Bethesda now owns Fallout, Fallout MMO being made [Archive]

nmrahde

04-13-2007, 08:07 PM

@Club Heaven - while short the expansion definitely seems to be fan service to those that liked Morrowind.

The only thing I didn't like about either is the fact that the events of Daggerfall get completely jumbled and lost (aka "The Warp in the West"). A lot of the quests in Shivering Isles are better and more in depth than any of the ones in Morrowind (while there was a lot of story explained at the beginning and closing of quests most of the actions of the quests were nothing revolutionary).

The ideal thing to happen with FO3 (which it won't) is to get Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson all involved (They were on the original team and also did "Arcanum", "The Temple of Elemental Evil", and "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" as Troika Games). Who knows mebbe they're already working on the project, but last I heard Boyarsky at least wasn't happy that Bethesda got the rights.

But hey, exploring the FO universe with the Gamebryo engine and Havok physics? Yeah, I'll be there.

I will also make an attempt to slog through the MMO if/when it comes out due to loving the setting (but I really dont like most MMOs)

Edit: Even the completely linear Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel for PC got the setting right despite lacking the open ended-ness of FO2, so I have faith in Bethesda

LowEnergyCycle

04-13-2007, 10:48 PM

I simply think they (Bethesda) need to find that sweet spot between Oblivion's accessibility and Fallout's immense amount of gameplay and options.

For too long RPGs have been the realm of the RPG Elite, and while that's fair enough (they cater to a specific and very intelligent audience), it's also nice to see some features become a little more accessible.

I do agree that Oblivion, after extended play, begins to show its cracks:
The dialog is truly pathetic.
The supposed super-dooper Radiant AI was a bold-faced marketing trick.
Role-playing without any Blade/Blunt Skill is nigh-on impossible.
A couple of other skills are utterly redundant (Alteration? Mysticism?).
There isn't really a great variety of things to actually do.
They reduced the amount of guilds, spells and types of equipment.
Generally there seems to be an abundance of pointless filler in there (who actually collects different stones and gems? Anyone? They sell for practically nothing).
Money becomes no object very quickly.
Once you understand the concepts of Enchantment and the different grades of Weapon, there's nothing much new to discover.
The advent of Level-Specific Prizes - a Ring of Cool-Dude-Ness only has a +6 on your stats unless your Level 25+.
The leveling up of the Bad Guys matches your own, so you never really feel very powerful.
Stealth is still calculated on a hidden numerical basis (I can currently wander around with a flaming torch in my hand and not be seen).
Physics and the associated Dungeon Traps were over-hyped and under-used (just like that super-dooper AI).
To reiterate point #1, NPC conversations are utterly broken, and thus crap.
Once you've seen one of each dungeon, you can forget about the rest.
Patrick Stewart is but a mere cameo (yet another marketing stunt).But some of the improvements they made after Morrowind were, undeniably, quite necessary.
The Fast-Travel and Map Marker systems for instance.
The very idea of NPCs having a general daily routine (even if it was eventually pretty poorly executed).
The ability to ride horses.
The divergence from a colour palette that didn't center around Brown as its major component
The sheer sense of place that you didn't really get with Morrowind.There's probably tons more, but I bore easily.

In all fairness, as amazing as Morrowind was, I found some of it's obtuse gameplay barriers a little off-putting. I certainly settled into Oblivion much easier, and found myself enjoying the game much faster. It may have stolen a good few ideas that were circulating around the game development community already, but it was certainly the first game to bring RPGs to the masses in style.

I just hope Fallout 3 manages to be as deep as previous Fallout games, but as accessible (and thus enjoyable) as Oblivion.

Gimli

04-14-2007, 04:22 AM

The ideal thing to happen with FO3 (which it won't) is to get Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson all involved (They were on the original team and also did "Arcanum", "The Temple of Elemental Evil", and "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" as Troika Games). Who knows mebbe they're already working on the project, but last I heard Boyarsky at least wasn't happy that Bethesda got the rights.

