Fallout Review

|Tap-Repeatedly|FFC Archives

            Fallout

Review by ScoutAugust 2004

The Bomb was part of my cultural and mental landscape as a child of the 50s. My mother, good citizen that she was, taught civil defense preparedness classes in the evenings at the local grade school.  For reasons I still don’t understand, she insisted that I accompany her. For three years in a row I watched film after film depicting, in vivid detail, the effects of nuclear strikes. One of the most memorable was shot in the Nevada desert in a government-built town that was inhabited by crash-test dummies. I loved watching the slow-motion footage of houses exploding like balsa-wood models as the waves of white light, shock, fire and dust tore through them, the life-sized dolls being ripped to shreds. Less amusing and infinitely more disturbing were the films the US military shot in Nagasaki and Hiroshima in the days and weeks following the bombings. Here I was treated to close-up views of the stages of radiation poisoning, the ghoulish skin eruptions as the flesh literally melted off the underlying muscle and bone of the bewildered victims. I became so alarmed that at age nine I built an improvised fallout shelter in the family basement, made from bales of straw and stocked with gallon jugs of water, cans of ravioli, and a flashlight.

It’s difficult, I suppose, for later generations to grasp just how insidious this was, this idea of instantaneous destruction raining down from the skies. Every day was tumescent with the promise of sudden death. The jolt of fear as the low-flying combat jets from the nearby base roared overhead on their monthly flyover … always that first bright instant of terror that the approaching sound might not be from a fighter jet piloted by America’s best but instead a warhead from Russia with love.

The last part of my mother’s class was always given over to what the world would be like after the Big One. After the nuclear winter had melted, if it ever would, after the radioactivity had diminished to survivable levels, if it ever would, after the few survivors (the percentage points were displayed on a graph depicting severity of attack, number of missiles that would make it through, etc.) had emerged from their shelters—what next?

No one knew.

At that point, the discussion usually flagged. Imagine the beauticians and insurance salesmen and kindergarten teachers and farmers and clerks and traffic cops circa 1960 trying to wrap their minds around the end of the world, of time, of life as they knew it. A few tried to describe how they might go forward, but they weren’t convincing anyone, least of all themselves.

Flash forward to 1997. Fear of the Bomb is ancient history—now no one gives a crap. The possibility of nuclear war is a nonissue, a far and distant memory. Except there’s this CRPG created by Black Isle and released by its parent company, Interplay. It’s an unofficial sequel to the beloved Wasteland and it’s called Fallout and it’s about what might have happened if the unimaginable had occurred, if the world as we knew it really had ended.

From the very beginning it’s obvious this is more than just another video game. With the Ink Spots’ classic song “Maybe” lilting in the background, one of the very first images we see is of a prisoner kneeling before two men in massive armor. One of the captors pulls out a pistol and shoots the prisoner in the back of the head. Twice.  Then he turns and stiffly waves at the camera as if to say, “hi mom.” The dying man’s leg jerks once, then grows still. As the camera pulls back, we see the edge of a TV screen. On the tube is a heroically posed shot of a futuristic soldier superimposed over a very odd-looking US flag. Next comes a series of ads in gloriously retro black and white. As the camera continues to pull back, a bombed-out living room appears at the edges of the screen, and then, where a wall should be, there is nothing but crumbling ruins and the shattered skyline of a dead city. On the wall behind the TV patches of rose-patterned wallpaper cling to exposed lath and plaster. A broken coffee cup lies on a stained and ripped carpet. In less than 90 seconds, the creators of Fallout have captured the mindset of a decade and revealed the untapped fears of a generation. Behind the fragile facade of civilization lurk death and destruction, those twins demons of chaos, bogeymen haunting the collective dream.

This is Fallout.

After a quick history lesson and plot lead-in (war is hell, war has happened, you and a few others have survived nuclear devastation inside secure vaults), the game’s first cutscene plays. The unctuous Vault Overseer gives you your mission. Find a water chip in 150 days or don’t bother coming back. Then it’s out of the protective walls of Vault 13 and into the wasteland with you.

The next thing you see is a character generation screen. You have the choice of picking a premade character or making your own. Almost everyone chooses the latter, as it’s just more fun that way. SPECIAL.  As in Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. You’ll need to choose your character statistics wisely.  The wasteland is as lethal as it is unforgiving, and only the toughest will survive.

You are given a finite amount of points spread evenly through these statistics. It’s up to you to redistribute them as you see fit.  Want to be a tank? Give yourself lots of strength and endurance.  Not so enamored of brute force but consider yourself a wise guy who lives by your wits? Then load up on Intelligence and Charisma.  Like to play stealth characters? Perception and Agility might be for you.

Next you get to pick two optional traits and three tag skills, which allow you to further customize your character and even grant you a few more statistic points to distribute. The excellent and very funny manual gives you a good overview of what all this means.  It would take a separate review to describe the Vault Dweller’s Survival Guide in detail, and I doubt I could begin to do justice to the sly, tongue-in-cheek wit you will find on every single page.  Read it carefully before making your choices. Or just read it for the cool retro fun of it. It’s really that good. More developers should release manuals like Fallout’s.

