More previews surface as Bethesda tours Fallout 3. Telegraph.<blockquote>"Part of what makes Fallout great is the juxtaposition of this very happy, optimistic 1950s-esque view of life, pre-war, and then seeing it after things went horribly wrong." says Bethesda's Vice President of PR and Marketing, Pete Hines, "It's seeing those two things against one another that adds a lot to it. That everything is blown up but you still see this happy optimism and idealistic view of the world beforehand"
As I walked among the debris and the civilization that has risen from it in the 200 years since the disaster, it's easy to see what he means. Signs jovially inform the naïve population what to do in the event of a nuclear disaster and so-called bomb shelters house charred bones, becoming coffins. And while the world may change, humanity, it seems, doesn't. Among the people I encountered, familiar human traits of greed, violence, discrimination and religious fanaticism loomed large.
So while the political message in Fallout 3 is clear and intelligently defined, it's still a videogame that allows the player to have fun and play in their own way. "We don't shy away from being called an RPG." says Hines, referring to the game's stat-based core, "But from a certain standpoint it limits what the game is really about, to define it by saying 'you're just this genre' sort of says you can't ever be more than that. It's a big sandbox and you get to be whoever you want and do whatever you want."
This attitude to play means that Fallout 3 should appeal to a wide audience, its first or third person shooting enhanced by the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS). VATS allows you to pause the game and aim at a specific body part in exchange for 'action points'. The system works well during play, the limited usage meaning you have to pick your shots carefully. Do you aim for the head of the fast-approaching mutant? Or cripple the arm of a gun-wielding soldier? Of course, there is the nagging doubt that flicking into VATS may lose its appeal by the hundredth skirmish. It's certainly well integrated, but only extensive play will reveal it as a fresh, tactical addition to gunplay or a short-lived gimmick. </blockquote>SPOnG.<blockquote>Just like a classic RPG, you can level up in Fallout 3, with a number of points being given to you to assign to different skills when you do. These skills are required for certain side-quests and dialogue options – a good ability in the ‘Speech’ department will allow you to wing your way through tricky situations, and even lets you barter for more cash for a quest if you want to get greedy.
The Pipboy 3000 is a gadget that your character has that controls your level-up options. It also holds important items such as maps, weapon selection and quest directives. When I used it, I was able to select ‘Perks’ – extras that can be selected when you level-up, ranging from additional dialogue options when speaking to children, to my favourite, ‘Bloody Mess’. You can imagine what happens when that is active – a humourous display of giblets and limbs exploding all over the place when you make a kill. It’s most effective in the slow-mo cutscenes during VATS battles.
(...)
I am slightly curious though. Will we see any of the strange pop-culture references that adorned Fallout 2 – and that appeared to be homaged in Bioshock? Pete’s quite adamant that there isn’t a chance.
“No fucking way. Absolutely not. With our experience on RPGs like Elder Scrolls, things like Lore and Canon we hold very dear. We get anal about which buildings should be in Washington DC, with giant piles of books on architecture on DC and we ask what year buildings were made. 1955? It’s out – it wouldn’t have been in this universe. If we’re going to be anal about the landscape in this game, we’re certainly not going to make jokes about stuff that would not have been part of this world at all.”</blockquote>TVG.<blockquote>You'll be glad to hear that Bethesda is demonstrating the same visual prowess in Fallout 3's game world that they did in Oblivion's. Cast your mind back to those expansive fantasy vistas of forests rolling across hillsides, a castle sitting on the horizon, and lakes glistening in the sunlight. Now replace the forests with barren hillsides, the castle with the ruins of a city, and the lakes with shallow pools of radioactive water. Keep in mind, though, that Bethesda has not lost any of the vast expanses and epic scope of their game world in this apocalyptic Fallout universe. It may be a lot bleaker in appearance, but it's still as visually appealing to the gamer as Oblivion was, if not more. What's more, Bethesda has incorporated the visual style of a paranoid 1950s/60s America - that was present in the original games - in everything from vehicles to advertising banners. It's just a shame that there are loading screens between some portions of the game world.</blockquote>TVG will have an interview later in which the multiple endings thing is cleared up yet again.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun (thanks to Ausir):<blockquote>This is probably an artifact of the shortened time experience, but the moments I loved the most weren’t the post-apocalypse gloom ones. They were the sense of playfulness to it. I was going through the game straight - that is, heading into town, chatting to everyone, taking a quest, going for a nice little explore and then getting torn apart by a thing with claws the size of my entire body.
(...)
But even as I was basically playing it seriously, I was attracted to the slightly goofy stuff. Which is, thankfully, goofy in exactly the right post-apocalyptic way you’d hope. For example, I had far too much fun drinking from the toilet. Sure, it was contaminated to shit - pun unintended, but I can’t actually bring myself to press backspace now - but it quenched the thirst and the juxtaposition of the hungry-slurping sound-effect and a bowl that hasn’t seen a brush since the nuclear war 200 years back is inherently glorious. It was almost as splendid as when I killed a bandit, stole his bondage-gear clothes, and wore them, complete with a pair of Gordon-Freeman specs and a baseball cap I’d found. I looked like Rick Moranis gone apeshit crazy, a glorious Mad Max 2 mess.
(...)
