Fallout 3 has been announced... again.

[Rob]

Following yesterday's conference call with investors, Interplay CEO Herve Caen casually dropped a bombshell. "We're planning to publish Fallout 3," he bluntly told an analyst who was inquiring about the PC role-playing game sequel.

Linkage (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/04/15/news_6093628.html)

[Rafal Dudek]

Is it still the same team?

[Tom Servo]

*happy*

Too bad it's gonna be a long time until it comes out, and it'll be with a different company.

[Terry Penrod]

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Interplay has become so flakey it's hard to tell exactly what they're doing these days. But he was pretty direct about resurrecting Fallout 3 - although it will NOT be done by any of the original creative team. Nevertheless, as a big fan of the series, I would love to see someone talented pick it up and finish the game once and for all, so we can actually play the damn thing. I mean, we've ONLY been waiting for 6 or 7 years (so far).

Cheers, Terry

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[Ravanor]

Great news. Here's hoping it gets finished this time. Better keep developing whatever had been developed already and not start again. Want to see it in this lifetime.

[Terry Penrod]

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Is it still the same team?

Nope, not a single one.

Three of the core members of the original original Fallout team (Jason D. Anderson, Leonard Boyarsky and lead project manager Timothy Cain) left Interplay, created Troika games, developed the excellent Arcanum: OS&MO and more recently, the turn-based D&D3E Greyhawk / ToEE.

Then Brian Fargo left to form InXile in 2002 where he is currently developing The Bard's Tale (see link to the very clever web site below).

http://www.inxile-entertainment.com/

The rest of the original team (headed by Feargus Urquhart) that stayed on throughout Fallout 2 and beyond to established the great D&D CRPG factory known as Black Isle Studios for Interplay were all fired recently and are NOT coming back as far as I can see. So the publisher will have to assign the development (either a completion of the former project or a new one from scratch) of Fallout 3 to a whole new team.

Either way, I hope it lives up to the legendary original games - which I still get the urge to play even after all these years. I want my Dogmeat back!

Cheers, Terry

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[Kalbrecht]

Add into this the rumours flying around about the development of a Fallout based action-RPG for console.

With the success of the Dark Alliance games, Interplay is likely looking at this very closely. Take a big name PC brand, and make a console action-RPG based on it.

It could work. Course it'd be nice if Fallout 3 was a PC-RPG, too...

[Ravanor]

It would be very disappointing if Fallout 3 is not developed as a PC-RPG. It'll even be disappointing if it is streamlined to play as a pc and console game. Worst thing that could happen. If they perhaps are going to make a console game of it too, don't make it the same game.

[Terry Penrod]

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Abso-freakin-lutely Ravanor!

I hated to see Deus Ex: IW go that route and we have all seen the cancellations of potentially great PC RPGs, RPG hybrids and/or adventure sequels like Omikron 2: The Exodus, Outcast 2, Full Throttle 2, Sam & Max 2 and until now, Fallout 3. The Longest Journey 2: Dreamfall also appears to be a semi-action-adventure and most likley we will never see System Shock 3 or Anachronox 2 or many others that could have been wonderful extensions to terrific PC games.

More and more, the overwhelming lure of big bucks on the consoles, all the mergers / buy-outs, the streamlined dev path and reduced ROI risk due to a wider audience is getting the better of virtually all the best PC game studios. With BIS now gone and BioWare straddling the void, there are VERY few pure PC RPG specialists left.

Right now, Troika (Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines) and Larian (Beyond Divinity) are about it unless you include MMOGs and pure sequels to established franchises like ES3: Morrowind from Bethesda. But even they are being tainted in order to appease beancounters and mass merchandisers. JoWooD / Arkane Studios is also still hanging in there I suppose with Arx Fatalis and Piranha Bytes is still viable with Gothic 1 & 2. Sacred is also sounding like a welcome newcomer from Ascaron Entertainment / Encore, which is encouraging to say the least.

Let's hope this is the beginning of a new old trend in true CRPGs that are not compromises made to sell the most units despite the desires of the original core audience.

Cheers, Terry

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[Bruenor]

You know Terry after reading your post I can just imagine the total frustration that the creative leaders of various development houses must feel. I just can't imagine having one clear creative vision of what you want to produce, only to have it systematically ripped to shreds by "beancounters" (that's funny, because that's what I am) and various other levels of management of the publisher and developer.

[Gaim Mastr]

Troika is still hurting from the Greyhawk: Temple of Elemental Evil fiasco.

I was active on the game's official forums for a few threads & posts. At first there was a bit of strife between Troika and Atari concerning the game's quality (barely Alpha stage, lots of content ripped out at last second).

And a great deal of the game's owners shot Atari, Troika and Wizards of the Coast full of flak. But when you release an official D&D CRPG in that condition, without any agreements about patches or post-release support, you're going to get hit hard. The confirmed bug lists were absolutely immense.

