Fallout 3 - Polish Preview Summaries

Dhruin

SasqWatch
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
Ausir was kind enough to send along summaries of two Fallout 3 previews in Polish print mags:
<div id="post_message_">The July issue of the Polish PSX Extreme magazine has a Fallout 3 preview, based on the same London demo as all other recent previews in Polish press. Some bits:

* At age 16 we select our perks - e.g. Bloody Mess or Good Speaker. Pete didn't want to say what the rest of the perks will be.
* No romances.
* We will often have problems with lack of clean water or food. The Geiger counter will sound pretty often. Hines says that when he plays the alpha at home, he is pretty much never fully healed - he's always either wounded or radiated.
* Eating food is not mandatory, but food increases your HP. However, you should look out for radiated food. Sometimes you will have to wonder whether you should eat radiated food, even with low HP, since the consequences of radiation are even worse.
* Radiation is a much bigger problem in FO3 than in previous games. It drastically decreases your combat abilities, and can even lower your skills permanently.
* There will be around 50 different weapons.
* While we'll be able to find e.g. Power Armors early on, they will be in pretty bad condition (low CND bar) and will require extensive repairs or will get broken quickly.
* The role of Charisma is lower than in previous games, Fallout 3 relies on combat much more than FO1 and FO2. However, we'll be able to use stealth throughout most of the game.
* Many weapons can be constructed based on schematics.
* If you have your weapon on your shoulder, you can run and the NPCs are not aggressive. If you equip it, you can only walk.
* Jumping has no influence on the combat system, it's just for avoiding some obstacles.
* There is no gambling, you cannot participate in slaver raids nor guard caravans.
* No locations are randomly generated. However, depending on which way you'll head, some scripted events will appear there, e.g. you will encounter Dogmeat early on regardless of where you go.

The Polish CD-Action magazine was invited to Bethesda headquarters for a hands-on preview of Fallout 3. A summary:

* They had a predefined character - a strong male.
* The game can be saved at any moment, and saving is pretty quick.
* We leave the Vault with a PipBoy, a pistol, some ammo and a holotape with a message from the father.
* Ammo is scarce and it's best to fight weaker opponents hand to hand.
* They go to Megaton by following a sign in Springvale showing the way to the town.
* In Springvale, the Sputnik Eyebot was hovering over the street, broadcasting a speech of the Enclave president.
* Megaton looks like a Wild West town. We have a good sheriff, and an evil saloon owner. The saloon has a prostitute, but she tells the player character that he's too young to use her services.
* We are informed that our Karma has changed after the fact. We also don't see any numbers - we just see e.g. a Vault Boy with angel wings and a "Saint" description.
* If we are caught trying to steal something, the person we tried to rob will first chase us, trying to recover his property. He won't be happy, but usually it won't end with a shootout, unless we already have a bad reputation. Well, it was enough to cause some trouble in Megaton for everyone to turn against us. What then? We can try putting our weapon down - if we didn't kill anyone, the situation will calm down.
* If we, however, do have blood on our hands already, the best way out is to quickly evacuate. Fortunately, a return is possible. After a few days the emotions drop down, and entering the town does not end with bloodshed. But still, people will know about our deeds and if we cause trouble again, they won't give us the benefit of a doubt this time.
* At first glance, it looked like they'd wander around aimlessly. But only at first glance, thanks to the compass. Directions where we can find something interesting are marked with little triangles. We'll learn what it is when we get there (it can be a school taken over by bandits, a cinema with car wrecks, a baseball pitch with dead bodies hanging from the fence, a small settlement at an overpass or a normal town). The compass can also show the place where we have a quest to do or a navigation point we put on the map ourselves.
* You use stimpaks on specific parts of the body, as hit points are divided among them.
* When throwing grenades and during hand-to-hand combat, while you can use V.A.T.S., you can't aim at specific parts of the body.
* Choice of gender has been marginalized and its importance will be minimal.
* Lots of blood and profanity.
* Body parts can be disintegrated or vaporized, depending on the weapon.
* The PC version has the same interface as the X360 one, but adjusted to the use of mouse and k...More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
The same preview say that the game is mostly a fps :D

Soo we got the final info of this game, is a action rpg, i guess there is a mass effect on the developers :D
________
Mexicocity Hotel
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 30, 2008
Messages
151
Location
Venezuela
* If we are caught trying to steal something, the person we tried to rob will first chase us, trying to recover his property. He won't be happy, but usually it won't end with a shootout, unless we already have a bad reputation. Well, it was enough to cause some trouble in Megaton for everyone to turn against us. What then? We can try

Looks like the game has stealing after all. Allthough they could have still excluded pick pocketing. Stealing is just what you can rob from somones home etc.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Messages
3,160
Location
Europa Universalis
I certainly hope so. I wouldn't mind a map-and-compass thing built into the Pip-Boy, where you could set a flag, and then get a heading. I just hate the idea of quest objectives and "points of interest" magically appearing on it.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
Unfortunately, the only way to turn off the compass is to hide the entire HUD.

I hope somone manages to mod it away then without loosing the HUD (if its important). Even if the game dont get an editor there is always a chance that its moddable to atleast som extent. Removal of quest compass was one of the first mods made for oblivion iirc.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Messages
3,160
Location
Europa Universalis
I was hoping hand to hand would be a little deeper but I guess not if you can't even aim at specific body parts. They could've at least let you choose body shots or head shots.

Also, on a somewhat related note... I'm still waiting for a non-fighting game to have a completely realistic unarmed combat system. It would be cool to be able to not only punch and kick but also have grappling moves as well.
 
Two words:

Dwarf.
Fortress.

(Although I suppose "completely realistic" is somewhat debatable, since it's possible to puncture a lung by throwing vomit at your enemy.)
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
Back
Top Bottom