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The attempt to combine an Mmo with a retro post-apocalypse setting was not unique to Fallout 76. Interplay, Fallout‘s original owner, had tried it years earlier. In reality, this came after Bethesda had acquired the series’ rights, but the two businesses reached a deal that would eventually result in a lawsuit, an out-of-court settlement, and Fallout Online‘s cancellation.

Fallout 76 was released in 2018. | Credit: Bethesda Game Studios.

However, the idea dates back much further. Brian Fargo, the founder of Interplay, had been considering Fallout since the late 1990s, but Bethesda bought it in 2007. Black Isle Studios founder Feargus Urquhart, who is currently CEO of Obsidian, turned down his pitch. It didn’t want Fallout to be an Mmo and co-creator Tim Cain shared the sentiment as well. However, he was a bit concerned when the franchise took a different turn.

Tim Cain was anxious about Fallout 76 switching its trajectory Fallout...

Before Bethesda acquired Fallout and handed the development over to Todd Howard, the world was already a wonderful place in dystopia. In some way, it had gotten a great deal on a silver platter. Recently, the franchise received a live-action TV adaptation, which has been met with generally favorable reviews, sighing relief to the dubious fan base.

A plethora of interesting Easter eggs have been hidden in the latest TV show, which could easily blow fans’ minds. Fans on the internet are still busy finding more of them. The world they knew remained wasted as they left it in the video games. Bethesda appears to have pulled it straight out of them for the American TV series.

Fans Aren’t Happy About Todd Howard Overshadowing Original Creators

Todd Howard has been overseeing the games’ development since Fallout 3.

As good as the franchise is, Bethesda should be praised for having purchased it.

The fan-favorite post-apocalyptic video game series Fallout is the most prominent it has ever been, with an ambitious live-action television adaptation coming to Prime Video while publisher Bethesda SoftWorks continues to guide the games moving forward.

However, while Bethesda brought Fallout to new heights in 2008 with Fallout 3, the action RPG franchise goes back further by over a decade. Following Bethesda’s acquisition of the Fallout franchise, major changes were instituted that bristled purist fans of the initial games in the series for the alterations to gameplay and presentation.

Here is how Fallout began in 1997 before it was acquired by Bethesda in 2004 and eventually transformed into the gaming franchise millions of players know it as today.

The Origins of Fallout

The Fallout franchise was created by Tim Cain, a producer and programmer at Interplay Productions, with Cain initially starting development in relative isolation in 1994. A tabletop gaming enthusiast, Cain built Fallout...

The journey that is Gsc Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is still ongoing, but the team is still making progress towards that Q1 2024 release. During PC Gamer’s PC Gaming Show, a new trailer was released for Heart of Chernobyl, dubbed “Strider”. The new trailer dives into the series’ lore, focusing on Strider, a former Monolith stalker who first appeared in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

In addition to the trailer reveal, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was also awarded the PC Gaming Show’s “Most Anticipated Game of 2024” award. The game was selected by a panel of industry legends that included Sid Meier, Tim Schafer, Cheyenne Morrin, Brian Fargo, Mariina Hallikainen, and Dean Hall.

“Firstly, it’s about you – our fans. Your passion has guided us throughout this journey, and I can...

Bestselling horror novelist Dean Koontz and his longtime wife Gerda Ann are in the mood to mix up their Orange County, Calif. real estate portfolio. Just days before they paid $10.5 million for a home in Irvine’s scenic Shady Canyon gated community, the Wall Street Journal reported — and property records confirm — the couple very quietly sold their custom mansion in the uber-affluent Newport Coast neighborhood for exactly $50 million.

Because the house was designed by the Koontzes and never offered on the open market, many of its specifications remain a mystery. But tax documents show the palatial compound was completed in the early 2000s, sits on an unusually spacious 2.5-acre lot in the hills above Newport Beach, and has nearly 30,000 square feet of rambling living space. Aerial imagery additionally reveals the architecturally vague megamansion sports two separate driveways, a massive rooftop parking lot for guests and staff, and what appears to...

Matthew Byrd Jun 19, 2019

The teams behind Wasteland 3 and The Outer Worlds tried to make Baldur's Gate 3.

We were all surprised to learn that Divinity: Original Sin developer Larian Studios is working on Baldur's Gate 3, but it turns out that they weren't the first studio to chase the rights to make the surprising sequel to the former BioWare franchise. 

"I love that title," says inXile CEO Brian Fargo in an interview with IGN. "You know, both me and [Obsidian CEO] Feargus [Urquhart] were chasing that for years. [Larian CEO] Swen [Vincke] too. All of us, for a decade."

