Bethesda Licenses Fallout Franchise, To Make Fallout 3 272
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."
more more more (Score:4, Insightful)
There goes the Mac version... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm actually interested in playing the Fallout MMO (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
IMO, the Fallout License is in good hands
Re:Bethesda? Not my first pick, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean you don't like the idea of something with the gameplay of Half-Life and the expansiveness of Morrowind? I'd buy three copies of a game like that.
Rob
RTFA! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they do good on the PC, but I'm not a huge fan of their work, being as all of the games they have released on the Xbox (and I never played any of their stuff before Morrowind on the Xbox) have been buggy glitchfests so far (problems with frames in Pirates of the Carribien? Bethesda's offical 'fix'? Leave the game on, sitting in 1 spot, for 45 minutes to let the game fully cache! Pathetic.)
I'll have to check out their PC versions, but they're batting 1000 with the crapfest on the Xbox.
Oh jeez I hope you are being sarcastic (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
In one hand, cheer... (Score:4, Insightful)
In the other, I deeply hope it won't be as bug-ridden as, say, Morrowind...
Re:Fallout accelerated storyline to the extreme (Score:4, Insightful)
From the little brandnames of the various contractors who put together the starship, to the baleful gaze of Xerxes, to the little ambient noises of consoles and what-not, to the tortured cries of your fellow crewmates, possessed by The Many, apologizing as they beat you to death with a wrench, it was so immersive and so utterly picturesque and encompassing that if the future of space travel isn't like System Shock 2 then I'll just stay on Earth!
All the good companies seem to fold
More info here (Score:5, Insightful)
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 [nma-fallout.com]).
Mixed Bag (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Oh jeez I hope you are being sarcastic (Score:5, Insightful)
What you are describing is called "gameworld density" If the world is larger, you need to INCREASE the number of interesting things, places, etc, to *maintain* the same density.
That's why smaller worlds tend to be better. It is much easier to see "the holes", and fill them in.
Cheers
--
"When you live in the past with its mistakes and regrets, it's hard.
I AM not there. My name is not I WAS".
"When you live in the future with it's problems and fears, it's hard.
I AM not there. My name is not I WILL BE."
"When you live in this moment, it is not hard.
I AM here. My name is I AM."
- Paraphrasing by Helen Mallicoat
Re:In one hand, cheer... (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:Um... Bethesda? (Score:3, Insightful)
Very scenic if you are bar the gouging of the landscape that went on with the slate mines (which are interesting in their own way if you are into that sort of thing).
Actually I suspect its more a reference to the Bethesda pool (Beth-zatha in Hebrew) in Jerusalem, where it is stated in the Bible, Jesus healed a man ("Take up your pallet and walk") who had been ill for 38 years.
Re:Oh jeez I hope you are being sarcastic (Score:5, Insightful)
Morrowind does have a small world with a lot of detail compared to its predecessor, Daggerfall. You should have seen that game - massive expanses of *nothing*, hundreds of different towns and cities all made from the same building blocks, randomly generated dungeons ridiculously illogical in their layout. Daggerfall was also infamously buggy.
If you want a detailed world, then Bethesda is definitely heading in the right direction. But I'd be concerned about bugs; that company doesn't have such a good track record.
Re:Cool (Score:2, Insightful)
Fallout: polish and adultness (Score:2, Insightful)
Fallout was really an adulty game. It did not have blatant nudity or sex, but your character could sleep with others (no, you didn't see anything) and it affected the story. It also had tons of gore (especially if you picked that special character trait
I can see those things being removed from Fallout 3 because some stuck up executive or investor feels they are 'offensive' (incl. finger quotes and naggy, american voice) and would result in a higher rating and smaller target audience.
Fallout really kicked ass, and if you patched it, bugs were very rare. The things it lacked were more than enough compensated by the wonderfully executed retro 50's style.
Heck, this game had a spiral bound manual! These days you're lucky to get a tiny paper scrap pointing you to the crappy, uninformative PDF on the CD/DVD. I want proper game boxes. Those trapezoid Thief boxes kicked ass.
Gamers across the world are crossing their fingers for Fallout 3 not to suck. The real game fans don't care about Halflife 2 or Doom 3, they care about jewels like Fallout
Re:Cool (Score:3, Insightful)
if Bethesda is smart, the Fallout editor will be just as capable, if not more capable
Petition: We want Fallout 3 the way it's supposed (Score:2, Insightful)
We, the real Fallout fans, would like Bethesda to make Fallout 3 properly, i.e keep the key elements such as:
-isometric view
-Turnbased combat
-the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system
and NOT make Fallout 3 into an FPS released on consoles.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned [petitiononline.com]
Re:Oh jeez I hope you are being sarcastic (Score:5, Insightful)
Id rather have a small world with a lot of detail than Morrowind.
Not to spit hairs here, but I really think you've got it wrong. Yes morrowind was agonizingly tedious and flat out boring compared to its prequels like daggerfall and arena. But the problem wasn't the games openendedness, it was the absolutely bland quest/leveling system. I.e. the world was pretty good, but the gameplay sucked.
Bethsoft made the tragic mistake of creating an absolutely vast game world(good), while creating a linear quest system within the world. It is so boring, questing is almost literally like running errands. You talk to someone, they give you a job...you run around and find something/kill someone and return to them. Every quest is like this, and you have to do each quest in order.
It's a terrible example of how gameplay structure was completely ignored. The reason arena and daggerfall were fun was because the world was very open-ended...and there was no imposed gameplay.
Ack, anyway I'm ranthing...let's just say that I'm glad fallout 3 is being made...but I'm depressed that it's bethsoft doing the writing. The sad thing is that all the morrowind sales have given them confidence that they are doing things right...they'll probably just clone morrowind and copy/paste to Fallout 3...just like they did with Pirates of the Carribean *sigh*.
Re:Cool (Score:3, Insightful)
That's simply untrue. I have had absolutely ZERO problems with Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon. Have you applied official patches? Attempted to contact tech support?
Are you sure it's not your computer? Between myself and everyone I know who has played the game, we've experienced nothing like you describe.
ToEE, on the other hand, has bugs because its publisher REMOVED CONTENT during QA, and didn't allow Troika to fix the resulting fallout.
You want to complain about a piece of software, fine, but try to keep the grotesque hyperbole to a minimum.
-lw