Troika might still pump out some future RPGs. But since Atari still holds the publishing rights to official D&D singleplayer CRPGs, I'd be very surprised to see them touch another project like ToEE.

For the record, for any ToEE owners out there, Atari appears to be getting ready to release the second patch around April 19th.

[Ravanor]

I'd be very surprised to see them touch another project like ToEE
I never followed the game, so in what sense do you mean. Was it too ambitious? Atari going to take the safe route from now on. All the problems of ToEE come down to a developer's or publisher's incompetence.

[Torsion]

Ravernor, the main problem with ToEE was that it was released early in a buggy condition. The game had hardware issues and crash bugs. Apparently, the patch agreement between the publisher and developer was still up in the air, so the game was never properly fixed. The game also had content taken out because Atari forced troika to meet a very tight deadline.

[Gaim Mastr]

Apparently, the patch agreement between the publisher and developer was still up in the air, so the game was never properly fixed.

That's a nice way of putting it. :wink:


The game also had content taken out because Atari forced troika to meet a very tight deadline.

This is not really true. What happened was that the original ToEE module had prostitutes, a brothel, a 'nastier' town and children.

There was either a serious lack of communication between Troika, Atari and Wizards of the Coast (owned by Hasbro), or someone from WotC or Hasbro jumped in at the last second and demanded that the game NOT hold true to the original PnP module and needs to be extra friendly to younger children. What does that mean ??

It means that very late in the game's development Troika was ordered to gut it like a fish. They had to remove lots of NPC, quests and even an entire town. You can still see the remnants of this when NPCs make references to NPC children. And there are no children in the game.

Apparently, someone decided that any game with battle as a main focus should not have any "child NPCs".


This partly why I don't think that Troika will be involved with anymore official D&D games. At least not as long as Atari retains the publishing rights.



Terry, you'd said "...BioWare straddling the void...".

I was wondering if you could expand on that a bit. I haven't been keeping up with BioWare much the past few months. And I didn't hear that the company was in trouble.

Are they in financial trouble or something ??

I'd thought that their inventory sold better than average. I came to know and like the company after I'd first purchased Baldur's Gate.

[Bruenor]

Bioware is nowhere near in trouble Gaim. They continually have improved profits, they have continually moved up on the list of Canada's fastest growing companies (as well as being on of Canada's best employers) and they just moved into a new office building which I can tell you from experience is very, very nice.

I'm thinking Terry meant that Bioware has been left to fill in the void being left by other CRPG developers (at least that's what I'm hoping he meant, because their financial health is definitely not in question).

[Gaim Mastr]

Ohhh..... okay. I misunderstood then. :lol:

[Terry Penrod]

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Bioware is nowhere near in trouble Gaim. They continually have improved profits, they have continually moved up on the list of Canada's fastest growing companies (as well as being on of Canada's best employers) and they just moved into a new office building which I can tell you from experience is very, very nice.

I'm thinking Terry meant that Bioware has been left to fill in the void being left by other CRPG developers (at least that's what I'm hoping he meant, because their financial health is definitely not in question).


Primarily, I meant that they have been straddling the two distinct markets of PC and console RPGs. Secondarily, I meant that they have been filling the void left by BIS in newer, bigger, more forward thinking D&D game formats by continuing to support that license while also advancing it to a truly moddable, full 3D design that includes the latest rules as well as a true DM MP mode, along with traditional SP and open MP online.

IMO, BioWare is almost single-handedly responsible for all the latest advancements to D&D CRPGs and with KOTOR has now successfully crossed-over into the land of video consoles. Yes, their console title may be a highly simplified version (compared to what we have become accustomed to on the PC) - but it was well done, well suited to that current audience and well received by them. It introduced a whole new group of players to PC style RPGs at a time when the systems were growing in sophistication along with their core audience - and while they were still on the cusp of wide-spread MP online gaming popularity that has always lagged behind the older PC community.

Without BioWare's Infinity Engine, the BIS CRPGs (created since their original non-D&D Fallout titles) would never have been as accessible, as appealing, as replayable or as popular. Now, with the Aurora Engine & Toolset, they are doing the same thing in full 3D with newer rules and more gameplay modes plus encouraging a large mod community to stay in the fold. At the same time, they have traversed into consoles, which addresses a slightly different set of long-term goals.

In short, thank God for BioWare! Without them, interactive D&D games on any system would be stagnant at best, dead at worst.

Cheers, Terry

EDIT NOTE: Sorry, meant to use KOTOR as an example of BioWare's new forray into console games, not BG: Dark Alliance. That title was developed by Snowblind Studios for Interplay, not by BioWare and it has now been corrected in the above text.

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