That's quite the interesting bit of history to share. For those who don't know, inXile is the studio responsible for the brilliant Wasteland 2 while Obsidian is best known for their work on Fallout: New Vegas and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2. In fact, Fargo says that his pursuit of the Baldur's Gate property...

It’s the brand that would spawn the Fallout franchise, and this throwback to late-‘90s roleplaying was directed by none other than the prestigious Brian Fargo. Sadly, while this sequel – which arrives on Switch (in its 2015 Director’s Cut form) 30 years after the first game – shows fleeting flashes of old school charm, as a game it is ugly, clunky and unwelcoming, and it’s a technical mess on Switch.

The post-apocalyptic setting here is barren Arizona, and your four-person squad operate as Desert Rangers, policing the titular wastes. You go with the default team or create your own – selecting skills, perks, appearance etc – and then, via the tried and tested world map, you make your way through the sprawling gameworld toward your objective, dodging radiation zones and trying not to die from dehydration. Find a settlement and the view moves closer in, and you explore the region in real-time.

Henry Nicholas III -- the billionaire co-founder of tech giant Broadcom -- was arrested after cops say they found cases of hard drugs in his Las Vegas hotel room, and his mug shot kinda says it all. Law enforcement sources tell us ... Nicholas couldn't get into his room at the Encore Tuesday and when security assisted, they discovered his girlfirend, Ashley Fargo, was unresponsive with a semi-deflated balloon in her mouth. We're told paramedics responded and revived Fargo,...

Wasteland 2 is getting ported to the Nintendo Switch with a bunch of improvements added to the game. If you've missed out on this amazing RPG from the makers of the original Fallout, there's no better time to try it out.

From the producer of the original Fallout comes Wasteland 2, the sequel to the first-ever post-apocalyptic computer RPG. inXile Entertainment, the studio led by Interplay founder Brian Fargo, has partnered with Nintendo to release a Switch™ announcement trailer for Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, the critically praised game that won numerous accolades, including Game of the Year. It is expected to arrive on the Nintendo Switch this August.

Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut is an enhanced version of the original release that features numerous improvements and additions that further immerse the player in this epic adventure across a post-nuclear American Southwest.

Key Features:

One Size Does Not Fit All: Don’t...

Pop culture is full of wizened older figures (usually male) who guide the hero on their journey. Obi-Wan and Yoda. Dumbledore. Mr. Miyagi. We adore these characters in our media, yet in the real world it’s sometimes easy to overlook the contributions of older, experienced people.

Kate Edwards wants to change that. She’s the former executive director of the International Game Developers Association (Igda), as well as a consultant who uses her background as a geographer to assist studios with political and cultural content in their projects. She believes ageism is a rampant problem in the video game industry, one that’s being largely ignored.

“While sexism in the industry has garnered tremendous attention, and rightfully so, in the wake of Gamergate and other incidents, the response to ageism has typically been tepid by comparison,” she said.

Edwards thinks the problem is exacerbated whenever various media outlets enthusiastically...

I don’t like talking in the first person for these articles, but this needs to be said: I, Andrew Vandersteen, have not donated and will not donate money to the Psychonauts 2 campaign. I cannot speak for my fellow writers of this publication.

There’s something unbelievably fishy going on with Fig.co, the platform of choice for the anticipated Psychonauts 2 crowdfunding campaign. We already looked at why Psychonauts 2 shouldn’t be crowd funded, but there seems to be a lot more to the situation than what we first saw. Fig.co might just be the shadiest form of crowd funding ever, an impressive feat considering the already shady dealings of Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. Let’s examine what’s going on, and try to get to the core of this rotten fruit.

The site hit mainstream when the campaign for Psychonauts 2 launched on December 4th, during the Video Game Awards.

Even if Magic: The Gathering isn’t right up your alley, chances are you at least know a half dozen people who are obsessed with it. Taking advantage of the massive appeal the game has, Wizards of the Coast has teamed up with leading game developers to create 14 unique cards for the release of Magic 2015, which will be available on July 18.

