Official Fallout 3 Catch-All

Seeing that world in 3D is... disturbing. I guess using same technology as Oblivion might've killed art direction.
EDIT: Whoops, doubled.

Have to say - despite a few misgivings - i'm starting to get a wee bit excited for Fallout 3 (especially if they *do* release an editor for it later on, as they kind of suggest is still a possibility and something they would really like to do in that latest fan interview).

Ultimately my biggest reservations were based on the things I found to be problems with Oblivion (the rubbish character interaction, the 'play-mobile' dumbed down interface and the...*shudder* level scaling).

Character interaction certainly SEEMS to have been improved greatly, the interface...well the previous fallout games never had particularly good interfaces anyway so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that theirs is an improvement (and if not, I'm sure it will be editable in .xml the same as the oblivion menus).

That just leaves level scaling...

Have they mentioned anything about cutting back on at least some of the level scaling in the game compared to oblivion?

Other than that though, quite looking forward to it (it'll be nice to get an RPG that doesn't involve bland fantasy sterotypes for a change).

hah! never mind. My copy of PC Zone for this month just fell through my door...it's Fallout 3 preview states that they've done away with oblivions leveling system apparently. spiffy.

Oh and one of the miscellaneous points they mention in the preview..
"Fallout 3 is far better optimised for PC play than Oblivion was. Map screens, inventories and keyboard control don't feel 360-fied in the slightest." So I guess that answers that too

New teaser trailer is up on Gametrailers.....looks amazing. I just want a full blown trailer already and hopefully we will get that at E3 proper. I just want to see this game in motion already. Come on Bethesda I'm chomping at the bit here.

Inioth wrote:

New teaser trailer is up on Gametrailers.....looks amazing. I just want a full blown trailer already and hopefully we will get that at E3 proper. I just want to see this game in motion already. Come on Bethesda I'm chomping at the bit here.

Trailer - http://www.gametrailers.com/player/3...

Okay bunch of new stuff just popped up from FO3 Blog

IGNXBOX360's hands on preview
:

Since it’s such a big part of the Fallout universe, listed below are all the skills and perks that were present in the June preview version of the game, with this list:

* Skills: Barter: Affects Buying and Selling
* Big Guns: Determines combat effectiveness with oversized weapons
* Energy Weapons: Determines combat effectiveness with plasma weapons
* Explosiveness: Determines power of mines/ effectiveness of grenades/ ease of disarming hostile mines
* Medicine: Determines how many HP you can heal with one stimpack
* Repair: How well weapons and apparel are maintained and increases starting condition of custom-made weapons
* Science: Affects computer hacking skills
* Small Guns: Determines combat effectiveness for smaller weapons
* Sneak: It’s easier to remain undetected, steal or pick someone’s pockets; increases critical chance when attacking undetected with this skill
* Speech: Governs how you can influence someone during dialogue and gain access to info
* Unarmed: Determines Melee Damage

* Perks:
* Daddy’s Boy: Gains an additional 5 points in science and medicine skills.
* Gun Nut: Obsessed with guns; an additional 5 points to the small guns skills and repair skills
* Intense Training: Add a single point to any of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes
* Lady Killer: 10% damage against female opponents, plus unique dialogue with them as well
* Little Leaguer: 5 points of melee weapons and 5 points of explosives skill
* Swift Learner: 10% in total experience points
* Thief: With each rank of Thief Perk you gain an immediate 5 point bonus to sneak and lock-pick

New official E3 FO3 site.

FO3 Blog wrote:

Found this thanks to Gaming Target, through N4G. There’s a small intro teaser, very Falloutish, and when you register you’ll get updates about new material to be shown.

It crashes my Firefox though, can only see it through IExplorer. And remember, Prepare For The Future.

Emil reminding us that "we aint seen nothing yet" (in regard to the trailer)

Nice summary of few hours of hands on game play by UK Magazine Xbox World 360 from NMA:

NMA Summary wrote:

UK magazine Xbox World 360 has an 8-page Fallout feature in their latest issue. Like CD-Action and others they've been allowed to play the game for a bit, and they are quite impressed. Some excerpts:

Who among us knows Oblivion as The Elder Scrolls IV or Morrowind as The Elder Scrolls III? Why Fallout 3 came to be so boldy named is a question Bethesda answer in very different ways depending on who you ask. Marketing man Pete Hines explains how Bethesda "Don't want to make a side story or be seen as something different; we're making a true sequel to Fallout 2, set in the same timeline and the same universe." Fallout 3's director Todd Howard's approach is more pragmatic: "People ask us 'Why Fallout?' and we say 'It's cool! It'll always be cool! Who cares if it's ten years old! It's great!'"

