Teaser: Fallout 3

[shabador]

Fallout er ikke det helt store lengre, jeg anbefaler at alle dere som er store fans av spillet å spille det på nytt nå, tror ikke dere sitter igjen med samme følelsen som da dere spilte det back in the 90's

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Prøvde det igjen her tidligere i år. Både eneren og toeren. Runnet hvert av de to ganger (en gang med en tilbakestående, stygg, sterk mann; og en med en smart karismatisk pistolero).

 

Så... Det er fremdeles et eksepsjonelt spill. HÅPER Bethesda ikke går for mye vekk fra originalene.

 

Personlig så mislikte jeg Fallout Tactics, så håper de ikke tar den retningen.

Endret 7. juni 2007 av shabador

[MiniX]

Oi, folk satt og venta i flere mnd på at et kamera langsomt floata ut av en buss

 

glad jeg ikke fant ut om denne videoen for et par dager siden og slapp å sitte en mnd å vente i spenning på DETTE, lol

 

Fallout er ikke det helt store lengre, jeg anbefaler at alle dere som er store fans av spillet å spille det på nytt nå, tror ikke dere sitter igjen med samme følelsen som da dere spilte det back in the 90's

Spilte igjennom serien selv her i mars og det var så vidt den holdt på oppmerksomheten. Ønsker jeg ikke hadde spilt den så hadde jeg aillefall sittet igjen med feelingen jeg hadde fra det fra back in the days.

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Spillte akkurat igjennom eneren, og det var nesten like mye kos som før Det eneste jeg ønsker, er at man kunne flytte historien fra eneren over til 2eren for å få alle oppgraderingene de har gjort i UIen.

[bevertann]

Aiaiai, alle dere syndere som ikke har sett potensiale i Fallout serien. Må si at jeg blir litt trist rett og slett når jeg ser kvaliteten på spill har gått ned lineært med kvaliteten på grafikken de siste 10 årene (selvsagt med noen få unntak), og Fallout 1 og 2 er og blir en av de beste spillene jeg noen sinne har spilt. Satt og siklet når jeg så traileren, og må innrømme at jeg fortsatt nesten får tårer i øynene av Armstrongs Kiss to Build A Dream On.... Det er nostalgia deluxe!

 

Jeg håper (og ser for meg) noe allá FO2 med litt bedre grafikk, UI, customization og mye mye mye større kart

 

 

Duck and Cover, FO venner!

Endret 7. juni 2007 av bevertann

[Loomy]

Nåde! Har aldri fått så mye frysninger av en teaser-trailer før. Den klarte å gi meg akkurat samme følelsen som spillene har klart gang på gang. Holdt på å eksplodere i det vi så BoS-fyren, og når jeg hørte "War.." eksploderte jeg i et perfekt synkronisert ".. War never changes"-hyl

 

Oh, teh joy. Dette reddet dagen. Og morgendagen.

[hobgoblin]

ser lovende ut. men som det blir påpekt, at det også skal til konsoller er ikke ett godt tegn. bare se på deus ex 2. helt greit spill, men fordi det var laget både for pc og konsoll så ble ting en smule mer begrenset en hva det var i eneren...

 

og det er langt opp og fram. fall 2008...

[ostehøvel]

Jeg håper (og ser for meg) noe allá FO2 med litt bedre grafikk, UI, customization og mye mye mye større kart

 

 

Duck and Cover, FO venner!

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Samme håper jeg på :!: Håper ikke de fokuserer for mye på nydelig grafikk! jeg vil ha det samme gamle fallout, bare med litt finpuss

[bevertann]

Jeg tror egentlig det viktigste med FO er originaliteten og stemningen, ikke den litt uortodoxe gameplay'en. Akkurat dette håper jeg de har innsett, og fokuserer mer på å lage en dæmn gudd story og setting enn masse fancy DX10 piss (no offence, det er jo pent, men det betyr ikke nødvendigvis at det er bra) og en grunn historie.

 

Nå blir det bare å sitte å telle dagene igjen da....*sukk*

Endret 8. juni 2007 av bevertann

[Campus]

men man må ikke glemme at de også lagde Morrowind.

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Skulle det være positivt?

[Anathema]

men man må ikke glemme at de også lagde Morrowind.

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Skulle det være positivt?

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Selvsagt. Et meget overbevisende argument, om jeg får legge til.

[Mr.FOXHOUND]

Mange av talentene som var med på Morrowind er vel long gone nå, eller?

[swikstor]

Duck and Cover, FO venner!

8808662[/snapback]

 

Duck and Cover!

 

 

 

...Jeg har prøvd å få mange til å spille Fallout, men det er litt vanskelig når man må si "Ja, de første timene er kanskje veldig kjedelige, men etter det blir det skikkelig konge!"...

