Bethesda are back; and this time they mean business

As gamers we're always looking for the next big thing that makes us think 'how the hell can they top that!?' Not long ago that game was Bethesda's mighty Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Well, now Bethesda are back to answer that question. The game in question is Fallout 3, and it's everything Oblivion was, and so much more.

Set in alternate future where the world has been decimated by Nuclear War, Fallout 3 takes place in the Capital Wasteland of a post-apocalyptic Washington DC. Your story begins at your birth within Vault 101; a huge underground chamber housing some of the war's survivors, and over the first hour encompasses your character development, shaping your basic stats for the first 19 in-game years.

Your rather contained life is then uprooted with the mysterious departure of your father. Craving adventure, you slip past Vault security and follow your departed Dad into Fallout 3 proper.

Careful, the first step is a big one!

Taking your first steps in the Capital Wasteland is humbling. Screenshots simply can't capture the vastness, or the sheer level of detail in Fallout 3. Stretching out before you is a barren, broken dystopia ripe for exploring. You can literally go anywhere, but one nearby outpost stands out. It's called Megaton; a shanty ramshackle of shacks and walkways erected from the carcasses of downed planes and scrap metals, built (somewhat stupidly) around a dormant nuclear bomb.

Walking around Megaton you talk to people, some of whom will provide missions. I decided to be helpful, fixing the town's leaky water pipes and helping the general store owner with some research. Not so much to be heroic, really – it just made me feel good.

The most important choice you'll make here though is whether to disarm the bomb [why they haven't already is beyond me! – Ed] or blow it up. And that's a really good insight into the way Bethesda want you to play Fallout 3. Videogames have made me feel an emotional response before ("Miiiiike!", anyone?), but in Fallout 3 there's enough joy or guilt at every decision to have you all-but abandon the main quest to simply help, hinder or utterly destroy the people in its desolate landscape. Either way, you'll care about the consequences.

An RPG at heart, Fallout 3 features first-person and third-person views. I found exploring with third-person gave a grander sense of scale, but combat is much better through your character's eyes. This is no First-Person Shooter, however; Fallout 3's standard shooting isn't great, and you'll soon learn to use the VATS system, which lets you pause the action and queue up ranged attacks to the different body parts of Fallout 3's numerous giant bugs, monsters and hulking Super Mutants.

Pip-Pip

Pleasingly, the inventory system – called the Pip Boy – is intelligent, rather than limiting. Guns, ammo and health packs don't add anything to your maximum weight allowance, so you can carry as much ammo and firepower as you like, but armour, items and other bits that could prove handy will add weight that will slow you down. And if you don't want to spend hours wandering aimlessly, your Pip-Boy lets you fast-travel to a previously visited area. It's all delightfully, brilliantly balanced.

So is the development of your character, where there's a bewildering number of things going on. Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Chairsma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck) stats are defined in the first hour, and build as you earn experience. Next come your Skills, like Medicine (replenish more life with health packs), Speech (helping you coerce the locals) and proficiency with Big Guns. Perks are a third level of customisation. Unlocked as you level up, they further augment your existing stats with sizable bonuses. There's an enormous amount of depth to Fallout 3. No two people's experiences will be the same.

It's such a rich world to explore, too – and you feel like you've a real power to shape it. Tuning into one of the broadcast radio stations, I listened to 'Three Dog' saying that someone from Vault 101 had disarmed the bomb in Megaton. News clearly travels throughout the Wasteland! Indeed, the production on the whole is stunning; the music is often eerie and dramatic, adding to the feel of solitude as you wander through the wastes. Visually, meanwhile, it's not as detailed as it is large (and the art direction is understandably grey), but the scope of Fallout 3 is never less than staggering.

The Apocolypse never looked so good

Boasting a world that makes you think, feel and appreciate, Fallout 3 is a true triumph. It's immersive, epic and yet the pace is entirely dictated by you. It gives you the freedom to do what you want, the choice to help or to neglect, but it will always respond accordingly. Fallout 3 is, simply put, the new standard for RPGs; an experience not to be rushed through, but to be savoured.

