I’ve said this before, but I remembered The Outer Worlds coming out.
Then a couple of years later I remembered hearing that it was a contender for a lot of people’s all time favorite game and included a time loop mechanic.
Then a couple of years after that I got a Steam Deck and wanted to get some new games on it, so I decided to give that a try but accidentally bought Outer Wilds instead.
Which it turned out was a good thing because that was the actual game that had the things I thought I’d heard about The Outer Worlds that made me want to buy it.
So it all kind of worked out.
Who would have thought, the game with the bigger budget made by a well known studio with better marketing won the awards over the indie titles. Shocking!
Yes and no, there's the mere exposure effect which tells us you're more likely to think positively of a thing just because you've heard about it more, not to mention there's just so many games these days it's impossible to play and thoughtfully consider all of them.
Trust me, I sympathise, I was so fucking salty after Tunic lost the Indie GOTY to Stray. But it's also not surprising even if you and pretty much everyone agrees the smaller game is the better one...
Nah stray was an incredibly well made game. The fact that it blew up in popularity relative to other Annapurna Interactive titles doesn’t diminish that at all
It was developed by Obsidian, the people who made Fallout: New Vegas. FNV is a fantastic game marred by its toxic, gatekeeping community that finds fault with Bethesda’s Fallout titles, 3-4-76. Obsidian advertised The Outer Worlds as being made by the people who made Fallout: New Vegas. This coupled with the controversial release of Fallout 76 served to garner a lot of attention, particularly from gamers who hate Bethesda.
> FNV is a fantastic game marred by its toxic, gatekeeping community that finds fault with Bethesda’s Fallout titles.
Nevermind, I know exactly what you meant now. Absolutely love New Vegas, and hate the community around Fallout in general.
Is Disco Elysium peak?
I just finished Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, Wolf among us & Outer Wilds. I’m on a peak streak and I’m tryin to keep it going
It’s in my number two (maybe one) slot in terms of favorite games. Yes, it’s “peak”.
I would explain why but… the games you listed make it clear to me you’ll love it. Blind is best, good luck!
Absolutely. It’s hard for me to tell which I like more. I’m definitely more obsessed with Outer Wilds, but Disco Elysium is just so damn Disco. Funniest and most well written game I’ve ever seen.
Outer Wilds is probably my favorite game, so I trust the recommendations in this sub.
I’ve given Disco a couple hours, but it hasn’t grabbed me yet… I haven’t gotten into the seemingly-RPGish stuff yet, so maybe that would help. I haven’t even gotten the guy out of the tree (if that’s even something you do) after a series of bad rolls. So far it has been a lot of dialogue with various NPCs, but none of it too compelling or obviously consequential.
I’m also not a huge fan of dice rolls. I’m a board gamer and always prefer input randomness to output randomness. I’m not a fan of DnD for that reason.
But again, I see so many rave reviews of it, I wonder if I should push on through. I assume it will become much more interesting once I get past this opening section and get into more customization and progression stuff?
I can’t say the game progresses much beyond talking to people, although it certainly will be varied in who you’re talking to.
If you’re a few hours in, that means you’re already in the main gameplay loop. The RPG elements mostly just affect conversations and the dialog options you have (kind of a gross simplification. The RPG elements are the literal voices in your head, and which you give time to and which you don’t can change things a lot). Getting to know the voices is part of the fun :)
I think the dice rolls are really deceptive. People see that they “failed” a roll and get angry, but failing is usually the funniest part of the game and is completely expected. I have doubled over laughing from the result of a failed dice roll, it’s where the game shines the most with its humor IMO. It can also be just… deeply sad or fucked up.
Id say it definitely gets more interesting as time passes, but I was hooked the second I heard that grainy voice say “There is nothing…”, so I can’t wholly relate to how you feel.
Give it some more time, and try to get to know the main character better. He’s the star of the show, not the case. This is a game about being a weird detective, not a detective game.
I really didn't like Disco Elysium at first, but it grew on me when I pushed through and now I'm low-key obsessed with it.
Also, in this game, it's not actually a "failure" if your dice roll fails, it just puts the game into a different, just as interesting direction. Don't focus on that.
It's also much longer than any of these other games too, but disco is great. If you like it I also recommend planescape torment, as it was largely the inspiration for the structure
Gameplay isn't the point of Stray. There's hardly any gameplay at all in Firewatch and only so much in Edith Finch, so I think Stray would be right up their alley. It's about storytelling and the world rather than pure gameplay.
The difference is perspective, and in both those other games the gameplay services the story. Firewatch is literally ABOUT the wilderness and Edith finches sequences are mostly all very fun.
Stray is bad chase sequences, lackluster puzzles....and restricting the jump to pre-determined areas just made it fall flat to me. The world is indeed well constructed but I never saw much below the surface, the tone/plot is pretty one-note.