The interface, though gorgeously designed with burnt-out radio tubes and a scuffed, scratched and dented skin, is complicated and takes some getting used to. Once you get the hang of it, things smooth out quite a bit. A few tips: Pay special attention to the action icons and how they work in combat. This will save you a lot of reloading later in the game. Also keep an eye on the dialogue screen in the lower left corner of the interface. Valuable information can easily scroll past unnoticed.

You level up by gaining experience points via combat and solving quests, which then reward you with bonus skill points. You can distribute these points as you see fit, paying particular attention to tagged skills, which accumulate at an accelerated rate. Every third level you get to pick a perk, a bonus ability. Some perks are eminently practical, like Awareness, which allows you to see your enemy’s hit points, or Action Boy, which gives you precious action points for every combat turn. Other perks are, shall we say, of less obvious value, like Mysterious Stranger, which introduces a mystery NPC who appears from time to time in combat to lend a gun hand, or Snakeater, making you immune to poison. What these perks really do is allow further customization of your character after you are deep into the game and know your strengths and weaknesses. It’s sort of like getting do-overs without having to begin again. For instance, a stealth character with low strength who is having problems carrying enough inventory might want to choose Strong Back, a perk that allows you to carry 50 more pounds of inventory. Or a tank character might want to pick Speaker, which ups Speech and Barter by 20 points.

The game begins with a timed quest, the above-mentioned directive by the Overseer to hunt down and return with a new water chip for the water purification system. Without it Vault 13 is doomed. You have exactly 150 days to find the chip and return it to your home vault. While that sounds like an eternity, believe me, it’s not.  First of all, traveling in Fallout occurs in real time. So does healing and learning and just plain old walking around without a clue, of which there is a lot, especially at the beginning. The first time I played, I swallowed hard as I watched the hours and then days spin by while I cruised the wasteland. In a matter of minutes I had burned a week of game time just messing around in the desert killing rats so I could level up. I spent the greater part of another week shuttling back and forth between two towns gathering up supplies. Before I knew it, the Overseer was coming to me in visions and admonishing me to hurry.

The evil game clock only stops when you enter combat, which is a good thing because there is a lot of fighting in Fallout. It’s a strictly turn-based system structured to allow for serious strategizing.  Most ranged weapons, i.e., guns, allow you to aim at specific body parts instead of just blasting away. This is especially important when battling strong enemies early in the game. Why? Because it lets you target legs and eyes and arms. Instead of trying to annihilate that drooling, slithering monstrosity with an astronomical number of hit points, you have the option of crippling it instead. A shot or two or three will damage it enough to send it limping off, still alive but no longer a threat. Or you can blind it. Or take out a tentacle. Or shoot it in the groin if you are feeling especially evil. This makes combat much more interesting than methodically blasting away until hit points are used up and the enemy keels over as much from boredom as critical hits.

Also, in combat mode you spend action points like you would currency in a retail outlet. Want to access your inventory? That will cost you action points. Want to shoot using burst or targeted mode? That will cost you more points than if you just shoot straight. Think you need to cross the room and position yourself to better advantage?  Points, baby. Every action in combat has its cost, and you have to think ahead and budget accordingly. I found that one effective strategy with the monsters was to shoot once with a targeted shot and then use the remaining action points to move away. Since the beasties couldn’t strike unless they were immediately next to me, they were forced to spend precious action points chasing me down.  This way I could pick them off one at a time and for the most part remain out of reach. Of course, this doesn’t work with humanoid foes equipped with their own ranged weapons, as they can stand their ground and fire away.

While the battles were fun and engaging, what brought me back session after session were the stories, the atmospheric settings, the feel.  There was a kind of immediacy to Fallout. The game world was bombed-out southern California. No medieval castles or wizards or dragons of yore. No holo decks or interstellar time travel. Fallout is firmly rooted in the radioactive soil of a dystopian US.  Characters curse and spit, babble and make love. Toilets are backed up, mattresses are crawling with vermin. Even that most benign of villages, Shady Sands, has an air of desperation to it. Nice guys usually don’t even finish in Fallout, much less last, so be prepared to put your church manners on ice for the duration.

But not your curiosity.

For there are mysteries to be solved in Fallout. The settlements and ruined cities are rife with political intrigue and personal rivalries. Think carefully, choose your replies wisely, and you can find yourself privy to startling confessions and valuable information.  (Don’t worry if you lose track of where you are; there’s a big yellow-and-black review button at the lower left of the screen that allows you to roll back the chatter.) Information is everywhere. The history of the apocalypse lies hidden in lockers and vaults, in the burnt-out brains of ghouls, the seemingly casual comments you overhear on the street. No dry-as-dust extrapolative downloads here, folks.  The developers of Fallout weave their end-of-the-world narrative into the setting and characters and action with the skill of master storytellers.

