Credibility level of porting FO1/2 to modern consoles?

[ENCLAVECOMMANDER]

I think Bethesda should port Fallout, Fallout 2, and maybe Tactics to modern consoles, just for the hell of it. Maybe it would introduce more people to the original games, which is always a plus. Making the display appropriate for modern high-def TVs while sitting feet away on a couch would be the most challenging part; fortunately we already have HD patches for the games on PC. I'm reasonably sure a controller could accommodate the menus, contextual actions and skill usage, given that Planescape: Torment got modern console ports. Getting permission to use the various bugfix mods and unofficial patches would also be a potential difficulty. Still...if they actually did it, I'd probably buy it. Imagine the achievements and trophies they'd come up with for the games, lmao.

 

[cronicler]

Bethesda?
Absolutely, Emphatically a very big "NO!"

Bethesda isn't much of a game studio outside it's extremely narrow niche based firmly on their engine and all the various crude tools they have built for it (and the better tools they stole from the modders...)
The only way they could do it would be by farming it to a 3rd party and considering their m.o., we would just end up with a "GTA 3D Universe Remaster: Fallout Isometric edition".

 

[william dempsey]

Maybe it would introduce more people to the original games

If that would be a big earner then yes it would be done without doubt. I would not agree with that move in any way ! What would happen to the guys on here that work their bollocks off trying to make original FO's a bit more attractive, adding unused content, higher graphics or the complete new stories (Nevada ,Sonora , resurrection) Even Olympus 2207 that does not claim to be in the Fallout Universe so nobody can piss and whinge about lore, canon or whatever. All these efforts I applaud until my lil rubber bands (hands) hurt. These games are translated into AmerEnglish by hard working lads/men who are not raging bread heads. Plus the fact they do not cost very much,,, er erm as in free

I think keeping BIG companies away from older games whether it's Bethesda or whoever is a good thing. Could you ever imagine a big company saying " Here you go fan modders take this (x) amount to pay for your efforts ?

Another brilliant game that moved into cult status was VtMBloodlines which was buggy at launch because Troika had been bullied into rushing it out.

After years of fan made patches it lived on. The original gets sold overpriced because maybe word of mouth passed down to the console kiddiwinkles that like the bang flash gaudy, meaningless shit and some may have played it on a laptop or PC VTmB i mean. That's why floundering attempts have been made to make a 2 version. No idea if it has been released I lost interest in it ages ago.

The other BIG question is would Bethesda ever allow the S.P.E.C.I.A.L mechanics to be used in a more modern freer running environment like say Wasteland, Atom , Trudograd were the player did not do that funny zig zag 4 king walk. Amen

 

[ENCLAVECOMMANDER]

A console release would almost certainly be a remastered or enhanced version of some kind, that's a good point. Don't know why I didn't think of it before. It's also true that Bethesda may not care enough to do a good job of such a release. If it ever happened, I'd be rightly skeptical just like everyone else here but I'd probably buy it out of sheer appreciation of Bethesda noticing the originals exist.

To be honest, I'm mainly curious how a fan could rig up a way to play it on console themselves, like figuring out how a controller mapping scheme could work for the games, or couch-friendly HD rendering. The text might have to be blown up in size, for one.

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

Its never going to happen. Why? Same reason we won't ever get Remastered Versions of the Classic Fallouts, nor ports to other plataforms.

Because the original source code has been lost.

 

[ENCLAVECOMMANDER]

Oh.

Well...that would kind of put a halt to things, I guess. Unless there's someone insane enough to reverse engineer it, but I have no idea if there's someone that nuts out there.

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

Oh.

Well...that would kind of put a halt to things, I guess. Unless there's someone insane enough to reverse engineer it, but I have no idea if there's someone that nuts out there.

Well, there is a guy on github doing that, actually.

But that's on some kinda murky legal ground, so I'm expecting him to get a Cease & Desist in a few months.

That, or a job. Such work might be valuable enough that Bethesda might be willing to cut a deal.

If that goes sideways (very likely), I maintain my instance that the best thing that could be done is create an Open Source Clone of the Fallout engine, just like OG X-COM fans did with OpenXCOM. This way, you could easily port it to multiple systems, mod it easily, etc. And all that would be needed to play is owning a copy of Fallout 1/2, which is on good legal grounds.

 

[ENCLAVECOMMANDER]

So, there is hope after all...

 

[The_Citzen]

I don't think something like this would be possible, and even comercially viable. First of all the source code of the games was lost, meaning that working on the game to make it even work on a modern console would be very hard and time consuming. The amount of money required to pull something like that off probably wouldn't get close to the return they would get from it. It is impossible to expect those games to do even better than modern CRPGs that come on consoles (Wasteland 3 for example), which already are quite a niche market.

But let's say it would be viable to make this kind of thing in the first place, how it would work? I ain't going to completely write off as "it simply wouldn't work", it probably can, but it would be an absolutely awful experience. Those games don't have too much going on UI wise but they have a lot of "clicking" and moving your mouse around all over the screen. I heard that Paradox (studio behind HOI, Victoria, Crusader Kings...) managed to port Crusader Kings 3 to consoles, but there is one key difference here, Paradox games require you to interact with a lot of menus from the UI itself, and this kind of thing can work or at least be converted to a more console friendly UI. Still it must be an horrific experience that requires a fucking masochist to play.

