The future of Fallout - IGN Interview with Todd Howard

I don't think it's fair to say they learned nothing. If nothing else, the four-way faction war main plot is pretty clearly inspired by New Vegas, with fans clamoring for faction conflict at the heart of all Fallout games. They just didn't do it very well and as I've expressed elsewhere, I think this is actually the wrong lesson to take away from New Vegas.
No they already did the faction thing in Morrowind and Skyrim so I don't think they learned that from FNV.
 
No they already did the faction thing in Morrowind and Skyrim so I don't think they learned that from FNV.
I can't really speak to Morrowind, but I don't think the Skyrim faction system is really comparable to 4. It's binary and isn't really the main plot. The dynamics of Fo4 are pretty clearly based off of New Vegas, IMO.
 
The way factions operate in Morrowind and Skyrim aren't too similar to New Vegas. And Skyrim's don't really count either. Like Hardboiled Egg said, it's binary in Skyrim and not very essential. Morrowind actively encouraged the player some point in the main story to spend time with a guild, and you couldn't be high ranking in both the Fighters and Thieves Guild and I think you end up favoring a Tribe and a House at some point. Or you have to appease most of both of those. I know you can join Houses too and they don't like each other very much either. But they're not super essential to the plot either, just the world and how characters will perceive you. Morrowind's is more like NV than Skyrim but still not really the same. Fallout 4 definitely tried to mimic some of that success we saw in the major factions' conflict in the New Vegas and it failed at delivering a well done plot with it.
 
R.129f68e54a7438259a223b6ba3e91aaa


It's Zion's B-day today. Look at that wonderful landscape.
 
R.129f68e54a7438259a223b6ba3e91aaa


It's Zion's B-day today. Look at that wonderful landscape.


Zion National Park is unironically one of my favorite places on the planet and it's a damn shame we'll never see NV on an engine that would do it justice. Honest Hearts on a modern AAA engine would be beyond cool.
 
Or even what it would look like in isometric view. Just the color palate would be fun.
 
In regards to bugs I remember playing Fallout 3 on launch and having game breaking bugs within vault 101 with crashes to desktop so that I had to start over several times before being able to leave the freaking vault. However I can't remember any bugs in Fallout New Vegas which I also played on launch.

That's anecdotal of course but there seems to be some media bias where they under-reported bugs in Fallout 3 and Skyrim, but not New Vegas, to be able to give them much higher scores than deserved.
 
It just now occurs to me while watching this interview that the creation of a Fallout MMO was to minimize work and resources on Fallout while they could make the stuff they've had on the backburner without losing the attention or engagement of the large casual Fallout fanbase. It would also allow them to maximize their profits as they're minimizing everything else. All the had to do was release an unfinished disaster that got everybody's attention and then keep public attention on them with occasional updates that don't require the effort needed to create a full game and make bank on atom shop.
I mean, I know smarter folk than me already know that and have known it for years, but it kind of sinks in for me just now how clever that is in the long term for a company that isn't letting other devs touch the series. But it brings me back to the question of why they don't let third parties work on Fallout like they did with NV. It's still strange.
 
It just now occurs to me while watching this interview that the creation of a Fallout MMO was to minimize work and resources on Fallout while they could make the stuff they've had on the backburner without losing the attention or engagement of the large casual Fallout fanbase. It would also allow them to maximize their profits as they're minimizing everything else. All the had to do was release an unfinished disaster that got everybody's attention and then keep public attention on them with occasional updates that don't require the effort needed to create a full game and make bank on atom shop.
I mean, I know smarter folk than me already know that and have known it for years, but it kind of sinks in for me just now how clever that is in the long term for a company that isn't letting other devs touch the series. But it brings me back to the question of why they don't let third parties work on Fallout like they did with NV. It's still strange.
76 was made to maximize Bethesda's net worth before going public/selling the company. Which they did. People predicted for awhile since Skyrim re-releases, increase in DLC and online games with recurring payment options, etc. Lower/similar costs, bigger revenue.
 
In regards to bugs I remember playing Fallout 3 on launch and having game breaking bugs within vault 101 with crashes to desktop so that I had to start over several times before being able to leave the freaking vault. However I can't remember any bugs in Fallout New Vegas which I also played on launch.
I played for 250 hours last time and maybe got three crashes and a couple of bugs. Meanwhile stuff like Fallout 3, Oblivion and Skyrim are still bugged up the ass, with quests not updating properly, a lot of crashing, and a ton of visual bugs. I remember having to go to the console command to even finish quests in Oblivion and Skyrim because the quests bugged out. And this was on the latest patch.

While i'm not defending the launch state of New Vegas, a lot of people are hypocrites when they give shit to New Vegas for its many issues at launch and turn mostly a blind eye to the crap launches Bethesda games have. And yet the "gaming jounalists" still jizz all over the game and conveniently "forget" to mention the many bugs and technical issues. Some might mention them, but nowhere as much as they did with New Vegas.

