Obsidian are way better than Bethesda.
Fallout New Vegas is far better than Fallout 3. That is drowning in sentimentality in parts. And gods, that ridiculously soppy, linear main quest. Blah.
Bethesda have a severe sentimentality problem in some things.

There is very little sentimentality in FONV. Barely any at all.
The consequences are better, the story is very well written. Everything about it is better written and better done than FO3 and skyrim.
It's system of unkillable companions on normal, subtitues for everyone, unfailable main quest and many, many options, kicks skyrims ass many times over.
There is one essential character in the entire game, ED=E in Lonesome Road dlc. He cannot die, not even on hardcoe. And that is reasonable, because that dlc is brutal in parts.

Skyrim would have been much, much better using FONVs system, minus the main quest ending finishing the game.
The system is perfect and gives true freedom.
And actually, I can sort of see why they made the ending of the main quest finish the game now.
After seeing the lame main quest in skyrim. Which has nothing to mark you did it, at all, not even some cutscenes.

Skyrim is drowning in very, very misplaced sentimentality in parts.

Well, they're different. The writing is good in both games, and games are allowed to be different from one another. That's not a crime. That I'm aware of.

I didn't like the Obsidian "sub-contracting" in Fallout New Vegas. If I wanted one of their games I'd purposely go out to find one. When I purchase a Bethesda title I expect it to be a Bethesda title through and through.

No, Obsidian do better writing, although the quality of their writing has fallen a lot over the years since the Baldur`s gate days similar to Bethesda whose writing was greatest with Morrowind.

The writing in Oblivion was childish and Skyrim is better, but only because it treates you less like a small child.

Good writing has suffered terribly since the advent of recent graphic intensive games.

LOL

Half an hour ending slides about sympathsizing with robots that are obsessed with experimenting on people that, who I found incredibely annoying with 12 year old humor and killed with a "meh" feeling afterword. Killing them didn't even gratify me about how much dikes they were because I have to sit through a half an hour ending slide on why I should feel bad for them.

ONE SMALL EXAMPLE.

Oh Yeah? WE ARE ENCLAVE, WE KILL U CAUSE YOU HAVE RADIATION AND NEED PUREE RACE. OH WAIT, WE KILLED A BUNCH OF VAULT DWELLERS IN FALLOUT 2 WHO HAD NO RADIATION EXPOSURE...ERGGG OUR BAD..

GOD BLESS ENCLAVE (fart noise)

Oh wait, how about Obsidian's version of the TRUE Brotherhood of Steel:

WE ARE BROTHERHOOD. WE TAKE YOUR SHINY. YOU CAN'T JOIN US CAUSE WE 2 COOL. GIVE US SHINY NOW.

* HIDE IN BUNKER with SPACE MARINE OUTFITS*

You have a lot of anger built up. Its ok to cry as it is unhealthy to withhold it.

No one says you have to feel bad for killing the Think Tank. Anywere at all. Mobius himself does'nt want to stop you killing them.

The truth hurts, right?

You N'Wah!

OMG!!! THE VAULT IS EMPTY! WHERE DID IT GO?! ALL OF OUR MONEY IS GONE!!!

Part of the Thieves' Guild in Skyrim.

Also one of the dumbest parts of the game and dumbest writing I've ever seen.

Better than Obsidian's Space Marines at least.

True. This is pretty much the case with all of their games. Although some past TES efforts did the explicit stuff better. While some of the implicit is better this time around.

I've not played it, so I can't compare the two.

But Skyrim has some effing terrible writing in its own regard.

Some of you people must fart in hyperbole, because nothing else comes out of you here.

Both games have good writing. Skyrim's best is in the random dungeons and the books, IMO. Yes, FNV went heavy on "meaning" at times, especially in the long slides at the beginning and end of the DLC, but the writing is still excellent. I probably prefer Bethesda's lighter touch, but FNV is such a solid RPG that finding fault with it IMO is just nitpicking.

It's not like comparing Tolstoy to a comic book.It's comparing a comic book to a comic book you like better.

The speechcraft ending in FONV was kinda lulzy and whoever did Ceasers Legion could have used some tips from whoever did The Stormcloaks.

Wasnt really that dumb. Maybe a little far fetched, but what good story isn't ? I was actually immersed in the entire tale of thieves guild. Which was just one small faction of the game.

Nv had me bored to tears with the entire conflict with .Mr.house and NCR. AWFUL.

I agree on this. The storytelling shines through the atmosphere. I really get into the mindset that I'm a Daedric Worshipping Assasin instead of Obsidian's mysoginy dork faction that wear sporting equipment and worship a guy with a pecker issue.

Maybe a little far fetched?

You would think a Thieves' Guild would keep an accurate inventory of the guild's entire treasury on a fairly consistent basis.

I pretty much agree with most of this. NCR was a really interesting faction and Mr. House was a fascinating character but the storytelling of the conflict was just awful.

I don't find the thieves guild poorly written, just detestable characters that you could only like if you really are a hardcoe thief.

My point exactly. The fact that they didn't is far fetched, not "dumb". Because he could've manipulated the inventory, or what not, they left it open to ponder. It still provided conflict, curiosity, and intrigue to the situation.

More so than nv did with its main story.

The difference is usually in how they are presented and justified. Obsidian, regardless of how things pan out in a typical sense, still usually make the effort to rationalize why things are, the way they are. Bethesda on the other hand, either doesn't explain it, or vaguely explains it. Bethesda tends to design things to be like some wacky theme park, or caricature, instead of an actual logical world and characters.

Complex and compelling problems for each individual community; a man who's wife was kidnapped and sold into slavery, a community harboring a merchant who's being hunted by raiders, etc.

As opposed to

DURR HURR DO U WANNA HELP DESE VAMPIRES? OH LOL LOOK SUPERHEROS ROFL DIS ONE CONTROLS ANTS ISN'T THAT FUNNY? LMAO CHECK DIS OUT THERE IS LIKE A GUY WHO NAMED HIS "REPUBLIC" AFTER HIMSELF HOW RANDOM.

I played FO3 and FNV and I have to say that New Vegas' characters were more developed, and the factions and overall storyline was done better compared to FO3. But, FO3 was the better game to me, overall. There was way more things to do in FO3 than FNV, so in other words, Obsidian = Good Writing, Bad programming. Beth = Good programming, "descent" writing. I hope the next Fallout is done by Beth, they are just better at open world games.

Exactly why I found Nv boring. They spelt out and rationalized every subject , issue , and conflict. Like we are too dumb to figure it out by the events that unfolded. It allowed you to make a choice in which to partake in, and I liked that. But the fun ends there. It left no room for imagination. It was a little too direct for me.