Why the prospect of a new Wasteland game is great news

WorstUsernameEver

But best title ever!
IGN is pushing for the prospect of an old-school Wasteland sequel pretty hard, which seems very unusual of them, and have another editorial explaining why it's great news.<blockquote>Wasteland had no levels and no checkpoints, and you soon learned that every little thing you did was being recorded to the disk as you went along. In fact, your very first task upon booting was to make copies of all four 'sides' of the disk so that you didn't permanently overwrite the originals. It felt like a strange thing to have to do, but we were used to having to do peculiar acts to work around technical limitations in those days.

On that note, the paltry memory of my Commodore 64 (64kb!)meant that the game could barely store any text, and for the sake of a meaningful narrative, Wasteland prompted the player to turn to a specific paragraph of the physical book included in the rather lavish gatefold packaging. (To avoid spoiling things for you, much of the text was a complete red herring, and nothing to do with the game whatsoever.)

As is so often the case, though, all this misty-eyed nostalgia comes at a price. Trying to play the original game now would be step too far into the past for many players, with mechanics, visuals and audio intolerably primitive by today's standards. As someone with unwavering respect for Wasteland's place in gaming history, it's painful to see how unkind time has been to it. Even the rosiest of tinted spectacles can't save it. You had to be there, man.

But the prospect of an all-new Wasteland game? That's a different matter entirely, especially given Brian Fargo's desire to ensure that a new version would stay true to the spirt of the top-down original. Much like Nintendo continues to make extremely good new top-down Zelda games, there's absolutely no reason for modern players to feel put off by the determination to stick to tried-and-trusted methods from the past.
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Hopefully other gaming sites write similar articles. I'd really love for this game to get enough hype so it gets released.
 
Hear Hear! The circle of life - a game is born, released, dies a death to slow obsolescence. Forgotten by all but a few, the developers, fans, connoisseurs, and crazies. Resurrection. Round 2. Rebirth. The game comes back to life, as a remake, as a sequel. The circle of life repeats. Is it part 2? Is it a reincarnation? Reimagining? Recapturing of the distant and nostalgic past. maybe. Be it Wasteland 2 or Wasteland II, it will be simply WASTELAND. As such, there is no Fallout without Wasteland, but there IS wasteland with no fallout.

The past will never be recaptured. Repeated yes. Leave nostalgia in its place. Create new experiences and hope where none were before. There is no destiny. No fate. Only Wasteland.
 
What I want out of a wasteland sequel is squad-based gameplay like Tactics with the open ended RPG elements of fallout and the slightly cartoony desert-based cyberpunk atmosphere that made Wasteland feel so original and unique. Please please please please pretty please *crosses fingers and holds breath*
 
It does seem like a shit load of good news came all at once. Is this a sign of the end times?
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
especially given Brian Fargo's desire to ensure that a new version would stay true to the spirt of the top-down original.

"Q: So, Bethesda bought the rights to develop Fallout 3. A lot of fans are worried that Bethesda won’t stay true to the key elements of Fallout i.e. the isometric perspective and the S.P.E.C.I.A.L.-system. There’s even a fan that started a petition. Does Bethesda feel it’s important to stay true to Fallout or are they just looking to deliver great game?
A: I don't think we could make a great game without staying true to Fallout."
Answer above by Pete Hines, Bethesda.

Yup, Wasteland 2 would stay true to the original.

Just like Fallout 3 stayed true to Fallout 2.

And Fallout New Vegas stayed true to Fallout 3 (Actually, that one is true).
 
Yeah, normally I'd agree with you. If this was comparable to, say, the new Bard's Tale, a publisher-backed project from InXile, I would be very wary of Fargo promising anything.

But it's the Kickstarter, niche nature that makes it interesting. He won't have the budget to turn it into an FPS, it'll have to be a topdown game simply due to budget restrictions. It's quite likely to be a niche project, and because it is it's more likely to stay true to the original.
 
Brian Fargo said it will be Top down or isometric and turn based.
For me it's the most important part and a great news, the fact it's wasteland 2 is secondary.
 
Formerk said:
What I want out of a wasteland sequel is squad-based gameplay like Tactics with the open ended RPG elements of fallout and the slightly cartoony desert-based cyberpunk atmosphere that made Wasteland feel so original and unique.
I hope they have the good sense to look at the superb turn-based combat in Jagged Alliance 2 v1.13 and borrow heavily from it. The fans of that game have spent years honing it's excellence.

Wasteland with JA2 combat = potentially the best game ever.
 
Brother None said:
He won't have the budget to turn it into an FPS, it'll have to be a topdown game simply due to budget restrictions.

BTW, a very interesting point :)

Never thought that having a limited budget could do better. Let's keep the fingers crossed...
 
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