Nope, sorry, they're working elsewhere, as mentioned in one of Brother None's (aka Kharn) posts here, (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34697&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=boyarsky&start=60) and the last two posts on that page. Just thought people would like to know.

nmrahde

04-14-2007, 12:34 PM

@Gimli That's why I used "ideal". In my case "pipe dream" or "fantasy" would work just as well.

I think Bethesda will do a good job on FO, although it really depends who's doing what pieces. A lot of Oblivion had the feel of several different script writers for dialog. Some was great, some was....weeelll. I agree that both Radiant AI and physics based traps were far over-hyped. They have tried to fix alot of this with Shivering Isles. IMO, they DID fix the lack of physics based traps (one dungeon literally starts shaking and collapsing around you). I do think they should take the time and have the myriad of weapons/armors/items that FO2 had.

Overall I have faith in them based on the overall care/detail they put into the Elder Scrolls world, and the setting is still gonna be a big draw no matter how bad any game mechanics up being

Gimli

04-14-2007, 03:17 PM

I know you meant ideal, I just wanted to inform people that they're not working on it, and didn't know how to phrase it better. :)

lotkrotan

04-14-2007, 06:02 PM

I have always been impressed with the amount of detail and time that Bethesda puts into a game. A game to looks as good as Oblivion did/does, and contain all the content it contains was simply unforseen. Morrowind brought a whole new depth to console gaming, no one had such a great immersive first person RPG on any console till morrowind, and the sheer amount of things to do and upgrade made the game seem to be unending. I trust in them. Altough Oblivion did seem a little mainstream at times, there's no denying that full voice acting, the main quest line, the dialogue in the fighters/theives guilds, and the new skill bonus per stat level system were all great additions.

nmrahde

04-14-2007, 06:32 PM

Unforseen? I take it you haven't played their older Elder Scrolls games?:p

They went the most overboard with Daggerfall I think in regards to immersive content versus main quest stories (tons of books, diseases, cultural holidays, witch covens, hidden witch covens, I think there's like 20 countries in the game that you don't have to go to, and several different knightly orders for them)

So if the Daggerfall crew is on it, it'll be good. :)

Briosafreak

04-15-2007, 12:04 PM

Hi Gimli, got your message. On the case of Leon Boyarsky there's this quote:
I did approach Bethesda about us working with them on Fallout, but they were uninterested. Instead of flaming them for this however, think about it from their point of view: who among us would want to pay a huge amount of money for a license and then turn it over to someone else? I'm assuming they paid the $$ because they wanted to make a Fallout game, end of story.

There were some informal talks with Leon, that's about it, they didn't get far.

Gimli

04-15-2007, 01:11 PM

To anyone else who might be wondering what all this is about, I contacted Briosafreak, because I remembered reading somewhere that Bethesda refused the offer of part of the original team which worked on F3 (I primarily mean the trio Boyarsky-Cain-Anderson). Anyway, I just thought people might find it interesting, but couldn't find a link, so thanks for that Briosafreak.

Briosafreak

04-15-2007, 03:20 PM

Don't thank me, it was time for me to post here anyway, and check the news. :)

nmrahde

04-15-2007, 11:58 PM

Anybody know if Feargus (Urquhart?) is on board? He did a great job with FO2...

Briosafreak

04-16-2007, 05:04 AM

He is the CEO of Obsidian Entertainment (http://forums.obsidianent.com/), so he's not on board this time.

nmrahde

04-16-2007, 11:21 AM

Alas...............

Silent Film

04-16-2007, 10:12 PM

Is it true Tim Cain is working at NCSoft?

I like them but they specialise in MMOs and personally I'd like to him continue to develop single-player experiences. It's a real shame what happened to Troika, we need more games with the same depth Bloodlines had, they just needed to improve the gameplay mechanics and make it more accessible and balanced.

