This edition of Inside the Vault features programmer, Orin Tresnjak. Orin is one of the awesome programmers who work on multiple systems. He’s worked on a variety of interfaces and shaders, and even made tools for creating DLC and PC installers (Orin even pitched in and made the installer for Star Trek: Legacy). In short, we drop Orin in and cool stuff results.
Tjoz from our Star Trek forums has informed me that their mod project for Star Trek: Legacy, entitled The Aftermath, is coming along nicely as they work towards releasing “Stage 2.” To get a glimpse, check out the trailer above and then head over to download the Stage 2 beta. According to Tjoz, here are some of the plans for this Legacy mod:
Where we talk about stuff we love…
Having just heard Tim Schafer talk at a conference, I got thinking about one of my favorite games of all time — Full Throttle, a point and click adventure game and one of Tim Schafer’s best games in my opinion. Published by LucasArts in 1995, Full Throttle represents LucasArts’ adventure game golden years – along with Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and the Secret of Monkey Island. Let me say, however, that I LOVE all these games. I’ve loved every adventure game LucasArts released starting from 1987′s Maniac Mansion to 1998′s Grim Fandango. I was heartbroken when the sequels to Full Throttle and Sam & Max were canceled.
Here’s a few cool Elder Scrolls mods that you might want to check out for yourself over at Planet Elder Scrolls, as well as details relating to a new contest over at Oblivion Real Estate.
While many modders try to replace textures to clean up the look of Oblivion, Elioden Ward has decided to use his modding skills to trash the city of Bravil. With the “Dirtier Bravil” mod (shown above), the town of Bravil has been touched up to have a dingier apperance to go along with the lore of the city. Hey, is that the Potomac River?
Moving to Morrowind, Catherine799 has uploaded her first house mod for the game. Her mod, the Balmora Treehouse, seems like a place that Frodo or Bilbo Baggins might take a keen interest in, as the home located in Balmora is actually a home built from a tree.
Speaking of homes, if you’re into modding your own for Oblivion, you might want to check out The Oblivion Real Estate’s MORE Challenge. For those that missed this post, Oblivion Real Estate is a site dedicated for modders that have worked on creating new homes for Oblivion using the TES Construction Set. The competition is to build a house using only architecture from the MORE website. You can enter by signing up on the thread at Oblivion’s Real Estate forum (you’ll probably have to join to see the page).
The contest starts on November 15th. For more details, visit ORE.
Patrick at MSN in the UK dropped me an email to let me know his preview on Fallout 3 had gone up. It’s sort of the interview we did after the demo mixed in with info on the game from the demo/preview. In any case you can find the whole thing over at MSN.
In coverage elsewhere, Play.TM’s Luke Guttridge has put up his impressions after seeing the game in action last week.
Well, Fallout 3 is rich, ambitious and epic in scale. Whether it can blend perfectly RPG and FPS (with a splash of third-person thrown in) remains to be seen, but the lengths the developers are going to are more than apparent. We’ll certainly be following this new offering with interest as it is polished, tweaked and expanded ahead of a debut around this time next year. Until then, suffice to say that this is one wasteland we’ll be more than happy to revisit.
Check here to read the rest of his preview.
Stephen Totillo over at MTV Multiplayer blog dropped me a note about a little quiz they’re having on who’s really gaming, and whose not. Inspired by the above game of a woman who, clearly, is in the midst of some serious gaming.
Drop by to see if you can pick out which folks are actually playing a game, and which are just posing.
No surprise as The Fighter’s Stronghold was the top download for October, moving Knights of the Nine out of top 5.
Top Five Oblivion PC downloads for October 2007
1. The Fighter’s Stronghold
2. The Wizard’s Tower
3. Spell Tomes
4. Mehrunes’ Razor
5. Thieves Den
*ranked by number of times downloaded
For a number of folks at the office, the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has been hugely anticipated. When a local GameStop got the game a little earlier than expected on Monday, I noticed plenty of guys fleeing from their desks at lunch. I hope they have plenty of time to play it this weekend, because with the holiday season in full gear, time is precious.
Here’s how we’re spending our weekend…
Tim “Visor” Lamb, Associate Producer: Call of Duty 4
Aaron Mitschelen, QA: LotRO, Soul Nomad and the World Eaters, World in Conflict, Jean d’Arc, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, GrimGrimoire, Persona 3, Hellgate: London
Michael Lattanzia, QA: Way too much Hellgate: London, Team Fortress 2

This week Pete’s been in London showing Fallout 3 to some press guys that haven’t had a chance to see the game in action. One of his stops was over to the IGN UK office, where he took some time to answer questions following the demo.
Here’s a sample:
IGN: Can you talk a bit more about the melee system in the game?
Pete Hines: We’re still working on and sorting out the melee system. The gist of it is that it works just like ranged combat using a gun. You can use VATs [targeting system] using a melee weapon and the idea is that when you get up close with someone with a melee weapon you do pretty significant amounts of damage, because it’s more than likely you’ll be shot at when you’re running towards the enemy. So the idea is that when you get up close you can do serious damage, providing you’re any good with that weapon. The reverse of that is true as well, that if someone with a melee weapon gets close to you then you can take a lot of damage. In fact, it’s viable to play the whole game using only a melee weapon – you can do it and be really good at it. It’s another class of weapon that has its own custom weapon that you can make and it fits into the mould of all the other weapons in terms of being a viable choice to play through the whole game with.
Head over to IGN to read the full interview.
Star Trek: Conquest will be on shelves soon, but before it does, we figured we could share a few more screenshots from the game. The screen above, which shows a Dominion Cruiser flying past Archanis, as well as screens below are all taken within the Arcade aspects of the game.
Also, if you haven’t seen the “Empire” trailer yet, check it out.