The group of developers involved with creating new cards makes up a laundry list of big names in the industry, ranging from indie game designers to personalities such as Notch and Lord British. Check out the full list below for a better idea of what to expect:

George Fan: designer of Plants vs Zombies Mike Krahulik & Jerry Holkins: Gabe and Tycho, creators of Penny Arcade Markus Persson: “Notch,” creator of Minecraft and founder of Mojang Richard Garriot: “Lord British,” creator of the Ultima series David Sirlin: designer...

by Joseph Leray

"Torment: Tides of Numenera," inXile Entertainment's follow-up to Black Isle's seminal "Planescape: Torment," is still over a year away from release. Its Kickstarter page promises a December 2014 delivery date, but let's be real: Brian Fargo & Co. are in the thick of finishing up the recently-delayed "Wasteland 2," and "Numenera" is still in the early stages of pre-production. This game isn't coming out before 2015.

Still, some fascinating details about inXile's attempt to modernize the old-school role-playing game are starting to emerge, and they'll just have to do for now.

One thing to keep in mind is that inExile's design process is happening against a backdrop of specifically avoiding mainstream RPG designs. When asked by Rock, Paper, Shotgun about "Mass Effect," "Torment" team lead Kevin Saunders explained that "[It] is very mass-market friendly. That's been great in bringing more people to RPGs, so there's definite value to that approach. But that's now what 'Torment' is about.

by Matt Hawkins

The Indie Speed Run is a game jam in which participants have 48 hours to create a fully playable game from start to finish. The contest will take place globally, across 15 live locations to be exact.

On the surface, it sounds like many other game jams, but there are a few key differences. First, there's a theme along with an element, both of which must be incorporated in the game, which is par for the course in such things. But when the clock starts, there's the option to roll the "Danger Dice" and get new parameters.

But it's mentioned how these replacement criteria will more than likely be wackier, and trickier to implement, though it's also implied that they'll be a lot more fun. And the second key distinction of the Indie Speed Run are the panel of judges. Which again is fairly standard, but wait till you...

By Matt Hawkins

Bad news for those who backed the creation of "Wasteland 2," which alongside Double Fine Adventure, was a roaring crowd funded success story: the game has been delayed.

According to the most recent update on Kickstarter, things are running behind, by about 6 weeks to be exact. How come? Because all that extra money the project was able to generate (the goal was $900,000, and it ended up within the reach of three million) led to an increasing of scope. Which of course means there's now a lot more to do.

Right off the back, one might instantly be reminded up the aforementioned Double Fine success story that has recently hit a rather significant snag. But according to Brian Fargo, the man in charge at inXile entertainment:

"I can happily announce that we remain well financed for development, thus allowing us to ship a product without compromise. This is primarily due to our disciplined spending,...

by Joseph Leray

Deep Silver, the publisher behind "Metro: Last Light" and the upcoming "Saints Row IV" will be distributing inXile Entertainment's Kickstarter-funded "Wasteland 2," according to a press release sent out today.

"Wasteland 2" is currently no track for digital releases on Steam, Origin, and Good Old Games, but Deep Silver will be handling the brick-and-mortar retail side of things. This should, in theory, free up inExile to finish developing, testing, and optimizing the game itself, which is due later this year for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

“This is a perfect opportunity for inXile: it allows us to continue to focus all of our energy and money into the creative aspects of the game while letting Deep Silver take our game outside of the pure digital space," writes CEO and founder Brian Fargo. "This has the added bonus of allowing us to spend more of the Kickstarter funds on development while...

Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you'd want to see? Tell us in the comments. "Kickstarted" Tweetable Logline: An original documentary about the crowdfunding revolution. Elevator Pitch: This is the first documentary to look at the crowdfunding revolution and the people powering it. The film will follow the inspiring, dramatic stories of a handful of crowdfunded project creators as they raise money and then, with all of their dreams and social capital on the line, have to deliver. Those journeys are set against the background of a bigger cultural and economic sea change — where the creative/entrepreneurial class can create their own projects independently. The film will also have interviews with Zach Braff, Amanda Palmer, John Vanderslice, Brian Fargo and dozens of other prominent crowdfunding personalities.

Feature Ryan Lambie 17 May 2013 - 05:47

Here's a fresh batch of worthy, geek-friendly crowdfunding projects that have caught our eye this week...

The best part of putting together this weekly crowdfunding column? While trawling through the dozens of ideas that appear online every day, we stumble on all kinds of weird and wonderful things.

Some ideas are semi-practical - a new kind of flip-flop with soles made from astro turf, for people who want to feel as though they're walking on grass all day long - while others are downright strange - such as a set of tabletop gaming figures shaped neat like little human backsides.

Some ideas are commercial and enticing enough to sale past their funding goal - a zombie Lego Batman mash-up animation's already doing well - while others are rather more niche - we spotted a strip poker text adventure, which has, unsurprisingly, attracted rather less interest so far.

