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REVEALED: Josh sawyer | Vintage Vibes

"You are wrong" and Fallout New Vegas was ripped apart at launch, Obsidian's Josh Sawyer reminds RPG fans, comparing it to Cyberpunk 2077: "Its reputation at launch was not fantastic"

"There was another game that sold very well at launch that did not review amazingly"

GamesRadar

"When Bethesda bought the Fallout license," RPG legend Josh Sawyer figured his "dream" of making a Fallout game was dead – until New Vegas came along

"I figured I would never have a chance to work on the series again"

GamesRadar

'It took about 5 years' for people to start liking Fallout: New Vegas, says Josh Sawyer, and even longer for Obsidian to see that 'players actually liked the design choices we had made'

Hindsight has about a 20% chance of scoring a headshot in VATS.

PC Gamer

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"It took about 5 years" for Fallout: New Vegas to win over fans, former lead says, and "a few years more" for the devs to believe they "actually liked the design choices we had made"

The cult RPG "was not particularly well-received when it launched"

GamesRadar

Benevolent Fallout New Vegas director says he would let players set “difficulty options however they like” if “it cost nothing⁠, which it does not”

"When it comes to exposing data tables and letting players mod that stuff, just let 'em do whatever the heck they want"

GamesRadar

Instead of difficulty, Obsidian designer Josh Sawyer thinks in terms of 3 RPG player archetypes: 'What are they trying to get out of this game?'

I'm usually looking for a bow that shoots chain lightning or something.

PC Gamer

A Baldur's Gate 3-style early access period wouldn't have done much for Deadfire, the secret best CRPG of the last decade, per its director Josh Sawyer

It must be true, I wrote it in the headline.

PC Gamer

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Baldur's Gate 3's early access approach wouldn't have helped Pillars of Eternity 2's "big miss" at launch, says RPG vet Josh Sawyer – and even Larian faced Act 3 woes

"There were a lot of things to tune and that just didn't get the attention" in Obsidian's RPG

GamesRadar

Fallout: New Vegas lead writer 'loved writing' Yes Man, but thinks his questline may have been a mistake: 'It lets you get through the game without getting your hands dirty'

The sycophantic, (mostly) immortal robot made certain design constraints easier to work around, but it allows for a "rebellious, individualistic" player to bypass some tough choices.

PC Gamer

Obsidian's Josh Sawyer leads the charge of RPG fans playfully roasting Stranger Things for its D&D rule flubs: 'The oldheads are going to catch all these things'

Clerics casting Dimension Door? Not at any table in 1987.

PC Gamer

Fallout: New Vegas lead writer worries Caesar's argument for authoritarianism 'was done a little too well,' but still believes 'you can't just make your tyrants cardboard villains'

Fascism's foothold in the wasteland mirrors the way it spreads in the real world.

PC Gamer

As Larian disgusts and excites with Divinity trailer, Obsidian's Josh Sawyer says "it is wild what people will get upset about in games" and then cheer "Wicker Man x Event Horizon"

The Divinity reveal is far more graphic than Baldur's Gate 3's gruesome trailers

GamesRadar

Xbox studio Obsidian Entertainment doesn't use generative AI for its games like The Outer Worlds 2 — "We haven't been using it at all."

While many game publishers are leaning more and more on generative AI, Xbox studio Obsidian Entertainment is not using it at all.

Windows Central

Fallout: New Vegas director and RPG maestro Josh Sawyer says it doesn't matter how good a game's writing is if the pacing is bad: "Players are going to get tired of it"

Obsidian writers have more sway than most studios, though

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PC Gamer

Pillars of Eternity's 10-year anniversary turn-based mode will sidestep the biggest issues I was worried it would have, and you can try it this week

Pillars 1's turn-based mode enters public beta testing on November 5

PC Gamer

RPG vet Josh Sawyer keeps things like Fallout and D&D grounded in history because 'Once things get too magical… it's impossible to bring it back down to Earth'

Which is also why Deadfire is the best CRPG of at least the last decade, just saying.

GamesRadar

RPG legend Josh Sawyer says the reason classics like Baldur's Gate disappeared in the '00s was "because retailers told us no one wanted to buy them"

"We asked if we could see the research and they basically told us to trust them"

PC Gamer

Obsidian director Josh Sawyer says he's 'Never really felt secure in a job' in 26 years, and it's worse than ever now

"That’s actually pretty messed up."

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PC Gamer

RPG devs stopped making games like Baldur's Gate 'because retailers told us no one wanted to buy them', says New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity director Josh Sawyer

The Infinity Engine wasn't quite so infinite, in the end.

PC Gamer

It's literally impossible to pick the 'real' murderer in Pentiment because Obsidian never considered having one: 'You're not a detective, you're a f***ing artist'

But it was obviously Ferenc.

PC Gamer

10 years ago, Obsidian made the only D&D-style Monk I've ever really loved⁠—all it took was grounding him in harsh asceticism, mortification of the flesh, Aztec history, and stoner comedies

Monks are often really lame in RPGs, but Zahua is not.

Windows Central

"I want to support the sweaty boys!" — Fallout: New Vegas director says it's a "mistake" to trade RPG crunch for "super accessible" gameplay, and he's right

Obsidian Entertainment's Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer says it would be a "mistake" to get rid of RPG depth and "crunch" in pursuit of approachability.

PC Gamer

Obsidian director Josh Sawyer says it's a 'mistake' for RPGs to sacrifice crunchy 'sweaty boy' systems in favour of a 'one size fits all' game, since easier difficulties aren't too hard to make

"With not a whole lot of effort, but just good planning, we can support a wide spectrum of players."

PC Gamer

Despite always preferring turn-based combat in RPGs, Pillars of Eternity designer Josh Sawyer thinks a lack of experience and opportunity meant the studio couldn't pull off a similar swing to Larian taking Baldur's Gate turn-based

"I guess we did South Park, but other than that, we hadn't done turn-based ever, really."

PC Gamer

New Vegas lead Josh Sawyer thinks turn-based combat fell off in the 2000s due to a lack of 'tactical variation': Even Fallout 1 would 'get to the point where you're always doing nut shots and eye shots'

Real time with pause won the 2000s, but turn-based won the war.

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