It seems like Black Isle, the game studio behind RPG classics like Fallout and Planescape: Torment, is making some sort of comeback.

An official website for the new Black Isle popped up today, as did Facebook and Twitter pages (as spotted by the folks on NeoGAF). The website appears to have been registered by Interplay, the company that owned Black Isle back in the late 90s—and shut it down in 2003.

The elephant in the room here is that as far as we know, all of the people who used to work at Black Isle—talented video game designers like Feargus Urquhart and Chris Avellone—are now elsewhere. Some are at Obsidian, the company behind games like Fallout: New Vegas and Knights of the Old Republic II, while others are at inXile, the studio currently working on crowdfunded RPG Wasteland 2.

Interplay also recently lost all rights to develop a Fallout MMORPG.

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So what would a new Black Isle look like? What would they work on? A banner on the new website reads: "Our goal has always been to make the world's best RPGs. Black Isle Studios is back." But can they really be "back" with none of the talent that made those RPGs great? Have they brought back some of that talent?

I've reached out to the e-mail address listed on the new Black Isle website for comment. Will update should I hear anything.

Update: Avellone says he isn't involved:

When Obsidian took over from BioWare to develop Knights of the Old Republic II, the game was famously (and forcibly, by Lucasarts) shipped "incomplete". Only when modders reinstated a bunch of cut content could we enjoy the full experience the developers had planned for the game.

Much the same happened when the studio took over from Bethesda to handle Fallout 3's follow-up, New Vegas. While nowhere near as critical to the user's enjoyment of the title - KOTOR II's biggest cuts were literally at the end of the game - there's still a bunch of stuff floating around as stray code on the disc that never made it into the finished product.

Modders have been picking at the edges of this for a while now, but this week a user by the name of Moburma collected it all in one spot, outlining where the cuts were made and what they consisted of. Even better, he's made most of them available for download as mods, meaning you can slide them in and enjoy what's basically an extended edition of the game.

UPDATE - To be clear, I'm not implying these cuts were anywhere near as drastic as those in KOTOR II, nor that this is somehow the definitive edition of the game. As the modder explains, much was cut for good reason. What's "much the same" is the fact the cut content is now playable.

Fallout New Vegas Cut Stuff [Cutting Room Floor]

moburma80 [New Vegas Nexus]

Fallout 3 was released in 2008. In that time, all kinds of gorgeous video games have come and gone, including Bethesda's own Skyrim. But you wouldn't tell by looking at these screens. You'd think they were for Fallout 4, a thing I'm pretty sure doesn't even exist yet.

That's the power, and the beauty, of mods for you. In this case, the famous ENB Series tweak, which along with hi-res landscape textures, improved faces and some changes made to the game's lighting have Fallout 3 looking better than ever (you can get links for some of those used in the comments here).

It also helps that the guy taking the shots, Anthemios / trillville, knows how to take a very pretty picture.

You can check out nice, hi-res versions of the images at the link below. Which you definitely should. Especially if give half a damn about desktop wallpaper.

Fallout 3 [Flickr, via @deadendthrills]

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This elaborate custom PC was built for display at this year's QuakeCon. You can take your pick as to what's most amazing about the project: the fact it works, the fact it looks identical to a terminal from Fallout, or the fact the entire thing cost under $60.

The PC's exterior is hand-made, while the screen is an old CRT unit. It's running Ubuntu, and that hacking game you see on the screen isn't static; it's been programmed to actually work as a Fallout hacking game.

Fallout 3 Terminal [Reddit]

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The style of the Fallout universe is dictated by two things: the fact it's an apocalyptic wasteland and the way it pays destructive homage to 1950s Americana.

Fallout fans might want to take a look at this brilliant gallery, then, because it shows what an actual 1950s American town would have looked like if it was flattened by an atomic bomb.

These photos were taken at Yucca Flat in the Spring of 1955, after the US military had exploded a bomb close to an artificial town, constructed at a cost of $1 million and there to simulate the effects of a nuclear detonation on American streets, homes and people. Well, maybe not people. Mannequins.

LIFE magazine at the time covered the event, and wrote the following:

A day after the 44th nuclear test explosion in the U.S. rent the still Nevada air, observers cautiously inspected department store mannequins which were poised disheveled but still haughty on the sand sand in the homes of Yucca Flat. The figures were residents of an entire million-dollar village built to test the effects of an atomic blast on everything from houses to clothes to canned soup.

The condition of the figures - one charred, another only scorched, another almost untouched - showed that the blast, equivalent to 35,00 tons of TNT, was discriminating in its effects. As one phase of the atomic test, the village and figures help guide civil defense planning - and make clear that even amid atomic holocaust careful planning could save lives.

