Wasteland 2 Catch-All: Director's Cut!

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http://wasteland.inxile-entertainmen...

It looks like with some recent Kickstarter successes, Brian Fargo is taking Wasteland 2 (a sequel to the prequel of Fallout) the kickstarter route.

Thanks to everyone that contributed in the last rewards post. We got some great feedback and made some adjustments to the rewards. A few of the highlights are :

DRM Free!
The skill and weapon for supporters will not affect the game balance but will absolutely be entertaining
Added a Wasteland 2 poster to a 'light' level
Added a digital concept art book
Did a solid pass on clarification of reward levels

We are excited to kick this off and will need your help to spread the word!

Thanks all,
Chris

The kickstarter is now FUNDED to the tune of $3,040,299. The project can be found here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2

I want to get excited for this, but I haven't really cared for anything inXile has released.

What else have they released?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

What else have they released?

Well, basically three games: The Bard's Tale (not the original), Hunted: The Demon's Forge and Choplifter HD. The only one I came remotely close to liking was The Bard's Tale. It was okay. Other than that they've done mobile games and whatnot.

garion333 wrote:

I want to get excited for this, but I haven't really cared for anything inXile has released.

I think maybe the Kickstarter route will be good for inXile. Seems like they've fallen victim to having to try and appease publishers, and he's right that the odds of any publisher picking up something like Wasteland 2 would be pretty slim. I'm hoping that this will be a real labor of love for him and the team and it'll show in the end. I also hope they have a paragraph book

I loved Wasteland back in the day and it still stands as one of my all-time favorite RPGs. Had it on the Apple //c and played the living hell out of it. One of the first RPGs I ever played and it was so different from most everything out there. Really cool mechanics and a huge open world to explore. I remember the ending being really crazy and pretty challenging, took me forever to beat it back then.

Will be keeping an eye on this for sure as I've wanted a sequel to Wasteland forever. I am a little concerned given inXile's track record, although The Bard's Tale was fun if not at all what I wanted to see for the series reboot. Maybe if this project goes well we'll see a legitimate new entry in the Bard's Tale series as well. That would be awesome! Or maybe Dragon Wars, which was probably my favorite of their RPGs.

I'll gladly toss $15 at it and see what happens. Not sure I'd be in for more than that though.

I'm waiting to see the design approach they take, but Wasteland and Dragon Wars were key games for me early on, so I've been following this news with interest.

I confess that I've never played Wasteland.

Dreaded Gazebo wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I want to get excited for this, but I haven't really cared for anything inXile has released.

I think maybe the Kickstarter route will be good for inXile. Seems like they've fallen victim to having to try and appease publishers, and he's right that the odds of any publisher picking up something like Wasteland 2 would be pretty slim. I'm hoping that this will be a real labor of love for him and the team and it'll show in the end. I also hope they have a paragraph book ;)

That too is my hope, but I can only judge inExile's work off their track record and it hasn't been the best. Their games (well, Choplifter HD is terrible) have had good or great ideas, but execution hasn't been there. If that's because of a publishing schedule (I can definitely see that with Hunted) then more power to the team and I hope Wasteland turns out to be great.

When all is said and done I'll be throwing money towards this project because Wasteland was awesome, though I never managed to finish it because it's friggin hard as hell and I was young.

garion333 wrote:

Hunted: The Demon's Forge

I forgot that came out last year, it dropped off the radar so quickly.

InXile seems like the type of developer who I would pass on the kickstarter even if I wanted the game, and then just buy a copy normally if/when they produce something good. Essentially, they don't have the reputation to draw my funds.

I too am hopeful they can do Wasteland right when they have the freedom to give it the treatment the original got.

Thanks for starting the thread, I meant to do so and got sidetracked...

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I confess that I've never played Wasteland.

Me neither. By the time I knew about it (i.e. after playing Fallout), the UI hurdle of having to look up descriptive passages in a booklet was just a bit much. Did anyone (like some unauthorized fan project or something) ever do a remake of the original just integrating the text passages in-game and making the UI mouse friendly?

It is live now. I am seriously considering the collectors edition for 100+USD.

Omgomgomgomgomg. Take my money!

I'm in. Man, I hope they make their goal, Wasteland was such an amazing game in my younger days...

Wow, goal of $900,000.

Oooh. An actual cloth map.

He's got Mark Morgan to do the soundtrack? I'm in for at least $30.

The only problem with all these Kickstarter project is funding fatigue. I just tossed in more than I probably should've for the Double Fine adventure project. I'd love to go in a bit more for Wasteland 2 as Brian Fargo is probably the other big gaming figurehead that had an impact on me, but I don't know if I can bring myself to toss in big on another project so soon.

Maybe I'll just donate at the minimum to start and bump up later if I really feel so inclined, assuming slots are still open then.

EDIT: Also, I like signed stuff but have no interest in physical boxes, maps and other trinkets that just take up space. If it's gonna take up space in my house it needs to have some extra meaning, like a signed poster or whatever. So these donation perks don't excite me quite as much.

I didn't play the original, but after watching that funny video and reading the whole page, I went in for $15.

Haha

"Would I f-ing be here if I did Angry Birds?"

GET!

They're over $100K, and climbing.

This is awesome. $15 is a no brainer for me, I think.

I was trying to figure out when I saw this earlier why I'm just completely not interested in "kickstarting" this project but I was happy to throw money at Double Fine Adventure. I'm not even that much of an adventure fan and Wasteland 2 sounds like the sort of thing I'd be into. I think it's because there's this feeling that these guys are sort of riding on their past accomplishments for reputation while Double Fine has remain consistently good for a LONG time.