While this game rewards the thorough and the clever, it understands the efficacy of the brute gesture too. Sometimes you want to be smart and strategic, and other times you just want to blast the crap out of mutant radioactive scorpions. The choice is yours. You can actually finish the game playing as a borderline idiot, with an intelligence of 1 or 2 and strength of 10. Or not. Or maybe.  In fact, most situations can be solved in one of three possible manners: by brute force, force of personality or stealth. The amount of detail this requires is simply staggering, all the more so considering how easy it is to play through to the end in about 12 to 15 hours.  The less than thorough player can miss much of the fun and walk away wondering what all the fuss was about. But the player who questions every character, peeks into every corner, opens every door, follows every side quest will be richly rewarded. While it’s almost reflexive to start shooting at the first sight of an enemy, many of the more menacing NPCs can be reasoned with if your intelligence and speech are high enough.

Of course, all the speech points in the world won’t help you with monsters like the radscorpions, the deathclaws, the mutant rats or the oversized praying mantises. It’s kill or be killed in these situations, and with that in mind the makers of Fallout have made available a wide assortment of armor and weapons with which to dispatch the varmints.

First, there is the armor. As you progress in the game, leveling up and solving quests, the armor available to you gets better and better. You start out with nothing more than a blue Vault 13 jumpsuit, then soon find yourself a leather jacket. Later, you get some very butch-looking metal armor, then some nifty camo green combat armor, and so on up to the creme de le creme, the Brotherhood of Steel’s hardened power armor. Much of your early success depends on locating and acquiring decent armor. Hunt down a set, and you won’t be sorry.

Small guns include pistols, machine guns and rifles, and the ever-elusive LE BB gun (in a tip o’ the hat to Fallout’s spiritual predecessor, Wasteland). Big guns include large machine guns, flamethrowers and rocket launchers, though only the strongest characters will be able to carry enough ammo to make them useful. Then there are my favorites, the energy weapons. These include pistols and rifles that use power cells, small energy batteries, to fire lethal pulses of energy so hot they can bubble the flesh from a foe in an eye blink. If you leave the gore setting on high, you will be treated to some nauseatingly cool special effects.

Want to fight with bare fists and not bother carrying a small arsenal around with you? Unarmed can be just as valid a way to go if you’ve piled up your skill points there. Or melee weapons make a nice compromise.  These are hand-to-hand, close-up and personal weapons like knives, spears and sledgehammers. Later in the game you’ll run upon some powered, clawed gloves and sawing machetes that will easily make chopped bad boy salad out of your attacker. Or bad girl. It’s equal opportunity nefariousness in Fallout, so leave your preconceptions at the door.

There is one more weapon, in a way the most problematic, and that is the party member. You find these NPCs scattered about the map, and, while a few are valuable fighters, several are, shall we say, less than impressive. They are AI-controlled in combat, which means you can’t directly manipulate them. You can give them weapons and armor, but they seem to use them at their own discretion. When you do choose to outfit them, you have to use the steal or trade functions, as there is no dedicated interface for party member item exchanges.  Even worse, if you want to retrieve something, you have to steal it. Trade won’t work as the character wants to be compensated for whatever it is you wish to take back. This makes for awkward inventory management, and since half the reason to keep most part members around is to use them as pack mules, the system gets old fast. Party members also have an irritating habit of blocking doorways at the most inopportune moments and will think nothing of shooting you in the back if you get between them and their target. Many are so challenged in the common sense department they will rush a vastly superior force with little more than a penknife, making multiple reloads a necessity if you are feeling particularly sociable.

No review of Fallout would be complete without mentioning that most memorable of NPCs, Dogmeat. Dogmeat is a very mean dog who, if you play your cards right, will take a liking to you and faithfully follow you for the rest of the game. While I rarely spent much emotional currency on my human NPCs, I was alarmingly attached to Dogmeat. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to finish game so that he survives the final two battles, though apparently it is doable if you are determined and persistent. I wasn’t, and in the end I finally gave up and let him trot off to the big fire hydrant in the sky. Dogmeat’s passing was a little thing in the scope of the game and not the only NPC I eventually lost, but it was wrenching to walk away from his bloodied little corpse. In fact, the game’s forward motion ground to a halt until I had successfully taken revenge on his killers, eliminating the entire outfit in a murderous spree.  I only mention this because it reflects what is so great about this game. It gets under your skin, it affects you, engages and involves you, in dozens of tiny little ways.

Once you return the water chip, the Overseer gives you a second quest, a two-part quest actually, which, when completed, triggers the game-ending cutscenes. Here the developers did something really effective: they customized the ending so that what you see depends on your decisions made during the game. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that actions in Fallout have very real consequences. There are several different possible endings, though in my two playthroughs I basically got variations on the same one. All of these different ways to progress made for tremendous replayability.

