Fallout Would an Avellone-led FNV have turned out better than Sawyer's?

[Nano]

A while back, MCA said that both him and Sawyer asked Feargus for the lead role on New Vegas, and it came down to Sawyer asking first.

Imagine if it was given to MCA instead. How do you think it would compare to Sawyer's beloved classic (both in the mainstream and on the Codex)?

 

[Safav Hamon]

Chris 'make Fallout apocalyptic again' Avellone only knows how to make linear storyfag games with poor gameplay.

 

[Fairfax]

MCA said that both him and Sawyer asked Feargus for the lead role on New Vegas

MCA didn't ask for it:

Unfortunately, being assigned to Alpha Protocol also hurt chances of having a shot at doing Project Director work on New Vegas, so that was an added disappointment (although to be fair, Feargus never asked me or brought it up with discussion with the owners, instead, Josh came to him and asked for it first and Ferg agreed - this isn't a negative, as I think Josh did a good job, but I would have loved to work on it, especially after all the Van Buren work. I should have camped out outside of Ferg's office.)

Ferg was actually surprised later on when he heard I would have been interested ("You wanted to work on it?"), but it didn't matter by that point since the decision had been made. I was still happy to be able to head up most of the DLCs, although Feargus had to check with Josh first to make sure he was okay with that (Josh was, although he wanted do one of them himself - Honest Hearts, so we made sure he was given Project Director on that).

 

[Sentinel]

Avellone seems too much of a pussy to have any hard hitting themes in the game so probably not.

 

[AW8]

Ulysses would have been a companion sounding off about the good/bad things about the Legion, which would have been nice. No Tyrant Sawyer to cut him out.

As for the game as a whole, probably not. FONV and Dead Money are as great as they are because of the people who made them, and I wouldn't change a thing, especially not their directors.

 

[Sigourn]

No. Wasn't there a big discussion a few months ago on how Chris thought some things from New Vegas were tasteless, like the rape?

 

[Funposter]

Any (different) positives would have been outweighed by New Vegas' inherent negatives - short dev cycle, shitty engine, buggy release, etc. I think it would all have been the same in the end.

 

[Wunderbar]

Less balanced that's for sure.

 

[2house2fly]

No. Wasn't there a big discussion a few months ago on how Chris thought some things from New Vegas were tasteless, like the rape?

Anything anyone doesn't like about a game Avellone was involved with, he either says "I did that and I'm sorry it was bad" or "I didn't do that and actually was against ever including it". How true it is, well, only one man really knows.

At a guess, an Avellonian New Vegas would have painted the NCR/Legion conflict in much grander terms, but would have probably all led to a climactic confrontation with one villain. Maybe the factions wouldn't even have been particularly relevant except as a backdrop- are factions really Avellone's bag?- and big decision points would have instead involved the companions you met; maybe a realisation of the original planned KOTOR2 ending where your party members would have split down the middle between ones who were on your side and ones who were against you

 

[Lilura]

No, but a Sawyer-led Planescape: Torment would have turned out better than Avellone's.

 

[The Glitterdust Golem]

Sawyer only got to the Sixth Circle of Zerthimon though.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Why not both?

 

[Tweed]

It would have been about Ulysses following you around complaining about things.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

Avellone has hangups of his own and I think it would have shaken out roughly the same either way.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

FNV would've been a better game if it was developed by Owlcats and PST would've been a better game if it used Silent Storm engine & was set in alternative history WW2.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

The parts of New Vegas that were within Obsidian’s control are really fucking great, especially considering the short development cycle.

Sure, MCA could’ve made a game with even better characters, better quests, better stories, but could he have turned it around in 18 months? My guess is that an MCA-directed New Vegas would’ve been a higher risk, higher reward project—maybe he makes a masterpiece, maybe Feargus interferes more because he doesn’t defer to Avellone like he defers to Sawyer and that fucks things up, maybe they end up cutting essential content like KOTOR2 and the game’s true brilliance isn’t appreciated until someone releases a restored content mod years later.

Of all the games Sawyer’s directed, why quibble with the one where he did an unambiguously good job? Now, Pillars of Eternity, on the other hand, would’ve been much, much, much better with MCA at the helm.

 

[Zarniwoop]

No. Wasn't there a big discussion a few months ago on how Chris thought some things from New Vegas were tasteless, like the rape?

What? That was clearly tasteful rape.

 

[Efe]

i thought he said cook-cook was tasteless.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

i thought he said cook-cook was tasteless.

Remember, it's okay to murder people as long as a woman isn't raped

 

[laclongquan]

I am not curious about this question since I am satisfied with Sawyer's Vegas.

 

[The Great ThunThun*]

If the Alpha protocol is any indication, Avellone has a great grasp on how to design actually relatable factions and characters. I would be surprised if FNV led by him would be bland. It would be most fruitful considering his creative potential.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

No, but a Sawyer-led Planescape: Torment would have turned out better than Avellone's.

I like you Lilura, you're pretty cool.

Don't ever say that again.

(Yes I realize by quoting what you just said you technically "said" that same thing I told you not to say again. Consider this a mulligan.)

 

[Jazz_]

MCA said that both him and Sawyer asked Feargus for the lead role on New Vegas

MCA didn't ask for it:

Unfortunately, being assigned to Alpha Protocol also hurt chances of having a shot at doing Project Director work on New Vegas, so that was an added disappointment (although to be fair, Feargus never asked me or brought it up with discussion with the owners, instead, Josh came to him and asked for it first and Ferg agreed - this isn't a negative, as I think Josh did a good job, but I would have loved to work on it, especially after all the Van Buren work. I should have camped out outside of Ferg's office.)

Ferg was actually surprised later on when he heard I would have been interested ("You wanted to work on it?"), but it didn't matter by that point since the decision had been made. I was still happy to be able to head up most of the DLCs, although Feargus had to check with Josh first to make sure he was okay with that (Josh was, although he wanted do one of them himself - Honest Hearts, so we made sure he was given Project Director on that).

Sawyer has the ingratiating sycophant perk, he slithered his way into every project effortlessly while Avellone got the scraps.

 

[The Bishop]

I dunno, but I could be found recommending people to install FNV just for Dead Money and Old World Blues in the past, so...

I like a lot of ideas in FNV main campaign in principle, but as far as actually playing the game, only DM and OWB left strong impression on me.

 

[Safav Hamon]

Dead Money was full of tedious puzzle mechanics, and Old World Blues was a collection of fetch quests. Great story and atmosphere, but Avellone never designed engaging gameplay.