Fallout 3 Comments by Oli Welsh

For the record, regarding the Ladykiller perk, And tbh I'm not sure if this makes it any better...

Female characters get an equivalent perk called, I believe, Man Eater, that does the same thing. Extra damage to men and new dialogue options.

Thanks for ruining my excitement for this game eurogamer, thanks a lot.

Now I wasn't expecting this... :(

Think I'll go for a PC version instead, at least the likes of Francesco can FIX it! :D

QQ

"I think I'll stick to CVG's 5 hour preview, where they quoted

"it's better than Deus Ex." "

Hahaha. Hilarious!

They fucked this game the moment it went FPS.

I apologise to everyone including me - I'll wait till its released before getting upset. I'm also surprised by the amount of people slagging off Oblivion. I loved it. Must be a bit odd or something

After oblivion i'm not suprised. Oblivion was awesome in scope, but as soon as you start to do anything apart from look at some of the lovely views, combat especially I felt it really struggled to make you feel you were in an actual world, rather than were playing just some long winded RPG.

I'll think i'll give this a miss also.......someone send them a copy of mass effect!

Just because a game is played from a first-person perspective doesn't make in an FPS...

Oblivion is fantastic unless you've played Morrowind, then it just becomes "very good" instead. Although visually lovely, it just didn't FEEL as grand a scope game.

Not quite sure where the enthusiasm many show is coming from.

Its probably because the first two Fallout games have such good memories for people and because Oblivion was such a good game. People think that because both were open world RPGs, that Bethesda doing Fallout was a perfect fit. Hence the excitement. But in reality these games have fundamental differences, particularly in tone and combat.

I'm simply not convinced by the combat at all; real time looks like an unimpressive third person shooter and the VATS system a simplfied version of the old Fallout games. It could still be good, I just don't think it will be.

Widge, my sentiments exactly.

"It just doesn't feel right" is the best way to describe my reaction to the clips I've seen. I've been a great supporter of the whole first-person action thing (yes, 99% of Bethesda's comments regarding this are clearly bullshit, but I just want a first-person Fallout game), but what I saw was very underwhelming.

The shitty animation was the most obvious problem, and Bethesda are in great danger of this becoming their 'thing', but there just wasn't any... chemistry. It didn't feel like... anything, really. Sure, what he was describing was indeed happening on screen - but that was it. It seemed like a half-baked facsimile of the game he was talking about, rather than the actual game itself.

This is a year with a massive amount of open-world games coming out, so trumpeting "you can play it how you like!" just doesn't impress anymore, you need to actually have a truly impressive game to back it up. I really hope it was just a bad preview, and that they actually do have one. I'm wary.

oh....i was disapointed...again

Sigh, I sort of had the nagging feeling it would turn out like this as soon as I heard Bethesda were working on it. Oblivion: Fallout Edition...

Still hopeful it'll be a good game, but not expecting it to be.

I've been wondering for a long time why every gaming website is going mad for this game. I'm glad to see that one of them shares my concerns about Fallout 3.

oh..., a non-indulgent preview. Shocked.

Anyway, I found the "mysogenic" claim about the skill (?) that affects only female foes a bit out-of-place and a bit of a re-edition of RE5 nonsense.

I thought it looked good from the presentation video off of Xbox Live Marketplace.

Oblivion is almost certainly the game I've played for the longest time this console generation, and if this is a retro-post-apocalyptic Oblivion, shonky animation, only-three-character-voice-actors, repeated geometry, overwhelming brownness and all, then that's fine and dandy by me.

I thought the pause-combat business reminded me of KOTOR.

I'm starting to get the sense that this is nowhere near shipping. Isn't it a little late in the game for things like this:

"It's also another thing to navigate jagged, messy piles of rubble in 3D, and more than this pre-release version of the game can cope with, as our avatar descends, juddering, up to his waist in the ground."

Sad to see the press so indifferent about this. This is the game I've most been looking forward to since it was announced. I'm not even an old-school Fallout guy; this just sounded perfect. Sad to hear that it's not getting the full treatment.