GAME's Verdict

• A game of truly jaw-dropping scope.
• Plenty of side missions to keep you playing.
• The VATS system works so well.

• Some online functionality (an option to trade items, for instance) would have been good.
• It will suck away your social life.
• Being surrounded by Fire Ants. AAGH!

PS: If you do pick up Fallout 3, do yourself a favour; watch the horizon as the searing orange sunrise hits the brown, barren landscape. It's really something to behold.

Review by: Tom 'Three-Dog' Daly
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Review Published: 30.10.08

Tom gets hands-on with Fallout 3.

Fallout 3 has been in production for 4 years, and in my experience when you’ve been waiting for a game for that amount of time it goes one of two ways. It either sinks badly under a wave of criticism or it rises above all expectations.

Bethesda are best known for the Elder Scrolls series - the previous Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion was an instant hit upon arrival, not just with the reviewers but with the public too. It managed too pull in casual and hardcore gamers with a world that was lush with greenery and a deep and rich story. After such a successful game can Bethesda deliver another outstanding game?

Even though I only had a short time with Fallout 3, I can confidently say that the four years production has been worth it. My hands-on preview started as you leave Vault 101, which is where the story begins. Bethesda is keeping the Fallout 3 story close to its chest, and rightfully so, because if you know what’s coming then it’ll take the excitement out of the game.

As you leave the grey and dark confines of the vault you are met by a terrifying but somewhat beautiful sight. As your eyes adjust to the light of the sun for the first time your blurred vision becomes more focused and you see the wasteland that is your world. It’s terrifying because you are walking into an unknown nuclear wasteland, but it is beautiful because of the level of detail that has been put in to Fallout 3.

To begin with I just did what anyone would do with a free-roam game, had a bit of a wander, played with the controls and generally tried to get a feel for the world. During my walkabout I stumbled across a Sputnik-looking floating robot that was pumping out propaganda from one the world’s factions. I decided to steer clear as I didn’t know if these little robots had weaponry and to be honest I really didn’t want to find out.

The next thing I tried was shooting at a stationary car, as you do. The car started to fizz and smoke started to come out of it. I was then advised to step back for the explosion, which turned out to be a wise decision when it did explode as a mini nuclear explosion erupted from the car. It was then explained that all the cars had mini nuclear reactors for engines. Not only did I stay away from the cars, I also decided not to shoot them anymore. So off I went again looking for any signs of life in the nuclear wasteland.

I stumbled across a city called Megaton, where I talked to some of its inhabitants and even got offered a few jobs whilst I was there. I’m not going to say what jobs as it’s another thing that might spoil the enjoyment of the final product. But I will say that some of the jobs that you perform in the game will change the game world forever, not just for five minutes. It seems that Fallout 3 does have a solid foundation in right and wrong; actions and consequences. If you do something terrible you will need to do a lot to try and redeem yourself. But that is all I will say about that.

I decided to leave the city of Megaton and explore the decimated and decaying landscape. Whilst I was having a walk around I came across an abandoned school, which isn’t scary in itself, but once I had entered the school it became clear that not only was I not in Kansas anymore but I was also not alone. Bodies of the dead had been chained up against the walls, suspended and mutilated. It was not pretty.

But I steeled myself and moved on through the school. Despite the bright sunshine outside, it was incredibly dark in the school, as the windows had been boarded up, so there was little light which did notch the tension up a lot. After looking around a classroom I ventured in to one of the toilets to find that you can drink the toilet water. Nice. This isn’t because Bethesda has toilet humour in mind and thought it would be funny - you can drink the toilet water because when you’re living in a post-apocalyptic world you take what you’re given.

I decided to not drink the toilet water, but no sooner had I turned around, I came face to face with one of the school’s inhabitants and now I had a chance to try out the combat system.