8807698[/snapback]

 

Akkurat det samme har jeg gjort. prøvd og få massevis av kompiser til og forstå hvor kult det er. men må inrømme at jeg selv installerte og spilte det kun i et par timer første gang før jeg ga fen og dreit i det, trodde det var et dårlig indianerlignende spill.

 

Eneste jeg ikke kunne forstå var hvorfor de hadde en så sinnsykt kul robot lignende ting på coveret. Men jeg lot det ligge til jeg ikke hadde annet og spille på pcen, det var det siste spillet jeg ikke hadde runna på den tiden og gadd først og begynne på det når jeg var ferdig med alt annet. Såvidt jeg husker det, gikk på barneskolen. haha!.. var 8-9 år gammel eller noe.

[T-Bear91]

trodde det var flatout jeg :!:

[bevertann]

trodde det var flatout jeg :!:

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Joda, Flatout er også et veldig bra spill, spes Flatout2, men har nok intet annet med Fallout å gjøre:)

[T-Bear91]

flatout 2 er drit fett med ratt.

[Alt-Ctrl]

War - war never changes. Fikk skikkelig flashback med en gang! Gleder meg.

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Akkurat det er jo egentlig feil. Krig er jo noe som hele tiden forandrer på seg.

 

Både geografisk, teknologisk og taktisk.

[Anathema]

Men det forandrer seg ikke i det grunnleggende. Krig er og blir noe jævelskap.

[ATWindsor]

Gleder meg som en unge, Fallout 2 er et av de beste single-player-spillene til PC. Håper virkelig de beholder det som gjorde de to første bra, den store friheten, muligheten til å være ond, de mange reelle forskjellene i angrepsvinkel man kunne benytte.

 

AtW

[eught]

Du bør ikke ha for store forhåpninger, ATWindsor. Ser ikke ut som det blir noen verdig oppfølger til FO og FO2. Men som et post-apokalyptisk actionspill har det litt potensiale.

 

Litt lesing:

 

You were born in the Vault. And you'll die in the Vault. It's what you've always believed. For 200 years your people have survived down here, in this test tube of a home - bleached clean steel walls, sterilized floors, and dozens of fellow survivors crammed into this self-sufficient hole in the ground. Xenophobia is a lifestyle. The world above is gone, annihilated centuries ago in one brief radiation-filled flash, leaving you here to live out your sad existence behind a massive metal gate. At least that's what you believed until just hours ago, when it became clear that your father - the only family you have in the world - disappeared from the Vault without warning or explanation. So now you stand before that imposing portal, the great bolts that hold it in place sliding free from their mooring, ready to pursue him into the wastes. With a shudder, the breach slides open before you. Having never seen the glare of sun, the world beyond appears first in a haze and slides slowly into focus as you step out onto real soil for the first time. A shattered land lies spread out before you, the ancient husks of crumpled cars broiling beneath the midday sun, ruined and forgotten buildings dotting the ground out to the horizon. But as dead as the world appears, life has survived - normal humans struggling as much against irradiated food and drink as the mutated monstrosities that roam the wasteland. Even 200 years after that civilization ending holocaust, you and all the others who were left behind live under the perpetual threat of Fallout.

 

Into the Wasteland

 

Hunger for a new Fallout game began years ago, and deepened when the team that brought gamers the original masterpiece disbanded. One of the great PC gaming franchises was left in limbo, without anyone there to bring it to a new generation of players. When Bethesda bought the rights to the franchise in 2004, many were overjoyed that their favorite RPG developer would be reviving the series. Some Fallout fans immediately decried the move, sure from the start that Bethesda would change too much about their beloved series. Meanwhile, the folks at Bethesda quietly began to craft early concept art, research the original games, and brainstorm story and gameplay ideas. Now, after years of work, with the full force of their studio focused on their project, the team that brought us The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is ready to reveal their vision of the Fallout universe. "The spirit of Fallout - we've missed it. We've wanted to see it in games again," executive producer Todd Howard tells us. "It's humbling and exciting all at once to be the group that makes that game."

 

We got the chance to visit Howard and the rest of his team at their studio in Maryland. Ushered into a giant movie theater with enough seats for dozens of people, Howard sat in a booth high to our left as he played through a demo of the game while we watched on the massive screen. The nearly hour-long walkthrough (detailed in the narrative segments on these pages) revealed technology in stellar shape for a title that is over a year away from release. With almost no technical hiccups, the demo revealed how characters are crafted, the flow of combat, the structure of morality and questing, and wide stretches of the land upon which the game is set. As longtime players and fans of both Fallout and the Elder Scrolls franchise, that one hour as we sat in rapt attention made one thing abundantly clear: This is the best of both of those franchises, without any compromises, and with enough amazing new details to excite even the most jaded or skeptical RPG enthusiast. "Differences between how we approach this and how we approach The Elder Scrolls are pretty huge," Howard assures us. "It's its own game. We don't assume anything we did in Elder Scrolls fits."