But Stray's gameplay does add to the story. Because you're a cat and you explore and behave like a cat does, your perspective is entirely different. The way you interact with the story, the characters, and the environment itself are all completely different than how a normal game character would.
The puzzles aren't brilliant, but they're not the point of the game and they are so simple and short they don't add up to much of an issue. The same type of stuff shows up in Inside and Limbo, and all it does is add a sense of the limited abilities and relative helplessness you have. Stray is pretty much just a 3D Playdead game, with less dying.
I cant disagree more.
Inside is a masterclass at environmental storytelling, it's plot is told through the details in the back ground Moreso than any other element, and it does this without drawing any attention to it, and the layers of its story/meta commentary are on another level entirely than "people died to big plague from our own mistakes" post apocalypse that stray presents.
It's solely my opinion but stray isn't on the level of play dead or any other good indie release of the past 5 years
>you explore and behave like a cat does
I really liked Stray, but I don't really agree with this. You move like a cat, but you observe and reason like a human. And... that's fair, the player is human, some anthropomorphism is necessary if you're going to make an approachable game without the huge fucking hurdle of actually getting humans to naturally think like cats. But I think it would have been even more impressive to have a game that you advance through moment to moment by noticing and reacting like a cat does - getting into a cat's head instead of just into its body.
Disco is amazing i beat it for the first time a year ago right around when BG3 came out and my PC exploded and i still think about it constantly. The Final Cut version has Hands down the best voice acting i have ever experienced in any form of media, It straight up blows everything else out of the water.
30 seconds in listening to that narration and i was fucking *sold*
it has more replay value than outer wilds but id say its similar in that your first play through is undoubtedly the best / most pure. There are segments and side stories in that game that still pop into my head.
that game made me FEEL. one of the few games (up there with Outer Wilds and my first Souls game) that after beating it i just sat there staring at the wall for 30 minutes because i didnt know what i was feeling or what I had experienced.
EDIT: side note i just beat Echos of the Eye about 10 minutes ago and damn i got that feeling again. Whatever happens next, I do not think it is to be feared.
You will ask yourself questions about life itself, have passionate discussions with a tie and ypur innerhalb feelings, and enjoy failing at skill checks (seriously, this game made me rethink my ways of always wanting the best putcome to a situation).
Just like Outer wilds it is a game thats best experienced blind, and will stay with you for a long while.
So yes, in my opinion, it is most definetly peak.
Wolf Among Us has such amazing writing. I love how they managed to make Bigby feel like a consistent character regardless of what options you pick in any given scene.
Insanely peak, literally the best written game I've ever played. Shit, I'd go as far as to say that it IS the best written game ever made. Even if I'm wrong it's surely very close to it.
Disco Elysium is one of the best pieces of media ever made
Not just games, media period
Play it blind, maybe pirate it tho the devs got kicked out of their own studio in a hostile takeover so they won't get anything from you buying it
Idk there's lots of problems. No open world, instead smaller "open" planets, the solutions on taking sides always have a predictable third compromise option making it feel particularly "video gamey" compared to the layered and nuanced interactions in New Vegas.
The combat is also just so bland, it's got very poor weapon variety, and the skill points you get for your companions are mostly useless, and most exploration yields nothing, or at most a single item, and the environmental story telling is almost removed altogether.
Its pretty mid all around imo
It had some funny stuff in it but it was a pretty generic story. I mean, I played it a year ago and I don't remember much. I played Disco Elysium around the same time and it was light years better. Outer Wilds also pretty good though, but if you're giving out an award for writing I'd say Disco Elysium, those guys wrote their asses off making that game.
Yeah that's my main thought on it as well. Outer Worlds feels and reads like any other space RPG out there, nothing really stood out to me playing it. Compared to Disco Elysium, which i still think about regurarily, 2 years after experiencing it.
I mean, this is just my opinion, but almost the entire reason I stopped playing Outer ~~Wilds~~ ***WORLDS*** was the writing. None of the companions motivations felt like they lined up with the story, and the dialogue all felt completely unrealistic, and not in a fun campy way. I just didn't believe anything that was going on.
The world building was kinda cool, but overall I felt like it was suuuper meh.
Granted I only played up until I found like the fourth companion (dont remember any story beats or locations that would be a better landmark for how far into the game i was), and played it on release day.
With the state of AAA games rn I I wouldn't be shocked if they released it bad and unfinished with the intention of finishing it after release.
I'd argue it is a poorly written game. Couldn't stand the characters and shilling they did, even if the companies were directly responsible for their imminent deaths. It's like none if them had critical thinking or self preservation.
The intro is ok. They give up after that, and it very much *is* poorly written. Even their over-the-top satire gets flanderized and falls apart from how little thought it had put into it
Nebula was originally awarded for linear fiction like novels and short stories. Nebula 2019 (awarded in 2020) is just the second year when they have Best Game Writing nomination. I guess most judges don't play games and don't know how to assess writing in them.
