The lights are on
Tim Cain is currently a design director at Carbine Studios – a division of NCsoft working on an unannounced MMO – but old PC hounds might remember him as the producer, lead programmer, and designer for Troika when he worked on the original PC Fallout titles. Fan site www.duckandcover.cx recently posted an interview with Cain where he talks about how much he liked Bethesda’s update to the series, but also how his version of Fallout 3 would have turned out very differently.
In the interview Cain states, “I played and finished Fallout 3 as soon as it came out. I really enjoyed the game, and I think Bethesda’s designers had really done their homework. The game showed they had a deep understanding and knowledge of the key aspects of the original games. I even replayed it a few times to see how I could have different experiences, and I had fun with that. Of course, I would have done things differently if I had made it.”
Cain doesn’t elaborate on the changes he would have made, but fans of the original Fallout games might be interested to hear how Cain would change the first two Fallouts if he could make the original titles all over again. “Oh, there is so much that I would have done differently based on what I know now,” says Cain. “The interface could have been improved, and there are ways to speed up and balance the turn-based combat system to make it more comparable with modern games. I also wished our budget could have been larger, not only to make a bigger and longer game, but also to have a real marketing campaign. Sometimes I feel that Fallout 1 was basically an advertisement for Fallout 2.”
Cain briefly mentions that he has a design document for his version of Fallout 3, but is unwilling to share any of his ideas regarding future installments in the series. Hopefully someday he’ll finally break down and let details slip. Or maybe someday his version of the game will get made.
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hope his version came out.
Wow, an original dev somewhat agreeing with bethesda lol. new to me. Well I hope he explains what he would've done differently. I also want him to elaborate what he could have improved in the turn-based combat system of the vats and how he would've made the interface better for fallout 3. Although the fallout series was the best game in my opinion for the turn-based combat system, other games like civilization was great as well. Im sure these devs are just whining that they could not improve their original series, but hey, he couldnt make it so bethesda did instead. He will just have to live with it and his version of the game will probably get a lot of newcomers to the fallout series really really mad.
Oh man... I came in here thinking from the headline we were going to get the down and dirty on what he'd have done differently on 3, not an "if I had it to do all over again" for the first two.
Good job baiting me with the headline.
either way fallout 3 is a great game
i meant the whole series
It's actually pretty cool that Cain seems mostly pleased with how Fallout 3 turned out. That's awesome.
Well, it does no good to start reminiscing about shoulda-coulda-woulda. It also does no one any good to say you would do it differently and then offer no suggestions. It's like telling someone who's performing the Heimlich Maneuver that he's doing it wrong, and then walking away without offering the correct manner.
Yeah he either accepted defeat or he has this hidden grudge against bethesda and he will hire the evil monkey for revenge??? I guess that is too extreme.,. or not serious at all, being that from the title I thought it was going to be an all out war. come on he really did say anything, just a couple of sentences and he already got me all riled up.
Both Falout 1 And Fallout 3 are awesome.
Fallout 3 turned out great. I still need to complete it though. I look forward to New Vegas.
Interesting. I'm glad Cain liked Fallout 3.
Hopefully Obsidian will do a good job on New Vegas
Just do a Richard Donner Cut version of the game and sit back and let the ladies and money roll in.
@ Maddikilo
He's not saying what he would have done with 3 (at least not specifially) he's saying what he would have changed/refined in the first two fallouts.
Good to see that he liked what Bestheda did with it. Shows what a quality job they did on the actual game.
words are easily covered with another double meaning. of course he had deeper feelings, I mean Cain pratically a dev that contributed much to the fallout series and for the most part what fallout is. A dev who devoted his time to fallout and now have to give third party opinions to it is like teaching your apprentice everything you know and watch him go and serve another master (like vader) lol. Im sure cain wanted to say more but for the sake of argument and probably for the sake of his reputation, he made a statement that is nuetral rather than a statement that would have things blazing in fire.
well i know that a game dev. will always have regrets but the best they can do is simply take what they learned from the projects they have done and use it to improve upon their future projects
oh yeah, i look forward to the fallout MMO and new vegas
that would be awsome you know that that would lead to 2 diffrent versions of the story though that would be cool though 2 versions of every fallout game Sweet
I doubt he could top what Bethesda did.
I would have made it so you could play through the entire game without it breaking down and destroying your 360.
Different huh... well, it would be awesome his way to!