fallout-3 posts

Want to take a break from your life and head to Las Vegas? The development team at Obsidian Entertainment hope that's the case on October 19 when they and publisher Bethesda Softworks release Fallout: New Vegas. Today we have the first in a series of video developers diaries for the upcoming post-apocalypse RPG.

This first video has several Obsidian members talk about the story behind the game and how your player character shows up in New Vegas in the first place. We also get introduced to the conflicts in the New Vegas area and see how the game's version of the adult playground has changed in the wake of a nuclear war (oddly enough not much has changed).

The development team at Bethesda Game Studios is usually known to work on just one game at a time, which is why there's usually a big gap between its game releases (Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion was released in March 2006 while its last game Fallout 3 came out in October 2008). However, as revealed in a new interview at Eurogamer, the development team's head man Todd Howard revealed that there are actually two games currently in the works at the studio.

As he states, " ... we're in production on the new game, and we have a design going for the one after that." Usually there's a long time between when a Bethesda-made game is announced and when it actually ships out but Howard says that with the current game that won't be the case, saying. "... when you first hear about it to when it's out will be the shortest it's been for us."

While publisher Bethesda Softworks has worked with big names for the voice acting gigs for its various game (Patrick Stewart for Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, Liam Neeson for Fallout 3, and even Mickey Rourke for the awful Rogue Warrior) it's pretty safe to say that the sheer number of well known actors handling voices for the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas is by far the most ambitious in the company's history.

In a new entry on the BethBlog web site, the game's producer Jason Bergman talks about casting the various roles in the post-apocalypse RPG to speak the over 65,000 lines of dialogue. While many of the voice roles went to veteran voice actors, the game got a huge coup in getting Wayne Newton to make his game debut voicing "Mr New Vegas". And apparently there are some voice actors that Bethesda haven't revealed yet. Bergman states, "We have quite a few actors, some of whom are fairly well known, that we are not talking about and will not talk about because we want some things to be a surprise."

When Bethesda Softworks released Fallout 3 in 2008 it had a few well known voice actors in its cast. For the upcoming follow-up Fallout New Vegas the celebrity voice talent has gone up in number as the post-apocalypse RPG has recruited a bigger field of well know voice talent for the Obsidian Entertainment - developed title.

USA Today reports that well known Vegas entertainment staple Wayne Newton will lend his voice to " Mr. New Vegas" a radio DJ broadcasting messages, Matthew Perry, who has gone public on more than one occasion on his obsession with playing Fallout 3, will voice Benny, the leader of the Geckos crime family. Other actors who will voice roles in the game include a number of geek fan favorites like Zachary Levi, Felicia Day, Danny Trejo, Kris Kristofferson, Rene Auberjonois, Michael Dorn and William Sadler. Ron Perlman also returns to his long time Fallout voice role as the narrator.

Fallout 3 was a huge sales and critical hit for publisher Bethesda Softworks when it was released back in 2008 and if pre-orders are any idication (and they usually are) the follow-up Fallout: New Vegas will be an even bigger sales hit. According to an article at MCV, Bethesda is saying that pre-orders for the Obsidian Entertainment-developed post-apocalypse RPG are very high.

How high? According to Bethesda's European marketing and PR director Sarah Seaby, "Fallout: New Vegas pre-orders are far outstripping those of Fallout 3." Bethesda shipped a worldwide total of 4.7 million units of Fallout 3 in 2008.

It was quite a busy day for news but next week should also be full of game announcements (Irrational, anyone)?

• Razer has released a new and improved version of its Lachesis gaming PC mouse.
• Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick loses in a sexual harassment lawsuit.
• Blizzard is asking StarCraft II players their opinions on how to improve the new Battle.net service.
• Gaming PC maker Digital Storm launches a new line of 3D-capable PCs.
• The adventure game Alter Ego is now available on Steam for 10 percent off for a limited time.
• Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition is on sale at Direct2Drive for 50 percent off for a limited time.

You may remember that one of the things included in the upcoming Fallout New Vegas Collector's Edition is a hardcover graphic novel called All Roads that serves as a prequel to the upcoming RPG. Today publisher Bethesda Softworks announced that the cover for the graphic novel will be drawn by Geoff Darrow. Darrow is known for his highly detailed artwork on comics like Hard Boiled and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (both written by Frank Miller). He also was a main concept artist for The Matrix movies.

You can see a slice of the complete cover artwork from Darrow above (the full reveal will be made next week). Darrow and Obsidian Entertainment's Chris Avellone (who wrote the graphic novel) will be signing lithographs of the cover at the Dark Horse Comics booth at the San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 24 at 5 pm.

Developer Irrational Games has been doing some interesting and fun things on their official web site like offering a look at past projects, profiles for canceled games at the developer and interviews with their employees. Now the site is launching a new podcast series called Irrational Interviews that interviews (natch) people from outside the developer that the team admires.

The first such interview has Irrational head man Ken Levine along with Shawn Elliot interviewing Todd Howard, the game director at Bethesda Softworks and the main force behind the Elder Scrolls RPG series and more recently Fallout 3. The trio have a wide range of topics to go over including some surprising revelations about how Irrational could have had some of their games published by Bethesda. Oh, and the podcast is definitely NSFW.

Once again we are seeing the effects of sales on Steam's weekly top 10 PC games sales list. This week the winner was Fallout 3 as Bethesda Softwork's 2008 RPG hit the number one spot thanks to a 50 percent sale this weekend. The second, third and fourth spots also went to games with sales (Elder Scrolls IV, Metro 2033 and Team Fortress 2, respectively). The upcoming Fallout: New Vegas debuted at the fifth spot as pre-orders began.

The full list is as follows:

1. Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition - Bethesda Softworks
2. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe - Bethesda Softworks
3. Metro 2033 - 4A Games/THQ
4. Team Fortress 2 - Valve
5. Fallout: New Vegas - Obsidian/Bethesda Softworks
6. Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition - Rocksteady/Eidos
7. Battlefield Bad Company 2- Digital Illusions/EA
8. All Points Bulletin (APB) - Realtime Worlds/EA
9. Magic The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers - Wizards of the Coast
10. Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package - Infinity Ward/Activision

As we mentioned earlier today, Bethesda Softworks has launched a pre-order special for folks who wish to get the PC download version of theupcoming RPG Fallout New Vegas. Now Steam is not only offering the game for pre-order but is also putting three of Bethesda's previous games on sale this weekend only.

For this weekend, you can get Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition for $24.99 (a 50 percent savings) You can also download and purchase Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game Of The Year Edition Deluxe on Steam this weekend for just $8.50 (a 66 percent savings). Finally Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year gets its price cut by a whopping 75 percent this weekend on Steam. You can get the game now for a mere $5.