KFAN interviews Matt Miller

[Brother None]

Matt Miller of GameInformer talked to the guys of KFAN. There's not much news in it, here's what they discussed summed up:<blockquote>The graphics will be better than Oblivion, but it's got it's own flavour, "kind of a combation of" Oblivion and Fallout. Interviewer calls VATS turn-based, Miller immediately notes it's not so much turn-based as paused with aiming, "there's a little bit of strategy to it."
"There's two companies you can pick between, BioWare or Bethesda, and Todd Howard, the producer on the title, has been dying to do this game and their passion over there, the same passion they poured into Oblivion is getting poured into this game."
Choices will close up or open new quests, "not really a genuine choice" in Oblivion, compared to Fallout/Fallout 3 (same blowing up Megaton equals no more quests in Megaton example of choice and consequence). Gray moral grounds are present. When you play it, you can ask friends "what did you do with this guy." It's keeping SPECIAL, though the wrong reason ("too violent") is again given for the GURPS split. It's a big production: Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman. "If they have Liam Neeson in this, I hope it's not the same way they had [Patrick Steward]."</blockquote>Link: KFAN 6/27. They discuss Fallout 3 in the last 3/4th.

 

[Pope Viper]

there's a little bit of strategy to it."

Sigh.

 

[radnan]

too bad BioWare is not at the helm ... maybe they wouldnt have mashed up what works (the combat/game system) and think they could do the rest well (setting, story, dialogue - which i think they can do better then Beth)

 

[Brother None]

BioWare? You think BioWare would've made it themselves? Hot potato, man, they would've thrown it to Obsidian in an instant.

But I guess we should be glad, because obviously Todd Howard is a lot more passionate than MCA or JE Sawyer

 

[Sander]

too bad BioWare is not at the helm ... maybe they wouldnt have mashed up what works (the combat/game system) and think they could do the rest well (setting, story, dialogue - which i think they can do better then Beth)

...
Did you even play, like, *any* of BioWare's games? Everything is real-time with pause, in the same sucky game-engine with the same bleeding plot (go collect the four Xes and save the world from this ancient threat that's arisen again) and no consequences to your choices whatsoever.

 

[Brother None]

Heh, KFAN's bits cites BioWare as *the* developer influenced by Fallout's design in terms of choices between good and evil.

Ah, it must be so wonderful to completely not get it like that

 

[lisac2k]

...the same passion they poured into Oblivion is getting poured into this game."

Hmmmmm...

 

[aries369]

It wouldn't have been to get Bioware to throw it to Obsidian, now would it ? Chris Avellone is, afterall, working at Obsidian alongide with J.E. Sawyer. I'm pretty confident that Obsidian could have delivered a very Fallouty feel to Fallout 3, and that which Bethesda ob(li)vious
seems content to deliver: Gears of War: the fallout years or maybe even better: Resistance: Fallout , the fall of man...

 

[Makagulfazel]

Did you even play, like, *any* of BioWare's games? Everything is real-time with pause, in the same sucky game-engine with the same bleeding plot (go collect the four Xes and save the world from this ancient threat that's arisen again) and no consequences to your choices whatsoever.

Still MUCH better than Oblivion. I'd rather have "NWN with guns" than "Oblivion with guns". NWN2 wasn't really that bad, there was NPC relations and other role-playing elements like that. I'd give it a 8/10. A small number of mods made are very excellent, far exceeding the game's original story.

Edit: Wow, I was talking about Obsidian, I see. Either way, I thought both NWNs were good and would have liked to see BioWare or Obsidian make Fallout 3.

