Fallout 3 Van Buren
Our second game 'that never made it'
Hush up fanboys and those sad enough to try and pick a fight with static print, I’m gonna say it, they cancelled_ Fallout 3_. Not the one you or I played/saw/read about/licked etc. No, this game was in development by Black Isle Studios, the inventors of more cancelled games than ones to actually make it to the shelves.
Van Buren was to be set back west as opposed to the DC environment Bethesda chose for Fallout 3 (which clearly made more sense as this where New Vegas went back to anyway). Players take the role of a prisoner who could decide whether they had been wrongfully convicted or were actually a full-blown criminal, with bonus skills pertaining to their particular misdeed.
The game appeared to be following a far truer path to the original two games of the franchise with the NCR ever present, and the idea for Caesar’s Legion, one of the key New Vegas factions, actually started here with Van Buren.
OK, I guess this is kind of a whine that I wish Fallout 3 had just been a bit better and I think this was the way to do it, but the game was so close to completion it’s mental they didn’t just see it off. The Fallout Wiki estimates it at about 80% finished, with most of the engine, dialogue and models already polished and perfect.
This is, however, Black Isle Studios. Maybe it just didn’t meet the standard they set themselves for making awesome games, but I really can’t believe that would have been the case. Maybe I should just cut my losses and be thankful for the VATS system that most likely would have never come in without Bethesda, but even that’s just a solution to a design Black Isle were trying to implement. Either way, it’s definitely a game to cry yourself to sleep over never getting to play.
