Diablo III Vs. Fallout 3

By now everyone heard about the announcement of Diablo III, with good old Leon Boyarsky of Fallout fame as Lead World Designer. Comparisons between Diablo III and Fallout 3 were bound to happen, with NMA pointing to Solivagant’s blog at Destructoid with a passionate and controversial piece called How to make a proper Sequel:

And now we got D3. It looks the same as D2 and D1. Two orbs. Mouse clicking. Iconic classes. It looks gorgeous as well. Using the same isometric (sic) perspective. And from what I can see, people are lapping it up. People are loving it, me included. Why? Well I guess it’s reassuring to see a team that is made up of several different members from D2′s team (even though it’s still Blizzard) behind the steering wheel of this game, and how they managed to make the game be like what Diablo III SHOULD be like, in the hearts of fans and gamers in general.

All of this disturbs me. Why? Because I’m a fan of another franchise. One where action takes a sidestep into turn-based chaos, and dialog, options, different routes, take the center stage. A game whose setting was, and still is, unique.

You may know the series called Fallout. But what the gamewebs and the magazines and the boards are feeding you, isn’t what Fallout is. That’s a definition I’ll leave for the fans of the franchise, known throughout the net as the most rabid fans there are, “glittering gems of hatred” as one has called them.[...]

So what is it Bethesda? Do you think Blizzard doesn’t have the resources to pull of a Diablo III in full 3d mode, with a third person perspective? They tried something like that with StarCraft: Ghost, and when they realized it wasn’t working out, they abandoned that concept. Now we have StarCraft 2, completely recognizable as a true sequel to the first RTS gem, and Diablo 3 which is shaping up to be exactly what the fans were clamoring for.

Before Bethesda unleashed their screenshots and their trailer, I still held hope that they would create a new engine, and shower us with isometric turn based goodness. But I was wrong.

It would take Blizzard to show them how to do a proper sequel.

But now it’s too late.

On a different direction Fallout 3 producer Ashley Cheng is a bit disappointed about how Diablo III is being developed:

I must say I am disappointed that Blizzard has stayed on the conservative side in terms of design with their updates to Diablo and Starcraft. Diablo will be interesting since World of Warcraft has a lot of Diablo-like qualities. I have no doubt, however, that they will be incredibly fun, addictive and polished games.

Well Fallout 3 is the last in line of a series of games that have streamlined and tweaked a mold that comes from 1994, The Elder Scrolls: Arena. That’s pretty conservative too, at least in my eyes.

I think Jay Wilson sums a few important differences between Blizzard and Diablo III with Bethsoft’s game design philosophy on Fallout 3 in these comments transcribed by Joystiq:

Replayability revolves around randomness: random environments, items, encounters and — new to Diablo III — random adventures. Higher difficulty levels are also key to the series’ replayability. The epic heroes enable large scale combat, and are massively powerful classes in that they don’t just have powerful skills but also feel powerful, almost over-the-top, in their gameplay. With strong and unique archetypes, heroes have their own identities, and these hallmarks of Diablo II will be improved upon in III.

Approachability revolves around a design mantra of Blizzard’s, “if you can click a mouse you can play Diablo.” The familiar isometric gameplay is continued in III, and Jay mentioned that they didn’t consider other alternatives — “it’s Diablo.“ Gameplay is simple to learn, but deep, and the difficulty curve is smooth — Blizzard think they did this well in Diablo II and intend to keep it up

ZRG Online

Well this is off topic but since I love these guys I had to mention this. Zero Radius Games, the love child of Chris “anarchy” Taylor, Tom Decker and Scott Everts, is now fully back online:

Zero Radius Games is a small hobbyist game design group and web-based publisher. We’re not just rabid game players, we’re veterans of the computer game industry and games are quite literally what we do for a living. However, we need to depixelate after work and that’s where ZRG comes in.

For the last few years, we’ve been tinkering with small (and not so small) board and card games. Collectively, we have made dozens (and dozens!) of prototypes then played, tweaked and played them some more. A few we’re really happy with (and we’re working on getting them published someday) and a few that needed to be put down quietly. The rest will, eventually, make their way here for you to download and try out.

