Randomanom said:
Fallout DC, Fallout New Vegas, how about a little love north of the boarder?
Fine most of our market is in the states yes, but already your doing polar opposites of the country so why not explore a little and have some veriaty. Everyone goes with cities we all know from movies and practically every other video game in a run down city ever made.
Am i Canadian? Yes, Do i hate America? No, it's a great place and the cities are great to explore but really how much longer do i have to explore the same place again and again.
Vegas, L.A, San Fran, New York, and DC, ever seen any other american city in a game? NO
Overall though i think a Fallout Toronto could be awsome. Gouls lurking in abandoned subway stations, the skydome transformed to some massive fortress or gladiatorial arena, the CN Tower an inpenitrable base? or world's best sniper position?
There's are so many possabilities to be explored in all regards, new landmarks, new vehicles, new quests.
Steal an Avro car (an experimental flying saucer make by A.V. Roe for the us army) and zoom through the streets mowing down mutants.
Fight your way to recover the stanley cup from the hockey hall of fame, taking on hoards of gouls decked out in hockey gear armor.
Survive a trip to center island while desperatly defending the ferry from looters attacking anyone foolish enough to take to the water.
Wander the University of Toronto Campus searching for new tools and weapons. Or take sides in a local feud between the engineers and the artsies. (engineers woot! 40 beers)
Scavange through the Eaton's Center, or take out a local warlord holed up in city hall. (resident evil movie fans will recognize the building)
Canada's Wonderland....k i got nothing......over run creepy amusment park maybe?
Fallout 3 said (in loading screens) that Canada had been annexed by the US for our resources, well lets see it. was it invasion? Did we team up? Is their a resistance?
For anyone who's been to Toronto you know there's a ton of possabilities.
Yes this goes for any new city, Canadian or otherwise, but seriously cross the boarder.
Americans, Canadians, and everyone else out in the world, what do you think? Isn't it time for some veriaty?
My thoughts on the subject are:
#1: My thoughts on "Why not Fallout Canada" are pretty similar to pretty much every other demand that someone produce a game set in their area of the world "because it would be interesting" or make accusations about every game being set in the US or whatever.
Simply put, I think Canadians and people from whatever neck of the woods simply need to make these games themselves. Oh, granted it won't be an official installment in American franchises, but that isn't really all that big a deal.
We got more Russian locations when Russians started making games for the international market. The Japanese have likewise build up a massive gaming industry and set many games in Japan as a result. Both of these nations have had their games fairly well received by gamers in the global marketplace.
With successful development comes an increasingly incestuous relationship. For example when Japan built up it's comics industry, and it started to become popular in the US, it inspired the American comics industry which started taking ideas for locations, characters, style, etc... from them... and of course the same can be said in reverse, though Japanese comics were always somewhat inspired by American ones.
#2: One of the biggest reasons why I would oppose a "Fallout: Canada" game if one was ever seriously suggested for development is that after long experience I don't like to see what would turn into national bickering within an ongoing franchise. While the US and Canada get along fairly well compared to most other nations (even allies) we're at a high point of international bickering between us. There is a decent amount of sentiment in both countries against the other over things like "piracy regulation", trading partners, and of course issues like beef and timber.
Others have suggested a Canadian based Fallout before, but part of it is the fact that a lot of Canadians don't like the whole "US Annexes Canada" bit. The idea being more or less that the Canadians sold out to the Commies/Socialists (doubtlessly the writers being inspired by some of the trade arguements) and that lead to a US Invasion especially since Canada was going to play host to US troops. So the US Invaded Canada to secture it's borders, China invaded Annexed Canada to get the strategic position it wanted against the US, and the US then proceeded to re-liberate it from the Chinese.
In the end this basically means there was no Canada for all intents and purposes at the time of the war. However these needless to say irked some Canadians especially given the implications, and they both want to show "we're actually okay" in a widely distributed product, and get some jibes back at the US.
I can understand the sentiments, but I remember back with paper and pencil RPGs there was this one game called "Shadowrun" and when they decided to expand the world into Europe there was a MASSIVE sh@storm in the fan community based on what the writers of some of the Germany books (who were apparently German) did to France within the Canon, making it unlikely there would ever be a "France" book that would "do justice" to that part of the world. Along with that big one, a lot of fans from other European nations all started bickering with each other about portrayal, prominance, and rivalries. It was a big mess for a while if you followed Shadowrun and it's forums at all.
The last thing we really need is Fallout to become a chapter to chapter game of one-upsmanship.
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Such are my thoughts.
To be honest though I remember reading that the Canadian goverment is investing money in it's game companies so Canadians can be (hopefully) more assertive in that arena. As a result you might very well see some decent, Canada-centric games, and that might include a post apocolyptic RPG franchise at some point.
Though to be entirely honest if I was developing games for Canada, I'd want to shy away from that (and anything political) and actually consider doing survival horror games based on Canadian locations and stories (of which there are some pretty wierd ones).
I've been to Vacation at Niagra falls, and honestly while playing tourist at the tourist traps I will say that I had some thoughts about what you might be able to set in that area.
Also the strip down there had one of the better (if mostly non-visual) haunted houses I've done. Fear Factory was pretty cool.
