Obsidian Cannot Save Fallout

[VaultTecCivilDefense]

Fallout as a franchise is pretty much ruined, and no amount of intervention on behalf of other major studios will be able to save it. Beyond a complete and total reboot, the series as we know it will basically continue to slide down the Fallout-Doom path until Bethesda squeezes every last dime out of the franchise and then it goes dormant.

Now admittedly, though not a positive outlook on the current situation, it's very much a realistic assessment of the franchise. What made Fallout 1, 2, 3 (Van Buren) and to a lesser extent Tactics unique, was the fact that the games themselves were far more concerned with story telling than being sensitive towards social or political trends.

For example and though this discussion has been done to death, but the omission of the "Child Killer" perk from Bethesda's Fallout, while the focus of graphic yet "comedic" weapons, demonstrated that the tone of Fallout had transitioned towards a Millennial audience who values high intensity violence and political correctness over morally gray characters.

Now it's true, Fallout: New Vegas was interesting and with it's attached DLC's, was even a unique experience, however due to the fact that the product has to remain true to the stories and plots outlined by Bethesda, it tended to fall short when it comes to being a true Fallout masterpiece. And, due to the rather simple fact that Obsidian will not get a free hand to develop their own content, anything which they do put out, will only keep the series on life support.

Fallout is in effect a product of it's time, a combination of tabletop games, popular culture references and an 80's action movie. Unfortunately, in this day and age, Millennial audiences want something entirely different and therefore as time goes on, Fallout will inevitably drift further from it's original material.

 

[Mr Fish]

I don't think anyone's deluded enough to think Fallout can be saved at this point, unless Bethesda collapses and how likely is that?
What people want when they say give Obsidian another crack is simply to get another nu-Fallout game that is decent.

And I think Bethesda is straight up stupid for not lending the IP out to some smaller developer so that they can develop a cRPG in the veins of the old games as the budget for it would be a fraction of what it would be for a AAA title, so I don't think it's too late for that. We'll just have to wait for the upper management to change and hope the next person in charge (in Todd's position?) sees that "wait a second, we could spend a fraction of our proceeds to have a game developed that will earn a ton of money on name recognition alone, and we wouldn't even need to work on it!"

Quite frankly I think it's just a matter of time. I doubt I'll still care at that point though.

 

[naossano]

How can you write this while Mutant rising or the sum are still in developpement and nevada been recently translated ?
(and Olympus 2207, other mods in developement, and spiritual successors etc...)

About the branded titles, they have been dead since 2004, with New Vegas as a post-mortem shake.
But fallout itself is not the brand.

PS: The original had some moderate successes, but never been AAA thingies. They were part o a solid niche, but there were already other games like TES as blockbusters at the time. They aren't more game o the past now than they were at the time. They were targetted to a specitic audience.

 

[TheHouseAlwaysWins]

The entire industry is kaput. It's not just Bethesda's fault for ruining Fallout but realize that the series would have eventually turned to garbage no matter who or what company was in charge of it. Nintendo, Activision, Valve, EA, Bethesda, etc have all become bad because that's just how the forces of capital work in regards to getting as much profit as possible.

 

[Einhanderc7]

This is what I know;

• Fallout as a brand will most likely never produce a comparable title of quality to the originals.
• Fallout's brand has been devalued, I haven't been able to determine what the brand name is supposed to sell or represent to me, nor others that I have asked including Bethesda Games Studios.
• The current state of the Fallout lore cannot be salvaged due to too many contradictions introduced by Bethesda's releases.
• Bethesda Games Studios has no control over what happens to the intellectual property/brand known as Fallout. Instead the controlling parties are BethesdaSoftworks LLC. and Zenimax Media.
• Some may disagree with me, but I don't hold Bethesda Games Studios specifically at fault for the current status of Fallout. Instead I suggest scrutinizing those holding their "reigns/check book" as they control how money moves, and their direction.
• I think outsourcing Fallout to any studio would likely result in failure, and additional backlash directed towards Bethesda Games Studios.
• I don't expect the Fallout brand to produce another main line single player game, instead I think it's far more likely they'll double down on multiplayer only titles in the future. This of course is speculation.

As for the game development industry as a whole, almost all of the current issues wreaking havoc in the video game market can be traced back to publishers. The problem here is as long consumers purchase their "products?" they will continue to meet that demand. To resolve this consumers need to consider if their monetary wealth is worth the product they're purchasing. While I have my opinions there're a lot of consumers out there that are more than happy to buy literally anything some companies put in front of them.

A conditioned sadistic behavior that has been ingrained into many young players though the use of casino game mechanics and over the top rewards for very little effort. To be honest without some kind of actual lawful regulation of such practices these trends will likely only get worse until it starts to directly impact other markets.

