Podcast about Next Generation games with Todd Howard

[denizsi]

I had always hoped that Howard was a cynical bastard who created Oblivion with the sole purpose of selling as many copies as possible, but he thinks that he is taking games in the right direction. Gameplay is irrelevant, the visceral experience is everything. It's too bad the majority of people seem to agree.

It became obvious to me quite some time ago, that Todd, MSFD, WormGod and all the other devs involved who did more than giving their obligatory share of PR shit, simply are FUBAR, corrupted on a level even beyond their stupid fans, perhaps.

I mentioned WormGod but may at least have some regrets about the whole shit, since his post count has declined to increase towards the game's release and he hasn't post anything at all after february 16. Too embarassed to go into public? Hiding from flamers? Or too busy dating and fucking with teenager fangirls (or boys?)?

I really wonder what Aerelorn ( former community mod member who was hired by Beth for his work on MWE and Combat Enhanced ) thinks and feels about all of this.

 

[LlamaGod]

WormGod is busy pretending that he doesn't suck and that people care about pictures of his stupid car.

 

[Romanian_Dude2005]

now that I think of it, I wonder how Bethesda is going to make Fallout 3 which takes place in a wasteland. Seeing that they brag so much about their grass.

or it will take place in Canada

 

[Vault Dweller]

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

 

[Drakron]

If I remenber WormGod is a member of Something Awful forums (as R-Lo) , considering that Something Awful taken some shoots at Oblivion I take he is kinda taking it low.

Not that I like him, he end up permanent banning a respected member of modding community.

Besides that TES forums are full of retarded from the "Xbox generation" that kinda removes someone desire to post in a place were any intelligent post gets burried under tons of mindless fanboy posts ...

 

[Romanian_Dude2005]

oh goodie, I can hardly wait to see their new Speedsand engine in action. Three things are certain about F3

One is that it will look cool

Two is that it will be soled on consoles

and Three is that the chrracter creation will be intact. Just choose you class, diplomat, scientist, merchant and then blast your way through like Bomberman in matining season

 

[kingcomrade]

now that I think of it, I wonder how Bethesda is going to make Fallout 3 which takes place in a wasteland. Seeing that they brag so much about their grass.

Fallout 3 is going to take place 400 years after Fallout 2, after the world has recovered. It is going to the the most epic, cutting edge, epic, immersive, epic, innovative, epic, genre defining, epic masterpiece game of the epic year limited special edition sci-fi game ever.

You take on the role of Kyle "Dogmeat" Bladerunner as he goes about the Radiant-powered space station Vault 13B, which was originally the only space-based fallout shelter. After the shelter returns to earth Dogmeat finds that an ancient evil has awakened, and that he is the Chosen One. Do you have what it takes to save the world before it is destroyed...again?

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

 

[Rivo]

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

Touché!

 

[Slaine]

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

pwnd

 

[Jung]

If G3 can have both realistic sand and great gameplay, then what's the problem? Given the quality of G1 and G2, I have no reason to doubt that they can't deliver both.

 

[galsiah]

Perhaps, but significant emphasis on sand / dune generation isn't a good sign. Why go on about sand unless either there's nothing more important to say, or you think sand is important? The last nail in the coffin it isn't, but it's not something to get excited about.

 

[Rat Keeng]

Too much sand gets up your vagina.

But don't worry fellas, they'll find a way to justify wasteland grass, like something about radioactive fallout being the perfect fertilizer for a special kind of grass, one that we've never been able to grow, one that we've never even known about, and more importantly, one that has more individual blades and realistic swaying than evar before!

Honestly, the things they talk about, it's almost surreal. They all agree that graphics improve gameplay and should be a priority, and then they go off on a 15-minute tree and grass talking spree. I thought all the comments were just exaggerating, but man, it's truly horrible.

 

[denizsi]

oh goodie, I can hardly wait to see their new Speedsand engine in action. Three things are certain about F3

In that case the game will definitely suck, only because Speedtree looks like shit compared to Planta! (I suggest everyone to download the demo videos, and the high res if possible)

Planta is the result of a collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara (http://www.ucsb.edu/) and Four Eyes Lab; a paper based on Planta has been presented at Eurographics 2005.

Now who can tell me which one beats the other; University of Maryland, or Universtiy of Ca,Santa Barbara?

But don't worry fellas, they'll find a way to justify wasteland grass, like something about radioactive fallout being the perfect fertilizer for a special kind of grass, one that we've never been able to grow, one that we've never even known about, and more importantly, one that has more individual blades and realistic swaying than evar before!

I think, because some of the mutants were so unbelievably dumb as much to be called vegetables, they actually turned into vegetables and now they spread like a plague, with plant tentacles growing out of grass and killing people, and that will be the new threat. Alchemy gets a twist as well, since it's now a lot more dangerous to collect plants and such.

it's truly horrible.

or horribly true?