There are two levels to the combat system, the first is just aim your gun and fire like a standard FPS, the second is the VATS which stands for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. I chose to go with the VATS. When you hit the button to activate this, the game freezes, and you opponent is then covered with little boxes that have a mini health bar and a percentage out of 100. The bar tells you how much health that particular body part has, the percentage tells you your chances of hitting that body part, so at least you know your chances. But you will need to bear in mind that in the bottom left of your HUD is another bar titled AP. This bar decreases with every body part that you select to shoot at. So you can’t just fire at every body part to take your opponent out, you will need to show some strategic choice when you pick the part you’re going to hit.

I picked his legs and head to fire at. Once you've selected the body parts and confirmed, the screen moves in slow motion with your opponent moving again. I managed to get him in the right knee this time, but because he then lost his balance I missed the following two shots. So I decided to finished him off the old fashioned way. This didn’t go as I had hoped though, because as I moved forward his friends decided to join in. Now this is where the VATS are crucial. Because you can select a body part on each enemy and then shoot, again I opted for knees due to a higher chance of hitting the shot.

I was quite surprised to find that the VATS system gives the most gruesome deaths if your shots do connect as two of the unfortunate victims lost a leg in an explosion of blood. As I still had two to finish off I decided to just try it old school again as I had no AP left. This took a bit of effort because I had not assigned any skill points to my small arms fire so my shots were not the most accurate and my fire power was minimal, but I still managed to get the job done.

I then inspected the dead bodies and managed to take some ammo and also steal their armour. The only problem was that as I had shot at them it had reduced the strength of the armour. But still I put it on, as it gave me a little bit of protection. And I continued to walk around the destroyed school. I found the exit and continued outside.

It was here that I was told that my playtime with Fallout 3 was over. I had not been on it for very long and I hadn’t even scratched the surface. The graphics are stunning, the character models are highly detailed, as well as the buildings (or what’s left of them). The game runs at a nice easy pace so you’re not forced to do everything straight away. Fallout 3 gives you the freedom to accept a mission and then do it at you leisure.

Fallout 3 has been carefully put together over a four year journey, a journey that was probably not an easy one, but the result looks well worth it. I did wonder how Bethesda would match Oblivion’s quality, but not only does the company appear to have done that, Fallout 3 may raise the bar considerably, over even that landmark title.

Preview by: Tom Daly
Review Published: 13.08.08

Jonny emerges from the vault.

Fallout 3 is an epic science fiction action-RPG and sequel to two of the most highly-respected RPGs of all time, that comes at you, salivating and monstrous, like a cross between Mass Effect and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, with a hefty influence from Bioshock in its production design (which in itself was originally influenced by the earlier Fallout titles). It sees you emerging from one of the vaults that have sheltered humanity since the planet became a nuclear wasteland, on a quest to find your father, who has mysteriously left the safety of the vault and ventured – somewhat inadvisably – outside, for reasons unknown.

Post-Apocalyptic Pedigree

With a promised mixture of exploration, combat against mutants and terrifying giant insects, character customisation and a strong plot, Fallout 3 already sounds like a winner, but when you take into a account that it’s being developed by Bethesda Softworks - the team behind Oblivion, no less – it suddenly becomes a truly explosive proposition.

Fallout 3 begins with your birth in the vault, and control of yourself as a baby, and in a brilliantly original approach to character customisation you live through key moments of your development en route to shaping who you’re going to be.

Venturing into the massive gameworld (practically as big as Oblivion’s, so we’re told), you’ll need to learn to survive pretty quickly as the landscape is packed with monstrous adversaries – both human(ish) and otherwise. Combat is dealt with via an innovative turn-based-style system, which sees you inputting your desired actions before playing out your actions with a very cool cinematic animation. Combat is also varied, and like the rest of the game, pretty open-ended in the freedom you have to approach different scenarios.

