Not long after changing their project’s name from Fallout: Revelation Blues to Fallout: The New West, the developers behind a New Vegas mod remaking a cancelled Fallout game have settled on a release date for their second demo. The second publicly playable taste of this attempt to resurrect Van Buren – the version of Fallout 3 which was in development at Black Isle Studios before being cancelled in 2003 – is slated to arrive late next week.
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This second demo will arrive on March 5th and, unlike the Burham Springs demo the New West team put out last year, it sets up an alternate New Vegas start which’ll serve as the intro the the full mod. Interestingly, the modders look to have pulled that Burham Springs demo offline ahead of its follow-up releasing, with its Nexus Mods page noting that it’s “currently not supported by the author(s) and/or has issue(s) they are unable to fix yet”.
As for the upcoming demo, it’ll drop you into Tibbets prison and likely task you with negotiating your release. I’m sure the robots and AI brains in change will conduct fair parole hearings.
“This experience offers players a new point of entry into the Mojave, beginning as a Prisoner under the observation of our watchful staff,” developer Caveman6667 wrote in the Discord announcement of the demo date. “Within these walls messages are screened, rivalries simmer and order is absolute. Each block is designed with purpose and every decision shapes your record. Tibbets is one vignette within a much larger world currently in development. This demo represents the opening gate. Your participation, feedback, and continued vigilance assist in its refinement.”
As noted on their website, the modders plans once this Tibbets demo is out are to eventually release The New West’s entire first act as a vertical slice. Once complete, the mod’ll tell “the same broad story envisioned by Fallout: Van Buren, but restructured and expanded to form a cohesive, playable experience”. Drawing on themes and story beats from design documents for the cancelled game which have since gone public, The New West’s tale will take place in an “alternate continuity that predates and reinterprets the events of Fallout: New Vegas”. Its creators are also hoping to mesh together the more modern experience of playing New Vegas with some classic Fallout-esque mechanics outlined in the docs.
If it achieves its goals, the project sounds like it’ll form a nicely funky bridge between the original two Fallouts and spiritual successor New Vegas. Now, to look up ways to convince a Protectron guard to help me hop a very tall and possibly electrified fence in preparation for March 5th.
