Port Specialist Virtuos Convinced Obsidian To Bring The Outer Worlds To Switch

Sure why not ?
It cant be worse then the trainwreck Fallout 76 is turning in to.
With Betsheda pulling a Konami, I'd rather throw my lot in with Obsidian.

Frankly there isn’t much outside PlatinumGames that interests me these days. Wish they’d port Code Vein to Switch, it’s a natural fit.

Good on them. I'll thank them by buying it when it comes out!

Am enjoying the game quite a bit. Game plays very much like a Fallout game but has great writing. Chugs a bit on an Xbox One S so I'd definitely check out some reviews/videos before jumping into the switch version.

@Loserkid41 The writing makes the average Reddit post look like Shakespeare. It’s like the Pickle Rick episode of R&M on repeat for 100+ hours.

It’s mostly due to Starfox, but Starlink for Switch is IMO the definitive way to play the game.

I hope they manage to squeeze some other Nintendo IP goodies on Outer World. Some Metroid costume stuff maybe?

Man, that's awesome to hear Virtuos played such a key role in getting this on the Switch! They and Panic Button do such amazing work!

I'm frankly tired of the "we didn't think it could happen" stories. I feel it has been proved over and over that the Switch can handle quite a lot in the hands of actually skilled programmers.

@farcry007 you seem to have a grudge for Outer worlds. Most publications have high praises for the game. You seem to be part of the minority. I dunno. Maybe everyone's level of expertise in game development sucks so bad that obsidians entry looks good. Whatever the case may be, I'd rather play OW, vs the smoldering dumpster fire remains of what was Fallout 76.

@farcry007 Been playing on XBox and haven't had more fun with a western RPG in years. To each their own, I suppose

Edit: ...do you work for Bethesda? I feel like maybe.. maybe you work for Bethesda.

I keep hearing the crew on Waypoint Radio talk highly of this game, despite it's quirks, so it's really one of the ports I'm most looking forward to. I've opted not to even consider the other consoles because Virtuos has demonstrated that they are committed to high quality ports.

@farcry007 So...have you actually played the game?

@Varkster

This the part where he says no, but I've seen it on Youtube ?

@Heavyarms55

Yeah, but these days there aren't many skilled programmers
and ports are lazy because 3 of the 4 major platforms run on x86.

The ps4 and xbox one are pc's in console clothing.
And I like that the NX brinsg something totally new to the table

Ports used to be about getting the maximum out of hardware and playing to a platforms strength instead of a lazy "copy and paste" job.
That was part of the excitement of seeing how well ( or not ) quake ran on the Saturn and N64 for instance .

@farcry007

NIER: AUTOMATA and VANQUISH please.

It's such a great game. Cant wait to pick it up for portable New Vegas feels.

If it's a good port I'll gladly buy it. Been enjoying it through game pass, even if my PC isn't quite strong enough to play it at a solid frame rate.

Nice to see that Switch have another great porting dev.

Now, where is the Wii U specialists on Switch? Straight Right / Tantalus?

It's Unreal 4, it runs on my 6 year old PC. It better be able to run on Switch.

Game is wonderful btw, glad to finally have a proper Fallout game again.

They did an excellent job with Starlink and Souls(haven't played L.A.Noire) on Switch. Pretty confident that Outer Worlds will turn out great too.

@Jim_Purcell It runs at 1080p, stable 30fps on very high settings on my gtx 970 and 5 year old AMD proccessor. Plus, as you mentioned, it's UE4. I'm pretty sure with a bit of twinkling here and there it will run just fine on the Switch. It's also very bug-free and well optimized.
All in all a very solid 3d party port and an excellent addition to the sytem's ever growing library.

Good on Virtuos for putting in the effort and dedication. I’m holding out for this port.

@KitsuneNight "The ps4 and xbox one are pc's in console clothing."

What? That can't be true. Takes off xbox one's clothing. Screams!

Ya, I can't wait for this game. Hope, it reminds me of a real Fallout game and not Bethesda's sorry a** excuse for Fallout 76.

@Xylnox

Good god, cover that thing up again !

