News just in from Gamasutra. Bethesda’s Pete Hines, speaking in London, revealed that KOTOR2/NWN2 veterans Obsidian are working on a new Fallout game going under the name “Fallout: New Vegas”. The only facts we have are that it’s not Fallout Tactics, Brotherhood of Steel and doesn’t impact what the actual main Bethesda Fallout team are doing. Which does make the puzzle be exactly what it could be. My gut response guess would be something using the Fallout 3 engine, in a locale well away from where Bethesda are operating – perhaps, I dare say, in Vegas – and probably set in a different period. But that’s just nonsense I’ve just made up, obv. It could be a Fallout Slot Machine Game for all I know. The comments thread is your place for speculation.
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I couldn’t get anywhere in Fallout 3, the dodgy animations drew me completely out of the world they created, and I was under the misconception that being an RPG it’s strengths would lie in the dialogue … at least I am no longer so naive.
“Obsidian specializes in ruining sequals, their past projects like Kotor2″
If Obsidian were allowed to actually complete the game instead of being forced to push it out in time for Christmas, KOTOR2 would have been superior to the first one in nearly every way. Not their fault. Period.
Avellone, Urquheart, Sawyer…someone get Boyarski on the line!!
Was I the only one who preferred the original NWN to it’s sequel? The original NWN campaign let you progress in a relatively freeform manner, with the overarching story (admittedly uninsipiring) providing structure in which to quest. NWN2 might have all the great story in the world, but the blatant railroading through the portion of the game I played put me off ever wanting to finish it. The story line seemed to consist of “blah blah story exposition, now run over there”, rinse and repeat. If this is the kind of storyline people are excited about Obsidian injecting into other games, I’ll pass thanks. They seem to give about as much control over the storyline as your average JRPG (ie. none).
^ They did that because they knew they could get away with it. The type of hardcore fanbase that plays D&D games don’t do it for story, they do it for the geeky number crunching, min-maxing stuff.
If even 1/10th of the story/writing/VO greatness of KOTOR 2 makes it into this game, it will be a vast improvement over F3.
NWN2 was a clear improvement on NWN in terms of characters and writing. Although really it’s the expansion Mask of the Betrayer which is made the game fantastic, one of the finest rpg experiences since planescape.
I really wish people would stop trying to paint them as unpleasable wretches especially considering that they were COMPLETELY 100% CORRECT about Fallout 3
They hated Fallout 3 before there was a Fallout 3. Worse, their community produces literally nothing but hatred. Even the Deus Ex community — similar in size, similar in scope — has produced a number of passable, interesting mods. The Fallout people don’t even produce bad fanfiction.
They just produce bile. Huge, steaming, buckets of bile. C.f. ‘dogshit and semen’ post above.
“If Obsidian were allowed to actually complete the game instead of being forced to push it out in time for Christmas, KOTOR2 would have been superior to the first one in nearly every way. Not their fault. Period.”
Obisidian themselves have admitted repeatedly that they made huge mistakes with KotOR2 and NWN2, that lead to those games being as bad as they were. They’ve yet to prove that they can not make those mistakes.
@DK: I am curious to know what your source on this is.
Is it just me, or does it kinda feel like Obsidian are cheating on Bioware?
What the hell is next, Fallout: Miami!?
“What we have here, Ian… *puts power armor helmet on* is one hot ghoul.”
YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
WE DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN!
…I would totally play Fallout: Miami. As long as The Who was somehow involved.
DK, KOTORII as it was intended to be in its finished form, would have been fantastic. The standard of dialogue was already far higher than the, already good, original.
NWN2 was disappointing, I would agree, but MoTB was fantastic. Absolutely top-notch.
It’s a studio made up of people who made Planescape, Fallout one and two, Baldur’s Gate one and two. I’m astounded that you don’t have even the vaguest optimism.
I’d admit with my limited experience with Obsidian, my first thought to hearing about this was akin to “What, so we’ll get Fallout: Incomplete now?”; undeserved or not, they’d certainly have to convince me otherwise.
All that nonwithstanding, I’m actually not sure what to expect. KotOR II was.. well, it had potential, but most of it felt hidden behind incompleteness and not so good ideas, and NWN2.. I thought it started off great, personal quest I could be engaged in and all.. and then it hit the titular city and they just produced a gun and shot the plot I was enjoying in the head. By the time I was over in something or other mountains killing something or other orcs and had forgotten what I was trying to do in the first place, I decided the developers and I simply did not agree on what makes good story and gave up.
What all that means for Obsidian and Fallout 3 I’m not sure. Might be decent, but past experiences make me expect it’ll be a garble of Fallout 3 + plenty of good ideas + plenty of not so good ideas and a feeling of lacking polish.
Optimistic. Bethesda doesn’t care about writing quality and have admitted as much. Obsidian made KOTOR 2 and Mask of the Betrayer, which we should all agree were quite nicely written.
So yay for writing.
Obsidian is a great company and i think it’s a very interesting attitude of Bethesda to allow some other developer to make a game using the Fallout name, i mean they have expended millions to buy the license.I know they are going to gain money from this game some way(by publishing it maybe?), but even so i think it’s great to allow another company to act upon their IP like that.
