Its a trap!

[drgong]

Bethesda does make good games, Morrowind was excellent, and Obivion was excellent if it was properly modded (OOO + MMM supermods) And fallout 3 was a fun game, but not as replayable as Fallout 1 or 2. (I think i died once in my fallout 3 first playthough, and that was due to overconfidence.) Fallout New Vegas not only has the good parts of Fallout 3 (and fallout 3 did have some good parts) it patched up the bad parts to make a very good game.

Bethesda is most likely building a RPG with ID technology for the next TES game, at which point they will build fallout 4, or get someone to use their tech to build fallout 4. I don't look down at Bethesda taking over Fallout series, it was a dead series that is now once again a major franchise due to the work Bethesda put in. I know a lot of people who became fallout fans due to 3, and are being mind-blown by New Vegas.

 

[Forbidden]

Is it really a coincidence that Bethesda used Obsidian (who just so happened to be made up of Fallout1/2 personnel) to make New Vegas. I have this feeling Bethesda really didn't like all the bad attention the classical fallout fans were giving to F3. So in order to shut us up they used Obsidian, knowing where our allegiance was, to make a compromise and take that part of the market that was maybe missing from F3.

Seriously? You think that? F3 sold more copies in its first week than all previous Fallout games combined. The amount Bethesda cares about the criticism from hardcore fallout fans is infantesimal. To be perfectly blunt, hardcore fallout fan criticism tends to be seen just like the hardcore Tolkien fans who hate Peter Jackson because Arwen took Frodo across the river instead of Elrond.

Obsidian makes sequels that other companies started. Kotor2. NWN2. Fallout3-2. Dungeon Siege 3.

 

[Alexander Strahan]

F3 may have succeeded as a commercial product, but it doesn't make it a good game. It was Avatar/Titanic of video gaming. Bethesda going to Obsidian for NV was simply their capitulation to the fact that they are, in fact, a collection of hacks.

TES is dead. Fallout has been rescued by its forefathers from the edge of oblivion.

 

[Korin]

Saw this topic kicked back up again. Wanted to clarify a few things about TES since it was being discussed:

I think for a business standpoint, it is easier and cheaper to outsource one of them, that one being Fallout. Now that they have found a company able to create a hit. Hopefully this means the Bethesda team will focus on a new engine to come out with TES5 while their other cash cow Fallout will continue to be produced from outside.

Bethesda develops games in an overlap, so before they finished Oblivion they were already working on Fallout 3. Before they finished Fallout 3, they were already working on their next game.

Having Obsidian put some "in-between" titles makes sense for Bethesda, otherwise there would have been another 2-4 years of waiting. They won't start looking at another Fallout game till they put out TES or whatever it is they're doing. They could be looking at F4 already if this new game is as done as they've indicated it to be.

Bethesda is most likely building a RPG with ID technology for the next TES game, at which point they will build fallout 4, or get someone to use their tech to build fallout 4. I don't look down at Bethesda taking over Fallout series, it was a dead series that is now once again a major franchise due to the work Bethesda put in. I know a lot of people who became fallout fans due to 3, and are being mind-blown by New Vegas.

Bethesda won't be using ID's engine, though they've said a few times that companies under Zenimax are free to pick and choose from the "buffet of technology" that is available between them. The problem with ID's engine is that it's not suited to open world games like the ones that Bethesda produces, in addition to their developers not being comfortable with the technology. Todd Howard did say they do consulting with other devs under ZM about how things are implemented and to draw on their expertise.

Most likely the next Fallout/TES will be using the updated Gamebryo engine, Gamebryo Lightspeed:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMihpCxEaI0[/youtube]

 

[Korin]

F3 may have succeeded as a commercial product, but it doesn't make it a good game.

That's a subjective opinion. It was and continues to be a commercial success because people both enjoyed it and believed it to be a good game.

It was Avatar/Titanic of video gaming. Bethesda going to Obsidian for NV was simply their capitulation to the fact that they are, in fact, a collection of hacks.

Bethesda going to Obsidian was so they could put out a Fallout title in in the 2-4 years they'll be working on TES (or something else). Obsidian does sequels and has history with the Fallout franchise, they were the logical choice.

TES is dead.

lol

Fallout has been rescued by its forefathers from the edge of oblivion.

I think you have it the wrong way around. The forefathers were certainly given a chance to bring back some of what made Fallout "Fallout" and strut their RPG talents. NV sold mostly on the success of Fallout 3.

 

[Ausir]

To be perfectly blunt, hardcore fallout fan criticism tends to be seen just like the hardcore Tolkien fans who hate Peter Jackson because Arwen took Frodo across the river instead of Elrond.

Actually, instead of Glorfindel.

 

[Nalano]

That's a subjective opinion.

All opinion is subjective.

I, personally, couldn't bring myself to continue playing Fallout 3 after its glaring plot holes rendered the entire game universe ludicrous. That, coupled with my poor opinion of Bethesda's game mechanics as inherited from Oblivion et al, was enough for me to decree the game a bad game. I do not need confirmation from other gamers to continue to hold my view that Fallout 3 was a bad game, for I do not trust their opinions more than what I have seen with my own two eyes.

The game, at that point, simply languished like a beached whale on my Steam games list, while I went off to play Mass Effect or STALKER or something else with a little more internal cohesion. I can't tell you how many times I played Mask of the Betrayer, because I lost count.

I, personally, don't care by what reasoning Bethesda made a deal over the Fallout license with Obsidian to make New Vegas, largely because I don't care about Bethesda: They're already written off in my book. Their interests are clearly not on the same wavelength as my own, and I am most certainly not an ideal customer for their products, by far.

As such I will not make any claims to insight as to Bethesda's good business sense or lack thereof, contrition or lack thereof, or whatever, and I know that the bandwagon of public opinion will not matter a tit or twaddle, for I just know that I like what Obsidian has done with New Vegas.

 

[Forbidden]

glaring plot holes rendered the entire game universe ludicrous. That, coupled with my poor opinion of Bethesda's game mechanics as inherited from Oblivion et al

Now hold on a minute. F3's leveling system is so far and above Oblivion's that the two should never be in the same sentence. Seriously. TES leveling system is the worst RPG leveling system ever devised, and that includes those that have come out of Kevin Siembieda's orifice! So let's not be too hard on F3's game mechanics considering just what a massive leap forward it was over it's TES predecessors. Oblivion would have been ten times better with SPECIAL and VATS.

 

[Nalano]

glaring plot holes rendered the entire game universe ludicrous. That, coupled with my poor opinion of Bethesda's game mechanics as inherited from Oblivion et al

Now hold on a minute. F3's leveling system is so far and above Oblivion's that the two should never be in the same sentence. Seriously. TES leveling system is the worst RPG leveling system ever devised, and that includes those that have come out of Kevin Siembieda's orifice! So let's not be too hard on F3's game mechanics considering just what a massive leap forward it was over it's TES predecessors. Oblivion would have been ten times better with SPECIAL and VATS.

Autoleveling enemies. Fantastically stiff NPCs with fantastically notorious pathfinding.

 

[probably_not_a_mutie]

you know i could go over to ED and find an image that would fit the tread title

 

[iamfishhead]

I'd like to believe the Bethesda felt pressure from fans of the old game, but you also have to believe that can't be a very big market.

Exactly. I don't think targeting only the old fans makes any economic sense whatsoever. They always want to try and sell to as large a market as possible.