Editorial What's Old is New Again

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Chris Avellone; Fallout: New Vegas; Obsidian Entertainment

<p>MCA opened up a new page in his <a href="http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/vault/diaries_diary13-10.06.10.html" target="_blank">bethblog developer diary</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Returning to a franchise like Fallout isn't easy. It's not where you left it. Once you track it down and cripple it in the leg so it can't get away, then you have dissect it. No matter how familiar you are with innards of the franchise, it is hard work to carve out and shape a small slice of a world that's been ruined by war.</p>
<p>Coming back to a franchise like Fallout means a ton of research and catching up - both in the game world and due to player expectations. It was made easier with Fallout 3's release. Bethesda had the enormous task of introducing the next generation into the world some of us were already familiar with. They did it in a way that immersed the player in what the life of a Vault Dweller would be like. In particular, I really liked what they did with <em>The Pitt</em> DLC, where you experienced life in the ruined city of Pittsburgh on the bottom rung of the Vault ladder, and again as a slave, then as a soldier. Ultimately, the way they united the older aspects of Fallout and placed it within new settings was handled in a way that immersed me into the world and encouraged me to explore it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#15907">RPGWatch</a></p>

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Old storyfag himself loved Fallout 3. Why am I not surprised?

 

[MetalCraze]

Because Avellone is just a shitty dev who is now sucking Bethesda's cock because the addon to Failout3 may be the last game of Obsidian if they won't get enough money. Thumbs up from franchise rape pro to franchise rape pros I guess.
Too bad it won't tank because the target audience is 100% retards.

 

[CrimHead]

 

[Admiral jimbob]

If only PS:T had had more combat, it might have been as good as Fallout 3.

 

[Captain_Obvious]

MCA opened up a new page in his bethblog developer diary.

How the mighty have fallen

 

[hiver]

shit dump asshole !


That being said,

There are issues with domesticating tribals and forcing them into one view of the world, there are issues with treating a wonder of the old world as nothing more than a bloody battleground, there are issues with propping old flags from Rome and California without a clear understanding of what those flags represent, and the long-range perspectives of many characters you'll encounter in the world have strong opinions about what's going on in the present, all born from the elements above. The question of the Old World making itself heard in the present - in the Mojave - is a core theme in Fallout: New Vegas, and whether overt or not, we hope it sinks in with the player as well.

There are new elements as well – new skills, new ways to use those skills (even in conversations with others, which has been especially gratifying to both find in-game and to write), new perks, new weapons, new ways to use those weapons, locations, crafting, and much more.

It's not only the 1950s-view-of-the-future-then-drop-bombs-on-it feel of Fallout, the dark humor, the SPECIAL system, Vaults, Ron Perlman's narration and end slides... Fallout's also about being able to design for choices, about a world where all the options you use to build your character are viable and carry reactivity, where the simplest of actions can make the rounds and be mentioned by people you meet – you'll see that in the reputation system, and the consequences of your actions in the Mojave wasteland.

On bethesda and Fal..piece of shit 3 :

They did it in a way that immersed the player in what the life of a Vault Dweller would be like. In particular, I really liked what they did with The Pitt DLC, where you experienced life in the ruined city of Pittsburgh on the bottom rung of the Vault ladder, and again as a slave, then as a soldier. Ultimately, the way they united the older aspects of Fallout and placed it within new settings was handled in a way that immersed me into the world and encouraged me to explore it.

Non retarded members of the codex will be able to read between the lines i trust?

One of the new aspects I'm proudest about is how the team approached the narrative. Bethesda has a long history of successful open world games, and we've learned a lot about open world design on the project.

mkay retards? Clear?

Obsidian has a number of people who worked on Fallout in the past, and a number who didn't. That's worked out well, and the old has blended with the new in that way as well. We developed an iteration of Fallout (notably Fallout 2) at Black Isle, and had hopes for developing future iterations, and it was painful to see that lost. I had boxes upon boxes filled with Fallout material, maps, and ideas that would never be realized in a game world - it's difficult to let go of a world that you enjoy doing design work for, one that you've invested many years into.

To have the chance to come back to Fallout when you thought it was closed off to you was something that surprised all of us. The opportunity to work with Fallout: New Vegas is not just something I've been grateful and happy to be a part of, it was something the future held in store that exceeded all my expectations.

