Toss a rock, hit a Fallout 3 preview

[Seymour the spore plant]

You must have forgotten the time they said we should all die in a horrible fashion

Meh, wishing a horrible death on the internet is a dime a dozen. Sure, people who write professionally for gaming sites shouldn't do it, but I think the gaming media's lack of integrity is a given at this point. Nerdcore, on the other hand, is crossing the line .

Bethesda and the gaming media that they support (read: bribe with preview materials) should be thanking us, instead of trying their hardest to drown our opinions out with negative propaganda and ridiculous lies.

You're right, ideally their approach should be more like Blizzard's with Starcraft 2. But that was if they decided to make a game remotely like the originals and cater to the fanbase, instead of making their "innovative" shoehorning of SPECIAL and guns into Oblivion. As it stands now, they have to discredit the fans' complaints however valid they may be, hence the name-calling.

 

[Brother None]

...nerdcore?
Jesus, now that is probably the single greatest insult any fanbase has EVER received. Like Fallout fans listen to Optimus Rhyme shit while irrationally bashing out of nostalgia and bitterness on this most holy and flawless gem of gaming that is Sellout 3

Really? I don't feel insulted.

But apropos

The optimistic fifties design juxtaposed against the destroyed landscape is a great choice and is seen everywhere from the HUD to the atomic design of Vault 101. Seeing it sprinkled around the world gave me the same feeling I got the first time I saw the art-deco wonders of BioShock. It's nostalgic yet at the same time seems so fresh and new because we rarely see that style of design in modern games, especially FPSs. It also gave the design team a chance to inject the game with a subtle humor that is evident throughout, even seeping its way into the dialog choices and sound.

Oh wow..."a great choice"? The fuck? Does this guy realise this all comes from Fallout and is not something Bethesda chose to do, or that BioShock was inspired by Fallout in this?

Uninformed ftw.

Pete also demonstrated the use of the Fat Boy weapon (basically a mini-nuke launcher) while in the barren junkyard, which, as one could imagine, led to many glorious and explosive results. I, for one, certainly tittered with glee at the sight of a mini mushroom cloud in the distance.

One would think this point is out-hyped, but it's more amusing how he can't even get the name right.

Not only were there regular Ghouls (humans who've had their brains fully deteriorated by radioactivity)

Uhm, last time I checked, the brains weren't deteriorated on regular ghouls. I hope this is yet another journalistic error and not factual.

When Pete revealed this tidbit of information, the one and only N'gai Croal inquired whether the terrain of Baltimore would be included in the game. Pete admitted that Baltimore was not an available area for exploration, and Mr. Croal and myself released our hopes of Avon Barksdale, Marlo Stanfield, or any other The Wire characters making a cameo debut in Fallout 3. It can be further assumed that you will not obtain Omar Little as a recruitable NPC in the game. A crying shame, I tell you.

Oh wow

And this is one of the better previews, people.

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I can't believe how much they talk about that friggin' hitting A to cry/say dada. Honestly, who gives a damn? Why is that even worth mentioning?

Beyond that, is no one else realising how incredibly light on information these previews were? Not only is Bethesda applying its normal rodent infestation-style of preview releases, but they actually managed to get these guys to do previews based on preview footage that doesn't actually show anything we didn't know yet, just a few (irrelevant) details on character creations, other than that only Dogmeat and ghouls were new from the magazine previews. Just that.

That's...that's hilarious.

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EDIT: also, I don't usually link to outside forum comments, let alone BSGF, but lol

I think the previewers just don't really any jack about RPGs and Fallout in particular. Beth, you should let NMA preview the game, since they know what they are talking about.
(...)
A paragraph in the NMA Preview said more of what we need to know than all those those other previews at the time together.
(...)
oh and I too would like to read a NMA preview.
(...)
I am "OFFICIALLY" asking Bethesda to invite NMA to E3 ! If anyone took the time to read NMA's previous article on FO3, I think they would have seen NMA was not out for blood and wrote a very informative and I believe most of all, "HONEST" review !
(...)
Oh, so by being a "Bethesda is God" journalist and worrying if you'll be invited to the next big wing-ding if I write something negative is better ?

Good or bad, I still felt NMA was not afraid to call it like they see it, unlike the above mentioned journalistic-types !

A mod had to shut them up to stop requesting NMA previews.