 

[penumbra]

at least bioware games aren't *complete* cheese (i'll never play jade empire tho, i don't think,) and look very authentic and generally very good... and peoples' faces don't look like those of fetuses.

bethesda comes off as more of a toy company. what they make looks cartoonish, action figurish, unserious, and covered with confectioner's glaze. the mutants in game informer look like they may as well be used for a biker mice from mars video game or something. maybe that's a little overboard, but they look cartoonish, and just don't look dark and serious for any video game, especially fallout. they look like they are from a bad comic book.

bioware is a relatively high-end computer/video game company... at least by today's standards they seem to be one of the best.

if bioware had got the game rights, how would they throw it to obsidian? does obsidian even know how to make anything from scratch?

too bad bioware was never really something to hope for for fallout, in terms of companies that exist today.

if it has to be this dumb 1st/spinning 3rd person view and they have to piss their pants over the hiring actual fallout guys prospect, i would have much perferred bioware to do it, and maybe hire along some quantic dream people or something, if anyone who made omikron is still in the business.

 

[FeelTheRads]

the same passion they poured into Oblivion is getting poured into this game.

So that's why the game looks like complete shit.

Anyone who still thinks Bethesda actually puts passion in creating good games and not actually being a bunch of fucking liars is nothing more than a delusional fool.

Wake the fuck up! Bethesda doesn't care one bit about anything else than their next cash-in.

 

[radnan]

i wasnt saying they were gonna do the name justice .. i just think they would have done a better job then Bethsoft under current circumstances. Plus i think Avellone would have prevented the story and setting from being uhm neverwinternized

 

[Sander]

Still MUCH better than Oblivion. I'd rather have "NWN with guns" than "Oblivion with guns". NWN2 wasn't really that bad, there was NPC relations and other role-playing elements like that. I'd give it a 8/10. A small number of mods made are very excellent, far exceeding the game's original story.

Edit: Wow, I was talking about Obsidian, I see. Either way, I thought both NWNs were good and would have liked to see BioWare or Obsidian make Fallout 3.

Obsidian, yes. BioWare, no.
The first NWN was utter shite. It was buggy as shit and its single-player campaign was the worst piece of trash to ever be dubbed a role-playing game. It was unbelievably bad.
The only reason it did well was the hype and the on-line community that kept playing it, since there were pretty much no alternatives for user-created 'persistent' (yeah right) worlds.

 

[Makagulfazel]

Obsidian, yes. BioWare, no.
The first NWN was utter shite. It was buggy as shit and its single-player campaign was the worst piece of trash to ever be dubbed a role-playing game. It was unbelievably bad.
The only reason it did well was the hype and the on-line community that kept playing it, since there were pretty much no alternatives for user-created 'persistent' (yeah right) worlds.

Some mods made for NWN1 were excellent, though. That can't really be credited to the developers, but I'm glad they released the toolkit.

 

[Sander]

Obsidian, yes. BioWare, no.
The first NWN was utter shite. It was buggy as shit and its single-player campaign was the worst piece of trash to ever be dubbed a role-playing game. It was unbelievably bad.
The only reason it did well was the hype and the on-line community that kept playing it, since there were pretty much no alternatives for user-created 'persistent' (yeah right) worlds.

Some mods made for NWN1 were excellent, though. That can't really be credited to the developers, but I'm glad they released the toolkit.

Oh, forgot to mention, the toolkit was utter shite as well. Insanely buggy, retardedly limited and lacked the ability to make an actual persistent world. There was, quite simply, *no* permanent storage possiblity. Which meant that 'banks' were created through retarded work-around systems, because there was simply no other way to do it.

 

[Makagulfazel]

Oh, forgot to mention, the toolkit was utter shite as well. Insanely buggy, retardedly limited and lacked the ability to make an actual persistent world. There was, quite simply, *no* permanent storage possiblity. Which meant that 'banks' were created through retarded work-around systems, because there was simply no other way to do it.

But..
Well..
Um..
Ah, fine! I'll give you this one, you bastard!

Still though, some people did manage to make some great mods, whether the toolkit limited them or not.