@Xylnox Well technically it's true. XBOX ONE and PS4 use "normal" PC hardware. The XBOX ONE even runs a modified version of Windows 10 and Direct X.

On topic, I have the game on XBOX & PC because of the Game Pass Ultimate. And I'm really loving it. The story is funny and it plays really good.

Of course it can be ported, there's nothing in there which is inherently out of reach. The question is how much downgrading will people accept?

Even on a PC on Ultra there is a lot of LOD and texture pop-in. This will be far, far worse on the Switch. There are also a lot of loading screens, which are pretty quick on PC due to the SSD and insanely quick CPU, but on the Switch, expect those loading screens to feel painfully long. I expect the interior lighting, which is baked, to take a big hit too due to memory issues.

In short, just play it on Game Pass. The game is a well put together Fallout clone which is essentially free on both PC and Xbox.

@farcry007 Okay, whatever. I thought the hair modelling was rather well done, aside from the lack of animation on it. You try modelling hair cards and see if you can do better.

The character modelling is perfectly competent. They're not scans but I wouldn't expect them to be - they have to make hundreds of characters. And the material work on the characters is really nicely done.

@KitsuneNight If you think moden game dev is "lazy", you should try working in it. There's nothing lazy about months of crunch.

@ramu-chan

I said PORTS.
I'll repeat it for you in nice, easy to read big letters.

@ramu-chan no matter what players all around will consider dev's lazy no matter how much work and features ar eput into it so long as there are things they don't like enough, a recent example being pokemon sword and shield but I do admit they had some minor slacking but only in the graphical part of it but who knows maybe its not the same upon release.

@farcry007 funny, every review i read, video I saw, all of them had good things to say about the game.

@edgedino people are saying that gamefreak is lazy (or, rather, cheap) because they deleted national pokedex to save some money. They decided to save some money on the biggest franchise of all time. If they are so cheap why shouldn't we be cheap as well and not buy the game?

Been hearing a lot of good things about this game on other platforms, however I’m waiting to see how the Switch port turns out as the portability will align better with my lifestyle.

@KitsuneNight Ah I see. So porting from a desktop GPU with 8gb of RAM to a mobile GPU with 4Gb is easy?

Try working in game development. Then apologise.

I feel like companies don't pay as close attention to Switch as they should. How is it surprising? Get the right team and virtually any modern day game is possible, except for the 100 gig ones. Compression would be too difficult for those probably.

@farcry007 what a load of rubbish

The Outer Worlds is the best game I've played this year on any platform, a true successor to the likes of Fallout New Vegas and surpasses it. Great writing, great characters and a true RPG that we have so few of these days, where you can customise your character for any play style and have plenty of meaningful choices at every turn. A wonderful game and one that Switch owners should be looking forward to

This is the shilliest thread since River City Girls

Say hi to everyone in the Discord, fellas

@KitsuneNight ah the good old "lazy ports" line and now you even added there isnt enough skilled programmers.

First of all claiming the ports are lazy while having no idea how hard or little these guys worked is ridiculous. You don't know the time frame or budget these guys had to work with. Nice to see you throw programmers under a bus though.

Now onto skilled programmers. Better come up with some hard evidence that they are not skilled.

@WhiteTrashGuy Tasteful

@farcry007
Says the guy/gal named Farcry

Been playing this game on PS4 since launch and it's extremely good, albeit a little on the short side for the genre. Definitely the kind of RPG that Bethesda and Bioware fans have been waiting for. Reminds me a lot of New Vegas with a bit of Mass Effect thrown in. It isn't a graphical powerhouse either, so it should make for an easy enough port.

@Old_Man_Nintendo Fine series of excellent games. A very fine BING BING WAHOO YIPPEE to you though

(Okay mainly #3)

My totally valid criticism (and first post!) got deleted despite going against no community rules. NL, go ahead and just make the first post yourselves if the money is that important to you. This is a business after all!

