Fallout: New Vegas Interview

The guys over at Xbox360Achievements.org managed to corner Obsidian’s one-and-only Josh Sawyer for a lengthy interview about Fallout: New Vegas. A couple of choice picks:

Obviously one of the biggest game changers in New Vegas is the new reputation system. Can you tell us a little bit how it will work and what it will bring to the experience?

Each community and organization in Fallout: New Vegas has its own reputation tracker for the player. As people in the community or organization take note of good or bad things the player does, the player gains positive or negative reputation. Based on that reputation, people in the community will treat you differently.

In some cases, you may receive some benefits or suffer some penalties for the reputation you build with a group. It’s also possible to have a mixed reputation, which has its own consequences. Certain characters, especially misfits in a group, tend to treat the player better if he or she has built up a mixed reputation.

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We understand that a few of the guys at the studio also worked on Van Buren the could have been Fallout 3 game what came of that in the end? Have you taken anything across from that development in to this one?

Like most cancelled projects, the assets and documents went on a drive somewhere and collected dust in the “could have been” vault. We have carried some of the ideas from Van Buren into New Vegas. Primarily, the use of Caesar’s Legion as a looming threat in the region, though it is much more present in New Vegas than it was in Van Buren. Most of the other similarities lie in bringing back regional power players from previous games: the New California Republic, Gun Runners, Crimson Caravan, Followers of the Apocalypse, and so on.