Ladonna
Arcane
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Its long. I'm off sick. So think yourselves lucky...Anyway,
This Preview is from the Australian PC games magazine 'PC Powerplay' September 2007. The preview was written by Anthony Fordham. All spelling mistakes, except for a couple I actually corrected :wink: are mine.
How does Todd Howard reassure us that the post-OblivionBethesda is the right team to be creating Fallout 3? "This is the game we want to do. We're fans of the original game, and when hiring people after Oblivion, I was always asking 'what do you know about the Fallout universe?'"
Howard understands that Fallout 3, like only a handful of other games, treads on sacred ground. Fallout and Fallout 2 are definitiveRPGs for our beloved platform, known far and wide among nerds as two of the greatest "Western" roleplaying experiences any gamer can enjoy.
"Fallout is all about a particular style." says Howard. "It's all about capturing that pulp adventure atmosphere. But it's also about player choice and consequence. It's about creating an inviting world that's harsh yet charming. And it's about giving the player lots of choice, via traits and perks, and using those in the situations the game puts you in."
All this is very reassuring indeed. And it gets even better as Howard warms to his topic.
"One thing about the design in Fallout is that it's very iconic. Things look a certain way in that world, and we're making sure we capture that. Things like the Pip boy interface and the way the Vault looks. We're also using the sounds effects from the original game for things like buttons on the interface and other fine details like that. You wil know this is a Fallout game from the moment you start."
But Howard wants to make it clear that looking back at the original games is merely a place to start. "We look back initially but it gives us a foundation to go forward, establish this pulp adventure world, and start taking it places the original games couldn't."
The most obvious change, of course, is the move to a 3D engine. The isometric fixed viewpoint of old is gone, replaced by a selectable third- or first-person view. Howard is quick to insist this isn't just tech for tech's sake, but adds considerably to the new game.
"The tech you use for the game affects the realism of the world. We can just add so much more detail in a 3D engine. You can now walk up to a rack of equipment and see what's there, just choosing the thing you want right off the rack.
"It lets you touch the world in a different way, gives you access to different kinds of information. For instance, you can see what the weather is like just by walking outside."
Howard says there's another important reason for the move to a cutting-edge 3D engine.
"This is Fallout 3 so the game has to make a big technological impact. A lot of people forget that the original game was really cutting edge for its time. It was one of the first SVGA games to feature full lip-syncing for its characters. So we need to take Fallout 3 to the next level to ensure that same level of impact exists with this new game.
"There's one more thing too that 3D allows us -- we can do some really crazy things with the violence. That's another thing people forget about the original, it had all these really insane finishing moves and effects like that and we want to bring that back. With 3D you can do some really crazy stuff. It sounds kind of horrible I suppose, but the violence is a core part of the Fallout experience."
There's more to capturing the spirit of a game than a few recycled sounds effects and shiny new graphics, though. Of biggest concern to us here at PCPP is the risk that the game will be "dumbed down" for a new generation of action-junkie gamers. That the game is also being developed for the Xbox 360 only heightens our concern.
But Howard is quick to explain.
"Essentially, the SPECIAL roleplaying system is very very similar to the first game. We have the same number of stats, and the same ability to make choices about how your character develops. The game is about choice and consequence and I think we're capturing that really well.
"What I especially like about the Fallout games is that there are no classes, you aren't forced to pigeonhole youself right at the beginning of the game. You can start to play, develop a style as you go, and make choices about which perks to select in order to push your character in a certain direction. But it's much more fluid than just saying 'I'm a scientist' at the beginning of the game and then having to live that choice through all the hours ahead."
Because Fallout 3 has made the jump to 3D, combat now has the opportunity to be far more action oriented. In fact, elements of the combat will be much as you find them in any shooter: just point the gun and press the fire button.
Naturally this causes alarm to Fallout diehards, since the original games had turn-based tactical combat systems. The good news is that Fallout 3 does too, and it's called VATS -- the VaulTec Assisted Targeting System.
It's needed because the real-time combat is affected heavily by the player's own stats. You can whip out the old shotgun and hew away, but if your stats aren't up to the task, likely as not you'll miss a challenging opponent. Howard says this is because Bethesda wants the player to be in constant control, but doesn't want to reward "twitch skills".
