Fallout: New Vegas

[Sarkus]

I'm certainly pleased with this news, but it is an interesting business move on Bethesda's part. They apparently decided that they needed another major Fallout project soon and also decided that they couldn't do it in house, presumably because they are working on the next Elder Scrolls game. Of course, the proposed release date suggests that the next ES game is probably years away as well. I also wonder if this means the Fallout 3 DLC will end with the third one. I was really hoping they would do something with the Commonwealth hints, but maybe they plan to do that down the road.

[Sarkus]

Originally Posted by mkozlows

I hated almost all of the 60 hours I put into Fallout, and NWN2 is the only western story-based RPG that I've ever actually quit playing instead of finishing, and yet I'm pretty much guaranteed to pick this up when it comes out.

I wish more people made RPGs.

So you hate 2 of the 3 major North American RPG developers? Or do you hate Bioware as well?

That sucks. While there are certainly RPG types I prefer over others, I can at least enjoy just about any type that is produced because I can accept it for what it is. Things change and I wouldn't want to be playing the exact same type of RPG's today as I was 10 or 15 years ago.

[metta]

Tycho makes the most interesting point (my bold):

Bethesda has loaned out the Fallout franchise to Obsidian Entertainment in what is easily the most surprising news so far this year. One of two studios to emerge from the wreckage of Black Isle, Obsidian Studios established a world-class RPG studio in an era where western publishers are skittish about the real costs of the genre. The people behind the incredibly damaged Knights of the Old Republic 2, there is probably no collection of talent more able to execute the the specific kind of darkness Fallout represents: midnight granite, with fissures of glinting quartz. Technology is apparently a challenge for them, just as it was for Troika, but they're stepping into a mature platform with a partner that essentially self-publishes. This is fascinating.

I can't even imagine what this is like for the team at Bethesda, or what the metaphor would even be here. It has a drama threshold consistent with the Old Testament, with its resolute arches of lineage and prophecy. If I found out that someone like Chris Avellone was coming in to do something very my like my own job, I would immediately begin throwing up - and I wouldn't stop throwing up until absolutely everything inside my body had come out.

[alexlitel]

Originally Posted by stusser

With the aliens RPG canned, this deal is almost certainly responsible for obsidian staying in business. Great, great news.

I'm pretty sure this is the "third project" Obsidian had been working on for at least a year when Aliens was canned.

[nKoan]

Originally Posted by balut

Want some rye?? COURSE YA DO!


Also: there the Strip, Nellis AFB, Henderson, the Red Rocks, Boulder City, Hoover Dam, Pahrump (home to the Chicken Ranch), Lake Mead, etc.

The proposed Yucca Mtn. nuclear dump could also theoretically be close enough, though it may not fit into the FO universe. If the FO universe supposedly split from ours, then Yucca Mtn. would have even been thought of yet, but it would fit into the whole mutation/radiation thing.

Plus, Death Vally would be near by too.

[Roy Ziegler]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

I'm pretty sure this is the "third project" Obsidian had been working on for at least a year when Aliens was canned.

I don't think so. They've been mentioning just signing something earlier in April.

[Damien Neil]

Originally Posted by mkozlows

I hated almost all of the 60 hours I put into Fallout

I so, so, so don't understand this. Why keep playing if you're hating it?

[Disconnected]

Originally Posted by metta

Tycho makes the most interesting point (my bold):

Can't blame the guy. I'd feel pathetically redundant too in a situation like that.

[Tim James]

Originally Posted by metta

Tycho makes the most interesting point (my bold):

I like that first paragraph, because it agrees with everything I've said.

I still think there is plenty of opportunity for them to fail but if they've absorbed their lessons learned from KOTOR2 and the original NWN2 then it may indeed be vomit-inducing.

[stereoD]

Originally Posted by Munin

Bethesda? Gamebryo? Polished?

I still can't get more than 30 minutes out of Fallout 3 without a CTD or freeze requiring a reset. And that's after spending a weekend trying every fix/tip listed on the Bethesda forums. First game I've ever requested a refund for.

[madkevin]

Originally Posted by Damien Neil

I so, so, so don't understand this. Why keep playing if you're hating it?

There's only a couple of situations where this is understandable:

1) You work as an oil rigger in the middle of the ocean, or an arctic trapper, so you can only get a new game once every six months.

2) You are a child, and your parents will only buy you a new game on your birthday.

In any other situation, GO PLAY ANOTHER GAME.

[Roy Ziegler]

Over at SomethingAwful, JE Sawyer says he's the project director and lead designer.

[Sarkus]

Originally Posted by nKoan

The proposed Yucca Mtn. nuclear dump could also theoretically be close enough, though it may not fit into the FO universe. If the FO universe supposedly split from ours, then Yucca Mtn. would have even been thought of yet, but it would fit into the whole mutation/radiation thing.

The split has never been specifically defined and it has also never stopped anyone from using post-split elements or ignoring pre-split aspects that either they didn't know about or didn't care about. So basically, they will use Yucca or whatever else they want.

