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[Ark-AMN]

Well, the weather system in Oblivion wasn't so bad. I just hope it won't feel so random where storms last only a couple of seconds or so.

 

[Jenga]

Well, the weather system in Oblivion wasn't so bad. I just hope it won't feel so random where storms last only a couple of seconds or so.

Radiated dust-storms please.

 

[disappeared]

Well, the weather system in Oblivion wasn't so bad. I just hope it won't feel so random where storms last only a couple of seconds or so.

Yeah. But man... Bethesda needs to work on atmosphere for this game. It's so crucial.

 

[Ark-AMN]

Yeah. But man... Bethesda needs to work on atmosphere for this game. It's so crucial.

That is true, oh well, if they need an example of atmosphere, BioShock would be great viewing material.

 

[Jenga]

Hey nicholasbrutal, did Bethesda mention anything about adding in your own music to the game like with the Elder Scrolls games? I'd love to put in both of the Fallout OSTs into F3, as well as assorted 40's music. (consisting of Louie Armstrong and the Inkspots)

 

[MirageDwarf]

IGN has detailed preview too: http://pc.ign.com/articles/800/800570p1.html

Most of the detail is known through other articles but still...

Summary of the article:

Our demo of the game began with the player talking with dear old dad about the upcoming Generalized Occupational Aptitude Tests that are required of all Vault residents when they turn sixteen. The G.O.A.T. is essentially an oral exam that lets the player express their preferences and expectations for the game and then translates those wishes into an appropriate set of skills -- sneaking, science, medicine, guns, speech, etc. This approach to skill selection nicely fits with the game's emphasis on maintaining your immersion in the game world rather than relying on a more artificial class selection system.

After making your escape and traveling up the tunnel to the surface, you'll be confronted with a striking panorama of a world in ruins. A nice visual effect is added so that your vision blurs just a bit as your eyes adjust to the light. Once your vision clears you'll be able to look out on a scene of desolation and decay.

You might consider checking inside the mailboxes that line the streets of this world to see if you friendly neighborhood postman happensto have left an assault rifle or two laying around for you.

Using a pool of action points determined by your Agility, you'll queue up fire actions to the targets you want to hit on your enemy. You can even switch enemies to queue up a series of shots against different members of a large group. Critical hits can result in cripplings, knocking the gun out of someone's hands or even causing a head to explode and send eyeballs rolling down the street. Some enemies even have particularly vulnerable areas. Take out a giant ant's antenna, for instance, and they'll go berserk and attack whoever happens to be closest to them.

Fortunately, you can scrap a weapon and use the parts to repair a weapon of the same type. A fully repaired weapon has a number of benefits, offering advantages like a tighter spread or a higher rate of fire.

There are even some cool opportunities to make your own weapons or ammunition from items you scavenge in the world. All those pointless rocks and Barbie heads you find on the ground can be loaded into a makeshift Rock-It Launcher and put to good use. You can also pack a lunchbox with bottle caps and explosives to make a homemade shrapnel bomb.

After fighting through the wasteland for a while you'll encounter your first town, Megaton. Screened off from the rest of the wasteland by the wreckage of a crashed airliner, it's a sprawling, ramshackle affair with one particularly interesting claim to fame: a large bomb fell here during the war but it never exploded. Some of the citizens see the unexploded bomb as a sign of God's mercy and worship the bomb as a religious artifact.

Since Fallout 3 has only a few hundred NPCs (compared with Oblivions 1500+), the designers and writers have been able to add enough details and characteristics to make each NPC seem like an individual. The game also uses over 30 different voice actors so you won't hear nearly as many sound-alikes as were present in Oblivion.

we were especially excited to see that Bethesda is really putting some thought into offering significant rewards for taking a more neutral stance. RPGs that reward players for being only good or only evil miss out on the whole concept of "role-playing" so it's nice that Fallout 3 will rewards players who aren't so absolute in their morality.

Here, being neutral is actually a very attractive prospect. To begin with, there are certain NPCs that you won't be able to hire as henchmen unless you're neutral. Stray too far towards the good or the bad and they just won't be interested in helping you. Additionally, there are some powerful factions in the game that are working for "good" or "evil" and they'll be too busy hunting each other down to worry about neutral players.

