Crispy Gamer's 4 Hours with Fallout Pt. 2

[Morbus]

The second part of Crispy Gamer's 4-hour Fallout 3 hands-on has come up:<blockquote>I find myself futzing with my swag frequently. When I grab too much stuff, I become overencumbered -- unable to run. But there are ways to deal with such problems. I can repair items, basically combining two near-broken items to make one less-broken item. The better my repair skill gets, the better combinations I can make. I also start readjusting the kind of stuff I pick up. At first I grabbed every little trinket I could find, but when space becomes more and more scarce, I start dropping spare combat knives and police batons. (They're a dime a dozen.) (...)

Down on the tracks, I am immediately beset upon by more Renegades who pick at me with firearms. When they're feeling brave they run up close to whack me, but with VATS, I'm able to stop most of them dead in their tracks. Rounding a corner I'm met with another nasty surprise: a giant mole rat. The hideous thing charges; I unload my pistol, but it's not quite dead. It makes a leap for me and I put one last bullet in its thick hide. The horror collapses to the ground quivering. I swallow my disgust and pull one mole rat steak out of the creature's hide.</blockquote>Link: I Survived Four Hours of Fallout 3, Part 2 @ Crispy Gamer

 

[Fear_Embodied]

That was an interesting little read. Wondermeat sounds delightful.

 

[Texas Renegade]

hmm good to see more evidence that you can make more then just weapons.

 

[Zeld]

"I swallow my disgust and pull one mole rat steak out of the creature's hide."

Always loved that logic in Elder Scrolls.

 

[Outbreak]

Wow...I was really impressed with this preview. I agree with Fear_Embodied especially; that Wondermeat, along with a couple of other things, actually sounded like pure Fallout to me. lol, like the Molerat named Pumpkin. I'm impressed. This was the kind of preview I was hoping for, covering not only something different, but some of the smaller things, like items he was picking up and trying to store them in that old diner. (some of those items sure sounded interesting too, like the wood chipper... Maybe it turns into a food processor???) I also liked the description dealing with 'self-contained quests'. That's pretty cool. The ham radio was interesting as well, and I really like how many things he ran into but couldn't deal with due to lack of skills. That excites me due to the fact that it may really pay off, like it used to, to focus on just a few skills. I would have hated it if they had an entire skill like repair, only to run into one or two things you could use it on.

Yeah, very good job and well written too.

 

[Texas Renegade]

plus the idea that the named guys keep records of their activities on computers.

Not totally believable that they would, but it ties in with the tapes and stuff providing a deeper feel for the world.

Also, I believe the wood chipper is part of the Rock-it launcher....

 

[Outbreak]

Yeah, one of the other previews mentioned something about how hidden information is still intact through computers, etc. Glad to hear it. (edit: It did sound as though one of the few truly well done things in Oblivion though was background information?)

Too bad though about the chipper. I was kind of hoping it was something new, but from what we heard here, it sounds like there will be several interesting things you can build other than just Happy McWeapon Kits.

EDIT: You were right. I double checked in that Survival Guide, and there it was as part of the Rock-It Launcher. Something else I forgot about though...has anyone caught a picture of one of those 'Super Mutant Behemoths'??? It didn't register with me the first time I saw it. I don't know if that's necessarily stupid, but it's certainly extreme.

 

[Humpsalot]

Commenting on parts 1 and 2, side quests that present multiple more side quests seems overwhelming and sounds like someone might get lost and weighed down in the tidiness of it all.

Named characters. Sigh, pete says they are not part of a quest, but im sure most of them are somewhere down the line, maybe you will be granted a retroactive complete on those quests when you do find the person who was going to give them to you, but probably since they guy is dead that the problem someone was having with that guy will have dissipated and he will no longer give you the quest.

All that on top of the lawbringer perk at lvl 18, if you are trying to hit a "high score" in karma you have to weigh killing that guy now and exploring vs waiting to kill and explore.

 

[Texas Renegade]

Ok, so you might miss out on a quest....To me it is kind of a good design bit if you go off and kill people and miss out on quests because of it. I mean seriously, if you kill the raider lord, he isn't going to be terrorising the countryside anymore.

