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Fallout 3 Facts That Could Save Your Life

This past weekend Bethesda released a few new tidbits of information about Fallout 3. Game journalists were invited to an event with the production team, and came away with a much better sense of what the title is like. "Fortunately, you never had to experience the horrors of a nuclear holocaust. Unfortunately, your mother died during childbirth, and you were raised by your father (in a very scientific fashion). Your early, developmental years play an important part of the character creation process and double as a basic game play tutorial. The G.O.A.T. (Generalized Occupational Aptitude TEST) determines what some of your starting skills and skills will be. Physical, artistic attributes can be customized as well. Much like the first level of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you can manually alter your starting stats and skills before you venture forth." For an epic amount of coverage on the game, Bethesda's new blog has two posts with copious links to previews and hands-on pieces.

7 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. The test by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    The G.O.A.T. (Generalized Occupational Aptitude TEST) determines what some of your starting skills and skills will be

    At least it wasn't the Generalized Occupational Aptitude TEST for Specialized Education.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  2. Fallout 3 Facts... by hal2814 · · Score: 4, Funny

    -When Fallout 3 jumps in the water it doesn't get wet. The water gets Fallout 3.
    -Fallout 3's tears can cure cancer. Too bad Fallout 3 doesn't cry. Ever.
    -Guns don't kill people. Fallout 3 kills people.
    -Fallout 3 is the reason why Waldo is hiding. ...

  3. Re:Crappy Developer by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Like the first two were bug free?

    Nothing pisses me off more than people who are convinced it sucks before they even play it, except maybe people who think it's awesome some equally bad reason.

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  4. Re:Just what all us fans wanted by KDR_11k · · Score: 3, Informative

    Basically Oblivion didn't have the enemies placed by level designers or even their type determined that way but it looked at your level and just spawned enemies of a matching level. So if you go from level 1 to level 2 all monsters will be replaced with stronger ones. As a level up does not necessarily mean an increase in combat power you're screwed if you level more than you get stronger (as suddently all dungeons will be filled with huge dragons just because you trained your cooking skills a bit) and people had to devise specific strategies to gain as few levels as possible while gaining a maximum amount of power.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  5. Re:Just what all us fans wanted by edremy · · Score: 3, Informative
    Oblivion's designers had a good idea and took it too far- you should be able to access the entire world at all times but still always have a challenge. Thus, the difficulty of the critters you met would scale up as you got more powerful, so you'd always be challenged but not overwhelmed.

    Sounds great, except that it lead to some real problems. You could complete the game's main questline while at level 2- it was quite easy then since you fought absurdly easy monsters the whole way. Conversely,if you were high level you would constantly meet bandits on the road who would be decked out in epic-quality items such as full Daedric armor. Why a generic highwayman would be wearing armor that even the highest level characters in Morrowind would have trouble getting was a bit of a puzzle.

    There have been a lot of user patches to try and address this, mostly by capping the level and equipment of many of the random encounters and upping the difficulty on end game encounters.

    --
    "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
  6. Re:Why must it be a FPS? by KDR_11k · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, they made it more two-dimensional, except that change is limited to the characters, story and gameplay.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  7. Hope Destroyed by Sibko · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The following articles pretty much destroyed what little hope I had in Bethesda actually making a decent Fallout game. First, the good parts:

    Q: What happens when your character levels?
    A: You gain points in your skills (not specified if they're automatic or assigned?) and on even levels you gain perks. The maximum level in the game is 20, mainly because the game has a definitive ending which is triggered by the main plot. They mentioned anywhere between 9 and 12 possible endings to the game, possibly depending on side quests and choices made during the main quest lines.
    Q: Explain more about the style of Dialogue / Storylines?
    A: Again they stressed the fixed ending, with multiple possibilities, and that your actions throughout the game would determine how the main plot resolved. Also that your choices of dialogue can open up more quests, more options for places to go and things to do in the game. Emil really seemed to stress a high level of detail written into the game as far as Dialogue and Quest interaction. I'd like to point out that the dialogue and storyline stuff is essentially the same thing they promised in Oblivion. Anyways...

    Q: Does all Radiation in the game dissipate over time?
    A: There are a few events which cause extreme levels that will never go away, but most radiation from things like blown up cars (nuclear engines) and the mini-nuke weapon will dissipate given a little time.
    Q: What is the main quest? (this person may have been sleeping through the demo...)
    A: The main quest centers around your dad mysteriously disappearing from the Vault one day, and your quest to find him and find out why he left and where he is/has gone.
    Q: Will there be unkillable NPC's?
    A: There will be some, but they expressed sadness at this, and said they are putting as few unkillables as they possibly can.

    And the new Fallout 3 world keeps all the humor and flavor of the original series. You will find broken down nuclear cars (that will still explode if shot up), crazy robots like Mr. Handy, and a host of sometimes quirky wasteland dwellers. At one point we set one of the exploding nuclear cars on fire and then hopped into a portable nuclear shelter (which costs a quarter to use and looks like a phone booth) to avoid the blast. http://www.critical-hits.com/?p=890
    http://www.gameindustry.com/review/item.asp?id=856 [Warning: This article may cause brain hemorrhaging.]