Superplay Fallout 3 preview

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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Sweden's biggest gaming mag Superplay previewed Fallout 3. Starwars provided us with some choice translated quotes:<blockquote>You're walking around the wasteland, and spot a gigantic scorpion (yes, a radscorpion for those of you wondering if they make a comeback). If you want, you can just aim and shoot like in any FPS out there - almost. The difference in Fallout 3 is that you don't necessarily hit just because your crosshair is lined up with the enemy when you pull the trigger. That only means that you're asking the RPG Fallout 3 to decide whether your character hits or not. Then the rules are checked up with how long the distance is to your target, how light it is versus your characters perception, your characters skill with whatever you're firing and the state of the weapon. If those checks succeed, then you will hit. It's logical, but it will feel strange for the generation that are raised on FPS games like Quake.
(...)
Taking care of your weapons is an important factor for how fast your weapon can fire, and how precise they will be.
You can also build new weapons from scratch. All you gave to do is find a schematic, and all the necessary components - and of course you need the skills build them.
(...)
The encounter with the sheriff can end in many different ways. Pleasant and friendly, unpleasant but friendly - or in a total bloodbath (the latter if you choose the dialogue option "There's a new sheriff in town"). Fallout 3 keeps tabs on how you behave, and weighs your actions on a scale that goes from evil to good, but with neutrality in the middle. It's now up to Bethesda to make sure that there is an equally big reason to stay neutral versus playing evil or good. An issue that is high up on the developers agenda right now, is what type of quests to create for a neutral character.
(...)
In many ways Fallout 3 is a further improved Oblivion. Everything Bethesda did in Oblivion they have polished and modified for Fallout 3.
Like their Radiant AI, which made the characters of Oblivion live their own lives - or at least walk from point A to point B a few times a day. In Fallout 3 the developers are trying to get the AI and the characters behaviours to become more appareant to the player.
(...)
The demo is over, and Megaton is gone - together with all the skepticism I brought with me as luggage to Washington DC</blockquote>And from their FAQ:<blockquote>Q: Can you buy a house?
A: Yes.

Q: Is there any contact with the people who made Fallout 1 or 2?
A: No.</blockquote>Thanks again, Starwars.
 
Oh i like it.

Good news all around on this one.

And I know comparisons to oblivion sound shitty, but like I've said before, they have to make the graphics understandable for the lowest common denominator with the least words possible, and it's the best way to do it.
 
Brother None said:
In many ways Fallout 3 is a further improved Oblivion. Everything Bethesda did in Oblivion they have polished and modified for Fallout 3.
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Mystery solved!
 
Why don't they just make this a straight FPS? Making my character a bad shot when I'm controlling the shot will only serve to frustrate me. Don't compromise that aspect of gameplay when it's not going to satisfy those who wanted TB.

As for Radiant AI, will they stop calling it that? It's scripting. Nothing more.

Otherwise, I'd make some sort of Swedish joke about your character being neutral, but I'm gonna go to bed.
 
Joe Kremlin said:
Why don't they just make this a straight FPS? Making my character a bad shot when I'm controlling the shot will only serve to frustrate me. Don't compromise that aspect of gameplay when it's not going to satisfy those who wanted TB.
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Agreed. When I heard it was gonna be FPSRPG I was figuring something along the lines of Deus Ex or Bloodlines, where bullets go where you aim but improved skills tighten your clusters and improve damage and yadda yadda. If it works like they say here that'll probably be irritating as hell.

And radiant AI is a silly name for it, but I really do enjoy it in the game. Yeah, old RPGs like Ultima 6 have done it before, but I enjoyed it there too. It doesn't make a virtual world filled with completely believable NPCs wandering all over, but eating beans one by one out of their hands and raking that patch of dirt over and over gives enough life to be entertaining when I wander by.

I'm not really sure how they're gonna handle their wandering AI without a magic compass, maybe just better directions from NPCs, but it should be pretty fun.
 
Jiggly McNerdington said:
Agreed. When I heard it was gonna be FPSRPG I was figuring something along the lines of Deus Ex or Bloodlines, where bullets go where you aim but improved skills tighten your clusters and improve damage and yadda yadda. If it works like they say here that'll probably be irritating as hell.
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Bullet spread a la Deus Ex is what they've already confirmed.
 
Jiggly McNerdington said:
I certainly hope so.
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I'm pretty sure that non-VATS locational damage is also confirmed.


So if you aim at someones chest, and you are inaccurate, you could accidentally shoot their head, haha.

