My friend Andrew pointed me to five new Fallout 3 gameplay vids over at kotaku. There’s some strong language and the ending of one mission is shown, so proceed with caution.
Looks great, I gotta say. Certainly the shadow of Oblivion hangs over it, with some of the same voice actors performing the same type of over-dramatic line readings (it really stands out since I’ve been spoiled by Mass Effect recently), some familiar looking architectural design, and even some post-apocalyptic bipedal mudcrabs, but hey, I loves me some Oblivion so none of that bothers me.
It also shows plenty of the VATS system in action, which looks neat but I’m still not sold on. It looks for all the world to me like a “Win Fight” button. Still, seeing people’s heads fly off is pretty amusing. Can’t wait to play it.
41 responses so far ↓
1 Bootsie_B // Aug 29, 2008 at 7:02 pm
No comments, huh? That’s… strange.
Videos look awesome. I’ve always loved Oblivion, so I wonder how this will turn out.
2 Ojive // Aug 29, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I can not wait for this game. Having played Oblivion to the point of running out of stuff to do-which is incredibly hard to do in Oblivion-getting another open world RPG from Bethesda is like getting a drug fix.
3 Newt Pulsifer // Aug 29, 2008 at 7:16 pm
The “Escape” video was the only one that got me hooked. It’s really, really good.
I felt a bit disappointed by the others… The face-animation during dialog is terrible! There are some awful voice acting, also.
Overall, ok.
4 ozroller // Aug 29, 2008 at 7:21 pm
The main thing I disliked about Oblivion was the fantasy setting. I also happen to love post-apocalyptic fiction. I was excited for this game previously, but after seeing these videos my anticipations has been cranked up. Bring on october.
5 Newt Pulsifer // Aug 29, 2008 at 7:26 pm
@edit
by “face-animation” i meant the gestures and all :P
6 Jackrabbit // Aug 29, 2008 at 7:29 pm
well since my computer is a huge piece of shit wrapped in tinfoil i would love to play it but can’t. bugger.
7 J3553 // Aug 29, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Railway Gun? That’s awesome.
Yeah, that game looks great.
8 rammingspeed42 // Aug 29, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Not my cup of tea, to be honest, but it’ll be interesting to see how the Role-playing shooter pans out.
I think it’ll sell like a bat outta hotcakes, but I wonder if people say that they ‘really’ like it.
9 Mike // Aug 29, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I may give it a spin on a the ol’ 360 after the hype dies down and I can get it on eBay for 5 bucks and a gumball.
Speaking of Oblivion, donde esta el nuevo Nondrick?
10 Kylroy // Aug 29, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I think opinions of this game are going to come down to the Oblivion fans and the Fallout fans verbally clawing each others eyes out in the internet equivalent of a steel cage.
But yeah, it looks fun.
11 Swiss // Aug 29, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I don’t know about you guys but they had me at “ludicrously long list of beards”
And then subsequently lost me at the facial animations, the unmoving eyes, and shoulder’s that don’t react to arm motions are almost to enough to make me pass this one up.
I’ll probably nab a copy after the holiday rush for my PS3, the post-apocalypic designs are to awsome to pass up.
12 Tom // Aug 29, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Gotta love that moment when they zoom back into the isometric view.
Anyway, the only thing I found wrong with the videos besides the previously mentioned reused terrible voice actors is that noone seemed to care at all when the PC was sitting in the middle of town arming the nuclear bomb in plain site! WITH A PERSON STANDING NEXT TO HIM!
I mean come on, at least make it so you have to do it at night and/or stealthily, I doubt the towns inhabitants would take so kindly to someone playing with the innards of it.
13 Okimin // Aug 29, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I think I speak for everyone when I say a Nondrick in Fallout 3 would be amazing.
14 CitrusFreak // Aug 29, 2008 at 11:45 pm
“post-apocalyptic bipedal mudcrabs”
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought that.
This truly will be Oblivion with guns. What remains to be seen is if that’s a compliment or criticism.
Also: Seconding Okimin’s sentiments. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day.
15 Joke // Aug 30, 2008 at 12:44 am
Living in Fallout, anyone? :D
16 Jackrabbit // Aug 30, 2008 at 2:19 am
may that day come soon. at least then someone will play it and show me.
17 Agent Napalm // Aug 30, 2008 at 2:59 am
Franz Josef beards :D
18 ZomBuster // Aug 30, 2008 at 4:39 am
It’s Lucien Lachance D:
And now he assassins whole towns at once
19 atroposxr // Aug 30, 2008 at 5:13 am
“Ludicrously long list of beards”
Now THAT’S what I want in my post-apocalyptic RPGs.
20 Dorian Cornelius Jasper // Aug 30, 2008 at 5:34 am
Wait, did I hear that right? You get to pick a Perk every time you level up?
Whoa. That’s nice.
I suspect that other people already knew this, but it’s news to me. This probably makes levelling up in between those all-important intervals of 3 much more interesting, yes. It’s good to have choices.
And I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If only Oblivion weren’t set in a painfully generic fantasy world, with painfully bad art direction, maybe I could’ve forgiven the lack of any sense of accomplishment that comes with the auto-scaling. Or the lack of meaningful interaction with any NPCs.
Heck, just bringing Fallout into 3D is enough for me to forgive Bethesda for those lousy bits in Oblivion.
Too bad about the voice acting and the animations, though. But it’s not a dealbreaker for me. And Mass Effect really is quite a lot to live up to–I wouldn’t be surprised if that level of “actor” (digital or voice) quality is still the exception, not the norm, in these coming years.