Oh, where is it, where is it. Argh! Where did I put it. Maybe over here, nope. Ah over here, nope. Dangit! Where did i put it? #&$&$&#&#^-^-&' Oh here it is!

gives food to the troll

@Zuljaras Nope, it was full hearts bro

You live in a lie

@Zuljaras The only things they measure are their bank accounts as they’re paid by Obshition lmao

All right I’m outta here for good

Enjoy your play doh hair at 5fps

Played the game for about an hour on launch day on my Xbox One X. Runs great, looks beautiful, and I have yet to find one weird bug.

Bethesda really needs to get off that clunky engine it uses. UE4 is proving to be a great replacement.

@farcry007 and there you are showing your true colours with your make believe "valid criticism"

Don't let the door hit you on the way out

@farcry007 I'd buy Code Vein for Switch in a heartbeat. I'd also really like to see Soul Caliber 6 come over.

As a PS4 and Switch owner, I am looking forward to it on Switch as it’s a natural fit for long RPG games. But it’s going to be tough not to opt for a 4K PS4 version for £20, versus an inevitable £40 Switch release with barely acceptable performance, blurry textures and low resolution. I just wish companies would port these games over at a friendlier price point, and/or with additional stuff. Will have to wait and see how this pans out.

@Tharsman
I wish they would've done something for Xbox and PS, like adding Ratchet and Clank for PS and Master-chief for Xbox, I think the game would've gotten alot more attention if they added a cameo to all platform versions.

@idtgatt
Same, I just want to see the framerate which is what helps me decide whether I should get ports.

I appreciate the effort and hope it turns out another quality port as well as a commercial success for everyone involved, esp. Obsidian, which really deserves not just more fandom but real success.

Still, personally I'm not dependent on the Switch as my sole platform and I don't need this particular game as a portable version (certainly not without some form of cross-platform-progress-sharing), hence I don't see myself picking this one up, no matter how (little) compromised it'll turn out.
This for me pretty much applies to all these "we didn't think it could be done"-ports. Well, maybe with the exception - if it tickled my fancy as such - of something like DQXI, which thanks to it's general aesthetic and turn-based nature, is pretty immune to issues of decreased visual fidelity and potential performance dips and/or a 30fps limit.

I appreciate the craftsmanship every time around, but equally, I am surprised at the apparent demand. I mean, particularly a game like Outer Worlds benefits from a 'larger-than-life' presentation on a sharp, colorful, high-contrast and big'ish TV screen, bringing it to life in all it's designer intended glory. If it wasn't the absolute only way to play it, I can't quite see the appeal of the Switch version.

I'm not saying it shouldn't exist or it shouldn't be played, but I am still curious to all of those excited for this port (and all the others like it) ... why are you? It cannot possibly be about the possibility of literally 'playing in on the toilet', can it?

I'll say this though, I see folks watching movies on their smartphones on a daily basis and I'm at a loss as to the "why?" at the same time. Are people really satisified with the overal experience they are getting? A movie shot for cinemas played back on a ~5" screen with really poor lighting conditions?

It seems the only thing that matters truly is whether something is possible and convenient :-/

This & Switcher 3 are on my list for getting eventually. I want to support 3rd party developers & show them there is a market for games like this on the Switch, when ported correctly and with the care and attention that Switch gamers deserve.

@Ralek85 I used to have tons of free time to spend in front of my TV back in the day when Fallout 3 came out, but since Skyrim game out, a bit before really, I basically have never had enough time to sit down around the TV and play a game of this depth to completion. I only managed to play Skyrim through its ending, without skipping the fun side exploration, because I was able to play it for hours in a plane or in a long drive (as a passenger, of course) and drag the game along with me anywhere I went.

That’s why I’m waiting for the Switch version of the game, so I can play it anywhere, and likely, actually get to finish the darned thing.

I don’t care about the pixel quality fidelity junk anymore, hell you might say I never did. If I cared, I would have always just spent thousands setting up expensive computers on the living room and play the always higher quality PC versions, I have always valued convenience over amazing graphics. And I think a huge amount of console players do too, else the PS4Pro and XBOneX would sell a lot more than they both do.

