Game News Fallout: New Vegas - By Obsidian, For Bethesda

[Silellak]

1. There are no devs that worked on F1 and F2 in Obsidian

Chris Jones (1&2)
Feargus Urquhart (2, credited for first game as a division director)
Chris Avellone (2)
Scott Everts (1&2)

Yes and most of them never had a major designer role there.
Fallout 2 still raped FO's lore though.

Skyway Strategy 31: If someone disproves your argument, alter the argument so that it's still valid.

"There are no developers who worked on Fallout 1 or 2 at Obsidian."
"Here is a list of developers who worked on Fallout 1 or 2 and currently work at Obsidian."
"Yeah, but...none of them had a major design role! And FO2 sucked anyway!"

 

[Deleted member 7219]

In other words, move the goalposts.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

From Bioware's garbage dump, to Beth's garbage dump.

*declineofObsidian*

It's not that we're declining per se, the industry is declining and we are just being pulled behind.

 

[Jaesun]

so... George Zeits (who we all know and LOVE for the excellent MotB) leaves Obsidian to work for Bethesda. After seeing horrific shit RPG elements like [Intelligence] You fight the good fight... runs away from Bethesda and then.... goes back to work for Obsidian.

THEN Bethesda has Obsidian make a Fallout game for them....

:shock:

I smell CONSPIRACY! And we can only hope he might be attached to this project.... if he is still working at Obsidian?

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[Jim Cojones]

Yes and most of them never had a major designer role there.

Fallout 2 lead designer, both games technical designer, Fallout lead programmer and Fallout 2 programmer, designer of two best cities in Fallout 2 (even though one of them isn't really Fallout-style). Pretty unimportant people.

Fallout 2 still raped FO's lore though.

And it was later proven in Van Buren (which lead designer is also working at Obsidian) documentation that they understood what was wrong with Fallout 2.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Black Islers that worked on some version of FO that are now at Obsidian:

Feargus Urqhart
Chris Jones
Chris Parker
Darren Monohan
Chris Avellone
Brian Menze
Jesse Reynolds
Scott Evertts
Rich Taylor
Josh Sawyer
...there are more I think, but I can't remember.


Black Islers who worked on FO but are now at Blizzard:
Leonard Boyarski (sp?)

edit:
BTW, I'm not arguing with anyone's opinion of what they think of these people, Bethesda, Obsidian, or Black Isle, I am just correcting skyway on his original statement.

 

[Gragt]

Let's not start splitting hair, shall we? Ten people are almost the same as none.

 

[J.E. Sawyer]

*does a wheelie through the thread*

sup

 

[Anthony Davis]

Let's not start splitting hair, shall we? Ten people are almost the same as none.

True, divide any number by a large enough number and you do get very near zero.

 

[Vibalist]

SO, Obsidian guys, now that you're here, is there any chance you'll answer how you're gonna go about developing the game when you only have one year to do it?

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Let's not start splitting hair, shall we? Ten people are almost the same as none.

True, divide any number by a large enough number and you do get very near zero.

Real men only divide by zero.

 

[St. Toxic]

And it was later proven in Van Buren (which lead designer is also working at Obsidian) documentation that they understood what was wrong with Fallout 2.

Van Buren was a pile of horse shit, even on paper. If that's what was wrong with FO2, as in, that FO2 wasn't all shit, then yes -- proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

 

[Kingston]

Interview at Shacknews:

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1113

Shack: When did Bethesda start thinking about a Fallout spin-off?

Pete Hines: It's something that we've discussed at night for a while, and just had talked about doing. And we said, well, if we're going to do this, we want to do it with the right kinds of folks, and the folks that could do right by it, have the right kind of experience, the right background.

Honestly, we just felt like Obsidian was a great fit for that. They have experience doing this kind of thing, they have guys that worked on the original Fallout games. We really liked their idea for what it is they wanted to do, and we just said, "Okay."

...

Shack: What has Bethesda's attitude been in terms of allowing Obsidian freedom to create their own Fallout game?

Pete Hines: I think we tried very hard not to put much in the way of parameters on them. To let them kind of come up with the idea. So we didn't go to them and say, we want a game that is set here, and--we didn't do that. We said, "What would you do with it? If we were going to do this, what would you guys like to do?"

Shack: So you asked them for a pitch, as opposed to pitching them a project.

Pete Hines: Correct, correct. And honestly, generally speaking, that's how it works best, which is: you've gotta have people who are really vested in the idea that it's their creation. "This is what makes us excited. If we could do this, this is what we would want to do."

You may help them mold or frame that, but if that's what they're excited about, then that's what you should do. As opposed to, I come up with something that would be cool, and you go to them and they go, "Oh, okay. Well, sure." You're just not necessarily going to get the same passion or excitement from the team. And those are the guys who need to be the most excited about it, because that's what they're going to go into the office and be creative on and make for the foreseeable future.

But it was good. I think we were all on the same page in terms of the kinds of things that we wanted to do, and what it could be. And yeah, so now I want to play it.