A few nitpicks. Though most of the menu can be accessed via quick keys, navigation is point-and-click only and can grow tedious, especially in the towns where you have to squeeze down narrow alleys and around corners. Also, the rigid isometric view hides a lot of items along foreground walls, and you have to shimmy along countless numbers of them if you want to find everything there is to be found. The developers seemed to take particular delight in hiding items, especially lootable lockers, against walls, thus forcing upon you a gigantic RPG version of the dreaded pixel hunt. Fallout did more to advance my carpal tunnel than the preceding six games combined.

The occasional close-ups of talking-head NPCs, while always wonderful, are too far and few between. Most of the characters are small and doll-like, and there isn’t nearly enough variety in their avatars.  During mass battles, I could not tell friend from foe. The game attempts to differentiate characters in combat by outlining them in red, though a later perk lets you choose to have friends limned in green. Until I was able to pick this perk, the similarity made for much needless confusion. This should have been better handled from the get-go, and, in fact, in Fallout 2 friends are automatically outlined in green.

Also, combat with multiple characters often seemed to drag on forever.  I sometimes had to wait for what felt like whole minutes before my turn came up, and in the larger battles much of the action occurred at the edges of the screen, which did nothing for the immersion factor. The random cities were the epitome of cookie-cutter settings.  Every block of buildings looked like every other block of buildings looked like every other block of buildings.

Still, in comparison, these flaws are small potatoes. In the end, Fallout is a nearly great game. I gave it a hearty thumb up and not a gold star only because I found its sequel to be even better.

At the beginning of Fallout, Interplay hawks itself as “By Gamers for Gamers.” Let me add to that: Fallout is by adults for adults. Those on the hunt for the G-rated, cute or fantasy-laden might want to look elsewhere. For beneath Fallout’s morbid, black-as-midnight humor runs a deadly serious intent. To play this game is to gaze, however briefly, into the void. And as the old saw goes, sometimes the void will gaze right back at you. Here, at least in this case, the cliché is proven true. That’s not to say that Fallout doesn’t entertain. It is vastly enjoyable.  It consistently seduces with its vitality, its muscular flex, its postapocalyptic élan, its vivid, hyperreal environment. As I wandered the cities, vaults, villages and deserts, I could almost smell the unwashed bodies, feel the nervy, jerky desperation, see the sands spotted with the blood, sweat and tears of a wounded people pushed to the very borders of what they could bear and beyond. You get all that and aliens with a velvet Elvis fetish too. It just doesn’t get much better than that. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Interplay Publisher: Interplay Release Date: 1997

Available for: DOS Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

Player Feedback

Screenshots

Click to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge

System Requirements

Pentium 90 MHz Windows 95 and DirectX 3.0a or higher or DOS 5.0 or higher and 1 MB VESA-compliant SVGA card 16 MB RAM when running under Win95 (32 MB RAM when running under DOS) 2X CD-ROM drive Mouse Soundblaster or compatible

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

Pages

Top

Category Archives

Top

Blog Posts

Top

33 Responses to Goons Loom at Infinity Ward

  • Meho

    So, you make your company a billion in profits in two months. Next thing you know, you’re investigated for insubordination, sued and sacked. Also, your team members are threatened by men looking like thugs yet not wearing uniforms. I guess Pandemic studios are now happy they were acquired by EA and not Activision. They just lost their jobs after making two moderatly successful games.

    Seriously, breaches of contract and stuff, yeah, I can get behind that but having people threatened and reporting “insubordination” sounds like some proper gestapo shit. One would think that after making the fastest selling entertainment product in history, Infinity Ward would be given SOME credit by their Activision Overlords, but I guess Bobby Kottick was serious about the air of fear and uncertainty he wanted to prevail in the Activision cubicle farms. A fascinating story, can’t wait to hear the rest!!

  • Andrew

    Harsh.

    I’m a little wary calling out anything too early but Activision isn’t exactly know for it’s good closure policy of studios, and removal of staff in the past.

    What transgressions they’ve done as publisher-owned, slightly-more-independent-perhaps CO’s – who knows? Will we ever know? 🙁

  • ajax19

    Now that is how you handle insubordination.  Send in security and throw their asses into the brig (i.e., fire them).  I reckon this will be a long and ugly process as most HR-related matters are.  As an attorney, I have had the (dis)plesure of reviewing various HR complaints and matters in my day.  Needless to say the things people do at work simply boggle the mind.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    It is awfully shocking that Infinity Ward, of all studios, would be made an example of with goons and firings. They’re kind of a golden-egg-laying goose.

    Unless of course West and Zampella were actually doing something wrong/unethical/illegal, in which case I’d have to side with Activision. But if some of the tweets are true, and A/B is just trying to bring a rogue studio to heel, there are gentler ways to do it.

  • Meho

    The plot, apparently thickens:

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/activision-holding-back-mw2-royalties

    “Website BingeGamer (via VG247) was told by a collection of unnamed sources that not a single penny of the $1bn generated by MW2 has been seen by Infinity Ward. ”

    This is still filed strictly under rumours and speculation but, if it’s true, then it’s fucking bizarre. I mean, I know IW are part of Activision, yet you’d expect their contracts to involve some bonuses on top of the salary should their games do well..

