Fallout 3 - Gone Gold?

We haven't heard directly from Bethsoft but Fallout 3 European distie sent Worthplaying a Gold press release, although apparently Bethsoft were unwilling to provide direct confirmation:

Fallout 3 places a player in the role of a Vault-dweller, who ventures from his secluded, underground survival Vault into a post-apocalyptic world of mutants, radiation, gangs and violence. European distributor Ubisoft revealed Fallout 3 has gone gold, and is on track for its late Oct. release date. While we tried to confirm this with Bethesda PR, all we received was a "we'll get back to you when we know more" comment, not exactly a denial either.

Click to expand...

Given the well-publicised release date at the end of this month, it wouldn't exactly be a surprise.
In other news, Edge Online grabbed Tim Cain for a comment on FO3:

He said in an interview with Edge on Tuesday, "I do like what I've seen about Fallout 3. I've talked to those guys at Bethesda about it. It's their IP now and they've gone in a certain direction and it's very intriguing.
"It's not necessarily the direction I would've gone, but I can tell you I have my Fallout 3 pre-ordered. I want my life-sized Pip-Boy. I'm going to be playing that at the end of the month."

Click to expand...

He goes on to say he does think the expanded size may reduce the feeling of being a survivor.
More information.

its also apparantly been leaked on x360

Yes.
NoMutantsAllowed released an article (they report the info forcing their rules about piracy only to point out that leaking games is illegal and damages the game insdustry).
It seems the game's been leaked on XBox.
The "funny" part of thi story is that Bethesda was concerned about pc piracy not expecting the fist strike shuold have come from xBox platform.
I join NoMutantsAllowed in firmly condemning piracy.

dyze said:

its also apparantly been leaked on x360

Click to expand...

Xbox360 leaking seems to be accelerating - fallout3 is not the only one been released way before it actually comes to the stores. Hope they catch the sobs who are doing this - they will loose their jobs and propably wont be rehired anywhere again by the industry.

Pirating is so casual nowadays that they are propably in good faith that its okay to break the contract they have.

There's always a silver lining. Many publishers have supposedly been abandoning the PC due to piracy concerns. If console piracy becomes as significant, they may reconsider. And if we're really lucky, they'll start looking for business models that render the whole concept obsolete.

Did anybody scroll down to the first review linked to at NMA?
PC Gamer Sweden:
"Fallout 3 IS "Oblivion with guns"." - 81%

Gorath said:

Did anybody scroll down to the first review linked to at NMA?
PC Gamer Sweden:
"Fallout 3 IS "Oblivion with guns"." - 81%

Click to expand...

And of course the french one says exactly the opposite:
"Thus, the fear that Fallout 3 could be a post-apocalyptic Oblivion is totally gone" Guess it always depends how you define "Oblivion with guns" in the first place.

Exactly, and it also depends on what you want it to be. If you're already convinced that Fallout 3 is Oblivion-with-guns, it's rather likely that you'll end up considering it Oblivion-with-guns.

People do tend to see what they want to see.

Maylander said:

Exactly, and it also depends on what you want it to be. If you're already convinced that Fallout 3 is Oblivion-with-guns, it's rather likely that you'll end up considering it Oblivion-with-guns.

People do tend to see what they want to see.

Click to expand...

This has never been more apparent as when I was reading NMA and Bethsoft forums side by side earlier today. You wouldn't think they could possibly have seen the same videos, lol. Of course now the thread at bethsoft's forum has been deleted, sigh.

Gragnak said:

NoMutantsAllowed released an article (they report the info forcing their rules about piracy only to point out that leaking games is illegal and damages the game insdustry).

Click to expand...

I assume the Watch won't be posting on it at all or at the most post the VideoGamer.com article, and I was tempted to do the same (just ignore it), but people come to NMA expecting full Fallout 3 coverage so I couldn't just ignore a major issue like that.

Breaks my heart still. I may disagree with Bethesda, but this is still terrible - for everyone, from honest consumers to the guys working at Bethesda.

