Wiki:

The character would start the game as a prisoner; whether the character was wrongfully imprisoned or guilty was to be determined at character creation. The game would have started in a strange prison as it was attacked by an unnamed force. An explosion would knock the character unconscious, and the cell door would be open when he awakened. The player would then escape into the wasteland while being pursued by strange assailants. After leaving, the character would have the power to shape the destiny of the wasteland. His interactions with organizations such as the Brotherhood of Steel could bolster or destroy the organizations, influencing people associated with them, much as in the previous two Fallout games.

One of the more significant elements of the plot and backstory of Van Buren was to be an ongoing war between the Brotherhood of Steel and the New California Republic. The game's ultimate plotline was planned so that the events in the beginning of the game would have been part of a scheme by a rogue New California Republic scientist, Dr. Victor Presper, to seize control of a U.S. orbital nuclear weapons platform and use it to initiate a second nuclear holocaust, cleansing the world of all but his chosen few. In the end, the player would not be able to stop all of the missiles from launching, and his or her decisions on where the missiles would strike would ultimately have decided the future of the world.
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I would love to see Bethesda or whoever owns this stuff to release all the details etc related to this project. What would then be great is for a modder or someone else to develop this in to Bethesda's Fallout 3.

This original Fallout 3 game was sure to be far better than the current game we have and it is a shame Bethesda did not take this game further, it was afterall 80% completed.

wait for the GECK to be released
then write a mod to do this

Enjoy

Hahahahahahaha.

I have nothing to really add...I just wanted to get in on this thread before it got locked.

Ok, well, I mean I'd like to see the game, but I don't see it happening.

*Yawn*

Aren't you a bit late for this one? The game's already out. Oh, you mean for Fallout 4. Doubt that's going to happen(using Van Buren as the plot) for obvious reasons.

Good idea for a DLC.

I am always hoping that Activision will get its act toguether. Maybe their project MMO will be good, and make Bethesda's Fallout 3 look like a bad joke. But in the end they have the rights and they can abuse fallout in any sadistic way they find appropriate.

I wouldn't count on it. As Pete http://games.kikizo.com/news/200804/016_p1.asp, we're not going to pick up the work of another team started and go forward with it.

i would love to see Van Buren be finished and released.

I'm not sure if you mean you want someone to finish Van Buren, or if you want Bethesda to use that game as the plot for Fallout 4?

I'd still really love to play Van Buren, of course, but I don't know how likely it is that we'll ever actually see that happen.

I don't think Bethesda's going to be the ones to do it, either way. They're going their own direction with the franchise, and I don't think they see that particular game as a part of it.

That is a real pity.

There is a playable demo[Not very much at all mind] of Van Buren Fallout 3. Hopefully modders can get some good ideas from this to include in Bethesda's Fallout 3.

Van Buren would be nice, but we already have the INSTITUTE to consider for F4. After all they appear even more advanced than the Enclave

I like the idea of having to nuke somewhere in the original plans. Washington DC would be top of the list!

"We got it because we wanted to make Fallout 3 and so we're going to start from what we know and what we do," says Hines.

"We were going to make the game we wanted to make," he says.

It seams to me that it is a case of - we will make the type of a game we are most familiar with with the technology we are most familiar with. Why do I sense here a lack of taste for chanolges. Lets stick to the familiar we are to afraid to start learning new tricks... :)

And why not pic the work of theother team- it is not because of lack of talent that the project failed. It failed because of managment problems, not because of lack of vision and strong writing.

Actually that dubious honor has to go to Little Lamp Light. Not that a nuke would do much damage to the freaking cave. For that you need thermobaric device AKA air fuel bomb

Wait for G.E.C.K and request/make the MOD. That 'isometric Fallout 3 reject game' won't see the light of day. -_-

This is a good idea. And also why I would like as much of this 'reject' game released.

I would like to have details of the characters, storylines and quests and dialogues. In this way there is sure to be plenty of interesting things to add to any Mod created.

You are right, they will not release it. In that case I would settle for as much information as possible about it. As mentioned, quests, dialogue, characters etc etc.

I don't see that at all. They wanted to make a Fallout game, and they didn't want to be trying to pick up where others had left off, but to do their own story and their own game.

But just because it seemed like a good story, it doesn't logically follow that Bethesda had to have continued it. They had a game in mind, something they wanted to do, and Van Buren obviously wasn't in line with that. I'm not saying I wouldn't like to one day play a completed version of Van Buren. But I don't see as how Bethesda was in any way obligated to have anything to do with it.

Unless the dev is willing to release all this info, i think the modder will have to use his/her imagination for most parts( and heavy feedback from those FO-bible holders).

Because you don't create a sequel called Fallout 3 that has absolutely nothing to do with the previous two games! And especially when they knew full well that there was a nearly completed sequel called Fallout 3 and that many who had played the originals were aware f this fact.

Bethesda Fallout 3 is not a true sequel and that is a fact. This does not make it a bad game though.

For those who loved Fallout 1 & 2, I think it would only be right to release stuff related to the original sequel and then it can be modded in to this game in some way and satisfy all - probably.

I agree.

You never know, someone may leak this sort of information on the internet...

If by "that is a fact" you mean "that is absolutely in no way, shape, or form a fact, but rather an opinion", then yes. Otherwise, not so much.

Just remember to use "alternative" names just not to be sued. Like "Van buren", rename it to "Von bortom"

sounds awesome! but it dosent stick to the 'vault' theme sounds much more intresting