 

"In Fallout 2, you start the game at birth," lead designer Emil Pagliarulo details. "In the original Fallout game, your character had been born in a Vault. We wanted the player to experience that process." As your mother dies during childbirth, you masked father lifts you up to where the other vault dwellers can analyze you with a DNA scanner - one that will reveal how you will look as you grow older. Here you are given the chance to choose your gender, body type, ethnicity, facial structure, and physique. All the classic elements of character creation with a huge amount of detail are present, but with more realistic facial options than were available in Oblivion. Once satisfied, your father will remove his mask, and his ethnicity and facial features will reflect your own - not a perfect match, but a clear familial link that reveals your parentage. From there, the early hours of the game will check in throughout the long years of childhood in the vault, reinforcing the prison-like environs of your home.

 

While still a baby, your father will give you a small infant-style cardboard book. As you flip through its pages, which is cleverly titled "You're Special!", you'll choose the baseline stats for each of your seven primary aptitudes. A brief stop as a toddler teaches you to walk, familiarizing you with movement controls. At age 10, you are gifted with a BB gun and your Pip-Boy 3000, a wrist mounted computer that will serve as your menu system throughout the game. At 16 you'll take your G.O.A.T. (Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test), where your answers to various questions will help determine an initial layout of skills and traits. Finally, at age 19, your father escapes and you pursue him into the world beyond. Sometime before the Vault's door opens, you're offered one last chance to alter the character you've crafted throughout childhood.

 

Whatever your choices, every aspect of character creation is based firmly in the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system that was utilized in the original Fallout games. Of your 14 skills, you can tag three of them to grow at a faster rate as you level up. Every other level, you choose a perk, a special talent that may give you small bonuses in certain situations. Traits give you pluses and minuses that may change your style of play. It's impossible to create a maxed-out superhero - each facet of character creation is set up to force careful choices about the path you want your character to take through life. From the beginning, Fallout 3 can be played in either a first-person camera view, or panned back to an over-the-shoulder third person angle not unlike the one offered in Resident Evil 4. In contrast to Oblivion's floaty and disconnected third-person option, the approach in Fallout 3 has been more focused. "We found with our previous stuff that if we have a third-person mode at all, then people like to play in it," Howard tells us. "So we spent a lot more time on that mode so you can play the whole game that way if you want." From either camera angle, players will be able to observe the amazing attention to detail on everything from wrinkles in characters' clothing to rough textures on the ruined stonework of old structures. This is an evolved version of the engine that ran the graphics of Oblivion, but everything from the animation of monsters to the dramatic lighting of different environments has been designed from the ground up for the ruined landscapes of the Fallout universe.

 

Once outside of the Vault, the focus of the game becomes finding a way to survive in the barren wilderness of the outside world. Water is a precious commodity, even though it is also one of the primary sources of radiation you'll encounter; every sip must be judged against how many rads it's likely to introduce into your body. Food, weaponry, and ammo are in short supply, so there's a constant need to ration and improvise new ways to confront obstacles. Hungry and malformed beats wander the world, and you'll have to find a way to either avoid them or take them down for good.

 

To do so, most players will find themselves taking advantage of the innovative combat system that Bethesda has developed for the game. The Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.) is what assures that this first-person game so chock full of guns doesn't become an FPS. "We don't want to be rewarding twitch play," Howard says. "It's not an action game. It's a role-playing game." While you'll certainly be able to tackle enemies in real time first-person shooting, V.A.T.S. lets players pause time and select a target at their leisure. Once targeted, a zoomed-in view of that enemy will show all the places you could aim to hit the creature, and the percentage chance you'll succeed. This percentage is based on distance, enemy defense, his cover, as well as your ability with the weapon at hand, among other factors. Just like in the original Fallout, you'll have a set number of action points, largely based on your agility score. Every combat move you make will deplete this supply, at which point those AP will begin to regenerate in real time at a rate that also corresponds with your agility. Once you complete all your actions in V.A.T.S. you can continue to attack in real time, but this will dramatically slow the recharge of your action points, thereby encouraging tactical targeting over constant twitch shooting. As for those specific targets, which area you aim for will have a profound effect on your foe. Hit the arm of a super mutant, and he may not swing that massive cudgel at you with quite the same force as before. Shoot off the antenna of a mutated giant ant, and he'll go crazy and attack his brethren.