Gimli

04-17-2007, 03:41 AM

Somebody said that Tim wanted to make a "true" MMORPG, in the sense that it would be deeper, so to speak. I'm not sure how this would work out though, but then again, I haven't played an MMO, so I don't know much about their general mechanics. :P

jackinthebox

04-17-2007, 02:01 PM

i found a news about F3 at gamestar.de (http://www.gamestar.de/news/pc/spiele/rollenspiel/bethesda_softworks/1469466/bethesda_softworks.html) (german mag) where they posted an interview from gametab.com (http://www.gametab.com/news/876288/) (english ;) ) with Todd Howard (executive producer of Bethesda)

nmrahde

04-18-2007, 01:47 AM

neat. thanks!

Gimli

04-19-2007, 05:01 AM

Fallout 3 just got its official Bethesda web page (http://fallout.bethsoft.com/) and its own forum (click the poster).

Club Heaven

04-19-2007, 05:16 AM

Yeah, I saw that. I also checked the forums and I had to flee with a bitter taste in my mouth. It's full of people who barely heard a thing about the originals and a handful of veterans desperately trying to teach them about the old ways. I've read a bunch of annoying opinions on how the new Fallout should be and I'm quite sure the game will cater to these short attention span kiddies who wanna get strong real quick and kill everybody in the process. I'm bitter because I've spent years posting on the Bethesda forums in hope of a deeper, more mature sequel to TES 3. What I got wasn't even an RPG, just a console port action-adventure. With cliched and kindergarten friendly writing.

Whatever will happen to the dark Fallout humor ? Nothing funny I'm sure.

Briosafreak

04-19-2007, 05:33 AM

The place is a bit of a mess right now, without being a war field.

And I still have to check what's going on with Bioshock, spending my day off in gaming fora isn't what I had in mind...

Sorry for being late with the replies on my blog Gimli.

Gimli

04-19-2007, 07:14 AM

No problem at all, I know people have their lives. ;)

The place is a bit of a mess right now, without being a war field.

Gah, yes, so many posts in so little time. o_O What was it, 2000?

Anyway, I'd just like to point out the obvious here, and that is that you have to keep people in check. I know the older and more experienced people will be able to keep their cool, but there are always individuals with a shorter temper despite good intentions, so you guys (meaning mostly NMA adimns and mods) will have a tough job of keeping the discussions clean. I do not envy you at all, because I've had (less) experience with explaining the same thing over and over again, but this is the only good way as I see it. One more thing related to that: I've noticed that people are willing to listen a lot more if you keep your posts written in a nice manner. Because when you do not try to put others down, or post with an angry tone, the only thing people have left to do is to try to flame you - which you simply ignore, and when they realize you can't be baited they will have to focus on your arguments. I know that you are aware of this, I just wanted to share my personal experience, and the above mentioned approach has so far worked for me every single time.

On an unrelated note, there is an argument often mentioned against TB combat which I would like to address here, and give you a good counter-argument if you haven't thought of it. The argument is that TB combat is slow. Now the most obvious argument is that you can increase the speed of everything in the Preferences. However, somebody pointed out big fights like the Regulators vs Blades in Fallout. While this may seem like a flaw of TB combat, in reality it isn't and can be circumvented to a satisfying degree - coupled with the mentioned increased speed. This is a problem of programming the game engine, not TB combat. Have you have played X-COM: UFO Defense, or X-COM: Terror From the Deep? If you have, you have most certainly noticed that when an X-COM soldier is not in the view in tactical combat, and you set a destination for him to move to, the game will not play out the entire animation of him walking there. Instead, since you can't see a part of his route while he walks, why animate it at all? The programmers simply did this: based upon the calculated walking route, they "teleported" him to the edge of the your view and animated the part that you can see. This significantly cut on the walking time. Also, the alien or civilian units your soldiers couldn't see were not animated either. This has cut on the parts of combat that were useless effectively useless a lot.* This could be applied to Fallout as well, to a certain degree.

