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Fallout: New Vegas lead designer talks Fallout 4 ideas

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Fallout-4

You’re not going to see Fallout 4 for quite some time, and that makes me a sad panda. Still! That doesn’t mean that the franchise is dead, and even a former developer on one of the entries in that franchise has a few ideas for the rumoured sequel.

“Fallout games are best when the choices are – and this applies to role-playing games in general, but Fallout is a more desperate world – more agonising,” Fallout: New Vegas Lead Designer Josh Sawyer said in an interview with Eurogamer, likening the decisions made in Fallout 3 to the hard life of the Mad Max films.

Also, you see that in the Road Warrior [Mad Max] films, Max, even when he wins, just goes on being a wanderer. There’s that kind of bitter-sweet victory in the difficult choices that people make. Regardless of what the setting is, I would hope that that is a big part of the storytelling of it.

So how would Sawyer implement these ideas, if he was developing the game? By emphasising those choices and giving them real repercussions. “A lot of stuff I did in New Vegas was to try and make choices feel more impactful and meaningful and to challenge the player,” Sawyer explained.

Some people want to go through the wasteland like a tourist, which is fine – they don’t really want it to be super-difficult. They want it to be interesting and engaging, and they want to see a lot of neat stuff and go through a cool story. And that’s cool.

Personally I like things to be a little more challenging, and there’s a segment of players that also want [that]. I don’t have any doubt in this.

But according to Sawyer, there’s one other idea that would make Fallout 4 truly shine and stick around with fans past the initial launch week run: Mods. “I hope Bethesda continues to make everything very mod friendly,” Sawyer said.

How they’ve worked with the community is… the mod community for Bethesda’s games is amazing. I hope they continue to support them because it’s really cool.

I dug Fallout: New Vegas, which eventually patched out most of the technical problems which hamstrung an otherwise superb game. And Sawyer has a few good points above. Hopefully one of these days, we’ll see the return of PIP-boys and nuclear brothels.

Although if someone could mod more Liam Neeson in his Taken mode into Fallout, that would be just grand.

Last Updated: May 26, 2014

43 Comments

  1. War, war never changes… unless you mod the crap out of it. And play as Batman.

    Reply

    • Jedi JJ

      May 26, 2014 at 11:08

      Don’t do that. Batman wouldn’t make it.
      I’m very ready for more Fallout though. After Bethesda royally ruined The Elder Scrolls for me I need some reassurance that not all their brands are lost.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        May 26, 2014 at 11:10

        So no Fallout Online for you 😛

        Reply

        • Jedi JJ

          May 26, 2014 at 11:10

          They do that I’m marching to their headquarters and burning the place down.

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            May 26, 2014 at 11:11

            I’ll help carry the gasoline.

          • Jedi JJ

            May 26, 2014 at 11:14

            I’ll inform the rest of the crew from Project Mayhem so long…

          • Hammersteyn

            May 26, 2014 at 11:12

            Or with enough soap……………

    • HisDivineOrder

      May 26, 2014 at 14:34

      Deadpool wants to join in on that action.

      Reply

  2. Viking Of Science

    May 26, 2014 at 10:43

    War, War never Changes, unless there’s no Ron Perlman narration.

    Reply

  3. Admiral Chief in Space

    May 26, 2014 at 10:59

    Fallout NV, one of the better games I’ve jammed. Well worth it!

    NEED MOAR

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      May 26, 2014 at 11:03

      Never really got into New Vegas, rocked fallout 3 to death, but New Vegas just didnt grab me, no idea why.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        May 26, 2014 at 11:09

        For me it was because it was much smaller in size. Plus I played Fallout 3 to death so I was a bit tired of Fallout and didn’t want to wait till all the bugs were fixed.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          May 26, 2014 at 11:14

          have you tried the modding?
          its the same kind of thing as skyrim, with mods for enhanced lighting, improved texture res, reworked models etc, looks awesome

          Reply

      • Jedi JJ

        May 26, 2014 at 11:10

        I also pretty much annihilated Fallout 3. But I took a looooong break before going into NV, since I was a bit overplayed. But absolutely love NV. Well. I’m the wrong person to speak about this stuff. I love everything Fallout.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          May 26, 2014 at 11:10

          Same here. Maybe I’ll buy a copy of New Vegas again, then after three days of updates start playing it again.

          Reply

          • Jedi JJ

            May 26, 2014 at 11:11

            Haha. Just got my girlfriend to try NV last week through out family shared library on Steam. Two days later she bought the game for herself and was pretty much playing that the entire weekend.