@Ralek85 I have an Xbox One and a PS4 but I am but I am waiting for this game on Switch. I am a big fan of Nintendo and like to support their platforms the best that I can. Is it the most rational decision? No. I could be playing this game now and it would look nicer.
Honestly I am not too hung up on graphics. As long as the visual experience is consistent I am generally happy. I have played games that look far worse than any ports on the Switch and still enjoyed them and has a great time.

Ok, let's stop whatever that was.

Will wait for the Switch-version. I have a hard time buying games for non-portable consoles these days, so I rather play Witcher 3 on Switch, even as I have it for PS4 since 2015..

@AndreaF96 ultimately I wouldn't say they were cheap they have the largest team ever for a pokemon game and such little time besides we all knew they were gunna eventually do this with how many pokemon there are and will be.

@edgedino they used the big team to implement stupid minigames and removed a core feature.

@Ralek85

It's the hybrid nature - the ability to play it on the go, tabletop mode or a TV. Where as the other versions I have to be tethered to a TV or monitor. The Switch is just so convenient, I can pick up a play a game for like an hour here and there or a long gaming session.

@Ralek85 have multiple consoles but I just rather play games on my switch if that option is available.

Personally I feel the ability for me to play games at home or on my travels is a big thing for me.

The Days of being tied to a TV is just not what I am looking for when gaming

@Tharsman Thanks for sharing. On the one hand, I just want to clarify that I'm not just talking about pixels, I'm talking about the experience as a whole which obviously includes pixels but a lot more (that's why I tried to draw the comparison to smartphones "vs" cinema).

I mean, I'm a big fan of HDR, sure, makes 100x more difference to me than "4K" (native or not) and I cannot go back to playing SDR. It's simply as likely as going back to tube TV set - just nope.

But really, sound matters alot to me as well as well as controls (I definitely prefer the other controllers be it Pro or PS4 or Xbox over the Switch's own tiny sticks for example esp. for action/shoot'ish games demanding more or less precise aim as well as rapid turn-speeds -> doesn't matter for Fire Emblem though and comparable games). So just to make clear, that I didn't mean pixel-counting by "experience"

Also, just an observation, the way you talk about Skyrim ... I mean, who cares whether you finish it nor not, right? (There IS such a thing as a sunk cost fallacy! ^^)
Anyways, that's besindes the point, a while ago, I visited my young niece, and sure, it's much easier to grab 20 mins of play here and there, when she is otherwise occupied than with a stationary system, hence I can see the appeal for parents of young kids.

I get that for instance. I guess, I am sceptical that this all there is to it, so it's good to know, that convenience-beats-all is indeed a deciding factor for you. And that's fine, I'm still kinda ... well, sad about those kids watching Toy Story 4 (random example) on their phone. I guess, I am not (yet) there as far as convience goes!

@kobashi100 @KryptoniteKrunch @idrawrobots
Thanks for the insight! I can tell you are basically agreeing with @Tharsman then, that the deciding factor for you is convience (besides loyality to Nintendo, which ... well, I do own a WiiU! ^^), which - and that's not meant to be judgemental - trumps all.

I'm really curious then how far this trend will take gaming. It obviously already had a huge impact on TVs, Movies as such and cinemas as well of course.

If I may, how do you guys feel about streaming then? Is that something you would consider even more convenient (assuming you had good coverage at all times)? You know playing on your actual phone, someday even Nintendo games? Would like a "Netflix of games" entice you as a huge convenience bonus?

@Ralek85 nah streaming on phone doesn't interest me at all. I see it less convenient to be honest plus there is issue of battery life.

Yeah BT controllers are an option for physical controls but that's just not practical when I am standing on a train to work. Hell even sitting down it's a problem as would need something for phone to rest on.

Dedicated handheld hardware always gonna be a better option

@Ralek85 as disappointing as the Skyrim end was, I cared that I had not finished it.

Funny thing you mention cinema, because there is a lot of tv and movies I would never get to experience if I was not able to stream them to my phone during idle time at work. Hell, a lot I actually multi-task through. Also: my phablet up close my face yields a lot bigger sight cover area than my huge TV does at the distance I would sit from it.

I do like being able to watch movies and play games on my big tv. I never was crazy about the 3DS or other mobile devices. But the convenience of being able to play my games on the go and just dock them to play on the TV just can’t be beat, for me.

