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Always watching.

observer_ is available now, DRM-free on GOG.com
In this cyberpunk survival-horror from the team behind Layers of Fear you'll enter the minds of the criminal and the insane, and discover a dark corporate future buried beneath plague and squalor.

Get it now with a 20% discount if you own Layers of Fear on GOG.com – the loyalty discount will last for one week, until August 22, 11AM UTC.

Watch the trailer
Post edited August 15, 2017 by GOG_Solostran
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groze: I'm not generally one to complain about every single thing GOG does, like most users in these forums, and I also don't spend all of my time reminiscing about the "good old days" of GOG, but it's worth pointing out that their announcement/release threads have been quite... lackluster and bare for a while, now. Then again, they have been growing quite a lot, and publishing way more games than they used to, it's probably not easy to write an entire chapter about each game, like they used to.

Also, on a somewhat related note, while GOG used to capture their own screenshots of the games they sold, these days it looks like they just use whatever official screenshots the devs and/or publishers send them.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you, just stating these things.
Just had a nosey, yeah, some of them are bad. But there's three others (including their pinata gambling thing) which are way more detailed.

Woah, just loaded it on steam & got a shock.

Do you get this launcher thing here too?
Attachments:
snipp.jpg (137 Kb)
Post edited August 15, 2017 by fishbaits
This game looks quite cool, but the glitcy stuff is a bit annoying and I don't like too much controlling an old character..
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Post edited August 15, 2017 by Fairfox
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fishbaits: Do you get this launcher thing here too?
The launcher isn't present here.
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fishbaits: Do you get this launcher thing here too?
I know a "blue" already answered you, so my reply is kind of redundant, but after starting the game from Galaxy and from the regular *.exe, I can confirm the GOG version doesn't have the launcher. Not that I miss it, but having an options menu before entering the game could be good; the first time I ran the game I was having some slowdown during the intro crawl, but after turning some graphics options down (I'm on a lame-ass laptop), the game -- and the intro crawl -- now run smoothly.

My first impression of the game, so far, is that it's awesome. Kudos to Bloober, these guys really know how to nail atmosphere. Great art direction, stunning attention to detail, excellent sound design. I'm positive that I won't be disappointed in this game. Amazing, gripping, mysterious start, I can't wait to see what they have in store as the game progresses.

A developer worth supporting, no doubt. Go, Bloober, go, GOG, go, Poland! :P

[EDIT] Seriously, these guys are technical wizards! Layers of Fear looks impressive, using Unity, now they are using Unreal Engine 4 and, again, they seem to be able to get the most out of the engine they're working with. I know Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (which also uses the Unreal Engine 4) is stealing all the limelight, these days, because it's been heavily advertised as an "indie AAA", especially because of its production value and how great it looks. And, though I'll admit Ninja Theory's mocap technology for Senua is downright impressive, I'd say that, all in all, >observer_ can look just as good, if not better, at certain points -- plus, they probably didn't have the same high production values that Ninja Theory did. The Bloober guys know their way around game engines, that much can't be denied. They impressed me with Unity, now they're doing it again -- even better -- with Unreal Engine. If this studio ever closes its doors, whoever employs these people are in luck, for their technical magic with all sorts of game engines alone.
Post edited August 16, 2017 by groze
game looks good and it's real rutger...
but i had to wait for linux version to be released.
and according to devs on another forum they don't expect it to be ready this month...
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fishbaits: Do you get this launcher thing here too?
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groze: I know a "blue" already answered you, so my reply is kind of redundant, but after starting the game from Galaxy and from the regular *.exe, I can confirm the GOG version doesn't have the launcher. Not that I miss it, but having an options menu before entering the game could be good; the first time I ran the game I was having some slowdown during the intro crawl, but after turning some graphics options down (I'm on a lame-ass laptop), the game -- and the intro crawl -- now run smoothly.

My first impression of the game, so far, is that it's awesome. Kudos to Bloober, these guys really know how to nail atmosphere. Great art direction, stunning attention to detail, excellent sound design. I'm positive that I won't be disappointed in this game. Amazing, gripping, mysterious start, I can't wait to see what they have in store as the game progresses.

A developer worth supporting, no doubt. Go, Bloober, go, GOG, go, Poland! :P

[EDIT] Seriously, these guys are technical wizards! Layers of Fear looks impressive, using Unity, now they are using Unreal Engine 4 and, again, they seem to be able to get the most out of the engine they're working with. I know Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (which also uses the Unreal Engine 4) is stealing all the limelight, these days, because it's been heavily advertised as an "indie AAA", especially because of its production value and how great it looks. And, though I'll admit Ninja Theory's mocap technology for Senua is downright impressive, I'd say that, all in all, >observer_ can look just as good, if not better, at certain points -- plus, they probably didn't have the same high production values that Ninja Theory did. The Bloober guys know their way around game engines, that much can't be denied. They impressed me with Unity, now they're doing it again -- even better -- with Unreal Engine. If this studio ever closes its doors, whoever employs these people are in luck, for their technical magic with all sorts of game engines alone.
Not sure the options thing would help you, as the image shows.

Still not sure what it's for, but perhaps the built in streaming to youtube/twitch etc. /shrugs.

