Ye Old Entertainment looks back at Fallout 2:

Fallout 2 Review. The Post Apocalyptic RPG you have to play before you die

MAHak spotted a teaser video for Fallout 2 in 3D. Modder Jonasz Osmenda uses the original game files to create a 3D environment:

Legendary Fallout 2 3D Remake Teaser and Happy Birthday Brian Fargo !

Mortismal Gaming retro-reviewed Fallout 2 as a follow-up to his recent review of Fallout 1. Includes small spoilers.

Fallout 2: 2022 Review

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The total conversion mod Olympus 2207 for Fallout 2 got an English translation with version 1.2:

Olympus 2207

it's a total conversion (modification) of Fallout 2, using its engine and basic mechanics, but getting completely new graphics, additional gameplay features, and a new story in a new world, not related to the Fallout series. It is the first part of the series.

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Olympus 2207 uses the Fallout 2 engine, which means that it has a system of skills and perks used in Fallout 2. Unfortunately, the game has the same technical flaws and limitations as Fallout 2.

Olympus 2207 was released on December 26, 2014. Patch 1.1 was released on September 12, 2015. The last build of the game for version 1.2 was released on June 5, 2021.

TechRaptor looks back at Fallout 2 on its 20th anniversary.

Chris Avellone says he could “write a treatise” on why he thinks making Deathclaws peaceful and friendly was a fundamentally bad idea. “IMO, if you want to build a strong franchise, you focus on the elements that make it work, and regulate all the “wouldn’t it be interesting if…” ideas that don’t fit to Special Encounters. I’ve always hated aliens in Fallout, for example, and as I’ve often told Tim Cain, I was pretty fucking pissed off he thought including ghosts in Fallout was a good idea. It’s like you’re opening the goddamn door to the spirit world in a post-apoc game, and that’s a whole separate aesthetic detour in a franchise that’s already been placed in danger of losing its direction by being given to a bunch of newbs.”

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

PCGamesN believe that Fallout 2 defined the series.

Grotesque monsters. A campy ‘Space Race' aesthetic. Stories that unfold subtly and organically, based on how you play. A lot of Fallout's core characteristics we nowadays take for granted. But back in 1997, when a small, now-defunct studio called Black Isle were just starting out, the classic Fallout style was far from recognisable.

The first game had sold reasonably well, but the critical response had been feverish; hoping to capitalise on the Fallout buzz, Black Isle's publisher, Interplay, quickly commissioned a sequel. Bigger, better, and with much more for players to do, development on Fallout 2 also had to be completed inside nine months. For Feargus Urquhart, co-director of Fallout 1 and one of Black Isle's founders, the nuclear heat was on.

"We'd started working on Fallout 2 before we'd even shipped Fallout 1," he tells me. "That was in the middle of 1997. By the beginning of 1998, when Interplay was having some financial difficulties, they decided they wanted to make Fallout 2 and make it in the same amount of time as the original, and as far as they were concerned, we'd already been developing it for half a year already. So that gave us basically nine months to make the whole game."

[...]

Fallout of Nevada is a campaign mod for Fallout 2 originally released for the Russian language back in 2011. A new version of the English translation has been released taking it to version 0.11 over on the NMA site, all possible thanks to Dionis.

Just when the echoes of war went silent humanity started spilling blood on burned earth again, ready to compete in survival and adaptability with any biological species that lived through nuclear holocaust. You were lucky your ancestors took shelter from the disaster inside one of the vaults in the state Nevada, and now you and your fellow citizens are ready to step outside and conquer the land once more. But were you really lucky, these lands don't welcome a creature that burned them to ashes in hellish fire in the past and the only option your supervisors think they have is to shield themselves from the outside world with security perimeters, for which functionality YOU must find a device. But perhaps the isolation made you weak and unprepared for the dangers of the wasteland, and when you meet few places of civilization that is still standing can you make a decision in a conflict, which side is right or wrong? Because even one man can change the fate of a whole community, or maybe you should walk by minding your own home vault, the walls of which can hide some dark secrets too. No one can give an answer except you. Anarchy, destruction, deceit and violence will be your companions. But most importantly remember you decide your fate in the wastes.
MOST IMPORTANT.
Fallout Nevada is not just a clone of the original.
It is not an assembly of other peoples ideas or mods.
It is not an expansion of the original story, it is a full conversion that borrows original game engine.
90 % of all content scripts story dialog characters quests, locations and etc are made from the ground up for this project.
You will see a completely new story more than a hundred quests. A new world map.
12 big locations and 12 new special encounters.
Watch video for more info on the game(though its a bit dated :)

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Thanks Luj1!

