[cthellis42]

Over at Blue's News:

More bad news at Black Isle Studios, where lead designer J.E. Sawyer resigned just last month (story), as Farewell, but not goodbye on the Interplay Entertainment Forums (thanks Nels Nelson) is a post from Damien "Puuk" Foletto that indicates that the studio is now shut down, referring to today as his "last day at the (former) BIS." This follows suit with a note sent along by designer John Deiley:

Today marks the end of an era. Black Isle Studios is no more. In yet another sweeping layoff of employees, Interplay has officially let go the last of it's Black Isle employees (save two that I know of) and dissolved the division. Also, the non-announced title that the division was working on, Fallout 3, has been "shelved" to quote management.

There is honestly nothing I can say about this but... WTF?!

[evil]

Ouch, what happened? This is sad news :/

[Bohdy]

This is... horrible!

Their Baldurs Gate series is absolutely without equal in the world of PC RPG's, and is leagues above the tripe that was supposed to be the spiritual sequel (cough NWN).

I can only hope that the dev's in limbo right now find another home (ie Pull a Looking Glass)

[Quitch]

Well, to be fair Black Isle only published the Baldur's Gate series (and handled the VO side), they didn't develop it (that was Bioware, who made NWN). However, they did make the wonderful Planescape Torment, as well as the Fallout series.

[Snyder]

Although this surely is sad, it was only a matter of time. And it's not that tragic considering that many ex-BI staff now found its home at Obsidian Entertainment. (Including Urquhart and Avellone)
If you consider as well that Obsidian is said to develop KotOR 2...BI is dead, long live Obsidian!

[cthellis42]

I'm a much bigger fan of Torment than the BG's anyway. ^_^ I'm surprised BioWare didn't pick them up lock, stock and barrel though. Think Interplay's just been sucking too much and wanted to disband Black Isle so they'd keep the rights to the game series' and be able to sell them peacemeal to other developers for more money than if they bartered BIS itself?

[Gollum]

I mourn for Black Isle, they developed and published many great games and were one of the major forces behind reviving the once almost dead genre of PC RPGs. I hope all of the talented staff will find a new future in other development studios and continue to produce great games. Nevertheless, the loss of hope for any kind of Fallout 3 sure does hurt...

[Gubbi]

This fscking sucks.

What are the chances of somebody picking up the Fallout III work and continuing ?

Cheers
Gubbi

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Originally Posted by Gubbi

This fscking sucks.

What are the chances of somebody picking up the Fallout III work and continuing ?

Cheers
Gubbi

If it's Interplay, probably zero. They have a history of shelving IP, but hanging onto it in the hope they can use it in the future or sell it off at some future date. It seems to me they hang onto IP in the hope it makes themselves appear more valuable for possible sale or takeover at some point.

How far the mighty have fallen. At one point you could almost guarentee that anything with the Interplay name on it would be a quality product. Now they are just another bunch of lowest-common-denominator box shifters who are in business to keep their directors in fat salaries.

[Gollum]

According to a source on RPGdot.com there seems to have been a heavy push towards console only in Interplay, which might be one of the reasons besides the legal struggles why BIS fell into such a turmoiled state. Supposedly Interplay was more interested in bringing out more BGDA and FOBOS hack'n'slash games based on their RPG licenses, than producing full blown PC RPG. That surely didn't make the employees very happy, that's for sure.

Not to bring up the age old "death of PC gaming" matra, but with recent news and what has been going on over the past year or two, quality PC only developers surely have been in decline...

[vrecan]

not just pc only its more like single platform development has been on the decline. Their is almost no reason atleast for me to own any console cause 90% of the good games from each come to the pc... just a waste of money to blow on a console.

[Rodéric]

Originally Posted by Bohdy

Their Baldurs Gate series is absolutely without equal in the world of PC RPG's

I absolutely agree.
There's no game below that quality in the PC RPGs... except Morrowind who took the worst PC RPG ever crown from them, but by a small margin.

(Couldn't resist giving my opinion about those games.)

[Gubbi]

So what do you like ?

Cheers
Gubbi

[Rodéric]

Originally Posted by Gubbi

So what do you like ?

Computer RPGs: Chrono Trigger, Grandia 2, Secret Of Mana (Seiken Densetsu), Final Fantasy 4-7. (All squaresoft, unexpectedly)
Adventure: Outcast, The Legend of Zelda.
RTS: Warcraft I-II, StarCraft, Pikmin.

