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Avowed (Obsidian RPG)

It picks up later on once you have a half dozen or more hours in I might start the game again on my vacation this week.
 
Random patch yesterday added HDR, but it has absolutely killed my performance and made the game glitchy as hell. Like assets aren't being correctly loaded. People on consoles are reporting the same issues, so I guess I'm just going to wait for a follow-up update.
 
TaintedSquirrel said:
The game is set in the PoE universe which is rich with lore, so it's just a lack of talent at modern Obsidian.
Kinda the same way Disney ruins modern Star Wars movies.
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Game Director Carrie Patel was the narrative lead on Pillars of Eternity II, and was one of the writers on the first game. A lot of the same people who worked on those first two games worked on Avowed.
 
Looking around through Reddit, I found a fix for the performance issues the latest patch brought on: https://www.reddit.com/r/avowed/comments/1m1huls/latest_patch_actually_adds_hdr_to_the_game_see/
It's now running better than ever and it looks exactly the same. Thanks to the update, HDR works now, too. Not sure it looks any better, but it's odd for a 2025 game not to have it.

Never played the Pillars of Eternity games before. I'd just say that the world of Avowed feels very generic high fantasy. So much so that it could be set in Faerun, Tamriel, Middle Earth, etc. Outside of the occasional blue word in the dialogue, it feels like a game they could have been designing to work for any number of franchises. Change some spell and enemy names and suddenly this is a D&D game or a TES spinoff. Maybe that's how the Pillars titles worked, too - I dunno. I'm having fun with things, but I have a feeling I won't remember much of anything about this game in 6 months.
 
This game has been a pain in my ass. That update from last week is still the culprit. The mod I found fixed things for one area, but as soon as I got to the next main area it started hard-crashing. Getting rid of the mod makes the game so stuttery that it's borderline unplayable. Things improve over time, but as soon as I exit the game or head to a new area, the stutters are back. I've tried a variety of driver versions, DLSS versions, and tweaks, and nothing seems to full-on fix it.
I've found some more mitigations, but the game is either stuttery or unstable no matter what I do. Things were running like a million bucks before the patch last week.
The issues are apparently exclusive to the Gamepass version, too. If you've been thinking of playing this, now probably isn't the time.
 
Whoa on the performance issues... I finally got back to gaming after a long hiatus due to major family shit going on, life shit, everything shit... also had to quit drinking as it was just making things worse...

Anyhow, so I really wanted to play this game some more... I got that message I needed to update my motherboard bios, or it was strongly advised to do so, when launching the game... fun stuff! I'm guessing because of the power throttling issues on intel boards with 13/14th gen cpus... I have my cpu locked at 1.3v and tweaked llc so I am not getting any voltage spikes... my temps dropped way down when I did this too. this was back when I bought the z690 and cpu in April 2023... been having no issues since then. I did not update my bios.

Avowed has been running fine, very smooth, no cpu heat spikes, and no complaints at all so far... I did just start a fresh game with no mods at all... I have about 5 hours into this new playthrough so far... hopefully I don't have issues as I am enjoying it... it's about the right level of distraction for me rn.. I am playing the gamepass version via the xbox app too... windows 11 + nvidia drivers were updated two days ago.. I'll let you all know if I start to encounter issues!
 
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After getting to the point of nearly giving up, I tried a couple things I saw on Reddit and am back to being able to rung the game.
I installed this INI update: https://www.nexusmods.com/avowed/mods/5
I also used DLSS Swapper to update those files to the latest and greatest, too. It's a neat tool even if you don't play this game.
No clue if either of them fixed it by themselves or if it was some combo of the two, but performance is back to where it was and I've had no crashes since I did those things.

Game-wise, I'm finishing up the 2nd main area now and most of my gear is now "exceptional" or "superb." In the first area fighting enemies with skulls (especially multiple skulls) was something you mostly didn't want to try. Lately I've just been killing anything and everything without much issue. I have a metric shitload of food and plants I'm not really using much of, too. Beyond upgrades to my core gear, I'm hoarding stuff I'll probably never use.
 
I completed everything yesterday and I never did find much use for the crazy amount of food I found. I guess some people might be into in-game "cooking" or whatever, but I had like 150 health and mana potions at the end of the game, too. Those seem better than any food items. Lots of games do it, but it's just a weird pet peeve of mine.