 

[Vibalist]

Interview at Shacknews:

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1113

Shack: When did Bethesda start thinking about a Fallout spin-off?

Pete Hines: It's something that we've discussed at night for a while, and just had talked about doing. And we said, well, if we're going to do this, we want to do it with the right kinds of folks, and the folks that could do right by it, have the right kind of experience, the right background.

Honestly, we just felt like Obsidian was a great fit for that. They have experience doing this kind of thing, they have guys that worked on the original Fallout games. We really liked their idea for what it is they wanted to do, and we just said, "Okay."

...

Shack: What has Bethesda's attitude been in terms of allowing Obsidian freedom to create their own Fallout game?

Pete Hines: I think we tried very hard not to put much in the way of parameters on them. To let them kind of come up with the idea. So we didn't go to them and say, we want a game that is set here, and--we didn't do that. We said, "What would you do with it? If we were going to do this, what would you guys like to do?"

Shack: So you asked them for a pitch, as opposed to pitching them a project.

Pete Hines: Correct, correct. And honestly, generally speaking, that's how it works best, which is: you've gotta have people who are really vested in the idea that it's their creation. "This is what makes us excited. If we could do this, this is what we would want to do."

You may help them mold or frame that, but if that's what they're excited about, then that's what you should do. As opposed to, I come up with something that would be cool, and you go to them and they go, "Oh, okay. Well, sure." You're just not necessarily going to get the same passion or excitement from the team. And those are the guys who need to be the most excited about it, because that's what they're going to go into the office and be creative on and make for the foreseeable future.

But it was good. I think we were all on the same page in terms of the kinds of things that we wanted to do, and what it could be. And yeah, so now I want to play it.

Sounds good, tbh. Obsidian being allowed creative freedom to apply their own vision to the game. Perhaps it's time I gave FO3 a try so I'm ready for this when it hits the street.

 

[Turok]

Shacknews managed to nab Pete Hines to ask a set of questions about their cooperation with Obsidian on Fallout: New Vegas.

Shack: What has Bethesda's attitude been in terms of allowing Obsidian freedom to create their own Fallout game?

Pete Hines: I think we tried very hard not to put much in the way of parameters on them. To let them kind of come up with the idea. So we didn't go to them and say, we want a game that is set here, and--we didn't do that. We said, "What would you do with it? If we were going to do this, what would you guys like to do?"

Shack: So you asked them for a pitch, as opposed to pitching them a project.

Pete Hines: Correct, correct. And honestly, generally speaking, that's how it works best, which is: you've gotta have people who are really vested in the idea that it's their creation. "This is what makes us excited. If we could do this, this is what we would want to do."

You may help them mold or frame that, but if that's what they're excited about, then that's what you should do. As opposed to, I come up with something that would be cool, and you go to them and they go, "Oh, okay. Well, sure." You're just not necessarily going to get the same passion or excitement from the team. And those are the guys who need to be the most excited about it, because that's what they're going to go into the office and be creative on and make for the foreseeable future.

Just copy paste from NMA :D

 

[racofer]

... Obsidian being allowed creative freedom to apply their own vision to the game...

R00fles!

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Hello, Obsidian people. Good luck with the game, I know I'll be buying it for sure when it comes out.

 

[Pseudofool]

Given the location (New Vegas) I expect them to mine a lot of the lore from the first two games. I wouldn't be surprised if we get to visit places like NCR or Vault City, etc.

Not at all happy it's the same engine.

Count me as excited, all the same.

 

[VonVentrue]

Shack: When did Bethesda start thinking about a Fallout spin-off?

Almost stopped reading right there. Anyway:

"So we didn't go to them and say, we want a game that is set here, and--we didn't do that. We said, "What would you do with it? If we were going to do this, what would you guys like to do?"

Was the phrase "top-down perspective and TB combat" part of the answer? Hey, Bethesda gave Obsidian creative freedom after all. Right? RIGHT?

 

[St. Toxic]

Van Buren was badass, a pity it wans't released. It was shaping to be much better than Failout 3.

Puh. For a ghastly moment I thought I'd have to present a mature and gritty argument to make you look retarded.

Your mom was a pile of horse shit.

Didn't stop you from putting your dick in it though.

 

[Pseudofool]

*does a wheelie through the thread*

sup

Word is your the lead on this. True?

 

[Mr. Teatime]

In general: FUCKING GREAT.

Specifically: the apparently short development cycle is concerning. And what does 'spin off' mean? Not an RPG? Not directly related to Fallout 3? Something else?

 

[Kthan75]

SO, Obsidian guys, now that you're here, is there any chance you'll answer how you're gonna go about developing the game when you only have one year to do it?

This is a good question.

J.E., when you were working on Van Buren, the Interplay forums were full of insteresting discussions about the game's development and many people appreciated that.
Any chance we'll see something like that now?

 

[OSK]

Wow. Bethesda just gave the Codex a swift kick to the nuts.