Fallout 3 Lead Designer revealed [ Game -> Update ]
Posted by Mr. Teatime | Related News Items Sat 28 Oct 2006, 7:24 PM
News related to Top Story: First News on Fallout 3 | More info on Game: Fallout 3 | More info on Person: Emil Pagliarulo
Emil Pagliarulo from Bethesda has been braving our forums recently and mentioned some info that I haven't heard before:
Anyway, I've been the lead designer on Fallout 3 for quite some time now. It's not exactly the type of offer you turn down, you know? And no, I really can't say anything about anything. But I just wanted to pop on and say hi.
For those who don't know, Emil was used to work at Looking Glass on the Thief games before moving to Bethesda about four years ago. If, like me, you're a fan of that series, you'll know that they pretty much nailed stealth and the games are all classics, even the consolised third one. He's also a fellow beard-wearer and that gets my approval.
So there you go. Fallout 3's Lead Designer, HAI2U!
Hayt is a designer who works under Emil.
As for me, the various production titles here can get confusing, so let me explain. Todd Howard is the Executive Producer. For all intents and purposes, he is the studio and project director, and has ultimate say over everything we do. We have a very open and collaborative atmosphere here, and Todd is always open to debate and revision, but at the end of the day, to borrow a phrase from Bush, he is the "decider" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Ashley is our studio Production Director. His job is to coordinate all the production efforts of our internal development across all the various projects we're working on. This includes everything from the big ticket games, to smaller stuff like Oblivion downloadable content, localization issues, and making sure other cross-project people (QA for instance) know and respond to our needs. He manages how we distribute people's time across the projects, and also makes sure all projects conform to good standard methods of scheduling and tracking.
I'm the Lead Producer on Fallout, meaning I'm the main production guy who is 100% focused solely on this project. I'm responsible for maintaining our overall schedule, setting up and communicating milestones, making sure everyone has the tools, equipment, and info they need to do their jobs, and hounding people to get stuff done on time. I've been on the project since the day we started working on it, and pretty much the day we went gold on Oblivion, I switched over to focusing completely on Fallout. I'm aided by an awesome team of four department producers who focus on either programmers, artists, or designers. Hope this helps clear it up! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Liam Neeson in Fallout 3
Fallout role written with Neeson in mind.
by Rob Burman, IGN UK
UK, May 8, 2007 - Bethesda Softworks has revealed that world-famous actor Liam Neeson has signed up for a major role in Fallout 3 and will appear prominently throughout the entire game.
Speaking about his role in the upcoming post-apocalyptic title, Neeson said: "It's been a pleasure bringing the father to life and working with the wonderfully talented people at Bethesda on Fallout 3. I hope the fans of the franchise and the game will be excited by the results."
Todd Howard, executive producer of Fallout 3 said the role of the father was written with Neeson in mind and he "provides a dramatic tone for the entire game". He also added that Liam is "absolutely amazing to work with".
Bethesda has a strong history of signing famous actors for its games. Both Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean provided voices for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Now, this is the kind of game that would make more sense to be a Vista exclusive than some of the past choices....
Game Informer posted the cover for its July issue, which confirms that Fallout 3 will indeed arrive on the PC, PS3, and 360 in 2008. Sources close to Bethesda said the information on the GI cover was accurate, but would not go into further details.
The GI cover also added ammo to the theory that Fallout 3 would be a major departure from previous PC Fallouts and the widely despised console spin-off, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. The magazine claims that Bethesda's goal has been to "reinvent" the RPG, which was originally a top-down turn-based title, into an all-new "open-ended RPG." Both Fallout and Fallout 2 offered open-ended gameplay with many side quests inside a larger, linear storyline--as did Oblivion.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6172096.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0 (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6172096.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0)
Confirmed for the 360 and PS3. That's good news...for me at least.
Honestly, making some Vista exclusive doesn't even seem like a smart move for people at this point. I don't think it's really taken off all that much yet.Okay, I wasn't clear enuff, I guess. My fault. I thought I was implying a lot by how I worded what I said, but looks like by the replies I didn't word it good enuff so it could be implied better. So, let me make it explicit.
I imagine a lot of games will be going the route where you can play on XP or Vista with 9 or 10 and just sacrifice a little quality or whatever. That's just a guess, but I think I know Bethesda well enough to say it won't be Vista exclusive.That's great for me! :)
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6172096.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0 (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6172096.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0)Okay, they should do a FO3: Collector's Ed, in which that'll bring FO 1 and 2 over for those systems.
Confirmed for the 360 and PS3. That's good news...for me at least.
Game Informer posted the cover for its July issue, which confirms that Fallout 3 will indeed arrive on the PC, PS3, and 360 in 2008. Sources close to Bethesda said the information on the GI cover was accurate, but would not go into further details.And that makes Fallout 2 sound different from FO3 how....?
The GI cover also added ammo to the theory that Fallout 3 would be a major departure from previous PC Fallouts and the widely despised console spin-off, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. The magazine claims that Bethesda's goal has been to "reinvent" the RPG, which was originally a top-down turn-based title, into an all-new "open-ended RPG."
"The magazine claims that Bethesda's goal has been to "reinvent" the RPG, which was originally a top-down turn-based title, into an all-new "not-top-down (view) real-time RPG."The reason I say "not-top-down" b/c likely, if FO3 is to be like say Oblivion, the game will probably be a "1st person view/3rd person behind-the-character view real-time RPG."
Perspective doesn't matter for the game really. Top down RPGs like Fallout really just played like Morrowind and Oblivion (however, much tighter with more interesting things per square foot). The only real difference is the turned based combat, but that can easily be updated.Perspective won't matter to me, either.
Tycho at Penny Arcade has a pretty commentary about this "departure" and I'm more or less in agreement with him. The isometric view and way combat was played out isn't what made Fallout. It was what you could do, where you went, what you saw, and the universe that made the game interesting and those are fairly independent of how the game is really played.AGREED 100%.
Where I have my reservations are in Bethsedia itself. While they can make an open game, I don't know if they can pull a mostly open but tight game together like Fallout was. This is to say nothing of their technical skills, which I also have little faith in.A bunch of the ex-Black Isle guys and ex-Troika guys (who worked on Fallout 1, FO2, and the defunct Fallout: Van Buren) are either at Obsidian or Bioware, so that opinions of yours makes a lot of sense to me.
Problem is, I really don't know who else I would want to have the game other than Bioware.
I wouldn't want Bioware anywhere near Fallout 3. I don't know why, but I feel like they'd just totally kill it. I really can't give a reason.I think Bioware's too busy w/ doing their own creative IP's to even want to touch someone else's.
I won't get into the "do Morrowind/Oblivion suck" conversation, because it's utterly pointless. You either love it or you hate it, and most people love it. That said, I don't think Bethesda is going to make Oblivion-Fallout. I don't think that would even be possible really. It works with a rich fantasy setting that revolves around deep fiction, but I don't think it would ever work around the more limited setting that Fallout is in. Sure, there's tons to do with the setting, but just not in the same ways. My guess is Fallout 3 isn't going to play anything like Oblivion at its core. The term "reinvent" is really pretty vague, and who knows how much reinvention they even mean to take part in. Really, it could even just be a poorly-termed way of saying they're working on a new Fallout and they're trying to hype it up a bit. I can think of a billion developers that claimed they would reinvent the wheel but just ended up adding a spoke or two.I think what some Fallout fans are questioning is the combat of FO3. Granted, we still have no clue what kind of control style BethSoft has planned for FO3.
Granted, I haven't been following this that closely, but most of what I heard originally is that most of the people working on the project were all huge fans of Fallout in the first place, many of the team members were playing through the originals again during early development, and they didn't want to change everything that people loved about the games. I'm not saying there's no reason to worry, as who knows what'll end up getting done in the end, but I wouldn't take a single statement like this as some kind of horrible portent. We'll have to wait until they show us something of substance, period.
The first details on Bethesda's Fallout 3 have emerged from the latest issue of US Game Informer magazine.Cool.
The long-awaited sequel runs on an evolved version of the Oblivion engine, although Bethesda says it's reworked the third-person view because of negative feedback from its last role-player.
Fallout 3 kicks off with your birth and your mother's death in a vault hospital. This is where you get to create you character as your father (voiced by Liam Neeson) hands you over to the DNA analyser, before removing his mask to reveal similar traits to the ones you picked.
According to Game Informer, the battle system in Fallout 3 is called the Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.). You'll certainly be able to tackle enemies in real-time using first-person shooting, the article says, but V.A.T.S. lets you pause time and select a target at your leisure.
This works using action points, which when used up will leave you with only real-time fighting until they charge back up again. If you're not in to all-out killing, Bethesda says you'll also be able to play through the game by being stealthy, or even talking your way out of trouble.
Enemies can target you using the exact same targeting system, so you'll get injured in very specifics points on your body. In addition to this is a new health and radiation system, which lets you measure how radiated water and other consumables are before you use them.
Fans will be pleased to hear that the Karma system is making a return, and there are 9-12 possible endings based on your actions. If it's even half as good as Oblivion, this should turn out to be something very special indeed.
Fallout 3 - Details Emerge
by Dhruin, 23:50:34
Well, with July's Game Informer reaching a few people, Fallout 3 details are starting to emerge. Briosafreak's excellent Fallout 3 blog has picked up a post from a member of the NeoGAF forums that seems a good summary and most of the details are corroborated by short articles at CVG and Joystiq so let's run with that:
The article is based on an hour long demo GI was given. I’ll list the high points
- Game runs on an evolved version of the Oblivion engine. Third person view has been reworked since the verdict was that the Oblivion version sucked balls.
- 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[…]
-Yeah once you’re in the V.A.T.S. system every combat move you make uses AP. The amount of AP is based on your agility rating. So things like targeting specific areas etc use AP. Also things like distance etc factor into your hit % while you’re in the V.A.T.S. system.
At least that’s how it reads.[…]
-Yeah the article is chock full of screens, but I can’t post them =(
They have some really great environment shots, Some screens of the inside of Vault 101, and a really awesome shot of a first person encounter with a super mutant and another where the main character has a weapon called “The Fatman” which is a handheld nuclear catapult.
Think post apocalyptic oblivion and you’re right about there in terms of graphics.[…]
-It seems that outside of the VATS system everything is real time. The only time the game pauses is when you enter the VATS system and start using AP and issuing commands. The article doesn’t really say much more than that, but they do say that the game is geared more towards a role-playing turn based style as opposed to a twitch gaming style of play.
-It doesn’t say anything specifically about party members, but there’s a section that talks about how integral NPC’s are to the game, and that a lot of the progress in the game will be made via quests.
EDIT. A little caption under a screen shot says you’ll be able to hire henchmen to help you out but this is definitely not a party based game. Also Bethesda confirms that there’ll be a dog in the game.
-As a matter of fact they do. The game does not scale like oblivion, so if you enter a high level area expect to be promptly murdered.
Also, I just read a little caption.
Level cap is 20.
Definite ending to the game, but there are 9 - 12 possible endings.
-It is XP based. Most of your XP comes from quests.[…]
STOP, DROP, AND ROLLOooh -- I'm glad to see you can aim for body parts like you could in Fallout 2! :)
Action points determine how many times you can freeze combat in a round
Life after the apocalypse isn't pretty. Nor is the Wasteland population particularly friendly. Radioactive free meat is hard to come by; and to a Mutant, you look like an ultra-tasty, walking, and talking, 180-pound chunk of prime rib. Combat in Fallout 3 is what I like to call "Freeze-Based-Combat". It's not precisely real-time, nor is it truly turned-based. After clicking on an enemy, the V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) comes on-screen, dividing the target into what can best described as a butcher's chart. You have a percentage chance to hit whatever zone of the body you're aiming for, each with a different possible effect. For example, if you do X amount of damage to a leg, there's a chance you could cripple or even blow it off. If you try to shoot a weapon out of someone's hands, there's a chance to disarm for opponent, or even break the item in question. I'm not 100% sure if you can run around and play in all real-time, but they didn't seem very keen on the idea of making Fallout 3 a run-and-gun, twitchy first-person-shooter.
YOUR TOMORROW MAY DEPEND ON TODAY'S TRAININGSounds good to me.
Every level has its own title
Believe it or not, despite the primarily first person camera (you can switch to third also, as seen in the screen below), Fallout 3 is a role-playing game. That means characters have a number of skills and abilities they can use to help them advance. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system makes a triumphant return from the original series offering up some 14 different skills to choose from. Perks are in the game as well, which you can pick every other level. The character level cap is set to 20, and for people who utterly despised the auto-level feature in Oblivion, you'll be happy to read that the location determines the toughness of the monsters rather than your power level.
DID YOU KNOW …Sounds sweet to me -- a huge game w/ numerous endings, like the past two Fallouts. And a fair amount of main quest and side quest content.
The game is set in Washington DC, and in terms of sheer geographic size, is nearly as large as Oblivion.
Fallout 3 is for the most part an open-ended RPG that can be played in any number of ways. Yes, there is a main story line to find your father, but there are an equal amount of side-quests too. How long is the game? The main story will take about 20-hours of your time. The side-quests tack on another 20. Can you play it longer? That depends. Once you clear an area, it stays cleared. The good news is that there are upwards of a dozen different endings, so depending on your actions, you can replay the game many different ways. There's a degree of randomness as well, so no two games will ever be the same.
CITIZENS NOT ABLE TO EMBRACE THE FUTURE ARE DOOMED TO LIVE IN THE PASTI'm glad it ain't Vista only.
Outside of Bioware, Bethesda is the only developer I'd trust with the series.
Relax, mutants. Fallout 3 is in good hands. Bethesda isn't going to cheese up the comedy to the point it's going to make you wince, nor is it going to ignore the elements that made the series great to begin with. Expect a rich cast of characters (some 40 plus different voice actors), hours upon hours of spoken dialogue and even some Hollywood talent to boot.
From a technological point of view, the lowest common denominator will be lower to mid-end PCs. You won't need Vista to run the game on your PC, and it's coming out on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 if consoles are your cup of tea. What does that mean to you? The end result is a state-of-the art looking - not to mention - playing game.
Bethesda wasn't 100% sure about official mod support, but the PC version will most likely ship with an SDK if its prior games are any indication of the company's desire to support and grow the community. I wouldn't be shocked if they decided to release a cubic assload of commerical plugins, but much like Oblivion, you can find them bundled in stores much cheaper than buying them online.That'd be sweet if FO3 ships w/ a SDK Kit -- especially if modders lurch onto the the SDK w/ all kinds of great mods, like they've done w/ Morrowind and Oblivion.
It's too early to give Fallout 3 the official Voodoo Extreme seal of approval, but don't be shocked if the game ends up being the best of the series. I know it's disconcerting to some that the game is going to be set in the first-person perspective, but that's just progress folks. Other than the camera angle changing, the core game play mechanics and spirit of Fallout remains.
Well, they've sure got the look down. Click the link and look at the higher-res shots instead of these thumbnails. I think the look is really solid and consistent.The screenies are great.
Obviously that's not the biggest concern, but still, I think those screens look awesome.I'm going to be interested in the combat -- seeing how that turns out and all.
EDIT - GSpot has a preview also (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fallout3/news.html?sid=6173397&mode=previews).
I actually think people will be very happily surprised with the writing, and the characters, in Fallout 3, compared to Oblivion's NPCs. The dialogue options are meaningful and different, not just a list of items that NPC can speak about, organized in a list where the only real choice is the order in which you hear the items. There's only a few hundred NPCs (down from 1500 or so in Oblivion, and 2500 in Morrowind), so they're much more fleshed out and unique -- it also helps that there's 30-40 different voice actors instead of just a handful in Oblivion. At least from what we've been shown, that stuff feels much more like Fallout 1/2 than Oblivion.
You also won't be a jack of all trades, as in Oblivion - you have to make real choices that matter, and which dynamically change the fortunes of other characters. Aside from enhancing replayability, since you obviously won't be able to do competing objectives, those choices deepen the roleplaying. To elaborate more on the "Megaton bomb quest" -- when you arrive at that town, you can greet and be friendly with the sheriff. When you get the quest to potentially blow up the bomb, you can instead inform the sheriff that these dudes are trying to blow up the town. Or you can decide to blow up the town, but actually be unable to because you lack the mechanical skills to activate the bomb. Or you could just decide to blow the sheriff away when you meet him, in which case you'll likely be attacked by his buddies when walking through the town. Or you could, after blowing him away, decide to put on his sheriff's uniform, in which case some NPCs may attack you for killing the sheriff, but others may actually defer to you as the new sheriff. In short - meaningful options and real choices, and interesting characters to interact with - in that respect, I think Bethesda is appropriately emulating some of Fallout's best and most distinctive features.
I also wouldn't read anything negative into not being able to kill kids - it's still definitely an M-rated game - there's graphic violence, swearing, and "adult" topics like slavery, etc. -- some other stuff that Bethesda isn't revealing yet, involving mutation, and one tracked stat was "corpses eaten", which makes me suspect there'll be something similar to the Vampire-path in Oblivion/Morrowind, where you can get into doing some nasty stuff. It doesn't feel sanitized. I also like the changes to the level-scaling, the use of SPECIAL and level-based character development as opposed to the use-based skill system of the Elder Scrolls games.
Other general impressions -- while calling it "Oblivion with guns" is an oversimplication given some of the differences I've described above (and without also getting into the combat differences, etc.), I also think it's a superficially apt description because it definitely looks like Oblivion, not like Fallout, because of the perspective. Sure, they've doled out the carrot of being able to view the game from an isometric perspective, but I'm skeptical that it'll be in any way practical to do so. But the graphics look great - far better than I think they come across in still screenshots.