Anyway, post, post, post and don't stop posting, you guys have some very good arguments. I'll try to join once I get some more time, university is pressing hard, and I've been very lazy lately. In any case, good luck guys!

*It also added to the fear factor, because lots of times you send your soldier further than one screen, and due to the reactions system, as soon as you clicked on the destination spot, you'd have your soldier shot at (and killed most times), which made for some very memorable moments. :)

Club Heaven

04-19-2007, 07:31 AM

I very much doubt F3 will have turn based combat and I regret it. All my friends and the vast majority of gamers hate it and Bethesda won't be the ones to risk a maneuver like that just to please a few thousands of fossils, erm... fans. The money's where the majority is and the majority wants fast ACTION. Loads of flashes and loud bangs = fun :( Anything else and you're gay, or a noob, a pussy, living in your mom's basement etc.

I believe F3 will be similar to Oblivion gameplay wise, since it will use the same engine and Beth are self declared first-person lovers. But then they could make the game like Wizardry 8, a first-person TB RPG. Not gonna happen though.

Gimli

04-19-2007, 08:05 AM

There will be a countdown, as can be seen in the source code on http://fallout.bethsoft.com.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />

<title>prepare for the future</title>

<link href="countdown/countdown.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>

nmrahde

04-19-2007, 08:52 AM

Sadly I have to agree with Club Heaven about the mentality there...it actually also gives support to a lot of people's arguments about what might happen here once the game comes out.

Unfortunately it just seems like there are more uninitiated than initiated over there right now (and I only have about 20 min till work...)

However while I agree that they did make mistakes, overall I like the writing. Which parts did you have issue with Club Heaven? Each of the guilds had a great story arc that spanned all their quests (although Fighter's Guild quests themselves were pretty mundane). I have problems with the Mage's Guild one only because the King of Worms should not have been easily taken down (heck in one of the Daggerfall ending he could become a god...). He would have been great to keep around for a future non-daedra involved villain. Alas...

I do thank you for the update though Gimli.

Gimli

04-19-2007, 10:10 AM

I did not see this (http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=681001&st=120) coming, more than 70% people want TB combat.

Club Heaven

04-19-2007, 06:12 PM

Unexpected indeed. But don't get your hopes up. For every hardcore fan who voted in that forum, there's thousands more who'll never really care about the game unless they see some fast paced pew pew videos. And since Bethesda went mainstream...

Sixsword

04-19-2007, 07:40 PM

TB combat is the best! I know it may seem slow for some, but i enjoy the freedom it gives me. Many games i think lack because unless you sit down and learn 40 or so hotkeys your just get left in the dust because your reaction time was lacking. The joy of turn based combat is the fact that you sit back, look at what your doing, and them make a choice. Not the basic "o god, was it alt 4 or was it shift r... o look im dead!"

I am one of those older gamers that grew up with Xcom (may you rest in peace) and Jagged Alliance. I can understand why some people would dislike turn based combat. It can be flustering, and at times down right misleading. At the same time, there is nothing more enjoyable for me then to have a well planned out attack work and sitting back and watching all the fun.

On the flip side you have new games like UFO afterlight that are just pause-able RTS, and really lack the feeling of planning. You get a group of whatever and go kill stuff, but since your commands are limited and the game kind of lacks the feeling of tactics, so your just mindlessly moving your guys around and stay out of range of the monsters till you have a good shot.

Well whatever your cup of tea is, go drink it:)

nmrahde

04-20-2007, 12:06 AM

I prefer a double shot.

Meaning BOTH turn-based and realtime (Think Arcanum or FO Tactics). That way no matter which type you feel like playing you're good to go...

jackinthebox

05-02-2007, 01:57 PM

34 days! (http://fallout.bethsoft.com/) :cool:

...till the trailer

Gimli

05-02-2007, 07:54 PM

More importantly, NMA presents the pre-alpha tech demo (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35970) of the cancelled Van Buren, after releasing the awesome Van Buren video (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35934) (comes with a nice song too).

