Fallout 3 - Official Thread

[Robbo]

Today it was announced that Bethesda are now the owners of the Fallout brand, rather than licensing it from Interplay as before. Interplay have licensed the MMORPG rights back from Bethesda as part of the deal, subject to them getting it in gear within two years.

General opinion from the Fallout fanboys is that Bethesda's Fallout 3 will just be Oblivion with mutants - personally I'm much more optimistic.

I think the main worry is that feel of Fallout will be diluted. I've played through both games a handful of times, and even today with just text and sprites, the atmosphere is thick with grit and desperation. This juxtaposed with the 1950s Sci-fi interface and cartoon style still brings a smile with every passing perk.

My biggest worry is that they'll make the combat real-time. It *has* to be turn based combat, the KOTOR system would be perfect. You can't bring mousing skill into a game like this. If I want to shoot a Deathclaw in the groin, it should be done on the numbers, not on how good a shot I am.

So what do we think / hope it will be? Any of you chumps out there still hopeful for more of what we all love?

What do you mean you never played it? Let me convince you to try.

UPDATE:

Trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36202.html

Gameplay vid: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36315.html

[Wiper]

I'm in the "Bethesda can't do it justice" worriers camp I'm afraid. All they've ever made of note are those fucking boring, badly scripted, clichéd, sylistically dull but open Elder Scrolls games, and I have no confidence in their abilities to bring out a successful, true sequel to the brilliantly written, uniquely styled, incredibly alive (despite being post-apocalyptic) Fallout games.

Still, I'll hold out a smidgen of hope. Maybe they've hired enough Black Isle staff to make it work. Maybe.

[Talk Show Host]

Bethesda = Technical incompetence + abysmal support + no talent at all into creating stories and characters.

Fallout = A classic with a new chapter long overdue.

Do the maths.

[Rayn]

All they've ever made of note are those fucking boring, badly scripted, clichéd, sylistically dull but open Elder Scrolls games, and I have no confidence in their abilities to bring out a successful, true sequel to the brilliantly written, uniquely styled, incredibly alive (despite being post-apocalyptic) Fallout games.

Even if I wasn't a fan of the Elder Scrolls games I'd say you're "wrong". You're entitled to your opinion, by all means, but it seems you're slagging of the entire company and their workers based on your loathe for the Elder Scrolls series.

Their Terminator game from 1993 (and even better, the cd-rom version from the following year) was way ahead of its time and was great for action fans, strategy fans and terminator fans alike. The 1995 Future Shock and the 1996 SkyNET were also quality games.

With that said I'm very curious what will be done with the Fallout lisence. As already mentioned I wouldn't mind the KOTOR style combat and, god forbid, they won't change much of the SPECIAL system.

I think it's daft to write off Fallout 3 just because Bethesda has the lisence now....even if the original team had been working on Fallout 3 it would been a miracle if even they could make a sequel doing the prior games any justice.

[Talk Show Host]

Even if I wasn't a fan of the Elder Scrolls games I'd say you're "wrong". You're entitled to your opinion, by all means, but it seems you're slagging of the entire company and their workers based on your loathe for the Elder Scrolls series.

Their Terminator game from 1993 (and even better, the cd-rom version from the following year) was way ahead of its time and was great for action fans, strategy fans and terminator fans alike. The 1995 Future Shock and the 1996 SkyNET were also quality games.

I think you are really wrong here. Those games you mention I find hardly above average (played Terminator and SkyNet), despite their ambition. Either way, you won't judge a painter from his small sketches. You will judge him from his full blown work. The Elder Scroll series are too ambitious for their own good and, despite being good games, I do not see why the company must be forgiven for it's inability to produce technical stable versions of their games. If they can't do it, they should concentrate on doing something smaller, simple as that. Also, their support is awful, really awful and they have by now proven that their games are really soulless, with no convincing characters or stories.

Things are not looking good for Fallout I tell you.

[fatoy.japa]

If they manage to hire some good writers & character designers, as well as bringing The Ink Spots back from the dead to collaborate with Jeremy Soule, I can see it working.

Also, the SPECIAL system is perfect as it is - please don't tinker with it too much and shoe-horn in a good : evil dynamic.

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: No offence to the dear man with some excellent scoring skills, but Jeremy Soule is about the last person who should work on Fallout's soundtrack. (Well him and the entire Konami Bemani-team.)

Also, no good/evil stuff. Just choices. The thing about Fallout was, that there wasn't that clear a line for light and dark, everybody was just surviving. How you survived was dependent on your own... 'ethics'.

[joffocakes]

I never played Fallout.

Will it be horribly dated if I try to do it now?

Is that the game where you kick rats for the first hour?

[Mr.Crowley]

Is that the game where you kick rats for the first hour?

