Fallout 3 is coming out on 3 platforms, PS3, XBox, and PC. There was an early review made by PSM3, (Playstation3 Magazine), that said, "The PS3 version compares poorly to its Xbox and PC counterparts." This quote came from PSM3#107.
There has been a bit of a ranting about this statement of course which prompted headlines like this: Fallout 3 looks rubbish on PS3 or this: THE PS3 VERSION SUCKS! XBOX WINS!
But according to PSM3 those headlines are not the case. They state in a later article that the PS3 version just looks SLIGHTLY WORSE than the other versions. To read the whole story head on over to PSM3. If you haven't already pre-ordered your own you can get a copy of Fallout 3 for PS3, XBox 360, or PC from Amazon at the links over on the right.
OK on with the reviews....
This one below comes from Product Reviews.com
Fallout 3 is one of the hottest games on the market that is until the new Call of Duty game is released. There have not been that many reviews of the new game and the few that I have come across all seem to have different views on the game.
One review that I read had said that all the external pieces of the game are there, but it seems to lack that charm that has made the franchise so great in the past. The developers of the game have worked hard on getting the sound just right, from the characters that you encounter, down to how the dogs bark.
IGN loved the part of Fallout 3 where you are able to attack your enemies in real time, by using your guns or melee weapons. They also love the part where you are able to shift into VATS targeting mode, this feature pauses the action and allows you to select specific parts of the enemies’ bodies to hit.
Planet Xbox 360 does not have an in-depth review of the game, but they do get right to the point and tell you exactly how it is. Check out the choice of three great Fallout 3 reviews below.
Fallout 3 Review from: Blog WiredFallout 3 Review from: IGN
Fallout 3 Review from: Planet Box Xbox 360
This one is from A Post Nuclear Blog:
I just got the October issue of swedish PC gamer and they have a review of the PC version of fallout 3.
In short:
score: 81%
Pros:
VATS
SPECIAL
Megaton at night
Cons:
A feeling of lifeless backdrops
Lifeless/stale Characters
To much on a too small areaIts Written by Joakim Bennet, who has proclaimed love for Fallout many times over the years he has been at PC gamer sweden.
Other short stuff(not quotes):
Vats is great, real time combat isn't. The real time combat (damage/hits etc) doesn't seem to be in sync with whats happening on the screen.
HtH combat in 3rd person is just as bad as in oblivion
Bennet misses the world map, random encounters, the empty wastes.
AI isn’t great. Enemies running in circles and no reaction from NPC that gets hot from a long distance is quite common.
You can pick up anything that isn’t bolted to the floor.
The SPECIAL system and Perks works greatHe also writes about four important points and compare them to the originals:
Check out this interview below from Greg Howson, where he talks to Pete Hines, (the Project Manager for Fallout 3 over at Bethesda) over on this blog.The Fallout atmosphere
The story
Combat
Perspective(transition to 3d)
Bennet writes that the game delivers on these four points but not all the way.Here's some short translated segments (English isn't perfect though :D):
“I`m going to take the edge of this review right away. Fallout 3 IS “Oblivion with guns”, No matter what i said earlier. There, I said it, now there's no return.”
“…And everything would be wonderful but that feeling that the game is missing something. I cant quite define it, Call it a feeling, call it whatever you want, but when the gates of vault 101 lies far behind me, the eyes have adapted to the light and 15 hours have passed i start to think. About hopes that have fallen short.
Because in fallout 3 i get most things served on a silver plate right away. Bethesda has tried to fit as much content as possible on a little area. One second im running into a pack of Radscorpions while 30 meters further ahead theres a little settler town. Around the corner i meet some slavers with their captured slaves and beyond the hill some raiders have set up camp. A few minutes of running brings me to some ruins swarming with lethal deathclaws that wants to eat me. Its compressed, maximized and anonymous all at once. It feels like a huge orgy where no ones want to actually “do it”. A lot of bumping and grinding but no friction and no excitement. Many parts but they don’t paint a whole picture.”“Fallout 3 is an uneven game if I´ve ever seen one”
“I manage to “aquire” a house that I decorated in pre-war style, and my very own robot-butler, Wadsworth, that always greets me with a delighted cry and calls me madame. But when i sit down in an old dusty sofa and listen to Maybe by The Inkspots on my Pipboy 3000, i notice how soulless my own character is. Lifeless eyes, skin that looks like plastic. Fake. Phony. Bethesda still haven’t managed to instill life into many if the people that inhabit their universe.”
