In recent years, some of gaming’s biggest breakout successes have been released during the post-Christmas lull between New Year and Spring. Traditionally, it’s supposed to be a quieter time on the calendar - where we’re all too full of turkey and trimmings and sated by games gifted over the holidays to have an appetite for anything new.
]]>Avowed sounds like it'll be handling quests a bit differently from other RPGs, as it turns out you'll be able to start almost all of them in more than one way.
]]>Warning: Spoilers for Fallout New Vegas lie ahead.
]]>Obsidian Entertainment's latest RPG Avowed is almost here, and one of the devs behind it says he's never felt more confident in a game like this one.
]]>RPGs often have a lot of things to do that are easy to miss, but for one Avowed developer, that's "the core" of the genre.
]]>Fallout fans have been staging an annual community get-together in the real-life town of Goodsprings for a few years now, with help from the owner of the Pioneer Saloon, as a celebration of Fallout: New Vegas day. 2024's edition looks to have been a good time, with lots of cosplayers having made their way out to Nevada, so they can roleplay as anything from an NCR ranger to Todd Howard.
]]>My least favourite trend in gaming has hit Avowed, meaning if you're happy to pay some extra money for it, you'll get to play it five days early.
]]>In a chat that also featured him talking about handhelds for the many-th time this year, Xbox's Phil Spencer has had some thoughts on where the games industry's at in 2024. What's he said, you ask? Well, "We’re not going to grow the market with $1,000 consoles", a line that definitely doesn't seem like it might potentially be a bit of a cheeky jab at a certain rather expensive console that came out pretty recently.
]]>GOG has announced it’s kicking off a new preservation program that’ll see it commit extra resources to making sure a selection of the kinda old to very old titles it offers run well across a variety of modern and future hardware.
]]>Obsidian knew what it was in for as it was developing Fallout: New Vegas, but that didn't stop it from sticking with its guns.
]]>Romance options are pretty popular in RPGs these days, and even though Avowed doesn't have any, its director thinks it's better off without one.
]]>Warning: Spoilers for the first season of the Fallout TV Show lie ahead.
]]>It's been a long while since the modding team behind Fallout: Nuevo México had anything to show off, but the New Vegas mod finally has an official reveal trailer.
]]>Country music legend and actor Kris Kristofferson has died aged 88, his family has announced.
]]>Jason Damron, the voice actor behind The Storyteller - the main character of a long-running and popular fan-made Fallout lore video series on YouTube - appears to have died.
]]>Is Fallout supposed to make you think about society? I'd argue that, at its best, it is, with capitalism being an obvious candidate to explore, given the mainline series' unflinchingly corporate American atomic age-inspired setting and the whole resource war that led up to the bombs being dropped. Though, according to co-creator Tim Cain, that isn't the central crux of Fallout theme-wise.
]]>The development of DLC-sized Fallout New Vegas mod Fallout Nuevo Mexico is no longer on hold, with a member of the team telling VG247 that the project is currently “in a good state” as work on the mod has resumed.
]]>We're here again. A big, beloved former developer on the Fallout series has been asked whether they'd be willing to return to the series and do some new stuff. Last time, Tim Cain was in the hot seat, this time it's Fallout New Vegas director Josh Sawyer, and their answers are pretty similar.
]]>Tim Cain might be best known as a co-creator of the original Fallout, but some of his most recent work has come with Obsidian on its The Outer Worlds series. While he’s currently consulting on The Outer Worlds 2, Cain’s just shared a demo of the first game from just a year into its development, and it’s well worth checking out.
]]>This might surprise you, but Fallout: London - the big Fallout 4 mod - is proving pretty popular among Fallout modders who aren’t part of Team FOLON. Some of the bigger New Vegas fans among them have even started bringing that game’s faction rep and disguise systems to Blighty.
]]>If you’ve run into a door you can’t get through while exploring the English capital in massive Fallout 4 mod Fallout: London, as anyone who’s played more than a few hours almost certainly has, you may well have unknowingly stumbled across a location used by a cut main quest line. The arc in question is a Fallout New Vegas-style Wild Card option, and it’s set to be deployed properly in a future update.
]]>UPDATE (05/08/24, 09:10 AM BST): Xbox has now confirmed that Avowed's release date has been pushed back to February 18, 2025, "to give players’ backlogs some breathing room". This was revealed alongside an infographic which outlines that both Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Starfield's Shattered Space Expansionare still currently pencilled in to release at some point in 2024.
