Next Generation posted a Todd Howard questionnaire yesterday. Though reasonably uninteresting, it contains two noteworthy bits.

In the first one, Todd mentions that Bethesda are busy working on an alpha build of Fallout 3.

1. I'm currently working on...

Fallout 3. Another big-open-world RPG. We’re still in preproduction building our first playable of the game and it’s very exciting for us. This is the most fun part of a project.

2. My favorite part of the working day is...

I have a few hours in the middle of each day when I play the latest builds of everything. The rest of the time is meetings, some of which I love, some not-so-much. But it’s the private time to play a build and make notes that is probably the most 'fun'. As a project gets further along, those play sessions involve more people at once, watching me play so I can just yell out comments, and those are the best. 'Great games are played, not made', is my office motto, so I love when we’re playing our game and adjusting it as we go.

Morr has posted yet another issue of his post-apocalyptic comic Gone with the Blastwave (the one that "doesn't update"). Here's a small sample:

RPGVault has done an interview with Vince D. Weller (heh) about the upcoming Age of Decadence:

Jonric: In terms of the world in which the game takes place, how does it differ from those of other RPGs? Are there many locations, and how varied are they?

Vince D. Weller: The Age of Decadence is set in a post-apocalyptic, low magic fantasy world, devastated by a war that lasted decades and set the world back by centuries. What once was a powerful empire is now a handful of crumbling towns. Instead of rebuilding, noble clans and guilds are fighting for power, looking not into the future, but into the past, where the secrets of the true power lie buried and forgotten, waiting to be rediscovered.

That's very different from many fantasy games, taking place in a "happyland" and featuring an epic struggle of good vs. evil. In our game, good and evil are very subjective concepts that usually depend on what side of a conflict you are on, so you'd have to decide for yourself what's good, what's bad, and whether or not being bad really feels good.

We have 22 locations showing the world in its post-apocalyptic "beauty", ranging from crudely repaired towns to buried arcane labs, outposts, digs, dried rivers, etc.

The Afterfall website was updated with news on the Prelude:

We have a real treat for all the fans of moving mutated targets.

We are delighted to show you this lovely trio:



Pale, Doc and some anonymous soldier. These are the NPC models that you will meet in our Afterfall: Prelude production.

As a bonus, take a look at the movie testing the minimum level of interior graphics (where the major part of AF: P will take place). The movie can be found HERE.

The team responsible for Afterfall informed that the first public interactive contact with the game world might be possible as soon as December this year:

"Afterfall: Prelude" is a short, but fully-featured game set in a pre-war German military base a dozen years before the game's timeline. "Afterfall:Prelude" will offer:

- One of a kind atmosphere mixed of a post-apocalyptic, known to you from our stories and descriptions, Afterfall's climate, and that of various survival horrors.
- Circa 3-4h gameplay
- 7 atmospheric locations to explore. All brimming with delicious details.
- Original game's "Afterfall" v1.0 beta mechanics, which is a depleted, but self-sufficient version.
- Over 300 items, which can possibly be modified and assembled by the player character.
- A complete story, an unusual hero, whose actions you might direct, and a distinct time frame.

Lisac2K beta-tested the German beta version of Lexx's Shattered Destiny mod for Fallout 2, and wrote a review:

In the past few days I had the privilege and the honour to test the beta release of Shattered Destiny Demo made by Lexx.

The version I was playing was German beta 0.8, which comes with standard Fallout directory structure and two executables packed in an archive. A totally new story is for sure the strongest point of the demo. Playing something "new" in the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout redefines the way of experiencing the game. There is no Chosen One, no Vaults like 13th or 15th, no all these things reminding me of playing the original game for hundreds of times. Just my new alter-ego wandering around trying to find his place under the sun, deciding what he's gonna do next.

Talking about the things which can be done. There are several quests, and one of those seems to be "more important" than others. Generally I liked the tasks and the way they can be accomplished, which reminds me of the original game(s). One more thing I liked about the demo is that the author sticked to the original Fallout settings, so you won't see the real weapons or some other deviations of the world settings (just remember Fallout Tictacs and you'll get the picture).

