New-gen Fallout 2 remake gives us a brand-new Wasteland
While The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games couldn't be further apart in setting (one a fantasy bloodbath and the other a nuclear apocalypse), the franchises are connected by their legacies as some of the best RPG games of all time.
The problem is, both are a little long in the tooth these days, with the first chapter of The Elder Scrolls coming out under Bethesda Softworks in 1994 and Fallout under Interplay Production in 1997. There's a lot of love for the classics, but in 2024, things have moved on so much that they're mere fossils in the ground.
Project Arroyo brings Fallout 2 to a new generation
Thankfully, the love of older Elder Scrolls and Fallout games means loyal fans are dusting them off and remaking them for modern audiences. We've seen it with the labour of love that is Skyblivion, and now, the relic of Fallout 2 is being dressed up and strolled out into the Wasteland as a whole new beast.
Titled Project Arroyo, we see Black Isle Studios' 1998 game remade as a new-gen title. 26 years after Fallout 2 continued the story, the team is rebuilding the game in Bethesda's Creation Engine, which was responsible for Fallout 4.
For the first time in four years, Project Arroyo has just delivered a new trailer. Here, we see New California losing its isometric 2D perspective in favour of a 3D first-person view. The two-minute trailer shows off familiar haunts like the Temple of Trials but with all the modern effects you'd expect from Fallout 4.
More than just touring radioactive vistas, the Project Arroyo trailer sees the player stab rats and blast a Mantis, with a tease that the V.A.T.S system will find a new home here. Although there's no word on when Project Arroyo will be released, the team is currently looking for new devs to speed things along.
Fallout 5 is a long way off
Click to enlargeBethesda is pretty busy right now, having just polished off the release of Starfield and now turning its attention to MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The core Bethesda team is now focusing on The Elder Scrolls 6, which is poised to be the franchise's first Xbox exclusive - although we don't know what that means these days.
We've been warned The Elder Scrolls 6 is still a way out and that Fallout 5 is even further away. As Bethesda games get bigger, the wait between them grows, too. Fallout 5 is out there somewhere, but in the meantime, expect more projects like Arroyo and the long-awaited Fallout: London to fill the void.
