An Open Letter to Obsidian Entertainment

The Escapist’s Russ Pitts editorializes on Obsidian Entertainment and their long history with bugs, coming to a rather harsh conclusion.

I know this all comes as a shock. I wish I could put it more gently, but the fact is you’ve hurt me. I forgave you for the flaws in Knights of the Old Republic II. For the half-ending and the way it didn’t quite capture the spirit of the original. I forgave you for Neverwinter Nights 2. It wasn’t perfect, but it was – to be fair – as good as the original, or better. You had a lot of room to mess things up there, and that you took all of it and more wasn’t your fault. Not really.

I also forgave you for Alpha Protocol. The fact is, you and I both knew that was beyond you. It would have been a nice surprise if it had ended well for you, but it didn’t and we both know why: You weren’t ready. You overreached. I hope you can see that.

You know I forgave you for Fallout: New Vegas, too. Sure, it was you up to your old tricks, tripping once for every two steps, but I thought that maybe if you could spend some time in your old neighborhood you would realize how much things have changed – and how much you haven’t. I had hoped that seeing what your friends had done with the place might inspire you to be better. Instead, it seems like it only made you bitter. Made you focus on trying it your own way again, one more time, just to prove you were right when all along, the road to success was right at your feet just waiting for you to take the first step.

The one thing I can’t forgive is this ridiculous bullshit with the New Vegas patches DLC. I was looking forward to “Honest Hearts,” I really was. The Burned Man was one of your greatest inventions. I had hoped to hear his story, to revel in your brilliance one more time. But then you had to ruin it like you always do. A patch that broke the game it was supposed to be patching? And then, after you tried to fix what was broken, you broke something again. I fell for this already, with ED-E. How interesting he was. What a story! Except I never got to hear the ending because it was riddled with all of your usual bullshit. Now I can’t even begin the new tale because of the problems with the old.