 

[Outbreak]

And as much issue that has been taken with Beth's approach, or lack thereof, of consequences; here there actually are consequences for going out alone and taking out something without initial knowledge of it. Maybe the previewer was wrong, but I'd believe them in what they said, that there are characters like this who don't have an actual named quest attached to them as well. That doesn't mean you won't find information about them in a book or computer somewhere though. It's a possibility.

 

[Kindo]

Part 3 is also up, now. All in all a very interesting preview.

 

[Jebus]

) I disarm the bomb and earn a bit of positive karma -- Fallout 3's way of measuring deeds both benevolent and sinister. I'm not sure how much of the stuff I've earned; I just know that I've racked up some good karma. I feel good about it.

We could have been very obvious. The game has numbers all over the place for everything else; it wouldn't have been a big deal to just say "karma" and a number. But it's not really what karma is. Karma is more of an ambiguous thing; it's much easier for us to do without a number, but still have it feel right for the player.

A good thing. When I read that crap about being able to re-boost your karmy by donating money to church, I feared that Karma would simply be another achievement-stat, like 'mutants slaughtered', 'rocks collected' and 'whores fucked'.

This feels better.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

It sounds like the problem of giving the player way too much loot from Oblivion is making a reappearance. This is one of the reasons not to give players the armor of opponents, it fills up their inventory needlessly. Traditional CRPGs benefit from limited inventories but most if not every ARPG suffers from it as it takes away time from the focus and fun of the game (running around killing stuff) by forcing the player to constantly go back to town due to excessive loot. I foresee Fallout 3 possible suffering from being a combination of the two genres and thus needing but suffering from a limited inventory. Of course this guy didn't sound like he was ever going to town but it still seems like it might arise as a problem.

In the nearby town, I find a dilapidated Streamline trailer -- the remains of Dot's Diner.

A reference to Reboot?

You've got to be careful about that, because it won't be there when you get back. You stick stuff in a Nuka Cola vending machine and come back 10 days later and it's probably gone. Don't leave stuff in containers that don't belong to you, because it may not be there when you come back.

This is a mixed bag, I like that stuff disappears but I think it would be better if it did it progressively instead of all at once (my guess is that it's done by an internal reset).

Nearby I discover a work table -- a place where these ingredients can be crafted into useful tools. But I lack the skills or schematics to create anything.

Work tables tend to be a pain in the ass but it can work if they are put in logical places (again, depends on the focus of the game), unfortunately that does not sound like it will be the case.

You can find named folks all over the place. They're not necessarily quest targets; they're just named folks. There are scavengers wandering around the world. It's the same as in the school: When you go in that elementary school, there are a bunch of random raiders, but then you find a named guy -- a boss guy -- and he has the key that gets you down to the basement. But it's a self-contained [quest]. There's nobody who says, "Can you go to Springdale Elementary and get rid of this guy?" It's set up as its own self-contained little story. And if you look at a computer terminal, then the leader of these guys will talk about what they've been up to.

So are only boss enemy NPCs named and the rest just named "Raider"? Or are only NPCs who talk to you and tell you their name named (this would make sense)?

I crouch into a squat and sneak up behind Briggs as he patrols the tunnels outside his lair. When I get as close to him as I can, I use VATS to crack several assault rifle rounds at him. I'm granted a "surprise attack" bonus

Were their surprise attacks in previous games? They do make sense as they represent an enemy's inability to react to your presence/actions in TB or RTwP games but not so much in RT games.

On Briggs' workbench, I discover a press for crafting Wondermeat. I cook up a slab of the stuff by combining one slice of mole rat meat with a tube of glue.

Not sure why crafting food would be in the game (it's a somewhat JRPG staple [and works for them but not so much rpcs]), I can see cooking food but crafting it with glue and meat? How is that any more restorative than just eating the meat? I'm not a big fan of food restoring health but when it does, it should only restore small amounts at best (never as good as healing items like stimpaks).

This preview is based on early code of the game for the Xbox 360. The game was played in one sitting at a media event.

Not sure how this can still be said with less than a month to release. It isn't early code for the game, it's prerelease code.

 

[recombined]

"The horror collapses to the ground quivering"

So, who wants to bet that this 'feature' is not a level of detail but merely lame physics.

...(excessive) "combat knives and police batons"

Bad Deus Ex flashbacks...

