The Czechs scoop the world: new Fallout 3 screenshots

[Silencer]

Bethesda does have a tendency to be "inspired" by other works

I'm pretty sure both of those artists were inspired by a daemon they once both saw.

 

[Idiotfool]

When I first played Fallout I had the impression that deathclaws were originally raccoons because of the files you find at the glow mentioning raccoons that escaped that were being subjected to FEV experiments. I don't believe they ever mentioned any chameleons.

That's probably why the original concept art looked hairy. Then they thought, "Oh s***!! The mother deathclaw lays eggs.. hmm.. well let's go with a lizard story then." and then forgot to change the holodisks from the glow. I can't see a chameleon getting that big and/or being able to escape though. To me a mutant raccoon that lays eggs seems more believable than a chameleon that mutated to be 200x (or more) bigger. If FEV works that way then I'd hate to see frogs, turtles, snakes, and crocodiles that mutated from it.. Also wouldn't there have been some mention in the FEV holodisks about the HUGE changes when used on reptiles?

So no nuclear winter means no mutated type creatures? Hmm.. well I guess ghouls, pigrats, mole rats, etc.. all have an alternative excuse. Not to mention the plethora of weird creatures from Fallout 2.

Fallout 2's Deathclaws in Vault 13 describe a bit of their evolution and how they came to be. I believe you're correct that Fallout 1 didn't mention what they were, though. You really should read the wikia about them. It's said that they're actually genetically engineered, but are predominately Jackson's chameleons. The intelligent ones were exposed to FEV by the enclave. Finally, concept art is just concept. Someone thought Deatchlaws should be big werefoxes, but that changed during the concept phase into what was IMPLEMENTED, which is much more canon.

The FEV virus wasn't in high enough concentration in the world to really affect anything, so most of the changes were caused by radiation and not it. Only active use of the virus created creatures like the super-mutants, centaurs, and such.

No nuclear winter doesn't mean that there's no radiation to change life. It simply means that the nuclear holocaust didn't also trigger a global climate change toward an ice-age. So, without climate change, the Deathclaws shouldn't evolve hair. Radiation is still there to make pigrats and the like, however.

 

[lisac2k]

Soooo... New screens, huh?

The brahmin looks similar to those in FOT, but I like it - not bad.

I really wouldn't comment the rest of it.

 

[Ctaylor]

I'm pretty sure the main reason that the Deathclaw lost its hair from concept to production was a technical limitation of the rendering software at the time. I can't remember if it was the amount of additional rendering time required, an animation issue getting all the hair to move properly, or something else, but it was something along those lines. The hairy Deathclaw in FOT was inspired by the original concept, plus we thought it was nifty to show that there variations and different mutations of the same stock "beast". We probably should have had both versions, but that's a decision based on hindsight.

The actual Deathclaw model was done in clay and then scanned by a laser (like the head models) to generate the rough 3D model. It was very Tarrasque-esque but I don't think that was done intentionally. For the longest time, the statue of the Deathclaw was displayed at Interplay (behind these little glass windows, along with props from other Interplay IPs). I'm not sure what happened to it, but I hope that it ended it up in someone's house and wasn't thrown away or broken.

And, yes, all references to Raccoons are part of the deleted Burrows area. Either the reference wasn't cleaned up properly (which happened to another quest or two) or it was decided that there was no harm in having some additional background information.

As for these screenshots, I've worked on projects in the past that have had screenshots prematurely released, or released without the right context ("These are ALPHA screens!") or even screens where the brightness/contrast got screwed up between our PR department and the magazine. I don't know if these screens were released in a similar manner, but it wouldn't shock me. There seems to be an awful lot of compression in these pics/scans as well.

 

[Simeon]

as far as I can grasp, most people aren't saying the 'graphics' of the model look like shit, they're saying the DESIGN of the model looks like shit.
compression and contrast won't change the behemoth being a giant golgothan turdbeast pizza the hut thing.

 

[Jubal Quintus]

This game looks like it's taking cues from Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road. Now The Road is an amazing and thilling book that all fans of post-apoc should read, but it's not Fallout.

 

[Wooz]

I'm pretty sure both of those artists were inspired by a daemon they once both saw.

Now, now, Siley. Don't do evil "black PR".

 

[Idiotfool]

I'm pretty sure the main reason that the Deathclaw lost its hair from concept to production was a technical limitation of the rendering software at the time. I can't remember if it was the amount of additional rendering time required, an animation issue getting all the hair to move properly, or something else, but it was something along those lines. The hairy Deathclaw in FOT was inspired by the original concept, plus we thought it was nifty to show that there variations and different mutations of the same stock "beast". We probably should have had both versions, but that's a decision based on hindsight.

The actual Deathclaw model was done in clay and then scanned by a laser (like the head models) to generate the rough 3D model. It was very Tarrasque-esque but I don't think that was done intentionally. For the longest time, the statue of the Deathclaw was displayed at Interplay (behind these little glass windows, along with props from other Interplay IPs). I'm not sure what happened to it, but I hope that it ended it up in someone's house and wasn't thrown away or broken.

And, yes, all references to Raccoons are part of the deleted Burrows area. Either the reference wasn't cleaned up properly (which happened to another quest or two) or it was decided that there was no harm in having some additional background information.