Anyway, it still might be a fun game. The most important thing to me is that the tactical demands in combat amount to something substantial. The whole VATS thing sounded like a welcome return to the best moments of games like Baldur's Gate 2, where you'd hit the space bar and say, "Hmm, how can I survive this??" I hope it's not reduced to a "Select the Controversial, Gory Cutscene that Amuses You Most" feature.

Still very much looking forward this, but it's been inching it's way down from "Preorder" to "Best Rent First" status. And maybe in the meantime I'd better get my PC back up to speed in hopes that Dragon Age will be good.

The article had the wibe of beeing written and paid for by the NMA.

Or mabye he just didnt like it, Im guessing the former :)

Oh dear

Oh dear :(
I had great hopes for this but now i'm just praying it'll be bearable so i can get the PC version and have the community patch it. Dang, i love the Fallout series and it was a must buy but now it's a wait and see.
oh well, we'll find out soon.

"Having watched the E3 trailers and material, the preview sounds about right. Not quite sure where the enthusiasm many show is coming from."

*g* I don't know, the sequel to the best rpg franchise ever made (yeah sorry but this was better than the BG franchise)?

Conversation and bartering are two aspects of the game that we regretfully don't get anywhere near experiencing at E3, but given Bethesda's record and Fallout's history, we'd expect them to have some serious depth and reward, and we're looking forward to examining them more closely.

HAHAHAHAHA, you're not serious?

What I should have said was "they fucked the game the moment they put it into a first person perspective". This style of game plays much better from a zoomed out 3rd person perspective. I really loved the 2nd and Tactics Fallout games. They had such amazing attention to detail and humour. My favourite trait being blood mess which results in those around you dying in the most hideous ways.

I used to love pick pocketing peoples weapons and sneaking around before engaging in combat.

E3 video looked aces. This preview, worrying.

But really, if you were to play a half-hour demo of Oblivion from the moment you left the first sewer, you'd be underwhelmed too.

I know I was. "Sure the view's beautiful," I thought, "but am I really going to be spending all my time looking at the ground wacking crabs and wolves with a shitty sword."

Didn't stop me putting more than 30 hours into the game, though.

As I started reading the article this feeling of political correctness came over me, then as I went down through the paragraphs I realized EG called it for what it is. After the initial preview in which you guys made fun of us FO fans for liking to look down on things (i.e. isometric view) it feels rather good to see your eyes have finally opened. It doesn't take a genius to realize that the game is lacking in terms of animation, art direction, and most important personality. Sure they say they were aiming for more of a FO 1 sequel since they knew they can't say anything about FO 2 without a shitstorm ensuing. But this game, from what I've read and seen, just doesn't have that edge. It shows in the video, various lesser sites called it, and now EG calls it. Well done! Please don't turn into Gamespot 2.0


If you want more on FO3 there's this blog I found http://fallout3.wordpress.com/

I think I'm going to erase my memory of this preview and remember the rather more positive one CVG. Yep, I do believe the animation will be sub par - Bethesda just never seems to have had any decent animators on the payroll - but based on the five hour session described in the CVG preview, it sounds like there's still a very good chance I'll love most other things about the game.
And I'm actually kind of glad that it seems that using VATS in combat is almost the intended way to play the game. Overall it sounds like Fallout 3 is staying pretty close to its RPG roots than morphing into a half assed first person shooter.

"Lady Killer gives you extra damage against female enemies, and "unique dialogue options" when talking to female NPCs. Sorry, Bethesda, that's not satirical, it's just crass and misogynistic."

Yeah, but it's also very Fallout-ish and would not look out of place in two predecessors. I bet the(p)reviewer is not complaining about the Bloody mess perk, even though it adresses even worse tendencies of human nature. And it's not like you're forced to choose this or any perk, now is it;)

Come on folks... freaking out, cancelling pre-orders and spouting the sky is falling for Fallout 3... over a 30 minute preview of an RPG?

