Ten years ago today perhaps the best Fallout title dropped on PC and consoles to acclaim. Granted, being an Obsidian title it was also plagueridden with bugs and other issues but it has stood the test of time and has personally become my favorite Fallout title in the longrunning series. It's been years since Duck and Cover had a new news story, so I figured with something like this coming along it was about time we were due for a new one.
Addendum: If you've got some loose change and see this on the front page, DAC needs some extra cash before we close down. We're half-way to the $500 mark to paying off the mob webhost to keep the domain and update the forum to a new format. Swing over to this thread and give Taluntain your money. Or don't, maybe we're better off dead since we're all relics of a bygone age at this point. We've become the embodiment of Old World Blues.
The free mobile game Fallout Shelter, up to now only available on iOS, comes to Android on August 13th. The launch of the Android version will also see an update to the iOS version, featuring deathclaws and Mister Handy robots among other things.
Something to note with Fallout Shelter is it's completely free - there's an option to buy additional reward loot, but it's playable without that.
Bethesda has revealed a collection called Fallout Anthology. It contains Fallout 1, 2, Tactics, 3 and NV for PC. The gimmick is the container for the games is a replica mini-nuke, that makes an explosion sound when you hit a button on it. There is an empty slot in the case for owners to jame their copy of Fallout 4 into.
The Fallout Anthology will be release September 29th, 2015. You can check it out here.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to state the painfully obvious - I do not have enough time to run DAC on a day to day basis. When Fallout 3 and NV were in development, I had a lot more free time to devote to hunting news and digging up sources. Alas, those days have passed. If anyone is interested in taking over the duties, please send me a message.
"We're pretty sure about our fans. The market we're in is quite old fashioned, they're not 16 year olds, they're 25-40 years old. We don't think free-to-play is the right model for the game we want to make. So we're making an old-fashioned, full price game, we think our audience will be happy about that. We're expecting a lot of our old audience!"
Nukapedia user Johnnywoo posted the following images to the Nukapedia, with the quote "It's coming, but don't expect it soon."
The interface looks enough like Bethesda's editor to be authentic, and includes features not seen in the regular GECK. Are these real, or a photoshop? No one knows.
As wearable technology sees an industry boom, NASA-contracted group "Team Reno" has created a fully-functional PipBoy 3000 that provides users with numerous features including a sensor display, communications array, and geiger counter. What is more impressive is that the device was made by 3-D printing.
The device was created by the team of Colin Loretz, Ashley Hennefer, Andrew Warren, Christopher Baker, and Ben Hammel (collectively known as “Team Reno”). The device can sense relative humidity, altitude, latitude and longitude, atmospheric pressure, ambient temperature, and radiation.
The most impressive part is that this was designed as part of a 48-hour challenge with readily available components and a housing created using a Makerbot Replicator 2. The team is planning on also adding a bluetooth heart rate monitor.
You can read more and watch provided video here or learn more about the competition here.
Today marks the official launch of Ivanpah, the world's largest solar energy power plant. The plant, located just southwest of Las Vegas in the vacinity of Nipton, has been the subject of both praise and criticism along the course of its development; as of today, it is generating in large excess over its demand as part of California's power grid.
Gizmodo discusses the story posted on NRG:
NRG Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NRG), through its wholly owned subsidiary NRG Solar, LLC, today announced that the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Systemis now operational and delivering solar electricity to California customers. At full capacity, the facility’s trio of 450-foot high towers produces a gross total of 392 megawatts (MW) of solar power, enough electricity to provide 140,000 California homes with clean energy and avoid 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, equal to removing 72,000 vehicles off the road.
Fans of Fallout: New Vegas will recognize the developing Ivanpah power plant as the inspiration for the game's location, "Helios One," a functional solar power plant in the Mojave Wasteland. While we usually have mixed feelings about Fallout predictions becoming reality, this is a rather positive development.
You can read more about it and view photos at Gizmodo or go directly to NRG's release article. Also, you can follow the plant's demand-vs.-supply in real time here.
The teaser trailer for Fallout: Lanius has been released. Check it out below along with the press release.
Perth, Western Australia- (July 16th, 2013) ENCRYPTION FILMS and DRACOGEN INC. are proud to reveal the PAX AUS Teaser for ‘FALLOUT: LANIUS’.
