GamerEdie said:
So, technically, you can avoid the cinematic by not using VATS. I don't know if you can actually turn them all off in preferences or something.
Bingo, the only way to avoid the long and (eventually) repetitive cinematics which are completely extraneous to gameplay you have to completely avoid the feature to which they are connected. This is a fundamental design problem, a completely cosmetic feature which takes sizable amounts of time was added and cannot be disabled. Was it not at least slightly annoying to have to watch the same long summoning sequences in Final Fantasy games (VII and X at the forefront of my mind)? Would it not suck to have a ten second, unalterable buy period at the start of every round in Counter-Strike? Would you not have rather had the option to skip the sequences by pressing a button or turning them off in the menu?
GamerEdie said:
But I'm curious, will you not buy the game or automatically put a hate-hex on it because it changes the story? I'm actually very interested in what your plans are about this game. Ignore it? Protest with your wallet? Try it anyway?
There is more than just story changes, there are fundamental design and gameplay (what a game is all about) differences (I would say changes but Fallout 3 didn't start with the design and gameplay of previous games and morph it, Todd himself has said they started with feedback from Oblivion). They also said that they made the game the way they make games, having played some of Morrowind and thirty or so hours of Oblivion, I can say that I do not like the way they make games. That all said, if the game looked like a quality product it would have been a good buy but the gameplay looks mediocre, average at best.
It combines two opposite gameplay types in a manner which results in gameplay which is poor at both (player [twitch] and character based skill). The AI is poor, not being able to decide whether it should flee or stay and fight, fights non-tactically (doesn't use cover), and has pathfinding issues (runs into a tree until you kill it or move so that it's path doesn't go through the tree). It also still has the quest compass, though it's been improved so it only holds your hand if you get close enough (based on Perception stat) and now also shows enemies. It has a broken attack mode (reduces enemy damage, decreases enemy speed, has greater chance to do greater damage) which is overpowered (VATS) and, if correct strategy is used, has the possibility to be easily abused (a previewer mentioned running backwards and/or hiding every time they ran out of AP so that they only fought with VATS, resulting in easy combat which resulted in no damage to them and which also has a sizable cinematic which is non-togglable. It's gameplay maybe fairly unique but it's poorly executed. 5/10
Now the game has been complimented on it's aesthestics repeatedly but in that department it's quite average as well. Their environments looks pretty good and are good for the setting except that they do not have enough variety, there are many images on these forums which show two identical houses with identical damage right next to eachother with identical model right across the street. Then you run into three identical ruined car models right in front of a gas station. NPC and character models are decent enough, nothing spectacular but pretty good. Then there are the animations which are extremely poorly done and highlighted in conversations with animatronic (think Pirates of the Caribbean the ride) animations. And finally there is still the excessive bloom issue carried over from Oblivion. All of this in official demos, the best of the best of their game and earns it a 5/10 on graphics (the animations being the most damaging piece).
Then we have sound, the 10mm Pistol sounds really strange (like a pea-shooter), the steam powered Railroad Gun (shoots railroad spikes) makes a "choo" after each shot, the event sounds (level up being a dramatic, orchestral fanfare and the quest sounds being a cash register "cha-ching") are unfitting, the music adds nothing to the feel of the game (outside of first leaving the vault) because it's all chosen by the player on his radio, radio music varies but is good quality for what it is, but the voice acting fluctuates from being bad to good, evening out in the middle or maybe slightly above. Thus, sound gets no more than a 5/10. The sound of weapon complaints are completely subjective but without them I still think the game doesn't deserve more than a 5/10 here as it still has strange sound choices (the cash-register noise is objectively a poor choice) and the music choices are fitting to the setting of the game but don't contribute to the feel of the game as they are player chosen.
All of these are based on previews (both reading and the video demos) so they are subject to change but, this close to going gold, they won't fluctuate more than a couple points up or down.
Then there are the fundamental different design decisions, goals, and approach of the game.
There is also my personal experience with Bethesda and getting suspended from their forums for saying that Todd is a poor person to put out there for PR because he has a bad voice for the job, has subpar public speak skills which result in a lot of "errs", misstatements, and poor word choice, and it all makes him look rather stupid, not a desirable for a producer of a product. Any company that not only is uninterested in customer feedback but punishes it is not a company that is going to be very in line with consumer needs. This has been demonstrated by many problems with Oblivion and bugs which were never officially fixed, only fixed by fans, and by their past blatant lies about Oblivion, the most notable one being the Radiant AI demo video which was completely scripted. There is a list (has some quotes listed that are borderline) on the RPGCodex but I don't have the link.
GamerEdie said:
And as for the accusation that I'm not professional because I didn't play FO1/2, I had exactly the same conversation with a listener of ours via IM just today. He said I shouldn't have been on the panel because I didn't play FO1/2. So, I ask you: Should I have gotten up from the table because Todd Howard sat down? Should I have not asked him any questions because I had yet to earn the right to ask a question, despite the fact that I played the game that afternoon? Should I have not asked the question about existing fans at all and ignored something I know upsets people? Keep in mind, I had no idea he'd be there until literally MOMENTS before we started streaming.
Indeed, I'm one to believe that a journalist who has no knowledge of the franchise should always comment on and review the game as they should have minimal or, ideally, no preconceptions about what the game should be. Ideally, they would be teamed up with someone who has experience with past games so that there could be questions and comments about the game from both perspectives which would ideally be objective but should at least balance out to showing both sides of the story.
The primary problem with your involvement was that you had a jaded view of the fans and made a poor assumption about what they are generally like. You've repeated that view here which is that most fans are whiners, this stereotype is very similar to the prominent one which is essentially that Fallout fans are against any changes and want a remake/rehash of previous titles. Are there fans who fit into that mold? I'm sure. Is it an appreciable percentage of fans? No, in fact it's so small that I've not seen a single comment amounting to that desire on any of the boards I've looked on (including the news comments I've read).
Why then is this view so prominent? I don't truly know but I would guess that it's a combination of those people who are extremely optimistic and call critics "Negative Nancies" and some gaming journalists whose pockets are padded with Bethesda's money, thus try to make the opposition sound like something so radical and extreme that they are beyond reason. The second group needs no more expansion but the first group are the same people who commonly will deny, rationalize, or marginalize flaws in things they love or enjoy because they don't want to admit that their favorites are flawed. It can be hard to admit that a game one loves is riddled with problems because that means that it isn't fun, right? Of course not but coming to terms with the fact that an extremely flawed product can still be an enjoyable one for one individual, and terrible for another, is hard for some people to come to grips with.
Brother None said:
I don't think the phrase "we have no current plans for a mod kit" has ever passed by. Rather, Bethesda seems to not currently be working on it and is not confirming or denying plans for a mod kit.
Odds are it'll surface eventually. Just not on release day.
I do think that it's worth mentioning that they have announced that they are already working on DLC but have yet to start work on the CS. Will it be released? It's likely that sometime down the road, likely at least a year from now, it will be. Will it be free? Could go either way but I would guess not as it would sell well and be an excellent addition (financially speaking) to a full expansion.
