OXM article excerpts

[Moving Target]

Although: DOGMEAT?!? The hell? Still more evidence of absolute lack of vision and even a modicum of originality in Beth's mangled attempt to create a Fallout sequel.

Nah dude.

It's kind of a tribute and it makes sense. Dogmeat was inexplicably in Fallout 2 too, be it as an easter egg. Hell, Dogmeat was an easter egg to Mad Max, in many ways. And hell, Dogmeat even featured as "mutt" in Arcanum.

Maybe it's not terrible inspired to bring him back in Fallout 3, but whatevz, I'll be happy to have him back.

True, he was an Easter Egg from Mad Max, and showed up later in Arcanum in that fashion. But still.... that doesn't look like that dog, and they should have just come up with another dog name. If they'd done that, it would've been okay by me.

 

[bloody hypocrite]

Well, if you go by the Rad-induced model... there's no "real" problem with ghouls turning up anywhere highly radiated.

 

[Brother None]

But apart from that, I agree the ghoul is the weakest of the pictures.

You don't think the supermutant doing a mad backflip while his leg is being shot off is a bit off?

 

[Jiggly McNerdington]

I'm a sucker for ridiculous ragdoll unfortunately. I always smiled in the Hitman games when pistols akimbo would send people whirling 30-50 feet backwards.

 

[wyatt]

Don't worry thats just the dialog options for the INT 3 character......right?

RIGHT!


This is not going to be good is it?

 

[Dracon M'Alkir]

I'm a sucker for ridiculous ragdoll unfortunately. I always smiled in the Hitman games when pistols akimbo would send people whirling 30-50 feet backwards.

The physics engine in Oblivion actually pissed me off because when it came to organizing stuff in my house, one simple mis-step sent all of your precious shit flying at 30 miles per hour into the walls, falling behind your furniture, making it an absolute royal PITA to try to reach anything from behind that god damned dresser, and then to actually lay it back down on it's proper place without knocking the rest of your shit over.

Seriously, house management in Oblivion is a nightmare. It's like being mentally retarded and trying to move stuff while wearing hockey gloves.

 

[Dougly]

But then...how? All the ghouls in Fallout 1/2 came from the Necropolis Vault.

Was it ever established that every ghoul came from the Necropolis Vault?

If radiation is indeed the cause, I'd expect there to be ghouls from other sources as well. Most of the ghouls I talk to in F1 and F2 don't discuss where they "originated" from. It's possible that the "core region" in Fallout got a lot of ghouls from the Necropolis Vault, yes, but that also, in the immediate aftermath of the bombs, ghouls were created in other areas that were "hit hard" - and, over time, due to discrimination, they sought out their own kind and ended up clustered in places like Necropolis, Broken Hills, Gecko, etc.

 

[Jiggly McNerdington]

Yeah. The physics in Oblivion were fun in a lot of respects, but making your loot look pretty was not one of them. Back in Morrowind I got a kick out of doing silly crap like saving every gem and dwemer coin I found, that I would then individually throw in a pile in my house, just so I had a big sparkly pile of treasure. In Oblivion if you did that, you'd just end up with a big shit pile scattered around the room as soon as you bumped in to it. Never really stockpiled loot in Oblivion because of that, which was sort of sad as that was an aspect of Morrowind I got a kick out of. Had a shelf with every kind of daedric helmet and everything.

I fully expect loot piling to be lame in Fallout 3 as well, but the tradeoff of silly ragdoll and crap flying everywhere due to grenades and things would be worth it I imagine. Be nice if shotguns have enough oomph to knock people on their asses, too. Enjoyed that in Bloodlines, even though using a shotgun on a vampire wasn't the most effective thing in the world, you just keep knocking them back and advancing and get to feel like Ash.

 

[Brother None]

Was it ever established that every ghoul came from the Necropolis Vault?

In Fallout 1/2, almost every ghoul came from Vault 12. There were a few exceptions and a few faux-ghouls (Talius and Harold are not ghouls).

It's true that there could be ghouls elsewhere, sure. But the thing is, ghouls didn't just pop up when you irradiated a person. Most people just died. Hell, everyone outside of a vault either died or survived somehow, but none of them became ghouls. Only the people in Vault 12 did. So very specific circumstances.

 

[Serge 13]

1.This pic looks wonderful !

2.THIS ...IS NOOOOOOOOTTT DOGMEAT YOU MOTHER FUCKERS !!!
Was it so hard to make dogmeat look like the way he originally was !?

3.This Is a Zombie, Not a Ghoul ! did we have any zombies in any of the Fallout games ?! NO !!

4.Reminds me of the english dialogues in The Witcher !!! but this is not about a Translation .Their mother language is english so why the fuck is this written so bad !?

ENGLISH MOTHER FUCKERS !!!! DO YOU SPEAK IT ?!

5.Welcome to the Gayclub 101...play your cards right and i might show you my Jumpsuit collection !

 

[star]

It's true that there could be ghouls elsewhere, sure. But the thing is, ghouls didn't just pop up when you irradiated a person. Most people just died. Hell, everyone outside of a vault either died or survived somehow, but none of them became ghouls. Only the people in Vault 12 did. So very specific circumstances.

