I know absolutely nothing about this game, except that anticapitalist song
I always get extra disappointed by the Outer Worlds, because I always confuse it with the Outer Wilds and would rather play that game.
Ah shit. I swear to god, this just happened to me. I came to. the comments, confused why a trailer for Outer Wilds 2 would be age-restricted.
Ugh.
But then again, you cleared up my confusion, so I guess. there’s that.
Weird cause I have the exact opposite reaction. Could not get into Outer Wilds. Flying the ship was so annoying.
On the one hand, the ship was one of the most fun parts for me, but on the other, I do wonder if it was a mistake because it makes the game so much more frustrating for anyone who hasn’t been trained on kerbal space program or some other Newtonian space control game to get the hang of it.
It’s like riding a bike, if you know how to do it you have trouble even imaging why it’s hard, but nobody can do it at first, and it takes ages to get the new instincts to actually enjoy it.
The ship was one of the best parts for sure. Once you are competent it feels super liberating how nimbly you can zip around a planet.
The other good parts of that game were progression, and death.
I love that knowledge is the only thing retained between loops - the only currency of value. And I loved the feeling of making new discoveries.
And with death as an expected mechanic, the game doesn’t have to put up any guiderails to save you from it. There are no training wheels. You want to go outside without a spacesuit? Bad idea but we’ll let you. You want to literally lose your ship so you can never get it back? Sure, go for it. You want to fall into a space anomaly and see what happens? Be our guest.
Masterpiece game honestly.
I vividly remember the first time I played Space Engineers crashing my first vehicle every time.
I played them both and was disappointed by both. Didn’t even bother finishing either of them.
Depression is a bitch. :(
$80 people
Well, time and a sale it is, then.
Welp, guess I can get this one on sale just like I did the first. This i spent maybe $15-$20 on it?
#PatientGamers
Yup, this is why the $80 price tag doesn’t bother me. I’ve got a backlog of games I want to play that I probably already can’t finish in my lifetime. This will be $20 a year post release and in two years that $20 will get you all the dlc as well.
Yea. The only games I buy on release are fighting games, but that just because during the release window is some of the best fun you can have for the online multiplayer as a casual. After about the first month or so a meta gets established and then everyone online is just playing the same carbon copy of whatever the YouTube pros are doing.
Though these hands are getting old and I think this most recent release of fighters will be my last. Just can’t keep up anymore.
I liked the first one but it was free with the 99 cent game pass. It was very short imo and I would have been pissed off I’d paid full price.
The Atari 2600 released for $190 in 1977. Or about $1000 today.
The best selling title, Pac-Man released for $28 in 1982. Or about $95 today.
Compared to so much else that has risen dramatically over time, vastly outpacing video games comparatively, I think it’s a bit hard to argue with the value proposition of modern titles.
Games at that time were cutting edge technology, distribution networks didn’t exist, physical units had to make it to stores, etc. The environment isn’t the same. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think $80 is terribly outrageous in our modern economy but at that price point it has better provide 60+ hours of entertainment. If outer worlds 2 is as good as #1 it’s worth $40 tops. I played that game end to end and can’t recall a single characters name.
I agree about everything in your first point. I hadn’t previously considered that the novelty of a new technology would necessarily increase have disproportionately high initial cost.
That said, I feel like any calculation of cost against how many hours played is entirely subjective. Your suggestion of $0.75 / entertainment hour is quite different than what I consider ideal. Games will vary genre to genre, person to person, platform to platform.
A person with limited time might exclusively play shorter titles, or maybe just multiplayer titles. A person with significant free time might spent hundreds of hours replaying an RPG.
To be incredibly broad, I would say that games shouldn’t cost more per entertainment hour than half of what any given person earns at their job - but even that is quite subjective and should be taken with salt.
Hamburgers were 28 cents in 1977.
Too bad burgers outpaced inflation then. It’d be nice to have a $1.50 option commonly available.
I think looking at it through an “all else equal” mindset is a little misleading.
Back then it was basically space-age technology. Video games were leaps and bounds ahead of other forms of entertainment, techwise. You could somewhat justify the expense because there was literally nothing like it in existence.
