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History of Fallout Franchise

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While I don't agree with everything he says in this video, he did point out many things that were true. The only reason Fallout New Vegas didn't have the success Fallout 3 did is because of the short window of development on Obsidian. And the games had over 200 bugs at launch because Bethesda and their obsession for Gamebryo. What else could Obsidian do about that? Not much. A short time of development and working with a heap of shit game engine. Yet, they did do a real good job. So for Bethesda to see this as a failure for not meeting their expectations, I fully disagree with that. For the amount of time they had and the resources they used on a horrible game engine, it did fine.

Now what makes me cringe is that fact that so much content was stripped because (as always) they have to appeal to console systems. If they would have given Obsidian more time for development, which means New Vegas being more depth and the addition of the cut content never being cut to begin with, and more time to work out the bugs to top that off, it would of sold more than Fallout 3. And they could of just cut out that content for the console gamers due to restrictive hardware and memory for the console version. But companies don't like to spend more time and money doing that so they just go with the dumbing down PC version to meet the requirements for console systems.

I never thought I'd defend New Vegas since it's not a game I much like, but back then when I was criticizing it, I was doing so off of my experience itself and not including the factors like the short time of development. Because I didn't really care to know more than what I knew about that game.

And the reason why I'm even mentioning this is because I among many others would like to see Obsidian return to make another Fallout sequel. But given that it seems Bethesda wasn't too happy with the outcome of New Vegas, I feel like that is not going to happen.

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Kendo 2 Proficient

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Coming straight from Oblivion to FO3 was a mind-blowing experience.  The game's atmosphere was great and main story wasn't that bad, though not innovative by any means.  The four things that really stuck in my craw about the game were;

  • No one was growing food.
  • Megaton wouldn't exist as a town since no one would live on top of a nuclear bomb by choice.
  • Rivet City would be nothing but a pile of rusted iron without constant maintenance.
  • The end scene at Project Purity where the followers who were immune to radiation refused to go into the reactor.

To me, New Vegas was a huge joke and still is.  The main quest had plot holes galore, the writing was shit, the voice acting was gawd-awful, and the list goes on.  Additionally I already knew what New Vegas could do or be because I had pumped so much game time into FO3.  Nothing that happened in New Vegas surprised me or impressed me.  It was just 'a new game to mod' and little else.  Even if New Vegas development was under pressure that doesn't excuse the story premise or the writing.  They were total shit from the beginning.

Speaking of total shit, FO4 is an even bigger joke than New Vegas was.  It's not even an RPG; it's crappy shooter with an inventory system and some stilted dialogue.  And that linear story...THE WORST, worse than New Vegas'.

But to FO4's defense, I played it after playing Witcher3 and it didn't stack up by any means.  It might not be a fair comparison but Witcher3 is the gold standard now.  If a game is billed as an RPG it had better top or at least equal the depth and richness of Witcher3.  Both Todd Howard and 'Bethesda' got a spanking behind the half-assed attempt at a game they called FO4.  And deservedly so.  I'm not a fanboy of the franchise to begin with so the next FO incarnation had better be awe-fucking-inspiring or Bethesda will get spanked again.  Maybe Bethesda should take a look at what happened to Bioware/EA and the shitstorm after Andromeda was released.  Companies pumping out substandard crap won't fly anymore.  The 'mods will fix it' axiom doesn't apply if no one cares.  Look at how FO4 has already stagnated.  No one cares, and that's Bethesda's fault.

I've said this before, but I wish CDProjectRed would buy the FO franchise.  Even with the two-year old technology that went into Witcher3, they could make a badass FO game with it that would surpass anything Bethesda can concoct.

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Speaking of total shit, FO4 is an even bigger joke than New Vegas was.  It's not even an RPG; it's crappy shooter with an inventory system and some stilted dialogue.  And that linear story...THE WORST, worse than New Vegas'.

Well Fallout 4 solved one of your grips of Fallout 3.... people grow food now :P

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I agree. But for me what I think Obsidian did right was with Dead Money's plot and just overall DLC. I think that's when I really saw how good they can get with writing, geting the right voice actors and the dark and gloomy world. I also felt that they got it right with Lonesome World with the aesthetic feel and all that debris and atmosphere that I felt should of been part of the main game. But instead the Mojave was just overall boring to explore. Nothing was memorable and iconic like in Fallout 3. Not even New Vegas. And I was born and raised here. Nothing was awww to me ever in that game. Okay maybe Hoover Dam a little.

Now the plot with New Vegas just never sat right with me. It felt like one of those action movies wit ha really mediocre plot. I must get revenge with little depth to it. I think if they switched benny with Ulysses as the person who shot the Courier and took the chip, and made it where Ulysses wanted it to take the money for himself, it could of been interesting. Since the Courier has a connection with Ulysses, they could of expanded it on the Courier's memory is fuzzy from taking damage to the brain and as you progress through the story, you remember who Ulysses is. Could of been like Ulysses shot the Courier, a note drops from Ulysses's pocket from his coat or something and in that note states a connection between you and him and the reason for taking you out and claiming the chip for himself.

There just wasn't any connection between the Courier and Benny for me to believe why it was important for the Courier to go seek revenge after being shot in the head and surviving it. There has to be some connection that motivates the player and protagonist like there was in Fallout 3.

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Kendo 2 Proficient

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New Vegas really perturbed me.  Mr. House, his impregnable casino fortress and those fucking robots of his.  He has this giant casino wonderland and no one ever stacked dynamite in front of the doors or the base of a wall and blasted their way in.  He has those stupid robots, and no one ever thought of using pulse grenades or mines to put a stop to them.  AND the first exchange the player has with House where he takes the chip, shows it off and then forces the player to take it back.  Every time I played that scene I always thought. 'Fuck you, fuck your chip.  My job was to deliver it, so here it is.'  And then just flip it on the ground and walk off.

