[golem]

Thanks to Emil, Todd and Pete for the demo and answering all these questions and thanks to fellow gaffers for your input!

Demoed on 360.

Warning: Possible spoilers within.


ANSWERS:

Separate PC / Console UI?

Yes, they learned their lesson from Oblivion and are making sure that the PC GUI will be suitable for keyboard+mouse users

PC/360/PS3 simultaneous release?

Yes.

Mod support on PC or Console?

Hasn't been decided yet.

More celebrity voice overs?

Besides Ron Perlman, they aren't ready to make any further announcements at this stage. No Jean-Luc :(

Any returning characters?

Not saying at this moment.

How dialogue works?

Branching dialogue tree, different choices/chances of success based on charisma and speaking skill.
Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

Weather system?

Yes.

Fanbois?

They understand they're passionate about the brand and want to live up to their expectations but they are definitely making a game that they themselves want to play

How far can camera zoom out?

Pretty much full control over camera and can get into an iso/top-down view.

VATS?

Pauses game and lets you queue up actions, according to how many Action Points you have.
Action Points regenerate in real time based on Agility.
AP cost is dependant on weapon, skill.
Can queue up actions on multiple enemies.
My impression.. the combat looks like alot of fun!

Game areas?

Game areas are not scaled such as in Oblivion although there will be some minor scaling of creatures withing a predefined range of levels to maintain a fair bit of challenge.
Because XP and Levels are used, they are able to determine PC level/power better and be able to tailor quests/direct players to zones appropriate for their levels.

Random encounters/easter eggs such as Alien ship?

Maybe.
FYI, on the Energy Weapons skill info pane, it affects these types of weapons:
Alien, Cyro, Laser, Plasma and one other I think I missed.

Children?

In the game, killable (directly)? Not yet decided.

Groin/Eye shots?

They figure that a crit on the eye will gib the head anwyays so probably leaving that out. Groin shot is a maybe.

NPCs? Dogmeat?

Animal companions.. maybe. NPC followers are recruitable based on karma (good/evil/neutral) and controlled through dialogue.

Bloody mess perk?

Yes

Does the game end? Is there a level cap?

Yes to both questions.

How much it ties into the previous games?

You'll find out!



OTHER TIDBITS:

Weapons have decay. They are repaired using the repair skill which requires weapons of the same type to get parts from. Weapons decay has many effects such as Rate of Fire, Cone, Damage

Water is an important theme in Fallout, it's one way you can heal.

The Super Mutant Behemoth... looked like something out of GeOW, but in GeOW you don't actually get to fight the big monsters.

The Fat Man nuke effect is really cool.

Hacking minigame... hack into the BIOS for passwords to terminals. There will be alot of terminals.

XP mostly comes from quests.

Towns and Buildings are zoned like in Oblivion (load times between each, etc).

Other factions: one of the radio stations mentioned by in game dialogue is apparently run by The Enclave.

The faces are much better, especially the female ones.

Your in-game father (Liam Neeson) will physically reflect the choices you make on your own character's appearance.

Overall... I want to play this game!

My preview will probably go up on http://gamedeveloper.digitalmedianet.com/
but it will be way more general than this post, probably mostly a description of the demo level/missions that have been covered on other sites.



SONY booth impressions:

Also dropped by Sony for a bit...
Little Big Planet looks awesome.
Lair was actually pretty fun to play and looks great in motion(tm).
NBA 08 looked good.
Framerate was disappointing on pretty much all the big games there (dont know how old the demo builds were though) except for Ratchet and Clank (which looked great).

[Cornballer]

Cool. Thanks for putting that together.

Is there any video floating around online of the demo levels?

[$h@d0w]

Pretty much full control over camera and can get into an iso/top-down view.

Fanboy haters silenced.

[Great Rumbler]

This is quickly becoming one of my most anticipated games of 2008.

Good job on the interview!

