Fallout 3

Garth wrote:http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3775/revitalizing_a_heritage_the_.php

The closest area of scrutiny for those expectations is likely the game's prose, and so for the first time in the studio's history, it assigned the title of lead writer -- a duty Pagliarulo considers parallel to his role as lead designer.

Sarge wrote:Propaganda Trailers

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Fallout 3's slick presentation might have a few people confused into thinking that Bethesda is reimagining the series into a straight-up action title. But at the heart of every good RPG are the mechanisms for crafting a powerful and distinctive character and this is where Fallout shines with a bright, nuclear glow. In this feature we'll reveal some of the unique perks that will make you want to spend the holidays in the war-torn ruins of Washington DC.

As Jeremy Dunham catalogued in his earlier preview (and I've copied below), the strengths of the main character in Fallout are governed by a list of skills. The game kicks off in childhood where a series of interactions and gameplay decisions will determine which of these attributes are affected. All of them governed by the over-arching S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck) system. We skipped this lengthy intro and jumped right out into the big, bad world with a set of base Skills predetermined by the developers.

* Barter: Affects Buying and Selling
* Big Guns: Determines combat effectiveness with oversized weapons
* Energy Weapons: Determines combat effectiveness with plasma weapons
* Explosiveness: Determines power of mines/ effectiveness of grenades/ ease of disarming hostile mines
* Medicine: Determines how many HP you can heal with one stimpack
* Repair: How well weapons and apparel are maintained and increases starting condition of custom-made weapons
* Science: Affects computer hacking skills
* Small Guns: Determines combat effectiveness for smaller weapons
* Sneak: It's easier to remain undetected, steal or pick someone's pockets; increases critical chance when attacking undetected with this skill
* Speech: Governs how you can influence someone during dialogue and gain access to info
* Unarmed: Determines Melee Damage

Immediately upon leaving the vault I was granted a level-up where I dedicated a few more points to small guns, unarmed, and medicine. Like most deep adventures, there a few core skills that make life much easier in the beginning of the game. It wasn't until a few levels later that I started to truly appreciate the benefits of science, sneak, and explosives. The level of detail in Bethesda's wasteland means that each of these skills comes in handy in a variety of ways and will very noticeably influence your gameplay.

Take for example my early ignorance of explosives. When stepping into a minefield I was given a few short warning beeps and before I knew what to do my limbs where scattered over the horizon. Later, when exploring the backlot of a derelict supermarket I was confronted by a terrified women who claimed that raiders had strapped her with explosives. I wanted to help, I really did, but my low explosive skill meant that I failed at disarming the bomb and her terror was cut short as she erupted in a fountain of blood.

It was this moment that I decided to bump up my demolition skill, and hours later I reaped the benefit. Mines can be disarmed and reused, traps can be set, and chains of explosives can be left in strategic locations so when a patrol wanders through you can set the whole thing off with a single shot from a gun. In short, the more points I allocated to explosive, the more I used them in a unique fashion. This is what a deep RPG is all about.

But let's be straight – you've seen skill-sets in other games. You don't need to be told what affect "small guns" will have on your character, it's pretty straightforward. The twisted world of Fallout is better represented through the unique set of Perks that become available throughout the story. At the first level-up I was offered the same Perks that have been we've previously written about. But my decisions and style of play led to the unveiling of new and distinctive options. Here are a few of the new perks I saw.

Mysterious Stranger

Ranks Available: 1, Requirements: Level 10, Luck 6
You've gained your own personal guardian angel... armed with a fully loaded .44 Magnum. With this perk, the Mysterious Stranger will appear occasionally in V.A.T.S. mode to lend a hand, with deadly efficiency.

Animal Friend

Ranks Available: 2, Requirements: Level 10, Charisma 6
At the first rank of this perk, animals simply won't attack. At the second rank, they will eventually come to your aid in combat, but never against another animal. This perk affects the Dog, Yao Guai, Mole Rat, and Brahmin.

