Gamebanshee's History of Fallout

M

Montez

So Old I'm Losing Radiation Signs
Gamebanshee has posted a huge article on the history of the Fallout game, from Wasteland all the way to Bethesda's work-in-progress. I don't think I need to bait you guys to read this, but since I love Wasteland so much I'm going to post this bit anyway:
<blockquote>Wasteland has garnered numerous critical awards, including 9th place in Computer Gaming World’s 1996 list of the top 150 games of all time. Their mini-review of the game was as follows:

“A fascinating science fiction story set in a post-nuclear world of disintegrating technology, dysfunctional society and mutant organisms, Wasteland was the first game many of us played where the other members of the player's adventuring party acted like "real" people instead of inventory cabinets with names and automatons with skill sets. Ask the party to divvy up the cash and one or more might refuse. Try to get a party member to cough up his/her last clip of ammo? No way! But don't take our word for it. Play it yourself. The entire game is on this month's CD-ROM.”

In 1998, Computer Gaming World inducted Wasteland into its Hall of Fame. In their article, they state that Wasteland is one of the games that "broke the records, established the benchmarks, and held gamers in delighted trances for hours untold. Derived from Mike Stackpole's (PNPRPG) Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes, this is the definitive post-apocalyptic RPG.</blockquote>
Hmm, sounds familiar....

Link: History of Fallout @ Gamebanshee
Thanks Briosafreak!
 
what are those screenshots on the right?
i recognize wasteland and fo2 at the top and fo3 at the bottom. where are the other 2 from?
 
tre said:
what are those screenshots on the right?
i recognize wasteland and fo2 at the top and fo3 at the bottom. where are the other 2 from?
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Fallout Tactics for the PipBoy 2000 with the map, and the one that says "Welcome to Carbon" is from the cancelled FO3.
 
No you guys are right, sorry about that. I'm glad though, because that means that I momentarily forgot that piece of crap game ever existed.
 
Ah, right. No wonder I didn't recognize them, I never played F:BOS.
The Pipboy 2000 looks pretty good though, um, if you take away those horrible faces at the bottom.

Thanks. :)
 
Well, they had pics of F3 (Van Buren), which was never actually even announced, so...
 
I found it kind of odd that in The History of Fallout they spent more time talking about Wasteland and it's progeny than the Fallout games, specifically.
 
Bradylama said:
I found it kind of odd that in The History of Fallout they spent more time talking about Wasteland and it's progeny than the Fallout games, specifically.
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That might be because the history of Wasteland is a little more fuzzy to many modern day gamers (including myself, I feel like a Heretic for not knowing much about wasteland) and the history of Fallout is, of course, easier to recollect due to it being released much more recently.

I'm glad you posted this link Montez. Very educational...and for once it was a peaceful and pleasent reminiscence for us Fallout fans. Thanks again Montez for pointing this out :ok:
 
Funny, they point out a valuable parallel, two in fact, that point out how we are receptive to changes not suitable to a sequel or a game in the same genre.

While on the same note, they seem to focus on that the core aspect of Fallout is the puns, other stupid humor, and then end it all with a fart joke. Thank you for proving that F:POS was made for your moronic staff and readership in mind, folks. Anyone who hasn't figured out that GameBanshee is as replacably formulaic as GMR is either in denial or really hasn't bothered to look to other sources to be really informed. It is such sloppy journalism for fleecing kids that is what disgusts me, because it spreads ignorance at the benefit of giving the liars and poor journalists a venue to spread it even more to the point where such word is considered gospel. Internet Mormonism, I stabbeth thee.

As we've pointed out, especially with one of their moronic editors (who later turned to whining to our hosts because we had different views such as having all of the facts while they just assumed like some common idiot cranking out fluff filler for more page views) we do know what is currently going on, despite their wonderful use of a search engine or three. I really do hate it when I have to point out the obvious to one of their editors, especially when it comes to instructing said moronic editor in the ways of conversation and his job, and also how to act like an educated adult by having credible material. Again, they are found lacking. Maybe they could bave been a Usenet leech and performed the usual half-ass "journalism" that GameBanshee provides, by making a stupid statement and assume that everyone would smile and spoon-feed the lazy media whore. More irony, they still have up the notes for modding by Romero's new bitch. Hey, didn't he have absolutely nothing to do with the Fallout series? Even before the Fallout news sites commented upon it, mainly for humor's sake? Even before the company he was no longer a part of no longer really existed for the "sales" of F:POS to have had any affect upon their paychecks, almost woefully coming close to apologising for Herve for having such poor business practices. For having such stupid naivitee akin to Sean K. Reynolds when it comes to funding game design, also believing that "with just a bit more money from sales, things would suddenly be better!"? Wiser and more experienced heads prevaled before anyone was as stupid as send money to Interplay of their own free will. I do loathe it when developers show such stupidity and think they have much credibility with those with a clue, ala David Gaider.

