Kotaku
After several industry events spent under the wing of my more experienced brethren it was time for me to spread my wings and fly free, and what better way to spend my first solo outing than to travel to Washington D.C. to visit The Elder Scrolls series creators Bethesda Softworks and take a sneak peak at their latest and possibly most highly anticipated creation, Fallout 3.
Travel Advisory
I am a nervous flyer. It's not that I worry about falling out of the sky with a hundred of my closest strangers, though the thought doesn't help. My nervousness comes from taking my normal routine and replacing it with a series of stressful timed missions. Get to transportation by this time, the the airport by that time, etc. I start worrying the night before generally, which leads to me not sleeping, which ultimately leads me to a 6:40PM flight to DC with my 6'6" frame jammed between the windowless bulkhead in the very back of an airplane and a woman I can only describe as cackling Mama Voodoo, who had starting drinking in preparation for the flight sometime in the mid 70's.
The hour long delay on the tarmac due to the presence of 'weather' failed to brighten my mood considerably, and I spent the entire flight trying to read a book with my head crooked at a 45 degree angle, afraid to doze off lest my seat mate snatch a tuft of hair or an errant fingernail for use in dark magics beyond my comprehension. I swear at some point between landing and disembarking she dissolved into a pungent smoke and oozed through the ventilation system to freedom.
I was driven to the hotel the press was gathering at by a Ukrainian man who stood in line for a day and a half to buy his wife a PlayStation 3 back in November. He was a photography hobbyist with the deep-seated love and respect for the architecture and history of the nation's capital you only find in immigrants from other countries. I had hoped to catch some shuteye on the way from the airport, and instead found myself being taken the long way in order to drive by monuments I had only ever seen in pictures or video. If you've never been to DC before I'd highly recommend finding someone like that man to show you around.
The Hotel At The End Of Forever
The Hotel Helix on Rhode Island Avenue is best summed up by a sentence from their web brochure. "Can we interest you in a game of Twister?" It's retro hip and trendy. When you call the main hotel number you get a message from someone sounding like Austin Powers. You get the idea.
I dropped off my luggage and took stock of the room, noting the ostentatious fake fur comforter covering the bed. Who could sleep on such a ridiculous thing? With a shrug I headed down to the lounge area, where a little party was running from 7pm to midnight.
"Where's Brian?" I got that a lot as I nervously attempted to socialize, generally followed by people peeking behind me just in case Crecente was hiding back there. Most of the food had already been devoured by ravenous members of the press, but I did manage to salvage a single cookie. Holding it aloft and looking lost in the time honored tradition of the socially awkward, I was beckoned over to a table full of friendly Europeans and spent the remainder of the evening discussing American beef, Ralph Fiennes's pretentious pronunciation of the name Ralph, and inevitably World of Warcraft.
Around 12:30am I stumbled into my room and fell face forward onto that stupid fur comforter. When next I opened my eyes it was 9:00, and time to head to Bethesda HQ.
The People On The Bus
We went up and down, and the wheels went round and round. I am almost certain they purposely took a circuitous route to the offices so we couldn't find them again if we tried, and I ran out of breadcrumbs to make a trail halfway through the trip. Poignant conversation topics included cereal and toys from the 1980's, bad horror films, and The Oozinator.
Don't Go Back To Rockville
Bethesda Softworks' offices are located in Rockville, Maryland, Money Magazine's number 26th best place to live in America. More importantly it is the country's number one place to develop Fallout 3, which is of course why we were there that morning. After having our badges checked we were escorted downstairs to the main lobby, where a receptionist's station lined with an impressive array of awards greeted us. Soon we were ushered through the offices to a newly built auditorium, where everyone found their seats and got settled in. Then they mentioned breakfast was available in the cafeteria and everyone got up again, like we were part of some bizarre hive mind. After donuts and coffee we tried the whole auditorium thing again.