    “The report also states that the “insubordination” IW bosses Jason West and Frank Zampella appear to have been sacked for was caused by secret discussions with rival publishers.”

    Because in corporate America the only secret discussions allowed are those between the senior staff at your company.

    OK, some more linkage:

    http://www.bingegamer.net/2010/infinity-ward-has-not-received-royalties-for-modern-warfare-2/

    Also, just for completion’s sake, a now legendary tweet by Tim Schafer regarding this situation:

    “Getting mad at Activision for this kind of thing is like getting mad at an ape for throwing feces. It’s just how the beast communicates.”

  • Meho

    So, what do we know after one day?

    Activision has indeed sacked West and Zampella. Infinity Ward is supposed to be working on DLC for Modern Warfare 2 as we speak. There will be a Call of Duty title in 2010, made by Treyarch. There will be another Call of Duty title in 2011 although it is not yet clear who is going to be the developer. Infinity Ward is now temporarily headed by Activision’s employees Steve Pearce and Steve Ackrich but Activision also announced that a newly formed studio, Sledgehammer Games will be handling future Call of Duty games and will be “extend(ing) the franchise into the action-adventure genre”. Sledgehammer is headed by former Visceral Games executives Glen A. Schofield and Michael Condrey, which, upon playing Dante’s Inferno, I am not sure is the greatest idea ever…

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    1UP says: “In addition, they have formed a new business unit dedicated to publishing an annual Call of Duty game.”

    Isn’t that just so Activision?

  • Andrew

    Oh! Oh! I can name them! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: 2010 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: 2011! 😀

    Oooh, wait, but we need other genres, wow! so much chance to have the “Call of Duty: ” namers busy for ages 😀

    Sigh.

  • Mat

    That’s abit unfair, Andrew.

    Aren’t you forgetting “Call of Duty: Modern MMO” and “Call of Duty: Panzer Tankz Mini Kartz Racer!”?

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Kotaku’s really trying to help Activision out: new titles and box art.

  • Toger

    I’d play the Wolveriiiiiiiiines version! 😀

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Hey, the Keeping The Peace version has my childhood neighbors on the cover!

  • Meho

    Modern Gwarfare has practically infinite potential for cross marketing!!!

  • lakerz1

    Call of Duty: Corporate Clusterfuck

    LOL

  • Mat

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/infinity-ward-bosses-suing-activision

    This isn’t looking like a story that will go away anytime soon.

  • Meho

    No, it won’t. More info:

    http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1074524p1.html

    and

    http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1074657p1.html

    Choice quotes:

    “The lawsuit states that in the wake of Modern Warfare 2’s success, Activision refused to honor the MOU or the Emplyoment Agreement with West and Zampella, and instead launched a “pre-textual investigation against West and Zampella to create a basis to fire the two co-heads of Infinity Ward before the first Modern Warfare 2 royalty payment.”

    “”West and Zampella were interrogated for over six hours in a windowless conference room; Activision investigators brought other Infinity Ward employees to tears in their questioning and accusations and threatened West and Zampella with ‘insubordination’ if they attempted to console them.”
    ”

    Anyway, after reading the court document, I’d say it’s ironic that West and Zampella are fighting to retain control over Modern Warfare brand even though I imagine they are sick to death of it by now…

  • ajax19

    It’s not so much ironic that they are fighting to retain control over Modern Warfare brand even though they are likely sick to death of it by now, but rather very tactical.

    According to the court papers and West and Zampella’s side of the story, this MOU gives them control over “Modern Wafare” and rights to certain royalties that were due in the next few weeks based on the sales of MW2.  Control over MW is their biggest bargaining chip here.  They file a law suit asking for that and the money and then when it comes to time for settlement talks they use their (alleged) leverage over one leg of Activision’s admitted three-legged stool as a way to get more money from them. 

    They are suing for $36 million worth of damages, if they “agree” to give unfettered control of the MW series to Activision, they stand a better chance to see more of that $36 million.

    Complains in law suits are often like this.  They ask very everything and anything, because it’s much easier to amend and pare things down than to amend and try to add things be it damages or additional claims.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I honestly wouldn’t have expected THIS level of greed, even from Activision. I mean seriously, the game made TWO BILLION DOLLARS, people. There’s enough to go around.

    Infinity Ward is wholly owned by Activision, but I imagine all of its employees will probably quit in the next several months. I also wouldn’t be surprised if West and Zampella start a new studio and hire them all back. Doubtless all employees are bound by non-competes, but those are notoriously difficult to enforce, especially in the games industry.

  • Mat

    The overriding feeling I get from this is is that, not for the first time, Activision are just swinging around their weight like some 500lb Gorilla, and whoever gets caught out by it.. well, tough luck.

    This whole situation just smacks of arrogance. Arrogance that they’ve become no strangers to in recent times.. such as slapping a £55 RRP on Modern Warfare 2 in the UK (that thankfully few if any retailers actually stuck with).

