Fallout 3 bits and pieces

Per

Per

Vault Consort
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Games Radar has a little piece snipped from PC Gamer UK:<blockquote>The vault you begin the game in, Vault 101, was built to remain permanently sealed. TV screens and the intranet still bombard everyone with messages about how dangerous the outside world is some 200 years after the war. The idea of Fallout’s first hour is to embed that single idea into you before you leave. To make you relax into the vault’s claustrophobia, to make you believe it’s your home, to imbue you with the same sense of paranoia as its inhabitants.

That way, when the plot finally sends you out into the scorched Earth, you feel a sense of trepidation. Think of that incredible moment in Oblivion when you leave the sewers and step out into the sunshine. Imagine that, only with a foggy, uncertain sense of dread. That’s more, much more than Oblivion with guns.
</blockquote>The page selectors at the bottom could lead you to think there's an infinite number of pages to the feature, but there are just the two, sorry. Also, Gaming Shogun joins everyone else in naming Fallout 3 one of the year's most anticipated games:<blockquote>The Fallout series is one of the best in all of video gaming history. It's sardonic vision of a retro-future turned nuclear is unforgettable. Apparently, others think this same way as it has been resurrected from the ashes of Interplay and is under development by Bethsoft(Oblivion). This time around it is a FPS RPG, which has stirred critical reaction on both sides of the fence. Personally, I am of the opinion that as long as the story is Fallout, it wont matter.</blockquote>I'll refrain from commenting on that last one, I'm sure someone will do it for me.

Thanks to Mr Lizard and Fallout 3: A post nuclear blog.
 
Games Radar has anti-"Oblivion with Guns" piece, really

They seem to jump to some pretty farfetched conclusions about the game's storytelling structure.

But whatever, the label is a silly simplification, I agree with them on that. Maybe if we call it "an Oblivion/Fallout/Gears of War hybrid with guns"...

No comment on Gaming Shogun. I don't even understand what they mean
 
Games Radar said:
The idea of Fallout’s first hour is to embed that single idea into you before you leave. To make you relax into the vault’s claustrophobia, to make you believe it’s your home, to imbue you with the same sense of paranoia as its inhabitants.
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So... Bethesda is going to try and keep you from going outside, despite the fact that all players will enter into the game knowing full well that they will (and are probably aching to) leave the vault because it's required to progress through the game's story?

I call BS on this, big time.
 
Given what I know, my impression is that Vault 101 will function like the Imperial Sewers in Oblivion: a disappointing and boring way to integrate character generation and tutorials into the main game. I hope the "first hour" comment is something pulled from someone's nether regions. Oblivion is fun for about ten hours or ten levels (whichever comes first) and if Fallout 3 is similar in that respect, well, damn, the first 10% of the game is going to be something to slog through, not something to enjoy.
 
No, the "first hour" bit is accurate, the Vault 101 sequence, from birth to when you leave at age 19, is supposed to last one hour.
 
Brother None said:
No, the "first hour" bit is accurate, the Vault 101 sequence, from birth to when you leave at age 19, is supposed to last one hour.
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Well, that's... depressing. It might be fun for the first play-through, but after that it seems like it's going to be a chore.
 
Apparently you will be able to skip this sequence the next time you play the game, starting from the point that you plan to escape the Vault.
 
Brother None said:
Really? Where did they say that, Dutch Ghost? I must've missed it.
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I could swear it was mentioned in one article, you only needed to go through that Vault sequence once, then when you are about to leave you can assemble your character.
 
I also heard that. I think you can choose to skip forward to just using the SPECIAL character sheet system, rather than going through the GOAT and all that stuff?
 
You guys going to have to source that, I think I missed that bit.

Also, looking forward to the next Earthworm Jim game from whoever bought the license, Stag?
 
Black Isle!


Afaik, Shiny is making it, but I don't think any of the original guys are there.

I just like Earthworm Jim, a lot. Probably the first game I ever played (that or the TMNT side scroller).


Edit:

Wait, no, it was cancelled.
 
Stag said:
Afaik, Shiny is making it, but I don't think any of the original guys are there.

I just like Earthworm Jim, a lot. Probably the first game I ever played (that or the TMNT side scroller).
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Really? Source that, too. I remember Interplay selling the license (Shiny never held the license, Interplay did, as publisher), but I don't think they disclosed who they sold it to.

The first Earthworm Jim was a great game. Exemplifies the grandness of the 16-Bit era animations, one of the best.

Could've used a save function, though.
 