Please, look around and check out some of our free downloadable print-n-play games. If you like you see, try printing them and assembling them. They’re pretty fun to play and we would love to hear back from you if you’ve tried our games.

Check out our blog for the most recent updates and news bits.

They offer some goodies too:

The links below will take you directly to our free print-n-play games. Directions for assembling each game, when required, are included. You will most likely need a PDF viewer, like Adobe Acrobat® Reader®. If you have any questions, please contact us.

• Puppy Lake
• The Horsemen of Buzkashi
• Stacktactica
• Ruin Runner
• Arcanity
• Frankengame RPG
• Imperial Stars Card Game
• Meek
• Pirates & Ninjas (Expansion

Do take a look, it’s well worth it.

Keeping Faith In Fallout 3

David Wilgoose from the Official XBox Magazine has a piece on his blog on why we should embrace change when talking about Fallout 3:

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Bethesda and play Fallout 3. I’ll shortly be posting extracts from an interview I did with lead designer Emil Pagliarulo, and you can read my hands-on impressions of the game in an upcoming issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. But for now I want to discuss what happens when one major developer inherits a classic series from another major developer.

I’ve been thinking about change recently, and how gamers tend to be somewhat frightened by it. We want to be dazzled by new technology and we say we want innovation and originality, but it seems what gets us most excited is something familiar given a new lick of paint. So, on the one hand, Fallout 3 should be exactly what gamers want – an old idea updated with cool new graphics; on the other hand, it’s kinda scary. How do we know Bethesda isn’t going to ruin an old favourite?[...]

What’s notable with Fallout 3 is the length of time between Black Isle signing off on Fallout 2 and Bethesda applying its own seal to the series. Ten years is a long time in gaming. It’s enough time for entire genres to rise and fall in popularity; for new technology to change our perception of what makes for a modern game; for development studios to have created a history of their own, with all the expectation and baggage that entails; for new platforms to arrive and shift the commercial landscape; and for older games to be deified on the altar of nostalgia.

Bethesda has to combat all these factors. They have to bring a new Fallout into a world where multi-platform development is vital; where RPGs flounder without production values as high as the next big budget FPS; where many of the play mechanics of the original games now seem anachronistic; and where Bethesda has charted out their own successful course of what a role-playing game can be.

I disagree with many of his arguments, but he is right that Fallout 3 is shaping up to be like it is because it’s a multi-platform game from the start. Something like Starcraft II or Diablo III would be much more preferable, but they are PC only games.

A Sleeper Hit

Gamer.Blorge puts Fallout 3 on their Four Sleeper Hits for 2008 list:

Brought to you by the developers of the acclaimed Oblivion, which went on to sell over 4 million units, a smashing success. Fallout 3 is extremely promising, taking place in the post-apocalyptic era with war torn buildings and mutated freaks running around, it’s your goal to kick butt and take names. According to the developers you can play this game as a TPS with RPG elements, or you can play this game like an old school RPG using V.A.T.S, which is a mixture of real time and turn based battle system like your Final Fantasy XII. V.A.T.S shows an enemies vital parts and shows how much HP each part have. V.A.T.S, throws in a strategic element on how you should attack an enemy or a overgrown gigantic mutated freak trying to cannibalize you.
Also, there are consequences to what decisions you make expanding on the story of side quests. For example there is one quest where you can choose to save a city, and if you are successful it ties in to another quest. However, if you fail and the city gets destroyed you get a quest that takes you to another city which otherwise you would have never been able to get to if you did not fail the previous quest.

I know, things are indeed a bit slow these days. Spotted on the Fallout 3 official site.

Inside The Vault: James Cory Edwards

New Inside the Vault at the Bethblog, this time with Cory Edwards:

Inside the Vault welcomes Cory Edwards, world artist, to answer a few questions about his work and his life. He has done some amazing work for Fallout 3. Cory is also our resident 3D Max guru.