"characterless art, cold visuals, wonky animation, weak real-time combat, off-kilter writing"

Characterless art? Hello! Post Apocalyptic?
Wonky animation? Like Oblivion? Oh yeah... that completely ruined the game for me. (sarcasm)
Weak real-time combat? Huh? What? RPG? (flashbacks of the Mass Effect review)
Off-Kilter writing? After a 30 minute preview? Brilliant

I'll wait for a REVIEW by a real game journalist thanks.

"Conversation and bartering are two aspects of the game that we regretfully don't get anywhere near experiencing at E3,"

Well that instantly renders this preview completely bloody pointless doesn't it.

This current trend of RPGs being marketed and/or previewed/reviewed as action games just because they try something more action-oriented than turn-based or clickety-click combat systems is starting piss me off. I don't give a shit what the combat in Fallout 3 is like, I just want to know whether the story is any good.

I can understand the marketing side somewhat, it's easier to sell an FPS than an RPG but I don't expect it from the allegedly knowledgeable specialist gaming press. In the future, can you just let Kieron Gillen do all the RPG writing, please?

bcolter just did an amazing job of defending a game without actually defending it

@frostcircus - I wasn't intending to defend the game... That "might" happen after I play it.

New here eh?

So... Piss Off

Come on, really. Anyone who has played the previous fallout games is going to buy this regardless of what this completely negative preview says.

I very much disliked Oblivion. There... I said it. It had almost nothing to do with the animation - just the general lifelessness of the world. Maybe that'd be more suited to a game like Fallout, though.

I'll most likely pick this up. It probably won't be as good as the first Fallout, but that doesn't automatically mean "bad".

It's absolutely wonderful the amount of crap one reads on this thread. Eurogamer threads are usually a bit better than this. Between the stupids who're complaining how bad the journalist is when they obviously have NO clue as to what journalism is (i.e., they believe a journalist is paid to write exactly what they want to read, or they think it's vain to write anything about a game played for 30 minutes but came to read a preview, which is exactly that) and the pointless insults and debased unfriendliness on display (such replies as "New here eh? So... Piss Off" are deeply repelling) this thing deserves to just be locked.
Comments and communities... the Web 2.0 is really the most ludicrous thing that's happened to mankind since a long time. And on that cheerful note...

Wow, that's harsh.

@john_silence - Fuck off

/loves the internet

@bcolter

No, YOU fuck off!

OH BURN

(i.e., they believe a journalist is paid to write exactly what they want to read, or they think it's vain to write anything about a game played for 30 minutes but came to read a preview, which is exactly that)

I come to Eurogamer to get good-quality gaming journalism. I expect to read the journalist's opinions in any level of preview, whether it be based on a 30 minute demo or a whole month of playing. As an RPG fan, I find it difficult to glean any useful information when RPG aspects are given a backseat to the combat system, especially when the game comes from a long-established RPG series or developer (both, in this case.)

The nature of the demo seems to be at fault in this instance, but it is a worrying trend.

"It's absolutely wonderful the amount of crap one reads on this thread..."

LOL critiquing criticism of criticism... if this gets any more "meta" I going straight down the rabbit hole. Quick, someone tell me what you think of this comment, scale of 1-10.

"pointless insults and debased unfriendliness on display (such replies as "New here eh? So... Piss Off" are deeply repelling) this thing deserves to just be locked."

You think this thread needs to be locked? You should read some of the outright nuttery that happens the PS3 vs. XBox threads. This doesn't even flash on the radar.

"the Web 2.0 is really the most ludicrous thing that's happened to mankind since a long time."

Oh come on now, that's just pretensious. 6/10. ;)

"The nature of the demo seems to be at fault in this instance, but it is a worrying trend."

Obviously everyone who says it's premature to form an opinion is right; no proper RPG will reveal its charms in the first 30 minutes of gameplay. But what worries me is when Bethesda demos the product they seem to be missing the point themselves. If there's a deeper game in here somewhere, they should know better than anyone, and should have found some way to present it as such. Instead, we've seen footage of what looks like a mediocre shooter, with a marketeer babbling about the gory kills as if to target a primary audience of 12-year old boys. Perhaps that is his target audience, but if that's so, Fallout 1/2 fans won't likely be satisfied.

