With a franchise as devoutly beloved as the Fallout series, Bethesda must have known known it was getting into treacherous, fan-infested waters when it chose to undertake the development duties of Fallout 3. The hardcore fanbase of any product is rabid, largely unhinged, and will jump at the chance to decry anything as a betrayal of their emotional lifeline. These zealots have had their hands full with Fallout 3.
Bethesda has ignored the screams of Fallout fans in the production of a game that resembles an FPS more than an RPG. The roleplaying elements will be there, but it can't be argued that the game is going to be a very different beast from the one that players were expecting. Bethesda, however, has recognized a need to be ruthless and explained exactly why it's not listening to the outraged war cry of a thousand angry gamers. Lead designer Emil Pagliarulo had this to say on the matter:
"That’s always the toughest question. You listen to the fans and respect their ideas, but once you start designing a game that they want to make specifically, then you can get yourself into trouble ... You have to make the game that you’re making and know that it’s a good one and continue with that."
At the end of the day, Bethesda is responsible for a sequel that was always going to make people unhappy, no matter how well made the game may or may not be. It's simply impossible to give everybody exactly what they want and the studio clearly knows this. Sometimes what fans want is what's best for themselves, not the franchise, and sometimes it's just not worth trying to cater to everybody, because once you start attempting to satisfy everyone, you end up pleasing none. Like Emil said, you just have to make what you're making. Let the fans answer with their wallets, and the fallout for
Fallout be as it may.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Then come back and try to say the same thing you just said.
But i do agree with you Powered, B-thesda have much to prove themself...
I mean, why change the isometric view? Titan Quest did just fine with it and I know if they made a Diablo 3 and kept it in isometric everyone would still go apeshit over it. So why ruin Fallout with a first person view?
Yeah, Oblivion was a huge disappointment (don't get me started on what bothered me about it) but I still have some faith in Fallout 3 and i don't think it's going to be "Oblivion with Guns." There are already a few things about Fallout 3 that have been getting on my nerves, but you know what? Whatever. Bethesda's gonna make a lot of money on this game. At this point I think the rabid fanboys have accepted that this isn't going to be, in their eyes, a true "Fallout" game and that they are now attacking Bethesda simply because they are cashing in and bastardizing their franchise. I'm not saying I believe they are though, that's to be answered when the game comes out.
Part of me is still concerned whether Bethesda will hold true to the original dark style of the game with its twisted sense of humor, but the rational side of me realizes that fanboys are going to be pissed no matter what: If it's too much like the previous Fallouts, rabid fans will say it's a cheap rip-off or a bastardized copy. If it's not enough like the originals, those same fans will pine for the good ol' days. Even if Black Isle was still creating the game, the hounds of fandom would bitch because the game was "too little, too late".
Trying to make a Fallout 3 that will make everyone happy is like trying to debate which Evil Dead movie was best- you'll never get the same reason/justification from anyone.
A New different Fallout is better than no Fallout at all.
That is unless it sucks balls.
Yay! Go, show' em!!
Even if you're working on an existing franchise, it's still your vision of the franchise you're implementing. It's your vision, your creativity, your product. Don't listen to so called fans, listen to your own inner voice and make the best game you want to make, not the best game someone who clearly has too much time on his hand wants.
To hell with player empowerment!
I can live with an Oblivion with guns and no mobs that level with you though. If I want to see moral choice art on my screen that bad, I'll go watch some Eric Rohmer instead.
Really? Thats what hardcore fallout fans want? Most of us who still play fallout 1 and 2 to this day would rather have better, oblivion like graphics instead of keeping the same fallout formula but to tweak it to todays standards?
It is hard to say because the game isn't out yet but from what I have heard about it so far I think I would rather not have a Fallout 3. Just like I would rather have just one Deus Ex instead of that shitty Invisible War game they came out with.
Deus Ex 2
Look at the fan ratings, this is what happens when you COMPLETELY ignore the fan base.
I don't mind the camera, I'm sure someone will make an isometric camera mod. I'm more concerned about the RPG elements, dialog trees, and story.
Minigames = fail
FPS play = fail
5 Voice Actors = fail
Scaled enemies = fail
Who knows maybe some ambitious fans will mod everything to make it more like a real fallout esq game, but the point is, they shouldn't have to.
'I saw a pigrat the other day...horrid creatures'
It's worth pissing off your small but hardcore audience to attract new users. They're doing things right.