[AstroLad]

Game areas? Game areas are not scaled such as in Oblivion although there will be some minor scaling of creatures withing a predefined range of levels to maintain a fair bit of challenge. Because XP and Levels are used, they are able to determine PC level/power better and be able to tailor quests/direct players to zones appropriate for their levels.

I'm sure modern RPGers have considered the issue quite a bit, but when did scaling become the default? How many decades did RPGs get by without scaling of any sort? If you're worried about characters getting so overpowered that they breeze through the game, then just make it quite difficult/time-consuming for them to get so overpowered. Part of the fun of RPGs to me was always that you could have about as strong or as weak of a character as you wanted.

Now, I'm not in favor of tons of hours of forced leveling, but that's a design issue that doesn't need to be addressed by scaling, which to me trashes one of the aspects of RPGs that I enjoyed the most, but my experience with modern RPGs is about 1/10th of my experience with old PC RPGs, so maybe it really is a great evolutionary step whose benefits I don't realize.

Other than that, sounds interesting.

[Borys]

Can't believe you forwarded my question to BethSoft golem, thanks!

Thanks!!!

Yay for the PC GUI getting a proper treatment!

[golem]

Fanboy haters silenced.

not really sure how you would do combat from that POV though.. since alot of it is still FPS.

no prob Borys, Emil and his crew are PC gamers first and foremost and they want to make sure its a great experience on the PC... and yes MightyHedgehog, he does love himself some snake squeezins.

[MrPing1000]

Branching dialogue tree, different choices/chances of success based on charisma and speaking skill. Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

Damn no more stupid characters.

[Clevinger]

not really sure how you would do combat from that POV though.. since alot of it is still FPS.

The ones who favor turn-based combat could probably use VATS exclusively, from what I gather, so it may be feasible to use that POV throughout the game in that way.

Someone in the earlier thread asked about slavery (and if you could participate in it), the old Gamespot preview of the game says that Paradise Falls is indeed a Slaver encampment.

Paradise Falls was one of the concept pieces:



As to whether you could join them and participate in the faction is unknown. But seeing as how they're trying very hard to allow player choice in this game, I'd say it's a possibility.

[Prime crotch]

No more dumb Hulk speech option? meh that left me a more bit worried about Bethesda getting the Fallout humour.

[Clevinger]

Dumb speak would double both the writing and VO work. While it's funny, is it worth that trade-off?

[nelsonroyale]

Im interested

[Jenga]

Other factions: one of the radio stations mentioned by in game dialogue is apparently run by The Enclave.

Whoa. Can't wait to see what type of radio station it is. Propaganda? Military music?

[jj984jj]

Maybe Bethesda won't do a bad job after all. :D

[Durante]

How dialogue works? Branching dialogue tree, different choices/chances of success based on charisma and speaking skill. Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

Solid but not spectacular. If they pair it with solid writing it's still much better than I expected.

[ElectricBlue187]

Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

:(

[buckfutter]

Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

want morE.

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I'm sure modern RPGers have considered the issue quite a bit, but when did scaling become the default? How many decades did RPGs get by without scaling of any sort? If you're worried about characters getting so overpowered that they breeze through the game, then just make it quite difficult/time-consuming for them to get so overpowered. Part of the fun of RPGs to me was always that you could have about as strong or as weak of a character as you wanted. Now, I'm not in favor of tons of hours of forced leveling, but that's a design issue that doesn't need to be addressed by scaling, which to me trashes one of the aspects of RPGs that I enjoyed the most, but my experience with modern RPGs is about 1/10th of my experience with old PC RPGs, so maybe it really is a great evolutionary step whose benefits I don't realize.

Scaling became an issue as we started to get more wide-open, go anywhere, at anytime, games like Morrowind or Oblivion. The idea was to make the game more challenging at all times, so that when you got too high of a level, it wasn't just a cake walk all of the time. For instance, in Morrowind it was possible to turn your character into a god in about a half hour or so of play, and essentially walk through the rest of the game without challenge. Scaling was added to Oblivion to try to balance these things out, and it was met with mixed reactions and limited success.