Areas of uncertainty - the VATS system looks really cool, and is visually spectacular, but I think we need to see more of the combat to judge how it feels in practice. I really like the VATS system, but I'm not sold on combat in general - there's also a few pieces we haven't seen at all, like melee combat (which is definitely an important part of the game). Also, everything in the demo occurred in relatively congested areas as well, with lots of rubble around blocking views, etc. - I'd like to get a better sense for how large the world feels, and looks, by seeing more expansive vistas, etc. (obviously one of the real strengths of Oblivion).
Other stuff I really like - the implementation of the PIP boy, and the ability to pick off radio broadcasts as you're wandering the wasteland. The use of robots like Mr. Handy from the Fallout 1 cinematic - the nuke effects -- and the overall atmosphere: the perspective gives you a better sense that you're exploring a place that's been blown apart and is messed up (suitably "postapocalyptic") as opposed to a flat, top-down view. It's actually kind of creepy -- it's one thing to see a giant castle in the background while playing Oblivion, and think that's a cool, realistic view -- it's another to be walking around and then to look up at Washington D.C. buildings that have been fucked up, since we have a vested attachment to that setting.
Celebrating 10 Years of Fallout!
10 years ago the original Fallout was released and forever changed role-playing games. Now is your chance to be a part of Fallout history. We're giving you, the fans, a chance to design one of the perks for Fallout 3!
No, we aren’t going to tell you about any of the perks that are already in Fallout 3. First, that would spoil it, and second, we don’t want to color your ideas with anything we are, or aren’t doing. It’s a clean slate for you. Be creative.
Think of something in the spirit of Fallout. What would you really want your character to be able to do in the game? Don’t worry about any stat requirements or the level you would get it at. Just design a cool perk and we'll fit it in where it could go.
Part of what make Perks great are the Vault Boy images that goes with them. You can choose to use one of the generic icons we’ve provided to go along with your Perk if you’re not artistically inclined (that won’t hurt your chances of winning, in case you’re wondering) or you can choose to upload a drawing, sketch, photo, or creation of your own design. Send in a photo of yourself in the appropriate pose, sketch it on a napkin and scan it in...whatever you want.
If you win, you'll get your Perk in the game, your name in the game's credits, AND your choice of the grand prize from the Prize Vault: either the PC or the Console flavor.
All entries must be in by 11:59 pm (Eastern time) on October 31, 2007. We'll announce the winner of the contest, and all the other awardees, in November.
PC Grand Prize:
Your choice of an ATI or NVIDIA video card
Logitech G15 keyboard
Logitech G9 mouse
Logitech G51 Gaming Speakers
Vault Boy bobblehead
Vault Tec lunchbox
Fallout 3 t-shirt
Vault Boy decal
OR
Console Grand Prize:
Xbox 360 Pro
Logitech G51 Gaming Speakers
Vault Boy bobblehead
Vault Tec lunchbox
Fallout 3 t-shirt
Vault Boy decal
We’ll have plenty of prizes for runners-up and honorable mentions, and we’ll also pick from all the entries at random to give away some additional prizes just so everyone has a chance to win something. Prizes will include great stuff from our friends at NVIDIA, ATI, Logitech, and Microsoft, as well as Fallout schwag.
You can enter as often as you like, but you can only enter the same perk once, and you can only win once. All entries subject to the terms and conditions of the contest. Make sure you read them before you enter.
Good luck to everyone. We look forward to seeing your ideas.
Happy 10th Birthday to Fallout.
The PC sneaks past the next batch of supermutants, takes a drink of water from a nearby toilet to heal a bit and then hacks into a nearby computer to reactive a Protectron ticket-bot. "Hacking" is done via word-guessing game, where you have to guess which word is the password. With each guess the mini-game will tell you how many letters you got right.Sounds like Hangman.
That headshot screenie is awesome.
Bethesda's Todd Howard recently did the official Xbox podcast and talked about Fallout 3, and revealed somenew tidbits, including the boggling new number of endings available. The highlights list:
-”Fans sending death threats” says one of the OXM guys. Another one calls Fallout fans”rabid Right Wing kind of fans”.
-Over 200 endings, since last week. The 12 endings was surpassed sometime ago.
-The game is twice bigger than what they thought in the beginning.
-Always just one humanoid-type companion, and another NPC like Dogmeat.
-Dogmeat can die, but they are working on his health and how you maintain him.
- Dogmeat can be given assignments, and will try to follow them with his Radiant AI.
-Brotherhood of Steel doing their own thing; already in finished state on the game; they are on the verge of extinction, you’ll interact with them a lot more after a determined point in the game.
-The game is finished, but needs a lot more polishing and testing, they are doing many playthroughs; they keep adding stuff, sometimes it takes 100 hours to play, just the main quest takes about 20 hours.
-Absolutely tracking at fall 2008.
Being that we are Bethesda…everything gets a bit big. So as of last week we’re over 200 endings. That is not an exaggeration, but it deserves some description. 200 endings…that’s a lot. So originally when we started, we had various iterations of the ending. The ending is kind of cinematic, that’s dynamic based on the things you’ve done.
When we started, it was kind of fuzzy, it was like “well there’s like 9 maybe 12″ and we started adding things to it. So if you had done this or not this, you’d get this other tweak to the ending. And we kept doing that. And you know even just two weeks ago someone had this idea, “Oh we should add this idea to the ending” (sorry I’m not going to spoil what that is). And I said, “oh that’s a genius idea, we have to do that.” But then it became, “oh, but there’s four versions of that.” So i was like, “okay there’s like four different versions of that little parts,” and that multiplies by, at the time we were at about 60 ending…now there’s four versions of that so now theres around 240 versions. So it gets kind of stupid.”
The games are small at first on paper, and then as we go they get bigger…we can’t stop ourselves. We’re have tons of people with good ideas here, and if they’re good and fit the tone, we’re going to try to jam them in there. Fallout is probably twice the size of what we originally had on paper…it’s pretty big, so that’s happened with the endings.
So some of that is the big things of what you do really late in the game, some of its related to karma — how you’ve lived your life from the beginning — you get certain scenes based on your karma. But we kind of like the ending with as much as the game from the beginning — you tailoring your character and then you play throughout this game, and unlike Elder Scrolls where you can keep playing, Fallout 3 has a definite ending. So we wanted to go to efforts to make sure that the actual ending you get when you finish and get the ending, and make that ending reflect and make it individual to the user’s experience.” We’ve got a little overboard.”
Man, FO3 is shaping up very nicely!
A site called videogaming247 has a series of comment snippets from Pete Hines on Fallout 3. Rather than collecting the conversation into a full interview or preview, they've released a rapid-fire series of short articles on each issue, with some interesting things touched on.
First, the X360 is apparently the lead platform (apparently the PC doesn't get counted in such conversations):
“The 360 is our lead development platform, so we got it working on that one first,” he said. I mean, we develop them all simultaneously, but one of them’s got to be the lead, so it was 360.”
The choice was made more by the timing of the console’s release than anything else, Hines added.
“We had a year’s head start on the 360 because it came out a year earlier, so we had final dev hardware to work with earlier on than we did with PS3,” he said. “But as this point all three of them are pretty much on par. The goal is that, if I get three versions in here and hide the console or PC and just had them running on the screen, that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
Can we extrapolate that the PC interface will also be the same?
Next, their goal is 30FPS on every platform. And then, the PC spec will be "similar to what Oblivion was for its time".
Moving along, DLC is likely:
“Given how successful it was for us on Oblivion, certainly it’s a given that we’ll look into it and what we’d like to do,” he said, talking of extra content for the anticipated post-apocalyptic RPG.
“But I can’t tell you when, I can’t tell you what it would be, or what it would look like. Will it be bigger stuff like Knights of the Nine or smaller stuff? We’ve no idea. We’ll let folks know once we get down the road.”
...and lastly, Dogmeat is dogmeat if he dies:
What happens if he dies?
“Dead,” said Hines.
Is there another dog?
“Nope. One dog. Be careful.”
Fallout 3 Collector's Edition Announced [April 18, 2008, 2:48 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
Bethesda Softworks finally officially announces the Fallout 3 Collector's Edition, which was revealed through online listings last week (story). Word is:
April 18, 2008 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, officially announced today that it will release a special Fallout® 3 collector’s edition worldwide for Xbox 360®video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Games for Windows, and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The limited collector’s edition is available for pre-order through participating retailers.
This premium Fallout 3 package, presented in a customized, metal Vault-Tec lunch box, includes the highly-anticipated game, a collectible 5” Vault-Tec Vault Boy Bobblehead, ‘The Art of Fallout 3’ hardcover book, featuring never-before-seen concept art and commentary from Bethesda Game Studios artists, and ‘The Making of Fallout 3’ DVD that includes an inside look at Bethesda Game Studios and the team behind the game.
“We’re very excited about this collector’s edition and believe it truly offers gamers an amazing mix of unique items from the Fallout universe, combined with a great behind-the-scenes look at what goes into developing such an immense title,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks.
Fallout 3 features one of the most realized game worlds ever created. Create any kind of character you want and explore the open wastes of post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C. Every minute is a fight for survival as you encounter Super Mutants, Ghouls, Raiders, and other dangers of the Wasteland.
Currently under development at Bethesda Game Studios – creators of award winning The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, the 2006 Game of the Year – Fallout 3 is one of the most anticipated games of 2008 and is slated for release this Fall on Xbox 360, Games for Windows, and PLAYSTATION®3 system.
Fallout® 3 has not yet been rated by the ESRB. For more information on Fallout 3, visit http://fallout.bethsoft.com.
What the fuck?
IGN AU: What did you learn from making Oblivion? What didn't work?I'm glad there's going to be less generic-stuff in Fallout than Oblivion, when it comes to dialogue -- especially since Fallout was always so specific w/ its dialogue and giving the player tons of unique choices.
Pete Hines: There's no giant 'we can't ever do that again' stuff. It's more how do we design quests, what kind of choices do we let the player make, how do we account for things we think the player might try and do and anticipate those? So that they're like 'Oh, I wonder what happens when I do this?' And then there's actually something in the game that acknowledges it and takes it into account. And they go 'that's really cool that I got to finish this quest in a really unique way and the game recognised that and gave me a satisfying response.'
In Oblivion the most extreme example is the bandits, who's armour keeps going up and up as you're playing through the game. Suddenly they've got glass armour and amazing weapons. It was an obvious thing that didn't feel right. So we've spent a lot of time on making sure that the player has the ability to go where they want and do what they want, but to also provide them with situations where they're getting in over their head – so they've got to leave and come back. Or they're getting into situations where they're further through the game and their character is really tough and they get in there and they kick ass and feel like a bad ass for a while because they've spent a lot of time buffing up their character.
We've certainly tried to put more stuff on the screen in front of the player to make the world more believable. The dialogue is much more specific to those characters, as opposed to generic lists of things they can talk about. A lot of it is just tweaking and refining stuff that the player won't even notice. Stuff that we're doing behind the scenes to improve the way the game performs. A lot of it is taking those lessons and learning how to apply them better.
Pete Hines: You know, Fallout is a very different game [to Oblivion]. You've gone from swords and melee weapons and one ranged weapon to now where you've got lots and lots of ranged weapons. It almost flips the gameplay balance stuff.Well, I hope Fallout 3 runs well on PC's -- especially since it is using the Oblivion Engine, which ran well on my aging PC when it came out. And, since Oblivion runs and looks great on that same PC with a GF 8800 GT.
IGN AU: Surely a post apocalyptic wasteland is a tough thing to make look sexy. Were the visuals a challenge?
Pete Hines: Absolutely. That level of detail when you're talking about destruction… and you get down to those DC areas where you've got bars sticking out of concrete and you're rendering out everything… or you've got Megaton with all those wires… Those little details are hard to render and pull off well. But you know for us the benefit is that this is our second go around on this hardware.
The last time (except for the last couple of months) we were doing it on hardware that was changing all the time because it was still in development. So to develop on something that's now stable and we know how it works and we know what we can and can't do…And we've learnt a lot of new tricks about how to make things look better, run faster and have more detail on the screen than before and have all of that run at an acceptable frame rate. I think we've just benefited from several more years of working on stable hardware.
Pete: And to your point, it definitely was a challenge to do blown-up destruction as opposed to a forest. I mean they're both challenging but I think Fallout 3 has been more challenging for sure, in terms of being able to put all that on the screen.Sounds like Fallout to me -- that everything you do will matter, by the end of the game. Good.
IGN AU: How do the choices you make about whether you play as a good guy or a bad guy affect the game?
Pete Hines: I don't think there are enormous differences. It's more the choices you make on a quest by quest basis. Whether or not you want to play them as a good guy or a bad guy and what the end result of that choice is. So it's not so much about people not talking to you because you're a bad guy with bad karma, as much as it is about using the karma to keep track and keep score on the kind of character you're playing. We want that reward and that payoff to be more in the choices you make and have it be more immediate. 'I'm playing this quest. I chose this path to try and finish the quest this way and how fun or interesting or rewarding was that experience based on the choices I made.' Or if you're playing as an evil bastard we want you to feel like the quest played out in a really satisfying way for me trying to be an evil bastard…
IGN AU: Tell us a little about how the health system being tied to water levels has evolved in Fallout 3.Cool.
Pete Hines: It certainly plays off the original games where water was a big focal point - a theme. We've continued on that legacy. Water is a big, important resource in this world. Where you get it and what kind of radiation you take from it and what kind of health you draw from it.
We're playing up this idea that you're in this post apocalyptic world with all this radiation around and how it is affecting you as a player and what sort of impact is it having on you and what you're able to do. It gives you something else to manage and keep an eye on as you move through the world.
IGN AU: On the radiation point, if you're choosing to carry the Fatman gun (a mini nuclear bomb slingshot) and use it heavily, will that add to your radiation level?Okay.
Pete Hines: The Fatman itself doesn't but if you go into any of the locations where one of its nukes has gone off then that will give you radiation. So if you shoot an enemy over there and an explosion goes off and you wander into it, then there will be radiation in that area for a period of time that you will take damage from.
IGN AU: Was it tough balancing the RPG and FPS elements so that both felt right?Cool.
Pete Hines: We certainly spent a lot of time on that because we felt that the shooter element, what you're doing minute-to-minute, has to look good and feel fun. If that's all you do for ten minutes it has to feel good. There is all this other stuff you can do behind the scenes. It's not just a shooter. It's not that limited. But the shooting has to be good. Because 99 per cent of people at some point are going to pick up a gun and start shooting stuff and if it doesn't feel right and doesn't look right then we have a big problem. We did spend a lot of time on that because we felt it was important to get it right.
I think from our internal play-testing, and from some folks who've been able to play it recently, the feedback is that it feels pretty good. It's clearly not just a shooter but it holds up well when you're just running around shooting stuff.
IGN AU: Is it possible to make the stealth elements as exciting as just running and gunning?Ahhh, the old turn on the turrets from hacking trick and sneak your way around things. I loved how you could do that in Fallout 2 in the final battle and finish the game w/ just letting the turrets do all the work, if you had that kind of character that fit the bill, of course.
Pete Hines: I don't know about 'exciting'. If you're trying to avoid combat or sneak past stuff it's tough to make that as fun or as visceral as running around blowing something's head off but at the same time if you're rewarding the player with something that's really unique and different, that you're never going to see if you don't play that way, then that's the big thing. If you played it that way then you get to see a robot melt a couple of super mutants' heads off and there's some hilarious dialogue there and you get to see something that you never would have seen otherwise.
The important thing is that the payoff is there and that the gameplay doesn't feel like it's bogged down. It's important to allow the player to play that way and feel like they have the option as opposed to 'I'm playing the game as a stealthy player and there's nothing else for me to do other than to sneak past and avoid everyone all the time.
There're going to be occasions where it's not robots. Maybe you're turning on some turrets and it's killing everything in the tunnels because you snuck past some stuff and hacked into a terminal and turned on the turrets. You feel like you're getting to make choices and do things that feel right for the player you're playing. That's what's most important.
You can't always make sneaking fun and visceral every second but if the overall experience feels like 'I'm getting to do what I want' and it's satisfying, then we feel like we've been successful.
IGN AU: Is it a balancing act between scripting cool, cinematic scenes versus giving players freedom?Yeah, Fallout and Oblivion are two in the same, in one sense -- you don't have to do the Main Quest, you can just wander around and do the side-quest stuff. I'm glad they're keeping that intact for Fallout.
Pete Hines: I think the freedom can be up to that point. In other words, you can have different elements and scripted stuff that still feels natural within the context of whatever the player is doing because the important thing is not whether or not you ran across the scripted thing but whether we force you down one alley where there's only one thing to see and everybody sees the same thing. You don't have to do that. All the choices that you made up to that point were real choices. You could have decided to go in guns blazing. You could have decided to just never go there and gone somewhere else. You could have got through the area a different way.
So, it's more like making the player feel like they have their own path. As opposed to, 'I'm in this level. It looks like there are a lot of ways to go but it turns out that every alley I go down is a dead end, every door I try is locked and there's only really one way I can go.' That feels a lot more heavily scripted and constraining. And that's what we try and avoid.
You can do whatever you want. We might have told you to go somewhere but if you don't want to be doing this you can go off and do something else. You don't have to do the main quest if you don't want to. We try and focus more on that as opposed to should we ever use a scripted thing that's going to happen in a certain place. It just depends on what it is and whether this is something we think is really important and we don't want anyone to miss, or whether it's just a little Easter egg that only 10 per cent of people are going to find. You don't want to put a lot of effort into something that's really great and have the vast majority of people miss it.