RetrospectiveGaming takes a look at Fallout 1.5 Resurrection, a mod for Fallout 2. (Spoiler Warning)

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My review of Fallout 1.5 Ressurection

Website-http://resurrection.cz/en/

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6oX...


Twitter- https://twitter.com/FalloutRes

Music is from Fallout 1.5 ost- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Henriquejr spotted patch 1.5 for the Fallout Resurrection Mod:

Resurrection version 1.5 is now available for download.

You can download the patch here or the full install here. You can find more links to downloads on our download page.
Version 1.5 brings a large number of bug fixes, and various other small improvements. Many of these fixed bugs were found thanks to you, the players. You have reported many of them to us, and we were able to discover some by watching playthroughs on YouTube.

Basic information regarding the patch that we recommend you read before updating Resurrection:

• The patch can be applied to Resurrection version 1.4 only. The English version of the patch doesn't contain changes from the older versions of the game, because the first English release was already version 1.4.
• Save slots from the older version aren't compatible with the new version of the game. After certain changes, Fallout 2 isn't able to load saves made before those changes. Therefore save slots from older versions of Resurrection won't load in Resurrection version 1.5.
• We have updated the versions Sfall and High Resolution patch that are included with Resurrection. If some time in the future you want to update them to newer versions, you can easily do so by copying the newest versions of the ddraw.dll file (for Sfall) or the f2_res.dll file (for High Resolution patch) into the Fallout 2/Resurrection directory. But do not copy ddraw.ini or f2_res.ini into the Fallout 2/Resurrection directory. There're specific settings in these files for Resurrection that are different from the default settings of High Resolution patch and Sfall.
• Since the ini files of High Resolution patch and Sfall are updated with the patch as well, your settings in them (for example the game's resolution) will be set back to default. You'll have to redo your settings with Resurrection's Configuration Program, or by editing those files manually.
• The folder "resdata" found in the folder "Resurrection" was renamed to "data" for version 1.5. The patch installer will take care of the renaming automatically. Thanks to this change, various programs for Fallout file editing will now work with Resurrection without a problem.
• If you downloaded some files containing hot fixes beforehand, you should delete those files before installing the patch (check sub folders in the Resurrection/data folder, or in the case of version 1.4 in the Resurrection/resdata folder). Those fixes are now part of version 1.5. - If you want to see what's new in version 1.5, read the fores_change.log file found in the Resurrection folder, or check the changelog here (beware though, it contains SPOILERS!).
• If you encounter a problem installing or running Resurrection, check the readme file first. The solution to your problem might be there. If the readme doesn't help, let us know on our forum, or email us and we'll try to help you.

Enjoy the game!

@RetrospectiveGaming A mod for Fallout 2 is getting translated into English called Fallout:Nevada

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English Translation Thread- http://www.nma-fallout.com/threads/fa...
Russian Website- http://fallout-nevada.ucoz.ru

From Fallout Mods Wiki- "The game is set in the territory of Nevada state before the first Fallout. The main character is a dweller of Vault 8 (not Richard Grey or Boyarsky, mind you!). Your task is to find the SoS (The Set of outward Security), created to organize security measures in future Vaults. But this quest is child's play, compared to the unexpected turn of events that will take you on this potentially dark journey. Life in the wasteland is just beginning to appear. Settlements are scarce, roads are almost non-existent, The world is engulfed in anarchy, more so than before. It will be tough for your body and mind to survive.

Social interaction is a main part of this game's development. There will be no absolutely evil or absolutely good characters. Most of the quests and situations will provide the player with dilemmas of ethics and moral struggle."

Fallout 1.5: Resurrection has been released today:

The Resurrection of Fallout has come

Finally, the English version of Fallout 1.5: Resurrection is out. You can download the installation file here. Other links (including links to the archive for manual installation) can be found on this page. Just a small reminder - You need to have Fallout 2 installed before you install Resurrection.