VATS works like the targeted shots in the original games, and allows the player to cure up moves when facing several opponents at once.
"The beauty of VATS is that it works alongside the real-time combat system and enables you to better see what kind of meaning and consequences your choices about how your character is developing affect you in the game world," says Howard. Like the original games, the number of moves is based on the number of action points VATS gives the player to spend, determined byt the Agility stat. VATS pauses the game and allows the player to stand apart from their character, having an out-of body- experience as it were.
"VATS allows you to see things that your character can't immediately see, and it gives you a massive tactical advantage," Howard says.
It will be possible to zoom in on enemies and target specific body parts and make use of specific perks and special moves. But it all comes at a cost: action points.
"You only have a limited number of points and they don't recharge right away. So the choice becomes, when you're walking down a road and see, say, and ant, do you want to spend points on such a low level enemy? Or do you just want to pull out your gun and shoot it?"
Howard goes on. "Even in some situations you might encounter a moderately challenging enemy, but the decision is this: do I spend my points now to make this a really easy encounter, or so I save the points because I don't know if there might be a bigger group of enemies around the corner?"
When you do use the VATS, you're in for a treat. Once all the moves are cued up and you're ready to atack, hit the button and the action plays back in a cinematic fashion. The camera will move around the combat area, concentrating on different elements of the fight.
"Blow a guy's head off and it zooms in and shows you the gory details.: says Howard, invoking that old ultra-violence once again.
VATS sounds great, but here's the question. If the engine is capable of real-time combat, why not just make Fallout 3 a shooter? Why implement VATS at all? Similarly, why not just stick to a turn-based combat system like the originals, if Bethesda is so careful to maintain the spirit of the first game?
"Basically this is the most fun way to play," Howard says simply. "It makes your character choices more meaningful and it strikes a balance between twitch gameplay and the slow pace of a turn-based system."
Fallout was an RPG, no buts about it. The acronym SPECIAL was composed of the first letter of your characters primary attributes. On top of these, perks and traits added special moves and abilities: everything from being able to chat up prostitutes to having an affinity for fixing broken generators. Even radiation played a role.
When Ionstorm released Deus Ex: invisible war -- a sequel to a beloved PC game that was simultaneously developed for the Xbox -- fans howled when they found their beloved stats had gone missing.
Developers across the world go on about how players don't want stats, how they want the game world to be seamless, for all the mechanics to be hidden away. Howard strongly disagrees: "I don't think gamers are afraid of stats. I mean, Fallout 3 has fewer stats than Oblivion, and that game was very successful. We definately love to throw stats at the player. I think any gamer wants a game with a nice interface and that eases them into how the game behaves.
"We've found that the average RPG player loves all the stats and loves to tweak their characters. They just want to understand how the game works, how their character works, and for their character to have meaning."
This is something Howard stresses over and over again during our conversation. That the choices the player makes in Fallout 3 will be meaningful.
"The quests pretty much all have multiple solutions. Thats's something we're really pushing on in this game," he says.
Which augurs well for the future replayability, something in which Fallout has always excelled. Finish the game as a tank, then go back and try it again as a ladies' man. Can Fallout 3 capture Deus Ex's level of multiple solutions to every game problem? Our fingers are firmly crossed.
One thin you can't accuse Bethesda of is not taking the time to do a proper job on Fallout 3. Howard tells us the game started development in 2004, but it wasn't until Oblivion was finished a little over a year aog that things really started to ramp up.
"We hired a lot more people, grew the team, and now we're focused on creating the next instalment in the Fallout universe. It's a completely new game, but we've captured the essence of Fallout."
Gamers will make the final judgement, but from talking to Todd Howard, it's clear that Bethesda's heart is in the right place, and the developer is working hard to make sure this isn't just a generic 3D RPG with a Fallout logo, but the genuine and worthy successor to the games that means so much to so many of us.
This Preview is from the Australian PC games magazine 'PC Powerplay' September 2007. The preview was written by Anthony Fordham. All spelling mistakes, except for a couple I actually corrected :wink: are mine.