The Dutch Ghost said:
Apparently you will be able to skip this sequence the next time you play the game, starting from the point that you plan to escape the Vault.
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I remember this. Found it here: http://www.madbrahmin.cz/fallout3/fallout_3/tpcg_issue2/tpcf2_07c.jpg
Right at the bottom Pete says that saving just before you leave the vault is a technique that'll be used by a lot of the people who will want a second play-through.
It's pretty stupid really. If they know people will want to do that, why don't they implement a 'skip tutorial' button?
 
PlanHex said:
The Dutch Ghost said:
Apparently you will be able to skip this sequence the next time you play the game, starting from the point that you plan to escape the Vault.
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I remember this. Found it here: http://www.madbrahmin.cz/fallout3/fallout_3/tpcg_issue2/tpcf2_07c.jpg
Right at the bottom Pete says that saving just before you leave the vault is a technique that'll be used by a lot of the people who will want a second play-through.
It's pretty stupid really. If they know people will want to do that, why don't they implement a 'skip tutorial' button?
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Yep, it's just like in Oblivion, you save just before character creation on the exit of the sewers/vault. Kind of redundant having both G.O.A.T. and a traditional char creation in the end, that lets you make a character that doesn't have anything to do with what the test said though.
 
Briosafreak said:
PlanHex said:
The Dutch Ghost said:
Apparently you will be able to skip this sequence the next time you play the game, starting from the point that you plan to escape the Vault.
Click to expand...
I remember this. Found it here: http://www.madbrahmin.cz/fallout3/fallout_3/tpcg_issue2/tpcf2_07c.jpg
Right at the bottom Pete says that saving just before you leave the vault is a technique that'll be used by a lot of the people who will want a second play-through.
It's pretty stupid really. If they know people will want to do that, why don't they implement a 'skip tutorial' button?
Click to expand...

Yep, it's just like in Oblivion, you save just before character creation on the exit of the sewers/vault. Kind of redundant having both G.O.A.T. and a traditional char creation in the end, that lets you make a character that doesn't have anything to do with what the test said though.
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It's more immersive that way.
 
Think of that incredible moment in Oblivion when you leave the sewers and step out into the sunshine. Imagine that, only with a foggy, uncertain sense of dread. That’s more, much more than Oblivion with guns.
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Funny, they're comparing it to Oblivious' sewers moment, which to me was uninspired at best, ooh a king died, ooh they were wearing cloaks, ooh I'm schared...

I've played enough DnD to see all of my digits of regicides, and Oblivious' was just a sad, sad attempt to try and impose a sense of loss.

I honestly think the text in the HUD on Fallout 1 left a far better impression, and made me chuckle to boot due to the fact that, well I'm a room hermit, so in that way it was kind of a twofold joke.

Think of that incredible moment in Oblivion when you leave the sewers and step out into the sunshine. Imagine that, only with a foggy, uncertain sense of dread. That’s more of the same, much more of the same Oblivion, now with guns.
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Fixed.
 
Mord_Sith said:
Think of that incredible moment in Oblivion when you leave the sewers and step out into the sunshine. Imagine that, only with a foggy, uncertain sense of dread. That’s more of the same, much more of the same Oblivion, now with guns.
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Fixed.
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I agree with you - as I was reading that quote, I was thinking to myself that the author's example doesn't really support his point. If anything, it makes Fallout 3 look more like "Oblivion with guns".

Per said:
Personally, I am of the opinion that as long as the story is Fallout, it wont matter.</blockquote>
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I'm afraid it does matter. If all you're interested in is a story, you'd be better off reading a book. RPGs should be heavily story-driven, but gameplay is important too. In this case, Fallout 3 is going to play nothing like the Fallout games of old. That matters.

I'm currently playing through Mass Effect, and while the story and character development is generally excellent, the gameplay is very hit-or-miss. How that game got so many perfect scores from reviewers is really baffling. Aside from the numerous technical glitches and extreme abuse/overuse of bloom, the combat is downright awful. It's occasionally fun, but the AI sucks and it feels nothing like an RPG. I don't think it's a stretch to call Mass Effect's combat broken, actually.

And as for the revolutionary dialogue system and the wonderful voice acting...well, it's pretty much your typical "good response, neutral response, bad response", and I find myself skipping through the long-winded conversations because I can read the text much faster than the voice actors can spit it out. I still don't buy the argument that voice acting makes games that much more "imursive".

Anyway, my point is that gameplay really does matter. A lot. I think that games like Mass Effect, Oblivion and Fallout 3 are RPGs for people who don't actually like RPGs. Developers have gone to such great lengths to remove certain RPG traits that they've deemed antiquated that these games end up feeling not like RPGs at all.
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