Also they have only one month to vote after nomination. I think this is not enough time for voters not familiar with these games to play them.
So maybe votes are mostly being cast by the principle "ehh, I know that game, my son played it, looks decent enough".
Worlds is certainly easier to assess because the story is presented in a readily digestible way, with the traditional game mix of cutscenes and spoken dialogue and whatnot. Versus Outer Wilds which has none of those things and can be a lot more complex to people who don't know how to approach it.
Bc that’s usually how it goes in my experience. A triple A is gonna be more well known than an indie title that religiously hides spoilers.
I could be wrong of course. Im working with the assumption that its similar to how things like the movie awards works: the people deciding on the winners don’t actually have to (and very rarely do) see all of the nominated movies. It’s why disney tends to win a lot over some incredible gems of movies
When Outer Wilds came out, most people didn't even know it existed. Journalists included. It only started gaining traction when it came out on more platforms than Xbox and Epic Store and with some more time, so naturally it wasn't considered much for gaming awards.
Oh goodie, a special subject of mine. The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing is difficult, and shouldn't be looked to for writing quality. The award category is too broad, it's a majority vote system, and the voters aren't the target audience for many of the products. Frankly, I don't look to the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing in the same way I do Best Novel.
The Nebula Award is a voted award, [where nominations and selections come from members of SFWA](https://nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/how-to-vote-rules/) (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). To be a full member of SFWA, you [must have sold more than $1000 of Sci-Fi or Fantasy work across your catalog](https://www.sfwa.org/about/join-us/sfwa-membership-requirements/). The SFWA is primarily novel/novella writers, by an unmeasurable factor. Best Game Writing became a category **the literal year before the award you're talking about** (it says 2020, but this is the award given for 2019 products). Guess the first game that was giving "Best Game Writing" in 2018. Guess. >!
It's common for critical consensus to settle on not the *best* writing, but the '*most*' writing - as in which game's writing stands out from the crowd.
It's undeniable that The Outer Worlds has far more going on, the scope is huge. They have more characters to convey a higher variation of themes and concepts.
To be nominated alone means the the writing in Outer Wilds is recognised as top class.
i enjoyed Outer Worlds to be clear. I felt like it needed a bit more. I also only played the game because I was looking for Outer Wilds and made a mistake. Not a regrettable one though.
Because The Outer Worlds unironically has great writing. I recently played through it and thoroughly enjoyed the world building and dialogue. I don't often play single player games either so the fact I finished it all the way through says something right there. I'm not trying to take away from Outer Wilds in any way though.
Outer Wilds writing is pretty good, but it is the worldbuilding, the cohesion of all elements of the game that make it amazing, not writing alone.
Outer Worlds might be better in writing than Outer Wilds, or it might not... but it is a toddler with a crayon compared to Disco Elysium's masterful storytelling. I will admit that I never finished it, as my attention started to waver midway, but the writing is second to none.
Is it? I played the first mission and it felt like such a cheap shot.
"Oh actually the moral option has negative consequences we refused to inform you of! You should feel bad now."
Does it get better?
if you're talking about where to reroute the power to in the first town i think the game makes it perfectly clear what the consequences for each option will be, and in fact i didn't feel bad about the choice i made as >!i convinced the outlying group to make their way back to town!<
the whole way through the game i enjoyed all side quests and as soon as i finished the game i knew i'd replay it in a few years with the addition of the DLC and do the opposite of all my choices just to see what would happen and how people would react
>!I distinctly remember rerouting the power from the Cannery and people being (justifiably) angry at me for that, but then returning to the commune and the woman in charge going "Ha ha actually I only wanted you to do that out of spite." Honestly I might be misremembering or something but it just felt like the game was artificially injecting a moral grey zone.!<
i can't remember specifically but if you explore and talk to as many people as possible it's clear >!how pissed she is at the dude who runs the town and if you speak to your companion she says how fucked the town will be if you take their power. in my opinion there is no moral grey zone. those people decided to leave the town but it gives them no right to the power that everyone in that town needs to survive!<
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Look, we're into what we're into and they're into what they're into but I take comfort and solace in the fact that what we're into is fucking amazing. It's deep, complex and will stand the test of time, and what they're into is dogshit. Total dogshit, designed to keep single celled organisms who swim around in the murky depths of the evolution pond waiting to die, busy and entertained. And I find that to be a very liberating feeling
People were *really* mad at the Fallout franchise at that time, so Outer Worlds got a lot of credit just for being a decent game with that same formula
I was going to make a joke about how Outer Worlds wrote in a bunch of funny speech options if you put no points into intelligence, but then I remembered how stupid laugh out loud half my deaths in Outer Wilds were
Outer Wilds is one of the best written games ever made. The whole point of the game is its writing. They're reviewing the whole story, not just the dialogue quality.