What’s your job at Bethesda?
I’m a world artist working on texturing and modeling for our environments. My primary focus is on making kits for the level designers to use and abuse. I’ve spent the last two years making a large number of the dungeons kits used in Fallout 3 and the kit pieces for Megaton.

GameSpot Video: GameSpot AU presents Crosshairs 26 June 2008

more about “GameSpot Video: GameSpot AU presents …“, posted with vodpod

Fallout 3 section begins at minute 11. They call the game a first person shooter and “Oblivion with Guns”, and there’s an interview with Pete Hines.
Thanks Newman on the Bethsoft Fallout 3 forum.

Gamespot and Fallout 3 at E3

Gamespot brings us a list with their more anticipated games for E3:

Fallout 3
Release Date: Oct 7, 2008
Genre: Role-Playing
Platform: PC,PS3, X360

This highly anticipated sequel to the cult-classic RPG will take you on a postapocalyptic adventure through a nuclear wasteland populated by tiny villages of human survivors, and not-so-tiny supermutants who speak softly and carry a big minigun. Be sure to check GameSpot’s coverage for updates on this hybrid game that will combine turn-based role-playing with first-person shooter action.

No turn based, how many times will I have to say this? Geez… That last sentence doesn’t even make sense.

Gameplayer Bizarre Week

Gameplayer has the Fallout Week day Three feature online, and yet again it’s a copy/paste from the old 360 magazine that was released in March.

It provides some Fallout background, but for that you’ll be better served reading TheVault or heading to the fansites like NMA.

NZ GamePlanet Fallout 3 Feature

From New Zealand comes the Gameplanet Fallout 3 preview, with nothing really new, but a with an effort into detailing more thoroughly what they saw, so it’s worth a look:

Initially, this preview event had been organised to bring a large number of Australian and New Zealand media representatives in on the game, and to show some footage that had previously been provided to games distributors a few months back. Imagine our surprise when we discovered there would be an additional half an hour or so of previously unseen gameplay included! As there was no filming or picture taking permitted behind closed doors, I’ll do my best to describe what we were shown.[...]

Just an aside – your father at one point shows you a bible passage set in a picture frame that your mother claimed as her favourite. It’s from revelations, and it’s worth repeating here: “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” Prophetic indeed, and a glimpse at Bethesda’s attempt to link casual first-time gamers with the lore of the Fallout series.

Once you’ve completed “Baby Steps”, you are again pushed forward in time to your tenth birthday party – an event significant not only for the first shown interaction with other NPC’s within the vault, but also the acquisition of your “Pip Boy 3000″, which is provided to you by the vault overseer. You also meet the vault bully, who is discussing with other children the possibility of forming a gang called the Tunnel Snakes, and you need to make a decision as to whether you should allow him to take some confectionery provided to you by Old Lady Palmer as a birthday present.[...]

A point about the statistics here – although you may be able to choose a certain dialogue option or end result, thus shaping your character, the outcome is also driven by your attributes and skill level. For example, conversing with someone may prompt three possible dialogue options. Next to these may appear a percentage chance to succeed, so perhaps you’d like to convince someone to give you an object – your level of persuasion might only grant you a 25% chance of success, so you may find it better to choose a different option with a higher percentage. This allows your progression to be shaped on the fly through chance as well as choice.[...]

We’ve seen terminal hacking as a mini game in BioShock, and just like that title, hacking in Fallout 3 seemed a little basic. Essentially if you’ve played the old classic Mastermind you’ll understand – you are presented with a table of words interspersed with random characters, and you need to type in whichever word on the list you think the password is. You have five attempts, and each failed attempt will tell you how many of the letters are in the right place. After the fifth failed attempt, you are locked out of the console and can only bypass it with a key, which must be found somewhere within the vault. This forms the basis of another mission, but it is necessary as without the ability to leave Vault 101 it’d be a short game.[...]