*- spent 15 minutes trying to remember other RPGs I liked with no success -*

[Tim Murray]

1. Secret of Mana is Seiken Densetstseutstustu 2 (yes, I can't be bothered to check the spelling of Word 2 every time I type it).

2. And congratulations, you just listed all console games with the exception of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Outcast.

Alas, there will never be a Freespace 3. DAMN YOU, INTERPLAY. DAMN YOU.

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by vrecan

not just pc only its more like single platform development has been on the decline. Their is almost no reason atleast for me to own any console cause 90% of the good games from each come to the pc... just a waste of money to blow on a console.

Most people these days seem to think the other way around: why play a game on PC when I can get a console for the price of a single PC component and play the same game comfortably from the couch instead of getting a hunchback in front of the PC? Not my opinion of course, but I've heard many people argue along those lines. And things like higher resolutions, sharper graphics, more complex game types and in some cases (FPS) way better controls don't really matter to them.

A friend of mine even used to be a big PC gamer, we've been playing games together since before the original Doom. That was until he got an Xbox last year (I have to admit that my purchasing one was the reason he got his), ever since he has barely touched a PC game. Granted he never was the big RPG fan, but RTS used to be one of his favoutige genres. Now he's playing mostly FIFA, the odd extreme sports titles or mediocre movie licenses. He's really turned into one of those "attention span of less than 5 minute guys" in some ways, story or depth seem to turn him off, depressing really.

[mysterious booming voice]
Beware the lure of the console young ones, they may change the way you play forever!
[/mysterious booming voice]

[Quitch]

Originally Posted by Ingenu

Computer RPGs: Chrono Trigger, Grandia 2, Secret Of Mana (Seiken Densetsu), Final Fantasy 4-7. (All squaresoft, unexpectedly)
Adventure: Outcast, The Legend of Zelda.
RTS: Warcraft I-II, StarCraft, Pikmin.

*- spent 15 minutes trying to remember other RPGs I liked with no success -*

Ahhh, Outcast. Absolutely brilliant game, and it brings tears to my eyes that the sequel was canned.

[Gollum]

I hate waking false hopes so take this for what its worth, from RPGdot:

I'll preface this newsbit by saying we don't know if Interplay is considering selling the Fallout license but...the industrious folks at NMA picked up this rather intriguing post by Carsten Strehse on the Silver Style forums:

Well, we are definatly interested in hiring some of the former Balck Isle staff. I try to get in contact with them.
I also disclose no big secret if I tell you that we have found a mayor partner for The Fall and that money wouldn't be the biggest problem when we would try to get the FO licence.
My biggest concern is the reaction of the FO community. We're all huge fans of FO here and have deepest respect for the achivements of the dev team. However, we are no Black Isle, we are Silver Style. And I'm afraid that the community wouldn't be pleased with a FO3 that wasn't developed by the original team. Even if I'm very sure that we could deliver a real stunning game.

Either way, Silver Style is currently working on The Fall which looks like it might have some pretty strong post-apoc goodness and strong finances can't help but make it better.

Like the post says, there is no way to know if Interplay is interested in selling the Fallout rights at all. Hypothetically the folks at Silver Style are talking about rights for an official PC FO sequel here, not the whole FO license. Interplay will most likely be holding on to that and slap it on barely related console titles for as long as they continue to exist...

[Gubbi]

Originally Posted by Ingenu

Computer RPGs: Chrono Trigger, Grandia 2, Secret Of Mana (Seiken Densetsu), Final Fantasy 4-7. (All squaresoft, unexpectedly)

Ok, we're just going to have to agree to disagree. I find most of the FF franchise games shallow and linear (but with great cutscenes and art work).

Cheers
Gubbi

[Rodéric]

Originally Posted by Gubbi

Ok, we're just going to have to agree to disagree. I find most of the FF franchise games shallow and linear (but with great cutscenes and art work).

Little correction FF before 7 (PS1) don't have Full Motion Videos as cutscene.
Yes the story is linear but it's involving, but I agree that the gameplay is average at best.

[Fox5]

Originally Posted by Ingenu

Computer RPGs: Chrono Trigger, Grandia 2, Secret Of Mana (Seiken Densetsu), Final Fantasy 4-7. (All squaresoft, unexpectedly)
Adventure: Outcast, The Legend of Zelda.
RTS: Warcraft I-II, StarCraft, Pikmin.