Fallout 3's nuts and bolts were something of a mystery, but it's a mystery you'll solve the instant you lay thumbs on the sticks. Fallout 3 is a true Fallout game, with all the wit, character and themes of the old games: more than that, Fallout 3 is Oblivion 2. Even with the post-apocalyptic trappings it feels like Oblivion - same engine, controls, freedom, and sense of place.

A century after the first Vaults opened, America is a land of mutated animals and irradiated freaks; where the dungeons you know from Oblivion appear as sewers, office blocks, malls and schools; where handfuls of survivors have built new civilisations from the ruins and where Malcolm MacDowell is John Henry Eden - the self-appointed President of the USA and leader of the Enclave, a group of genocidal elitists returning from Fallout 2.

The matter of combat is given some emphasis:

"You can definitely play it just as an FPS if that's your thing, though it's certainly going to be a lot harder," says Todd, describing how the VATS systems fits in. "We've had a focus test to see how well our tutorials were working, and in the initial run-through we forgot to tutorial VATS. People were playing without even knowing it existed and they just played it as a first-person shooter. That's reassuring."

"The initial design for VATS was the following pitch I made to people: "I don't know how it starts, but the end of it looks like Burnout's Crash Mode, but with body parts," Todd explains, with a gigantic grin. "We wanted them to be able to go into a room and go boom, boom, boom, boom and see views of their character blowing guys away from crazy angles."

Even before building the world and characters, the very first build of the game was named the Guns Build, built to make sure guns felt heavy and powerful. Then followed the Destruction Build to work out what happens when bullets hit things and people. Finally came a dedicated Combat Build, where the dummies from the destruction build fought back.

Even once the guns were suitably beefed up and noisy, the team faced tough decisions about just how much the RPG-levelling elements should play into the action. As Todd explains, "We struggled for a long time with how shooting would work in a role-playing game. How good am I at shooting and how good is the guy on the screen at shooting?" Bethesda settled on a system where your level considerably affects damage but only marginally affects accuracy. At low levels your bullet spread is larger than you'd find in a regular first-person shoot-'em-up, but as you grow, your accuracy will sharpen and your death-dealing power will increase.

Fallout 3 is about the little details, and they're everywhere. While much of Oblivion was generated procedurally using software designed to create a credible landscape, Bethesda's follow-up is a genuinely hand-made game, where every burned book, ruined home, and story told by the ruins themselves was carefully designed, as Istvan explains: "The art team went cell-by-cell. There's not a single piece of the game that hasn't been touched by hand. It's not procedurally generated - we didn't want to do that this time. Every rock you see, every tree, was placed by hand."

And in conclusion:

Accept no lies, Fallout 3 is too grand a project for us or any other games magazine to have fully understood in just a few hours' play. Three hours later and it's a world and a game we can paint only in the broadest strokes, but they're more than enough to sell it - Fallout 3 is a true follow-up to Oblivion, denser, grander, smarter and better. Better still Fallout 3 is Fallout Three - a long overdue chapter in a long-ignored series, indisputably made by the right men for the job.

Some additional short notes:

* Emil on purpose: "What we're careful about is making sure players know that they do have a goal - to find Dad. [...] we took a lot of steps to channel players who want to be channelled."
* If you defuse the bomb in Megaton you are rewarded with a shack, "which like all your future homes can be themed in different ways - pre-war, Mr Loverman, and Vault themes can be bought at the local supply store".
* One source of quests is a store owner in Megaton working on a wasteland field guide, who wants you to help fill in the blanks in various ways.
* You'll find the Stealth Boy early in the game.
* There'll be enemy snipers.
* An example of bleak humour: one house contains two skeletons hugging each other on a burnt-out carpet, a couple who died when the bombs fell.
* The writer thinks the reduction of level scaling is the "tiny change" that sets Fallout 3 above Oblivion: "The world is a scarier place without the world-levelling safety net."
* Raiders are observed "clearly thinking and plotting before rushing into combat". Enemies will make good use of cover, according to Todd, except if they're too badass to take cover like the super mutants.
* The yellow, even "banana-coloured" super mutants go around kidnapping humans.
* A few hours of playing only covers about 1% of the game world.
* Another example of bleak humour: in an unopened post box you can find a letter informing the receiver they weren't selected for the vault programme.
* The Enclave have "floating propaganda bots" in addition to their radio station to get their "message" out.
* You can pick up a radio transmission with a "Chinese voice reporting that America has fallen and for civilians to surrender."
* A few new perks: "At low levels Ladykiller will make you more effective against female adversaires; Black Widow is the female's equivalent. Little Leaguer will make you a big-hitting slugger with your bat."
* On the lockpicking minigame: "Using the right stick you'll apply torque to the lock while angling the pick with the left; too much torque on a misplaced pin and it'll snap. It's a game of delicate movements, and isn't a frustrating chore like Oblivion."
* Pete on the fact that the compass will point the way to unknown locations: "It's our way of saying 'there's fun over here'."
* There will be Squirrels-on-a-stick. Like all other food, they are radioactive.
* The first mêlée weapon is a baseball bat, the most powerful the power fist.

