Fallout 3 Thread (Also a few questions to any former Black Isle employees)

[Costau D]

I could've sworn there was a thread made already, but oh well. I know that there are some artists on these boards who worked with Black Isle, and I thought I would just ask if you guys could take some time to maybe talk about the old days during the creation of the original games?

The game industries use of concept art was in its infant stages then, and I thought it would be interesting to hear how things were handled and your opinions on how it evolved. Black Isle studio was a large part of my inspiration for getting into the game industry. Also, how do you like the direction the game is going now ever since bethesda got its hands on it?

This is also just an overall discussion about the game so anyone can chime in.

[Seer]

After having watched the trailers and demos it seems to me that they've focused on violence (environments/graphics look fantastic though). Some of the people on the team freak me out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW4YgkTQXBA

[Saturns Gate]

Black Isle studio was a large part of my inspiration for getting into the game industry.

Same here man, them and Bioware really got my interested in what could happen in the video game market. Im personally looking forward to the new fallout, even though it isn't what I had initially hoped for (i needs top down view baby!) but I am still happy enough to be venturing into that awesome world again. I just hope they have some strong decision making along the way as in the previous Fallout's.

[Jabo]

That video posted above is stating some pretty disgusting things about the game, I'm sorry. What's this whole "talk to someone, then put his head on the shelves" line about? That the game allows you to do these kind of things? What I see there is mainly blood spilling. Is that the deep game that everyone keeps talking about? Pretty bad deep game then.

[Costau D]

The originals were deep, this we are not sure of. The games side stories and quests have always been cool, funny and at times messed up. Lots of moral judgement in this game so you make it what you want. We'll see though. I'm sure they put in as much effort as they did with the elder scrolls series...Especially morrowind and oblivion. Hopefully they paid more attention to the substance of the game aside from the ultra violence. Since the original fallout was an isometric turn based rpg you did foucs more on the quests, and the gore was just fluff.

[Dave_]

First i was like ´meh´. Since the aiming system with the wristband seemed to slow the game down, but it seems pretty streamlined and not neccesary. and now i want to play it real bad =)

[Jason Rainville]

Oblivion veered away from morrowind so badly (and I'm not talking about venue, that's a valid change; I'm talking about the watered-down gameplay) that I lost faith in Bethesda. Truly oblivion only holds lasting value with mods that bring some semblance of, you know, an rpg to the game.

I was looking forward to fallout 3 but now I'm very skeptical. If I hear that level scaling is anything like oblivion's, I won't go near this game with a ten foot pole. Finishing an 'epic' rpg without having to level up quite a bit kinda defeats the purpose.

[Jabo]

I admit the atmosphere in these trailers is kinda neat and is really well done storywise. I'm a shooter fan though and am used their kind of convenience, so this seems all very complicated to me. The problem I have with these... non-linear kind of games (RPG) with large amounts of free space is that they become boring quite fast, contrary to their reputation of being deep. That's why I haven't touched Stalker yet.

[Costau D]

Yeah especially that stupid quick travel and copy paste environments in oblivion. Morrowind is still my number 1.

Jabo: You are probably just used to linear gameplay. Open gameplay can be daunting because it is up to you where to go so you do have to think differently. That's what makes it fun though especially since there is so much you can do. The only time a game like this is freaking horrible to play and boring is when it is copy pasted content and there is no difference from where you were and where your going (like oblivion). If they spent enough time on adding personality and detail to each region, and stuck with it, you will love a game like this.

[Saturns Gate]

Jason, from what i heard there not going with the old level scaling in this, some zones your not going to stand a chance in if your a low lvl. They picked up on it in an interview a while back saying it was a mistake in oblivion to have creatures lvl with you.

Jabo, yeah man I tried Stalker and thought illd get into it, but something never clicked, and I do like open plan games. Fallout 1 and 2 had a great amount of humor added to it, which IMO Stalker did not, it felt way too dry and morbid for me in the end.