IGN AU: The third-person view didn't feel as slick in Oblivion. How did you develop the first-person versus the third-person views in Fallout 3? Did you focus test both?I still wish Oblivion had cross-hairs in third person, for namely when you're shooting arrows -- so you got a clue as to where you're shooting. It's fine when you're just swinging a sword, since it's obvious where you're swinging. :P
Pete Hines: For Oblivion we didn't specifically focus test the third-person view. We did some focus testing and let people play however they wanted to play. For Oblivion you could play it in third-person but it wasn't designed to be a separate way to play the entire game. In Fallout it really has been, particularly because it's gun combat. So things like accuracy become much more important. When you're shooting with a gun, the crosshairs and where the bullets are going have to line-up. Whereas when you're using a sword, if I'm swinging here [gestures at his shoulder] versus here [gestures at his stomach] I'm still swinging at you.
We definitely spent more time on third-person as a real, viable, 'play the whole game in this way' mode. And it is becoming more popular – the third-person, over the shoulder. I definitely think it's a much more playable, viable option than before.
IGN AU: I was intrigued by the custom weapons. The example you gave of the Rock-it Launcher (combination vacuum and a rocket launcher that can suck up and use any object as ammo). Is it possible to use a rock as ammo in the slow-motion VATS shooting mode and watch it cause different animated damage compared to say a bullet?Okay.
Pete Hines: I don't want to spoil everything. But we take lots of things into account. We spent a ton of time on VATS and making sure that it's fun and unique. There are still a few things for VATS that we've not talked about yet that add more layers of fun and coolness to that mode.
IGN AU: You mentioned that your canine side-kick Dogmeat can be killed off. Are there main characters in Fallout 3 you've chosen to make invulnerable, as you did in Oblivion, for scripting purposes?Given how big Oblivion was, it made sense to flag certain NPC's w/ the "Can't kill this person" tag b/c BethSoft didn't want to break the Main Quest. But, it still would've been nice to pull a Morrowind and kill a God-like leveled-up character, of course. :P It was nice in Morrowind to be able to kill -- well, anything and anyone -- but if you didn't pay attention the pop-up if you killed a main character that stated "please reload your last save to be able to finish the main quest", you'll (obviously) never finish the Main Quest. Maybe what Morrowind should've done was allow for the player to be able to kill ANYONE in the Morrowind portion of the game once the player finished Morrowind's Main Quest first?
Pete Hines: In very few cases we may have folks who either permanently or momentarily can't be killed. In Oblivion there were a lot of guys who got flagged because we didn't want you breaking quests but in Fallout we try and account a lot more for quests being able to continue on without characters being alive. So here's this quest going on. 'Now what happens if the players kills this person?' 'Oh well, then this happens.' 'Well, then, what happens if they kill this person and that person?' 'Well, then this happens.'
We do want to make sure you can continue along the main quest and not fundamentally break your game, but we're able to do that without flagging most folks as essential. This time there's a much larger number of people who can be killed while you still keep playing your game.
Speech
Small guns
Big guns
Energy weapons
Melee combat
Unarmed
Medicine
Sneak
Lockpick
Explosives
Science
Repair
Barter
Fallout 3 Has 40,000 Lines of Dialog
- More than 100 character upgrades
By: Andrei Dumitrescu, Games Editor
After the announcement that Fallout 3 would feature more than 300 different endings, Bethesda is again dazzling gamers by saying that there are more than 40,000 lines of dialog in the game. The original release in the series, which many still hold to be the definitive role playing experience on PCs, has less than 20 times the amount of dialog lines.
More information on the post apocalyptic role playing game was offered
by the developers as they answered questions posted by forum visitors.
It seems that it tackles the hard issues which are usually eschewed by videogames, like slavery, homosexuality, drug addiction, child related violence. The player will not see any mature rated image in the game, but the oldest profession in the world is a theme in some of the quests. The developers are keen to point out that the maturity level of the game is in line with that of the first two Fallout releases.
It also appears that the mutants and other non-humans you encounter will be pretty hostile. Only a minority of them will be in a situation where you can talk to them and even persuade them to join your party or help you in other ways.
The game will only allow you to have one companion, other than your trusted mutt Dog Meat. That character will get weapons, armor and other gadgets, which he can then use in battles and adventures.
Speaking of battles, the game is not built to be played without weapons. You can get through some parts by talking your way out or by using your bare knuckles, but you will need to use weapons at certain points.
Fallout 3 is scheduled for a winter release, even though Bethesda says it does not mention any clear date because of the fact that the game will be released when it's done and not sooner.
That it feels like Oblivion is a pretty important thing to note, I think. Because as a result (and I have to note that I played this with an Xbox 360 pad, not a mouse and keyboard) I didn’t like the real time fighting any more than I did in Oblivion. In fact less, because there was a great and immediate satisfaction to using Oblivion’s bows that the guns of Fallout (or at least, the ones from the early game) don’t have.
But that’s where the V.A.T.S system comes in. It is incredible. I refuse to believe anyone is going to play the game using real time combat when V.A.T.S is available. You see, V.A.T.S. turns every battle into an amazing cinematic event, and not in a lame way like a Final Fantasy game or something. The minute you spot an enemy, you choose your position to attack from, enter V.A.T.S mode, select the body part et cetera (classic Fallout stuff, you know the drill) and watch what happens. The cinematics are generated on the fly and delightfully satisfying. While shooting an enemy stalker (damn, er, just enemy) who is miles away with a pistol is a boring exercise in shooting at a dot, in V.A.T.S you’re able to watch as your bullets batter him with a pounding velocity, crippling his body parts or exploding his head [“or her head, obviously.” – Equal Opportunities Ed.]
During my play time, I had a fantastic battle with a feral dog using the V.A.T.S system, where I selected V.A.T.S the second he leaped for my throat, and popped him in the head repeatedly as he sailed through the air only to land as a sad little doggie corpse.
V.A.T.S removes completely the problem that we’ve all had with the Oblivions system of battles – that they look incredibly stupid – and turn it into something thrilling.
Fallout fans down under are celebrating as the word on the web is that Fallout 3 will be coming to Australia. Initially the game was threatened with the ban hammer over in-game drug use, but The Gamer Chip reports that EB Games, and GAME representatives have assured fans that they will be getting the game in a slightly modified format.
After the announcement that Fallout 3 had been banned, gamers and the media were whipped into a frenzy pointing out that games with similar mechanics, such as BioShock, had been approved. One Australian gamer quipped, "What are the syringes in Bioshock filled with -- magic fairy dust?" The controversy culminated in a rather embarrassing broadcast where a panel of politicians displayed their ignorance of Fallout 3 and video games in general live on ABC's Q&A.
1UP is waiting for the official confirmation from Bethesda itself. Stay tuned for the final verdict on Fallout 3 in Australia.
Bethesda has plans for Fallout 4
News by Rob Purchese
Yesterday
Bethesda man Pete Hines has said the company "clearly intended" to make more than one Fallout game when it bought the rights to the series.
"The whole reason we went out and acquired the licence and that we now own Fallout is that we clearly intended to make more than one," Hines told TVG. "This is not something we're going to do once and then go away and never do it again.
"When that will be or how long that will be god only knows, but we acquired it specifically because we wanted to own it and develop it and work on it like we do with The Elder Scrolls," he added.
However, Hines publicly talked of sequels after licensing Fallout 3 (and Fallout 4, Fallout 5) back in 2004.
The company acquired full rights to the series from Interplay in 2007.
Fallout 3 is in development for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. But you will need a PC or an Xbox 360 in order to access downloadable content for the game, as Bethesda announced during E3./quote]
In an interview with Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard we discussed Fallout 3's lack of a MOD support and this generation of consoles. While Howard admits the team wants to add support for user generated content he confesses adding the feature -- which was included in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- is a daunting task for a team eager to complete the epic adventure.
"We don't [have MOD support at launch], we want to but we have our hands so full with getting the game out and getting tools out there that work well for people and with the game is a pretty big undertaking," Howard told Joystiq.
Shack: As far as the DLC goes, what type of content should we expect?
Pete Hines: The type is really--we want stuff that's going to be several hours. Not just like a one-off thing, but something like where you can download it and play it for X number of hours. It'll be similar to what we did with Knights of the Nine in Oblivion, where it's like whole new quest lines, new stuff, that kind of thing.
We want to do stuff like that, where it's adding hours of tangible stuff to the experience. And it plugs into your existing game, so whether you're starting a new game, or you're playing for 40 hours, you can go off and play this.
Shack: Will development of that begin immediately after launch?
Pete Hines: It's always flexible. We stopped doing content a pretty good ways before we finished the game in terms of adding new stuff. So we already have folks starting to look into what [the DLC] might be.
Speaking to Edge, Bethesda has explained what it calls a “misconception” regarding the classification of Fallout 3 in the Australian region. Edge has also learned that due to concerns and issues raised in the process of international classification, Fallout 3 will not contain real world drug references in any territory.
Fallout 3 was originally refused classification by the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification, citing among other reason the in-game use of “Morphine” in order to ignore limb pain. According to the Office’s guidelines, “material promoting or encouraging proscribed drug use” is refused classification.
In mid-August, the OFLC announced that a revised version of the game had been granted a rating in Australia, thanks to edits that changed the context of the in-game drug use.
While it has been assumed that these changes would only be in place in the Australian release of the game, Edge has been told by Bethesda vice president of PR and marketing Peter Hines that there will be no differences between the version that releases in Australia and the versions that will release in other territories, including Europe and the US.
Calling the idea of an Australia-specific version of the game a “misconception,” Hines told us, “We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform.”
He continued, “An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories.”
Hines stated, “I didn't want people continuing to assume the version in Australia was some altered version when it's not.” Finally, he explained that, “There are no references to real world drugs in any version of Fallout 3.”
Bethesda has in the past described the landscape of international ratings classification as a challenge. In previous interviews, Hines has referred to the variation of rules and standards across different regions as “frustrating”.
True. They could have removed it, but at least they merely edited it. But it's still lame.
The Fallout 3 PC Interview: Bethesda on DRM, Censorship and Consolification
by Nick Breckon Sep 30, 2008 11:07pm CST
After playing a few hours of the PC version of Fallout 3 earlier today, I sat down with Bethesda's Pete Hines to talk about serious PC business.
What kind of DRM will be included on the Fallout 3 disc? Will the PC version suffer from console interface holdovers a la Oblivion? Is the company optimistic about supporting the PC platform in the future? Read on to find out.
Shack: Is the game done?
Pete Hines: Every day we're one day closer. We're right to the end of it.
Shack: A lot of the big releases this fall are getting day-one patches to meet their deadlines. Are you considering anything like that?
Pete Hines: No. I mean you don't just assume now it's perfect and we'll never have to do anything, but we're not actively working on some fix for something.
Shack: After the Australia ratings board banned the game, you guys made some changes to the names of real-world drugs, which will now show up in all versions of the game. What did you think of the fan reaction to that?
Pete Hines: It is seriously the biggest non-issue in the history of video games. It got way more attention than it merits.
Shack: Do you think that anybody's going to even notice?
Pete Hines: Have you noticed? Does it make a big difference that it's called something other than Morphine? I mean, who gives a--
Shack: Still, does it frustrate you to have to make changes based on the ratings board?
Pete Hines: No. As I said, Australia weren't the only folks that had brought this up. It had actually been brought up in a number places. Like, "Hey, referencing real prescribed drugs is kind of a little concerning."
And we went back and looked at it and went, "It's not like it's in the original game, we just made it up. So why not just change it to another made-up name?" It's the same thing called something else. We couldn't possibly care less.
Shack: Similar question in the sense that it's an issue that can be overblown. What kind of copy protection will be included on the PC version of Fallout 3?
Pete Hines: Pretty similar to what we did for Oblivion, which was--we basically don't do any--we do the mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to get into what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when it comes to that stuff. [ed- Oblivion employed a simple DVD check.]
And it is a pain in the ass--it is a pain in the ass that we have to do it at all in the first place. But when you spend tens of millions of dollars, we don't think it's right to just put something out there and let everybody do whatever they want and pass it around.
And to have to support all of that--which is often the unspoken thing that nobody really wants to point to. You can argue all day whether or not somebody would have bought a copy of a game they pirated, but you can't argue, and you will never win the argument that I'm not having to provide tech support for those folks. Because I know for a fact that we are. We catch those folks all the time, where we're providing support for somebody who turns out didn't actually pay for the game and just downloaded a copy.
Shack: We've heard that as far as tech support calls go, the amount of pirates asking for support can be greater than the amount of legitimate users.
Pete Hines: We don't have any specific data on it, but we can look across platforms, and when these two platforms are like this [gestures with a hand] and this platform is like this [raises a second hand much higher] and these two platforms you can't pirate games, and this one you can, you can start to draw some inferences as to what the cause for that gigantic chasm might be.
But no, we're pretty mild about how we do it, and we try to do it in a way that prevents folks from exploiting and distributing our games that we worked very hard on, and that we feel we have a right to try and sell and not have distributed free without our okay. It's very important for us not to ruin the experience for the person who did buy a copy, so we try to be very careful.
Shack: I can't recall what Oblivion did, but will there be any install limit on Fallout 3?
Pete Hines: That's a good question. I don't actually know. [ed- Fallout 3 has no install limit.]
Shack: So you'd say you're very concerned about day-one piracy, but--
Pete Hines: Yeah, it's a huge problem. Huge.
Shack: As far as piracy solutions, there's nothing that you are looking at, even down the line, post-Fallout 3?
Pete Hines: [pause] Mm.. yeah, I don't know if I would want to get into it. We are looking at some of the stuff that folks do.. I think Valve has a good solution. They certainly took their lumps when Steam first came out, but it does seem to be a pretty widely accepted method, and certainly the easier that we can make it without it being a pain in the ass, the more likely we are to do it.
We always talk about in our games, about wanting to avoid the negative. We want to remove anything that is a hindrance or an annoyance to the player, we're trying to just get to the game and have fun. The interface, or whatever it is--we take that [attitude] all the way to our manuals, the amount of time I spent writing our manual, and trying to make sure that we cover all the bases, because I don't want that to be an annoyance to somebody. Or the DRM, and making sure that we're trying to protect something that we spent a lot of money developing, but not prohibiting somebody who bought a legitimate copy from getting into the game and having fun right away.
Shack: So what about Steam? Are you guys thinking about getting Fallout 3 on there?
Pete Hines: We're thinking about a lot of stuff. I don't actually know if any of that is set in stone yet, but hopefully there will be multiple digital distribution options for folks that want to go that route.
Shack: Did you put a lot of work into optimizing the PC version, and accounting for people with older machines?
Pete Hines: Yeah, we've been working with folks like Nvidia and having them do compat testing and optimization stuff, and looking at how the game plays on Nvidia cards. We've been doing some stuff with Alienware, specifically testing on different configurations of their machines. So we are trying to do our due diligence on the PC and make sure it runs as advertising.
But the problem on the PC, it's just not--you have a 360, you have the same thing that everyone else has. When you talk about a PC, how much RAM you have, do you have the right video card driver, the right sound card drivers, are you running all kinds of applications in the background that are eating up memory or trying to interrupt the process of the game and makes the game crash--you don't have any of those problems on the 360 or PS3.
So we try as much as we can for account for everything that we can account for, but the killer is all the variables you have no control over. I don't even know if I have the right drivers for anything on my home PC. It's something that you have to spend a bit more effort as a consumer.
Shack: Would you say the PC platform is something you plan on supporting in the long run?
Pete Hines: I think we are. We've been a PC developer for 20 some years now, more than most of the folks that are still around in this industry. That's where we got our start from, and we still think there's a market for it.
We try and take a global view. So while here in the US the consoles definitely do really, really well, globally there are still a lot of places where people still like and enjoy PC games.
Shack: Germany, and..
Pete Hines: Germany it's huge. It does very well here in the States, but you know, Russia, Poland, lots of eastern European places, tons of folks are still playing on the PC and we would never want to just shut ourselves off from those clients.
Shack: When games developed primarily for the console are brought to the PC, sometimes they can be criticized for being "console-ified." I know you guys dealt with some of that in the case of Oblivion. As far as Fallout 3, playing the PC version myself, it felt like a fairly intuitive version.
Pete Hines: I hope so.
Shack: Is that something you were focusing on with the PC version?
Pete Hines: That was the goal, to have it feel intuitive with clicking. And it actually does work with the 360 controller as well. It does both, so if you play it with the controller, it works like it does with the 360. You play it on the PC, and it's much more tactile, clicking on stuff.
And I think we did a better job--you know, with Oblivion there were some issues with the interface, the font, and the number of things you could see in your inventory wasn't scalable for PC resolutions. But I think that we've done a better job with that with Fallout. So hopefully folks will feel like we've taken care of them on the PC.
Shack: As far as the DLC goes, do you expect that to be simultaneously released on both Xbox 360 and the PC?
Pete Hines: Yeah, yeah, that's the plan. Absolutely.
Shack: Thanks Pete.
This may be old news (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/37141.html), but I really haven't followed FO3 that closely, so this is some of the first recent footage I've seen. It looks great! VATS seems to be up to the challenge, the visuals seem pretty fluid, and the opening is great. I mostly just watched it for the opening bit, but the gameplay didn't disappoint.I'm definitely looking forward to FO3 from BethSoft -- and have been for a long while.
