Here is a sample of the ambient music that Mark Morgan is creating for Wasteland 2. It should remind all Fallout players of what ambient post-apoc game music should sound like.
Mad Max: Fury Road has officially begun principal photography. Here's the press release:
Principal photography began 9 July on the dystopian action adventure "Mad Max: Fury Road," a Kennedy Miller Mitchell production written and directed by "Mad Max" creator and Academy Award(R) winner George Miller ("Happy Feet"). The film will be presented by Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures. It will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures.
"Mad Max: Fury Road"--the fourth in the franchise's history--stars Tom Hardy ("The Dark Knight Rises") in the title role of Max Rockatansky, alongside Oscar(R) winner Charlize Theron ("Monster", "Prometheus") as Imperator Furiosa.
According to Miller, "Mad Max is caught up with a group of people fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by the Imperator Furiosa. This movie is an account of the Road War which follows. It is based on the Word Burgers of the History Men and eyewitness accounts of those who survived."
"Mad Max: Fury Road" also stars Nicholas Hoult ("X-Men: First Class") as Nux; Hugh Keays-Byrne ("Mad Max," "Sleeping Beauty") as Immortan Joe; and Nathan Jones ("Conan the Barbarian") as Rictus Erectus. Collectively known as The Wives, Zoe Kravitz ("X-Men: First Class") plays Toast, Riley Keough ("Magic Mike") is Capable, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley ("Transformers: Dark of the Moon") is Splendid. They are joined by supermodel Abbey Lee Kershaw as The Dag and Courtney Eaton as Fragile, both of whom are making their big screen debuts. Also featured in the movie are Josh Helman as Slit, Jennifer Hagan as Miss Giddy, and singer/songwriter/performer iOTA as Coma-Doof Warrior.
The cast is rounded out by well-known Australian actors John Howard, Richard Carter, supermodel Megan Gale, Angus Sampson, Joy Smithers, Gillian Jones, Melissa Jaffer and Melita Jurisic.
Miller is directing the film from a screenplay he wrote with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris. Miller also produces the film, along with longtime producing partner, Oscar(R) nominee Doug Mitchell ("Babe," "Happy Feet"), and P.J. Voeten. Iain Smith, Graham Burke and Bruce Berman serve as executive producers.
The behind-the-scenes creative team includes Academy Award(R)-winning director of photography John Seale ("The English Patient"); action unit director and stunt coordinator Guy Norris ("Australia"); editor Margaret Sixel ("Happy Feet"); production designer Colin Gibson ("Babe"); Oscar(R)-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan ("A Room with a View"); and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt ("Knowing").
Shooting on "Mad Max: Fury Road" is taking place in Africa with the support of the Australian government. Originally slated to be shot in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia, the production was forced to relocate due to severe flooding, rendering the Australian landscape unsuitable for the film. The rain turned the area into an oasis instead of the post-apocalyptic terrain that is the setting for Max's world.
On the heels of the Fallout 3 and New Vegas sale, the original Fallout collection is now on sale at Steam for $6.79 - 66% off. The collection includes Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics. Head over here and grab them.
In case you missed the huge discounts on Fallout 3, New Vegas and their DLC during the Steam Summer Sale, now is your chance to grab them. Steam has the new Fallout games on sale today in honor of QuakeCon. Head over and grab them at 66% off.
Ever wonder what's the worst thing that can happen to your favourite games franchise when the studio that made it goes under? Most of DaC knows. And as of today, so do all Stalker fans.
These guys happen.
At least that's the word from Sergey Galyonkin, the same guy that broke the news that GSC was going under and that Stalker 2 was no more. Word is (yes because games news is serious business) the guys pictured above are now free to make a Stalker game with their own engine. Previous GSC boss Sergei Grigorovich and.. er.. "those other guys" [because if it isn't a censored word in DaC, it should] haven't made any sort of official comment yet, but I recommend having your Ukrainian-English dictionaries at the ready or at the very least Google-translating "arrow", "knee" and "mudcrab" into Ukrainian.