]]>Amazon's Fallout TV show has rightly earned about nine million plaudits since it came out, and the latest comes from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. During a call outlining the company's latest batch of financial numbers, we've learned the extent to which the show boosted the player counts of Fallout titles on Game Pass.
]]>Back in 2020, when Avowed was first announced, the internet had a pretty specific opinion of what sort of game it was going to be. It was Xbox’s Skyrim, right?
]]>Original Fallout co-creator Tim Cain has discussed the idea of whether he'd be interested in potentially working on the series again, if he were asked to. The developer says his interest in any Fallout project he was pitched would mainly come down to one key element - "What's new about it?"
]]>Warning: Spoilers for the first season of the Fallout TV Show lie ahead.
]]>Xbox has officially announced that it's not only going to have presence at this year's Gamescom, but will be assembling its "biggest booth yet", while PlayStation and Nintendo have both confirmed they're giving the show a miss.
]]>UPDATE (20/06/24, 8:40 AM BST): J.K-Serling has provided the following response to VG247: "In light of the questions raised, I wanted to clarify a few points. I am a close family relative of Zapshock, and along with Bishop (project coordinator) and Mr. Convict (lead outfit designer), we are fully informed about the reasons for the project's hiatus."
]]>Despite having been announced four whole years ago, it seems like we’re nowhere closer to playing State of Decay 3 now than we were then, but there’s something interesting going on behind the scenes that has many fans very excited.
]]>Avowed got another look-in at the Xbox Games Showcase last night, albeit without a release date - though Obsidian might have accidentally shared it afterwards.
]]>The latest trailer for Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed is here, bringing with it new gameplay to goggle over, but no release date as of yet
]]>Another remaster of Halo: Combat Evolved looks to be in the works, and - close your eyes if you've attatched your happiness to a certain green brand in a rather unhealthy manner - could be in consideration for a release on PS5, in what would be a pretty noteworthy moment for a series that's long been considered one of Xbox's hallmark exclusives.
]]>Good news, fans of Geoff Keighley's beautiful eyes. The Summer Game Fest stream on June 7 will run at 4K and 60fps this year, because gaming, baby. Though, the announcement of that has spawned a lot of chuckling, for reasons you can probably imagine.
]]>Though it's taken a little while, Helldivers 2's modding scene looks to be starting to take off. This is all thanks to a helpful new tool developed by the folks behind a very cool Star Wars mod pack for it.
]]>It all started with a post on r/falloutnewvegas, Evan Zarsaz says.
]]>There's now a premium, extended version of this podcast that you can get as a VG247 paid subscriber - check out our Support Us page for more info. Doing so helps ensure that we can keep making the show! But don't worry if that's not for you, the main show will always be free.
]]>Have you been left a bit bummed out that, after having your appetite for the series renewed by Amazon's Fallout TV show, the most recent Fallout games on offer are Fallout 4 and Fallout 76, both of which are getting fairly long in the tooth, even if they are still getting fresh updates? Well, here's what could be a bit of good news - Todd Howard says Bethesda's looking into upping its output, if it can do so in a manner it's a fan of.
]]>Ok, so Fallout 4’s next-gen update finally drops this week, and, obviously, it’s not remotely close to being Fallout 5.
]]>Hello there. You might be aware that, following the arrival of Amazon's Fallout TV show lots of people have been, well, playing Fallout games. It's a trend that's been pushing modding sites into new territory when it comes to serving folks ways to spice up their favorite Fallout, and now Bethesda's casually revealed some of the actual player numbers involved.
]]>While Fallout 4's next-gen update hasn't even dropped yet, Amazon's Fallout TV show has already been driving droves of players back to the series. Naturally, a lot these returning wastelanders have been grabbing mods to spice up their experiences - about two Skyrim's per second worth, actually.
]]>Fallout. It's a series of games about what happens when someone pushes that big red button to drop the nukes, damning an alternate timeline version of humanity to spend an eternity doing fun little quests among the rubble. Within that, there's scope for some of the best RPG fun you can get, no matter what kind of fun it is that you're looking for in an RPG.
]]>Somebody’s lost their dad. Again.
]]>You there! Stop playing through through Fallout 4 again! Amazon's Fallout TV show is now officially confirmed to be getting a second season, as pretty much all of us had hoped following the stellar reaction to its debut series.
