TGR finally got around to their Fallout 3 preview. There's some bizarre stuff in there, such as noting "the demo that we saw was in fact the Xbox 360 version, but both versions should look and play the same" (apparently TGR thinks Fallout 3 is an Xbox 360/PS3 title), it's large and informative.<blockquote>When we went up to a female scientist, dialog options appeared on screen as to what we could say. We were told as you progress through the game and gain more skills to put towards charisma and speech, more dialog options will open; there are in fact up to 500,000 lines of dialog in the game. An example of speech skills mixing with other skill sets is the ability to talk with scientists. If you have more skill points in science and speech, one is able to speak to the scientist more, as more dialog options appear because one knows more about science. When speaking to characters, the game does show the difference in the effects of the dialog options. This will all go towards how the character is seen later on in life.
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Pete started up a new game save, and though he wouldn’t say where or when this next encounter occurs, he did say it was close to the beginning. This next encounter is where Dog Meat is introduced: Dog Meat’s owner is killed by a group of monsters, which you have to fight off. Pete explains that you can “have him join you as your own little canine companion.” He demonstrated that by the press of a button, the dog can search the surrounding area for weapons. As the attackers did drop weapons, Dog Meat will pick it up and bring it back to you. The dog actually brings back a pipe that the attackers used to kill its owner. Pete explained that he can ask him to go find him food, tell him to stay put, or send him to the Vault 101 entrance and say, “Go wait for me there until I come and get you.” Basically, Bethesda has designed the dog to be your faithful companion, no matter how good or evil your character becomes.
One thing we were told by Pete about the Fallout world is that they don’t warn you when you’re going into an area where you will get your ass handed to you. You need to be careful and choose your options and areas carefully. Of course, you can always go back when you’re beefed up, but if you don’t want to get humiliated, you need to choose wisely. Another thing we were told was that there will be no vehicles in the game. The only means of transport is walking. Of course there will be a fast travel system similar to Oblivion, but in order to use that, you must have been to the location first. We did ask whether or not this was a good idea and Pete responded, “We can press the space so that you are not talking about walking for 30 minutes to get from one interesting place to another. We can press it so that there is always cool stuff to find and things to do.” That eased our thoughts.
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What’s great about Fallout 3 is that you don’t always have to fight. Pete loaded up yet another save and this time, we saw a group of humans that are part of Talon Company, which is a group of mercenaries fighting against the super mutants. We were told we would see this a lot in the game, where you will come across groups of characters or creatures that are fighting amongst themselves. You have the choice to join in, just watch and see what the outcome is, or completely ignore it altogether. The choice is entirely up to the player.</blockquote>Also, TGR is openly competing with the Bethesda forum interview.<blockquote>Now it may be the end of our Fallout 3 coverage this week, but that doesn’t mean it’s the last you will have heard of this game before launch. TheGameReviews.com is giving our members the chance to ask a question regarding Fallout 3 directly to Bethesda Softworks. All you have to do is leave your questions in the TGR Forums, and we will take them to Bethesda and get your questions answered!</blockquote>Link: Fallout 3 preview on TGR.
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Pete started up a new game save, and though he wouldn’t say where or when this next encounter occurs, he did say it was close to the beginning. This next encounter is where Dog Meat is introduced: Dog Meat’s owner is killed by a group of monsters, which you have to fight off. Pete explains that you can “have him join you as your own little canine companion.” He demonstrated that by the press of a button, the dog can search the surrounding area for weapons. As the attackers did drop weapons, Dog Meat will pick it up and bring it back to you. The dog actually brings back a pipe that the attackers used to kill its owner. Pete explained that he can ask him to go find him food, tell him to stay put, or send him to the Vault 101 entrance and say, “Go wait for me there until I come and get you.” Basically, Bethesda has designed the dog to be your faithful companion, no matter how good or evil your character becomes.
One thing we were told by Pete about the Fallout world is that they don’t warn you when you’re going into an area where you will get your ass handed to you. You need to be careful and choose your options and areas carefully. Of course, you can always go back when you’re beefed up, but if you don’t want to get humiliated, you need to choose wisely. Another thing we were told was that there will be no vehicles in the game. The only means of transport is walking. Of course there will be a fast travel system similar to Oblivion, but in order to use that, you must have been to the location first. We did ask whether or not this was a good idea and Pete responded, “We can press the space so that you are not talking about walking for 30 minutes to get from one interesting place to another. We can press it so that there is always cool stuff to find and things to do.” That eased our thoughts.
(...)
What’s great about Fallout 3 is that you don’t always have to fight. Pete loaded up yet another save and this time, we saw a group of humans that are part of Talon Company, which is a group of mercenaries fighting against the super mutants. We were told we would see this a lot in the game, where you will come across groups of characters or creatures that are fighting amongst themselves. You have the choice to join in, just watch and see what the outcome is, or completely ignore it altogether. The choice is entirely up to the player.</blockquote>Also, TGR is openly competing with the Bethesda forum interview.<blockquote>Now it may be the end of our Fallout 3 coverage this week, but that doesn’t mean it’s the last you will have heard of this game before launch. TheGameReviews.com is giving our members the chance to ask a question regarding Fallout 3 directly to Bethesda Softworks. All you have to do is leave your questions in the TGR Forums, and we will take them to Bethesda and get your questions answered!</blockquote>Link: Fallout 3 preview on TGR.
