Microsoft has bought Zenimax/Bethesda

Risewild said:
They hadn't told Todd before hand about the acquisition. :lmao:
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I'm not interested in watching the whole thing for the relevant bit but... Why didn't they? I mean, it's a big decision so someone like Todd not knowing about it makes me wonder if there's a reason they didn't tell him.
 
Black Angel said:
CHA in Fallout 2 dictates the amount of companions you can take in your party, which I think is, honestly, all that matters in the end for a cavalier oblique, turn-based role-playing game. Unfortunately the fundamental combat mechanics is flawed, and companions there don't get involved much with PC's decision making across the walkthrough.
And while it's a shame that New Vegas didn't allow you to take more than 1 human and 1 non-human companion, CHA being a modifier to your companions combat stats actually works well in the favor of this implement, IMHO, because of how each companions in New Vegas has their own personal questline.
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Yeah, charisma's not useless, unless all you care about is your own character's combat stats. There are dialogue checks that require a certain charisma score, and even more that use speech, which is obviously based on charisma. Obviously, you don't HAVE to have high charisma to have high speech, if you instead want to dump charisma to 1 and then spend 20 skill points just to get back to the base level.

However, if you want to have your own power-armored death squad in the late game, you want high charisma. I wouldn't call 5 companions with pulse rifles useless.
 
Norzan said:
I'll take a medium sized map where every location is worthwhile and memorable instead of a shitty big world filled with copy and pasted dungeons that only exist to give short bursts of dopamine rush, something that only works in the short term. The former is a far better experience to me because the game doesn't drag on for hundreds of hours of filler, forgettable content.

So again, i don't want Bethesda's terrible world design to be put in any Fallout that would be worked on by Obsidian.
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I agree. The open world design of Fallout: New Vegas felt like something tacked on as opposed to something Obsidian really wanted to go through with.

Regarding Karma, I personally do not like it. To me, there are far too many cons to it, and it could easily be replaced entirely by Reputation. I didn't like how Cass threatened to leave me because of my Very Evil karma (attained entirely through stealing stuff while in stealth). I think Karma is at its best in New Vegas' endings, but again, the same issue shows through: with my kleptomaniac "Very Evil" character, the endings portray my character as a dictator, or a sadist, or anything BUT an innocent kleptomaniac.

The issue with Karma is that it is a binary good/evil, and in a franchise that is meant to be morally grey this can lead to some very stupid situations (some because of the developer, cough cough the Tenpenny quest), some because one can make the argument they are making the right choice. Ideally Karma would define your character; else, if Karma defines the reaction of people have to my character, may as well stick with Reputation and be done with it.

Regarding S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and Skills: I personally would have tied the potential of Skills to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats. Want 100 Stealth? You need 10 Agility. Want 100 Speech? You need 10 Charisma. And so forth.
 
Mr Fish said:
I'm not interested in watching the whole thing for the relevant bit but... Why didn't they? I mean, it's a big decision so someone like Todd not knowing about it makes me wonder if there's a reason they didn't tell him.
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Probably because the deal was in motion and I don't think it has been finalized still. Either way, Todd will probably have time to get out if he cares enough. EDIT: Not to mention ZeniMax has been gearing to sell or make IPOs for awhile now, I'm sure Hines and Howard knew this of all people.

Gonna watch that interview while I repair laptops though.
 
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They didn't tell Todd, but he knew instinctively. You all underestimate the power of the Antichrist, formerly the Chosen One, Fallen to Darkness.
 
All this talk of all the possible Fallout games that can be made, but all i want is for Todd Howard, Pete Hines and Emil (i ain't typing his surname) to be fired. That would be satisfying as shit.
 
They are not bad at their jobs (from what I've seen)... they just never wanted to make a Fallout game. It's not like they couldn't do it... they had Fallout 1 & 2 as blueprints, and Van Buren.

They were coldly targeting a different demographic, and they hit the mark dead center.

I honestly believe that if anyone had been able to arrange or force meeting with them about the kind of game to make [FO3], that it would have played out a bit like the Brawndo argument—but failed. Not that they are stupid people, but that they are immutably convinced of their own correctness.

