It has been announced in the past few hours that Bethesda have outsourced a new Fallout Title to Obsidian Entertainment, entitled Fallout: New Vegas. The limited information to date implies that the game will be similar in style to Fallout 3 but the story will be independent of that in Fallout 3.

I find this news exciting on two counts, which are linked together, the first of which is that given the location it is possible we may see sites from the first 2 fallout games as seen on the map below. Now while it is possible that New Vegas is not located at or near the site of Las Vegas, I find that doubtful and as such depending on the plot, map limits and time frame, it is possible that we may have the chance to visit Vault 13 again and find out what has happened since the events of Fallout 1 and 2.  This brings me to the second exciting thing, that it is being made by Obsidian Entertainment which is in itself positive on two counts.

Fallout 1/2 Locations

The first positive is that Obsidian are responsible for the best incomplete RPG ever made in Knights of the Old Republic 2. KOTOR 2 up to its final chapter and ending was in my opinion an even better game than the original KOTOR. Significantly the only reason for the ending being poor was that the publishers (Lucasarts) would not give Obsidian sufficient time to release the game, which had a short development period being released around a year after the original game. This meant the ending was rushed and significant content lost despite Obsidians best efforts, and the availability of resources in game that could have been used to restore it in a patch (which was not allowed to occur).

The second positive is that a lot of the Obsidian staff originally worked for Interplays Black Isle studios. This studio had a high pedigree as they helped Bioware with the original Baldur gates games, and were completely responsible for the Icewind Dale games, the vastly under rated Planescape Torment and most importantly Fallout 1 & 2.

Taking this into account even given the limited information we have so far, Fallout: New Vegas has the potential to be the true “Fallout 3″ given the location and team working on it. It is even possible that the reason Obsidian were asked/allowed to develop New Vegas by Bethesda, is so that fans of the original can have a “true sequel” to the original games. Even if the original game is not widely referenced or locations visited, given the high caliber of the Obsidian team and their familiarity with the Fallout universe, Fallout: New Vegas has the potential to be a classic so long as this time they are given sufficient time to finish the game.