Gunslinger

Ranks Available: 1, Requirements: Level 6
While using a pistol (or similar one-handed weapon), your accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.

Comprehension

Ranks Available: 1, Requirements: Level 4, Intelligence 4
With the Comprehension perk, you gain one additional skill point whenever a skill book is read.

Take for example the Child at Heart Perk: it becomes available at level 4 with a Charisma of 4 and it opens new dialogue options when talking to children. Going down this path reveals new information and unveils quests that would have been missed had the player ignored their delicate sensibilities and focused on blowing **** up.

Not only are the perks revealed through advancing your Skills, but they are also given as rewards for being particularly good or evil or following through on a lengthy quest. In my short six hours with the game I followed through on a quest to rid the world of a breed of fire ants that was terrorizing a small community. I didn't have to save these citizens, and I certainly didn't have to exterminate the pests in the exact manner described to me by a certain underground mad scientist who was responsible for causing this blight. But my tenacity and kind words enabled me to convince the scientist to inject me with the same serum he used to mutate the bugs. I was given the Perk choice of fire resistance or ant strength, a welcome payoff.

It's evident that through the Perks the developers were able to insert their most creative and deviant ideas into the Fallout mythology. What other game would have a Lady Killer Perk that grants players +10 damage to women?

These aren't just skill boosts, they're bonuses with personality and they cater to a specific style of play. The curious survivalist will receive benefits that befit their snooping behavior. Say you're a particularly clever lad, when your intelligence and overall level hit 4 you'll gain access to the Comprehension Perk that give you additional skill points for reading informative books.

Keep playing in a similar fashion and you can even rank-up these unique abilities. Boosting charisma past level 6 opens up the Animal Friend Perk that protects players from the mutated beasts in the wild. The first rank just keeps animals from attacking, but the second will have Dog's, Yao Guai's and other creature's coming to your aid in combat. Nothing says you mean business like a feral Mole Rat at your side.

Where some role playing games allow nothing more than the ability to slide around a few skill sets, Fallout's Perk system allows players to work towards some exceptional talents. There are a lot more Perks than the ones we've scattered throughout this article – including a few killer Perks we know about, but just can't mention. Just know this, you haven't seen anything yet. Stick around all week for more info and media on Fallout 3.

Solar Powered

Ranks Available: 1, Requirements: Level 20, Endurance 7
With the Solar Powered perk, you gain an additional 2 points to Strength when in direct sunlight, and slowly regenerate lost Health.

Lawbringer

Ranks Available: 1, Requirements: Level 14
Once you have the Lawbringer perk, any evil character you kill will have a finger on their corpse. This finger can then be sold to a certain person (whose identity is disclosed when you take the perk) for caps and positive Karma.

Concentrated Fire

Ranks Available: 1, Requirements: Level 18, Small Guns 60%, Energy Weapons 60%
With Concentrated Fire, your accuracy to hit any body part in V.A.T.S. increases slightly with each subsequent hit on that body part.

Child at Heart

Ranks Available: 1, Requirements: Level 4, Charisma 4
The Child at Heart perk greatly improves your interactions with children, usually in the form of unique dialogue choices.

Most games have very clear distinctions between good and evil. The bad guys wear black, and the hero fights for the virginal princess on behalf of all that is right and just. The difference in Fallout 3 is that the world has already gone to hell. Good or bad, the people that had the misfortune of surviving nuclear war are now just trying to eke out an existence. Maintain a shred of humanity and try to help others and you'll be rewarded with Good Karma, work only for self gain and your bad karma will pile high. The choice is yours and the consequences are drastic.

As IGN's resident good Samaritan I played six hours of Fallout as a kind and giving person. IGN Xbox's Erik Brudvig took the opposite approach and will describe his horrible behavior in tomorrow's feature. For a preview of his experience, you can assume that every time I describe a good deed, Erik beat the hell out of someone with a baseball bat.

