Slashdot Mirror
Bethesda Licenses Fallout Franchise, To Make Fallout 3
An anonymous reader writes "According to an official press release, Bethesda will now develop and publish a brand-new version of Fallout 3, after the company 'licensed the rights to the Fallout [videogame] franchise from Interplay... with the option to develop and publish additional sequels.' Interplay, who is presumably licensing out its IP due to recent financial difficulties, is keeping the rights to its theoretical Fallout MMO concept, however, and this new attempt at Fallout 3 from the Morrowind developers doesn't look to be using code/assets from the previously half-completed Black Isle version."
Heh, that is cool. It would be nice to see what exactly they are going to do with Fallout, considering what a good job they did with morrowind.
THANK GOD. We Fallout fans just want more Fallout. Not some crazy hypothetical MMO that will probably not even be fun (assuming they even finish it before they go bankrupt)
& I wish I knew the password to your heart . . . &
I really wanted to see someboyd like Obsidian get their hands on Fallout III, since they already had a lot of the talent from Black Isles. I'm not going to get too excited with Bethesda behind the wheel. They've never disappointed me (in fact, they've uusally exceeded my expectations) in the Elderscrolls series, but I don't know how well they can shift from that to Fallout. Morrowind had great story behind it, and the open-endedness was above and beyond either of the Fallout games. I hope they can keep that level of depth, but fit it into the coarser feel of Fallout. Then the gameplay... When Black Isle had talked about making Fallout 3 real-time, a lot of people on the messageboards were upset, and wanted them to keep a system simmilar to the first two Fallout games. Especially after Brotherhood of Steel, I don't see many fans -myself included- of the series being very open to a shift to first-person like Morrowind. Especially with the sort of weapons that Fallout is based on, it'd be a very fine line between RPG and FPS.
It's not like any of Bethesda's other games have been released in Mac versions. :(
You knew you were in for a treat when you fired up Fallout: the kitschy black and white TV airing 50's style media slowly zoomed back and back and back, all to an optimistic tune, revealing finally a desolate cityscape devestated by nuclear war.
The game certainly took a number of popular concepts in the bleak future of a post-nuclear holocaust, but it did it with such style that you could ignore many of the familiar sci-fi memes. It was just a heck of a lot of fun to play, to discover what actions would lead to widescale changes in what were the remnants of California.
Although by the time Fallout 2 came out there were vast advances in graphics and sound, the game didn't take advantage of them, re-using the same engine from before. And that was OK, actually, because while others pushed for so much in 3D goroud shaded volumetric fullbrights with translucent starbright shadows and supercharged texels, the folks at Interplay concentrated on story. (OK, they threw in some excellent voice talent, too.) And it, too, was a damn good game.
I wonder what directions Bethesda will take with the franchise.
Click me, you 'tard!
So, now we're going to get a game that won't run on C3s (Cyrixes), will have millions of NPCs who sound alike, and will have us falling into the void every time we bump into a corner.
----- Wtcher Dragon, UDIC
I've been a big fan of FRANCHISE ever since FIRST RELEASE way back in FIRST RELEASE DATE. I love how FRANCHISE revolutionized GENRE with INNOVATIVE QUALITY #1 and INNOVATIVE QUALITY #2.
This new take on FRANCHISE has a lot of potential, as long as NEW COMPANY understands what made FRANCHISE great in the first place. I hope they don't go the way of LAST ATTEMPT AT UPDATING FRANCHISE and get back to FRANCHISE's great roots. I really liked NEW COMPANY'S LAST OFFERING, so maybe this is good news.
Still, the cynic in me can never trust these things, as I am still feeling burned by STAR WARS. We'll see how I feel on RELEASE DATE.
-3Suns
~~~~
The Revolution will be Slashdotted
Morrowing, the ultimate non-linear cRPG ... you can go anywhere, do anything the game allows you AND NONE OF IT IS INTERESTING.
Id rather have a small world with a lot of detail than Morrowind.
If they use isometric view and allow turn based combat it will be fallout 3, otherwise it will be just another franchise butchered beyond recognition.
RPGs need more variety. The first Fallout was great. It had great gameplay, an interesting story, and most importantly, didn't involve elves, rangers, swords and spells.
It's not that I have anything against Dungeons and Dragons. I just think that a pen and paper RPG doesn't necessarily make a good computer RPG, and that it's great to shake things up a little.
Far too many modern RPGs still have annoyances that just don't need to be there. Why must I play inventory tetris instead of playing the game? Why are my classes always "Fighter", "Paladin", "Ranger", "Wizard" instead of "Inventor", "Lawyer", "Cop"? Why are the races the typical "Elf", "Human", "Barbarian" rather than "Elemental", "Ape-man" or "Grey Alien"?
Fallout 3 may not be a great game. The Fallout franchise has become worse and worse since the first game came out. But, even if it isn't a great game, I'll be really happy to see it come out, because it means variety in a genre that desperately needs it.
please oh *please*...
fallout had such a cool atmosphere... even the way that your cohorts were totally out of control had its moments, and being able to view it all from third person made it so entertaining.
first person would ruin it... (mind you I think it *always* ruins a game; I just feel like a blinkered dalek in a neck brace when playing FPS games).
