inXile probably could’ve released a slightly tweaked version of Wasteland 2‘s early beta and called it a day, so well done Brian Fargo and co for staying in the trenches while feedback bombs rained down all around. Now though, after months of overhauling, underhauling, betweenhauling, caterwauling, and gatorcrawling, the beta’s end is finally in sight. Wasteland 2 – the full thing, LA and all – will be out in August.
Brian Fargo made the announcement on Wasteland 2’s Kickstarter:
“We are very happy to announce the ship date for Wasteland 2: the game will be coming to you at the end of August of this year!”
“At this stage we’re internally feature complete, but not feature locked. What that means is that every feature is in our dev builds but we’re still testing functionality, gameplay balance impact and even quality. If a feature is not good enough, we’ll cut it, but if fan feedback and internal review indicates it’s vital, we’ll double down on it. But the main focus for the new few months lies with balancing, optimizing and of course mercilessly hunting down bugs.”
So the beta’s not going anywhere just yet, and to celebrate this fine occasion, inXile has released an update that gives Arizona its final hunk of landmass. In other words, beta players now have access to a full half of Wasteland 2’s, er, wasteland.
I’ve mostly steered clear of the beta ever since I first tried it out last year, largely because I want to be able to play the full, proper experience unspoiled. Alec did a cracking diary series about goats and I guess other things too, though. Are there any more consistent Wasteland 2 players in the crowd? Do you think it’s evolved nicely over time?
21/05/2014 at 11:09 SkittleDiddler says:
Will it still be going for $59.99 on release? That seems a bit steep.
21/05/2014 at 11:12 Anthile says:
Why would you think that? The price for the digital version was always about $30.
21/05/2014 at 11:17 SkittleDiddler says:
Every time I’ve checked Wasteland 2’s Steam Store page, the price has been set at $59.99. Was it cheaper at some earlier point in time?
Doesn’t matter really. I refuse to pay that much for any game, so I’ll be waiting for a future sale to pick it up.
EDIT: The price I quoted is for the Digital Deluxe Edition. I can’t seem to find a standard edition listed on Steam. Yet.
21/05/2014 at 12:16 thekeats1999 says:
I believe the Early Access has been priced as such to match the Kickstarter pledge level that gets you beta access. Once the game is complete it will probably drop to the more reasonable price.
21/05/2014 at 23:33 welverin says:
It definitely and the Early Access version was set to the same price point as the pledge level you got beta access at.
Not that people on the Steam forums could understand that.
22/05/2014 at 01:16 Booker says:
LOL, wherever I go, there’s someone saying that. :D Weird!
21/05/2014 at 11:11 BooleanBob says:
More like Wait-sland, am I right guys?
…
…
Guys?
21/05/2014 at 13:03 Rao Dao Zao says:
Blood sausage? It’ll be expanding waist-land after that.
21/05/2014 at 13:22 guygodbois00 says:
Sausage jokes are the wurst.
21/05/2014 at 17:26 arccos says:
Don’t knockwurst it until you try it.
21/05/2014 at 18:01 evileeyore says:
You guys are brauts.
21/05/2014 at 22:29 DrManhatten says:
Bruchwurst 0wnz them all
22/05/2014 at 10:41 mr.black says:
You’re all such a wieners!
21/05/2014 at 11:23 gnodab says:
You know what would be neat? A RPS Wasteland Diary. -.-
Alec killed the dog didn’t he? And now he is afraid the internet will find out, isn’t he?
21/05/2014 at 13:18 guygodbois00 says:
I second that RPS Wasteland Diary motion. Also, can’t wait the august – butterflies in stomach and such nonsense.
21/05/2014 at 21:54 Bull0 says:
You guys know there’s already an RPS wasteland diary, right?
link to rockpapershotgun.com
21/05/2014 at 11:47 Brinx says:
Great, there goes my master’s thesis.
21/05/2014 at 15:42 Fontan says:
Good thing I just finished mine!
21/05/2014 at 11:57 JFS says:
I’m still mad at them for their decision to include Kickstarter-exclusive content, namely extra ranger portraits, for higher pledge tiers. I backed them, but that was a stupid move. I hope they’ll think it over when the game finally releases. I’m curious to find out whether it’s everything the gaming world is expecting.
21/05/2014 at 14:50 Martel says:
What content is that? I must have missed the announcement as I don’t see it on their KS page and now you have me worried.
21/05/2014 at 15:27 Enkinan says:
You can add all the portraits you want, I was doing it last night. Hovering over the portraits during character creation even gives you the path to put them in. jpeg, png, and other formats in 256×256.
I wish they would do the same for the character models, I’m still unimpressed with those.
22/05/2014 at 01:18 Booker says:
They promised us a deep RPG experience and a solid story, not flashy graphics.