Immediately after exiting the vault, players are given the opportunity to take their character in either direction. The citizens of Washington DC are in such a sorry state of existence that playing as a decent human isn't a difficult choice to make. Upon entering the first run-down shack on the road toward Megaton I met up with a woman named Silver. She's a downtrodden ex-prostitute and her only request is that you don't broadcast her existence to the man she owes money to. I readily agreed, and subtly inquired if she still offered any of her old services. I didn't exactly help her, but I didn't extort or murder her either. I was well on my way to sainthood.

I left the shack to spread more joy when I came upon a derelict high school infested with raiders donning spiked armor and punk-rock hairdos. Maybe we'd be friends!
The danger of a good vs. evil system is that good deeds can be dull in comparison to murder and mayhem. But this is hardly a problem in the world of Fallout. The raiders, ghouls and mutants that inhabit what's left of the nation's capital are decidedly evil. There's no bad karma penalty for shot-gunning a super mutant in the back of the head or taking a flame thrower to a raider encampment. Just staying alive is a tough job and brutally killing enemies is part of life whether you choose to be good or bad. I mopped the floor of the high school with the body parts of dead raiders, looted their storage room, and discovered their plans to dynamite into the vault I had recently emerged from. All while maintaining my sunny disposition and good karma.

The next stop was Megaton. At this point we've all heard about the first big choice between good and evil which is the fate of this ramshackle town built around an unexploded nuclear device. Some locals worship the bomb, others just try to steer clear of it, but only you have the power to detonate or disarm the hazard. In Bethesda's early demos they showed us what happens when players decide cash is more important than human lives and blow Megaton into the stratosphere. This time around we had the chance to experience the benefits of keeping the town on the map.

Not only did I save the inhabitants of the city, but I offered to do it for free. Instead of arming the bomb I swallowed some mentats, boosted my intelligence, and removed the nuclear threat. Lucas Simms, the local lawman, thanked me and granted me the deed to a house in Megaton and citizenship. It turns out having a place to rest my head had numerous benefits. The house comes with a scattering of old furniture and Wadsworth, your robotic butler. He offers purified water (health), haircuts, and even tells jokes when his humor circuits are fully charged. The mechanical salon offers 18 different hair styles and a bevy of different facial hair options including beards with names like "the swashbuckler" and "lady's man." Hair color is managed by color sliders, allowing for near-infinite combinations.

I chose a style that likened me to a deranged Ronald McDonald. It went nicely with my safety goggles and army helmet I had picked up while roaming the wastelands. The house also contains a Bobblehead Collection Stand where you can store the hidden collectibles of Fallout 3. Players can also play house with their drab surroundings by purchasing a collection of themes for sale at the local store. These include Raider, Wasteland Explorer, Science, Pre-War, and Love Machine. The change of scenery is nice, but the real advantage to this property is the ability to outfit a house with an infirmary, jukebox, laboratory, cola machine, and workbench.

My good deeds transformed Megaton from a backwater dump to a strategically placed home where I could build weapons, fully recover my wounds, stock up on goods, and cook up some performance enhancing drugs. That's not to say that evil characters won't get their own residence at some other location, but it won't be as quickly and not in this town.
After outfitting my new crib I decided to make friendly with my new neighbors. Some characters won't even recognize your existence without the right Karma. I learned this when a reformed raider wouldn't give me the time of day because he just wouldn't speak to a goody-two-shoes. His loss. Other characters who are attracted to decency will open up quests and dialogue options for people who've accumulated enough good karma.

There are other, less distinct choices as well. The shop owner in Megaton has a side project compiling a field guide to the wasteland and she asks players to contribute by exploring the world. I took her task seriously and sought out the information she requested by investigating a local supermarket. Upon return I shared my findings and offered her some of the grub I picked up. She let me keep the loot and also rewarded me with a food sanitizer as a reward -- a helpful item for removing the radiation from ruined edible items scattered throughout the world. At any point I could've lied to the woman about my quest and asked for a reward without putting in the work, but I know for a fact that this nefarious behavior would not have gotten me the useful food sanitizer.

