Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed Launching on February 18, PC System Requirements Revealed

[GFreeman]

Obsidian Entertainment has revealed more details about its upcoming first-person fantasy RPG, Avowed. Launching on February 18, pre-orders are now opened for all editions of the game, and Obsidian shared minimum PC system requirements for the game.

Avowed is set in a previously unseen region in the world of Eora, introduced in Pillars of Eternity game. "In your role as envoy, alongside your companions, you'll uncover hidden truths and navigate delicate situations, where every choice shapes the fate of the land and the people living here." The game will be available in Digital Standard Edition, Digital Premium Edition, and the Premium Edition SteelBook Edition, where Premium Editions will get early access on February 13. The Premium Edition is currently available for pre-order on Xbox app on Windows, Battle.net, or Steam. It will also be available to those owning Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass membership.



Obsidian Entertainment also revealed official minimum PC system requirements. You'll need at least an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, and either an AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, or an Intel Arc A580 graphics card. The game will also require an SDD with 75 GB of storage space. The Avowed steam page also reveals recommended system requirements, pushing the CPU requirement up to an AMD Ryzen 5600X or Intel Core i7-10700K, same 16 GB RAM, and either an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. Earlier, NVIDIA confirmed that the game will support DLSS 3, Reflex and Ray Tracing.

• Minimum:
  • OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 / Intel i5-8400
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD RX 5700 / NVIDIA GTX 1070 / Intel Arc A580
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 75 GB available space
• Recommended:
  • OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X / Intel i7-10700K
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Graphics: AMD RX 6800 XT / NVIDIA RTX 3080
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 75 GB available space

As said, Avowed launches officially on February 18 on Xbox Series X/S and PC, and Obsidian Entertainment released the official pre-order trailer.

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[Vayra86]

Holy crap this looks boring and done before AF
Copy pasta game... is that Veilguard's cast... or? Oh wait... they all look like this now, being diverse and all I guess in the vacuum of one screenshot, this holds true

 

[Frick]

Holy crap this looks boring and done before AF
Copy pasta game... is that Veilguard's cast... or? Oh wait... they all look like this now, being diverse and all I guess in the vacuum of one screenshot, this holds true

Well it is Obsidian so I expect it to have a higher standard than Bioware at least, narratively I mean. The director is the narrative design lead on Deadfire. Personally I've tried PoE several times and it never clicked with me (because I have realized isometric RPG's have to be truly incredible* if I am to keep playing them), maybe this will?

As for diversity... Is it the Skeletor or the Asari that put you off?

*The list is Planescape: Torment, Fallout 2 and Disco Elysium)

 

[Space Lynx]

it looks a bit boring to me personally, but i will probably still try it, i expect this will be on humble bundle in less than 14 months, so i will be patient

 

[Onasi]

Avowed looks like the most generic first-person ARPG imaginable. Setting it in Eora when they already nuked anything and everything interesting about the setting in the first PoE game is also… bold. Anyway, the top writing talent for Obsidian were Avellone, Ziets and Gonzales. None are there anymore so no reason to expect anything. I sorta like Josh Sawyer as a system designer, but as anything close to a project lead or narrative director - nah. Dude is boring as hell.

 

[phanbuey]

Obsidian writing is usually awesome. Definitely going to give this a try.

 

[Darc Requiem]

Holy crap this looks boring and done before AF
Copy pasta game... is that Veilguard's cast... or? Oh wait... they all look like this now, being diverse and all I guess in the vacuum of one screenshot, this holds true

While I don't have much interest in this game, comparing modern day "Bioware" to Obsidian Entertainment is wild. Bioware hasn't made a great game in well over a decade.

 

[Onasi]

@Darc Requiem
Neither did Obsidian. Fite me. Their output for the decade was at best mediocre.

 

[Darc Requiem]

@Darc Requiem
Neither did Obsidian. Fite me. Their output for the decade was at best mediocre.

Bioware's output hasn't even been mediocre. Their only "success" was a remaster of an existing well regarded trilogy of games that paled in comparison to the PC mods that inspired it.

 

[dirtyferret]

I may be in the minority but I tend to enjoy Obsidian's games and look forward to this one. We can always use a good RPG while we wait for CD Projekt Red & Larian releases.

 

[Onasi]

@Darc Requiem
No disagreement there.

@dirtyferret
I enjoyed Obsidian games back when they had some talent in-house. I still rate KOTOR 2, Mask of the Betrayer and New Vegas highly. Just… everything after Project Eternity Kickstarter (which eventually became PoE) was them putting out mid as hell games, IMO. Not bad, just uninspired.

 

[dirtyferret]

@Darc Requiem
No disagreement there.

@dirtyferret
I enjoyed Obsidian games back when they had some talent in-house. I still rate KOTOR 2, Mask of the Betrayer and New Vegas highly. Just… everything after Project Eternity Kickstarter (which eventually became PoE) was them putting out mid as hell games, IMO. Not bad, just uninspired.