If you happen to have any problems with installation or with running the game, we recommend checking the "Known Issues and Their Solutions" section in the Resurrection readme. Otherwise, feel free to send us an email or contact us on our forum and we'll try to help you. We're also interested in your opinion of the game and the experiences from your playthroughs. Lastly, let us know if you come across any bugs so we can fix them. Apart from the aforementioned forum and email, you can reach us on our Facebook or Twitter.

Enjoy the game!

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Message from the devs:

I would like to inform you about our project called Fallout 1.5: Resurrection. It's a modification for Fallout 2 (yes, for that old game) with a completely new story taking place in the Fallout universe. Simply said, it's like new old-school Fallout, emphasizing multiple approaches to quest solving and various styles of gameplay.
Starting out as an enthusiastic idea based on our wish to create our own Fallout game, we ended up working on it for over 10 years in our spare time, and released it in 2013 in Czech (our native language), to critical acclaim. After that we worked two-and-a-half years on the English translation so that the English-speaking world could finally enjoy our game as well.

Fallout 1.5: Resurrection is a mod for Fallout 2 due out July 15th and features a New Mexico setting. The mod takes place between Fallout 1 and 2.

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Fallout 1.5: Resurrection is a modification for Fallout 2. Its story takes place chronologically between 1 and 2, hence the name. It takes place in New Mexico. Content-wise, it rivals or possibly surpasses the original Fallout.
http://www.resurrection.cz/en/

RPGamer has posted a retro review for Fallout 2, and from the tone of the review the writer enjoyed playing the game. The final score for the game was 4/5.

Black Isle Studios could have chosen to use the 3D technology of the late 90s in creating Fallout 2, but it erred on the side of sprites that did not tax the hardware of the time. While this means the game is hardly a sumptuous feature for the eyes today, aside from a limited color palette it is not eye-gougingly horrendous either. Many details in character animation are quite nice, and the brutality of some deaths is impressive even now.

Most of Fallout 2's music is atmospheric and mood-setting, not standing out by deliberate design. It is nevertheless effective at its intended task and complements the world design quite well. Little of the copious dialogue in the game is voiced, which is a shame considering performers like Michael Dorn and Jeffrey Jones don't get to do very much, but good work is turned in by all concerned.

Some games manage to age without problems, being just as playable now as when they were originally released. Fallout 2 is not one of those games, but after I got through the clunky aspects of its presentation, it became hard to stop playing. Even though I frequently had to research something I wanted to do but couldn't discern from the game itself, the gripping world presented here snared me and wouldn't let go until I was done. That's an impressive accomplishment for a title from any era.

Duckfeed has a new podcast with Chris Avellone that talks about Fallout 2.

Gary and Kole are joined by Chris Avellone to talk about the creation of Fallout 2. We also read your letters about the game.

No Mutants Allowed has news that the Fallout 2 Restoration Project 2.2 is now available for download.

This is it, the big one. After 3 years of intense work, killap the Bear Dude has released the final version of the Restoration Project, bringing Fallout 2 closer to the original vision by reimplementing scores of features that did not make the cut all the way back in 1998. However, don't take it from us, listen to the Bear Dude himself:

"Now come 2013, RP 2.2 is being released. I believe that this version is what I had always envisioned the Restoration Project would become. If you were put off by older RP releases, please give it a try again. I think you'll be pleased. If you've been waiting 6 years to play the RP, well, now is your chance. And if you've already played it dozens of times before, rest assured there is new content for you to experience. Smile

Is this the end of Bear Dude's Fallout modding adventure? To me it is, but I've already said this before and I'll admit that anytime I see a bug reported for something I've worked on, I get the urge to squash it. So expect at least one more minor update down the road, especially since at the very least a Russian translation is in the works. But do know, that to me, I'm done.

Was all this worth the many, many thousands of hours I put in over the years to fix vanilla bugs and add new content? I think so. I had fun doing it and really, I just wanted others to get even more enjoyment out of a game they loved. I also like to think that in some way I inspired others to do modding of their own and to realize that just because a game is old it doesn't mean it has to be abandoned."

Eager to try it out? Here are the links:

Windows installer (recommended)
Manual install (advanced users): download

PCGAMER has a retrospective article on Fallout 2 with their next reinstall article.

