Fallout 3

[red oct 2]

First some preview videos from IGN:

Escape from Vault 101 preview

Megaton City preview

The Wasteland preview

The Super Duper Mart preview

some gripe about the game being first person rather than the over head view. imo, i like it. you get to see the nice visuals.

EDIT:

found part 5 of this preview that shows what happens to the town of megaton and one of the xbox achievements.

Tenpenny tower

[NeMeSiS 11]

Well, i like the real time combat but i don't like the Oblivion engine, it runs like crap compared to the graphics, the AI seems like it came straight from Oblivion (Which means its very basic, sorta comparable to an ArmA zombie mod, just a little bit dumber, though you would expect humans to act a bit smarter...), something still seems kinda off with the bump/normal maps (Some kind of frosting on those rocks?), And the game feels like you have no body, im not sure why.

Maybe its the FOV, maybe its the 'flying arms thing', i dont know but it just doesnt feel right.

[mr burns 132]

Seen the gameplay videos today and also noted the similarities to oblivion ..

that guy who gives the megaton quest even has a voice actor from tes4 speaking in exactly the same 'rythm' (or whatever else the proper word here is..)  

Kind of a little showstopper, but i guess it´s mostly kept that low-fi due to better compatibility with xbox360.

Still looking forward to it

[Daddl 10]

I've been waiting for this game for ages and already preordered the collectors edition for my PS3. After Fallout 1 & 2 I never really understood why the series wasn't continued properly ('Fallout Tactics' dosn't really count). When Bethesda finally took over I was very relieved! With Morrowind and Oblivion they've shown they can do brilliant RPG games, and from what I've seen and read so far they seem to have hit the old games' atmosphere spot on.

As for the graphics  in my opinion they look quite good. Sure, it's not Crysis, but then the videos above were recorded on an XBox 360 (you can see the player unlocking an achievment in the first video), not a PC with DX10 and a 1GB gfx card. I'm sure it will look much better on the PC. Also I feel in a game like Fallout the graphics are really secondary compared to the story and quests - and I have no doubts that they've got that right.

Here's the link to the official Fallout 3 website.

@Mr Burns: the fourth link in your post points to the same video as the third - could you fix that please?

[4 IN 1 0]

i liked the old fallout so much because there is so many place to visit, but this one is not "as large" as i through it to be(goddamnit i through i might be able to visit the legendary vault 69 for the first time )

and there is the npc part, yes they do say a lots of "f*ck" but it still missed some dark humor in it

hope the actural game will turns out better then it seems to be

[Pathy 0]

Looks good to me. Then again, i'm already accepting of the fact that whatever developer had taken it on, making Fallout 3 is an "impossible" task, in as much as meeting the expectations of fallout fans, you're always going to disappoint someone.

IMO, all we can hope for is that the developers try thier best to capture the essence of the previous Fallout games, and show some love for the franchise theyre continuing.

To me, whilst I could complain about the oblivion engine, etc, it's obvious that they're honestly attempting to make a fallout game in the spirit of fallout, theres alot of stuff in there that to me, shows they've thought it through. They may, or may not, hit the mark, but i'm still going to give it a go, regardless.

[4 IN 1 0]

Looks good to me. Then again, i'm already accepting of the fact that whatever developer had taken it on, making Fallout 3 is an "impossible" task, in as much as meeting the expectations of fallout fans, you're always going to disappoint someone.

IMO, all we can hope for is that the developers try thier best to capture the essence of the previous Fallout games, and show some love for the franchise theyre continuing.

To me, whilst I could complain about the oblivion engine, etc, it's obvious that they're honestly attempting to make a fallout game in the spirit of fallout, theres alot of stuff in there that to me, shows they've thought it through. They may, or may not, hit the mark, but i'm still going to give it a go, regardless.

i agreed, they do tried very to creat the fallout feeling and they did managed to get it right to a high level

but i think there is just too many ppl who missed to sell their wifes, kill some kids with hyper syringe, or became a porn star in FALLOUT 2

[Infam0us 10]

I got a few guys who are looking forward to this game, will it be worth all the hype? Something about shooting teddy bears from a gun to destroy enemy's?!

