I remeber that sometime before the release of Fallout 3, there was a mention of realising all the files of Van Buren as freewere. It should have happened after the relese of F3. Has anyone heard something about it?

Actually Bethesda very specifically said they wouldn't release someone else's unfinished code. Some Van Buren content has been released by other sources, but at the moment it doesn't sound like Bethesda has plans to release anything additional.

The thought of a Van Buren being released makes me extremely excited. I love FO1 and 2 way more than FO3 so I'm totally hoping a fan completes it when it comes out as freeware. Is this a rumor or is it true?

I'm preatty sure I have red it in an interview with Todd Howard, AND i saw an articale ina gaming magazine. There was also an estimate that when fans get the game that it would need aprox. 1 to 2 years to complete it.

If that's the case it's certainly very cool, but I'd really want to see that source. All I know is that before FO3's release Bethesda very firmly stated that they wouldn't be releasing the code. Such things can change, but in case you misunderstood I'd be careful of getting too excited about this.

Sorry, but that's total BS.

Bethesda does not intend to release any Van Buren assets, and Interplay can't release them without Bethesda's permission.

interplay got the some kind of license to make that supposed fallout MMO if i was them i would have finished Van buren instead.

Well, they don't have the rights to finish Van Buren. They only have the rights to a MMO game now.

God... I'd love to see that released.

It would still need someone to go about finishing the game though, wouldn't it? Just releasing the source code as freeware would at least be a step closer to being able to play the game, but you'd still need someone to come along and finish everything - I don't recall exactly where they were in the design process, but as I understand it it wasn't in a condition where we'd be able to play it all the way through like a real game.

sounds like it could be released

Well needless to say I was more then just a little dissapointed with the choices that Interplay made with the death of Van Buren and then releasing that Atrocity on X-Box. Ther also supposedly was some work being done on a Fallout Tactics 2 game. All of it went in the toilet. To make matters worse the only other game company that really had a clue how to make a Fallout like game was Troika and they were working on one and they went belly up. I would love to see Van Buren released finished or not. Finished would be better but if the source code was released maybe it could be finished by others. However I dont believe that Its ever going to be released. I think where Bethesda is concerned its like the Family jewels. Thats not to say they might not take it out and use it some day but I'm not holding my breath.

So it sounds like maybe you could get about a longish demo's-worth of actual gameplay out of it - at least enough to mess around a bit. Sort of up in the air at what point you'd run out of stuff, and it'd be a shot in the dark if any of the quests worked, etc.

Sounds like it'd be quite an effort if it was just released to the community to finish - and who knows how much backtracking you'd have to do (I can assume they hadn't been working on the game with the idea that someone else might come along later to finish it - so who knows how well documented their programming is, etc.) Still - there's likely enough interested parties in the community that it'd at least be an interesting project to work on - even if it was something that the fans never quite got completed, it's not like we'd be losing anything in the process. So maybe it would be worth just releasing the work-in-progress and letting the fans run with it.

There might be some legal issues to deal with on that front, though.

It'd be nice if Bethesda would go ahead and put it out, though. That might more likely involve hiring out another studio to work on it - so it likely depends on whether or not there's enough market value in spending the resources on that.

Heck, I'd love to play it, I remember drooling over the tech demo vids when they were first shown - it looked like that game was going to be right up my alley. But if "playing" just meant running through what I could of the game until it crashed (95% percent complete engine means there's likely to be tons of game-breaking bugs. And even if 75% of the models and characters were finished, there's no reason to believe that some of the remaining 25% weren't the ones you were supposed to run into first - there might not even be much of a game to play at all,) I don't know if I could bring myself to go through that torture - like if all you could ever do is play the first half hour of Fallout 1 - for myself it'd be better just to never have touched it to begin with.

I doubt Bethesday will ever release it.

If they did, they could appease the entire fanbase they have alienated with the release of Fallout 3. New fans won't give a [censored] because Fallout 3 is clearly better in all aspects *ahem*, and old fans would love to have the 'original' Fallout 3 to toy with. Its a win win situation.

Off course, Beth is probably afraid it could somehow overshadow future releases. When they do decide (if ever) to release it, they will have milked the Fallout franchise dry.

It would be foolish to release the code to a game which would be a part of the franchise. If they release the code, they will have no cotrol over how it would be implemented, and the franchise could easily be damaged. Imagine the deluge of Phallouts. Failouts. Fall0uts etc, all using implementations of VB code there would be.

Ever try to sue a Russian company for trademark infirngement and copyright, especially when they are a dozen college kids?

That's kind of my thought, as well.

On the other hand - the release of the GECK means you can arguably run into the same sorts of problems as above. Though you don't seem to see as many full conversion mods with Bethesda's games as you do with Half-Life or Quake. I'm not very well-versed in modding games, so I don't know if it's a technical issue or because there's not enough interest in that sort of thing here (or possibly it's just a lot more work to do a full conversion RPG than changing a bunch of guns and models in an FPS game.)

Putting out Van Buren as-is would be a different situation, though.

I don't think releasing a finished and polished Van Buren developed would "overshadow" Fallout 3, though. Going about releasing Van Buren as the "better" version of Fallout 3 is the wrong way around. At this point, Van Buren would be the "spin off" game, in support of the franchise. It would be a different way of exploring the Wasteland and telling a story.

Correct...we're not releasing it.

too bad. I'm starting to hate gaming magazines! :flamethrower:

...but why? Why does it matter if it's unfinished code. There are plenty of people willing to take up the task of trying to finish it. Most fans know it's 95% finished anyway.

Do we?



95% of the Engine being done isnt 95% of the game is done - Theres a lot more that was needed.

Finnishing someone elses art is asking for trouble.

Well, hes right. Its unfinished and fixing the engine whould need the Black Isle crew, as they are the only one that can finish it. It whould be fun if it got released, but, no. Black Isle is dead. 4 Ever.

never say never

Of course it's about the money. Beth, like every company, is in business to make money.