There will also be a fast travel system like we saw in Oblivion but the details haven't been fleshed out yet.

To get the Protectrons up and running, you'll need to hack into one of their control terminals. Once you find one, you'll have to play a short mini-game to gain access to it. The game displays a list of possible passwords and you're given a certain number of tries to guess the correct password before you're locked out of the system. Each time you guess you'll be told how many letters of the password you selected match the letters in the correct password. If you're smart and lucky, you can narrow the field down with each guess until you arrive at the right password. Once the Protectrons are functioning properly, they head out to patrol the subway tunnels.

Now, there are some areas of the game that will be scaled to present a challenge appropriate to your character's overall level but, unlike Oblivion, once a difficultly level has been established for an area, it will remain the same throughout the game. So if you enter one of these scaled areas and find it too difficult, you can come back after you've gained a few levels and have a better chance of taking on the challenge.

Downtown DC makes up nearly a fourth of the game world and you're going to find a lot of action here.

The main Brotherhood group here is the Lyons' Pride Platoon, led by Sentinel Lyons. They'll be patrolling the bombed out buildings, plazas and alleys of downtown DC, taking out mutants wherever they find them. The platoon members are equipped with powerful laser rifles and if you stick with them long enough you're bound to be able to loot one of these impressive weapons. In addition to taking direct shots at the mutants, you might also consider making use of the derelict cars that line the streets. Some of the still have a bit of juice in their nuclear-powered engines. Hit them just right and BOOM! Instant mushroom cloud.

You can also use the Pip Boy to listen to the radio. Bethesda has licensed 20 songs from the 1940s that play throughout the course of the game on one of the Pip Boy stations. Even better, there's a DJ on that station who can fill you in on local events. Once you start having a big impact on the world, you might even hear him referencing your own actions.

The Galaxy News Station helps to keep you up to date on the goings on in the world. More significantly, you might even be able to use the Pip Boy's radio to pick up isolated transmissions in the wasteland. Some might lead you a new quest, others might alert you to the presence of a nearby Slaver patrol. We're not sure yet if you'll have to actively seek out these transmissions or if the game will alert you when there's something interesting to listen to. Either way, it's an intriguing way to introduce new content into the story.

That's a good overview of the early part of the game but there are plenty of other surprises and choices to discover as you struggle to unravel the mysteries in the game's twenty-hour campaign. Make no mistake about it, though; unlike the Elder Scrolls games, Fallout 3 has a definite ending whose finality cannot be amended. Players who want to complete additional twenty-or-so hours of side quests should have a very clear idea that the main quest is nearing a definitive conclusion, so you'll only have yourself to blame if you end the game with some unfinished business.

 

[disappeared]

Too...many...quote...windows.

 

[davepoobond]

this sounds ****ing amazing. after oblivion, i wanted a game that is somewhat similar but has guns...and no level scaling . sounds really good.

 

[Takuan]

and of course you can choose to be male or female, and various races - the game cleverly then changes your dad's appearance to match that race

 

[Jenga]

Human race. Kinda neat, considering you were stuck being a white guy in the original Fallouts.

 

[golem]

To create the world of Fallout 3, Bethesda simply took the future as people in 1950s America imagined it and then dropped a nuclear bomb on it. In 2077 mushroom clouds suddenly appeared over the cities and suburbs of America courtesy of a Chinese attack. Thousands of Americans took refuge in massive underground vaults that protected them from the attacks, only to emerge years later to find their former cities inhabited by unfeeling mutants and vicious monsters.

The game begins 200 years after the attacks.

huh? shouldnt it be nukes hit in the 50's and you emerge in 2077?

 

[Prime crotch]

huh? shouldnt it be nukes hit in the 50's and you emerge in 2077?

No. The future of the Fallout world is this retro-future, like the NA culture of the 50's would think of it. So in 2077 when the first planes dropped the bombs the setting looks like it came out of a 50's science fiction pulp novel or comic book.

 

[Dragona Akehi]

Please don't suck.

 

[disappeared]

Please don't suck.

The silent, collective prayer of the fans. We can only hope.