Older RPG's were much more linear, so it was easier to throw something at the characters and make sure they were at the proper level to handle it. These more wide open style of games have brought new challenges to balancing the game play.

[Takuan]

Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

[Night_Trekker]

How dialogue works? Branching dialogue tree, different choices/chances of success based on charisma and speaking skill. Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

Ehhh... I hope this isn't too much like the ES system. But everything else sounds really good.

Thanks for forwarding everyone's questions :)

[AstroLad]

Scaling became an issue as we started to get more wide-open, go anywhere, at anytime, games like Morrowind or Oblivion. The idea was to make the game more challenging at all times, so that when you got too high of a level, it wasn't just a cake walk all of the time. For instance, in Morrowind it was possible to turn your character into a god in about a half hour or so of play, and essentially walk through the rest of the game without challenge. Scaling was added to Oblivion to try to balance these things out, and it was met with mixed reactions and limited success. Older RPG's were much more linear, so it was easier to throw something at the characters and make sure they were at the proper level to handle it. These more wide open style of games have brought new challenges to balancing the game play.

I recognize that you're explaining, not justifying, but that explanation is so strange to me (though I'm sure it's accurate). Keep in mind that the last Elder Scrolls game I invested significant time in was Daggerfall, but wouldn't the solution to "turn your character into a god in about a half hour or so of play" be to just make it more difficult to level up? Games like D&D Gold Box, Ultima V-VII, Underworld and tons of other titles were certainly fairly wide open.

If you wanted to, you could certainly go around killing spiders all day in any of the Gold Box games and then have a "cakewalk" through the rest of the game, but it was designed so that this wasn't easy to do without completely eliminating the benefits of an open system and without creating some sort of artificial scaling that is just constantly altering the game world on the fly to mitigate your improved abilities. I must be old-fashioned, but I really liked that idea that I knew that enemies of level X were in Dungeon Y, and I could go in right now at a lower level and try to be crafty (and lucky) or, if I wanted to, I could do something else. The key is in not making Option B so easy that it's the obvious choice to everyone, but I don't see how this ever became an issue other than through poor design.

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I recognize that you're explaining, not justifying, but that explanation is so strange to me (though I'm sure it's accurate). Keep in mind that the last Elder Scrolls game I invested significant time in was Daggerfall, but wouldn't the solution to "turn your character into a god in about a half hour or so of play" be to just make it more difficult to level up? Games like D&D Gold Box, Ultima V-VII, Underworld and tons of other titles were certainly fairly wide open. If you wanted to, you could certainly go around killing spiders all day in any of the Gold Box games and then have a "cakewalk" through the rest of the game, but it was designed so that this wasn't easy to do without completely eliminating the benefits of an open system and without creating some sort of artificial scaling that is just constantly altering the game world on the fly to mitigate your improved abilities. I must be old-fashioned, but I really liked that idea that I knew that enemies of level X were in Dungeon Y, and I could go in right now at a lower level and try to be crafty (and lucky) or, if I wanted to, I could do something else. The key is in not making Option B so easy that it's the obvious choice to everyone, but I don't see how this ever became an issue other than through poor design.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to justify it, just hoping to find an explanation as to why it's become more of an issue. I'm someone who actually plays the game as an RPG, and I wouldn't even think about doing something to turn my character into a god early in a game, as it totally defeats the purpose of it for me. And I'm an old school RPG player like it sounds like you are too.

I prefer the style you are describing as well. I want to know that certain areas are better left untouched until you are higher level or you will die. Painfully and quickly. But some players find exploits in a game, like the one in Morrowind, and essentially make the game a cakewalk. I think that is why Bethesda created this system. Personally, I say let them play the game the way the want. If they think it's fun to play that way, then let them have their fun.

We discussed this a ton in the Oblivion thread, and what I proposed was that they create geographic zones to effect the scaling system. So the closer you are to a town, the more limited the effects of scaling. The further you are out into the wilderness the great the scaling effects. They could also add more bosses to the game to help alleviate some of the issues as well.

