Fallout Enforcer booed by PC Gamer

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Mon May 05, 2003 1:08 am

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In the latest <A href="http://www.pcgames.com/">PC Gamer</a>, there's a bit about our beloved <a href="http://www.interplay.com/fbos">Fallout Enforcer</a>, once again showing why we have a love/hate relationship with the magazine.
 
 <blockquote>Finally, a word about what has to be the biggest RPG disappointment so far for 2003: Interplay's announcement of a console-only Fallout game. To have Interplay finally make some noise again with this excellent franchise, and have theat news come in the form of a "darkly humorous thrid-person action/adventure" called Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel - for Xbox and PlayStation2 owners only - is a bit of a slap in the face for loyal fans of the PC series.
 
 My moles are still diggin', but there's still no word of a new Fallout RPG in the works for PC. In the meantime, keep those fingers crossed, and StarCraft fans can at least telll you that you're not alone in your misery.
 
 - alternatelives@pcgamer.com </blockquote>
 
 Oh boy, TEAM CHUCK, even <A href="http://www.pcgames.com/">PC Gamer</a> is thumping you now. Rah! Rah! Rah! TEAM CHUCK! Go!
 
 Thanks to AxelGreese for posting this text <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1492">in an RPG Codex thread</a> on the subject.

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Mon May 05, 2003 1:41 am

yay, bad press never felt so good!

OnTheBounce · Post by **OnTheBounce** » Mon May 05, 2003 1:49 am

This is the part where I start hoping that there's nothing to the old adage that "there's no publicity as good as bad publicity."

OTB

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Mon May 05, 2003 1:55 am

the "bad publicity" you speak of is when a celebrity is found naked with a shetland pony or something like that, which just ends up boosting their popularity. this is just telling the world that it's badly produced, offending offal that nobody should buy.

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Mon May 05, 2003 2:17 am

Atoga is right. The bad publicity Fallout Enforcer is getting is the keroscene on the fire kind. They try to drum up favor, and it just makes things worse for them.

This is also the second printed magazine to criticise the decision to make this title, and this one is a biggie since PC Gamer is a fairly well known gaming rag.

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Mon May 05, 2003 2:24 am

Wow...now even "the world's best-selling PC gaming magazine" is taking shots.

I think now is a time to e-mail their editors with all the questionable points, including a good reminder of Fallout Tactics and that this title is shaping up to be much worse than that, despite their reviewer possibly never hearing of Jagged Alliance 2 before.

Of course, we could go by "how could a major publication be wrong?", but I dislike that, and I think our arguments speak for themselves. It is good, however, that there is more visibility of the subject - now we just need to give them more info on it. In fact, now would be the good time to compile up the list of crimes and give it to them. We already know the Interplay Minister of Information himself will try to emphasize his own brand of spin.

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Mon May 05, 2003 2:27 am

I thought PC Gamer really liked Fallout Tactics?

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Mon May 05, 2003 2:33 am

They liked it a little, but even they had said numerous things about how poorly it was put together, the bugs, how shitty it ran, etc. The reviewer didn't concentrate too much on the Fallout universe aspect, which is questionable in itself.

They gave it an 85%, which is around their "okay, but not bad enough to be REALLY poor, but not that good, either" rating. It was from a time when they were rating things much more high on their scales, as of late they are a little more faithful to their own rating scales. So if it were rated now, it would possibly get the 57% of MOO3.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Mon May 05, 2003 2:39 am

It's a pretty terrible review, and is probably the last thing you want to use as ammunition against FOBOS.

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Mon May 05, 2003 2:58 am

True, which is why you make it sound like "Well, you know how Fallout Tactics had problems? This is FAR worse!" Or relate how Ghost is pretty much sticking to the StarCraft setting, while Chuck and Co. are mercilessly skullfucking Fallout apart.

Or, just go item by item about how this new title is poor and how the devs have no clue, like how they have concept art with RobCo PIPBoy all over the place, even on bowling alleys.

That's right, kiddies. Rosh did some digging and PIPBoy isn't really a trademark of Vault-Tec, Vault-Tec had licensed RobCo Industries for their RobCo PIPBoy 2000* as the Personal Information Processor for its Vault Dwellers.

Fallout 1 manual, page 4-20.

*Your PIPBoy 2000 has a three month limited warranty.

Red · Post by **Red** » Mon May 05, 2003 3:19 am

Actually to be more precise, RobCo PipBoy is actually the little yellow/red guy seen on the PipBoy itself (Ask DJ Slamak about it).

