Fallout 3 Demo on Monday

2:1 odds that most of the demo is spent in face gen and/or listening to liam neeson

10:1 odds that at some point a vital npc is knocked unconscious by a nuclear car explosion

1000:1 odds that a robot horse drinks toilet water to heal itself
 
Section8 said:
Why am I not surprised the the first gameplay footage of Fallout 3 is part of a big turd sandwich of advertising revenue rather than being freely downloadable?
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Er because thats they way nearly every games developer works.

Look, I don't like Bethesda much, heck I've had to develop a game for them in the past, which means I had to personally deal with Todd. But if you are going to bash them, do it on things they do wrong, not on how every games developer / publisher operates.

Its an E3 demo, its unfinished, buggy code, releasing a demo to the public right now would be retarded. Developing a public demo is a waste of programmer time, and the developers hate having to make a public demo.

Anyway public demos are (if the developer is halfway compedent) only made from finished game code, and carefully hacked (usually by simply removing most of the game assets and scripts) to make sure you cannot possibly get the full game.
 
Haha funny how this quickly turned into an argument over what a 'Demo' is.

This is just the pre-recorded demo they're playing at E3 of the gameplay, and I assume it's being narrated by Todd Howard.
 
Hey arguments are fun.

As for Todd Howard narrating over either a live walkthrough or a pre-recorded video, that would be about par for the course for a Demo presentation at E3. Lots of devs do it that way.

As they say, move along, nothing to see here.
 
Zembar said:
(...)
Being a programmer myself(even if I'm not making games), I know something about how much precious time and resources goes into making demos. I can see how they just want to get the game out first, and then maybe spend time making a demo.
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After releasing the finished game they don't really need to spend time and money making a demo, piracy sites will do that for them and for free!
 
If you’re waiting for your chance to see Fallout 3 in action, G4’s got you covered on Monday. Beginning at 7PM (Eastern Time), they’ll be airing a two-hour E3 Preview Show featuring a Fallout 3 demonstration from Todd Howard.
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It means that it's a video focusing on certain aspects of the game, elements of gameplay, Radiant A.I, graphics, factions, character creation etc...It's most likely a pre-recorded ( scripted maybe ) video with Todd's voice-off hyping the game so the debate over the demo is rather, mmh, off-topic ? Also, the last hands-on were done on the final build of the game ( the FULL game ) with restrictions as regards what the journalists could do ( they couldn't play the main quest and should not reveal anything about it in their article ) during their two hours date with FO3.

Guys, always keep in mind that what you are going to see on Monday is most likely a magnified version of how the game actually reacts, especially as regards AI...
 
Guys, always keep in mind that what you are going to see on Monday is most likely a magnified version of how the game actually reacts, especially as regards AI...
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Yeah its not as if we will see the parts in which NPCs try to strike a conversation with a wall, or have a Ghoul or Super Mutant running around screaming "Ninininininininini".
 
The Dutch Ghost said:
Yeah its not as if we will see the parts in which NPCs try to strike a conversation with a wall, or have a Ghoul or Super Mutant running around screaming "Ninininininininini".
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The safety of a pre-recorded video...SO boring :twisted:
 
CodeZombie said:
Look, I don't like Bethesda much, heck I've had to develop a game for them in the past, which means I had to personally deal with Todd.
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Is he really as dense as he seems?

rant
Every video I've seen of him makes him seem to be a bit of a know-it-all with almost no grasp of what it means to be creative, which is usually why his games are so unimaginative. I mean, look at his track record. He seems to ride the talented backs of his programmers and artists (yes they are quite good) all the way to the bank. What Oblivion and the other Todd Howard-produced games amount to are beautiful paint jobs (for the most part) with an extremely mediocre gaming experience underneath.

For example, from the Todd Howard Wikipedia article:

"Todd has commented that he intends to avoid inclusion of mindless filler in any of Bethesda's games..."

Sorry, that "mindless" filler is what made Daggerfall so infinitely playable. There were so many ways of exploring and doing in that game, that it added to the replayability of the game. Todd's excuses for cutting out material are more factually based on the fact that he'd prefer a game looks better and appeals to even the dumbest players as opposed to having more substance and multiple paths with multiple rewards/punishments.

end rant
 
For example, from the Todd Howard Wikipedia article:

"Todd has commented that he intends to avoid inclusion of mindless filler in any of Bethesda's games..."

Sorry, that "mindless" filler is what made Daggerfall so infintely playable. There were so many ways of exploring and doing in that game, that it added to the replayability of the game. Todd's excuses for cutting out material are more factually based on the fact that he'd prefer a game looks better and appeals to even the dumbest players as opposed to having more substance and multiple paths with multiple rewards/punishments.

end rant
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hear, hear! And why again is it that numb nuts like Todd Howard are promoted and pushed to the forefront of game-design?
 
hailtotheking said:
hear, hear! And why again is it that numb nuts like Todd Howard are promoted and pushed to the forefront of game-design?
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Probably because the game he has designed and produced have achieved commercial and "critical" success despite their obvious flaws ?
 