21/05/2014 at 18:19 Superpat says:
That seems like a rather innocuous thing to be mad about.. I mean its an easy way to thank them for the extra money without imbalancing the game.
21/05/2014 at 12:09 Mittens89 says:
Massive hype around this game. I remain cautiously optimistic, although I have tried very hard to not get wrapped up in all the excitement and build up. I was encouraged by what I managed to play at Rezzed, although I forced myself to put the game down before I got too involved.
This is one of those games (everyone has only a few of these games per year, if that) where im ignoring all of the press, all of the videos, all of the dev blogs/diaries/whatever, and all of the player feedback until I’ve read the WIT. Only then will i let myself give in to the hype machine.
21/05/2014 at 14:20 Frank says:
“Massive hype”? Really? I mean, RPS talks about it every few months, but it’s hardly been over the top praise. And I doubt outlets not catering to hardcore tactical PC RPG fans mention it at all.
Anyway, as a non-beta KS backer, I’m cautiously optimistic, too, … cautious because InXile does not have a good pre-KS record
21/05/2014 at 16:09 Cinek says:
“And I doubt outlets not catering to hardcore tactical PC RPG fans mention it at all.” – pretty much every gaming-related website posts a news about Wasteland 2, and heck – I seen news about it even in some generic, technology-related websites during the KS campaign.
21/05/2014 at 17:23 Frank says:
Mayhap. But the KS campaign was ages ago
22/05/2014 at 01:20 Booker says:
I wouldn’t call it massive. It’s kind of normal, for a game that was crowd-funded and therefore has a few people everywhere that care about it.
21/05/2014 at 12:10 fredc says:
I played through up to the last beta release, which I’m glad to say was a big improvement on the first. Going to wait for the release date now though, so I don’t spoil the game for myself.
21/05/2014 at 12:14 Wizardry says:
Time to play through the original again I think.
23/05/2014 at 00:18 squareking says:
HEY YOU!
21/05/2014 at 12:24 BobbyDylan says:
Already sunk about 28 hours into this, but I stopped after a the Ag centre mission.
I’m glad they’re still working on it. The UI isn’t quite right yet. Some of it feels really good (new trade screen) but some of it outright needs overhauling (Dialog).
21/05/2014 at 15:37 Enkinan says:
The beta release from yesterday redid the dialogue, it is much improved. I believe a backer was actually responsible for the majority of it.
21/05/2014 at 15:46 Squirly says:
Er… the dialog and it’s keyword system seems to be a pretty intrinsic and specific-to-wasteland type thing. How do you mean “overhaul”?
21/05/2014 at 13:06 tomimt says:
It’s getting there. This update seems to have improved perfomance as well, I can now run it with all the bells and whistles on and get a playble framerate.
21/05/2014 at 16:13 Cinek says:
Legacy of the Unity Engine. This game got such a simple graphics that a proper engine would easily make it work buttery-smooth even on a really old PCs. But on the other hand – it’d probably mean even more delays which would be rather horrible considering that this game was suppose to be out in October last year.
21/05/2014 at 16:55 The Random One says:
Unity Legacy: Fall of the Framerate
21/05/2014 at 14:23 Taerdin says:
Kickstarted this when it first went up. Will be nice to finally get to play it.
21/05/2014 at 15:04 Keyrock says:
As an aside, Kaszanka (Polish blood sausage) is insanely delicious.
21/05/2014 at 15:32 Enkinan says:
Fired it up last night and have definitely noticed improvement from the last time I played about 3 months ago. The UI, combat, and performance are all at a much more polished level. I’m going to play the whole thing and spoil it, then do it again on release and enjoy every minute of it. I’m already finding things I missed on my last play through.
21/05/2014 at 16:41 Darth Gangrel says:
When I go to donate blood once every 3 months I always think “There will be blood”, but I’ve never tasted blood sausage, nor do I want to. Regrettably, I didn’t find the movie There Will Be Blood to be all that good, it felt slow and long, but it did have a nice ending.
21/05/2014 at 17:48 2Ben says:
You really should try. French traditional blood sausages and cooked apples are super good, and the West Indies’ spicy version are pretty awesome too!
21/05/2014 at 19:01 N'Al says:
Heathen. There Will Be Blood is the greatest.
21/05/2014 at 16:50 The Random One says:
“inXile probably could’ve released a slightly tweaked version of Wasteland 2‘s early beta and called it a day…”
No, they shouldn’t and couldn’t. For this unforgivable slight, I condemn you to infinite PopeRatzos.
22/05/2014 at 06:09 racccoon says:
Not a great fan of the style of gameplay, but I like the progression and improvments that have gone on in this game development over time. :)
23/05/2014 at 10:57 Crazy Horse says:
I hope they have a good voice actor for that goat. I really hate it when video game goats are given bland and disinterested voice “talent”.