Fallout 3 Gamestar preview

[spadthebad]

supermutants, enclave and bos.
i predict the main quest will turn into;

join enclave and kill impure - OR
join supermutants and get dipped(?) - OR
join bos and fight above

kinda like in DeusEx:IW

 

[Bernard Bumner]

I came out of the E3 presentation with mixed feelings. Will Fallout 3 be a good game? Yes, it seems it will be, at least if you liked Oblivion. Will it become a good game for fallout fans? I don't know. I don't care about the FPP, the loss of turn-based combat and companions however hurts a lot. But still I'm full of hope, because...

So this guy seems to get it. And; he has concerns about what he saw, but is still hopeful.

...the atmosphere is fantastic.

This seems to be something of a theme in lots of the previews; that the atmosphere is good and appropiate. (If that is right, then the emphasis on scatelogical humour, gore, and gimmickry may actually be to do with the presentation of the demo anc previews, rather than the actual feel of the thing. Unless every journalist who's seen it is rather infantile and didn't really get it, after all...)

This is the kind of thing which allows me to maintain hope - many people who've seen the game, and even those with reservations about the changed mechanics and so forth, seem to like the atmosphere of what they've seen. Level design, enemies, quests, weapons could still change a lot, but if they'd simply completely missed the atmosphere, then there would be no hope.

 

[Brother None]

I'll have to see it with my own eyes, but I'm curious whether the atmosphere is just a neat generic post-apocalyptic or really good Fallout atmosphere.

 

[Sorrow]

From what I've seen on trailer, the city looked pretty Fallout - they remembered about Art-deco and even got the sculptures.
On the other hand Nuca Cola didn't look like Nuca Cola, but like Coca Cola and PA and laser didn't look Fallout.

I wonder if it's actually possible to define such thing as Fallout atmosphere. Each place in Fallout had it's own unique atmosphere.

 

[Bernard Bumner]

I'll have to see it with my own eyes, but I'm curious whether the atmosphere is just a neat generic post-apocalyptic or really good Fallout atmosphere.

Yes, of course it is very dfficult to know just how familiar any of the previewers are with Fallout, but in some cases these are people with enough knowledge of the games to distinguish between good and Fallout good.

From what I've seen on trailer, the city looked pretty Fallout - they remembered about Art-deco and even got the sculptures.
On the other hand Nuca Cola didn't look like Nuca Cola, but like Coca Cola and PA and laser didn't look Fallout.

In everything I've seen and heard so far, there have been at least as many points of concern as there have been positives; one can only hope that many of the negative details are temporary abberations.

Of course, in this case, "atmosphere" is much more than just the visuals, and has as much to do with pace and level design, character placement, and scripting, as just the look of it. It could look like Fallout whilst still utterly failing to retain the feeling of the thing, but equally, a few fairly radical visual changes shouldn't necessarily compromise the atmosphere. At the heart of it is the fact that, if they fail to capture the atmosphere of Falout, then they will end up with a generic and pointless product, no matter how many of the superficial accoutrements of the originals they shoe-horn into it.

 

[Crowfoot]

At least we're getting Radscorpions innstead of "Rat Scorpions" this time.

 

[Bezimek]

At least we're getting Radscorpions innstead of "Rat Scorpions" this time.

Yes but maybe in final version of F3 we will have Ratscorpions ( hybrids of rats and scorpions ) and Radscorpions ( "home animals" from F1/2 )

 

[Bad_Karma]

Yeas, they seem to have used the german word Talent (wich translates to 'talents') instead of the german Wort Fähigkeiten (wich translates to 'skills'), so i thought i should keep it that way.
By the way, there's more of the translation in the german news comments part of the forum.

By the way DarkPhilly is right, it's sometimes pretty hard to translate all nuances. I hope, i didn't loose to much of it in my part of the translation
And i hope my grammar and so on, isn't to bad in this translation

 

[Joe Kremlin]

I really, really hate dungeons. Seriously do not want to dungeon crawl.

 

[Sorrow]

I hate dungeon crawls too. I always preferred towns and cities.

 

[Nonagon]

I think, that if I made a Fallout game set in the EAST coast, any super mutant could not be hostile, simply that. Most of them I figure would have just settled down like Marcus.

And why the Enclave? Weren't they killed off? Or maybe Bethesda will try to say that D.C. is the Enclave's other main base or something(since the White House is in D.C.), who knows?

 

[metalboss44]

BOS on the east coast could make sense due to the story in Tactics... But taking the super mutants AND the enclave over as well? It seems all Bethesda talks about is how they are updating the series and the way the games were made is basically obsolete... So then why can't they create a new story with new factions based in the same world then? Sounds a little hypocritical to me.

 

[Max Power]

Attached on your left arm is the PipBoy3000, the legendary computer of the series, of which Todd Howard, lead designer of the game claimed it has "more graphic shaders, than in the whole Oblivion".

I'm getting a strange feeling that they care more about graphics than about any other aspect of the game....

 

[Ausir]

BOS on the east coast could make sense due to the story in Tactics... But taking the super mutants AND the enclave over as well? It seems all Bethesda talks about is how they are updating the series and the way the games were made is basically obsolete... So then why can't they create a new story with new factions based in the same world then? Sounds a little hypocritical to me.

