I don’t see many RPGs meet RPG standard that Obsidian set in New Vegas to this day. And I’m also just not familiar with anyone outside of CDPR who do deep RPGs at those really high production values.
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To be honest the expectation for it to be a dark themed game was set by teaser trailer. It’s not on anyone but Obsidian that they set that expectation the first time they announced it.
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Ok, I have seen this before. Although i wont call being pre alpha graphics be termed as an issue. It is a process of game development.
That is why leaks are terrible and I hate them. Like in case of GTA and Wolverine.
Can’t wait to see more of these two. (Is there a higher resolution version of this art somewhere?)
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If those characters are in-game… seems like we can put the visual concerns to bed.
The vision probably changed though. It’s not like they’re going to apologise for it. It’s a normal part of game development. This is why we should take stuff, especially very early CGI trailers, with a pinch of salt. When they put out that trailer, it was still a 4 player co-op game.
Obsidian isnt a trillion dollar company and you wont get a 300 million budget game from them. The earlier you accept that the better.
What other fantasy RPGs are there even defining ‘modern day production values’? I can only think of Avowed and Greedfall 2 for 2024.
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Let’s just wait and see more of the game before freaking out.
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I know but it’s not like after the last trailer when we didn’t know when we’d see it again, we’re literally getting a gameplay deep dive next week, so let’s just wait lol
It looks better than TOW (especially in the screenshots, which is probably more representative) and that’s what I expected. I also believe that visuals are the least important and least interesting thing about an Obsidian game.
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Do we have any real idea how long Indy has been in development? We have speculated a lot about it, some thought MG had been sitting idle after W: YoungBlood and it was a bit unclear. Nick six months ago also said the game was still a ways away, so it’s kinda surprising we are starting to hear it’s very likely a 2024 release. No complaints here, love surprises.
There was no indication of co-op in the trailer
No, but we’ve since learned that at the time co-op was planned but then the vision changed. I’m just using it as an example of how games change over time, and if Obsidian changed their minds about something it’s probably because whatever they were thinking of doing before wasn’t working. What matters is the final product being good, and being a good Obsidian game first and foremost.
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The absolute latest that it could have started is January 2021 when it was announced, but given that Youngblood came out in summer 2019 and from information in the FTC emails, I think it’s safe to assume it started before January 2021 (either late 2019 or 2020).
Releasing in 2024 would be five years after Youngblood, which is about right for current game dev timelines. MachineGames were very quick and efficient last gen (they put out like four games, plus DLC for New Colossus). They know idTech like the back of their hand. Plus, in the leaked Bethesda roadmap, Indy was planned for FY22 so it’s already seen a year or two internal delay.
Edit: It’s also worth noting that Todd had the idea for this game many years ago, so I imagine pre-production was quicker than most games because they already had the vision mostly decided.
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Co-op vision was only inserted in the print because of today’s demand alas live service, but the moment they became part of Xbox, that idea was tossed away and started working on what they’re best at.
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Ok, if this is your benchmark for acceptable production values you will be disappointed lots of times 
And devs already told you this last year.
Also 2 year early access for Awoved? No, thanks.
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Yes indeed, I expect the graphics to improve but it will not be anything impressive. The important thing is that it builds beautiful scenery and atmosphere, and looks clean and is performant. I would love if achieving high-end graphics didn’t mean scraping other projects and taking longer, and definitely changing some of their design as well, but it does. If that was a goal of theirs or Microsoft’s, I don’t think we’d have had Grounded and Outer Worlds 2 would not be in development alongside it imo.
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I just found it funny that you couldn’t think of any more modern day fantasy RPGs. 
I actually like visuals in Avowed, I don’t think they’re any worse than BG3 by any means, the visual fidelity seems similar to me, probably even slight edge to Avowed. The green guy in the trailer is decently animated, comparable to BG3 again annd better than Starfied’s facial animations. If they keep it up across the game, that’ll be great.
What I don’t expect is for Avowed to match BG3’s scope, 180 hours of cutscenes and mocapped dialogues ain’t happening. BG3 was developed by 400+ people over 6 years, a massive production.
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It might just be me but I hate how this game looks and the overall art style; nothing like the original BG and that completely killed my interest. That and the turn by turn combat, not what I wanted in a BG game.
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I liked BG1, BG2, BG3, POE1, POE2 and am excited for Avowed. I feel like the winner here. Accept each game for what it is rather than what it should be and you’ll be better off.
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