My personal recommendations for Fallout 3
1. Include birds eye view of the game. Avoid any perspective changes.
2. Use 3D models and 3D buildings on top of 2D landscape. Make sure that the 3D parts look “dirty” and don’t have that cleaned antiseptic quality that many games have. The new star wars movies shot in digital have this weird “clean” look that takes away from the grunge of reality. A lot of games suffer from the same problem.
3. Use both a turned based and a real time combat system. It’s better to have both because it’s just too divisive and issue to stick with one or the other.
4. Include a lot of gore, or allow a patch if the watchdog groups get too psycho. Better yet just allow a gore filter with a parental lock.
5. Use lots of adult themes: Revenge, corruption, espionage, war, famine, plague, addiction, apocalypse, carnage, sex, pornography, exploitation, slavery, mutation, environment destruction, illiteracy,
6. Stick with the dark slow music.
7. Just use the same guns from the earlier Fallout 2’s, and add a few. Maybe go for a bit more realism with the models?
8. Add some new functionality to the PIP boy. The quest logs could be a bit more complete. Allow the player to add function modules to the pip boy.
9. Stay with the 1950’s motif and avoid the changed style that seemed to affect the power armor in Fallout Tactics.
10. Stick with mostly text and avoid making every character have speech.
11. Talking heads was a neat system, but perhaps something a bit more advanced is in order now.
12. A common problem with new games is that developers keep trying to re-invent the wheel. There is no need to do this with Fallout 3.
Things that made fallout 2 great:
1. Special system – Just plain great
2. 3D Isometric Birds Eye View.
3. Adult Theme - become a porn star, trade slaves…
4. Extreme Violence – Look I can see his ribcage!
5. Moody Music – I’m suspicious that Richard D. James of Aphex Twin did a track for Fallout 2. Listen to “Windowsill in Selection Ambient Works 2 CD 2”
6. Great dialogue
7. Open game world – Non-linear
8. Monopoly Styled Character Sheet Art.
9. Incredible game aesthetic. Raymond Loewy style of the 1950’s.
10. Multiple ways to play the game. Be evil, or nice or something in between.
11. The awesome random encounters.
12. The huge array of weapons you could find and hoard. The treasure hunt aspect was very strong.
Things that sucked:
1. Repetitive NPC artwork. Look another bum in rags…
2. No control over party AI, or stupid characters
3. Limited upgrade options for many AI characters
4. Low game resolution
5. Bugs – Game sucks without the patch
6. No home base to store AI characters for later use.
7. Lack of different vehicles.
8. Lack of co-op play. (Ok I’m stretching it here)
9. Some of the skills didn't do much and they cost as much as the other skills. For example, gambling was a skill and it cost as much as more important skills like firearms and first aid. Not all skills were created equal so they should cost a different ammount of points.
Things that worry me:
1. Consoles are king now. The game may be unavoidably console oriented. The game will most likely be available on XBOX360 and maybe PS3. This automatically means the game could be dumbed down to some degree. Think about the differences between Deus Ex 1, and Deus Ex 2.
2. The emphasis on 3D games has twisted the style of many older 2D type games that just don't adapt to 3D very well. Think about the differences between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime. Two games sharing many common components with the glaring difference of perspective that changes everything.
3. Bethesda may not want or be willing/able to make the game as adult oriented as Fallout 2. Fans may have to hack the game to bring it to more bloodier levels. Many new games seem to have less and less blood. It all started with Columbine...
These three issues seem almost unavoidable in the current game climate.
