Bethesda outsourcing Fallout already

[Darth Onasi]

Is it April 1st again?

I wonder what NMA says to this.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Fallout: New Vegas announced

* By Mark Walton, GameSpot UK

Bethesda's latest postapocalyptic action RPG heads to the PS3, 360, PC in 2010; Black Isle Studios castaway Obisidan Entertainment developing.

Released in October of last year, Fallout 3 was met with critical acclaim and commercial success, having shipped 4.7 million units worldwide in its first week. The game also performed well in the awards circuit, taking the top honours at the 2009 Game Developers Choice Awards last month during the Game Developers Conference.

Given that performance, it comes as little surprise that Bethesda Softworks won't be dallying in bringing a follow-up to market. At an event in London today, the publisher announced that a new Fallout game will be coming to the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in 2010. Titled Fallout: New Vegas, the game is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, whose most recent works include Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir and the upcoming Alpha Protocol. The studio was also at work on the third-person action title Aliens RPG before Sega canceled it earlier this year.

Obsidian Entertainment was founded in 2003 by Feargus Urquhart and others from Interplay's now-shuttered Black Isle Studios, developer of the original Fallout games. On hearing that the Fallout licence had fallen to Bethesda, Urquhart said: "Good Luck! That's probably somewhat horrible to say, but I think the team at Bethesda has their work cut out for them. This is mostly because there is almost nothing that they can do that will make the Fallout fans happy."

Fallout: New Vegas will be set in the Fallout universe but will not be a direct sequel to Fallout 3. However, it will stick to that game's RPG format, rather than branching out into real-time strategy territory as happened with 2001's Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel.

I'll just say, Awesome. True, Oblivian has a horrendous technical record (bugs, bugs, and not finishing a game due to having it shoved out of the door by Lucasarts execs), but they know how to write a brilliant game. I have faith that they can make Fallout 3 as it might have been, less cash on voice acting every line, more on a plot, script, and good writing.

[Seggybop]

Outsourced to the remnant of the team that actually made the original games.

They ought to be quite pleased, since it's probably as close as they'll be able to get to the previous games.

[Enigma]

Is it April 1st again?

I wonder what NMA says to this.

They might actually support it since Obsidian is made up of those that originally developed the Fallout franchise.

This move might be a good thing.

[Oskuro]

Or it will raise the expectations of the hardcore fans, thus heralding the inevitable backlash when the released product is not a choir-escorted envoy from the holy halls of Vault 13, but just a videogame.

[Tolya]

Good news. Obsidian also made Neverwinter Nights 2, which was awesome.

[DaveJB]

Let's keep in mind that what Obsidian are developing isn't Fallout 4, which is still being handled by Bethesda, AFAIK. Still, it should be interesting seeing the original creators' take on the ideas used in Fallout 3 (though I can already hear the cries of fanboys outraged that the game isn't being done like the first two).

[Chardok]

It'd be cool if it turned out that FO3 was just a dream by whomever the vault-dweller is in Obsidian's new game. Or if the whole thing was a silly matrix deal like in FO3 - thus giving Obsidian license to crap all over the ridiculous story of FO3 and pretend it never happened.

...one can only hope.

[General Zod]

It'd be cool if it turned out that FO3 was just a dream by whomever the vault-dweller is in Obsidian's new game. Or if the whole thing was a silly matrix deal like in FO3 - thus giving Obsidian license to crap all over the ridiculous story of FO3 and pretend it never happened.

...one can only hope.

Since it's in Las Vegas we can hope that FO3 will only get mentioned passingly, if that. Maybe they'll do a spin on Six String Samurai and have a King of Las Vegas where the vault-dweller gets to have a showdown with Death?

[Mr Bean]

Since it's in Las Vegas we can hope that FO3 will only get mentioned passingly, if that. Maybe they'll do a spin on Six String Samurai and have a King of Las Vegas where the vault-dweller gets to have a showdown with Death?

Or we can simply hope it's not 200 years IN THE FUTURE! and instead a more modest say 40 years? That way they can spin Fo3 as "A long time ahead in a city far far away"

[Eleas]

Good news. Obsidian also made Neverwinter Nights 2, which was awesome.

I sincerely hope you're joking. NWN2 was an embarrassing farce of a game, and showed once and for all how utterly stagnant Obsidian's programming skills have grown (although, to be fair, the incompetence of its lead developer compounded their technical ineptitude to a magnitude heretofore unseen, and brought a host of other problems in addition).

I like the idea of outsourcing Fallout; Fallout 3 was fun, but the franchise needs to be kept fresh. I think Obsidian may be just about the worst company to do it, however, as they tend to produce singular workable and fun ideas and mire them in a maze of shit. Their games are a result of vote by committee, and it shows.

But perhaps I'm being unfair. It could even be that Obsidian decides to publish a game with an actual ending, for once.

[Marko Dash]

rented fallout 3 for a week, one of the things that bothered me was the lack of damage. was it ever explained how a full scale missile exchange between 21st century US and China would do so little damage while leaving so much radiation? did the Chinese make their warheads as dirty as possible with tiny yields?

[Ghost Rider]

rented fallout 3 for a week, one of the things that bothered me was the lack of damage. was it ever explained how a full scale missile exchange between 21st century US and China would do so little damage while leaving so much radiation? did the Chinese make their warheads as dirty as possible with tiny yields?

This in a game with plasma weaponry, full suit power armor, and an assorted amount of oddities and you're wondering about the intial exchange?

And no, it's never explained fully because it's never fucking needed. They went to war, shit blew up, now you're born in the hellhole of the burnt out Earth.

[Stark]

Well, into the tiny basement 'vault' that has '1000 people' that's perfectly safe anyway. Ahhh, the vaults...

