Todd Howard recently said that he wanted people to experience Fallout 1 and 2 as they were, rather than remake them. Well, this'll make things easier: both games are currently free to keep as part of the Fallout Classic Collection over on the Epic Games Store.
Fallout Tactics is free, too, but I don't know whether Todd's cruel enough to want people to experience that one as it was.
]]>Like many I’m sure, I have extremely fond memories of the original Fallout games, 2 especially. I bought my first laptop for uni, barely suitable for much except typing long literature essays in which I’d complete assignments using my favorite university trick of writing “ah, but to answer this question, we must first explore (whatever I actually wanted to write an essay about.)” Faltering, bricky turnip that it was, I still had some of my favourite gaming memories on that thing, mainly around aging RPGs: Baldur’s Gate 2, Planescape: Torment, and the old Fallouts.
]]>War never changes, and either does Fortnite's love of a crossover. Thus, Fallout and Fortnite are colliding as the post-apocalyptic RPG heads to the battle royale shooter’s upcoming next season.
]]>Speaking to RPS regular Jeremy Peel in a new feature about RPG design, Amazon's Fallout TV show and his time working on Pentiment and Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian's Josh Sawyer has reflected a bit on what Fallout: New Vegas owes to Black Isle and Interplay's very first Fallout from 1997. "A lot of the philosophy that I approached New Vegas with was the philosophy of Fallout 1, or how I interpreted it," Sawyer observed. "Fallout 1 was foundational for me in understanding how role-playing games should be made."
]]>The Fallout TV show effect continues. This time, it’s popular mod site Nexus Mods on the receiving end of the double-edged Shishkebab, as its servers struggle under the weight of people rushing to play through the series again - and mod its latter entries into games worth playing, presumably.
]]>In the most unsurprising news you might read today: Amazon are going to make a second season to their very popular Fallout TV show. That means one more season until we get Liam Neeson, right?
]]>Here at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we're nothing if not ready to jump on a bandwagon, and the hottest wagon in town right now is the Fallout TV show. We've watched varying amounts of Amazon's new adaptation of Bethesda's favourite post-apocalyptic RPG baby, so there are some mild (but not total) spoilers within, as we talk about the show, the show biffing the leaving-the-vault-moment, the best things about the games, the Righteous Gemstones, and how good Walton Goggins is just, like, in general.
]]>With the arrival of Amazon’s Fallout TV series last week came the dropping of another bombshell: the possible truth behind a mystery that’s gone unanswered in the video games for over 25 years. Before you read on, please bear in mind that spoilers for the Fallout TV show’s season one finale follow!
]]>If you've been narked about favourite bits of Fallout not yet appearing in Amazon Prime's unexpectedly good live-action show, hold your horses. In an interview, the showrunners have talked about holding back certain "iconic elements" to do them in a hypothetical second season right rather than cram in all the greatest hits—and also so the show didn't "seem like it was written by people who just like spent 10 seconds reading the Wikipedia page for Fallout and didn't bother to like bring in some deeper cuts."
]]>I sort of reject that the Fallout TV show has Easter eggs hidden in it because it, as a whole, is the equivalent of one of those fancy Hotel Chocolat ostrich-sized patisserie collection bastards that cost 40 quid. However. Eagle-eyed viewers of the Fallout show noted that episode 6 gives you a number for Valt-Tec that you can actually get in touch with - 213-25-VAULT (or, 213-258-2858). Charges apply, as well as international codes if you're outside the US, which makes it 001-213-258-2858.
If you text the number you get a reply from Vault-Tec saying "The next available appointment is 33 weeks from now, please stand by!" (handily captured by X user FanaticalGuy cos my response hasn't come through yet). And then the significantly less immersive "Reply Y to get recurring marketing and other texts from FallOut", which is quite funny. There is speculation that this is just a reference to Vault 33, the vault where main character Lucy was born and raised. On the other hand, 33 weeks from now is November, the month when both Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 came out.
]]>Crawl out through the fallout, baby! I've watched two episodes of Amazon's recently released Fallout TV show, a series for and about Walton Goggins' rizz (a thing the kids say). I've been on the Goggins hype train for over a decade at this point, and it's great that - oh sorry, I'm being told that the Fallout TV show is in fact about Bethesda's post-nukepocalypse RPG series of video games, and as such has given a massive player bump to said video games on Steam.
Posted on Xitter by SteamDB yesterday (HT to our pals at Eurogamer), it appears Fallout has more than doubled its concurrent players on Steam since the show dumped all its episodes last week.
