GamesRadar brings us the fulltext of one of their affiliate magazine's previews, PC Zone UK. Like PC Gamer, this isn't the E3 hands-on demo we've read up on ad nauseam, but a new hands-on demo, and PC Zone UK takes a very expansive look at it.<blockquote>So, we warp to Novac. That sounds hopeful. ‘Novac’ sounds like it’s named after a sense of hope, technology, and aspiration. A spirit of can-do rebuilding and unity. As we walk up the barren hill to get there, the real reason for the name becomes clear: it’s less of a town, more of a motel where the No Vacancy sign has been vandalized. When we see the sniper sitting in a dinosaur’s mouth, it suddenly becomes a little less welcoming. Even if the dinosaur is called Dinky.
Novac is guarded by two men who take turns sitting in the mouth of the 20ft high wooden dinosaur. Dinky faces the Vegas Strip, and although this motel is free of faction allegiances, we can pick out more points of interest in our surroundings. Camp Forlorn Hope nestles against a hill to the east. A bit west there’s Camp Nelson, operated by Caesar’s Legion and their boss, Dead Sea. Then there’s the mostly defunct power plant, Helios One.
(...)
Nevertheless, our position as an outsider makes the paranoid Boone trust us. We make a deal. We’ll find out who did it and take him or her in front of the dinosaur during Boone’s shift. We’ll wear his beret – that’s the code for him to shoot. As you’d expect from Fallout, this could go a number of ways. Boone’s put us in a position of trust, and trust is there to be abused. We could invite anyone we want dead out there, put on the hat, and they’ll get sniped to bits.
That’s assuming we have the verbal skills to convince Boone afterward it was the right person. We decide to take the noblest route and find out who really did it. This involves talking to everyone. It’s not our ball-shaped friend in the gift shop. And it doesn’t appear to be Boone’s patrolling partner, although he confesses to disliking Boone’s wife. We log onto his terminal to make sure, but it contains nothing but a story-building email: nothing incriminating.
(...)
Karma still exists alongside a new faction system, so your choices may affect you in more ways you’re used to. Secondly, we have to help out the doctor. He’s a bit brusque but we soon win him over with our conversational skills. This is another feature: we don’t charm him using a generic Speech skill, we convince him we’re the man for the job using our Medical skill.
It makes sense: all the charisma in the world won’t help you chat knowledgeably to a doctor if you don’t know what an appendix is. And more importantly, it makes sense in terms of role-playing skills. The explosives expert might not let you near his bomb unless you can demonstrate knowledge of what does and doesn’t blow up.
So, while the good doctor goes for a walk around, we tend to his patients. There’s comedy here – one guy’s amputation goes slightly too well with the amputation of an unexpected limb – but we imagine things could be even funnier if we weren’t such a damn good doctor. We’d like to have left behind a room full of mutilated guys and some apologies on Post-It notes.
(...)
We’re also encouraged to try out the new melee attacks. Up-close combat wasn’t terribly compelling in vanilla Fallout 3, but most of the intimate weapons now have a unique option in the VATS system – you can aim it at a certain limb, as usual, or choose that weapon’s special attack. The 9 iron has “Fore!” which lets you take a powerful, slow swing at your enemy – and it’s perfect for taking out the enemy’s dogs.
So, will you be able to win the affections of both factions? It doesn’t look like it. We’ve gone from tolerated to hated with Caesar’s Legion in just a few minutes and a handful of kills. Grow a pair and choose a side. It looks like you’d be wise to choose a side and stick to it or be hated by both teams.</blockquote>
Novac is guarded by two men who take turns sitting in the mouth of the 20ft high wooden dinosaur. Dinky faces the Vegas Strip, and although this motel is free of faction allegiances, we can pick out more points of interest in our surroundings. Camp Forlorn Hope nestles against a hill to the east. A bit west there’s Camp Nelson, operated by Caesar’s Legion and their boss, Dead Sea. Then there’s the mostly defunct power plant, Helios One.
(...)
Nevertheless, our position as an outsider makes the paranoid Boone trust us. We make a deal. We’ll find out who did it and take him or her in front of the dinosaur during Boone’s shift. We’ll wear his beret – that’s the code for him to shoot. As you’d expect from Fallout, this could go a number of ways. Boone’s put us in a position of trust, and trust is there to be abused. We could invite anyone we want dead out there, put on the hat, and they’ll get sniped to bits.
That’s assuming we have the verbal skills to convince Boone afterward it was the right person. We decide to take the noblest route and find out who really did it. This involves talking to everyone. It’s not our ball-shaped friend in the gift shop. And it doesn’t appear to be Boone’s patrolling partner, although he confesses to disliking Boone’s wife. We log onto his terminal to make sure, but it contains nothing but a story-building email: nothing incriminating.
(...)
Karma still exists alongside a new faction system, so your choices may affect you in more ways you’re used to. Secondly, we have to help out the doctor. He’s a bit brusque but we soon win him over with our conversational skills. This is another feature: we don’t charm him using a generic Speech skill, we convince him we’re the man for the job using our Medical skill.
It makes sense: all the charisma in the world won’t help you chat knowledgeably to a doctor if you don’t know what an appendix is. And more importantly, it makes sense in terms of role-playing skills. The explosives expert might not let you near his bomb unless you can demonstrate knowledge of what does and doesn’t blow up.
So, while the good doctor goes for a walk around, we tend to his patients. There’s comedy here – one guy’s amputation goes slightly too well with the amputation of an unexpected limb – but we imagine things could be even funnier if we weren’t such a damn good doctor. We’d like to have left behind a room full of mutilated guys and some apologies on Post-It notes.
(...)
We’re also encouraged to try out the new melee attacks. Up-close combat wasn’t terribly compelling in vanilla Fallout 3, but most of the intimate weapons now have a unique option in the VATS system – you can aim it at a certain limb, as usual, or choose that weapon’s special attack. The 9 iron has “Fore!” which lets you take a powerful, slow swing at your enemy – and it’s perfect for taking out the enemy’s dogs.
So, will you be able to win the affections of both factions? It doesn’t look like it. We’ve gone from tolerated to hated with Caesar’s Legion in just a few minutes and a handful of kills. Grow a pair and choose a side. It looks like you’d be wise to choose a side and stick to it or be hated by both teams.</blockquote>