Oh - and there seems to be more conversation options than Oblivion too. There’s a lot of the classic three (Nice Guy/Mercenary Guy/Cunt), but alternates turned up too. Perhaps predictably with my like of slutting my way through RPGs, I picked the Lady’s Man perk which was soon put to work on a working girl. To get extra information. A little extra information I like to call “Sex”.
Actually, just extra information.</blockquote>
As I walked among the debris and the civilization that has risen from it in the 200 years since the disaster, it's easy to see what he means. Signs jovially inform the naïve population what to do in the event of a nuclear disaster and so-called bomb shelters house charred bones, becoming coffins. And while the world may change, humanity, it seems, doesn't. Among the people I encountered, familiar human traits of greed, violence, discrimination and religious fanaticism loomed large.
So while the political message in Fallout 3 is clear and intelligently defined, it's still a videogame that allows the player to have fun and play in their own way. "We don't shy away from being called an RPG." says Hines, referring to the game's stat-based core, "But from a certain standpoint it limits what the game is really about, to define it by saying 'you're just this genre' sort of says you can't ever be more than that. It's a big sandbox and you get to be whoever you want and do whatever you want."
This attitude to play means that Fallout 3 should appeal to a wide audience, its first or third person shooting enhanced by the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS). VATS allows you to pause the game and aim at a specific body part in exchange for 'action points'. The system works well during play, the limited usage meaning you have to pick your shots carefully. Do you aim for the head of the fast-approaching mutant? Or cripple the arm of a gun-wielding soldier? Of course, there is the nagging doubt that flicking into VATS may lose its appeal by the hundredth skirmish. It's certainly well integrated, but only extensive play will reveal it as a fresh, tactical addition to gunplay or a short-lived gimmick. </blockquote>SPOnG.<blockquote>Just like a classic RPG, you can level up in Fallout 3, with a number of points being given to you to assign to different skills when you do. These skills are required for certain side-quests and dialogue options – a good ability in the ‘Speech’ department will allow you to wing your way through tricky situations, and even lets you barter for more cash for a quest if you want to get greedy.
The Pipboy 3000 is a gadget that your character has that controls your level-up options. It also holds important items such as maps, weapon selection and quest directives. When I used it, I was able to select ‘Perks’ – extras that can be selected when you level-up, ranging from additional dialogue options when speaking to children, to my favourite, ‘Bloody Mess’. You can imagine what happens when that is active – a humourous display of giblets and limbs exploding all over the place when you make a kill. It’s most effective in the slow-mo cutscenes during VATS battles.
(...)
I am slightly curious though. Will we see any of the strange pop-culture references that adorned Fallout 2 – and that appeared to be homaged in Bioshock? Pete’s quite adamant that there isn’t a chance.
“No fucking way. Absolutely not. With our experience on RPGs like Elder Scrolls, things like Lore and Canon we hold very dear. We get anal about which buildings should be in Washington DC, with giant piles of books on architecture on DC and we ask what year buildings were made. 1955? It’s out – it wouldn’t have been in this universe. If we’re going to be anal about the landscape in this game, we’re certainly not going to make jokes about stuff that would not have been part of this world at all.”</blockquote>TVG.<blockquote>You'll be glad to hear that Bethesda is demonstrating the same visual prowess in Fallout 3's game world that they did in Oblivion's. Cast your mind back to those expansive fantasy vistas of forests rolling across hillsides, a castle sitting on the horizon, and lakes glistening in the sunlight. Now replace the forests with barren hillsides, the castle with the ruins of a city, and the lakes with shallow pools of radioactive water. Keep in mind, though, that Bethesda has not lost any of the vast expanses and epic scope of their game world in this apocalyptic Fallout universe. It may be a lot bleaker in appearance, but it's still as visually appealing to the gamer as Oblivion was, if not more. What's more, Bethesda has incorporated the visual style of a paranoid 1950s/60s America - that was present in the original games - in everything from vehicles to advertising banners. It's just a shame that there are loading screens between some portions of the game world.</blockquote>TVG will have an interview later in which the multiple endings thing is cleared up yet again.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun (thanks to Ausir):<blockquote>This is probably an artifact of the shortened time experience, but the moments I loved the most weren’t the post-apocalypse gloom ones. They were the sense of playfulness to it. I was going through the game straight - that is, heading into town, chatting to everyone, taking a quest, going for a nice little explore and then getting torn apart by a thing with claws the size of my entire body.
(...)
But even as I was basically playing it seriously, I was attracted to the slightly goofy stuff. Which is, thankfully, goofy in exactly the right post-apocalyptic way you’d hope. For example, I had far too much fun drinking from the toilet. Sure, it was contaminated to shit - pun unintended, but I can’t actually bring myself to press backspace now - but it quenched the thirst and the juxtaposition of the hungry-slurping sound-effect and a bowl that hasn’t seen a brush since the nuclear war 200 years back is inherently glorious. It was almost as splendid as when I killed a bandit, stole his bondage-gear clothes, and wore them, complete with a pair of Gordon-Freeman specs and a baseball cap I’d found. I looked like Rick Moranis gone apeshit crazy, a glorious Mad Max 2 mess.
(...)
Oh - and there seems to be more conversation options than Oblivion too. There’s a lot of the classic three (Nice Guy/Mercenary Guy/Cunt), but alternates turned up too. Perhaps predictably with my like of slutting my way through RPGs, I picked the Lady’s Man perk which was soon put to work on a working girl. To get extra information. A little extra information I like to call “Sex”.
Actually, just extra information.</blockquote>