[Straight Edge Ryan]

I personally really liked Oblivion and thought having the world leveling up with you wasn't necessarily a bad thing in that it didn't feel like the game was blocking you (you know like in old games where you'd reach some obstacle between you and the goal of the main storyline that would kill you in seconds so you'd have to go on some side quest to disable it, that sorta thing)

So far the only flaws I've found in RPGs are: 1) gameplay can be kinda slow in the beginning. And 2) they're too damn wordy

[Lukias]

depends on your buzz... Torment was a well liked game.. I played it again recently it it blatantly kicked ass. But wordy as they come.

That video posted above is stating some pretty disgusting things about the game, I'm sorry. What's this whole "talk to someone, then put his head on the shelves" line about? That the game allows you to do these kind of things? What I see there is mainly blood spilling. Is that the deep game that everyone keeps talking about? Pretty bad deep game then.

Yeah I know! I have a mate who loves extreme violence but justifies it with "You can't do it in real life, so I can live it out on screen" it worries me that people feel a little let down with not being able to take peoples heads off in reality.

[Jason Rainville]

I personally really liked Oblivion and thought having the world leveling up with you wasn't necessarily a bad thing in that it didn't feel like the game was blocking you (you know like in old games where you'd reach some obstacle between you and the goal of the main storyline that would kill you in seconds so you'd have to go on some side quest to disable it, that sorta thing)

I don't think 'blocking' is the right term here, since the difficulty level in Morrowind in the main quest scaled up consistently. I think the right term is 'dangerous.' Morrowind was a dangerous place to be; what was inside that dwemer ruin? A few spider centurians? Bandits? OMG high level vampires?! Morrowind didn't fuck around and it kept things interesting. You always had to have a divine intervention scroll with you just in case that telvanni wizard was level 30+ with some serious gear.

In oblivion, by contrast, things were leveled to you constantly and you knew it. The first time around I was too busy playing my shiny new game to notice, but after a few more characters went through it just got boring. There was no sense of danger since you could handle just about everything (and for some reason every person in tamriel knows how to cast a healing spell) and there was no sense of accomplishment since you could never happen upon a wild artifact possibly linked to a quest by mere happenstance, everything including many named high-level items were scaled right to your level.

anyways enough with that rant. Thanks Saturns Gate for confirming that, I'm interested again (and glad to hear Bethesda learned their lesson)

[Costau D]

I'm gonna go play morrowind again...

[Sady]

And I´m playing Torment again. 8~

I´m not expecting much from Fallout 3, mainly because of what I´ve been reading here.

[ciots]

ehhh. i was hoping they would have more facial expressions. correction: facial expressions. they just talk at you. its really annoying. i liked oblivion but this looks a bit too similar.

[Farsh]

Here's a french review. I'm not really surprised some of my suspicions came true.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=45725

[Costau D]

God...damn it! I knew it.

[Kamikazebob]

I should be disappointied. Instead I am depressed

[Anid Maro]

*Sigh*, really can't be suprised that NMA is damning Fallout 3. They've always had some wierd sado-masochistic complex regarding Fallout, they desperately want a sequel but no game in their eyes will ever do justice to their beloved twins 1 & 2.

So I read that French review they have posted... yeah the combat sucks, whoopie. The combat was just as shallow in the originals too. It does sound like they missed the boat on character customization, which I expected. It's the very thing that killed Morrowind and Oblivion for me, being able to do anything and everything is great for a once-through but really hurts the replay value. The prostitution/violence in the originals was more flavoring I think than anything else, letting you know that you truly are in a world of moral ambiguity... so I can't say their absence really upsets me.

The real deal maker/killer will be the quests and story. The heart of the first two games was basically just exploring this strange new post-apocalyptical world. The settings were varied, the stories complex, no one was really truly good or evil, et cetera. If they can hit that mark, then the rest won't really matter... though I admit I have grave doubts on whether or not that mark will be hit.

The truth of the matter is, any fan of the originals will probably be let down... the environment and history of Fallout 1 & 2 is a hard standard to live up to.

[Straight Edge Ryan]

I'll treat this game like I treat everyone/everything else, with a healthy amount of skepticism. If it's good, then great! I'll have another game to occupy my down time for the next few months, if it sucks then it can still probably hold my interest long enough for me to see the main storyline through and cure my boredom for a week

I can definitely see how the VATS thing would get annoying tho, especially the whole "automatic targeting" thing. How can a game be challenging if you're guaranteed to hit your target?, and how can you feel good about making kick ass shots if the game gives you the option of stopping and picking where you want to shoot at your leisure?