Many thanks to Stubs.

I cannot wait to see some game play of this (hopefully today at E3).

If you defuse the bomb in Megaton you are rewarded with a shack, "which like all your future homes can be themed in different ways - pre-war, Mr Loverman, and Vault themes can be bought at the local supply store".

Yeah, but if you set off the bomb in Megaton you are rewarded with a parking lot!

LobsterMobster wrote:
If you defuse the bomb in Megaton you are rewarded with a shack, "which like all your future homes can be themed in different ways - pre-war, Mr Loverman, and Vault themes can be bought at the local supply store".

Yeah, but if you set off the bomb in Megaton you are rewarded with a parking lot!

I thought they did away with having a player-driven car in this game, so what are you gonna park in it?
---Todd

lethial wrote:

You amazes me with your unique way of think all the time Lobster! :p

I try to stay optimistic.

ubrakto wrote:

I thought they did away with having a player-driven car in this game, so what are you gonna park in it?
---Todd

I dunno, maybe you could charge the Enclave and/or Brotherhood for parking their various Mad Max-style muscle cars, dune buggies, tractor trailers and tanks?

LobsterMobster wrote:
lethial wrote:

You amazes me with your unique way of think all the time Lobster! :p

I try to stay optimistic.

ubrakto wrote:

I thought they did away with having a player-driven car in this game, so what are you gonna park in it?
---Todd

I dunno, maybe you could charge the Enclave and/or Brotherhood for parking their various Mad Max-style muscle cars, dune buggies, tractor trailers and tanks?

Actually, in one of the previews it was mentioned that:

“If you cause a ruckus near an Enclave-controlled area, these Vertibirds in and drop off reinforcements”

I wonder if we can steal the Vertibirds

LobsterMobster wrote:
If you defuse the bomb in Megaton you are rewarded with a shack, "which like all your future homes can be themed in different ways - pre-war, Mr Loverman, and Vault themes can be bought at the local supply store".

Yeah, but if you set off the bomb in Megaton you are rewarded with a parking lot!

You amazes me with your unique way of think all the time Lobster! :p
Edit: thanks for the new sig lobster!

However, there are no drivable cars. But from one of the screenshots of the IGN preview, maybe we get Mules!?

Woot, I been sigged.

BTW! FO3 E3 live stream RIGHT NOW!!! (1:40pm EST 7/14/2008) IGN stream

Edit: OMG I so should NOT watch this right now at work, but OMG it is worth it!

BTW! FO3 E3 live stream RIGHT NOW!!! (1:40pm EST 7/14/2008) IGN stream

Edit: OMG I so should NOT watch this right now at work, but OMG it is worth it!

Watching it right now too.. Wow! The sound effects completely take me back, but that music is a little annoying. The VATS stuff is sort of bad ass, seems to really yank you out of the action though. Presenter is a little timid sounding, and the audience is way too quiet. Expected more enthusiasm.

Day 1 purchase for me.

Yep they even have the mechanical "turn ended" sound and all for VATS!

Oh it ended now, but something that is new to me is that at the very end Todd mentioned that there will be

"Substantial amount of DLC contents exclusively for Xbox360 and PC!"

lethial wrote:

BTW! FO3 E3 live stream RIGHT NOW!!! (1:40pm EST 7/14/2008) IGN stream

Edit: OMG I so should NOT watch this right now at work, but OMG it is worth it!