Developers - 0
Modders - 1

 

[Bad_Karma]

Amusing how people think obsidian is better than Bioware, while both 'sequels' Obsidian did sucked...
I mean, it's sad that Kotor II lost a lot potential because of parts being cut. But the overall Story was simply bullshit, while the story of the first was okay.

And then complaining about the technical side of NWN 1... man, i don't think that NWN 1 technical side could have been as bad as the one of 2... Ever read the bug section of NWN 2?
I guess you didn't. But i've to be honest, i didn't played NWN 1 until i got in a 'Xmas-pack' alongside with it both addons.

So i won't say that Obsidian is better in any aspect then Bioware...

 

[Brother None]

So i won't say that Obsidian is better in any aspect then Bioware...

Talent. The difference between Obsidian and Bioware right now is key; BioWare has had plenty of chances to prove itself, and has failed. Obsidian has yet to really try. We really can't judge until they make their own IP.

 

[Sander]

Amusing how people think obsidian is better than Bioware, while both 'sequels' Obsidian did sucked...
I mean, it's sad that Kotor II lost a lot potential because of parts being cut. But the overall Story was simply bullshit, while the story of the first was okay.

Actually, I rather liked KOTOR2's story. It was a shitload more original than the first story (which was pretty poor and an obvious rip-off of the original Star Wars storyline). It was clearly rushed towards the end, though.
The characters were stronger in the second game as well, as were the consequences.

And then complaining about the technical side of NWN 1... man, i don't think that NWN 1 technical side could have been as bad as the one of 2... Ever read the bug section of NWN 2?
I guess you didn't. But i've to be honest, i didn't played NWN 1 until i got in a 'Xmas-pack' alongside with it both addons.

So i won't say that Obsidian is better in any aspect then Bioware...

NWN1 was way, way, way buggier. They're at the fiftieth patch or so, and there are still bugs from the first version in it. Also, most patches introduced new (and even more retarded bugs). At one point, size modifiers were reversed so that halflings became knockdown monsters. The second patch fucked over about half the legitimate users, since their copies now failed the copy-protection check.
An infinite casting bug was present for over a year, when it was 'fixed' by re-arranging the UI so it became almost impossible to execute (but not actually impossible).
Also note that Obsidian used largely BioWare's engine, so Bioware is also partially responsible for the bugs in KOTOR and NWN2.

 

[Galdred]

Actually, I rather liked KOTOR2's story. It was a shitload more original than the first story (which was pretty poor and an obvious rip-off of the original Star Wars storyline). It was clearly rushed towards the end, though.
The characters were stronger in the second game as well, as were the consequences.

I too somewhat liked Kotor 2 story more than Kotor. One of the troubles with the Kotor engine is that it was designed both for consoles and PC, thus it had a cumbersome interface, and horrible party control. That and I don't think D20 was the best system to base a videogame on. Even for a PnP RPG, I think it is too simplistic (and I with it didn't send so many better systems to the graveyard).

NWN1 was way, way, way buggier.

It depends, I didn't run any much troubles with NWN2, but many users reported bugs causing CTD from what I remember. Both were horribly buggy, but from the NWN2 forums, it sounds like NWN1 had less bug (I didn't experience much with NWN1 as the terrible solo play put me off after chapter 1).
Concerning their suitability for modding and online plays, opinions are mixed on this one, as the NWN2 toolset is harder to used but much more powerful. But I think what definitely crippled NWN2 was that going online required more user manipulations.

Also note that Obsidian used largely BioWare's engine, so Bioware is also partially responsible for the bugs in KOTOR and NWN2.

Another reason is that they have less weight than Bioware when it comes to negociating with a publisher and have accepted insanely short development times.

I didn't like NWN, but I wouldn't call Bioware untalented. I really liked the BG series, (mainly because it didn't feature Fallout's companions making them block your LoS or take unecessary risks) it's only that they probably came to the conclusion that it would work better to make smaller games (like Sonic the Hedgehoc RPG for DS!) now that they had an established reputation.