AVault Podcast #75 (direct link) interviews Chris Avellone, mostly on Alpha Protocol, but they chat a bit of New Vegas as well. At about 35:10 in.<blockquote>Avault #1: ...even from the screenshots I saw [New Vegas] looks really awesome, it looks like you guys are doing a lot of old skool Fallout ideas.
MCA: You know I never thought we'd have a chance to revisit the franchise and when the opportunity came up and I can't tell you how many people here were excited .
Avault #1: I know you worked on Fallout 2, what aspect of Fallout 2 did you work on?
MCA: I did the city of New Reno, I worked on Vault City, a lot of special encounters and I did a few of the endings of the game.
Avault #1: Did you do more storytelling or is it art directing, on the creative end
MCA: I guess what the term nowadays is, narrative designer, they do the quests, layout, reputation, mechanics, the actual conversation with various characters .
Avault #1: OK, that's cool. I actually spent a lot of time with the first Fallout and by the time Fallout 2 fell into my lap I just wasn't able to play it at the time because I had a terrible computer...
MCA: Awww.
Avault #1: It wasn't a very demanding game just you know my parents old gaming rig didn't play it, I dunno.
MCA: When I first played Fallout, it totally just changed my idea of what rpgs could be, I was totally blown away.
Avault #1: Storytelling, and the way you felt you can power yourself up and up yourself was great.
MCA: All the RPG mechanics, and like every choice you made in that game and just how you built your character, like you could see exactly how it played out in almost every area you went to.
Avault #1: Oh yeah
MCA: Just the fact that your intelligence stat could affect your dialogue option, I thought that was brilliant. I love Tim Cain, I'll marry him.
Avault #1: I'm glad they got someone passionate working on New Vegas.
(...)
Avault #1: Bethesda is obviously publishing New Vegas, are there any guys from the Fallout 3 team, are they kinda working with you at all or has Bethesda just kind of passed it off to you, you know, you guys are just kinda doing your thing and you're just kinda checkin in every once and a while?
MCA: To be honest they review continuity at various points, and sort of check our documentation, but to be honest they've been pretty hands-off with a lot of stuff, and our producer-liasion, who works with Bethesda, he's a pretty sharp guy. So generally it has been pretty smooth
Avault #1: That's cool man. You seem to be someone who is very passionate about fallout, that's great, they're kinda letting you take it into the direction where you really think that it should go. That's great.
Avault #2: I can't wait to play that game (laughing)
Avault #1: I don't wanna get into the specifics of the game, but basically, what I've read about it is, Vegas is up and running right? I mean Vegas is there, right? It's not like, in fallout 3 you're walking around the wasteland and everything is just desolate but somehow Vegas is running.
Avault #2: That's what I saw, without Chris having to answer, from what I've read on game informer is yes, it's already published that yes, it's much brighter and much less run down and much less...
Avault #1: awesome
Avault #2: ...war torn looking than fallout 3
MCA: There are many secrets in the world of New Vegas...
Avault #1: I can't wait to help people in that game and then as they run away just shoot them in the back just over and over again. (laughing) Pwned.
Avault #2: extra limbs and other things, awesome (laughing)
MCA: Other things? What might be those other things?
Avault #1: (laughing) I dunno, Chris. You can just run with that one.</blockquote>
MCA: You know I never thought we'd have a chance to revisit the franchise and when the opportunity came up and I can't tell you how many people here were excited .
Avault #1: I know you worked on Fallout 2, what aspect of Fallout 2 did you work on?
MCA: I did the city of New Reno, I worked on Vault City, a lot of special encounters and I did a few of the endings of the game.
Avault #1: Did you do more storytelling or is it art directing, on the creative end
MCA: I guess what the term nowadays is, narrative designer, they do the quests, layout, reputation, mechanics, the actual conversation with various characters .
Avault #1: OK, that's cool. I actually spent a lot of time with the first Fallout and by the time Fallout 2 fell into my lap I just wasn't able to play it at the time because I had a terrible computer...
MCA: Awww.
Avault #1: It wasn't a very demanding game just you know my parents old gaming rig didn't play it, I dunno.
MCA: When I first played Fallout, it totally just changed my idea of what rpgs could be, I was totally blown away.
Avault #1: Storytelling, and the way you felt you can power yourself up and up yourself was great.
MCA: All the RPG mechanics, and like every choice you made in that game and just how you built your character, like you could see exactly how it played out in almost every area you went to.
Avault #1: Oh yeah
MCA: Just the fact that your intelligence stat could affect your dialogue option, I thought that was brilliant. I love Tim Cain, I'll marry him.
Avault #1: I'm glad they got someone passionate working on New Vegas.
(...)
Avault #1: Bethesda is obviously publishing New Vegas, are there any guys from the Fallout 3 team, are they kinda working with you at all or has Bethesda just kind of passed it off to you, you know, you guys are just kinda doing your thing and you're just kinda checkin in every once and a while?
MCA: To be honest they review continuity at various points, and sort of check our documentation, but to be honest they've been pretty hands-off with a lot of stuff, and our producer-liasion, who works with Bethesda, he's a pretty sharp guy. So generally it has been pretty smooth
Avault #1: That's cool man. You seem to be someone who is very passionate about fallout, that's great, they're kinda letting you take it into the direction where you really think that it should go. That's great.
Avault #2: I can't wait to play that game (laughing)
Avault #1: I don't wanna get into the specifics of the game, but basically, what I've read about it is, Vegas is up and running right? I mean Vegas is there, right? It's not like, in fallout 3 you're walking around the wasteland and everything is just desolate but somehow Vegas is running.
Avault #2: That's what I saw, without Chris having to answer, from what I've read on game informer is yes, it's already published that yes, it's much brighter and much less run down and much less...
Avault #1: awesome
Avault #2: ...war torn looking than fallout 3
MCA: There are many secrets in the world of New Vegas...
Avault #1: I can't wait to help people in that game and then as they run away just shoot them in the back just over and over again. (laughing) Pwned.
Avault #2: extra limbs and other things, awesome (laughing)
MCA: Other things? What might be those other things?
Avault #1: (laughing) I dunno, Chris. You can just run with that one.</blockquote>