Soulsphere

05-03-2007, 03:26 AM

I'm not really a fan of MMORPGs, but maybe it won't be too bad.

As for Fallout 3, I'm giving them the benifit of doubt. I'm uncertan how it will turn out, but I don't think they'll do a terrible job as long as they stick with the same atmosphere and have good dialogue trees.

Corgano

05-05-2007, 09:32 AM

"Watcha be needing?" - Sulick (SP)

Hehe, been a few years, but I still remember him. Nothing like good NPC characters.

Checked out the website... The music has a very, Pitch Black feeling to it. You know what I mean? AS in the movie Pitch Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_Black_%28film%29).

Well, I LOVED the original Fallout games, and I LOVED the Pitch Black move & the sequal, The Chronicals of Riddick. But, trying to put Fallout into a FPS style of game with a mood similar to Pitch Black... Um, I don't know. :confused:

It's just hard to imagine Fallout in such a way. Maybe they'll go with something similar to NWN2. That may turn out ok. Of course, I could just be reaching on the whole Pitch Black thing. Guess we'll see in 31 days.

Peace,
Cor

Soulsphere

05-08-2007, 02:12 AM

Now that I've thought about it a little more, I think they could screw up Fallout 3 in one of two ways. First, if they make the game too different from Fallout 1 and 2 it would no longer be a Fallout game.

The most important thing about Fallout 3 that shouldn't change is the atmosphere. The world needs to seem like it's over; with lawlessness, corruption, and chaos. Mind you, there have to be some structured communities, otherwise there wouldn't be much room for plot.

On the other hand, if it's too much like Fallout 2 there wouldn't be much to see. Sure the story would be different, but if there aren't any changes it'll be a little bland.

Corgano

05-08-2007, 04:55 PM

I'm thinking if anything, they'll change it too much and it will lose that gritty, dirty, corrupted feel it used to have. I hope I'm wrong though, and all the fancy updates to graphics, music, and game engines don't lose the original feeling and atmosphere.

Soulsphere

05-09-2007, 01:48 AM

I know what you mean, I'm a little worried about that myself. With regards to roleplaying games, Bethesda Softworks really only has the Elderscroll series under their belt. The Fallout series is so much different than Elderscrolls, it makes me wonder if they have the necessary skill to pull it off.

However, they're taking their time on it. That's probably a good sign, since it suggests that they're taking the time to make a quality game. Though it may also mean that they have no clue as to what they're doing. I'd like to stick with the former thought as I have no evidence to suggest that I'm going to dislike Fallout 3.

I really don't understand how people can judge a game that they haven't even seen yet. In fact, I don't judge a game until I've played it or I've read a review about it. However, even that's being a bit harsh, since reviewers aren't necessarily right in my case. I may enjoy playing a game that others hate, or I might hate a game that gets an excellent review.

One option I'd like to see in Fallout 3 is the ability to build a robot, but in a more detailed manner than Fallout 2 has. Another thing I'd like to see is some real romance and the ability to get married to someone who you truely love. They didn't handle that well in Fallout 2. It might be interesting, as I've read on the Fallout 3 forums, if an NPC that you got into a fight with earlier could level up a bit, track you down with some friends, and ambush you.

Corgano

05-09-2007, 03:43 AM

However, they're taking their time on it. That's probably a good sign, since it suggests that they're taking the time to make a quality game. Though it may also mean that they have no clue as to what they're doing. I'd like to stick with the former thought as I have no evidence to suggest that I'm going to dislike Fallout 3. LOL!!! Man, that made me laugh.

I really don't understand how people can judge a game that they haven't even seen yet. In fact, I don't judge a game until I've played it or I've read a review about it. However, even that's being a bit harsh, since reviewers aren't necessarily right in my case. I may enjoy playing a game that others hate, or I might hate a game that gets an excellent review. Yup, very, very much agree. I've enjoyed several games that have been rated poorly. Or were just underground-ish, and I liked quite a lot.

