Fallout - Origins, Part 3 @ NMA

[Dhruin]

R. Scott Campbell's Origins of Fallout concludes with a Q&A-like article. Here's a fascinating bit of trivia:

The Deathclaw. The horror of the wastes.
Was it always a big scaly lizard thing? Nope. My initial design for this terrible creature was a the apex predator of the wasteland, a mix of wolverine and brown bear, mutated by the FEV. It could survive any environment and feared nothing; a legendary force of nature that struck terror into the hearts of men! Unfortunately, the artists took one look at my concept sketch and said, “Dude, that’s way too much hair.” It was true. The Wolverine-bear was very furry, and there was just no way around it.

So here’s what happened: the newly formed Black Isle started work on what would be Planescape: Torment. One of the first art pieces was a monstrous creature called a Terrasque. It was sculpted in clay and was then point-by-painstaking-point digitized into a 3D model. As Planescape moved forward, it turned out that the Terrasque wouldn’t actually be featured in its design – leaving that tasty model in disuse…. Thus, the furry wolverine-bear became a hairless reptilian biped. (Take a look at page 339 of the D&D second edition Monster Manual. Holy cats! It’s a Deathclaw!)

More information.

 

[rossrjensen]

Man, reading all of that makes me realize how an already amazing game could have been even better. I wonder why nobody has attempted a restoration patch like with Fallout 2. I always felt the first game was more realistic and consistent (and preferred its ending) - if someone could add the complexity of the tribe and raider factions that they wanted to add in, it would be truly remarkable. Very enjoyable read for this huge fan!