The demo works fine with the English version of Fallout2, but in that case you'll have to rename one of the text folders from "German" to "English". Although the Demo itself is somewhat short (you'll probably finish it in a few hours of straight gameplay) and buggy, it's fun to play it and the impression of playing "something new" is something you have to experience yourself in order to realise the greatness of the Fallout itself.

Consider this demo was made by one man only. All I can say is:

Congratulations, Mr. Lexx! This is far more interesting than Doom3!

Kimmo Lemetti keeps untrue to his word - and for the better! Although he warned there might be next to no updates, click this link to the center of the world for another issue of Gone With The Blastwave with our heroes and deadpan as ever. Check it out!

Three Legged Legs has produced a pretty nifty apocalyptic short, called Ricochet:

Featured primarily as a visual effects showcase, Ricochet puts the viewer in the middle of an all out battle between two disparate armies set in an apocalyptic near-future environment. Special thanks to George Fuentes and Dylan Spears.

Lich posted the demo for a new edition of the Black Steel Mod:

First official demo, its shown breaktrough idea to select hero before game begin. You can start in different location as other person which have other items, known other NPCs. Another hero have different possibilities in the same area. Try start as Road Warrior and come to Arroyo. Also i put more details to maps (its not easy get down into broken reactor)

Another tip from Wasteland Ghost and another release from TeamX for this week is a new unofficial patch v1.3 for Fallout:

Fallout1 unofficial 1.3 patch can be found in TeamX downloads section.

Patch requires Fallout1 v1.2. This patch is theoretically compatible with "NPC mod" and not compatible with "1.2.5 Update Mod".

Chris Parks posted about the state of his work on the EPA expansion for Fallout 2 (which reminds me to get round to write some stuff I have overdue...):

As requested, I'm posting information about my current EPA project. The project has been in progress now for about four months and is progressing nicely. I intend to keep the EPA as close to the original design documents as possible as thjey look fine from what I've read.

New scenery includes (atm), Mr Chemmie! - a completely redesigned computer for crafting drugs and The Brave Little Toaster
There are many more new graphcis too numerous to mention.

The map comprises of about six maps (with a further two possibilities, depending on how the overall project goes!) several holograms, a depressed Mr Handy, the Doctor and the brave little toaster (a reference to Red Dwarf sitcom) Further information on these characters can be found in the design documents.

Project Status:
Mapping: 90% Only need to check for holes in walls and place all objects and scripts when completed.
Scripting: 10% Barely started this only last week. Progressing steadily as have only just begun any scripting, but early results are good. Four scripts have been completed so far.
New Graphics: 60% Most of the graphics have been created. A few days work should see them done
Testing: 0% Can't fully test till the project is done!

Any suggestions and ideas would be appreciated to improve the mod further

Ok, one last time, let's take a look at how Interplay is doing according to their latest SEC filing (a few days ago). First, to alleviate the fears of those who thought Interplay was still developing anything:

Product development expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2006 were approximately $0, a 100% decrease as compared to the same period in 2005. This decrease is due to a $81,000 decrease in personnel costs as a result of a reduction in product development personnel during 2006 as compared to 2005.

(...)

Currently the Company has no internal development of new titles.

As of March 31, 2006, we had a working capital deficit of approximately $12 million, and our cash balance was approximately $40,000. We currently have no cash reserves and are unable to pay current liabilities. We cannot continue in our current form without obtaining additional financing or income or reducing expenditures.

Hard Truck: Apocalypse has, announcements have it, gone gold:

CDV Software Entertainment USA and Buka Entertainment are pleased to announce that Hard Truck: Apocalypse, the post-apocalyptic game of battlewagons and big guns, has gone gold today. Hard Truck: Apocalypse will drop players behind the wheel of some of the biggest and baddest combat vehicles of the future as they fend off attacks from bandits while delivering supplies and upgrading their trucks with some of the deadliest armaments available.