Want to make a difference? Support developer unions/guilds to regain individual control, stop buying worthless anti-consumer products, advocate for the regulation or removal addictive casino mechanics in games, and educate those around you about the current state of the industry.

I know quite a few people that used to be developers in "big games", but over the last couple of years they chose to get out of the industry and seek employment in completely different fields of work. Not because they're not passionate about making video games, but because the industry treats it's employees like raging dumpster fires, refuses to compensate them fairly, as well refuses to allow them to have any real say on how to develop video games. The industry has turned into a monster of corporate politics, and anyone with experience in that scene can tell you, it's not good nor productive.

 

[Post-War Tribal]

I don't assume. The way I see it, is Bethesda raping Fallout.

 

[NMLevesque]

being sensitive towards social or political trends

has never been a part of any game with the name Fallout slapped onto it.

the omission of the "Child Killer" perk

They also cut child killing from Fallout and Fallout 2, because it hurts sales. It's very specifically about not cutting their potential audience in half, or worse, for something that adds no substance to the game and which has never been socially acceptable. The only thing that's really changed is that demographics of gamers isn't heavily skewed towards teenage boys who equate edginess with artistic integrity.

the tone of Fallout had transitioned towards a Millennial audience

Translation: oh no, the game only includes cannibalism, genocide, pedophilia, rape slavery, and torture. What has become of Fallout? Like everything else in the world, and like every generation before me, I think it's all the younger generation's fault. They're totally the ones who are in charge of everything currently. Yup.

Good grief. It's not harder now to do something that pushes the envelope. We went from the hot coffee freakout to saints row being a thing that exists. People were not less likely to freakout before. People freak out more over inclusivity than anything else. And political correctness is a meaninglessly selective buzzword of the right wing.

 

[retardette]

Well, Fallout still has potential. If Bethesda is smart enough to "lend" the franchise to other studios, for example to make a Fallout in the style of 1 + 2, and aside from that still go with their BS titles... there is def. a chance you can still do good things with it.

 

[chunglord420]

Fallout as a franchise is pretty much ruined, and no amount of intervention on behalf of other major studios will be able to save it. Beyond a complete and total reboot, the series as we know it will basically continue to slide down the Fallout-Doom path until Bethesda squeezes every last dime out of the franchise and then it goes dormant.

Now admittedly, though not a positive outlook on the current situation, it's very much a realistic assessment of the franchise. What made Fallout 1, 2, 3 (Van Buren) and to a lesser extent Tactics unique, was the fact that the games themselves were far more concerned with story telling than being sensitive towards social or political trends.

For example and though this discussion has been done to death, but the omission of the "Child Killer" perk from Bethesda's Fallout, while the focus of graphic yet "comedic" weapons, demonstrated that the tone of Fallout had transitioned towards a Millennial audience who values high intensity violence and political correctness over morally gray characters.

Now it's true, Fallout: New Vegas was interesting and with it's attached DLC's, was even a unique experience, however due to the fact that the product has to remain true to the stories and plots outlined by Bethesda, it tended to fall short when it comes to being a true Fallout masterpiece. And, due to the rather simple fact that Obsidian will not get a free hand to develop their own content, anything which they do put out, will only keep the series on life support.

Fallout is in effect a product of it's time, a combination of tabletop games, popular culture references and an 80's action movie. Unfortunately, in this day and age, Millennial audiences want something entirely different and therefore as time goes on, Fallout will inevitably drift further from it's original material.

Fallout as a franchise is not ruined. You are just delusional.
Fallout 76, 4 or 3 is not sensitive to any social or political trends.
The omission of the "Child Killer" perk was so that Fallout 3 wouldn't be banned in territories. Despite not having a "Child Killer" perk, you can literally enslave children.
Fallout was never about pop culture references until the mess that was Fallout 2. Reference humor was never funny and it made me physically sick seeing it in 2 after the absolute masterpiece that was Fallout 1.
The truth is, every single Fallout game that has been released has been drastically different than it's precursor.

 

[Mr Fish]

The truth is, every single Fallout game that has been released has been drastically different than it's precursor.

And that is bad.

 

[Black Angel]

Fallout as a franchise is not ruined. You are just delusional.

Lol, here we go again. Another Bethshitda/nuFallout fanboy who also happened to dislike New Vegas for whatever reason, coming to bark at the front door of the community who preferred not to swallow the absolute pieces of shit that are Fallout 3/4/76.

Fallout as a franchise is long dead, a corpse so beaten it's just a lump of meat with the stink that can be smelled from a million miles away.

Fallout as a spirit still lives on, in form of just released Fallout: Sonora, and the upcoming Mutants Rising, Unity Van Buren, and (hopefully) Olympus 2207.

 

[TorontoReign]

Fallout as a franchise is not ruined. You are just delusional.
.