Also... two items, whether combined or not, should amount to the same total weight.

 

[generalissimofurioso]

On Briggs' workbench, I discover a press for crafting Wondermeat. I cook up a slab of the stuff by combining one slice of mole rat meat with a tube of glue.

Meat and Glue?

Bowel obstruction here we come!

 

[Outbreak]

So, who wants to bet that this 'feature' is not a level of detail but merely lame physics.

From what I saw from the videos, I think you're right, there really aren't any nice death animations to speak of to help along the ragdoll. (it's not going to be like GTA IV with that Euphoria engine) The quivering though may have been there. I thought I noticed it when the player took a Molerats head off. It registered with me cause I wasn't expecting it. I could be wrong though.

This is a mixed bag, I like that stuff disappears but I think it would be better if it did it progressively instead of all at once (my guess is that it's done by an internal reset).

I wasn't sure about this either. It's realistic in a sense, but at the same time, I really enjoyed being able to make a base out of anything. Now that's gone, forcing you to use the 'safehouse' aspect. Let's just hope then they have some interesting homes, etc. you can get besides only those first two.

lol, and I didn't know what the hell you were saying when it came to the different classes of RPGs. The only three tags I really know are RPG, RTS and MMORPG. All I know is that I like the sneak attacks and food crafting.

 

[mandrake776]

Also... two items, whether combined or not, should amount to the same total weight.

So the only way to combine items should be to use every part of both of them?

 

[UncannyGarlic]

This is a mixed bag, I like that stuff disappears but I think it would be better if it did it progressively instead of all at once (my guess is that it's done by an internal reset).

I wasn't sure about this either. It's realistic in a sense, but at the same time, I really enjoyed being able to make a base out of anything. Now that's gone, forcing you to use the 'safehouse' aspect. Let's just hope then they have some interesting homes, etc. you can get besides only those first two.

Oh god, I hope that you don't get more than one. One is bad enough, especially with the way you get it in Megaton (Tenpenny Tower makes some sense). That said, I agree that it was cool to be able to turn anyplace into your own and if they wanted to give you a base then I think that would have been the way to go about it. They could have you capture a raiders base or some good organization's base and have you establish it for your people and gain access to the armory and stuff.

lol, and I didn't know what the hell you were saying when it came to the different classes of RPGs. The only three tags I really know are RPG, RTS and MMORPG. All I know is that I like the sneak attacks and food crafting.

CRPG - Computer Role-playing Game
Traditional CRPG - 80s-90s CRPGs for the most part; games like: Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Gold Box games, ect.
ARPG - Action Role-playing Game (Diablo, Oblivion [though it wasn't sold as such], ect)
WRPG - Western Role-playing Game (don't remember if I removed this or not)
JRPG - Japanese Role-playing Game (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, Tales of..., ect)

Also... two items, whether combined or not, should amount to the same total weight.

So the only way to combine items should be to use every part of both of them?

I think the point is to have stuff left over? It's really a stupid system as it encourages hording weapons and makes no sense.

 

[Texas Renegade]

I actually think the quivering is just part of his story telling, rather then somethign he actually saw.

 

[Outbreak]

Oh god, I hope that you don't get more than one. One is bad enough, especially with the way you get it in Megaton (Tenpenny Tower makes some sense). That said, I agree that it was cool to be able to turn anyplace into your own and if they wanted to give you a base then I think that would have been the way to go about it. They could have you capture a raiders base or some good organization's base and have you establish it for your people and gain access to the armory and stuff.

lol, I don't mind if there were multiples, but I'd like a choice of what I take or don't take beyond the initial ones. Having a multiple safehouse setup that you earn like medals, like GTA, would be too gamey. I'd hate to have to keep making a choice like, "I want to live in an apartment, so I have to kill this guy." or "I want to live in a house, so I have to kill the other guy." Just let me purchase one or take one from some dude.

Yeah, that would be cool if you could 'capture' a base or a hideout. Some kind of old cabin out in the middle of nowhere would be kind of cool too.

Thanks a lot for the list as well.

I actually think the quivering is just part of his story telling, rather then somethign he actually saw.

I still swear I saw that, but I'd have to check and see which video it was in. Wherever the molerat was inside of this dark, corridor area and got it's head blown off.