My further explorations of the wasteland led me to a beefy quest that involved exterminating a nest of fire breathing ants from a small town. I detailed the benefits of seeing that quest through in yesterday's feature on skills and perks, but I didn't mention how the quest came about. While wandering through the wilderness I was randomly approached by a young lad begging for help. His home had been overrun by fire ants and he had no idea if his missing dad was dead or alive. My determination to help the poor kid led deep into the underground cavern and ultimately an ant strength perk. Before my play session was over I still had the option to find the boy's relative in far-away Rivet City. I could have left him to certain death from the get-go or at other points as the quest unfolded. The point is that good and evil are about multiple conversations and decisions, not just "yes" and "no" choke points.

If players change their play style there are ways to continuously swing your karma in the opposite direction. For example, I came across a starving bum camped just outside of Megaton that begs for fresh water. If you share some of the precious liquid you'll get a good karma boost and this can be done over and over again. Bethesda wanted players to have the ability to switch sides whenever they choose or even be ambiguous. They even mentioned that playing in the shades of gray in between good and evil offers its own set of benefits and perks.

Be sure to watch our special good karma video feature where the developers themselves talk about their favorite styles of play and the benefits of being a nice guy.

Being evil has its merits. And no, I'm not just talking about the joy you can get from the wacky combat options. Sure you can kill somebody by firing teddy bears into their face, beat wild dogs to death with bats, or pickpocket chumps and leave grenades in place of their wallets. I'm talking about being lazy, evil, sneaky... and getting rewarded for it. When I started up my recent play session with Fallout 3, my goal was to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible to get the best weapons out there. With that target in mind, one can't deal with pesky little things like morals.

The trouble is that it's sometimes tough to differentiate between good and evil in Fallout 3. Killing bad people like raiders or bounty hunters isn't considered evil, per se. You're ridding the world of evil, so you're doing good. Apparently all human life is not sacred in this world. All that meant to me is that I'd have to step up my shenanigans to match the twisted world I was running around in. If I was going to be evil, I wanted my karma to reflect it.

If you want to bottom out your karma, there are several roads to take. Killing innocent people is a good way. You can also start stealing any of the hundreds and hundreds of items strewn about each city. It's only a small loss of karma for stealing, so you can still do this from time to time if you're playing a hero. Steal everything and you'll be following in my footsteps. The big one is to destroy Megaton, the first city you come across that has an undetonated nuclear bomb at its heart. Blow it up and level the city and your karma will bottom out.

Needless to say, I rigged the bomb to explode in my game. That may be all you need to do in the game to send your character to evil, but it's small potatoes in the grand scheme of evil. Before leaving for Tenpenny Tower to detonate the nuke, there was business to attend to. I took out my baseball bat and went into the nearest house to see what I could find. A few swings later and I had a new set of clothes and an entire hut to loot. I then went through the rest of the town, systematically murdering everyone and hawking their junk at the local general store. If they're going to die, I may as well make a profit first, right?

Speaking of profit, there's an ongoing quest in Megaton to help a girl gather info for an encyclopedia. It involved a lot of work, I think. I wasn't really paying attention to her pleas. I just told her I'd help, walked outside and waited 24 hours, and then came back and lied to her. Being skilled with words is a great asset indeed.

But no matter how much I stole and lied to gain some caps, the form of currency in Fallout 3, it never seemed to be enough. I bumped into a mercenary who at first wouldn't talk to me because I was too good. A few murders later and we were talking business. The jerk wanted 1,000 caps for his services as a sidekick. I told him to bug off and left him to die in the mushroom cloud that was soon to come.

While causing chaos in Megaton, I came across several aspects of the game that make it easier to be nasty. Though you can get in a pinch if you don't save often, I found that there's always a way out of the mess you create in cities. Cause as much havoc as you like, get the sheriff and every citizen chasing you with guns ablaze, and you can pop outside of the town of Megaton and they won't follow you. Wait 24 hours and go back in and the townsfolk will have forgiven (or forgotten) your deeds. This may not be realistic, but if you go on a little killing spree for fun, you can still salvage your game in the long run.