The big downer there is that DLC will be exclusive to 360 and PC. That blows. No reason at all for that. Why would you give DLC to the fucking console that doesn't have a standard hard disk? I'm not an idiot so I'll be playing it on my PC, but still.I smell Microsoft throwing Rockstar money to make DLC exclusive to Windows and 360, myself. I wouldn't be surprised.
Though they said the same thing about GTAIV for 360, and I don't think we've even seen DLC for it yet, have we? It makes no sense that they'd cut off a portion of the market, so you have to think that the exclusivity will only last for a short while.I still wonder if that GTA4 X360 DLC is going to be exactly what the planned GTA4 PC Extra MP content (in the box) will be, if I recall. I think that would be a good bet, myself -- but still, nothing's been made official on GTA4 X360 DLC.
I'm definitely getting FO on my PC.As long as the protection is not vicious -- sounds like it probably won't be -- yeah, count me in.
I almost expect it to be as modifiable as Oblivion.I don't know if it will be, since there's no SDK upon release.
Anyway, the reason I brought this up in relation to FO3 was regarding the DLC and the different regions. Do you think the DLC will be restricted per region?I hope not.
HOLY CRAP. I just watched all the PAX gameplay videos for this and... holy crap. I don't think you could possibly have shown me anything to make me want it more. I also read a bit and watched a couple interviews which explained some things, and so I'm pretty happy with what they set out to do. The game just looks spectacular. Watching the gameplay was one of those things where I just had a huge grin on my face way too often, and I'm now very glad I spent the couple extra bucks for "release day shipping" at Amazon.Oh man, did you see the bit with the explosion seen from Tenpenny Tower? That scene blew me away. It really made me realize the incredible scale of this game!
Tim Cain has Fallout 3 pre-ordered. The designer of Interplay's 1997 RPG masterwork Fallout is looking forward to the release of Bethesda's big budget open world sequel just like the rest of us.
But being involved so intimately with the birth of the Fallout franchise, he's hard-pressed not to analyze Fallout 3's development with a discerning eye.
He said in an interview with Edge on Tuesday, "I do like what I've seen about Fallout 3. I've talked to those guys at Bethesda about it. It's their IP now and they've gone in a certain direction and it's very intriguing.
"It's not necessarily the direction I would've gone, but I can tell you I have my Fallout 3 pre-ordered. I want my life-sized Pip-Boy. I'm going to be playing that at the end of the month."
The game launches on October 28 in North America.
Cain was wary of offering extensive details about what he'd do differently with new Fallout games, but he expressed one basic concern that applies to Fallout 3 and Interplay's proposed Fallout MMO.
"I've hardly thought about [what I'd do different] with Fallout 3," said Cain, "but I have thought about the online version. I've also talked to the guys at Interplay about Fallout Online.
"The biggest problem I have with expanding the game is that the original games were designed to make you feel like you were one of the last people left on Earth. And with Fallout 3 and the online version, I'm curious about how they'll handle making the game not feel too crowded--making it feel like there's not much life left out there after the war."
He said he was interested in the way Bethesda is handling Fallout's "called shots" with the new "V.A.T.S." targeting system. "I like how they did called shots. It's an interesting way of adding called shots to a game that otherwise has real-time combat."
But Cain added that he's still waiting to see how components of Fallout's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats system translates to Fallout 3's real-time world.
"To be honest, I'm looking forward to Fallout 3 as a consumer, not a developer. I just want to play it and enjoy it," he said.
We'll have more from Cain and his new role as design director at Carbine Studios shortly.
<@Quemaqua> Funny, though. The French mag states explicitly "this totally isn't Oblivion with guns like we thought it'd be", while the Swedes say "No matter what we said before, this TOTALLY is Oblivion with guns".
<@idolminds> hahaha
<@Quemaqua> Both favorable reviews, though, and even the stuff the other guy didn't like he said didn't get in the way so much that he didn't enjoy it. He hates the voice acting but thinks the dialogue is great and that everything fits with the prior games.
<@Quemaqua> So, as anyone that ever played anything from Bethsoft would expect, it's a great game that sometimes feels a little too much like a game because of the inconsistency of the way they contruct things. But if you get beyond that (and I got beyond that after Daggerfall, for fuck's sake, over 12 years ago), it's going to be super awesome.
<@Quemaqua> So I'm totally cool with that.
Hint: high.
Fallout 3 has been leaked and is on torrent sites. Normally not news, but in an odd twist of fate its only the 360 version that's being pirated right now.
Minimum System Requirements
Operating System : XP/Vista
Processor : 2.4ghz processor
Video Card: 6800 or x850
RAM : 1GB RAM for XP, 2GB for Vista
Apparently another 15 mins. of footage and some talk with Todd Howard will air on Spike TV at 1AM Friday night. Or is that 1AM Thursday morning? Uh... I don't know. Either way, looks like there'll be some footage! It'll be up on Gametrailers after that.It's Friday 1 a.m.
What are the PC system requirements?
Minimum System Requirements:
* Windows XP/Vista
* 1GB System RAM (XP)/ 2GB System RAM (Vista)
* 2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 or better/ATI X850 or better)
Recommended System Requirements:
* Intel Core 2 Duo processor
* 2 GB System RAM
* NvidiaDirect X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA 8800 series, ATI 3800 series)
* Supported Video Card Chipsets:
o NVIDIA GeForce 200 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 9800 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 9600 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 8800 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 8600 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 8500 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 8400 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 7900 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 7800 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 7600 series
o NVIDIA Geforce 7300 series
o NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
o ATI HD 4800 series
o ATI HD 4600 series
o ATI HD 3800 series
o ATI HD 3600 series
o ATI HD 3400 series
o ATI HD 2900 series
o ATI HD 2600 series
o ATI HD 2400 series
o ATI X1900 series
o ATI X1800 series
o ATI X1600 series
o ATI X1300 series
o ATI X850 series
Your brother dropped on his head a few too many times as a child? Hopefully he lives real life a bit more conservatively.Haha Thank God he's not that bad in real life, although sometimes I wonder :P He's not exactly the diplomatic type :D
And I don't know why I typed that, I meant to type Friday morning or Saturday morning. A lot of times they seem to call what would actually be Saturday morning, Friday night, when it comes to scheduling.
Anyway, yeah, FO3 will have a creation system similar to Oblivion. I think it's going to have less options and be less crazy, since a lot of people felt it was very hard to make someone who didn't look shitty in Oblivion, but there should still be a bunch of options.
“PC Gamer - I’m going to take the sting out of this review right now. Fallout 3 IS “Oblivion with guns”. Whatever I stated in any earlier issue. So, with that said, there is no going back.”
Actually, that's not PCGUK, it's PCG Sweden, and I already posted (the essence of) that quote, along the directly-opposed statement from French magazine PC Jeux, who emphatically state how happy they are that it *isn't* Oblivion with guns.I'm with you on this one.
On the one hand I sort of wonder who's right, but on the other hand I totally don't care because I love both Oblivion and the original Fallout games.
And in fact, what I love most about Fallout is the atmosphere and roleplaying, not the combat, which I find tedious and far too inconsistent to ever be considered tactical. If that's honestly what people are latching onto about Fallout, they wouldn't know a good game if it chewed off their right arm to reduce their melee attack power. The elements are great, but the combat is far from perfect, and is probably the weak link where the other masterful pieces of the game are concerned.To keep combat somewhat fast(er) for FO1 and 2, in the Options menu, I keep the turn-based combat speed somewhere in the middle or above for the old Fallout games. Makes it feel closer to real-time with pause -- even though the game's doing all the pausing for you, since it's turn-based. :P
That said, I think a better-developed game in the vein of the originals, i.e. with grid-based tactical combat, could still be totally awesome, but I think a better-developed Oblivion-style game that fixes some of the problems with the former game would be just as awesome, and that has the added advantage of finally getting Fallout away from the inherent flatness of the isometric perspective.I think what they could've done it picked up Aurora Engine, an engine like Aurora, or developed an engine like Aurora. What they could've done was had a 3D NWN-style camera set-up -- which is a completely unlocked cam system where you can pan, rotate, spin, zoom in, zoom out, and manipulate it basically anywhere/anyway -- this would pretty much solve the problem of keeping the game isometric.
The verticality of FO3 even just in what we've seen so far has been unbelievably great looking, and to lose that would be to lose a most wonderful evolution in the aesthetic that the original games pioneered. I wouldn't on any level want to go back.That's something I saw in some of the vids. Plus, being thrown into first person, my God. The game is going to feel way more up-close and personal then ever. And yeah -- now, we can actually look up from our perspective (whether in fixed OTS 3rd or 1st)
My guess is that the game is going to be an evolution of Oblivion with guns; I imagine it will feel very similar to Oblivion but will have a much, much improved scaling system (in that only a few things scale, and the world will seem more logical for it), better characters (due to there being less of them), a better story, more variety in locales to explore, vastly improved combat, and way better loot that's more useful, varied, and fun to utilize. That's the impression I get from things I've read, heard, and seen so far. But given the fundamental differences between the two franchises, how similar could it really be, anyway? I mean, you've got an XP-based leveling system entirely different from TES games, the Perk system which has no comparable component in the TES games, a more tactical and meaningful combat system that from all reports from anyone who's played the game is nothing like Oblivion in any respect... well, what's left? Most likely the way questing works, the way character interaction works, and the general way the world is set up (which is probably a lot like Oblivion, with various hotspots around the map that can be fast-traveled to once explored, and might feel a little patchy in terms of the overall world). And a lot of that stuff is kind of standard across various RPGs anyway.I'm agreeing with you on this one, Que. It's going to be more than people calling it straight-up "Oblivion with guns." no, that's just the combat system, fixed viewpoints (1st and 3rd), and direct-style of controls forced on you. They seem to be be doing all this other stuff that Fallout did, which probably was not tackled as much in Oblivion -- ridiculous amounts of consequences and results b/c of your actions and choices. This is one of the best things about Fallout, if you ask me.
Anyway, those are just my ramblings. It's really late and I'm still up playing the first Fallout, which is truly a masterpiece. It starts slow, but man does this thing pick up speed as it goes. I'm a bleary-eyed mess right now, and yet I press on past 3AM...I played a lot of Fallout 1 yesterday, as well. I'm just that stoked for BethSoft's FO3. :)
Whoops!
October 10, 2008Yeah, so let's see if EndWar gets pirated to holy hell on the 360....
Fallout 3 Already Pirated On Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 version of Bethesda’s Fallout 3 is already available for illegal download on torrent sites, three weeks before the game’s scheduled release.
The eagerly-awaited title recently went gold, which may mean a leak of the game’s code took place at a manufacturing plant.
Although a modified Xbox 360 console is needed in order to play the game, many leading piracy sites indicate that the title has already been downloaded by thousands of users.
Although the level of piracy on the PC has been heavily criticized in recent months, by a number of different publishers, the PC version of Fallout 3 does not yet appear to be available on the same piracy websites.
Nevertheless, Ubisoft commented earlier in the week that PC piracy "cannibalizes" sales of the console version of a game and that releasing a PC version of a title was tantamount to “letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version”.
That's an interesting thought, but I'm sure there are reasons they can't do that. Still, it would be interesting if the manufacturing had gotten underway early enough for it to be possible to pull in the release date by a week or two. I wonder if that was actually done how much damage it would mitigate? It won't happen, but it's still an interesting thought.Well, I know it has been done for music albums before. For one instance, 50 Cent's Get Rich of Die Tryin' was bootlegged so heavily ahead of time on the Net and outside of it, the record label pushed it out a week earlier.
This is just terrible.And I think by taking overly extreme measures, they make matters even worse -- potentially causing more pirates to be created. I mean, hell -- if Spore didn't have such vicious DRM, I don't think it would be a track to the most pirated game of all time. Of course, on the other hand, the game still is selling like crazy, regardless of all the piracy going on.
I know this happened on the 360, but on the PC they say that piracy hurts the most during the first week, and many of those determined to pirate will end up buying a copy if they can't get their pirated game within the first 5 days or so.
That's partly why such extreme measures have started with games like Bioshock etc. Zero day piracy is what they say is the biggest threat.
Also, many of the analysts credited "The Dark Knights" opening day success to its extremely secure distribution methods. Apparently, before the release of the film, every print was passed under intense supervision. Previews were distributed through a documented chain of distribution. In the end the movie didn't hit the internet for a while, especially since extra security was provided to avert the camcorder piracy.Very interesting.
Recently, Ubisoft sued an OEM company, after they traced the leak copy Assassin's Creed PC to an OEM employee's house. Apparently the game was on the internet nearly a month before its release on PC.Interesting.
Anyway, I don't think a thousand pirated 360 copies of FO3 will make a huge impact. It is just weird that the pirates are enjoying their booty this early.I still think it'll make some impact, myself. It might cause some gamers to go pirate a copy, if they own a X360 already (modded) -- now that the word is out. Possiblly, those PC gamers that own a (modded) 360 might just say, "Screw it! I'll just go pirate the console version."
Que, holy shit at the bottom vid!
That's BIS's Van Buren (aka BIS Fallout 3, before it got canceled!)
I have seen numerous screenshots, but have never seen a vid of Van Buren in motion.
Wow, that looks great in motion.
My God, that looks like probably the Fallout most of the hard-headed hardcore FO fans wanted.
Damn...I wish that got finished before BethSoft got the rights to FO. :( (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/19160.html)
Yep, saw it at the bottom of the link that Que posted. Looking back at the classic style it probably would have attracted less attention than Beth's work.
I agree with that.Don't get me wrong, that is exactly what drew so much attention to it. The original stytle would have primarily only appealed to the original fans (or fans of the genre). I would have loved to see a game like that, but my mind always turns back to Crusader everytime I see that isometric camera perspective. To be perfectly honest the only reason I played Fallout (http://Fallout) back in the day was that I thoguth it would be like Crusader! haha At the time Fallout to me was like a blend of Crusader and Final Fantasy.
But you gotta' admit, though -- Van Buren does still look good. It looked like the next evolutionary step for Fallout, doing 3D old-school isometric with a full 3D rotating camera and all.
What BethSoft's doing with Fallout 3, they're completely revolutionizing the look and feel of the game with full 3D, direct controls in 1st or 3rd person OTS -- which is what's garnering so much attention.
Goddamn, I would've loved to have both BIS's Van Buren come to fruition and BethSoft's FO3.
Don't get me wrong, that is exactly what drew so much attention to it.Right -- b/c what BethSoft did w/ their FO3, the open-minded Fallout fans would jump aboard (like myself and Que); you'd definitely attract new fans to FO b/c of those who are fans of BethSoft's Elder Scrolls stuff would jump aboard automatically b/c it's a different RPG from them; you'd get modern gamers who never played a FO before to jump aboard b/c it's look so modern (and so damn good, too).
The original style would have primarily only appealed to the original fans (or fans of the genre). I would have loved to see a game like that, but my mind always turns back to Crusader everytime I see that isometric camera perspective. To be perfectly honest the only reason I played Fallout (http://Fallout) back in the day was that I thoguth it would be like Crusader! haha At the time Fallout to me was like a blend of Crusader and Final Fantasy.I think it was CGW? Regardless, one review got me interested in FO2. I never heard of the game. I saw a review for it and I was basically drooling at what I was reading about it. They gave it an A-. That was it for me -- I had to have it. And I got it for X-Mas. FO2 ruled.
Bethesda Is Tired Of Spending Money Supporting Software Pirates
Posted by Patrick Klepek on 10/13/08 at 3:00 pm.
Piracy remains one of the biggest issues facing PC gaming these days.
Last week, “Fallout 3″product manager Pete Hines told me that some development studios now calculate that up to half of their customer support calls involve dealing with people who have pirated copies of the game.
That’s bad.
Hines discussed the problem of piracy with MTV Multiplayer just days before, ironically, the Xbox 360 version of “Fallout 3″ leaked. Piracy is still far more prevalent on the PC side, which has serious implications for studios like Bethesda Softworks, whose development bread-and-butter has been PCs.
“It is probably the most…[long pause]…probably the most difficult issue specifically facing PC gaming right now,” said somberly-toned “Fallout 3″product manager Pete Hines to me after playing four hours of his new game a few weeks ago. “How are we gonna walk that line?”
With this kind of concern at Bethesda, you’d never guess what kind of copy-protection they’re putting on “Fallout 3“…
Since our talk, circumstances have changed. “Fallout 3″ has leaked. But the problems remain the same. The biggest obstacle, explained Hines, is figuring out who actually is a pirate.
There will be no “Spore”-like digital rights management (DRM) in “Fallout 3.” There wasn’t in “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” and Bethesda has seen no reason to make sweeping changes to their approach with “Fallout 3.”
“The amount of money we spend supporting people who didn’t pay us for the game in the first place…it’s f–ing ludicrous”
“It’s pretty mild,” said Hines of the DRM. “Much like ‘Oblivion,’ we want there to be some level of protection there so people aren’t just randomly pirating games and passing it around, but we’re very sensitive to the end-user experience, particularly for the person who has bought a legitimate copy and not doing something that is too intrusive, invasive. You bought your game, you put it in your PC, you start playing it.”
Hines is sympathetic to the complaints of legitimate gamers. That’s why there isn’t anything particularly intrusive in Bethesda’s PC products.
“You know, I saw the Penny Arcade guys did a number of guest editorials from guys like [Kotaku's Brian] Crecente and [Gamasutra's] Chris Remo,” said Hines. “It’s not easy. Being a consumer, I totally see it from the consumer side. You know, get out of my way and let me play the game, right? I paid you money for this, I deserve to play the game with no barriers to entry and no frustrations.”