 

Also in keeping with the tradition of Fallout, violence can and will be disturbingly brutal. If your final shot is about to result in a dramatic near miss, the sickening crunch of an exploding head, or any other dramatic moment, the scene will play out in slow motion, with the camera zooming in and circling around the bullet as it whizzes through the air only to tear into a mutant's leg as it explodes in a haze of blood. In addition to an array of ranged weapons, you'll also have access to melee weapons like the super sledge (a sledge-hammer) and the ripper (a weaponized chainsaw). These tools of war will function under the same V.A.T.S. system, allowing for gory close range slow-motion kills that shred those enemies foolish enough to get close. Embracing the bloody source material, Bethesda is very open in its declaration that Fallout 3 will most definitely not be fit for children. Meanwhile, your foes are certainly not content to sit still and eat your bullets. "We've revamped the entire AI system from Oblivion to give us better gameplay with guns," lead producer Gavin Carter tells us. "We've altered the whole pathfinding system so the NPCs are much more knowledgeable about their surroundings. They can take cover, catch you in flanking maneuvers, and mainly react more realistically with their environments."

 

With such clever adversaries, your foes aren't the only ones who'll be forced to deal with injury and pain. An intricate health system details the many problems your character will have to confront on his journey. Like most role-playing games, you will have a set amount of hit points that go down as you take damage. Food or soda will help improve your hit points slightly, and stimpacks (a sort of injection) can be a big help. As mentioned before, water can also give a boost. Sometimes the only way to completely fill up on health is to drink from some fixed water source repeatedly, like a toilet bowl in a forgotten subway station. However, when you go to drink, you'll be able to see both its health benefits and radiation level. Without medicating to reduce radiation, it will continue to rise until it begins to handicap stats and eventually kill you.

 

Beyond juggling health and radiation you'll also need to watch out for personal injury to different body parts. You're not the only one making targeted shots; your enemies will be aiming for particular weak points on your body as well. That means you may end up with a broken leg or a shattered arm. One might drastically slow you down, while the other will almost certainly make your once true marksmanship waver and fail. Conceivably, enough water and stimpacks could get your health back up to normal, but no amount of liquid is going to fix a broken bone. For these injuries, either beef up on your surgery skill or expect to make some long and painful treks back to the nearest town doctor.

 

While the simplest path to an objective is often through violence, Bethesda is committed to offering options that will fit anyone's play style, whether that means sneaking past dangerous foes or talking your way through to a solution. As with the original Fallout, a karma system is in place that will vacillate back and forth based on your actions. Ethical dilemmas are a big part of the Fallout universe, and sometimes one evil act may server a greater common good. Your place on the karmic scale will shift in response to your decisions, and different titles will be applied as you gain levels based on your current karma. In fact, many of the 360 version's Achievements will be about acquiring these different titles as you progress - getting all the Achievements is almost impossible in just one playthrough, particularly due to the nature of quests in Fallout 3.

 

Like Oblivion, Fallout 3 offers tremendous freedom in what actions and missions you want to take on. However, unlike Oblivion, a single character can't be all things to all people. Where your battle mage in Oblivion might have simultaneously been the heroic Champion of Cyrodil and the sadistic leader of the Dark Brotherhood, the quests you'll encounter in Fallout 3 will offer complicated choices that take you down one path or another. If you make one choice, it may close off an entire branch of missions from ever becoming available. However, because of that one decision, an entirely new series of missions will emerge that the other option would never have revealed. Subsequent playthroughs of Fallout 3 with different choices may very well completely change the path of the story. One avenue might have you taking up the insidious role of a slaver, while more righteous choices will have a town greeting you as a hero even upon your initial arrival since they've heard of your beneficent deeds. "Even within the quests we're trying to be careful to not just have the good path and the evil path, because a big part of Fallout is shades of gray," Pagliarulo informs us. With a less concrete questing path, you'll often find yourself swept up into tasks rather than being offered a formalized missions from some distressed townsperson - but you'll always have choices about how to proceed, or whether you want to participate in the event at all. "It's more about how you handle these different situations, and less which ones did you do and in what order," Howard explains.

 

The environmental backdrop through which you'll be making all of these choices is a detailed reinvention of the universe exhibited in the old games. "In our process of envisioning what Fallout 3 should look like, we started by going back to the first Fallout. There's a lot of great raw material to look at there," explains Istvan Pely, lead artist on the project. "Now we have so much more to work with. You're there, and you're seeing everything in a greater amount of detail. So we're going to town on that. Every single detail - just fleshing it out to a level of realism and quality that will overwhelm people in terms of making them feel like they're really there."

