Gameplayer.com.au has done a piece looking back at Oblivion and noting flaws that should not be repeated in Fallout 3. Still odd how it takes so long to notice such obvious flaws, like this:<blockquote>Radiant A.I: This was touted as the best artificial intelligence program ever, and it turned out to be a little bit, well, arse. Demos of the game let us see people live their own virtual lives, retiring at night and reacting to the player’s presence in different ways. Upon the game’s release, the reality of Radiant A.I was that it was woefully underdeveloped.
NPCs stood around all day, or walked aimlessly between points. They stuck religiously to A.I paths and let you rummage through their sock drawers without repercussion. It also seemed to give town guards a special ESP ability that let them sense that you’ve stolen something (or murdered someone) and run from the other side of town to arrest you. Unacceptable… this needs a complete revamp for Fallout 3.</blockquote>Anyway, on to the bread and butter:<blockquote>Artificial Intelligence: All reports are that Fallout 3’s list of NPCs is much smaller than Oblivion’s, so there will be less people to interact with. What we hope this means is that your relationships with these characters will be much more believable. With around 40 different voices being used for Fallout 3, those embarrassing vocal mess ups we witnessed in Oblivion should be a thing of the past.
And while Bethesda is still going for the open world approach with Fallout 3, it looks like they are going about it the right way. For example, you will be able to hire NPCs to follow you and, presumably, fight for you. Will these characters be fully fleshed side-kicks with realistic situational dialogue? We hope so.
Enemy levels: Again, it seems like Bethesda has listened to the gaming community, with Fallout 3 having enemies that stay at their level. This is awesome news as it means that you will be able to revisit previous areas and feel like a complete superhero. It will also, we’re hoping, allow you to covet those unreachable areas of the game, where the monsters are just too darn tough. Bring on the ‘leave that for when I’ve levelled-up’ mentality.
Just Another Mod?
In order to distance itself from Oblivion, Fallout 3 needs to move away from the swords and sorcery combat engine; it needs to be more than just a well designed Oblivion mod – and it may just be doing this via V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), a combat system that will allow the player to choose moments in the game where they can pause the fighting, make targeted conflict decisions and queue up attacks.
It sounds like a hybrid between the real time hack-and-slash combat of Oblivion and Mass Effect’s paused action approach. Using V.A.T.S. will cost points for both the player and enemies, so it’s going to be quite tactical; do you use those last few points for that fairly low level enemy or save it up for Mr. Nasty Mutant?
V.A.T.S. will actually let you target specific body areas for attacks, and to rather gory effect if one screenshot doing the rounds is any indication – it shows a mutant’s head exploding in a shower of gibs. What V.A.T.S. will hopefully bring to Fallout 3 is a streamlined, turn-based feel to combat.
Also rumoured is a new health and radiation system, which immediately brings S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to mind. Actually, something similar to that game could work brilliantly. Imagine finding radioactive material that can affect certain stats, perhaps increase your attack strength or give you more resistance to radioactivity. We can visualise the ‘gotta get ‘em all’ collect-a-thon already.</blockquote>Link: Fallout 3 vs. Oblivion on Gameplayer.com.au.
Spotted on GameBanshee.
NPCs stood around all day, or walked aimlessly between points. They stuck religiously to A.I paths and let you rummage through their sock drawers without repercussion. It also seemed to give town guards a special ESP ability that let them sense that you’ve stolen something (or murdered someone) and run from the other side of town to arrest you. Unacceptable… this needs a complete revamp for Fallout 3.</blockquote>Anyway, on to the bread and butter:<blockquote>Artificial Intelligence: All reports are that Fallout 3’s list of NPCs is much smaller than Oblivion’s, so there will be less people to interact with. What we hope this means is that your relationships with these characters will be much more believable. With around 40 different voices being used for Fallout 3, those embarrassing vocal mess ups we witnessed in Oblivion should be a thing of the past.
And while Bethesda is still going for the open world approach with Fallout 3, it looks like they are going about it the right way. For example, you will be able to hire NPCs to follow you and, presumably, fight for you. Will these characters be fully fleshed side-kicks with realistic situational dialogue? We hope so.
Enemy levels: Again, it seems like Bethesda has listened to the gaming community, with Fallout 3 having enemies that stay at their level. This is awesome news as it means that you will be able to revisit previous areas and feel like a complete superhero. It will also, we’re hoping, allow you to covet those unreachable areas of the game, where the monsters are just too darn tough. Bring on the ‘leave that for when I’ve levelled-up’ mentality.
Just Another Mod?
In order to distance itself from Oblivion, Fallout 3 needs to move away from the swords and sorcery combat engine; it needs to be more than just a well designed Oblivion mod – and it may just be doing this via V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), a combat system that will allow the player to choose moments in the game where they can pause the fighting, make targeted conflict decisions and queue up attacks.
It sounds like a hybrid between the real time hack-and-slash combat of Oblivion and Mass Effect’s paused action approach. Using V.A.T.S. will cost points for both the player and enemies, so it’s going to be quite tactical; do you use those last few points for that fairly low level enemy or save it up for Mr. Nasty Mutant?
V.A.T.S. will actually let you target specific body areas for attacks, and to rather gory effect if one screenshot doing the rounds is any indication – it shows a mutant’s head exploding in a shower of gibs. What V.A.T.S. will hopefully bring to Fallout 3 is a streamlined, turn-based feel to combat.
Also rumoured is a new health and radiation system, which immediately brings S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to mind. Actually, something similar to that game could work brilliantly. Imagine finding radioactive material that can affect certain stats, perhaps increase your attack strength or give you more resistance to radioactivity. We can visualise the ‘gotta get ‘em all’ collect-a-thon already.</blockquote>Link: Fallout 3 vs. Oblivion on Gameplayer.com.au.
Spotted on GameBanshee.