]]>Amazon and Bethesda's Fallout TV show is now available to stream over Amazon's Prime subscription service. Picture it: the post-apocalyptic America of Fallout, radroaches and stimpacks and all, except that this being a TV adaptation, the first hour doesn't consist entirely of trying to persuade Bethesda's face editor not to make your character look like their soul has been sucked out. Instead, you can kick back with a can of Nuka Cola and watch flesh-and-blood stars Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins and Aaron Moten rove the wasteland. I caught the first couple of episodes last week, and while I find the show's aesthetics off-putting - it's kind of a Fallout themepark, rather than a convincing world - I do think there's the makings of a fun tale here.
]]>Last week I went to a screening of Amazon and Bethesda's Fallout TV show, a spin-off yarn starring Ella Purnell (who voiced Jinx in the Arcane Netflix adaptation) as a recently surfaced Vault Dweller, scouring the irradiated wastelands for [SPOILERS REDACTED]. It's early days, but the show's first two episodes didn't make a massive impression on me, though I will concede that the sight of Amazon's branding on Fallout's infamous Please Stand By emergency broadcast titlecard makes a dangerous amount of sense.
]]>Amazon’s Fallout TV series is yet to even premiere - it hits Prime Video later this week, on April 11th - but it already looks set to follow The Last of Us in being the next big-budget post-apocalyptic video game adaptation with a second season in development.
]]>The upside of things being bad is that you don't have to pay attention to them. Think of the time you've saved, in life, by movies, TV shows and video games being rubbish, and therefore culturally irrelevant and safely ignored.
In some ways, then, it's a problem that the Fallout TV show looks good in its latest trailer. You might have to watch it when it releases on Amazon Prime on April 11th.
]]>Tim Cain wrote what is perhaps gaming’s most famous and influential monologue: the introduction to Fallout. “War never changes,” he says. “People loved it. I’m like, ‘I must be a writer.’” Yet much more recently, when Cain sat down to write his memoirs, nobody really liked what came out on the page. “I was really, really bad at it,” he says. “I had half a dozen people read it, and they all pretty much said that the stories were good, but my writing wasn’t.”
Cain’s writing strengths, as fellow Fallout originator Leonard Boyarsky has suggested, lie in shortform. Which was bad news for anyone who wanted to read the definitive account of his four decades at the heart of Interplay, Troika and Obsidian, three of the most important RPG studios of all time. Thankfully, though, it turns out Cain is a natural raconteur. The same anecdotes that appeared flat and toneless in his memoirs go down a storm on YouTube. There, for the past seven months, Cain has been delivering his stories straight to camera, as if at a dinner party with 73,500 other people. “When I started the channel, I would effectively just look at something in the book and be like, ‘I’ll tell that story today,’” he says. “Now I spend as much time answering questions and doing videos based on things people ask about.”
]]>Perhaps the Last Of Us TV show on HBO getting it right was the dawn of a new era of good TV based on video games, but I still approach each adaptation with trepidation. That includes Amazon's Fallout series from Westworld and Person Of Interest writer/director Jonathan Nolan, which just got its first trailer.
]]>More than three years after a TV adaptation of Fallout was first teased, we know when we’ll be able to watch the latest attempt to turn a video game into a live-action prestige series.
]]>If 2023 is remembered for one thing, it's that it was a 100% critical success year for the RPG. Role-players across the land have been feasting exceedingly well these past few months, what with the stonking success of Baldur's Gate 3 (and to lesser extents, Starfield and Diablo 4), so we thought it was about time to celebrate your favourite RPGs of all time. Your votes have been counted, your comments have been sorted, and the cream of the RPG crop has been assembled. But which of the many excellent RPGs have risen above all others? Come and find out below as we count down your top 25 favourite RPGs of all time.
]]>Amazon Prime Video have been relatively tight-lipped about their upcoming Fallout TV adaptation, but that hasn’t stopped photos and clips leaking online. A new batch of images and a short video have leaked from the set of the streaming series, showing what appears to be the Vault-Tec headquarters, a group of survivors, and all the decayed foliage you'd expect from the brown post-apocalypse.
]]>Sneaky new photos taken of the set of Amazon’s Fallout TV adaptation have been shared on Twitter that show one of the retro-futuristic series’ Red Rocket gas stations being built. While the chain’s distinctive rocket doesn’t feature in any of the snaps, all taken by J. Carson in New York state, you can clearly make out the Red Rocket branding on its sign and bright red atomic fuel pumps. The whole look is very post-apocalyptic, dilapidated with beaten up 1950s-style American cars parked around the forecourt.
]]>Yesterday, I used my amazing arithmetical reasoning abilities to surmise that there were only eight free games left to come from the Epic Games Store’s Winter Sale giveaway. I was wrong. Don’t look shocked, it happens. Today sees three of the earliest Fallout games being offered up for nothing. They’re Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood Of Steel. I already own all three elsewhere, as you might well too, but if you don’t then it’s a good way of picking up three classics of 90s PC gaming.