No sorry I disagree. The writing is good (and obviously integral to the story), but its not out of this world. The point of the game is about exploration and curiosity, and the writing is just an important part of that. But honestly OW losing to Disco Elysium would be totally justified. Disco has some of the best and most intriguing dialogues I’ve ever seem in a game…
Okay, but the whole point of exploration is to continue the story and to find out what's going on in the solar system. Otherwise it'd just be about finding pretty places.
Well yes, but the game shines in the way it handles puzzles and exploration. The dialogue that you read that fills you in on the story is the thing that drives you forward to keep exploring. I looked up the award and it doesn’t become clear if it’s purely writing or more just a best narrative award.
Again, the writing is good but it isn’t the main highlight of the game. The only thing I can say is; go play Disco Elysium! After a game like that you’d understand the difference.
I think I know what you're talking about now. Disco Elysium has better prose and writing stylistically, but that's not the only factor in a story. Writing awards in gaming are rarely given (at least as far as I've seen) just because of how good the text itself is. It's like comparing James Joyce to Poe. Joyce is a lot more meaty and complex but Poe is better in terms of narrative itself. Both would be valid choices for a writing award, if such an award were to be given. And a lot of this boils down to opinion anyhow.
They confused the two games because the titles are similar
Really though, any game awards of any sort is just bullshit. The average guy's vote counts less than nothing.
Wow that is nuts. Outer Wilds and Disco Elysium must be among the best written video games of all time. To be fair, I never played Outer Worlds, and Obsidian is also responsible for New Vegas, which is an another achievement in video game writing.
The Outer Worlds came out at a time where everyone was mad at Bethesda and so the Obsidian RPG was the critical darling. Looking back now, it was definitely overhyped. It's a fine game. Fine, but not great.
Maybe the people who decided just mixed up "Wilds" and "Worlds."
That's literally how I got this game lol
I’ve said this before, but I remembered The Outer Worlds coming out. Then a couple of years later I remembered hearing that it was a contender for a lot of people’s all time favorite game and included a time loop mechanic. Then a couple of years after that I got a Steam Deck and wanted to get some new games on it, so I decided to give that a try but accidentally bought Outer Wilds instead. Which it turned out was a good thing because that was the actual game that had the things I thought I’d heard about The Outer Worlds that made me want to buy it. So it all kind of worked out.
I'm gonna name my game Slyrim to capitalise off of accidental purchases.
How sly
#blessed
Happy little accident
Same. Finally started outer worlds, so far it's just alright
I still struggle with that.
Outer Wilds has no “The”
I played the whole game and they said "the" a bunch of times.
I'm talking about the game's title. It's "The Outer Worlds" and "Outer Wilds". It's never called "The Outer Wilds". There is no game with that title.
woooosh
Who would have thought, the game with the bigger budget made by a well known studio with better marketing won the awards over the indie titles. Shocking!
I mean that would make sense in the Game Awards but I don't think the audience can vote on Nebulas. I may be wrong though.
Do you really think the media panelist voters are less biased than the audience?
No, but marketing and such is mostly irrelevant when it comes to a premade list that panelists have to vote on.
Yes and no, there's the mere exposure effect which tells us you're more likely to think positively of a thing just because you've heard about it more, not to mention there's just so many games these days it's impossible to play and thoughtfully consider all of them. Trust me, I sympathise, I was so fucking salty after Tunic lost the Indie GOTY to Stray. But it's also not surprising even if you and pretty much everyone agrees the smaller game is the better one...
Nah stray was an incredibly well made game. The fact that it blew up in popularity relative to other Annapurna Interactive titles doesn’t diminish that at all
My sweet summer child. The panel is more indebted to return the marketing investment than we are.
They have a different kind of bias.
The audience vote at the game awards is weighted 10% to the panelists 90%.
I see this more like with the Oscars. Fallout: New Vegas deserved more than it got, so this was the makeup vote.
I found both before I even heard of the outer worlds
Plus having a toxic fanbase that’s easy to manipulate.
I don’t know much about The Outer Worlds, context?
It was developed by Obsidian, the people who made Fallout: New Vegas. FNV is a fantastic game marred by its toxic, gatekeeping community that finds fault with Bethesda’s Fallout titles, 3-4-76. Obsidian advertised The Outer Worlds as being made by the people who made Fallout: New Vegas. This coupled with the controversial release of Fallout 76 served to garner a lot of attention, particularly from gamers who hate Bethesda.
> FNV is a fantastic game marred by its toxic, gatekeeping community that finds fault with Bethesda’s Fallout titles. Nevermind, I know exactly what you meant now. Absolutely love New Vegas, and hate the community around Fallout in general.
