Russian "Game Mania" previews Fallout

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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Russian magazine Игромания (Game mania) has a preview of Fallout 3 up. It's worth it for this paragraph alone:<blockquote>There is even the opinion that Fallout is a cult - this is especially a Russian phenomenon, the game allegedly passed fairly weakly in the West and not as if it were for anyone a revelation.</blockquote>I bow to Russia's power. Moving forwards, it notes Fallout 3 seems to be different than the previous games in topical quests and emphasis on mainquest, and the author notes he feels Bethesda is making a mistake trying to please everyone, with both 1st person and 3rd person. He notes such topics as supermutants and the BoS on the east coast are being discussed actively, ending with:<blockquote>Bethesda, credit where credit's due, takes its responsibilities. Every developer on the planet would like to make Fallout 3, but the brand is, perhaps, in good and caring hands. It seems, it will be possible to sleep well at night.</blockquote>Our Russian newsie liberty rogue notes the article is well-written, and that it refers to NMA, DaC and the Vault (but not the official sites).

Link: Игромания site.
 
All these depressingly cookie cutter previews and the one deep and intelligent one comes from Russia and I can't read it.
 
There is even the opinion that Fallout is a cult - this is especially a Russian phenomenon, the game allegedly passed fairly weakly in the West and not as if it were for anyone a revelation.

It seems that all intelligent CRPG gammers have migrated to Russia.
 
The Russian Previewers can sleep well at night knowing F3 isi n Beth's hands.
Yeah, just like every other Fallout fan sleeps well knowing that.


Oh, wait.


Anyway, it seems it's time to move to Russia :<
 
Hi, I'm from Ukraine. Russian is like the second language here.

My personal impression - the article is good. At the beginning the author explains to the younger gamers just why the originals are so great, which is nice.

Here are some highlights from the article. My own comments are in italics.

According to Igromania:

Genre: RPG; Action

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Bethesda Game studios

Russian Publisher/Localisation: 1C (They did quite impressive on fallout 2 btw)

Similarity: Fallout Series; The elder scrolls 4: Oblivion

Multiplayer: none

Release date: Autumn 2008

Official site: http://fallout.bethsoft.com

Fan-sites: www.duckandcover.cx; www.nma-fallout.com; http://fallout.wikia.com
--------------------------------
Igromania on the original atmosphere:

Fallout still doesn't have any analogs when it comes to atmosphere. As the sign says: fallout is a post-nuclear adventure, which means the game is set up in a nuclear wasteland. Numerous attempts to copy the game's unique atmosphere failed because people don't understand that fallout is not just about your monitor full of rusty cars, mutants and tribesmen. The game is set in so-called retro-future aesthetic. Despite the fact that the game is set in late 21st century, the surroundings look like 40-50s. [...] Black isle took the classic, poster-like America and settled it with two-headed cows, tribesmen, drugs (or is it chems?=)), radiation and Brotherhood of steel.
It is also important to remember that fallout was released in 1997, just a year after diablo. In such market environment releasing a rpg without demons, swords and hammers seemed suicidal. But it came out that talent is stronger than marketing. Or, at least, it was 10 years ago.

On the original Gameplay:

Fallout was played even by people who got indigestion from hearing "rpg". Black Isle invented a system which perfectly balanced a complex set of characteristics and easy-to-understand ways of controlling them. [the author then explains what SPECIAL is, gives basic info on primary and secondary statistics, perks]
Thanks to SPECIAL you could develop your character using simple human logic, not a pen and a calculator.

On the original freedom:

Fallout is like a set of unique stories. "How I maradeured in the wastes"; "How I joined the Brotherhood of steel"; "How I did nothing for a week" or even "How I seduced casino owner's wife, overheard her rambling safe code numbers in sleep, and got blown on the dynamite trap ". The game seems to have no artificial limits at all - the player was only limited by his own fantasy and skills. Even today Fallout remains a game of great possibilities - you can get lost and find a secret location (A UFO Landed in the wasteland!), take a part in illegal fight or star in a pornomovie.

[So this is like a page and a half in the magazine just to explain what fallout is. Great, isn't it?]

On Fo3 combat system
(nothing new here)
...[after explaining the vats] The bad news are - you can't attack an enemy in the groin like in previous games.

On political correctness

... Fo 1 and 2 were very mature games. Apart from the mentioned above porno, you could also marry and use your own wife as a prostitute. You could also shoot kids, and even gain a "Childkiller" perk. This feature caused a huge discussion - bethesda is still uncertain whether the player will be able to kill children, which angered the hard-core fans of course. [...] However, there was an information leak that a game has a strange "corpses eaten" counter. Bethesda doesn't comment on this, but there are hot discussions on forums about eating children's corpses.

-------------------------------

There also was some information which I find disturbing and do hope it's inaccurate - "When you first visit a location the game tunes the monsters level according to your current state. But after that the enemies won't change, so if you visit the same location later (after leveling a lot I guess) you can easily make a henocide"

Is this true?
 
>P&A< said:
1C (They did quite impressive on fallout 2 btw)

they used many stuff from pirate Fargus' localization, that's why their translation wasn't really too shitty.
 
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