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

[Mister Arkham]

Sawyer, I hope you and your Obsidian guys do a better job with the setting. Fallout 3's wasteland was just terrible. Bunch of random towns everywhere with hardly any communication between them, no farms for growing crops or anything like that, no type of industry for bringing in income or something. Compare to Fallout 1-2 where it actually seemed like the people were putting some effort into building a civilization with all their casinos, farms and ranches, water merchants, caravans, mines, the rangers, etc.

God. This. Please. I can't even really play the game from a sandbox stand-point because nothing that anybody is doing in the world makes any fucking sense.

 

[HanoverF]

So if we have Obsidian guys here allow me to take advantage of you.

3) Will it be more serious like Fallout 1, goofy like FO2, or shit like FO3?

fify

 

[Aikanaro]

I'll be cautiously optimistic. If Bethesda aren't creatively involved, then there's no real reason that Obsidian can't make the true sequel we've been looking for. I trust that they can do the system and dialogue well, so the real question is gameplay - iso/turn-based or another godawful hybrid? Just because they're using the same engine doesn't necessarily mean that they're stuck with Fallout 3's shitty gameplay.

 

[Thrasher]

I don't think they have the resources in a year to redesign the combat, only maybe superficial stuff.

 

[Pliskin]

"New Vegas"
Wasn't Van Buren set in Nevada?

Hopefully it will have a good story, NPCs, and dialogue.

Although anything that has to be readable on a console screen probably screws the dialogue.

I seem to recall that one of the first (of many) annoying limitations discovered by FO3 modders was the 80 character limit per dialogue blurb.

While it may have been a defense against JRPG wall-of-text excess (tho, more likely a sop to console-tards), it's not exactly conducive to the level of exposition expected in yr standard-issue RPG either.

I'd be happy just to be able to have a conversation with somebody rather than shooting everything that moves because, after all, what's the point in conversation when nobody has anything worth hearing --- assuming they'll even talk to you (Raiders).

 

[Aikanaro]

I don't think they have the resources in a year to redesign the combat, only maybe superficial stuff.

How sure are we that they haven't had this for quite a while and only just announced it?

 

[Luzur]

Bethesda. Bethesda never changes.

quick, someone post it on ESF!

BTW, ESF is locking and deleting every thread that even mentions this New Vegas game....conspiracy?

 

[Hard Knox]

Who cares if it "stays true to the Fallout setting" if it sucks? Fallout 2 strayed from the original setting and still managed to be a kick-ass game. Fallout 3 tried to go back to the original setting, and a lot of it felt copy-pasted with the names changed, and it sucked.

The real concern is whether Obsidian knows how to make a game with challenging combat. And I mean the whole game, Obsidian, not just the last boss fight.

Also, the Fallout 3 engine is optimized as fuck and anyone who says Obsidian could make a better one is retarded. Fallout 3 gets 3-4x the FPS of NWN2 on any computer with settings maxed on both.

 

[Thrasher]

I don't think they have the resources in a year to redesign the combat, only maybe superficial stuff.

How sure are we that they haven't had this for quite a while and only just announced it?

That would be wishful thinking, but who knows?
I'd rather expect the least, and be pleasantly surprised by something more.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Say hello to another year of Fallout news posts.

Word is your the lead on this. True?

Yes. I'm the project director and lead designer.

THE PROJECT IS CURSED AND WILL BE CANCELLED BEFORE IT IS FINISHED!

REPENT! REPENT FOR YOUR SINS! ONLY ICEWIND DALE 3 WILL BREAK THE CURSE!

 

[Dire Roach]

What? Last time I played it was easily possible to punch people's legs off. Sure, it looked retarded as hell, but it did the job.

Melee sucks because your only options are:
1. Swing weapon at opponent's legs
2. Block (no bullet parrying!)
3. Swing weapon at opponent's legs in a way that cripples your own movement while making a HUUURRRRR noise
4. Use VATS to teleport right next to your opponent and get in several free hits at the cost of not being able to target opponent's legs

Granted, I have never played an FPS that has done melee in a truly impressive way. Riddick: EFBB has a nice, brutal-feeling melee combat but it controls almost exactly the same way; its disarming/grappling fatality animations are the key extra touch that makes the difference.

In any case, melee combat in FO3 is not a viable alternative to using ranged weapons because, unlike the first two Fallouts, sneaking up to any opponent who isn't asleep is almost impossible no matter how high your stealth skill is. You can get fairly close most of the time, but it's extremely difficult to deliver a sneak critical because they will most likely become aware of you just as you get within range. Melee weapons also do a mediocre amount of damage compared to guns at their equivalent skill levels, so it's not like it's more effective to use a melee weapon when you have the choice. On top of that, you can't even target specific body parts when using VATS with melee weapons. It would make sense to use them if you run out of ammo perhaps, but what are the odds of that happening in a game where ammo is weightless and you can find some inside every locker, desk drawer, dresser, mailbox, etc.? There's just no reason to use melee weapons unless you enjoy being a masochistic bullet sponge.