What You've All Been Waiting For - The Demo
Once everyone had settled back into their seats with full bellies, Executive Producer Todd Howard took the floor. He explained that Fallout 3 was ultimately a product of Fallout fans, for Fallout fans. Just a group of folks who thought it would be neat to make a Fallout game and eventually got that chance, with the game being worked on since 2004. They spent lots of time pouring over reviews of the first two games and figuring out what they wanted in this one. The tone of the first game without the over the top self-awareness and adult of the second, with plenty of violence...in fact, that was one of the running themes throughout the demonstration. "Violence done well is fucking hilarious."
Eventually the lights dimmed and Howard took up an Xbox 360 controller. The beta launcher was loaded and the teaser trailer we've all seen started running...only this time it continued.
My first thought, as the character spawned deep inside of Vault 101, was of Bethesda's RPG triumph, Oblivion. Howard switched between first and third person views and when he encountered an NPC the same head turning, zooming effect was present. It looked a whole lot better mind you, but the feel was the same.
The game begins with your birth in the Vault, where your genes are scanned to determine what you will look like as a grown man or woman, with those results used to generate the face of Liam Neesom as your father. The game then progresses in a series of flashbacks, jumping through various points in your life, acting as both a tutorial of the games aspects as well as a look at life in the sealed Vault 101 deep beneath the nation's capital. By the time you reach the age of 19 you have determined your skills, learned combat, explored some of the technology available and are ready to be placed into a position most beneficial to the Vault's continued existence.
The sudden disappearance of your father is the catalyst used to propel you from the Vault into the ravaged post-apocalyptic wasteland, giving you one last chance to change your statistics before setting forth on an epic journey of discovery and dismemberment. As the character stepped out into the surface world the screen flared with light and several members of the audience shielded their eyes reflexively. It was just a brief moment, but right then I felt this game was going to be something much more than The Elder Scrolls: Fallout.
Teenage Wastelander
The character wandered across a rubble-strewn wasteland that once again demonstrated how much progress the made since creating Oblivion. They've learned the hardware and now they are taking advantage of it, squeezing out every ounce of detail from the Xbox 360 the demo was running on.
Soon we stumbled across our first enemy, a good-old, giant mutated ant. The character drew his weapon and fired, killing the radiated critter as easy as you please. How was this Fallout? Enter V.A.T.S. VaultTech Assisted Targeting, an optional system that turns battles from 1st and 3rd person shooter standard into a strategic, turn-based affair allowing you to target specific body parts on your enemies to induce status effects. Shoot a leg and the enemy slows down. Shoot an eye and it might stumble blindly...or it's head may explode. The system basically allows for players to switch between two types of gameplay to suit their needs. It will be interesting indeed to see which is more widely used once the game launches next year.
How I Came To Love The Bomb
Coming across a small settlement, Howard demonstrated the branching dialog system, making the audience chuckle by calling the friendly town sheriff a dick. Exploring the town further he came upon an NPC with an interesting quest. Nuke the town. The entire town.
Yes, in Fallout 3 you will face some big choices, just like this one. Nuking this small settlement of course kills everyone inside, cutting you off from any quests they might have offered, but in doing so you open up the quest giver's town. Huge chunks of gameplay shifted with a single decision. That's not merely an awesome amount of power...that's an amazing amount of replayability. At the time of the demo there were already between 9 and 12 different endings to the game in the works, and it sounded to me like they wanted more. The Fallout series has always been one that fans played over and over again, and it looks like this installment will really make that pay off.
As the small town went up in a mushroom cloud the logo flashed on the screen...our brief tour was over. We were ushered once more into the cafeteria to let what we had just seen sink in.
Lunchroom Talk
"It's The Elder Scrolls: Fallout!"
"The game has to evolve. They can't just make Fallout 1 again."
"You going to eat that cookie?" - They had really good cookies.
"Why are they proudly displaying a Star Trek: Armada poster?"
"What happened to Rogue Trooper?"
Questions and Answers
Lunch was followed by a Q&A with Todd Howard and Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer of Fallout 3, a large fellow with a healthy sense of humor and an obvious passion for this game, which speaks more towards the potential success of the game than any list of technical details could. In fact the feel I got from the whole team, even in the face of questions concerning angry fan reaction is that they believe they are making the best Fallout game they can, and in the end what more could the fans ask for?
I'll be detailing fun facts gathered from the Q&A session in a forthcoming post.
Winding Down
There was a lovely dinner planned for that evening, along with a private party complete with an 80's cover band (because a 40's cover band would have put us all to sleep), but judging from the way I was dozing off during the bus ride back to the hotel it might have been a better idea to use the time I had left to get some sleep before my 4AM departure time the next morning. It was only the responsible thing to do.
Well at least I managed to get a good hour and a half sleep during the plane ride home?
Fallout 3 - As It Stands
After getting a chance to see the game in action and looking past the similarities to Oblivion to experience how much work they've put into enhancing the engine for this game, I can honestly say I am optimistic about Fallout 3. Bethesda is crafting a beautifully ugly world rife with the unique Fallout feel and flavor that the series is known for, while bringing into the next-generation with both boots firmly planted. While it might not be what many fans of the franchise wanted, it's shaping up to be the best Fallout experience it can be.
Comments
This game has me anticipating 08 like no other.
what I meant to say: "Holy crap! A big article that's fun to read, and its sunday? WTF Kotaku, we expected less."
I....can't...wait.
guess the turned based stuff is alright, but hearing that its like oblivion is disapointing. While I liked it for a couple days it just wasn't an rpg experiance I wanted from a Fallout game.
Sounds like they're doing a good job with it.
Well, all I've heard are good things about Fallout 3 and its development team. Everyone bitching about the game (especially those that have been doing it since 04) can go to hell. I can't wait to nuke a town.
I hope they don't wreck the voice acting like they did Oblivion.
I was rolling around in my bed all giddy while thinking about how big this game would be and how many months it would take to beat. I appreciate good quick action games but I thank God for companies like Bethesda that take the time to make an epic action RPG that pulls you in and validates your hard earned income. I loved Oblivion and all of its expansions and I look forward to what sort of new universe Bethesda will paint with Fallout. The graphics shown look really good and the concept art looks extremely promising. I look forward to hearing about the scale and intricacies of this game in the coming weeks. I saw some screens at Game Radar that suggested localized damage on characters and that sounds exciting but I was a little bummed out to here that there was no car driving in this game (... since I wanted someplace to put my bobble heads) so I'm assuming flying is definitely out of the question. I look forward to see what they do with the A.I. system.
if fallout 3 is like oblivion
then we got a shooter in our future, not an rpg...
Snacks keep popping up in the articles. Who has the best snacks this place had great cookies...quit it, you're making me feel...well, snacky.
@el_gordo:
The voice acting in Oblivion was good... just not variable enough for such a large number of NPCs with that much dialog. In fallout where there will be far less NPCs, this will hopefully be less of an issue. With next gen power, I seriously wonder when someone will try (really good) synthesized voices as a means of faster loading audio using less storage.
This might be as good a reason as any to finally get around to playing Fallout.
Here's hoping for more info at E3 (and the subsequent leaking of behind-closed-doors demos onto teh interwebs)
Make it happen freedom loving journos!
I am holding out hope that they will get things right in the end and hopefully give us something with a real "fallout" feel.
I read GameSpot's Preview on it this morning. It's really ambitious, though I can't help but question some of the things that their implementing on top of the current formula. They've already proven themselves with the Elder Scrolls series, but trying to change some essential themes might alienate some of Fallout's most hardcore fans, even if it might bring along a new fanbase.
Well, Bethesda has more than a year to complete this game. It looks surprisingly good already, so we may yet receive the Fallout game we've been waiting for.
Nice write up. Though the travel anecdotes made me think this was the work of Bashcraft!
btw- thanks for relocating commenters names to the top of their posts. Really helps the new layout look less busy!
While I'm still disappointed by the way they handled the whole teaser thing, I must say that after reading about what Bethesda has in store for this franchise, all my doubts have been completely washed away.. Even though I'm not a fan of the whole "let's turn everything into a FPS mentality, it seems that the spirit is intact and they are putting a whole lot of effort to make it a good ol' romp. Color me relieved.
Nice article. I wish they would post the demo you got to see, though. I want to see the different combat types in action!
ZOMG TEH FALLOUTZ!!!!!!11
Sorry, the fallout series bring out my inner fanboy...
Fuck everyone that's saying this game won't satisfy the hardcore fallout fan. I've been a die-hard fan since the first game and I think this game is going to be the best game EVAR!... Until Fallout 4 at least.
And I will really be pissed if dogmeat's not in the game!
Hm. Looks like they're going to make this the best game they can given what they decided to do with it. I'm still disappointed that they First Personized it, as if that were some magic wave of the future way which all game simply MUST be, and did some things to make it more accessible to the console market. Though really, they have to make money on this, so I guess we can't really fault them for it too much. I just hope they don't do what they did to Oblivion and make it unplayable on PC with extensive modification.
@sinny:
FPS stands for First Person Shooter which Oblivion was not. Oblivion is a FPRPG (because I love acronyms) but seriously people need to stop thinking of first person perspective gaming as a genre. Almost the entire list of NES library was platforming and most JRPG's were either top-down or isometric view. FP just happens to be where the evolution of game presentation is heading so people need to stop bitching about it as if it's a bad thing.
God! whining babies... I never seen such a sense of entitlement... people now bitching at developers about how they should present their creative visions.
I'm not sure how Fallout this is, but I'll say it again, the idea of a post-apocalyptic Oblivion with what looks like much better combat and graphics makes me pee my pants.
The game sneak peaks look sick, and it's good to know that there will still be turned-based action. But christ man! A little editing never hurt anyone. And no props for Wasteland?
forgetting the game for a moment, I'm glad you enjoyed our fair city!
the graphics look pretty mediocre...
Looks like all of those detractors on the internet may have spoken too soon. This is shaping up to be something very special.
@insert_gently:
Yeah, let's just forget the fact that the game comes out a year from now.
@Vigilant Gambit:
More than year if it's going to be Fall 2008. I really wish developers would stop showing games that are so far out. If you want to make an announcement just to get people off your back, I understand that, but dribbling bits of info for 1-2 years is unnecessary. I really don't see what good it does. You just disappoint people with unpolished graphics and show off things that might not make it into the final game.
Morrowind was a first person rpg ....oblivion wasn´t
oblivion was an action game with rpg elements for the little kids starting in the fantastic rpg world :) ( a beautiful action game, btw)
There is nothing wrong with the graphics of this game! Until consoles game have a hardware with 100 GB of dedicated hard drive space and 4 GB of RAM don't expect Gears of War level graphics in open space free-form RPGs... visually, there is very little difference between the technology used in the Oblivion engine and RAGE used in the next GTA. The art styles is what makes these games stand out. If you expect a post-apocalyptic open world to look lush and green with Lamborghini and Corvettes zooming around sterile highways then fix your perspective or wait two more generations.
...but then again, you are entitled to your opinion and the right to disregard quality while stating them.
@sinny:
Well thank you for correcting me and an entire industry (along with the creators) with that amazing insight.
@sinny:
and Counterstrike is a combat simulator right?
Good read, thanks Ko.
I've gone through every phase of grief for this game.. Initial reaction was
1. shock ("WTF?! Faa..three??") which quickly turned into
2. denial ("This is just vaporware bullshit, FU Bethesda."). I moved onto
3. bartering on forums about what could save FO3 ("They need to have a good 3rd person," "If they just nail the humor and artstyle, man," "Changing how the mutants look might make a difference?") Oscillating between
5->4. hatorade ("I'll never play any Oblivion-with-guns shit!") and
4->5. guilt ("Sorry I flamed you Bethesda, please unban me?") Then I got
6. depressed ("This game won't help me recapture the bliss of being younger and playing Fallout 1 *cries*"). Now I'm slowly easing into
7. acceptance, fall 2008 buddy, and the possibility Fallout 3 will actually be sweet as pie. I feel
8. hope my friends.
Group hug?
I cannot wait.
