Fallout: New Vegas - Interview @ Shacknews

Originally Posted by nessosin
I am bit of suprised that people who had an opportunity to play real gems in genre can say with a straight face that main campaign of NWN2 is anything more than boring, medicore story that Mr. Paolini could have come up with. And like I said earlier gameplay doesnt outweight it.

And now we have an announcement like this and you are suprised that Codex is suspecious, when at its core its a site for maniacs who cheerish the love for studios long gone and standards long abondoned?

I admit that there are many trolls there, but they are not without a reason to doubt Obsidian.

In fairness, they're taking an existing well developed & tested engine that's already had a major commercial release to recover engine development costs leaving them with far greater resources to focus on story & gameplay and far more scope to take creative risks, i.e. exactly the position they were in with MoTB.

Originally Posted by Benedict
In fairness, they're taking an existing well developed & tested engine that's already had a major commercial release to recover engine development costs leaving them with far greater resources to focus on story & gameplay and far more scope to take creative risks, i.e. exactly the position they were in with MoTB.

Excatly the position they were in with SoZ, Kotor 2.

I wonder….across the internet just how many people are discussing this very topic? I know NMA, we are and Codex is. Just curious since it seems to have livened up all three sites quite a bit.

Originally Posted by nessosin
Excatly the position they were in with SoZ, Kotor 2.

Kotor 2 was okay wasn't it? I'd thought that was bioware anyway, and wasn't the engine different from Kotor 1?

And I didn't mind SoZ, the only real flaw with it was that the underlying engine wasn't suitable for what they were trying to do, other than that it was a perfectly enjoyable implementation of what they were trying to do. Not as much to my taste as what they were trying to do with MoTB, but perfectly okay.

I take your point anyway, I'm coming from the view that the thing that everyone thought was wrong with Fallout was the plot so that's what they'll be working on but I suppose the real question is - will Chris Avellone be heavily involved in the writing or will it be pretty average?

Originally Posted by Benedict
Kotor 2 was okay wasn't it? I'd thought that was bioware anyway, and wasn't the engine different from Kotor 1?

The KOTOR 2 engine is plumb near identical to the KOTOR 1 engine. They might've added a few special effects, but that's about it. And yes, it was OK, and would've been a great deal better than just OK if they'd have been allowed to finish the damn thing; as it is, the endgame is rather awful.

/me still hopes Team Gizka finishes the restoration project, someday…

Originally Posted by Shagnak
Oh, maybe I should have said "some"? I think there is some noise created by the most vociferous of the nay sayers.

Some? I just went through nine pages of garbage (reminds me why I dont read som threads there) just to see if there was somthing interesting but there. Well there wasnt. Somone brought out the fact that the game is having only one year of devtime - sounds kind of short but thats about it.

Oh, the Age Of Fallout has begun … I think I can snifff it in the air which will be the next fashion in game settings …

Wouldn't mind that at all. BRING ON THE NUKES

Game companies almost never announce a game when they first begin development of it but usually far further down the road or even when it is almost complete.

Originally Posted by zakhal
I just went through nine pages of garbage (reminds me why I dont read som threads there) just to see if there was somthing interesting but there. Well there wasnt.

Really? Nothing?
Page 3: Obsidian developers turn up and clarify just how many ex-FO related developers are actually Obsidian. I was quite surprised; many more than I thought:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewto…=746874#746874

Page 4: J Sawyer himself turns up and confirms he's the lead:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewto…=746960#746960
(unfortunately he says he can't answer any specific questions about the new project itself, yet)

Page 8: Ausir makes some interesting observations about wishful intersections with Van Buren:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewto…=747585#747585

And some others.

These are few and far between, but there's not much to be said when the devs are not allowed to answer any questions yet.

The Codex: a finely tuned bullshit filter is required

And thick skin. But you are right, it's foolish to dismiss the place. Amid all the nonsense and hating you'll find some of the smartest discussions on RPG's anywhere on the net. It's just gotten really hard to filter out all the crap.

Originally Posted by guenthar
Game companies almost never announce a game when they first begin development of it but usually far further down the road or even when it is almost complete.

How much earlier could they have started it? Fallout3 itself was released only last fall and thats not so far away. Could they have started this before fallout3 was released?

Originally Posted by nessosin
…its true that their previous games wasnt anything exceptional.

MotB was simply superb. That's enough for me. No current major studio has put out anything better than MotB. Period.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines was released on the same day as Half-Life 2 was released and was on the same engine. VtMB was being created at the same time as the engine and Half-Life 2.

Also the Fallout 3 engine is just an evolution of the Oblivion engine so I don't think it would have been hard to start working on Fallout: New Vegas a 1 1/2 years or more ago.

PS. If the game started 1 1/2 years ago and is released fall 2010 then it would be 3 years which is around the same amount of time Fallout 3 was in development for.

I'm guessing this is brand, brand new. From Sawyer's Twitter on April 3rd:

loves the smell of contract signing in the… evening.

..and the OBS twitter

Obsidian is happy today.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
MotB was simply superb. That's enough for me. No current major studio has put out anything better than MotB. Period.

Agreed. There are some inherent limitations in the NWN2 engine, but I like what has been done with it …

Originally Posted by Dhruin
I'm guessing this is brand, brand new. From Sawyer's Twitter on April 3rd:


..and the OBS twitter

Interesting. Then it could really be brand new. Very unusual to disclose a project so early.

Or Obsidian signed another game.


If development really only started now I suppose they are going to recycle Bethesda's tech and toolset with only minor changes. Otherwise 3 platforms in 1.5 years is mission impossible.

Wasn't Troika under the gun like this with TOEE? IIRC they made the engine and game in about the same time as this. Obsidian already has the engine. They just need to tweak it, add in some graphics, do their quests and test it out. If Troika can hash out a game plus new engine then I don't see why they can't do this as well. And before anyone says "But it was buggy" That doesn't matter the fact that they got it out at all is quite an accomplishment. Hope these guys have the same stamina.

Well, clearly noone knows if the twitters relate to this or some other project but a fast-turnaround using the FO3 engine (which, after all, has well-developed tools) is one obvious scenario. Gorath is right that it would be an early revelation, though.

I guess we'll find out.

Re ToEE, it was actually based on an evolution of the Arcanum engine - obviously with a lot of work. If I recall (and it's been a while now), they'd already done a fair bit of work on the renderer before signing the ToEE deal.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewto…hlight=#749128

Originally Posted by Anthony Davis, Obsidian programmer
Avellone wears many hats at Obsidian. He is currently the chief creative officer (or something like that) as well as the project director and lead designer for AP.

To whomever asked up above, Feargus is of course still at Obsidian. He is currently the CEO and project director of an unannounced project that is not FO.

Josh Sawyer is the project director and lead designer of Fallout: New Vegas.

So, Obsidian is currenly working on an unannounced project besides Alpha Protocol and Fallout?.