Hell, i have seen Bethesda fanboys defend the bugs and technical issues as "charming" and actually hoping future games have them. Just the amount of coping is insane.
 
Hell, i have seen Bethesda fanboys defend the bugs and technical issues as "charming" and actually hoping future games have them. Just the amount of coping is insane.
It's not just fanboys. I've seen that in professional(lol) reviewers as well. It just seemed to be the thing for a while to treat poor performance and technical disasters as "oh, silly ol' Bethesda. You know how they are. What a bunch of scamps".
I think the fanboys got it from the journalists, quite frankly.
 
Those reviewers are just fanboys with titles. Fanboy's have mental issues at any rate. At the very least a collecting habit. At the very worst they will murder mother because GTA was taken away.
 
It's not just fanboys. I've seen that in professional(lol) reviewers as well. It just seemed to be the thing for a while to treat poor performance and technical disasters as "oh, silly ol' Bethesda. You know how they are. What a bunch of scamps".
I think the fanboys got it from the journalists, quite frankly.
Yeah, it seems to be overall like that. A company releases a game with many issues at launch, the gaming press gives it shit for it. Bethesda releases a buggy mess, they claim it's just "Bethesda being Bethesda" and they give it a pass. It's really disgusting and how their fanbase after a while became basically a cult.

Two of the "funniest" (quotations because i wasn't laughing) examples i have for having to use the console command was when a character's pathfinding bugged out and that caused the character to fall off of a bridge and die. It was like the butler or advisor of Skingrad in Oblivion. I had to ressurect him through the console command because you needed to talk with him to buy the house in Skingrad. Another in Oblivion is how a character is essential for most of a quest, but then the tag gets removed near the end, so that you can kill him. But guess what? He stayed essential and that meant i couldn't kill him, therefore couldn't finish the quest. Had to go the console command and remove the essential tag.

Now i imagine playing these games on consoles with no console command and i shudder.
 
Now i imagine playing these games on consoles with no console command and i shudder.
I did exactly that. I played them on the fucking PS3 too. I tell you, that shit should not have been on store shelves like that. I still have vivid memories of all kinds of stupid shit that I couldn't do a thing about. I'd look up bugs and see shit about how to fix it on PC, specifically. Big lesson for my old console gamer self. Holy shit.
 
Fallout needs to branch out into other genres. Something like X-COM or Crusader Kings. RTS is obvious due to Fallout EXTREME (god I am glad that failed) but they would need to do the factions right narratively to make it worth doing. I own 76 through family sharing but I just can't force myself to install it after seeing the Skyrim dragon flying around.

Personally, I would love if the Fallout Tactics brand was resurrected. Bring in Gareth Davies and some of the others, and continue the saga of Fallout Tactics where it stopped.
 
Personally, I would love if the Fallout Tactics brand was resurrected. Bring in Gareth Davies and some of the others, and continue the saga of Fallout Tactics where it stopped.
If Bethesda and Obsidian are too busy on their projects for a new Fallout, it’d be cool to see Inxile try it like Wasteland 3. It’d be kinda confusing if we had 2 completely different style of Fallout RPGs (crpg vs wrpg), so I would rename a hypothetical tactical CRPG by Inxile as Fallout Tactics.
 
Wasteland 3 is an open world coop Fallout Tactics without prone position.
 
If Bethesda and Obsidian are too busy on their projects for a new Fallout, it’d be cool to see Inxile try it like Wasteland 3. It’d be kinda confusing if we had 2 completely different style of Fallout RPGs (crpg vs wrpg), so I would rename a hypothetical tactical CRPG by Inxile as Fallout Tactics.

Yeah, that would be a good way to resurrect the "Tactics" brand. Essentially, the old iso-tb Fallout games but more tactical. Which honestly, is pretty much all the fanbase has wanted from Fallout sucessors since we all played Jagged Alliance 2 in the 2000s.

Althrough another name I had for isometric spin-offs was "Fallout Classic".

If anything, the time to bring back iso-tb Fallout would be now. Turn-Based Combat is no longer unpopular like in the 2000s.
 
Yeah, that would be a good way to resurrect the "Tactics" brand. Essentially, the old iso-tb Fallout games but more tactical. Which honestly, is pretty much all the fanbase has wanted from Fallout sucessors since we all played Jagged Alliance 2 in the 2000s.

Althrough another name I had for isometric spin-offs was "Fallout Classic".

If anything, the time to bring back iso-tb Fallout would be now. Turn-Based Combat is no longer unpopular like in the 2000s.
Yeah that would be kind of a weird sell because if we're talking a new game.... calling that game Classic seems a bit presumptuous, but I get what you mean since its offering Classic gameplay.

I don't think turn based combat became unpopular.... it just didnt grow. Like, there's not many 8 digit sales for turn based games. But that being said, I think a Classic or Tactics based game could find a very profitable niche. Have a smaller studio making a lower budget title in a year or two, sell a few million copies, and keep engagement with the brand going during off years. Thatd be cool.
 
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