Developed by Targem Games, Hard Truck: Apocalypse is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland of diesel and dust, where bandits and mobsters rule the last remaining cities, controlling all vital trade routes and destroying any hope of a return to a lawful world. It's up to the player, as the driver of a heavy transportation truck, to blast through the mayhem and deliver needed supplies to desperate towns. The player's life depends on them becoming the ultimate offensive driver, while making sure they keep their trucks in top operating and fighting condition. It's kill or be killed in the world of Hard Truck: Apocalypse.

Further selling the remains of its IP, Interplay has sold the Fallout Pen & Paper RPG license to Glutton Creeper Games:

June 16, 2006: GCG is reviewing Fallout license, and hiring freelance authors and artists to undertake the d20 Fallout PH project. More news to follow...

June 10, 2006: GCG has finished contract negotiations with Interplay for a license to create a d20 modern OGL setting for FALLOUT. More news to follow...

News from the Afterfall folks-

Afterfall and Unigine Corp. combine forces.

Unigine Corp., creators of a high-quality graphics engine - Unigine, and Intoxicate Interactive have signed a license agreement for the engine. The agreement is so favorable for Intoxicate Interactive that the young developers do not have to pay any fees up front and can focus on making their game. Unigine developers emphasize the need for cooperation with both young and innovative development groups as well as providing middleware solutions to large established companies. The decision of Unigine Corp. was influenced by the professional quality of work at Intoxicate Interactive that has just completed the pre-production of its first game - Afterfall. The Unigine engine shall be used to develop both a demo version of Afterfall and the final product.

The Unigine engine has powerful 3D render, integrated physics, GUI, built-in scripting system, sound module (all of this is available both under Linux and MS Windows), and supports most of modern technologies like background data streaming, soft shadows, HDR and much more. Unigine improves the appeal of the Afterfall, making it indistinguishable from large-scale commercial projects both with regard to graphics and physics.

“Acquiring Unigine has enabled us to drastically improve the pace of our work on Afterfall. However, we are still looking for additional funds and growth opportunities. Please visit Afterfall Marketing [hyperlink], where you can learn more on our initiative” said Andrzej Koloska, founder of Intoxicate Interactive.

“All of us were amazed of what Afterfall team have already created on the basis of Unigine, these guys surpassed our expectations about capabilities of our own engine. We do believe in Afterfall team because they managed to go so far in the development of their project without any financing. That’s why we have supported them by providing Unigine technologies for free at the period while they have no publisher or any kind of investor. I’m sure that this going to be a great game if someone will support this talented team” commented Denis Shergin, CEO of Unigine Corp.

IGN saw a preview of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl at this year's E3, but had to delay posting their impressions until yesterday.

The preview confirms rampant speculation that the game has undergone changes in order to make it appeal to a broader audience. Overall, realism has been significantly toned down, so there is no more mandatory eating or sleeping, no more specific real-life ammo types for each of the game's weapons and no more competing with A.I.-controlled stalkers to complete quests and reap rewards.

The good news is that key roleplaying elements - open-ended nature and emphasis on consequences - have remained intact:

Among the features touted as next-generation is the living-world simulation that's constantly happening while the game is playing. Animals are out and about killing each other for food, mutants are constantly roaming around looking for the next person to creep out, and other Stalkers are wandering the landscape looking for treasure as well. One of the cool things about this is the relationships created in your dealings with all of the various wandering factions. Depending on how you interact with various groups, different missions will open up, like the first mission that was demonstrated at the show.

In this particular mission, the player character had become allies with a certain set of Stalkers, who in turn ended up asking the player to come along on a mission. This was completely dependant on previous interaction. Had the player traded bullets with these guys or pissed them off in some other way, the mission wouldn't be available. In fact, they'd shoot on sight. But instead, the group banded together to take on some local police that had captured one of their friends named Mole

Wasteland Ghost dropped by our modding forum to let us know the new version 1.2 of the New Vision mod is available for download.