Ukrainian blogger and marketing man Sergey Galyonkin – who tipped off the closure of the STALKER 2 project earlier this year – has claimed that Bethesda now have the rights to make a publish a STALKER game. They apparently do not have rights to the extended universe. GSC owner Sergei Grigorovich has not sold the brand, but apparently Bethesda could now make a game based on the property with their own technology. We’ll report more on this as we get it.
This follows on from the closure of STALKER 2 earlier in the year, an event which culminated in Ukrainian spin-off studios such as Survarium devs, Vostok.
We’ve contacted Bethesda for a statement. UPDATE: Currently they are saying “No comment.”
UPDATE 2: Turns out the "creator" was actually a troll posing as the creator to get some lulz on 4chan or something. Anyways, our apologies to the Fallout: Equestria people for mistakenly posting the previous update as legit.
UPDATE: Fallout: Equestria creator responds -
Hey, I am the female responsible for Fallout: Equestria. We had an explosion over at the IRC about this, and how negative the response to it was. I have been a fan of the Fallout franchise long before Fallout 3 made it mainstream.
I'm sure your dumbfounded just because this crossover between the MLP:FiM and Fallout universe exists, so I wanted to provide you with a link to an interview that I had, and I hope it explains why I made this.
Hey, I'm not positive that this will make it onto the headlines, but I am positive that when you read this, your minds will be shitting bricks.
As you may or may not know, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has a growing fandom of teenage and adult men called "bronies". Recently, a female fanfic writer by the name of Khat created the fanfiction "Fallout: Equestria", and ever since it's completion has grown it's own massive fanbase.
I'm not joking. It has about 100+ of it's own little spin-offs.
We finally have our first screenshot of Wasteland 2, together with an update via Kickstarter:
It has been just over a month since my last update and we have been making progress on many fronts. The designers are all working at full steam and generating a wonderfully diverse set of ideas that are well written, nuanced, original, and sometimes creepy. There will be no lack of originality and deep game play in Wasteland 2. The team has risen to the challenge of making a rich world that will capture a post apocalyptic atmosphere and provide a unique experience for each player that dives in.
We are nearly complete with our backer web site which will consolidate our backer database with Kickstarter and PayPal and eventually allow backers to upgrade their tiers or more easily change such things as shipping information. A soft launch is imminent and then we will roll it out for all.
We also have our first pass at a Wasteland 2 screen shot to share that is running inside the Unity engine. The process up till now has been in getting up to speed with Unity but also much discussion about look and feel. Our environment art director Koy Vanoteghem has written a nice piece below on our approach and process.
Releasing a screen shot this early in the process is a new concept for me as we typically want to hone in every element before we show it. But based on the requests and our desire for fan input, we are doing so to solicit feedback on the basic look. Please keep in mind that we have not put in the particle effects and post-processing which will have a dramatic effect on the scene, and this represents just one of the various environments for Wasteland 2 so expect to see other quite different locales. Also, this particular camera angle is on the low end of a range that the player can adjust upwards to a much more top-down view, for those who prefer that style during game play.
I am frequently on twitter sharing my thoughts, soliciting opinions on various subjects and highlighting interesting projects and technology. You can follow me at @brianfargo if you want to stay tuned into such things.
Again I thank you for allowing us to create this game the way it was meant to me made. We’re going to make you all proud.
Brian Fargo
See the full size image on our Facebook page at Facebook/Ranger.HQ or here.
In our effort to establish the appropriate look and feel for the re-launch of the Wasteland franchise, we sifted through a variety of media types available on the market for inspiration. Among all of the similarly natured games, CG film shorts, and various documentaries, it became increasingly clear that the modern day conception of a post-apocalyptic world has diversified.