‘FALLOUT: LANIUS’ will have its World Premiere at the first annual Penny Arcade Expo in Melbourne, Australia on the 20th of July 2013. This huge event has been sold out for months.
Director Wade K. Savage and Producer Stuart Mackenzie will reveal the film to a massive and excited audience as apart of their eventual campaign to release the film online. Excitement for the film has reached fever pitch.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the film” Savage commented; “It’s exciting, blood soaked and sexy. It has a great sense of pace and drama, with a really stylised look. I’m over the moon with how it’s turned out”.
Producer Stuart Mackenzie followed suit "After all the blood, sweat, tears and blood that went into creating this project, it deserves to premiere on a grand stage. And there is no bigger stage than PAX. I couldn't be more excited or terrified to screen "Fallout: Lanius" to a packed house in Melbourne”.
Executive Producer Steven Dengler of Dracogen Inc. was a principal supporter of the project from the onset “It's a true pleasure to have played a part in bringing this story to life. I'm a huge fan of the Fallout games and the Fallout universe. Wade and his team have created a gripping vision of one of Fallout's most compelling characters”. He continues "The writing, acting, and direction are amazing, and the production quality rivals studio releases”.
Dengler also went on to comment on the nature of crowd-funded Fan Films "We live in amazing times. Dedicated groups of fans can produce professional quality content based on their own vision, not what a studio decides will have the best monetary return. And fellow fans can put their own money behind it and help make it happen. It's wonderful”.
The film raised nearly $20,000 online in late 2012 and has been continually teasing more info via their Official Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/FalloutLanius).
“FALLOUT: LANIUS” is a blood soaked high concept action epic, which will explore the origin story of the primary antagonist "Legate Lanius" from the 2010 video game "Fallout: New Vegas".
STORY SUMMARY
On the brink of ruin, the Hidebark people are about to be wiped out by the slaving organization, Caesar's Legion. However, their most ruthless warrior would prefer death to dishonour. "FALLOUT: LANIUS" will recount how a single man brings ruin to his people due to his lust for bloodshed and victory.
ABOUT THE TEAMS
ENCRYPTION FILMS is an independent film production company headed by Director Wade K. Savage. The company's sole ambition is to create entertaining films,that combine story, style and substance.
Founded by Steven Dengler, DRACOGEN™ is committed to helping fun and awesome things happen. We back some pretty amazing tech companies, new media content, and fun creative projects.
The Fallout-inspired play, That Cute Radioactive Couple, will be running from 10 July to 27 July in New York. They had a Kickstarter campaign which hit its goal as well. Here's more info:
That Cute Radioactive Couple is a romantic comedy about the apocalypse playing this July in New York.
That Cute Radioactive Couple is a dark comedy about a married couple who survive a nuclear war in a bomb shelter built for one. It is playing this July in the Game Play Theatre Festival in New York.
The show is written and directed by Charles Battersby, and inspired by post-apocalyptic and dystopian video games like Fallout, Wasteland and Bioshock, this dark comedy has bittersweet fun with end of the world.
Charles Battersby and Elizabeth Barkan
Previously, That Cute Radioactive Couple was performed at the Penny Arcade Expo in Boston, and starred Mario Bueno, Charles Battersby, Isaiah Tanenbaum, and Amanda van Nostrand.
Another production ran from July 7th through July 28th 2012 as part of the 2012 Game Play Theater Festival, Directed by Charles Battersby, starring Len Rella*, Sam Robison and Mary Werntz.
The original production in 2012
The show has been expanded from a 15-minute skit into an hour-long show that will perform again in this year's Game Play Theater Festival at the Brick Theater. It will star Len Rella, Amanda van Nostrand, Charles Battersby, Isaiah Tanenbaum, and Elizabeth Barkan.
We need funds to pay the cast and crew, as well as provide for insurance and some of the props and costumes that we'll use in the show.
That Cute Radioactive Couple has received some good response from the press, withKotaku saying "It really makes you ponder what being in such a situation is truly like".
We want to share this experience with more people and hope you'll either join us in person or support us through Kickstarter.
We perform on July the 10th, the 13th and the 27th, with a free preview performance on Friday July 5th. Join us in there, but bring your own supply of canned food and bottled water.
