Gameplanet.co.nz previews Fallout 3

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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Another preview from down under.<blockquote>Just an aside - your father at one point shows you a bible passage set in a picture frame that your mother claimed as her favourite. It's from revelations, and it's worth repeating here: "And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." Prophetic indeed, and a glimpse at Bethesda's attempt to link casual first-time gamers with the lore of the Fallout series.</blockquote>Bible = Fallout lore? Otherwise, the preview is very informative.<blockquote>A point about the statistics here - although you may be able to choose a certain dialogue option or end result, thus shaping your character, the outcome is also driven by your attributes and skill level. For example, conversing with someone may prompt three possible dialogue options. Next to these may appear a percentage chance to succeed, so perhaps you'd like to convince someone to give you an object - your level of persuasion might only grant you a 25% chance of success, so you may find it better to choose a different option with a higher percentage. This allows your progression to be shaped on the fly through chance as well as choice.
(...)
We've seen terminal hacking as a mini game in BioShock, and just like that title, hacking in Fallout 3 seemed a little basic. Essentially if you've played the old classic Mastermind you'll understand - you are presented with a table of words interspersed with random characters, and you need to type in whichever word on the list you think the password is. You have five attempts, and each failed attempt will tell you how many of the letters are in the right place. After the fifth failed attempt, you are locked out of the console and can only bypass it with a key, which must be found somewhere within the vault. This forms the basis of another mission, but it is necessary as without the ability to leave Vault 101 it'd be a short game.
(...)
From here, we're shown a few saved games from later on in the story. First up is the introduction to Dogmeat, your faithful canine companion who has returned to assist you in your trek through the game. You meet Dogmeat by accident at a random stage early in the game (when and where is based on choices you have made up to this point) when his original master is set upon, and killed by Raiders. After defeating them, Dogmeat becomes loyal to you, and he can be tasked with various jobs such as fetching food or attacking enemies at range.</blockquote>And also an interview with Pete Hines on pages 3/4.<blockquote>Press: What do you say to all the fans out there that are concerned about the direction the franchise has taken?

Hines: Well two things really, firstly this is the next game we're doing after Oblivion, which obviously did very well for us, so we have our own expectations around stepping up our game, so to speak, and doing another game of hopefully better calibre than Oblivion. And secondly, we're huge fans of Fallout, we really took to that game, what it meant for gaming in general, and for people who played it. So we're very aware that this is a beloved franchise and a really important thing, and we have a lot of expectations in ourselves. We don't want to screw it up. This is what we think would make the best Fallout game.

Press: You didn't really look at a map in the game - how do you know where to go?

Hines: (Hines brings up Pip Boy 3000) There we go - this is what the world map looks like. This is every location in the game you can discover, it's enormous. What will happen is when you explore around the world you'll get map markers, given to you by NPCs. If you're familiar with Oblivion it works in very much the same way.</blockquote>Also included are scans of brochures the press gets from Bethesda.
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Link: Fallout 3 preview on Gameplanet.co.nz.

Spotted on F3:APNB.
 
I don't like how you are given percentages of success/failure for dialogue options. All that will do is force people to quicksave and reload the game each time they don't succeed until they do. Kinda like stealing was in the original
 
Any chance percentage that isn't a continuous stream (like a series of dialogue tests, or combat) is very liable for quick/save-loading.

It's pretty gamebreaking and best avoided. Absolute barriers of success depending on stats make a lot more sense than reloading until you talk someone into suicide via the line with a 5% chance.

So yes.

Stupid.
 
Brother None said:
Another preview from down under.<blockquote>
Bible = Fallout lore? </blockquote>

I think they might be gettting at the "water of life" quote as a reference to the water-chip in F1.
 
hailtotheking said:
Brother None said:
Another preview from down under.<blockquote>
Bible = Fallout lore? </blockquote>

I think they might be gettting at the "water of life" quote as a reference to the water-chip in F1.

What, so they sayin' quoting the bible about endless fountains of water is a good way to introduce newbies into Fallout lore = waterchip?

...

...Makes sense.
 
Did you read the titles?

Mind-blowing Artificial Intelligence!
Limitless Freedom!
The Power of Choice!


and, of course,

Eye-popping Prettiness!

Oh, I'm sold.
 
I don't like how you are given percentages of success/failure for dialogue options. All that will do is force people to quicksave and reload the game each time they don't succeed until they do. Kinda like stealing was in the original

That is nothing new new to Fallout. There were a lot of places you could quick/save-load until something was successful, particularly with stealing and lockpicking. However I don't remember anything extremely significant to the storyline that was reliant on using this.

And secondly, we're huge fans of Fallout, we really took to that game, what it meant for gaming in general, and for people who played it. So we're very aware that this is a beloved franchise and a really important thing, and we have a lot of expectations in ourselves. We don't want to screw it up. This is what we think would make the best Fallout game.

What you say and what you do doesn't line up, Pete. Really, stop spitting out the same old worn out catch phrases to feed the press. You should just get a cardboard cut-out with pre-recorded messages and let the press interview that. You say the same things over and over.

