Fallout 3: It’s Raining Previews Halleluja

Let’s start with Gamespy:

Turns out that super mutants have taken hold of the nation’s capitol following the nuclear holocaust. Bethesda’s Pete Hines, our host during the demo, gave a guided tour of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (the park area between the Capitol building and the Lincoln Memorial, which has incidentally been stripped to its foundations in Fallout 3‘s world), which wasn’t much more than a series of tunnels and trenches surrounded by the ruined husks of former museums and ministries. Hines did battle with super-mutants armed with all sorts of weapons, including RPGs and powered sledgehammers called “supersledges.” He himself was decked out in power armor, and strapped with a mini-gun.

After making short work of the mutants occupying the trenches, a conflict-in-progress came into view as he approached the Capitol building. According to Hines, the humans going up against the mutant occupiers were mercenaries working for the Talon Corporation. Rather than join the battle in earnest, though, to mark the end the demo, he simply lobbed a few Fat Men (those mini-nukes that caused quite a stir when the game was first announced), and unceremoniously hurled himself in the wake of one. Thank you for watching. We’ll be seeing more of Fallout 3 come E3 in July.

Now for TeamXBox:

As an example, you might be taking on a ghoul in a dark room filled with debris, where you only have clear sight of the creature’s upper body. Activating V.A.T.S. shows that the head has a much better likelihood of damage, followed by the left arm with a slightly lesser percentage and the rest of the body having nearly no chance of getting a shot in. Indicating to V.A.T.S. to focus on the head, it then takes control of your gunfire and starts shooting rounds at your target. “Action points,” which are based on your character’s Agility attribute, determine how much V.A.T.S. will be able to do in a single “turn.” (Other stats, of course, come into play, such as a better Perception stat will enable you to aim at targets farther from you or will make you more aware of targets in your vicinity sooner.)

You can choose to try blasting the ghoul with a more shooter-style free-aim method, but getting the computer-assisted targeting will come in handy when you’re in a critical situation or if you’re the kind of player who isn’t as inclined toward being a shooter savant. It would seem that this should broaden the range of players who’ll want to play Fallout 3—it isn’t strictly a shooter and it isn’t strictly a roll-the-dice type of RPG, but rather enables you to tailor the action more toward the genre you prefer.

And Games Radar:

At first, all you can do is cry (hit the A button) and listen to the doctor speak, who happens to be your father. This is just the first of several quick stops through your childhood, which cleverly form the tutorial and character creation section of the game. When someone asks if you’re a boy or a girl, a selection box opens and your dad’s response is dictated by your decision. You choose your name, and then customize your face on a Growth Projection Machine. Fallout offers several preset character faces, or you can construct someone from scratch – don’t worry, there are dozens and dozens of facial hair options. After finishing that, the game skips ahead one year.

At age one, your father’s face is no longer masked by a surgical mask, and the A button triggers “Dada” instead of crying. His face is a reflection of the choices that you made for your own appearance. When he leaves, you can crawl around the room. The very first mission is to unlock your metal playpen and find the book You’re S.P.E.C.I.A.L., which is another character creation device.

They are a bit too alike for my taste, but go check them if you have the time.

Fallout 3: Kotaku Preview

It’s time for the Kotaku preview:

When I saw Fallout 3 at last year’s E3 I thought it looked cool but not being one of the cult of Fallout, I viewed it with the same sort of interest that I do most games I know nothing about: Curious, but not what I would call overly excited. All this changed however, this past Tuesday when I headed downtown to check out the new build of the game that Bethesda was showing off.

From a training system tied to a child’s development to the fifties-meets-Steampunk look of weapons, Fallout 3 may not have a solid date yet, but after seeing this build, I can honestly say I am well and truly smitten.[...]