Attempting to treat their players as legitimate consumers as widely as possible has its drawbacks, however. It becomes difficult for Bethesda to determine who is and isn’t someone who paid for their game. This becomes especially distressing for the studio’s customer support division.
“The amount of times we see stuff coming through where it’s like, the resolution to the problem was [the] guy had a pirated copy of the game…” said a visibly frustrated Hines. “The amount of money we spend supporting people who didn’t pay us for the game in the first place…it’s f–ing ludicrous. We talk to other developers, guys who are [like] ‘Yeah, it’s a third, it’s 50% of our [customer] support.’"
But there’s a careful line for all parties. If someone calls in for support and seems to be experiencing a problem isolated to an illegitimate copy of the game, it’s not in Bethesda’s best interest to take a gamble and call them out.
“The worst possible thing you can do…is put them in a position where you’re making them feeling like they better prove they have a legitimate copy”
“The worst possible thing you can do when someone calls and they’re having a problem with the game is put them in a position where you’re making them feeling like they better prove they have a legitimate copy,” said Hines. “Really bad response.”
That doesn’t mean they won’t call someone out, thought.
“You have to try and resolve their problem,” he explained. “If, in the course of doing that, you can determine that there’s something else going on there, then clearly you could call a spade a spade. But…you gotta be really sure before you imply that because people, rightfully so, get really pissed.”
Readers, can you see both sides to this complicated issue? As gamers yourselves, what recommendations do you have for Bethesda’s next game?
GameTrailers TV Episode Last night.
Yes, with lots of Fallout 3 greatness (http://www.gametrailers.com/gametrailerstv_player.php?ep=40&ch=1&sd=1)
Oblivion didn't have a PC interface team, as I recall. They realized their mistake afterward and have said that FO3 will have more PC-specific attention as far as interface goes. And while it won't ship with released mod tools, they said they want to release them soon.
BTMod solved the Oblivion font-size problem....thank God!BTMod was the first one out there. I think DarNified UI was the most comprehensive interface mod for Oblivion. If you get a chance give it a shot MyD :)
I hope that don't happen again on FO3.
OXM Gives Fallout 3 a 10
Oct 18, 2008 at 4:17 PM - Robert "Apache" Howarth - 75 Comments
No Mutants Allowed has some excerpts from the Official Xbox Magazine's review of Fallout 3 (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45800):QuoteBy now, you've probably noticed that we're giving Fallout 3 a big ol' score, so in the interests of quelling any outcry - no, this game is not perfect. In particular, we really wish that Bethesda had worked more on the dialogue system. In this post-Mass Effect era, it's disappointing not to hear yourself talk and to have to pick your dialogue options from big blos of text. Other quibbles: NPC chatter often overlaps in a confusing tangle, the third-person view is more than a bit crap, and we were always bummed that in such an otherwise-detailed world, no one noticed the corpses of their friends who we'd just stealthily killed. The biggest annoyance, though, is not being able to fast-travel unless you're outside - commuting sucks enough in real life, so we really resent it in our games!
Thanks Joel and Nina.
Yeah, I don't understand how it can't be repaired. It's code. You want it prepared, you rewrite the code!Oh thank God, I thought you were talking about FO3! I had to backtrack to the last few posts of the previous to see that you're talking about Dead Space. I woulda been shattered if it was FO3!!
But still, even if mouse control is broken, I'd need to hear that controller functionality was somehow broken as well, which doesn't make any sense considering how perfect it is on the console versions. I imagine it's fine and just nobody bothered to try it, and as Sy has said, this is more a controller-based game anyway (though I think it could have worked okay with a mouse if they hadn't screwed that up). So it probably works fine as a PC game if you use a 360 pad or whatever you've got handy. I'm guessing.
Yeah, I don't understand how it can't be repaired. It's code. You want it prepared, you rewrite the code!
But still, even if mouse control is broken, I'd need to hear that controller functionality was somehow broken as well, which doesn't make any sense considering how perfect it is on the console versions. I imagine it's fine and just nobody bothered to try it, and as Sy has said, this is more a controller-based game anyway (though I think it could have worked okay with a mouse if they hadn't screwed that up). So it probably works fine as a PC game if you use a 360 pad or whatever you've got handy. I'm guessing.
Que, I think when you said that "If it wasn't for Dead Space, the wait would be killing me (for Fallout 3)", then the whole thing went off-topic. GPW asked if it was out for the PC, Pug said it was but posted links saying to beware of the PC version; then on and on and on.
No, Xessive, that's about as much as has been said. I imagine it's going to function about identically to Oblivion, and hopefully it doesn't take long for the tools to release.
I don't think I'm going to go sneak at all.I'm definitely going to try different things, as I have with Oblivion, but the temptation to go ninja all the way will be difficult to resist.
Okay, My first 2 skills will be Small Guns, and Science. 3rd will either be Medicine, unarmed, or repair.
Fallout 3 looks rubbish on PS3
22-Oct-2008 Claim the predictable internet headlines, but we've played it on all three platforms - and here's the real, if less exciting, truth...
Our exclusive Fallout 3 PS3 review (from PSM3#107) has leaked onto the Internet and, as expected, a single sentence has been dragged out, beaten and interrogated under a spotlight. This one; "The PS3 version compares poorly to its Xbox and PC counterparts." Which, in the parlance of the Internet, obviously means; "THE PS3 VERSION SUCKS! XBOX WINS! ANOTHER CRAPPY PORT!" But that isn't the case. The PS3 version just looks SLIGHTLY WORSE than the other versions.
The PC version of Fallout 3 is gorgeous. The colours are vivid, the draw distance is endless, the textures are high-res and the lighting effects are beautifully subtle, especially when you're gazing over the Capital Wasteland at sunset. It's the best-looking of the three.
The Xbox 360 version's textures are noticeably rougher than on PC, and objects in the distance aren't quite as clear. It does, however, boast an impressively solid frame rate. The game is, otherwise, identical.
NOW, the PS3 version looks the same as on Xbox, but things in the distance are slightly jaggier/rougher, the textures seem 'muddier' up-close and the frame rate is choppier, especially during the last few story missions (which may be the same on Xbox, but we've not seen the equivalent scenes to comment). We won't spoil anything, but the set-pieces here are MASSIVE, and the engine quivers under the weight of what's happening.
So, really, the difference between the Xbox and PS3 versions won't hamper your enjoyment of the game in ANY WAY. High-res textures or not, it's still the same huge, epic, absorbing, brilliant adventure.
And if you're bothered by a slightly inferior frame rate and fractionally blurrier textures, then perhaps, yes, you'd best buy the Xbox version, leaving the rest of us to enjoy an almost-identical, equally brilliant, game on PS3, while you smugly inspect concrete textures at terrifyingly close range to reap the full benefit, rather than, say, losing yourself in a 100 hour epic quest in an evocative post-apocalypse. Or having fun.
Good night.
Andy Kelly (the one who reviewed Fallout 3, and finished it on PS3.)
Could that be Odium (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/odium/index.html)? The know nothing about it, I just remember the game's subtitle, which is the best ever:Yes! That was it!
odi.um:
n. 1 hate coupled with disgust
Gamers have been waiting 10 years for Bethesda Softworks' "Fallout 3," for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
"I think it's good for people to miss things," said Todd Howard, executive producer of the game. "Ten years between 'Fallout' is a bit long, but I think there's this nostalgia factor."
Fans of the post-Apocalyptic game, set in Washington, D.C., won't have to wait another decade for "Fallout 4."
Howard said he believes three years is a good time frame between games.
I still say that was no error. It worked fine in Oblivion, even if it could have used tweaking. But this has been addressed several times in this thread already, I think, or another one floating around. There will be some world leveling, but far less than in Oblivion, and done in a different way when it's actually used. But many areas are full of things that will simply kill you outright at lower levels. It's more traditional.It probably was mentioned around here but I was too lazy to search :P
I would be amenable to a debate about what was the error, the whole concept or how they implemented it. There's no question that as it stands it's a mistake. The expectations in the genre are that grinding will gradually elevate you above the common foes and get you ready for greater challenges. There may be room for the concept of beggars becoming Loki and Thor in there somewhere, but I personally don't see it.
GameSpy: Did landing a particular voice actor make you want to create a role tailor-made for them?Liam and Malcolm in lead roles for voice-acting should be great stuff.
Emil Pagliarulo: That's a great question. You know, by now everyone knows Liam Neeson is the voice of your father, and Malcolm McDowell is the voice of President John Henry Eden. For the father role, we had always dreamed of Liam Neeson. Come on, he's the quintessential father figure! We just knew his voice would be perfect, so the role really was written with him in mind. It's kind of surreal, looking back on it. I hear him in the game, and still can't believe we got him.
And then there's Malcolm McDowell. He was actually a really interesting choice for us. We had sort of been struggling with finding the right actor for that role. I mean, we had a huge list of possibilities, but no one felt "right." Coincidentally, right around that time, we had all started watching "Heroes." When we saw Malcolm McDowell playing Linderman, then it just clicked. But remember, this is a British actor playing an American, so we knew we needed the same type of performance. What we got was Malcolm McDowell channeling Franklin D. Roosevelt. His performance just blew us away -- he really exceeded our expectations. So, for us it sort of worked in reverse -- we had these parts, and got the two people best-suited to play them. Talk about good karma!
But, you know, beyond the "biggies," we did actually create roles for a couple other actors based on their abilities. Mister Burke is voiced by Wes Johnson, who played Lucien Lachance in Oblivion. Nobody sells sinister like Wes, so there was no other choice.Oh, yeah -- Lucien was pretty memorable in Oblivion.
We also used Stephen Russell, who old-school gamers will recognize as the voice of Garrett from the Thief series.Oh hell yeah @ Stephen Russell of Thief fame for voicing Garrett being in FO3!
I've never met a voice actor with such an incredibly wide range. When we learned what Stephen could do, we were like, "Okay, he's doing this, and this, and this..." He's the voice of Mister Handy, to name just one of his roles.
Gaming Nexus: Why develop a PC version at all? Given piracy and all the other issues with PC gaming why did you decide to release a PC version?I wish more gaming companies companies would think like this.
Emil: Bethesda’s been around the block a few times now, and we got our start on the PC. So we’ve still got quite a few old school fans who played the early Elder Scrolls games (not to mention other stuff, like the Terminator titles) on the PC. So there’s no way we’re going to abandon those fans.
From a production standpoint, developing a PC game is fairly easy for us, since all of our tools are on the PC, and we can get the game up and running instantly on that platform. The real difficulty for us is in stuff like compatibility testing. Our games are huge, right? So it’s difficult for us to test all the different permutations within the game itself. What if I do this quest, and then chose this path of this quest? Etc. Now throw endless hardware configurations into that mix and the amount of testing we need to do becomes mind numbing. But in the end, it’s worth it for us, and for gamers, certainly.
Here is the instruction manual for anyone who is interested. (http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/22300/fallout3_en_pc_manual.pdf?t=1224868972)
They already said there's no DRM other than having the disk in the drive, D. And yes, G4WL is just for achievements since there's no multiplayer or anything. I don't know how that works since I've never purchased any game that had support for it, and if it's entirely optional and doesn't require me to install anything, fuck achievements. I don't want or need any part of G4WL.If it's anything like the one in Gears of War then it's not necessary at all for singleplayer and it looks exactly like the X360 one. Hopefully it will be non-intrusive and purely optional.
They already said there's no DRM other than having the disk in the drive, D.Good.
And yes, G4WL is just for achievements since there's no multiplayer or anything.That's fine.
I don't know how that works since I've never purchased any game that had support for it, and if it's entirely optional and doesn't require me to install anything, fuck achievements. I don't want or need any part of G4WL.For signing-up for (free) G4WL, the easiest way is to use your Hotmail e-mail account as your G4WL account and you're basically good to go. It'll port all your info for you over automatically.
Bethesda Pulls Fallout 3 Marketing 'In Connection with ESRB Guidelines'
by Blake Ellison Oct 27, 2008 6:36pm CST tags: Fallout 3, ESRB
Censorship and Bethesda's Fallout 3 (PC, 360, PS3) are good friends, and the two just got a little closer: Bethesda has asked gaming websites including Shacknews to pull all trailers for the open-world RPG.
The request came from Bethesda marketing VP Pete Hines in an e-mail which is reproduced below. The e-mail is short on comment but says the request is "in connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines."
The move comes on the eve of Fallout 3's release, with thousands of retailers ready to start selling the game at midnight tonight, and follows a widely-reported public complaint regarding depictions of post-apocalyptic Washington DC in Fallout 3 ads.
The ESRB struck last year when news outlets including Shacknews were asked to remove trailers for D3 Publisher's Dark Sector, with the rating board citing "gameplay montages [which] have been deemed to contain excessive or offensive content."
The full e-mail from Hines follows:
In connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines, you are instructed to remove immediately any of our Fallout 3 trailers from your website, pending further notice.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Pete
One of these days I'm going to punch one of those ESRB motherfuckers right in the face.You and I man.
It's installing as I type this.
I hate you. Scary. I just checked my Amazon.com shipment a bit ago, and while it's still scheduled to arrive tomorrow, right now it's in... Tulsa. TULSA. Postal vans better drive fucking fast, that's all I can say.
And yes, that video review was way too enticing. I'm all but ill. Tomorrow is going to be excruciatingly long.
I don't know about the age gate thing, Xessive, but I still say that the ESRB should have absolutely no say in what anyone does to advertise their game. None.
Can a company put a trailer up MINUS the ESRB rating?They do it all the time "This product not yet rated."
They do it all the time "This product not yet rated."
Well, so far it's awesome. I only have about an hour and half under my belt, but it seems sweet as hell. It took forever to install though, 30 minutes or so.That's what I expect of it -- it would still look and feel like Fallout, but with the cross of real-time and the turn-based style of VATS.
It feels like a Fallout game for the most part, with obvious differences. I was kind of worried about that, but Bethesda does a pretty good job in keeping in keeping with the overall tone of the Fallout games.
Combat is fun, I just went into a school overran by bandits, and owned them all. VATS is awesome. I love being able to cripple NPCs, or disarm them. I shot a gun out of one guys hand, and then I shot him in his arm, so he ran over to the gun that I shot out of his hand, and picked it up with his other arm. Kind of a cool detail I noticed.That's awesome.
then I blew his head off, which looks dope. The violence is nice and over the top like I like it. I foresee things dying in comical ways with this.Ahhhhh.
It's great so far. Can't wait to dive into it tomorrow. But I have to crash. Tomorrow is going to be the longest day at work, damn.Ahhh, man @ you have to go to work. :(
Oh, Jeff, you lazy douchebag. About half of his complaints can be attributed to the original Fallout games as well, or his own ineptitude. It's the usual kind of shit that makes me not like Jeff as a reviewer at all, not because I think he's a terrible writer or a bad guy or doesn't have insight, but because he whines about shit that shouldn't matter. He doesn't like the way the game autosaves, yet openly admits the situation he was complaining about came about because he didn't save his game. Well, whose fault is that, Jeff?That's Jeff's fault.
Yes, let's blame the game for not saving for you properly.What does Jeff want? 3 or 4 Special autosave slots (that'll keep overwriting itself)?
He doesn't like the encumbrance system. Well, make a character with more strength, Jeff. Inventory management was a huge deal in the first two games, and it was often annoying as hell. You always had more stuff than you could possibly use and had to be pickier about what you'd carry into the wastes.Most RPG's work like this -- Diablo, TQ, and Silverfall are kings of this, as there's so much unique loot to find, you'll wind up just leaving shit behind. Though, all three of those actually have a fast-travelling / teleportation system, if you really want to milk it and make some money.
Pick up every gun and bit of ammo you find and you're sure to get nowhere fast.Same goes for STALKER series, too.
I think his complaints with VATS are probably valid, though. Looking at videos and stuff, I'm getting the impression that it makes the game far too easy and that 99% of people will be picking whatever headshot perks there are so they can just use VATS, aim for the head, kill dude, end combat. Which sounds awful. So I'm a little disappointed in the way that may work out, though obviously I'll reserve final judgment until I play it for myself. I'm guessing that to some degree this may be a problem because Bethesda wanted people to know this wasn't just some FPS and that all the non-combat skills actually are important and do matter to the game and your character, so they may have overcompensated a little to make it more attractive to pick some non-combat options? I don't know. Still, if that turns out to be less than perfect, it'll get modded out. It isn't a complaint for everyone, though, so it may have to do more with the kind of character you end up playing.I wonder how easy or hard the game will be to go through it without even using VATS.
One of the commenters made an interesting point, though. He gave GTAIV unabashed high scores despite technical flaws, but seemed to focus more on the flaws for FO3. My guess is it's because there's no hip-hop in it or gangsta rappers he can try to impersonate.ROFL @ that last comment.
I usually use Amazon.com for these, so I'm going to stick to it for tonight's contest also. So if you need the game tomorrow, please don't apply, because it should go to someone who prefers a hard copy sent to them rather than getting it on Steam or D2D, etc. Also since this is the PCGB, this is only for the PC version.My entry:
Contest:
Create a small poem where every word starts with the letter S and ends in "ing". The best sentence wins.
Steaming: splurging, swindling, saddening.So woo! I'll have the game in a few days but probably can't play until the end of next week.
Selecting shipping: satisfying.