    With all this re-structuring (read: milking) I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s afew concerned faces at Treyarch, too.

  • Bowbe

    Ok…aside from all the nerd rage that the “awesome” management of Infinity Ward got fired by their owner corporation lets analyze a few facts.

    Infinity Ward was successful at creating a pretty good fairly engaging and scary single player game. That grossed an estimated 1.5-2.0 billion dollars in the first two months of release. About the third month we realize that the monolithic statue that is Infinity Ward has feet made of clay (about January 2010) when their various patches for the multi player FAIL to stop all sorts of hacks/cracks/cheats that absolutely ruined the game.

    In November 2009 the entire games industry is hailing them as the 2nd coming (again). Their reviews are 9.5+ on every site.

    Now its March 2010 and metacritic fan ratings push the game to a 5.5.

    This same management everyone has hailed were also grossly negligent in releasing multiplayer that was hacked/cracked/and full of about as many horrible cheats as I have ever seen in more than a decade of online gaming. The managment that allowed their code to be accessed by hackers to “look for bugs”. The same hackers who have destroyed the multiplayer experience. I’d fire them too. They really aint worth that much $ in the grand scheme of things and if they broke contract or NDA with another company/entities they DESERVE what they get.

    As for that billion plus it is just a gross. As someone who works in games publishing let me clarify how this works. 60msrp. Retailer keeps $30.00 of that to keep the lights on in their store. Microsoft and Sony have licensing agreements for their perspective consoles that pay them around 1/3rd of the profit up till a game makes “platinum” status then the rate goes down. Its like a movie studio. So of the $30.00 left over after Walmart, Microsoft/Sony get $10.00. Uncle Sam/the Queen/your National Tax Collector gets $10.00 in varied corporate tax, leaving Activision/Blizzard $10 to divvy up as they chose to the creative studio (Infinity Ward). So a big chunk of change but not a Billion dollars. More like $167 million. A very decent chunk of change for sure. But when you consider blizzard/activision gets to keep about $32 million a MONTH from World of Warcraft, its not that impressive.

  • Bowbe

    Likewise since West and Zampella were dumb enough to allow their code to be distributed onthe net I wouldn’t trust them to put out another game that wouldnt be just as messed up as this one was. There were high school kids playing MW2 two weeks before it came out for peets sake. Whent hey logged in after “buying a copy” all their perks were still there. All their points were still there. Now invariably when you play you will see hundreds of players with prestige 10, earned through boosting. The boosting service is SOLD FREELY for about 2000 microsoft points or 3 months live subscriptions.
    My point is, Activision’s strongest case is that someone willingly let a flagship game of their Christmas lineup be hacked and passed about for free diminishing its value and that its value continues to diminish. Someone has to staunch the gouts of blood because quite honestly, folks who prefer a clean multiplayer game will never trust Infinity Ward again. If West and Zampella couldnt or wouldnt find the person(S) responsible for all that out and destruction of their lucrative multiplayer IP then Activision has every right to punish them financially and legally for ruining their good name. You notice the hacking and cracking is very difficult on WOW, it is strictly enforced and checks and balances are put in place to protect the fans. Infinity ward didnt do this or has thus far failed in its obligation ot the fans. Someone has to pay. Simple as that.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    We’ve all seen that pie chart, Bowbe, but I doubt the studio leadership was fired for shipping an exploitable game.

    Are you actually suggesting that Activision fired senior management because of problems with free DLC? Or that Activision cares that there is cheating in the game? Activision sees no revenue from online play. They could care less whether or not it works.

    You’re free to be an apologist for Activision if you like, but your analysis of WHY Zampelli and West were fired doesn’t seem very plausible.

  • Bowbe

    What isn’t plausible about shopping your parent companies Itellectual Property to hacker sites to look for bugs? Thats pretty cut and dried and thats what they did. That would be me posting up chapters of a book for WOTC/Hasbro on a torrent account while also submitting it for publication. You do that in any job you get fired. I’m not apologizing for Activision, I’m pointing out issues of corporate and leadership related negligence that will get you fired.

    Gay bashing. Infinity Ward had two instances of that with this game, once with the youtube vid, 2nd with the in game “joke” about don’t ask don’t tell. Did I think they were funny? Sure because I have a sense of humor. If you work for a big ass company (Bank of America being one) and make a similar joke even on your facebook page outside of work guess what? Fired. Thats corporate culture now like it or not. Unless your a rapper that is.