They don't consider Tactics canon. Of the three factions, the super mutants make most sense on the East Coast since they were said to mostly have gone East in one of FO1 endings.

 

[Vault 69er]

They don't consider Tactics canon. Of the three factions, the super mutants make most sense on the East Coast since they were said to mostly have gone East in one of FO1 endings.

Though without the Master they're just trying to survive.
Bethesda on the other hand seems to want to portray them as the evil invaders. Christ, even Tactics potrayed them better than that.

 

[metalboss44]

BOS on the east coast could make sense due to the story in Tactics... But taking the super mutants AND the enclave over as well? It seems all Bethesda talks about is how they are updating the series and the way the games were made is basically obsolete... So then why can't they create a new story with new factions based in the same world then? Sounds a little hypocritical to me.

They don't consider Tactics canon. Of the three factions, the super mutants make most sense on the East Coast since they were said to mostly have gone East in one of FO1 endings.

I don't see why they wouldn't want to consider it canon. they aren't doing the fans any kind of service that way. Considering what they have shown us so far, It would just make more sense.

I agree on the super mutants being the most likely to travel to the east coast as well, but the BOS storyline in tactics should also be considered.

 

[I_eat_supermutants]

I don't see why they wouldn't want to consider it canon. they aren't doing the fans any kind of service that way. Considering what they have shown us so far, It would just make more sense.

I agree on the super mutants being the most likely to travel to the east coast as well, but the BOS storyline in tactics should also be considered.

I wouldn't consider any of that. Tactics was NOT cannon at all.
The story was actually the biggest disappointment to me about Tactics.
Supermutants themselves maybe, because of the mass migration at the loss of the Master in the end of Fallout 1.
The east coast setting doesn't make any sense at all considering, they are not taking Tactics or PoS as cannon though.
It's a case of wait and see, though I think they should have just takin Van Buren and made something out of that.

 

[Serge 13]

nuclear-powered classic cars standing,
which will explode into mini mushroom clouds when coming under fire and then radiate the it surroundings

Pathetic !

Will Fallout 3 be a good game? Yes, it seems it will be, at least if you liked Oblivion.

Well waddya know... we didnt !

 

[DOOMHAMMER]

Long time lurker here

My thoughts on this:

"-The character system called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is taken in without changes. "

Some SPECIAL mechanics changed when real-time was introduced in Tactics, what more in first-person?

SPECIAL is perfect turn-based

"-The Pip Boy is back, with new additional functions. "

"Attached on your left arm is the PipBoy3000, the legendary computer of the series, of which Todd Howard, lead designer of the game claimed it has "more graphic shaders, than in the whole Oblivion". The assistant will show information about your surroundings and information about your character."

PLOT HOLE! Vaults were issued standard Pipboys (2000) what new functions could you add? Unless, you could mod the Pipboy in-game, but that would be just, well, silly.

The Pipboy logs quests, archives films/cinematics and functions a an alarm clock, that's it. It isn't there to function as a memory on who you are, hence, the separate stat sheet.

And I don't need more shaders, especially for a MENU, thank you. Can't people make low-end friendly games anymore?

"-The talent and dialog system. "

Talent? Or a rotating minigame?

"-The fight system is action oriented. As alternative there is the tactical V.A.T.S variant. "

I do remember that Fallout had a COMBAT BOY to handle combat (*pssssh* *plip!*) not aiming

Whats the point in having a real-time pause when I could AIM IN REAL-TIME anyway?

 

[Jiggly McNerdington]

PA and laser didn't look Fallout.

To be fair though, there's new PA in every game. Kind of why I think this group of BoS might be a smaller offshoot is because of how crusty and beat up that armor looked, whereas in Fallout 1 they weren't happy with a suit because of a small weld.

Then again it's been a long time since Fallout 1 so maybe they have to cobble together parts for their armor more.

I really, really hate dungeons. Seriously do not want to dungeon crawl.

I gotta admit I'm a sucker for a dungeon crawl, though in a post apocalyptic setting it kinda boils down to things like the Glow and Sierra Army Depot. I really hope they've got some Glow-esque places in FO3, I was grinning like a monkey when I realized I had to use rope and radiation protection to explore a (Near) empty base.

"-The Pip Boy is back, with new additional functions. "

"Attached on your left arm is the PipBoy3000, the legendary computer of the series, of which Todd Howard, lead designer of the game claimed it has "more graphic shaders, than in the whole Oblivion". The assistant will show information about your surroundings and information about your character."

PLOT HOLE! Vaults were issued standard Pipboys (2000) what new functions could you add? Unless, you could mod the Pipboy in-game, but that would be just, well, silly.

The Pipboy logs quests, archives films/cinematics and functions a an alarm clock, that's it. It isn't there to function as a memory on who you are, hence, the separate stat sheet.

And I don't need more shaders, especially for a MENU, thank you. Can't people make low-end friendly games anymore?

I'm pretty sure that the citizens in Vault City had newer model Pipboys, since IIRC someone at some point gives you an upgrade (Data disc? Something) saying it's useless to them but should work for you since you've got an older model. It could just depend on when the vaults were made. I don't remember what vault number Vault City was from, but maybe Vault 13 and under had Pipboy 2000's and everything above had Pipboy 3000's.

Well I guess that isn't the case. Just looked it up and Vault City was vault 8, but they had later model Pipboys. MYSTERIOUS!