That all said, along those lines should be the question of Las Vegas in the Fallout universe in general, given that Vegas as we think of it today basically happened after the split and it was conspiculously absent and not mentioned in Fallout 1 and 2.

[Squee]

Argh. Really disappointed Obsidian grabbed it. Would have been happier if Bethesda was making all the game-y parts and Obsidian did the dialog, but if Obsidian's shitting it out in a year then it makes me think of KotOR2. Terrible, terrible KotOR2. Argh. Really wish they would have just done an expansion.

[Roy Ziegler]

a year and a half, actually, which is just half a year less than what FO3 took and they had to start from the ground up more or less

[alexlitel]

Originally Posted by Roy Ziegler

I don't think so. They've been mentioning just signing something earlier in April.

From early February, prior to the Aliens mess.

Originally Posted by Obsidian junior designer

We always have 3 projects in the works [at Obsidian] these days

What else would the third - and presumably now second - project be?

[Roy Ziegler]

something else?

also, Sawyer was working on Aliens then, so it makes sense that the deal happened after it got canceled now that he's lead on it.

[mkozlows]

Originally Posted by Damien Neil

I so, so, so don't understand this. Why keep playing if you're hating it?

You know how carbon monoxide binds to the part of your blood that really wants oxygen? Fallout did something like that with the hardwired RPG-love part of my brain. Even as I knew that it was destroying my soul, I couldn't quit it, and resolutely collected every cigarette and bottlecap from every overturned desk, searched every bookshelf for the unruined books, explored every line of every awful dialogue tree.

I'm not saying this makes me a paragon of mental health, but we all have our crosses to bear.

[mkozlows]

Originally Posted by Sarkus

So you hate 2 of the 3 major North American RPG developers? Or do you hate Bioware as well?

Bioware can have my babies. And I don't hate the other two, either, just their most recent respective games.

[madkevin]

Originally Posted by mkozlows

You know how carbon monoxide binds to the part of your blood that really wants oxygen? Fallout did something like that with the hardwired RPG-love part of my brain. Even as I knew that it was destroying my soul, I couldn't quit it, and resolutely collected every cigarette and bottlecap from every overturned desk, searched every bookshelf for the unruined books, explored every line of every awful dialogue tree.

So, have you ever stopped playing an RPG after starting it, then? Ever? Because I love 'em too, but even I have stopped playing the ones I was not enjoying. Like, for example, anything with "SaGa" in the title.

[Tim James]

Originally Posted by mkozlows

Bioware can have my babies.

Your babies will be really good at the Towers of Hanoi, and have a strange fascination with crates.

[copet]

Originally Posted by Roy Ziegler

Over at SomethingAwful, JE Sawyer says he's the project director and lead designer.

I sure hope that doesn't become a primary news source for future Fallout: New Vegas news... :O

[Sarkus]

Originally Posted by copet

I sure hope that doesn't become a primary news source for future Fallout: New Vegas news... :O

I'm actually surprised he is saying anything over there since Obsidian still hasn't officially announced anything. From what I've read it sounds like this was all supposed to be embargoed until tomorrow but someone spilled the beans. Apparently there are more details coming, which is good because the Obsidian forum discussion is already over the top with people insisting that a 3rd person perspective is not out of the question, despite all logic.

[Tim James]

Sarkus, can you briefly describe this "split" crap?

[nKoan]

The 'split' is an ambiguous time shortly after WWII (if I recall correctly) where the Fallout universe started to diverge from ours.

It really gives the story designers the ability to pick and choose actual historical events and mix them up with fake ones to create a familiar yet very different history for the game.

[Shadari]

The following is totally NSFW, but funny as hell nonetheless:



http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8920/falloutraped.gif

[Tom McNamara]

Here's the timeline. Started to diverge in 1945. China emerges as a super power instead of the Soviet Union, fossil fuel war erupts in 21st century, leads to nuclear exchange in 2077.

See also the wiki article on Divergence:

...before the war, the Fallout world was more or less what the people of the 1950s thought things would be like in 2077, a future as envisioned through the lens of the Atomic Age and Jet Age. This means hovering housecleaning robots and laser guns were the norm, and automobiles looked like Motorama concept vehicles from the 1950s: massive tail-finned and chromed behemoths but with nuclear fusion engines. At the same time, clothing styles and building interiors and furnishings apparently remained very much stuck in the 1950s. Posters and signage also largely harken to this decade. Radio remains the most common mass media, and food products are based on those popularized in the TV dinner era (boxed macaroni and cheese, canned meat, Salisbury steak TV dinners, etc.).

[Roy Ziegler]

Originally Posted by Shadari

The following is totally NSFW, but funny as hell nonetheless:



NMA porn

Not safe for people with a good sense of humor.

[Adree]

Originally Posted by Shadari

The following is totally NSFW, but funny as hell nonetheless:



http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8920/falloutraped.gif

[thinkingork]

Is this game going to be multi-platform?
Has Obsidian made a console game before?

I know very little about them, except that they are responsible for NwN2 and KOTOR2. I guess they have a talent of turning great RPG into total crap sequel. With this kind of track record, why are they still given Fallout IP? Is there like a background story about them?