And at the end of the day a 3d conversion (a fps rpg like) would require them to stray away so much from the originals that too much would be lost along the way, in other words, to put the amount of work and money necessary to pull something like this off, they are way better off simply creating Fallout 5.

The only way I think a port like this can even remotely happen is if Microsoft "ask" either Obsidian , but more likely InExile to remake those games as a modern 3d Crpg, along the lines of the wasteland series. It would be by far the better option, nothing will be lost and it will likely leave literally everyone pleased.

 

[ENCLAVECOMMANDER]

That's a fair analysis. Bethesda would probably never do it in the first place, anyhow.

 

[william dempsey]

Maybe a PC emulator for consoles. So dim console players could also play ancient titles like Civilisation. After 1 week they would scream for walkthroughs, cheatcodes etc

 

[Big No]

Maybe a PC emulator for consoles. So dim console players could also play ancient titles like Civilisation. After 1 week they would scream for walkthroughs, cheatcodes etc

I think you're giving console players a bit of a hard time when it comes to the idea of having them play Fallout 1 and 2 on an Xbox or Playstation. I don't recall gamers on the platforms en masse complaining that Wasteland was too hard even though it has many of the same mechanics from what I heard. Only really the Fortnite crowd would whine about the Fallout games being too hard, but they'd whine over most games' difficulty so...

 

[The_Citzen]

I think you're giving console players a bit of a hard time when it comes to the idea of having them play Fallout 1 and 2 on an Xbox or Playstation. I don't recall gamers on the platforms en masse complaining that Wasteland was too hard even though it has many of the same mechanics from what I heard. Only really the Fortnite crowd would whine about the Fallout games being too hard, but they'd whine over most games' difficulty so...

I don't think people would complain all that much about the games itself, most of the people buying into this already kinda knows what to expect, maybe not even a lot of complains about the port itself, as console players are already kinda used with receiving bad strategy games ports.

Btw I always found really weird this narrative that exists calling both Fallout 1 and 2 difficult games with a step learning curve, I don't know where this come from, as they aren't exactly hard to learn neither difficult games in general, you can do pretty much everything without a guide quite easily. I would go as far as saying that playing Fallout 4 on survival is way more challenging than anything you face in those games. The only one that is indeed quite hard is Fallout Tactics.

 

[Big No]

I think it just kind of comes with the fact not many have played them and heard that the games are challenging. Sort of like how Dark Souls is actually fairly simple when you get the gist of how to play, but since game journalists can't beat a Super Mario game without failing 20 times everyone just thinks FromSoft games are "turbo rage inducing impossible!" I feel like Fallout 1 & 2 are in the same boat since they were always PC exclusive and some people say they're hard, that vibe would wear off the more people who play them.

I believe Fallout 1 & 2 on console would help change the brand perception of the series too. Part of the reason I think Bethesda Fallout is considered so highly regarded is because their games are on all platforms which allows massive amounts of people to experience them, whereas the original two are only on PC. Adding the first two games to console would bring a whole new crowd to appreciating the storytelling and characters and maybe open their eyes to the Bethesda installment's flaws.

I know console players tend to be considered dumb and stupid, but that's only really the kiddy crowd who largely plays nothing but Fortnite, Minecraft and CoD/GTAO. Playing on an Xbox myself, most of us do like broad experiences with complex stuff, stuff that the first two Fallout's certainly deliver on.

 

[The_Citzen]

I know console players tend to be considered dumb and stupid, but that's only really the kiddy crowd who largely plays nothing but Fortnite, Minecraft and CoD/GTAO. Playing on an Xbox myself, most of us do like broad experiences with complex stuff, stuff that the first two Fallout's certainly deliver on.

Yeah, that's actually true a lot of pc only gamers have this kind of idea, and end up forgeting that even pc gaming is mostly composed of people playing either CS, LoL or any big battle royale game. Niches exist everywhere, and people need to keep in mind that console gaming in the most of the world is way more accessible than any kind of pc gaming (even if you account for piracy). I myself played a ton of those more "niche" games on my xbox too. I would bet that most people crying and saying that console gamers only play gta and fortnite don't even fucking know what a strategy or simulation game is.

 

[william dempsey]

I would bet that most people crying and saying that console gamers only play gta and fortnite don't even fucking know what a strategy or simulation game is.

I made a comparison using Civilisation as an example. The manual for that game was as long as ' War and Peace '. Many PC games before 2000 were indeed very nerdy and difficult.
So as a PC gamer from that time I knew that games would be dumbed down a touch to make them available to a wider audience.

I first played Fallout 2 on CD during the golden age of PC games. It did have a learning curve. One of the things I did realise was the stock characters Narg for example were not that good in comparison to a character built from scratch. Nowadays Min Max is all over the internet. Some gamers also install cheats.

I've seen people asking very basic questions because they are rushing and have 0 patience.

You may think Fallout 1, 2 on console would be a great idea as obviously you are a BIG fallout fan.

I think certain types of younger people seeing F1, 2 would laugh and whine that the guy ( character ) had a funny walk and that the player could not BUY a poo poo gun to cover enemies in shit.