]]>I don't know about you, but there was only one way I could celebrate arrival of Amazon's Fallout TV show just before the series dropped. I replayed Fallout New Vegas. If you did the same, the good news is that the game's director Josh Sawyer, has just shared a fresh peek at some of his development notes for the game.
]]>Before I get started, I'm going to have to ask you to put your guns down, because here's the thing: I don't really like the Fallout games. My first experience of actually playing them was with Fallout 4, which I do admit isn't the best way to start things off for a franchise that has run as long as it has, but it is what it is. I managed to make it a few hours into Fallout 4, but to be honest I just didn't vibe with it. The game did a pretty bad job at making me care about my baby, and I just felt a bit listless heading out into the wastelands. Not to mention the fact that I really didn't care for the stiff, boring shooting that becomes all the more painful when you encounter a flying enemy, V.A.T.S. or not.
]]>Turns out that the Fallout show has gotten everyone in the mood to play the games, as pretty much every title in the series has seen their player count skyrocket.
]]>Prime Video's Fallout show has mostly gone down well with fans, though there are some that are wondering if New Vegas is still canon.
]]>Warning: Major spoilers for the first series of Amazon's Fallout TV Show lie ahead.
]]>Yup, this month just has too many cool Fallout things too keep track of. While you're probably aware of The Fallout TV Show, which we've just learned is now dropping via Amazon Prime on April 10, a number of fan projects and creations have also been arriving as part of the Fallout mania. The latest of these is the first trailer for Fallout: Breaking, a new fan film from someone you might be familiar with if you're a series veteran.
]]>I’m on my knees, and he’s pointing it at me.
]]>“I got into it because I was like, I really want to have a 10mm pistol that can shoot mini-nukes, like, stuff like that,” modder and Fallout content creator Nikki, who goes by the handle Tunnelsnakesfool, tells me.
]]>After spending years trapped in the gaming purgatory of expired licences, cult-classic espionage-thriller Alpha Protocol is back from the dead, once again available for purchase on GOG.
]]>Would you look at that? Here’s another sneaky look at the kind of thing we can expect to see when we all sit down to watch the Fallout TV show next month. This time it’s the first clip that Amazon’s put out, and there’s a bit with a jetpack that’s definitely not a tad on the goofy side.
]]>Ok, make sure you’re sitting down. One of the key people behind the Fallout TV show that’s set to drop on Amazon Prime Video next month has said that trying to just please fans of the games with it would be “a fool’s errand”.
]]>You know the Fallout TV series that’s set to drop on Amazon Prime Video next month? Well, apparently Todd Howard’s made sure it won’t step on Fallout 5’s toes by stepping in to say no whenever an idea that’s in the plans for the game came up during the show’s filming.
]]>In a devastating turn of events for those who’ve been hoping to play Pentiment at the absolute max performance settings possible, the game currently runs at 120 FPS on PlayStation, but only 60 on Xbox, thanks to a bug that should be solved soon.
]]>This week The Shiitake Show asks: what's the point of Xbox? That's not us being sarcastic or snide. It's a question that everyone in the industry, not least Microsoft themselves, needs to find an answer to. A conflicted, convoluted vision for the platform has left it struggling for an identity at the dawn of a future it is trying to forge for us all, one where the console itself no longer matters. And yet, Xbox still needs us to buy Xboxes. It's a tricky position to be in, compounded by the perception that Xbox doesn't have any compelling exclusives. Watch below.
]]>Have you been praying for a physical version of either Hi-Fi Rush or Pentiment? Maybe you're keen for both? Regardless of just how keen you are to spend some money on good ol' fashioned plastic game boxes, you won't have to wait long, as physical collectors editions of both games are going up for sale soon.
]]>Would you look at that, Dead Island 2 looks to have quietly rocked up on Xbox Game pass without an official announcement as of writing.
]]>The game, a lovingly-made narrative experience from Obsidian Entertainment, went down a treat on PC and Xbox where it first found a home thanks to publihser Xbox Game Studios. This comes following an official Xbox Podcast last week, in which head of Xbox Phil Spencer declared four Xbox-exclusive games would be headed to other consoles in due time. It looks like we finally have confirmation that Pentiment is one such game, even if it only had a short appearance in the Direct's highlight reel of upcoming titles.
]]>As confirmed at today's Nintendo Direct, Grounded is making the leap from Xbox to Nintendo Switch on April 16, 2024.
]]>Nintendo is putting on its first Nintendo Direct of the year today, February 21, and you can can watch it with us!