That could describe every RPG ever.

But, yes ,you kick, stab and shoot rats for about half an hour before you venture into the desert.

[Robbo]

I never played Fallout.

Will it be horribly dated if I try to do it now?

Is that the game where you kick rats for the first hour?

It has dated, but once you're an hour or so into it you'll forget all about it. It is a must play game. So is the sequel, but play them in order.

[joffocakes]

I just watched the intro video for the first game on youtube, and it looks magnificent.

[Argh]

"War. War never changes". Until Bethesda fuck it up that is - with their levelling-up bandits and wotnot.

I've only rarely been as excited about a new game in a series as I am about Fallout 3. But I've certainly never had that level of excitement tempered by so much dread. Oblivion was huge, beautiful and initially awe inspiring but ultimately lacking any soul.

On various forums now I've read people saying Stalker is an example of what an Oblivion-ised Fallout could be, and that does give me some hope that a 3D action-RPG Fallout 3 could work and work well, because I saw a lot of good things in the nearly-shiny turd that was the excellently awful Stalker. (I'm being sort of harsh, Stalker's my fave PC game for a couple of years).

I've also read various snippets of numerous interviews with Bethesda people stating that they're going to keep Fallout's darkness and humour. But at the same time, they've acknowledged that they're going to upset a lot of hardcore fans. Heck, though, they could achieve that just by making it non-turn-based and/or non-isometric.

I'm sorry but I don't have time to provide links to various interviews, but check out the No Mutants Allowed website's Fallout 3 section for the rumour-mill diary http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=34207

Fallout 3 won't mean a lot to a lot of people, so I agree with some random poster I've seen elsewhere that it will be Fallout: A Subtitle so as to appear as something new to a new(er) generation.

I'd like to remain optimistic, but frankly, it's not in my genes

That said, I'll probably pre-order it. Fingers crossed so hard they could break.

Oh, and Spore will be shit too, while I'm on a downer Muuahhaha.

[Wiper]

Even if I wasn't a fan of the Elder Scrolls games I'd say you're "wrong". You're entitled to your opinion, by all means, but it seems you're slagging of the entire company and their workers based on your loathe for the Elder Scrolls series.

Their Terminator game from 1993 (and even better, the cd-rom version from the following year) was way ahead of its time and was great for action fans, strategy fans and terminator fans alike. The 1995 Future Shock and the 1996 SkyNET were also quality games.

With that said I'm very curious what will be done with the Fallout lisence. As already mentioned I wouldn't mind the KOTOR style combat and, god forbid, they won't change much of the SPECIAL system.

I think it's daft to write off Fallout 3 just because Bethesda has the lisence now....even if the original team had been working on Fallout 3 it would been a miracle if even they could make a sequel doing the prior games any justice.

Sorry, I would have responded sooner but I was in town...

I have only vague memories of Future Shock and Skynet (none of t'other Terminator game), and while they may well have been excellent titles, they were all released over ten years ago. It's rather like pointing to Shattered Steel as proof of what Bioware can do, or Blackthorne as representative of Blizzard's potential (only, those games were both a bit meh, but you see where I'm coming from). This is a company that has moved on, and their recent output has tended to follow a single path.

Also, I'm not sure the KOTOR combat system would be ideal, but I can see ways in which it could be modified to work - of course, the move to 3D would naturally change a lot about Fallout, so it's too much to really hope that there would be that many similarities between the new and old games. Also, I imagine Bioware might be a little miffed if Bethesda stole their combat system from them wholesale

To be honest, I'd have ideally had Bioware get the licence - their RPG's have always tended towards the story-led side of things (though again, generally somewhat clichéd), not to mention their ties with Black Isle and now Obsidian.

Ho-hum. I guess I'll just have to look forward to original titles instead. Woe is me!

[therearerules]

You know what was better than Fallout? The game to which it was an unofficial sequel, Wasteland. One of the best RPGs ever that. I love it.

[Wiper]

Get out of the thread, old-timer!

Never played Wasteland until it was too late (my eyes!), but I seem to recall that Fallout referenced it in-game (along with a hoard of other things), and that the developers mentioned it as a major influence. If only I could turn-off my graphics-whore side (well, I say 'graphics whore' - I'm pretty satisfied with most games that work in VGA or above), I'd love to give it a proper go.

[therearerules]

Get out of the thread, old-timer!

Never played Wasteland until it was too late (my eyes!), but I seem to recall that Fallout referenced it in-game (along with a hoard of other things), and that the developers mentioned it as a major influence. If only I could turn-off my graphics-whore side (well, I say 'graphics whore' - I'm pretty satisfied with most games that work in VGA or above), I'd love to give it a proper go.