There may not be any mutants or radscorpions scuttling around, but everything else here looks like it could easily be somewhere you'd wander through looking for bottlecaps.

Nevada Ghosts: Rare Photos From an A-Bomb Test [LIFE, via Laughing Squid]

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It's been over a year since the Fukushima meltdown. There have been radiation fears and fear mongering. Both have certainly impacted the lives and psyche of those living in Fukushima as well as people elsewhere.

And now here's a cell phone that might make things better—or worse.

Sharp's upcoming Pantone 5 mobile phone comes with an onboard radiation detector. The Osaka-based electronics giant listed this as one of the phone's main features at a press conference earlier today, and it even trumpeted how this was the first smartphone in the world to have this feature.

Previously, there were radiation detectors that could be connected as peripherals to smartphones. Sharp figured out how to cram that into the handset, which is due out this July.

Online in Japan, people note that it could lead to a greater culture of fear, while on Japanese video game sites, commenters are already comparing the Sharp phone to Pip-Boy radiation detector from the Fallout games.

"I'd want it if it were shaped like the Pip-Boy 3000," wrote one. "This is like something out of Fallout," wrote another.

This is not something out of Fallout. It's real.

世界初の放射線測定機能付きスマホ「PANTONE 5 107SH」で実際に測定してみました [Gigazine]

Fan webseries Fallout: Nuka Break is, as Kotaku once observed, actually pretty good. The first season ran through 2011. Riding the wave of gamer zeitgeist in 2012, the series' creators have turned to Kickstarter to find the second season.

Fans rallied and the Kickstarter campaign met and exceeded its goals some time ago, so the second season of Nuka Break is as safe as a Vault-Tec vault. More surprising is that series creators Zack Finfrock and Brian Clevinger have potentially convinced some Fallout heavy hitters to come on board. Fallout: New Vegas senior designer Chris Avellone (who also worked on Fallout 2 and the cancelled "Van Buren" project) has agreed to join the project, as has Tim Cain, lead programmer of the original Fallout.

The pair will be involved in writing and designing season two, as well as appearing on-screen. There is, however, a catch: Avellone and Cain will join Nuka Break only if it successfully secures double its original fundraising target.

This isn't the first Kickstarter project Avellone has jumped onto; he and his team at Obsidian also agreed to lend their talents to Wasteland 2.

Fallout: Nuka Break The Series [Kickstarter, via Eurogamer]

Examining why I play the games I do sometimes yields surprising insight. It's become clear to me that many of the games I like...are kind of dating simulators, despite what the presentation or marketing might suggest. I don't think I'm supposed to admit that, though. To say something like that feels like losing legitimacy as a 'real gamer,' as if that idea even means anything. Worse: to say that seems so stereotypical, because I'm a woman. The genre seems harmless enough as an idea: they're just romance-driven games. Romance is a part of most people's lives, what's the big deal?

I've yet to meet anyone who says they play the Mass Effect franchise for the combat. Despite this, Bioware has focused on refining the combat enough that by Mass Effect 3, the franchise has a multiplayer mode that relies entirely on the action—and it's considered addictive. Even so, the acclaim for the third person role playing shooter still rests largely on the interpersonal relationships you foster with your crew mates. The combat being okay is just a bonus.

The only reason the fate of the galaxy matters is because of the people you've met along the way. Without the people, none of the politics, choices or consequences in Mass Effect mean a thing. Mass Effect 2 outright concedes this—the game revolves around the acquisition of your ‘dirty dozen' team. The real danger isn't with the Collectors, or with the destruction of the galaxy, but rather with the possibility of losing those teammates in the suicide mission. This is also why the memorial wall in Mass Effect 3, which lists fallen comrades, carries weight with players. Mass Effect isn't about the choices, it's about people and your relationships with them.

So when fellow Kotaku writer Evan Narcisse states that you need the combat in Gameological's video series The Digest, I couldn't help but muse over the viability of a combat-less Mass Effect.

Something that would focus only on what makes the series so good: the characters and your relationships with them.

Sounds like—gasp!—a dating sim to me.

Actually, a lot of games could totally work as dating sims. The idea that games need combat in order to remain interesting doesn't sit well with me. I don't think it's true. Plus, we have an overabundance of violence in games, but not nearly enough love.

Here are a few examples of games that with some refocusing could function as dating sims, from titles with strong writing and characterization, to a few silly ones because why the heck not? Hey, if there is a dating sim about pigeons, I'm convinced there can be a dating sim about anything.

Some, like Mass Effect, would lend themselves well to it...

