Feargus Urquhart Comes Home

[Russ Pitts]

From the interview it sounded like they had to go to Bethesida for every minor detail and are at their whim for the design, story, and gameplay. Not exactly looking forward to New Vegas, I'll be more optimistic if they had a little more free reign.

That's actually pretty much the opposite of what he said, dude. In fact, he actually said that there were only "about four" things his team wanted to do that Bethesda didn't like, and those were related to future plans they had already mad eon their end.

Your optimism is safe, I think. Your gold star for reading comprehension, however ... we'll need that back

 

[Russ Pitts]

I think I can actually feel some physical aches and pains starting from craving this game so much now...

Fallout 2's vibe with Fallout 3's mechanics...

Yeah, that's the genesis of my excitement as well.

 

[Dectilon]

As long as the writing (and hopefully the acting) is good I'm in. I liked the combat in F3, and the look too, but the writing had me in a perpetual cringe.

 

[fanklok]

I remember working on a game, which was back in Black Isle Studios, which was a D&D roleplaying game.

I remember playing that game over and over and over again, with only one play through being Chaotic Evil (you have no fucking idea how hard it is to maintain that alignment without pissing off The Lady)

I do ever so look forward to New Vegas, and now that I know the geniuses from BI are at Obsidian I'll have to go poking around through some of their games.

Also does Mr. Pitts avatar make anyone else feel like he's some kind of evil overlord following the Evil Overlord list [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilOverlordList]?

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

I think F3 failed to capture the spirit of the fallout universe. I was a good game but it wasn't Fallout. IMO STALKER was a much better spiritual successor to Fallout and captured the posy-apocalyptic bleakness perfectly.

F3 was too dense, and with the exception of the Vaults none of the underground portions were creepy enough. Also the lockpicking and hacking minigames were just tedious after the first couple of times. Fortunately PC mods removed those, I feel sorry for the poor console bastards.

None of the DLC except MAYBE Broken Steel were worth a crap.

And finally unlike the Black Isle Fallouts there was no option to play a non-combat character. Simply WAY too much fighting.

 

[Super-Dave88]

I'm not saying anything about the man's game making abilities, but holy f**k is Urquhart a hard mother f**ker to follow... This interview would have been a lot better in audio or video format.

Also, while we're on the topic of KotOR vs. KotOR II; The first one was amazing and probably one of the most immersive game I've played. KotOR II was still a great game, but it suffered immensely from lack of completion and forced Christmas release. I also got this weird vibe from it like it secretly hated the original and aspired to defame it and replace it in our minds.

 

[Super-Dave88]

It's mostly a matter of preference. the first KotOR has a big, easy to understand "save the galaxy" story, easily recognizable characters, and a spectacular plot twist for those who didn't see it coming from miles away. The second had a much more personal storyline, deeper multi-faceted characters, and a far more philosophical tone concerning the nature of the force and good vs evil. There were a lot more details to miss in the second game, which means it can be either a confusing mess or an expertly-crafted story, depending on your point of view.

The way I see it, KotOR2 is the undercooked five-course dinner to KotOR1's almost-perfect mac-and-cheese. There's something to be said in favor of both of them, and which one you'll get more enjoyment out of is entirely up to personal preference.

Wow... well put sir and/or madame. I agree completely, except that the undercooked five-course dinner gives you food poisoning.

 

[HK_01]

My head hurts from trying to figure out what that guy was actually trying to say. Couldn't you have edited the answers a bit to make them clearer?

..he made a pretentious, confusing, and unfinished sequel to one of my most favourite games of all time.

The extensive plot holes in KoTORII probably would've been explained if they hadn't screwed the series up the ass by making a gonna-try-to-compete-with-WoW-and-fail-inevitably MMO.

Wait, what? Why would Bioware be responsible for fixing the mess that is KotOR II's plot?

 

[Pantherman]

Back on topic....

This interview, among others that I have seen on both the TV and here on the net make me want to buy Fallout: New Vegas. Granted Fallout: 3 was not like the originals, but it was a totally different company. I was more disappointed in the limited dialog and "free roaming" space. That might be because I have the console version of it though. i did however like crawling through the wrecked army bases and other Vaults.

I did feel that the DC ruins could've been more explorable than they were, but again that might be because I have the console version. I've seen the PC version and it seems to be better, which is why I'm going to try to get the PC version of Fallout: New Vegas.

Darn having to upgrade my 6 year old hardware. It would seem that with some of the old guys from Fallout 1 and 2, that New Vegas is trying to get back part of that "feel". I hope they succeed.

 

[Starke]

Wow, the guy seems really great but the control that Bethesda has on the project is more than a little sad. Fallout 1 + 2 are fun games. They are satirical with lots of dark humour and just give you a good 'vibe' (like the guy said). Bethesda nailed a lot in Fallout 3, but the vibe they put on it just didn't fit. They completely fucked that part and light-hearted feeling up in my opinion.

Now they want to force their vision on Obsidian? That sucks. I wish Obsidian had a little more control over their game, that way some more outrageous stuff could be in it and everyone would benefit.

Two things.

How is being overtly critical of a company that was kind enough to license you back the game that your ineptness lost in the first place being "really great"? I understand that he has an emotional attachment to the game, but still...

