Fallout 3 Forums up

[Lemmy]

Article scans
Article transcript

Highlights of the article posted here

This is where most of your worries or doubts come to an end.

Everything said here is logical and stable.

Seems some people got their magazine and shared them with us.

Here they are:

- Game runs on an evolved version of the Oblivion engine. Third person view has been reworked since the verdict was that the Oblivion version was bad.

- Game starts with your birth and your mother's death in a vault hospital. This is essentially the character customization part of the game. Your father hands you up to have your DNA analyzed and you get to pick out all your character traits. Your dad takes off his mask to reveal similar traits to the ones you picked.

- You grow up in the vault and as you grow you get your first book titled "You're Special" which allows you to choose you baseline stats for each of your 7 primary aptitudes. You'll also get your first weapons and wrist computer (menu) as you get older and take tests to determine the initial layout of your skills and traits.

- Every aspect of character creation is based on S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system. Of your 14 skills you can tag 3 to grow at a faster rate than the rest as you level up.

- Battle system is called the Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.). The article states. "While you'll certainly be able to tackle enemies in real time using first person shooting, V.A.T.S. lets players pause time and select a target at their leisure". Battle system still uses action points, but once you've used them up you'll still be able to fight targets in real time while they charge back up.

- Game is still violent and gory. One of the featured screens is of a guy's head exploding in super gory detail. Apparently all gory deaths in the game will be in slow motion.

- More than one way to play the game. Go balls out and kill people, or sneak past situations, or perhaps talk your way out of situations.

- Enemies can target you just like you can target them, so you can get injured in very specific points on you body. This in addition to an all new health/radiation system. This new system has you measuring how radiated certain things (like water) are and how they affect you when you consume them.

- Karma system returns

- The game does not scale like oblivion, so if you enter a high level area expect to be promptly murdered.
- Level cap is 20.

- Definite ending to the game, but there are 9 - 12 possible endings.
- There are NPC's you can hire, but this is not a party based game.
I confirm the above mentioned specifications.
They are all based upon the interview among GameInformer Magazine

I take full responsibility

GameInformer article came out with a preview. What they've shown looks nothing like the original two games. 1st person/3rd person over the shoulders view (thinking WoW-like), real time combat with some kind of pausing system. Not getting the Fallout feel from those screens at all

Then there are all sorts of promises to have branching quests, meaningful dialogue, detailed health system etc, but no examples of it.

Overall it looks like they're going the Oblivion with Guns route, they took Oblivion as a starting point and tried to make it more like Fallout, instead of taking FO2 as a starting point and impvoring on that. Oblivion fans will probably love it, with all the new fallouty features it's getting.

Without the fallout name it would probably be a good game, if they deliver what they promise, certainly better than Oblivion. But so far it's just not living up to the expectations of true Fallout sequel.

If the end is near for Simcity, then Fallout is dead and buried now

[ZargonX]

That VATS system looks like one of those things that'll be impossible to judge until you actually have it in your hands; could be interesting, or could be really annoying.

[mactbone]

The best comparison I read for VATS was to bullet-time in Max Payne. At least, that's how it sounds from the description given.

I've always found it interesting when fans of Fallout claim that the setting is the only important part of the game - to which I wonder, is that why FO:BoS sold so well? Anyway, we'll find out more over the next month or two but it certainly looks like another awful homogenization of all games. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me that Fallout would continually be used to sell games like a popular movie/book/television. It can't have the cache that everyone thinks it does, so what makes the suits think it does?

[ZargonX]

Adding to the worries, they've said they are focusing on the 360 version, with the PC version coming off that... always bad news

[Kuciwalker]

Yeah, that almost guarantees failure.

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by mactbone
The best comparison I read for VATS was to bullet-time in Max Payne. At least, that's how it sounds from the description given.

The quote above doesn't say that time slows down, like in Max Payne, but that it pauses. Time stops when you press pause.

I've always found it interesting when fans of Fallout claim that the setting is the only important part of the game - to which I wonder, is that why FO:BoS sold so well? Anyway, we'll find out more over the next month or two but it certainly looks like another awful homogenization of all games. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me that Fallout would continually be used to sell games like a popular movie/book/television. It can't have the cache that everyone thinks it does, so what makes the suits think it does?

I don't know. It looks promising so far. Same great setting? check. Tactical combat? check. S.P.E.C.I.A.L? Check. Karma? Check. No Oblivion level-scaling? Check. The quests will probably be well designed. Bethesda are generally good at that. I just hope they won't screw-up the storyline, the dialogues and the NPC's this time around.

[Lemmy]

It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me that Fallout would continually be used to sell games like a popular movie/book/television

I have no doubt Fallout 3 will be a commercial succes. Not because it's called Fallout, but because Bethesda is making it and are making it for the audience they know best. With only half the fallouty features it's already much better than Oblivion was, and that sold well enough.