One option I'd like to see in Fallout 3 is the ability to build a robot, but in a more detailed manner than Fallout 2 has. Another thing I'd like to see is some real romance and the ability to get married to someone who you truely love. They didn't handle that well in Fallout 2. It might be interesting, as I've read on the Fallout 3 forums, if an NPC that you got into a fight with earlier could level up a bit, track you down with some friends, and ambush you. Robot would be cool... trying to remember Fallout 2's but drawing a blank.

The NPC thing sounds sweet! I hope they do, do that! Will make you think twice about things, that's for sure!

As for a real romance, I'm a fan of that in RPG settings... Baldur's gate, Never Winter Nights, etc. But in Fallout?
Hmm... I don't know. Pretty sure I remember a city (Vegas style) that I slept with the mayor's daughter, his wife, and then wiped out everyone in the city. :eek: Like I said, Fallout was dirty, and gritty. Not for the faint of heart. Or perhaps that was just my play style there. :)

Perhaps they could have more civilized romances as well. But I *hope* they don't leave out the "bad" options as well! Sometimes, it's fun being bad! :p

Peace,
Cor

lotkrotan

05-09-2007, 04:13 AM

Bethesda Softworks has been a developer and publisher of interactive entertainment content for over two decades. Founded in 1986 by Christopher Weaver in Bethesda, Maryland; they moved to Rockville, Maryland in 1990, and have a long history of PC and console games. Bethesda was acquired by Zenimax Media, Inc., which Weaver co-founded, in 1999.

With a broad panoply of games in role-playing, racing, simulation, and sports, Bethesda Softworks major franchises are distributed worldwide.

Bethesda is credited with the creation of the first physics-based sports simulation (Gridiron) in 1986 for the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga and Commodore 64/128, which led to Bethesda's creation of the first John Madden Football game for Electronic Arts. Despite their long history of development in many genres, they are perhaps best known for creating The Elder Scrolls RPG series which Weaver initiated in 1992, based upon the original programming of Julian Lefay. The first chapter of the series, entitled The Elder Scrolls: Arena, was released in 1994. Since that time, numerous other chapters have been released. The latest chapter, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, was released in March 2006.

I think they have the experience to do it.... They are master story tellers, and they take pride in their work, it's just a matter of if their vision of fallout will be the same of the fans. They have turned their dreams into games, and they can do that again, but once again, that dream may differ than the originals...

I hope that's not the case.

Soulsphere

05-10-2007, 01:09 AM

Robot would be cool... trying to remember Fallout 2's but drawing a blank.

That's something you may or may not have done. You have to do jobs for one of the crime families in New Reno, the last one being to get into a vault, which contains parts that you can use to build a robot.

The NPC thing sounds sweet! I hope they do, do that! Will make you think twice about things, that's for sure!

Yeah, I really hope they do something like that.

As for a real romance, I'm a fan of that in RPG settings... Baldur's gate, Never Winter Nights, etc. But in Fallout?
Hmm... I don't know. Pretty sure I remember a city (Vegas style) that I slept with the mayor's daughter, his wife, and then wiped out everyone in the city. :eek: Like I said, Fallout was dirty, and gritty. Not for the faint of heart. Or perhaps that was just my play style there. :)

Ah yes, I recall that. That would have been New Reno and the wife and daughter of that crime boss named Bishop. I tended to wipe out three of the four crime families.

Perhaps they could have more civilized romances as well. But I *hope* they don't leave out the "bad" options as well! Sometimes, it's fun being bad! :p

Well, it definately did add to the humour.

Corgano

05-10-2007, 02:41 AM

Yeah, for the humor. Some of the options and choices could be pretty funny. Oh, and some of the Perks were interesting too. :)

Soulsphere

05-19-2007, 04:47 AM

I also kinda liked that trait that increased the chance of critial failures. If you're lucky, you didn't have to do much but watch your opponents kill themselves.