]]>To celebrate Fallout's 25th anniversary this week, Amazon Prime Video have released the first official glimpse of their upcoming Fallout TV show. Amazon posted a screengrab from the show on Twitter last night, depicting three Vault 33 dwellers staring at a silhouette coming in or out of the Vault - and what appears to be a body lying on the ground beside them. This is the first and only proper look we've had at the adaptation since August’s leaked set images mysteriously disappeared from the internet, but that hasn’t stopped fans from wildly theorising about what's going on.
]]>It’s that time of week again, as the Epic Games Store rotates its free games and grants us two fresh things to play for nowt. If we don’t own them already, that is. There’s a strong chance that you might have already picked up either or both of this week’s freebies. One is Bethesda’s first instalment of their take on the retro-futuristic post-apocalypse in Fallout 3. There’s also Shiro Games’ ode to classic console RPGs, the Evoland series.
]]>Believe it or not, this month marks 25 years since Fallout brought its take on post-apocalyptic survival role-playing to PC. Bethesda are making Fallout 76 free to play for a week, starting today, to mark the occasion. There’s a bunch of other things happening during the rest of October to celebrate the Wasteland too, ranging from events in Fallout 76 to long overdue updates to Fallout Shelter.
]]>New set images have leaked from the production of Amazon’s Fallout TV show, and they appear to show the inside of Vault 32. There’s also a nice bit of propaganda that reads “The outside world can never hurt you” and shows a superheroic Vault Boy deflecting nukes with a shield. How very Fallout. Read on to take a look at some of the images below.
]]>Amazon’s upcoming TV adaptation of post-apocalyptic RPG series Fallout has cast veteran sci-fi actor Kyle MacLachlan in an undisclosed role as a series regular. You may remember him from such roles as future emperor of the universe Paul Atriedes in David Lynch’s Dune, cafficionado Special Agent Dale Cooper in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, and for his turn in David Lynch's Oscar-nominated Blue Velvet. Please tell me David Lynch will at least direct the pilot.
]]>With QuakeCon 2021 set to take place in a virtual fashion next week - and already being in the headlines thanks to an errant schedule listed a 'revitalized' Quake - GOG are offering some deep discounts on some of the best-known ZeniMax franchises including Fallout, Dishonored, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein.
It's a great chance to pick up some fantastic shooters and roleplaying games at bargain basement prices, from recent releases to all-time classics. Here are my personal highlights, plus a big link to the sale itself.
]]>Update: Microsoft say they'll "keep the commitment" to bring Bethesda's Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo to PS5 as timed exclusives. More below.
Microsoft just announced they've bought ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda. The developers of games such as Skyrim, Fallout, Dishonored, Prey, Doom, Quake and all those classics are now technically Xbox Game Studios. Xbox boss Phil Spencer made a post welcoming the developers, in what he calls a "landmark step" for both Microsoft and Bethesda.
What a year.
]]>Ages ago I learned how to lockpick in real life, and ever since I've been so impressed at how video games emulate the feeling of managing to crack a lock open. I think maybe it's the noise, that signature *clunk* that makes it so satisfying. It's a staple of RPGs like Skyrim, where lockpicking is literally a skill you can level up. But loads of games have introduced their own unique minigames to let you unlock things, and now you can see most of them in one place thanks to the museum of lockpicking mechanics.
]]>War never changes, but prestige TV sure can. Today, Bethesda announced that Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, creators of HBO's Westworld, are taking their cinematic lens to Fallout, working with Amazon Studios to create a post-apocalyptic telly show based on the long-running nuke 'em up RPG. Hold on, though - a darkly comic show about robot cowboys, deserts and conspiracies? Sounds quite a leap for the folks behind Westworld.
]]>Awesome Games Done Quick (aka AGDQ) has started yet again, and just four days in has already blessed us with some unforgettable moments and absolute must-watch PC speedruns. The clips I offer up to you today involve one speedrunner whacking out a real life model to explain a glitch, one speedrun where everything went wrong but everyone had a fabulous time anyway, and one game developer exclaiming "frick cancer in the bum."
]]>Folks who bought Fallout 76 last year can now grab ye olde Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics for free. Finally, your Fallout 76 purchase will get you a good game (several, even). The giveaway is the latest part of Bethesda's ongoing apology tour over the multiplayer survive 'em up's shonkiness. Unlike the trifling amount of virtuacash offered in apology for the £175 edition's garbage bag (Bethesda do plan to replace the bags), this is available to folks who have any edition. All Fallout 76 editions were wonky enough to merit apology gifts. All of it. The whole thing. Not that Bethesda call it an apology gift, of course.
]]>Clubbing on a Tuesday night is not a good idea. The only places open on a Tuesday are named after sea creatures and bandits; “The Dolphin” or “Copper Face Jack’s”, “Sneaky Pete’s” or “Mermaid Bar”. Inevitably, you will tryst with a stranger. Primal urges will be satisfied. In the following days your nethers will begin to itch in a sinister way, as you both realise the existence of, and dither within, your own pathetic void.