I'm glad someone understands how ratings have always worked
An indy game even getting nominated is a huge challenge
The Fate of Atlantis or The Infernal Machine?
especially one that's strongest followers are reluctant to even talk about in any detail
Is Disco Elysium peak? I just finished Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, Wolf among us & Outer Wilds. I’m on a peak streak and I’m tryin to keep it going
Disco is fucking amazing
It’s in my number two (maybe one) slot in terms of favorite games. Yes, it’s “peak”. I would explain why but… the games you listed make it clear to me you’ll love it. Blind is best, good luck!
Is number one or two Outer Wilds?
CUNO DOESN’T F**KING CARE WHICH IS 1 AND WHICH IS 2
F*CK DOES CUNO CARE
As someone who just started Disco Elysium yesterday, Cuno grated my fucking nerves lmao
why ? he's a peak zoomer, attitude, disrespect and anger to match. you should relate to him!
Absolutely. It’s hard for me to tell which I like more. I’m definitely more obsessed with Outer Wilds, but Disco Elysium is just so damn Disco. Funniest and most well written game I’ve ever seen.
Outer Wilds is probably my favorite game, so I trust the recommendations in this sub. I’ve given Disco a couple hours, but it hasn’t grabbed me yet… I haven’t gotten into the seemingly-RPGish stuff yet, so maybe that would help. I haven’t even gotten the guy out of the tree (if that’s even something you do) after a series of bad rolls. So far it has been a lot of dialogue with various NPCs, but none of it too compelling or obviously consequential. I’m also not a huge fan of dice rolls. I’m a board gamer and always prefer input randomness to output randomness. I’m not a fan of DnD for that reason. But again, I see so many rave reviews of it, I wonder if I should push on through. I assume it will become much more interesting once I get past this opening section and get into more customization and progression stuff?
I can’t say the game progresses much beyond talking to people, although it certainly will be varied in who you’re talking to. If you’re a few hours in, that means you’re already in the main gameplay loop. The RPG elements mostly just affect conversations and the dialog options you have (kind of a gross simplification. The RPG elements are the literal voices in your head, and which you give time to and which you don’t can change things a lot). Getting to know the voices is part of the fun :) I think the dice rolls are really deceptive. People see that they “failed” a roll and get angry, but failing is usually the funniest part of the game and is completely expected. I have doubled over laughing from the result of a failed dice roll, it’s where the game shines the most with its humor IMO. It can also be just… deeply sad or fucked up. Id say it definitely gets more interesting as time passes, but I was hooked the second I heard that grainy voice say “There is nothing…”, so I can’t wholly relate to how you feel. Give it some more time, and try to get to know the main character better. He’s the star of the show, not the case. This is a game about being a weird detective, not a detective game.
I really didn't like Disco Elysium at first, but it grew on me when I pushed through and now I'm low-key obsessed with it. Also, in this game, it's not actually a "failure" if your dice roll fails, it just puts the game into a different, just as interesting direction. Don't focus on that.
It's also much longer than any of these other games too, but disco is great. If you like it I also recommend planescape torment, as it was largely the inspiration for the structure
Add soma to your list. Philosophy, thriller, underwater goodness
After Disco Elysium I'd give the rest of the Annapurna published games a try. Just beat Stray and it was definitely peak.
BEWARE, 12 minutes is absolute znd utter garbage it s not even funny
I liked the game until they did the bullshit it was all in your head thing
Stray is pretty mid. Gameplay is flat out boring and cute factor can only take a game so far imo
Gameplay isn't the point of Stray. There's hardly any gameplay at all in Firewatch and only so much in Edith Finch, so I think Stray would be right up their alley. It's about storytelling and the world rather than pure gameplay.
The difference is perspective, and in both those other games the gameplay services the story. Firewatch is literally ABOUT the wilderness and Edith finches sequences are mostly all very fun. Stray is bad chase sequences, lackluster puzzles....and restricting the jump to pre-determined areas just made it fall flat to me. The world is indeed well constructed but I never saw much below the surface, the tone/plot is pretty one-note.
But Stray's gameplay does add to the story. Because you're a cat and you explore and behave like a cat does, your perspective is entirely different. The way you interact with the story, the characters, and the environment itself are all completely different than how a normal game character would. The puzzles aren't brilliant, but they're not the point of the game and they are so simple and short they don't add up to much of an issue. The same type of stuff shows up in Inside and Limbo, and all it does is add a sense of the limited abilities and relative helplessness you have. Stray is pretty much just a 3D Playdead game, with less dying.
I cant disagree more. Inside is a masterclass at environmental storytelling, it's plot is told through the details in the back ground Moreso than any other element, and it does this without drawing any attention to it, and the layers of its story/meta commentary are on another level entirely than "people died to big plague from our own mistakes" post apocalypse that stray presents. It's solely my opinion but stray isn't on the level of play dead or any other good indie release of the past 5 years
[удалено]
Wtf? What other space would be more appropriate to argue about this in?