Why is it bad that Bethesda wants to have a continuous universe? You'd think as a fan that you would appreciate having a world where what you did matters, sometimes even long term.

my 2cents anyway

Your first cent makes no sense. How is the economic decline and shitty management of Interplay Urquhart's ineptness?

Your second cent... well, whatever. There's continuity, there's also a different vibe. Life goes on.

 

[carpathic]

*SNIP *

Your first cent makes no sense. How is the economic decline and shitty management of Interplay Urquhart's ineptness?

Your second cent... well, whatever. There's continuity, there's also a different vibe. Life goes on.

Well, actually my first cent does make sense to me, but I must not have explained my thinking clearly enough.

My apologies.

Urquhart was one of the few people at interplay with the ability to actually fix things (as head of Obsidian games (a major developer for interplay whose titles included Icewind Dale, Planescape and Fallout 2 amongst others).

He was at least partially culpable in the collapse of interplay - while planescape was a BRILLIANT game, it hardly set the world on fire saleswise (there was supposed to be a sequel that was cancelled due to slow sales). Because Uruquart was head of a company that produced excellent underperformers consistently (planescape was just an easy example), he is culpable -if only partially in the collapse of interplay.

Hope that put my first cent in better perspective.

On my second cent, you did not even begin to offer a token refutation - so I will ignore it until you offer something with which I can quibble.

 

[MrPop]

Looking forward to New Vegas. I hope it has a lot of humour in it =P

Sounds like it should be a very fun game.

Some of the things the interviewee said were confusing and I had to read them twice such as

I think that it still is that thing of what we took from what we did in the past and compared it to what Bethesda did with Fallout 3

And early on at the start and beginning he did repeat himself a lot. I'm guessing it sounds better when someone is saying it though as opposed to it being read.

 

[Starke]

*SNIP *

Your first cent makes no sense. How is the economic decline and shitty management of Interplay Urquhart's ineptness?

Your second cent... well, whatever. There's continuity, there's also a different vibe. Life goes on.

Well, actually my first cent does make sense to me, but I must not have explained my thinking clearly enough.

My apologies.

Urquhart was one of the few people at interplay with the ability to actually fix things (as head of Obsidian games (a major developer for interplay whose titles included Icewind Dale, Planescape and Fallout 2 amongst others).

As a nitpick, Troika, INExile and Obsidian have no formal affiliation with Interplay, and never did. J.E. Sawer, Tim Cain, Fergus Urquhart, and Chris Avelone did, as employees of Black Isle, but not Obsidian.

He was at least partially culpable in the collapse of interplay - while planescape was a BRILLIANT game, it hardly set the world on fire saleswise (there was supposed to be a sequel that was cancelled due to slow sales). Because Uruquart was head of a company that produced excellent underperformers consistently (planescape was just an easy example), he is culpable -if only partially in the collapse of interplay.

Hope that put my first cent in better perspective.

Not really.

Planescape Torment's slow sales have been repeatedly blamed on a poor marketing campaign, and with good reason. The marketing for Torment was a trainwreck. So by aiming for the low hanging fruit you've selected... well... the low hanging fruit and sabotaged your efforts. The marketing campaign didn't come from Black Isle, or Urquhart, it came from Interplay.

Beyond Torment, we have Fallout 1 and 2, which are basically the only property that Interplay still has any control over that actually makes money. The Icewind Dale games certainly sold well enough.

Again, your argument smacks of sloppy scapegoating. Why not hold Urquhart responsible for the two abysmal selling Fallout Titles? Brotherhood of Steel on the XBox and Fallout Tactics? Because those weren't Black Isle productions, Tactics was 14 Degrees East, and I don't even remember who did BoS.

It's been said before, elsewhere, but, Black Isle was one of the few profitable development houses in Interplay. But, in the end, that wasn't enough to save them when the company went fully cannibalistic.

On my second cent, you did not even begin to offer a token refutation - so I will ignore it until you offer something with which I can quibble.

I wasn't bothering.

 

[carpathic]

On my second cent, you did not even begin to offer a token refutation - so I will ignore it until you offer something with which I can quibble.

I wasn't bothering.

Meh, unsurprising.


Can't say I am as invested in this as you are.

Best of all.

 

[Maltyz]

Oh Jesush Cwist!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1166/1454018245_5986b5e6c1.jpg
I can't read all this shit!

 

[Primus1985]

what the hell is the big deal. Actually I dont care about Obsidian, I didnt want to play the first two when I could afford to buy them, why? They sucked, no fun, no action. I dont care about a dead storyline from 15 years ago I just wanna have great experience.

And no keep the mood dim. In fact make it darker, its set in Vegas for god sakes cut all the hokey 50's style crap and really hit it.

Can anyone explain?

 

[TheEndlessGrey]

Then again last time I thought that was with Troika, another studio renown for buggy yet brilliant games. Hopefully New Vegas wont be Obsidians Vampire: Bloodlines though.

From a certain perspective that would be fantastic if it were, just so long as the studio doesn't close down after.

 

[Tdc2182]

Haha. This seems more like a dick measuring contest between the two of them. I dont think they let go of the fact that fallout 3 got stolen from them.