    Activision may not “make” the dough off the online play as you say but lets call an apple an apple shall we. How many people actually bought the game PURELY to play the 10 hour single player game? 1/10th of the sales maybe? You buy COD games for the online experience. Their negligence ruined the online experience and tell me it hasn’t been ruined after you’ve been buried in three dozen care package strikes. COD MW1 didnt have those issues. This one is rife with them. If your sitting with friends and 8 out of 10 of them agree the online blows and you were on the fence about buying it for yourself are you still going to buy it for full price? No, you’ll pick it up used and Activision certainly doesnt get any $$ off a resale. Check your worship of Zampelli and West at the door please.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Please. I didn’t know Zampelli and West existed until last week. As for the grammatical wasteland that are your comments, if you worked in game publishing then you would know that once a game is bought it’s bought, that its tail is going to be about six weeks, shorter for a game like this because door busters see around 85% of the profit on Day Zero and Day One. You’d also know that as consumers, gamers are mind-bogglingly stupid, and will cheerfully buy games despite warnings of issues just because they’d always planned to.

    Given that Zampelli and West are now suing, insisting that Modern Warfare is their IP, I’m guessing that they probably didn’t knowingly damage it. But who knows? Maybe Activision, a company that has spent the last five years exploiting franchises, closing studios, firing people without reason, arbitrarily raising prices, making stated company policy that an atmosphere of skepticism, pessimism, and fear was desirable at their wholly owned subsidiaries really is the affronted party here. Time will tell.

  • ajax19

    I don’t think anything is “cut and dry” here.  I don’t think anyone is worshipping either of these guys either.

    The only thing we’ve seen to date are Zampelli and West’s allegations set forth in their complaint and the brief, vague comments by Activision about “insubordination”.  That term is incredibly vague and can mean just about anything in the corporate/HR world. 

    Given that this is now in litigation, rumor and speculation is all you’re going to get until more papers are filed.

    As for their claim for damages, the $36 million they allege includes far, far more than just the royalties they think they are owned.  It’s a combination of things.

    As for the value of MW2 and the money Activision made off it, Activision has already announced that the game was incredibly successful and one of the main reasons behind its success last year.  Regardless of the exact total revenue Activision saw as a result of sales (I’m sure it’s easily found in their public filings) it was a significant portion of their overall revenues.

  • Bowbe

    Haha Steerspike. The only point I was trying to make is that if a parent company wanted to axe these guys they have ample reasons to use as their excuses for termination, most of which would stick.

    Thats ALL I pointed out.

    Leaked versions of the game two weeks before release showing you have no control over your own in studio employees or you willingly leaked the game (Check).

    Inability to control the rampant cheating on multiplayer with 2 patches that did not work resulting in dillution of your IP(Check).

    Use of illigitimate 3rd party hacker sites as “sub contractors” to your IP (Check).

    If this was done without the knowledge of the parent company that (Also) could result in a clause for breach of contract.

    Negotiation in private with a rival entity (Allegedly in this case EA?) for re-entry into the EA fold? Didn’t these bozos pull a similar stunt with EA to break from EA and go to Activision in the first place? Thats the big stinker here according to a lot of other sites that are just as informed as the rest of us.

    The rest of us meaning… people who were not in the meeting. I cherish every time someone allegedly or directly affiliated with the “fired side” tries to win the court of public opinion with their lame twitter and facebook updates.

    Is Activision trying to get out of paying their 10% to Infinity Ward? Probably. In this economy anything is possible, especially where stock splits and shareholders are concerned. Certainly not painting them as good guys here, just pointing out several “grounds for termination”.

    You say cool stuff like “Do you honestly believe Activision cares about cheating” Maybe “Activision” doesn’t but the Blizzard wing sure seems to when it comes to cheating in their flagship product.

    You also swing around big numbers like 2 billion dollars and then when I point out the number they recieve is much smaller you go in with the “We’ve all seen that pie chart…” and “Doorbuster specials”. So which is it? They made 2 billion or they suddenly lost their ass on the first two days of sales while Walmart and Uncle Sam reap the reward of Infinity Ward’s valliant effort? Maybe everyone hasn’t seen that pie chart.

    Sorry dude but I’m not trying to sell a bunch of conflicting stories to win an internet argument with you. Note that when combing through my “gramatical wasteland” I again only point out reasons Activision could use to get rid of anyone affiliated with Infinity Ward that they wanted to, and all would be good and legitimate reasons in my book.

    Infinity Ward started with great IP and the potential of a great product with this one. Single player was amazing, but I buy COD games for the online play. So do a lot of other people. I ain’t the greatest at the game but I finish in the top 5 on most rounds and thats good enough for me. CODMW (the first) played for about 6 months solid, had few errors, but bad lag during certain times of the day. There were almost no cheats except for a few wierd places on a couple maps where you could walk the sky and the game was frequently patched and regulated. That was in the day of “good Infinity Ward” They were unshackled by those evil opressive bastards at EA and they were out to make a good name for themselves right?

    This new game was a mess from the get-go that benefitted from lots of hype, fat reviewer scores and millions of dollars in advertising. My friends and I played for about two months almost nightly till all the care package nonsense and the modded guns started showing up everywhere.

    Even in the beginning there were the “turn invisible cheat” in the Afgan map and “unlimited ammo cheats” and “hide down the smokestack and rack up a million kills cheats to get all your nuke patches and what not. Allowing prestige points in private matches? Wow, a booster’s paradise. Thats horrible game design right there. All that is on Infinity Ward and not Activision. They are the studio they designed it, put it out flaws and all as a finished product.

