Fallout 3 Hands-On #13

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
Orderite
Lucky 13, and we're really starting to break our fingernails scratching out the bottom of the barrel, here. Totally360.<blockquote>The active quest system from Oblivion makes its return which should please gamers who are familiar with that system. You will have a list of potential quests to complete and then you can choose which one to make “active”, at which point the map will help lead you where to need to go for that particular quest. The map is represented in the bottom left corner of your screen and will show you what direction your destination is in as well as the destination you are currently traveling. You can also use the Pip-Boy to help you on your quest as from time to time you might find a message from someone on there that you can listen to that will give you some back story on what is happening around you. Overall this game has a tremendous amount of promise and I really didn’t want to stop playing when my twenty five minutes was up. I wanted to keep playing and exploring which is the sign of a potentially great game. Bethesda also announced at E3 that the XBox360 version will feature exclusive downloadable content. Of all the games that I was actually able to play during E3 this title is definitely at the top of my list. Be sure to check it out when it hits store shelves this fall.</blockquote>Sun Media.<blockquote>I could hear Battle Hymn of the Republic playing from a tinny speaker somewhere up ahead, and in the distance a government-controlled eyebot floated into view. I wasn’t sure whether these round, hovering robots were hostile, but I took no chances: I drew my pistol and started blasting away at an antenna-like appendage labelled “combat inhibitor” on the eyebot.

My shots destroyed the inhibitor and the eyebot went nuts, opening fire on a hapless caravan guard who had wandered into view. The guard returned fire and destroyed the robot, saving me the trouble and potential danger of taking the thing on myself. Hey, works for me. </blockquote>Tech & Gadgets Editors' Blog.<blockquote>When an enemy appears, you can hit a shoulder button to freeze the action. You can then select the body part you want to shoot - with percentage points showing your chance of a successful hit. From here you can set up multiple shots - all on the same body part, or on different parts or even different enemies. It gives you a number of tactical decisions to make.

Do you gamble on the low chance of making a successful head shot, or will you go for the easier torso hit that leaves a greater chance of survival? Once you make your decision, you come out of the frozen mode and see your shots ping out in cinematic style (those head-shots are awesomely impressive). It all makes the combat modes in the game far more demanding far, beyond the usual random hammering of the shoot button. </blockquote>And GameZombie offers a video interview with the standard ditsy female journalist.
 
Wow those effects in GameZombie interview were annoying.
Anyway, although there was nothing new, I liked the mention about fatman being a prototype...hopefully it will be reaaaaaly rare and difficult to find and obtain, and there will be only one of those.And just a few bombs to load it with, like two or three max.I wouldn't mind fatman in this case.

And it looks cool in real world : ).
 
Totally360 said:
The active quest system from Oblivion makes its return which should please gamers who are familiar with that system.

Should it, now? I was under the impression that the quest compass is only second to the level scaling system on the "universally hated" scale.

Totally360 said:
You will have a list of potential quests to complete and then you can choose which one to make “active”, at which point the map will help lead you where to need to go for that particular quest.

... and that is, I believe, official confirmation that quest compass is indeed back annd works exactly the same.
 
Maybe they will include an option to disable the quest compass, or even better, allow the player to tag a spot on the map and let the compass point to that spot.

Recording all the quest details in the journal / quest log should be plenty. Guiding players through a quest, step by step, seems drastically oversimplified.
 
"Now when you do combat, I know that you can basically stop time and pick a, like a bodypart to shoot, or whatever, eh, and what made you guys come up with this concept?"

Nice, lady.

Not like nobody have done that before.
 
there were mods to disable the quest compass in Oblivion about 2 days after the game came out, I wouldn't worry about that.

The quest system allowing you to select a particular quest to focus on was nice though since it gave you all the info on that Active Quest page about the quest that you had obtained. Much better than Morrowinds old quest journal...and similar, if I remember right, to the way the Pipboy would show quest topics, and then you could drill down into the meat of each one.
 
PaladinHeart said:
Maybe they will include an option to disable the quest compass, or even better, allow the player to tag a spot on the map and let the compass point to that spot.
Nah, that would require a complete overhaul of the whole game since all dialogs are made with the quest compass in mind.
 
Why is there even a HUD to begin with? I mean... unless you're wearing some kind of over-eye projector... doesn't it break immersion?
 
Anani Masu said:
You take the time to call the interviewer ditsy, which I didn't really see, but don't mention the nausea inducing editing?

I'm sorry I offended you be not mentioning the editing.

I mentioned the interviewer being ditsy because I'm fed-up with these ditsy dames the media keeps throwing at us as if we should care. The GameSpot floor show was the absolute worst. So annoying.
 
They've already stated that in order to make the compass go away, you can hide the entire HUD.

You can also use the Pip-Boy to help you on your quest as from time to time you might find a message from someone on there that you can listen to that will give you some back story on what is happening around you.

not sure what to make of that...
 
I hate the quest compass.

I like ditsy girls.
whirlingdervish said:
You can also use the Pip-Boy to help you on your quest as from time to time you might find a message from someone on there that you can listen to that will give you some back story on what is happening around you.

not sure what to make of that...

Radio Stations?
 
The compass was moddable in Oblivion, it will be moddable in Fallout 3.

Maybe the Pipboy is going to work like a cell phone, in that you can be in and out of range of certain broadcast towers, where occasionally you get close enough to someone actually broadcasting something and your Pipboy can record it??...or maybe each time you get to a new town/hub, you load your Pipboy into the town "message board" and download any messages left for you?

I have no clue either...I see the usefulness behind it, but how that fits into the RP elements, we'll have to see.
 
whirlingdervish said:
They've already stated that in order to make the compass go away, you can hide the entire HUD.

Clearly something done on purpose because of the compass removal requests and not something left over from Oblivion.
 
whirlingdervish said:
not sure what to make of that...

There are quests you can pick up over radio. There have already been examples of that: At some point you can stumble upon someone's SOS signal, when you get there, the person's dead, but you can find some info that there could start a new quest. Yeah, groundbreaking quest for sure, but that doesn't mean that all radio quests are like that.
 
but those situations (finding peoples fallout shelters via mayday signal) wouldn't provide backstory other than "people died in a nuclear war" which seems like a given at this point..

it almost seems like they were trying to describe something else entirely, kinda like the holodisc style backstory info ala Fallout, but I don't want to get my hopes up.
 
whirlingdervish said:
but those situations (finding peoples fallout shelters via mayday signal) wouldn't provide backstory other than "people died in a nuclear war" which seems like a given at this point..

it almost seems like they were trying to describe something else entirely, kinda like the holodisc style backstory info ala Fallout, but I don't want to get my hopes up.

Well, the guy at the home made shelter could be Fallout's Miles Dyson for all we now;)
 
They also said there would be news like radio broadcasts regarding your "exploits". One preview mentioned that you occasionally pick up enclave radio chatter that sounds important to the plot. Also I think the enclave president is supposed to broadcast "fireside chats" that may provide background info.

Stuff like that methinks.
 
Well, in System Shock and it's successors, they did use audio/video logs...I don't see why you can't have those in this game too. If Pipboy's/PDA's are semi-common, I wouldn't see why you couldn't end up culling a lot of information from various people you interact with/kill. That could be a literal treasure trove of possible side quests...peoples TO DO lists...
 
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