Fallout wasn’t able to hop from the number two to three that easily (but at least this franchise did it).
Fallout started out as an isometric RPG, and Black Isle Studios, the original developer team behind the franchise, has started work on the third numbered installment. Obsidian’s CEO, Fergus Urquhart has talked about the past to IGN.
Black Isle worked on two iterations. The first one is the one that a few reader probably know – the Van Buren project would have been similar to Fallout 1 and 2, but it got canceled. However, there’s another version!
„Now 3D was the cool stuff. So we were going to move from being a 2D engine and be a 3D engine, and so we started working with this 3D technology called NDL,” Urquhart said. Unfortunately, Interplay ran into financial troubles, and the NDL project had to be converted into Icewind Dale. What happened to NDL? It was sold to Gamebryo, and it eventually became part of Fallout 3, now made by Bethesda.
How could have the history of Fallout changed if Black Isle was capable to develop Fallout 3 before the actual game happened, utilizing the NDL? We will never know.
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