F2’s real genius, though, is that there’s no assumption that you have to win every fight or see every possibility. Sure, if you come to New Reno sporting stolen power armor, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with. More likely, however, you’ll arrive as just another schlub, easily put down if you go around starting fights with the wrong people. Not being the ultimate badass changes everything. What little power and influence you accumulate in New Reno is earned, and it’s more meaningful because of it. And that’s just the start.

You see, as a wanderer, you can never find home. You don’t have to set foot in New Reno to finish Fallout 2, but if you do, you’ll eventually have to leave. As with all the other towns you visit, however, your decisions have power. Who controls the streets? What happens to the drug trade? War may never change, but the world of Fallout 2 definitely does, and the one thing you can guarantee as the final credits roll is that however low New Reno sinks into depravity, nobody there will ever forget you—the hero or villain they only knew as Arnold Swollenmember.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Gaming Made Me series looks at the influence of Fallout 2 on the author:

I still distinctly remember the first couple of hours of Fallout 2. Fallout 2 was the first game I picked up of my own volition, and the first game I finished on my own. It would also be one of the only games where I played as a woman–it’s one of the rare instances where, though obviously largely written for a male audience, I still felt acknowledged.

I modified one of the starting characters, Chitsa. I appreciated that she was optimized for diplomacy, though I tweaked her to have high intelligence (“like me!,” I thought) and got rid of her sex appeal perk. No, I didn’t really want to “have a way” with the opposite sex–not in the manner the game implied, anyway. Not realizing I wasn’t “supposed” to be playing this game this young, I was confused as to why I couldn’t make my character younger than 18. At least I could rename her–and to this day, that Fallout 2 character is the only character I’ve named after myself in a game.

The Big Cow Punch: A Guide to An Idiot's Fallout 2 is an after-action-report at Rock, Paper, Shotgun as the writer describes his experiences with Al, a Fallout 2 character with zero intelligence:

Al is an idiot. Not in the mean-spirited, pejorative sense, but in the literal ‘there are dead fleas that make better conversation’ sense. I’ve made a moron. When he was told to quest for the GECK he probably didn’t stoically grit his teeth or ask every question in the conversation tree – as your typical post-apocalyptic typical heroes do – he more likely dribbled from tooth to toe and burbled a few rhymes. GECK? Heck. Neck? Feck.

Huh-huh-huh.

Chosen One? It’s a wonder his tribe didn’t kill him at birth. 

What Al lacks in smarts he compensates for in his capacity for violence, however – he’s bigger than a Radscorpion and his Perception rating is so far off the charts that they had to invent a new kind of telescope. I am, in other words, fairly confident that this lummox can handle Fallout 2’s wastelands even despite his skull-headed handicap. It’s not like the Science skill is ever actually useful for anything and, even if it was, Fallout 2 is my game. The one I know inside and out; it’s the one I play in my head when my boss is talking to me. Low Intelligence score isn’t going to hold me back for long. Or so I thought.

News from NMA that Killap's Restoration Project for Fallout 2 has been updated to v2.1.2b, offering a new playable character type ("bald dude") and numerous bug fixes.

Killap has also released an updated Unofficial Patch for Fallout 2 with the 100 odd fixes that are included with the Restoration Project.  Full details here at NMA and thanks again to Toni.

Killap has released v2.0 of his Fallout 2 Restoration Project, overhauling all the additional dialogue, restoring even more content and fixing 100 original bugs along the way:

The monumental day has finally come. Some of you lost hope; many patiently stuck around to the end. The beyond long awaited 2.0 release of the Restoration Project is at hand. This is a MAJOR release, which boasts overhauls to nearly all aspects of the content already in the mod. In addition, the eagerly awaited addition of the Shi sub can now be enjoyed, as well as several other minor/moderate new content additions. It seems like we're finally running out of cut content to add. Of course, no release would be complete without a slew of bug fixes to ensure a stable and enjoyable playing time. Not only were bugs fixed in the mod, but nearly a hundred bugs have been squashed that were in the vanilla version of the game and were not yet fixed by my unofficial patch. To me, this release is what I wanted version 1.0 of the mod to be. I'm extremely proud of what has been accomplished and ever so grateful to those who helped make it happen. It only took me about 2 1/2 years to get here. [...]