To those whose heads are still spinning, basically this is just a few examples of the wonderful journalism that manages to get money from people. Come ON. At least those who try to con you for a cheap over-priced item is going to do this in your face, so to speak, mainly because the buyer is a tourist. Christ, could anyone still be a "tourist" in gaming and the internet for more than a year or six months?

Of course, I remember Little Bishop when he was still a gushing fanboy straight from high school on the Fallout 2 Feeback forums. Yes, I think people have used the phrase "pull an Elara", but in reality it all has been fairly the same thing Sawyer did when he first signed onto BIS. His spin-doctoring didn't last for long around the oldtimers of the forum, giving him the hidden-forum nicknames of "Bitch-slip". :)

What, wasn't Strehse and Silver Style considered important enough to fellate whenever they too belch an ill wind of Fallout from their collective asses? Come on folks, be consistent with the kneepads if you're going to use them. :)

EDIT: Might I suggest a few influences from other EA titles you GameBanshee people neglected to mention, along with the other sources? It wasn't just from Wasteland and those loosely and obscurely related to it.

GameBanshee: Where gaming news gives a screaming whimper before it dies.
 
:notworthy: and there it is... I am a tourist. I still prefer my news bits from here. I feel like my penis was just chopped off in some foreign country. :shock: ::slips away quietly::
 
Edge386 said:
Bradylama said:
I found it kind of odd that in The History of Fallout they spent more time talking about Wasteland and it's progeny than the Fallout games, specifically.
Click to expand...
That might be because the history of Wasteland is a little more fuzzy to many modern day gamers (including myself, I feel like a Heretic for not knowing much about wasteland) and the history of Fallout is, of course, easier to recollect due to it being released much more recently.

I'm glad you posted this link Montez. Very educational...and for once it was a peaceful and pleasent reminiscence for us Fallout fans. Thanks again Montez for pointing this out :ok:
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I couldnt have said it better myself. This was a VERY neat artical
 
PsychoSniper said:
Allready seen this elseware b ut still sweet.
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I've read that before too, except for the snippet about the Bard's Tale remake now being out. Was probably Kotario who linked to it last time, since we know Montez never reads his posts.
 
Per said:
Was probably Kotario who linked to it last time, since we know Montez never reads his posts.
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No, you've got it wrong man...um.... it's actually Kotario who doesn't read my posts.....yeah, that's the ticket!
 
Per said:
I've read that before too, except for the snippet about the Bard's Tale remake now being out.
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Actually, this "history article" has been around about a dozen times since Fo1 was released, it's nothing more than a sad rehash that also proves that they seem to have taken some footnotes from F:POS in understanding the setting's general tone and design. At least most of the others seemed to think that differing the setting from Wasteland in ways other than the increasing presence of no talent behind the humor writing is a footnote compared to the real setting.

Of course, I could point out where not only the moronic editor, but the owner of the site decided to try and fake journalism last time. After we just shrugged and told them to get a clue about how poor the game was, what the setting was, and to not try and bullshit the public, they went to our hosts with the whining. Given how F:POS turned out, and with this new article that captures a few footnotes from a Wasteland site as well as a few other pieces of information, it really isn't that wholly informative outside of again making their readership think that Fallout = TEH KEWL JOKKES AND OMG HE MADE A FART JOK#E!!! OLO!! I CUT A MUFIN!! - they proved to be "ass-licking shitheads" indeed. :)

So, Jon, any excuses for the shitty half-ass article this time, or are you just going to continue using us as an RSS feed? You know, it might help your editors to have read the site and have actually played the games sometimes before you try to be clever with the "grep" utility you just found and post more laughable "articles" that have not only been done before, but better as well. Yes, thank you for ripping off the Wasteland Ranger HQ; while many Wasteland fans like Fallout and think of it as a spiritual successor that it was aiming to be, including Wasteland-inspired games that really had nothing to do with Fallout's timeline from a timeline of Wasteland-inspired games is frankly just poor skills some editor found in college. Try to fake it better, kiddies. It would have been far more honest to have just linked to your obvious source and asked that people read it, rather than try to spin out something and not credit them, while also at the same time perpetuate more of your crappy "journalism", and then FAIL at it.