It just won't provide the same gaming experience as the previous versions did.


Same great setting?

Arming this portable nuclear catapult, the tiny bomb slides into place with a ding that sounds disturbingly like a diner lunch bell. As the giant mutant turns its eyes on you, you pull the trigger, and the bomb hurtles over to the beast's feet. The creature crashes down in a cloud of nuclear fallout.

Ehm, close, but not quite as great.

Tactical combat?
Sure, as long as you have action points. Then it's back to RT twitching.

[Nostromo]

Tactical combat?
Sure, as long as you have action points. Then it's back to RT twitching.

Depends on how they do it. Action points and the ability to pause the game anytime you want are good starting points, IMO.

I hope they're not using the stupid leveling system they've been using in Morrowind and Oblivion. I hate it. Its extremely grind-prone, expecially for those skills that are not fun to use.

[Dis]

yeah after playing a mmorpg I just can't go back to Oblivion. I keep meaning to finish that game. I accomplished very little. But I need a new video card before I do that anyways.

and games designed for consoles.

[Lemmy]

More info from GameInformer

Q: Is this another Oblivion but with a Fallout theme?
A: In short: no. Sure, Fallout 3 plays primarily from a first-person perspective like Oblivion, and conversations with NPCs use a similar style of dialogue tree, but combat, questing, character creation and most importantly the tone and style of the gameplay shares more in common with Fallout 1 and 2 than Oblivion.

Dialogue will be Oblivion-style. Funny that he thinks combat is more like Fallout than Oblivion. Yes, FP/RTwP is MUCH MORE like Iso/TB than FP/RT... ...or maybe he thinks the Nuclear Catapult makes it like FO1/FO2.

More info on combat:

Q: Is the game turn based or real time?
AND
How’s the V.A.T.S. combat system work again?
A: I talk about this a good bit in the July magazine article, but to be clear, Fallout 3 plays in both real time and a paused tactical combat mode. It’s not really turn based, however. Instead, you can pause the real-time action in order to make aimed ranged or melee attacks on your opponents, smashing their legs to slow them down, or perhaps shooting an arm to hurt their weapon aim. Like in the original Fallout games, doing these aimed shots take action points, but since there are no turns, those AP recharge over time after unpausing the game. You can shoot in real time, but that will then slow your recharge rate. In practice, this means players have the option to play the game very much like an RPG, but with a good bit more action than traditional RPGs. Are there other details to the way this system works? Almost definitely, yes. Do we know all the answers to how V.A.T.S. works after seeing it in one demo? No. We’re waiting just like you to find out more.

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by ZargonX
Adding to the worries, they've said they are focusing on the 360 version, with the PC version coming off that... always bad news

Well thats ruined any chance of me being interested in this game. Alas.

[Adagio]

Just saw this on some other forum... not sure if it's real or not, but it looks like some magazine scan:

[ZargonX]

Yeah, that's real. It's from the magazine article. Nice to see they decided to redesign the Super Mutants to look like every other FPS bigmonsterguy

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by Lemmy

Dialogue will be Oblivion-style.

That's not good, not good at all.

Funny that he thinks combat is more like Fallout than Oblivion. Yes, FP/RTwP is MUCH MORE like Iso/TB than FP/RT... ...or maybe he thinks the Nuclear Catapult makes it like FO1/FO2.

It don't see why a FP/RTwP system couldn't have exactly the same depth as the original Fallout combat system.

First of all, whether its first-person or third-person is of no consequence, IMHO, on the depth of the combat system itself. I'll be the first to admit that its easier or more convenient to strategize in a third-person view, especially if you can move back the camera and examine the whole battlefield. But the combat system itself will not be any deeper if its done in a third-person view. In principle, you could do exactly the same in a first-person view. It just won't be as convenient. OTOH, it will be a lot more immersive.

Second, a RT system with pause doesn't differ significantly from a TB system without automatic pauses. I'm refering here to games like Baldur's gate where the game doesn't automatically pause each time someone makes a move (but you could still pause whenever you wanted to).

So FP/RTwP could, in principle, have as much depth as TP/TB. Fallout 3 could be the Europa Universalis of RPG's. Of course, EU is a niche game and Bethesda aren't in the niche game market: they make expensive, AAA games. But you have to admit that their games have more depth than your typical AAA game.

Don't sweat it. Its just a **** ing game, after all!

[Lemmy]

He didn't specify combat system. Just combat, with that i take it as the entire combat experience. Including the strategic overview that you have with Iso. Including the differences in gameplay between TB and RTwP. Being able to watch every single action/movement in sequence, or having to make sense of it when it happens all at once is a big difference to me.