    Too cheap for dedicated servers with that “2 billion dollars” your talking about? Way to piss off the PC gamers and console gamers alike. I should have known something was up when the “online agreement” page flashes by faster than a booster on crack with all run/sprint/knife/akimbo shotgun choices selected. Is that crap Activisions fault or Infinity Wards? Probably a combo of blame in that reguard.

    We waited and checked status of updates/patches and all that came up was “oh we’re working on it,” all the hack tools were available for it before it even launched. Youtube has had daily exploits posted up. People send you messages to you in game wanting 2000 microsoft points or 3 months subscription to LIVE in exchange for 10th prestige.

    All the bells and whistles that should have made the game great are meaningless now thanks to the cheating. All that stuff you strive for as a gamer went up in smoke almost overnight once the non-stop care package exploits were in full swing. I don’t blame Activision for that. I blame Infinity Ward for allowing that to happen on ALL platforms of the game and will likely never buy a game from them or another entity run by Zampelli and West again. IW ruined its reputation with this gamer for sure. I can buy $60 worth of real bullets and have an awesome afternoon at my local gun club instead.

    You are right about one thing though. Gamers are dumb and will knowingly buy a game that is going to break their heart because they “hope” that all the bs will be fixed the next time they play, or when the next version comes out but just like Madden, it never is.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Now THAT’S a good response, Bowbe! I don’t agree, but I respect the use of logic and the lack of bile.

    Allow me to rebut…

    Blizzard can care about cheating until the universe dries up; the position on one game (where cheating might impact PAYING customers) doesn’t dictate company policy. I didn’t intend to imply that Activision doesn’t care about cheating regardless of game, only that they don’t care when it comes to MW2.

    Never argued that Activision couldn’t produce reasons to fire West and Zampelli. Particularly if they were talking to other publishers – which wouldn’t surprise me. Total breach of contract. I never said Activision was acting illegally. The only point I wanted to make was that if I were Activision, and I was faced with losing a studio that just made me *coughcoughcough*illion dollars (no need to incite you further), I might have approached with a different tone…

    along the lines of…

    “Hey, guys, I know you’re looking and I don’t want you to leave us.  How can we work this out?”

    Instead of sending thugs to the office and firing the leads.

    As for the litany of exploits you list, yeah, it’s a broken game. Most games that ship are broken. But the industry doesn’t care about quality – on account of the gamers are stupid thing. All they care about is dollars, and MW2 made a zillion of them. They’re not selling Toyotas, you know. No one dies if a game is shitty.

  • Mat

    The bug issue with MW2 is an interesting one for sure, particularly when you consider what the reaction to so many glitches and cheats would have been if this was Treyarch’s year on the job. I was late onto the World at War scene so barely experienced much of the multiplayer myself, but I noticed the game received one hell of a tough ride from the community about the bugs in the multiplayer. I can’t recall many if any of them being as high profile or consistent as some of the floods of MW2 glitches that have appeared.

    Infinity Ward didn’t come up with anything like Nazi zombies either, and if COD4 is any indication, are nowhere near as supportive of their products with DLC either as Treyarch.

    Still, I don’t really think this is about calling Infinity Ward “awesome” or siding with them against Activision for the sake of it.. or “nerd rage”. IW might have published a buggy as hell game (serves them right for being arrogant over not releasing a beta) but this is just one in an increasingly large number of PR balls up’s by Activision. As Steerpike says, there are surely other ways of dealing with stuff like this other than sending the heavies in and coming out with comments about “subordination” and the like. This is video games development, not an episode of 24.

    Just as an aside, I’ve pretty much called time on Modern Warfare 2 myself now, although that is less to do with the games bugs than it is to do with the simply awful “community” that follows that game around..

  • A/B vs. W&Z, Round One | Tap-Repeatedly.com

    […] is slowly trickling out about the recent bang-up between Activision/Blizzard and Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward. Terminated studio heads […]

  • | Tap-Repeatedly.com

    […] by Matt "Steerpike" Sakey on March 12, 2010, 9:29 am So in the wake of their bosses getting fired under increasingly suspicious circumstances, analysts ranging from me to Michael Pachter have […]

  • Oh, THIS is Gonna End Well | Tap-Repeatedly.com

    […] an odd and eerie parallel to the recent Activision/Blizzard-fueled enema of Infinity Ward, Gamasutra reports that Quest Online, developer and publisher of the MMO Alganon, […]

  • A/B vs. W&Z, Round Two | Tap-Repeatedly.com

    […] on from Steerpikes excellent news grabs relating to Infinity Wards internal staffing squabbles and to continue the sorry saga, you […]

  • The Bobby Kotick Show: Blame the Victim | Tap-Repeatedly

    […] shoved his foot so far into his mouth that it came out his ass – he’s been too busy cornholing his most profitable studio to be verbally inflammatory – but who can forget such lovable […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.