*- spent 15 minutes trying to remember other RPGs I liked with no success -*

Grandia 2 isn't squaresoft. BTW, I'm pleased you listed pikmin as RTS, I keep telling people that is a console RTS title, even if it does have action/adventure elements.

Anyhow, too bad black isle is gone, but I only really liked the fallout games from them. Fantasy settings bore me(I've seen so many that non cyborg dragons are almost like true history to me!), and I didn't like the semi real time play, nor the little of level 7. Or the endless hack and slash, followed by like an hour of dialogue. At least that's what the demo of one of their games I played was like, fallout had a nice balance where dialogue was interspersed throughout the combat. I would like to see another game as fun as fallout with a futuristic/modern setting, fallout didn't really have anything left to continue the main story line, it would have had to be all side stories or completely unrelated stories.(like Tactics) I'll miss black isle, but I haven't bought one of their games since fallout 2.

[cthellis42]

Originally Posted by Gubbi

Ok, we're just going to have to agree to disagree. I find most of the FF franchise games shallow and linear (but with great cutscenes and art work).

Of course being non-linear doesn't make things NOT shallow.

I've never really understood why people can have such aversion to linear RPG's. Books and movies are 100% linear... SO many other game genres have linear progression... (Though of late trying more and more to spread out and give more appeal and more repeat value.) "RPG" is an enormous genre with a metric ton of included styles. There are good reasons to have every level from strictly linear to totally amorphous.

[Rodéric]

Originally Posted by Fox5

Grandia 2 isn't squaresoft.

Indeed !
My dearest excuses to people of GameArts (http://www.gamearts.com/) who did bring this fantastic title to the Dreamcast.

Pikmin was my most pleasent surprise on the Cube, Wind Waker and it's very nice graphic style came second.

Linear games are good, you just need to insert a few side quests per Chapter/Place (2-5) to have some freedom.
Strong main story with some side stories having some effect on the main story is the best IMO, I came to this conclusion having mastered role playing game during ten years. You just can't leave the players out in the void, complete freedom leads to boredom.

[MfA]

BG1 was soso, BG2 was great, BG2-TOB was soso.

I would love to have seen project Jefferson published, it couldnt have been too far removed from shipping ... I dont like what Bioware has been doing with their D&D stamped games since BIS stopped producing them.

With BIS gone, and with Troika's TOEE release being FUBAR there is not much reason to optimism for people who like party based cRPGs for the PC. (If Troika could just get a game out polished for fucking once they would have a hit, reviewers love them.)

[vrecan]

Off the top of my head


pc RPG:
Gothic, Gothic 2, Dungeon Siege, The Temple of Elemental Evil, KOTOR,
Boulders Gate Series, NWN, ARX Fatalis,

pc FPS/3rdpersonshooters:
No One Lives forever 2, Star Trek Elite Forces 2, XIII, Raven Shield, Halo PC, Call Of Duty, Hitman2, MaxPayne 2, Dues Ex 2, Splinter Cell, Tron2.0,Operation Flashpoint, Soldier of fourtune 2, Theif Series, BF1942,

pc Action titles:
Gladiator Sword Of Vengence, Jedi knight Academy, Jedi knight II, Prince Of Persia, TMNT, Chaos Legion*dont consider ita an rpg*, LOTR return of the king, Savage, Freedom Force

pc adventure games:
The Black Mirror, Silent Hill 3, Uru Ages Beyond Myst, Myst series, Beyond Good & Evil, Broken Sword 3

Pc Strategy games:
C&C Generals, HomeWorld II, Hegemonia, Rise Of Nations, Silent Storm, Warcraft 3, Rail Road Tycoon, Disciples series, Europe 1400 The Guild, Civilization series, Medieval Total War, O.R.B. , Port Royale 2, Sim City series,

Pc Racing games:
Simpsons Hit & Run, NFSU, Colin Mcrae 3

space:
Freelancer, Wing Commander series, X-series, Freespace series, Eve Online,

These are all games that I have played recently ie within the last couple months if you give me some time I can find you A LOT more pc games that aren't well known but should be, the problem I have right now is almost every console game that has come out has bored me to death excluding 2 that I can think of. Like SH3 most over rated game I ever played! Drove me nuts you couldn't interact with any of the environments in any way they were all static placement art. 98% of console games are so linear I get bored within 15min and never have the urge to pick them up again.