I enjoyed Outer Worlds. It wasn't great but it was pretty good and certainly better than many other RPGs I played recently.

 

[Onasi]

@dirtyferret
I thought it was aggressively mediocre myself, but fair play. Can recommend keeping an eye on Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon for something in the same Bethesda-esque vein. Still in EA, but shaping up to be an impressive experience, especially considering the small team.

 

[dirtyferret]

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

I've been watching it on GoG but it seems to be in EA for a long time but yeah looks promising and hopefully turn out well

 

[scottslayer]

Obsidian claimed they would tweak some things after the last marketing release got dunked on, does anyone know if they actually changed/improved things?
The game is $70 and to me looks potentially DOA.

 

[dirtyferret]

Obsidian claimed they would tweak some things after the last marketing release got dunked on, does anyone know if they actually changed/improved things?
The game is $70 and to me looks potentially DOA.

supposedly MS gaming delayed it to a better launch window so Obsidain has cleaned up a few things to a game that was otherwise done

Originally scheduled to launch sometime this year, Avowed was delayed a few months ago to February 18, 2025, with Xbox saying it wanted "to give players' backlogs some breathing room" before its release. Since then, not much has been said about the delay - until now, that is. Speaking in a recent interview with Game File, Spencer describes the company's reasoning behind the delay in further detail.

"We can afford it when we have the Diablo expansion, then Black Ops, then Indy [and the Great Circle]," he explains. "We didn’t move it because Obsidian needed the time. They’ll use the time." According to the CEO, the choice to delay Avowed kicked into gear after he spoke to Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty to "plan it out" and after both leads consulted "with the Game Pass team."

Spencer says the decision then came to "make sure we pace this out a little better." It makes sense - after all, other monumental releases like Stalker 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are dropping on Game Pass day one this year. I'm sure it doesn't hurt to give the team at Obsidian more time to cook, however. With possible story endings said to be somewhere in the double digits, the RPG sounds massive.

 

[the54thvoid]

Stalker 2, Stalker 2, Stalker 2.

To quote the bards of metal, 'Nothing Else Matters.'

 

[Vayra86]

Bioware's output hasn't even been mediocre. Their only "success" was a remaster of an existing well regarded trilogy of games that paled in comparison to the PC mods that inspired it.

I would say Andromeda is pretty much the same class of mediocre as, say, Outer Worlds. And Veilguard... lel. Let's not get started.

There's not much between them, whether thats bad for Bioware or good for Obisidian or bad for both, is up to taste, but they're all B movie level games right now. One just has taken their refuge in flashy special effects to sell you an empty hull, and Obsidian takes the lots of content that you can easily skip route. I really can't think of a single Obsidian RPG that was 'very good' . They're all OK, but there's always various niggles and issues fundamental to their games. Nothing game breaking, but not ever (or very rarely) a game you'll replay either.

An example. Tyranny. Its a great little RPG. But its too short, and there so much in it that while carried by a great concept, just isn't fleshed out at all. It never came either. The plot is full of holes. The premise it gives you is absolutely fantastic and gets you fantasizing about all the possibilities. But then you figure out the game basically takes you on rails entirely. Its so strange. Its like they start with great ideas, but don't think it through. Pillars of Eternity is riddled with similar problems, it HAS length, but the pacing of the game makes you want to pull your hair out, and a lot of the systems feel overcomplicated for the sake of being such.

 

[colossusrageblack]

I think this looks interesting. As long as there's a custom character creator, I'm willing to give it a shot.

 

[HairyLobsters]

Holy crap this looks boring and done before AF
Copy pasta game... is that Veilguard's cast... or? Oh wait... they all look like this now, being diverse and all I guess in the vacuum of one screenshot, this holds true

Way to judge a game before it comes out.

 

[Event Horizon]

I wish this was first person Tyranny instead of Pillars. Let's hope they are able to fix the weak impactless melee combat.

 

[Vayra86]

Way to judge a game before it comes out.

I know. Feel free to get back to that judgment post release. I dont mind being wrong, but...

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I wish this was first person Tyranny instead of Pillars. Let's hope they are able to fix the weak impactless melee combat.

Yes, it's unfortunate that we got this fantastic snack of a game called Tyranny, but the PoE world that has two full length RPGs is the one getting built up.

I personally felt Tyranny was a little gem and a great proof of concept, now that is a world that deserves another story.

Obsidian used to have fantastic narratives marred by right schedules, low budgets, and tons of jank.

After POE/Outerworlds it feels like theyve flipped: solid technically polished games with snooze fest narratives.

 

[chrcoluk]

Is it first person only , as one of the very short clips of footage seemed to show a 3rd person view.

 

[Frick]

After POE/Outerworlds it feels like theyve flipped: solid technically polished games with snooze fest narratives.

I liked the story of Outer Worlds. It wasn't anything special but they didn't pretend it was either. It felt like the goal was to write something decent, not great, and that is what they did and that is so much better than trying to write something great and not having the skill/talent to do so. And as such it worked well.