I don't know if I could play it today if I never played it before, but it's atmosphere, story and openess haven't aged a bit. Although in a way a graphical update, or even not having to print out the story on paper, might change it too much.

[BoggyB]

I'm hoping they manage to keep all the daft NPC interactions in. The mini dialogues that popped up whenever you hurt someone, interacted with someone while wearing power armour ("This isn't Mech Warrior, you know") or just the little snippets of randomness you overheard while walking through towns are what made the world seem alive and the NPCs more than random sprites. If they get the serious:silly balance wrong it'll all seem a bit odd.

[Mr.Crowley]

Personally, Id' be happy if the ditched turnbased combat completely.

Give me a huge world (bigger than Oblivion, it's mostly just desert anyway), preferably 3rd person (to show off the cool armor and stuff. Lots of cars and quads and rusty big-rigs with spikes'n shit (god,I sound like I'm 15 or something).

The charm of Fallout has , for me anyway, always been its setting and sense of humour, not the fact that the combat ws turn-based and the graphics 2d-isometric

[Rsdio]

I've wanted a big free-roaming game that wasn't all pixies and goblins for Christ knows how long, so I was pretty pleased when it was first announced they were doing this and I still am now. I'd rather an Oblivionised Fallout game than yet another free-roaming fantasy one and no new Fallout game, which is probably the alternative. I know Bethesda hardly have the best record with characterisation and everything, but most other companies don't have the experience of creating worlds that big and detailed, so there'd be a risk of some sort whoever was doing it. Hopefully they'll get a few people who worked on the previous games to give them a hand with the atmosphere side of things and we'll all be happy.

[Wroth]

Here's hoping they keep the dialogue as text (They won't, and it'll be shit, with like 6 voice actors and about 10 bits of idle dialogue in total, which will sound terrible, and will totally pull me out of the game, and the animation will be shit too, and they'll take out kids from the game, and everyone's faces will look the same except slightly distorted and fucking ugly, and there'll be nothing to do except go into random nuclearised cave 43 and fight 8 copies of generic mutant 16, and a couple of bandit 4s, and find a gun of which you already have like 400, but you can't sell them because nobody has any fucking money)

Interestingly, I love oblivion

[bplus]

Is fallout like Baldur's Gate in anyway? (i know the setting is different)

[Mr.Crowley]

Is fallout like Baldur's Gate in anyway? (i know the setting is different)

Yes, pretty much.

The combat system is more governed by action-points than the one in Baldur's Gate, though

[SM47]

Not really, the combat is turn based rather than Dungeons and Dragons stuff.

Fallout 1 and 2 are absolutely brilliant.

[The-G]

I loved how you could just do lots of missions for folk and then happily blow them away after you've done everything you needed to do. They better keep that.

[smoothe]

I need to get me some fallout games. I've heard about them, and I'm, like, the biggest Baldurs Gate fan EVA, but for some reason I've never played the Fallouts.

[Hambury]

I never played Fallout.

Will it be horribly dated if I try to do it now?

Is that the game where you kick rats for the first hour?

I only played Fallout late last year for the first time. So from a non rose-tinted glasses point of view, I thought it was very enjoyable and playable, there was no sense of it being a dated game. It was good enough for me to crack on with the sequel straight away too. Neither of them are that big a game either, which was actually quite refreshing too, as I always tend to get bored of these sort of PC RPGs once they go on for a bit.

[Ropelight]

Someone else has probably said this, but it's worth considering: people keep talking about huge environments, a la Morrowind and Oblivion. Fair enough. But Fallout is mostly desert. The cities make up only a tiny fraction - the rest is all cracked earth and dirt, with a dead cactus every twenty miles.

It's all right when you have mushroom cities and hamlets made from the shells of giant dead creatures. Seventeen miles of NOTHING in every direction isn't as fun. Desolate, yeah.

[Wroth]

You get a car in fallout 2. So there'll probably (hopefully) be something similar available after the first couple of nearby cities.

[Wiper]

Or, like all the previous Fallouts, they could keep the overland map,

Y'know, just like Oblivion. Only, instead of having you teleport around, they could make it work in the same way as Fallout's.

[Jam_sponge]

All i'm interested in is if they're able to keep the preemptive options the dialogue and quests gave you, particularly in Fallout 2 they'd really covered all of the bases on that front, just as the darker side of your mind started to scheme the possible alternative manners in which you could pursue a goal up popped a way in which you could realize it.

The sense of morality choice and the options open to those choosing to screw everyone over and be a proper bastard was unparalleled, and actually WORKED- which is more than can be said for 90% of all RPGs offering straight-cut good/evil choices. Regardless, they better put that persuasion wheel game used in Oblivion back in the cupboard and get back to the nitty-gritty of carefully choosing what you say otherwise i'll probably cry...