Dammit. I got all excited to jump over and check this out but, if your link is right, it's Insider subscribers only. Curse you IGN Insider! Curse you!!!!
---Todd

Not to worry, Todd said that the in-game demo portion of the game will be available online tonight.

Edit: This should be the low res version of the stream that doesn't require IGN sub.

Let me know if it works.

Low res one is working fine for me without signing in or anything.

Got to say - the VATS system looks like it might actually work...

"Substantial amount of DLC contents exclusively for Xbox360 and PC!"

Dogmeat flak-jackets?

stevenmack wrote:
"Substantial amount of DLC contents exclusively for Xbox360 and PC!"

Dogmeat flak-jackets?

I just hope that this mean that they have a modding tool that would allow them to make new ongoing contents easily.
And I hope that they release that tool

Got it with the second link. (Thanks!)

I saw a lot to like in the video and some things I'm not too sure about. The atmosphere looks great. The VATS actually gives me pause because of the switch to canned animations every time he selected a VATS attack. Seems like that might get old after awhile.
---Todd

ubrakto wrote:

Got it with the second link. (Thanks!)

I saw a lot to like in the video and some things I'm not too sure about. The atmosphere looks great. The VATS actually gives me pause because of the switch to canned animations every time he selected a VATS attack. Seems like that might get old after awhile.
---Todd

Oh how spoiled we are! Remember that in Fallout/Fallout 2, when you took an aimed shot with a sniper rifle the animation was of your character shooting a pump shotgun from the hip!

EDIT: I clicked that link and I'm just getting a press conference about crappy casual games. Where's the Fallout 3!?

LockAndLoad wrote:

Watching it right now too.. Wow! The sound effects completely take me back, but that music is a little annoying.

I was just thinking about that, I am making a "KOS" list for FO3, and that robot ("iRobot" wasn't it?) is on the top of my list...

Edit: Lobster, you should be able to rewind the feed. FO3 demo was at the very beginning of the Microsoft conference.

LobsterMobster wrote:
ubrakto wrote:

Got it with the second link. (Thanks!)

I saw a lot to like in the video and some things I'm not too sure about. The atmosphere looks great. The VATS actually gives me pause because of the switch to canned animations every time he selected a VATS attack. Seems like that might get old after awhile.
---Todd

Oh how spoiled we are! Remember that in Fallout/Fallout 2, when you took an aimed shot with a sniper rifle the animation was of your character shooting a pump shotgun from the hip!

EDIT: I clicked that link and I'm just getting a press conference about crappy casual games. Where's the Fallout 3!?

Gotta scroll back to the 10:40 mark (I think it starts somewhere around there). (I had to switch to IE for the feed. In Firefox it kept locking up on me.)

Anyway, it's not the animation that bothers me. It's the visual cuts from the perspective you're at to the "canned" (I'm assuming it's canned) cinematic of what happens after you choose your target. Impossible to tell from the trailer they showed, but I'm just worried it's gonna be too jarring/repetitive visually. Hopefully I'm wrong about that, tho!
---Todd

Gametrailers has 4 minutes of game play.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36197.html

ubrakto wrote:

Anyway, it's not the animation that bothers me. It's the visual cuts from the perspective you're at to the "canned" (I'm assuming it's canned) cinematic of what happens after you choose your target.

I got the impression that only happened under the VATS interface.

I'm disappointed in the Fat Man.

wordsmythe wrote:
ubrakto wrote:

Anyway, it's not the animation that bothers me. It's the visual cuts from the perspective you're at to the "canned" (I'm assuming it's canned) cinematic of what happens after you choose your target.

I got the impression that only happened under the VATS interface.

I'm disappointed in the Fat Man.

Yeah, when they say "Mini-nuke" I'm thinking Metal Gear Solid 3, not "big grenade."

There's also now an extended version of the trailer which played on Spike TV. New content before the beginning and after the end.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/3...

Ugh, just watched the trailer. Not what I was hoping for at all. I guess I'll just stick with the old ones. The whole thing bums me out.

The extended trailer makes it look a little *too* much like a first person shooter.

*Hopefully* this is just to attract the console masses (who's only Fallout exposure - no pun intended - is likely to be that risable Dark Alliance clone). It would be nice to see some footage of the stealthy & conversational alternatives.

Also I'm a little worried the ghouls have been mostly reduced to the status of "hostile undead" but haven't really seen enough to know either way.

Other than that, looking pretty good.