The next saved game consists of a battle waged in the central Washington D.C. area between the Mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel. It’s here we were introduced to the perception ability – on your HUD compass you will see a flashing red icon whenever enemies are around you. The higher your perception, the sooner this will occur. During an action scene we managed to kill several mutants, and due to this we were permitted to tag along with the Brotherhood faction to clean out some more. We picked up a weapon to replace our ageing Chinese Military Rifle from a fallen comrade – the Laser Gun – and spent some time blowing limbs from hapless zombies that strayed too close to our position.

There’s also an interview with Pete Hines in there. Thanks anonymous through Meebo.

Gameplayer Has Images

Gameplayer posted a few images taken from Fallout 3.

Those that come to this blog regularly have already seen them, but if you are new to the game do take a look.

GameArena Fallout 3 Preview

Just saw this at NMA, there’s a new Fallout 3 preview at GameArena:

Set in Washington – the other side of the country to Fallout and Fallout 2 – there are many familiar landmarks, even to people who haven’t been in the country. The build Pete brought with him showed off a destroyed version of the Washington Monument while what’s left of the Capitol building loomed on the horizon.

Details like those are really going to sell the game to players. Even places that aren’t necessarily landmarks are carefully thought out to reinforce you are living in a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. Drinking water gives you health back, but also irradiates you. The monsters in the game – mutants and ghouls – are deformed messes with one focus. Your demise.

The V.A.T.S. system tying the first person shooter style to the original Fallout feel looks like it might break the game, but Hines insisted thorough playtesting wouldn’t let that happen. The camera system which accompanies V.A.T.S. is fantastic regardless – each shot cues a cinematic camera angle change which really reinforces the impact of that bullet/rocket/nuke you just shot.

While the isometric view, groin shots and car are all gone (plus probably quite a few other things we didn’t get to see) what’s important in Fallout 3 is the feeling. Even in the build we saw – with it’s messed up lighting, hilarious voice-acting and occasionally buggy AI – Fallout 3 felt right. The worst thing about watching Fallout 3 in action? Having to wait for the game to hit later this year. Looks like I’m reinstalling Fallout 2 again.

Knowledge communities: Information, interpretation, and the currency of the era

Image Master Scorpion

There’s a new piece by Ryan M. Milner at Online Fandom, dwelling into the relation between Fallout fans and developers:

I think there’s something Bethesda, and producers of media texts in general, can learn from these observations. The Fallout fanbase (at least the majority of the vocal fanbase) has been wary of Bethesda’s handling of Fallout 3 for a while now. And time and exposure has only resulted in a stalemate, if not worsened relations. Part of me thinks that so many fans made up their mind so long ago that the only thing that would satisfy them was a Fallout 3 that looked just like Fallout 1 & 2, with no updates or changes. But another part of me wonders if the problem isn’t one of information and interpretation. Bethesda to date has released only a small number screenshots and one teaser trailer for a game that comes out in a few months. No beta test. No demo. No real glimpse into the process of creating the game. No invitations for input other than forum space and a character attribute contest where Bethesda picked the winner. All other information has been disseminated through third-party sources such as industry magazines. I think maybe Bethesda is ignoring the cardinal values of the Fallout community.

If fans thrive on knowledge, why not open up a bit? Maybe more disclosure about what Fallout 3 will look like would help. And maybe even more than content, openly discuss ideas. Ask for fan input, and give them detailed feedback about the process as you consider their suggestions and perspectives. I know that’s not the typical PR we see from most media companies, but helping fans feel like collaborators could do wonders. I understand why Bethesda might be skeptical about doing so. They’ve had to be on the defensive with the Fallout fan community since they got the rights to the game. But it seems like this wrong-foot start has been made worse by their guarded tone. When fans interpret this guardedness as disrespect, a vicious cycle ensues. Given how entrenched this pattern is between the two parties, I don’t see how a shift to an open exchange of knowledge could make the situation any worse.

Thought provoking stuff, really worth a read.

Second Fan Interview Is Coming

I’m getting quite a few messages on Meebo about the second Fan Interview, since there was no info on what was happening with it. Now Bethsoft Community Manager Matt “Gstaff” Grandstaff finally has some info on the interview that he shared with us on the Bethesda Games Fallout 3 Forum:

Sorry guys. There’s been a lot going on at the office and folks have been travelling quite a bit too. I know, lame excuses.

