Josh Sawyer Q&A Thread

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Both games are great in their own right, but I would say Fallout 2 shows more signs of its crunched devtime than New Vegas. I know a lot of people had technical issues with NV at launch, but I didn't; matter of fact I had waaaaaay more technical issues with FO2 at launch.

 

[LizardWizard]

Release ver. FO2 corrupted my original save around San Francisco. Not to mention those 3-4 min load times a pentium II

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Release ver. FO2 corrupted my original save around San Francisco.

That's brutal. I never had anything that bad. Just a few broken sidequests and technical wonkiness.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I hate first person cameras, if a game offers both first person and third person I'll always take the third person option.
First person view does a really poor job at simulating a human's field of view range.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Release ver. FO2 corrupted my original save around San Francisco. Not to mention those 3-4 min load times a pentium II

I still sometimes have nightmares about the highwayman trunk blocking my way in the Enclave trap room.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

I hate first person cameras, if a game offers both first person and third person I'll always take the third person option.
First person view does a really poor job at simulating a human's field of view range.

Well yes, but surely you can see that some games are better suited to it though? I haven't played FO76 (which I believe you've been enjoying), but Beth games in general are really hard for me to navigate in the third person view; their cameras are set up so that you can't see anything you're interacting with because it's blocked by your avatar. Also it would be really hard to parse visuals or understand movement in a first-person game that had an accurate FOV of 210 degrees, no?

 

[Butter]

It makes no sense for a first-person game to simulate a real human FOV. Presumably you're not sitting half an inch away from the monitor, and as such it only occupies maybe one third of your FOV. As such a 75-90 FOV in-game feels natural.

 

[KVVRR]

I hate first person cameras, if a game offers both first person and third person I'll always take the third person option.
First person view does a really poor job at simulating a human's field of view range.

just turn up the FOV slide
personally I find that having the game explicitly state that the character I'm controlling and me are two separate entities (like the third person view obviously does) to be way more annoying. Especially if the camera is shit, which it usually is.

 

[Sweeper]

They made the game in a year and a half (an astonishing feat). You don't really need to know any more than that.

They made a broken ass game with someone else's engine and 90% of their assets.
It's not an astonishing feat.
New Vegas is great on many levels, but on a technical level it's a glorified mod of Fallout 3.

 

[Quillon]

New Vegas is great on many levels, but on a technical level it's a glorified mod of Fallout 3.

Well then on a technical level Fallout 2 is a glorified mod of Fallout 1, every other IE game is a glorified mod of BG1 etc :D

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I don't disagree with either assessments.
Troika really was the only company that didn't reuse assets.

 

[Ninjerk]

New Vegas is great on many levels, but on a technical level it's a glorified mod of Fallout 3.

Fallout 2 is a glorified mod of Fallout 1

 

[Infinitron]

 

[The Wall]

Would Josh "2020 Edition" Sawyer be force of incline on any possible future New Vegas 2 project?

I believe that his willpower, talent and passion are all spent and he's best kept in basement fixing & balancing employees bikes. Soul of guy who directed Fallout: New Vegas is dead

 

[Kazuki]

It's just not him, the talent that makes FNV is great around him is left too.

The Josh Sawyer "2010 Edition" will never going to bring a great game from Obsidian "2020 edition" team.

 

[Quillon]

It'd be funny if beth/MS greenlights a west coast sequel and Josh -who has nothing better to do- Sawyer directs it whilst Tim & Leo work on TOW2

There'd be a slim hope if Sawya directs it since Tim & Leo's TOW turned out utter shit but ofc

the talent that makes FNV is great around him is left

 

[Kazuki]

With how TOW turned out, I think it's safe to say many talents that have left after FNV is going to be decline too.

Most of them is already burn out without any passion and creativity left anymore.

 

[Gordian Nutt]

Fallout 2 was as bad as New Vegas when it came out and arguably worse

With how TOW turned out, I think it's safe to say many talents that have left after FNV is going to be decline too.

Most of them is already burn out without any passion and creativity left anymore.

Is there a list of those still there?

The big clue of burn out without any passion was Sawyer not caring enough to be part of Avowed, it felt like a big "fuck you even I don't like the shit world I made" but that was him cutting his own throat with his own design

Sorry, hated Pillars 1 and hated Pillars 2 for different reasons and do not care if the tabletop rules he is never going to finish ever see the light of day - the new game he is working on might be interesting but I doubt it

 

[Ol' Willy]

That's brutal. I never had anything that bad. Just a few broken sidequests and technical wonkiness.

I played unpatched Fallout 2, had zero problems at all.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

That's brutal. I never had anything that bad. Just a few broken sidequests and technical wonkiness.

I played unpatched Fallout 2, had zero problems at all.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Lucky you I guess. I had zero problems with NV. Lucky me I guess.

Anecdotally I can only say that I and all of my friends who played it at launch experienced major bugs with FO2. A quick survey of the internet suggests that we were nowhere near alone in that.

 

[DalekFlay]

With how TOW turned out, I think it's safe to say many talents that have left after FNV is going to be decline too.

Most of them is already burn out without any passion and creativity left anymore.

Pillars and Outer Worlds are definitely nowhere near as well written and designed as New Vegas, however I'd still put them at the high end of videogame writing in relative terms. That's like winning the science prize at a special education school I guess, but it is what it is. If you were to ask me who I'd want making a Fallout 6, the only existing AAA developer I might prefer is CDPR.

 

[Quillon]

Now that I think about it I don't want Sawya directing another fallout or Obs making it for that matter. Obs' decline in last decade/post-NV is all due to Sawyer; that he deemed how all the great complex quests in RPGs are too to hard to make therefore unworthy of the effort put in and Obs as a studio embraced it going forward. Even newfag writers can make quests complex and fun given the freedom to make so as we see in BG3 but the writers at Obs have no chance long as they follow the studio design director's directives Even watching Sawyer on twitch he always makes comments about how hard it is to make that thing and this thing ffs.

If you were to ask me who I'd want making a Fallout 6, the only existing AAA developer I might prefer is CDPR.

It's not their style but if they were to make so it'd be great, they have fucking ambition to make great games as opposed to ambition to make games as comfortably as possible.

 

[Kazuki]

Now that I think about it I don't want Sawya directing another fallout or Obs making it for that matter. Obs' decline in last decade/post-NV is all due to Sawyer; that he deemed how all the great complex quests in RPGs are too to hard to make therefore unworthy of the effort put in and Obs as a studio embraced it going forward. Even newfag writers can make quests complex and fun given the freedom to make so as we see in BG3 but the writers at Obs have no chance long as they follow the studio design director's directives Even watching Sawyer on twitch he always makes comments about how hard it is to make that thing and this thing ffs.

Can't you blame him, i think when they failing metacritic bonus for FNV that leads to layoff really not just affecting him but their company as whole.

Imagine putting their maximum effort on it but only to meet a failure and putting their company at risk. So i can understand from their perspective to never bring themselves to put an overambitious and overachiever game design ever again if only that it even more failures and putting their company at risk of bankruptcy.

And that's why i don't think Sawyer or Obsidian as whole will ever change again for better because of that experience that leads them to decline of their quality post FNV.

 

[Ol' Willy]

If you were to ask me who I'd want making a Fallout 6, the only existing AAA developer I might prefer is CDPR.

It was

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game

It's Now

Fallout: A Post Nuclear First-Person Shooter

And then

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Interactive Movie

 

[DalekFlay]

And then

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Interactive Movie

I'm actually on record thinking Witcher 3 is extremely overrated for that reason. Cyberpunk looks... better though? Hard to say until we play it. Anyway, I was mainly thinking about writing.