Corgano

05-19-2007, 11:45 AM

I think they have the experience to do it.... They are master story tellers, and they take pride in their work, it's just a matter of if their vision of fallout will be the same of the fans. They have turned their dreams into games, and they can do that again, but once again, that dream may differ than the originals...

I hope that's not the case.Well... I would not classify them as master story tellers. Don't get me wrong, I loved Daggerfall, and Morrowind. (Haven't played Oblivion yet) But, if anything, the main story was the weakest element of those games. The freedom to move about the map was the main feel for the game. And lots, and lots, of side quests and areas.

But, the original Fallout series definately had a very prominent story line. And some memorable NPCs as well. Plus, the comedy. Then later, heavy weapons, mutants and aliens. It was all just blened together so well, it just meshed.

I *Hope* they can acheive that same basic feeling with the new game. The graphics, music, sounds, creatures, NPCs, and towns are all there to help support the main story and plot. Just because the map apans 20,000 kilometers doesn't mean that's a good thing if there's no backbone for it. But, you know all this because you are a fan of the series as well.

I'm just a tad nervous about it, and mostly excited. :D

Corgano

05-19-2007, 11:47 AM

I also kinda liked that trait that increased the chance of critial failures. If you're lucky, you didn't have to do much but watch your opponents kill themselves.Yes, IF I remember correctly, especially with the automatic weapons later in the game.

To bad the scorpions never did that to themselves in the beginning. :p

lotkrotan

05-20-2007, 03:08 AM

Well... I would not classify them as master story tellers. Don't get me wrong, I loved Daggerfall, and Morrowind. (Haven't played Oblivion yet) But, if anything, the main story was the weakest element of those games.

I tend to disagree, but only because the main story has very little to do with their story telling. The books around the games (hundreds of books!) all read differently, and I've found myself spending hours just reading them because they're interesting. The factions are where they really shine though. Seeing the little problems with neighboring houses become full fledged warfare in Morrorwind made me replay 3 times just so I could beat all 3 without being on anyone's bad side. The Assassin's Guild in Oblivion was well written (especially the ending killings. What a Twist!). I think that the main story line was decent in Oblivion, and alright in Morrorwind, but what made them stand out is that the world around the main storyline made you believe it was an actual problem that needed to be taken care of. The game world responded to you depending on the mission you were in, and the ones you had completed. Hearing everyone murmor about the "great savior" and all his deeds in Morrorwind, only to find yourself stuck in the religous prophecies in your journeys was a great feeling. You already know all this seemingly useless information about the game world, and it gets used in reference to huge events. You know why something had a big effect because you know the world as if it's your own.

ok there's my rant, continue the regular discussion :)

jackinthebox

05-23-2007, 01:20 PM

the first artwork is from today (i think), taken from the countdown site of F3... the other 3 are older ones... how do you like them? i think they are marvellous! (don't quote this post) =)

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/countdown/images/stripmall_m.jpg

http://www.actiontrip.com/features/pics/fallout35.jpg

http://www.actiontrip.com/features/pics/fallout31.jpg

http://www.actiontrip.com/features/pics/fallout34.jpg

Corgano

05-24-2007, 04:49 AM

I tend to disagree, but only because the main story has very little to do with their story telling. The books around the games (hundreds of books!) all read differently, and I've found myself spending hours just reading them because they're interesting.Yup, I've played a lot of games where they have tons of books in them that talk about different things. I like it best when they foreshadow a give mini-clues to things later in the story. Sort of a, thank you for reading all the work we put into making these little books. I always get excited when I read something and think that it may be in the game someplace or has a bit of background lore or what not. Good stuff! Lots of RPGs do that. Baldur's Gate 1-2 1/2, Ice Wind Dale 1-2, Never Winter Nights 1-2, etc.

Well, maybe I'll have to check it out Oblivion then. :)