Fallout spin-off in the works: New Vegas

[CerebroDragon]

I was surprised not to see this posted already...

In what is probably the most interesting bit of cRPG oriented news in awhile for fallout fans, Bethesda has given the go ahead to Obsidian to create a new game based on the F3 engine. The game's not going to be a sequel to Fallout 3 but rather a spin-off and has the speculatively New Reno reminiscent subtitle, New Vegas.

http://kotaku.com/5219584/new-fallout-announced

The bitter irony of the project having been given to a company that contains workers which previously worked on Fallout 2, might be a little too much for some of the more hardcore fans that were disappointed with Bethesda's mediocre effort. The project lead is Josh Sawyer. More information can be found on Ausir's wikia.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_FAQ

Perhaps considering the written flair of Obsidian's Mask of the Betrayer and Knights of the Old Republic II, we might get to see a new game in the fallout setting with decent writing and more actual role-playing choices with consequences. Plus a world more true to canon and less glaring in it's lack of cohesion and logic would be nice too!

It's an exciting development that's for sure and arguably a smart business move from Bethesda. Perhaps some more ideas from the cancelled Van Buren may finally get to see the light of day.

[Gabrielles blades]

I sure hope its coming sooner rather than later

[Luvian]

You know; normally I'd make a joke about how Obsidian is going to make a buggy game without an ending, but then Bethesda also forgot to put a real ending in Fallout 3...

I'm looking forward to it, actually. They do manage to fix their bugs eventually, and the community usually finish building the game for them.

[CerebroDragon]

@ Gabrielles
At this stage it has a one year development cycle which could be a bad sign if Obsidian's buggy and unfinished/unpolished history is anything to go by. But I'd like to think they can pull through and give us something more true to series which doesn't sound like it was written by a 13 year old.

You're right about the ending, Luvian - it was pathetic. Even Emil Paguliarulo admitted in an interview that the story ending to Bethout (or Fallivion if you will...) breaks down. It was argued that gameplay trumps story in this case, but I don't think it was an argument that on the whole was very convincing.

Perhaps even Chris Avellone may yet get to work on New Vegas once he's finished up on Alpha Protocol, who knows? That would make for a fascinating prospect, considering he worked on Fallout 2.

[Chewbacca]

Evidently a proper ending for FO3 is coming soon via Download... and I hear for crapboX360 only.

I'm glad to hear Obsidian is doing this spin-off, regardless of some of the past disappointments.

[SpiritWarrior]

They're good at storytelling (Obsidian) once they don't ■■■■ with engines or game mechanics too much. NWN2 had nice stories for the most part, but what they did to the game was just blah.

[Luvian]

I saw an interview from a Fallout 3 DEV, and they said they learned their lesson and the new DLC will not have an ending.

For the "old" ending you'll be able to send some of your allies instead of you, amongst other things.

[JrKASperov]

Need I add that many people working in Obsidian are in fact from ye olde days of Fallout2? People like Sawyer and Avellone worked on FO2.

[CerebroDragon]

No, you needn't have added. Because it was already in the original post.
By all means, share your enthusiasm for the project however, because it is realistically the best possible situation I think for classic fallout fans generally speaking.

[JrKASperov]

Holy crap.. I actually missed that? And it was there so obviously...

Well anyway, given Obsidian's track record I'm interested. They have a tendency to provide stellar writing and subpar gameplay. Fortunately I like writing above gameplay usually.