9 years, the god of video game have finally answer my prayer.
Game Informer's July Cover Revealed!
by Billy Berghammer
POSTED: 6/5/2007 12:51 PM
http://gameinformer.com/News/Story/2...1221.21984.htm
ith the trailer arriving today, we felt it would be rather fitting to announce our July cover. We're blowing the lid off of one of the most anticipated returns of a franchise - Fallout 3. We bring you inside Bethesda and give you the first details about this post-apocalyptic open-ended RPG that's hitting the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2008.
If that weren't enough, we've also got the first hands-on report for Harmonix's next project, Rock Band! There's a whole lot more on tap in the July issue, as well as the upcoming July edition of Game Informer Unlimited that's set to debut on June 18th. Stay tuned...
Fallout 3 Trailer Released
The game to ship in 2008, allegedly on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
by Charles Onyett
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/794/794515p1.html
June 5, 2007 - While we don't know much about Fallout 3 yet, we can at least see Bethesda is heading in the same direction as the first two RPGs in terms of art style. They've got The Ink Spots' "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" on the soundtrack, which fits in right with the same group's "Maybe" from the original Fallout. According to Bethesda's V.P. of Public Relations and Marketing Pete Hines, Ron Pearlman is doing the voice over, and everything you see in the trailer is done in-engine.
We're still curious what kind of perspective the game will use. Hines refused to comment when asked, but it seems like the game will take place from a first-person or over-the-shoulder third-person perspective. We're making such a statement based on Bethesda' development experience with the Elder Scrolls series, a first-person RPG, and the rather high level of detail seen in the trailer. To think that Bethesda would hide such elements, such as the bear inside the bus, with a three-quarters overhead perspective like in Fallout 1 and 2 seems a little silly.
Expect Fallout to release in fall 2008, as it says at the end of the trailer. Bethesda still has made no announcement as to which platforms they're developing this title for. Game Informer's site, however, has unveiled their July cover, saying the game is indeed in development for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.
Bethesda Soft...
dev is a good engine but...please i'm not hoping to see a second oblivion with total conversion...
looking forward to new vids.
Fallout 3 Interview
We chat with Gavin Carter, Lead Producer of Fallout 3 about the nuts and bolts of this highly anticipated post-nuclear next-gen RPG.
Date: Friday, September 28, 2007
Author: Todd Brakke
http://www.gameshark.com/features/37...-Interview.htm
http://www.gameshark.com/features/37...-Interview.htm
http://www.gameshark.com/features/37...-Interview.htm
Let's start with a quick introduction. Who you are and what your role is in the production of Fallout 3:
I’m Gavin Carter and I’m the lead producer on Fallout 3. It’s my job to take the crazed ramblings of Todd, Emil, and the other leads, and turn them into a workable schedule. Once in a while I even contribute an insane ramble myself. I’m aided by a team of departmental producers who do all my work for me. I couldn’t be nearly as lazy without their constant support.
Most readers are surely familiar with the Fallout concept by this point, but sum up for those that may not be so familiar with it, what kind of game you're designing Fallout 3 to be.
Fallout 3 is post-nuclear role-playing at its next-gen finest. It’s a 1st and 3rd person RPG with themes of survival, sacrifice, player choice, and consequence. The world of Fallout 3 is a destroyed 1950s World of Tomorrow for the player to enjoy, brimming with irony and moral ambiguities. The original Fallout RPGs are among the best pieces of interactive entertainment ever created. We think the series deserves to be back in the RPG limelight and are excited to be the ones tasked with returning it.
Each of the first two Fallouts took place in different geographic regions of the United States. Where does Fallout 3 take place and is there any overlap with locales or events of the first two games?
Fallout 3 changes the location over to the East Coast and takes place in and around the ruins of Washington DC, known as the Capital Wasteland. There’s very little location or event overlap. Mostly it’s a shared history of events as well as some shared factions, like Super Mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel.
To what degree can you talk about the world, beyond just geography, that Fallout inhabits. How much time has elapsed since nuclear Armageddon? To what point has society recovered from it by the time the player character emerges from the Vault?
The nuclear devastation occurred in 2077 according to the Fallout timeline. Our game takes place 200 years after that, putting us about 30 years after the events of Fallout 2. Despite that timeframe, one of our themes is the fact that things aren’t getting better. Humanity is still locked in a struggle for survival, and things are getting worse.
With Fallout 3 using the Oblivion engine, how much of the gameplay mechanics are also carrying over? For example, will enemies and their loot level up with the player character as in Oblivion?
A few gameplay mechanics will feel similar, I’m sure. We’ve been able to iterate a few times now on the whole “big open world” style of game. So there are things that we feel work well in that context. That said, there’s nothing that we won’t look at closely to make sure it fits in with Fallout 3 specifically, and level-scaling is one of them. We’ve created tools that allow us much more control to tie the leveling into individual locations rather than making everything happen globally as with Oblivion. We’re also not letting creatures level up their abilities with you; a Deathclaw will always be a Deathclaw.
Relative to Oblivion, how big is the game world? If it's significantly larger or smaller, what advantages does this change in scope lend to the game?
This question is always a tough one to answer, since so many things go into a game world’s size. The basic answer is that it’s a bit smaller. We recently went through and added some more land area to it to make sure it had that wide-open Wasteland feel. But like Oblivion, Fallout 3 will also have hundreds of interior spaces to explore, as well as some special areas that are cordoned off of the main game world, but still huge in their own right. We do have a smaller number of NPCs in the game world, because we want to concentrate on fleshing out as many characters as deeply as possible.