]]>Hello there. It’s now been announced that we’re set for a Nintendo Direct tomorrow, February 21, so naturally a lot of people have reacted to that by turning expectant gazes towards Microsoft. Well, aside from fans of Hollow Knight: Silksong, who’re just contemplating what Vaas said in Far Cry 3.
]]>Did you know that someone once made a Fallout New Vegas mod that added Limp Bizkit vocalist Fred Durst to the game as a follower that only speaks in lyrics from the band’s iconic discography? Well, they did and it’s now suddenly been unearthed again, after a seven-ish year span as lost media.
]]>Do you know why Obsidian’s latest obscure RPG is called Pentiment? The word (not a real one) comes from the term pentimento, which refers to a change an artist makes to their work as progress on the project continues. Pentimento, in turn, comes from the Italian pentirsi, which means to repent or change your mind. Given the game is about history, and what we do or do not believe in the recorded annals of our shared past, it’s a very fitting word to sit atop the whole thing.
]]>Update: In a official Xbox podcast featuring Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Sarah Bond, the trio stood by the companies' hardware, while stating that games built for Xbox will "also be able to be accessed any screen because of all the other investments we make."
]]>Tim Cain, one of the developers behind the original Fallout and a consultant on The Outer Worlds 2, has outlined how he feels about mods in a recent YouTube video, and one of the big positives he alludes to is their potential to serve as an alternative or solution to annoying back-and-forths about features and mechanics in video games.
]]>Following a bad week to be on Twitter if you’re not a fan of arguing with people about video game boxes, the big update on Xbox’s future plans that Phil Spencer mentioned now has a concrete time and date. It’s coming via a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast. Yes.
]]>“I remember a time not too long ago when Wanaming0, a modder friend of mine, needed help getting this mask to follow the facial expressions of the NPC wearing it,” recalls modder Neeher, “Well, I had no idea.”
]]>If you're already plotting at the perfect build for Avowed, you better scrap those plans, as Obsidian says there isn't "one perfect build."
]]>Following its appearance at the recent Xbox Developer Direct, Obsidian has offered some fresh insight into what players will be in for when they delve into its upcoming fantasy RPG Avowed. The answers, you’ll no doubt be glad to hear, mention a lot of the stuff that people have loved in the likes of Baldur's Gate 3.
]]>By our counting, this is episode 84 of the Best Games Ever Podcast. That's a lot, and probably isn't accurate. We hope you like listening as much as we like making the show. And with that little bit of friendly chat, it's time to announce that in a few weeks we're going to launch an extended version of the show that you'll have to pay for. "Oh, no," you say. "Not them too!" you add, as you clutch your wallet and let out a single sob. One tear slowly wipes its way down your cheek.
]]>Avowed, the upcoming fantasy RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, is set to release this fall.
]]>We might not know much about The Outer Worlds 2 yet, but one little nugget that’s just emerged is that its devs are getting some helpful guidance from Fallout co-creator Tim Cain.
]]>Joseph Wilson, better known to many as Elder Scrolls and Fallout YouTuber Mitten Squad, has died aged just 27, and fellow members of the Bethesda community are paying tribute to him.
]]>Matthew Perry holds a special place in the hearts of many Fallout fans thanks to his portrayal of New Vegas’ Benny, and there’s now a mod that adds a tasteful memorial to him to the Mojave.
]]>One of the many interesting Fallout modding projects currently in the works is Nuevo México, with the team behind it having just put out a cool new teaser.
]]>“Hmm. Well, I’ve seen worse scenarios.”
]]>If you’ve ever wondered which side set off the nuke that turned the Fallout universe’s conflict between the US and China from a cold war into a very, very hot one, Tim Cain, co-creator of the original RPG, has provided an answer.
]]>Wizards of the Coast has given us our first proper look at its Fallout-themed Magic: The Gathering set, and there sure are some good looking cards to be found.
]]>It’s the $7.5bn dollar question: is Starfield good enough to make people buy an Xbox? It’s a platform that’s been frustratingly lacking in killer apps, but we’re starting to see the tide turn on that front, and Bethesda’s latest opus is a key title in Xbox’s line-up going forward. In the video below James and I discuss whether it’s good enough to warrant owning a Series S or Series X console:
]]>With the imminent release of Starfield, people the world over are about to fill their boots once again with Bethesda’s signature style of go anywhere, do anything game. Unless they don’t have an Xbox or a decent PC, that is. But Bethesda aren’t the only studio who have had a crack at that particular style of vast open-world RPG: indeed, they’ve inspired plenty of copycats and homages over the years, and are often namechecked by other developers when talking about open world game design.
