Bethesda Drops The Bomb ... Fallout 4 Is Official

Grab Your Nuka Colas and Bottle Caps, We're Heading Back To The Wasteland

It's happening!

With just a week and a half to go until E3, Bethesda finally drops the official announcement this morning for Fallout 4 with an in-game trailer. Check it out below...

From what I can gather, Fallout 4 re-captures the vibe of walking out of the Vault for the first time and seeing the decrepit and nuke-ravaged world. We're also going to be treated with some familiar voices/faces as Ron Perlman's narrator can be heard via radio announcements, and Dogmeat makes a prominent appearance before reuniting with a Vault 111 inhabitant to continue roaming the wasteland.

V.A.T.S., rads, and all, I'm definitely excited to see what Bethesda can do following the success of Fallout 3 and Skyrim. And this time around, Fallout 4 trades the Washington, D.C. locale with Boston, Massachusetts. Maybe a Boston Tea Party inspired dump of Nuka Colas mission, anyone?

Bethesda is expected to drop a slew of details on gameplay mechanics and hopefully a potential release window when it hosts its own press conference at E3 Sunday, June 14th at 7pm Pacific Time, and their website is now live with everything Fallout 4.

The newest entry is expected to ship on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Until then, get your Pip-Boy's ready, everyone. It's going to be a lovely day.

Stop All the Downloadin'!!!

Are Gaming Developers Getting Too Complacent Thanks to DLC?

As many gamers know, yesterday was the highly anticpated release of Fallout: New Vegas. The game has been met with mostly favorable reviews, however many gamers and review sites have complained across the board about a number of bugs and glitches within the game. Not to say I told you so, but...I told you so. The game was being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the same people who released the bug heavy Alpha Protocol and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. Let me be clear, this blog post isn't about ripping Obsidian a new one again. The new Fallout is being praised for it's large and expanisve world, which will suck gamers in for more hours than a World of Warcraft addict. Instead, my problem comes with the unavoidable patches and updates this game will get to address several of these bugs and glitches.

Bethesda softworks (the developer of Fallout 3 and publisher of New Vegas) released a statement today saying they're aware of the problems with New Vegas and are working on a new patch for the game which will release sometime in the near future. Here's my problem with this statement. First, the fact that Bethesda is already making announcements about the game's inherent problems is a bit disheartening considering the game just hit store shelves yesterday. Sure we all should be grateful that the company is working on fixing the problem, but is the availability of Downloadable Content allowing game developers to get complacent with their work? I sure as hell hope not, but I'm starting to notice a trend.

If we do a Superman and reverse the world back 2 years, another highly anticipated game known as Gears of War 2 also met some internal problems that needed a few weeks of fixing. The single player campaign played flawless, however the multiplayer matchmaking system was, for lack of a better word, disastrous. Players would be met with unbelievable wait times in order to get a single match going. I personally waited a full 30 minutes to get a group together, and my game lasted 10 minutes at best. The time wasn't adding up correctly. Epic Games Lead designer Cliff Blezinski has gone on record stating Epic ultimately screwed up with Gears 2, and the company has since released six different online title updates that have streamlined the online experience. It took them about a month or two to iron out all the kinks in the game, but it just begs the question why didn't the game come out working like it should have right out of the starting gate? It's almost like a used car salesman selling you a car without the transmission, but promising you you can drive it even though he'll get it fully working in about a month. In the words of Johnny Cochran defense: DAT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE!!!

Son...Taking cover behind a wooden bench is not strategic thinking

Flash forward to today, and now a game like Fallout: New Vegas is shipping while it's clearly broken. I'm not too sure how a publisher decides to handle a game's release date, but videos of the bugs have been circulating the internet, proving that the publisher shipped the game knowing the bugs were there. Bugs are awful in a game. They immediately make players lose their sense of immersion, making it nearly unplayable at times. I came across a very amusing one that happens right at the beginning of the game. People are calling it "The exorcism of Doc Mitchell." It's really funny. Take a look.

 

Whatever the case may be I'm hoping most companies are learning from either their peers or their own mistakes. I know Epic won't make the same mistake twice thanks to the recent push back by Microsoft of Gears of War 3 from April 2011 to Holiday 2011. The folks at Epic have been blessed with more development time, which includes a public beta in the near future. As a gamer, I would much rather wait an extra month or two for a game to be polished, and is bug free. Publishers don't have to cram their games down everyone's throats so soon. If we want your game, we'll buy it regardless of when it comes out. Halo 2 ultimately proved that theory. The hype and anticipation surrounding that game was larger than Roseanne's waistline, and while the game was delayed for months, even years, it finally released the way it was supposed to be...complete...and people bought it.

It's OK to delay your game. Last year there were at least 6 (maybe more) high profile games that got pushed back because of either the need for more development time, or the fact they didn't want to compete with the 800-pound gorilla in the room known as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. From the looks of it, a game like Fallout: New Vegas could've used another month to tweak and still would've made its coveted holiday release cycle. I just hope that DLC doesn't become more of an excuse for developers to make their release dates because it only hurts the company and publisher's image in my eyes. Like I've stated before, I never really trusted Obsidian in their game design and it turns out I can rightfully give myself a pat on the shoulder.