A sample from the notes:

Major Changes:
--------------

• Complete dialogue overhaul for every RP location and character

The dialogue in the RP often left much to be desired and it never quite fit with the rest of the vanilla dialogue. Well, this should no longer be the case and nearly all the dialogue at RP locations has been rewritten and should seamlessly fit into the rest of the game. A big thanks to community member Dravean for his help in this area.

• Kaga Redone

Kaga has been completely overhauled to be more true to his original intent. His encounters are no longer scripted sequences and nor are they forced. Kaga's encounters are just like normal encounters, but deadly ones at that. You'll get some dialogue to go along with it too, but it has completely been rewritten.

• Complete overhaul of the EPA

This location has been completely redesigned to be bigger and better than ever - new map, new dialogue, new quests, new secrets, etc. A big thanks to Pixote for his awesome mapping and graphic skills.

• 3 new recruitable npcs available

To go along with the EPA overhaul, there are now 3 npcs that can join you which are found there. The one you get depends upon the skills you have chosen to develop.

• Improvements to every RP location

Not only has the dialogue improved at every RP location, but the quests have also been altered. The quests at these locations have been improved and new ones have even been added.

• Shi Submarine

Sailing to the Enclave no longer requires just fixing up the Tanker. The undead guardian of San Francisco is preventing anything from entering or leaving the harbor and something has to be done about it. This content has finally been realized thanks to the beautiful graphic work of community member Continuum.

• Improved maps

Both vanilla and RP locations look better than ever thanks to help of community member Pixote.

• Vertibird is no longer flyable to the Enclave, but...

You no longer can fly a vertibird to the Enclave, as there really wasn't enough evidence supporting the intent of this. It didn't even make sense logically - how could everyone from your tribe, etc fit on board? However, evidence instead points to the intent for the player to stowaway on a vertibird during the Salvatore-Enclave transaction. Thus, in much the same way as the player could get to the Military Base in F1 at an earlier time than usual, the same concept is now possible in F2. The chance of survival is slim, but it's not impossible.

Head to the thread at NMA for the full details and installation links.  Not an April Fool's joke, by the way.  Thanks, Toni!

A retrospective on Fallout 2 can be found at Good old Games as part of their week of Fallout.

Creatively speaking, the sky was still the limit, but a stringent schedule and lack of resources dictated just how much time the team had to touch the clouds. "We had one full-time programmer on it," Avellone says, "with some occasional assistance from Chris Jones, but the title probably could have benefited from help on the programming front. Our lead programmer was pretty overwhelmed with dealing with issues on the title and occasionally had to field surprise feature requests and the tricky AI."

With few resources and even less time to use them, Fallout 2's team narrowed their task to two intertwined objectives: use what worked in the original and fix what didn't. Chosen for improvement were hand-to-hand combat skills, a broader selection of weapons and abilities, and random encounters.

With something on project V13 as well.

Rather than create a single-player experience, Project V13 will take its place in the ever-growing massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) genre. To ensure that the experience maintains the atmosphere that made Fallout and Fallout 2 so renowned, many former Interplay employees have returned to lend their skills to the project. Chief among them is Chris Taylor, who couldn't be happier breathing radioactive air and fighting mutated humans once again.

 "Project V13 is so far off from release that we really can't get into specifics," Taylor says. "So many things are likely to change as we move from pre-production to full-blown production and into testing. It's going to be a long time, but this is the project that I've been trying to work on for many years. I'm a fan of the MMO genre, and I hope that we can bring some of the same goodness to MMOs like we brought to CRPGs will Fallout."

NMA is hosting a new version of the Fallout 2 High Resolution Patch, which adds an in-game resolution setting.

Alec Meer brings some Fallout 2 Mods to light.

These’ll be of little interest to the more ardent Fallout 2 vet, who’s doubtless played all of these long ago, and is already preparing to spam-cry ‘OLD!’ below. If, however, if you’re coming to the game fairly fresh or are replaying it for the first time in ages due to excitement about Fallout 3 or because GoG.com’s made it so cheaply available, you might find much to delight and enrapture your young mind here.

It’s Moddb’s round-up of the best Fallout 2 total conversions, from the quest-expanding Restoration project to the tri-part Wasteland Merc series. Oh, for more free time.