Personally, I kind of like having a challenge all the way through the game, but make it more natural, although that is tougher in these more wide open, sandbox styles of games though.

[lastendconductor]

Poor INT will NOT affect your dialogue choices.

Total failure.

[Prime crotch]

Dumb speak would double both the writing and VO work. While it's funny, is it worth that trade-off?

Yes, why branching dialogs then? They mean more writing and VO we need to save every penny!

[Clevinger]

Yes, why branching dialogs then? They mean more writing and VO we need to save every penny!

What I'm saying is, stupid speak would double both the VO and writing work, effectively doubling their respective budget (and decreasing the time allotted to work on actual meaningful branching dialogue), and for what? A chuckle here and there? A gimmick that's funny to the few people who take the time to try it but will largely go unnoticed and unappreciated? I don't see why it should be this giant priority when looking at it's cost.

Black Isle also had the luxury of only having to VO a handful of characters in each game.

[Draft]

What I'm saying is, stupid speak would double both the VO and writing work, effectively doubling their respective budget (and decreasing the time allotted to work on actual meaningful branching dialogue), and for what? A chuckle here and there? A gimmick that's funny to the few people who take the time to try it but will largely go unnoticed and unappreciated? I don't see why it should be this giant priority when looking at it's cost. Black Isle also had the luxury of only having to VO a handful of characters in each game.

Yes, exactly. VO, probably more than any one thing, is directly responsible for the "dumbing down" of the PCRPG. No longer can you just write and write and write to fill your game with wonderful, immersive dialog. Now your creativity has to be tempered by a VO budget.

Something like Planescape: Torment could not be made today. The VO costs alone with be millions of dollars.

[gstaff]

Sounds like you guys liked it, glad they were able to answer some of your questions.

Did anyone make it to the Bethesda party last night?

[AstroLad]

Yes, exactly. VO, probably more than any one thing, is directly responsible for the "dumbing down" of the PCRPG. No longer can you just write and write and write to fill your game with wonderful, immersive dialog. Now your creativity has to be tempered by a VO budget. Something like Planescape: Torment could not be made today. The VO costs alone with be millions of dollars.

I was just going to suggest that they use text, but I guess that's unacceptable for this kind of game today. I'm sure the console releases have at least something to do with that reality.

[Clevinger]

Sounds like you guys liked it, glad they were able to answer some of your questions.

Is there going to be any footage of the game shown besides the teaser any time soon?

[Draft]

I was just going to suggest that they use text, but I guess that's unacceptable for this kind of game today. I'm sure the console releases have at least something to do with that reality.

I don't think so. High profile PC games were doing the VO for everything as far back as Deus Ex. It's a direction that the industry as a whole gravitated towards. For the most part I'd say it's a good thing, but since any open ended RPG worth its salt is built around conversations, the limits VO places on dialog options is felt most strongly in that genre.

[AstroLad]

I don't think so. High profile PC games were doing the VO for everything as far back as Deus Ex. It's a direction that the industry as a whole gravitated towards. For the most part I'd say it's a good thing, but since any open ended RPG worth its salt is built around conversations, the limits VO places on dialog options is felt most strongly in that genre.

Not me, I hate VO. Why else would I own a Wii? I still remember the U7 VO add-on pack. I don't need no damn talkin' Guardian, y'hear!

[Prime crotch]

What I'm saying is, stupid speak would double both the VO and writing work, effectively doubling their respective budget (and decreasing the time allotted to work on actual meaningful branching dialogue), and for what? A chuckle here and there? A gimmick that's funny to the few people who take the time to try it but will largely go unnoticed and unappreciated? I don't see why it should be this giant priority when looking at it's cost. Black Isle also had the luxury of only having to VO a handful of characters in each game.

Yes it would double the work needed but it was a great feature even immersive if you got radiation poisoning.
I realize VO work on every character is a expensive feature but not every random NPC needs a voice. Although I guess it would be harder to sell a game like that these days specially a high budget one.
But I hope this doesn't become worse to the extent where they have to cut down on writting just so that they can voice every single NPC.

