With the renewed interest from the show, it would make sense for Microsoft to get someone else working on a Fallout game since Bethesda isn’t going to do it any time soon. However, I would think that Obsidian would be the more natural choice. I would guess that MS would prefer to utilize one of the studios they own rather than license it out, but I could be wrong about that.

And even if they did license out development on a Fallout game, I would assume that they would be in a hurry to get something out there, which would make Larian far less appealing to them. I agree that they would probably make an amazing Fallout game, but another studio would probably make a decent enough game that costs less to develop and pays off sooner.

They’re trying to portray it as something that was done from the very beginning, as opposed to something they only pinned down in preparation for the 3rd game in the series. Nothing wrong with them getting through two games before writing out their bible, but that doesn’t make for a very compelling article.

“A lot of that was in my head until we were starting Inquisition and the writers got a little bit impatient with my memory or lack thereof, so they pinned me down and dragged the uber-plot out of me. I’d talked about it, I’d hinted at it, but never really spelled out how it all connected, so they dragged it out of me, we put it into a master lore doc, the secret lore, which we had to hide from most of the team.”

So, no they didn’t know the “deepest secrets” of the lore 20 years ago. One guy had vague notions in his head, and they only actually fleshed it out when they were working on Inquisition.

One of the things that sets the original apart from a lot of other open world survival craft games is that it was designed to be a single-player experience. Hopefully they can make it work well for both solo and co-op, but that’s a tricky balance.

One thing I’d really like to see is for creatures to be able to damage structures, and to balance that by having defenses to protect those structures. Being able to throw together an invincible fortress in seconds made some of the dangerous areas a lot less threatening.

Hell, a suicide squad game that actually properly utilized the suicide squad could have been great.

I expect it to be a buggy mess that has lots of potential and doesn’t deliver on half of what it seems like it should do. Then after a year or two it will finally be patched into being mostly stable and mods will have reached a point where it can mostly be turned into the game I actually want. However there will be a few creative decisions that I absolutely hate but which are so unnecessarily locked in that even mods can’t fix them, so I’ll have to just accept them as an irritant that I will do my best to ignore.

I think you can very easily see the progression of KOTOR -> Jade Empire -> Mass Effect - > Dragon Age Origins. It’s not all straight lines, but you can see the things they keep, the things they tweak, the things they cut, and the things they bring back.

I love Jade Empire. There are a lot of things I think could have been better, but I do really love it.

The combat was cool, and I liked the different styles, and the fact that you were not going to learn them all in a single playthrough. It also incentivized switching between hand to hand, weapons, magic, support and transformation in ways that still allowed each type to feel like it was useful and filling a niche rather than being the kind of samey rock paper scissors bullshit that many games use. That said, the balance was not great, and some options were significantly better than others, to the point of making some things seem almost useless. Most of them are usable, but if you try them all out you’ll find that there are some you will probably never use again. That said, on replays I would always pick white demon for my martial style even though objectively it’s the worst choice because I found it more fun and challenging than the other two.

Story-wise, the companions were fairly standard for Bioware games. I don’t hate any of them, but I also can’t say I have as much of a connection to them as I have to HK-47, Jolee and Canderous, or Garrus, Wrex and Tali, or Alistair, Oghren, and Morrigan. It’s not that there’s something wrong with the characters, as much as there’s just less opportunity due to the way Jade Empire handles them in gameplay. Unlike those other games, you only get 1 companion in your party at a time, so there’s no banter between them while you walk, and just less interaction with them overall.

This is made worse by the way the game handles combat for them. Followers can be set to fight or support, where they meditate to give you a bonus but leaving you to fight the enemies alone. A neat idea in theory, but the problem is that fighting really just translates to them distracting one or two minions until they get knocked unconscious. They can’t stand up to anything tough, and they will not be dispatching enemies, just acting as a momentary distraction before they fall (even the two that are combat only and are supposed to be incredibly strong). In support they will each give you a different bonus. One scatters bottles around that temporarily let you use drunken master style… which is not better than what you already have so it’s just a novelty. Two others slightly increase your damage with either weapons or martial attacks. And the remaining three each refill one of your resources (health, focus and chi). Since Chi is able to heal you and increase your martial damage, and powers your magic and transformations, that chi restoring character is by far the most useful, with the focus restoring guy being a distant second since it allows you to slow time and is needed for using weapons.

If I had one suggestion I could send back in time it would have been to allow 2 or 3 followers at a time, with a dedicated combat slot and a dedicated support slot so that you can have a larger party and less incentive to just pick one character to the exclusion of everyone else.

