Though The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda Game Studios has served as the shepherd of Fallout ever since the company acquired the series from Interplay Entertainment in 2007, the game often regarded as the best in the franchise is ironically one that wasn’t developed by Bethesda at all.
That title is Fallout: New Vegas, the 2010 entry made by the storied RPG studio Obsidian Entertainment during the gap between the 2008 release of Bethesda’s Fallout 3 and its direct sequel, 2015’s Fallout 4 (between them, it made a little game called Skyrim you may have heard about).
Article continues below
But while Lobe says he felt like “it’s a little unfair that we were being judged on not having the storylines [that New Vegas had],” he made it clear that he still greatly enjoys and respects New Vegas, believes Obsidian did an excellent job with the RPG, and even wishes Fallout 3’s story and writing had similar depth and nuance.
“But with that said … Obsidian killed it. Like, I think they did a beautiful job, and it did make me feel a little bit sad that our design team could not envision the same kind of — maybe they just didn’t have time or bandwidth. Like, they just didn’t implement the same scale of really ambitious of ‘huge arc, multi-choices’ kind of thing.”
When Lobe sought out the opinions of some of the other devs present on the podcast, ex-Bethesda artist Nate Purkeypile said he likes New Vegas a lot, but thinks it stumbles some with dungeons and world design.
“I do think Vegas is a really good game, but it also does some things worse. I think its dungeons and world design are not as good,” he commented. “So, it’s like, from a writing and design perspective I think they did better, but I do not feel the same way about their dungeons.”
Lobe, though, raised another valuable point: Obsidian had to develop New Vegas in a very short timeframe of just 18 months. “We should also say they had a limited window of time to work. They were very pressed for time — an unfair amount of time, honestly.”
I love New Vegas to pieces, but it’s true that Bethesda’s work on the foundation Obsidian built it on tends to go unrecognized, and shouldn’t. That being said, Fallout 3 was incredibly well-received too.
In the end, both games are fantastic RPGs, which is why I’m stoked to play the upcoming Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters we know are coming. Haven’t checked the games out yet? Every Fallout title is playable on Xbox and PC through Xbox Game Pass.
🗨️ Which Fallout game is your favorite?
It’s interesting to hear Bethesda developers that previously worked on Fallout discuss their thoughts on Fallout: New Vegas, and some of the things they think others games in the series do better while acknowledging the impressive narrative depth and design of Obsidian’s RPG.
New Vegas is definitely my favorite Fallout game, but I’m curious to hear from you about yours. Give your take in the comments, and vote in our ongoing poll!
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.