Now this is surprising. THQ and Obsidian announced yesterday – via the videogame magazine GameInformer – that a new South Park RPG is in the makings. Now this is great and we are overly excited about it. There is a lot of potential here and Obsidian could attone for their previous sins with such a game. However, we fear that this new game is doomed to fail. Why? Well keep reading to find out!
First of all, a South Park game should not take itself serious. There is a thin line between a cheesy game and a funny – yet astounding and awesome – one. This line can be easily crossed and the end result could be a catastrophe. Take for example the previous South Park game or the Postal series. I know, I know; some of you are enjoying the Postal games. But here is the problem. “Some of you”. A lot of gamers find it cheesy and low-budget. So it will be interesting to see the game’s direction but from what we’re hearing, it will be an RPG similar to Fallout: New Vegas. Obsidian will obviously try to recreate something that was successful a few years ago – only with a different set. This is also indicated by GameInformer’s description, as they said that South Park: The Game will see players as the new kid in South Park and it’ll be up to you to make friends and defend the town from a wide range of threats. Now that sounds really fishy if you ask us.
And then there is Obsidian’s history. I’ll be honest here; Obsidian is a damn talented studio. Alpha Protocol was their most promising IP but it flopped. In fact, almost all of Obsidian’s games have flopped, one way or another. Let’s take a look shall we? Neverwinter Nights II flopped sales wise, Alpha Protocol flopped, Fallout: New Vegas was full of bugs at its time of release and was saved by the fact that GameBryo was so friendly to mods and Dungeon Siege III flopped.
There is really something common with all those games – that were developed by Obsidian – and that’s their huge bug list. Each and every one of them had huge and endless bugs at their time of release. Some of them got patched while others were left to their fate. Obsidian is talented, there is no doubt about that. However they can hardly hit their release dates and launch bug-free games. Alpha Protocol had the potential to be one of the best games of 2010. Instead, it’s now a discontinued IP franchise. Dungeon Siege 3 was also a highly anticipated action hack n slash RPG that flopped because it was seriously bugged.
We don’t know whether it’s the publishers fault or Obsidian’s. The fact is that we can’t remember a game that came from this studio and was stable or without major bugs. And that’s precisely what might doom the new South Park RPG. Do not misunderstand us, we are really looking forward to it and there is a lot of potential. However, Alpha Protocol had also a lot of potential and look what happened to it.
Let’s just hope that THQ will give Obsidian some space and won’t persuade them to release it in time. But then again, when did a publisher offer such freedom to even triple-A studios, let alone studios of Obsidian’s level. So there you have it, South-Park is already doomed to fail unless THQ decides to let them develop it the way they want to. Yeap, that’s right THQ. Just let them develop a bug-free bloody game and you will be rewarded, that’s a guarantee.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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