Fallout's 10th anniversary: Fallout Retrospective Interview

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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10 years ago was another one of those big dates:<blockquote>Project Update: Fallout DOS/Win95 should be in stores by the time you read this. The Mac version was sent to the duplicators today, and should be in the stores shortly. European and rest of world releases are unknown at this time, but we are working on the localized versions right now. The Feedback page returns! (just in time for your comments, too.) -- 7 Oct 1997 @ 1600 PST</blockquote>What a nice date, it's...you know what? We (and some other random guys) have been talking enough. It's time to give the mike to the guys that really have something to say on this date: the leads of the series. So we collected a few; Leonard Boyarsky, the lead artist of Fallout 1 and father of the setting, Chris Taylor, lead designer of Fallout 1 and senior designer of Fallout: Tactics, Feargus Urquhart, lead designer and producer of Fallout 2, Chris Avellone, author of the Fallout Bibles and Van Buren's lead designer, and J.E. Sawyer, who took over the lead designer gig from Chris Avellone and saw it through almost until the end of BIS.

So without further ado, here is Fallout's 10th anniversary: Fallout Retrospective Interview.

Link: NMA presents: Fallout's 10th anniversary.
 
Teh awsumz. Some pretty surprising answers in there (specifically from Feargus). Good stuff.
 
I know it's a lost cause, but I hope that what the great say about Fallout will defeat the thickness of Todd's skull and actually make him understand Fallout.
 
funny to see that MCA says that the rabid fanbase is an inherent part of Fallout (without it, it wouldnt be Fallout). ;)

CT's comment of Dogmeat biting people in the groin made me lol as well as Sawyer's comment on Cassidy's childkilling, but it quickly faded thinking of Beth's FO3...
 
Urquhart is (not) an asshole. I don't like him one tiny bit... :mad:

:edited for decency and fairness:
 
It’s very gratifying and even flattering (to be completely honest), that there are people out there who are so passionate about something that was such a labor of love for us. I don’t know why they’ve been singled out as particularly intense or rabid, I see the same thing with a lot of different fan bases who care about the game/characters/book/movie etc they love so much.
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I think they are truly fanatic, in the nicest sense of the word. If I could, I would invite 95% of them over for some meat on a stick and a beer. I'm pretty sure I would need restraining orders for the other 5%.
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:salute:

And these:

You mean besides turning it into a real-time FPS? (Just kidding!)
Fallout is a game of its time. I can't think of anything critical that I would want to change. Except maybe the talking heads – it might have been easier to do them today in 3D and make them even more lifelike. It would have been nice to have shadows _and_ multiple levels in the environment.
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Although, honestly, I don't know if you can improve Fallout through technology.
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Awesome!

Too bad these words are lost on people who think they know better than the original developers what Fallout was and should be.

Urquhart is an asshole. I don't like him one tiny bit...
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Hmm, this interview pretty much shows that he's quite OK. Hey, he even admits his slam-dunks. Overall he's a good one in my book.
 
Job well done, well worth the read.

I was especially moved by this bit -

Chris Avellone said:
We ran two simultaneous sessions at Black Isle, trying out character development and advancement, letting 10-12 players (divided into two parties) stomp up and down on an area design, revise the area, and then build an area design document based on that. In addition, because they were adventuring in the same world, it was cool to see how events from one party caused ripples for the other party (which was intended to be part of the theme/goal in Fallout 3).
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:salute:

Too bad all this dedication and effort went to waste.
 
Morbus said:
Urquhart is an asshole. I don't like him one tiny bit... :mad:
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Urquhart's ok. Sure he's a bit slam dunk and a bit of a manager first game maker second, but at the end of the day he's good people.
 
FeelTheRads said:
Hmm, this interview pretty much shows that he's quite OK. Hey, he even admits his slam-dunks. Overall he's a good one in my book.
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In your book, not in mine... Look at the games he did and tell me about them. NWN and NWN2, BG:DA and BG:DA2, KotOR2, Lionheart: LotC, BG and BG2:SoA, IWD and IWD2, and, last but not the least, FO2... I don't like him, in my eyes, all he brought to Fallout was bad. Besides, he's a console junkie. See that senseless thought about an hybrid combat system? I don't like him...

:EDIT:
And I'm not being personal here, of course. I don't know him personally, so I can't say whether he is a good or a bad person.
 
Look at the fact that he's responsible for Fallout 1's excellent QA and fixing its still-broken barter system.

Plus, he added the .223 pistol to the game

How can you possibly dislike him after that?
 
Brother None said:
Morbus said:
Urquhart is an asshole. I don't like him one tiny bit... :mad:
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Urquhart's ok. Sure he's a bit slam dunk and a bit of a manager first game maker second, but at the end of the day he's good people.
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problem with Troika was that all of them were gam makers first, and managers second. ;)
(and that's what killed them in the end)

so it's not a bad thing to have at least one manager first and game maker second in the team.
 
Great read. Only problem is, many of their 'favourite things' about Fallout come from Van Buren, which is just more evidence that it would probably have been spectacular. I wonder who the main antagonist was going to be; Chris Avellone's answer on favourite NPC's suggests that this was going to be a really deep, fleshed-out character.
 
Crowfoot said:
Great read. Only problem is, many of their 'favourite things' about Fallout come from Van Buren, which is just more evidence that it would probably have been spectacular. I wonder who the main antagonist was going to be; Chris Avellone's answer on favourite NPC's suggests that this was going to be a really deep, fleshed-out character.
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http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Presper
 
This should have been the grand finale, it's massively interesting and informative.


And nostalgic.




Morbus don't be like that, I had DOZENS of flameposts against Fergus choices through the years, and slammed him (ups) many times, but really he is no asshole. That's pretty unfair, and uncalled.

Fergus was annoying many times? Yes. Doesn't like the Fallout community all that much? Partially yes. But he is one of us, more than me or you, he's just like family, an important part of the Fallout family and a nice guy in his private life, someone that cares about the Fallout legacy, and has come a long way in his self-criticism,so really that is excessive.

<3 chubby
 
Briosafreak said:
Fergus was annoying many times? Yes. Doesn't like the Fallout community all that much? Partially yes. But he is one of us, more than me or you, he's just like family, an important part of the Fallout family and a nice guy in his private life, someone that cares about the Fallout legacy, and has come a long way in his self-criticism,so really that is excessive.
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Truth.

Fergus is like the strange cousin who farts at the families BBQ.
You sure can blame him for that, but he's a nice guy and he brought the meat.
Meat > fart. MATH!
 
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