The blue guy has no real name and is referred to as "Fallout Boy", in acient interplay scripts.

He seems to be a Vault-Tec licence since he's featured in two places, one obviously the pipboy itself as the little screenies in the stats page, and the other in the FO2 intro, the Vault-Tec vault rules movie (though I personally hate it).

So I would be inclined to think that they customized the FalloutBoy into the Pipboy...

You can dismiss FO:T's accounts for it altogether as they were clueless.

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Mon May 05, 2003 4:07 am

Aye, the Red/Yellow one is RobCo PIPBoy or Pip-Boy (the device's name is RobCo Industries RobCo PIPBoy 2000), but it looks like they (Vault-Tec) took that one and used a version of it for their Vault Dweller's Survival Guide (Fo1 manual) and Vault-Tec mascot of sorts to flow in the same design. Development name was Fallout Boy, I do recall that much being said, but the two are pretty much interchangable in their uses in/around the Vaults as the Vaults and Vault-Tec were the ONLY places where either were used. I'm guessing that the RobCo PIPBoy 2000 was something specially designed/licensed for the Vault Dellers, by Vault-Tec and therefore could have inherited proprietary rights to the mascot as well.

Still no logic for either to look like the Big-Boy and be used as a bowling alley mascot.

Ausir · Post by **Ausir** » Mon May 05, 2003 8:37 am

Look at the PIPBoy interface once again (not the character sheet). PIPBoy is red-haired, pointy-eared and wears red and yellow suit. FalloutBoy or VaultBoy is blonde-haired, round-eared and wears blue and yellow vault suit.
PIPBoy is a RobCo trademark. FalloutBoy/VaultBoy is a Vault-Tec trademark. He was called PipBoy in FOT, unfortunately, but according to Timmy Cain they were utterly wrong.
Since the main location is going to be some Vault-Tec facility, the locations might be for example a bowling alley for Vault-Tec workers. FOBOS sucks, but in this case they might be right

.

stingray420 · Post by **stingray420** » Mon May 05, 2003 8:40 am

BIS keeps saying that Fallout 3 is not in production, becasue they want to make money and keep there jobs. I am sorry but with all the bad press, there offical board for the game being shut down becasue of all the hate towards the game, I mean how can they make money off it?
Unless there coding the game with some 3rd world slave labor, the 15 copies there gonna sell is not gonna cut it.

And of the 15 copies sold 10 are gonna be returned for store credit, the other sorry saps didnt buy there game at EB:)

MF · Post by MF » Mon May 05, 2003 9:22 am

Donald Duck got different artists to work on him over the years, and they made him look somewhat different. Not as much a metamorphosis as Pipboy/Vaultboy, but you could twist things to make Pipboy==Vaultboy.

Ideally we should be calling Vaultboy just that, Vaultboy. Unfortunately the mix-up is pretty much set in stone so any excuse is welcome.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Mon May 05, 2003 10:53 am

I think they probably changed the pipboy to the falloutboy because vault dwellers couldn't really 'identify' with a little yellow and red pipboy, so for stuff like signs, book covers and other stuff they used the falloutboy mabye?

Or mabye they just bought the liscense to pipboy as the falloutboy might be copyright thingy.

Or mabye it was just an art mistake.

Who knows eh, who knows? Cheers mate.

T-900 · Post by **T-900** » Mon May 05, 2003 11:12 am

85% is a pretty damn good score. FOT Was a great tactical Squad-based RTS. Don't mention it being affiliated with fallout and everything is happy.

yay for PC Gamer!

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Mon May 05, 2003 11:35 am

T-900 wrote:85% is a pretty damn good score.

Not for that time-frame. They were handing out 80-90's for most anything that had advertising in their magazine or for some other reason unrelated to the game. It's good to see that change as of late, and MOO3 got the rating it deserved, I think.

FOT Was a great tactical Squad-based RTS.

Ignorance is bliss, eh?

Don't mention it being affiliated with fallout and everything is happy.

That's for certain, though it had flaws inherent to the game outside of its botching of the setting.

morris · Post by **morris** » Mon May 05, 2003 12:35 pm

I wonder if Chuck can ban PC Gamer from writing reviews....

Raymondo · Post by **Raymondo** » Mon May 05, 2003 4:19 pm

AAAA that website hurts my eyes, to much red.

Duck and Cover

Fallout Enforcer booed by PC Gamer

Fallout Enforcer booed by PC Gamer

Incorrect:

Re: Incorrect: