Fallout: New Vegas was released as a standalone game by Obsidian, and in Fallout 4 we explored post-apocalyptic Boston. But it could have turned out very differently as Bethesda now reveals. For the 25th birthday, the publisher released a series of videos that tell about the development history of the games. And they unveil secrets that probably nobody knew about before.
Fallout: New Vegas as DLC?
In the almost four-minute video Surviving the Desert Wasteland
Chief developer at Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard, has his say first:
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Fallout New Vegas almost became just a big expansion
He tells how to start working on Fallout 3 even before the release The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim started. After Fallout 3 became a big success, people started thinking about a big expansion for the game. However, since Bethesda Game Studios was fully occupied with Skyrim, this task was entrusted to the developers of Obsidian.
But it quickly became clear that Fallout: New Vegas should be its own game. Then some Obsidian employees tell us how they wanted to make their project unique. For example, the first fallout with its bad ending inspired them to allow different directions for the main story in New Vegas as well.
Luckily – it has to be said – Fallout: New Vegas became a standalone game. Because Obsidian’s offshoot was extremely well received by the fans and was voted one of the best story games of all time by us:
more on the subject
The 100 Greatest Story Games of All Time: From Alan Wake to Zero Dawn
By the way: Fallout New Vegas is free at Prime Gaming in November if you have a Prime Video subscription.
Fallout 4 in New York?
That Fallout 4 would take place in Boston had actually been clear since Fallout 3, one might think. Because even in Bethesda’s first fallout, the Boston-based institute, the Railroad and synths appear in a side quest on. But originally it was actually planned that Fallout 4 would explore the destroyed New York in particular:
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Fallout 4: It wasn’t originally supposed to be set in Boston
So players should actually start in New York and end up traveling to Boston to meet the institute. Why the decision was finally made to go to Boston alone is not explained in more detail. The enormous effort it would have taken to recreate two cities certainly plays a role.
Developer Emil Pagliarulo was particularly happy about this decision, as he was from Boston himself. In the game today we can find Pagliarulo’s house, the nearby subway station and even his high school, among other things. It was also clear from the start that the city’s turbulent history and many historical monuments had to play a role.
Even more fallout
But that’s not all: In other videos, the developers talk about how they take pictures of buildings in Washington DC were evicted from propertyor that the right color for the interface was the subject of extensive discussions. In a recent video, you can even catch a glimpse of one Set of the emerging Fallout series throw, of which we have only been able to see an official picture so far:
Fallout
First image for the Amazon series offers a familiar sight
If you are interested in the mysteries and spooky stories of Fallout, we have two reading recommendations for you to match the Halloween season: In Fallout New Vegas, there is a mysterious radio station that is entwined with dark legends. In Fallout 3, on the other hand, we find evidence of a mysterious cult that wants to control the inhabitants of the wasteland.