At no point will you regret a dodgy Tuesday, but its events will never have meaning. They will hover, seeming like they were intended to mean something, but what that meaning was, other than drunken ramblings, will remain obscure. Far Cry 5 is like this.
]]>War may never change, but a lot can happen in a public beta test, and those braving Fallout 76's wasteland early have found some things in need of changing. Bethesda may have warned that there were "spectacular" bugs to be found, but few were expecting this laundry list collated on Reddit - client-side modding, unsecured connections and worse. Also the significant issue of player speed being tied to framerate, (thanks, Eurogamer) - players with uncapped framerates can zoom off by staring at their own feet. Bethesda have partially acknowledged these issues in a statement to Eurogamer today.
]]>Bethesda revealed a few more details of their upcoming Fallout 76 beta event today, for those wanting to get in on the ground floor of the multiplayer spinoff. Beginning this October (with Xbox One leading the way, and PC/PS4 starting soon after), players who pre-ordered the game from "participating retailers" will gradually be invited, although not everyone at first. The initial wave of players will "start small", and grow as the game approaches launch.
]]>Good news, prospective vault dwellers! While Fallout 76 will let you play with nukes, the chances of being trolled by AtomicSlayer420 are extremely slim. While nukes are the game’s most devastating weapons, they’re not designed to target players specifically, says Bethesda, and are instead a way to alter the environment. Of course, altering the environment might also include wiping an enemy base off the map.
]]>Over on Reddit, prospective vault dwellers have been diligently constructing a map for Fallout 76. It pays to be prepared for the apocalypse. Despite the fact that the Fallout spin-off was only announced just before E3, the user-created map is already in its sixth iteration. It’s all speculation at the moment, but thanks to West Virginians chiming in, it might also end up being pretty close to Bethesda’s version.
]]>It is looking like a very fine year indeed to be a Fallout fan. Even if you're not on board with Fallout 76 taking the series online, we've got two full-game-length mods on the way, both due out before the end of 2018. Fallout: The Frontier is an unofficial expansion for Fallout: New Vegas, and has you heading to the frozen north to aid a crew of New California Republic deserters in a massive new map (as big as the editor allows) against a well equipped enemy force. Check out the dramatic and explosion-filled new trailer within.
]]>While the recently announced Fallout 76 might be diverging from series standards, it looks like fans of traditional dialogue and roleplaying-heavy Fallout adventures won't be entirely left out this year. Originally announced in 2010 as Project Brazil, Fallout: New California is effectively a whole new Fallout game built on top of the New Vegas engine by modding crew Radian-Helix Media, and it's due for release on October 23rd. Within, a quite dramatic announcement trailer featuring some decent enough amateur voice-work and a whole lot of shooting.
]]>Well, there we go: Fallout 76 is the answer you were looking for. Not Fallout 5, not Fallout 3 remastered, but 'Fallout 76', which on the face of things implies a sort Fallout 4.5, much like New Vegas was to FO3. It might not be that simple, however - more on which below.
'76' refers, it seems, both to the number of the Vault you'll start off in this time, and to the year 2076 (that being the year Vault 76 was built, and the year before the bombs dropped in the Falloutverse). I'm hoping it also proves an excuse to use more of a 70s than 50s aesthetic for this particular take on the end of the world, which may be backed up by the use of John Denver's '71 country classic, Take Me Home, Country Roads. That song's reference to West Virginia probably ain't no coinky-dink either.
Below: the trailer, and my best educated guesses about the timeline, setting, theme and release date of this new Fallout.
]]>"War," Ron Perlman will almost certainly growl during Bethesda's E3 press conference. "War never changes," he'll likely continue. Then he'll go on about some past wars, which were bad, and tell us about fictional future wars which are also bad. Bethesda are teasing some sort of Fallout announcement, see. New or old, original or remaster... we don't know. But at some point soon we'll get to see some marketing for a new Fallout thing. E3, E3 never changes.
]]>Democracy is on the brink of collapse. Caesar's Legion, the authoritarian slave state across the Colorado River, has launched a massive assault on the last, best chance for freedom in the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout. It's a grim certainty in Old World Blues that the New California Republic will fight Caesar's Legion: they're the wasteland's two superpowers, diametrically opposed ideologically, each expanding towards the other. I just thought I was better prepared. While Caesar was annihilating every ill-defended tribe to the west, I was rearming, inviting new states into the republic, and admittedly annexing a few tribes myself. With the game paused, I assess my options, reorganise my armies and ask, finally, does democracy die in 2279?