[gstaff]

Is there going to be any footage of the game shown besides the teaser any time soon?

Maybe, maybe not :)

[Durante]

I don't think so. High profile PC games were doing the VO for everything as far back as Deus Ex. It's a direction that the industry as a whole gravitated towards. For the most part I'd say it's a good thing, but since any open ended RPG worth its salt is built around conversations, the limits VO places on dialog options is felt most strongly in that genre.

VO doesn't have to be that limiting. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines had VA, but also one of the coolest dialog systems ever made. Depending on nearly all your stats, your character and the situation, you could get special persuasion, coercion, intimidation and seduction options. Also, one character type (the insane Malkavians) had completely different, utterly bizarre dialogue, with alternative names for all characters and locations. It's amazing really.

Then again, Troika went out of business after that game, so maybe there's something to your argument :lol

[AdrianWerner]

Hmm... it's not Fallout I loved. I would take Van Buren over 10 Bethseda's FO3. But I'm a realist, it's not going to happen... ever. So I won't even bother comparing FO3 to FO1, it doesn't make sense and I will only be setting myself up for dissapoitment. I'm going to aproach FO3 fresh, as new game, judging it only on it's own merits. So I'm not expecting a worthy Fallout sequel, but I do demand good post apocalyptic RPG from Bethsoft :)

[TreIII]

A well deserved "damnation!" for the the low INT = not affected by dialogue bit. I mean, really...couldn't they have just made it so that the main character doesn't actually have VO? I think it would have been a lot better this way, so that at least you could make your character "as smart as a monkey or dumb as a chimp" (:lol) as you saw fit.

And again, they dodge the children, drugs, prostitution and groin shot question...

C'mon Bethesda...you'd have everything place to claim GOTY 2008, were that you would just grant such fundamental things that make sure you adhere to the overall spirit of the franchise. If you're not willing to do that, then you really shouldn't have taken up the cause of making FO3...

[Clevinger]

A well deserved "damnation!" for the the low INT = not affected by dialogue bit. I mean, really...couldn't they have just made it so that the main character doesn't actually have VO?

Player characters don't have VO (or at least I don't think since they didn't in FO 1 and 2 or Oblivion). The problem is that you have to have writing/VO for every single reaction of the NPC for your different dialogue choices. And when you have a normal person and then an incredibly stupid person saying/asking a related statement/question, you have to write and record two different reactions. One for the normal, one for the incredibly stupid. It's doubling the work.

This is on top of already branching dialogue.

[AstroLad]

VO doesn't have to be that limiting. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines had VA, but also one of the coolest dialog systems ever made. Depending on nearly all your stats, your character and the situation, you could get special persuasion, coercion, intimidation and seduction options. Also, one character type (the insane Malkavians) had completely different, utterly bizarre dialogue, with alternative names for all characters and locations. It's amazing really. Then again, Troika went out of business after that game, so maybe there's something to your argument :lol

I've heard so many good thigns about Bloodlines that I really want to play it. Did they ever get around to fixing the big bugs in the game?

[Prime crotch]

I've heard so many good thigns about Bloodlines that I really want to play it. Did they ever get around to fixing the big bugs in the game?

Troika died but the community fixed some of the bugs. The worse part isn't the bugs which aren't game breaking its simply the coding that can make even a rig that can run Crysis on ultra settings have a hard time playing the game smoothly. It's still fully playable and one of the best RPGs I've ever played but the overall wonkiness of the perfomance can be annoying.

[Fragamemnon]

There's a community patch for Bloodlines that does wonders for fixing up some stuff that was never patched officially for that game.

Speaking of community patches, what the fans are doing to fix Gothic 3 right now is nothing short of incredible now that JoWood gave them source code access.

[AstroLad]

Troika died but the community fixed some of the bugs. The worse part isn't the bugs which aren't game breaking its simply the coding that can make even a rig that can run Crysis on ultra settings have a hard time playing the game smoothly. It's still fully playable and one of the best RPGs I've ever played but the overall wonkiness of the perfomance can be annoying.

