PC Gamer US Lays Hands on Fallout 3, and Shacknews too

[whirlingdervish]

You guys know FO3 would be banned everywhere if you could tear kids to pieces in that level of detail right?

Have you ever seen the Den in Fallout 2?

I distinctly recall being able to turn children into a fine red paste with a rocket launcher after they stole from me.

I could repeatedly screw a whore and steal my money back from her a few steps away, dig up graves to steal belongings off of their corpses, and in the process I could get my character drunk and loaded until he was completely worthless and had to rest for days before he felt sober again.

Then I could go pick a fight and kick that asshole proprieter in the bar right in the nuts, and then shoot him in the eyeball while he lay on the floor holding his crushed testes.

Yet I can still buy the game via dowload site or in the original box from amazon.


I believe the moral implications of those actions would be far more important to a ratings board than how high the quality of the graphics were while you were doing them.

 

[Brother None]

You guys know FO3 would be banned everywhere if you could tear kids to pieces in that level of detail right?

Really doesn't change the fact that how they are handling it is a pretty poor design decision.

We don't know how they're handling it. And pyrock is right, asking for killable children from an AAA title in the game industry as it is now is ludicrous.

 

[pkt-zer0]

I didn't really notice anyone pointing it out here, so might as well do it myself.
In the Gamesradar hands-on preview, they talk of killing two super mutants with a level 2 character. Level scaling in action, beefed up PC, seriously weakened muties, extreme luck, or some combination of the above?

 

[whirlingdervish]

If they aren't Killable, then why did they even bother?

Why waste their time and our time with that quasi-childhood-experience character creation system?

They could have just decided from the start that both were stupid ideas if you couldn't interact consistently with the children in the gameworld, and just not included them in the game at all, because nobody really is asking for them to be there.

I'm willing to bet that most of us, could care less if children were featured anywhere in the wastes (as long as there are other sources of rocks for per) and none of the console cattle have ever even seen a game with killable kids so they're oblivious to the whole thing.

It boils down to this:

we exect to be able to kill everything that lives in a Fallout game.

they chose to put kids in this one for some reason, even though they knew from the start that they'd have to be immortal.
(anyone remember the "why would you want to kill kids?" bethesda brand bullshit? I do.)

This is yet another of Bethesda's stupid choices of things to keep in the game instead of such important things as gameplay mechanics, perspective, consistency of setting, and atmosphere.

They kept the Enclave, Kids, and Jet and in turn ditched the cornerstones of the franchise like turn-based combat, real dialogue that is of some consequence, and a darkly humorous post apocalyptic world

That's what is ludicrous here.

 

[Per]

I'm willing to bet that most of us, could care less if children were featured anywhere in the wastes (as long as there are other sources of rocks for per)

Bears are the new rocks. If I ever get this working on my HP 2100, I'll be hoarding bears throughout the game, then drown the final boss in them.

 

[Anani Masu]

Bears are the new rocks. If I ever get this working on my HP 2100, I'll be hoarding bears throughout the game, then drown the final boss in them.

 

[Brother None]

Bears are the new rocks. If I ever get this working on my HP 2100, I'll be hoarding bears throughout the game, then drown the final boss in them.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=twQlpFrm5iM[/youtube]

 

[Ranne]

Yay for gay porn or whatever it is.

EDIT: Random Shacknews things I just noticed

After making my way through booby traps, including an exploding baby carriage, and being bludgeoned by a chunk of meat swinging on a chain...

So, it was off to my final quest: scouting the Super Duper Mart. [It] was crawling with raiders, but I’d lucked into a Stealth Boy device that rendered me nearly invisible for two minutes - plenty of time to drop live grenades in the pockets of a few raiders. Their “ants in the pants” dances, abruptly ended by detonation, were hilarious!

 

[Forhekset]

Damn, no sooner than I went scrambling for the link to the Bear Force One video, accompanied by a witty comment, did I discover that BN had beat me to it.

 

[Pope Viper]

This is unBEARable.

Had to be done, move along.

 

[raskijan]

You guys know FO3 would be banned everywhere if you could tear kids to pieces in that level of detail right?

Really doesn't change the fact that how they are handling it is a pretty poor design decision.