Mind you: I don’t play twitchy FPS games where 60 FPS make a win-or-lose difference. I don’t play things like Fortnite, but if I did, I would likely play on the PC at home and on the Switch when traveling, since that games has cross-platform progression.

Side benefit of the switch: i can be OCD about achievements, I can’t stop them from dictating how I play. The switch does not have them, and that actually makes my play throughs of games a LOT more enjoyable.

Game has some of the best dialog/humor out there.

Here's the thing if Witcher 3 can get a port and run and looks good on Switch what and why can't this game do the same thing. Far to many Publishers are having "Thinking Inside the Box" and "Tunnel Visions" they can't see past their pupils. Alot of PC can't even handle 4K 60fps constant and yet still claims Switch isn't powerful enough. But try lugging around a 4K 60fps PC and still be able to play it. I doubt most would want to do that. This is where newer minds and programmers come into play saying why can't you think beyond your pisser bowl and look farther and take bigger leaps to bring more people in.

@Tharsman Those are some interesting points.

In terms of multi-tasking, I do that as well, and yes, there are TV shows I would not have watched if hadn't been able to do something on the side. Part of that though is, that these were shows, I would not have watched otherwise anyways, even given the time, because there were entertaining, but not enough to hold my attention.
Basically any "monster of the week" show (esp. for instance the 1st season of Supernatural) or shows with at least as much filler as actual content (a real problem with many anime shows, but not exclusively.)

Shows I can really get into, I rather not watch - an backlog them for sometime in the future - than just "get through them", so to speak, on the side. I say that as TV junkie how has watched 1 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 2 hours, 31 minutes of shows (and that are just the ones I actually bothered to keep track of at myepisodes )

But I do understand what you are getting at. The Switch is certainly a compelling device in that regard. Normally I'd either playback those shows on my Laptop (which at least offers a 15" 4K screen with - more importantly - decent brightness and run the sound through my audio system, with the game muted) or I'd play something like say Invisible Inc. muted on my Laptop and watch the show on my TV. Kinda depends on what kinda show it is.

I don't do it for movies though. No movie I just sideglance at is worth wasting 2 hours on. If it doesn't grab me, it's simply not worth getting through it. There is no "but season 2/ episode 7 onward is really good..."-motivation going. But yeah, that's just me!

Streaming in general is terrible for movies. The tendency towards compression and low bitrates turns many scenes (virtually all night/ dark scenes) into a mess of artifacts, and movies being a primarily a medium of visual storytelling that's pretty bad. If it's a Netflix exclusive, sure, but otherwise I rely on a physial medium.

The irony here is that the problems of streaming tend to be aggravated on a bigger, higher resolution screen, since not even the best post-processing on the planet can counter act the increased visibility of these digital taints.

As for your OCD about achievements: a good friend of mine had a similar issue for years, but at some point he managed to see them for what their are: pointless and (often) manipulative time wasters, that offer (again, 9 out 10) no real value and started ignoring them. I kept telling him, that he was missing out on some genuinely good games, by being so obsessed with "completing" this or that particular game ... he came around eventually! ^^

Personally, I'm thankfully only very rarely affected by achievements. I played alot of Spider-Man for instance, because the game was fun, and when I stopped playing, since I had just exhausted the experience, I actually spend another 2-3 hours in the game (after dozens already^^) to mop up some final progress/trophies -> got me my 1st ever Platinum trophy! I actually have several games with like 90%+ progress, mostly favourites of mine, I just played alot, but I don't really feel any compulsion to "finish off" those titles.

I get your point though, and I can see how this is an actual benefit for someone who as a hard time ignoring those pesky little popups and progress bars.

PS: I do believe you can turn of the pop-ups notifications for trophies by now. At least I vaugely remember doing that a while back, not sure and can't check right now, might be worthwhile for you though!

@Ralek85 "I do believe you can turn of the pop-ups notifications for trophies by now. "

Last time i checked, the only way was by disabling all notifications, that does not work for me. For me, I would love if the PS and XBox had complete "disable trophy features" checkbox somewhere, that would hide every single UI element related to them. Even if you disabled notifications, one of the first thing the system shows you when you pop in a disk is information about the trophies you and/or your friends earned on that game recently.

