the hive thinks.
Well the price is essentially free, so there’s that :)
But yes, the too many games thing is real. I feel the same way.
Not free for me, that I’m aware of. I don’t think I have any subscriptions that will give it to me. WL3 is $80 CAD on GOG and Steam, so that’s the price point I’m looking at.
Gamepass sub is 1 USD for a month… any use?
Maybe RPGs suffer from this more than other genres? Most RPGs are quite long. It also does not help that the story can be quite intricate and the mechanics complicated. Once you have switched to something else, it is really hard to return. For me, that’s Divinity Original Sin 2 right now: I was in the last act or so (after 40 or 50 hours!?), but haven’t played for more than a year and a half. It is a somewhat daunting thought to resume from those savegames, while replaying the whole thing is unthinkable!
Well, look at that. For some reason I thought Game Pass was an Xbox thing so just ignored it every time it came up, but lo and behold it’s on PC, too. How I ever missed that, I don’t know. Still, have to think on that. I have so many games, do I need to be distracted by a subscription product, even discounted, where I may buy DLC yet lose access to the games at any time. Then again, I’ve been paying for my PS+ membership for years and years and barely touch any of the free games I get with that, so maybe I shouldn’t quibble about the details and just take a chance that I’ll play WL3 sometime soon.
That intro discount seems to be fairly permanent so no need to rush :)
Can someone watch that and give the rest of us some bullet points?
Edit: Thanks Scott!
I’m watching it now, I’ll jot down the finer points. EDIT: It’s also only 7 minutes long though. :)
Okay, here we go, to summarize. I’d urge that you give it a watch for the B-roll footage, as it does help showcase some of what is discussed, but it also loops over the same footage a few times which can be annoying.
1 - Story: Sounds like a good setup to the tale, nothing ground breaking but potentially interesting with different factions and the ability to side with even the most vile of those.
2 - Character Creation: You can customize what they models look like (and the game itself seems to look pretty good, even the 3D models), as well as things like Perks, Attributes, and Skills. I really liked the UI for this from what I saw, including the hilarious little affable robot fellow that demonstrates things Pip Boy Style.
3 - Character Duos: This is a cool idea - if you don’t want to hand make your character, you can select a preset Duo of characters, such as the Father & Daughter team. These have been created already so you can dive right into the action and have dialog and back stories. They are being compared to the named companions in Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2 (as opposed to just custom characters).
4 - World Map and Hubs: Two major hubs (Ranger Base and Col. Springs). Lots of quests, a bigger map than AZ from Wasteland 2. Lots of freedom, more open world, that sort of thing.
5 - Factions: As I mentioned, there are several factions with their own motivations. The story can change significantly based on the factions you choose to side with.
6 - Choices & Consequences: This sounds good, but doesn’t it always on paper? No NPC is unkillable and the game’s story is supposed to change based on reacting to your character. Some of your choices can take 10-20 hours before they become known. They really leaned into these long term consequences this time.
7 - Fully Voiced Dialog: As someone playing through PoE2 I’m really pleased to hear this. It’s only due to the greater resources and time to work on the game that were options when Microsoft acquired them.
8 - Combat: 6 squad mates, cover, AP spending, all turn-based, environmental hazards, first person mode to target specific body parts. Some sort of “down but not out” system we don’t know anything about yet.
9 - Co-Op Campaign: Now this is interesting as hell. It sounds like you can do a campaign where two players each roll up their own squad and play the game together. They can quest together, OR they can split up and treat it like a single player game in the vast world working on different things, even to the point where one player could set up an alliance with an NPC or even an entire faction and the other player could betray that faction entirely. Very interesting. You can drop it into single player at any time, such as if your co-op partner bails, and it’s drop in/drop out if you want to play and they are off doing something else irl.
10 - Vehicles: You can explore the work in various vehicles that can be upgraded and the vehicles can even be used in combat, and work as a mobile base to store gear.
11 - Total Gameplay Time: They are aiming for 50 hours, which sounds great but could also be too much. Thankfully, they claim to have worked hard to make sure there are new gameplay elements, enemies, and reasons to play the further into the game you get, so hopefully it’s still fun at the 40-50 hour mark. These numbers also are taken with a grain of salt, as it entirely depends on lots of factors from what quest lines you drive down or even the difficulty you play at.
12 - 10 Major Ending Points: Kind of self explanatory, but also many choices lead to other, smaller branches in the ending as well. Good incentive to replay.
12 - XBOX X and PS4 Pro features: No details, just that it will have additional support on those consoles.
13 - Post Launch DLC: Currently planned, but no details. Wasteland 2 received a pretty impressive free definitive edition (that I never could get into again, for whatever reason, despite beating the first game at launch and wishing I could play it again without the bugs the second half of the game were filled with when it dropped originally) so it could be something like that, or just more content to socket into the campaign.
So there you go! Honestly after checking the video out it sort of sold me on rooting for it so I can pick it up this week when it drops (8/28).
It is reasonable to assume that MS first party games like Wasteland 3 are not going to be removed from gamepass ever unless gamepass itself goes under.
Getting a real Fallout vibe from that.