Todd’s working on it, and hopefully we can have it ready this week.

Thanks for your patience.

About time!

More Gameplayer Weirdness

Ok so back in April Gameplayer.au published an article called “Can Bethesda do Fallout 3?”, and later in June they changed the title and put it back as if it was new.

Then yesterday they placed an article online, supposedly new, that had already appeared on 360 magazine in March.

Now they have another one, that was also featured on the 360 magazine I’ve talked about, that is basically the Fallout Bible 0 timeline.

Ok I don’t get it. If someone does please explain.

They Are Gone Now

Oh well those nice shirts inspired by Fallout 3 were taken down from CafePress, karnieopt explains why:

They were bunched in with the other shirts and merchandise which are legitimately for sale, and all marked up together, and I never went back to adjust it. That was an oversight on my part. As for the copyright, I’ve only technically seen that logo as avatars, and couldn’t find any reference to it being a copyrighted image. Nonetheless, they have been taken down out of respect to Bethesda. If Bethesda were to grant me permission to use the artwork, I’d be more than happy to promote the game and put the shirts back up online for anyone to purchase. Otherwise they are not available.

Thanks for clearing that up karnieopt. In other CafePress news there’s a T-Shirt there for sale bearing sg.toxic’s famous anti-Fallout 3 drawing, displayed on top of this blog post, I wonder who was the naughty boy that put it there…

Fallout 3 Stuff at CafePress

Ok this material showed up on CafePress for sale, it’s Fallout 3 “inspired” as you can see. We’ll see what Bethsoft will do about that.

Thanks karnieopt.

Old New Stuff

NMA is reporting that Australian Gameplayer started a week of Fallout 3 articles and interviews. So I was reading the beginning of their first feature, something like this:

Welcome to our Fallout week: every day we will be releasing some new editorial on Bethesda’s amazing new post-apocalyptic action RPG, including new screens, new interviews and new impressions from the latest build only just show to us. Enjoy…

Change is just about as inevitable as things come. You can no more escape the winds of change than you can escape time or death, and all these things are interlinked. Our finite existence necessitates change. Death, rebirth and a new world revolving in never-ending cycles that will outlast humanity. Yet we resist change. We fear it. Our blinkered view of our own permanence forces us to see the world and ourselves as unchanging, or at least slow-moving.

Neither could be further from the truth, but still we resist, even down to the smallest and most insignificant of matters. Of course, to those who fight change these things are not insignificant, and there are few stalwarts more dogged and unrelenting than PC RPG fans.

Fallout is a game series with some of the most rabid and dedicated fans around. They’re an intimidating bunch when they get riled, and the future of their beloved game is the most likely topic to get their ire brewing. Such was the case when Bethesda perpetrated the heinous crime of purchasing the rights to the Fallout franchise (first just sequels 3, 4 and 5, and then the whole caboodle) in July 2004.

The fan reaction at the time couldn’t have been more negative. Numerous petitions were started, forums turned into walls of fire and Bethesda was attacked from all corners for daring to think it could make a Fallout game. At this time, Bethesda had recently released The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind to great acclaim from its own fan base, but this did nothing to appease the mutant-hating masses. The great fear seemed to be that Bethesda would stoop to making Morrowind with guns, essentially ripping its tried-and-tested Elder Scrolls template and putting some post-apocalyptic tinsel around it.

This wasn’t helped by Bethesda’s initial statement upon taking up the game: “Bethesda’s proven expertise in this genre, building on our experience and the tremendous success we have enjoyed with our cutting-edge Elder Scrolls series, will enable us to create the next chapter of Fallout that is worthy of the franchise,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks, at the time.

Well right from the beggining this sounded familiar to me. And yep, after digging through my magazines I found an old 360 magazine, from the UK, with this article. They really shouldn’t be saying this is new stuff, since it’s a piece a few months old already, from the April issue, released in March. Don’t know why they don’t credit the 360 magazine either.