Any word on length? I'm still debating wether or not I should pick this up.The main quest is anywhere from 12-15 hours, I've read in reviews. I've barely been sticking to the main quest, since I got out of The Vault 101. Yes, I got this game today -- CC didn't get FO3: CE in for the PC, so I flew over to BB and spent outdoors for The CE.
It's a shame, in light of these impressive design elements, that the PlayStation 3 version is shockingly inferior to the others from a technical perspective. Although the Xbox 360 and PC versions display the occasional visual oddity and bland texture, these nitpicks are easy to overlook. Sadly, the jagged edges, washed-out lighting, and slightly diminished draw distance of the PS3 release aren't so easy to dismiss. We also experienced a number of visual bugs on the PS3. Character faces disappeared several times, leaving only eyeballs and hair; limbs on robots went missing; some character models had an odd outline around them as if they were cel-shaded; and the day-to-night transition may cause odd streaks on the screen as you move the camera around. This version doesn't even offer trophies, whereas the Xbox 360 and PC versions offer Xbox Live/Windows Live achievements.
<@Que|Fallout3> The NMA guys can go drown themselves in a bathtub of hot gasoline. This game is amazing, and if they don't want to play it, that's their own fucking problem. The game is far from perfect, but if you were to give me a choice between the old and new, I guarantee you I'd take this every time. The essence of Fallout is completely intact, and while the gameplay is obviously different, the feel of it ends up being much the same.
<@Que|Fallout3> I'm going through the same feelings when looking at the imagery, when exploring the dungeon areas, when interacting with at least certain NPCs who seem reminiscent of those from the past games, and especially the balance of healing and stat boosting items to ammo to guns during combat, and the way combat encounters reward you with such stuff while depleting certain supplies.
<@Que|Fallout3> The game is remarkably more accurate to the original experience than I'd have expected. I could be more pleased if Bethesda was simply more competent at animating characters and with some of that minor technical stuff, but that's the only thing that could stand improvement, and it's a nitpick at best. Mechanically, this game is a fantastic translation of one gameplay form to another. It could imbalance later on, I suppose, but as of right now, I say these guys deserve an award or something.
Man, that's a shame to hear. I didn't realize they were using SecuROM. In a bunch of interviews I thought Pete Hines said all they were doing is a CD check? Maybe he just meant that all they're doing is a CD check using SecuROM. Which is kind of shitty. I don't know, but that rubs me the wrong way. Kind of a lot.
No problems on my end, anyway. I don't have Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% going right now, but I do have a few virtual drive tools (I think PowerISO and some other stuff) which didn't appear to cause any problems. Still, that's disappointing.No issues on my end.
So I then took off to deliver the letter for that chick. Had to fight a couple dogs along the way and avoid some mutants. I got too close to the water and this crabman attacked me. There was no way I was going to win so I hightailed it. More mutants and that crab guy was persistent. I reached the town on a bridge around morning.I've done "part" of that quest for the girl.
I've been trying to find something better than the armored vault suit forever now, but I have yet to do it. Anyone replace it yet? I finally just replaced that goofy ass looking Motorcycle Helmet.
Oh well, I'll have to continue tomorrow. Later folks.
Idol, y'know, something I'm wonderin'...
**Megaton Nuke Quest***
**SPOILERS******END SPOILERS***(click to show/hide)
Idol, y'know, something I'm wonderin'...
**Megaton Nuke Quest***
**SPOILERS******END SPOILERS***(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
Yousonofabitch.... STOP. I don't HAVE MONEY at the moment.
I'm going to edit your post for spoilers, just in case idol.
As far as I know you can stash stuff anywhere and it won't disappear, but I don't know that for a fact, and I don't know how long the persistence lasts. Like if you drop a gun in the Wasteland, will it remain there forever or disappear. But yes, eventually you can get a place or possibly places to stash your shit. But I think it can take a while to get it depending on the routes you're taking.
Some of the keybinding things don't work right when changed. I put Pip-Boy on KP_0 and that works to open it, but I still have to hit tab to close it. And I still have to hit E to finalize my VATS choices. Unless I'm doing it wrong, but I don't see how.You can mouse click on "Accept" which is on the right-hand side of the screen; that's what I do. :)
The gore is sick in this game. First time I shot someone point blank with the shotgun and had their head explode...wow.That was my reaction. It was like, "Whoa."
Fallout 3 uses SecuRom ONLY for disc check
For Fallout 3’s copy protection on PC, we use the same security model as we did for Oblivion - a simple disc check. We only use SecuRom’s disc check functionality for copy protection.
We do NOT limit the number of installs. We do NOT use online authentication or any other SecuROM functionality except for a disc check when you install the game and when you launch the game. We do not install any other programs and we don’t have anything that runs in the background while you’re playing the game.
If you experience issues installing the game, try running setup.exe directly off the disc. That will resolve most compatibility issues.
Get the latest information from our tech support forums, including this specific thread related to SecuROM. (http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=892715)
Posted by acheng on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 11:19 am.
Whats with that woman in the supply depot at Megaton? She sounds just like Sara Palin.
PS3 :(
Trust me - I would post screens because my character could totally kick Ques' characters' ass. He's got a gayass mustache. You can't fake that.
I've had a long love affair with strategy guides and hintbooks for games. I love flipping through them, seeing all the maps and hidden stuff I never knew about. It's like peering into the soul of a game. A look at what's really in it. And I think there are two great ways to experience Fallout 3; one, obviously, is to play the game. The next way is to read this book. Pick a chapter or page at random and start reading. I guarantee you'll see something you didn't know about it. It could be something big, like a reward you missed out on due to your choices, or a hidden weapon.
Over the last four years, the Fallout 3 team put everything they had into this game. I think it's hard for someone playing the game for the first time to really appreciate how much has gone into it, how many big things there are and just how many small things. In some respects, this book represents the totality of the game -- better than the actual game. I love seeing the work of so many passionate and creative people packed into a large tome. It becomes something tangible, a record of all that has been made.
The world of Fallout allows so many great ideas, whether they be dramatic, action packed, or darkly humorous, to come together in a new way. The journey in creating all of this has been a shared experience, and one that has proven to be the most fun I've ever had making a game. I hope reading about it is as much.
Re: appearance:(click to show/hide)
Tenpenny Tower(click to show/hide)
And thus began my slow slide into immorality.
I'm missing a few (the priest for one) but their codes are
Walter 00003b59
Lucas Simms 00003b46
Mother Maya 00003b49
Lucy West 000bb47d
Jericho 00003b5d
Manya 00003b58
Colin Moriarty 00003b3c
Gob 00003b3d
Nora 00003b3f
Billy Creel 00003b5a
Nathan 00003b57
Jenny Stahl 00003b53
Leo Stahl 000bcf20
Andy Stahl 00003b55
Doc Church 000b898f
Anyway... BETHESDA PATCH PLZ NAO KTHX.That's one nasty issue in FO3....glad I ain't ran into it. Sheesh.
Such a shame. I honestly think this may be my favorite RPG of all time, so I sincerely hope they find an acceptable way to get these issues fixed quickly and cleanly. I would hate to see such an astounding game compromised by shit like this.
Oh, I think it began long before that.
That's a drag. To this day Oblivion still crashes every time I exit, but it still retains data fine and the crash doesn't require a restart of the OS or anything. Also, I believe you can set the autosave behavior in a menu somewhere and don't need to edit the .INI.It does the same for me. On exit I get an error message but nothing else happens.
Games for Windows Live, save game issues with Fallout 3
PC users now get achievements and friends lists similar to how Xbox Live works. Here some cool things you can do with Games for Windows Live.
1. Earn achievements. You can create a free Games for Windows Live profile or link your Games for Windows Live profile to your existing Xbox Live profile. That’s right — you can earn Fallout 3 achievements twice, for both PC and Xbox 360. To link your Xbox Live profile, create a Games for Windows Live profile using your Live ID (ie, the email and login you used to link your Xbox Live profile to Live ID — that is, how you log onto xbox.com)
2. Once you link your Xbox Live profile, you’ll be able to see both your Games for Windows Live and Xbox Live friends together via the Games for Windows Live dash.
3. Question: Hey I was playing the game for a while, then logged onto my profile and my saves are gone? What happened?
Answer: Your saves are kept in specific directories tied to your profile. But don’t worry - you can go into your My Games folder and copy those saves over to your Profile’s save game directory.
For example, on my computer running Windows XP, under the Saves directory, I have two folders - Player1 and acheng. I can simply copy all the saves from Player1 to acheng, and I’m able to access them while logged on with my gamertag. On Windows XP, look in your My Documents\My Games\Fallout 3\Save folder. On Windows Vista, the path is C:\Users\{Username}\Documents\My Games\Fallout3\Saves.
For more troubleshooting tips, visit the Games for Windows Live technical support pages.
4. Update 1.0.0.15 Notes
Bug Fixes
Fixed occasional crashes when exiting the game or using Alt F4 to exit.
Fixed crashes when using Alt-Tab while binks or credits were playing.
The game now restarts properly after title updates finish installing.
Ok, some big ending spoilers here. Do not read unless you want to know the ending.(click to show/hide)
So yeah, good times. I don't know if I'm going to go back to an earlier save and continue doing all my sidequests or if I should make a new character. Or if I should take a break from FO3 and play something else and go back later. We shall see.
I also hate how the comments on GB are often full of stupid little teenage douchebags who just want to say "great review Jeff/Brad/Ryan!" because they want the staff to know how cool they are because they agree with them and lavish them with praise. That really pisses me off. Leave a comment worth reading or shut the fuck up. Jeez.
Argh, had my first BSOD with FO3.. I tried to start a long-range VATS and BAM! System shutdown right after the deadly blue.
1 crash in a 5 hour run.. Not too bad actually.. A lot less than what people on the forums make it seem like. At least it runs beautifully when it is running.
BSOD is not good at all, though. That means the video driver is crashing. App-level code can't bring down an NT-core OS.A few people have reported issues and framrate drops with Nvidia 180.43 Beta driver, which I currently have installed as it fixes a lot of issues with Far Cry 2. That could very well be the culprit since the crash happened when the shader effect of VATS was starting up.
Edit: It could conceivably be the audio driver instead. I think video is more likely.
Yeah. I still respect Jeff, but more in the sense that I think it'd be interesting to sit down and have a conversation with him, not because I tend to agree much with what he writes. And true, I know what you mean about how some of that kind of aforementioned stuff exists here to some degree as well... but we aren't writing reviews, so while it might be a little obnoxious from time to time, at least it isn't getting out to a large reading public. I guess it isn't something that one can control, anyway, so it's not like I hold it against any of the GB guys. I just wish some of their readers weren't so stupid.
I still don't understand the save problem. The simple solution is to not rely on autosaves. I don't think any game with autosaves intend those to be used as a primary save system. They aren't reliable that way. They're just good as emergency "Oh snap!" backups in some instances, or at least that's how I've always treated them. I guess maybe I don't get it because I'm a total self-admitted save whore.
I think it's at times hard to qualify games like Oblivion since they're so huge and there are so many variables. Sometimes the variables just add up to something shitty instead of greatness, even if they tend to more often veer toward greatness. I think this is much less of a problem in Fallout 3, though. The game is more structured and better developed on the whole. I can honestly say I haven't loved a game this much in a long, long time. Not perfect, especially on the technical side, but compelling just the same way the first ones were, at least to me.
How does giantbomb.com make money without ads?
Hahaha...seriously? I have to try that when I get back homeIt's weird but cool. It's like Beth really wanted to remove all DRM but were forced to go with SecuROM so they found a way to let the 'intermediate' PC gamers to figure out a way around it :P
D, you got this game?
Ugh. I hope not. I hated that crap.OBMM really simplified mod-related stuff. You can install/remove mods very easily without having to hunt down individual files. Activate/deactivate mods, and even activate a BSA overwrite without actually compromising the original BSA files. I thought it was pretty handy.
I just realized something. Fallout 3 only does a CD check if you use the launcher (default shortcut), but if you double-click Fallout3.exe the game just loads up with no disc in the drive. Cool.
Directed at Idol....
END TALK(click to show/hide)
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Where do you get the "Piston Fist"? I think is what it's called.
Also, FO3 has now shipped 4.7 million units.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/927/927608p1.html
Crazy stuff.
Where do you get the "Piston Fist"? I think is what it's called.
Yeah, I've been there. It doesn't tie into a quest, but there's sort of a freeform thing you can do elsewhere which ends up with its finale out in front. But that isn't really a quest either, just something on the side you can do. I've noticed this game has lots of little.... well, I hesitate to call them "emergent" quests, but that seems to be the best descriptor. Like you don't get a big text thing saying "OMG you got a quest!" but they still involve going from one place to another to do something and then get a (usually smallish) reward. A lot of other games might give it text and call it a quest, and it ends up being basically the same thing, except that Fallout 3 then has idiots out there saying "17 sidequests is unacceptable!" Meh.
Aside from your main and miscellaneous quests, there are dozens of smaller tasks, chance meetings, and other activities you can accomplish, depending on your decisions. They are divided into two types: unique encounters and repeating encounters.
Xessive, your dude reminds me of Mr. Burke.Hehe there's good reason for that!
. Shouldn't services like Steam and even BethSoft themselves be able to sell you some FO3 DLC or let you earn it through gaining Achivements? Or maybe even BethSoft should be allowed to sell DLC on disc like they did with KOTN for the PC?
I don't really like that M$ and BethSoft are in bed, though -- since G4WL will be the only place to get the damn DLC, which could mean BethSoft and M$ could charge whatever they want for the DLC and have you by the balls for that cost b/c they're the only ones in town to have it; Bleh! I'd rather have more options on where to get it.
I didn't hate the ending. It wasn't bad, its just sort of a "the end of a long journey" type thing instead of some epic moment and a Cole Train rap, you know? The stuff leading up to the ending is pretty cool, though. There are also several choices to make right at the end. If you can see it coming, you can save and try out a couple variations.
Ok, so I'm going to make some spoilers here. The first is where NOT to go if you don't want to be put on the fast track to the end.(click to show/hide)
However, you can do stuff leading up to that point.After that you can stop and go do other things.(click to show/hide)
Ok, some big ending spoilers here. Do not read unless you want to know the ending.(click to show/hide)
So yeah, good times. I don't know if I'm going to go back to an earlier save and continue doing all my sidequests or if I should make a new character. Or if I should take a break from FO3 and play something else and go back later. We shall see.
I just finished it as well:(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
I got this a week ago, yet haven't gotten around to it because of work related stuff. I will join your ranks after the 25th...
Fun fact regarding the spoilery-dude D was talking about:
He's voiced by Stephen Russell, the guy who did Garret's voice in the Thief games. Apparently he listened to all the old recordings in order to get as close to the voice as possible, and he actually did a pretty damned good job.
Zero Punctuation review: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/420-Fallout-3
As if I read any of your posts, let alone an edit to one of your posts.
I do post a lot and edit a lot, I know.
I'm basically a work in progress, I guess you could say.
Ha, nicely put.
Bethesda Softworks Announces Creation Kit and
First Downloadable Content for Fallout 3
Editor to be Available in December; Downloadable Content coming for January, February, and March
November 25, 2008 (ROCKVILLE, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, today announced plans to make both its editor and downloadable content available for its award-winning game, Fallout® 3 in the coming weeks. The official editor for Fallout 3, called the G.E.C.K. (Garden of Eden Creation Kit), will be available for free download in December and will allow Games for Windows® users to create and add their own content to the game. In addition, the first official downloadable content, Operation: Anchorage, will be available exclusively for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows® in January, and more downloadable content coming in February and March.
"We've always seen the original world of Fallout 3 as a foundation for even more content. Some created by us, and a lot more created by users," said Todd Howard, game director for Fallout 3. "It's fun to create your own character, but it can be equally fun to create your own adventures. We can't wait to see what the community does with the G.E.C.K."
The release of the G.E.C.K. provides the community with tools that will allow players to expand the game any way they wish. Users can create, modify, and edit any data for use with Fallout 3, from building landscapes, towns, and locations to writing dialogue, creating characters, weapons, creatures, and more.
Three downloadable content packs will be coming to Xbox 360 and Games for Windows Live starting in January that will add new quests, items, and content to Fallout 3.
* Operation: Anchorage. Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.
* The Pitt. Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.
* Broken Steel. Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.
Released on October 28 in North America and in Europe October 30, Fallout 3 has been hailed as one of the most anticipated games of 2008, and received a 10 out of 10 review score from Official Xbox Magazine, a result then repeated around the world with perfect scores by some of the industry's most influential and respected critics including: Gamespy, GamePro, UGO, the Associated Press, MSN, The Washington Post, Guardian, FHM, G4-TV, The Toronto Star, and Eurogamer. MSNBC's review offered the observation that it viewed "Fallout as a no-brainer for game of the year." The Daily Star in the UK echoed that conclusion, saying "You can hold all bets on game of the year – I think we have a winner."
Fallout 3 features one of the most realized game worlds ever created. Set more than 200 years following a nuclear war, you can create any kind of character you want and explore the open wastes of Washington, D.C. however you choose. Every minute is a fight for survival as you encounter Super Mutants, Ghouls, Raiders, and other dangers of the Wasteland.
Fallout® 3 has been rated Mature by the ESRB. For more information on Fallout 3, visit http://fallout.bethsoft.com and www.prepareforthefuture.com.
Thank you. And I know it's been pointed out before, but I don't generally care, so I'm going to take this opportunity to say: who the fuck had the brilliant idea of making ten bucks equal 800 points? What the hell kind of arbitrary shit is that? 80 points is a dollar? Why the hell isn't 100 points a dollar, or even 50? I'd like to find the person responsible for that decision and jam a 360 into one of his eye sockets.
