You’re probably aware that Interplay wasn’t paying it’s employees, which culminated in the state of California telling Interplay they could go fuck themselves. Now me, I always assumed that this was the precursor to an intellectual property fire sale that would hopefully get things like Fallout into good hands. It’s not that I think that putting powerful franchises on the auction block automatically leads to some omnibenevolent result. However, in Thief: Deadly Shadows, we have a recent example of how the passionate people that breathed life into a setting can, in some reconstituted form, deliver the impossible.
Anyway, reading Interplay’s press release it’s easy to picture them writing their optimistic missive from the bottom of a dark well. The document makes it seems like they’re trying to ride a massively multiplayer Fallout game out of debt, they’ll hitch it up to us and we’ll pull them out. I don’t have an opinion on their nonexistent Fallout MMO, there’s nothing to know. I do take issue with them swinging that license around like the solution to all their problems. I’ve heard things are finally looking up for them, though - they’ve begun hiring organisms they can pay only in garbage.
There’s an interesting UT2k4 mod called Clone Bandits that I downloaded end of last week, only there wasn’t a single server out there for me to play it on so it never came up in the post. It’s a damn shame, too - I’ve spent a lot of time by myself in the map, lonely, wondering how things would play out with a few humans in there to manufacture new values for x. Visually, it’s a sort of Mad Max/Fallout hybrid, with a striking, ironic design that seems to imply that today’s brands are so tenacious they can endure even nuclear holocaust - I mean, go look at it.
It could not evoke those themes without vehicles, and they have three completely custom rides to choose from - the Barracuda, an all purpose, refurbished battle wagon, the MosCowboy, a missile with wheels attached to form a nominal motorcycle, and the Lounge Tank, a weapons platform slash full patio deck. The gameplay is a variation on CTF which involves the hinted at clone banditry. Imagine the “ticket” based gameplay of Battlefield, except the focus isn’t just on destroying enemies - you literally steal the spawns from the other team, you can even build pumps to do this at a constant rate. Only one map that I know of, but it looks great - there’s even a cool soundtrack that further cements their nostalgic future context. It’s just a very professional package all around.
(CW)TB out.
i want to be the light that burns out your eyes