GhanBuriGhan said:

This has never been more apparent as when I was reading NMA and Bethsoft forums side by side earlier today. You wouldn't think they could possibly have seen the same videos, lol. Of course now the thread at bethsoft's forum has been deleted, sigh.

Click to expand...

Yes, funny stuff.

It's a polarizing title for sure, perhaps in the same way Oblivion was. Still, when I say the videos of Fallout 3 show:
- horrible animation
- mediocre-to-terrible voice acting
- Ridiculous situations (you get beaten up at your own birthday party by some kid and nobody even looks around or reacts)
I think that's facts. I'm not saying you have to dislike Fallout 3 because of them, though I'm certainly shocked to see such blatant errors from Oblivion returns, but I am a bit surprised to see people react as if they just saw the perfect game when looking at that.

That's not to say I'm not being overly negative - I'm not talking nearly enough (nor is NMA) about the great environments, the gloomy bloomless atmosphere, the stacks and stacks of varied dialogue options.

And I still dislike the term "Oblivion with Guns" and find it an inaccurate description of Fallout 3, but whatever, people will keep using it in positive or negative ways.

OK, who knows the real Brother None's email address? Someone has to let him know his account has been hacked.

Brother None said:

- horrible animation
- mediocre-to-terrible voice acting
- Ridiculous situations (you get beaten up at your own birthday party by some kid and nobody even looks around or reacts)

Click to expand...

I could have told you it'd have those problems before seeing anything about the game. Bethesda seems incapable of doing any kind of constructive criticism on their games. I don't think they're ever made a game that didn't have terrible animation. It's amazing how much money they'll spend on a game and not hire anyone who can properly animate stuff.

Where are these videos that show FO3 having "horrible" animation? All the videos I've seen looked fine to me. Not the best animation I've ever seen, but certainly not "horrible".

they seem to have been removed from youtube now, but i have to agree, the animations is the usual bethesda-sub-standard-style. there were some 3rd person parts where it really showed, severe ice skating etc..

dyze said:

they seem to have been removed from youtube now, but i have to agree, the animations is the usual bethesda-sub-standard-style. there were some 3rd person parts where it really showed, severe ice skating etc..

Click to expand...

That was the part that really surprised me. The ice skating was criticized already with the very first preview videos of Oblivion, I am just surprised this still isn't fixed. There was a scene at the GOAT test where it was really severe, on the Player Character.

Here's one of the more recent video previews, I see no problems with the animation. In fact, it looks quite good if you ask me.

JDR13 said:

Here's one of the more recent video previews, I see no problems with the animation. In fact, it looks quite good if you ask me.

Click to expand...

Well they would, since they are official PR material, wouldn't they.

Also, while I deem it unlikely, maybe that build these unofficial videos were made on is an earlier bugged build. But I agree with brother none, that there were a number of poor animation on show there - ice skating, repetitive radroach jumping, stiff turning and somewhat stilted idle animations. Not worse than Oblivion, but surprisingly also not better. Surprisingly especially because I thought I read they started using motion capture - but either they don't or they have problems using it, or connecting those animations.
It doesn't really matter much, but these visual things are of course what strikes you when watching a video. It's certainly not all negative. I'd say that the faces look a lot better than in Oblivion. I also like the general art direction.

GhanBuriGhan said:

Well they would, since they are official PR material, wouldn't they.

Click to expand...

Mmmm, and what were the "unofficial" videos then? Leaked material that Bethesda didn't want anyone to see? I somehow doubt the difference is that pronounced, I certainly didn't notice it.

JDR13 said:

Mmmm, and what were the "unofficial" videos then? Leaked material that Bethesda didn't want anyone to see? I somehow doubt the difference is that pronounced, I certainly didn't notice it.

Click to expand...

Good for you. Since the videos are gone, the discussion is moot for the moment.

GhanBuriGhan said:

And of course the french one says exactly the opposite:
"Thus, the fear that Fallout 3 could be a post-apocalyptic Oblivion is totally gone" Guess it always depends how you define "Oblivion with guns" in the first place.

Click to expand...

Link? Details?