In version 1.2 the bugs and errors, that were reported to us on the TeamX forum, were fixed. That is:

* bugs with the rumors about unfairly passing the trials;
* bug with Emily in the baths;
* missing lines in the dialogues with key NPCs about the sewers in Klamath;
* bug with the location of Shack - dialogue with Jack now works correctly.

New Year comes to New Vision. That means: New Vision now includes balance changes from the New Year mod by TeamX

Apparently FEMA has tried to figure out what cities are most likely to get nuked. Check it listed by states.

Is your home town big enough to get on the list?

Isn't it curious how a lot of nuclear targets seem to be in the middle of nowhere- like in the southwestern corner of Nebraska?

Be mindful of fallout patterns!

Check out the targets. Mind the hot spots when digging your fallout shelter.

Are there any underground bases in your neck of the woods?

I came across this List of US underground bases.

This is a list of known or suspected U.S. Underground Bases, the purpose of each (hey, I'm just passing on the reports...), how they're set up and any other info known about them. Although most of these are supposed to be a secret, this list is culled from publicly available records (is that good or bad?) and of course people who worked in them, live by them or those who have retired and offer info. Some wish to remain anonymous. Some have written to me with stories that have been terrifying - just to tell me things - not meaning for me to put them up. I have a bad habit of keeping secrets, which is good. The map, which is large, has been made into a pop-up window so you can minimize it as you read the list, and not have to flip between pages. Mouse over the pins for the location.

GSC Game World have announced yet another official release date for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl, their upcoming post-apocalyptic FPS/RPG hybrid. According to the latest information, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is scheduled to arrive Q1 2007. This release date is fixed and final, just like the two dozen previous ones were. Splendid.

Spotted at IGN.

Mimir did not sit on laurels, and had bested the record he'd set one and a half year ago. This time, the world record in Fallout 1 speedruns is 9:19, which means it's below ten minutes, yay!/duh!

Link: Fallout 1 Speed Run at SpeedDemosArchive.com

Spotted at FalloutNow!

Good news for Russian Fallout fans, the Russian company 1C has announced it has finished localization of Fallout 2. It was released to Russian stores the 19th of May:

The cult role playing game, which is justly considered one of the standard-setting games of its genre. Fallout 2 is set on earth, which survived a nuclear catastrophe. A large part of humanity perished, and the surviving people lost all accumulated knowledge and gradually return to the Stone Age.

The author of the alleged interview with Leonardo on Fallout 3 sent us this e-mail to clarify:

Hi,

About little misunderstanding that happened... :-] The text you mentioned in "Elaborate Polish Fallout 3 Interview HOAX" was not a news - it is my wishful thinking in the form of feuilleton. In the lack of real information on Fallout 3 I have gathered a few speculations and mixed them up with a lot of imagination to publish it in the cycle of Thoughts Not Deliberated (Polish: Mysli nieprzemyslane), just to create a wannabe-preview of F3. Thoughts Not Deliberated serve every and each week as the platform for publishing stories, comic stories, feuilletons etc.
I would be grateful for publishing this dementi on your site, as the reaction to my story was much more widespread and intense than I expected. I am a huge fan of Fallout series myself and I do not intend to harm anyone who shares my feelings.

Thank you,
Borys Zajaczkowski,
www.gry-online.pl

... and so he graces us with another strip of Gone With The Blastwave before we can curse him for leaving us in limbo when it's just getting interesting.

Link: Gone With The Blastwave

Thanks to Vault_13 for the heads-up.

The Fan Made Fallout have posted their plans for the release of a demo version of their Fallout 2 mod a while ago:

The project's been ticking along slowly over the past two months. As usual we've had a few people leave us and a few new people join the team. Hopefully some of those newcomers are able to stick around and join the slightly growing solid core of members who stick around for the long haul.

