Fallout 3 News & Discussion

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Bethesda picked up the Fallout license in July 2004 after Interplay bombed, and have recently begun releasing a trickle of information about the development of Fallout 3.

On June 5th, Bethesda's official Fallout 3 website released a short teaser trailer (you can watch or download it at the official site here), and a few days ago Game Informer released an article detailing a demonstration of the game at it's current stage of development. You can see the scans here:

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Unfortunately, they're a bit small, but you should be able to make out the text unless you're myopic. If not, just look at the pretty pictures. here are some highlights from the article about the game mechanics:

- SPECIAL is still being used.
- No level scaling.
- The level cap as of the article is 20, and perks are gained every other level.
- The camera view may alternate either between first-person or 3rd person over-the-shoulder, akin to Resident Evil 4
-The combat system is now a combination of real-time and turn-based. As far as I understand it, you can "pause" the game to make targeted shots, which use up AP. When your AP is empty, the game switches to realtime, where your AP regenerates. The speed of AP regeneration is different depending on your AG, and may be slowed by running or attacking.
-Survival is a much greater factor, as you now need to maintain a supply of food and water. Weapons now degrade over time from wear and tear or combat damage, and you can modify or construct your own weapons from pieces.
-There's a nuclear catapult called the Fatman in there.

Like the title says, this thread is for discussing Fallout 3, not complaining about how that car differential the super-mutant is holding is obviously a Daedric +5 Differential, so take that to the other thread.

Personally, I'm glad that SPECIAL is stil in, since it's probably my favorite stat system out of any game. The combat system certainly sounds interesting, and the fact that it will probably mean more tactical fighting is good.

The Fatman sounds weird, though, and sounds pretty game-breaking if it's available early on. Hopefully it'll either be an endgame weapon, or just have really sparse ammo and nasty side-effects, what with the nuclear fallout and everything.

Did anyone else notics that the mutant in the picture had the trademark upper teeth exposed? I thought that was a nice touch.

I also hope there's plenty of room for improvising weapons. I want to be able to cave someone's skull in with a cinderblock or, indeed, stop sign.

 

Well, they're promising quite a few exciting things. IIRC, there was a sort of survival element in Fallout 1, but it wasn't really anything more than few points of damage due to dehydration. And you could block that with armor. It would be an intresting addition to actually maintain your hunger and thirst. Sure, later on you just spend some cash and that's it, but at the beginning and with small funds it may be a real dilemma, can you risk less water for more ammo?
Also, I'm hoping they add some sort of jamming to weapons. It would make you give more thought into the matter.

Other thing I like about it is that there is going to be much to tinker with.
The test that determines your attributes could be an intresting addition, but I still expect (and hope) that they include the traditional character creation as well.

All in all, it has potential to be a really good game. And if it turns out bad, there's no harm done, Fallout 1&2 won't be ruined because of it.

 

This is from the front page of No mutants allowed

The conversation quote is very disturbing in my opinion because Oblivion's dialogue system was beyond simple. Fallout is all about talking and if that part is not up to par with the previous games that would be a game-breaker.

 

Indeed, what has happened to proper dialogue nowadays... and I certainly hope that combat system gets a lot of changes. To me it seems like they just took the combat system from Oblivion and glued a dummy AP-system on it, to make it look a bit more tactical. Also this:

Change is good, if done properly. So far it looks like the combat system and dialogue have taken several steps in the wrong direction. But to be fair, everything else looks more or less ok/good, it is just easier to grab all the negative things and to throw them around. I think we just have to wait for more details, it is still at least 1.5 years to the release anyway.

 

If they do use dialogue trees, I'll most likely be dissapointed. I always found the 4th-wall breaking and comedy in the dialogue options in the first two games very funny. Then again, they might have changed their mind by this point, since at first they said they weren't using SPECIAL and now they are, so hopefully they decided against it.

To be honest, I'd have to see the combat sytem in action before I make any judgement, although my current state of mind is "cautiously optimistic".

 

I think this quote was more aimed on the people who insist on the game has to be isometric view in a time where every game company knows that people wont play games with such old graphic.

the dialog system i hope they change or at least improve upon.

the battle system I will judge when its out, it sounds interesting, but it might be to much max payne, where bullet time is replaced with AP.

The focus on survival can either be great or a real pain, depending on how hard it is and what penelties it carries with it.

 

I for one don't care that much about combat and I wouldn't mind at all an Oblivion like subjective view... But dialogues... Man if it's crappy like Oblivion or Morrowind I think I'll have to pass.

Dialogues are the most important part of Fallout IMO. I completed both F1 and 2 with a non violent character who talked his way through the game, I'd like to be able to do that in F3.

The background and the setting look nice so far so let's hope they get this right.

 

They did say that you can talk your way out of most situations where combat is a possibility, and as far as I can recall TES games didn't really have that option. I'd infer from that that either they're using a similiar style, but far more indepth, or that article is very poorly written and the guy was misquoted. Or the GI article is lying and we're all doomed to grunting single words at people to get answers.

 

I'm not too worried about visuals and eye candy. The trailer made it quite clear that they got the Fallout mood right. The East Coast setting is a great idea.
Voices are bound to be good with Ron Perlman and Liam Neeson it can't be otherwise.

My only concern is if they use Oblivion type dialogues "grunting single words" and one liners would be a major turn off.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

 

My only concern is if they use Oblivion type dialogues "grunting single words" and one liners would be a major turn off.
Unless you're playing an INT 3 character, in which case it's necessary.

 

That article put more hope about Fallout 3 than anything else, but while everything sounds great, I'm still worried a lot about the dialogues. I really hope they are meaningfull to the game (I don't want a STALKER type of game), and that many options and funny lines are available.

While I had hoped for a turn-based system, the new one doesn't sound all too bad, and it's even better than you can avoid combat by sneaking and whatnots.

 

I'm curious as to the justification for Brotherhood members and supermutants being in this area of America. I suppose the Brotherhood would inevitably try and get to D.C for one reason or another, but why would muties wander that far?

 

Some FEV experiment? I guess it wasn't limited to the West Coast after all...

 

With the dialogue tree like in Oblivion, and the absence of turn based combat (and, more importantly, its messages) two large sources of humour in Fallout 1 & 2 simply disappear. And with it, a large part of the appeal of the first two games.

I don't really care that the combat system won't be turn based, but what's the point of aiming for a certain body part when there's no fun message attached to it? (Yes, it may cripple the opponent, but if I wanted something like that, I'd play some first-person shooter in stead.)

I thoroughly dislike the fact that you have to eat, drink and your weapons break. I know it's supposed to be realistic, but if I wanted realistic, I'd go outside, not play a game.

That said, they do seem to have gotten the atmosphere right. And I'm sure it'll be good game as well. I'm just not so sure that it's a game I would want to play, especially given that I tend to not play many new games nowadays anyway.

 

I personally doubt that the developers would be so dense as to use the "wiki" style of dialogue, as anyone who is even *aware* of Fallout knows that part of the overall style was the dialogue. Then again, I'm a disgusting optimist, so what do I know?

 

I don't think the game is especially aimed at people that are aware of Fallout, though. I'm not hopeful about this one at all.

 

Bethesda finally opened the "real" homepage for Fallout 3, with more information, downloads, blogs etc.
So check it out at http://fallout.bethsoft.com/index.html.
At least the webpages are quite nice.

 

damn does pictures from the game looks great. I really think they captured the spirit of the old 2d games and made it 3d, at least visually. the picture of the guy who's head explode really made me laugh, recalling the silly violence of the old fallout games.

then going on and reading the info sheat, learning that you can choose between first or third person made me even more happy, that along with the ability to pause and target body parts

 

How can you be anything but excited about this. fallout 3 with the exact same feel of fallout 1 and 2 just isnt going to happen anymore. By at least taking their inspiration from fallout, this game has the potential to be deeper than most of the crap developed these days. Be excited people are at least trying to put some thought into a game. There is a very good chance it will be dumbed down for the xbox kiddies, but you haven't lost anything. It's not like they were deciding between this and using the old fallout engine.

 

How can you be so content to settle for so much less than what we were promised? We were promised Fallout 3, and that is not what we're getting. The only thing this will serve to do is further associate the terms 'good/true/hardcore RPG' with shallow, ****ty FPS/action RPG hybrids