[Vympel]

I sincerely hope you're joking. NWN2 was an embarrassing farce of a game, and showed once and for all how utterly stagnant Obsidian's programming skills have grown (although, to be fair, the incompetence of its lead developer compounded their technical ineptitude to a magnitude heretofore unseen, and brought a host of other problems in addition).

I'd heard positive things about NWN2 from people, but I've only ever played the beginning and never given it another go, to much other stuff to play- why is it an embarassing farce? I really want to know whether it's worth playing.

[Stark]

Eleas was speaking mainly from a technical perspective (NWN2's engine is poop) but I found the entire game pretty tiresome. Scrolling through list of 500 nearly identical perks = fun.

That said, all the NWN people I know prefer the origianl + mods to NWN2, so who knows.

[SirNitram]

Is it April 1st again?

I wonder what NMA says to this.

This implies they can feel anything but hate and contempt anymore.

[Eleas]

I sincerely hope you're joking. NWN2 was an embarrassing farce of a game, and showed once and for all how utterly stagnant Obsidian's programming skills have grown (although, to be fair, the incompetence of its lead developer compounded their technical ineptitude to a magnitude heretofore unseen, and brought a host of other problems in addition).

I'd heard positive things about NWN2 from people, but I've only ever played the beginning and never given it another go, to much other stuff to play- why is it an embarassing farce? I really want to know whether it's worth playing.

Well, I did start on a massive rant for my LJ, and only got so far as the engine before having to pause. If you really want to know more, I could PM it to you, I suppose.

My considered in-a-nutshell opinion: the music is good, and some of the game elements and a few nuggets of the plot are worth it - and what's even more tragic, those parts are good and innovative. The rest is utter, utter shit, to the point where I feel sort of repelled thinking about it.

[Tolya]

I sincerely hope you're joking. NWN2 was an embarrassing farce of a game, and showed once and for all how utterly stagnant Obsidian's programming skills have grown (although, to be fair, the incompetence of its lead developer compounded their technical ineptitude to a magnitude heretofore unseen, and brought a host of other problems in addition).

I don't give a flying fuck about Obsidian's programming skills. If your only argument against a game is the lead developers "technical ineptitude", then I don't think we have anything to talk about. If you wrote a rant on NWN2, please post it here, so I can read and comment on it. Fallout 1 and 2 game mechanics sucked donkey balls and its still one of the best rpg's (at least to me).

As a side note, I played a patched version of the game, as I picked it up many many months after the initial release, so some of the more annoying bugs might have been fixed.

Your comment on "technical ineptitude" reminds me of people who say "The Shield" TV show sucks ass because the camera work looks amateurish.

I like the idea of outsourcing Fallout; Fallout 3 was fun, but the franchise needs to be kept fresh. I think Obsidian may be just about the worst company to do it, however, as they tend to produce singular workable and fun ideas and mire them in a maze of shit. Their games are a result of vote by committee, and it shows.

But perhaps I'm being unfair. It could even be that Obsidian decides to publish a game with an actual ending, for once.

Obsidian did offend me with the ending of Kotor 2 (which wasn't an ending, really), But I think NWN2's ending was pretty good, considering that it is an opening into the expansion pack (Mask of the Betrayer), which Im playing now (too early to comment on it yet).

But maybe that's me lowering my standards, especially that since Fallout 1 I don't remember a game which goes beyond "hero saves the world, hero lives a good life (TM)" ending. Nobody goes for the classical Dreamweb ending: "hero kills a shitload of people and gets executed by the police".

[Thanas]

TOB did not have that much of a happy ending depending on your choices.

[Tolya]

TOB did not have that much of a happy ending depending on your choices.

Im not saying "bad ending=good game". What is TOB?

@Eleas: I have to acknowledge that NWN2's is a bit clumsy from a technical standpoint. But it's not enough to call it "a farce of a game". Take away a point or two, but a farce? C'mon now.

[The Grim Squeaker]

TOB did not have that much of a happy ending depending on your choices.

Im not saying "bad ending=good game". What is TOB?

Throne of Bhaal. The expansion set to Baldur's Gate 2, developed by Bioware and Black Isle. Awesome epic game. .

@Eleas: I have to acknowledge that NWN2's is a bit clumsy from a technical standpoint. But it's not enough to call it "a farce of a game". Take away a point or two, but a farce? C'mon now.

When the game isn't finished, or is full of game ending bugs, or has a camera menu that looks like it hasn't been taken out of beta testing, or it keeps crashing...

(First point only regards KOTOR2).

[Thanas]

TOB did not have that much of a happy ending depending on your choices.

Im not saying "bad ending=good game". What is TOB?

Throne of Bhaal, which had logical choices and logical endings for the characters.

You complained:

But maybe that's me lowering my standards, especially that since Fallout 1 I don't remember a game which goes beyond "hero saves the world, hero lives a good life (TM)" ending.

Ergo me saying TOB did do so.

@Eleas: I have to acknowledge that NWN2's is a bit clumsy from a technical standpoint. But it's not enough to call it "a farce of a game". Take away a point or two, but a farce? C'mon now.

Bah. When character arcs are copied from NWN to KOTOR almost word for word, that does make the games a farce.

[Tolya]

Bah. When character arcs are copied from NWN to KOTOR almost word for word, that does make the games a farce.

You can apply that logic to any other creation of the entertainment industry. Things are copied and re-used all the time. Would you call Harry Potter a farce that way?

[Thanas]

Bah. When character arcs are copied from NWN to KOTOR almost word for word, that does make the games a farce.

You can apply that logic to any other creation of the entertainment industry.

Nope.

Things are copied and re-used all the time. Would you call Harry Potter a farce that way?

If the author of Harry Potter writes a second series in which she reuses the exact same character arcs, yes, I will call the resulting creation a farce.