[Daddl 10]

Well, the fact that you can build DIY weaponery (like the teddy bear throwing rocket launcher) is nice, but those are just nice little extras that fit the weird (and not overly serious) scenario. I very much like the fact that they kept the perks system that Fallout 1/2 used. As someone who used to play the pen & paper rpg GURPS (after which the original Fallouts system was modelled) that alone raises too many fond memories...

What I don't understand is what you ppl think is wrong with using the Oblivion engine? The engine wasn't bad at it's time, and you don't really believe they didn't improve it over the last few years, do you? Arma also just used a modernized OFP engine (dating back to the first Poseidon demo about 10 years ago), as will ArmA2, and I think the visual quality still improved very much with every iteration - from OFP to Resistance to ArmA to ArmA2. As most effort with an rpg game that vast is in the contend (missions, characters, story, locations, scenery) anyways, it's better to focus the resources there instead of reinventing the wheel trying to fit an already complex game onto a completely new engine, rather using what they're used to and comfy with.

[mr burns 132]

What I don't understand is what you ppl think is wrong with using the Oblivion engine?

It´s not wrong per se. It´s just that i can imagine that Fallout3 will feel alot like Oblivion - running around the wilderness, looting item containers and enemys - running back to your stash or selling stuff all the time. Hopefully they´ll atleast cut the auto travel, that wasn´t a too bad feature eitehr but induces lazyness and pepole who used it all the time ran past most of the funny side-quests in oblivion, playing it through in about 8hrs on lvl3 or so

[Daddl 10]

The fast-travel option wasn't too bad, as you still had to manually find a location first, before you could skip the walk. Considering the size of the world that saved many, many hours of boring running and fighting bandits & wolfes. It still took me >150 hours to play through Oblivion, Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles - despite using fast-travel quite a lot. But then I tried not to miss any quests, completed all the guilds, etc.

The fact that enemies leveled with you (including bosses), and most missions didn't require you to have reached a specific level (the shrines were rather the exception in that regard) was imo the main cause for people being able to rush through the game, not the fast traveling option. If the boss fights are actually easier on lower levels, why take the effort to build up a mighty character first, instead of just following the main quest line. Luckily Bethesda promised that they cut back on that 'feature' in Fallout 3.

[mr burns 132]

The fast-travel option wasn't too bad, as you still had to manually find a location first, before you could skip the walk. Considering the size of the world that saved many, many hours of boring running and fighting bandits & wolfes. It still took me >150 hours to play through Oblivion, Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles - despite using fast-travel quite a lot. But then I tried not to miss any quests, completed all the guilds, etc.

Well thats exactly what i did and am doing again since i recently started playing oblivion agian. But as you said, you´ve got to find places first - so i can imagine that many people just followed the main storyline using autotravel and never got fond of any of the cool places - the nudist shrine for example

[Pathy 0]

There was, more or less, "fast travel" in the previous Fallout Games, wasnt there? You had to find them first, but....

[Average Joe 0]

I have to say, the idea of an apocalyptic landscape to roam freely on in Oblivion style certainly tickles my fancy. Just hope its as good as the hype and Im certainly getting this for my PC.

[Daddl 10]

It still took me >150 hours to play through Oblivion, Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles - despite using fast-travel quite a lot. But then I tried not to miss any quests, completed all the guilds, etc.

Well thats exactly what i did and am doing again since i recently started playing oblivion agian. But as you said, you´ve got to find places first - so i can imagine that many people just followed the main storyline using autotravel and never got fond of any of the cool places - the nudist shrine for example

Yeah, but that was rather a quest design problem than related to the engine or fast-travel option - they should have forced players more to follow the sidequests (for example by forcing players to first gain enough power/abilities/artifacts through sidequests before being able to continue the main storyline at various points). With those you were automatically forced to walk all over the map (like the Arena quest or the guild missions), dicovering additional sites and sidequests on the way.

If you're an experienced fan of the genre you probably don't need any pressure/incentive for that, but other people aren't used to go exploring on their own. For them, allowing them to beat the main storyline at low levels, meant missing out on quite a lot of things.

[Trapper 0]

I like the official trailers more than the in game movies and for me that's a good sign for a story and atmosphere driven game like the fallout series taken over by a new developer.

[red oct 2]

Seen the gameplay videos today and also noted the similarities to oblivion ..

that guy who gives the megaton quest even has a voice actor from tes4 speaking in exactly the same 'rythm' (or whatever else the proper word here is..)  

