Wow, been a while since I did this. Anyway G4 has published an article written by Dennis Scimeca a freelance writer who's work has been published on Kotaku, Ars Technica and Gamasutra, that deals with the challenge of telling a story through DLC after the credits roll on the main game and what other developers *cough Bioware cough* could learn from Obsidian's approach to DLC:

"Developers don't always know whether or not they'll have the chance to continue their stories, so narrative devices like foreshadowing can be difficult to justify or work into a game's plotline. When Obsidian Creative Director Chris Avellone and his team were told they would have the chance to create four DLC packs for Fallout: New Vegas, it was a unique opportunity. “That allows us, as writers, to do foreshadowing across titles and guarantee it will see the light of day,” Avellone said

The challenge of creating the Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road DLC packs for New Vegas lay mostly i…

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Game Informer has published a report that Obsidian was missed out on a bonus payment by Bethesda because the game didn't score high enough on Metacritic. The Game Informer article reads:

"Obsidian is reportedly in trouble due to the cancellation of an upcoming project and the layoff of some of its employees, and it's tempting to think what could have been if Fallout: New Vegas had scored just a tad better.

The game's lead designer at developer Obsidian, Chris Avellone, has tweeted that Fallout: New Vegas missed its potential bonus payment from Bethesda by a single point at aggregate review site Metacritic.

"FNV was a straight payment, no royalties, only a bonus if we got an 85+ on Metacritic, which we didn't."

To be clear, Avellone makes no connection between the bonus payment and any current troubles the studio is having. However, this situation only reinforces the importance of review scores (including us, obviously) and Metacritic to publishers and developers.

What do you think of somet…

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Thats right folks, not another poll, not another Hole fight no this news isn't about the Fallout wiki, its about that series of video games nobody remembers. You know the one with the headcrabs and the gravity gun. Ok maybe I'm the one who forgot.

• 1 Masthead MMO
• 2 Role-playing Games and the Problem of Sympathetic Characters
• 3 The Rhythm of the Quest in Fallout 3 and New Vegas
• 4 J.E. Sawyer's mod updated to v3
• 5 Feargus Urquhart on how Obsidian and Bethesda view Fallout
• 6 Bethesda Concept Artist Adam Adamowicz Has Passed Away

Masthead's previous MMO, Earthrise, whose tech is or was being used for Interplay's Project V13 (better known as Fallout Online), is now shutting down, failing to find the funds to convert to free-to-play.

“One year after the launch of the game, we have decided to stop the Earthrise servers. Earthrise was released too early and did not meet the expectations of its fans” said Atanas Atanasov, Director of Masthead Studios. “We did our best to revive the game in 2011, but the time…

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As part of their Fashionably Late column, which analyzes slightly older games "in an environment where prices are cheaper and hype is quieter, focusing on insightful analysis rather than consumer advice", the folks at True PC Gaming have tackled Fallout: New Vegas. After playing for roughly 250 hours with a small selection of mods they call it a "true RPG experience", and praise its handling of inter-faction politics and world building. Here's a snip:

Obsidian’s thoughtful attention to the politics and economy of what would otherwise be juvenile fantasy is admirable, as is their skill at building a world. Though the writing is oftentimes spotty (particularly at the end of every DLC chapter,) there are more than enough moments of environmentally-told storytelling mastery that make up for it. New Vegas’ storyline is all about juxtaposing first impressions with second and third impressions. As morally black and white as its three main factions seem at first, a bit of free-roamy exploring …

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I know that this isn't the Fallout mod wiki but I still think this is noteworthy. J.E. Sawyer, project director on Fallout: New Vegas and its Honest Heart DLC, has released mod for his personal playthroughs without much fanfare.Just to note it requires all Fallout: New Vegas DLC to work. Some bits from the "changelog" he wrote on Formspring:

• Max level with all DLCs installed is 35.
• XP rate is halved.
• Base player health is quartered and level-gained health is reduced by 25%.
• Base Carry Weight from 150 to 50 (related perks/things have also been adjusted).
• Energy Weapon ammo weighs less than its nearest equivalent Guns ammo.
• Energy Weapon durability is in the same ballpark as Guns durability.
• Medium Armor has a small amount of DR proportional to its DT.
• Heavy Armor has even more DR proportional to its DT.
• Power Armor does not require a perk, but if you have the perk, the weight of the armor is essentially negated.
• Karma/Alignment values adjusted all over.
• H2O/FOD/SLP rates doubled, but the first t…

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For some reason in my news round up I missed this interview with the one and only Chris Avellone.

See User blog:LegatusLanius/Chris Avellone Interview & Old World Blues wins DLC of 2011

Just thought I'd get us caught up on some of the things we've missed in Fallout News cause of the split that has taken place here at The Vault, or is it the Vault Dweller's Survival Guide, no wait Nukapedia, aww screw it for now lets just call it the Fallout Wiki.

J.E. Sawyer answers some questions about slowdowns due to increasing save game file sizes on his formspring Here's a tidbit:

Question: Is there a save game size that you would call "normal" for F:NV? Mine is 14mb, and i'm having intense lag in multiple sections of the Mojave/ all DLC lands. Just curious if that is/could be an issue!

J.E. Sawyer: That can easily be a big problem, especially if you're on the PS3. The longer you play a character, the more bit differences on objects (characters, pencils on tables, containers, etc.) get saved off and carried around in memory. I think we've seen save games that are pushing 19 megs, which can be really crippling in some areas.

GameBanshee has a post-mortem Fallout: New Vegas interview …

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Dark Horse Comics has recently released All Roads, the graphic novel originally available only with buying the collector's edition of Fallout: New Vegas, on Dark Horse Digital and its iTunes app for $2.99.

All Roads was written by Chris Avellone and published by Dark Horse Comics. With features art done by Jean Diaz and Wellinton Alves, and cover art done by Geofrey Darrow.

As the title states Bethesda has just recently announced Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate edition.

Chris Avellone has been interviewed at GameStar Russia. Among other questinons there are several about Fallout franchise.

The interview also touches on other interesting topics, e.g. some well known RPG series. So you really should read the full text.

I've even found the English version for you. Check the updated link. :)