Todd Howard: Don't Expect Remakes of Fallout 1 and 2, Goal is to Ensure They Run on Modern Hardware - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2024 / 2,337 Views
Bethesda Game Studios boss Todd Howard in an interview with YouTubers MarMattyPlays was asked about the potential of remakes of Fallout 1 and 2 and he stated their priority is to ensure the original games run on modern hardware.
"Look, I love the question and agree with a lot of what you said, but the main priority for us is to make sure they're available," said Howard (via VideoGamesChronicles). "So on the PC, obviously [ensuring] they’re there for people to go and get and play, and making sure they run okay.
"As far as beyond that, we've talked about it but our priorities in terms of 'hey, let’s go do dev work and make certain things work,' they haven’t been in those areas. So, again, priority is 'hey, can people load it up and play it.'"
He added, "I do think we want it to load up and run well. The rest of it, I could argue, I think some of the charm of games from that era, and the original Fallouts, is a little bit of that age.
"So I would never want to paste over some of that with 'well, we changed how this works so it's more modern.' So as long as you can download it, as long as it loads up and runs, I think I'd like people to experience it the way it was."
The original Fallout released in 1997 and was developed by Interplay Entertainment. The sequel, Fallout 2, would follow a year later in 1998. Bethesda in 2004 would acquire the license from Interplay Entertainment to develop Fallout 3 and in 2007 would acquire the full rights to the franchise.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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No one was saying completely remove them from their isometric roots. Just update them with a much better interface and controls that could be console compatible. And And have an og graphics toggle. I imagine people were thinking of a diablo 2 resurrected treatment. I would argue their current state even with fan patches for better resolution support isn't really good enough.
They would rather let those games rot in Abandonwareland over bringing back Tim Cain to develop a remake
Translates to "If we do remaster them and put them on consoles, people will play them and see how far off (and worse) our own Fallouts are compared to originals"
I wish we could have it on consoles. It impresses me it was never done.
They could have easily had the Wasteland devs do remakes....
Well, it doesn't have to be one or the other. I do hope they make a new top down Fallout at some point whether it's a remake or an original one.
I hope someone in MS overrules him and gives us something along the lines of what Activision did for Diablo 2. Like, I respect his sentiment I guess but remakes/remasters that give tons of QoL upgrades while keeping the same spirit are the best way of introducing the first two games to a new audience (most of which haven't even played these two) AND to potentially give us a physical release for consoles which would be a dream come true for me.
Diablo 2 remake was a remake done right.
WarCraft 3 remake was a remake done incorrectly.
But I think Fallout 1 and 2 has more in common with titles like Icewind Dale, Baldurs Gate, Planescape Torment... Which got HD remasters which look great, I would rather something along those lines as it preserves the original artistic vision and quirks.
I also want an Arcanum remaster... Absolute travesty that game hasn't been touched.
I agree with you! I actually played the Icewind Dale remaster and while of course those games were made to play on PC, it actually played pretty great on console! No regrets on my purchase. My wife played Planescape Torment (it came on the same disc as ID) and she had a great time as well.
But I love Fallout 1 and 2 so I'd like them to give it a bit more polish like what they did for Diablo 2. That game looks really good.
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