Quoting the scripture from Revelation just seems like an attempt to sound cool. I haven't seen it in context yet, but all the descriptions lead me to feel that it's just a big stretch to make it relevant.

Now THAT is prophetic.

Bethesda has the original owner of dogmeat killed. Dogmeat is then whored off on the new wave of gamers.

That's good stuff right there. I like that analogy.
 
Mind-blowing AI is right...

You'll hurt your brain trying to figure out why the hell they are all killing each other, and why that guy over on the side is still raking the stones and showing no surprise whatsoever that the various npcs around him are murdering each other brutally..

I was wondering about that "dogmeat can be ordered to attack enemies at range" comment..

I really hope that was just a poor way of saying you can have him run over and bite someone, as opposed to some form of ranged attack for a dog.
 
whirlingdervish said:
I really hope that was just a poor way of saying you can have him run over and bite someone, as opposed to some form of ranged attack for a dog.

Maybe he'll spit fire. That's totally Fallout right there.
 
nobuo said:
That is nothing new new to Fallout. There were a lot of places you could quick/save-load until something was successful, particularly with stealing and lockpicking. However I don't remember anything extremely significant to the storyline that was reliant on using this.

I don't care if it's not new, it's incredibly stupid. Fallout had flaws, y'know, stealing and lockpicking mechanics? Flawed.

Widening the reach of random chances when they already show not to work ranks pretty highly in the bad idea chart, y'know.

nobuo said:
Quoting the scripture from Revelation just seems like an attempt to sound cool. I haven't seen it in context yet, but all the descriptions lead me to feel that it's just a big stretch to make it relevant.

What, your dad never quoted random scripture at you that later on turned out to be a cryptic foreshadowing to something massively significant.

For the Kung Pow fans amongst us: "Ah, so that's what you mean, 'stars above'!"
 
This is what we think would make the best Fallout game.

God. My head wants to explode.

Oblivion was rated very well + Bethesda has expectations + Oblivion map markers + Oblivion AI + You meet Dogmeat randomly + Hacking minigames + Speech percentages shown for ease of gameplay + Nothing important about current fans = THE BEST FALLOUT EVER!
 
whirlingdervish said:
I was wondering about that "dogmeat can be ordered to attack enemies at range" comment..

I really hope that was just a poor way of saying you can have him run over and bite someone, as opposed to some form of ranged attack for a dog.
I think he's saying that you can tell dogmeat to attack an enemy at range, as opposed to walking up to the enemy and pressing the use key or something. Which doesn't really make sense, but since you apparently can't give Dogmeat orders from a distance, I guess it's worth pointing out.

Preview said:
The small nuclear explosions are fantastic, and those worried about balance will be relieved to know that it took several of them to bring him down.
Oh yeah, I was worried the enemies would die with just one nuclear bomb. Consider me relieved.
 
Jesus said:
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely

Hear me, for this I say unto ye: I have foreseen the future, and Liam Neeson shall be last boss.

I'm betting on a lame rip-off of the Master, what with all the thirst and fountains of life going on in there.

nobuo said:
That is nothing new new to Fallout. There were a lot of places you could quick/save-load until something was successful, particularly with stealing and lockpicking

Yeah, the stealing mechanics were pretty lame. But with most other skills Fallout had something of a minimum skill cap on top of probabilities; you'd never be able to lockpick or bullshit someone being below that level (and this is especially true with speech and dialogue, where options would simply not appear), so saving/reloading made no difference there.

If this reloading stuff leaks into dialogue, it will suck a lot.
 
For example, conversing with someone may prompt three possible dialogue options. Next to these may appear a percentage chance to succeed, so perhaps you'd like to convince someone to give you an object - your level of persuasion might only grant you a 25% chance of success, so you may find it better to choose a different option with a higher percentage. This allows your progression to be shaped on the fly through chance as well as choice.

This can work if the game permanently pre-guesses all outcomes of dialogue probabilities at the start, and save/load will thus have no effect on them.

However the whole thing would still remain fucking stupid, tempting the player to keep restarting the game until he gets what he wants.
 
shihonage said:
However the whole thing would still remain fucking stupid, tempting the player to keep restarting the game until he gets what he wants.

Yeah... DUMB idea to show the percentages.
 
What will happen is when you explore around the world you'll get map markers, given to you by NPCs. If you're familiar with Oblivion it works in very much the same way.

Oh the relief! I already feared a complex and thought-stimulating navigation system, such as a compass perhaps. having to think would spoil the immersion so badly.

sorry, i don't honour my name :-(
 
Also, I think this is new:
Press: Is there a return of 'Bloody Mess'?

Hines: We actually do have Bloody Mess. Bloody Mess is the worst possible mess you can make when killing, and it actually does a bit more damage as well. But yeah, there are lots and lots of perks - quite a long list from the original titles as well as some new ones. Every time you level up you get to choose a new perk.


New and stupid.
 
20 Perks?

Can I also be the guildmaster of the raiders, mutants, behemoths and the giant ants at the same time? I sure hope so.
 
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