 

[Vault Dweller]

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

Touché!

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

pwnd

I hoped that most people would be able to tell the difference between focusing on graphics exclusively because "that's what we do really well" and having nice graphics *among* many other *well done* things.

 

[OverrideB1]

Well I managed to listen to about 15 minutes of moronic dribbling about "great-looking grass" and "realistic-looking trees" before having to turn that shit off and go hide in a dark place lest I was overcome with the urge to purchase tickets to the US with the sole intent of cleaning the gene-pool of their crap.

Basically, from what I did manage to hear before the urge to upchuck became too great was a group wankfest about how super-spiffy they all were for creating such superb graphics -- any hope for meaningful or deep CRPGs or a decent FO3 seems as remote as the Toddmeister and the others actually coming up with one original idea between them..

 

[Twinfalls]

Three things are certain about F3

One is that it will look cool

O RLY?

 

[Rivo]

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

Touché!

They will focus on making totally awesome grains of sand. That's what they do really well.

They are not the only ones.

pwnd

I hoped that most people would be able to tell the difference between focusing on graphics exclusively because "that's what we do really well" and having nice graphics *among* many other *well done* things.

Have you even played G3? Shut up fanboy. Same shit with OB; Could care shit about what the devs said. All I know the trailers looked chubby.

 

[LlamaGod]

Fallout 3 will take place entirely in FO2 NCR.

And yeah, I could actually see Bethesda doing that.

 

[Top Hat]

Well, you can suck my cock while I beat you over the head with this mallet, you brainless sack of shit.

So, you'll put your penis into someone's mouth and at the same time hit that person over the head with a mallet?

Do you want to lose your penis?

Exit

 

[Kraszu]

Have you even played G3? Shut up fanboy. Same shit with OB; Could care shit about what the devs said. All I know the trailers looked chubby.

He played Gothic and G2. Oh and it was about F3 not Oblivion, but yes let not judge the game by games that was created before by the same team . There is also difference between talking mostly about graphics and have some examples on haw graphics work on the web page.

 

[aries202]

HI

I really dont understand why a CEO of company that makes RPGs only talks about graphics, leaves on trees and sands and grass.

This seems very odd to me --- obviously he means by next-gen. games --- next-gen. graphics.

And I do agree that Oblivion (tes4) looks pretty and nice - even on medium settings. [Oh, and people shouldn't have to buy either an xbox 360 or a HDTV to play the game].

I'm worried because the game industry seems to be heading in the direction of Black Isle/Interplay. (at least for the rpg video gaming industri). I think you all know what I mean: Focusing on getting casual gamers - ignoring your fanbase.

And why: Because the marketing department thinks that this is the direction you should take.
As well as making games more pretty (with nicer graphics) - so that more people will buy them.

But - people do not buy games ONLY for the grapchis - or because they look nice. They buy games to get an emotional experience, to get away from their everyday life - and dream of being a hero. (at least in an rpg, I think). And no matter what the marketing department say, people do not buy a games - solely and only based on graphics alone.

I mean, I love playing BG2 --- I don't hardly notice that graphics because the gameplay is so intense and the story is so intrigueing.

Also, I don't know which games Todd has been playing: In Gothic and Gothic 2 there are no realistic grass ---it is just plain green flat grass (I think). And the grass on Oblivion isn't realistic at all - grass is green and flat. The grass in Oblivion looks more like the grass you''ll find in dunes.
[But, hey, I understand why they didn't have time to make more guilds etc. - they were making sure the grass looked great - ;ironi used; ]

And as I have stated earlier, any company that only is about making money - will fail - in the long run.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Have you even played G3? Shut up fanboy.

Track record, stupid. I've played the previous games.

Same shit with OB; Could care shit about what the devs said.

Again, that's 'cause you are stupid. What developers said painted a much better picture of Oblivion than any trailer did.

 

[Imbecile]

HI

And as I have stated earlier, any company that only is about making money - will fail - in the long run.

What about if they are interested in making money in the long run?

Companies that focus on employees, or pollution, or customer service, or local talent – aren’t doing this to be nice. Generally speaking they do it because it buys them goodwill in the short term, and cash in the long term. Or so they hope.

 

[Rivo]

Have you even played G3? Shut up fanboy.

Track record, stupid. I've played the previous games.

Same shit with OB; Could care shit about what the devs said.

Again, that's 'cause you are stupid. What developers said painted a much better picture of Oblivion than any trailer did.

I played the previous TES games too. I liked DF, and MW. Did that thought made OB good? Uhu no.

You're so deep into this shit. As long as I haven't played G3 yet, I'm not going to crave all over it like you do. Facist. Pull out that fist you got upto G3 devs their asses, probably just because you had an interview with them and they gave you the answers you wanted. Poor you.