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  1. Bernard Bumner

    Interplay changes hands

    All of that is good. I was thinking more of the corporate mechanics, rather than the tools for game production. There has - apparently - been so much shady dealing and smoke and mirrors in the recent history of Interplay, that I find it hard to believe that Herve can really have completed a...
  2. Bernard Bumner

    Interplay changes hands

    Am I being stupid, because the only Financial Planning and Development I can find registered with the Luxembourg Registar of Companies is Financial Planning and Development Holding S.A.? It hasn't filed accounts since 2003, so I'm not even sure if it exists any longer. (And, the only other...
  3. Bernard Bumner

    videogaming247 interviews Todd Howard

    If one makes an RPG set in the Star Wars universe, then force-use and Jedi are pretty much a requirement to ensure that it isn't just a generic sci-fi universe. A better example, for your purposes, would be the Empire, which isn't a requirement. Also, the mythology of Star Wars states...
  4. Bernard Bumner

    videogaming247 interviews Todd Howard

    Todd Howard says little and means less, yet again. See, if you were only ever exposed to a single source of this empty rhetoric, in the same way that most of the game-buying public are, then you might not notice the PR-spin.
  5. Bernard Bumner

    Gameplayer Australia previews Fallout 3 (new screenshot)

    Sure enough, but scientists still like to pontificate about what is and isn't possible; it makes us feel brainy... All they really need in Fallout 3 is for somebody somewhere to have found a canister of FEV - which I believe is the standard unit of commodity of biologicals in pulp sci-fi...
  6. Bernard Bumner

    Gameplayer Australia previews Fallout 3 (new screenshot)

    That is only true for certain types of virus, because you're assuming that the mutations occur directly as a result of viral recombination ino the genome. Think about examples such as HPV; highly infectious, easily isolated, but causes mutations as a result of viral oncogenes. Also...
  7. Bernard Bumner

    Gameplayer Australia previews Fallout 3 (new screenshot)

    Virologists often use nothing more complicated than chicken eggs to amplify virons; you just inject a small amount into an embryonated egg. It really can be quite easy. Now where could you get eggs from in the Fallout universe?
  8. Bernard Bumner

    Gameplayer Australia previews Fallout 3 (new screenshot)

    The line about the origin of FEV may well be Gameplayer Australia's, rather than official Bethesda backstory. However, I would just point out that Fallout 2 is somewhat inconsistent with regards to the origin of FEV, as given in Fallout. (Suddenly, it was redesigned as weapon, rather than...
  9. Bernard Bumner

    Gameplayer Australia previews Fallout 3 (new screenshot)

    a) I hope that is true - I could probably forgive a cameo appearance by some secret pre-war prototype weapon (equally, the background info for it is interesting). b) Perhaps - and this thought might just suggest the first signs of insanity on my part - they've listened to the murmurs of...
  10. Bernard Bumner

    Meet the Fallout 3 World Artist

    Okay, but I think the point still stands; his comment was simply a banale observation about the closing of the gap between platform technologies. Presumably, whilst optimization might not fall within his remit, he would still need to be mindful of the complexity of his creations in order that...
  11. Bernard Bumner

    Meet the Fallout 3 World Artist

    Didn't you read the manual that came with it? Yes, but I think his point was simply and actually that the technical limitations of next generation consoles are similar to those of current PCs, for the purposes of graphics development; that he doesn't need to make allowances for clunky...
  12. Bernard Bumner

    Meet the Fallout 3 World Artist

    People are very close to crossing the line into self-parody. Have we now reached the point where the usual conventions of hyperbole in english have to be discarded in favour of bald, bland strict statements, for fear that critics will carefully twist any mundane remark? It all seems a bit...
  13. Bernard Bumner

    Inside the Vault - Gary Noonan

    I presumed that the baggy vault suits were just ripped out of Van Buren? Still, if you think the Superutants look bad, then think of the horrible, rippling-muscled, spandex-clad, pseudo-superhero, vault dwellers they'd have produced if skin-tight vault suits were de rigueur...
  14. Bernard Bumner

    New developer diary at Bethesda

    Bethesda really are managing to nicely undermine the IP they spent so much money on. This kind of thing just stinks of the lack of subtlety and wit that has been my worst fear all along; I could have coped with bland dialogue, inconsequential quests, and simplistic morality much more easily if I...
  15. Bernard Bumner

    “The Game We’re Covering” Strikes Again

    Yeah baby! Look at the spans on those. (Grunt,... fumble...) Oh! Each brick rendered individually! Maybe Fallout 3 could include more bridges, or - you know - just be set on a fucking huge bridge? :crazy: Still, we all know that Independents are the only source of quality cRPGs at the...
  16. Bernard Bumner

    “The Game We’re Covering” Strikes Again

    Erm, did anybody else point out that the concept art is a picture of the Puente Neuvo which connects the two halves of the town of Ronda in Spain. It is a truly stunning location, and just a shame they weren't able to accurately depict the precipitous drops which surround the town. Do I...
  17. Bernard Bumner

    Inside the Vault - Gavin Carter

    To be fair, as I pointed out in my last post, I realised that the roleplaying elements that were present in System Shock 2 had been culled from Bioshock. The plasmids are really analogous to psychic powers available in the former, which was of course a weapons system, not a roleplaying element...
  18. Bernard Bumner

    Inside the Vault - Gavin Carter

    It is on my to-do list... Well, gobbling mushrooms to make you temporarily bigger doesn't really count as character development, does it? System Shock 2 has a character design system, dynamic character stats, and a clear choice of character classes which affect gameplay. (Come to think of...
  19. Bernard Bumner

    Inside the Vault - Gavin Carter

    Good review, and your overall assessment given above is quite right. I haven't really been losing sleep over it, its just that the elements of the game are so similar to System Shock 2 - which I consider to be one of the greatest games ever made - that I couldn't quite see where it went...
  20. Bernard Bumner

    Inside the Vault - Gavin Carter

    Deus Ex could be a frenetic shooter, if you played it that way. There is something wrong with Bioshock, but I'm struggling to put my finger on what it is, because the elements of System Shock 2 are all pretty much there. I think it may be that Bioshock feels much more linear, whereas in...
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