 

[Konjad]

In the meantime at MCA's house:

 

[Lockkaliber]

hiver

 

[HardCode]

... cripple it ...

That's about right.

 

[chzr]

 

[Mastermind]

The only Fallout 3 release that had a good (and way too short) story was Point Lookout, and only because it was nothing like fallout.

 

[DragoFireheart]

MCA opened up a new page in his bethblog developer diary.

How the mighty have fallen

WHAT THE FUCK!

 

[Luzur]

the Pitt was kinda playable, but too damn fucking small. (also, the name, hilarious.)

they had a whole city to DLC, and they close off 80% of it.

the rest of the new generation Fallout was a shrunken, shitty disneyfunland FPS though.

dunno if New Vegas can salvage it either.

 

[SharkClub]

dunno if New Vegas can salvage it either.

Meh... if New Vegas actually has working RPG mechanics and it's set in a Fallout-y world I'll be a lot more comfortable with it than Fallout 3.

No more 100 in every skill + 10 in every SPECIAL, no more black and white moral choices, and the writing, I believe, will at the very least be passable.

Well, nothing can be worse than "Steel be with you."

 

[Sceptic]

No more 100 in every skill + 10 in every SPECIAL

To be fair Fallout 2 was also guilty of this. You couldn't get 10 in ALL stats, but you could get 10 in six and 7 or 8 in the last one. It was already pretty ridiculous compared to FO1. And both games gave you too many skill points anyway, but again it was more noticeable in FO2 because there was more content and your level got much higher (I finished FO1 at level 12 and FO2 at level 28... with 10 INT you calculate how many skill points I had)

Well, nothing can be worse than "Steel be with you."

This, on the other hand, is so fucking true.

At least I hope it is.

 

[Cassidy]

Funny how most people who have seemingly honest positive expectations about this are 2010 members. Because unless you want a worse shooter than Fallout 3 already was(Obsidian fails epically at action games), a more retarded plot than Fallout 3 already had(Tabitha FFS) and an even more sorry excuse to call itself a "RPG" than Fallout 3 already was(IMMA CHARGIN MAH ORBITAL LAZERS), you will be disappointed.

 

[Drakron]

I have because Sawyer is on board and steering the boat since day 1.

Fallout 3 was not bad compared with Oblivion (that was so idiotic it only served to dump mods on it and ignore the main quest), Fallout 3 have many flaws (starting by the idiotic main quest and the useless badly done fanservice) but it was a very playable game.

If New Vegas corrects the flaws of FO3 then its going to be a good, if not great game ... just because its not turn-based in isometric view does it mean its a bad game.

 

[Lockkaliber]

How is Tabitha representative of the entire plot of New Vegas? And how is the orbital laser representative of the RPG mechanics of New Vegas?

?

Seriously though, I see what you mean. The engine is already fail, and everything about it feels wrong, except for these small tidbits of info that seems quite ok that we get once in a while. The big question is if they can compensate for the horrible elements from Fallout 3 that will surely be in the game.

 

[Drakron]

What horrible elements?

The only thing i could complain about the game engine is the lack of a auto-target/attack system as KotOR but that is a designer decision as I am pretty sure the engine can do it.

Most horrible elements were design decisions, like magical clothing and the boobleheads.

In NV we have 3 main fractions with their own path (Legion,NCR and House), also by the sound of a recent interview we have the 4th path as we take out the others and we have smaller factions (Kings, Khans, Apocalypse) that it seems we can influence as well.

It seems to be a entire game BUILD on choices and consequences, if we go with House that means NCR and Legion will be pissed at us and also the other factions that are allied with them, no idea how much influence we CAN do with the smaller factions but still its something better that Enclave Vs Brotherhood of Steel.

 

[Lockkaliber]

Yes, my post was poorly worded. I should have said design. But I don't like the engine either. Something about it just makes me feel grossed out.

 

[MetalCraze]

Fallout 3 was not bad compared with Oblivion (that was so idiotic it only served to dump mods on it and ignore the main quest)

Except Failout 3 was exactly like Oblivion - there were only two differences - guns and extremely retarded narrative written by 12 years old teenager. So adding guns and retarded lulz is enough to make Oblivion better?

Or do I smell F3NV coming out?