One of the most intriguing things about Fallout 3 is the addition of a cool canine companion, Dogmeat, who can perform numerous tasks for you and remains totally loyal to you in the messed-up world outside.

A lot of effort has been put into Fallout 3’s branching dialogue options, and the relationships that ensue (or don’t) as a result of the things you say. Bethesda are confident that this will be a much more subtle and mature system than any we’ve encountered before, with certain decisions that seemed innocuous enough at the time coming back to haunt you later on in the game.

Take a Proper Gander

Add to all of these features the sumptuous graphical treatment given to the stunning-looking post-apocalyptic America (screenshots of which were apparently mistaken by an intelligence agency as “terrorist propaganda”) and you have a game which is causing us to drool at every turn.

Indeed, along with the likes of Mirror’s Edge, Gears of War 2 and Dead Space, Fallout 3 is shaping up to be one of the most promising games of 2008 and we simply cannot wait to get our hands on the finished article. Bring on the apocalypse.

Preview by: Jonny Austin
Review Published: 22.07.08

We talk style switches, Wii ports and four-legged friends with Peter Hines from Oblivion and Fallout 3 developer Bethesda...

Howdo. First up; who are you and what do you do within Bethesda?

I'm Peter Hines, Vice President of PR and Marketing for Bethesda and I'm the content Manager for Fallout 3.

You guys made Oblivion, which is probably one of the biggest games of this gen. Why not go straight for Oblivion 2? Why the decision to go with Fallout?

We've been making Elder Scrolls games since I came to Bethesda which was 1999. For some folks it's been a bit longer, so that's a good 7-8 years focusing on one franchise and we just felt like creatively we wanted to expand into something else that was both similar and different. So with Fallout 3 we have that perfect opportunity with this great and storied franchise, that we loved and that fits well with the kind of games that we like to make, which are these big go-anywhere-you-want, do-whatever-you-want kind of games.

But going from Oblivion to Fallout 3 was very different pragmatically in terms of fantasy vs. post-apocalyptic destruction, swords vs. guns, orcs vs. Super Mutants and stuff. It's a nice change of pace but it still plays well in terms of what we like to do, which is create whatever kind of character you want and go and do what you want.

Fallout 3 offers so much to do, from creating weapons, to massive landscapes to explore, to character customisation. Where did you start in terms of designing that? Was it characters, story, gameplay...?

No, it's sort of a mish mash. You don't do any one thing in isolation. So when we started in 2004 it was a group of us sat down talking about everything. Where is the game going to be set? What's it going to look like? What does the Vault Suit look like? What does a Raider look like? What does a city look like?

It was all of those things, plus crafting together stuff like, what is the player going to be doing? Where is the player going? What is the player going to be seeing? What weapons will the player have? What weapons from the original games will feature? All of that stuff is done at the same time.

So this guy is over here is working on story and how that will be done and where you will be going, this guy over here will be working on what that place is going to look like and how they fit together, and another one here's going to work out what you're going to be fighting with.

So did you play the original Fallout games going in to this or did you just look back at what was done?

It was a combination. As some guys have already played the original game we had a ton of source material to draw from with Fallout 1 & 2, so we had plenty to look at in terms of the law and the look of the world, but we were pretty familiar, or at least the people who really had to be well seated in terms of what's Fallout and what's not.

The team making Fallout 3 is primarily the team who made Oblivion, Did they have any difficulties with the stylistic switch?

Creatively like I said a number of those people have been working on the Elder Scrolls Games for years and years and so a chance to stretch their legs and go in a different direction and try some new things, is a nice change; whether it is the kind of quest that you're writing or the art that you're creating.

Can you tell us anything about the class systems in Fallout 3?

Fallout 3's Character System it is based around a couple of key things. There's your base attributes called Specials, and those have a role in determine what your character can be good at in Fallout 3, so the more points you put into strength the more stuff your character can carry. Then there are all the skills that are in Fallout 3, which determine what your character is going to be really good at. For instance, if you want to run around with a pistol and you don't put in any Skill Points into Small Guns Skills then you're never going to be as good with the pistol as you could be.