Plot-wise, I think the writing was good and I appreciate the illusion that your choices matter. Do they? On the surface I guess. It's very much in the Phantasy Star 3 realm of changing a few lines of dialogue and the wrap-up text when you beat the final boss, but it doesn't really change the game world. With Avowed, all of the decisions tend to boil down to "no matter what you choose, somebody is gonna get fucked over" anyway. Once you see that pattern (and realize it doesn't affect the game world), it makes me wish went the pure asshole route the whole time. Just to see if it makes any difference.
 
I am 10 hours in now... most of the first main area mapped out and now I am doing all the side quests and stuff... game looks very nice.... and the movement is very good.... I like that I can run around everywhere or fast travel easily.. but running and jumping is super smooth, makes the game very enjoyable ... when running I feel like I am on rollerblades cruising around hah.. I haven't found much great gear, but I did buy a fine pistol and been using that with my off-hand book and normal wizard spells ... so far pretty fun but I will need to move to my want eventually as I an building that up and then have want only skills in the next tree... but with the fine pistol I can one shot a ton of enemies which is fun.. it's getting a little harder to do that as I am finding harder mobs.. once I can get the wand a little higher I'll pivot to that... The pistol has some nice range on it though, was a nice investment early game (spent all my money on it lol!)..

The writing seems good, whole vibe is good... I am starting to choose more of the asshole responses to see what happens... but generally being very snarky.
 
I tried the 2-handed axe/sword thing at the beginning, but found that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. I equipped a wand and was eradicating baddies from a mile away rapid-fire and I didn't even need mana to do it. At that point, I just kept upgrading it. Then I discovered that it was even more productive to equip TWO wands. Keep boosting your stamina and wand damage abilities and you're hell on wheels. You don't even need the other stats and most of the time you don't really have to care about getting hit, either. The ranger ability that instantly refills your stamina works great, too.
 
now that the initial release hype/disappointment window has passed it seems more people are actually liking the game...of course you'll get the usual crazies in the first week talking about nonsense, but after they move on to another game to be outraged about, the actual people playing Avowed seem to like it...doesn't mean it's the greatest game of all time but it sounds like a decent game to play (especially when it goes on sale)
 
polonyc2 said:
now that the initial release hype/disappointment window has passed it seems more people are actually liking the game...of course you'll get the usual crazies in the first week talking about nonsense, but after they move on to another game to be outraged about, the actual people playing Avowed seem to like it...doesn't mean it's the greatest game of all time but it sounds like a decent game to play (especially when it goes on sale)
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The fact that you have to say that....
 
I found Avowed to be a perfect Gamepass game. The kind of game that's enjoyable and something you'll probably want to play all the way through, but you probably wouldn't want to spend $50-70 for.
There are a lot of games like that, and I'm grateful that a shitload of them are on Gamepass. Not everything is an A+ and not everything is a D-, and those games in the middle can be fun, too.
 
Domingo said:
This game has been a pain in my ass. That update from last week is still the culprit. The mod I found fixed things for one area, but as soon as I got to the next main area it started hard-crashing. Getting rid of the mod makes the game so stuttery that it's borderline unplayable. Things improve over time, but as soon as I exit the game or head to a new area, the stutters are back. I've tried a variety of driver versions, DLSS versions, and tweaks, and nothing seems to full-on fix it.
I've found some more mitigations, but the game is either stuttery or unstable no matter what I do. Things were running like a million bucks before the patch last week.
The issues are apparently exclusive to the Gamepass version, too. If you've been thinking of playing this, now probably isn't the time.
Click to expand...

I also read the recent update screwed up the game.
 
Comixbooks said:
I also read the recent update screwed up the game.
Click to expand...

It did, big time. I had to go down a series of Reddit rabbit holes to get things fixed. The issues seem to be exclusive to the Gamepass version and they're still an issue, too.
The patch added a couple new things, too, though. It added HDR and some new items. At least one of the new items, the Perseverance wand, is powerful as fuck. It might be the best weapon in the whole game.
 
I should boot up my game see if it still works haven't played in two months. Somone said they almost drowned in the starting area the game was so unresponsive.
 
