Gameplayer Australia has a preview/interview up with notes provided by Pete Hines, who "takes us to a new Oblivion". It is based - yet again - on the same demo that was shown at E3 and GDC. For some reason, it's also chock full of literary references.<blockquote>Indeed, the boys have really done their research, packing the locale with landmarks and scenery from the alternate-history Washington that you explore. “This is a different timeline from our own,” explains Hines. “Post-World War II this breaks off; buildings that existed before that split will still be there, like Capitol Hill or the Jefferson Memorial, but there’s also a lot of stuff there built after 1945. You might see a nuclear power plant or a factory just sitting in the middle of all these other buildings and go ‘that’s not supposed to be there!’” Walking out of the vault, through the mammoth circular door, past the bodies of the protesters trapped outside two centuries before, we spotted the Washington Monument in the distance, past the blasted buildings, warped terrain and giant ants…
(...)
We wander further and come across the settlement of Megaton, one of the larger piles of junk that are called towns in this world, and are allowed in by a security droid. Inside, the city’s grim and dirty, like living inside a drainpipe. We’re a bit perturbed that there’s so many people left alive in the town, especially as we can’t work out what they’re doing to survive. Where do they get their food from? “Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer, had me read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road,” explains Hines. “If you read his take on the post-apocalyptic world, then yes, everything should be absolutely dead, and there’d be nothing left to eat except canned stuff. If you take that view, then in 200 years nobody should still be around.
(...)
The Super-mutants are humans infected by FEV – the Forced Evolutionary Virus, designed by the military to adapt humans to survive in the post-nuclear world. Sadly, as well as making them tough, near-immortal and super-strong, it also normally renders them stupid and aggressive. “Once this virus takes hold it makes you sterile,” says Hines “so the only way to continue the race of Super-mutants is to capture people and infect them.” We can’t guess where the Behemoth comes from, unless they infected an elephant, but as he’s carrying a car door as a shield and a fire hydrant on a tree as a club, and is about three stories high, we’re guessing he’s not friendly.
(...)
Thankfully, we’ve got the Fat Man with us. This is essentially an adaptation of Atomic Annie, the US army’s ludicrous nuclear artillery cannon from 1953. It’s a hand-held nuclear catapult that does amazing amounts of damage. Unlike in the final game, we’ve got plenty of ammo for it as well (in the final game, you only get one shot with it). A couple of awesome slow-mo shots from that, with subsequent mushroom clouds, and even the Behemoth falls.
So why did Bethesda choose this setting for their next game? “I can’t speak for the original creators,” says Hines, “Tim Cain and those guys, but definitely what makes Fallout memorable is that 1950s sensibility set against this post-nuclear world. It was the Americana future they realised, that tomorrow land with robot maids and rocket cars and that sensibility that they had, that Leave It to Beaver ‘everything’s going to be okay’ outlook. In Fallout 3 people still cling to that idealistic view of how things are going to turn out, but everything’s just blown to hell. A lot of its flavour comes from this juxtaposition.” </blockquote>The preview also provides a number of the screenshots CVG had earlier but has taken down, as well as these two new ones (or rather one new one):
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Link: Gameplayer.com.au Fallout 3 preview.
Thanks Mungrul.
(...)
We wander further and come across the settlement of Megaton, one of the larger piles of junk that are called towns in this world, and are allowed in by a security droid. Inside, the city’s grim and dirty, like living inside a drainpipe. We’re a bit perturbed that there’s so many people left alive in the town, especially as we can’t work out what they’re doing to survive. Where do they get their food from? “Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer, had me read Cormac McCarthy’s The Road,” explains Hines. “If you read his take on the post-apocalyptic world, then yes, everything should be absolutely dead, and there’d be nothing left to eat except canned stuff. If you take that view, then in 200 years nobody should still be around.
(...)
The Super-mutants are humans infected by FEV – the Forced Evolutionary Virus, designed by the military to adapt humans to survive in the post-nuclear world. Sadly, as well as making them tough, near-immortal and super-strong, it also normally renders them stupid and aggressive. “Once this virus takes hold it makes you sterile,” says Hines “so the only way to continue the race of Super-mutants is to capture people and infect them.” We can’t guess where the Behemoth comes from, unless they infected an elephant, but as he’s carrying a car door as a shield and a fire hydrant on a tree as a club, and is about three stories high, we’re guessing he’s not friendly.
(...)
Thankfully, we’ve got the Fat Man with us. This is essentially an adaptation of Atomic Annie, the US army’s ludicrous nuclear artillery cannon from 1953. It’s a hand-held nuclear catapult that does amazing amounts of damage. Unlike in the final game, we’ve got plenty of ammo for it as well (in the final game, you only get one shot with it). A couple of awesome slow-mo shots from that, with subsequent mushroom clouds, and even the Behemoth falls.
So why did Bethesda choose this setting for their next game? “I can’t speak for the original creators,” says Hines, “Tim Cain and those guys, but definitely what makes Fallout memorable is that 1950s sensibility set against this post-nuclear world. It was the Americana future they realised, that tomorrow land with robot maids and rocket cars and that sensibility that they had, that Leave It to Beaver ‘everything’s going to be okay’ outlook. In Fallout 3 people still cling to that idealistic view of how things are going to turn out, but everything’s just blown to hell. A lot of its flavour comes from this juxtaposition.” </blockquote>The preview also provides a number of the screenshots CVG had earlier but has taken down, as well as these two new ones (or rather one new one):
<center>
Link: Gameplayer.com.au Fallout 3 preview.
Thanks Mungrul.
Most car door won't withstand even a 9mm (or 10mm in Fallout world).