Of course, the desert-oriented wasteland devoid of life was still there. But a newer and more compelling version which highlighted nature's reclamation of vacated places took hold of our attention. This new conception gives us the opportunity to generate a variety of environment types while staying true to the narrative. It also allows the location and geology to dictate the flora and fauna, as well as the manner and state of decay. From the dry deserts and icy mountaintops of Arizona to the coastal conditions of LA and larger southern California region, each region generates its own flavor. You saw a bit of this in our early concept pieces we had commissioned. Because the early part of the game, where our development is currently focused, takes place in Arizona, this first screen shot depicts (surprise) a desert scene.
As we moved into prototyping game-play scenarios and in-game environments, we wanted to keep in mind the long-term strategies we had been talking about in the press. With our small team structure and the expectation of a significant integration of contractor and fan/backer based assets, we wanted to consider the efforts that would be involved in synthesizing those contributions into a consistent style and theme. The Unity engine has this wonderfully integrated asset store, full of props, environment sets, FX and tools, and it seemed the perfect proving grounds for our first pass at this new approach of game environment creation.
Certainly, purchased or prefabricated assets are nothing new; a variety of sites are out there selling "game-ready" props, and like most developers, we are familiar with that opportunity. But Unity's Asset Store had a few distinct advantages that we found appealing. The store, being accessible from within the editor itself, along with the purchase, downloading and importing of those packages, made this surprisingly painless. Packages containing not only the models and textures, but also materials, particle attachments, and animations were ready to use and then modify immediately upon purchase. And so our goal was to purchase a variety of packages, modify them to suit our stylistic needs, and put together a scene by combining them with assets and textures generated in-house.
The big exception to all of this is of course characters, which we are developing primarily in house. RPGs have always generated strong relationships between the player and the characters they craft and breathe life into as the game progresses. And to this end, we will be working to create characters that can be read cleanly with our camera angles. Strong silhouettes and bold colors in costuming and accessories, and their animations and poses working with a camera angle (that is still being tested), seemed a tall order for this approach, and so in this shot a few examples of that effort are present.
We will continue to develop the style and look of the game, undoubtedly that is something that will evolve as we move forward and branch out with other environment types. As we become more familiar with our new found friend Unity, and the technologies that are available to us for lighting, shadowing, and material set-up/execution, we hope you'll enjoy seeing it evolve along with us.
The Steam Summer Sale is having a massive blowout out the new Fallouts. Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition is only $9.99 while Fallout 3 GOTY Edition is only $4.99. If you already have the main games, all of the DLC are marked down drastically for a la carte pricing.
Some of you may remember from a while back that online service GameRanger continues to offer Fallout: Tactics online multiplayer. They've just hit a milestone with their 3 millionth registered user. Here's the press release:
GameRanger Hits Three Million Registered Users
Perth, Western Australia -- July 11, 2012 -- GameRanger, the PC online gaming service, today announced that three million users have signed up and created multiplayer profiles to play their games online with friends.
The GameRanger service now supports over 600 multiplayer games with its fast, easy to use interface. Unlike other services, GameRanger solves router and firewall network problems automatically, making it simple to play online with friends. GameRanger now has over 9 million multiplayer games played each month.
GameRanger has provided a new home for many orphaned games such as Race Driver: GRID, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth series. GameRanger also became a popular, robust replacement for the problematic built-in multiplayer services for Borderlands and Demigod.
"This incredible milestone demonstrates how significant this service is to PC gamers, since the phenomenal growth is almost entirely from word-of-mouth," said Scott Kevill, president of GameRanger Technologies.