 

[nicholasbrutal]

Hey nicholasbrutal, did Bethesda mention anything about adding in your own music to the game like with the Elder Scrolls games? I'd love to put in both of the Fallout OSTs into F3, as well as assorted 40's music. (consisting of Louie Armstrong and the Inkspots)

I think the answer to that one was "No," at least in terms of what you'll hear coming out of the radios throughout the world and your PIP Boy. But I guess with a 360, you can't really stop someone from listening to their own music. Or anyone who has a PC, once the game is modded to bejeezus. And anyone who owns a stereo.

 

[buckfutter]

I love everything we've heard so far except for the good/evil dichotomy. I really, really, really hate RPGs that reduce everything to a choice between being good, being bad, or not being at all.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Game Trailers has an interview up with the lead designer on Fallout 3. No new information, but it's a nice alternative summary for those that hate reading.

I love everything we've heard so far except for the good/evil dichotomy. I really, really, really hate RPGs that reduce everything to a choice between being good, being bad, or not being at all.

Clearly, you've never played Fallout then.

 

[Chris Remo]

I've got my typically big-ass preview up at Shack:

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=411

Lots of crap in there!

As far as the good/bad dichotomy goes, I talk about how Bethesda went out of their way to include neutral options as well. They didn't want to share a lot of specific examples and spoil the quests or plot, but it was a big addition to development apparently.

"We do follow the continuity of Fallout 1 and 2," promised Howard, "though obviously they're set in the West Coast and we're set in the East Coast. When we do games, we don't like people to feel that they need to play the previous ones. We like to have lots of nods, and have the lore make sense. So it's not a continuation of that story, but it does say that stuff all happens. As far as the existence of Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel, we pretty much ignore their existence in the same way that I ignore Aliens 3 and 4."

Stepping out from the cool colors and enclosed spaces of Vault 101 into the sprawling, ruined, desolate vistas of Fallout's post-apocalyptic wasteland is a striking experience, and one that justifies Bethesda's decision to set the early game in the vault itself. When the light first hits, there is an effective moment of brilliant, blinding, saturated light as your character's eyes adjust to the presence of the sun, but it soon fades away.

The irradiated landscapes are littered with ruined buildings, twisted metal, occasional recognizable Washington, D.C. landmarks, and of course the mutated enemy monstrosities. Many of these return from previous games--giant ants, brahmin, death squads, radscorpions, and more.

The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System allows players to pause the game at any time and zoom in for a closer look on an enemy, selecting an individual body part to target. As you take your shots, you consume action points, which regenerate over time, harkening back to the original games' action limiting mechanic.

Sadly, groin targeting has not returned for Fallout 3.

The main result of all this is that Fallout 3's content is packed much more densely. The slightly smaller world and drastically smaller number of NPCs means that individual characters and locations can be infused with more personality. Bethesda hopes to eliminate the issue of "cloned" NPCs--each character should be unique, not simply exist as a walking signpost. The company has even bumped up the number of voice actors it is hiring to somewhere between 30 and 40, to avoid having to use the same lines again and again.

Bethesda is looking for higher replayability here. "In Oblivion, you are the everyman. You can do everything," explained Pagliarulo. "In Fallout it's much different."

 

[Hunahan]

I really don't like the way they are describing the "binary" choices.

Being locked-off from game content sucks.

Particularly when you know that like 70% of the game will be identical no matter which way you play it, these road-forks do more to aid repetition than differentiation.

This is why these types of decisions do not work for "replayability" in video games the way that developers wish them to. It ends up feeling more like a punishment than a reward. "No, you must play through the entire game again to see that ten minutes of extra content."

Imagine if you had to play through the entire main storyline in Oblivion every time you wanted to join a different guild. It would have sucked.

Oh well.

 

[buckfutter]

Clearly, you've never played Fallout then.

Almost everything in Fallout is a shade of grey. "Good" actions usually had a consequence somewhere down the track, and I don't just mean being locked out of a quest tree.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Almost everything in Fallout is a shade of grey. "Good" actions usually had a consequence somewhere down the track, and I don't just mean being locked out of a quest tree.

