Last night Bethesda Softworks dropped three fresh screens for the upcoming, and highly anticipated, first-person roleplaying title Fallout 3. From the looks of the latest screens it certainly seems that Bethesda has nailed the world that wraps the storyline, much like the world did in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
The first screen crashes a birthday party being held within a diner, complete with decorations and cone birthday lids! The second is more in line with what we've seen in the past, a monster engulfed in flames being taken to task with a mini-gun. The last screen shows the main character, who is fully customizable in looks and in specs, trying to coax a dog to him with food (we know this because of the image's original filename). We're getting excited for this one folks!
Posted Apr 21st 2008 11:15AM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
Speaking with Eurogamer, Bethesda's Pete Hines confirmed that there is no Fallout 3 demo planned leading up to or after the game's release. Hines pointed to Fallout 3's open and expansive world being the reason for not doing a demo saying that "when you build it as one thing, there's no way to portion off a section and have it stand on its own." So, pretty much, Bethesda feels that offering only a chunk of the Fallout 3 world wouldn't do the game justice, ultimately giving gamers the wrong impression of what Fallout 3 has to offer. Good enough reason, just make the game super enjoyable and you won't here us complain.
Posted Apr 12th 2008 6:00PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
Information extracted from a GameStop mailer brings details about Fallout 3's Collector's Edition and what fans will receive for their extra $20. Yup, $20 extra for this Collector's Edition, but we have to say that it does include some pretty nifty items. Fallout 3 Collector's Edition items including a Vault Boy bobblehead (w00t!), a 100 page hardcover art book and a making-of DVD all carefully placed in a Vault-tec lunch box that is said to withstand radiation. Though, we're not sure how we can test that. We have a feeling only the diehard Fallout fanboys will be willing to pay an extra $20 for this beefier edition, but that said, we know we'd love to own a Vault Boy bobblehead. He'd be our "yes man".
One of the most anticipated sequels of the year is Bethesda Softworks' first foray into the Fallout series with Fallout 3. The role-playing adventure has been compared to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, except in the future ... and if that future blew up a few times. Our pimp-daddy site, Joystiq, recently put their impressions of the game online along with three new screens that show off the post apocalyptic wonderland. Check our their impressions and peep the new screens in our existing Fallout 3 gallery.
In an excellent back-and-forth style write-up over at 1up, the PC editors break down their newest look at Bethesda's Fallout 3. The prose of the piece is a good read and intersperses interesting and important pieces of Fallout news all throughout. Like the fact that the game begins with being born. Literally. You evidently get to view that moment in all its first-person glory. The words womb and sphincter were used.
On a more serious note, the game's previously noted 200 endings has now ballooned to 500. Now, upon first reading that number, fanboys everywhere are getting ready to say that with that many endings, they can't possibly be all that different! Duh, that's the point. When the number of game endings was first announced, it was around 10-15. Assuming those were all relatively different from each other, then our 500 ending are just 10-15 endings (likely more) with various gradations between them. The whole point is to (effectively) never have exactly the same ending twice. For those of you who think that's a raw deal because you can't see everything, then we have something to show you.
With most games these days we've learned to be happy, even impressed, if a game sports more than one ending. And even then most games with over one ending only have a total of two endings at all. For a game to have over 200 endings is absolutely unheard-of. In the case of Fallout 3 the 200 endings run the gamut of difference, from small story details, to the largest plot developments. So there will be gradations in the game's ending to the point that it will be difficult to impossible to get the exact same one if your second character makes different choices. This awesome news came from an interview with the games executive producer Todd Howard on the OXM official podcast. The interview has other tidbits and is worth listing, just as Fallout 3 will be worth playing.
Some of the best details of the interview include the fact that the game ended up being almost twice the size than they originally planned, and that it is now near the size of the Oblivion world. Not only that but the game "is easily 100 hours" which is great news for RPG fans as combined with the DLC, this game gets bigger and bigger all the time. For those who want to skip right to the interview in the podcast, it begins at 35:00.
We had Mass Effect,Blue Dragon, and more last year, but other than Fable 2 what are our RPG releases for the rest of this year? Well, Fallout 3 should end up being the Oblivion of 2008 (especially considering they're from the same developer). The continuation of the post-apocalyptic dark-humor-filled isometric PC RPG of yesteryear has been in development for a while now, and is still slated for a Fall release. Bethesda's VP of Marketing, Pete Hines, sat down for a ridiculously long interview with the guys from gameplayer.com.au, and the interview is well worth reading even for folks who don't consider themselves either Fallout or Oblivion fans. And if you're either (or both!) of those then this is absolutely required reading.
Keep reading the post though, and you'll hear about the vaults ....
As part of their ongoing development diary series, Bethesda today posted brand new Brotherhood of Steel concept art from upcoming Fallout 3 and our immediate reaction is: delicious. Fallout 3 lead designer Emil Pagliarulo goes on to describe some of the concept art and mentions the Brotherhood of Steel being a faction obsessed with and worshipers of technology. Read about the goods after the jump and take a look at the new artwork in our Fallout 3 gallery below. Oh, and Bethesda also needs QA testers for their little project. Hit that up if you qualify.