GameRanger runs on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 and is available as a free download from http://www.GameRanger.com
About GameRanger
GameRanger is the longest running multiplayer online gaming service, having originally opened to Mac gaming in 1999. In November 2008, GameRanger expanded to PC gaming and now offers full lobby support for over 600 games -- significantly more than any other multiplayer service -- and now has over 3 million members worldwide. GameRanger Technologies is located in Perth, Western Australia. For more information, visit http://www.GameRanger.com and follow http://twitter.com/GameRanger and http://facebook.com/GameRanger
NMA has a press release from inXile stating that the original Wasteland will be included with the upcoming Wasteland 2:
Wasteland 2 now to include the original game which started the post apocalyptic RPG genre
Newport Beach, CA - July 10th, 2012 - InXile Entertainment today confirmed that Wasteland 2 will include the original Wasteland game that was released in 1987. The original RPG is considered the godfather of post apocalyptic games and went on to win numerous awards. Computer Gaming World inducted Wasteland into their Hall of Fame, and in 1996 they ranked it the #9 best game from a list of 150 games.
"The #1 request we had during our Kickstarter campaign was to have the ability to play the first game. Fortunately EA has continued to support us on this project and has granted us the ability to bring the original to the players," said Brian Fargo, of inXile Entertainment. "It is great to be able to make Wasteland available for those feeling nostalgic or who want to experience it for the first time. It certainly will not be a pre-requisite to understand Wasteland 2, but it adds some extra flavor if you did play the prequel."
About inXile Entertainment: Founded by long-time industry veteran @BrianFargo in 2002, inXile Entertainment develops interactive entertainment software for all popular game systems, personal computers and wireless devices. The most current project under development is Wasteland 2 which was recently financed by its fans via @Kickstarter. For more information about inXile Entertainment visit: www.inxile-entertainment.com.
Wasteland is a registered trademark of inXile entertainment
There's a new play opening next week in New York inspired by Fallout: New Vegas called That Cute Radioactive Couple. Here's the press release:
Post Apocalyptic Play Opens In July
The Brick Theater and Charles Battersby announce:
That Cute Radioactive Couple
That Cute Radioactive Couple is a dark comedy that is both a play and a video game. The live performance premiers July 7th 2012 as part of the Brick Theater's Game Play Theater Festival, then the story continues in a Fallout: New Vegas mod where audiences can explore locations seen on stage, and follow the trail of the characters to learn what happens after the events of the play in an interactive adventure featuring voice work by actors from the show.
Ray was prepared for the apocalypse, but he wasn’t ready to share old his fallout shelter with his new wife Jane. When nuclear war strikes, this snarky couple find themselves trapped in a bunker built for one. Inspired by post-apocalyptic and dystopian video games like Fallout and Bioshock, this dark comedy has bittersweet fun with end of the world.
The second half of That Cute Radioactive Couple is a free downloadable mod for Fallout: New Vegas. This mod will allow players to explore the bunker from the show, hear messages from the characters, interact with objects seen onstage, and ultimately learn what happened to Jane and Ray. It can be played by anyone with a full copy of Fallout: New Vegas and will be released after the play opens.
That Cute Radioactive Couple is written and directed by Charles Battersby, starring Len Rella*, Sam Robison and Mary Wertntz. With game design by Charles Battersby.
Free preview on July 6th at 8:00
July 7th 10:00 July 8th 4:00 July 11th 8:00 July 15th 8:00 July 28th 7:00
Tickets $15.
That Cute Radioactive Couple runs on a triple bill with Rock, Paper Scissors by Richard Lovejoy and The Sequel by Kathryn Funkhouser.
More is available at www.BrickTheater.com, and www.CharlesBattersby.com.
Fallout and Fallout: New Vegas are TM by Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. This production is not affiliated with Bethesda or Zenimax.
The following list of heroes are true DAC patriots:
Briosafreak Thomas S George G Ian S Lasse M VasikkA Caleb Kashluk Wasp1Blargh Alexander S4ur0n27 Wolfman Walt
A few of you requested to remain anonymous and a few others didn't leave a name, so another big Thank You to you as well!
Thanks to your contributions, DAC has been able to secure the domain for another 5 years. Let's hope that we get some great Fallout games before the next time around.