By Joseph Leray

When we first covered “Torment: Tides of Numenera,” I tried to stress that this was a Big Deal: it’s inXile’s follow up to Black Isle’s “Planescape: Torment,” itself a foundational mid-90s RPG that changed the way the industry looked at narrative design and interaction. Don’t take my word for it, though: 23,000 different people contributed more than $1.1 million to “Numenera”’s Kickstarter campaign in less than eight hours, shattering the project’s initial $900,000 goal.

Here’s the stat that will blow your mind: inXile is offering a $10,000 reward tier, and five people have already claimed it. A modest $20 pledge will secure you a copy of the game.

For more information about the game, its combat, and its setting, “Torment”’s Kickstarter page is exhaustive and detailed. There is, admittedly some boilerplate about the game’s sure-to-be sprawling narrative (“We’re taking the approach...

By Joseph Leray

The “news” in the strictest sense of the term is that “Torment: Tides of Numenera” has a new website, complete with a piece of concept art, a plot summary, and a registration process for you long-suffering “Torment” fans to get into the forums and make suggestions for developer inXile’s inevitable crowdfunding campaign.

The bigger news, however, is that a sequel (of sorts) to Black Isle’s seminal “Planescape: Torment” exists at all.

Black Isle was shuttered back in 2003 as a result of publisher Interplay’s financial woes, though it was eventually revived last year. “Planescape: Torment” is, as its name implies, based on the Wizards of the Coast-published Planescape campaign for Advanced Dugeons & Dragons. Between Black Isle’s closure and Wizards guarding the Planescape license, another “Torment” game in that universe is unlikely to ever happen. Ex-Black Isle staffers moved on to Obsidian, and the games industry trudged inexorably forward.

[Update] The rumour surrounding OnLive’s closure has been officially rebutted and appears to be incorrect. However, the same dismissal can not yet be made of the layoffs which, if anything, are looking all the more likely.

OnLive, the cloud-based game streaming service that went from an almost universally doubted dream to an impressive reality, is now rumoured to be closing down. Every member of staff have apparently been let go, and there are tweets and emails circulating to that effect.

Whilst no official confirmation concerning the closure of the service has surfaced, Brian Fargo of inXile Enterainment – who many will know from the Wasteland 2 kickstarter – has taken to Twitter to reveal some details about emails that he has recieved about the suspension of the service:

“Their employees are sending out emails that #OnLive will be closed by the end of the day.”

In addition to this, he has now Tweeted...

The TimeSplitter games have become classics in their own right. Known for their fast and frantic multiplayer action with a twist of odd thrown into the mix, it gave the games their own unique feel and a legion of loyal fans. After Free Radical caved in on itself and declared bankruptcy the rights to the franchise transferred over to the folks at Crytek. Speaking with Cvg the chief executive at Crytek expressed that he wished they were working on a new game. This amounted to opening the proverbial floodgates.

Much of the debate stems from the fact that Yerli also stated that they had thought about starting a kickstater campaign for TimeSplitters 4, but that the company had concerns over how appropriate it would be for a company as large and successful of Crytek to ask for fan funding. Of course this has split opinion.

On one side we have those...

No, this isn’t an Onion article. Filmmaker Timon Birkhofer is currently planning Capital C, a movie about the crowdfunding movement made popular by Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and you. And what better way to finance the documentary than by creating a Kickstarter page? Birkhofer already has interviews lined up with Iron Sky director Timo Vuorensola, Obama campaign Design Director Scott Thomas, “Wasteland 2″ creator Brian Fargo, former CEO of Universal Music Europe Tim Renner, and several others to discuss the philosophy, potential and popular impact of finding hundreds and thousands of investors for interesting ideas. They’re looking to film this summer after reaching their $80,000 goal. They’ve already got close to $14,000 covered, so if the project sounds interesting, feel free to help them out. It will be the most meta thing you do all day.

Fallout New Vegas designer Chris Avellone has been officially confirmed for Wasteland 2. With eight days to go, the KickStarter-funded role-playing game currently has more than 46,000 backers, who have pledged over $$2.2 million (£1.39m). Director Brian Fargo previously revealed that Obsidian's Avellone would join the team if $$2.1 million was raised. Confirming his involvement, Avellone tweeted: "Thanks to everyone who supported the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter - we hit the 2.1 million mark, can't wait to get started!" The Wasteland 2 team are now targeting $$2.5 million, which would enable them to add additional designers, level scripters and increase (more)...