From NMA comes a collection of updates to various worthwhile Fallout 2 patch/mod projects.  This newsbit ties them all up nicely, so head over for details of Killap's Unofficial Patch hitting v1.02.25 and his Restoration Project reaching 1.2, as well as Mash's Resolution Patch at v1.2 and Magnus' weapons mod at v1.3b.

A welcome resolution patch for Fallout 2 made by "Mash" is being hosted at NMA.  Head over for some explanation, links and sample screens that were taken at 1152x864 (and showing the interface working fine).

Version 1.1 of killap's Fallout 2 Restoration Project has been released through NMA:

Version 1.1 of the Fallout 2 Restoration Project is now ready. Hopefully most, if not all, of the issues found in 1.0 are fixed. Starting a new game is not required, but many of the fixes will not take effect unless you enter the area for the first time (New Reno and EPA are such examples) Thus if you haven't made it too far I highly suggest starting a new game. It's not required though and old saves will work just fine.

Grab the installer here or head over for comments and more info.

NMA has a couple of Fallout 2 Restoration Project updates - details of some possible crash bugs and a small update to v1.02.22 of killap's included unofficial patch:

Ok, it seems there are issues with the ammo mod and FO1 gun sounds which come as extras in the expansion. I suggest for those having odd crashes while in combat or really odd crashes in general to uninstall the expansion (use the uninstaller from the FO folder) and reinstall without those two extras. Don't worry your save games will remain and work just fine after reinstalling the expansion. A new installer is up which has these two extras removed.

After two years work, Killap's Fallout 2 Restoration Project has been released at NMA.  Here's part of the announcement and part of the notes covering the new areas restored  head over for all the changes to the existing locations:

The day of release has finally come. It has taken me about almost 2 years to get this complete and yet I still believe I can find stuff to add. The purpose of this mod is to add back into the game all the content that was originally planned by the Fallout 2 devs. You will find about 6 new locations (some quite large, other smaller) as well as a few new areas to old locations. In addition, almost every town in the game has new content whether it is new characters, quests, or items. Playing this will definitely be a new experience. Completion of this expansion would also not have been possible without several individuals who I thank in the readme of this mod. Big thanks to all of you! [...]

Version 1.0 includes:
 
New Locations:
-------------------
• EPA
• Primitive Tribe
• Abbey
• Vault Village
• Slaver's Camp
• Hubologist Stash
• Den Residential Area
• Enclave Vertibird Landing Pad
• Ranger Safe Houses
 
New Karma title:
---------------------
• New title given at the start of the game. Can be lost depending on the choices you make. 

The file is 26Mb for the full installer and grab the link from the NMA post. 

The final Fallout 2 fan patch from Killap is available at NMA, also incorporating (I believe) Timeslip's awesome engine tweaks.  Here's their newsbit, which contains all the links:

This patch has been in production for several years now and it fixes well over 800+ bugs left in the game since the official 1.02 patch. I suggest using this installer version as opposed to the manual one since the installer will do everything automatically for you. If you want to do things manually though, go ahead and grab the manual rar version. I hope you enjoy the best Fallout 2 experience yet! 

The first of a serial After Action Report of sorts is up at Evil Avatar, offering first impressions from a brand new player of Fallout 2:

Fallout 2. To most gamers, the very name brings up fond memories of late nights at the computer, eagerly plugging along in search of the GECK.

Many gamers played this when it was new, and many when it was old. It is a fixture in the world of gaming. One of the few games that has proven its mettle with countless audiences, and has strayed into the realm of legend. Almost any gamer you meet will have played - and loved - it.

I am not one of them. Until today, anyways.

NMA has revived their Fallout developer profile series, with this relaunch discussing Colin McComb and his design work on Fallout 2 (and PS:T) :

I've been as a professional writer for more than 15 years. I started working at TSR straight out of college. Somehow I managed to convince them to hire me on the basis of my philosophy degree and charming personality, and I was there for about five years. I was one of the co-designers of the Birthright campaign setting, and took over (with Monte Cook) a lot of the design work on the Planescape setting when Zeb Cook left for Interplay. I put out about twenty-five to thirty gaming products at TSR, and won two Origins Awards in that batch.