He doesn’t like the voice actors but the dialog is good:
“the dialogs will piss people off, but mostly because they are recorded with voice actors of extremely varying quality. Had some of the lines been put into the original games or vice versa, no one would have complained.”
“… But first and foremost, the game doesn’t let go of you, despite flaws. the story always makes you want to take a few steps more, and after every disappointment there will be a moment of awe. The details, the at times stunning landscape and the possibility to change the main characters look in all eternity.”
“Its hard to let go of my baggage as an old Fallout player, but when i sit down with the third part of the game i really try to stop comparing the games, and at once it feels much better.”
Fallout 3 interview -
I recently spoke to Pete Hines, Fallout 3 project manager at Bethesda. He talked levelling, canine partners and how you can be a "badass" in the game. Plus how Fallout 3 feels as big as Oblivion. Unfortunately it was a roundtable interview so I didn't have time to ask all your questions but I'm chasing some answers for those now. Anyway, Fallout 3 then...
How do you keep the wasteland setting interesting- both visually and from a content perspective?
It's one of those things we have spent a long time on. We needed more variation than we had originally. It isn't always obvious the first time you play through either. There are a lot of nice touches such as the raiders with baseball caps who attack you on a baseball pitches. We've got a good mix of things to find in the world. Regarding visuals, it's much easier to do a beautiful setting with rivers and waterfalls and trees but there is a real beauty in the destruction of things. You come over a hill and in front of you is what used to be a highway and someone has set up a settlement under the bridge for protection. It's really interesting to see how people have tried to live on in this world. We tried to vary what you find but also give you those epic vistas.
Is there still the same freedom of gameplay as in Oblivion?
There are plenty of ways to solve most quests. You can play using stealth if you put enough points in. This makes it easier to find rare loot. Science points allow you to hack machines. You can really customise your experience. And then there's the whole good, neutral, evil aspect. This is based on how you deal with people in the game. Definitely go to talk to Gob, the bartender in Megaton. If you take his feelings into account you get a different experience and he will talk to you differently. How you resolve conflicts generally plays a big part in affecting your karma.
How influential were the original games for you?
Part of what makes Fallout great is this juxtaposition of a positive alternate 1950's view of life pre nuclear war with the reality after. Like you're in an elementary school with posters that say to "duck and cover" under your desk when the bomb falls. So clearly that didn't work! Seeing the idealistic optimistic pre-war view with the bombed out reality is really powerful.
How do you make being "neutral" fun?
It's all down to player choice. You can help or hinder who you want. It's finding that space in between which gives you some interesting options and seeing how that plays out. And then seeing what the reward is for your decision.
Is Fallout 3 an RPG or an action game?
We're definitely an RPG though we don't go out of our way to limit ourselves to one genre. There are obviously stats but we have lots of action too. Can you just run around around and shoot people like a first person shooter? Sure. This is a sandbox game and you can and do what you want. Does anyone try and fit GTA into a genre?
How does the levelling work? Is it like Oblivion where the game levels up with you?
No. One of the main learning from Oblivion was that this doesn't work. We still do it in some main quest situations where you are locked in and can't come and go. But the world is what it is. You start off in the world and there will be places which are too tough to deal with and some that are easy. So you will need to come back when you are tough. We may occasionally increase the weapon of an enemy but there will be none of that jarring experience in Oblivion where bandits suddenly have glass armour as opposed to leather because you're a badass. Raiders will be raiders whatever. It was also jarring in Oblivion when you go into an area and there was a skeleton. You come back later and it's a Dread Wraith and really tough to kill. You can now go to areas and be a badass and also go to areas where you are barely surviving. If you go away and get better skills and then come back the area will be as you left it and won't have got tougher.