Old World Blues is a mod for Hearts of Iron IV which transports the World War II grand strategy game hundreds of years forward into the post-apocalyptic American west coast of the Fallout series. Players select a faction in the year 2275 and attempt to survive and thrive in the west coast wasteland. Structurally, it's similar to Hearts of Iron IV, but the content and style has been transformed. Old World Blues is tremendously fun, comparable in quality to the standard Hearts of Iron IV game, and it does a terrific job of translating Fallout to grand strategy.
]]>The world ended on September, 30 1997. Or, rather, that was the day we were first shown what would become gaming's enduring definition of the end of the world. Interplay's Fallout, a very different game from Bethesda's Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 (not that this seems to bother anyone; no sirree, not a soul), was and is a landmark roleplaying game. It disrupted ideas that RPGs meant elves and kobolds; it disrupted ideas that RPGs were a straight march to the finish line; it disrupted ideas that RPG heroes should be heroic.
War never changes, but Fallout changed most everything else.
]]>Since its foundation in 2003, Obsidian Entertainment has worked with seven different publishers. Commencing with LucasArts on Knights of the Old Republic II, Obsidian has since signed contracts with Atari, SEGA, Bethesda, Square Enix, Ubisoft and most recently, Paradox Interactive. In fact, up until Pillars of Eternity [official site], every single game Obsidian had made was funded and distributed by a different publisher.
This is a highly unusual state of affairs, and has proved precarious more than once in the company's history. But it has also provided Obsidian with a unique insight into how the world of publishing works, and how the relationship between developer and publisher has changed in the last couple of decades. This topic is especially pertinent today, as new methods of funding and distributing games have seen a significant shift in the power dynamic between developers and publishers.
I spoke to CEO Feargus Urquhart about how it all works (and doesn't).
]]>When Obsidian Entertainment started work on Pillars of Eternity [Official Site], the studio had two goals in mind. First, it wanted to recreate the style and tone of the classic Black Isle RPGs – particularly Baldur's Gate. Second, it wanted to modernise that style, taking advantage of today's technology, and avoiding mistakes made the first time around.
]]>One of the main reasons I got into RPGs back in the day was that if you bought one, you were getting a lot of game for your money. That was important when there was only one birthday and one Christmas a year, and not much chance that some relative might pop their clogs in sync with Ultima VI coming out. Years later I no longer need the Grim Reaper's help to fill my collection, and other genres have done their best to replace scouring maps for objectives with, y'know, game, but there's still few that can match it in terms of raw Stuff. It takes a lot of content to fill an RPG.
This week then, I'm turning the spotlight on a few small bits and pieces from various games that I think back on fondly. Not entire games. Just a few ideas and moments from them that stuck with me, whether I liked the actual game they were in at all. Add yours in the comments, yadda yadda, you know the drill. Also, I thought I'd try and pick a few things that aren't brought up that often, hence the lack of, say, Heather Poe from Vampire: Bloodlines or any of The Witcher III's awesome stuff. Got that? Cool.
Note: you can browse through the list using the arrows alongside the image at the top of the page, or using the left and right arrows on your very own keyboard.
]]>If you somehow missed Fallout Shelter [official site] on pocket telephones, you may be pleased to hear that the vault management game has just been released on PC. The game also got a hefty update today, which brings in a bunch of new features to breathe new life into your wasteland adventures.
]]>Through a combination of avoidance and intentionally vague marketing, I've managed to come this close to the release of Fallout 4 [official site] without knowing a great deal about the setting and plot. Yes, the bombs have fallen and, yes, there's at least the one Vault involved in whatever happens next, but I had no idea what I'd be looking for out there in the New England wasteland. A Water Chip? A Garden of Eden Creation Kit? The Brotherhood of Steel's corporate headquarters?
The launch trailer, embedded below, told me more about the game than anything else I've seen to date. It also made me rather more excited than I'd been until now.
]]>Desert-dwellers rejoice, Fallout: Autumn Leaves [official site] heralds a return to the post-apocalyptic Mojave in a mod similar in size to an official DLC expansion.
Inspired by previous Fallout installments, Planetscape: Torment and Arcanum, Fallout: Autumn Leaves dumps The Courier into Hypatia, a never before seen town just east of Novac. From here, he must once again scour the barren Desert Wasteland in a journey which, according to the mod's page, will last seven to ten hours all told. Check the trailer below.
]]>This week, Larian announced that Chris "Chris Avellone" Avellone would be joining the Divinity: Original Sin 2 writers to help craft what some are already calling "Words". Commenting, Avellone demonstrated his willingness and capability of writing them by writing others, which read as follows: "This is the first time I think the community is responsible for bringing two developers together who might not have crossed paths... and especially for such a great project." There was also a stickman involved.
But of course, this is only one of the many projects that Avellone has signed on for in the next year or so. What more of his magic awaits us in coming months?