Fallout: New Vegas A Big Gamble

The Next Apocalyptic RPG Could Be a Crapshoot

Hi...I'm here to f**k s**t up.

It's already less than a week before the highly anticipated wasteland RPG series "Fallout" releases its latest installment "Fallout: New Vegas." The game is getting loads of pre-release hype, and rightfully so. Fallout 3 was a groundbreaking game in the industry that redefined the way people play open world games thanks to the crew at Bethesda Softworks. Bethesda, best known for their work on the Elder Scrolls series, created what I call "beautiful disaster" in it's view of a post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C. To an untrained eye, Fallout 3 may have looked like Elder Srolls with guns, but with a bigger emphasis on combat thanks to the V.A.T.S system, and new RPG elements like karma and companions to toy around with, the game became a radiation free haven for gamer geeks. This time however, a new development team is taking over in bringing the next installment of the successful post-apocalyptic franchise, and I'm a little concerned with what we may see.

A company called Obsidian Entertainment has taken the reins from Bethesda in Fallout: New Vegas, and they've been tasked with the daunting challenge of making a bigger, badder, and bloodier game than their predecessor. No small feat if you ask me. From the gameplay footage and screen shots released so far, New Vegas looks like a nice game, but I'm still not convinced that the full package will make me want to wander the Mojave desert for 20+ hours. Just by looking at Obsidian's resume, I'm keeping a little distance from New Vegas. Obsidian first came to light back in 2003 with the development of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. For anyone who played the original game, KOTOR was a benchmark for console RPG's thanks to it's customizable main character features, a fluid, deep combat system, and a fun story driven morality feature. Once KOTOR II hit the market, it was fun, but not genre defining like the first game. In fact, the big problem I had with KOTOR II was bugs. The game had too many moments where it would freeze, glitch, or force you to reload your last save point because your character was stuck in the environment. Not only that, the story was nowhere near as impressive as the first game, which had one of the best endings in gaming history.

Since KOTOR II, Obsidian has dabbled in a couple of other high profile games like Neverwinter Nights 2, and the recently released Alpha Protocol. Alpha Protocol was yet another highly anticipated game that Obsidian failed to deliver. The game's plot revolved around a spy, espionage theme where you play as a Jason Bourne-esque CIA field agent. The game was touted as a third-person action RPG that featured dozens of customizable weapons, and a complex dialogue system that would drive the story forward. The game was both a critical and commercial flop. In all honesty I never played the game because it didn't appeal to me, but based on a collection of reviews, the game was plagued with glitches and bugs, and the combat was stiff and inaccurate. Not to mention the story was never convincing and the dialogue system was ineffective. Sounding a lot like what New Vegas is going for if you ask me...

This guy left the Casinos while he was hot...wha, whaaaaaa

I don't mean to bash on Obsidian, it's just they haven't really proven to me that they can handle the workload when it comes to a game like Fallout. Despite my fears, there are some good things to point out. First, it's Fallout. Obsidian is using the same engine that Bethesda used, and they're making some of the much needed improvements to the game such as some tweaks to the way you handle companions and your dialogue system. They're also fixing certain combat elements of the game like the target reticules, and there's a new mode called hardcore, which ups the difficulty of the game, and forces players to monitor their water consumption, sleep, and backpack management. Many of the developers are also veterans of Black Isle Studios, which worked on the first 2 Fallout games many years ago...so they should have a firm grasp on the essence of the series. Obsidian also has the advantage of toying with a new locale like Vegas. Areas like Hoover Dam, the Mojave, and of course, the Vegas Strip, are all at the players disposal, and this brings me to my next point.

One of the big things New Vegas has going for it is the Vegas locale. Players can enter and exit the strip whenever they please, and get in a few games of mutant blackjack, among other games, if they wish. Still, this to me is just another gimmick that was added just so developers could squeeze more gameplay time out of players. We've seen card games and gambling in games before. Red Dead Redemption is another open world game that allows you to play card games with fellow outlaws if you wish, so I'm personally not that impressed when I hear about casinos. Still, I have to give credit to Obsidian by throwing a nice curve ball in their approach to designing the New Vegas strip by implementing a 1960's atmosphere to the game.

On another side note, Fallout: New Vegas looks bland. I don't mean as a whole, but in terms of the environments and character/enemy animations. Of all the clips I've seen of the game, New Vegas looks very stale at times. Some of the enemy models don't appear too detailed, and environments seem to be hit or miss. It just seems too, for lack of a better word, "blockish," and the frame rate is extremely choppy (another staple of Obsidian games). I don't want to jump to conclusions on the game just yet because these are demo builds, but I hope Obsidian can capture lightning in a bottle with their new game. I want Fallout: New Vegas to be a fantastic game. It's just I have to keep my distance judging from what I've seen by Obsidian. Until then, I feel like this article will make me a target to the legions of Fallout fans out there who may or may not want to use the V.A.T.S. system to take me out. If I were you, I'd go for my legs, I have weak knees.

Here is one of the many clips of the game out there...judge for yourself if you agree with my comments regarding environment/character animations. Enjoy.