Fallout: New Vegas has a fond place in the hearts of post-apocalyptic gaming fans worldwide. It was released way back in 2010, but remains a firm staple of the scene, and if the rumors are true, it’s being remastered soon enough.
Chris Avellone was one of the most prolific writers on Fallout: New Vegas, and the game’s subsequent DLCs, but he also played a pivotal part in the creation of the canceled Fallout: Van Buren, which would have become Fallout 3. That’s the beating heart of Fallout: The New West, a new game-sized mod from The United West Team.
In our most recent episode of Access Granted, we sat down with Chris Avellone, and as you can imagine, the talk turned to Fallout: The New West…
Chris Avellone Loves Fallout: The New West’s Concept
During the newest episode of Insider Gaming’s Access Granted (available March 18), Chris Avellone walked through three decades of gaming history, starting with his origins in the industry. He talked through his most ambitious projects, his experiences as a gamer, and what he thinks about the rise of AI in gaming.
He also took a positive deep dive into Fallout: The New West, a lauded, fan-made mod that converts Fallout: New Vegas into something otherworldly. It’s a bid to bring back to life Fallout: Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 that Interplay would have made before the studio ran into financial woes.
It eventually led to Fallout being acquired by Bethesda Game Studios, and the Fallout 3 that we all know emerged in 2008. That, too, is getting a remaster, and we’re expecting the reveal to land any day now.
When we asked Avellone if he was familiar with Fallout: The New West, he expressed nothing but positive sentiments about the project:
… they’re trying to take all the design documents and materials and actually make the game as it was intended to be.
I’ve got to tell you, that is the most flattering thing in the world to know that fans were so excited that they’re willing to flesh it out on their own.
Not everything was lost when Van Buren was canned, though. Avellone explained that 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas, which he was also involved in from a writing and designing perspective, bore many signs of Van Buren:
I mean, there was a lot of Van Buren stuff that appeared in New Vegas.
It did eventually get out into the Fallout universe, but it was originally intended for Van Buren. But to see fans being willing to spend their free time and effort to bring that out of the dust and make it their own, I think that this is awesome.
In his words, he supports the modding community, and he just wishes more developers included mod tools in their games to empower these fans to ‘keep a franchise going.’
You can check out the full interview with Chris Avellone from tomorrow, March 18, exclusively in the Insider Gaming app.
Are you eager to explore what might have been in Fallout: The New West? Let us know if you’re looking forward to the mod on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that LEGO Batman is dropping a week earlier than planned
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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