I like it, honestly. That's exactly how it worked in Fallout.
If they were gonna make FP/RT fallout, I can't imagine a better way to implement gunplay and SPECIAL together.
 
I think they have talked too much to the Bioware devs. as this game now has the dialogue markings of a Bioware game on it:

1)bad

2)good

3)neutral

choices in dialogues...

As for the RT aimed shot, not necessarily making it, to me, at least, that's a good thing.
It will confuse the FPS fans, though...
 
Brother None said:
It's now up to Bethesda to make sure that there is an equally big reason to stay neutral versus playing evil or good. An issue that is high up on the developers agenda right now, is what type of quests to create for a neutral character.
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Seems like a backwards way of going about it, definitely Bioware more than Fallout.

xdarkyrex said:
So if you aim at someones chest, and you are inaccurate, you could accidentally shoot their head, haha.

I like it, honestly. That's exactly how it worked in Fallout.
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No, it's not.
 
What sucks about this is that it'll bring you back to the "Morrowind" style. You're pretty good with a sword but for some freaking reason, you can't hit at all.

This is an FPS, why can't they just do like Deus Ex? Got crappy gun skills? Well watch your PC shake and have a cone of fire bigger than rosie o donell.

See, this whole "roll to hit" thing wouldn't matter if it were like the old fallouts, top down view and all. But in an FPS, I'd expect to hit if I'm POINT BLANK and my gun pointed to the chest.

I'm betting that with this, even if you had like 100 on your related skill, you still wouldn't be able to hit a brick wall with a nuke.
 
Well as a Half Life FPS'er it answers my base combat questions.

But well buying a house? that means In-game currency so maybe its not so much a straight FPS... but yeah Oblivion with guns. I think honestly is just as true now as it was when it was first assumed. Call this game Dues Ex meets Oblivion.

I feel this article is actually one of the more indepth ones I've seen in my experience so far. Props to Sweden.
 
Zero Pike said:
But well buying a house? that means In-game currency so maybe its not so much a straight FPS... but yeah Oblivion with guns.
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Hardly. The later Megaman games all have currency, but they're still platform shooters.

And this buying a house thing.. come on. You're the loner in a post apocalyptic wasteland.. fresh out of a Vault.. and you own a house???
That's not Fallout at all.
Regardless of the fact that this is a wasteland.. see a house? Move in. Why do you have to BUY one? Post apocalyptic real-estate businesses?
 
Buy your own partially rebuiilt shack for 3000 Bottlecaps, or whatever the hell its going to be.

No its goning to be Oblivion in a different setting. In fallout you need at most a chest or two, or Fallout 2's car to store your stuff. There going to mod Oblivion into Fallout its really no clearer then that.
 
To add on to the translated bits here, the writer claims that he is a Fallout fanboy and that his worst fears was to get Oblivion with guns (he uses that term even). He even uses the Leonard Boyarsky quote about how Beth getting Fallout felt like your ex-wife selling your kid or whatever that quote was.

But he kinda throws that credibility away when he says in the little Q&A that the rulesystem will be the same as in the older games, "Specials". :roll:

When Todd starts up the game, he says that he was thinking "does this mean that the turnbased combat won't be here anymore?". And then he is relieved that VATS is in the game, and also goes on to call VATS turnbased, so yeah...
 
Per said:
xdarkyrex said:
So if you aim at someones chest, and you are inaccurate, you could accidentally shoot their head, haha.

I like it, honestly. That's exactly how it worked in Fallout.
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No, it's not.
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:? I meant in the regard that you can miss and hit the wrong thing.
In Fallout I would always miss and hit someone behind em if my skill was shitty. Something I always disliked about Fallout actually was the fact that a missed targeted shot couldn't accidentally hit a different location. This is actually an elaboration on the way misses worked outside of targeted shots, with the chance to make accidental locational shots. That seems perfect. This aspect is definitely an improvement over the previous Fallouts.
 
xdarkyrex said:
Something I always disliked about Fallout actually was the fact that a missed targeted shot couldn't accidentally hit a different location. This is actually an elaboration on the way misses worked outside of targeted shots, with the chance to make accidental locational shots. That seems perfect. This aspect is definitely an improvement over the previous Fallouts.
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In terms of realism I guess, but it's also a departure from how PnP RPGs typically handle the issue. Just a little step away from the game's roots.
 
So I encounter a super mutant and run to the neariest mailbox to pull out a shiny Fat Man. I circle strafe him a bit and then with a cunning move of bunny hopping I get behind him. Swooosh, I pull the trigger.... and all I get is a huge and blinking "MISS" sign above the mushroom cloud. :clap:
 
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