I am playing the gamepass version and haven't noticed anything... but I am playing on a fairly robust pc... that said I played it on an Asus G14 (ryzen 32g 4070) and haven't noticed stuttering on either system that I can tell... The a 4090 with the latest drivers played it all yesterday, silky smooth.. DLLS on quality but no frame gen on the PC.. on my laptop I am using frame gen and making IQ sacrifices.. most settings on medium.. It plays well enough to enjoy it and it was great getting some gaming in while at my dad's house last weekend, a little escape time.

I really got into this game... I am on a loot hunt, upgrading all my gear and being as snarky as possible with my interactions.. not always choosing violence but some assholes just need to meet the end of my wand. The story is decent, voice acting is very good imo, game looks great and I love the movement.. seeing how far I can make it up edges of things, exploring the boundaries of the map is usualy a good indicator of how into a game I am lol. Trying to find all of the little hidden items etc.. I just got to the desert like biome and all of my gear us exceptional but one, my off-hand spell book (grimore?) is superb.. I put points into grimore mastery level 4 too, which unlocked some fun stuff... I bought a nice unique wand with some shock damage too.. it looks kinda bad ass in the hand with electricity bouncing around all over it..

It's a cool game I would pay $60 for and plan to keep playing for a while, but not sure I would have had I not had gp and tried it on a whim.. that said gamepass has been kind of cool and had some other decent stuff I have enjoyed... Atomfall and The Outer Worlds are two I played a lot of too earlier this year.
 
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Anyone know why I am getting around 51fps in this game?

I have a RTX 5090. You can see in my sig my specs. Game is set to 4K, motion blur off, ray tracing on, v-sync is on but max fps is set to my monitor's 144hz/fps. All in-game graphics are set to Epic. DLSS is off. I should be getting close to 100fps.

Any idea why I am getting half of what I should be getting below? I know I don't have a i9 but that shouldn't be cutting things in half.


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Yeah when I disabled DLSS completely I noticed a hit too... I have it on with quality setting but no frame gen.
 
There was a 6-year gap between The Outer Worlds 1 and 2 (and 2 just started its lifespan) so I'm not too concerned. I'm fine with more Avowed. The mechanics were fun. If they can make the world/enemies less generic, there's a lot to move forward with.
 
Domingo said:
There was a 6-year gap between The Outer Worlds 1 and 2 (and 2 just started its lifespan) so I'm not too concerned. I'm fine with more Avowed. The mechanics were fun. If they can make the world/enemies less generic, there's a lot to move forward with.
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To do that, they'd have to stop copying Bethesda's homework.
 
Avowed 2 without the fruity pebbles nonsense would be great. The gameplay and combat mechanics were solid. Everything else I could have done without.
 
Domingo said:
There was a 6-year gap between The Outer Worlds 1 and 2 (and 2 just started its lifespan) so I'm not too concerned. I'm fine with more Avowed. The mechanics were fun. If they can make the world/enemies less generic, there's a lot to move forward with.
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I always thought that the first one was just something to keep lights on while between bigger projects, both for 2k and Obsidian alike.
Since Outer Worlds seemed to me before release as an almost Bioshock mixed with fallout 2.

I liked the world in Avowed, but I just don't have it in me to play a dense isometric crpg like Pillers of Eternity.
 
Downloading a 56+ patch someone said it's the entire game the patch might delete saves forced to start over. This patch wasn't announced so it might be a mistake.

Update: My Saves are still intack whew.
 
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Update looks pretty solid actually. Wish there was a "turn dialog off and just kill the things" button. Combat is this game's, possibly singular, strong point.
 
huh maybe time to NG+ this one. It was the most fun to explore I've had in a long while in a game.. and the combat is great... the visuals, audio, and mechanics..
 
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Only have 12 hours in the game I had to switch over to a mage with my skills to Freeze some water for platforms.
 
I wanted another avowed game that "Nobody asked for". It failed because they were using it to push game pass and this a lot of lost sales on steam. And maybe a little bit of marketing to make everyone expect it's a Skyrim game. I wonder if a full sandbox game was the initial attempt and then they were told to scale back. It was supposedly doing really well on game pass.
 
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No it tanked because they pushed the woke nonsense and ridiculed their player base when we made it clear we are tired of this crap. It's a shame too because (as I've praised repeatedly) the combat was solid. If they had just stuck with a normal game with normal characters and a game director that didn't hate his player base I think it would have done pretty well and we'd be looking at a sequel. I'd buy that sequel.
 
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