It is if you want a good RPG. It will never be like it was before thus it is ruined. It is now a loot simulator where you do what your companion likes so you can fuck them. Fallout 76 is pretty much what NMA predicted back in 2006. A vapid shadow of a once great RPG series.

 

[chunglord420]

Lol, here we go again. Another Bethshitda/nuFallout fanboy who also happened to dislike New Vegas for whatever reason, coming to bark at the front door of the community who preferred not to swallow the absolute pieces of shit that are Fallout 3/4/76.

Fallout as a franchise is long dead, a corpse so beaten it's just a lump of meat with the stink that can be smelled from a million miles away.

Fallout as a spirit still lives on, in form of just released Fallout: Sonora, and the upcoming Mutants Rising, Unity Van Buren, and (hopefully) Olympus 2207.

Lol, here we go again. Another Obshitian/muh classic fallout fanboy who happened to dislike Fallout 3 for whatever reason, coming to circlejerk with his buddies.

Fallout as a franchise is not dead at all. Bethesda is not as corrupt as you think, you braindead coomer scum. Fallout 76's Wastelanders is proof that Bethesda still cares about the fans.

Dude, shut the fuck up.

It is if you want a good RPG. It will never be like it was before thus it is ruined. It is now a loot simulator where you do what your companion likes so you can fuck them. Fallout 76 is pretty much what NMA predicted back in 2006. A vapid shadow of a once great RPG series.

Fallout 3 is a pretty good RPG. It has it's faults, yeah. But it really isn't bad tbh. It gets lumped in with pieces of shit like 4 and 76 just because it was made by the same company. Are we gonna say Morrowind and Oblivion are the same as 76 just because Bethesda made them?

I don't think Todd Howard was behind the tragedy that was 76, tbh. I don't think his chess club brain is capable of making such a shit game. I don't want Fallout to be a dead franchise. Wastelanders is gonna turn 76 from dogshit to an actually OK game.

Also, am I the only one hear who doesn't idolize Obsidian? Like of course they couldn't save Fallout 76 if Bethesda had them work on Wastelanders. Obsidian doesn't have the same people as it did with New Vegas.

If anything, I hope Todd Howard hires Josh Sawyer and Chris Avellone to work on their future games (including Starfield and TES, because TES with the writing talents of Sawyer and Avelllone would be amazing).

If you want to see what Fallout would look like under Obsidian, look at the state of The Outer Worlds. That game was painfully mediocre. Obsidian almost has never made a good game and it shows from how many times they've almost shut down. Hell, they had to STEAL funding from Paradox Studios once. The people who made Obsidian good have left the company.

 

[Black Angel]

 

[Aurelius Of Phoenix]

who happened to dislike Fallout 3 for whatever reason

Because it's shit and has a lack of understanding of the setting.

Bethesda is not as corrupt as you think

No, they're just a bunch of incompetent faggots who throw away their talent like obsidian does (e.g. Kirkbride, Le Fay) and ride off of their past successes and modders. They both can't seem to make a working game also. Although that whole canvas bag incident brings some suspicion.

Fallout 3 is a pretty good RPG.

lol no.

The people who made Obsidian good have left the company.

True all that's left is their shit management and half-competent writers who seem to get their inspiration from Rick and Morty.

 

[chunglord420]

lack of understanding of the setting.

idk, pham. Fallout 2 was equally le wacky post-apocolyptic america as 3 was.

Although that whole canvas bag incident brings some suspicion

Eh, the canvas bag thing doesn't really sway my opinion on Bethesda. Bethesda is a game company, not a toy manufacturer. But the fact Bethesda is adding NPCs to 76 shows that they are willing to listen to the fans.

 

[TorontoReign]

Saying Fallout 2 was also whack doesn't mean shit kid. Fallout 1 is the only amazing game in the franchise.

 

[Norzan]

Are we gonna say Morrowind and Oblivion are the same as 76 just because Bethesda made them?

Because Morrowind wasn't made by current Bethesda and current Bethesda is shit. And Oblivion is shit and their first truly bad game.

 

[TorontoReign]

Chunglord thinks NMA's hate for Bethesda is irrational and based on hating everything they ever did because he is a moron that listens to what everyone says around the internet. I hope he doesn't watch the news.

Oh my God. Chunglord was like 5 when Fallout 3 came out. HAHAHAHA.

 

[Aurelius Of Phoenix]

idk, pham. Fallout 2 was equally le wacky post-apocolyptic america as 3 was.


Eh, the canvas bag thing doesn't really sway my opinion on Bethesda. Bethesda is a game company, not a toy manufacturer. But the fact Bethesda is adding NPCs to 76 shows that they are willing to listen to the fans.

Doesn't make Fallout 3 any less shit, desu.
I'd wait to see what these npcs are like, my bet is that they'll be standard mmo vendors and quest givers or will try and ape other Fallout npcs and be shit because their writers are still shit, since this is Bethesda's B-team it might be worse.