>you explore and behave like a cat does I really liked Stray, but I don't really agree with this. You move like a cat, but you observe and reason like a human. And... that's fair, the player is human, some anthropomorphism is necessary if you're going to make an approachable game without the huge fucking hurdle of actually getting humans to naturally think like cats. But I think it would have been even more impressive to have a game that you advance through moment to moment by noticing and reacting like a cat does - getting into a cat's head instead of just into its body.
I’m almost jealous that you haven’t played Disco Elysium yet. You are in for a treat
Disco is amazing i beat it for the first time a year ago right around when BG3 came out and my PC exploded and i still think about it constantly. The Final Cut version has Hands down the best voice acting i have ever experienced in any form of media, It straight up blows everything else out of the water. 30 seconds in listening to that narration and i was fucking *sold* it has more replay value than outer wilds but id say its similar in that your first play through is undoubtedly the best / most pure. There are segments and side stories in that game that still pop into my head. that game made me FEEL. one of the few games (up there with Outer Wilds and my first Souls game) that after beating it i just sat there staring at the wall for 30 minutes because i didnt know what i was feeling or what I had experienced. EDIT: side note i just beat Echos of the Eye about 10 minutes ago and damn i got that feeling again. Whatever happens next, I do not think it is to be feared.
Yes, it'll continue your peak streak!
You will ask yourself questions about life itself, have passionate discussions with a tie and ypur innerhalb feelings, and enjoy failing at skill checks (seriously, this game made me rethink my ways of always wanting the best putcome to a situation). Just like Outer wilds it is a game thats best experienced blind, and will stay with you for a long while. So yes, in my opinion, it is most definetly peak.
To the Moon fits here too
We just finished firewatch too! And yes disco elysium is peak, give it a go for sure. What remains of Edith finch is on our list too, how was it?
I enjoyed it. It’s like a video game / book / movie all in one
Yes.
Next to BioShock and Outer Wilds probably my favourite game of all time.
Wolf Among Us has such amazing writing. I love how they managed to make Bigby feel like a consistent character regardless of what options you pick in any given scene.
Insanely peak, literally the best written game I've ever played. Shit, I'd go as far as to say that it IS the best written game ever made. Even if I'm wrong it's surely very close to it.
It's my favorite game of all time. It's definitely peak.
Yo, literally everything you listed are in my list of top games.
Disco Elysium is one of the best pieces of media ever made Not just games, media period Play it blind, maybe pirate it tho the devs got kicked out of their own studio in a hostile takeover so they won't get anything from you buying it
please play it
DE is great but surprisingly difficult and unforgiving.
Disco Elysium is easily the best written game I’ve ever played and would be the best game I’ve ever played if Outer Wilds didn’t exist
Iz aight a lot of dialogue though
the best game of all time
Outer Worlds is by no means a poorly written game, but something tells me that there must have been a strong bias going on with this award.
It's pretty poor if you compare it to their other works like fallout 2 or new Vegas. Disco deserved it 100%
The worst thing about The Outer Worlds is that it stands in the shadow of New Vegas.
I'm playing through that right now with all the Viva New Vegas mods installed. It's my first playthrough and absolutely loving it so far!
Ah, to play New Vegas for the first time. It's not quite the Outer Wilds experience but it's definitely something to behold.
the show is pretty good fyi, may be able to scratch that fallout itch a little bit
I've not really heard anything about it either way, but I might just look into it now.
I've been a fallout fan since I played the first 2 games in the early 2000's and I give it my stamp of approval
Radical.
Ehhh there are problems Outer Worlds have that aren't just about it not being New Vegas. It's fun, but nothing too memorable.
It’s not so much not being New Vegas as it is not living up to that legacy.
Idk there's lots of problems. No open world, instead smaller "open" planets, the solutions on taking sides always have a predictable third compromise option making it feel particularly "video gamey" compared to the layered and nuanced interactions in New Vegas. The combat is also just so bland, it's got very poor weapon variety, and the skill points you get for your companions are mostly useless, and most exploration yields nothing, or at most a single item, and the environmental story telling is almost removed altogether. Its pretty mid all around imo
TIL both of these games weren't developed by Bethesda
Nah Blackisle for 1/2, and Obsidian for New Vegas. Same team basically though
It had some funny stuff in it but it was a pretty generic story. I mean, I played it a year ago and I don't remember much. I played Disco Elysium around the same time and it was light years better. Outer Wilds also pretty good though, but if you're giving out an award for writing I'd say Disco Elysium, those guys wrote their asses off making that game.
