Well, this in unexpected. Famed RPG developer Black Isle Studios, which created Fallout, Planescape: Torment and the Icewind Dale series between 1996 and its closure in 2003, is back with a pitch for a brand new post-apocalyptic RPG.
Entitled Project V13 (at the moment), the new game will be about a player leading a community in a devastated world by gathering resources, rebuilding and keeping their people alive. Black Isle is asking for donations to make a proof-of-concept demo. Donate $20 and you'll be a "contributing member" and apparently have real influence over the creation of the game. Here's their pitch; the serious bit begins about 2 minutes 30 in.
There's a lot of complicated background to this. Black Isle was originally part of Interplay, the studio that was involved in years of court cases with Bethesda over the Fallout property after Bethesda bought the rights (you'll notice that every mention of the word 'Fallout' is bleeped out in the video), eventually losing the rights to create a Fallout MMO. Black Isle's resurrection was announced by Interplay in August this year, but it's been mysterious until now.
Why should you care? If you ever played any of Black Isle's game in the late 90s, you'll know that they still stand up as some of the best examples of their genre ever made; if you haven't played Planescape or the first two Fallouts, you can buy them today and appreciate their magnificence. And several of the original staff are involved, and appear in the video, so it might not be a resurrection in name only. Our friends at Gamespy, though, make an extremely good case for approaching with caution.
It's been a good year for fans of classic post-apocalyptic RPGs; Brian Fargo is also bringing Wasteland back. Check out Black Isle's new website for more.
Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games coverage in the UK and still won't shut up about the original Fallout games. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.
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