Emil Pagiarulo explains

[Sander]

Talking the Master out of it was very cool, but if I remember right you basically always had to fight Horrigan and blow up the enclave in FO2. At least I never remember talking Horrigan out of fighting, or talking the president out of being an evil mustache twirler.

In F2, an Enclave scientist that worked on the virus that had to cleanse the USA was the one that had to be talked to.
He could be talked out of continuing with his plans - he releases the virus into the airducts.
Also, a group of Enclave troopers may be convinced to fight Horrigan.

But you still have to fight him. Which is a shame. Horrigan is one of the worst parts of Fallout 2.

 

[Sorrow]

I agree. Also, I hate the idea of Big Bad Boss. It would be more interesting if all enclavemen would be normal, common people, that want to do something evil, because they think it was right.

 

[Bernard Bumner]

Horrigan is one of the worst parts of Fallout 2.

Horrigan feels like a bolt-on compared to the integration of The Master's story into Fallout. I guess that Horrigan was meant to serve a similar purpose, but he's spectacularly badly implemented.

Aside from the issue of how one is forced to deal with him, he manages to simply fall in a crack between being a properly developed character and a elementally evil presence. He either needed to be given better writing and a fuller role, or else take on a more mysterious role simply as an agent of death.

As it is, his actual appearances lurch towards the latter, being reduced to badly scripted vignettes where violence often badly clashes with underdeveloped humour (like asking about lunch after ripping Matt to pieces), but he's also given a barely developed back story to try to exlain where such a bastard came from. At the end, we're meant to feel some satisfaction in killing him, but there he simply feels like an obstacle; a pantomime bond villain who serves no real pupose other than to artificially impose a sense of peril on the endgame.

Such a shame, really, because if you've taken a more intellectual route through the game, then you're forced to exploit things like ducking back in and out of the door in order to kill him. It is probably the only time in Fallout 2 that you really feel railroaded...

 

[Sorrow]

Not to mention the foreshadowing encounters - he's like a bad console game villain.

 

[GammaRay]

A bit off-topic:

A new note on BlehBlog: link

What a 'discreet' suggestion of 'Bloody mess rocks!'

Well current he’s working on Fallout 3 and apparently was getting comments/complaints from devs who were innocently dropping by his desk to chat about this or that and were completely disgusted by whatever happened to be on Grant’s screen (e.g., reference photos of cadavers, body parts, etc.).

EDIT:

The polish version of NMA has a link to polish gaming site (gram.pl) which has first impression on F3 after GC. Noted:

Twórcy jednak wpadli na genialny pomysł, aby zamiast zwykłej planszy z ekranem ładowania umieścić również różne statystyki, takie jak poziom naszej celności, ilość zabitych mutantów i tym podobne zestawienia.

In a loose translation: "The creators of the game had a brilliant idea of adding some statistics data to the loading screen showed when switching locations - the accuracy level, dead mutants counter and so on".

Now really: "TEH AWESOME". Sheesh!

 

[SuAside]

well, judging from the pictures he sure makes nice explosions


as for the bloody mess stuff we've seen in pictures, it really doesnt looks special. some eyeballs, a skull and a bucketload of blood. that's about it. kinda looks like a liquified head instead of an exploding one.

 

[Bezimek]

Emil - it is first good news about Fallout 3. Keep them coming

The polish version of NMA has a link to polish gaming site (gram.pl) which has first impression on F3 after GC. Noted:

Quote:

Twórcy jednak wpadli na genialny pomysł, aby zamiast zwykłej planszy z ekranem ładowania umieścić również różne statystyki, takie jak poziom naszej celności, ilość zabitych mutantów i tym podobne zestawienia.



In a loose translation: "The creators of the game had a brilliant idea of adding some statistics data to the loading screen showed when switching locations - the accuracy level, dead mutants counter and so on".

Now really: "TEH AWESOME". Sheesh!

I think that this idea comes from .... shooter games for instance Duke Nuken 3d ( end of level) Nice


One good news, one bad - perfect balance.

 

[Seeks]

Removal of the "idiot dialogue" is not fully embracing dialogue philosophy of Fallout.

You can't be a retard anymore? Fucking bullshit.


And I think it mentions somewhere in the FOB that Horrigan was either tacked-on or an afterthought in FO2, though I'm probably not remembering it correctly.

 

[Fyu-jon!!!]

And I think it mentions somewhere in the FOB that Horrigan was either tacked-on or an afterthought in FO2, though I'm probably not remembering it correctly.

Wouldn't be surprised if it's one of those things marketing dept. demanded, like the Temple of Trials.

 

[Ausir]

I wouldn't blame every bad design choice in FO2 on marketing.

 

[Sander]

I wouldn't blame every bad design choice in FO2 on marketing.

Yeah, it's all Avellone's fault!
Seriously, though, I think Fallout 2 lacked someone to keep a consistent vision of the game alive. It resulted in a bit of a mess, and underdeveloped characters like Horrigan.

 

[Ausir]

Looking at the Van Buren docs, they definitely learned from their mistakes - it was definitely more consistent.

 

[Edge386]

Dialogue sounds like an improvement over Oblivion. However, I still feel down to my core that F3 deserves it's own engine.

At least they're getting a consistent amount of reviews and feedback already. I check here every day to see what NMA is discussing about it's development.

 

[Puuk]

Ok, I can appreciate the clarification there. I'm back in the "wait and see" mode... sort of.