1821

The thing I am most disappointed in is the hedging on whether or not an editor will be released…the one trump card in my mind for this game was that Mods would be able to “fix” the game a la Oblivion.

1822

I am a bit worried about that. They always released the editor with the game, without any problems. The editor is the tool used by them to make the game, as always, so it has to be working, and i suppose it is almost the same editor used in Oblivion, already a mature tool. I hope there isn’t external factors in this decision of not releasing for now the editor (like, users modding the game to permit the killing of children in the game).

1823

Yeah. Actually, it’s probably make sense if fixing that swiss watch’s fine mechanics was pretty much impossible while wearing the suit of powered armor, but I imagine having to reequip your combat gear constantly would be kinda bothersome. This way around, everybody is going to carry around a mechanics overall and a merchants suit all the time so he can equip them when one is required by the situation at hand.
Wait a minute, does that still mean their encouragement to wearing clothes has worked? …

Edit:

External factors or no, we NEED that editor. I was pretty much adamant against anybody claiming FO3 will suck because of this or that because I figured if they release the editor, people will find a way to change/circumvent whichever issue is at hand.
Without modding tools, I would never have played Oblivion very far. Several things (most importantly the scaling) annoyed me a great deal, but a few trips to the forums and even a couple of manual changes later, little of these nuisances remained…

rezaf

1824

I think the relevant quote is “It will definitely not be included on the disk. If and when one is available, it will be a free download. I wish I could promise that an editor will be coming and when, but I can’t”

Maybe they are feeling pressure from the console makers to not release a PC only editor??

1825

Yeah, just imagine a Bethesda game without mods!. From plain bug fixing, to more items/spells, to new cities, to rebalancing of the game to have a higher challenge/another game style, to the technical overhauling (new texture, models, sounds, etc).

Even if they don’t get to make a great game, i know the rabid Fallout fans will polish the job with the editor. A example: one of the hallmark of the series is the variety in how to solve a quest. If F3 lacks a bit in that deparment, i know that fans will add more solutions to the quests, IF there is an editor.

1826

In the same Q&A he addresses the barriers that exist for console construction kits. You have it backwards; the console makers won’t sign off to a console editor. Do you really think the existance of a PC construction set hurt Oblivion’s sales on 360?

1827

Are these two screens new?

1828

Nabeel,

Yes. Those were 2 of 3 new screens released yesterday with the fan interview.

Here is the link.

1829

suck my dick.

1830

So, uh, my account was created this year and my post count is in the low three digits. Somehow I’m still able to post stuff without getting yelled at.

Now, maybe that means I’ve already memorized the groupthink handbook without realizing it.

Or maybe it means that the problem is just you.

One of those “the common thread in all your dysfunctional relationships is you” things, y’know? Either it’s a big conspiracy against you, or maybe you’re just kind of a dick when you present your opinion.

EDIT: Oh, nevermind. I see you’ve chosen the go-out-in-a-blaze-of-bananas-and-nuts route instead. Good luck with that!

1831

nlanza you’re over estimating the value of this forum. i thought this was where all the newsgroup folk back from the day of comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.* hung out but i was wrong. there was more valuable information there in one post than there is any single one of these forums.

nonetheless there’s pretty much zero point arguing about this anymore.

1832

That better be meta, mister.

Oh, and the first letter in “suck” should have been capitalized.

1833

I thought so too. And it was. And is.

1834

No, you weren’t. Plenty of us here.

1835

So if this forum is so valueless, why are you here? You hate it, apparently, so go hang out somewhere else.

Oh, wait. There’s a dude standing behind your desk with a gun forcing you to read/post here, isn’t there? No, no, don’t say anything, he’s sure to kill you if he knows you ratted him out. Just blink twice for yes and we’ll call the cops.

1836

from Ausir, again.

The Polish CD-Action magazine was invited to Bethesda headquarters for a hands-on preview of Fallout 3 as the only representative of Poland, along with 15 other journalists from around the world.

A summary:

  • As far as locations and content go, the game is finished. Bethesda is mostly doing QA now. There are still some bugs and the game crashes from time to time.
  • They had a predefined character - a strong male.
  • They were told to steer clear from the main quest and were not allowed to talk about what they saw of it in the preview.
  • To make escape from Vault 101 easier, guards were removed.
  • The game can be saved at any moment, and it’s 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. The developers intentionally hid the numerical value of your Karma.
  • 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 wanter 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, 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.
  • At first glance, Fallout 3 looks like a typical FPS.
  • You use stimpaks on specific parts of the body, as hit points are divided among them.
  • While throwing grenades and during hand-to-hand combat, while you can use VATS, 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 keyboard. It works much better than Oblivion’s. Both the PipBoy and the VATS work well with the mouse.
  • You can assign hotkeys to items - e.g. weapons or stimpaks.
  • Even with standard settings, the game looks better on the PC than on the 360 - better textures and longer line of sight.
  • The lockpicking minigame is similar to the one from the Thief games.

Conclusion: “Is it Fallout? If you expect the same experience as before, it’s safer to just play the previous games. But if you just want the brutal, post nuclear world, freedom and atmosphere, what I was shown is no worse than in the first Fallout. And it’s the best recommendation I can give after a few hours of playing.”

The accompanying screenshots are mostly the same as in the PSM3 article. The only one I think is new is a female raider in VATS. The rest are Fusion Flea Supreme, a roughly humanoid robot (in the bottom right of the robot concept art) with guns for arms, wheels for feet and a star on its chest, the Vertibird and some others we’ve seen dozens of times before.

I’m glad the lock picking mini game is more Thief and less Oblivion. A little disappointed that gender seems to not play a role in quest resolution there were a few neat instances in the original games where you could use your feminine wiles to dupe a raider/etc.

1837

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they just avoided the whole spoiled food thing, but at least it fits with the atmosphere, and it provides some “choices” (do I eat the irradiated food? No? ok! Maybe I can feed it to someone else!). What’s your choice with weighted ammo? Take it or, uh, take it? Same thing with weighted money – it’s an essential item, so you don’t really have a choice with it.

1838

ammo limitations have been used to great effect in other games (system shock 2). Not sure why that is less acceptable to you than adding food/water as an essential item.

1839

Ammo in SS2 was scarce, but for all practical purposes you could carry as much of it as you wanted.

The way they’ve implemented NPC reactions to thieving sounds like a welcome change. In Fallout 1/2 you’re pretty much forced into quicksave abuse when using the pickpocket skill, since the potential failure state (entire towns turned against you) is so grossly disproportionate to the gains.

On the other hand, not being able to target body parts in HtH combat doesn’t make a lick of sense.

1840

I really dig the sound of the weighted consequences.

That was definitely a problem in the original Fallouts - one misstep seemed to set an entire town to lynch mode.