This project is part of "Kicking It Forward" and will donate 5% of our profits to supporting other projects on Kickstarter. http://kickingitforward.org
Director Wade Savage has dropped by to let us know that his film Fallout: Lanius will be premiering at PAX AU. Here's the release:
Perth, Western Australia- (April 22, 2013) Australian Filmmaker Wade K. Savage is happy to announce “FALLOUT: LANIUS” will Premiere at Penny Arcade Expo Australia.
After a tremendously successful Crowd Funding campaign, the Fan Film has garnered interest all over the world with its marketing campaign and attention to detail. The film was invited to screen earlier in the year due to the massive amount of interest around it.
Director Wade K. Savage commented on the news “I couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity” he said “PAX is the biggest gaming expo in the world. This is especially cool as this is the first time PAX has happened in Australia – and we get to be apart of it. I cannot wait for the fans to see our film.”
The film raised nearly $20,000 online in late 2012 and has been continually teasing more info via their Official Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/FalloutLanius).
The screening will take place on the 20th of July at the Dropbear Theatre at 9pm. Director Wade K. Savage and Producer Stuart Mackenzie will then hold a Q&A about the film. The film is expected to be released online some time after the Premiere.
STORY SUMMARY
On the brink of ruin, the Hidebark people are about to be wiped out by the slaving organization, Caesar's Legion. However, their most ruthless warrior would prefer death to dishonour. "FALLOUT: LANIUS" will recount how a single man brings ruin to his people due to his lust for bloodshed and victory.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Wade K. Savage is an award winning theatre and film director. His short films have shown globally. His most recent short film "Hunt" (2011) screened at the Bram Stoker International Film Festival. His 2010 short "The Dead Wastes" won the Night of Horror International Film Festival's coveted 'Independent Spirit' award. This is the filmmakers' first Fan Film.
Seems someone suddenly found a new lease of life, huh? Kickstarter hasn't been kind to everyone (right, Chris Taylor? (no, not that Chris Taylor)) but it's been kind to some. And some of those aren't going to be shy in making use of it again. What use? Torment: Tides of Numenera is the name and it's purporting to be not-a-sequel (wink, nudge) to well known Black Isle limbo-opera Planescape:Torment. Bullet points?
Torment is a single-player, isometric role-playing game.
You will play a single, specific character, though you will encounter optional NPC companions you may choose to include in your party.
The story-driven game will have a rich dialogue system and approach similar to that of Planescape: Torment.
The game will be developed in the Unity engine for PC (Windows), Mac, and Linux platforms.
The game will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish.
The game will be distributed DRM-free. (You’ll be able to get it from Steam, and other DRM-free download options will be made available.)
You say you want more conveniently arranged info from the horse's mouth? Alrighty then...
A Deep, Thematically Satisfying Story. The philosophical underpinnings of Torment drive the game, both mechanically and narratively. Your words, choices, and actions will be your primary weapons.
A World Unlike Any Other. The game has a fantastic, original setting, with awe-inspiring painterly visuals, imaginative locations, truly offbeat items, and massive feats of magic. In Numenera, however, "magic" is actually something surprisingly different.
A Rich, Personal Narrative. The story is thoughtful and character-driven—epic in feel but a deeply personal narrative, with nontraditional characters and companions who have their own motivations and desires that drive them throughout the game.
Reactivity, Choice, and Real Consequences. The game emphasizes replayability and reactivity, and your choices will make a real difference. You can play the game with a different approach and discover entirely new pathways. Most important, we won't tell you how to play. The best ending is the one you choose, flowing naturally from your actions throughout the game.
So, it sounds, err... dead serious. Unlike the video. Because, yeah, you can't have a Kickstarter without a comedy skit.
Ha... ha... funny, right? Hum... yeah. I'd keep Mr. McComb away from coffee, just playing it safe.
I keep hoping someone tells Fargo to sod gaming and pay Warner Bros a visit. In the meantime, if you'd like to help ol' uncle Bri and his boys at inXile have a shot at the game, use this link right here (not like they look like they need it, the guys just went up $100k (into $200k/$900k) in the time it took to make this post, but hey, maybe you wanna reserve your digital copy or something). Who knows, maybe after this additional round of free pub, the guy may finally decide to answer our questions. Providing he's not auditioning for the new Ben Stiller movie.
UPDATE: Done deal! After just one day, Fargo & chums have amassed 200% their proposed target ($1.8M), so expect stretch goals sometime soon.