New Vegas, Fable 3

Gamers don't know how good it was 15 years ago. October 2010 was a year of truly huge video game releases, many of which are still beloved today.

We have our first foray into the Wild West zombie apocalypse. We've spent dozens of hours with the beloved sequel to Fallout 3, developed by Obsidian Entertainment. And who could forget returning to the comfortable, decadent streets of Albion's Bowerstone for the third time? These are just a few of the highlights from that time, so let's take a look back at what made it so special through this article.

This month also saw the console release of 2009's The Sims 3. I've always had a soft spot for inferior versions of classic simulations.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare – October 26, 2010

Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare screenshot shows your uncle transformed into a zombie.

Red Dead Redemption was released earlier that same year and quickly established itself as one of the best single-player games of all time, following Rockstar's monumental Grand Theft Auto series. Following John Marston in Wild West circa 1911, it's a serious game based on realism with only hints of the supernatural. It was strange that Rockstar would release a supernatural expansion pack identical to Halloween.

Undead Nightmare is a standalone spin-off that tells another story of John Marston, when a strange plague takes over the land, turning his family and everyone in the country into zombies. In and of itself, it's not that serious, and soon you'll be riding around on the four horses of the Apocalypse, taking down hordes of undead rising from graveyards and tracking down Sasquatch. Why not?

Despite being so separate from the base game, people quickly fell in love with Undead Nightmare, and the years since Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2018 have been filled with fans anticipating the release of Undead Nightmare 2. However, in typical Rockstar Games fashion, the DLC has since been taken off the table.

Well, we got Red Dead Online's Strange Tales of the West earlier this year, but it seemed like they had abandoned RDO for years, so that wasn't a big deal. For now, and for years to come, Undead Nightmare remains the culmination of Rockstar's exploratory ideas.

Fallout: New Vegas – October 19, 2010

The Courier was standing in front of the walls of New Vegas in Fallout New Vegas.

Speaking of exploring ideas, Fallout: New Vegas was the first and only time Bethesda outsourced one of its mainline series. Fallout 3 was released just two years ago.

Despite the overwhelming popularity of Fallout 3 and the growing reputation of Bethesda Game Studios, which was then working on The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, it was Obsidian Entertainment that produced Fallout: New Vegas.

The game achieved similar popularity and to this day remains many people's favorite game in the series, surpassing Fallout 3 and 4. Fifteen years later, fans are continuing that praise as they await Season 2 of Amazon's Fallout, which will take us back to New Vegas for the first time since 2010.

Many fans were hoping for a direct sequel to Fallout: New Vegas and expressed their hopes that Obsidian Entertainment would be at the helm once again. However, Obsidian went on to create titles such as Pillars of Eternity, Grounded, and The Outer Worlds. All of these have received sequels in the years since, with The Outer Worlds 2 coming soon.

Fable 3 – October 26, 2010

In Fable 3, the protagonist reaches for the crown with a gun and sword on his back.

Fable has become an iconic series on Xbox, and while most fans can't decide which of the series is their favorite (read: two are the best), Fable 3 takes us on the most epic adventure in Albion as we work to reclaim the kingdom and stop the spread of darkness before we get married and kick chickens. I took him away. As you know, this is usual.

Fable has always prided itself on being satirical and absurd in its comedy, and while it has endeared itself to many fans, Fable 3 remains the latest game in the series to date. Lionhead Studios was working on a sequel, Fable Legends, but the studio closed and the game was canceled in 2016.

However, following rumors in 2018, Xbox announced that a new game called Fable is in development for 2020. This work was done by Playground Games, the studio behind the Forza Horizon series, using the same engine and technology as the racing series. There have been a few trailers since then, but fans are still eagerly awaiting the definitive sequel to 2010's Fable 3, which was scheduled for 2025 but now sits in 2026 with a big question mark.

Oh, to come back in 2010 and get all these great things at once.