Found a second launcher in steams game folder, that allows it to start without the launcher :D

It is odd though, that they start the story before allowing you access to the options. Does run well though :)


Oh, it also runs without having to open steam \o/
Attachments:
snipp.jpg (139 Kb)
Post edited August 16, 2017 by fishbaits
Oh, looks good. Wishlisted for now. But will do buy it.
Unfortunately, the only thing I connect with Layers of Fear is horrible motion sickness.
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fishbaits: Do you get this launcher thing here too?
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Venita: The launcher isn't present here.
To the developers:
Bugs easy to repro on a Dell XPS 9560 laptop, but should happen with any of the below.

The game crashes hard if you run it on a 4K desktop resolution and you have a 1050 videocard with 4GB memory. Does not matter whether you use the laptop screen or an external monitor.

Probable cause:
Having a 4K desktop does NOT mean that you are gaming in 4K, however the game defaults to the desktop 4K resolution. I assume it runs out of memory while loading the assets or something similar.
The crash happens after the "observer" title on screen, presumably when the game tries to switch the video resolution - the monitor always shows the usual resolution change behaviour, so it's safe to say it's a scanout resolution change.

Very simple possible fixes:
1, Boot into 1080p max resolution, or less if the desktop is less. Warn the player to change the resolution if it is not the same as the desktop resolution, so people who have better than 1080p gaming setups (ie fast video card) don't miss out.
2, have an initial screen resolution selector
3, if the game crashes, next time it boots offer a resolution change

Temporary work around for players:
Run .\TheObserver\Binaries\Win64\TheObserver-Win64-Shipping executable directly, it will be very slow until you change the resolution, but at least it does not crash...
Once the resolution has been changed, quit the game.
Now you can start the game properly, booting with its desktop launcher icon.

Sound bug:
If you have multiple audio devices, (e.g. in my case speaker/headphone, USB headphone, monitor) the game does not use the primary audio device selected in the system for sound output.
Fix:
Check what is the active, primary audio device, rather than using the first available device for sound output.

Thank you :)
Post edited August 16, 2017 by IFW
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IFW: To the developers:
Bugs easy to repro on a Dell XPS 9560 laptop, but should happen with any of the below.

The game crashes hard if you run it on a 4K desktop resolution and you have a 1050 videocard with 4GB memory. Does not matter whether you use the laptop screen or an external monitor.

Probable cause:
Having a 4K desktop does NOT mean that you are gaming in 4K, however the game defaults to the desktop 4K resolution. I assume it runs out of memory while loading the assets or something similar.
The crash happens after the "observer" title on screen, presumably when the game tries to switch the video resolution - the monitor always shows the usual resolution change behaviour, so it's safe to say it's a scanout resolution change.

Very simple possible fixes:
1, Boot into 1080p max resolution, or less if the desktop is less. Warn the player to change the resolution if it is not the same as the desktop resolution, so people who have better than 1080p gaming setups (ie fast video card) don't miss out.
2, have an initial screen resolution selector
3, if the game crashes, next time it boots offer a resolution change

Temporary work around for players:
Run .\TheObserver\Binaries\Win64\TheObserver-Win64-Shipping executable directly, it will be very slow until you change the resolution, but at least it does not crash...
Once the resolution has been changed, quit the game.
Now you can start the game properly, booting with its desktop launcher icon.

Sound bug:
If you have multiple audio devices, (e.g. in my case speaker/headphone, USB headphone, monitor) the game does not use the primary audio device selected in the system for sound output.
Fix:
Check what is the active, primary audio device, rather than using the first available device for sound output.

Thank you :)
Got steam version, so no idea if works same here, but....

\AppData\Local\TheObserver\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\GameUserSettings has screen res options you can chance in any text editor.
In the GOG release it's at:
.\TheObserver\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\

Regardless, the game should not just crash during booting :)
I guess less patient users would have got the game refunded... fingers crossed it was worth it!
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IFW: In the GOG release it's at:
.\TheObserver\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\

Regardless, the game should not just crash during booting :)
I guess less patient users would have got the game refunded... fingers crossed it was worth it!
"Less patient users" would have contacted GOG Support to get the refund and I'm pretty sure the folks at GOG Support would have tried everything -- including this fix listed here -- to get the game running. If you download a GOG game and GOG manages to get the game running on your system, you're not entitled to any refund.
The entire reason I clicked the news item is because the half-face in the game art looked like Rutger Hauer. I did not see him mentioned in the "intersting" post/description, so I watched the video and heard him! Then, I took to the forums for confirmation while finding the Observer imdb page for triple confirmation:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7249606/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_10

Then, I wondered if I was being too thorough and should just move on. And I will; after posting the imdb link in case anyone else need to see it elsewhere to believe. :)

Man, I really wish I had a better machine so that I could run this. Someday I will! Wishlisted for now.
I'm enjoying this game so far, but, boy, did they go overboard with the filters on this or what? Even with all details set to low - couldn't play it any other way on my lame-ass laptop - this game still looks like it consists of 90% post processing and 10% actual graphics. It's kind of absurd: You can turn off motion blur altogether and yet they included a filter that will fill your screen with obscene amounts of static every time you even slightly move your head. Everything just disappears behind a murky haze of post processing and static. I just wish there was a way to remove all those filters entirely, I could probably get a decent framerate too. Not complaining about it, mind you, I'm pleasantly surprised this game runs on my laptop at all. But I'd still like to see what this game has to offer in terms of visuals once you strip away all the noise.