Still, could go either way. It might be the greatest RPG ever and Bethesda just didn't/couldn't come up with a way to "package" it for the conferences etc. Let's hope.

Pfft, I'll wait for the finished product and make up my own mind. You can bet the launch will slip for tweaking anyway. And before shitting all over Bethesda for murdering a venerated licence, does anyone actually remember what unmitigated shit Fallout:Tactics was? You know, where they redesigned the classic powered armour to look like Batman? Or Fallout:Brotherhood of Steel? The latter especially had all the charm of a blocked toilet. Let's have some perspective here!

That "CVG" preview is actually a PC Zone article that CVG are hosting. Then again, 90% of the content on CVG is just lifted from various magazines. Pretty weird system really. Anyway, yes, they did sound a lot more positive. PC Zone are generally quite positive about life though. THey gave Everquest 2 95%! :) I do love the mag though, great read. Unfortunately after that E3 vid and now this article my hopes aren't exactly "up there".

Still - when you have low expectations for a game you are all the more pleased when things turn out alright, so here's hoping.

Let me introduce myself. Long time fan of fallout 1/2. Less so fallout tactics. I try to pretend that Fallout: brotherhood of steel didn't exist. I have also followed fallout 3 bethesda forums since they opened.

About fallout 3, as far as I can tell from all information available now.

If you look for a game similar to fallout 1/2, fallout 3 is *not* for you.

If, on the other hand, you look for quick and bloody romp (in first person) through zombie infested ruins, with a lot of gore (showed in slow motion thanks to VATS), as well as some light roleplaying elements, fallout 3 might be a game for you.

One important difference between fallout 1/2 and 3: 1/2 were simulations of pen and paper experience. Fallout 3 is an action adventure game, with stress put on gore and action.

With small problem related to fallout 3 being in 3d: what looked amusing as messy deaths of small sprites in isometric view in fallout 1/2, doesn't look that amusing when shown in 3d. But this is just my personal opinion.

PS.
@darc
Your impression that target audience of fallout 3 is indeed early teenage male population is indeed shared by a lot of people, both on bethesda fallout 3 forums and outside.

Yeah, I do think that the marketing strategy is something along the lines of "The Fallout fans are a shoe-in (or were so repulsed when it wasn't a lumbering dinosaur of a turn-based strategy game that they wrote it off anyway,) the other RPG gamers will come for the Bethesda name, let's try and get the action gamers!"

Lady Killer gives you extra damage against female enemies, and "unique dialogue options" when talking to female NPCs. Sorry, Bethesda, that's not satirical, it's just crass and misogynistic.

Oh do fuck off with that PC crap. It's fine to explode people left, right and center but you're going to draw the line at calling a female enemy a bitch?

@feanor
Lady killer perk is nothing compared to flagship of bethesda humour, a shining star on their comedic sky: Drinking From Toilets.
What a subtle satire, what a witty humour. And we will be treated to it after they stated, in one of the interviews, that monty python references of fallout 2 were 'over the top' and 'breakig immersion'.

I know one thing. Bethesda is known for many things, but good storytelling and writing are not among them.

"light roleplaying elements"

There's an oxymoron buried in there somewhere. :) Why am I starting to have Bioshock flashbacks?

Just read the CVG preview, and it at least reads like it was written by someone who played Fallout 1 and loved it. Re-reading the EG preview, I'm not sure what to make of it. As for the 'adolescent' violence, I distinctly remember people melting into puddles of slag, or sagging to the ground with a huge chunk blown out of them, or spasming violently in a hail of automatic fire, in the original games: plus the infamous Bloody Mess perk. Criticism of continuity?

@Silvervein: I must say, I hated the Monty Python stuff - and much of the general larkiness - in F2. It was twee and jarred badly, unlike the more amusing stuff like the Canadian Invasion references and the digs at Scientology (the Hubbers and their space shuttle). Not aware of 'Drinking From Toilets' but have been on self-imposed info blackout so as to avoid spoilers, so I assume it's a perk?