"Violence done well is fucking hilarious."
That's the most comforting thing I've read about Fallout 3 to this point.
counterstrike is a cheaters den with guns
I'm optimistic. Not so sure about putting it on a console, but let's see how that pans out.
And even if it isn't the Fallout that many wanted, it at least looks like a good game.
@splines:
If they couldn't release it on consoles Fallout 3 would not be getting made. Period. I know you PC fanboys out there love to decry the "dumbing down" of games on console, but if it weren't for the sheer girth of the console market these huge projects wouldn't see the light of day.
I know change is hard to accept, but if PC gaming were so clearly superior to consoles more people would buy PC games. Would they not? As it is the PC market's revenue potential can't singularly support an effort like this, and ground-up PC titles rarely fare well in the console market when they're converted.
It's the future man. We just have to deal with it... but:
@sinny:
Calling Oblivion out as an action-rpg is just a silly troll. We know you've only been posting on Kotaku for five days, but try not to lower the level of discourse to a flame war in your first week.
@stranger:
I will agree that the more dumbed down the game, the larger the audience. I would argue against such views 8 months ago but we now live in a world with Wiis. You are 100% right that consoles fund a lot of PC projects. A bulk of Oblivion sold was on console so people who cry about dumbing down PC games sound like those petition-passing DMC4 idiots.
@stranger: You have it a bit backwards. Consoles are not superior in any way, shape or form in the technological aspect of things, what they are is cheap and simple. Will average Joe Schmoe chance it with a $2000 PC which he knows absolutely nothing about, or a $400-$600 dollar console which the results are instant and viewable, with little risk? It's not the games that make the purchase (although console vs. PC, a GAMER PC will run games far better), it's the system they run on.
PC games will be dominant in my mind until consoles can come out of the mod closet and let users mess with the games to their heart's content. Also, will killer app games like Crysis be coming out on the PS3 or 360? No, never. Because the consoles couldn't handle it.
@stranger: Yes, the console market is increasingly important for money.
But come the fuck on, you can't seriously correlate sales and market share with a game's "superiority".
If we consider the possibility that the primary goal of creating a game is NOT making the *most* money possible (and believe it or not, most of us "fanboys" - even many developers - don't measure a games' qualities in publisher profits), and instead on having the *best* game possible: guess what, your eyes land on the PC. Period.
'Unlimited' storage; superior power in graphics, computing power, sound, input devices; an open platform that fosters the most advanced community/online functions - multiplayer, modding, and on and on.
And you know what, there still is ample room in the gaming industry for the many developers hell-bent on creating the *best* thing they possibly can. And for us fanboys and modders who enjoy their effors.
That, my friend, is something you need to accept.
Hey Mike, those cookies were good indeed. Why didn't you write about the 7/11, though? And it's Rogue Warrior, not Rogue Trooper, young Padawan. ;)
@Keldan:
OMG *jaded* super computers with 10240 node processors are so much much more powerful then PCs. They can do 40 teraflops and cost $10 of millions and blah blah blah... As a PC gamer, I can tell you the reason the PC market will never be as big as the console counterpart has nothing to do with computing power... it's as you say... consoles are cheap and simple. You could go ahead and argue how awesome games like Crysis are and you would be right but you know what... that means nothing. These developers say one thing to keep fanboys at bay and then when it's time to get paid.. they follow their wallets, not the fanboys. For better or worse, that is reality.
I can't wait to kill my first Radscorpion...again!
I know this is sort of random/knitpicky, but amoungst all the awesome fallout 3 news, this stuck out to me for some reason...
"What happened to Rogue Trooper?"
Are you sure it wasn't "Rogue Warrior", the game based on Richard Marcinko's writing that was being mentioned?
[www.bethsoft.com]
I'd like to know what happened to it as well, it looked pretty finished back when Kotaku reported on it before...
@CheekMystique:
But come the fuck on, you can't seriously correlate sales and market share with a game's "superiority".
You can't correlate the counter to that either... before you go there.