Hilarity ensues. Also, borderline cross-site trolling asides, I find it hilarious they still have the same trolls (Sir Tycho Sexy, Playcircus) who're still spouting the same anti-NMA slander. Hey, good going on community management, there.

 

[vampyrian]

If you shoot off a leg your opponent will move slowly (and hurt a lot) or if you shoot them in the head it causes blurred vision.

This one really made me LAUGH OUT LOUD.

: And thank god for V.A.T.S., because without it, well, the game really is just a shooter.

This one made me sigh.:/

 

[Per]

If you shoot off a leg your opponent will move slowly (and hurt a lot) or if you shoot them in the head it causes blurred vision.

This one really made me LAUGH OUT LOUD.

Yeah, that one really had me wondering what kind of visuals might have generated that kind of language. If you see someone lose a leg, fall to the ground and crawl, you don't describe this by saying "they move slowly", you describe it by saying "they crawl". You might say they "move slowly" if you saw someone hopping along on one leg, or if there wasn't a graphical representation of limblessness. We know there is, though, so what exactly were they shown?

 

[Seymour the spore plant]

Really? I don't feel insulted

What? Did you ever listen to their music?
... ok, I kid. Not really insulted either, 'twas just a comment on how they usually dismiss the fans' opinions with one adjective and move on. Like "rabid", "irrational", "hardcore", or in this case the frankly bizarre choice of "nerdcore".

But the lack of info on these so-called "previews" only furthers the point that most gaming sites are basically spewing PR pieces. Note how the gist of it always boils down to "yeah, it'll be AWESOME, Bethesda has EVERYTHING covered, don't mind those crazy fans"

 

[Eyenixon]

I never followed the hype generated by Oblivion, but was it actually so incredibly dull like the Fallout 3 previews?

I've never seen so much redundancy in gaming journalism, especially from multiple quaint little sites that I've never heard of before.

It's unbelievable quite frankly, and what's even more unbelievable is that the journalists find it appropriate to release the same content over and over.
Is this an especially ridiculous case with Fallout 3, or have I just been fortunate and spared the drudge of gaming journalism up until now?

 

[ghar]

I don't know whether its worse that the game is a FPS with "VATS" or the fact that it's really 28 years later:

Kotaku: As any of you who are familiar with Fallout will know, your enemies are mostly radiated mutants or "ghouls" as they are called in the game.

Gamespot: Feral ghouls are extremely swift and vicious and come leaping at you with tremendous speed.

And:

1Up: Seriously, though, the cunning way that Bethesda takes the thinking behind traditional tutorials and character creation interfaces and naturally integrates these game conventions into the game's narrative is impressive.

System Shock 2

So, freaking, true.

And SS2 had good mp co-op!


Off topic, but:

Boy, this is starting to remind me of how they butchered the Doom series with 3.

Was it really butchered? I got an entirely different feeling from playing it -- opposite, actually.

---

Anyways... this is depressing.

Starting to seem as bad as what happened to Deus Ex 2.

 

[Mord_Sith]

1Up: Note, however, that this is not the same Dogmeat, since this game takes place over 100 years after the first two games.

Wasn't this supposed to be between FO2 and Tactics?!?

Sounds like it's just gonna be an extension of Tactics from here on in, or more likely PoS2.

 

[Per]

It's unbelievable quite frankly, and what's even more unbelievable is that the journalists find it appropriate to release the same content over and over.

If you base this observation only on this batch of previews, you have to keep in mind that each writer has to write an article as if that's the only thing that visitors to his site will ever read. The similarities are there because Bethesda placed them in the same room and showed them the same things. We should point and laugh at the factual errors and perhaps Bethesda's choice of focus, but the redundancy is an observer effect.

Wasn't this supposed to be between FO2 and Tactics?!?

It's set in 2277. Fallout 2 begins in 2241. Tactics begins in 2197.

 

[bazola]

This wave of previews leaves me wondering if there are any honest people in game journalism. I find it hard to believe that nobody previewing this game has played a good RPG. I mean any PC gamer over 25 would have to remember when depth in a game wasn't just interactive tutorials and detailed gore.

I understand that Beth's target audience is the young console jockeys but come on, where's the journalistic integrity?

 

[Eyenixon]

It's unbelievable quite frankly, and what's even more unbelievable is that the journalists find it appropriate to release the same content over and over.