]]>Bethesda are taking advantage of the encroaching release of Fallout 4 [official site] with plans to release a hefty collection of Fallout games. They're calling it, quite naturally, Fallout Anthology.
Put a circle around October 2nd in your calendars; the Anthology includes all five games in the Fallout series from the original through New Vegas, and all the relevant DLC in between. There's also space in its fake mini-nuke box reserved for Fallout 4, which is due out around a month later on November 10th.
]]>RPG maestro and human stretch goal Chris Avellone probably isn't planning to go solo but earlier today he confirmed that he'll be leaving Obsidian. The studio's most recent title was the superb Pillars of Eternity, on which Avellone worked as a narrative designer, but both he and Obsidian, the company that he co-founded, have a proud back catalogue. Obsidian is still home to some of the finest minds in the RPG business, not least Eternity lead Josh Sawyer, so my main interest here is not what happens to the studio he's leaving but what Avellone does next.
]]>Fallout 4 has been confirmed thanks to the launch of the official website a little ahead of the Officially Official Super Official Big Fallout Announcement time Bethesda mentioned previously.
]]>As another E3 approaches, hopes rise anew for Fallout 4. With Bethesda hosting their first ever E3 press conference this year, chances are high they have something exciting to show us and, if a LinkedIn profile found by VideoGamer is to be believed, Fallout may be top of the list.
]]>You might remember that a while back there was a rights kerfuffle involving sales of Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics. Basically, the license always belonged to Interplay, but it changed hands to Bethesda at the end of last year. The games were then removed from stores like Steam and GOG, presumably because with a new rights holder comes new terms, negotiations, etc. But now, finally, we can explore the wasteland in all its top-down glory once more, just as god intended before he left and let nukes happen.
]]>As the headline says, three Fallout games for free. GO AND GET THEM. These isometric beauties will vanish from GOG at the end of the year. The DRM-free store doesn't reckon it'll be allowed to peddle them after year's end as the current deal with Interplay will expire. After December 31st, the rights belong to Bethesda/ZeniMax. However, the magic of GOG means that if you add the free versions to your account in the next 47 hours (I'm an hour late with this post - SORRY), you'll be able to keep a copy forever. Go go go.
]]>Next Car Game may well be a working title, but that hasn't stopped Bugbear from setting up camp at nextcargame.com. The video, below, is "all in-game footage" and it looks like a rock 'em sock 'em destruction derby. Hurrah! The developers FlatOut games aren't entirely about crashing cars but it's an activity that is very much encouraged. The vehicles in Bugbear's racer aren't the delicate flowers of the Burnout series, which need to reset after all but the gentlest of collisions, the FlatOut rustbuckets fight, scraping, grinding and running each other off the road. Hopefully we'll know more about the studio's next car game, Next Car Game, soon.
]]>Hmm. Well, this came out of nowhere. OK, not entirely nowhere - we are living in the age of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, Wasteland 2, and talk of a new Planescape: Torment, after all - but I can't say I was expecting Black Isle to just suddenly explode out of the suspiciously human-sized birthday cake that is life. And yet, here we are. Black Isle Studios is apparently back. I mean, look at that picture. It's as clear as day.
]]>John's just been moaning that he wants a new RPG to lose himself in for hours, and so I will provide. Well, eventually. Underrail isn't out yet - why must videogames exist before they are finished? - but if the wait for Wasteland 2 seems too torturous perhaps this could fill that turn-based, it's the end of the world and I feel fine, hole in your life.
]]>We interrupt our regularly-scheduled (no, really - we're actually semi-organised about that stuff these days) posting to bring you news that the newly de-olded GoG.com is currently offering the original Fallout for the princely sum of zero for the next 48 hours. Until 23.59 GMT on 8 April, specifically. Here! It's here! Rather good timing, what with the current Wasteland fever. It's like post-nuclear RPGs never went 3D all of a sudden.
]]>Brian Fargo has been talking about the past and future of the Wasteland sequel that he hopes to fund through a Kickstarter campaign, and as many suspected he hasn't suddenly decided to put forward the idea because his eyes sprang out of his head and turned into dollar signs after seeing this action. Nothing of the sort. In an interview with No Mutants Allowed, Fallout's co-creator explains that the design was already coming together but "publishers just had no interest in a party-based RPG and they felt like they would need to go up against the production costs of BioWare which are in the tens of millions of dollars."
]]>At this rate, everybody will soon see their favourite developer starting some kicks or kicking some starters. Brian Fargo, creator of Wasteland, the game that launched a thousand Fallouts, has espied the queue of well-regarded figures approaching their adoring audience cap in hand and is now seeking a cap of his own. It'll be a comically large bit of headwear as he wants to cram at least a million dollars into it, which is the estimated cost of funding a Wasteland sequel. The game would be a PC release, with, according to the man's own Twittertalk, a "complete old school vibe and made with input from gamers. Made the gamers way." The gamers way often involves eating Wotsits until dawn but perhaps there are other ways and other gamers?