What a bunch of fucking hypocrites - when media sucks Beth cock - they are media-whores, sellouts, retards. But when Avellone sucks Beth cock - oh yeah it's fine

 

[Clockwork Knight]

No more 100 in every skill + 10 in every SPECIAL

To be fair Fallout 2 was also guilty of this. You couldn't get 10 in ALL stats, but you could get 10 in six and 7 or 8 in the last one. It was already pretty ridiculous compared to FO1. And both games gave you too many skill points anyway, but again it was more noticeable in FO2 because there was more content and your level got much higher (I finished FO1 at level 12 and FO2 at level 28... with 10 INT you calculate how many skill points I had)

Did the "9 in every stat" FO3 perk really bother people that much? You get to choose it at the max level, and to get 10 you need to keep the memory modules bobbleheads for last

edit: Oh yeah, there's the Intense Training one. It was present in FO2, in a milder form, though

 

[Drakron]

What a bunch of fucking hypocrites - when media sucks Beth cock - they are media-whores, sellouts, retards. But when Avellone sucks Beth cock - oh yeah it's fine

Wow, considering you quoted me ... you do know I am anything BUT a Avellone fanboy.

I respect Sawyer because at least explains the why in a rational way, even if I disagree with him at least he does not bullshits things.

As far New Vegas is concerned I was cautiousness until I knew Sawyer was doing it, I became optimistic after they started talking about the self-excluding choice paths we have to pick.

As for your idiotic comment that Fallout 3 was just like Oblivion ... if we ignore the entirely new different ruleset system, skill checks in dialog (very notable in persuasion as Oblivion had a mini-game for it), non-random generated dungeons (yes, there is a lot of copy-paste but still things remain somewhat unique), the world not (entirely) scaling to the player level (still does it but like Morrowind does) and the list could go on ...

But Skyway ... Skyway never changes ...

 

[MetalCraze]

The last sentence wasn't directed towards you. I kinda separated it with an empty space.

if we ignore the entirely new different ruleset system

Which is just a gimmick and affects nothing - just like Oblivion's system - you could still kill anyone at first levels.

skill checks in dialog

Another gimmick that was just for show and affected nothing. Oh sorry you can't select this option until you have X in skill Y but you will suceeed at this quest anyway, just won't get a few flavour responses

non-random generated dungeons

There ever were "generated" dungeons in Gamebryo-era ES games?

 

[Drakron]

Which is just a gimmick and affects nothing - just like Oblivion's system - you could still kill anyone at first levels.

Oh? You can kill a Deathclaw at Lv2? You do know SOME creatures WILL spawn no matter what level you are in certain locations?

Level scaling only affects spawn points but UP, places that spawn Deathclaws will spawn Deathclaws no matter what level you are ... its not as if they scale to you and that is true to NPCs that have FIXED stats and equipment, Dave is the same when you are lv 5 or lv 15 as NPCs dont have levels, just fixed statistics.

Another gimmick that was just for show and affected nothing. Oh sorry you can't select this option until you have X in skill Y but you will suceeed at this quest anyway, just won't get a few flavour responses

Too bad you CAN select the option AND fail as far persuasion goes, the only thing that you could bitch about was it given you a percentage of success you had a idea if it was going to work or fail, as the others dont show up because your character have no fucking clue to start with ... kinda like Fallout 1 and 2.

Also same in Fallout were quests have several ways to be completed, skill checks were simply a way to bypass segments, get better rewards and/or avoid confrontation.

Also there is one there is not cosmetic, Big Town were not having any of the skills required for the check can lead to losing the entire settlement as they have no means to defend from the Super Mutants unless you stick around and do it yourself.

We can also bypass steps of the main quest by successful dialog check, in fact the dumbfucks at Bethsoft forums even call it "a bug" because they were directed to Rivet Town instead of Galaxy Radio, not exactly "cosmetic" but still a effect.

Far cry from Oblivion dialog minigame.

There ever were "generated" dungeons in Gamebryo-era ES games?

Oblivion had copy/paste dungeons, its not hard as you just duplicate the cell and then change their ID name and enter/exit points and in Oblivion after a while, if you seen a certain dungeon type you seen them all ... Fallout 3 have overall similar feel (seen a subway tunnel, you seen them all) but there was a effort to make then distinct from each other.