New wave of Post Apocalyptic games

The Post Apocalyptic game setting is very under used in games. This always surprises me as it is a game universe that can be used to great effect and allows a lot of imaginative things to be done. But recently developers seem to finally be realising this.

STALKER is a good example of a recent game set in a universe mutated and altered. Not a complete Post Apocalyptic universe but still a great game exploring such ideas. And BioShock also touches on these ideas, using a decaying world full of a mutated population trying to survive but without any real future.

And now we finally have at least three new games in development set in Post Apocalyptic worlds.

Fallout 3 is the obvious big one that has many fans divided. I'm personally looking forward to it and think anyone who dismisses it without even giving it a chance is mad. You have to give anything new a try before you cast judgement and from the trailers, concept art, and previews already shown, I hope it proves fans wrong and turns out to be great.

Rage, by id Software, is another which is taking a slightly different approach. Instead of an adventure/RPG style this seems to be focused more on id's experience and will contain a lot of first person shooting elements, but it's main focus from information so far seems to be that it will centre around a lot of vehicle based gaming with a new texture technology allowing vast areas of wasteland to be explored within the game world. I'm definitely interested in this as I've long wanted a vehicle based Post Apocalyptic game to be made using ideas from films such as Mad Max or RPG books like Fighting Fantasy: Freeway Fighter.

And finally we have Borderlands, by Greabox. A game set on a desert planet populated by human settlements built from the spacecraft which brought them there originally. The game sounds like it will be an adventure/rpg with the story following three characters within the game, accepting missions and quests from the settlements and exploring the vast wasteland. It also has a unique weapons system which generates them based on an algorithm that combines types of barrel, grip, clip, ammo and attachments to create a possible 500,000 weapons within the game, so you are guaranteed to get something unique to your personal game.

So what do you all think of these three games (well we know Ghost's view on Fallout 3 ;)), and do you know of any others currently in development?

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Fallout 3 is the obvious big one that has many fans divided. I'm personally looking forward to it and think anyone who dismisses it without even giving it a chance is mad. You have to give anything new a try before you cast judgement and from the trailers, concept art, and previews already shown, I hope it proves fans wrong and turns out to be great.

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We've had this discussion a few times before on this board, and it is clear that people have different expectations and opinions when it comes to Fallout 3. In a way it reminds me of the discussions before Oblivion was released, and after it became available for purchase.

At that time, fans of Morrowind found many flaws in Oblivion and seemed to dislike many of the new features (one example is level-scaling). On the other hand, a lot of newcomers to the series, along with people who had played Morrowind before, enjoyed the game a lot.

It goes to show that peoples expectations to an upcoming game will always be different, and I believe this is due to how dedicated they are to the series and their history with it.

When you say that one should at least give a game a try before bashing it, I can agree with that. Often one is too quick to talk bad about some new features or general changes, even if one hasn't tried it out first. Still, one should be allowed to be sceptical if it is a game series one truly cares for. Being sceptical is of course different from bashing it. ;)

I also hope Fallout 3 will prove to be a good game, but I'm sceptical to the outcome. I've played Fallout for years, and I'm afraid Bethesda will move the game too far away from what it was. I remember the release of "Fallout": Brotherhood of Steel for the X-Box - it was a disaster.. I don't think Fallout 3 will turn out that bad though, but I'm afraid the focus in the game will be on blowing things up, not character-building. Let's hope I'll be proven wrong.

Also, I'm refraining from getting into a turn-based versus real-time debate, as this has been covered in other discussions. ;)

As for upcoming post-apocalyptic games, I'm really looking forward to Fan Made Fallout! :thumbs: (link here: Fan Made Fallout)
If one is to talk about a sequel to the Fallout 1 and 2, this is a contender!

Everyone seems to really hate Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and I've never heard a good thing said about it, but I have to admit I quite enjoyed it. OK, it shouldn't be considered a part of the Fallout franchise, but as a game in its own right I thought it was good. Definitely an overhead shoot 'em up with RPG elements than anything else, but I enjoyed it.