Chris Avellone, who co-founded Obsidian and worked on Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 2, has publicly criticized Bethesda’s handling of the Fallout franchise, claiming that the company doesn’t understand the roots of the property. Many fans have been eager to get their hands on a remake or remaster of Fallout: New Vegas, especially after the successful launch of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, but Bethesda has not revealed any official plans to revisit the beloved title. New Vegas is fresh in the minds of many fans, as the iconic location has been brought to life in a whole new way in Amazon Prime’s massively popular Fallout television show.
Rumors of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remakes have been swirling around the internet for a while now, with some industry insiders believing that a new release could be imminent. The official website for Amazon’s Fallout show recently added a countdown timer, which coincides with the airing of Season 2’s final episode. The countdown could be teasing any number of things, like behind the scenes footage, a teaser for Season 3, or something else entirely. However, after last year’s shadow drop of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, many fans are hoping that a Fallout 3 remaster or remake could be dropping soon. While such an idea may seem like a long shot, Bethesda has expressed interest in shadow dropping more titles in the future. While the franchise seems to only be growing in popularity, Chris Avellone has shared some controversial thoughts on Bethesda and its handling of Fallout.
Fallout: New Vegas 2 Is More Likely Than Ever Now
Recent Xbox development rumors have suggested that a follow-up to Fallout: New Vegas and other Fallout titles may be in early development
Obsidian Co-Founder Criticizes Bethesda
As reported by Dexerto, Chris Avellone took to Twitter to share his thoughts on Bethesda’s handling of the Fallout franchise. The original Tweet has been removed from the platform entirely, but an image of the post (included above) has been shared by Insider Gaming. In the post, Avellone claims that Bethesda doesn’t hate Fallout, the company just doesn’t “fully understand its roots and arguably, don’t care.” According to Avellone, this is likely because Bethesda owns the Fallout franchise, which means the company doesn’t have to comply with the property’s original vision. Instead, Avellone suggested that Bethesda likely just wants to execute its “spin on Fallout and make that the norm.” Of course, this is just Avellone’s opinion as someone who has worked on other games in the franchise. He isn’t claiming that anyone at Bethesda has explicitly shared these views.
Avellone goes on to say that Bethesda’s spin on the franchise “usually translates into a colorful, shallow theme park.” However, he does point out a few exceptions to this claim, such as the DLCs Far Harbor, Point Lookout, and The Pitt. To be clear, Avellone isn’t condemning games like Fallout 4, as he goes on to say that “theme parks are fun for some folks, so if people enjoy it, that’s fine with me.” This is an important distinction by Avellone, as it demonstrates that he isn’t criticizing all games that follow this model, and he certainly doesn’t seem to be casting judgment on the players who enjoy these titles. Instead, his focus is placed on the differences between Obsidian and Bethesda, and how each one has chosen to approach the roots of the franchise. In fact, Avellone isn’t really even saying that Bethesda’s games are subpar, just that they deviate from the original vision of Fallout as a setting.
Despite all of his criticisms, Avellone did have something positive to say about Bethesda. The Obsidian co-founder pointed out that every developer has strengths and weaknesses, claiming that open world exploration is an area where Bethesda shines. On the flip side, he did also say that Bethesda’s weaknesses included its implementation of the Speech mechanic and telling a linear story within an open world setting. It’s clear that there’s a lot of passion around the Fallout franchise, with developers and fans both sharing which games personally stand out and which ones fall short. While everyone may not always see eye to eye, many fans believe the future of Fallout is looking bright.
- Released
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October 19, 2010
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Engine
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Gamebryo