If you want old school Fallout then go fire-up your old copies! Hell, this could end up being better.
To be honest i gasped when they said it was to be a smaller world (than oblivion, but if that means walking it and enjoying the world... cool!
As for the game play i trust them to give us something worth playing.....
..... this beast is definitely something else.
I used to play planetside and I remember the general outrage over some changes, devs never listened and the game basically tanked. :(
Well shit, ,man...If YOU say YOU'D rather not have a Fallout 3 at all, maybe Bethesda should listen. Just hold on a sec, I'll give them a call.........yeah, um, they told me to tell you to take your lame fanboy "opinions" and stuff them up your fat ass...Soooo I guess that's that...STFUAJPG!
Well shit, ,man...If YOU say YOU'D rather not have a Fallout 3 at all, maybe Bethesda should listen. Just hold on a sec, I'll give them a call.........yeah, um, they told me to tell you to take your lame fanboy "opinions" and stuff them up your fat ass...Soooo I guess that's that...STFUAJPG!
Thank you sir, for your ability and willingness to use rational thought unclouded by nostalgic fanboyness...
GEORGE LUCAS RAPED MY CHILDHOOD!!!
Titan Quest did just fine with an isometric view? Isn't that the game that was recently on the front page with news about it selling very poorly? With a comments section full of Dtoiders saying the game sucked ass and they stopped playing after 10 minutes? Maybe not the best example.
To everyone else, remember for every Fallout fan who stubbornly have decided to hate this game without even PLAYING it, there are at least two or three people who have never played the game who will give it a chance, and likely love it.
How can you guys hate a game without having played it? It's really quite pathetic, fanboyism at its finest.
BTW, since it's quasi-on-topic, nobody can "rape" your childhood. A sucky (in your opinion) Fallout 3 does nothing to hurt the experience you had in the first two. Quit being melodramatic. (Not addressing Fatbologna, I know he was being sarcastic)
--How in the world can the quote in the story be considered inflammatory, or anything other than common sense? Someone please explain to me how it's anything but sensible.
--It's funny how for certain games (like Fallout 3 apparently), people want the same "formula" again and again, but they have no problem bashing other games (ie EA Sports titles, GTA series, etc.) for being "the same game every year".
Its not that fallout fans, or at least some of us, mind seeing things changed, its that we want the core themes to stay the same.
We want the same quality of writing and dialog, we want to see the game present us with moral choices, with consequences that go beyond what one might immediately think. I also want to see dark humor and lots of it.
For example in Fallout 2, one town full of mutants runs a nuke reactor and a near by town of normal humans is having their ground water poisoned, lets say you play a good character. You go, fix the reactor, but find out you can optimize it so that one town can sell the other electricity and everyone is happy right?
Well wrong, if you go too far you find out that the one town invades the other, and slaughters the inhabitants. You were just trying to do a good thing, but it just went too far.
Bethesda so far has greatly disappointed players on the RPG front with Oblivion, which is more of an action game with RPG elements peppered onto it than something like The Witcher (to name a recent game).
If they wanted to make their own post apocalyptic action-semi-RPG they could, but they chose to take an existing license and that means we now have certain expectations about what kind of game its going to be.
(long comment is long)
Why have point and click on a target to have a character shoot it when the technology exist where I can aim and shoot at the target myself. Why should they use a rts style interface to simulate real time combat when they can put real time combat right into the game? Because the fans want it that way?
As long as a quality story is there Fallout 3 will do fine.
I could ask the same question from a RPG gamers perspective:
Why have a rocket launcher and caffeine addled reflexes to target an enemy? Why choose an FPS interface to simulate strategic, thought inducing combat? Because fans want it that way?
Er, yes, RPG fans want it that way. Put away the BFG 2000.
But, having not played any I'm hoping this will be good.
Although, I kinda thought Oblivion was balls.
Just like soblu said, its an RPG, not an FPS. I think developers really are thinking about things the wrong way. Just because you can do everything real time, doesn't mean that you have to or should.
If I want to play an FPS I'll play Team Fortress, but sometimes I like the game to slow down, pause, and allow me to think about who I'm going to attack, what skills or powers I want to use, ect.
A real time system possibly like KoToR would be fine, just make it so the skill is entirely based on dice rolls behind the scenes for the character and not how accurate I am with a mouse.
I've never played the previous Fallouts, but maybe that's a good thing because I'll enjoy the third much more than if I had played them.