The focus of the project has changed significantly since our last news update as well. With the realisation that we're not going to reach our optimistic (read: delusional) timeframe of a complete FMF by mid next year, we decided to focus our efforts instead on making a demo. There are a few reasons for this

Just to clarify, some of you might have heard about an"interview" on Fallout 3 at Gry-Online, a large and hitherto respected gaming site. Here's a snippet:

"Fallout 3 needn't rival the competition with technical spiels taken out of military labs, it wasn't what made it strong 10 years ago, however, it will happen - but somewhat out of the focus", says Boyarski in the interview he gave us 39 days before the start of this year's E3. At the same time he makes a reservation not to publish this interview under any circumstances before June. Now we can talk about it openly - three legandary creators of a cult role-playing game are back in business. Tim Cain, Jason Anderson & Leonard Boyarsky, whom have all remained on the fringes of gaming world since the fall of Troika Games a year ago, have signed positions with Bethesda.

Canadian online store Future Shop has Fallout 3 up for pre-order, release date and all:

Releases 30 Nov/07. Break out the Pipboy - it's the end of the world. Armageddon has come and gone and humanity, mutanity and just about every other form of life is trying to pick itself up by the bootstraps, the tentacles or whatever else it can get a hold of and start life again. From the developers of the ever popular Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 3 is sure to please...*

*Fallout 3 may not please you if you are one of eleven angry guys who may or may not frequent No Mutants Allowed.

IGN have published new screenshots from Nival's upcoming driving action RPG Hard Truck: Apocalypse, showcasing some new trucks and more in-game action.

Spotted at RPGDot.

Uros Jojic has done an E3 preview piece on Bioshock for Actiontrip with some interesting tidbits.

As you make your way down an underwater elevator and into the city of Rapture, you slowly begin the grasp the scale and the magnificence of this place. Undoubtedly, the Unreal 3 tech provides the building blocks for a spectacular underwater world, which Irrational is molding into a fully consistent and immersive environment. The idea of the development team here was to do away with the ideas of recreating actual cities with their known landmarks, and then placing them in an alternate reality. Instead, they opted to build a unique and all-encompassing world, a fusion of art deco and retro sci-fi visual styles that will give players the sense of true interaction with their surroundings. Ken explains that he doesn't simply mean this in a graphical sense (or in terms of ad hoc physics changes, courtesy of the Havok 3.0 engine), but changes on a much larger scale - in terms of being able to change the air that the inhabitants breathe, and consequently, their very behavior.

The French gaming mag Joystick got up close and personal with Fallout 3...and can't talk about it, damn. Here's what a French gaming reporter that saw a room filled with Fallout 3 art on Bethesda headquarters had to say:

J'ai vu un mur d'artwork, devant le mec qui bossait dessus.

J'ai vu... de belles choses.

Par contre j'ai vu ce que donnait oblivion aussi et j'espere que Bethesda saura developper un Fallout sans faire n'importe quoi.

I saw a wall of artwork, in front of the dude that was working on it [a wall with game art all over it].

I saw... pretty [or beautifull] things.

On the other side, I saw what Oblivion was too, and I hope Bethesda will know how to make a Fallout game without botching the job [literally, "without doing it carelessly"]

Sigonyth: Desert Eternity seems to have been reigned in, frozen, and put on hold, following problems of financial nature faced by the team:

New Desert team would like to inform all interested parties that "Sigonyth: Desert eternity" project has been put on hold.

This situation is a result of lack of investors to fund further project development - we have reached stage when continued development of an MMORPG without financial support is simply unfeasible.

We would also like to emphasize that "Sigonyth" will not be completely abandoned - we will continue to develop the design part of the game and await changes on the market that will allow us to revive the project.

We would like to sincerely thank every person that shown interest in this project for all the comments, ideas and support during last three years. For all our commited fans (but not only them) we present a last few samples of our work from tests commenced at the beginning of this year.

Movie 1
Movie 2
Movie 3

Greetings for everyone and see you.