I feel like sometimes people have a little too much belief that developers of these older, great, and innovative games made them because they are these sort of creative geniuses. Maybe I'm cynical but I'm more inclined to believe that a lot of these old school developers were making games in a very volatile hit or miss time for games. A time where new concepts really stood out and things like technical flaws and mechanics weren't as big of a factor. This makes it hard for me to believe that these old school "creative geniuses" can hold up with making a modernized game. Like I said about Double Fine, they've been making great games, innovative games from the beginning to now so I would be happy to say that they are fantastic game makers and absolute geniuses of their field. Due to that I feel like I can trust them with an investment. These inExile guys? They haven't done anything of note as a company and this Brian Fargo guy hasn't done anything of note since the 90s.

OK, I'll get off your lawns now.

Also, for people that played the first Wasteland and are exited for this, are you more interested because they are making a sequel to Wasteland or because of the prospect of a modernized open world, tactical, party RPG?

SixteenBlue wrote:
FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Also, for people that played the first Wasteland and are exited for this, are you more interested because they are making a sequel to Wasteland or because of the prospect of a modernized open world, tactical, party RPG?

I haven't played Wasteland but I'm excited because it's a $15 modernized open world, tactical, party RPG. That alone would be worth it but I'm also excited because I'm hoping these experiments send messages to publishers that people want more than AAA shooters. (I'm generalizing)

I was a huge fan of Wasteland - it was one of my formative games at around age 10. I'm mostly excited about that, and Mark Morgan (Fallout 1, 2 & Planescape Torment) doing the soundtrack.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Also, for people that played the first Wasteland and are exited for this, are you more interested because they are making a sequel to Wasteland or because of the prospect of a modernized open world, tactical, party RPG?

I haven't played Wasteland but I'm excited because it's a $15 modernized open world, tactical, party RPG. That alone would be worth it but I'm also excited because I'm hoping these experiments send messages to publishers that people want more than AAA shooters. (I'm generalizing)

I think your concern about their track record is pretty valid though and part of why I'm only spending $15.

SixteenBlue wrote:
FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Also, for people that played the first Wasteland and are exited for this, are you more interested because they are making a sequel to Wasteland or because of the prospect of a modernized open world, tactical, party RPG?

I haven't played Wasteland but I'm excited because it's a $15 modernized open world, tactical, party RPG. That alone would be worth it but I'm also excited because I'm hoping these experiments send messages to publishers that people want more than AAA shooters. (I'm generalizing)

That's fair and the thing about sending messages to publishers is a big reason why I threw some money at Double Fine.

On the other side of the coin if the project flops and there is backlash from the community, wouldn't that make big publishers stray even further away from these ideas? This is why I'm sort of worried about this becoming the new "thing". It could cause more harm than good if it gets saturated.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:
FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Also, for people that played the first Wasteland and are exited for this, are you more interested because they are making a sequel to Wasteland or because of the prospect of a modernized open world, tactical, party RPG?

I haven't played Wasteland but I'm excited because it's a $15 modernized open world, tactical, party RPG. That alone would be worth it but I'm also excited because I'm hoping these experiments send messages to publishers that people want more than AAA shooters. (I'm generalizing)

That's fair and the thing about sending messages to publishers is a big reason why I threw some money at Double Fine.

On the other side of the coin if the project flops and there is backlash from the community, wouldn't that make big publishers stray even further away from these ideas? This is why I'm sort of worried about this becoming the new "thing". It could cause more harm than good if it gets saturated.

Well if the project flops because it doesn't get enough money then the publishers are right. What else can be done in that situation?

If the project gets enough money but flops after release because the game sucks it still shows the demand is there, they should just get better developers next time.

I am worried about Kickstarter saturation though.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

Also, for people that played the first Wasteland and are exited for this, are you more interested because they are making a sequel to Wasteland or because of the prospect of a modernized open world, tactical, party RPG?

Wasteland was really amazing at the time and it's a style of game you really don't see much these days. Dragon Warrior is probably the series I think these days of when it comes to turn-based, party-focused RPGs. If Wasteland 2 can bring back any of what made those types of games great then I'm in.

Brian Fargo and Tim Schafer pretty much defined me as a gamer. It's only $15. I'm happy to toss that at one of my gaming heroes and see what happens. Does he and the team he's building still have what it takes? Who knows. A game like this is far less likely to happen without funding like this, though, so I'm willing to give it a shot. His pitch certainly gives me enough confidence that they are going to bring back the nostalgia.

Brian Fargo has a lot of gaudy T-shirts!

In for $15. Post apocalyptic deserts are not really a fertile ground for new ideas at this point... I'm not confident they can recapture the magic of the game that sucked away most of my 9th grade evenings, but it's worth a shot.

SixteenBlue wrote:

If the project gets enough money but flops after release because the game sucks it still shows the demand is there, they should just get better developers next time.

It'd definitely temper the excitement over all these kickstarters.

People just need to be made aware/remember that there is definitely risk in funding a kickstarter.

Yeah, not interested in funding this for why garion posted: Brian Fargo made Wasteland over 25 years ago, then turned to the business side, then was the creative director for two games that both were heavily delayed and went over budget but still turned out poor. I'm not even sure how much of the original Wasteland was his doing. I'ld rather wait and see what the final product is like before putting money down. Meanwhile, even Schafer's flawed efforts had some compelling features about them, and the storytelling was never part of the flaws.

It reminds me of how people got all excited about the new AVP game because it was going to be made by the developers of the original, and just kind of ignored the fact that everything they made since then was somewhere between mediocre and terrible.

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