[Official] Fallout 3 - DLC for 360/PC released!

By .KICK
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Grand Master

.KICK

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fallout3_teaser_poster.jpg

Game Info:

Platforms: PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3

Release Dates:

Japan - December 4th

North America - October 28th

Europe - October 31st

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Media

Engine: Gamebryo engine

Genre: Post-apocalyptic Action RPG

Mode: Single-player

Hands-on:

Hands On - 25 July 2008

by Oli Welsh

Perhaps it's just bad timing. Perhaps it's unfortunate juxtaposition. Fallout 3 made its E3 debut in a demonstration at Microsoft's Xbox 360 briefing in close proximity to Gears of War 2 and Resident Evil 5. All of a sudden, in that context, this very special follow-up to some of the most revered properties in role-playing gaming - venerable Interplay classic Fallout, and developer Bethesda's recent smash hit Oblivion - didn't look so special any more.

The barren, broken landscape, the deformed mutant enemies, the muted brown colour scheme, the developers enthusiastically detailing the myriad options for amusing dismemberment, gore, explosions and carnage. It all became a bit of a blur. Then EA showed Dead Space and Left 4 Dead and Rage, and Sony showed Resistance 2, and Take-Two showed Borderlands, and on and on for the rest of the week until - despite the quality of several of these games - the blur became a huge, ugly, indistinguishable smear across the whole of E3. A smear that Fallout 3, of all games, really shouldn't be getting lost in.

So, yes - it was bad luck. After all, you can hardly expect a Fallout game to be about anything other than a post-apocalyptic world beset with mutants, and it isn't Bethesda's fault that the current commercial and political landscape has given the games industry an unhealthier-than-usual obsession with that subject matter. You can, however, expect Bethesda to approach it with polish, sophistication and a unique sense of humour - and this is exactly where we found our half-hour hands-on demo lacking.

Fallout 3, as detailed by Kieron, concerns our young hero's search for his father in the wasteland that was once Washington DC, before a nuclear holocaust 200 years ago. At the start of the demo, we emerge from the hermetically-sealed 1950s utopia of the Vault, via a vast and elaborately clunking airlock door, into Washington's sepia-toned ruins. No doubt, it's a dramatic, heart-in-mouth moment, very well handled.

As is Fallout tradition, the game's RPG interface is tidied away into a PIP-Boy 3000 personal terminal, which your character wears on his wrist. It's actually very stylishly and economically done, giving easy and logical access to all the stats and options you could need, and graced with wryly funny drawings of Vault-Boy - the ironic, grinning, cow-licked mascot of the Fallout universe - on every screen.

Wandering forth, we're struck by the extreme openness of the landscape, characterised, as was Oblivion, by rolling inclines and carefully arranged vistas of dramatic architecture. It's several worlds away from the lush, pastoral fantasy of the Elder Scrolls, though. It's one thing to look down on destruction from an isometric viewpoint and coo over the details - it's another to look out across it, all the way to the horizon. (It's also another thing to navigate jagged, messy piles of rubble in 3D, and more than this pre-release version of the game can cope with, as our avatar descends, juddering, up to his waist in the ground.)

Visually, Fallout 3 is unremittingly bleak. So it should be, although you have to wonder if there will be enough variation in this vast wasteland to sustain interest. But let's give Bethesda's artists the benefit of the doubt on that count, because unfortunately the game has much more tangible shortcomings to take them to task on: the flat, sterile lighting, the excessive contrast, the feeble effects (excepting the mini-nuke explosions of wrecked cars' power units) and, worst by far, the hilariously, embarrassingly wooden animation.

This was a weakness of Oblivion's, too, but it's even more jarring in Fallout 3. The game presents itself in the first-person perspective, but you can pull the camera out to quite a distant third-person viewpoint and move it in full 3D. This means you can examine your character's Gerry Anderson jerking and flailing from any angle; we'd recommend you don't. Unfortunately, you can't help but observe the erratic path-finding, motionless trances and limp movements of the few enemies you encounter this early in the game. You simply can't invoke the visual style of an action game and get away with this stuff.

Continues at Eurogamer..

Videos: (All in HD unless stated)

E3-

E3 2008: Perfect Life Trailer

E3 2008: Microsoft Press Conference Direct Feed Walkthrough

Gameplay:

PAX 2008: Escape Gameplay

PAX 2008: Megaton Gameplay

PAX 2008: The Wasteland Gameplay

PAX 2008: Super-Duper Mart Gameplay

PAX 2008: Tenpenny Tower Gameplay

Images:

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Links:

Game Trailers Game Page

Eurogamers Game Page

Official Fallout Site

Thanks to DrunknMunky for his help on making this topic.

Edited by .KICK
Rookie

TJC33

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The other fallout games were fantastic and from what i see this is going to be even better. Pre-ordered already and ticking off the days on my calender. Just hope they have kept to the old style of play.

You should not need to play the old ones to know whats going on as the story is independant of the others. Might be worth a play though to get the idea of the game, if you can put up with the terrbile graphics of the old ones ofc.

Grand Master

Spookie

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It's been leaked on the net (ironically with all the crying about PC piracy the 360 leaked it first). Peoples general impressions are underwhelming. Some people have gone so far to say it's Oblivion in a nuclear waste zone.

Looks like I'm going to drop my PC collectors edition for a regular now. :(

Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

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Ok fed up of the leaked topic having more discussion than the game itself so here are some new videos from TGS!

