Another European hands-on preview written in a language that hardly anyone understands, so here are the notes and translations by Ausir:<blockquote>I spent a bit more than half an hour with the newest Bethesda production. I walked through the Wasteland, I looked through the Pip-Boy and caused lots of trouble in the town of Megaton. What are my impressions? Hm. I was asked about it by Todd Howard. I lost my tongue for a moment, and, with a feeling of guilt, I mumbled that I expected something more.</blockquote>Some new bits and comments on the old ones:
* Our items are divided into 5 categories - weapons, clothes (including armor), chems, misc and ammo. He found a baseball cap, in which the PC looked a bit silly.
* The only radio station he was able to catch was Enclave Radio - the patriotic music sounds atmospheric, but does not fit the convention too well.
* The PipBoy also has a list of achievements, such as "corpses eaten", "Mysterious Stranger visits" and "Bobbleheads found".
* He finds a road sign to Megaton and a moment later encounters the first NPCs.
* The dialogue engine is 100% the same as in Oblivion. We walk up to the character, press the action button and the game world freezes. We see the stiff interlocutor in the middle of the screen and select our sentences. The facial movements are lifeless, the voices are "theatrical", it all looks artificial and "turn-based". It's not about mechanics, it's about the presentation, especially compared to Mass Effect.
* The first character encountered is Micky - a beggar begging us for water. The previewer refuses.
* The next one is a merchant named Crow. Aside from bartering goods for bottlecaps, he can also repair items.
* The next NPC has nothing to say. When approached, he only has a generic line. Just like in Oblivion.
* Next he finds a brahmin with some trunks, and a dead giant ant. He can't find a living one, but encounters a group of mole rats.
* Time to enter Megaton. The PC is greeted by sheriff Lucas Simms. He's not nice, so the previewer selects the most aggressive answers. It eventually leads to him being threatened and then to combat. He kills the sheriff using VATS.
* He notes that if EVERY opponent killed in VATS will have a five-times-too-long death scene then it's not his thing. By the way, he doesn't think he's seen a game at E3 that did not include Bullet Time. Heh.
* After killing the sheriff, all the people of Megaton take out their weapons and go after the PC. There are too many enemies, so he goes to a nearby building. The locals go after him. He goes upstairs, taking someone's possessions from their closet on his way up. They get him and he doesn't have much of a chance in a 4-to-1 combat. He runs out of VATS Action Points quickly and he doesn't have enough space to maneuver in RT. He dies.
* He repeats the above a few times. Turns out that the only way to make peace with the locals is to leave the town for some time - the more serious the crime, the longer it takes for the townsfolk to forget it.
* He finishes with trying real time combat with some mole rats. For him it's too much of an FPS, and depends on the player's skills too much. The most effective technique is to run backwards while shooting at the rat. It will probably be more difficult with stronger opponents, but there's lots of opportunities to cheat the AI.<blockquote>It's too early to give my final opinion on Fallout 3, but you know my personal feelings. There's lots of cool little things and solid RPG craft, but... I lost all illusions I had. Fallout is no longer Fallout - it's a post-nuclear version of Oblivion. For good and bad, as Oblivion is a great game and Bethesda is one of the best RPG developers on the market."</blockquote>Dropped into our newsbox by someone who forgot to name the source.
* Our items are divided into 5 categories - weapons, clothes (including armor), chems, misc and ammo. He found a baseball cap, in which the PC looked a bit silly.
* The only radio station he was able to catch was Enclave Radio - the patriotic music sounds atmospheric, but does not fit the convention too well.
* The PipBoy also has a list of achievements, such as "corpses eaten", "Mysterious Stranger visits" and "Bobbleheads found".
* He finds a road sign to Megaton and a moment later encounters the first NPCs.
* The dialogue engine is 100% the same as in Oblivion. We walk up to the character, press the action button and the game world freezes. We see the stiff interlocutor in the middle of the screen and select our sentences. The facial movements are lifeless, the voices are "theatrical", it all looks artificial and "turn-based". It's not about mechanics, it's about the presentation, especially compared to Mass Effect.
* The first character encountered is Micky - a beggar begging us for water. The previewer refuses.
* The next one is a merchant named Crow. Aside from bartering goods for bottlecaps, he can also repair items.
* The next NPC has nothing to say. When approached, he only has a generic line. Just like in Oblivion.
* Next he finds a brahmin with some trunks, and a dead giant ant. He can't find a living one, but encounters a group of mole rats.
* Time to enter Megaton. The PC is greeted by sheriff Lucas Simms. He's not nice, so the previewer selects the most aggressive answers. It eventually leads to him being threatened and then to combat. He kills the sheriff using VATS.
* He notes that if EVERY opponent killed in VATS will have a five-times-too-long death scene then it's not his thing. By the way, he doesn't think he's seen a game at E3 that did not include Bullet Time. Heh.
* After killing the sheriff, all the people of Megaton take out their weapons and go after the PC. There are too many enemies, so he goes to a nearby building. The locals go after him. He goes upstairs, taking someone's possessions from their closet on his way up. They get him and he doesn't have much of a chance in a 4-to-1 combat. He runs out of VATS Action Points quickly and he doesn't have enough space to maneuver in RT. He dies.
* He repeats the above a few times. Turns out that the only way to make peace with the locals is to leave the town for some time - the more serious the crime, the longer it takes for the townsfolk to forget it.
* He finishes with trying real time combat with some mole rats. For him it's too much of an FPS, and depends on the player's skills too much. The most effective technique is to run backwards while shooting at the rat. It will probably be more difficult with stronger opponents, but there's lots of opportunities to cheat the AI.<blockquote>It's too early to give my final opinion on Fallout 3, but you know my personal feelings. There's lots of cool little things and solid RPG craft, but... I lost all illusions I had. Fallout is no longer Fallout - it's a post-nuclear version of Oblivion. For good and bad, as Oblivion is a great game and Bethesda is one of the best RPG developers on the market."</blockquote>Dropped into our newsbox by someone who forgot to name the source.