If you base this observation only on this batch of previews, you have to keep in mind that each writer has to write an article as if that's the only thing that visitors to his site will ever read. The similarities are there because Bethesda placed them in the same room and showed them the same things. We should point and laugh at the factual errors and perhaps Bethesda's choice of focus, but the redundancy is an observer effect.

I could have understood that in the 80s or early 90s, but in the internet age couldn't they try at least a little harder to make their previews seem at least a little bit special? There's no longer a couple of gaming magazines with separated audiences, there's the whole internet.

In my opinion, it's just a strange to have journalists claim the industry is growing in great new directions when they themselves can't even evolve from the simplest rags back in the older days of gaming.

But I'm probably going off topic here, just my two cents on these "previews".

This wave of previews leaves me wondering if there are any honest people in game journalism. I find it hard to believe that nobody previewing this game has played a good RPG. I mean any PC gamer over 25 would have to remember when depth in a game wasn't just interactive tutorials and detailed gore.

I understand that Beth's target audience is the young console jockeys but come on, where's the journalistic integrity?

It really seems like they're scrounging for scraps though, I'd blame Bethesda just as much for only revealing the most mundane or esoteric details.

 

[VDweller]

I never followed the hype generated by Oblivion, but was it actually so incredibly dull like the Fallout 3 previews?

Yep. Oblivion previews were like a three-pronged attack:

- PATRICK STEWART!!! The media went insane and was foaming at the mouth. "OMG! They've got Patrick Stewart!!! This gaem is so awsum!"

- soil erosion! Every preview mentioned how awesome Oblivion's soil erosion is.

- shiny graphics. "This game looks so awesome that people will be playing it for decades!"

 

[Eyenixon]

I never followed the hype generated by Oblivion, but was it actually so incredibly dull like the Fallout 3 previews?

- soil erosion! Every preview mentioned how awesome Oblivion's soil erosion is.

Hold on. What? Soil erosion? Was that even in the game? That just sounds surreal.

 

[bazola]

Programming soil erosion seems like a huge waste of time. You won't get anything that you can't get by looking at some pictures of some hills and then modeling the damn things.

 

[VDweller]

I never followed the hype generated by Oblivion, but was it actually so incredibly dull like the Fallout 3 previews?

- soil erosion! Every preview mentioned how awesome Oblivion's soil erosion is.

Hold on. What? Soil erosion? Was that even in the game? That just sounds surreal.

"For the investment, Oblivion will feature 50 hours of game dialogue and 1,000 characters -- one featuring the voice of actor Patrick Stewart, the man celebrated in geekdom as Captain Picard of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." The game's action takes place in 16 square miles of playing field in a virtual forest (complete with 200 dungeons strewn about).

To make sure soil erosion and geology in the game world looked realistic, the company sent an employee to the University of Maryland to study up on the topics. With new game systems continually offering deeper degrees of realism, it's the sort of attention to detail that players are coming to expect."

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Perhaps they should have added the following line "... but the employee got bored and went to a strip club."

 

[Eyenixon]

Well they must have done an absolutely horrible job because all I noticed while playing the remotely enjoyable Oblivion was a mass of obtuse looking hills and forgettable woodland.

 

[ronin84]

man, even as much as i try to keep optimistic, previews like this seriously put a bad taste in my mouth

da da, ga ga? what? a action rpg / shooter? mutants and very fast ghouls running all over the place?

i'm going on 24... am i really that old that these "journalists" haven't played the original Fallout? it seems that nearly NONE of them have.

sigh. i think i'd be more interested in the game if it wasn't for the asinine previews.

 

[Lingwei]

Regarding Patrick Stewart,

25,800 hits of "Oblivion Review Patrick Stewart".

For Liam Neeson,

22,900 hits of "Fallout 3 preview Liam Neeson".

As for the previews over all, is it just me or did they not release a single new bit of information that wasn't already known? I mean if Bethesda is going to invite a whole bunch fo cocksuc- I mean journalists over to show off a new demo then shouldn't it actually be packed with new information. Rather than just give them a more detailed walkthrough of how the tutorial would work (while we were already told about that months ago).

Also telling is their complete lack of focus upon choices, consequneces and quests. We still only have Megaton as the shining example of Fallout 3 quest design. Any notice any similiarities to Oblivion's hype-period (aka nothing at all about Oblivion's quests, because the sucked and Bethesda knew they sucked).

 

[golfmade]

Hopefully Liam doesn't die in the first hour of the game.