Everything I saw about this game was impressive, but what really got my attention was its overall art style. The optimistic fifties design juxtaposed against the destroyed landscape is a great choice and is seen everywhere from the HUD to the atomic design of Vault 101. Seeing it sprinkled around the world gave me the same feeling I got the first time I saw the art-deco wonders of BioShock. It’s nostalgic yet at the same time seems so fresh and new because we rarely see that style of design in modern games, especially FPSs. It also gave the design team a chance to inject the game with a subtle humor that is evident throughout, even seeping its way into the dialog choices and sound.

The team is still on target for a release in the fall of this year but we still weren’t able to wrangle a solid date out of them. One thing we did hear however, was a promise of a hands on at E3 so you can bet I will be signing up for that one.

DeMarco has some sort of SteamPunk/FPS fixation. Or does he?

Fallout 3: Now With 500 Plus Endings

New Fallout 3 Preview at Destructoid:

In proper following of the previous Fallout games, your character will eventually come across the ultimate bad ass doggy companion, Dogmeat. His owner destroyed by some means of carnage or another, you approach a wandering Dogmeat in an elaborate junkyard and engage in conversation to eventually convince him to tag along. Naturally his responses are limited to friendly woofs and barks, but with enough persuasion Dogmeat determines to aid you in your journey in search of your father across the post-apocolyptic landscape. This companionship proves to be highly beneficial as you can request Dogmeat to search the surrounding area for helpful items such as weapons, food, and drugs. The diligent dog that he is, Dogmeat will search your surrounding area for up to an hour to scour every inch of land for items you could use. However, mistreatment of Dogmeat and assigning him to dangerous tasks could result in the loss of a faithful friend forever, so it’s wise to be pre-cautious when sending him off to dutifully fulfill your requests.[...]

What’s waiting to be demonstrated now is the procedure through the various in-game quests that eventually determine the nature of your character’s morality. According to Pete, the writing for the game is a combined effort between game designers, engineers, and producers – selective game development teams build individual quests and eventually take their finished work back to the rest of the team for review. Will this approach generate a cohesive yet diverse set of side-quests for the player to explore? Furthermore the main quest can be completed in a mere 20-25 hours, and amidst discussing the hussle and bussle regarding the proposed 200 endings Pete revealed that they were up to 500-something endings now. It’s important to note that these ‘endings’ could easily be something as minimal as a variation in the narrative depending on what you managed to accomplish, but the question still remains as to how (or why) one would possibly experience all of the endings.

As it is, Bethesda has given us something crunchy enough to chew on until the next teaser. As for me, I believe the ultimate success of Fallout 3 solely depends on the complexity and variety of experiences derived from the individual quests. I hope for and look forward to participating in the reverred moral ambiguity and rich dialogue that was so preciously celebrated in the past Fallout games, but has yet to be revealed to the public. When asked whether the moral choices in Fallout 3 were presented as black and white options, such as is the case in BioShock, Pete replied that there were a lot of gray areas in this game. With hope, these gray areas are what will truly define Fallout 3 and aptly set it within the ranks of its predecessors.

Interesting read, although they seem to confuse Feral Ghouls with regular Ghouls, and no new pictures are shown.

PSW On Fallout 3

From the PSW magazine blog:

This latest issue leads with an exclusive preview of Fallout 3 from the makers of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Packed with new screens, unseen areas and all-new gameplay details, you can afford to miss[sic] what is shaping to be 2008′s best adventure!

Spotted at the Bethblog. If anyone gets hold of the mag than do send me your impressions please.

Bob’s Iguana Bits Market Stand Kit

From NMA:

Hello there, Fallout Fan. Why so glum chum? What? You haven’t gotten any Fallout swag?
Well, fret no more friend. You can make some yourself with the new Bob’s Iguana Bits Market Stand kit. It’s EASY and FUN! Best of all, it’s FREE! Yes, that’s right. So download yours today and enjoy the pride and prestige of owning your very own unofficial swag, suitable for office, den, trophy case, fallout shelter, Fallout shrine, etc.
Get yours today!

Available at an NMA download site near you.

Really good work Octotron, you can also get a Papercraft VaultBoy in the last issue of PCGamer US, but it’s not that good.