The morality system was a great idea, but like Mass Effect, there is a clear disconnect between what they describe it as and what it actually is in practice. The way of the open palm is supposed to be altruistic, while the closed fist is supposed to be about strength and growing through conflict and adversity. They aren’t intended to simply be good and evil. The problem is, you get lots of pointlessly evil options that don’t correspond with that philosophy they describe, and yet they still give you closed fist points. In fact, I struggle to think of a single time in the game where you couldn’t just replace the open palm and closed fist points with light side and dark side points and get the exact same result. It’s a shame, because it would have been great if they had more of a focus on the competing philosophies, with times when open palm might seem less than ideal, and times when closed fist comes across as respectable in its own way. In fact, I would have loved it if they’d had open palm, closed fist, and a third hidden stat for just being a dick, and had people react to all three.

One other big difference is the pacing of the game. The others all start in tutorial town, then move on to a second area which launches you on your quest, then opens up the map and lets you pick which order to do things in, before taking you to the endgame. Jade empire technically follows that description, but the part where it opens up is basically just letting you choose between 2 options, so it’s not nearly as dynamic. And based on the number of places which are frequently mentioned but never seen, I suspect there were multiple areas which were cut from the game.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there’s nothing wrong with the pacing, it’s just notable once you’re familiar with that classic Bioware formula.

Overall, I highly recommend Jade Empire. It’s fun, it has an engaging story, an interesting world, and a lot of that old pre-EA Bioware charm.

The original version was the best of the three by far.

4x games tend to be functionally infinitely repayable, since a single game often takes an eternity and there are usually many factions to play.

I particularly like sword of the stars 1 & 2. Honestly don’t remember which I preferred but I know I got an insane amount of time sunk into both of them.

Not in a million fucking years Sony. I would have gladly given you my money, but apparently that’s not good enough for you.

I guess Sony didn’t want my money after all.

I definitely want more games like New Vegas. I’m just not sure how much Obsidian wants to go back to Fallout as opposed to doing their own thing. It’s also been a decade and a half, so I’m not sure how much obsidian has changed since then.

My point was that if I was Microsoft, I would want to get a Fallout game out while there is increased interest. Bethesda can get around to making Fallout 5 sometime in the next decade, but in the meantime, I’d have other teams working on other Fallout projects.

These don’t have to all be massive new games that push every conceivable boundary. They just need to be good games that can satisfy audiences who are craving more Fallout. I wouldn’t rush things at the expense of quality, but I would try to plan things with a more narrow scope and efficient design.

For example, I’d probably want to remaster Fallout 1 & 2, as well as 3 and New Vegas. Don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just update them for modern systems, polish them, add some modern conveniences, and maybe a little new content.

Simultaneously, I’d have someone working on a new Fallout game that takes place in a new location, (Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, whatever seems fun). This doesn’t get rushed, but it also gets a limited scope. Solid core gameplay and an interesting setting with good writing.

I’d also be open to something other than an open world rpg. A city builder, a real-time strategy game, an xcom style turn based tactical game with base building, Pokémon but with irradiated mutants, metroidvania in a vault, whatever. As long as there is also a more traditional Fallout game in the works, there’s no reason why you couldn’t also do something weird and different.

Ideally, I would have started work on this stuff as soon as the show got the greenlight. But even if they started right now, that’s still better than waiting for Bethesda.

If they can have something nearly complete to cash in on hype from the show, and something else they can announce that keeps people excited, even if that thing’s another year or two away, that would be perfect. And if not, they can at least get something out while the show is still relevant.

If I’m the guy pitching a Fallout project right now, I’d probably be pointing to Baldur’s Gate 3 as an example of how much desire there is for a quality role-playing game. Quality being the keyword.

“When is Season 2 happening. What are we doing on mobile. What are we doing in [Fallout 76]. What are we doing with this thing. What are we doing with this other thing. And when are these landing. And again if I could snap my fingers and have them all be out and ready I would. But the main thing is how do we deliver these at a high quality level. That is always most important.”

I shouldn’t be surprised that mobile is the first thing he brings up after season 2. But it’s still a terrible indicator.

Honestly, if I was Microsoft, I’d be looking to get a new Fallout game rushed into production immediately. And it probably wouldn’t be Bethesda making it. Not necessarily Fallout 5, but a new game in a new, interesting location. Something that can capitalize on the interest generated by the show, especially if it can come out near the release of season 2.

I also expect to work until the day I die.

Before he died he also wrote an article staking his position that video games are not a legitimate art form. That doesn’t necessarily mean he hated games or would never play one, but it does make it somewhat odd to see a list like this on a site bearing his name.