Wasteland 2 has raised more than $$2m on KickStarter. With ten days remaining, the project, which is helmed by original Wasteland director Brian Fargo, is on course to raise the $$2.1m needed to secure the services of Fallout: New Vegas designer Chris Avellone. "Things are sure looking good to hit our next milestone of $$2.1 million, which makes the game deeper of course, but it also brings the design talents of Chris Avellone of Obsidian. We look forward to having Chris bring his style and prose to the game," writes Brian Fargo on the project's KickStarter page. Promising that all money raised would go into the development pot, Fargo explained that $$2.5m would allow the team to hire more designers and level scripters, as well as increase the music budget. Speaking about the possibility of mod kits, Fargo explained: "I (more)...

Obsidian Entertainment may join the development of Wasteland 2. Brian Fargo revealed that the Fallout: New Vegas studio would become co-developers on the game if its Kickstarter fund reached $$2.1 million. "I have a history with the guys at Obsidian that dates back to the days of Interplay's Black Isle Studios," Fargo told Rock, Paper Shotgun. "Together we created some of the greatest RPG's of all time, from Fallout 1 and 2 to titles like Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. It is great that we now have a chance to reunite on a project like Wasteland 2." The partnership would provide useful tools to speed up and enhance Wasteland 2's development. "Obsidian has an incredible library of story, dialogue and design tools that they have used to create hits like Neverwinter (more)...

The push for crowdsourcing among indie developers continue, this time with a proposed tactical shooter from former Bungie and Ubisoft designer Christian Allen as well as huge gains for the inExile Entertainment campaign for post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland 2.

Cleanly over a million bucks: that's the total with 29 days to go for inExile's plan to get a sequel to the inspiration for Fallout, Wasteland. The original game designers for Wasteland, Alan Pavlish and Mike Stackpole are on board along with its producer, Brian Fargo, who acted as Executive Producer on Fallout (and founder of Interplay) as well. The concept art up above is by Andree Wallin, who's providing the look for the proposed new game.

The inExile team's plan is apparently to stick to the original's roots as closely as possible, going top-down, turn-based, and tactical with the action. Having already exceeded their $900k goal, inExile will put the game through six months of pre-production,...

Wasteland 2 has surpassed its Kickstarter target of $$900,000 (£574,941). Brian Fargo's sequel broke the funding milestone less than 48 hours after the campaign launched, and has now passed the $$930,000 (£594,106) mark. inXile co-founder Fargo previously said that he would be unable to develop a follow-up to the 1988 role-playing game without at least $$1 million (£600,000). He pledged to provide the final $$100,000 (£63,868) himself, though it is not expected to be necessary. Kickstarter users who fund $$15 (£9) will receive a DRM-free downloadable PC copy (more)...

Wasteland creator Brian Fargo has launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowd-fund a sequel. Wasteland 2 will be a direct sequel to 1988's Wasteland. It will stay true to the original's style, presented as a third-person turn-based role-playing game. Fargo, who was the executive producer for both Wasteland and the first Fallout will be joined by the original game's primary designers Alan Pavlish and Mike Stackpole. The development team will also be joined by Fallout 1 and 2 composer Mark Morgan and Fallout co-creator Jason Anderson to write the game's story. "This is probably the last chance for a Wasteland sequel," Fargo wrote in the Kickstarter campaign's description. "We have tried to pitch this game multiple times to game publishers, but they've baulked. They don't think there's (more)...

Timothy Cain, the producer, programmer, and one of the original Fallout speaks at Gdc 2012 on what it took to make the PC classic from Interplay.

Cain started off by calling out some of the film influences behind the game, including the Harlan Ellison adaptation, A Boy and His Dog, and the TV movie, The Day After.

Moving on to the challenges of making the game, he explained that for the first six months of development, it was simply him alone, later joined by two more members before the team finally started to coalesce. He says that during the last six months of development, they would work almost daily for 12-14 hour days. He says that it was awesome because they were in their 20's but seems ridiculous now. The team effort was helped out by some Qa workers volunteered to work for free on weekends because of their love of the game.

Wasteland creator Brian Fargo plans to use Kickstarter to fund a sequel. The follow-up to 1988 role-playing game Wasteland would stay faithful to the series' roots and would cost at least $$1 million to make, Fargo told IGN. Buoyed by Tim Schafer's success with his Kickstarter-funded Double Fine Adventure, Fargo took to Twitter to express his interest in using similar crowd-funding methods. "Pondering bringing Wasteland back through this crowdfunding. It's a world I have longed to work with again," wrote Fargo. "People forget that Wasteland was the precursor to @fallout. We made Fallout (more)...