The SPECIAL character development system from the first two Fallout games is back. How will it be different (if at all)?
We’re using the SPECIAL character system and making few changes to it. The stats all play nicely with our gameplay design. For instance, Perception still feeds into seeing enemies and Agility still affects your action points, which are used for VATS mode. Any of the SPECIAL stats (as well as skills) can be polled in dialog and give you access to different options. Some perks also require a minimum score in a SPECIAL stat for you to use them, as well.
Can you explain the combat system being used for Fallout 3? My understanding is we'll see options for both a real-time and turn-based format. How will that work?
The game is first and foremost an RPG, so your skills factor into everything you do. Even in real-time gameplay, if your character has a low Small Guns skill, you’ll see your arms wobbling around more when you use a gun from that category. You can play combat in real-time like that, but we also have a mode that we’ve termed VATS – the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. This mode allows you to pause time and target enemies in specific body locations. You’re given information such as a percentage chance to hit each part (again, based on your skills). You queue up moves based on how many action points you have to spend, then unleash them and watch as the resolution is played out cinematically. What this mode provides is a way to put combat completely in the hand of your character’s skills instead of your own.
How much control over the "camera" when using a third-person perspective will players have?
The game can be played in first-person or third-person. Third-person uses an over-the-shoulder view similar to Resident Evil 4 or Gears of War, that allows you to aim and target things without your character’s big head getting in the way. You can zoom the 3rd person camera in and out and position it vertically, but I wouldn’t say that we’re supporting a full isometric view. The camera is tethered to the player and has collision, so if your character goes through a door or runs under a tunnel, the camera will snap in close.
How much freedom will the player character have in dealing with NPCs and how significantly will the consequences of the characters actions affect the game world?
We’re striving to give the player as much freedom as possible, while maintaining a high standard of quality. Evaluating a game by freedom becomes difficult, because people are always able to imagine a level of freedom greater than whatever level we provide. In real life, every situation has infinite possibilities. We, on the other hand, have to pick and choose our battles. We aim to provide as many opportunities for being a Good Samaritan or being Supremely Evil. And of course, as much tasty gray area in between as possible.
Some have criticized the PC version of Oblivion for having a UI that was too much like the console game, not taking enough advantage of higher PC resolutions for things like the inventory UI, etc. How different will the UI for the PC version of Fallout 3 be, compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions?
The interfaces will be very similar in terms of art and layout. We are more sensitive to the PC side of things this time around, and as such the default font is smaller than what we had in Oblivion. We have a number of other things we’re doing to make the PC interface better.
The PC version of Oblivion, obviously, was very mod-friendly and there has been enormous support from the gaming community in producing mods that significantly alter how the game plays. To what degree is Fallout 3 for the PC being designed to be just as community friendly?
The data structure of the game as a whole is similar to Oblivion, so theoretically a modding tool in that vein is possible. The issue becomes that it’s actually a fairly significant amount of work and testing to prepare a tool like our editor for public release, as well as making the game work well with mods. We’d love to do it, but just can’t promise it’s going to happen.
What aspects of Fallout 3's gameplay do you think gamers will end up really latching onto? For example, three months after the game's release, what do you think gamers will be crowing about as their favorite feature or aspect of the game?
My hope is that they’ll be comparing gameplay experiences and talking about the different choices that they made and how it changed things for them. I think we’ll get a lot of talk about particular great VATS sequences that people see. Mostly I hope people get into the game and just get lost inside experiencing the world that we’re creating.
There's been some "controversy" in various gaming forums from fans of the first two games that have reacted very negatively to the direction they perceive this game to be going, relative to the original games. Have you seen any of the negativity and what has been your reaction to it given that this game won't even be released for another year?
I read lots of message boards all over the place, even if they’re negative. I find that even the negative reactions vary quite a bit. You definitely get some people that start to get a bit maudlin or melodramatic, but you can also find a lot that are well-reasoned and very deeply passionate about the series. I think whenever you have something quality that can whip people into a frenzy, it’s a good thing. I would be much more disappointed if we were simply ignored.
Do you think many of the concerns fans of the original Fallout have voiced will be assuaged when they're able to get their hands on the final product?
That’s the hope of course. As you mentioned, there is quite some time to go before this game is actually out there, and we’ve got a lot more info to reveal in a desperately slow trickle, as we’re (in)famous for. I do believe strongly that we’re making a worthy successor to the originals, and I hope that becomes more and more evident as the Big Picture reveals itself.
What aspects of Fallout 3 are you concerned longtime Fallout fans may not embrace as much as you might hope?
Can I just forward you a list of every feature in the game? I’m sure that for just about every feature you could name that we might consider changing for Fallout 3, you could find someone for whom that feature sums up everything that’s quintessentially Fallout. To give a direct answer, I think VATS is probably the feature that we knew would cause the most stir when we were working on the idea. Doing something that’s relatively new is always a risk. When most people think of turn-based and real-time as opposite ends of the same spectrum (something I disagree with), we knew it would take a while for the message of why we think VATS is a great idea to take root with people.
We'd like to thank Gavin for taking the time to chat with us about the game. Fallout 3 is still quite a way from being released and we'll have more on the game as it continues its development.