That's really unfortunate. I remember the huge marketing blitz around the game and being really intrigued by it even at the preview stage. My brother loved it, but it chugged even on his monster computer a few years ago. I guess I have to take the plunge sometime and upgrade from my four-year-old laptop but the fact that I just spend >$3500 on TV+systems+games makes that a bit harder to stomach right now. Come on 360/PS3 release! (har.)

[ElectricBlue187]

And again, they dodge the children, drugs, prostitution and groin shot question... C'mon Bethesda...you'd have everything place to claim GOTY 2008, were that you would just grant such fundamental things that make sure you adhere to the overall spirit of the franchise. If you're not willing to do that, then you really shouldn't have taken up the cause of making FO3...

agreed.

[golem]

quote from another preview:

As Pete Hines said: "We have no intention of removing elements that made Fallout well... Fallout". Let's take, for example, the system of radiation and using drugs - one of the screenshots shows effects of an overdose, maybe a side effect of taking a superstimpack. The sphere of sexuality will most likely be similarly treated.

[Karakand]

Then again, Troika went out of business after that game, so maybe there's something to your argument :lol

RIP friend. RIP. :(

[TreIII]

quote from another preview:

Then why all this cloak and dagger? If they can incorporate these things, then by all means, tell us SOMETHING about it. It'd be good news to hear! It'd also do more to ease the few worries I have, as well as do more to shut up the people at NMA for at least a FEW minutes... :lol

[Clevinger]

Then why all this cloak and dagger? If they can incorporate these things, then by all means, tell us SOMETHING about it. It'd be good news to hear! It'd also do more to ease the few worries I have, as well as do more to shut up the people at NMA for at least a FEW minutes... :lol

The game won't be out until Fall of 08, which is a year an a half away. They want there to be a flow of information up until that point, which is a long stretch. Revealing everything about the game immediately a year and a half before release is terrible marketing.

I do think Bethesda is a bit too tight-lipped at times, but it's understandable.

[TreIII]

The game won't be out until Fall of 08, which is a year an a half away. They want there to be a flow of information up until that point, which is a long stretch. Revealing everything about the game immediately a year and a half before release is terrible marketing. I do think Bethesda is a bit too tight-lipped at times, but it's understandable.

I could understand and respect that notion, but at the same time, that's what every other bit of content that could stand to be in the game is for! They can hold that stuff off until whenever they deem fit, this stuff which falls into the realm of "bare necessities" should be the kind of stuff that they get on the table NOW.

I mean, I think it stands to reason that Bethesda probably has a nice amount of surprises for this game that no one, not even the die-hards at NMA, may have put into consideration. And when we do get info about this, it'll blow some minds. THAT kind of stuff I don't mind waiting for, even if they hold it off until like a day or two before the game goes gold. But stuff like I listed above (groin punching, drug use, porn star antics and "fun with the kiddies")? That should be the stuff that we should already be rest assuring will be in this game, because that should fall into the realm of things that we know and come to expect.

And that's my main argument. The sooner they can put my soul at ease with (positive!) answers to these burning questions, the much more receptive I'll be to anything else they could stand to add on top of that. I mean, hey, Fallout was awesome, but I could definitely see more that can go beyond what it started...

For instance, what if, alongside funky things like being able to find an alien spaceship, with a treasure trove of goodies, they open the door to other things entirely? For instance...what if they take a cue from Fist of the North Star, and allow you to learn a powerful martial art that capitalizes on bare handed combat to a bad-ass degree, such that you only need your hands and feet to make people explode into giblets? :lol :lol

[MightyHedgehog]

. . . and yes MightyHedgehog, he does love himself some snake squeezins.

Damn right, he better. Thanks for the rest of the info.

[SeatBelts]

yawn

[Archer]

I hope they'll create a user interface where fans can create their own content, such as some of the more provocative themes of Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics.