Gry Online reports that news of unclear situation with Stalker and troubles of GSC Game World have proven untrue:

Someone is unneccesarily spreading boulderdash, while all the team members are working like oxes to finish the game - you could comment in that manner the explanations of the Ukrainian studio, which displayed a swift reaction to the revelations of the Russian Game Mag service.

Forlorn World site has been updated with some new stuff including sketches, renders and a new wallpaper (the pilaster in the fog is Sigismund's Column)

Ashes of Apocalypse, a post-nuclear and ever-expanded mod for The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind is apparently receiving a warm welcome, given thet it's now ranked 9th in the ModDB best mods of 2005.

Link: ModDB Best 2005 Mods

Doc sent us a doc (pun not intended) containing a handful of information about Fort Abandon, also with some speculation and commentary (partly in Polish and English). Download it to get some idea of this as of yet undocumented location from Van Buren.

Fort Abandon is a rundown New California Republic fort in the American southwest. The railway has a crossroads here. It was originally called Fort Aradesh, and was a major fortification. However, Caesar's Legion attempted to destroy NCR’s presence in the east, and actually succeeded in destroying the fort. The name changed after NCR's control of the frontier receded. [...] If the player so chose, he could slowly upgrade the fort into a center of prosperity.

List me amongst the people not in the least surprised here.

Information about THQ being not satisfied with the situation that developed inside GSC had already reached us before. "They (THQ) didn't even imagine what it's like to work with GSC, - shares with us one of the former members of the company - they didn't even understand who they dealt with. STALKER always was in the state of general design. It's always been a project which was more spoken of than really done."

(...)

The third source has information that a brand new engine not based on X-ray technology was in the works inside GSC, which could have been used to power renovated STALKER. Almost all of the team left the studio taking the technology created in a few months with them. GSC representatives consider this fact as theft, but former employees refer to "special circumstances". One of the members of the GSC team assumes that STALKER could be taken away along with the source code by the THQ representatives and handed to another team for work on the project. We attempted to contact GSC representatives but failed to receive an answer. THQ representatives commented on the issue drily: "No comments".

Update: Some of the developers revealed that a few months ago THQ seeked a studio ready to finish STALKER. One of the GSC programmers said that this is very unlikely: "The code is mostly not documented, they wouldn't understand a thing there."

I Must Be Crazy 2 sent us a new version of the Vertibird Mod:

This past week, I have completed work on the Vertibird MOD v1.03.

In this MOD, fuel usage and Vertibird flight time are now dependent on the physical distance between the current town and the destination town (in previous versions, both fuel usage and flight time were random, regardless of flight distance). The Vertibird still has the feature to greatly speed up flight, plus a new on-board fuel calculator!

In addition, a certain NPC can now give the player fuel for the Vertibird on a regular basis. However, the player must first do the NPC a hidden favor.

Also, the Vertibird movement script has been greatly overhauled so that the player should never have to worry about getting stuck anywhere when using the Vertibird (in version 1.02, the entire Vertibird was inaccessible after the player flew to Vault City 20 times).

The size of the file is 2.77 MB as a WinZip file, *.dat format.

Projekt sent us this info:

The FalloutNow! website is online!
The german community is to 100% back again :D

http://www.falloutnow.de

Ihad dropped by today to remind us of an important date:

January 27, 1987: Wasteland is programmed at Interplay Productions under the leadership of Alan Pavlish. It is distributed by Electronic Arts for the Apple ][ platform. According to the Interplay programmers, the game shipped on January 27, A.D. 1987, “or thereabouts.” Wasteland is also released for the Commodore 64 platform.



1988: Wasteland is ported to the IBM platform by Michael Quarles in A.D. 1988.
Wasteland becomes the number one best-seller of the year.

And you know what? “Wasteland” is still fun to play!

Continuing our tour of CD-related web sites, I present to you Eric Green's Civil Defense Museum.

This virtual museum is dedicated to the Civil Defense and emergency workers of the United States who worked throughout the Cold War to try to protect the public from nuclear attack. Thankfully, their services, in that aspect, were never needed. This virtual museum is for historical purposes and does not make fun of civil defense, however, I do throw in a few "light" comments here and there.

There are many aspects of the civil defense program that may seem funny today, but the Cold War was a very scary time. Civil defense officials and volunteers during that time were very serious about their work and I believe they deserve respect for their efforts. They rendered emergency services after natural and man-made disasters and would have had an impossible task had there ever been a nuclear war.

I found this site while surfing, you might want to visit it for some nuclear science-related equipment, as well as a number of posters and fun gadgets from the 50's.

Intoxicate posted this release in the Polish section:

We're looking for Sound Designers willing to help record sound for the game Bourgeoisie:Pearl of the Wastes.