Games like Fallout 3 will benefit from being on multiple platforms. Oblivion did this successfully and Fallout 3 will. PC users that bitch like this are the reason why PC users are seen as elitist. Give it a brake already. If people are afraid that Fallout will suffer at the hands of consoles then start a petition... I wouldn't be surprised if that made Bethesda drop the PC version all together hearing this shit.
@okenny: Yeah, you more or less summed up what I said. But does that mean PCs are the lesser because they're not as popular? No.
And I think the last bit was a stab at developers making PC games then coming around and porting them to a console, and yes, this does happen. But the big problem with that for truly next gen games is that they will not run on a console. End of story. Crysis, Project Offset, and the "high-end" games probably won't run on a console's hardware.
Look at Oblivion. It could barely run on the 360 (and by barely I mean with all the nice shinies that PC owners get, draw distance, what not) and I haven't looked at the PS3 version, but I heard the draw distance was somewhat improved.
Point is, yeah, you can develop games for the console, and develop games for the PC, but there will always, always be a gap. This is not a fan boy talking here, this is a statement of fact. I'm not saying that console games are bad, I'm a console gamer. I'm just saying that the PC is the premier platform. It has everything you need. I'm sure for the average consumer, yeah, a console will do fine. But if you really want to experience the whole gaming sphere, you're going to need a good computer.
My god... i'm biting my lips trying not let this turn into a flame-war so this is all I'll say on this matter as this is a discussion about Fallout 3 and not Why consoles suck.
Oblivion plays better on consoles then it does on PC if you go by average player experience because most people don't have a rig that can run oblivion at nearly the frame rate that 360 can. Of course I've seen PCs that run Oblivion at 50fps at 2560x1600 with all details maxed out. The console paradigm is delivering a consistent gaming experience on standardized hardware and it delivers. As for the PS3 comment, please read the PS3 review. Oblivion after a year of extra development fixed a bug that allowed for better quality as well as a draw distance error that made objects pop into the scene irregularly on the 360 version. FACT: the PS3 does look slightly better. FACT: the 360 version runs much smoother.
As far as your comment that the PC is the premier gaming platform, that is a statement based on feelings and if that makes your day, so be it. I'll still probably see more games than you this year. Gotta love the PC gaming pod-casters. When they have a roll call on what they've been playing, it's usually some console game. I love my PC for games but I moved to the 360 because I didn't have the $2500 to build a system that would now be obsolete had I built it when I bought my 360 1 1/2 years ago.
Just be happy that these guys are making this game (probably because if the success if Oblivion) and leave it at that.
@okenny: Note: I never said that consoles suck, merely that PCs are better.
Other than that, I completely agree with you, I just prefer PCs based on what they can do.
And, I'm looking forward to this. I may be one of those ZOMGZ ITS NOT ISOMETRIC WTF fan boys, but I realize that it's not 1997, this isn't Black Isle and how the game is shaping up points to that it's going to be peachy keen. I'd also hit Liam Neeson like the fist of an angry god.
All in all, thanks for the argument.
@okenny: Well, I don't because quality isn't tied to market share or profits in any meaningful way. It even smacks of a category mistake common in discussions on culture. Box office numbers used to argue the merits of movies, etc.
And "quality" was an unfortunate term. I should've been more precise and used "fidelity" or even "freedom of expression in realizing a vision". My bad.
The "elitist" label. Could have something to do with seeing self-proclaimed "hardcore" console gamers lacking in the know-your-full-fucking-gaming-history department (not talking about you okenny). Historyless gamers lauding Halo, Gears, LittleBigPlanet, etc. as the pinnacle of gaming sophistication, without even knowing what's been done (often years before) on the PC...
Yeah, we might come across as elitist bitches from time to time ;)
I'm not bashing consoles, they're affordable and good at what they do. But they are inarguably the less powerful platforms.
If Fallout 3 is developed for the lowest common denominator, it might well be "good enough". But then it can't reach it's full potential on the PC. Which I find a little sad. (Even PS3 owners suffer at the hands of developers quick-porting 360 games, and vice versa. It's sad for the whole family.)