Oblivion achieved success because it has great graphics and is easy to play, but there are several games that achieve that and contain more complex gameplay that also had commercial success. Morrowind was a much better game, had little voiceover work, large amounts of text, and was a bit more complex than Oblivion and achieved quite a bit of success. The key is to build upon what makes a series good and fix/remove what didn't work, while maintaining intuitive control and modern graphical adornments. Todd Howard seems to design games with the reverse philosophy.

Edit: Oblivion also achieved success on the coattails of Morrowind, a host of BS media hype, and countless unfulfilled promises in most aspects of gameplay (i.e. Radiant AI)
 
MrBumble said:
hailtotheking said:
hear, hear! And why again is it that numb nuts like Todd Howard are promoted and pushed to the forefront of game-design?
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Probably because the game he has designed and produced have achieved commercial and "critical" success despite their obvious flaws ?
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Yeah, and it´s damn short-sighted. Where´s the love and where´s the immersion?

entropyjesus said:
Edit: Oblivion also achieved success on the coattails of Morrowind, a host of BS media hype, and countless unfulfilled promises in most aspects of gameplay (i.e. Radiant AI)
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Butching something good, repackaging it as a dumbed-down/watered-down product and selling through hype and the aura of old. Hmm... in what other context did I just hear about that?

Isn´t it a bit like selling drugs to children? :P
 
Zembar said:
Also, the notion that "I've modded oblivion, and it's easy to simply create some barriers to close off the rest of the game" is a bit weird.
Wouldn't that mean that if they released a blocked-off version, it would be trivial to *remove* the barriers and get access to the entire game?
...
Being a programmer myself(even if I'm not making games), I know something about how much precious time and resources goes into making demos.
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My related experience does not come from making a nude patch for Oblivion. I have years of relevant experience in the game development field. Nobody said anything about leaving the blocked content intact. It would obviously get removed for a whole variety of reasons. Also, I was just entertaining the idea of a magical barrier used by the other poster. Even though I'd try to be a bit more creative myself, I found the proposal pretty viable: Oblivion is a fantasy game and I'm almost sure I saw some magical barriers when I took a look at the game two years ago. Also, may I remind you, the original game actually had invisible walls (yes, you just stop moving in the middle of a field) around the map borders - apparently to protect the player from wandering into the unknown, - so a visible obstacle would be a really big step for the hypothetical demo.
 
CodeZombie said:
:lol:

Thanks, I'll try that line next time I'm asked to work on one... :wink:
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Your welcome ;)
And you can use it for free, because I don't want royalties for my IP.

But I'm not sure that this will convince your Supervisor!
But then again, that's a truthful statement today as it was more than 15 years ago when I first played PAC-MAN on a PC, or even more, considering how easy it is today to find almost everything you want in the internet!


My opinion about demos in general, and Fallout 3 specifically (if anybody wants to waste time reading this):

If your not going to work on a Demo before you release your full game, why would you spend money on a Demo after that? Why not use your money and work on some real good patch , Add-on or Expansion Pack and give it to your loyal costumers? That would be a real good after-sales costumer service.

Don't get me wrong, I would much appreciate to try a demo of every game I'm thinking on buying, but if the game is already on the market, why bother in getting a demo if I can try the all game and then decide if I buy it?

10 years ago, I tried Fallout using a Demo that was offered in the Demos CD of the Portuguese PC-Format. That demo was my first contact with Fallout, even though I didn't had any idea what Fallout was! In those days I tried every demo that came in any magazine I would buy...
After that I tried to get Fallout, but Fallout 2 was already out, so, that was what I got. And now here I am :D That would probably not happen if I never had tried that demo, and I know for sure that amongst my friend I was the first to try that Demo and the one that started to tell everybody how amazing Fallout was (is)!

Bethesda will not produce a Demo before they publish Fallout 3, so what I can tell them is: Don't worry on doing that after you publish the game. I will try it as soon as it is available on my favorite online "store", where every day is a "give away" day :P

Then, only then, I will buy it, if they fulfill the minimum requirements that I have on my mind. But as I have a lot of doubts that they will be able to do that, I think I'll probably pass that.
Maybe I'll buy something "similar" but original, from Bioware, like Mass Effect. But I'll probably use my Euros to buy Neverwinter Nights 2 + Mask of the Betrayer + the new Expansion, because that I now will be worth every cent I'll pay for them... And Chris Avellon is a nice guy and he deserves that I buy Obsidian games, as I bought Fallout and Fallout 2...
 
I didn't like Neverwinter Nights 2 at all. In fact, we uninstalled the game without even finishing it. Listen to my anonymous Internet advice, get Mass Effect instead :)
 
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