The possibilities for juicy drama here are endless. We can probably assume Bioware will use some of their usual tropes when it comes to pursueable characters: the difficult, cold but sexy one (Miranda, Morrigan), the meek, kind but bright one (Tali, Merrill), and so on. Aside from that, to stereotype, each race has specific issues that can yield interesting results when explored in the context of intimacy. Quarians have to deal with being out of the suit, Asari tend to be overly sexualized, the way the Volus communicate is obtuse, for instance.

The special app released with Mass Effect 3, which sent players messages from the characters, could be put to good use here, too. Imagine composing text messages to your prospects, like you can in Catherine. If Bioware must include some sort of ‘morality bar,' it should work like Dragon Age 2's friendship/rivalry bar—meaning, there's multiple ways to get to know someone, depending on your approach.

If there are toothbrushes with tiny mass effect fields, I wonder if there's lingerie with mass effect fields, too? There better be, because that's what I want to gift my lover on the night before the suicide mission.

Some, like Animal Crossing, would be amusing...

Domesticity and small-town life isn't complete without romance, and so I think Animal Crossing can become more of a dating sim. This is a franchise that could take on the dating sim genre in a whimsical way.

The absurdity of having the various critters available to the player can't be denied. Still, the possibility for endearing relationships are there, especially when you consider the bizarre but amazing dialogue found in the franchise.

Imagine explaining to your beau that you're late to your date because damn Rosetti wouldn't let you go. Or sending a saucy letter to the giraffe next door with the world's most cacophonous gyroid attached. Perhaps sharing the stresses of having Mr. Nook breathing down your neck for payment of your house with a significant other. Or throwing a bottle out at sea, with an earnest hope that that special someone will receive it and reciprocate your blindly-thrown longing.

I'd play that.

Some, like Persona...kind of already are one

Honestly, I already play this role-playing franchise as if it was a dating simulator. Persona brings out the worst in me, romantically. Since there's no penalty for pursuing every potential love interest, I kind of just...become a womanizer. I'm going to blame the ‘gamer neurosis' of needing to experience everything in one go and not some latent Casanova nature in me, though. Yeah. Let's go with that.

Speaking seriously, like Mass Effect, much of what makes Persona so superb is in the characters. The game as a whole is an exploration of intimacy, particularly so in Persona 4, which had players help characters through the most personal of insecurities and fears. Learning to play Persona effectively is to learn how to maximize your time outside of the dungeon, to spend as much time as possible with the people. Traversing through the dungeons feels like the unimportant after-school activity that it is when your calendar is a mess of dates with lovers and friends.

The school setting is perfect for the genre. There would be 22 characters, one for each of the major Arcanas, each equipped with a captivating personal narrative for players to discover. The part about shadows and deities can still stay, since the franchise wouldn't make sense without that element. Really though, in trying to describe how this would work it just becomes obvious that the game is already built like a dating simulator.

All I ask is that in a more ‘romance-centered' Persona game, there be more options to destroy your friends when they get in the way of your dates.

And some, like Fallout, are getting made into them

I'm cheating, here. This game already exists—someone is working on it. Hailing from Tumblr, a place that is no stranger to the type of fan service that this game caters to, is the Fallout New Vegas dating sim.

So far it looks as if the pursuable characters include Butch DeLoria (the only Fallout 3 character), FISTO, Cass, Oliver Swanick, Veronica, Joshua Graham and Vulpes Inculta. Not the characters I'd think of first (I wanna date Moira, from Fallout 3!), but it's a rich and diverse cast.

Alexis—the 19 year old developer behind the title—is taking a lot of fun liberties with the characters she's borrowing from the franchise. This is evident from the hilarious character animations:

(Oh my god FISTO, what are those STAINS?)

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To the writing:
(Click to enlarge for animation)

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Also included: a tsundere character, Ouran references, Hellboy references, and a karma system. And yes—Butch DeLoria delivers his infamous ‘Tunnel Snakes Rule!' line.

The game's Tumblr states that the game will come out relatively soon. As proof of concept, it works wonderfully to prove that games you might not expect as dating sims could still work under that genre—with the right approach.

The list goes on. Metal Gear Solid could be a hell of a soap opera dating sim, complete with overwrought dialogue and labyrinth-like plotlines. Well, if confusing as heck plotline is what we're looking for, then perhaps Kingdom Hearts could be a better choice. God knows what's going in in THAT franchise, but it's dramatic enough that it would fit just fine. Saints Row could have players recreate a Romeo and Juliet-type romance, with rival gangs fighting to keep you and your lover apart. Really, there's a ton of games that could work as dating sims.

Granted, getting people to brave the stigma of playing the genre that is widely taken as the epitome of uncomfortable nerd wish fulfillment might be difficult. At the same time, many popular franchises—like Mass Effect and Persona—are good because of the near-dating sim elements they posses. I think we collectively like to pretend otherwise, though—thinking of some games as 'dating simulators' seems kind of shameful. It shouldn't.

