There's probably a few more on the horizon, but at least the beach fronts are taken. Voodoo Extreme.<blockquote>The demo started with us leaving the Vault; we just had to press a little button and off we went. As you might imagine, being an underground dweller for most of our life, the glare at first was overwhelming. After we rubbed the bloom from our eyes, we ventured forth into the wasteland to see what sort of trouble we could get into. We only had 30-minutes, so there was a limit to what havoc we could create, but I managed to explore the surrounding area a bit, enter a town, talks to a bunch of NPCs, collect a few new weapons and other items of interest, get a couple quests and of course, kill a bunch of radioactive critters.</blockquote>Collider.<blockquote>When outnumbered or outgunned, all you have to do is press the V.A.T.S. button, and BAM – you’re character is swallowed up by RPG turn-based convention. It’s actually really cool. Time stops, your enemies around you freeze, and you are free to specifically target all of your enemies’ weak spots until your Action Points run out. It’s pretty intuitive and fantastic, when it comes down to it. You’ve a certain number of Action Points at any given time, and you can choose which areas of your enemies’ bodies to concentrate on, giving you the advantage in battle. Pretty rad. Right as the time was up on the demo period, V.A.T.S. helped me score a strategic shot that took a wild dog’s head clean off. At this moment, I felt that E3 had given me everything I really needed to see!
The rest of Fallout’s RPG elements exist inside of your Pip-Boy, as there are plenty of stats, weapons, and armor to consider, as well as Skill Points to distribute when you level-up.</blockquote>Crispy Gamer.<blockquote>Talk is cheap. There are tons of quests to undertake and characters with which to interact. I only bumped into one talkative survivor in my journeys -- a reformed prostitute hiding in one of the few standing houses. The rest of the humans shot first and asked questions later. You can do the same if you don't mind earning a bad reputation.</blockquote>Rock, Paper, Shotgun (thanks Jabu).<blockquote>That it feels like Oblivion is a pretty important thing to note, I think. Because as a result (and I have to note that I played this with an Xbox 360 pad, not a mouse and keyboard) I didn’t like the real time fighting any more than I did in Oblivion. In fact less, because there was a great and immediate satisfaction to using Oblivion’s bows that the guns of Fallout (or at least, the ones from the early game) don’t have.
But that’s where the V.A.T.S system comes in. It is incredible. I refuse to believe anyone is going to play the game using real time combat when V.A.T.S is available. You see, V.A.T.S. turns every battle into an amazing cinematic event, and not in a lame way like a Final Fantasy game or something. The minute you spot an enemy, you choose your position to attack from, enter V.A.T.S mode, select the body part et cetera (classic Fallout stuff, you know the drill) and watch what happens. The cinematics are generated on the fly and delightfully satisfying. While shooting an enemy stalker (damn, er, just enemy) who is miles away with a pistol is a boring exercise in shooting at a dot, in V.A.T.S you’re able to watch as your bullets batter him with a pounding velocity, crippling his body parts or exploding his head [“or her head, obviously.” – Equal Opportunities Ed.] </blockquote>And Games Radar offers an editorial called E3 08: Resident Evil 5 VS Fallout 3 VS Left 4 Dead .<blockquote>Does it justify the hype it's been getting? This demo doesn't really answer that. Fallout 3 has been trading on two things – the heritage of the series it is part of and the fact that Oblivion was in many people's eyes the best RPG of recent years. Granted, it looks great and the VATS works, but it's very difficult to say anything other than that until we've had chance to play more in the comfort of our own gaming pit. Ed note: Our PC Gamer brother has done exactly that and spent five hours with it. See his impressions here.
Hype justified?: Semi.</blockquote>
The rest of Fallout’s RPG elements exist inside of your Pip-Boy, as there are plenty of stats, weapons, and armor to consider, as well as Skill Points to distribute when you level-up.</blockquote>Crispy Gamer.<blockquote>Talk is cheap. There are tons of quests to undertake and characters with which to interact. I only bumped into one talkative survivor in my journeys -- a reformed prostitute hiding in one of the few standing houses. The rest of the humans shot first and asked questions later. You can do the same if you don't mind earning a bad reputation.</blockquote>Rock, Paper, Shotgun (thanks Jabu).<blockquote>That it feels like Oblivion is a pretty important thing to note, I think. Because as a result (and I have to note that I played this with an Xbox 360 pad, not a mouse and keyboard) I didn’t like the real time fighting any more than I did in Oblivion. In fact less, because there was a great and immediate satisfaction to using Oblivion’s bows that the guns of Fallout (or at least, the ones from the early game) don’t have.
But that’s where the V.A.T.S system comes in. It is incredible. I refuse to believe anyone is going to play the game using real time combat when V.A.T.S is available. You see, V.A.T.S. turns every battle into an amazing cinematic event, and not in a lame way like a Final Fantasy game or something. The minute you spot an enemy, you choose your position to attack from, enter V.A.T.S mode, select the body part et cetera (classic Fallout stuff, you know the drill) and watch what happens. The cinematics are generated on the fly and delightfully satisfying. While shooting an enemy stalker (damn, er, just enemy) who is miles away with a pistol is a boring exercise in shooting at a dot, in V.A.T.S you’re able to watch as your bullets batter him with a pounding velocity, crippling his body parts or exploding his head [“or her head, obviously.” – Equal Opportunities Ed.] </blockquote>And Games Radar offers an editorial called E3 08: Resident Evil 5 VS Fallout 3 VS Left 4 Dead .<blockquote>Does it justify the hype it's been getting? This demo doesn't really answer that. Fallout 3 has been trading on two things – the heritage of the series it is part of and the fact that Oblivion was in many people's eyes the best RPG of recent years. Granted, it looks great and the VATS works, but it's very difficult to say anything other than that until we've had chance to play more in the comfort of our own gaming pit. Ed note: Our PC Gamer brother has done exactly that and spent five hours with it. See his impressions here.
Hype justified?: Semi.</blockquote>