So in Fallout 3 you have to make a conscious effort, say 'these are the things that I want to get really good at, I want to be more accurate do more damage with these weapons'. Or 'I want to be able to convince people to do what I want through dialogue so I'll add Skill Points to speech'. That's really where you are defining who you really want to be. It's not really Classes, just what skills are really important to you.

If I find I'm taking a lot of Chems and healing myself a lot and I want to get more benefits from it and heal up more, then I'd put my skills into my medicine skills and I would heal more every time I use a stim pack. So it's really balancing for the player to decide what kind of things you want to be good at in Fallout 3, whether it is stealthy, shooting or talking to people.

In Fallout 3 you have a four legged companion Dogmeat. Where did you come up with the idea?

The original Fallout. There's a dog called Dogmeat. So with a lot of the stuff that you ask about 'Did you play the original Fallout?' we tried as much as possible to pull as many references and elements and images in Fallout 3.

Not just the character system or the vibe of the world but specific references for specific dates from those games that are paying homage to this game that we love, which is the whole reason we have been on this 4 year development project with Fallout 3; to make a game that not only do we hope will be received as a really good game, but also a well received Fallout game. A game that is true to that series and a worthy sequel.

Will you be able to buy Dogmeat armour or upgrade his skills?

You can heal him up, but you do have limited interaction with him. So you can heal him if he gets injured and he will help you in combat. You can tell him to stay back in combat if you don't want him to fight; you can tell him to stay put if you want to go and explore, so you can then go back and get him if you don't want him to get hurt.

Or you can ask him to go and find stuff for you like a weapon, ammo or food, and he will go off into the world and try and find what you've asked for. So his primary aim is to be your companion, which is kinda cool, because you're walking around and this dog is always with you. It becomes a quest to keep the dog alive because if the dog does die then you don't get a new one, or the help he brings. It's like one boy and his dog in the Capital Wasteland.

Is there anything similar on the market, excluding Oblivion, that comes close to being a rival to Fallout 3?

There are a number of games out there that are playing with the idea of being a Sandbox game. GTA is kind of similar in terms of its up to you to decide what to do, be it driving a car around or go to the bowling alley or whatever. It's the same idea with having a story there, but still being a player-driven game, where you decide what you want to do with your time and what's important to you. Fallout 3 and Oblivion are similar in terms of being a sandbox where you get to go and experience the game at your own pace.

You've announced that the downloadable content will be exclusive to the PC and 360, what can we expect from the DLC and how long do you think that you will support it for?

There's no chance that I could put a number or a timescale on it. So I don't know. We've got to get done with doing the game content first and then we can look at the other stuff. So when you'll start seeing it, how long you'll see it for and how many we're going to do I don't know at the moment. I can't tell you that we'll be doing anything substantial that adds several hours of game play. So there is stuff to spend time doing in Fallout 3 as opposed to something that is a one-off like fighting at a stronghold. It's not adding lots of stuff but it's adding more functionality.

There is nothing really like Oblivion or Fallout on the Wii. Any plans to remedy that?

Not a chance. We are big fans of bringing our games to as many platforms that make sense. Sony and Microsoft went one way which was raw power and next gen consoles, and Nintendo made a very different textbook decision which was all about the interface.

Its not easy at all, I hope that folks don't get the wrong idea. It's not easy to do this game on the 360 or the PS3 or even for a PC. It is a huge challenge to take a game world this big and go out into the Capital Wasteland and have it all load in real-time before you want to travel; that is a huge technical challenge. But then to try and take it to this other platform? Wii is just not set up for something like that unfortunately. Not that it wouldn't be a cool idea, because I am a Wii owner myself – but from a practical standpoint what the Wii does is just not in line with the other platforms.

Thanks Peter

Interview by: Tom 'Dogmeat' Daly
Interview Published: 07.08.08