Intel's Cancelled Skyrim Rival - Investigating Project Offset

[Doublezero]

I've never heard of Project Offset before I watched this video. It's disappointing that Intel cancelled the game but I don't believe it would have stood a chance against Skyrim anyway.

 

[Guest]

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. The only thing Bethesda is good at, is creating huge open worlds. They sucks at AI, animations, role-playing, story telling, combat, physics etc. Nothing they do will change that. The only way I'd ever buy another TES or Fallout game is if they sold the rights to another company and they actually brought back the RPG in those games and the things that mattered most apart from the RPG aspect.

Skyrim is overrated. I don't believe it deserved game of the year.

[bjornk]

There isn't much about the game in that video, is it? Don't know, can't say that I'm impressed with the tech demos the video shows.

That click bait thumbnail though... Isn't that the ranger from Black Desert (see my avatar)?

[Doublezero]

22 hours ago, endgameaddiction said:

Skyrim is overrated. I don't believe it deserved game of the year.

I agree Skyrim is overrated but considering how much that game appealed to the casual audience and how well it sold I don't believe Project Offset could have competed.

6 hours ago, bjornk said:

There isn't much about the game in that video, is it? Don't know, can't say that I'm impressed with the tech demos the video shows.

The narrator went into a fair bit of detail about the game. It seemed like a promising game. Too bad Intel got their hands on it.

[bjornk]

10 hours ago, Doublezero said:

The narrator went into a fair bit of detail about the game. 

It was mostly technical though. The only thing about the game itself was that it was a FPS with different classes. If it's not even an RPG, does it really matter if it was going to be superior to Skyrim in terms of graphics technology? I mean, who cares?

Skyrim is indeed a mediocre game, even when played with hundreds of mods, but as we all usually say, there were no alternatives that offered the same features. That's why people have played it for this long.

Edited November 8, 2017 by bjornk

[Doublezero]

9 hours ago, bjornk said:

It was mostly technical though. The only thing about the game itself was that it was a FPS with different classes. If it's not even an RPG, does it really matter if it was going to be superior to Skyrim in terms of graphics technology? I mean, who cares?

I agree. The game was never completed and for all we know the gameplay, story and multiplayer could have been worse than anything that was in Skyrim. There are however, may people out there who would argue that Skyrim's not an RPG either.

Even if Project Offset was released, was a superior game and had all off the same features I still don't believe it would have beaten Skyrim in sales. The game would have been drowned by all the hype and Bethesda had a much better reputation and a legion of fanboys to defend it.

I disagree about mods though. It added longevity to the PC version but not to consoles where 86% of the sales were made.

Project Offset was doomed the moment Intel bought the studio. They wanted the game to take advantage their Larrabee GPGPU chip and that prevented them from releasing it on consoles. The game probably (and this is my conjecture) would have run poorly on AMD systems as well.

[bjornk]

6 hours ago, Doublezero said:

There are however, may people out there who would argue that Skyrim's not an RPG either.

Well, they would be wrong. Skyrim may be worse than some of its predecessors, or worse than FNV for instance, and it surely is a crippled, streamlined RPG, but it still is an RPG, even more of an RPG than The Witcher, if you ask me. However, having dragons and other fantasy elements doesn't really make a game a rival to Skyrim and that's the problem of the video. It would be better if they left the Skyrim part out of it. There's always been engines technically superior to Gamebryo (e.g. Unreal, CryEngine) but we don't really compare the games made with them to Skyrim. (Edit: It's quite possible that they added the Skyrim part to attract more viewers, like their click bait Black Desert thumbnail. :D)

6 hours ago, Doublezero said:

I disagree about mods though. It added longevity to the PC version but not to consoles where 86% of the sales were made.

That's correct, but unlike us the PC players, the console crowds who bought Skyrim would never call it a "mediocre" game that needs modding. They don't see the glaring issues with the game like we do. They see games as a complete entertainment package, not a bug ridden garbage needs fixing. They entertain themselves with them for a while and they throw them away after a few months at best, as they are more of a "consumer" than we are, and obviously less of a critic. 

Up until Skyrim SE and mods for consoles, the "longevity" of Skyrim was mostly due to PC sales. Now, though, as long as they continue to offer mods for console versions, console sales will also benefit from mods.

6 hours ago, Doublezero said:

Project Offset was doomed the moment Intel bought the studio.

Or perhaps the game was already doomed and the studio searched for ways to survive? I mean, if the studio wanted or needed to be sold, is it really fair to blame Intel?

 

Edited November 8, 2017 by bjornk

[Doublezero]

8 minutes ago, bjornk said:

That's correct, but unlike us the PC players, the console crowds who bought Skyrim would never call it a "mediocre" game that needs modding. They don't see the glaring issues with the game like we do. They see games as a complete entertainment package, not a bug ridden garbage needs fixing. They entertain themselves with them for a while and they throw them away after a few months at best, as they are more of a "consumer" than we are, and obviously less of a critic. 

Up until Skyrim SE and mods for consoles, the "longevity" of Skyrim was mostly due to PC sales. Now, though, as long as they continue to offer mods for console versions, console sales will also benefit from mods.

I somewhat agree. I don't know if mods on consoles will ever take off considering how limited they are.

12 minutes ago, bjornk said:

Or perhaps the game was already doomed and the studio searched for ways to survive? I mean, if the studio wanted or needed to be sold, is it really fair to blame Intel?

If they needed to be bought out (which I agree they probably did) going to Intel was their worst choice. Yes, I think it's fair to blame Intel. They only wanted the game to push Larrabee and when that didn't workout they canceled the project. Now they're just sitting on the IP.