Fallout 3 E3 Previews

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Written by BuckGB on July 17th, 2008

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After watching the promo for (Fallout 3″ on G4 yesterday, I was less than enthused. It looked a little clunky, to be honest, and it certainly didn't seem that appealing.

I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

I got some hands-on time with Bethesda's revamp of the Fallout series today, and it's gorgeous. What looked muddy on the G4 broadcast was vibrant and full of life.

Walking through the world I was greeted by a two headed cow in the first two minutes of play which seemed like a randomly spawned creature much like in Oblivion. I was also attacked randomly by savaged rats and wild dogs when exploring the world. The draw distance in the game is once again incredible however in this build there was some texture pop in. However, much like Oblivion there's only so much one console can handle

There are a lot of stats, skills, abilities, et cetera. Not quite as many as the previous games in the Fallout series, but I found that a bit too cumbersome anyway. There's still more than a dozen basic stats to modify and develop your character any way you like, plus special abilities to bump them up even further, like the Lady Killer that's about winning a woman's heart by hacking out of her chest. All of these stats, maps, and other assorted data are managed by the Pipboy, standing as a cheerful 50s style cartoon character who, like the short clips in BioShock, extols in gruesome acts.

Fallout 3 works, and I'm not damning with faint praise here. You have a cult franchise with dedicated fans, the creation of a massive world in a style that's never been done before (since S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was almost entirely based on real locations), FPS mixed with RPG, all the decriers of the little too procedural Oblivion, and the most competitive video game market the world has ever seen. Even from my limited experience with the game, I could feel the same tingle of discovery as when I loaded up the original Fallout for the first time - or going back further, when I stormed the first town in its predecessor, Wasteland. The feeling that I was on the verge of an epic adventure I'd never forget.

The fact that Bethesda's plan to bring the beloved series to consoles has been controversial is pretty much old hat at this point. Many people have made up their minds about the game, and after playing it, it's unfortunate that that's the case. Fallout 3 is a Fallout game. It's not Oblivion with guns or whatever other things forum-goers have sniffed since the game was announced. If anything, Bethesda's worst PR enemy with Fallout 3 is, well, Bethesda.

The demos that Bethesda has given on the game have done a great job of showing off a lot of features in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, that kind of compressed experience has really misrepresented what the game seems to feel like. Mini nukes and tons of explosions are a fun way to show off the game engine's impressive particle and smoke effects, but they're understandably off-putting for people who didn't think the first two games were quite so bombastic.

Regardless of everything else, Interplay was not able to make Fallout 3, and the rights to Van Buren is such a complicated matter, that there's no point in going into that. Besides, the times have changed, the market has changed, the players have changed. That there's no place for a Fallout-style RPG on the market was something its makers discovered. After leaving Interplay, they founded Troika Games. Not having the rights to the series, they wanted to create a so called "spiritual successor" using their own engine, with isometric view, turn-based combat, a complex statistics system, etc. And they went from door to door of various powers that be in the industry, hearing that no one in his right mind will risk putting their money in such a project. Even though the makers of the game were not just some random people.

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