Also in 1990, a third game using the Wasteland engine was developed and published by Electronic Arts called Escape From Hell. Of the three, Escape From Hell is the least known. This game, while not being in the post-apocalyptic genre, this was more akin to Fallout thanks to its rather offbeat sense of humor. Its title is to be taken literally, and the game filled with spoofs and parodies of the genre. You can get Stalin, Hamlet, Horatio, Hitler, Dr. Jekyll or Genghis Khan to join your party, fight Al Capone and Dillinger, get blood from Bonnie and Clyde, or, in Limbo, learn archery from Thucydides and melee from Marc Anthony.

This irreverent sense of humor, and the pop-cultural references, has greatly influenced the Fallout games - especially the second one.
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Hurhur! I can be a GameBanshee editor, too! See...Fallout was the spiritual sksessor of Wasteland. Fallout games, especially that kewl one for the XBrick, have such funny pop-culture references and the kind of toilet humor we idolize on the GameBanshee forums, so therefore the third game using Wasteland's engine was so obviously an influence upon Fallout and that's why the first game is dark while the others are OLOLOLOLZ phunney! Escape From Hell was made in 1990, and Fallout was in 1997, so um...one came before the other and...therefore Fallout has Escape From Hell as an influence. Sorry, I had to check with Jon to make sure about the last part there, and he had to ask the mightly Mr. Google in the Forbidden Office for the answers. He is so smaert!
 
I was enjoying it until I hit:

In 2003, Interplay began development of project “Van Buren,” which was the “secret” name for Fallout 3. In December of 2003, however, Interplay shut down its Black Isle Studios division, essentially killing the development of “Van Buren.” Although the studio no longer exists, several of the creative staff, including Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson have since moved on to start up Troika Games, the company behind such impressive titles as Arcanum, Temple of Elemental Evil, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Additionally, Black Isle director Feargus Urquhart left the company with seventeen other employees to found Obsidian Entertainment, the company currently developing both Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights 2.

This paragraph suffers from "factual inexactitude".

Tim Cain, et al, left IPLY in early 1998, which nearly caused the cancelation of Fallout2. Some juicy bits never broadly mentioned include the threatening phone call from B Fargo to T Cain about Tim setting up development shop in IPLY's back yard. A new disaster-recovery team was taped together by Feargus, and the bug-riddled Fallout2 limped out in October, 1998, just in time to be crushed by the Baldur's Gate juggernaut in late December, 1998. At another time (or with another company) Fallout2 might have built on the potential created by Fallout. As it was, the game sold substantially fewer units than the original, one of the reasons why a "Fallout3" was never really on the IPLY development boards until much later in IPLY's death spiral, when IPLY had already lost D&D rights and their Bioware relationship, and quite frankly, had no other alternatives. It should also be noted that the core technology for Fallout / Fallout2 was never very robust, and was considered obsolete by the time Fallout2 made it out the doors. It was never used (in part or whole) in any other project.

The 2003 wimpering conclusion of Black Isle had really been in the making for years as the number of BI development personnel sunk after every round of lay-offs (at one time in 98-99 they had four full in-house teams working - StonekeepII, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and secret project "X" (which varied by month from one idea to another - many of which had potential), to say nothing of the in-house dev personnel working on BG: Tales of the Sword Coast, Neverwinter Nights, and BGII). Feargus patched up rocky relations with Bioware on a personal level, and when even he realized the lack of a future with IPLY, he walked out the door and had an immediate future developing add-ons and extensions for Bioware games (since he and his team were already intimately familiar with the technology, the design, and the game systems - and had worked with Bioware on like projects in the past). By this time (2003) there was no Fargo-bullying left in IPLY, and there was not much they could do as the remainder of their BI developers walked and instantly set up a company that had more potential than that left in the self-deluded, cobwebbed halls on Von Karman Avenue.

Of course, the Fallout2 sequel idea continued to float around with varying interest in a number of different groups - most notably Troika, Obsidian, and even (dare we say) Bioware. No one related to either original product thinks of the strategic "line extensions" such as FO:Tactics as anything other than milking the fan base for a few dollars more. A true sequel would be a full-fledged RPG loyal to and building upon the FO and FO2 products. Some tech work was done, but core development never really took off beyond the early tech-demo stage. An RPG is all about depth of content, and the money starts burning when you start the in-depth content development, not the core technology (which might be licensed or used with other products).
 
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