[Pelaxus]

Oh my.. this preview of F3 in Canard PC is my worst fears coming true.

Oblivion was so boring and some quests.. idiotic! After ending the quest for reviving Paladin's Order I've become a knight for Prince of Chaos of Shivering Isles? Completly ILLOGIC! I would slay this spawn of chaos but it was not an option.

Fallout was in its quests. They made the world real. Addult themes: violence, drugs and sex - it was all in there. But F3 did what? Cuts and censoreship. In the game for mature audience... Beth once again screw up. Unmature game for 15 year old console players that expect tones of gore, simplified story in dull world. Unmature game for nerds like Howard, little fuzzy hobbit he is not a game designer! My only hope lies within Modding community. Buying a game now would be pure MASOCHISM!

I miss the old days of Blask Isle and Origin.. does anyone remember 'Bioforge' or 'Ultima VIII Pagan'?

Enough of this regrets.. back to Mount and Blade :-)

[Straight Edge Ryan]

Got it yesterday, been playing it a bit. I honestly don't think it's that bad thus far.

Personally I couldn't give a crap whether a game has the best story in the world or next to none so long as it's fun. Maybe I'm just immature or don't appreciate some of the "finer" elements of some games, but to me if a game can occupy a few hours of boredom it's alright in my book

[Dave_]

It has securerom version 7, so i'm not buying it, no fcking way.

i'll PPM for diablo 3 if we have to, as long as theres no securerom.

[m@.]

5 hours into the game so far, and loving it. Can't wait to get back home tonight and play again. The wasteland feel is awesome, the pip-boy, leveling-up, skills and VATS reminds me nicely of the old fallouts. Didn't do much of the main quest so far, just wandering around, starting some random quests, it's really nice. There's a cool feeling of scarcity and of desolation, I'm struggling to get money and ammo, I like it, and the fights are kinda hard (I guess it will change later in the game, but that's cool - I'm glad there's no more auto-leveling of enemies like in oblivion...) .

So far it's definitely a step higher than oblivion, but there's still a few bad things, like,the character models are still pretty bad, it took me around 30 minutes of struggling with the customisation to create a character face that looks human (the "presets" look like mutated aliens), but the npcs look def better than in oblivion. The animation is still very choppy. And there's still no shadows, which is something that really bugs me ( I play on xbox360, maybe you can turn that on on the PC). Well, there's shading of course, but no cast shadows. But even without shadows, the moods from the different times of the day are still beautiful with the HDR sky and so.

[m@.]

Here's a french review. I'm not really surprised some of my suspicions came true.

http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=45725

CanardPC is known for its very harsh critiques.

[Andrew Marks]

I got the game the other day and I think its one of the most enjoyable games I have played in awhile. The environments and character designs are great, reminds me of Fist of the North star and Mad Max. The Vat's system is cool, makes the fighting more enjoyable to look at. Only complaint so far is that it tends to get rather violent at times. Other that im lovin it.

[squidmonk3j]

played through the main story yesterday...and there's still TONS of stuff i haven't done / explored /etc. this might just be my fav game ever.

oh, and get the special edition...the concept art book is simply fantastic. they even included craig mullins' pieces. and i notice MB is credited with Additional Character Art and Animation....way to go

all hail LIBERTY PRIME!

[Hookswords]

I picked it up yesterday. It's different from the first two, but I'm enjoying it. I like it better than Oblivion. The Sarah Palin impression that the Megaton Supply Shop lady does is grating on me a bit, but other than that I'm enjoying it. Part of the fun with games like this is creating a mentality for the spots where the in game RPG is a little vacant. I picked up the special edition for the art book, I figured it would be great. It sure is. Some really great concept work in there. Some really creative takes on the genre.

[Anid Maro]

Buddy of mine picked it up. I watched him play for an hour, and then I messed around with a new character (didn't quite make it into adulthood though). Now I'm absolutely obsessed with the game, it looks awesome... NMA or CanardPC be damned, imma pick up a copy.