I’m still nervous. I still half expect Bethesda to drop the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system and VATS in favor of a more action-oriented approach. After they took a hacksaw to the mechanics of the Elder Scrolls games with Skyrim, I’m no longer sure I trust Bethesda to make an actual RPG.

I’m pretty sure Sunset Sarsaparilla is supposed to be a regional beverage that was only really popular in Nevada. It didn’t have any presence in California in the first two Fallout games, either.

The Fallout universe diverged from our history in 1961, if I remember correctly. Since that was a year before Scollay Square was redeveloped, I guess the implication is that it kept the original name in the Fallout timeline.

There was a Vault 112 (the Tranquility Lane simulation) in Fallout 3, and a Vault 11 (the “election”) in Fallout: New Vegas, but I’m pretty sure they’ve not used Vault 111 before.

I actually hope there aren’t any Nightkin in the game. I found the lengths to which Bethesda bent over backwards to justify the inclusion of so many familiar faces and situations from the first two Fallout games in Fallout 3 a little silly as it is: the fact that Dogmeat, Harold, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the…

The damage is already done at that point, though. Writing is inevitably handled differently when dealing with a voiced versus non-voiced character. The latter almost always involves shorter dialogue and frequently uses less direct player prompts. Compare something like the two Baldur’s Gate games with the Mass Effect…

Batman Eternal is very much broken into arcs of no more than 3 issues each. They all feed into a longer subplot, yes, but that’s not really any different than the way a TV show with a seasonal arc works, or from how Marvel will structure an ongoing series.

That’s simply not true, though. Structurally, DC and Marvel don’t differ much. Both generally structure their comics in arcs of 3 to 12 issues. Occasionally both will do longer subplots, but those are rarely the main attraction. The most significant recent “massive” story arc from either of the two publishers has…

Forever Evil basically relies on a much less “mature” universe than the pre-Flashpoint one. It falls apart if everyone is already familiar with the Crime Syndicate, or if the allegiances of people like Lex Luthor or the Flash’s Rogues Gallery aren’t even slightly in doubt. Which, to be fair, doesn’t necessarily speak…

Literally the only DC reboot to have occurred since the early 2000s is Flashpoint. Characters get retooled (changes without retroactive modifications), but DC is no more guilty of that than Marvel, which has seen similar modifications to Captain America, Captain Marvel, Thor, Ms. Marvel, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four,…

I disagree. It’s true of most, but there are some exceptions. The current, TV show-inspired run of Green Arrow couldn’t really have happened in the old continuity. And Forever Evil (which I actually liked) would have been a difficult fit, too.

Hardly. DC has technically rebooted its universe more, sure, and Secret Wars is certainly better than the mess that was Convergence, but Marvel has historically been just as into event storytelling and “shaking things up” as DC. Arguably more so. There have been more big name Marvel crossovers than DC ones over the…

Really, I don’t think Convergence is quite the sort of “event” it was being hyped to be. The main series is basically fluff, and the central plot itself is really just an excuse, a way to provide a basic blueprint to the various tie-in issues. Those tie-in are formulaic, but that’s pretty much the point. They serve as…

France’s colonial system was/is a little weird, at least compared to the Anglo-American model. French colonies have always been considered a legal part of France, have full representation in parliament, and many are considered full departments in their own right, with equal legal status to metropolitan France. It’s a…

They’re the Android ports of the DS remakes, so they’re not limited to the resolution of the DS versions.

Lori and Corey Cole, the creators of the Quest for Glory series, are also producing a spiritual successor called Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption on the back of a successful Kickstarter campaign.

You really think so? It’s easily my favorite, honestly. I love the setting. At the very least, I’d put it miles ahead of both Wages of War (the third one), which was just boring, and Dragon Fire (which was a decent concept, but has the “early Windows 95 era PC game” awkward mess feel).

It’s more of a different styles thing: there’s no single continuum of difficulty. By and large (and acknowledging that I’m greatly simplifying things), it’s more common to see Japanese games get “simplified” or “streamlined” American release. A lot of the more complicated elements of Final Fantasy IV were removed for…

A well argued, thoughtful piece. Thank you for this, Mr. Schreier: it’s a welcome voice of reason amidst a sea of kneejerk reactions and insults on both sides of the debate.

I think you’re misunderstanding my point. My argument isn’t with individual modders who chose to participate in the system. I disagree with that decision, but it’s up to them to make their own decisions. My complaint was that the system is inherently incompatible with the existing Skyrim mod scene. Saying that people…