Will casual players be interested in Fallout 3?
Casual players will probably play Fallout 3 as a story-driven shooter. And you can do that. You don't need to pick locks or level up your science. That's why we don't always hammer home that the game is an RPG. It's all based on the kind of character you want to play and what you want to do.
How do you attract new players while keeping fans of the original games happy?
We think you can do both. One of the reasons we went out and got the licence was that we were huge fans of the original games. Fans of the originals will see a lot in Fallout 3 that will remind them of the original games. But we have never set out a goal to be better or as good as the original games - they are what they are. We're just trying to make something that is worthy of the series but also open it up to people who maybe would have liked the original games if they had been playing games 10 or 11 years ago. New players can come into a franchise at any point if it is good and fun. We found that with Oblivion.
How does the companion system work?
You can have two companions- one human one dog. Your dog is called Dogmeat and he is your faithful companion. You can give him stuff to do and help in combat. Your human companion depends on his or her karma and your karma. So if you are playing a good character and you come across an evil character then things won't work out. So you either need to do some bad stuff and then come back or you need to go find another potential companion.
How important is the dog in Fallout 3
As important as you want it to be - you can use the dog or not. We loved it in the original game and wanted him back for this. And you find yourself getting attached to him. But your relationship isn't the focus of the game. The dog can be useful for finding weapons and other items. This is stuff you could find if you went looking, but he can do the job for you. You can send him off and then if he doesn't find anything in a couple of hours he'll come back. But if he dies that's it.
How close are you to finishing the game?
We have release date but we're not ready to put it out yet. We're just finishing off some bug testing and final touches. We're definitely close. It will be a simultaneous release on all platforms in fall 2008.
Fallout 3 is out on PC, 360 and PS3 - any preference on platform?
Officially no. Otherwise I'll start getting phone calls from the two I didn't pick (laughs). The 360 is our lead platform. We've always said that. The 360 was out earliest and you have to pick a platform to start with. But the goal is par performance on all three platforms with how it plays and how it looks. With the caveat on PC that it depends on what kind of graphic card you have. Obviously the PC will have different controls than the console versions.
Why are there no online options in Fallout 3 - surely co-op would be fantastic?
No. Single player only. There are some games that do co-op and do it very well. But for us it takes an inordinate amount of time and focus to create this huge world where you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. And then you have to divide that time between what is the single player experience and what is the co-op. And then to make the co-op work and work well, you know what? It's hard enough to do the single player game. So we just focussed on the single player game.
What plans do you have for downloadable content?
We're planning downloadable content for Xbox 360 and PC. We don't have dates yet. But it will be substantial content, along the lines of Knights of the Nine for Oblivion. So we're talking multiple hours of gameplay rather than smaller one-offs.
Are there factions in Fallout?
There are but not in the same way as Oblivion. There are factions that you interact with, like the slavers, but you don't infiltrate and rise to the top like in Oblivion. It's just different groups in the world and how you interact with them. It's really about you aged 19, leaving Vault 101 and how you are going to interact with this world.
How does the size of the Fallou3 world compare to Oblivion?
It's a kind of apple and pear situation. It's smaller than Oblivion but we do it differently. When you come out of the sewer in Oblivion you know all the major cities from the start and you can instantly travel to any of them and start exploring around them. This makes it much faster to uncover the map. When you come out into Fallout you are one dot on the map. You have to go on foot. There are no cars. You have to explore everywhere on foot. You can fast travel to places once you have got to them but you have to walk to that corner of the map first. The game will feel Oblivion size because you can't ride a horse or fast jump right away.
Fallout 3 is out this Autumn on PC, PS3 and 360. Bring it on.
Here is another review from NMA, (No Mutants Allowed)