As fun as the chaos was, Megaton had to go in the end. You get to do this from the comfort of Tenpenny Tower, a luxury complex filled with snobs and jerks -- just my character's cup of tea. Turns out the job was commissioned just because somebody didn't like the town messing up his view. As a reward, you get a suite in the tower of your own that you can decorate, improve and use to customize your character's look. I went with a balding comb-over and a thick mustache. It went well with the pajamas that I was wearing around.

Next it was back to the ruins of Megaton. The lady looking to complete an encyclopedia somehow survived the blast. She was out researching something and missed the epicenter, but didn't make it out unharmed. She asked for some help and I told her that her face was melting off. This didn't please, nor should it. She had turned into a ghoul -- people so ruined by radiation that their bodies and minds are falling apart. The folks at Tenpenny Tower don't like ghouls, so I looked for every underground tunnel to hunt them down and shoot their melty faces off.

At this point, I thought I was pretty bad ass. I was about to learn that murder, lying, and wiping out cities wasn't enough to prepare me for what was to come. I came across a town named Andale. All of the folks touted it as the greatest city on earth. It was almost too happy. It turned out the city had a dark secret. Ask around and you can hear hints of an inbred population. Do some more exploring and you'll find something that made my stomach turn. I'll let you figure that one out for yourself.

If being evil isn't your cup of tea, you can always be neutral. Bethesda tells us there are specific benefits built into the game for taking that route as well. You probably just won't get to see as many heads explode. Your loss.

Sarge wrote:IGN Video Preview

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May contain spoilers

Prototype wrote:

Sarge wrote:IGN Video Preview

clicky

May contain spoilers

strawberry float me, that looks utterly incredible.

Sarge wrote:

Prototype wrote:

Sarge wrote:IGN Video Preview

clicky

May contain spoilers

**** me, that looks utterly incredible.

o/

The IGN previews have been amazing, the combat still looks a little naff though & the environments aren't as varied as I hoped they'd be...but I'm still seriously hyped for the game.

captain red dog wrote:

Sarge wrote:

Prototype wrote:

Sarge wrote:IGN Video Preview

clicky

May contain spoilers

**** me, that looks utterly incredible.

o/

The IGN previews have been amazing, the combat still looks a little naff though & the environments aren't as varied as I hoped they'd be...but I'm still seriously hyped for the game.

I love it too! Cheers for that link sarge.

The Vats looks so much more fun than I thought it would be in practice.

Sarge wrote:

captain red dog wrote:

Sarge wrote:

Prototype wrote:

Sarge wrote:IGN Video Preview

clicky

May contain spoilers

**** me, that looks utterly incredible.

o/

The IGN previews have been amazing, the combat still looks a little naff though & the environments aren't as varied as I hoped they'd be...but I'm still seriously hyped for the game.

I love it too! Cheers for that link sarge.

The Vats looks so much more fun than I thought it would be in practice.

Indeed it does, but I was hoping they'd limit the amount of times you could use V.A.T.S. (unless they are limiting how many times you can use it?)

Just like in the original Fallout, you'll have a set number of action points, largely based on your agility score. Every combat move you make will deplete this supply, at which point those AP will begin to regenerate in real time at a rate that also corresponds with your agility. Once you complete all your actions in V.A.T.S. you can continue to attack in real time, but this will dramatically slow the recharge of your action points, thereby encouraging tactical targeting over constant twitch shooting.

Brerlappins little hat wrote:Some of those enemies look a bit stupid, giant crabs and scorpions and suchlike. Thats all okay in oblivion but in a game set in the real world? I guess im too used to stalkers mutants, still, its looking pretty good, ill definitely pick it up

Today we go farther into the game than anybody outside of Bethesda has to date. With more time I was able to go beyond Megaton and its surroundings, explore the depths of the dilapidated subway tunnels, and make it all of the way to the heart of Washington DC and travel to Rivet City, a massive aircraft carrier run aground and turned into a safe haven for a small band of humans eking out an existence.