Requirements:
- experience in creating and editing sound effects
- equipment neccessary for sound recordings, alt. a silenced room
- creativity

Duties:
- creating sound effects
- meeting given deadlines

We offer:
- work with experienced team on a distinguishable project
- perfecting one's skills
- portfolio on our company site

If interested, contact our Sound Coordinator:michal@panika.pl , or please contact intoxicate@nma-fallout.com All offers of coopertion will be evaluated.

Fan Made Fallout website was updated with some new stuff, observe:

It's time again for another public project update. Last update we included a bit of story to get the ball rolling, so this update calls for some images. So here are 3 concept works of art:



You can find all our publicly released images in our Gallery (at the bottom, because I like making you scroll). You might also want to check out our updated status page along with the brand new About page.

Now, onto the meaty stuff. After a much-needed Christmas break, most of the team (bar a few stragglers) are back and picking up where we left off a few weeks ago. We even have a small complement of new team members to help, so welcome to ReaverJoe, AWesomesque, Bazola and Zihuatanejo who have all joined us over the past month. We hope they settle in and help us reach our goal in time.

Which brings us to our problem. In order to make our self-imposed-we-picked-it-because-it-seemed-like-the-right-thing-to-do-at-the-time deadline of July 1st 2007, we're going to have to do some serious work this year. While looking at where the project was this time last year shows that we have in fact come an awful long way, looking ahead shows we still have an awful long way to go. Our ability to make that happen relies on the team members we have crunching out dialogue for those locations that are completely planned and crunching out a few more ideas for those locations that still need the fine-tooth comb applied to them. It also relies on us having a constant supply of reinforcements. New team members who join to pick up the work left by those who can no longer continue.

I think we can do it. With just another handful of dedicated, capable members on board, we may even just reach that goal. There's no question that it'll be tough but after 3 years and 9 months, we're a hell of a lot closer to it than we've ever been before (which is logical when you think about it because if we weren't closer than we we came up with the idea, we'd be in a real spot of bother).

I stumbled into an interesting story today, looks like Norway is going to build a Van-Buren-Nursery-Type facility to house plant seeds in the event of a cataclysm, such as a nuclear conflict:

Norway is to build a "doomsday vault" in a mountain close to the North Pole that will house a vast seed bank to ensure food supplies in the event of catastrophic climate change, nuclear war or rising sea levels, New Scientist says.

Stalker-World.com.ua translated five of their interviews with Oleg Yavorsky into English. Take a glance at them for no answers whatsoever.

Links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Spotted at Oblivion Lost

Worthplaying has got the Metalheart: RR patch to v1.3.

Spotted at RPGDot.

Another story today, we take a glance at Outcome, the born and set in Russia post-nuclear tactical cRPG in production.

The developers are promising an immersive tactical role-playing game, inspired by Fallout, Bad Blood, and - no surprise - the works of the Russian writers, the Brothers Strugatsky.

Twilight War seems to have bitten the dust, but here comes another MMOG FPS. Say hello to Huxley, a game we probably won't be covering much. Release is scheduled for Q3 2006.

Huxley takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where human beings have mutated and are divided into two opposing races, Sapiens and Alternative. At the center of the battle for survival is Lunarites, a promising new energy source that both sides seek to obtain. Forced to battle against one another for the continuance of each race, Sapiens and Alternatives are willing to do whatever it takes to wipe out the conflicting race and gain control of the world and its resources.

In near future, Nuclearites bombard the World. Destructive earthquakes, massive tidal waves and dramatic climate changes wreak havoc around the globe, isolating continents and driving the human race into chaos. Those who survive the destruction dream of tranquility, but an eruption among the human race and the appearance of horrible mutants drives the world into further disorder. Racism and oppression cause rebellious uprisings and war that divide the landscape between two powers: Sapiens and Alternative, At the heart of the war emerges a powerful energy source the Lunarites created by Huxley, a scientist and possible savior.

Both factions seek glory and victory, fighting mercilessly for the Lunerites and their very existence.

Or is it? Introversion Software are preparing this real-time strategy (stay tuned, dammit!) that will put you in the command chair of a nuclear superpower. Here is what it says on DEFCON's Wikipedia page:

A normal Defcon game is said to take around 45 minutes to complete. Players are given a dehumanised 1980s computer-themed world map with the objective to kill as many foreign citizens as possible with a variety of nuclear weapons: a typical game will see 'hundreds of millions' of innocent casualties. Currently each player's force is chosen and positioned beforehand and the game does not feature unit construction or research. The game defaults to two sides, America and Russia, but games with up to six players are possible, and AI opponents are provided.

