2026-08-22 16:00 UTC · PC Gamer · Justin Wagner
"Jesus Christ, I could write this shit:" The great Alan Moore once said that the sort of negative inspiration you get from reading drivel is even more fruitful for aspiring authors than the kind you get from reading the classics. Fallout co-creator and prolific video blogger Tim Cain took it a step further in a video he published Wednesday, saying everyone from bigwig publishers to the casual gamer could learn a thing or two from bad games... Read more.
2026-08-17 22:37 UTC · PC Gamer · Ted Litchfield
In a recent video on his YouTube channel, legendary developer Tim Cain weighed in on one of the great RPG debates: Turn-based, or real time? But Cain doesn't see it as a zero sum game, instead staking out a sensible, radical moderate position on a topic that can prompt forum knife fights... Read more.
2026-06-12 21:45 UTC · PC Gamer · Andy Chalk
The resuscitation of Xbox has begun in earnest, but there's still much to be done, and still great uncertainty: Console exclusives are back but to what extent remains unclear, and of course the "reset" for a better future will almost certainly mean putting hundreds of people out of work. And it's possible that even bigger things could happen: A new report from The Information (via Reuters) says Microsoft is looking to shift its focus and resources to its biggest games, while simultaneously mulling the possibility of cutting the division loose entirely... Read more.
2026-05-22 21:38 UTC · PC Gamer · Ted Litchfield
In a recent video on his YouTube channel, veteran RPG developer Tim Cain shared his memories of the 1983 videogame industry crash. In particular, he emphasized that, although bad—like, really bad—he doesn't believe the current employment and studio closure crisis matches the impact of the infamous '80s collapse... Read more.
2026-05-16 11:00 UTC · PC Gamer · Rick Lane
The character system used in Fallout is famously based upon its roleplaying system called SPECIAL. But this wasn't always the case. In fact, for most of the original game's development, Fallout's mechanics were based upon a licensed, table-top roleplaying system called GURPS, which, yes, sounds more like a digestive tract disorder than a TTRPG ruleset... Read more.
2026-05-08 22:00 UTC · PC Gamer · Ted Litchfield
Modder RPGKing117 has had a busy month: He committed the blasphemy of putting Skyrim quest markers in Morrowind, achieved the triumph of cramming Morrowind into Fallout 4, and has no come back for one last job: Making Fallout 1 playable on Fallout 4's Pip-Boys and assorted vacuum tube, monochrome computer terminals... Read more.
2026-05-02 22:31 UTC · PC Gamer · Ted Litchfield
In a new video on his YouTube channel, veteran RPG designer Tim Cain outlined how he's seen the internet change games and game development, from the first message boards to the ubiquity of streaming content. As with everything, there are pluses and minuses, but he seemed deeply concerned with the state of commentary about and around games... Read more.
2026-04-22 19:03 UTC · PC Gamer · Rich Stanton
Fallout co-creator Tim Cain has a new video going over some of his principles for game design, and as you might expect has some strong opinions on the intersection between design intention, and what players actually end up doing... Read more.
2026-04-18 20:21 UTC · PC Gamer · Ted Litchfield
In a new video on his YouTube channel, RPG veteran and Fallout Designer Tim Cain talked about the first time he was ever exposed to Dungeons & Dragons, a pivotal influence on the developer: Some of his mother's coworkers showed him the ropes all the way back in the Carter administration. Oh, and they happened to be high-ranking US naval officers... Read more.
2026-04-10 11:03 UTC · PC Gamer · Harvey Randall
Bethesda games certainly aren't lacking in launch issues—the presence of charming bugs and funny physics glitches are sort of the studio's maker's mark at this point, although with the lukewarm reception of Starfield, that reputation's also begun to tip over into subpar features, too... Read more.
2026-03-10 20:02 UTC · PC Gamer · Andy Chalk
It's not overstating things to say Tim Cain is a legend among PC RPG fans. The man's got credits on a roster of games that would make other developers green with envy: Stonekeep, Fallout, Arcanum, ToEE, Pillars of Eternity, and more. And it all began, as he recounted in his most recent video, because he out-nerded the other guy... Read more.
2026-02-13 17:22 UTC · PC Gamer · Joshua Wolens
Fallout, so the large box that PC games used to come in when life was good tells me, is a post-nuclear roleplaying game. It's also, it turns out, a post-nuclear tabletop roleplaying game, a fact I think I've never really consciously registered until now... Read more.
2026-02-11 17:34 UTC · PC Gamer · Joshua Wolens
Tim Cain is back with another YouTube video and that means two things. The first: my career, such as it is, can continue for at least another day. The second: it's time for some delicious original Fallout reflections... Read more.
2026-02-10 11:45 UTC · PC Gamer · Joshua Wolens
The cross I bear—probably the heaviest burden borne by a human being in history—is that I'm doomed to annoy basically all the loudest segments of the Fallout fan community. Do I love the direction Bethesda took the series in with FO3 and FO4? Not really. Do I think the studio—and especially FO3 and 4 director Todd Howard—harbours a secret hatred in his heart for the games Bethesda didn't make, or that he's some Johnny-come-lately who probably doesn't even like Fallout 1 and 2? Also no... Read more.
2026-02-09 00:05 UTC · PC Gamer · Jody Macgregor
In the mid-1990s Interplay Entertainment acquired the Dungeons & Dragons licence, and would go on to publish Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, and Icewind Dale. The team working on a little post-apocalyptic RPG that would eventually be called Fallout was largely left to its own devices in the shadow of those projects, which turned out to be for the best... Read more.
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