]]>You may remember that last week we brought the news that the legal fusspottery over the ownership of the rights to make a Fallout MMO had come to an end. We just didn't know which way the nuclear chips had fallen. It seems things fell in Bethesda's favour, in a fight that now looks rather like Goliath squished David with his fist. Eurogamer are reporting that Interplay have completely lost any rights to make a Fallout MMO, with intellectual property rights entirely belonging to Bethesda. However, there's a sizable fee of $2 million heading Interplay's way from Bethesda owners Zenimax, as part of the deal.
]]>It's the Duke Nukem Forever of gaming-based legal scuffles, and apparently it's over at last. We don't yet know the details - i.e. who's won, who's paying who what and most of all who, if anyone, will be releasing a Fallout MMO - but we do know that, after an awful lot of back and forth and he said no he said but he started it but yeah but no a settlement has finally been reached in the long-running Bethesda and Interplay battle.
]]>Good, in fact excellent, tidings for those who find themselves able to enjoy Fallouts both old and new, and for anyone who lived through the 90s heyday of PC RPGs. Tim Cain, the main brain behind the original Fallout and later co-founder of the much-missed Troika, has fetched up at Obsidian. Until this July, he was at Carbine, working since 2005 on what turned out to be Wildstar, but today we discover that he's now Senior Programmer at the Fallout: New Vegas/ KOTOR 2 devs. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE.
]]>Obsidian's high-selling (five million in its first month, they say) Fallout 3 expandosequel New Vegas might be somewhat, ah, divisive, but it's certainly got plenty of earnestly enthusiastic fans. And they will certainly be glad to hear that a megapatch landed yesterday, purporting to finally fix up a ton of the RPG's infamous bugs. It doesn't look like this is going to be a KOTOR 2 situation, thankfully - Obsidian/Bethesda seem pretty keen to get this slightly battered watch ticking properly again.
]]>This is getting interesting, at least in the industry-watching way. Despite the last we heard was Bethesda denying that Interplay have been given the okay to progress with the Fallout MMO, a teaser site - including a mailing list and Beta-possibility sign-up - has just launched. The whole site is incredibly slow right now, but it's all first-person looking at cards before being lobbed on the table, plus retro music. I'd imagine that there's folks on the internet picking over every element in the image, but I can't spare the brainpower, as I'm still thinking about urinating to create an improvised flamethrower. And you would be too.
]]>Enjoy the smooth sounds of the wasteland, with a freebie 24-track pack of music from the Fallout 1 and 2 soundtracks. Original composer Mark Morgan has poked and prodded the score into a shiny form suitable for the discerning 21st century ear. The whole Vault Archives set is available here, along with four streaming tracks for preview purposes. It remains incredibly evocative sinister-ambient musicology.
]]>So says Pete Hines over at the big K. That means rumours about Interplay being okay to proceed were indeed false.
"The bottom line is it's an ongoing legal matter, it's in no way, shape or form done," Hines continued. "We're going to let the process play out in the courts, which is what we've said all along, but beyond that I can't give specifics as to procedures. That's not my domain."
Why can't those boys just get along?
]]>Duck And Cover reports that Bethesda have dropped their lawsuit against Interplay. (Interplay were suing Bethesda back for something or other, so we can assume that is over too.) Anyway, the long and the short is that Interplay are now able to press ahead with their Fallout MMO, assuming this is true... There's still a long way to go before "Project V13" (pictured) becomes a playable Fallout Online, of course, but it's looking hopeful.
]]>The trailer. The trailer never changes. Yes, the first teaser for Obisidian's upcoming Fallout 3.5, New Vegas, has arrived. As has a release date, ish - this Autumn. I.e. yer traditional pre-Christmas silly-season, then. Find the video and some words about it above. I mean below. Gosh, you'd have thought I'd have learned that by now, wouldn't you?
]]>It appears the word "EXTREME" is the thread in my linkposts today. ANYWAY! Paweł Dembowski dropped us a line, noting that details on another canceled Fallout game have come to light. If the sources are correct, it was only in development for a few months by 14 Degrees East in 2000, and appears to be a Hidden & Dangerous-inspired tactical shooter. As in, four men, free switching between them and all that. Also, aimed for the original XBox, but since it's only of historical note worth mentioning on this most PC of blogs. There's some story details here and some mechanic-based stuff in the sidebar here (UPDATE: And some more here). This sort of stuff happens in developers all the time - a couple of months, then killed. I'd love to see a mass list of The Games That Could Have Been from our favourite developers.