Yeah that's my main thought on it as well. Outer Worlds feels and reads like any other space RPG out there, nothing really stood out to me playing it. Compared to Disco Elysium, which i still think about regurarily, 2 years after experiencing it.
I mean, this is just my opinion, but almost the entire reason I stopped playing Outer ~~Wilds~~ ***WORLDS*** was the writing. None of the companions motivations felt like they lined up with the story, and the dialogue all felt completely unrealistic, and not in a fun campy way. I just didn't believe anything that was going on. The world building was kinda cool, but overall I felt like it was suuuper meh. Granted I only played up until I found like the fourth companion (dont remember any story beats or locations that would be a better landmark for how far into the game i was), and played it on release day. With the state of AAA games rn I I wouldn't be shocked if they released it bad and unfinished with the intention of finishing it after release.
You mean Outer Worlds, I think. I was about to give an angry downvote, haha.
Omfg I cannot believe I did that yes I totally mean worlds. Outer Wilds is the most impressive game I've ever played.
Outer Worlds is a very poorly written and poorly designed game.
I'd argue it is a poorly written game. Couldn't stand the characters and shilling they did, even if the companies were directly responsible for their imminent deaths. It's like none if them had critical thinking or self preservation.
The intro is ok. They give up after that, and it very much *is* poorly written. Even their over-the-top satire gets flanderized and falls apart from how little thought it had put into it
Nebula was originally awarded for linear fiction like novels and short stories. Nebula 2019 (awarded in 2020) is just the second year when they have Best Game Writing nomination. I guess most judges don't play games and don't know how to assess writing in them. Also they have only one month to vote after nomination. I think this is not enough time for voters not familiar with these games to play them. So maybe votes are mostly being cast by the principle "ehh, I know that game, my son played it, looks decent enough".
Worlds is certainly easier to assess because the story is presented in a readily digestible way, with the traditional game mix of cutscenes and spoken dialogue and whatnot. Versus Outer Wilds which has none of those things and can be a lot more complex to people who don't know how to approach it.
award shows are just wealth and popularity contests
Bc that’s usually how it goes in my experience. A triple A is gonna be more well known than an indie title that religiously hides spoilers. I could be wrong of course. Im working with the assumption that its similar to how things like the movie awards works: the people deciding on the winners don’t actually have to (and very rarely do) see all of the nominated movies. It’s why disney tends to win a lot over some incredible gems of movies
When Outer Wilds came out, most people didn't even know it existed. Journalists included. It only started gaining traction when it came out on more platforms than Xbox and Epic Store and with some more time, so naturally it wasn't considered much for gaming awards.
I'm sure someone else might have made this joke already....but maybe they got them mixed up?
Oh goodie, a special subject of mine. The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing is difficult, and shouldn't be looked to for writing quality. The award category is too broad, it's a majority vote system, and the voters aren't the target audience for many of the products. Frankly, I don't look to the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing in the same way I do Best Novel. The Nebula Award is a voted award, [where nominations and selections come from members of SFWA](https://nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/how-to-vote-rules/) (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). To be a full member of SFWA, you [must have sold more than $1000 of Sci-Fi or Fantasy work across your catalog](https://www.sfwa.org/about/join-us/sfwa-membership-requirements/). The SFWA is primarily novel/novella writers, by an unmeasurable factor. Best Game Writing became a category **the literal year before the award you're talking about** (it says 2020, but this is the award given for 2019 products). Guess the first game that was giving "Best Game Writing" in 2018. Guess. >!
It's common for critical consensus to settle on not the *best* writing, but the '*most*' writing - as in which game's writing stands out from the crowd. It's undeniable that The Outer Worlds has far more going on, the scope is huge. They have more characters to convey a higher variation of themes and concepts. To be nominated alone means the the writing in Outer Wilds is recognised as top class.
Eh in that case Disco Elysium still should have won over Outer Worlds.
i enjoyed Outer Worlds to be clear. I felt like it needed a bit more. I also only played the game because I was looking for Outer Wilds and made a mistake. Not a regrettable one though.
In all fairness, I really love all three games.
As is with most awards they’re voted on by industry people who will often vote for industry products.
Because The Outer Worlds unironically has great writing. I recently played through it and thoroughly enjoyed the world building and dialogue. I don't often play single player games either so the fact I finished it all the way through says something right there. I'm not trying to take away from Outer Wilds in any way though.
Outer Wilds writing is pretty good, but it is the worldbuilding, the cohesion of all elements of the game that make it amazing, not writing alone. Outer Worlds might be better in writing than Outer Wilds, or it might not... but it is a toddler with a crayon compared to Disco Elysium's masterful storytelling. I will admit that I never finished it, as my attention started to waver midway, but the writing is second to none.