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
From HomeLAN:
HomeLAN - How much input will Interplay have in the development of Fallout 3? Can they say "yes" or "no" to things like game design, story, etc?
Pete Hines - We have complete creative control over the development of the game.
HomeLAN - Will any team members from the previous Fallout games be involved in Fallout 3?
Pete Hines - Too early to talk about stuff like that.
HomeLAN - Ok. Final question..has development of Fallout 3 actually begun and can you give us any idea of a release date?
Pete Hines - I'll take the last one first. WAY too early to talk release dates. Yeah, we've started pre-production on Fallout 3 development.
Also, from Bethesda dev Gary Noonan:
Being a developer at Bethesda, I am also a big Fallout fan. I played all of the titles from FO1 to FOBOS. Not so much a fan of FOBOs or FOT, but I did play them through. To this day, FO1 is still in my top 5 fav games, not just RPGs. The campy humor, the grotesque action, and the integrated pop culture, as well as Pip Boy (can't leave THAT out!) are what allow FO to stand out from other titles. I agree, without these, it is simply NOT FO.
Now, the fact is, this news is just that.... NEWS. I have known about this for some time now, and I have been excited about it since the deal was still in the making. I AM a fan of FO. Who better to have working on a game than a FAN.... someone who knows the game, knows what it's about, knows the mood, knows the setting and atmosphere. Now, as a new development even here in the office, it's still quite a welcoming shock and we are ALL eager to be a part of it. I can't put into words how much I am dying to be a part of it.
So, for all the existing Tes fans, welcome the FO fans. Everyone has their opinions about titles and developers.
For the FO fans joining us, give it a chance. Everyone (well, I really speak for myself) here is excited about this opportunity and it is talked about quite a bit.
And for all, let's keep it cool. As everyone who has been here for a long enough period of time knows, we developers listen to what the fans have to say. The forums are our link to hearing your thoughts and input on aspects of the titles.
(All yanked from No Mutants Allowed).
This is sort of a mixed bag for me. On one hand Bethesda has a history of being ambitious in thier game design and opting for a more open ended game style. On the other hand they consistantly fail when it comes to producing polished game play and up to date technology. Morrowind, while wounderfully ambitious, flat out failed when it came to producing a bug free and polished game. I know a lot of RPG fanatics loved Morrowind, but the simple fact the matter is that the raw gameplay was horrible - and lets not even talk about the anti-piriting technology they put in that literally made the game unplayable. Only the immensity of the world and the open ended game play saved it from its self.
The real question is whether or not Bethesda has learned from thier mistakes. They clearly have the right mentality, but remains to be seen is wheather or not they can actually build a decent engine with decent gameplay mechanics.
Personally, if I had my choice someone would just snag the FarCry engine. The FarCry engine could easily handle the typical Fallout town and then some. Just tweak it to handle RPG aspects and add an overland map. Now you have a solid RPG that is beautiful, full of atomic powered cars, in real time, and has game play mechanics to appeal to a broad audience... but that is just my pipe dream.
Half-Life is a little too far down the scale of pure twitchiness and reflexes vs. strategic thinking and planning.
But people should NOT bash the first-person perspective at all. Done right, it really allows for more impressive graphics, and it doesn't all have to be about how fast you can click.
I've been playing City of Heroes lately, which takes place in a very futuristic city with incredibly nice graphics. The best part is by scrolling the mouse wheel you can move the camera back away from your character into a wide 3rd-person view, or all the way in to a 1st-person. You get to control it. I'd have no problem with something like that.
As to the combat system, City of Heroes is real-time, but every weapon has a limiting recharge time, so no matter how fast you click you have to wait X amount of time for those brass knuckles to cycle, or X+5 for your Red Ryder BB gun. It's first (or 3rd) person, but not a shooter. It's an RPG.
I'd love to play a Fallout game in a system like that. Hopefully they'll do a good job!
The problem that Morrowind was crashing from time to time or that you fell through the floor sometimes wasn't that much of a problem - a save game often enough solved it. But broken quests, unsolvable puzzles, missing topics... There were situations when you wouldn't be able to finish the main quest. In one case I had to patch the Tribunal myself - find the character using TES, edit the script and install the patch as a "plugin" because the character before death was generating a flood of replies never letting me quit the dialogue and killing that character was essential to the plot.
If not overall bugginess I'd say Morrowind was the best game -ever-. But there were too many small bugs, inconsistencies, problems with the world interaction... You get Ordinator Armour as a prize for solving a quest for the chief of ordinators, and then when you wear it, Ordinators attack you on sight. You secretly unlock valut doors, but once they are unlocked, you are free to open them and enter and nobody will tell you a word about this. And of course you buy some ash yam and netch leather, make 300 Fortify Intelligence potions, drink them all and start making other potions, and in no time you have potions that give you +20000 strength (out of 100 max), same dexterity, skill etc. You kill Dagoth Ur with one punch.
And of course essential extension "peaceful healthy wildlife" if you don't want to fight cliff racers every 5 seconds... ah, I loathe cliff racers!
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Yes, the PC version is just as buggy, however, there is one great man who solves all that.
a r 3000 bug fixes, have fun)
http://www.baldurdash.org/TESMW/TESMW.html
(ne
(And yes, its the same guy who fixed all the BG1+2 bugs as well.)