Fallout New Vegas was so linear it was ridiculous. It was cleverly disguised, but linear nonetheless. You left the vault, then what choice did you have. End that cute little fued going on in town. Then what's next? Head in a predetermined path to New Vegas, doing the exact same quests the entire way. Then this is where you get some imitation of choice. Bad guys or Good guys? Doesnt matter. You are still doing the same exact quests in the end. And guess what you got when you wanted to start over? The same thing over again. I never ever like the earlier game in the series. For me, its an unheard of trait, but Fallout is the only game where I like the original Fallout 3 more. So if obsidion made it instead of the Gods among men we call Bethesda, we would have got iron sites on our bows, and we would get cut down by death claws if we decided we wanted to go to solitude first instead of retrieving the Claw. Beth knows what the hell they are doing with the elders scrolls, and they have been with the series since it was a wee lil' Daggerfall, and i would trust no other mortal with the design of The Elders Scrolls.

While I have no doubt Bethesda will be developing Fallout 4, I very much hope they took notes from Obsidian's New Vegas. Bethesda's Fallout 3 was a great game, but not a great Fallout game when compared to the series as a whole. The Fallout series has always been more about re-building and shaping society, rather than exploration. That said, I'd like to see Bethesda at least hire on some former Obsidian/Interplay writers.

I believe Bethesda should stick to their TES formula. Exploration is a big part of TES experience, and while I wish Bethesda would have focused on certain things more in Skyrim, I still enjoy it for what it is, with over 400 hours played since release.

MayI remind everyone that Obsidian only had about a year to make New Vegas because of Bethesda's ridiculous deadlines? Hence why it was buggy on release.

Skyrim had 5 years and in no way accomplished 5x as much, in part due to 11.11.11, alsobecause of Bethesda's awful writing and complete disregard for balance. Additionally, Obsidian endeavoured to fix many bugs while Skyrim is still suffering from file bloating, atomic nirnroots, never disappearing weapons, Louis Letrush armies... I could go on.

Bethesda creates good gameworlds but almost everything else is severely lacking. If Obsidian had made the quests, we wouldn't be stuck with invincible maven black-briars and being told to keep your nose clean when you've saved the world, thane of every hold etc. The Quests would have a little something called consequences and would be fulfilling.

Right now, Slyrim is a mile wide and a foot deep.

Obsidian made New Vegas in JUST OVER A YEAR. If they had the same amount of time to make Skyrim like Bethesda it WOULD BE THE BEST [censored] GAME EVER MADE. PERIOD!!

I don't know that the game would necessarily have an ending. Obsidian was planning to do post-game play for New Vegas, but they didn't have enough time to do it properly, so they left it out.

I think if Bethesda created the world but hired people from Obsidian to fill it and write quests and dialogue, they would rule. Bethesda are really good at creating open worlds - they can't write to save their lives and they seem to be getting worse at it. Skyrim is like a film with amazing sets but they cobbled the script together during a tea break. Actually it's sort of like a Hollywood blockbuster - looks really good, seems really epic, but when you watch it there's no depth to it, the script is terrible and it leaves you feeling dissatisfied.

Bethesda = better gameworld crafting from title to title (minus tiny cities and linear locations)

Obsidian = better RPG values, more interesting NPC, plot, writing characters, less linear,

Both = Fails at technical side, bugs

And bear on mind that obsidian had always trouble with publishers that they whiped them most time "faster peons, faster!" Example": KOTOR2,
see Alpha Protocol, as for RPG it was briliant, with complex plot progression, characters, picking sides. But the gameplay itself was bad, and clunky

Story > game world

It's been proven time and time again that story equals timeless greatness.

Substance over style, but style also helps a great deal.

exactly why they should hire some Obsidian writers.

Can someone explain precisely what was wrong with the world design in New Vegas? Fallout 3 was repetitive metro tunnels, New Vegas had world cohesion and believability.

Nazir would be a scrawny white dude and would have been voiced by Wayne Newton.

Not only that, can someone explain what was wrong with New Vegas' game mechanics? Or for that matter, since when are bugs an Obsidian exclusive? How the HELL did everyone forget about the vampire cure quest in Oblivion, the Pitt not working at ALL and every other massive bug Bethesda's ever produced (the dragons flew BACKWARDS ffs...) just because Obsidian's title was buggy too?

Skyrim has three playstyles: combat is just spamming the click button, magic by strategically using spells and stealth by killing people in sneak mode. New Vegas offers hundreds of character types because the traits in New Vegas offer more uniqueness than TES' races, the attributes actually matter and the perks are real perks: they offer abilities that change your gameplay style, not just "20% more damage."

This thread makes me go like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4ozVMxzNAA