 

The location of the game world is in some ways a familiar setting for studio members at the Maryland-based studio. Washington, D.C. and its environs offer a dramatic backdrop to the post-nuclear adventure of Fallout 3. in the alternate history of the Fallout universe, many things were different in the years after World War II - a terrifying series of events lead to the the war in 2077 that wiped out most of civilization. In 2277, as you emerge from Vault 101, the world has had a hard time recovering, and few places are able to communicate the fall from decadence like a trip through the crumpled remnants of the Jefferson memorial, or spying the chipped and battered rock that remains of the Washington monument. A large central hub called Rivet City is based in and around the remains of a crashed aircraft carrier, while outlying settlements like the town of Megaton serve as other remote bastions of life. The sprawling remains of the underground Metro line and sewer ways interconnect much of the game world. The map as a whole is only slightly smaller in size than the land area you were able to explore in Oblivion. While the land mass is still huge, and seemingly endless quests abound, the harsh conditions in this post-apocalyptic land mean there are actually fewer individual characters to interact with.

 

"With Fallout, the number of NPCs is reduced. We're in the hundreds instead of the thousands," explains Howard. Consequently, the development team has been able to breathe more life into individuals as they move through their daily lives. "For us it's about making better characters - making NPCs that you're invested in," Pagliarulo adds. "The Radiant AI system of Oblivion takes its next steps forward in the game, as NPCs attempt to interact in meaningful ways with the game world. Characters who know each other won't just engage in generic small talk - they may address each other by name, and talk about things that matter to them as individuals. "Lucas Simms, the sheriff of Megaton, he has a son. If you see him walk up to his son and have a conversation, you would hear that the stuff that he says is particularly tailored to his son," Pagliarulo tells us. With the mention of Simms' son, the question of the presence of children in a game this violent must be addressed. In answer, Bethesda confidently assures us that kids will be found throughout Fallout 3 - but how they live and (more controversially) die within the game world is yet to be revealed. For both children and adults, you can expect far more voice talent this time around, with fewer characters that make you think: "Didn't I just hear this guy in the last town I was in?" That broader cast is being led by the inimitable Liam Neeson, who stars as the lost father at the root of your quest into the post-apocalyptic surface world.

 

Feature sets and questing structures aside, there's much more to Fallout than iterating off a great rule set from an old computer game. At its core, the Fallout universe appealed to mature gamers for its juxtaposition of the realities of war and death against a dark humor that delights in the ironies of a once perfect civilization ravaged by their own destructive tendencies. It's a complex world without simple answers. Heroism and villainy seem to carry more weight in a land so near extinction. Simply put, Bethesda gets it. From the emulation of the '40s propaganda posters to the impossible moral decisions placed before players, Fallout 3 is a role-playing game in the truest interpretation of the genre. It's about choices and consequences, characters and story, survival and sacrifice. And, after what seems now an excruciatingly short time seeing the game in action, it's about a long, long wait until the autumn of 2008.

 

 

 

The Pip-Boy 3000 (Page 4)

 

"We joke that this thing has more pixel shaders running on it than Oblivion did. We really wanted it to feel like this old beat up, retro device that you have strapped to your wrist," explains Todd Howard. The Pip-Boy 3000 is as close to a menu system that Fallout 3 has to offer. Three red buttons on the wrist-mounted device are your tabs between the major screens. The first is your character's stat page, where you can check skills, health, and other personal details. The second button pulls up an inventory of items, and also includes the option to repair damaged items or scavenge old ones for parts. The third button is a data screen - here you'll find maps, quest logs, photos, and the like. Beyond that, the Pip-Boy also serves as a sort of radio. Detecting radio signals being broadcast across the wasteland, you'll be able to tune in any of the surviving radio stations. Some broadcasts will occasionally reveal new quests. Other times, the radio stations serve as a way to listen to the 20-some 1949s and '50s tunes that Bethesda has licensed.

 

The Behemoth (Page 9)

 

Here you can see the layers of work that go into producing a single enemy in Fallout 3.

High resolution model used to define basic structures

Modeling of subsurface veins and blemishes, painted on in 3D

A texture pass for muscles and bone structure

A similar image with veins removed to aid in texture layering

Final image

 

 

 

Narrative Segments

 

Page 3:

In the wastes beyond Vault 101, a dusty wind blows as the sun beats down on your pale skin. In the ruins of the forgotten town below, you chance upon a stashed rifle and some drugs in a battered mailbox. Not far away, near a broken children's swingset, you find a still-functional water faucet. Taking a sip, you're alarmed as your personal radiation meter begins to climb. A sound turns you around. Two impossibly large ants crawl towards you. Thinking quickly, you target one of the broken down cars near where the mutated insects are passing. A few shows find its engine, one of those old nuclear generators, and the ants and car alike disappear into a small mushroom cloud. Your radiation detector beings its ominous tick.

 

Page 4:

The sign above the gate reads: "Megaton." The robot outside doesn't judge you a threat, and instead barks an advertisement for the local watering hold as the doors grate open. Inside stands the town sheriff, a stuffy fellow named Lucas Simms. Never a fan of authority, you dismiss his commands to stay out of trouble in his town and descend to the strange sight below. A massive undetonated bomb sits in the crater at the center of town, apparently the settlement's namesake. Some insane religious zealot kneels at its base, espousing the bomb as a miraculous sign from God. You push past him and head to the bar.