Posted Nov 13th 2007 2:15PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
Chatting with CVG, Bethesda's Pete Hines talks a bit about development of Fallout 3 and how downloadable content will play a roll in the game's future. In general, Hines says that the studio wants to focus all their energy on the core game, making it the best it can be and if they don't get that right then "nobody's going to want to download anything for it anyway". But Hines' attitude towards DLC isn't completely off, saying that after development wraps up on the game and bug testing kicks off, then the dev team will start looking at their Fallout 3 DLC possibilities. So, we wouldn't expect to see Fallout 3 content hitting the Marketplace the week of or weeks after release. Shucks.
But you'd better get it while it's still free. Bethesda has announced the final bit of downloadable content for its latest time-swallowing RPG, Oblivion. Entitled "Fighter's Stronghold," it gives fighter characters a spiffy new castle to lounge around in. Within this castle, players can upgrade the furnishings, find the secret treasure vault, hire a taxidermist to create trophies, and much more. Players can even hire a vintner to make special ability enhancing wines. It has everything a fighter could want, including your own personal knights that patrol the premises (we wonder if you get XP for their kills). The best part of all is that it's free starting October 15th and will remain free for one week thereafter. Really, it sounds almost perfect. We have discovered one weakness though: no wenches. How can you have a fighter's paradise without wenches?
Bethesda has announced that Shivering Isles, the expansion to the life-owning RPG Oblivion, will soon be making its retail debut. Previously available only as a download on Xbox Live Marketplace, the retail disc will offer up both the Shivering Isles expansion as well as another piece of downloadable content, Knights of the Nine. As we've reported before, Shivering Isles offers dozens of hours of additional gameplay with new areas, items, spells, enemies, and ingredients. The disc is set to hit retailers next month. No price has been set at this time, but we imagine the pricing will be on par with the downloadable version.
If you've yet to step into the world of Oblivion, you might want to wait until the Game of the Year Edition ships this month. The GOTY Edition includes all the downloadable content for Oblivion includingShivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. For the rest of us (especially those without Knights of the Nine) the Shivering Isles retail disc might be a pretty good deal.
Bethesda has announced on their blog that the Japanese version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has shipped. The Japanese version of Oblivion has been completely localized, with nearly a million words translated, including ever book in the game. The beginning and ending cinematics have also been re-recorded in Japanese, though spoken dialogue within the game remains in English with Japanese subtitles. What is more, the Japanese version includes the Knights of the Nine content right on the disc (as will the upcoming Game of the Year Edition in America). The game recently received rave reviews from Famitsu -- the game scored a 38, a score equaled or bettered by only 44 titles since September of 1986 -- and production director Ashley Cheng expects the game to be a "breakout hit." Furthermore, Cheng expects it will sell a few Xbox 360s, too (the localized PS3 version is expected in a few months). Whether or not Oblivion affects the 360's performance in Japan, we're happy that Japanese gamers finally get a chance to see what the rest of the world has been raving about.
There's nothing quite like ridiculously over the top violence to take the edge off, is there? It looks like the boys and girls at Bethesda are patently aware of this fact, as the latest batch of Fallout 3screenshots have a bit of a gruesome flare to them. Of course, it's not all gibs. There are some nice shots of dilapidated structures, a nasty looking super mutant, and even a character or two. Check them out in the gallery below. While you're at it, don't forget to read Joystiq's E3 impressions of the game either.
Today, Bethesda announced that this September they'll be releasing a new compilation of our beloved Oblivion ever so lengthily named The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition. The GotY edition doesn't have a price-tag attached to it yet, but we do know that it will include all the previously released downloadable content including Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. And, we hope, it'll include the horse armor too.
So, this GotY edition surely won't woo Oblivion fans who've already purchased all the DLC content, but for those who have yet to experience all the RPG fun, this September looks to be the time to jump in.
Our friends over at Joystiq got a chance to take a look at Bethesda's Fallout 3 and even though the franchise has been on hiatus for a while, the game sounds like it'll be sure to please. Fallout 3's story takes place 30 years after the previous in Washington DC based Vault 101 where you live among the many survivors. But then things get a little mysterious when your father goes missing, so you take it upon yourself to hack the computer system, open the vault, and crawl outside for the first time. The game is quite reminiscent of an Oblivion feel, but the overall tone, graphical improvements and odd weapons like the Suck-o-Tron give Fallout 3 a unique tone and a lot of promise. Go ahead and check out Joystiq's full preview and additional list of Fallout 3 factoids that they learned after grilling the Bethesda dev team. But don't get too excited just yet fanboys, because this little gem is slated for a Fall 2008 release.
Last night Bethesda Softworks dropped three fresh screens for the upcoming, and highly anticipated, first-person roleplaying title Fallout 3. From the looks of the latest screens it certainly seems that Bethesda has nailed the world that wraps the storyline, much like the world did in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