]]>This broke on Friday, but RPS were dividing and conquering across the world, requiring Kadayi - cheers! - to bring it to our attention. In short, Gamasutra reports that the coldness between Interplay (Original Fallout IP holders) and Bethesda (Purchaser of the Fallout IP) has crossed into an actual legal suit. However, it isn't about the MMO situation, as described in the link. It's to prevent any further distribution of the compilation Fallout Trilogy's sales via Digital Download companies causing "immediate, substantial, and irreparable harm". Do read the whole thing, and a little industry thought below...
]]>Confused squinting at legal dispute time! We've known for a while that Fallout 1/2 publishers Interplay had clung onto rights for a Fallout MMO as part of their skin-saving deal to flog the Fallout 3 license to Bethesda, and a few months back the reborn publisher had coolly revealed they have one 'Project V13' in the pipeline. Deal done, right? Apparently not. Bethesda may now dispute Interplay's right to make Fallout Online...
]]>Rejoice, for there is suddenly and magically a crapton of information about the cancelled Interplay Fallout game. No, not Van Buren - the other cancelled Interplay Fallout game. What, eh, etc? Okay. Back before Bethesda's take on Fallout split PC gamers down the middle, Interplay caused similar controversy by side-stepping the series into the action-RPG curio Brotherhood of Steel on Playstation 2 (which, confusingly, was itself an entirely different game to Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel that hit PC a few years earlier).
While fairly (and justifiably) reviled by Fallout fans at the time, you could argue it was a little closer to the world of the original two Fallouts than the recent Fallout 3 was. Hence, the leak of a design document for a never-made sequel to BoS is a pretty big deal for Fallout veterans. And hey, probably for new Fallout fans too.
]]>It's a big week for venerable download service Gametap. Yesterday, they announced they'd be merging with euro-rival Metaboli (though most likely at the expense of hosting indie-ish fare, apparently), and today they're offering up the original Fallout for no-pennies. Which is bad news for the nascent GoG, who intend on flogging the game for actual money, but at least their version doesn't involve that icky Gametap downloader bloatware thingy. Yes, it's a game a lot of people own already. Yes, Gametap's DRMy stuff means you don't get a perfect, untouched digital copy to keep forever and ever. But: free. One of history's finest RPGs, free. Go! Give yourself an excuse to complain the old ways were best.
]]>Well, we're all presuming the reborn Interplay's secret project is a Fallout MMO, as there's plenty of proof out there and nobody's denied it yet.
Yesterday the new Interplay website opened up, and with it came a mention of “Project V13,” the working title for a 'next generation' MMO. No details whatsoever on that, but what is scintillating is the announcement that they've hired Chris Taylor to work on it. Not Gas-Powered Games' Chris Taylor - who perhaps shouldn't be allowed near any kind of roleplaying game again after the disappointing mess that was Space Siege - but the other Chris Taylor, a key member of the original Fallout/Fallout 2 team.
]]>We're not far off Fallout 3 release day, which means now's a fine time to revisit the first two games in the revered RPG series - whether it's to bring yourself up to speed with what went before, or to better prepare yourself to gripe that Bethesda have done terrible things to your childhood.
If you are pondering reinstalling one of the old dears, I can strongly recommend NMA chap Mash's excellent High Resolution Patch.
]]>We briefly mentioned Good Old Games yesterday, but if you've not heard of it then... well, suffice to say, if you're the kind of fellow who reads this site regularly, then GoG's mooted catalogue of classic game downloads is going to make you a very excited wee PCophile.
The retrocentric digi-store, offering DRM-free, cheapie downloads of the likes of Fallout, Sacrifice and Operation Flashpoint, isn't starting up until September, but we thought we'd better chuck a few questions about the site's origins and intentions at the folks behind it - CD Projekt, who you're probably most familiar with for last year's divisive RPG The Witcher. Now, they're potential saviours of olden games...
]]>A quick follow-up to the scurrilous speculation a little while back that Interplay was about to resuscitate most of its major franchises. Actually, they are. "The company will leverage its portfolio of gaming properties by creating sequels to some of its most successful games, including Earthworm Jim, Dark Alliance, Descent, and MDK," says robot-press-releaseman right here. They're also setting up a new in-house development studio to get all this done. Exciting!
]]>Odd timing, this - on the same day that Obsidian, a company formed from the ashes of Black Isle, finally step out of Bioware's shadow and announce their own game, we also see the return of Black Isle's much-troubled owners, Interplay.
Interplay.com now hosts this excited image:
and a Coming Soon message. See the full pic here. Going left to right, we've got MDK, Earthworm Jim, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and apparently the browny-green bit underneath the Interplay logo is concept art from Fallout Online. Edit - and Descent on the far left.
]]>More rumour-mumblings from within the home of Bethesda, ZeniMax Media, regarding a forthcoming MMO.
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