 

Page 5:

Inside Moriarty's Bar, static-laced, ancient pre-war music blares from a transistor radio. Beyond the local riffraff, in the corner you spy an imperturbable businessman, the kind of man that looks like he might know something about your father. As it turns out, he doesn't. But Mister Burke, as he calls himself, does have a job that might net you a little money to survive on out here. He'd like to get rid of Megaton - something about "a blight on the burgeoning urban landscape." He's got a fusion pulse charge that could arm the live and ticking bomb at the center of town. It's not as if this town as done anything for you yet. Sure, your father might disapprove. But he's not here right now. You take the charge and head back outside. The radio croons: "I'm in love with a wonderful guy!"

 

Page 6:

With the charge set, you descend into the ruined Metro subway lines below ground. Dust motes float slowly through shafts of light from the surface above. You march off in the direction of your pre-determined meeting place with Mister Burke, far away from Megaton. Rounding a corner, you're greeted with a hail of gunfire. A massive beat of a mutant stands beyond, armed with a rusted Chinese assault rifle, dwarfed by its too-large hands. In the fight that follows, you take some hits, but nothing a stimpack won't fix. In the corridor beyond, two more mutants pace, grunting back and forth to each other. Unwilling to risk another open battle, you sneak to a nearby passage and the security terminal housed within. Hacking the computer is simple enough, and a security bot emerges from its cocooned pod - unused these last two centuries. Rolling out onto the main platform, its tin can voice intones: "Tickets, please." As the mutants outside laugh and threaten to tear its puny metal arms off, the bot decides they must not have tickets, and opens fire with its laser cannon.

 

Page 7:

Emerging from the Metro into the ruins of the old capital city of a dead nation, it only takes moments to realize you're in over your head. A swarm of mutants crawl across the old marble stonework, and your scavenged rifle just isn't going to cut it. Squeezing off a few shots, you know you're in deep trouble, when suddenly across the street more shots begin to ring out. Their powered armor gleaming, a squad of knight-like soldiers begins to drop your would-be killers. Approaching your unwitting saviors, one of them peeks out from her metal shell to declaim your stupidity for coming here, and offers for you to come along as she and her fellow Brotherhood of Steel members clear out more mutants. They're heading your way, so why not?

 

Page 9:

After a running firefight through roofless buildings punctuated by blasts of laser fire and intermittent explosions, you finally find yourself near your destination, the Galaxy News Radio Building. Before you can enter, you're thrown back as a huge building crumbles nearby. From its wreckage saunters a behemoth of a mutant - a giant by any definition. As the soldiers you're with desperately unload, you see a fallen body nearby with a strange device in its hands. Picking it up, you recognize it for what it is - a Fatman. 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. Slipping away from the surviving soldiers, you enter the nearby tower and climb to the top. Up above, you emerge onto a wide balcony. "It's about time," Mister Burke says, and hands you the detonator. In the distance, you can see the town. There's no turning back after this. The money's not really that good, now that you think about it. You press the button anyway...

 

Page 10:

War. War Never Changes.

 

 

 

Captions

 

Page 3:

*The art team on the game talks a lot about the importance of having "no arbitrary detail." Every gun, console, switch, and rivet should have a purpose, even a fictional one. When it does, the game world simply feels more genuine.

*Your father's facial features will be different based on the design of your character - he'll even appear to age throughout your childhood.

*As you travel, weapons will degrade with use, or may be damaged directly by attacks. As you find new armaments, you can use the scrap from your old beat-up arsenal to add to the new

 

Page 4:

*"There's destruction everywhere. Destruction requires a great deal of randomness," lead producer Gavin Carter relays. "So one of the things we're playing with is how we apply decals to the world - not only when you shoot things, but we can actually apply very large decals to any kind of arbitrary geometry."

*Most of your experience points in the game come from complete quests - grinding for experience just isn't that useful. Whether you use guns, stealth, or diplomacy to complete those missions is a choice left to you

 

Page 5:

*Unlike Oblivion, Fallout 3 does not scale your encounters to fit your current level. Wander into a dangerous zone alone, and you shouldn't be surprised when that Super Mutant beats your head in

*Extensive visual effects like this use of depth of field puts Fallout 3 in a whole new graphical category from Bethesda's previous work

*You'll be able to hire followers who might help you out in a fight, but it's definitely not a party-based game. And for fans that are curious, Bethesda hesitantly confirms there will be a dog in the game, but they're reticent to speak on the subject for now.