 

[sheek]

I seem to recall that one of the first (of many) annoying limitations discovered by FO3 modders was the 80 character limit per dialogue blurb.

While it may have been a defense against JRPG wall-of-text excess (tho, more likely a sop to console-tards), it's not exactly conducive to the level of exposition expected in yr standard-issue RPG either.

I'd be happy just to be able to have a conversation with somebody rather than shooting everything that moves because, after all, what's the point in conversation when nobody has anything worth hearing --- assuming they'll even talk to you (Raiders).

Unlike in the great Fallout 1/2. There were no random encounters where you would start surrounded by angry raiders/mobsters/ninjas/cannibals, who you could do nothing but fight to run away from. Not at all.

 

[Nutcracker]

There's a decent chance that the contract also banned any Obsidian developer from discussing the game on the Codex...

 

[Spectacle]

To anyone hoping for a turn-based/isometric game: Forget it. With only 1 year allocated for development, they're obviously going to use the Fallout 3 engine pretty much straight out of the box, perhaps with some minor tweaking.

Anything else would simply take too much time, even if Bethesda would let them make a game radically different from FO3.

The best we can hope for is a game with a good, coherent world, good story and NPCs and plenty of C&C. Crappy, boring combat doesn't destroy an otherwise good RPG, just look at MotB and the original Fallout.

 

[Luzur]

There's a decent chance that the contract also banned any Obsidian developer from discussing the game on the Codex...

well you guys seems to be pretty hated on ESF, since even mentioning you will land a PM from a mod with a warning.

(trust me, i know.)

 

[Fat Dragon]

Word is your the lead on this. True?

Yes. I'm the project director and lead designer.

THE PROJECT IS CURSED AND WILL BE CANCELLED BEFORE IT IS FINISHED!

REPENT! REPENT FOR YOUR SINS! ONLY ICEWIND DALE 3 WILL BREAK THE CURSE!

That was a low blow.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Guys, the more I think about this, the more sure I am becoming that the game is linear, not free-roaming. It's not going to be a large open world game like F3. I think that's what "spin-off" means, in this case.

I think the game will be MotB-level scope. At least, I would HOPE that Obsidian learned their lesson from Kotor2. Unless New Vegas is something that they've already been working on for a while, but that doesn't seem likely reading some of Pete Hine's comments.

And no people, it won't be iso or turn-based.

KOTOR 2 gave a spark of life to a bland, boring and cliche filled Star Wars setting. While your underdeveloped mind considers that rape of the setting, people with basic reading comprehension and reasoning skills consider it a radical imrovement.

Pfff. If you don't like Star Wars then dont' play SW games, but don't try to "improve" anything.

Or how about you don't play improvements to a franchise if you don't like them and prefer everything remains shit?

 

[Forest Dweller]

Word is your the lead on this. True?

Yes. I'm the project director and lead designer.

THE PROJECT IS CURSED AND WILL BE CANCELLED BEFORE IT IS FINISHED!

REPENT! REPENT FOR YOUR SINS! ONLY ICEWIND DALE 3 WILL BREAK THE CURSE!

That was a low blow.

DU is actually pretty practiced on "low blows" *wink wink*.

 

[Jasede]

Say hello to another year of Fallout news posts.

Gah!


This thread is p. pathetic, shame on you. But so is this bit of news.

I am curious what 'sidian can do. Hoping for another KOTOR 2 without bugs, but maybe pigs will fly when it's released too.

Maybe Codex should be called Skywaydex? Gets old though, like Skyway.

 

[spacemoose]

ach you have the parties reversed

 

[Jasede]

lol

 

[spacemoose]

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.

three chrises agree: black-color-reference-titled companies are great

 

[Hamster]

Or how about you don't play improvements to a franchise if you don't like them and prefer everything remains shit?

Thats what 90% of gamers say about Fallout 3.

 

[Double Ogre]

And yet even more of rehashing.

There really should have been only one Fallout game. All subsequent games were SHIT SHIT SHIT.

 

[Pliskin]

I seem to recall that one of the first (of many) annoying limitations discovered by FO3 modders was the 80 character limit per dialogue blurb.

While it may have been a defense against JRPG wall-of-text excess (tho, more likely a sop to console-tards), it's not exactly conducive to the level of exposition expected in yr standard-issue RPG either.

I'd be happy just to be able to have a conversation with somebody rather than shooting everything that moves because, after all, what's the point in conversation when nobody has anything worth hearing --- assuming they'll even talk to you (Raiders).

Unlike in the great Fallout 1/2. There were no random encounters where you would start surrounded by angry raiders/mobsters/ninjas/cannibals, who you could do nothing but fight to run away from. Not at all.

I do not disagree with you on this.

However, my point being during regular, non-Special Encounter gameplay --- what one might term Interactive Mode --- I prefer to negotiate before I shoot something in the face in blurry slo-mo.