]]>The best story-based games are ageless. While gameplay can become clunky with the passing of time, an enthralling narrative is just as gripping whether it came out in 2004 or 2024.
]]>We received our first glimpse of the new Obsidian RPG - Avowed - at the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this month in the form of a two-minute trailer. The first-person fantasy game looks pretty good, but some fans already have tempered their expectations.
]]>Welcome to The Best Games Ever Show episode 56: the best globetrotting travel game.
]]>We've just got our first proper look at Avowed, the upcoming first personal fantasy RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, courtesy of a lush new gameplay trailer shown off at today's Xbox Showcase.
]]>Your weekly freebie has arrived on the Epic Games Store, and it's Fallout: New Vegas, considered by many as one of the best Fallout games ever made.
]]>Three years into a console generation that launched at the height of a crippling pandemic, a number of astonishing and unprecedented things are happening. Firstly Sony, the platform holder with the most acute supply issues during COVID-19 and the related chip shortage, is winning. This is not up for debate. It's selling a lot more machines and, according to the best metrics we have, it's releasing better games. It certainly has the biggest exclusives.
]]>We've learned more details about the canned SEGA Aliens RPG courtesy of Josh Sawyer, studio design director at Obsidian who apparently was working on the project between 2006 - 2009.
]]>Following the publishing of this article, Private Division did release a performance update as promised and are currently working to optimise the game further. We can report that the situation on PS5 at least is better, certainly a lot more playable, and the game engages VRR now which helps smooth things out if you have a capable screen. But it’s still noticeably choppy out in the open world, to the point where we would still recommend sticking with the original version, which had a 60fps update on consoles some time ago and still looks great.
]]>A new edition of The Outer Worlds is coming out next week, bringing updated visuals, a higher level cap, and more.
]]>There is a massive selection of brilliant games available on PlayStation Plus, for both those with the trusty PlayStation 4 or a brand new PlayStation 5.
]]>I had the pleasure of reviewing Pentiment for the site earlier this year and if you read that, it probably won’t be any surprise to you that it’s my GOTY. I’ve rarely been more enamoured with a game, and at first glance, it seemed so unlikely to click: its art style, painstakingly modelled on the manuscripts and frescos of the 16th century and thus being full of colour and figures drawn with thick black outlines, strikes modern eyes as distinctly unserious after a century of conditioning by saturday morning cartoons and Monty Python interludes. You’d be forgiven for playing the entire game constantly expecting to be interrupted by a giant foot.
]]>There's no greater fantasy in all of gaming than the best open-world games. Leading your character on an intrepid adventure that's wholly your own, exploring where you want to explore and making a memorable journey of the things you find is one of the most satisfying experiences you can have.
]]>November is a rather miserable month, if you ask me. For a start, it’s chucking it down right now, and my flat is freezing. There are no longer any Halloween vibes lingering around, and it’s a tad too far from Christmas to feel festive yet. That said, Xbox Game Pass is certainly coming in clutch this month and keeping plenty of us busy.
]]>^Stay tuned for our video essay with some lovely 4K footage.
]]>The Cadfael game is finally upon us. It raised a sea of eyebrows upon its unveiling during this year’s joint Microsoft/Bethesda not-E3 presentation in June, despite being a sort of weird, cartoonish (emphasis on ‘ish’) ‘medieval whodunnit’. Sandwiched between the likes of RedFall and Starfield, you wouldn’t expect it to cause much excitement. And yet, for many of us watching, it struck a lutey chord as one of the most promising looking titles on the entire Xbox slate, and a perfect example of Game Pass’ appeal: something that looks interesting, but is potentially too weird and experimental a proposition to risk real money for.
]]>We’ve made it past the spooky months and into November, which means we’ve just gotten a look at the new line-up of games in the November Game Pass. Stars of the show include Vampire Survivors, Football Manager 2023, and Return to Monkey Island, although the whole spread looks pretty tasty.
]]>Fallout: New Vegas fans would love an Obsidian developed game, and a new interview with the studio's CEO shows that he would love to do another one too.
]]>The world of Grounded is a dangerous and peculiar place, full of elephantine bugs, terrifying spiders and puzzling scientific relics buzzing with untapped potential.
]]>