Not really. Most of the dialogue trees in FO 1 and 2 were very good/evil driven. In addition, it was very common to take certain quests and be locked out from others, as a result. For example, in New San Francisco, you could give the Enclave's plane designs to the Hubologists and lose favor with the Shis, or you could do the mission to kill the Hubologist leader, effectively destroying that entire quest tree, but gaining massive favor with the Shis. The Megaton decision sounds extremely similar to this stuff.

 

[Tideas]

if they design the UI for console, and put it on the PC, I will never buy a Belthesea game again.

Oblivion was a messed. I hate that fricking UI that they built for the 360. grr

 

[Vyse The Legend]

if they design the UI for console, and put it on the PC, I will never buy a Belthesea game again.

Oblivion was a messed. I hate that fricking UI that they built for the 360. grr

Stop whining. The mod community made it PC friendly within a day or 2 of its release.

 

[buckfutter]

Not really. Most of the dialogue trees in FO 1 and 2 were very good/evil driven. In addition, it was very common to take certain quests and be locked out from others, as a result. For example, in New San Francisco, you could give the Enclave's plane designs to the Hubologists and lose favor with the Shis, or you could do the mission to kill the Hubologist leader, effectively destroying that entire quest tree, but gaining massive favor with the Shis. The Megaton decision sounds extremely similar to this stuff.

A lot of choices resulted in repercussions for both/all sides of the issue, however. It's not so much a case of good/evil, but a choice made in a complex context that had good or evil outcomes. You could choose to "play evil", but there were situations where knowing what was exactly right or wrong wasn't clear. The water cart in F1 is a good example.

This is in contrast to Oblivion or KOTOR, where the majority of the choices boil down to "I will help you" or "**** that, I'm going to kill you". It's less about making the player have to consider their actions, and more about asking them a clean question about what sort of character they want to develop. Of course, previews never tell the whole story and I'm basically just going off of my assumptions about what Bethesda will do (as well as my selective memory of Fallout, probably). The reason the Megaton situation bothers me is that it looks as though it boils down to blowing up a town of innocents or not blowing up a town of innocents - that's a clear, easy choice to make depending on the character you want to play as. But that paragraph clearly isn't telling us everything about the context.

 

[Grayman]

Sadly, groin targeting has not returned for Fallout 3.

Put punching in the balls equals gameplay. Seriously someone has to mod this back in.

I really don't like the way they are describing the "binary" choices.

Being locked-off from game content sucks.

Particularly when you know that like 70% of the game will be identical no matter which way you play it, these road-forks do more to aid repetition than differentiation.

This is why these types of decisions do not work for "replayability" in video games the way that developers wish them to. It ends up feeling more like a punishment than a reward. "No, you must play through the entire game again to see that ten minutes of extra content."

Imagine if you had to play through the entire main storyline in Oblivion every time you wanted to join a different guild. It would have sucked.

Oh well.

It sounds like this game will be in a more condensed location than the originals. Even in those old games you could get to a later part of the game really fast to try new things once you had done it once. Fallout is very open ended and not long enough for this to punish you.

 

[Jenga]

A lot of choices resulted in repercussions for both/all sides of the issue, however. It's not so much a case of good/evil, but a choice made in a complex context that had good or evil outcomes. You could choose to "play evil", but there were situations where knowing what was exactly right or wrong wasn't clear. The water cart in F1 is a good example.

This is in contrast to Oblivion or KOTOR, where the majority of the choices boil down to "I will help you" or "**** that, I'm going to kill you". It's less about making the player have to consider their actions, and more about asking them a clean question about what sort of character they want to develop. Of course, previews never tell the whole story and I'm basically just going off of my assumptions about what Bethesda will do (as well as my selective memory of Fallout, probably). The reason the Megaton situation bothers me is that it looks as though it boils down to blowing up a town of innocents or not blowing up a town of innocents - that's a clear, easy choice to make depending on the character you want to play as. But that paragraph clearly isn't telling us everything about the context.

There could be different ways to do it. Let's say, you set off the bomb, but instead of just setting up the timer and running out, you purposely trip an alarm that alerts the townspeople to get the hell out. And there are several instances in Fallout where it's grey area. I know in Fallout 2 if you optimize the reactor in Gecko, Vault City makes the Ghouls third-class citizens or something.

