Last week was crazy, after so long without any info about the game we got preview after preview.
So my friend Aonaran made a quick recap of the new info, with the help of people from the Bethesda Games Fallout 3 forum:
While there seems to have been a massive explosion of information over the last couple of days the overwhelming majority of it has simply been a repeat of what we have read in the past. Here is the NEW information from all of the recent press coverage. This thread is to discuss what we didn’t already know before, as listed chaotically below.
“The Pip-Boy 3000 has many of uses for interacting with your character as well as emitting light for use in those darker areas of which there are many.”
“If things get too dangerous, you can always have him (Dogmeat) wait nearby or send him back to Vault 101 where his safety will be assured.” (Vault 101 = Safe?)
“This is when you get to actually choose your character’s look, picking from either preset selections or creating a custom look by mixing and matching different attributes. There are plenty of options to choose from, some quite colorful, like the “gunslinger” option for facial hair.”
“It’s during your toddler phase where dad also introduces you to a quote that will apparently play an important role in the game (We won’t print it here for spoiler reasons, but if you’re curious and don’t mind a spoiler, it’s taken from the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Look for Chapter 21, Verse 6)”
“…the idea with Dogmeat is that you can converse with him (he’ll answer in barks, whimpers, and other appropriate canine noises), and he’ll be knowledgeable about the surrounding area.”
“There are even grenades to help clear out rooms.”
“Throughout this battle the demonstrator switched between weapons using the Pip-Boy 3000.”
“The supermutants carried everything from sledgehammers to rocket launchers.”
“…but Hines expects more than Oblivion, with roughly 50 to 60 different character voices.”
“You’re given a final opportunity to make any desired changes to your character–confirm sex, name, attributes, perks, etc–and then it’s off into what remains of the post-modern world.” – Looks like you can pull the sewer gate trick instead of redoing the tutorial, but will skipping it altogether be an option?
“Once a popular tourist spot (mall of Washington D.C.) it has degraded into a war zone, ravaged by battles between the Brotherhood of Steel and legion of super mutant that have annexed the Capitol Rotunda as their headquarters.”
“However, I was a bit bummed when Hines said we won’t be able to become mutants.”
“But while the general background is the same, none of the characters or locales from the original two games will make an appearance.”
“It may not be a lonely world out there–what with super mutants, the mercenaries of the Talon Company, and the cult-like Brotherhood of Steel all marauding across the landscape–and it sure isn’t a friendly one, either.”
“Abandoned vaults and bombed-out buildings are to Fallout 3 what the generic caves and decrepit Elven ruins were to Oblivion.”
“…though an interesting touch to each glowing one you encounter is a very brief (think blink-and-you’ll-miss-it) flashback scene showing what that ghoul’s life was like before it mutated into a hellish husk.”
“You’ll even get to take on a few rudimentary quests at your party or just watch the many-armed robot of the future, Mr. Handy, mangle your birthday cake with one of its buzz saw-arm extensions.” – confirmation that “many-armed” device in birthday screenshot is Mr. Handy?
“…you can’t have any meaningful conversations with him (Dogmeat) or have him carry a ton of inventory.” – While you do interact with Dogmeat through the same conversation mechanism as other NPC dialog, thankfully the options are limited to commands. It is also mentioned that scolding and/or praising Dogmeat will not affect Karma.
“Feral ghouls are extremely swift and vicious, leaping at you with tremendous speed.”
“…coupled with the weapon’s (minigun) startup delay…” – A nice touch of realism for the minigun
“…you’ll receive most of your alerts, such as new quests, as brief text messages that fade away, similar to friends notifications on Xbox Live.”
“…we were already impressed by little touches, such as how the loading screen offers a selection of statistics and your level progress taken directly from your gameplay.”
“when ‘Dogmeat’ joins you on your trek, it isn’t something that’ll happen in the game at the same point if you play it three times in a row.” – confirmation that Dogmeat is part of a random encounter as suggested in earlier previews
“Vault 101’s overseer presents you with your very own Pip-Boy 3000, which will serve as your quest log, map, and radio receiver throughout your wasteland jaunt, sporting a handsome cathode ray tube display that doubles as a flashlight when clicked on its highest setting.” – More on the Pipboy “flashlight”. Confirmation that instead of a flashlight setting the players turns up the brightness on the display for a light halo similar to previous Fallouts (sorry if this is boring but I had been wondering about that for ages)
“We also toured a mall of Washington D.C., where we saw the Washington Monument. In the future, it’s full of holes, but still standing, and the elevator will still goes to the top.” – Confirmation (?) that the Washington Monument from the official trailer is in fact a playable area.