Much has already been written about the first few hours outside of the vault, so I won't tread over old ground. You'll likely hit up Megaton, the closest town to where you begin, and then follow quests from there that lead you to various surrounding areas. It's all about exploration in Fallout 3. The game even gives you some experience points for each new landmark you discover. For me, this series of quests and wandering led to Tenpenny Tower, a luxurious apartment complex that houses a number of snobs and generally evil people.

As you approach the tower, you'll meet Roy Phillips. Roy falls under the ghoul and zombie class of characters. These folk have been so damaged by radiation that they're hardly human any more. There are two types of ghouls, though most humans think of all of them are worth eradicating. Some ghouls have lost their minds and become feral. They'll attack anything they see and need to be put down. Others still have a shred of humanity and can still think and behave normally. Their appearance, however, is enough to damn them in most people's eyes.

Once inside Tenpenny Tower, I found out that the local law enforcement not only hates Roy Phillips, they want the whole cadre of ghouls dealt with. I, of course, accepted the quest and went in search of the entrance to the tunnels the ghouls live in. At the heart of the tunnel, after fighting numerous feral ghouls, you'll find Roy and his friends. You don't have to kill them, of course. If you decide to talk to them and befriend the troupe, you can go on a series of quests with some very cool rewards, according to Bethesda, that I won't spoil here. I just killed them and went back to Tenpenny Tower for my reward.

With the ghouls dealt with, I turned my eyes towards the southeastern corner of the map. This is where the ruins of downtown DC sit with Rivet City right at the heart of it. There was just one small hang-up. At this point I had been playing for roughly four hours but had only leveled my character up to around level 5. This progression rate is pretty normal from what we're told, but it didn't make my trek any easier. The heart of Washington DC contains the nastiest enemies I've yet seen, roaming its streets with the all of the confidence being a super mutant brings.

Not every enemy is leveled to your skill set in Fallout 3 which means you may run into areas such as the one I found myself in where the combat is incredibly tough. It's not that you can't kill these guys. Quite the contrary, I was able to take down a few super mutants and other things that go bump in the night with my big guns. The problem is that you wind up taking a lot of damage doing so. I found myself running low on stimpacks and other health regenerative items. I also noticed that parts of your own body can become crippled -- that effect is not just for enemies -- and only a stimpack, a doctor, or sleep can cure the debilitating effects.

Making the run from the safety of the central area of the map down through the DC and into Rivet City was no easy task. I got lost in the rubble of DC a few times before I realized heading all of the way south and then east was an easier route and died a few times before I made it. (Interesting side note: If you make it to the edge of the map, an invisible wall exists and text pops up telling you to turn back. ) Once I made it, my persistence paid off.

Washington DC is barely more than a pile of rocks in Fallout 3. Bombed out buildings house snipers that make your life hell and many of the roads are blocked off by rubble. The easiest way to get around in most cases is to use the subway tunnels. Of course, then you'll have to deal with the aforementioned ghouls. The outdoor area is home to numerous super mutants, massive hulking enemies that don't take kindly to humans. I'm sure there's some reward to exploring the area since a number of famous buildings and structures are still intact, but I barely lasted long enough to duck into Rivet City.

Rivet City is an entire living complex built into the heart of a grounded aircraft carrier. It's got everything from a marketplace (where I found the Fat Boy nuke launcher for the first time) to a chapel and more. I only explored the city for about 30 minutes, but I was still able to find a good number of side quests. None were cooler than the one I found that involved the retrieval of the Declaration of Independence. America may have crumbled in the nuclear war, but that doesn't mean your patriotism had to.

As my six hours with Fallout 3 came to a close, I brought up the map to see how much ground I had covered. It turned out that I didn't see anything from the entire northern half. Even with limiting my travels to the southern region, there were still large areas I hadn't yet had a chance to explore. This game is huge and the satisfaction you get from exploring is just as big. It's been over a week since I played and I still can't shake the desire to go back and look around some more. October 28 can't come soon enough.