 
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Wouldn't it be funny if MS didn't buy Obsidian and Beth to make a new Fallout RPG? They actually just saw Grounded and 76, and wanted to snap up a couple more studios to churn out some new Minecraft clones.
 
Gizmojunk said:
They are not bad at their jobs (from what I've seen)... they just never wanted to make a Fallout game. It's not like they couldn't do it... they had Fallout 1 & 2 as blueprints, and Van Buren.

They were coldly targeting a different demographic, and they hit the mark dead center.
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This is true in the case of Pete Hines. Pete Hines HATES RPG's. He has gone on record saying that his favorite games in the past ten years are Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War and The Last of Us. All games that are character driven action games and that he would like to take Elder Scrolls and Fallout more in that direction. Which was why the Sole Survivor was voiced. Problem is is that Fallout was never meant to be a character driven game but rather a world driven game. Fallout was never about your character. It was always about the world. The story of Fallout 1 wasn't about the Vault Dweller searching for the water chip but rather about how society is rebuilding after the nuclear apocalypse and the growing threat of the super mutants. Fallout 2 wasn't about the Chosen One looking for the GECK but about the conflict between the NCR, Vault City, the New Reno Crime families and the threat that the Enclave poses to a society that has begun to properly rebuild after the Great War. New Vegas wasn't about the Courier seeking vengeance on Benny and getting back the Platinum Chip but about the conflict between NCR, Legion and Mr. House.

To me this was what made Fallout so immersive and interesting but Pete Hines and Bethesda's design philosophy is that the lease personal the story the less engaging the story will be, which is just ridiculous.
 
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Really looking forward to Starfield. Maybe there will be more resources for it now?
Also, another Prey would definitely be great. I'm seeing this move pretty positively.
 
Lucas9 said:
Karma
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The problem with karma is that it enforces a conventional morality when that should be up to the player on how their character perceives his/her actions. It becomes a matter of perspective and worldview, When the last Tsar was massacred along with his entire family some would see that as evil. Yet the Bolsheviks who killed them probably thought it was a good thing. Or for a Fallout example, for an Anti-natalist, killing an unborn child isn't a bad thing because life itself is bad or evil and killing it before the child can experience this, is a mercy. Now of course the parents would disagree with this notion and most likely stomp the Anti-natalist's skull into mush before he could get the job done while remembering back on them as nothing but a monster who endangered their child. But if the anti-natalist were capable of forming any thought what so ever being a small lump of brain at the bottom of someone's boot then they wouldn't think ill of the parents for killing him since life is bad any way. Perspective.

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All this whole Xbox thing means to me is that maybe if not improving on the writing, or the mechanics, or graphics then hopefully for Christ's sake that the next projects that come out of Bethesda, Obsidian, or Inxile will be released in a stable and enjoyable experience at launch.
 
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Risewild said:
Topic relevant interview:

They hadn't told Todd before hand about the acquisition. :lmao:
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There's a way to automatically transcribe youtube videos, right? Anyone who's seen the video want to just give me the important bits so I don't have to watch it?
 
RangerBoo said:
Problem is is that Fallout was never meant to be a character driven game but rather a world driven game. Fallout was never about your character. It was always about the world. The story of Fallout 1 wasn't about the Vault Dweller searching for the water chip but rather about how society is rebuilding after the nuclear apocalypse and the growing threat of the super mutants.
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Practically preaching at the choir here. ;)
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Aurelius Of Phoenix said:
The problem with karma is that it enforces a conventional morality when that should be up to the player on how their character perceives his/her actions.
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Pretty much. I think Reputation is simply the better mechanic. For individual thinking, it's best to have NPCs with genuine reactions as opposed to generic reactions.
 
I'd rather we didn't get another Fallout if its just going to be brotherhood, robots, enclave and mutants with rehashed plots/quests from 1,2 + Tactics again.

Some of the most important people behind NV have already left Obsidian and I'm not a fan of Outer Worlds or Pillars of Eternity.
 
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