I know, I'm angsty today. I had a long day, and BS like this just gets under my skin.
G.E.C.K. is out! (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56327)
Points are still sold in blocks, so yeah, there are always a few dollars that they get that you can't spend. Multiply that by millions of people, and you can imagine the amount of money they get without earning a penny of it. Buying exactly what you need for exactly what it costs in real currency--gee, what a concept!
Edit: People as a whole are sheep. They're not going to rebel. It will take a lawsuit or some consumer-advocacy group lobbying Congess to get any changes.
I was reading an article in the economist a while ago (last year maybe), and there's a name for this lost money (that I totally can't remember). Apparently with giftcards and everything it adds up to billions a year.
Profit?
;)
I had a subscription to the economist last year and it ran out this summer. I really miss it. It's by far the most informative magazine out there as far as world affairs, and the issues are dense. The level of information that I receive on a weekly basis has dropped 10-fold since I've stopped reading it.
The only gift cards I can approve of are spa packages. Here's a massage, enjoy.
Coming back to the GECK, I don't know if I'm motivated enough to make a few plugins for FO3.. I might fiddle around with it and see if anything worthwhile comes out.I really hope the FO3 community embraces this and has fun making their own stuff with it. I'd really like to see a booming mod community for this game.
UGO: Will players be allowed to play as their existing characters in the DLC? Since “Broken Steel” takes place after the main story, how will this be addressed? Will it work similarly to Shivering Isles, where the new quests simply get added to your Pipboy, or will you have to load up a brand new game?
Jeff Gardiner: Yes, all of our DLC drops right into an existing game. Which is a double edged sword, or course, it requires a lot of testing and fine balance tuning on our part!
In our third DLC, “Broken Steel,” we’ve come up with a way of allowing the player to continue on past the game ending… by changing it!
You will not have to load in a new game to play any of the DLC material – though you will have to finish the main quest to experience most of what “Broken Steel” has to offer. That being said, we are raising the level cap, so even if you don’t complete the main quest you can experience the expanded content by leveling up past 20.
UGO: Are there any plans to produce a full-on expansion pack (akin to Shivering Isles) for Fallout 3?
Jeff Gardiner: There aren’t currently any plans, but you never know.
UGO: Can you speak to the addition of new perks, creatures, weapons or an increase in the level cap for the DLC? Any specifics?
Jeff Gardiner: I hate spoiling content by telling specifics, sorry! All of the DLCs will feature new perks, creatures, armor and weaponry. We’re mindful to ‘fill in the gaps’ in our current game. OK, one specific – we’re including a scoped energy weapon. Also beefing up our melee weapons, big guns… As for the level cap, that will be significantly increased in “Broken Steel.” Along with it will be a bevy of new creatures and perks!
UGO: Does all of the DLC take place in maps outside of the DC Wasteland? How will you handle long distance travel to, say, Pittsburgh?
Jeff Gardiner: While this is true for most of the DLC, they all have ‘hooks’ in the main game. “Broken Steel” itself will largely alter the game world in spectacular ways, and as always through player decisions. To get to Pittsburgh, the player will have to find an abandoned railroad…
UGO: How large is the map for Pittsburgh or Anchorage, in comparison to the overall size of the DC Wasteland?
Jeff Gardiner: It’s hard to quantify in those terms as neither the Pitt nor Operation: Anchorage are the same as an open wasteland. Each features around 5 hours of gameplay depending on playstyle, and any of the weapons or armor found can be used throughout the rest of the game.
UGO: Will any new achievements be added for the downloadable content?
Jeff Gardiner: Yes! Each DLC will have 100 points worth of Xbox Live achievements.
It's a damn shame, is what it is. The game is *relatively* bug free on the whole, but that shit is a pretty major oversight. I guess they still haven't fixed it?
I've had a long love affair with strategy guides and hintbooks for games. I love flipping through them, seeing all the maps and hidden stuff I never knew about. It's like peering into the soul of a game. A look at what's really in it. And I think there are two great ways to experience Fallout 3; one, obviously, is to play the game. The next way is to read this book. Pick a chapter or page at random and start reading. I guarantee you'll see something you didn't know about it. It could be something big, like a reward you missed out on due to your choices, or a hidden weapon.
Over the last four years, the Fallout 3 team put everything they had into this game. I think it's hard for someone playing the game for the first time to really appreciate how much has gone into it, how many big things there are and just how many small things. In some respects, this book represents the totality of the game -- better than the actual game. I love seeing the work of so many passionate and creative people packed into a large tome. It becomes something tangible, a record of all that has been made.
The world of Fallout allows so many great ideas, whether they be dramatic, action packed, or darkly humorous, to come together in a new way. The journey in creating all of this has been a shared experience, and one that has proven to be the most fun I've ever had making a game. I hope reading about it is as much.
Well, this sort of sparked the thought.
In Megaton:(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
Dammit. The CE is going for 59.99 at best buy right now. I should have waited.
No, she can't.Wow, it's weird to see an Internet download use the RAR compression type. I never even thought how rare it was until I just saw it.
Version 2 of the Classic Music Mod is now up (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=242). You can grab it from Fallout 3 Nexus (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=242) or FileFront (http://files.filefront.com/Fallout3ClassicMusicModv2rar/;12301520;/fileinfo.html). Feel free to give me a vote or leave comments, especially on FO3Nexus where a bunch of other mods have sprung up. I feel mine is the best of them because instead of just chucking a bunch of shit on there, I really tried to ensure that every song included added something to the game and wasn't included *just because* it's from the past games.
Anyway, enjoy! Both entries now with AMAZING PROMOTIONAL SCREENSHOTS!
K-man, on Megaton if you want spectacular:(click to show/hide)
Eurogamer: Given the military sim setting, would you say the balance in Anchorage swings more towards gameplay than storytelling? Or have you tried to remain consistent with the way the two are interwoven in the main game?
Jeff Gardiner: There definitely is a story here - the Brotherhood Outcasts are trying to acquire advanced military technology, and the only way to open the vault containing these relics is by completing a tactical simulation only the player can enter. The bulk of the gameplay in this DLC is gunplay and stealth, along with some 'team building exercises.'
...
Eurogamer: Can you tell us anything more about the way the Strike Teams under the player's command work, or elaborate on any of the "exotic gadgets" mentioned last week?
Jeff Gardiner: The player will be able to choose, from a limited resource pool, what type of team members will accompany him or her on several missions within the simulations. These choices include different troop types like snipers or heavy weapons troops. They'll also be able to make tactical decisions on how to deploy these troops in certain situations. The Chinese Stealth Suit was what I was hinting at last week - it works similar to stealth boy every time you crouch!
...
Eurogamer: Can you give us any details on the new Achievements? Will it be another 250 gamerpoints' worth? (Is that still the DLC limit for extra gamerpoints?) Will it be split across the three packs?
Jeff Gardiner: We plan on including around 50 gamerpoints per pack.
...
Eurogamer: Finally, can you tell us anything else about The Pitt and Broken Steel?
Jeff Gardiner: The Pitt is a more 'Traditional' Fallout 3 quest - it's full of morally grey choices, shady NPCs, and features another city ravaged by time, neglect, nuclear waste and moral degradation.
Broken Steel not only extends the game to level 30, it alters the core ending. It allows the player to continue exploring the ashen Wasteland and see the fruits that are born, or that die, from their decisions. It will reprise several main characters, and conclude some of the story threads left dangling.
I still haven't picked it up. :(
Update 1.1 Notes (All platforms unless otherwise noted)
*****************************************************************
New Features
*****************************************
Trophy support. (Playstation 3)
Bug Fixes
*****************************************
Friends notification no longer causes the game to pause. (Playstation 3)
Fixed occasional crashes during loading and waiting.
Friendly or neutral NPC health bars, when taking damage, no longer flicker repeatedly.
Fixed issue where certain NPCs would occasionally disappear from the game.
Fixed issue where dead NPCs would occasionally come back to life.
Fixed rendering issue with the Gatling Laser gun's tracers.
Fixed issue where the haircut menu would occasionally not appear properly.
Added ability to remap your VATS and pip boy buttons.
Fixed rare load/save issues that would cause NPCs to behave incorrectly.
Fixed issue where quest objectives would occasionally not update properly due to talking activators,
intercoms and conversations.
Using Radaway from the Pip-Boy's Status Menu repeatedly no longer crashes the game.
Player no longer gets stuck in level up menu if their skills are maxed out.
Fixed issue where multiple followers would occasionally not load into an interior.
Fixed rare issue with getting stuck in VATS mode.
Fixed rare crash with fighting NPCs with corrupted data.
In game radios will now play properly if player was listening to the radio in the Pip-Boy first. (Playstation 3)
While using a 360 controller, the lockpick menu now rumbles properly. (PC)
Fixed rare crashes while loading and saving games.
Fixed rare issue where player would fall through the floor while in VATS.
Fixed issue where SLI mode was not properly detected with nvidia graphics cards. (PC)
The Sandman perk no longer works with any children in the game.
Fixed occasional crash after scoring a critical hit in the head with a Railway Rifle.
Prevent NPCs from inadvertently dying from falling.
Fixed occasional issue where the controller would stop working properly.
Fixed crashes related to repeatedly equipping and dropping clothing and armor into the world.
Quest Fixes
*****************************************
Fixed several instances where quest item stayed in inventory permanently after completing quests.
Fixed an issue where the distress message would occasionally not play in Trouble on the Homefront.
In The Waters of Life quest, the Citadel gate will open properly if the player fast travels away after exiting the Taft Tunnels but before reaching the Citadel gate with Doctor Li.
For the Home Sweet Home quest, the broken protectrons in Big Town become active at the proper time.
In The American Dream quest, fixed specific issue which prevented the player from accessing their belongings in the locker by the door if they left the room first.
Fixed infinite caps exploit in Strictly Business quest.
Fixed rare instance where Dad would have no valid dialogue during The Waters of Life quest.
Prevent issue during the Finding the Garden of Eden quest where player would fade to black, instead of Raven Rock, while in combat with a follower.
Fixed several XP speech exploits with certain NPCs.
Fixed XP exploit with a robot in Fort Bannister.
Fixed issue where player's controls can become locked permanently during The American Dream.
Hmmm, looks like its not only available through Live. Fileshack (http://www.fileshack.com/browse.x/4852) has it.Sweet, glad they caught on to it quick.
Prevent NPCs from inadvertently dying from falling.Sounds like Megaton finally got fixed! :)
Sometimes I wish I could shove people over high edges
Rock Paper Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/01/27/fallout-3-new-content-adventures-in-gfwl/) has a great story on their adventure in buying the DLC on PC.LOL! I love how in one of the comments, someone calls "points" on Live "intergalactic space bucks."
The first DLC is now on 360 and PC for 800 MS Points ($10). PS3 owners...sorry, Bethesda doesn't love you. Eurogamer did a review (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/fallout-3-operation-anchorage-review) and its not exactly hot item it seems. They gave it a 5/10.
Rock Paper Shotgun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/01/27/fallout-3-new-content-adventures-in-gfwl/) has a great story on their adventure in buying the DLC on PC.
Giantbomb has a video walkthrough (http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-fallout-3-operation-anchorage/17-188/) where takes you a little bit though the game.
What it does is takes you into a simulation pod where you play in the battle for Anchorage. What totally fucking sucks about it is that you lose most of your inventory, your forced down a linear path from what I could tell, and its very focused on combat. So basically they totally cut the game down to a shitty first person shooter. Your not even exploring the wasteland, I understand the battle is a story point, but fuck, this isnt Fallout.
Today a new update (v1.4.0.6) is available on Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows LIVEUpdate 1.4
Notes (PC and Xbox 360).
It's a small update in preparation for the game's second DLC, The Pitt, which is slated for release this month.
New Features
* New achievements for The Pitt
* Support for multiple downloadable content
A useless piece of crap, really. It's shocking that something can be so much worse than Steam, but GFWL is disgustingly inferior.Microsoft always finds a way to 1up anything on the inferiority scale.
NEW Trailer for Fallout 3: The Pitt DLC -- which is coming soon and will cost $10 or 800 Microsoft Point via G4WL or XBox Live. (http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=21410)Thanks for the heads-up MyD. I still haven't gotten Operation Anchorage but I hope to pretty soon.
Latest Fallout 3 DLC Full of Glitches and Floating Exclamation Marks, Developer Responds (Updated)
by Chris Faylor Mar 24, 2009 10:39am CST tags: Fallout 3, Screenshots, DLC, Windows Live Marketplace,
Update: Fallout 3 developer Bethesda has issued a statement on the reported issues.
"As of now it looks like the file for the English version on Xbox Live was somehow corrupted," marketing VP Pete Hines told Shacknews.
"We are continuing to look into the issues people are experiencing with The Pitt for Xbox 360," he added. "We are currently working with Microsoft to remove the existing file off of Live to prevent any further downloads. Our plan is to replace it with a new file as soon as possible."
Original: Following today's release of the downloadable Fallout 3 expansion "The Pitt" on PC and Xbox 360, reports are popping up of severe issues with the Xbox 360 edition.
"It's completely broken," AuXoIs wrote over on Major Nelson, as noticed by VG247. "There are these box exclamation points all over...It's like not playable after the bridge because it freezes. If you manage to get past the bridge part you're pretty much in glitch city."
Developer Bethesda is looking into the issue, according to a post from a community manager in a thread full of similar complaints on the official Bethesda forums.
However, the issues aren't apparently universal, as some say they've experienced no problems. Forumites suggest re-downloading the file and ensuring that the entire 682MB are acquired, as some claim that they only downloaded some 492MB or so.
Priced at $10, The Pitt is meant to add a new area, quest and items to the action-RPG.
Fallout 3 Developer 'Working on Lots of DLC'
by Chris Faylor Mar 27, 2009 11:05am CST tags: Fallout 3, GDC 09, DLC
Fallout 3
In an apparently overlooked tidbit from a GDC panel earlier this week, Fallout 3 lead designer Emil Pagliarulo revealed that the team at Bethesda is hard at work on more downloadable content for the post-apocalyptic action-RPG.
"I can say we're working on lots of DLC," he said. "Lots of stuff brewing up here. God only knows where that may go. What famous landmarks can we destroy next?"
Bethesda has currently released two pieces of Fallout 3 DLC on Xbox 360 and PC. Each download is priced at $10 and each adds new quests, items and weapons. A third, "Broken Steel," arrives next month and picks up where the main game ended.
Thus far, the DLC has not made its way to the PS3 edition of the acclaimed game due to Microsoft's long-known PC and Xbox 360 exclusivity on "substantial" Fallout 3 DLC.
Unfortunately, the iterative development process can lead to parts of a game being left on the cutting-room floor because they required too much work. In Fallout 3, the urban ruins of central D.C. were supposed to be twice as large as they were in the final version. "These maps were done and polished, but Todd thought they had to go," recalled the designer. "You just have to be honest with yourself and admit when something isn't working."
Howard also vetoed a Fallout 3 level that would've been among the most ambitious of the game. It would've seen Enclave forces launch an all-out assault on Rivet City, the settlement inside of a rusting aircraft carrier anchored in the Potomac. Players would've been tasked with escorting its inhabitants to the Citadel, the nearby Brotherhood of Steel stronghold in what used to be the Pentagon.
Pagliarulo was eager to include the combat-intensive level, but Howard said that the mission was just too big. Now, the designer retroactively agreed with his boss, saying, "In the end he was right, we couldn't do it."
Ah, Bethesda. You make amazing games that make us happy, then kick us in the unmentionables by not letting us play them.Yeah. I've found tons of others with similar crashing problems. ffdshow is supposedly incompatible with Bethesda engines and you have to make exclusions for fallout3.exe so the game doesn't try to use ffdshow. When you ffdshow-tryouts, morrowind.exe and oblivion.exe are already set up as exclusions.
Sucks, man. Lurked around any forums to see if others are having similar problems?
I'm curious, was The Pitt DLC ever fixed?Was there a major issue with it?
Was there a major issue with it?
I just finished it like last week, it was pretty good.
Yea, it was totally unplayable on the 360 due to massive bugs, it was even recalled.Oh wow, I had no idea! That's a bitch.
Got back into this game over the weekend. I'm really having a lot of fun with it.I'm jealous.
[May 01, 2009, 1:52 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments
A listing on eStarland.com seems to indicate an unannounced fourth DLC pack for Fallout 3 called "Point Look" is in the works (thanks No Mutants Allowed), accompanied by the vague non-explanation: "Information Not Available Yet for This Expansion." We contacted Bethesda Softworks about this, and while they don't deny the story outright, they repeat they have "no announced plans" for DLC for their action/RPG sequel beyond the three already announced packs. Here's what Pete Hines had to day: "We have said there will be three DLCs for Fallout 3, for PC and 360. We've released two, and the third, Broken Steel, is scheduled for release Tuesday, May 5th. Beyond that we have no announced plans for additional DLC."
I finished the main quest tonight. It was ok, but it felt a little short.
I can't very well sum up the game as a whole as I have yet to experience 50% of it. So far it's been great fun though!
I'm playing through aain, trying things a little differently, now that I've finished Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt. Got some really good equipment from both!
Yea the ending left me a little underwelmed too, but seeing how the main quest is really just a small part of the game I can't really be to miffed about it.
SPOnG: Will there be enough quest experience to be had in Broken Steel for players to level up to 30 without having to grind on pre-DLC quests/enemies?
Pete Hines: No, probably not, and that wasn't the intention. The intention was to remove the level cap so that if you have Broken Steel, regardless of whether you want to play that quest or not, or you want to start a new game from scratch, you can continue playing beyond level 20. Again, fans wanted to be able to take their characters to higher levels, so we included it. But it is not specific to the length of Broken Steel, at all. It is a very long climb to get from 20 to 30 and you'll need to do a LOT to get there.
They're packaging anchorage and pitt on disc and selling it at the end of the month, if that hasn't already been discussed.And supposedly, Broken Steel and Point Look are gonna be put together.
As far as something with the scope of Shivering Isles, I'd much rather see that effort put toward Vegas.Obsidian's developing New Vegas, not BethSoft.
I guess Beth. still haven't gotten used to the console culture of where you RELEASE SHIT THAT WORKS FROM DAY 1.
In our third DLC, “Broken Steel,” we’ve come up with a way of allowing the player to continue on past the game ending… by changing it! You will not have to load in a new game to play any of the DLC material – though you will have to finish the main quest to experience most of what “Broken Steel” has to offer.It also raises the level cap from 20 to 30. So, pretty cool.
So the core game has a level cap of 20? Is the Swift Learner perk worth grabbing? I was thinking the level cap was like 100 or something and Swift Learner seemed like a must have to keep leveling from taking forever at the higher levels. I guess what I'm asking is, will the perk slots taken up by Swift Learner be missed?
Which is silly. There's tons of stuff to do beyond just leveling. This isn't an RPG like some. Statistics aren't the main draw. I played for countless hours past 20 and it never once bothered me because I was still seeing new things, fighting in new places, finding crazy new items, new unique scripted stuff, and since I had done so much off the beaten path, even watching the world change as I progressed to the last parts of the main story. Few RPGs can accomplish that.
Actually, I disagree. I took that (after much internal debate, because I was worried about it being a bad thing), and I've had a great time. It helps me know what I've seen and what I haven't, and doesn't really kill the sense of exploration unless you work it that way. Seriously, I don't think it's that bad. It just lets you know how many places you haven't been, making it easier to eventually find them all.
IGN: Is Point Lookout a reference to Point Lookout State Park in Maryland? Is that where the DLC takes place?
Todd Howard: Yes, yes it is.
IGN: Does the substantial history of Point Lookout State Park play a role in this expansion?
Todd Howard: In some ways, yes, such as the civil war stuff. Its modern incarnation is different, since we do treat it as we see it from the Fallout timeline, post 1950. More of a seaside vacation town with a boardwalk.
IGN: Without spoiling too much for us, what is the general plotline of Point Lookout's new quests?
Todd Howard: Yeah, I really don't want to spoil it yet. It has a swampy-horror vibe. It's the brainchild of Joel Burgess and Nate Purkeypile, two of our best people here. Their pitch was, "picture backwoods Maryland, where the bombs didn't actually fall, but the world has left it behind." It's also big. Really big. It's a mini wasteland swamp to explore. It has a main quest, side quests, etc.
IGN: What about for Mothership Zeta?
Todd Howard: If you poke around Fallout 3, you can find a crashed UFO with an alien inside that is broadcasting a signal your Pip-Boy picks up. This is where you can get the alien blaster. Well, Mothership Zeta is answering the distress call. You get abducted and the whole thing takes place on a giant alien spacecraft. It's one of those classic 50's B movie type things, but with a harder edge.
Malcolm McDowell is excellent. I think he's awesome in almost every role he lands.
I should try to put this game back on my computer since I installed Windows 7. Maybe it won't crash anymore, but I'm not holding my breath.What is "it"?
Fallout 3.
http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=625.msg67696#msg67696
http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=625.msg67701#msg67701
Retail releases of DLC spotted (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/26/fallout-3-dlc-retail-package-spotted/). That's good news. Hopefully this bodes well for the future. I'll wait until they're "done", most probably, then devote myself to a couple more weeks of gaming.
They'll probably release a GOTY or Gold edition with everything bundled.I'll be happy if they box ALL the DLC in one box.
I find that I really don't care about level in the game at all. It got a bit old in some of the Elder Scrolls games when you weren't really making that much progress, but I find Fallout 3 fully engrossing just because of what it is. I like the perks and stuff, and it's fun to feel you're progressing, but I think it's more to make your character have a gimmick or two, or differentiate themselves from some others, not because the game itself needs to constantly give you stuff to keep you interested. What's there is utterly fascinating.That's very true, but it all also depends on how the players immerse themselves in it. I think the first 10 levels are critical to even have a chance at some of the stuff you'll encounter. I mean by the time you reach level 10 you've defined your character and class, beyond that it's all a bonus.
Speaking with Jeff Gardiner, who has been at the helm of the "Fallout 3" DLC content, I was curious what sort of weapons we'd be seeing in Mothership Zeta, the upcoming alien-centric expansion. Thankfully it looks like there is plenty to keep our trigger fingers humming:
"Mothership Zeta is full of the most high tech weaponry in the game. It includes a Shock Baton for melee fighters, multiple new firearms including an Alien Atomizer, a pistol, and the Alien Disintegrator, a new rifle. There's also a new grenade type, a Cryo Grenade, which freezes enemies for a short period of time. On top of that there are new unique weapons, and a new heavy weapon."
Gardiner continued, saying that there will also be a new perk to unlock, called "Xenotech Expert."
"It increases the damage you do with alien weapons, including the Alien Blaster if the player had found that in the wasteland."
The perk will be mission-specific, though, since this DLC (along with all forthcoming DLC packs) doesn't increase the level cap.
Once you've finished with the Mothership main quest, you'll still be able to return to the alien ship. There's definitely a reason to journey back, as the ship houses an item called "Alien Epoxy" which can automatically repair an item by 25%, even if you don't have a duplicate. Great news for all the Gauss Rifle fans who have only been able to repair it to 50% with vendors.
I hit level 20 before I even got a third of the way through the main campaign.
I'm now about 17 hours in at level 8 and I don't think I've stumbled across any of the main quest yet. I just found(click to show/hide)
Question: Do I ever get to sell any stuff? As things are now I just keep dropping things everywhere. I've found a few places where I can buy items but nowhere to sell them.
I'm at Level 8 already. Does anyone know how the +10 to level cap with that one DLC work? Can I install that anytime and get it, or does it only apply to the DLC? Does it only work if the DLC is there from the beginning of the game?It works anytime. As soon as you activate the DLC it becomes a part of the game. Broken Steel's content is only available after you complete the main quest anyway. The level cap is raised from the get-go and all its perks are available to you as well (the new perks are all for level 22 and above anyway).
Perfect. Thanks for the info. I guess the first thing I'll do when I get a chance to play again (next week) is install Broken Steel. I'm interested in the rest of the additions on the 2nd disc too, but now that I've installed the game itself to the HDD, I only have 1.6 GB left, which is what I read that the 2nd disc takes up if you install everything.Installing Broken Steel first is a good idea because it also prevents the game from "ending" hence halting the adventure. All the other plugins you can install later as you free up more space. The core game has a handful on its own without the extra content anyway!
Yeah, that was awesome. I also absolutely died laughing when he pulled out the railroad gun or whatever it was called, that was firing the huge steel pins and nailed that chick's head to the wall... and those huge gauntlets that were punching people's heads off. Man I can't wait to get this game.
Interesting. Yes, Broken Steel basically un-breaks the game ending. I consider it an integral part of the game now. I've also played through Mothership Zeta (loved it) and Point Lookout (somewhat tedious, but huge and generally welcome). I've yet to try The Pitt. He didn't say much about it other than he liked the intro. From what I've read, it's one of the weaker additions. Operation Anchorage I still know very little about.
I'm glad to see the grand reimagining of the Fallout universe getting welcomed by Chris. I'm curious to know what the original Fallout devs think about it. The only things I've read are early misgivings (well before FO3 release) about what Bethesda would end up doing with Fallout.
DAC: What are your thoughts and opinions on Fallout 3 and its various DLCs from Bethesda? Did you play/finish the game?
Tim: I played and finished Fallout 3 as soon as it came out. I really enjoyed the game, and I think Bethesda’s designers had really done their homework. The game showed they had a deep understanding and knowledge of the key aspects of the original games. I even replayed it a few times to see how I could have different experiences, and I had fun with that.
Of course, I would have done things differently if I had made it.
DAC: What was your initial reaction when you learned that Bethesda bought the license from Interplay?
Tim: I was surprised and a little disappointed. I was hoping that Troika would get the license, but we were massively outbid. But in the end, they made a good game, and I went to a great company to make MMOs, so all was well.
DAC: In a previous interview at Duck and Cover you mentioned that you wrote a design for your own version of Fallout 3. Any chance we could have a peek at that? :-)
Tim: Nope. Sorry. Maybe it will get made one day, but as long as I never show it anyone, I know it will never get made without me.
200 years since the bombs fell and somehow everything is tinted green?
Take a look at this thread at Guru3D (http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=287764).
I highly recommend the DarNified UI mod.
In the process of installing after finally finishing the downloads. It was definitely simpler to install them in Oblivion!Basically it's a set of instructions telling the game engine to prefer files that are not contained in the pack files (.bsa). Basically it's list of files in the archive that are invalidated therefore forcing the engine to look for them in the root folders.
edit:
Someone put archiveinvalidation! in a nutshell please.
All I can say is that every single link I found on google regarding "dead space pc controls" just came with a link to that WhatIfGaming place, so I'm almost ready to cry bullshit. Seriously, every single link is just someone reporting what they said, and who the fuck ever even heard of these people? I sure haven't. And nobody else seems to be complaining, so... I have no idea. It'd be nice to get a 2nd opinion.
... and after a little more searching, it appears the problem may be related to some systems and not others. Some people don't have any idea what the naysayers are talking about and report the controls work perfectly fine, or exactly like the console versions. And some people seem to have issues with mouse/keyboard and controller both, indicating something is up with their rig and the game, not just the game itself universally. And it very much sounds like something that could be patched up, and hopefully will be soon. One guy I'm reading here says that when he's in a detail-light corridor and trying to aim, the response is super sluggish, but when he's in an area with tons of detail, his aim flies all over the place super fast. So there definitely is something funny, and it's definitely not affecting everyone.
EDIT - And why the hell aren't we posting this in the proper thread? Let's try to keep these discussions over there from now on, where they are infinitely more relevant and less likely to cause Xessive any more heart attacks.
Que, I think when you said that "If it wasn't for Dead Space, the wait would be killing me (for Fallout 3)", then the whole thing went off-topic. GPW asked if it was out for the PC, Pug said it was but posted links saying to beware of the PC version; then on and on and on.
Anyways, back on topic....
Yeah -- next week, Fallout 3 finally comes out! Wo0t!
I don't even know how to respond to you anymore.
BTW, this applies to companions as well. If you give them better armor to wear (highly recommended when applicable) their mule capacity drops accordingly.
Is there some interface for managing companions? The only way I can do anything with mine is to look at him and talk to him. Though he's a dog, so I'm not expecting many options rofl.
Well other than the survival guide, I've talked to Moriarty and gotten the info on my dad, but haven't followed up on it. I think I also fixed the leaks in the water system, I have Lucy West's quest, and I got the quest from the guy in the suit who wants me to meet him at Tenpenny. I haven't followed up on that last one yet because I'm still using Megaton as my buy/sell/repair spot and I want to finish the other quests I have from there first.
I think I have about 1600 caps and haven't been dipping below 1000, I just don't want to part with that many caps until I have a little more to spare.
Tell your friend he is whats wrong with gaming.
Hahahahahahahahaha... I'm at a loss for words, I don't even know how to respond to what I'm hearing right now. I guess this is what happens when you give a CoD/WoW gamer something a little deeper. An online friend of mine was asking me for a game recommendation, and I'm currently spending a lot of time with Fallout 3. I thought it would be a good suggestion, since I've spent so much time exploring and clearing dungeons and killing stuff and very little time on story (which he finds boring).Actually, I think that's one of the better character creation and tutorials put forth in a RPG - as it basically teaches you how to play the game and all of the mechanics the game will give you, as you're going along.
So he just logged onto vent and started ranting about how Fallout 3 is the worst game he's ever played, and he can't believe he just wasted $20 because of me. He complains about the character creation and how it takes too long, and he couldn't make his character not look like a girl. Then he bitches about wandering about as a baby for 10 minutes with nothing to do, then the "boring ass 10th birthday" that he thinks is pointless and shouldn't be in the game. Then he complains that the game puts him up against security guards with guns and all he has is his fists. I tell him there was a baseball bat in like the first room, and he says he grabbed it, but he still just had his fists (he didn't realize he had to open his Pipboy and equip it).
Before I could give any suggestions, he tells me that he took the game disc out and broke it in half already.Great RPG's like this are not for everyone, unfortunately... :(
I really can't think of anything to say. All I can do is laugh, and wonder about the kind of company I keep.
Hmmm...Has your friend ever even played a RPG like this before?
I dunno - but if he hasn't, I'd probably give him something like Mass Effect 2 before say Fallout 3.
Great RPG's like this are not for everyone, unfortunately... :(
Are they gaming savants?
Actually, I probably should have known better. He played ME1 and managed to get through a couple planets of the main story, but then he got bored and quit. I just asked him about it and he says he liked the game, but it had way too much story.Then normal-style RPG's probably just ain't for him - I do know people who are like that and just don't really want story and long-winded dialogue sequences in their games. They just really like controlling the action and action-orientated stuff.
He's spent a lot of time with CoD4 and MW2. He bought Borderlands and Bad Company 2 when they came out. He sold Borderlands as soon as we beat the story, and sold BC2 after about 2 weeks. Other than that he pretty much just plays MMO's, and he started with WoW. He played Warhammer with me for a couple months, as well as Allods Online (free to play game).Borderlands isn't dialogue-heavy - so I bet that's why he dug that. It's a blast just to play.
To be honest he and his other close friends are weird to talk to games about. I mention id Software or Duke Nukem 3D and they have no idea what I'm talking about. I mention Final Fantasy and it's not even "yea, I started with FF7", it's "I started with FF10, and that's the best one". I don't know if it's that they're all in their early twenties, or that they just never played many games before WoW and MW.I'm in the "Yeah, I dropped off from FF after I finished FF9" group - hehe. :P
I mention id Software or Duke Nukem 3D and they have no idea what I'm talking about.The enemy, we have found them.
The enemy, we have found them.
Oh, apparently I already had DN3D installed with eDuke32, and SW with JFSW (JonoF's Shadow Warrior Port) (http://www.jonof.id.au/jfsw).Sweet! :) Sounds like you're all set to me.
Ive been thinking ofnreplaying this eventually, but modding the hell out of it. PCGamer had an article today on fo3 mods. Check it out. (on ipod, cant link)
I couldn't get into the game an hour in. Need some advise.
I couldn't get into the game an hour in. Need some advise.
Where are you at? If you've just come out of the vault, go to the town right there nearby (it's on your map, it's Megaton)
I did, but everyone was sleeping. I ran around for an hour, got bored, and quit.
I did, but everyone was sleeping. I ran around for an hour, got bored, and quit.
Be a good guy the first time through.
I need some help with this. I didn't like the FO3 copy I borrowed off a friend, yet went and bought the GOTY edition and Vegas on Steam.
Again, I was having a grand time in the opening sequence in the vault. I found that to be the best part. Now, I am out and about, yet I find it so boring. I haven't gotten past the first town yet (is it Megaton?), which I find really dull. Overall, I find everything dull.
When does the game get better? Where should I go next? I want to enjoy this game so much.
I read he was only 42 years old. That's so sad. What a tragic and untimely loss.
Necrobump of irrelevance.
Well, I think I'm finally and totally done with the game. While I had played the game about a year after its release and played through story, I bought the GOTY edition during the Steam Sale along with the Ultimate New Vegas pack. My intention was to do a quick playthrough so I could see the DLC stuff and move onto New Vegas. Instead, I did a pretty exhaustive run and saw most of what the game had to offer.
I think my main impression is that while it admirably captured the spirit of the the original Fallouts it was very much its own beast (or a Bethesda beast) in terms of tone, look, and style. Namely, this was about exploring while the originals were more about action-consequence events. As opposed to skills opening or changing the path you followed in the game, they were more about giving you an easier path through a given section and because of that having abilities like being intelligent or a smooth talker ultimately feel a bit hollow. Really, what carried the game was the need to see all sorts of cool places and its amazing how much millage Bethesda got out of a handfull of assets. You see a lot of repetition, but for some reason it's still super engaging.
Alright, now onto New Vegas. My hope is the game's setting leads to a more down to Earth tone in terms of the technology you run into and how problems are solved. The last chapters of FO3 (including Broken Steel) are too saturated with Power Armor and dudes with space weapons to the point where those things become mundane. Fallout tends to be at its best when it's some dusty people with shitty weapons trying to get by. Then when you find the laser rifle, power armor, or even rifle that shoots straight it's super awesome. I also hope New Vegas' pedigree infuse some of the old Fallout action-consequence into the exploration mix. From what I've read, that seems to be case.
Good to see some perspective, Sy. I only tried the originals in earnest after playing FO3, and I just couldn't get into them. To me, Fallout is all 3, as I suspect it is for most younger players.Since I loved those old turn-based Fallout 1 and 2, I'm really looking forward to where Wasteland 2 goes...
I got FO3 for the 360 last year along with a couple of other games, it was the last game I played, but it was my favorite. I got NV for the PC and it runs like crap, I've heard a lot people having problems with all versions of it. Its been uninstalled, I guess I'll play it on xbox instead.