We definitely don't need combat to make a game worthwhile; sometimes that's the least interesting aspect of a game.

And sometimes, it would just be funny to make a game that's not meant to be romantic, be romantic.

Late last year, artist Erling Løken Andersen thought it would be a nice idea to set up a website for his Fallout fan art. It was lovely art, coming in the form of posters based on those found on the walls in Fallout games, and in a nice touch, Andersen even uploaded incredibly high-resolution (and vector!) versions so people could print out their own copies.

Enter DLA Piper, a law firm representing publishers Bethesda, who own the rights to (most of) the Fallout universe. They sent a two-page letter threatening Andersen for having distributed the art, despite the fact he was not charging for it, and that Bethesda does not itself offer such images for sale.

So Andersen sent a very polite, very considered letter back, outlining his case and why DLA Piper's points of contention don't apply to a guy giving away art on the internet. You can read both letters at the link below. The lawyers are yet to respond.

I'm sure DLA Piper are just working off a brief, and this has nothing to do with Bethesda specifically targeting the guy, but still, when you hire a firm to conduct business in your name, it's your name that gets dragged into this kind of petty bullshit.

UPDATE - Those who had grabbed a poster or two before they were taken down say they weren't just close to being replicas of posters found in actual Fallout, they were essentially recreations.

Threatened with lawsuit by Bethesda; This was my reply [Erling Løken Andersen, via NeoGAF]

I think it goes without saying that I love music in video games. But not all games require a soundtrack, and in fact, some games are better off without one.

Music can be a distraction, an unnecessary layer of sound that pulls attention away from a game rather than enhancing it. Sometimes, there's nothing to do but turn the music off.

The first big-budget game that made me turn off the music was Fallout: New Vegas. I played for a handful of hours and found myself feeling smothered by the endless mournful strings and guitars that played as I wandered the wastes. Every time the music would stop, I'd hear the wind in my ears, the chirping of insects. The desolation around me felt palpable; it was a breath of fresh post-apocalypse.

And then, the music would start up again. Endless syrupy strings and mournful guitars.

So, I turned it off. I never play that game with the music on anymore (though I do still listen to the excellent in-game radio stations). In fact, when I go back to Fallout 3, I do the same thing.

I think it's something about open spaces, at least for me. I adore Bill Elm and Woody Jackson's music for Red Dead Redemption, but sometimes I just don't want to hear music in that game. I want to wander the prairie, me and my horse, and take in the fantastic sound design, which I've long thought to be some of the best of all time. The sound design is almost a musical score of its own; and while its interplay with the dynamic music in the game is organic and never feels crowded, sometimes it's cool to just listen to the audio on its own.

(Seriously, I recommend doing that. Even if you haven't played RDR in a while. Boot it up, turn off the music, and put on headphones. Go sit on the prairie, close your eyes, and listen. Notice every sound that comes and goes. It's really cool.)

Sometimes I'd turn off the music in Bioshock and Bioshock 2, as well. As amazing as the music in those games was, there were times where exploring Rapture while taking in the ear-bustingly incredible sound design was enough.

Is it a sin to turn off the music in a game? No. I remember a while back, boss-man Stephen Totilo wrote a thoughtful editorial about how he finally decided to turn off some games' music.

He, too, found himself turning off the music to Red Dead Redemption, though he was doing it to listen to podcasts while playing. I've met a lot of people who do their podcast-listening while playing Minecraft, and while I personally love the music and audio to that game, I can also understand turning it off and listening to other things.

Stephen also mentioned listening to podcasts while playing iPhone games, and there I agree with him as well. A while back, I played an obscene amount of Bookworm for the iPhone, but I found that in very little time, the music made me go a little bonkers. It took me far too long to realize that I could listen to whatever I wanted while I played, particularly as I was playing on a device that held my entire music collection! But rather than any albums I owned, I listened to podcasts.

In difficult action games, I'll find that the music makes it harder for me to focus; in fact, the audio in general can be overwhelming and distracting. When I get stuck on a particularly difficult boss in, say, God of War II or Bayonetta, I often find that the only way I can make it through is to take off my headphones or mute my speakers and play with no or very low audio. Suddenly, things feel far less complicated and I'm able to focus on the task at hand. It's sort of my last-ditch technique for getting past a frustrating boss.

I'm the last guy who would ever make some sort of sweeping generalization about video games not needing music. Music is an essential part of life just as it's an essential part of all of my favorite games. More than any other aspect, is the thing that ties me emotionally to video games in general.

But sometimes, I just need to play without it.

I'm guessing it's not just me, so I'm curious: What games inspire you to turn the music off?