 

Page 6:

*The V.A.T.S. combat system keeps the game firmly grounded in the tactical decision-making of good RPGs

*Fallout has always been unabashedly graphic in its depiction of violence, and this installment appears not to shy away from the tradition.

 

Page 7:

*Like in the original Fallout, the opening cinematic of Fallout 3 (of which this is a screen shot) will include music from the classic '40s and '50s band, The Ink Spots. The ironic song choice: "I Don't Want To Set the World on Fire"

 

Page 8:

*Fallout 3 has a more defined narrative structure than many previous Bethesda games. You'll play your character as he or she progresses from level one to a cap of 20, and after dozens of hours of play you will reach a definitive end to the story. That end, however, may be any one of many - nine to twelve unique endings are planned, based on your actions throughout the game

 

Page 9:

*The Fatman is a handheld nuclear catapult. We'll say that again in case you missed it. In Fallout 3, you'll have access to a handheld nuclear catapult

 

 

En kommentar-artikkel til informasjonen ovenfor (som stort sett er det vi vet om spillet så langt):

 

Fallout: Take Four

 

Fallout: Tactics. Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Black Isle's Fallout 3. Bethesda's Fallout 3.

 

So, here we are again. The details of another Fallout game are finally announced. One more time we ask ourselves a question: is it really that difficult to understand the concept of the original game? Oh well...

 

 

 

Let's start with the writings on the proverbial wall that the fanbase mostly ignored, choosing to believe in Easter Bunny and turn-based, isometric, true Fallout game instead:

 

We're not going to suddenly do a top-down isometric Baldur's Gate-style game, because that's not what we do well.

Pete Hines, 2004

 

There was so much more to Fallout than the angle you viewed it at, or how combat was resolved. ... At it’s core, it’s a survival game.

Todd Howard, 2004

 

Imagine a survival horror-esque version of the Fallout world...

Game Informer, 2004

 

 

Three years later we are presented with a first person, real-time, survival horror-esque Resident Evil-version of the Fallout world. It brings an end to "this quote was misunderstood / taken out of context / doesn't mean that the game won't be turn-based and isometric / nothing has been decided yet!" naive crap and many people's dreams to play a true Fallout game. Now, let's take a good look at what the Game Informer article has revealed and see what Bethesda has in store for us.

 

The setting.

 

 

 

"The spirit of Fallout - we've missed it.", Todd Howard.

As usual, Todd meant it literally.

 

 

Bethesda has moved the game to another coast, which was a smart move. It could have allowed them to make their own version of the Fallout world, to share their vision with players, to make some mistake and get away with them. It was a license to be creative. For Bethesda, it was a license to fuck things up. Big time.

 

The neo-Fallout setting is loaded with super mutants hiding in dark places and the Brotherhood of Steel stormtroopers protecting the wasteland. Neither group should have been on the east coast, especially in large numbers, for reasons obvious to anyone who had enough patience to finish the first game. Why? Well, according to the first game there was only one Forced Evolutionary Virus (F.E.V.) research facility, that was used to produce super mutants. Since the super mutants were sterile, and most of them and the research facility were destroyed in the first game, nothing short of lame "uh...there was another F.E.V. facility" would explain the super mutants presence in FO3. As for the BoS, it was a small monastery-like organization, very similar to "A Canticle for Leibowitz" monk order, interested only in preserving technology and not being disturbed. Saviors, knights, police, liberators, and the last hope of humanity the Brotherhood of Steel is not.

 

 

To show that Bethesda understands and, like, totally digs the setting, the game features exploding nuclear reactors in cars and mind-blowing "tell me it's a joke" handheld nuclear catapults. In the example described in the Game Informer article, the main character, undoubtedly inspired by the famous Baron Munchausen, kills two giant ants by shooting at a NEARBY car's nuclear reactor. A small nuclear blast destroys the car and the ants, but ignores the resourceful main character, standing a few meters away. The nuclear catapult is an even more retarded concept and, hopefully, needs no explanation. Using nuclear explosions in close combat in a survival game that watches your rad count is kinda stupid. Even for Bethesda.

 

 

 

 

The Fallout setting is inspired by the 50's science-fiction. To put it simply, that's how people in the 50's envisioned the future. The GI article proves beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a huge difference between capturing the atmosphere in a short intro trailer and in the actual game. Other than lame "HAY! WE R FROM TEH 50'S!" posters and boards, there are no traces of either the 50's sci-fi influences or the Fallout art style in the game. Such a shame, and not even because I care about the consistency, but because having a certain style is always better than going with something generic. The biggest problem with the carefully chosen screens is that they lack personality and distinctive character. They could fit any game, from Wolfenstein to Resident Evil.

 

Fallout 3 - a role-playing game?