New Desert Team

Well, there's a new strip of Kimmo Lemetti's Gone With The Blastwave available, and this one ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, introducing: The Yellows, up and personal. Check it out!

No Mutants Allowed is going through some transitions and that includes some management changes.

New Administrators include Montez and Per. Montez is a long time member of the community and Per is perhaps best known for his excellent walkthroughs. Both are helping out as we repair the site and plan for expansion. Welcome both!

Sadly Roshambo is no longer an Administrator. He has decided to concentrate on his project. We wish him the best of luck on that and hope to see it sometime in the near future. I am sure I speak for our members when I say that NMA will not be the same without him. Good luck Rosh, we'll miss you.

destraX have made this game called Ground Zero: Genesis of a New World, which is not in any way affiliated to the Doom III mod, nor the creators of Forlorn World. It's another German-made game, which also makes me wonder "Why the heck haven't I been told about it". It looks like the amount of actual role-playing is limited, judging by the character creation screen, but then again, have another glance at the Worldmap.

Nobody remembers who started it. But does this really matter? It lasted only a few seconds. A short, intense flash of light and the world would never be the same again.
Humanity bombed itself back to stone age. The cities are burnt down and the earth is covered with deserts. The few survivors struggle to survive. The ones with enough will and strength start searching for other survivors. Law and order has ceased to exist. Food and water are rare and many don't hesitate to use brutal force to get what they want. But there might be hope for rescue. Again and again the few working radios are repeating: "Your resort, your chance for a new life. Rebuilding has started. Come to the coordinates 34N, 53W. We are waiting for you!".
The player takes the role of the leader and has to build up a team - whatever action it may take. With the help of this team he has to take control of the world of Ground Zero. To achieve this he must conquer 20 different locations and protect them from his enemies. The leader can choose between 250 different equipments like weapons, armour, building materials and food. There are 3 different professions: mercenary, technician, and doctor.

RPGDot has done an interview with Iron Tower Studios over their post-apocalyptic cRPG project, and it sounds pretty great:

RPGDot: Can you give us a summary of Age of Decadence and the gameplay it will offer? What are your high-level design goals?

Iron Tower: From our brand-new website:

"The Age of Decadence is an isometric, turn-based, single-player 3D role-playing game set in a low magic, post-apocalyptic fantasy world, inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire. The game features a detailed skill-based character system, non-linear gameplay, multiple skill-based ways to handle quests, choices & consequences, and extensive dialogue trees."

The gameplay & my "high-level design goals" revolve around making very different, logically fitting choices and seeing very different, logical consequences. Action - Reaction. There are seven factions with different agendas, operations, allies & enemies. It's impossible to do something that won't affect a lot of people.

Each quest has 3-6 different ways of solving it. That should encourage players to approach quests more carefully, consider pros & cons of different choices available to them, and pick what fits your character the most.

The Radiated Society is holding contest, check it out:

TRS is currently holding a Fallout 2 character contest. The basis of the contest is simple. Take any person, either real or fictional. Then, make a Fallout 2 character based on the person. The person that is able to make the most accurate character will win.

The contest is open to everyone who has a copy of Fallout 2. However, it is necessary to sign up on The Radiated Society forums so that you can post your character.

For complete rules and regulations, visit this link. Also, anybody who wants to participate, please post the character you would like to use in this thread for approval. All characters must be submitted for approval before 16 June. The deadline for posting finished characters is 30 June, and the winner will be announced on or before 20 July.

From Gamebanshee-

Posted on Friday, June 2 at 13:27 PM GMT -6

Our new Fallout Tactics subsite is packed with everything you need to survive the wasteland, including a full walkthrough, an extensive equipment database, special encounter details, profiles for all of the game's recruits, and much more. Keep your eyes open for even more Fallout content coming soon!

It's been two months since our previous roundup, which gathered all the fine fallouty fan stuff you keep posting at the forum, so it's high time for another one. Let's kick off, shall we?

Morpoggel made a gun and named it after the year of the Chernobyl: