I was hoping to see a construction set from Bethesda. I could just see our top modders having a go at Fallout 3!
Fallout 3 First Look - A Classic Series is Resurrected and Reimagined
After years of secrecy, we finally get a first look at the next big role-playing game from the makers of Morrowind and Oblivion.
Regardless of what choices you make in the game, you'll need to fight for your life against foes, both human and mutated. As we previously noted, combat can be done in real time, just like in an action game. If that's the case, the game is still doing dice rolls, taking into account your character's skills and abilities, but that's all transparent to you. Or you can pause the action at any time and engage in traditional Fallout-style combat, using the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. VATS allows you to use any action points that your character has to target enemies. Combat will then unfold in real time before pausing again. You can go even further and target specific portions of an enemy, such as crippling a leg or slowing an enemy down (useful if you don't want the foe anywhere near you). One example that we saw involved shooting the antenna off of a giant ant, thus blinding and confusing it to the point that it attacked nearby ants.
Fallout has always been known for its ridiculously over-the-top violence. For instance, if you fire a shotgun at point-blank range in the original game, bodies explode in showers of gore. As Howard noted, that tongue-in-cheek splatter is part of what made Fallout so much fun. And that's something that Bethesda is working to capture in Fallout 3. Heads will explode, limbs will get sawed off by gunfire, and we even saw eyeballs fly out of their sockets then roll down an incline. This will be the case especially if you have the infamous bloody mess character perk, which boosts the odds that each death you cause becomes a spectacular one. Bloody mess is just one of the many returning character perks from earlier games, though Bethesda is adding plenty of its own as well. Fallout fans will also be happy to know that the game retains the series' S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system, which builds your character around attributes (strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck); skills, which are things that you learn, such as repair skill; and perks, which are innate abilities. As you level up in the game, you'll have the opportunity to improve your attributes, learn new skills or improve existing ones, and add up to 10 additional perks to your character. In Fallout 3, your character can advance to a maximum level of 20, though by then you'll be close to finishing the game anyway.
The weapon, armor, and equipment system is similar to Fallout, as well as other RPGs, because you'll recover plenty of items from defeated foes or the environment. These range from conventional gear to some ludicrously overpowered stuff, like the Fat Boy, a portable nuclear bomb catapult. Weapons and armor will deteriorate with use, but you'll be able to restore them by using your character's repair skill along with duplicate versions of whatever you're repairing. In other words, you can cannibalize parts from one item to fix another, as long as they're identical. You can't strip parts from a pistol to repair an assault rifle; you have to have the same version of assault rifle. As weapons break down, their capabilities worsen. For example, the weapon's rate of fire will slow, its accuracy will decrease, and so on. Having a fully restored weapon versus one that's falling apart is like the difference between night and day. Or, you can create your own weapons from various parts.
All this will come alive with a level of detail that's much higher than in Oblivion. Fallout 3 uses an enhanced version of the Oblivion graphics engine, but many lessons have been learned from that game. One thing that Bethesda has had to work on is making the nuclear wasteland actually look good. Many of the locations in the game need to look completely dilapidated, so a lot of work was done to make surfaces look pockmarked and gouged. The interior of Vault 101 borrows a lot of contextual themes from the original games, and it exudes a cool, retro-tech feel to it. The creatures in this game also look impressive, like the super mutant behemoth, a gargantuan foe that could have been ripped out of the postapocalyptic sci-fi shooter Gears of War for the Xbox 360. Even the human characters look far more lifelike than their counterparts in Oblivion because they now have realistic-looking skin and facial features. Even better, the human characters will stand out more as Bethesda has enlisted between 30 and 40 voice actors. So not only will the humans all not sound the same (a problem in Oblivion), but they'll also have unique dialogue. That should rectify one of the major issues with Oblivion, which was that most characters had no personality and their only purpose was to serve as an information kiosk of sorts. However, that wouldn't be Fallout because the series is known for its memorable characters.
What Bethesda showed us looked extremely polished considering that the game is more than a year away from shipping, but there's still a lot of work to do. Because its games tend to be so huge in scale, Bethesda makes them by creating a small portion of the world and getting absolutely everything in it to work perfectly. Once all the issues are hammered out and the concept is proven, the developers can then rapidly create the rest of the world knowing that the foundation is solid. That's the stage that Bethesda is at, but based on what we saw and the company's track record, there's every reason to believe that Fallout 3 is going to big. The designers clearly have a reverence for the original games--and it shows. Fallout 3 won't be Fallout as you may know it, but it promises to be a Fallout game nevertheless.
728 comments
Looks like what S.T.A.L.K.E.R should have been... and a whole lot more :P, i cannot wait D: the wait may even kill me!
If a Bethesda sticker is slapped on the front of the game cover thats good enough for me.
If a Bethesda sticker is slapped on the front of the game cover thats good enough for me.
This game is going to warrant hundreds of playing hours. That is a good thing. So long, schoolwork, so long, girlfriend. I've found something better,
I love Bethesda. I think they are the best Game developers! They are the best! I got to know them after The Elder Scroll 4: Oblivion. I think it's the best game I have ever played of Role Playing Genre. I mean, I also love Final Fantasy XII, but these two games are different. But everything they've put in Oblivion was so much great. After playing it, I ended up wanting more and more..I downloaded all the patches and mods. Finished the game for more than 10 times and then, I started searching net for a new The Elder Scroll game. I've heard they are working on Shadow Realms. It must just be a rumour, but anyway. I have not played FallOut before, but now since there's Bethesda involved, I sure as hell will buy and play it. I was in chaos and thinking what I should buy..A console or a quad core Computer? But then, I saw Fall Out 3 and Bethesda and now, I konw what I am going to buy. PlayStation3 and X-Box 360 have got to wait...Yay, baby! Bring it on!!! Bethesda!!! Come and say,"BEHOLD FALLOUT 3!!!!" Long Live Bethesda.
"The creatures in this game also look impressive, like the super mutant behemoth, a gargantuan foe that could have been ripped out of the postapocalyptic sci-fi shooter Gears of War for the Xbox 360." RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!!!!!! Aaaah!! That is a horrible comparison!!!!!. Gears is cool and all but should not EVER be compared to Fallout. They to entirely different things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ohhhh i played the first one i hated it but i cant wait for this one it will beat oblivion
this game certainly has potential. looks very interesting and ive been hanging out for a good survival/horror game for quite a long while. ive gotta say that bethesda are definately the ones who can pull this off. by the way, for those people haven't heard of it, Dead Space is another upcoming game that looks like its gonna be pretty sweet as well
I never played the old games - they didn't really look like my kind of thing, as I've never been big on role playing games. But this looks ace, kind of looks like it's going to be everything STALKER should have been. I don't know if this, or Starcraft2 is my most look-forwardeded to game now!
Looking forward to this. REALLY looking forward to this. Fans with talent CAN make the best software developers ;)
Arghhh!! I hate the 'gun stuck to your back' thing, they had that in oblivion. He should either be holding it or have it over the shoulder, ANYTHING but stuck to back. I know it's a small thing but it is huge thing to me!
this game is going to be sick. i hope to god they allow us to preorder the game. sorry to all you halo lovers, but this could be bigger than halo.
i cant wait for this game to come out, have been a big role play fan for many years and have loved every fall out game to date including fallout tactics, am just hoping that the brotherhood of steel make a return in this game. please please dont mess this up!!!
Bethesda can handle this, infact they will ace it, and to anyone who doesnt think so go and play oblivion... NOW
Fallout 2 is on my top ten list, no my top 5 list of games and now they are making fallout 3... I may take time off work just to play this game. I am a little sad that it is not being developed by the original developers but it is being made by the same guys who did Oblivion so at least it will be good. I just hope they stick to the same type of campy/bloody/dirty humor. Also the original fallout was supposed to be a computer game implementation of the Generic Universal Role-playing System (GURPS). This was a pin and paper game based around flexibility you could create a character with traits like drug addiction, split personalities, sex addictions, arch nemesis... Due to licensing they couldn't officially claim it was based off of GURPS but you can definitely see the similarities in the first 2 games. For instance in GURPS you could make attacks to people?s groin/eye/hands and if you critically hit nasty things would happen. In fallout you could do the same and if you crited wile shooting at some ones eye there head would explode. You also had a slim down version of GURPS character creation the traits and skills where similar to what you could do with the pin and paper. Any way it was awesome game you could be a low tech ninja with a sword slicing people in half after you had screwed a hooker and pumped your self up on drugs or you could be a high tech heavy weapons expert in bionic armor with a fetish for lighting people on fire. This game has a lot to live up to lest hope Bethesda can pull it off.