 

 

 

"It's not an action game. It's a role-playing game.", Todd Howard

 

 

Todd Howard seems to think so, but then again, Todd seems to think a lot of things. Some of them may even be true. Leaving the obvious question "why did the magazine file Fallout 3 under "action RPG"?" aside, let's take a look at what the presentation of this role-playing game was focused on. For example, how many dialogue screens were shown in those 10 pages? Zero. Wouldn't you think that dialogues are an important Fallout element that the presentation should have mentioned, if not focused on? Apparently not. How many quests were explained in details, showing the design and them moral, game-changing choices? Once again, Bethesda follows the Oblivion formula: focus on the visuals and HAWT AKSHUN, assure people that quests and dialogues are superb and awesome in seven different ways, but show nothing to back up these claims.

 

 

In fact, many of the 360 version's Achievements will be about acquiring these different titles as you progress - getting all the Achievements is almost impossible in just one playthrough, particularly due to the nature of quests in Fallout 3.

 

 

ALMOST impossible? You mean like "it will be very hard to become the head of all Oblivion guilds" right? Anyway, the article insists that the game will be loaded with choices & consequences, branching quests, and other role-playing goodness, but, sadly, no examples are given. Considering Bethesda's fondness to make shit up in order to sell more copies, caution would be strongly advised.

 

Let's now go line-by-line over more specific gameplay observations:

 

The sign above the gate reads: "Megaton." ... A massive undetonated bomb sits in the crater at the center of town, apparently the settlement's namesake. Some insane religious zealot kneels at its base, espousing the bomb as a miraculous sign from God. You push past him and head to the bar. ... Inside Moriarty's Bar you spy an imperturbable businessman, Mister Burke. He'd like to get rid of Megaton - something about "a blight on the burgeoning urban landscape." He's got a fusion pulse charge that could arm the live and ticking bomb at the center of town. You take the charge and head back outside. ... "It's about time," Mister Burke says, and hands you the detonator. In the distance, you can see the town. There's no turning back after this. The money's not really that good, now that you think about it. You press the button anyway...

 

 

 

Ok. Let me get this straight. Some idiots built a town around an undetonated nuke. Some guy wants you to detonate the nuke because it's a "blight on the urban landscape". Looks like the fact that a nuclear explosion would wipe out and contaminate that very landscape doesn't occur to him. Then again, in this setting people use nuclear explosions to light up cigars, so maybe it's not that bad. A well designed quest!

 

Anyway, did you notice that the article does not mention any option to do something differently? One would think that Todd would have illustrated or at least mentioned all the options while playing through this quest. Something like "of course, you can blow a hole in Mister Burke's head instead" or "you can talk to the sheriff", etc. So, either these options are not present and the game railroads you or Todd doesn't think that these options are interesting / have consequences / worth mentioning. Either scenario is alarming.

 

Emerging from the Metro into the ruins of the old capital city of a dead nation, it only takes moments to realize you're in over your head. A swarm of mutants crawl across the old marble stonework ... when suddenly across the street more shots begin to ring out. Their powered armor gleaming, a squad of knight-like soldiers begins to drop your would-be killers.... offers for you to come along as she and her fellow Brotherhood of Steel members clear out more mutants. They're heading your way, so why not?

 

 

A scripted event implying linearity. How exciting!

 

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. Slipping away from the surviving soldiers, you enter the NEARBY tower...

 

 

Looks like in the future nuclear fallouts are as common and about as dangerous as farts.

 

When you add the new and improved combat system, the missing father who plays a dramatic and prominent role, your 19 year old character, wasteland radio stations playing 40's and 50's tunes, drinking from toilets, and other exciting details, the only question that begs to be asked is "Was it really necessary to pay all those millions for the Fallout license?"

 

 

Det var opprinnelig bilder til begge tekster, men jeg tok dem bort ettersom de er scannet fra en artikkel i game informer.

Endret 17. juni 2007 av eught

[swikstor]

Akkurat det er jo egentlig feil. Krig er jo noe som hele tiden forandrer på seg.

 

Både geografisk, teknologisk og taktisk.

8856352[/snapback]

 

 

Det er akkurat det de mener, Selv om tiden går, man forsker på ny teknologi, legger nye taktikker og setter seg nye mål. Handler krig om det samme som det det gjorde for flere 1000 år siden. Det og utslette fienden, for og selv overleve. Krigen er ikke endret, bare våpnene man bruker til og kjempe den.

 

 

Fallout viser jo også at selv etter en atomkrig stopper ikke kampene, det er tvert imot blitt 100 ganger værre og overleve. Mindtøsten i dag virker som et fantastisk sted. Hvor politi og militærstyrker holder orden, i forhold til slik det hadde blitt etter en atomkrig, hvor en ikke har noen lover som beskytter seg.

 

Such is life, in the wasteland!

[nasum]

Btw. Sjekk ut gitaren min

 

Noen som kjenner igjen logoen ?