“After watching the fight, we got too close and one of the mercenaries fired a few shots at us. Then he really surprised us by running over to a dead mutant, picking up his mini-gun and using it against us.”
“One interesting side detail: A Bethesda representative was demonstrating the combat and had power armor equipped. While he was basically a nigh-impenetrable tank, his visibility was cut down, so the perception stat had a significant penalty–one that made VATS nearly impossible to use, which was just one example of the hard tactical decisions you’ll need to make.”
“now 500 plus endings”
“In this instance, Pete had loaded his player with a tank-strength Brotherhood of Steel armor suit. The suit, while intimidating and defensive, limited his range of motion and visual perception, as it was clunky and heavy to move around in.”
So there you go, all the new info from the latest previews consolodated into one quick to read thread. Hopefully that will save a few people some time and frustration.
It really helps in keeping things in perspective. Below you can find a gallery of the new pics, this way with both items you can start this week with a better picture of what is Fallout 3 at this point in time.
Fallout 3: A Post Nuclear Blog 
Uh-huh. But it’s not like “preview after preview” actually provided that much new info.
Hell, it wasn’t crazy at all. Just a lot of previews providing the same information with a variety of errors and misinterpretations. There’s no real significant info that wasn’t in the magazines already, ‘cept the description of the new Mall location, and a significant chunk of the new info sounds like they could simply be errors that Bethesda won’t clear up for weeks, like the no-VATS-in-PA thing.
In other words: not crazy at all, just a load of bullshit.
Thanks for posting this up. Just in messing around with that post I kinda got an idea (only not even close) of how much work it must be to operate this blog.
Yo’ –> Ghoul-z Gone Wild!
“” – “Feral ghouls are extremely swift and vicious, leaping at you with tremendous speed.” -“”
Meth heads?
Would this fit on a ’50’s movie markee?
–> Attack Of The – Amphetamine – Ghouls! <–
In FO2, one of the early game, tough, random encounters were around Gecko,
Recon-ning for Vault City, random ghoul gangs not ‘fast’, just accurate.
Outdoorsman-ship annoyingly too low, fight started ringed by shot guns and hunting rifles.
Hand to hand – rock throwers were glowing ghoul types.
“Oh no Vic’s down!”
If hadn’t leveled up from the battles to get this far and upgraded weapons accordingly, could be nasty enough to reload a save.
Happy to see the ghouls get to stay working in show biz,
even type cast as zombies,
a ghoul’s gotta do what a ghoul’s gotta do.
Thanks for the the new news.
4too
I would say it was pretty crazy if you run a blog about F3 news. Sad thing is that we heard the same old info 50 times more.
yes 4too. that was my memory of ghouls as well. Deadeyes, tech heads, not physically adept but able to find other means of survival. Don’t know what BethSoft gains by dumbing them down like this. I guess it helps keep combat simple instead of having to build a combat system with interesting back and forth gun-play. (a la a Rainbow type game)…
note: “Feral ghouls ” I’ll give them enough slack to make a new breed/type of ghoul,however I wotn gvie them slack if they change ghouls to zombies or worse yet “DEAD” zombies.(as in the newer dead films where zombies are no longer zombies and any social commentary was raped from the production as to feed the casual media zombie consumer “better”)
So far size/amount of content and how bad the game mechanics are are my main worries, I really wish they went with a full TB/CRPG mode and have a nice and fluid RT/action/shooter mode it can be done even if it would take real work to balance it but I think it would pay off more as in you would gain more players fro the FPS/RPG sects than just making it a CRPG.
At least it wont be as ill built as the witcher is….
I am a odd gamer I love FPSs and GOOD RPGs,cant really stand FF12 because of the bad skill system and poor equipment sets…I like the combat i think it would have been better if the system was polished to allow gambit presets and the ability to cue/slot attack plans, DQ8 is bearable if not slow…could use more skills/equipment to keep things fresh…one of my main problems with JRPGs is repetitive and fun skill/equipment sets, as far as FPSs go after 02 they seem to fall into the mainsteamization pit and 90% are mindless gun and runs gone is the fun weapon and great level design from the mid/late 90s.
Out of bioshock,Alpha prime and Jericho I enjoy Alpha prime the most its more like a classic FPS, BS is just a mess from tip to toe its more heavly raped for mainstreamization than I can stand….that and the PC version is broken out of the box….
PS: Jericho is a laughable cash in on Clive bakers name……halo 3 is almsot as laughable take a way the graphics and its the worst one of the set…well..maybe it has more polished than 2 but not by much, Halo 1 is near perfect…suffice to say I am a game nazi and loved Fallout so I am watching how they screw this up.
blargh…zippy rantage ><