Something else was all of the neon lights and Hoover Dam still functioning.  Neon lights take a lot more than some guy in a shop on 'The Strip'.  Who's making the neon and then bottling it?  That is an industry unto itself.  And Hoover Dam sits for 200+ years and the Lake Mead side never silts up and turns the dam into a waterfall.  AND Hoover Dam can't provide enough electricity for Vegas now, imagine 200 yr old broken crap.  They'd be lucky if it could power an ice machine.

And don't even get me started on 'families' or 'tribes' that run The Strip.  They are Chicago-style gangsters, Rat Pack wannabes and posh-speaking Mardi Gras mask-wearing fruits.  WHERE did the cultural context for that bullshit come from?  Weren't they tribals and raiders?  Did they find Mr. Peabody and Sherman and use the Wayback Machine?

Not to mention that Caesar's Legion was built up in about 20 yrs, with their own currency, organized society and mythology.  Like I said, New Vegas was a huge joke to me since NONE OF IT made any goddamned sense.  But it's not the worst offender in the franchise.  FO4 holds that dubious honor.  I did one playthrough and did the BOS ending.  It was 90 hrs of my life wasted and Todd Howard's lies and Bethesda's bullshit will never sucker me in again.  KK, I'm done.  :D

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They did the right thing sticking with the things Steve Jackson didn't agree with. Fallout 1 was generations ahead of its time. Violence is perfectly acceptable in movie films, but the intro in Fallout 1 is blasphemy!

Even at that time up until before Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. was the perfect role playing system. If they didn't harm it as much as they did in Fallout 4, it would still work. There was nothing to lose from it in modern games. That's why when something works, don't fix it. But they've turned it into a system built for the casual gamers now and it's only going to continue to get even worse. If that's even possible at this point.

 

Great video btw. I saw the one before where he was interviewing Feargus and being toured through the studio yesterday or the day before.

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I haven't been keeping dibs on Obsidian's development, but yongyea just uploaded a video on Microsoft canceling Stormlands; an exclusive Xbox One rpg. Not sure if that was the RPG being worked on, but if not hopefully that doesn't put a halt to what ever RPG they are working on.

Also...

 

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bjornk Collaborator

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10 hours ago, endgameaddiction said:

I haven't been keeping dibs on Obsidian's development, but yongyea just uploaded a video on Microsoft canceling Stormlands; an exclusive Xbox One rpg. Not sure if that was the RPG being worked on, but if not hopefully that doesn't put a halt to what ever RPG they are working on.

I really doubt that Cain would work on an XBox exclusive title. Haven't watched the video yet but if I'm not mistaken Stormlands was a MS IP and Cain has once said that his was a new IP for Obsidian. 

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bjornk Collaborator

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Somewhat related rant about FOnline...

Spoiler

I've spent the day browsing through various online communities related to FOnline and its derivatives. They are really full of obnoxious people and I felt like I loved the game for completely different reasons than theirs. No wonder I had a really shitty experience in FOnline Reloaded.  Nobody's interested in role-playing at all. Sound just like a group of teenage nerds and their egos guided by high testosterone. This is probably true for all other Fallout titles as well, which would explain why the modding scene for Fallout games has always been shitty. If I ever make a large scale mod for a Fallout game I'm definitely keeping it for myself...

 

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nsfwmodszzz Newbie

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I guess I am the minority here as FO:NV in its vanilla state is the only game I connected with in the FO/TES franchises.  Bethesda can't do storytelling if their lives depend on it and Obsidian is second only to the realBioware in weaving character driven narratives in video games, which is what I prefer in a RPG.  I enjoyed FO3 and still screwing around in Skyrim but mostly for their set pieces and not Bethesda's lore building. 

 

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Well, I was very harsh on FNV in the past. But I was ignorant and didn't realize that Obsidian had only a few years to develop the game. I can only imagine how much pressure Bethesda was pushing on them to finish the game. I read about a lot of content that was cut out of the game. I talk about not liking the story line with Benny, but I could of easily let that slide if it wasn't for the boring desert that wasn't much fun to explore.

I don't think for one second that Obsidian was at fault for not reaching the expected goal in sales. For being developed in 2 years, it sold impressively well. Had they been given at least 2 more years to develop New Vegas, it would of amped up even more hype and more even more sales. I really don't understand why they were only given 2 years. I mean it's not like Fallout 4 was around the corner after Skyrim. I guess the timing between New Vegas and Skyrim had something to do with it as well.

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nsfwmodszzz Newbie

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I doubt Bethesda ever wanted FO:NV but Obsidian was licensed by Interplay to make a FO game to follow Bethesda's FO3.  Instead, Bethesda bought FO from Interplay in 2007 before FO3 was released with Skyrim in mind for 2011.  Bethesda probably told Obsidian that the only way Bethesda would publish a Obsidian FO game under the old Inerplay license was if the game can be delivered by 2010 (so not to overlap Skyrim). 

As to why not let Obsidian have until 2013 (two years after Skyrim and three before FO4).  Obsidian probably didn't have the money to handle a 5 year development by itself and no way Bethesda the publisher would risk financial resources to a product it didn't want.  It is likely that Obsidian offered the same turnaround deal it had with Bioware, which is a standalone game built technically like an expansion.

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Makes complete sense. And the sad thing is, I doubt Bethesda would ever collaborate with Obsidian to work on another Fallout.

And it also makes sense about Obsidian and more than likely not having the finances to back up the years of development. If you remember, they nearly hit rock bottom in 2012. And if it wasn't for the success Pillars of Eternity they would have been done for.

Spoiler

 

 

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