13pm
Water Chip? Been There, Done That
Russian gaming mag Igromania's staff were among those who were invited to play Fallout 3 at Bethesda's HQ.
They have recorded a half an hour-long video containing an interview with Todd Howard, Emil Pagliarulo and Gavin Carter and some comments on the hands-on from the guy who played the game. He says they've played a game for 3 hours.
Here are some tidbits from the interview. Remember that it's a double translation (first it was translated into Russian and then I had to translate it back), so there might be some mistakes.
* There will be mines and minefields. Depending on your skill you'll be able to find mines sooner or later before they explode. If your skill is high enough, you'll hear a beeping sound a few seconds before the explosion and will have a chance to run away. If your skill is very high, you'll be able to retrieve mines and then set them where you want to.
* As was already mentioned before, non-conversational skills will provide some dialogue options.
* Sneaking is switched on automatically when you duck. Sneaking is important for pickpocketing.
* You can not only pick pockets, but you can put something into one's pockets too, like explosives or grenades.
* Jet and psycho are in. You can get addicted to them. Addictions are cured by local doctors.
* Random encounter mentioned by Emil: he walked at night and met some homeless man with a brahmin. Emil wanted to shoot at the man, but suddenly some white bear (they called it something like Jaguai; Ausir says it's Yao-Guai) jumped out of the bushes and attacked Emil's character. Emil explained that this bear was a pet of that homeless man.
* Weather is dependent on the area you are in. For example, in Washington, the sky is grey, so the city looks dark. The wasteland is sunny on the other hand. They wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the first Fallout, says Todd.
* They say that all the towns in previous Fallout games looked the same. Bethesda wanted to create towns with their unique souls and they say that each town differs from the others.
* Bethesda's praising the AI of NPCs. Every NPC is doing something like cleaning or walking, they have their own schedules. Bethesda say that it's not that they've changed Oblivion's AI, they just enhanced it with animation.
* They say they wanted to show how hard it is to live in the post-apocalyptic world, so they tried to avoid anything cartoonish.
* The game now is twice as big as they wanted initially.
* Todd Howard: "We're doing the game for the fans. When you look at the first Fallouts you can't say, 'That what's made this game popular.' Those games were great [...] We do not want to simplify things, we are doing a game with a hardcore gameplay. As fans for fans".
And here goes what the guy that played the game tells:
* "I've heard many complaints about that it's not Fallout by the atmosphere [he said it's his personal complaint too], that it looks like Oblivion, that the music is bad. From what I've seen, it's all true."
* But, he says, you'll love this game despite all that. And here are the reasons:
- Multiple ways to solve quests.
- Exploring is really cool, you'll never know what you'll find.
- As for the RPG part of the game - everything is saved from the past games. He says that in Falout 3 your skills really matter. The game is really hardcore and not going into mainstream, in his opinion.
* He also compares the combat system to Mass Effect and says that he loved V.A.T.S., especially when compared to ME. He notes that opponents are dumb, do not run to avoid shots though.
* He says the exploration part reminded him of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
* Characters are well-done in his opinion. He provides some examples: in Megaton, there is boy that cares for a girl that lost her parents. There is also a man that came to Megaton to start a new life (he was a bandit in his past). When you talk to him, it appears that he won't mind returning to his past occupation. He refuses to join the PC because of his good karma. You can come to his house at night and you'll find lots of empty wisky bottles, because he can't cope with his new life.
* Overall, the game looks much better than a year ago.
They have recorded a half an hour-long video containing an interview with Todd Howard, Emil Pagliarulo and Gavin Carter and some comments on the hands-on from the guy who played the game. He says they've played a game for 3 hours.
Here are some tidbits from the interview. Remember that it's a double translation (first it was translated into Russian and then I had to translate it back), so there might be some mistakes.
* There will be mines and minefields. Depending on your skill you'll be able to find mines sooner or later before they explode. If your skill is high enough, you'll hear a beeping sound a few seconds before the explosion and will have a chance to run away. If your skill is very high, you'll be able to retrieve mines and then set them where you want to.
* As was already mentioned before, non-conversational skills will provide some dialogue options.
* Sneaking is switched on automatically when you duck. Sneaking is important for pickpocketing.
* You can not only pick pockets, but you can put something into one's pockets too, like explosives or grenades.
* Jet and psycho are in. You can get addicted to them. Addictions are cured by local doctors.
* Random encounter mentioned by Emil: he walked at night and met some homeless man with a brahmin. Emil wanted to shoot at the man, but suddenly some white bear (they called it something like Jaguai; Ausir says it's Yao-Guai) jumped out of the bushes and attacked Emil's character. Emil explained that this bear was a pet of that homeless man.
* Weather is dependent on the area you are in. For example, in Washington, the sky is grey, so the city looks dark. The wasteland is sunny on the other hand. They wanted to recreate the atmosphere of the first Fallout, says Todd.
* They say that all the towns in previous Fallout games looked the same. Bethesda wanted to create towns with their unique souls and they say that each town differs from the others.
* Bethesda's praising the AI of NPCs. Every NPC is doing something like cleaning or walking, they have their own schedules. Bethesda say that it's not that they've changed Oblivion's AI, they just enhanced it with animation.
* They say they wanted to show how hard it is to live in the post-apocalyptic world, so they tried to avoid anything cartoonish.
* The game now is twice as big as they wanted initially.
* Todd Howard: "We're doing the game for the fans. When you look at the first Fallouts you can't say, 'That what's made this game popular.' Those games were great [...] We do not want to simplify things, we are doing a game with a hardcore gameplay. As fans for fans".
And here goes what the guy that played the game tells:
* "I've heard many complaints about that it's not Fallout by the atmosphere [he said it's his personal complaint too], that it looks like Oblivion, that the music is bad. From what I've seen, it's all true."
* But, he says, you'll love this game despite all that. And here are the reasons:
- Multiple ways to solve quests.
- Exploring is really cool, you'll never know what you'll find.
- As for the RPG part of the game - everything is saved from the past games. He says that in Falout 3 your skills really matter. The game is really hardcore and not going into mainstream, in his opinion.
* He also compares the combat system to Mass Effect and says that he loved V.A.T.S., especially when compared to ME. He notes that opponents are dumb, do not run to avoid shots though.
* He says the exploration part reminded him of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
* Characters are well-done in his opinion. He provides some examples: in Megaton, there is boy that cares for a girl that lost her parents. There is also a man that came to Megaton to start a new life (he was a bandit in his past). When you talk to him, it appears that he won't mind returning to his past occupation. He refuses to join the PC because of his good karma. You can come to his house at night and you'll find lots of empty wisky bottles, because he can't cope with his new life.
* Overall, the game looks much better than a year ago.