You still expect Bethesda to care about your puny canon issues? Ghouls are Fallout, just like Dogmeat, the BoS, nuclear explosionz, "funny" violence and the pipboy is. That's the only thing they're able to do, rip out some "front-page features" of the originals and put them into their oblivion multi-platform standard engine. The most work here is creating 3d models, textures, shaders and voice-overs. Everything else is just a bonus for them and definitely not a selling point to their audience.

 

[OnGame900]

Wasn't the official story on ghouls basically that for them the FEV virus got irradiated, meaning genetically damaged by free-radicals? Thus when it infected someone they got "evolved" but in a real sickly, genetically damaged kinda way? Hence their longevity and high HP, technically making them superior to normal humans in terms of survival. The whole point of the master kidnapping vaults was related, the people inside vaults weren't irradiated so they wouldn't fuck up the FEV when it infected them, so they would become true super mutants. That's my understanding any way.

The ghoul picture is absolute shit. Besides the fact that it's just a zombie, it's not even scary.

But I will admit that some of the other screens do actually make me want to play the game sometime. Maybe when it's on a 50% sale at BigLots, three months after its release.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Ignoring anything else and restraining from yet another useless and tiresome bitching session, i need to point out one quote that seems almost too appropriate to this whole deal.

"It's so depressing that you have to see the humor in it," says Pagliarulo.

Ain't that an insigtfull description to what is virtually happening all the past 4 years here on NMA and ''glittering gems'' fallout comunity at large.

 

[Black]

When I saw this ghoul all I could think of was "need more skin" erm, I mean "brains!".
So, Ghouls are new zombies?

 

[star]

4.Reminds me of the english dialogues in The Witcher !!! but this is not about a Translation .Their mother language is english so why the fuck is this written so bad !?

ENGLISH MOTHER FUCKERS !!!! DO YOU SPEAK IT ?!

Remember, you get this book at your 10th (?) birthday, so my guess is they tried to write it like a book for kids, simple language, short sentences and all this.. I don't like it very much either (this whole childhood, "press A to say 'dada'"-thing), but whatever...

 

[Brother None]

Wasn't the official story on ghouls basically that for them the FEV virus got irradiated, meaning genetically damaged by free-radicals?

No, that was the Chris Taylor version. There are two stories of the ghoul's ascendancy, both equally canon. Tim Cain said radiation, Chris Taylor said FEV. We generally prefer Tim Cain's explanation and it looks like Bethesda agrees.

2.THIS ...IS NOOOOOOOOTTT DOG MEAT YOU MOTHER FUCKERS !!!

I can't tell from that angle. Dogmeat was supposed to be Mad Max' dog:

This dog looks like it's got more terrier in it, but you can't tell.

 

[Serge 13]

Remember, you get this book at your 10th (?) birthday, so my guess is they tried to write it like a book for kids, simple language, short sentences and all this.. I don't like it very much either (this whole childhood, "press A to say 'dada'"-thing), but whatever...

Still it's written very bad !
"I make my friends all luagh and smile, and never want to hate !"
?!
and never want to hate ?!!!
that last part makes the poor kid confused !

 

[Stag]

Fuck that zombie, fuck that book, and that cafe, that's not impressing me either.

Last pic is pretty awesome, though. I wonder why...maybe it's the fact that the palette consists of more than shit, green shit, vomit, and bloody piss.

Dogmeat one is ok, though it could be better.

 

[Icehearted]

The vault image didn't seem too bad to me. Has that 50s era thing they thump on about preserving, but has a clinical lab look to it too. The environments in general look pretty nice. Faces look miles better than the cartoonish and ugly mugs we've seen in Morrowind and Oblivion. Weapon repairs sound retarded (Oblivion made us carry a bunch of hammers why?), I saw no further mention of toilet water but remain pessimistic, and the mini-nuke description gave me douche-chills. Beheading an old lady and then talking to the severed head isn't comical, it's just a weak attempt at shock.

When they talk about over-the-top violence with exploding flesh and body parts flying around I'm reminded of Perfect Dark Zero. If you've never played that game (I barely have) it's got a strange mechanic where when you kill someone inexplicably large amounts of doodads come flying out of them. Seriously, you shoot someone and when they die 8 buckets of metal and plastic whatnots fly out of them like an erupting junkyard. I keep seeing the same thing happening here. Inordinate amounts of meat fling out of people every time you shoot something off of them.

Dogmeat is now trivialized, period. The bottle cap lunch box bomb sounds flat out stupid. Zombie ghouls, there's nothing I can really say to top what they already have themselves.

 

[simdude]

The feral ghoul devolved into zombie looks like something from an "Iron Maiden" t-shirt.
And the mutant has a 95% chance for a head shot while only 55% for a torso shot and 9% for a shoulder(?) shot ?

And 6% for a fire hydrant shot. What happens if you hit the hydrant ?

P is for Perception, it makes my eyes bulge out when I peep thru key holes. Whatever it's inside won't even know it's been spotted so I'm always one step ahead. (sorry, couldn't help not doing my own version of a letter description)