21 Damone // Aug 30, 2008 at 6:05 am
And to horribly derail the topic and make it crash into an orphanage or something.
http://www.adultimum.net/rw/ , i felt like bringing it up. :D
22 Smurfy // Aug 30, 2008 at 6:25 am
AWESOME! I wasn’t sure about this game, I thought it could be fairly boring (I bought Mass Effect but didn’t like it) but this is such kewlage!
23 PixelBurp // Aug 30, 2008 at 6:36 am
I was always sold on Fallout 3 being an avid Oblivion myself, but even I was taken aback by how blatantly the Fallout engine is based on Oblivions. NPCs sat with that same stiff posture & with hands clasped, identical to Oblivion. Start a conversation and you get the same zooming-in effect. The models themselves move with that stiff animation. Lock picking & pick-pocketing is also the same. It plays into the hands of the “It’s just Oblivion with guns” crowd.
24 Mr. Munchlax // Aug 30, 2008 at 8:46 am
Looks, great to me. I really want this game now. And I do love Oblivion. I wonder if I’ll actually play Fallout 3’s main quest. All I do in Oblivion is look for a bunch of side quests to do.
25 MadTinkerer // Aug 30, 2008 at 9:14 am
“It also shows plenty of the VATS system in action, which looks neat but I’m still not sold on. It looks for all the world to me like a “Win Fight” button. Still, seeing people’s heads fly off is pretty amusing. Can’t wait to play it.”
VATS = old Fallout interface updated and slapped on top of a FPS engine. It’s not a Win Fight Button any more than the guitar controller in Guitar Hero is a “play perfectly” button.
26 Ojive // Aug 30, 2008 at 9:22 am
I’ll admit that the talking animations (Or whatever you call it) are, at the very least, uninspiring. I’m willing to live with that, though-it doesn’t bother me enough to make me not want the game.
27 John W // Aug 30, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I’m pretty sure the over the top camera angles/gore in VATS is just for critical hits or killing blows. I don’t think every shot will be like that.
28 Generic Username // Aug 30, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I think what he meant is that VATS is “overpowered” in the sense that it’s more useful than traditional FPS’ing since there’s more you can use with it, like aiming for the soft areas of crab things and aiming for heads to get more damage done.
I like it. It hit me when he zoomed out that it looks pretty damn close to the original games when zoomed out like that, and VATS made it seem even more similar. I haven’t played Oblivion, personally, but from what I’m seeing I’m not going to be disappointed.
…In one and a half years, when I turn 17 annd can actually play the damn thing. :’< I doubt I’m going to get past how gorey the game looks like I could with TF2’s cartooney graphics.
29 Rev. Name Withheld // Aug 30, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I’m pretty sure that the VATS system in the Fallout demos are set so that they always hit. It’s supposed to be on a percentage chance.
30 Generic Username // Aug 30, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I think he missed in one of his rapid shots in the mall and missed the medium enemy crabs, but I’m probably just thinking like an idiot
31 DethPenguin // Aug 30, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I noticed that the Pip-boy radio still plays when you pause time in VATS. And it doesn’t go slow mo with VATS either.
32 rammingspeed42 // Aug 30, 2008 at 4:27 pm
If the tags are on vacation, then how….?
33 Jackrabbit // Aug 30, 2008 at 6:16 pm
nah he missed. I played the first fallout, you aren’t guaranteed to hit when you use vats and using vats uses up AP points, of which you have a limited amount. so win fight? sometimes yes but if you suck with a pistol you ain’t gonna hit that bloke. awesome game.
34 a westie // Aug 30, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I tried a bit of Fallout 1, but gave up on it. Is it great today, or is it an older game that doesn’t quite stand up to time?
I gave up mainly because I choose a crappy premade character, and then read later that it was a bad idea on a FAQ.
35 Generic Username // Aug 30, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Pre-made ones suck.
It holds up well. I’m the type of person who prefers new games to older games (which is why I have Braid paused rather than Super Metroid as I type this) and I was absolutely amazed by it.
36 Ojive // Aug 30, 2008 at 8:34 pm
“I tried a bit of Fallout 1, but gave up on it. Is it great today, or is it an older game that doesn’t quite stand up to time?”
Fallout 1 holds up, but Fallout 2 holds up even better-it claimed many an hour of my life.
37 Niteowl // Aug 30, 2008 at 10:30 pm
So, slightly unrelated. But me and tittergrrl and cnelson are at PAX, and we totally played the SHIT out of Left 4 Dead.
You WANTED us to play it right?
38 Kenon // Aug 30, 2008 at 11:29 pm
You better not make Nondrick die by the hands of a slaughterfish just so you can continue the quest in Fallout 3.
39 Turyx // Aug 31, 2008 at 2:12 am
Yes, probably it’s because it is a demo.
Because if it’s not…the guy use VATS against an enemy pretty far, aims at the head, 19% chance of hitting…and still kills him in 1 shot.
40 Azzen // Aug 31, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Overall, it looks pretty awesome, but there are just a few minor details that take away from the completeness (I’m thinking they’ll put these in later in development).
You know, stuff like the sound of footsteps, better character animation in dialogue sequences, and stuff.
I’m with Chris here on the VATS system, somewhat; the enemies don’t seem to fight back when you use it, but I guess the weakness is that it takes AP to use, and if you run out, then you’re on your own.
41 Gravity // Sep 1, 2008 at 11:12 am
It IS an “Oblivion with guns” mod and -based on what they’ve shown- it most definitely isn’t a Fallout game. It seems more like a spin-off like Fallout tactics once was.
That said, it looks like fun. Definitely catered to the casual player.
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