Fallout 3 - Preview @ RPG Vault

RPG Vault's Jonric has previewed Fallout 3 based on the same media event everyone attended:

The critical path, which involves finding your father, will have a fairly linear sequence of key events. The team is aiming for it to take about 20 hours to complete, with optional quests approximately doubling that time. There will be multiple endings, although I don't recall a specific number being mentioned. However, it was clear the game will end; you won't be able to wander forever after completing the main plot line, but given the inclusion of other decision points like Megaton plus the range of character types you can create and advance, replayability looks likely to be high.

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More information.

errr I think Jonric is smoking some whacky weed

It was pointed out that the PC version won't require Vista, although DirectX10 may be necessary.

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Considering directx10 is a Vista EXCLUSIVE :lol:

At other points he gives vague answers when the devs said clearly the answer during the press junket. For example they gave an estimate of the number of endings

Area difficulty will scale, but not in a strictly linear manner to your character level. If you enter and return later, the setting will not change.

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Again that goes against nearly every other preview. They said a few creatures might scale slightly but the vast majority won't and the only way they will get tougher is if they have better weapons/armour.

Hmm...Desslock more or less said the same thing about scaling at Qt3, plus from NMA's FAQ:

"John Walker, Eurogamer: The first time you enter a zone, it will level itself appropriately. But, go back later and it will stay at the level it first generated... A 'species' of creature is fixed at a certain level, and will stay that way throughout. Get stronger, and it gets easier to defeat. It's simple, but it should let you feel the progression in a way many games prevent."

Jonric's obviously got the DX10 thing wrong but I think he's broadly right on the scaling.

Yes, but if you go into an area that is too tough for you it won't scale down right? I recall reading something about this. I guess that is what he meant by the scaling not being linear.....

Doesn't that raise a whole lot of issues? What happens if you peek into a lot of areas at level 1 without fighting anything? Are all the monsters going to be at level 1 then even after you have gained 10 levels and come back to those areas you just peeked into?

In the Game Informer article it says that you can go to areas and be easily killed by higher level enemies so probably what they are meaning by the leveling ;when you go into an area is that there is a limited leveling where creatures have a cetain range in which they level from the lowest to the highest in that range when you enter that area depending on your level at the time.

ex. You start the game and decide to go to a very difficult area and instantly got killed and at that time those creatures leveled to the lowest level they could go but it was still higher then you. you>1 them>15-20 you>enter them>15 you>die

It would, of course, be possible to describe Morrowind and Oblivion in similar terms. Indeed, unfounded mumblings to the effect that Fallout 3 would be a post-apocalyptic The Elder Scrolls have arisen within some corners of the RPG player community. Thankfully, this has been confined to fairly infrequent occurrences. The vast majority of us are happy to evaluate the game on its own merits.

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I don't agree with the Oblivion with guns term either, but this paragraph really strikes me as highly unprofessional and needlessly defensive. Game journalism is really down the drain these days. You'd think a real journalist would get an interesting story out of the controversy over FO3, but the only thing I have seen about that was the coverage in the escapist.

GhanBuriGhan said:

I don't agree with the Oblivion with guns term either, but this paragraph really strikes me as highly unprofessional and needlessly defensive.

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It's not just that, it's a direct contradiction of a statement of a fellow journalist.

From the Games Radar preview:

Change is often good, but messing with what fans love can be a dangerous business. Purists may scream bloody murder when they find out that the familiar isometric third-person view - and point-and-click control scheme - is gone. But the change from the original third-person view to "Oblivion with guns" is a welcome one.

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Also, GanBuriGan, don't forget Delsyn also wished us all to die, that's coverage. Kind of.

I think him saying "The vast majority of us" is incorrect as well, I would say a fair portion of people have the expectation it will be Oblivion with guns (rightfully or not), in fact I would say in nearly every discussion I read at least one person says it.

The scaling bit will be explained in detail in one of the next Desslock chronics on PCGamer, I'll wait until then to be sure of what they are talking about.