 

[Chichikov]

I've got my typically big-ass preview up at Shack:

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=411

Lots of crap in there!

nice writeup.
Todd Howard seem to have all the right answers as far as I'm concerned.
I'm particularly happy to hear they're aiming for a Fallout 1 tone.

a quick question though, I still don't fully understand how that V.A.T.S system work.
how do you regain action points?
do you un-pause and run around waiting for them to recharge in real-time?

 

[Avalon]

I really don't like the way they are describing the "binary" choices.

Being locked-off from game content sucks.

Particularly when you know that like 70% of the game will be identical no matter which way you play it, these road-forks do more to aid repetition than differentiation.

This is why these types of decisions do not work for "replayability" in video games the way that developers wish them to. It ends up feeling more like a punishment than a reward. "No, you must play through the entire game again to see that ten minutes of extra content."

Imagine if you had to play through the entire main storyline in Oblivion every time you wanted to join a different guild. It would have sucked.

Oh well.

Then choices would mean very little.

 

[nubbe]

Major Nelson drills Besthesda on Fallout canon in his podcast http://www.majornelson.com/

 

[Muppet345]

Major Nelson drills Besthesda on Fallout canon in his podcast http://www.majornelson.com/

summary plz

 

[Blackace]

so far so sexy!!

 

[Krowley]

So far I haven't heard or seen anything that would discourage me.

The combat system sounds good, The graphics and art look right, the inclusion of licensed music tracks is awesome, the Player-choice elements seem close to the originals, and the character building sounds right...

They'll probably miss the mark on some element, but I think this is going to be a worthy successor, and a worthy successor in this franchise is something to get excited about.

 

[firex]

I'm really surprised at how good this is sounding so far, after how majorly disappointed I was in Oblivion. I figured Oblivion's success would = a pretty lame cash-in, but instead it sounds like it's genuinely good enough (though not "really" Fallout, it's close enough) to be a great game.

 

[Clevinger]

The pip-boy 3000 UI looks excellent. A lot of great little tidbits in the various previews, from the 40's licensed music, to the creating/modifying weapons with engineering, to everything related to the vault. It's shame about groin shots, but they have a whopping year and a half to change their minds/add more features.

One thing I'd be disappointed with is if the single V.A.T.S. turn-based turn was limited to shooting. I hope I can, at the cost of AP, use my inventory and step closer to the enemy to increase the hit %.

 

[gregor7777]

"We do follow the continuity of Fallout 1 and 2," promised Howard, "though obviously they're set in the West Coast and we're set in the East Coast. When we do games, we don't like people to feel that they need to play the previous ones. We like to have lots of nods, and have the lore make sense. So it's not a continuation of that story, but it does say that stuff all happens. As far as the existence of Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel, we pretty much ignore their existence in the same way that I ignore Aliens 3 and 4."

This game just got confirmed as great. These guys "get it".

 

[Fallout-NL]

This game just got confirmed as great. These guys "get it".

Was thinking the same thing.

 

[Redbeard]

Firstly, the first time you enter a zone, it will level itself appropriately. But, go back later and it will stay at the level it first generated.

This sounds kind of weird. Does this mean you'll be able to just run all over the world at level 1, and then it'll be stuck at level 1 difficulty for the rest of the game?

 

[-ImaginaryInsider]

They should put groin targeting back in, either as a some kind of easter egg, special scope/item,etc...it's just such a nice, unique touch.

Either way, I am really excited about this game.

 

[Fragamemnon]

The subtractive retcon of BoS and Tactics was a no-brainer, not surprising that they did that. Also, moving to the East coast-near DC (where Bethesda works, smart!) and keeping away from the West was also a really good idea.

I still get a sense of dread every time I see a new FO3 thread. I can't help but think that they will find a way to ruin it and I'll be back to mod hell trying to make the game enjoyable, just like I had to do with Morrowind and Oblivion.

 

[Scopebob Sniperpants]

Love it. Love it. Love it.

 

[Chiggs]

It seemed weird in Oblivion to be able to do the really evil stuff be still be praised as a hero.

Why? It happens in the real world all the time.

This game just got confirmed as great. These guys "get it".

QFT.

Spoiler

No mention of AVP? :lol