Kind of a little showstopper, but i guess it´s mostly kept that low-fi due to better compatibility with xbox360.

Still looking forward to it  

I kinda liked the voice actors from oblivion. but thats just me i guess. does anybody know if theres any mode of transportation in this game or is it strickly on foot?

[Daddl 10]

Yeah, the voice acting in Oblivion was mostly (there were exceptions) quite good, and in some cases - like Sheogorath's voice in the Shivering Isles expansion - simply brilliant. From the videos there isn't too much dialog available yet, so I'm not sure how it'll turn out in Fallout 3, but it looks quite fine so far.

From what I've read there's no 'mode of transportation' apart from walking - just like in Oblivion. It's all urban wasteland with rubble and ruins all over - so it would probably make little sense to drive with any kind of vehicle. Fast travel like in Oblivion has been confirmed, tho. Which, as I stated earlier, is quite a good thing as the game world has a size comparable to Oblivion.

[The_Captain 0]

Yay, gameplay videos.

I'm torn:

I like the atmosphere and the game options that are new or carried over from fallout (perks, stats, interface style).

However, the game's look and feel, and gameplay style remind me way too much of Bioshock, but with less polish: 'arcadey' rather than grounded in a bit more reality like fallout 1+2. "Radiation +1!" messages on the screen as well as water increasing health both seemed odd to me.

The animations are wooden, the weapons are poorly animated with poor sounds, recoil is nonexistent even in a scope view, and the player view feels like a bad panning-style cinematic, much more floaty than actual movement. The cinematic view when killing people with vats is hopefully something to turn off; it got a bit annoying even only a half dozen times in the videos, and just felt gratuitous. The environments seem populated with enemies just for the sake of it, while in fallout you felt that enemies were part of 'encounters': you would encounter raiders in the desert, townspeople in the cities, etc. In the videos it seemed enemies were scattered about just to provide things to shoot at.

All the immersion breaking aspects aside, fallout is a game about the story, quests, characters, dialogue and rpg aspects as well, so I'm looking forward to exploring the post-apocalyptic environment in first person, being able to take in all the scenery and devastation. Still, the first person and arcade seeming aspects are looking like they'll be a turn off to me, and might get in the way of my enjoying the real "meat" of the game...

If F3 is bungled, hopefully StarCraft 2 will still be good.

[4 IN 1 0]

<s>BTW did anyone here knows what the name of the music they used in the trailer?(not the teaser or demo)</s>

find it, DEAR HEARTS AND GENTLE PEOPLE by Bob Crosby

[Daddl 10]

I just started to play the original Fallout games again - lost my original disks years ago, but found that Amazon has both plus Tactics as a White Label release (all on one DVD, patched to work properly on Windows XP). Bought the pack, and installled the games in a VM.

Sweeeeeet!

There's nothing more satisfying than pickpocketing someone, and putting an armed explosive in their pack!

If you haven't played them yet, do so! They are old style iso-view games, with turn based combat, but they are simply the best rpgs of that kind besides the Baldur's Gate series. There's still quite an active and dedicated community around these old games, which speaks highly for their quality!

I really recommend adding the high res patches and the inofficial patches for Fallout 1 & 2 (they don't add content, but simply fix things Interplay and Black Isle never got around to - like the famous FO2 bug regarding the safe in New Reno).

[Daddl 10]

Wohooo! Just received my collectors edition - unfortunately I'm still at work with a few more hours to go...

[Average Joe 0]

Mine ought to be arriving tomorrow, will have to make an excuse to not see the girlfriend...I think i'm ill, cough wheeze.

[Shadow NX 1]

God i hope my copy is there when i come home, ordered from Austria because i had no intrest in the german cutfest.

[HotShot 0]

Mine ought to be arriving tomorrow, will have to make an excuse to not see the girlfriend...I think i'm ill, cough wheeze.

Man-flu. Has a propensity to occur on days of release dates and sports matches.

Your own reviews would be great (the websites are giving it good reviews so far). This has toppled Far Cry 2 as one of two games I may buy for the xbox. A friend at school used to rave about the first 2 games, and I remember they were pretty good but never brought it myself. This version also looks great though, kind of like Deus Ex which I also love (of which a new game, though not from the same makers is on the horizon), but I am worried about this VAT system. Sounds like it turns the game into a turn-based game in combat, just selecting where you want to hit and it does so, or have I misunderstood this?