Fallout 3 headed to New Vegas next year

[Queasy]

Joystiq - Could this be Fallout 3's Shivering Isles? Did Bethesda give us all a big head fake by announcing they were only concentrating on "smaller, digestable chunks" while they farmed out New Vegas to Obsidian Entertainment?

 

[bdubyah]

hmmm...sounds okay i guess.

having a different developer kind of worries me though, and it won't be out till 2010.

let's just say i'm not holding my breath...

 

[erwos]

Whenever I hear that Obsidian is developing something, I wince. They mean well, but I associate them with quality control issues. That's not exactly a trait you ever want to see in conjunction with massively complex games like Oblivion or Fallout 3.

Still, more Fallout 3 can't _hurt_, so I will be cautiously optimistic.

 

[warcrow]

It does give me pause that Obisdian is involved, which is sad since most of the guys from Black Isle Studios (Fallout, Baulders Gate: DA, Icewind Dale) are there now.

Something happened in the migration.

I'm just not a fan of their recent work. I adore the first KoTOR but was bored to death by the sequel (which they worked on).

Neverwinter Nights 2 is...ok I suppose. I can't seem to get past the first hour of the game.

Alpha Protocal doesnt look particularly interesting (yet).

Aliens Crucible was put on "indefinite hold".

But I do have a lot of faith in Bethesda so we'll see what happens here. Although I do recall making the same mental note in my head when I hear about Indiana Jones 4 (that Speilberg would cancel out Lucas's taint).

 

[raystorm]

I'll keep my eye out on this since former Black Isle guys are on the team and those guys created my fav pc rpg of all time (Planescape: Torment) and I enjoyed their previous games too. Sure some of their recent stuff has some bugs but Bethesda's stuff is hardly bug free. They can't even release their DLC without lots of bugs. I wonder if this will be an expansion pack or a full, new game.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I am extremely excited that this somewhat badly titled game will be a return to form perhaps (apart from being 3d). I am ambivalent about Obsidian handling it, especially since I haven't enjoyed much of their stuff lately. If this uses the Gamebryo engine I will think twice about getting my heart set on it for sure though. What an absolute mule of an engine.

Did anyone else notice that Chris Taylor (of Fallout 1 fame) is working for Brian Fargo now? Wasteland sequel? DO WANT.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: raystorm
I wonder if this will be an expansion pack or a full, new game.

My bet is "new game", if only because it's apparently coming out for the PS3 as well. If this means some more violence and sex, that'd be pretty awesome.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: raystorm
I wonder if this will be an expansion pack or a full, new game.

My bet is "new game", if only because it's apparently coming out for the PS3 as well. If this means some more violence and sex, that'd be pretty awesome.

This post at Kotaku makes it sound like a new game as well.

Fallout New Vegas was announced moments ago during a Bethesda press conference in London.

The new game was revealed by Bethesda's Pete Hines who said that the publisher is working with Obsidian Entertainment on the title.

It will be coming out next year for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

"It is not a sequel to Fallout 3," Hines said. "It's simply another Fallout game in that universe."

It will be the same sort of role-playing game experience seen in Fallout 3, he said. The game's official reveal, with more details and a look at the game down the line.

Hines added that this title will have no impact on what Todd Howard and his team are working on.

Obsidian Entertainment is the development studio that rose from the ashes of Black Isle Studios, responsible for developing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights, Alpha Protocol, and Sega's Aliens: Crucible RPG, which is currently on indefinite hold.

 

[Queasy]

Not a new game, but a spinoff. Let's hope it is more Frasier and less After MASH.

Interview with Shack. Also included info on Broken Steel DLC and Bethesda copyrighting the Fallout name.

Earlier today, Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Softworks announced "Fallout: New Vegas," a new title in the Fallout series of post-nuclear RPGs.

Not a true sequel to Fallout 3, New Vegas is instead a spin-off RPG in the same style under development at Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian was founded by former members of Black Isle, the original developers of the Fallout franchise, making the project a unique partnership between Fallout veterans and the current series stewards.

Following the press event in London, I caught up with Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines to talk a bit about the project and other Fallout-related items.

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: Was there ever a stage where it was an internal project, or was the intention always to hand the franchise to a third party and publish?

