Troika's Fallout 3 Pitch Prototype Showcased? 28
An anonymous reader writes "The No Mutants Allowed website has gotten hold of some screenshots of a post-apocalyptic RPG that was in development at Troika Games - the news story claims: 'Due to recent developments, [the prototype has] currently been put on hold.' Did the recent acquisition of the Fallout license by Bethesda kill chances of a Fallout 3 made by the game's original development team?" A recent messageboard post at the Troika-based Terra Arcanum fansite also suggests: "According to several unconfirmed rumors... Troika were also in the bidding for the license. In the end though... Troika were simply out-gunned."
Too bad... (Score:5, Insightful)
But this is what happens in the computer industry - the people with the most money get the better licences. Too bad that Bethesda's going to make the game that we *don't* want - endless, repetitive, computer-generated quests in a desert with Pipboy.
Arcanum had a great story but bad engine. TOEE had a terrible story but a terrific engine. Too bad they weren't given the chance to work with a brilliant francise using their TOEE engine - could have given us the game that us FO freaks wanted.
Re:Too bad... (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh what a load of crap. Create their own story (Score:5, Insightful)
But you need a big licensed name to sell you game nowadays. Kindly explain Star Wars Galaxies to me then. Biggest license around and doesn't sell.
If these guys got a nice engine for creating a post-apolyptical world then why can't they create their own story? Nobody "owns" hero must rebuild mankind. No law saying you can't create your own vault-dweller.
Instead of whining let them release their own game set in their own world. It is not like we are being overwhelmed with RPG's set in the future.
Arcanum and TOEE suffered both from one very simple thing. TO BLOODY BIG. There is no fun in walking around a landscape where a shed/building that is empty takes up several screens. Add the bugs to TOEE and they didn't sell because they were crap. It is sometimes hard to figure out why baldurs gate and its succesors worked. Just play some Arcanum and TOEE and it will become clear. Baldurs gate is smaller. Less gigantic areas with nothing to do in and far less walking involved.
On a side note, when are RPG games going to develop some code that makes sure only items are dropped wich I can use. Especially sucks in single player rpg's. Wow, my wizard got a gigantic asskicking sword. Can't use it and is to heavy to carry back. Nice. Usefull. Would it have been so hard to add class specific loot. Tip don't play nevewinter nights as a monk. You will have more money then creoscote and nothing to spend it on.
Re:Stop repeating that PR spins. (Score:2, Insightful)
Arcanum was bug ridden and had no game balance at all.
The bug ridden part also applies to both Fallout 1 or 2, with or without a patch. I'm not advocating that, but it barely hurt them any.
The whole "it must be from the orginal team" stuff is hillarious - the original team, black isle, produced more crap or canned software than good software in the last 5 years (lionheart anyone? canned fallout 3? canned van buren/bg3? Icewind Ripoff 2?).
Lionheart was NOT developed by Black Isle. It was published under their label. It was developed by Reflexive Entertainment. They're NOT responsible for being shut down right before their parent company, Interplay, went bankrupt, and having Fallout 3 cancelled in the process. As already stated, Van buren IS fallout 3.
Re:Oh what a load of crap. Create their own story (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, that's my wife is still playing it. She's finished it 5 times or so. She's even done the so-called "God's Quest". For her, it's like Morrowwind - she'll eventually finish the main story, but let's enjoy and wander around the world first. If you skip all the side stuff, it goes rather quickly.
Oh, and there's a new TOEE patch, you might want to take a look. My problem with the game is that it's too slow, it takes too long to get to a "wow" point.
Loot: I understand completely. Some NWN modules deal with it better than others. Right now my 30th level monk has dual Kama, one of which does 3D10, the other is Vorpal 18. I've got 3 different sets of Monk "armor", two sets of Gauntlets, two sets of bracers, three sets of boots, and a really nice cloak to aid my "hide" skill. The OC wasn't great about it, but the two expansions had some good stuff. And again, check out some third-party modules. We just got done with MTS2, which wound up with a ton of useful loot.
I don't know, Bethesda's RPGs are not the same. (Score:3, Insightful)
Now seriously, the one thing that turned me off of the otherwise techincally impressive Morrowind was the idiotic lack of depth in the randomly generated characters. I might as well have been playing NetHack.
fallout 3 (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that the "original developers" company is a bit much, but maybe just some of the original writers?
Fallout 2 was just Fallout with a few improvements and a new (much longer) story. fallout 3 doesnt really have to be much different to make the real fans happy.
Re:I don't know, Bethesda's RPGs are not the same. (Score:2, Insightful)
Morrowind was all done ahead of time, with every little thing placed there specifically. Now, you could complain that they did not put enough thought into many of the NPCs, and failed to flesh most of them out properly, and you might have a point. But that would be due to lack of time/resources/whatever during development, not due to bad random generatedness.
Re:fallout 3 (Score:3, Insightful)