@Tharsman Oh yeah, that might have been it! I think it all still shows in your notification "window" though?

Well, to be fair, achievements were meant to keep you playing, give you a sense of value (= time spent) and such. That's why I pointed to them as being mostly manipulative in nature. There are a few designed to provide an actual non-repetitive gameplay-related challenge, like a mini-quest/mission, that feels worthwhile but 9/10 simply don't - they are an MMO'esque grind.

I loved all 3 Virtuous ports to date.... unfortunately I couldn't wait for this one. Enjoying it on the PS4, but highly recommend it to Switch players when it arrives.

@AndreaF96 which core features other then national dex and things co-op with like being able to transfer pokemon not from region.

Currently Playing on Xbox one x in 4K. Game is amazing.

It’s a perfect game for switch as well - this is going to be incredible on switch.

As an aside the Xbox one x is an incredible console. Having been a pc gamer for some time to get this power at this price is unbelievable

@edgedino z-moves and megas.

@AndreaF96 those were meant for those regions alone not in every region just as gigamaxing is. they added some mega to sun and moon but they only touched on it for people and were mostly fazed out.

@edgedino no megas were awesome and fresh and were meant to stay. They even put them in lets go.

@AndreaF96 and ultimately they can't be everywhere but yes they are awesome.

@edgedino there is no reason why they couldn't keep national dex, megas and z-moves. They could have just not added stupid minigames that nobody cares for anyway.

@Ralek85 I have a collector's heart. I don't collect as much as I used to. Almost all of my Xbox One and PS4 games are downloads but right now I have zero interest in streaming games. I might have an okay internet service but I don't think the tech is there yet. Maybe one day I will be happy to just play a game without the need of "owning" it. I don't even have Xbox Game Pass but maybe if I played as much as I did in my 20's I would.

@idrawrobots I moved to digital games as well, but not really due to no longer having a collector's heart, I just collect different stuff these days and games just take up room, I could better use for other stuff
Also, I'm honestly to lazy to manually eject/inset games all the time ... sad but true! ^^

@AndreaF96 programming isn't always that simple especially when its a jump from handheld to a new form of hardware.

@edgedino I know quite a bit about programming since I am a computer scientist and I can guarantee that programming difficulties have nothing to do with their decision to remove zmoves, megas and national dex. They are really not that hard to code. Even gamefreak didn't talk about that. When they addressed the national dex complaints they said that the reason the sheer number of models and animation they would have needed to redo for all the other pokemon. It is quite infuriating since it seems like they are just reusing 3ds models and animations for old pokemon anyway and they used an even bigger team to create, as usual, stupid minigames. Moreover, there is not an explanation that I know of for the removal of megas and zmoves. Damn they removed megas to introduce something that is similar but not quite the same (dynamax and gigamax). One last thing: It would have been awesome to have been able to actually do the dance to activate the zmoves while playing docked. That would indeed have been a cool addition to the game. That is my opinion, anyway. Oh about the fact that they claim that swsh have had the biggest team for a mainline pokemon game ever: it better be true since they are also charging the biggest sum of money for a mainline Pokémon ever.

@AndreaF96 ya that is true but ultimately it is their decision and I t this point wouldn't be surprised a big factor of it being removed was because they thought it would either take away the hype they want for the gigamaxing or just unbalance the fights. as for redoing models and such. at this point it will all depend on whether or not they are truly future proof or and atleast they will have most of them redone. as for them basically looking the same I would expect it to look the same considering they wanted the 3ds models to specifically look the same each game after that with future proofing. dancing to activate z-moves would have been fun but I could have sworn it was different studios that focus on those type of control schemes and not gamefreak though if they would they would need aid from a dif Nintendo studio to get that done properly atleast the first time. As for charging the most it was gunna happen since its a mainstream game franchise on a home console but atleast Walmart locally is selling it for over 10$ less then msrp to compete with online.
Edit: Thank you for the your time for having a good long conversation with me