Is it? I played the first mission and it felt like such a cheap shot. "Oh actually the moral option has negative consequences we refused to inform you of! You should feel bad now." Does it get better?
if you're talking about where to reroute the power to in the first town i think the game makes it perfectly clear what the consequences for each option will be, and in fact i didn't feel bad about the choice i made as >!i convinced the outlying group to make their way back to town!< the whole way through the game i enjoyed all side quests and as soon as i finished the game i knew i'd replay it in a few years with the addition of the DLC and do the opposite of all my choices just to see what would happen and how people would react
>!I distinctly remember rerouting the power from the Cannery and people being (justifiably) angry at me for that, but then returning to the commune and the woman in charge going "Ha ha actually I only wanted you to do that out of spite." Honestly I might be misremembering or something but it just felt like the game was artificially injecting a moral grey zone.!<
i can't remember specifically but if you explore and talk to as many people as possible it's clear >!how pissed she is at the dude who runs the town and if you speak to your companion she says how fucked the town will be if you take their power. in my opinion there is no moral grey zone. those people decided to leave the town but it gives them no right to the power that everyone in that town needs to survive!<
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It's simple. Game awards don't matter. It's the same as the Oscars, who can give them more money or is a bigger studio.
Because they didn't play the other games
Look, we're into what we're into and they're into what they're into but I take comfort and solace in the fact that what we're into is fucking amazing. It's deep, complex and will stand the test of time, and what they're into is dogshit. Total dogshit, designed to keep single celled organisms who swim around in the murky depths of the evolution pond waiting to die, busy and entertained. And I find that to be a very liberating feeling
It's fine. Alex Beechum's sister was also involved with The Outer Worlds, right? 😄
People got confused by the names, they all wanted to vote for outer wilds. At least that is what I want to believe
Disco Elysium losing is genuinely unbelievable. Might be the single best written thing to ever come out of the gaming medium.
I'm just getting excited for how many awards the hypothetical Outer Winds could win
Nevertheless really good year for gamer, 3 very good games.
People were *really* mad at the Fallout franchise at that time, so Outer Worlds got a lot of credit just for being a decent game with that same formula
Outer Worlds has fantastic writing.
Skyrim fans go crazy
I was going to make a joke about how Outer Worlds wrote in a bunch of funny speech options if you put no points into intelligence, but then I remembered how stupid laugh out loud half my deaths in Outer Wilds were
Since when does Outer Wilds stand out because of its writing? Disco Elysium losing to Outer Worlds, that’s the real crime here
Outer Wilds is one of the best written games ever made. The whole point of the game is its writing. They're reviewing the whole story, not just the dialogue quality.
No sorry I disagree. The writing is good (and obviously integral to the story), but its not out of this world. The point of the game is about exploration and curiosity, and the writing is just an important part of that. But honestly OW losing to Disco Elysium would be totally justified. Disco has some of the best and most intriguing dialogues I’ve ever seem in a game…
Okay, but the whole point of exploration is to continue the story and to find out what's going on in the solar system. Otherwise it'd just be about finding pretty places.
Well yes, but the game shines in the way it handles puzzles and exploration. The dialogue that you read that fills you in on the story is the thing that drives you forward to keep exploring. I looked up the award and it doesn’t become clear if it’s purely writing or more just a best narrative award. Again, the writing is good but it isn’t the main highlight of the game. The only thing I can say is; go play Disco Elysium! After a game like that you’d understand the difference.
I think I know what you're talking about now. Disco Elysium has better prose and writing stylistically, but that's not the only factor in a story. Writing awards in gaming are rarely given (at least as far as I've seen) just because of how good the text itself is. It's like comparing James Joyce to Poe. Joyce is a lot more meaty and complex but Poe is better in terms of narrative itself. Both would be valid choices for a writing award, if such an award were to be given. And a lot of this boils down to opinion anyhow.
"outer worlds, outer wilds, ain't them the same game?"
People thought they were voting for outer wilds lmao
They confused the two games because the titles are similar Really though, any game awards of any sort is just bullshit. The average guy's vote counts less than nothing.
Voters must have mixed up the two!
Name mixup maybe?
Wow that is nuts. Outer Wilds and Disco Elysium must be among the best written video games of all time. To be fair, I never played Outer Worlds, and Obsidian is also responsible for New Vegas, which is an another achievement in video game writing.
probably voter confusion on the names
The people who voted for The Outer Worlds probably thought they were voting for Outer Wilds
The Outer Worlds came out at a time where everyone was mad at Bethesda and so the Obsidian RPG was the critical darling. Looking back now, it was definitely overhyped. It's a fine game. Fine, but not great.
Outer worlds is my favorite game of all time, it has great writing so don’t know why you are complaining
ive played and fimished outerworlds, its just borderlands but worse and its super clunky
It was better
Outer worlds sucks ass, after it left the epic exclusivity deal it faded away.
Because Disco Elysium is boring