Let’s see what happens now. My expectation is to have a game more emphasized in roleplaying than Fallout 3 was, checking by Obsidian background. Anyway anything is possible
@Snappyterm: “DK, KOTORII as it was intended to be in its finished form, would have been fantastic. The standard of dialogue was already far higher than the, already good, original.”
And I could be rich had I won the lottery. Could have, would have is irrelevant. Obisidian have yet to finish a game – why the hell should they be given the benefit of the doubt that “this time they really will!”.
@Pantsman, many of the interviews with about KotOR2/NWN2 Development.
Chris Avellone, Chris Avellone, Chris Avellone. Chris Avellone.
Chris Avellone.
Chris Avellone? Chris Avellone!
@DK
They’ve also only produced two games thus far. That said, if you count expansions, Mask of the Betrayer is essentially complete and is indeed one of the best RPG experiences I’ve had in recent memory (if not all memory).
That said, even if it does end up somewhat incomplete, I daresay the experience more than makes up for it. KOTOR II was phenomenal, even considering the rushed latter third. No other game besides the Baldur’s Gate Trilogy has ever had me so fully attached to the characters, or so deeply invested into their situation.
Also, it was Lucasart’s fault. And you know their track record at this point.
Reply to DK- Three questions
Have you played either of their games?
Which interviews are you talking about?
Do you have an NMA account?
Woo for an Obsidian game and free kneecapping to any publisher that goes near them.
@Bhazor,
If by “either” you mean more than two, then yes. KotOR2, NWN2 + expansions (Mask of the Betrayer was almost finished, but the Obisidian managed to break the Aurora engine so completely for vanilla NWN2, MotB was also utterly broken).
I don’t obsessively save every interview with every developer I read, sorry.
And no, I don’t even know what NMA stands for.
@Zyrusticae: KotOR2 was phenomenal in the same way a hotdog is phenomenal right until you get far enough down to bite into the shit they put in down at the end. It doesn’t matter how “great” it was before – you still bit into shit at the end – it completely destroys the entire package.
@Bhazor, you’re in luck regarding your question #2:
“We agreed to a tight schedule and delivered,” Avellone admits, “so it was on us. The game probably could have stood to cook for a few more months, but I should’ve been more responsible with the feature set. Looking back, I wish we’d cut minigames and one or two companions.”
from here:
http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/chris-avellone-dark-knight-0
@ACS: Somewhat ironic, innit, that you critique NMA for baseless, bitter drivel with no constructive contributions, then make that mistake yourself? A simple look ’round NMA’s mod forums/discussions would’ve enlightened you. Heck, RPS has even linked to some of the mods produced by NMA’s community, so you hardly have an excuse even if you don’t visit any other sites. ;)
NMA folks may be…passionate…but it’s totally wrong to claim that they’ve contributed no modding or other expertise back to the internets as a whole.
Reply to DK
“We agreed to a tight schedule and delivered,” Ahhh, so they didn’t have enough time then because their publisher enforced a stupid deadline. That completely validates your idea that they somehow did it on purpose.
I guess we just have very, very different views on KOTOR 2 then. It’s just that yours are wrong.
Edit: Ooh, edits!
@Bhazor, that’s an astonishing feat of selective reading.
“so it was on us.” “…I should’ve been more responsible with the feature set.”
The correct responsive when you have a certain timeframe to make a game isn’t to write about the game you would have liked to make in your dream journal and deliver some pieces of a game – it’s to make the game that you actually CAN make.
So awesome, who better to hand this to than Obsidian?
She’s coming home.
@DK: Essentially then, their mistake was excessive ambition.
Call me crazy, but I’m actually glad they made that mistake.
I’d rather have 20 awesome hours and 1 crap one than miss out on 20 awesome hours because there weren’t 21 awesome hours.
KoToR II’s great, I still don’t get the fuss over the end. It’s fine, none of the cut content matters.
Obsidian have been getting stronger with each game, by Avellone’s own admission. There’s too much talent and passion at that company to not be successful.
Chances are Alpha Protocol will be by far the more interesting game compared to this though.
RAINBOW FALLOUT: VEGAS
Cry harder fanboys, someone might care what you think of Fallout 3.
@”There’s too much talent and passion at that company to not be successful.”
The same could have been said about Troika. We all know how that one ended. Companies that live solely on the long past successes of some employees don’t succeed. See Troika, see Flagship, see Obisidian, etc.
Reply to Dk
Except the development was cut short half way through.
Their only internal problem was over ambition, which leads to a huge game, which leads to a complete arse of a game to beta test. Which leads to profit!
Troika used an outdated engine for Arcanum and a wholly unsuitable and unfinished one for Vampire. Troika went under in large part because contractual obligations meant Vampire couldn’t be released until after HL2 was released at which point no one cared about it because HL2 was released. Publishers ‘ey?
Temple of Elemental Evil was also a wee bit gash.
Hello Fallout Kitty.
Reply to DK
Troika wasn’t financially successful, but they were critically successful. Which at this point seems to be your main concern.
As more of a general comment, anyone complaining about Obsidian REALLY needs to play Mask of the Betrayer before saying they don’t have it in them to make a fantastic game. (Yea it’s an expansion. You can still play it without playing the original NWN2 though).