Nowadays? People make video games for classes in high school. I can write a flappy bird game on my phone and play it there. Small projects with less than 50 people regularly end up as bestsellers on Steam. Thousands of titles release on steam every year.
Video game supply is through the fucking roof, yet companies go out of their way to overproduce and underdeliver. QA is nonexistent anymore because of day 1 patches and always-online. They realized a long time ago that when your primary market is children, you can be as absolutely shitty as you want because a parent will give their child anything to shut them up or help them fit in. You can exploit a child’s labor for profit and their parent will pay you just to keep them occupied (Roblox, cough cough).
I mean we all knew video games couldn’t cost $60 for all eternity, but watching the price hike an entire third at once (50% if it costs $90) I think has made people realize just how overvalued modern video games are in general.
You make a good point, and I agree. I wasn’t thinking that it was the only thing on the market and therefore the price is whatever a new technology costs.
I tend to think of video games - being a form of entertainment - as a great way to be entertained while also being an incredibly low cost option for the amount of time I spend enjoying them.
Buying a $600 console just to enjoy a single $60 title is an extreme example but to me, if that game provides 100 hours of playtime, that seems well worth it. Cheaper than going to a theatre or most other forms of entertainment.
To be sure, I don’t do this, but I’ve always viewed gaming through a $/h lens, and could never understand why so many people saw it as a waste of time. That’s what I was thinking when I wrote that comment earlier - it seems to me that you get more playtime with some RPG from this decade than you would playing Pac-Man. Though perhaps I feel that way because games like Pac-Man don’t appeal to me.
Thinking about it, your point might be valid again, with the Atari being a new technology, people were likely to sink far more hours into a title than they might do with modern games since we have so many to choose from now. I’ve never thought about it that way. Thanks for pointing this out.
Groceries are a small fortune
I was not super enamoured with 1. But most of my complaints were from features that just needed more time to cook.
Really hope they get addressed in 2. Would be an incredible game if so.
The story in 1 was also weak. When you’ve got shit like Disco Elysium out there, the pandering “ooh capitalism is big bad” while also not giving it a serious critique falls pretty flat.
The trailer for 2 even jokes about how its “by capitalism.”
While I agree with you, it’s a bit unfair to compare the two.
DE is “just” a point and click pushed to an absurd level of quality, meaning that most of the production can go into managing a story.
OW is an fps, meaning you need a gameplay loop, weapons, balancing, environments, etc etc. It’s also a dark satire, not a serious philosophical work like elysium. Reading 10 pages of text on the nature of violence before you get to shoot your gun would not work.
This doesn’t excuse a weak story, but does explain how it’s much more difficult and costly to fit one in there. (yes bioshock, but those games are the exception in fps games).
I would love a better story, with a tightly integrated story, that would be very difficult to pull off in the current game dev space at this scale.
I’m gonna be real, with all the material to be inspired by, you dont really have to spend all that much to produce a great story. 1 had all the pieces there, it was just missing that little something that makes it great. It felt like a watered down Monty Python.
That was my issue with the game too. The concept was good, but the game seemed rushed. You can literally see blank spaces in the map that were obviously supposed to have stuff there (like an extra companion quarters on your ship that was clearly walled off and deleted, for example). The sequel has potential to be great if they take their time on it.
I just hope the flaws have a much better reward than the first. The tradeoff never felt like they were worth it.
that’s one of the things they underlined in the direct. they seem to be more interesting in general. klepto for example lets you sell things you’ve stolen for more money but every now and then you auto steal stuff you look at, which can get you in trouble.
I’m a Spacer’s Choice man, myself. Everything else is just trustworthy and reliable.
“You’ve had the best, now try the rest.”
“It’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice”
Better be game of the year for 80.
I absolutely loved Outer Worlds 1, can’t wait for 2 :D
I love Obsidian’s factions!
Same. It was rough but damn it was good fun. I really hope they cleaned up the edges with two and full send it with that dark satire angle again. I want them to double down with the humor they cultivated for the in-game world.
Very excited! I hope they increased the scope a little, as the first one felt just a little short. That said though, I loved what was there!
Seems interesting enough. The first game was fun and I wonder what ending from game 1 is canon.
Damn aunty Cleo. What a bitch. lol.
Oh no… (Hope they don’t f it up)
