PC Gamer UK podcast Episode 38 discussed Fallout: New Vegas, with the 3 hosts questioning the 4th - the writer of the preview, Tim Edwards - for more details on the game.
The New Vegas discussion starts right off (at 0:30) and lasts until 15 minutes in. Edwards discusses the weapon mods and survival mode, and is then made to admit he didn't play the older Fallout games (he played Fallout 1 on the plane back from previewing New Vegas), as one of the others notes that this version seems more "in tune" with the first one than Fallout 3.
Edwards: "They seem to play at a lot of that when they do the presentation. They understood what made Fallout 1 such a success. I spoke to Josh [Sawyer] and Chris [Avellone] of Obsidian and they were very heavily involved in Fallout 1 and 2 [this is not true - ed] and both of them brought up that Fallout 2 was actually a little bit off of what they wanted Fallout to be. It was too funny, too silly, too stupid, there's too many pop culture references in it. I'm very well aware it can sound a bit cynical when you say "They were very complementary about Bethesda" because they're giving them an enormous amount of money to make a Fallout game (...) The one thing Chris Avellone said about Fallout 3 is if they had the technology Bethesda did to make a Fallout game, it would have been very very similar to Fallout 3. One thing - in his words - Fallout 3 "friggin' nailed" was exploration."
They discuss Van Buren and how much it carries over into New Vegas, plotwise having the "same framework" and factions. Following is a long discussion of how terrible Games for Windows Live is and how it sucks New Vegas uses it.
They return to discussing New Vegas at 09:45, talking about how the karma system didn't work in Fallout 3 and the reputation system looks much better, and should be the only system.
Edwards: "There are some gambling minigames, I think. Don't quote me on that. (...) What was interesting is that they literally didn't show anything coming from the skyline of Vegas during the demonstration. It's probably the place in the game that hasn't really had any attention or isn't up to the standard that they're willing to show it. Specifically asked I want to do ghoul crooner. And I think Josh said "Everyone always asks for ghoul crooner" in the game, so it's almost certain to happen. (...) I don't think the Vegas in the game isn't going to be near as big as people are expecting. Expect it to be at a similar scale to Washington, rather than a GTA-style city that you're exploring in a Fallout world. (...) It's Vegas of the 50s, so it's a Fallout Vegas, not a Vegas of today. There are specific landmarks in it that are similar to what is available today, one of the highlights of the Vegas skyline is the Stratosphere. (...) There's a building that's very similar to the Stratosphere in [New] Vegas that you can see, but it's more like...it's very tall, but in shape it's actually like the Landmark (...) Their art style is specifically the 50s vision of what the future would look like, is what their art director said, I think. You're looking at making a Vegas of what people in the 50s thought Vegas would look like, rather than Vegas today."
The New Vegas discussion starts right off (at 0:30) and lasts until 15 minutes in. Edwards discusses the weapon mods and survival mode, and is then made to admit he didn't play the older Fallout games (he played Fallout 1 on the plane back from previewing New Vegas), as one of the others notes that this version seems more "in tune" with the first one than Fallout 3.
Edwards: "They seem to play at a lot of that when they do the presentation. They understood what made Fallout 1 such a success. I spoke to Josh [Sawyer] and Chris [Avellone] of Obsidian and they were very heavily involved in Fallout 1 and 2 [this is not true - ed] and both of them brought up that Fallout 2 was actually a little bit off of what they wanted Fallout to be. It was too funny, too silly, too stupid, there's too many pop culture references in it. I'm very well aware it can sound a bit cynical when you say "They were very complementary about Bethesda" because they're giving them an enormous amount of money to make a Fallout game (...) The one thing Chris Avellone said about Fallout 3 is if they had the technology Bethesda did to make a Fallout game, it would have been very very similar to Fallout 3. One thing - in his words - Fallout 3 "friggin' nailed" was exploration."
They discuss Van Buren and how much it carries over into New Vegas, plotwise having the "same framework" and factions. Following is a long discussion of how terrible Games for Windows Live is and how it sucks New Vegas uses it.
They return to discussing New Vegas at 09:45, talking about how the karma system didn't work in Fallout 3 and the reputation system looks much better, and should be the only system.
Edwards: "There are some gambling minigames, I think. Don't quote me on that. (...) What was interesting is that they literally didn't show anything coming from the skyline of Vegas during the demonstration. It's probably the place in the game that hasn't really had any attention or isn't up to the standard that they're willing to show it. Specifically asked I want to do ghoul crooner. And I think Josh said "Everyone always asks for ghoul crooner" in the game, so it's almost certain to happen. (...) I don't think the Vegas in the game isn't going to be near as big as people are expecting. Expect it to be at a similar scale to Washington, rather than a GTA-style city that you're exploring in a Fallout world. (...) It's Vegas of the 50s, so it's a Fallout Vegas, not a Vegas of today. There are specific landmarks in it that are similar to what is available today, one of the highlights of the Vegas skyline is the Stratosphere. (...) There's a building that's very similar to the Stratosphere in [New] Vegas that you can see, but it's more like...it's very tall, but in shape it's actually like the Landmark (...) Their art style is specifically the 50s vision of what the future would look like, is what their art director said, I think. You're looking at making a Vegas of what people in the 50s thought Vegas would look like, rather than Vegas today."