They ended the turn based combat system, they will end with the Fallout spirit. Just like in the UFO series.
Its going to be the best of the series!! I've been waiting for more than a decade for this jewel:). http://www.bethsoft.com/games/games_fallout3.html
Darthdomain:With every single feature they said above, I'm really looking forward to all of it. I haven't touched a Fallout game before, but I will be looking for the Xbox version of Fallout 2 sometime later this week or month. This series looks nice and I might get myself drawn into it. Let's hoping it releases with everything they said it would. Fallout 2 isn't on Xbox. That's a not-so-good spin-off called Brotherhood Of Steel. Not the best intoduction to the series.
There's no doubt in my mind that Fallout will be a must -have game. I don't even dig games with no real online play but this is such a deep, unique title that I know I simply must have it. As a die-hard, old-school PC gamer, it makes me very happy to see cult classics like this hit the mainstream market. These folks asking if it'll be anything as good as Oblivion obviously didn't play the original games. Even as a top-down game, it was brilliant. Heck, I think the format was part of it's appeal. Good times on that game. It's up there with Tegel's Mercenaries in my book! =oD
With every single feature they said above, I'm really looking forward to all of it. I haven't touched a Fallout game before, but I will be looking for the Xbox version of Fallout 2 sometime later this week or month. This series looks nice and I might get myself drawn into it. Let's hoping it releases with everything they said it would.
woah!!!!! i only just got into oblivion goty edition on ps3 and then this rolls along. cant wait for this. BAH! wish i wasnt poor
I loved Oblivion. If this game is anywhere as good as Oblivion or it's gameplay similar, I'm definitely getting it.
Omg I shouldn't have read this. I WANT IT NOW, SO BAD!!! That last line didn't make me feel good though :S
Looks very promising. I like fallout especially because it was different from the usual add&d setting and because of it's humor. Impressive how Bethesda tries to mix the qualities of fallout with the qualities of oblivion. I think a wise choice. Both are tested qualities and not overused like AD&D. I hope the game will not drown in bugs and other annoying features.
Can't physically wait for this game, just started playing Fallout 2 again to try and fill my craving for fallout 3. COME ON Q4 2008!!!!!
Bethesda is indeed the only game developer worthy of the Fallout franchise. A marriage made in Cyrodil. This one will be a masterpiece, mark my words!
Bethesda!! Awesome!! You mean I might actually be able to play a non-liner game where I make my own story in an awesome world!!! Instead of being forced to play through a movie (liner) someone else?s story, with their choices!!! I can?t wait, being a long time fan of Fallout series for a resurrected, updated, graphically jaw dropping FALLOUT game!
Bethesda's ability to make amazingly expansive, visually appealing games coupled with the cool, post-apocalyptic world of Fallout should spell success and tons of fun for old fans and newcomers alike.
Why to yah'll keep comparing this to oblivion and saying i want it like oblivion. It's fallout and it's as good as oblivion by itself, it's always had alot to explore and a do whatever you want set-up. It's been that way before oblivion or morrowind where even thought of. This is one of the games oblivion creators probably looked at for inspiration, so you know this will be a great game, cause it's basically the granddaddy of the do what you want game genre.
I hope it ll be like Oblivion of the future. There should be as much freedom like in Oblivion ! --- Max
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Review Scores
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Game Info
- Release Date: Oct 28, 2008 (US)
- ESRB: MTitles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older.
Fallout 3
- Publisher(s): Bethesda Softworks
- Developer(s): Bethesda Game Studios
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
- ESRB: M
Fallout 3 Navigation