          • Matthew Holliday

            May 26, 2014 at 11:16

            really need to look into that family library thing, the alternative is actually BUYING games for my sister, which is laughable 😛

          • Jedi JJ

            May 26, 2014 at 11:17

            Just remember that you can’t access your library when someone else is. BUT, if they play a game from your library and eventually buy their own copy their saves will transfer over, which is nice.

      • Dante Twitch

        May 28, 2014 at 00:12

        As someone who beat the first four Fallout games before touching 3 and New Vegas, I can honestly say New Vegas was closer to the “core” Fallout ideals. Fallout 3 was a *huge* departure from the series (not counting Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel) and New Vegas did an awful lot to make up for that. I fuckin’ *loved* New Vegas. Hey, I loved 3, as well, but New Vegas felt like the real sequel to Fallout 2. To me, anyway.

        Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      May 26, 2014 at 11:07

      Fallout 4 = HL3?

      Reply

      • Dante Twitch

        May 28, 2014 at 00:14

        GTFO.

        Reply

    • Jedi JJ

      May 26, 2014 at 11:08

      Fun, fun never ends.

      Reply

  4. RinceofFuturePast

    May 26, 2014 at 11:15

    Some have been modding for years 0-O

    Reply

  5. Wyzak

    May 26, 2014 at 11:20

    Wasteland 2 is releasing at the end of August, get that instead!

    Reply

    • Jedi JJ

      May 26, 2014 at 11:23

      • Brady miaau

        May 26, 2014 at 11:27

        why?

        Reply

        • Jedi JJ

          May 26, 2014 at 11:36

          I’m just a big Fallout fan and Wasteland hasn’t really piqued my interest.

          It’s just missing that unique feeling that the Fallout franchise has. But like I’ve said before, I’m the wrong person to talk to about Fallout, I’m quite biased.
          But I’m not unreasonable, I will probably give Wasteland a try if someone else buys it and then consider it for myself.

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            May 26, 2014 at 11:43

            It’s probably the closest game you’ll find to Fallout 1 & 2.

          • Jedi JJ

            May 26, 2014 at 11:46

            Really? It’s just always looked so tasteless to me.

          • Dante Twitch

            May 28, 2014 at 00:16

            Well, here’s a clue for you – without Wasteland, there would be no Fallout. In fact, Fallout was originally going to be a sequel to Wasteland, but Interplay couldn’t acquire the rights from EA.

          • Jedi JJ

            May 28, 2014 at 09:26

            Wait, so wasteland is EA? Wait….just googled it. Not anymore it seems.
            That’s a relief.
            If it were EA there is no way that I would’ve bought this game, but now it really has my attention.
            *puts it on Steam wishlist*

  6. Maxiviper117

    May 26, 2014 at 11:41

    Having played Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the only things that would make me buy Fallout 4 if it does see the light of day is:

    //Change the movement animations of the character so he doesn’t look and control like he has a large carrot permanently stuck up his ass

    //Improve the damn weapons for the love of god, on harder difficulties, up against relatively tough AI you go through a 3 different weapons depleting all their ammo because their accuracy is akin to a BB gun with a bent barrel and the damage they inflict is more like shooting spit balls at enemies. (Death Claws in that mine in New Vegas might as well be immortal, especially the big ones)

    //Fallout has a great story and characters but the way they look when they talk to you is like watching pain dry, making them look a little more interesting rather than them standing there and moving only their lips most of the time.

    //Graphics, you have to agree they could do a better job than that, they not exactly a small developer.

    Well thats my 4 cents, What want changed for Fallout 4 fellas?

    Reply

    • Jedi JJ

      May 26, 2014 at 11:44

      I agree. The engine has gotten far with how Skyrim turned out (and post mods it’s mind-blowing), but talking to the characters always felt a bit detached.

      Reply

      • Maxiviper117

        May 26, 2014 at 11:47

        Ya, I played Fallout 3 on xbox, was great, but fallout new vegas on PC was lack lustre, Found myself using console codes to increase running speed and god mode just so i could try enjoy the story.

        Reply

        • Jedi JJ

          May 26, 2014 at 11:49

          Oh wow.
          I played all on pc Fallout 1 – New Vegas.
          I loved them, pretty much all of them. The models were just always a bit awkward for me in 3 and NV. Like they only had three joints in them.

          Reply

  7. Shannen Allison

    May 27, 2014 at 01:45

    I am not agree because http://goo.gl/fwuuZK

    Reply

  8. Dante Twitch

    May 28, 2014 at 00:09

    What does Avellone have to say about F4? I’m more inclined to listen to him.

    Reply

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