Bethesda Game Studios has confirmed the development of remasters for "Fallout 3" and "Fallout: New Vegas." At the same time, the publisher announced sales figures for "Fallout 4" and the status of "Fallout 5."
Details of the announcements
Bethesda uses a current blog post for a comprehensive overview of the franchise. Released in 2015, "Fallout 4" has now sold 35 million units. "Fallout 5" is currently in pre-production. The in-house Creation Engine 3 is planned as the technical foundation for the upcoming major projects "Fallout 5" and "The Elder Scrolls 6".
The studio statement does not yet specify concrete release dates or platform availability for the remasters of "Fallout 3" and "Fallout: New Vegas." No images have been released. At the same time, it was confirmed that Obsidian Entertainment is working on a new installment in the Fallout universe.
Obsidian was also responsible for the original New Vegas. Furthermore, the Elder Scrolls Online team will be more closely involved in the development of "The Elder Scrolls 6." This will slow down the flow of new content for the MMO.
The context of the content gap
The announcement follows a clear industry pattern. It will be years before a true "Fallout 5" is released. Pre-production has barely begun. Remasters are the classic tool for keeping the franchise present on modern systems and monetizing the player base's wait. The sales figures for "Fallout 4" demonstrate the IP's enormous market potential. Bringing Obsidian back on board is the logical response to years of fan demands. It's damage control in advance.
The shift of resources from "The Elder Scrolls Online" to "The Elder Scrolls 6," however, reveals the company's problems. Single-player role-playing games of this scale consume development time. Too much development time. MMO players pay the price through longer periods without updates.
The confirmation of the remasters is pure lip service without any concrete details. Anyone wanting to play "Fallout 3" and "Fallout: New Vegas" on current consoles without modding and at a stable frame rate now has a glimmer of hope. Nothing more.
Another old game with a new price…
Attention, TRIGGER WARNING:
I'm very interested in a New Vegas remaster! I also loved Fallout 3 back in the day; it was the first game in the series that I played, I think it was on the Xbox 360 👀
Overall, this is great news regarding the development of sequels to established franchises. I hope Xbox gets back on track and doesn't get bogged down in self-inflicted "nostalgia" again at the start of the next generation. I'm also positive about the implementation of an enhanced Creation Engine; Starfield, among others, impressively demonstrated how great the engine is with all its features—it plays superbly and looks simply fantastic.
When I think about which genres Bethesda covers that I personally prefer for my RPG taste (traditional Western RPGs, post-apocalyptic scenarios, and sci-fi), I'm constantly reminded of how much I appreciate the developer and how much I hope they work their way out of their current predicament. If future titles are exclusive to the next system, which would only be right and sensible, I see myself sticking with the Xbox again in the next generation, if only for these titles.
I completely agree that Fallout 3 and New Vegas were great games. In my opinion, New Vegas was even significantly better than Fallout 3. However, I don't agree at all that sticking with the Creation Engine is a positive thing and that Starfield looks fantastic. To me, Starfield looks below average, almost dated, and I think there were much more powerful engines available. The visuals of Starfield are, in my opinion, just about acceptable, and the facial animations in particular look like something from the early 2000s. No, you can't really call it fantastic.
Bethesda games have always suffered from their ancient engine, and if I had any real hope after Microsoft acquired Bethesda, it was that they would finally switch to a modern engine and we could experience Bethesda games with truly great graphics. Unfortunately, that hope has not been fulfilled.
Ah yes, the typical Bethesda facial animations. They range from almost unbearable to just about tolerable, but for me they still fall within the realm of charming Bethesda quirks. Otherwise, though this is entirely subjective, I think, purely from a stylistic point of view, that it looks very good, especially the color scheme on planets and the details of airlocks, ships, and areas in the vacuum, with some crisp textures. However, I'm a console player and can't compare it to the PC version, where the whole thing brings a completely different graphical benchmark to the table.
Even the loading times typical of the engine don't bother me; I almost never travel quickly anyway, but I can understand that this is sometimes a key criterion. I don't get upset about it and, from my perspective, I also see the fun things the engine allows. Besides that, there's the community's sometimes excellent mod support for the familiar engine.
Overall, I was very surprised by what could still be achieved by reworking the ancient engine.
Bethesda games certainly still have their charm, but from a technical standpoint, they're unfortunately quite outdated. If you compare the "current" Bethesda titles on PS5 Pro with games like Horizon Forbidden West, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Yotei, AC Shadows, AC Black Flag Resynced, and similar titles, they look positively ancient.
It starts with the basics. Namely, a sensible/modern implementation of HDR and ray tracing.
It certainly doesn't always have to be UE5. No, definitely not. There are several in-house engines from various studios that deliver visually fantastic results.
The Creation Engine has been outdated for a very long time, and unfortunately, the next update/new version won't change that. Personally, I think it's a real missed opportunity to continue relying on CE, and I find it very disappointing that we won't get to experience the next Fallout and Elder Scrolls games with the visuals they truly deserve.
Bethesda games certainly still have their charm, but from a technical standpoint, they're unfortunately quite outdated. If you compare the "current" Bethesda games on the PS5 Pro, for example, with today's games featuring excellent graphics, they look positively ancient.
It starts with the basics. Namely, a sensible/modern implementation of HDR and ray tracing.
It certainly doesn't always have to be UE5. No, definitely not. There are several in-house engines from various studios that deliver visually fantastic results.
The Creation Engine has been outdated for a very long time, and unfortunately, the next update/new version won't change that. Personally, I think it's a real missed opportunity to continue relying on CE, and I find it very disappointing that we won't get to experience the next Fallout and Elder Scrolls games with the visuals they truly deserve.