Pete Hines: The idea was, put aside for a second what Bethesda Game Studios is going to do going forward, as it relates to anything. Elder Scrolls, Fallout, no matter what--forget about that for a second and, if you do, would you do this if you could do it and not affect what they wanted to do? Could they peacefully co-exist?

And we felt like, yeah, we could work with somebody else to make a game like this and still let the Bethesda Game Studios guys focus on their next projects and the things that they're working on. And so we did.

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.

Shack: Was this deal locked down fairly recently? I'm curious because up to the end of last year, Obsidian was working on the Aliens RPG, and they obviously had Alpha Protocol. I'm wondering if the Aliens cancellation was in any way related.

Pete Hines: I don't know. That might be a question for Obsidian whenever we get around to talking a bit more about it, but it was just something that we've been talking with them about for a while now, and working with them for a while now, and we felt like this was the right time to talk about it. We didn't want to wait until E3 and have it get drowned out in the noise of that.

Shack: Does Broken Steel mark the end of Fallout 3 DLC from Bethesda's end?

Pete Hines: We'll have to wait and see. Never say never, but the initial goal was we want to do three, and here's what we want em to be. And so we'll have to wait and see after that. [Broken Steel] was the one where it feels like everybody has been most looking forward to and waiting on, so we'll kick this one out and figure out where we want to go from there.

Shack: You guys trademarked the Fallout name for movies and television recently. Was that related to a specific project, or..?

Pete Hines: That's more part of, we spent a lot of time developing Fallout into something that is very hot. It has a lot of people's interest--

Shack: So you're just protecting it.

Pete Hines: --and we just want to be make sure that we're protecting what we created. And I can tell you, we've gotten a ton of interest about those kinds of things, not just with Fallout, but over the years. And it was just a, "Let's make sure that we're protecting what is ours and not letting somebody else do anything with it." So it's more of that, and it is not in response to any specific project or initiative or anything in particular.

 

[zerocool84]

Ugg so it's ganna be like Fallout 3??? I really disliked Fallout 3. I would really wish they made it more like a traditional RPG and without all that crap they did to it and actually made the quests fun and engaging. I'm having more fun playing Phantasy Star 4 than I did playing Fallout 3.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: zerocool84
Ugg so it's ganna be like Fallout 3??? I really disliked Fallout 3. I would really wish they made it more like a traditional RPG and without all that crap they did to it and actually made the quests fun and engaging. I'm having more fun playing Phantasy Star 4 than I did playing Fallout 3.

Fallout 3 was a massive success (both critically and financially). A few people who want a more traditional RPG are not going to outweigh the millions that enjoyed Fallout 3 and want more of that style game play. Besides, it wouldn't make sense to cater to a small group of gamers when they've already captured the masses by creating a fun, accessible game that they advertised the hell out of last holiday season.

I'm sure it's engaging when you get into it, but it is blatantly obvious why they don't make games like Phantasy Star 4 for the mass market...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bvkIHn1Kq8

 

[BD2003]

Boo.

Less fallout, more oblivion.

 

[sourceninja]

If Obsidian is making it expect a story that takes too long and then suddenly ends with no resolution making you go WTF was that??? (KOTOR2)

 

[Schadenfroh]

Sweet, glad they are letting the developers of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 make another Fallout game. (Obsidian is the remnants of Interplay's Black Isle Studios) With each OE / BIS release, I hope for another PS:T, but I know that it is a dream

Hopefully, their publisher wont force them to ship it long before it is ready, dang Lucas Arts and Atari.

Originally posted by: sourceninja
If Obsidian is making it expect a story that takes too long and then suddenly ends with no resolution making you go WTF was that??? (KOTOR2)

You have Lucas Arts to thank for that. Obsidian had another chapter in the works, but Lucas Arts was impatient and told them to ship it as is, thus the chapter was cut. They were nice enough to place pieces of the lost chapter on the disks so that modders could access them. Hence the KOTOR restoration project started:
http://team-gizka.org/

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: zerocool84
Ugg so it's ganna be like Fallout 3??? I really disliked Fallout 3. I would really wish they made it more like a traditional RPG and without all that crap they did to it and actually made the quests fun and engaging. I'm having more fun playing Phantasy Star 4 than I did playing Fallout 3.

I love Fallout 3! Shameless plug! 😀