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Fallout 3 Back From the Dead?
BiteMyShinyMetalAss writes "According to a GameSpot story, Interplay plans to publish Fallout 3. However, development has not been restarted, and it will likely be farmed out from the sounds of it. There is supposed to be an announcement with more details coming soon to your neighborhood. No Mutants Allowed is also covering it."
I hope they pick someone who can do the series justice. Not a developer that will just dig the grave for us.
I have windows on my computer. Right on the side of the case
I'll buy it either way, I can't help myself... and they know it.
...Troika! You know, the people responsible for the first Fallout game.
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Fine. One cult-following series sequel is probably getting published, but what developments on the Sam & Max: Freelance Police front?
Oh, wait, "off-topic" is a negative moderation point.
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Here is some new news for you.
"The company's net income for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2003, was $3.3 million, compared to a net loss of $5.4 million for the same period in 2002."
""These results mark an important milestone for Interplay. In 2003, we had a return to operating profit and substantially reduced our debt. However, we continue to operate under cash constraints," said Herve Caen, chairman and CEO, Interplay."
Sounds like they are still having financial difficulties, but it seems they haven't been kicked out yet.
Because of the previous Fallouts, I will probably buy this one, but I'm going to wait a few weeks to see what corners get cut in the sake of budget and schedule (because we all know where quality rates with big companies), as opposed to getting on the waiting list 3 months in advance.
Note: This is all under the assumption that Interplay didn't fire everyone at Black Isle just to contract them out.
There are two types of people: those prepared for the zombie apocalypse and those who will be eaten.
This is just idle speculation, but Obsidian Entertainment hasn't announced what it's "Delaware" project is yet (nor have they announced who the publisher is). They are also hiring, possibly indicating another project. There is plenty of speculation on the forums, but no official word yet.
If they were finishing off FO3, I'd definitely buy it. Look who founded Obsidian, any of those names look familiar?
Zombie! Kill it before it infects other games!
You mean the same people who did Temple of Elemental Evil, the game that was so buggy that the community had to release a patch for it?
On the other hand, Arcanum was moderately entertaining, though it still has the merit of being the most dissappointing game I have bought.
And besides, of their team of about 30 only five or so have had anything to do with Fallout. I'd rather have Fallout 3 done by Black Isle Studios. I still get the warm and fuzzy feeling when I think about Planescape: Torment.
I think it's about time there was a re-write of StarCon2 with modern graphics, sound, and a true 3D galaxy.
Not 3D, but high resolution and open source: Star Control: TimeWarp. Looks like it's melee-only at the moment, but it seems to be pretty active.
Alternatively there's The Ur-Quan Masters, which is a more straightforward remake based on the original source code (to the 3DO version), if you just want to play the original on a modern PC.
they'll probably botch it up. Fallout and Fallout 2 were both games with dated graphics which still ended up with a vocal, if not huge, following. I just replayed Fallout 2 last week myself. Their skill system was excellent but I don't think that explains the popularity. Instead I think it was a combination of that alongside the attenion put into the gameplay itself. CRPG are usually nasty linear affairs and while Fallout suffered from some of that you could still complete the game in a variety of ways and with a variety of different starting characters. A Big Dumb Slugger was one way but most recently I finished it with a grifter. Good speech skills, excellent pickpocketing skills.
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during the interview, they said that it would be done by an outside developer. they're not saying who, which probably means they haven't awarded the contract yet. which, naturally, means that the game itself is probably a year or more away from store shelves.
bah. this news isn't nearly as good as I would have liked to hear.
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There are two possible outcomes, assuming that fallout 3 is not completely canned again.
1) It is given to Troika, or Obsidian Entertainment (largely composed of ex black isle staff) and they make another superb fallout game.
2) It is given to any other studio, who will promptly make an abomination (like Brotherhood of Steel) and kill off the fallout licence once and for all.
I'm betting on 2)
Bioware have turned crap.
NWN was an uninspired hack and slash. SOU and HOTU were good, but too short and too linear.
KOTOR was a very pretty, overdeveloped and underwritten POS with all the balancing of a news report on FOX
Additionally, they now have a very close relationship with Microsoft, which means if they did Fallout 3 it would be XBox exclusive
I think Troika did a pretty good job, all limitations given. Atari was stingy with the money, and WotC overrid some of the content that they wanted to put in, forcing them to strip a lot of stuff out at the last minute.
Yeah, they bit off a bit more than they could chew, but I don't think it was really Troika's fault other than being overconfident.
InThane
Link to article
They also mention revisiting Kingpin, Earthworm Jim, Dark Alliance, Airborne, and Exhaulted.
I'm particularly hoping for Obsidian, or one of the other companies that picked up lots of Black Isle workers. Bioware has some good work, but Black Isle worked on this game for a long time. They know what they wanted it to be.
From the developers posting on websites like nma-fallout.com, it sounded to me like they were fairly well along in development. They were writing quests, composing a storyline, inserting towns into the game world. Bioware might be able to take it and run, but it's a much more sure bet that the former Black Isle guys will take it and run in the right direction.