There is also a planned 'Office Mode', where the game runs in the background and the computer can be used for other purposes between bouts of action. This mode can be configured to take up to eight hours per game.

I don't know if you remember Twilight War: After The Fall, a post-apocalyptic MMORPG being developed using Valve's Source engine. Well, as of yesterday it is no longer being developed as Smiling Gator Productions, the developers, have run out of funds.

It just goes to show FPS MMOGs are not The Way, IMHO.

Thanks to Serbaside and another anonymous source who tipped us.

New Dawn site has been updated with a new interview, follow the link below to find out more about this indie cRPG in production:

(D): Your project differs from other Fallout-inspired games a lot, especially in ambience. What do you think about it?

(S): Oftentimes just one word is enough to pigeonhole a game. We do respect Fallout, but our project has very little to do with this game. When the comet hit the planet, the world was almost completely destroyed – only a handful of underground objects did survive, e.g. shelters. Afterwards people had to adapt to new conditions. They returned to primitive farming and started manufacturing items and weapons they needed to carry on. People established various communities which held different beliefs. This also indirectly influenced the rich architecture.

(D): I read you are going to have a turn-based combat. Can you confirm that?

(S): Yes, 100%. However we want to give a player a choice, so if somebody prefers real-time combat – with an active pause – they can play this way too.

Piotr "Struś" Koczewski sent us the cover art and another track from his looming "Wasteland Theme" music album. Enjoy!

Cubik released the new version of the Fallout 2 item prototype editor:

I'd like to present the new and improved version of the F2WEDIT item editor for Fallout 2. "master.dat" & "critter.dat" are required to run the program; In case there is a "patch000.dat" file, the program will use its data first. A novelty compared to the earlier version is the ability to auto-extract files from master.dat or patch000.dat. Manual extraction is unnecessary, contrary to earlier versions.
It suffices to run the program, have a full installation of Fallout 2 and you can comfortably edit.
Also there are a few interface and minor changes. Details in "readme.txt".

Imperium Gier WP had noticed the Forlorn World project and posted a preview:

Polish Fallout? Sure! No? Hell yes! And totally Polish, not only made by Poles, but also set in a Polish reality. Or rather, an alternative unreality, since the game makers of Ground Zero studios decided to make it not only post-nuclear, but also post-socialist!

mvBarracuda speaketh:

You surely waited a long time for it but now it is here: The first official FIFE release!

For the ones that have never heard about FIFE: this project is an open source engine that tries to replace the old Fallout 2 by creating the abilitiy to run Fallout-like games under all major platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac) and having superior modding support.

You can download the FIFE 2006.0 pre-alpha for Windows here from Sourceforge.

This release is a pre-alpha version of the prototype! If you find bugs, have problems with the installation or just want to contact the team because you got questions about the release: use the forums or join our irc channel

Just download the selfextracting archive and install (extract) FIFE to a directory of your choice. Read the included "readme.txt" and enjoy this first FIFE release :-)

Important: several people encountered problems with this FIFE release. But it's not our fault :-p We just recognized that all these problems are related to localized Fallout versions. So if you're running Fallout as UK or GER version: go to our download section and get the critters patch to get FIFE working for you.

We don't know if there are problems with Russian versions of Fallout but if there are any: let us know in the forums and we might be able to create a patch for it :-)

The team wishes you a happy a new year and stay tuned for more (feature-rich) releases in 2006!

Well, it's time to look at all the good stuff you folks sent to our Gallery...

*THE* event of the year, hands down, is Defonten's "City Ruins" painting, but you already know that.

killap a.k.a. The Bear Dude updated his patch to avoid the Y2K6 bug ;) , enjoy!

Alright everyone, a new release is ready for you all to enjoy. What began as a small update to my main release exploded into a good 70+ fixes. The majority of them are new fixes to bugs recently discovered in the game as well as a few minor corrections to the fixes I already implemented. A list can be found below of the newest additions to my patch. As always, I suggest a fresh install when using my patch but it is not required. No game start over with this update is required if you are already using my last release.

The Czech are working on a Fallout collectible card game. Actually, there's the game, one expansion pack - "Wasteland", based off whatever one might find in the desert - and another Fallout 1-based is in the wings.

So, it's 2006. A hearty and gladsome greetings goes out to you all - the visitors, the forum users, the staff, those that help us develop this site and the poor lost souls who come here to quench their Fallout thirsts.

The Holy Flame bless you all, yo.

Fallout 3 may not come this year, but we trust it will. Stay tuned for more news through 2006!

The British edition of the PCFormat magazine had noticed our neverending Fallout pursuits and we've been mentioned in the Christmas bit:

Fallout3 may be a long way off, but www.nma-fallout.com keeps an eye on all post-apocalyptical world related games and mods. Well worth a look.