As for these screenshots, I've worked on projects in the past that have had screenshots prematurely released, or released without the right context ("These are ALPHA screens!") or even screens where the brightness/contrast got screwed up between our PR department and the magazine. I don't know if these screens were released in a similar manner, but it wouldn't shock me. There seems to be an awful lot of compression in these pics/scans as well.

Are dogs not hairy? Are Brahmin not hairy? Is there not hair on top of the Vault Dweller and nearly all NPC's heads? Could there be another reason that it was decided that the Deathclaws should be more lizard-like, unique, and bad-ass?

 

[PaladinHeart]

The Burrows thing sounds interesting. Too bad it didn't make it into the final game.

As for the hair on brahmin.. you can't really tell. They always looked kinda hairless to me. If you put a brahmin and a deathclaw side by side you can't really tell which one has hair and which one doesn't. But separate.. you naturally assume the brahmin has hair, being a cow and all, and that the deathclaw doesn't.

The PC had hair? I thought it was one of those old pilot hats.. just kidding. But really you can't tell. At least in Oblivion you didn't have to use your imagination. You KNEW everyone was wearing a plastic wig.

I guess this guy couldn't afford pants...

 

[Mentats]

I agree with the brahmin pic, as lisac2k said, I really wouldn't comment the rest of it, don't think I will either. I'd be kinda suprised to have the origin of the Wanamingos revealed...

 

[welsh]

Thanks to Brios and Waterchip

Interesting-

I believed that Bethesda's Fallout 3 would make a shitty addition to the Fallout series, but I didn't expect their main badguy to look like a bad bowel movement.

 

[Jiggly McNerdington]

nice try with the "you people" bit.

Maybe if you put a couple more silly emoticons after it, someone will be convinced that you aren't just trying to troll.

and AD&D was closer to what fallout was supposed to be than anything that got plagiarized for the sake of oblivion, by it's shoddy development team.

Actually I put the emoticon there because you people (OH JESUS) can't seem to take a joke. Apparently you can't even with an emoticon there to indicate I was being silly.

Well that's not entirely true, Brother None took a joke earlier. He is not one of the people, he is... A PERSON!

 

[xu]

That orcish fellow is sooo BIG!

 

[Briosafreak]

For the longest time, the statue of the Deathclaw was displayed at Interplay (behind these little glass windows, along with props from other Interplay IPs). I'm not sure what happened to it, but I hope that it ended it up in someone's house and wasn't thrown away or broken.

You mean this one? Herve took it home, don't know where it is now.

 

[Morbus]

Look at the award at the left lower corner. Best RPG game. Best role-playing game game. Awesome! XD

 

[Mord_Sith]

That was when award companies knew how to define the difference between RPGs and FPS games, sadly it seems that any game that the console kiddies get a kick out of gets an award at random out of the big ol' award bag, some of the really bloomy ones get two or even three out of the bag, nobody knows what they are, but they've gotta be good because they're awards, right?

I swear, design companies must get their classifications out of a hat or something:

*shuffle shuffle* "Ok, I have here one RPG, two FPS, and one... AO? how'd that get in there?

 

[Silencer]

I'm pretty sure the main reason that the Deathclaw lost its hair from concept to production was a technical limitation of the rendering software at the time. I can't remember if it was the amount of additional rendering time required, an animation issue getting all the hair to move properly, or something else, but it was something along those lines.

So.. so it... it was... technical limitations?

Oh well, if it's in the game, it's in the game.

Actually, I was never put off by "hairy" Deathclaws in Tactics, but rather by the way they were animated and adorned with wasteland jewellery...

 

[lisac2k]

I'm pretty sure the main reason that the Deathclaw lost its hair from concept to production was a technical limitation of the rendering software at the time. I can't remember if it was the amount of additional rendering time required, an animation issue getting all the hair to move properly, or something else, but it was something along those lines.

True. Assuming the graphic department used the Lightvawe3d during the production, they had to stick with the version 4 or 5.x back then. Those versions took humongous amount of time to render even the simplest scenes, not to mention the absence of the proper tools (plugins) to create and animate hair/fur.

 

[zioburosky13]

I thought the brahmin is a mutated dog, at first sight

 

[Brother None]

I don't know if these screens were released in a similar manner, but it wouldn't shock me. There seems to be an awful lot of compression in these pics/scans as well.

No, the screens are perfectly valid and released by Bethesda themselves. The demo these are from isn't fully polished, but it looks good enough to release promo material from, both the earlier screens and this one.

The bad quality of these pics is really just the scans, not the screens. Though I don't have the magazine so I don't know what they look like in there.

I'm pretty sure the main reason that the Deathclaw lost its hair from concept to production was a technical limitation of the rendering software at the time. I can't remember if it was the amount of additional rendering time required, an animation issue getting all the hair to move properly, or something else, but it was something along those lines. The hairy Deathclaw in FOT was inspired by the original concept, plus we thought it was nifty to show that there variations and different mutations of the same stock "beast". We probably should have had both versions, but that's a decision based on hindsight.

Interesting. Wouldn't it make more sense to have different animals evolve in different ways? I mean, if Deathclaws do simply stem from lizards, it makes sense to have some variations, but suddenly sprouting hair seems a bit much.