We don't know how they're handling it. And pyrock is right, asking for killable children from an AAA title in the game industry as it is now is ludicrous.

Well, we actually do, unless BS contradicts themselves. It's possible.

Anyway, when attacked, all children flee and any regular NPCs friendly to the children will instantly attack you, so it feels good in the game, in that there is an appropriate response.

I would have vastly preferred that they just tone down the level of chunksplosion to absolutely zero when killing children, since the main argument seems to be that you cannot represent killing children in that level of messy detail. Just don't have any mess...better than invincible kids imo.

Well, I'd actually rather there be none of the ridiculous bloody mess physics in the game entirely. Losing all your arms and legs is not an appropriate response to getting shot in the head with a sniper rifle, even with bloody mess. A more appropriate response would be, say, having the head and upper chest disappear in a fine red mist, a la the small gun single shot crit in F1/F2.

Really though, the whole child killing thing has been beaten so much it resembles a bloody mess kill resplendent with all of F3's logic defying stupidity.

 

[whirlingdervish]

So, it was off to my final quest: scouting the Super Duper Mart. [It] was crawling with raiders, but I’d lucked into a Stealth Boy device that rendered me nearly invisible for two minutes - plenty of time to drop live grenades in the pockets of a few raiders. Their “ants in the pants” dances, abruptly ended by detonation, were hilarious!

live grenades? in their pockets?
how long do these things stay primed?



I'm confused, but I really do appreciate their inclusion of the awesome stealth explosives kill method.

They kept something of definite value there, which will help the stealth character or the diplomats avoid traditional combat situations.



I wonder how common the stealthboy is in Fallout 3 and if it is rechargeable now.

(it was one of my favorite extraneous pieces of equipment in FO1, and other than a weapon it spent the most time in my active item slot when compared to any other item.)

 

[Brother None]

I would have vastly preferred that they just tone down the level of chunksplosion to absolutely zero when killing children, since the main argument seems to be that you cannot represent killing children in that level of messy detail. Just don't have any mess...better than invincible kids imo.

Wouldn't have helped, the game would still be rated R. No mortal children in games anymore, at all.

Considering that, you have two options, no children (the Fallout solution) or a form of immortality (Fallout 3 solution).

We don't really know how they handle it in detail, but all this "lol nuking immortal kids" stuff is kind of ridiculous.

 

[Matt K]

Wouldn't have helped, the game would still be rated R. No mortal children in games anymore, at all.

Considering that, you have two options, no children (the Fallout solution) or a form of immortality (Fallout 3 solution).

We don't really know how they handle it in detail, but all this "lol nuking immortal kids" stuff is kind of ridiculous.

I have seen you mention this a few times and I've been wondering where you've gotten this from? Do you think if BS releases mod tools (like you think they will) will the game be re-rated or banned because modder make kids killable.

I also agree with whirlingdervish that killable kids is a staple of Fallout and I would prefer no kids to immortal ones. As immortal kids really takes me out of the game while no kids would barely even register if I played it.

 

[Mungrul]

Why does everybody seem to forget about Prey when the topic of killing kids comes up?
That got rated "M", and I believe the argument isn't about Fallout 3 getting a "R" rating, but rather an "AO" one.

 

[generalissimofurioso]

Because alien ghost thingies killing kids is totally different than shooting them with lasers and teddy bears from hell.

 

[Lexx]

but all this "lol nuking immortal kids" stuff is kind of ridiculous.

With this you gave me a brilliant idea. Shoting with the Fat Man on a child and watch how high it can fly until it comes back to earth, just to stand up and fly again.

 

[Morbus]

but all this "lol nuking immortal kids" stuff is kind of ridiculous.

With this you gave me a brilliant idea. Shoting with the Fat Man on a child and watch how high it can fly until it comes back to earth, just to stand up and fly again.

Won't work, most likely. They didn't fly in oblivion either.

 

[golfmade]

but all this "lol nuking immortal kids" stuff is kind of ridiculous.

With this you gave me a brilliant idea. Shoting with the Fat Man on a child and watch how high it can fly until it comes back to earth, just to stand up and fly again.

Ugh, please, no....

Got so tired of whacking the shit out of an NPC in Oblivion, only to see it get back up and look at me like it's seen me for the first time, completely forgetting I was trying to end it's pixelated existence.