Official TGS 2008 Trailer

World Exclusive Brotherhood of Steel Combat Gameplay

World Exclusive Museum of Technology Gameplay

World Exclusive Washington D.C. Underground Gameplay

World Exclusive Trench Warfare in D.C. Gameplay

Grand Master

DrunknMunky Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
It's been leaked on the net (ironically with all the crying about PC piracy the 360 leaked it first). Peoples general impressions are underwhelming. Some people have gone so far to say it's Oblivion in a nuclear waste zone.

Pretty much, the first mission is almost an exact clone of Oblivion's escape from the sewers, except in Fallout's universe obv.

Mentor

Atom

Posted
Posted

I'm a pretty fanatical Fallout fan. I've played through both 1&2 as everything from slayer to arms specialist etc. I absolutely love the franchise and played its various incarnations like Tacticts and BoS. I have the Survival Edition from Amazon pre order for my PC as well.

I have put about 18hrs into Fallout 3 on the 360 and I'm happy to report that it is an incredible game. While it doesnt quite live up to the gritty, groundbreaking, ethically questionable games there were F1&2, it is the very best revival that we could have hoped for.

The V.A.T.S. combat is the best translation of turn based fighting to modern real time FPS I've ever seen. It captures the spirit of the original turn based fallouts without breaking the pace of combat. The slomo death scenes are brutal and bloody much like the originals. The mutants and NPC's 3d models stay true to form and pay homage to the original. I got to my first Slaver's camp and was instantly transported back to F2's slaver base in the Den, they really did their research and delivered and experience for returning fans.

With that said the game isn't perfect. Alot of the problems with Oblivion make a return in F3. The interior's of homes, caves, and bases are far to dark. Half the time I dont even realize there's and enemy in the room until I'm hit or jump into V.A.T.S. I've also haven't found a flashlight, or any other source of portable light for that matter. The 3rd person perspective really destroys the immersion for me. It's a minor complaint, but the way your toon walks around the world in 3rd person is ridiculous. He looks as if hes skating/gliding along every rocky surface he comes in contact with. I also dont really care for the lack of flavor text in the entire game. Half the fun of the original fallouts was all of the random things your pip boy would churn out during combat, or the descriptions of various items you collected in your adventures. All of this is absent in this version.

With that said, I'm taking the graphical problems with a grain of salt right now. I am playing this on the technically inferior 360 and understand that certain things need to be scaled down or cut back due to the limited capabilities of the machine. I'm hoping for a world of difference on my 280 but I'll have to wait and see.

Grand Master

sanctified Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
I'm a pretty fanatical Fallout fan. I've played through both 1&2 as everything from slayer to arms specialist etc. I absolutely love the franchise and played its various incarnations like Tacticts and BoS. I have the Survival Edition from Amazon pre order for my PC as well.

I have put about 18hrs into Fallout 3 on the 360 and I'm happy to report that it is an incredible game. While it doesnt quite live up to the gritty, groundbreaking, ethically questionable games there were F1&2, it is the very best revival that we could have hoped for.

The V.A.T.S. combat is the best translation of turn based fighting to modern real time FPS I've ever seen. It captures the spirit of the original turn based fallouts without breaking the pace of combat. The slomo death scenes are brutal and bloody much like the originals. The mutants and NPC's 3d models stay true to form and pay homage to the original. I got to my first Slaver's camp and was instantly transported back to F2's slaver base in the Den, they really did their research and delivered and experience for returning fans.

With that said the game isn't perfect. Alot of the problems with Oblivion make a return in F3. The interior's of homes, caves, and bases are far to dark. Half the time I dont even realize there's and enemy in the room until I'm hit or jump into V.A.T.S. I've also haven't found a flashlight, or any other source of portable light for that matter. The 3rd person perspective really destroys the immersion for me. It's a minor complaint, but the way your toon walks around the world in 3rd person is ridiculous. He looks as if hes skating/gliding along every rocky surface he comes in contact with. I also dont really care for the lack of flavor text in the entire game. Half the fun of the original fallouts was all of the random things your pip boy would churn out during combat, or the descriptions of various items you collected in your adventures. All of this is absent in this version.

With that said, I'm taking the graphical problems with a grain of salt right now. I am playing this on the technically inferior 360 and understand that certain things need to be scaled down or cut back due to the limited capabilities of the machine. I'm hoping for a world of difference on my 280 but I'll have to wait and see.

How about the plot?

Grand Master

+Audioboxer Subscriber²

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I've seen it getting played in person for a few hours, and tried it myself for what it's worth.

At first it's basically Oblivion with a lick of paint and guns, but the quests/story line missions I watched seemed pretty strong.

However if you didn't like Oblivion, DO NOT expect to see things drastically changed.

Aiming/using guns without VAT as well is pretty crappy.

Graphics are good, but 3rd person view/some animation work is awful.

I can't wait to dig in myself, didn't do much of the game as not to waste things for myself (I also didn't see the beginning segment which is pretty much suppose to be a 1:1 copy of Oblivion's tutorial).

Grand Master

sanctified Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
I've seen it getting played in person for a few hours, and tried it myself for what it's worth.

At first it's basically Oblivion with a lick of paint and guns, but the quests/story line missions I watched seemed pretty strong.

However if you didn't like Oblivion, DO NOT expect to see things drastically changed.

Aiming/using guns without VAT as well is pretty crappy.

Graphics are good, but 3rd person view/some animation work is awful.

I can't wait to dig in myself, didn't do much of the game as not to waste things for myself.

What if I liked Oblivion, loved Morrowind and TOTALLY LOVED the past Fallout games? I really dont want to be dissapointed.

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