Fallout 3 Preview

[GameBanshee News]

Hobbling in on the end of the wave is a short and uninformative Fallout 3 preview from VGM.

Character creation is a feature that seems to improve as more companies continue to enhance it. Bethesda was able to take it to a whole new level in Oblivion by allowing you to customize almost every aspect of your character, ranging from the shape of your nose, cheeks, and mouth to even your age. This time Fallout 3 will feature a new way of character creation that will be a first in games. Creating your character will literally start from birth. A hazy cinematic sequence will start with a perspective from the operating table as you are being born from your mother. This is where you will choose your character’s gender and name.

[kyle]

"Hobbling in on the end of the wave is a short and uninformative"

Ummm... you're the ones posting it as news... Where do you get off knocking it?

[Brother None]

Originally Posted by kyle

Ummm... you're the ones posting it as news... Where do you get off knocking it?

Posting something as news means I can't knock it for being relatively useless?

That's a new one. It's short and it doesn't contain a lot of info, that's an assessment of fact.

Note how I'm posting it because it's news, not because I think it's good. Big difference.

[Lady Dragonfly]

A hazy cinematic sequence will start with a perspective from the operating table as you are being born from your mother.This is where you will choose your character’s gender and name.

How about "a hazy cinematic sequence will start with a perspective from the squeeky bed as you are being conceived. This is where you will choose your father from a long list of your mother's friends."

[darkpark]

The comment that's being quoted suggests that the news isn't newsworthy so why bother posting it? Also, one must think it IS newsworthy because it was posted so why knock it? There seems to be a conflict here.

[Brother None]

Originally Posted by darkpark

The comment that's being quoted suggests that the news isn't newsworthy so why bother posting it? Also, one must think it IS newsworthy because it was posted so why knock it? There seems to be a conflict here.

A preview has to be pretty messed up for me not to post it, like single-paragraph or horribly mangled. These guys got to see the demo, wrote a preview, hence I post it.

Newsworthy is not the same as good, though. I don't filter out the good and the bad for you guys. What, am I supposed to select previews or reviews I think are best written or most useful? That would be wrong. I think this was a useless preview, that doesn't mean I won't post it. So far no one seems to be disagreeing with me that it's useless, fine.

But seriously, I repeat: I'm posting it because it's news, not because I think it's good. Big difference. I'm not here to post stuff I like, I'm supposed to post stuff I think as news. But if I think it's not really usefull news, I reserve the right to say so.

PS: wish you guys would comment more. The news forum is way too empty.

[Kipi]

Originally Posted by GameBanshee News

Hobbling in on the end of the wave is a short and uninformative Fallout 3 preview from VGM.

Character creation is a feature that seems to improve as more companies continue to enhance it. Bethesda was able to take it to a whole new level in Oblivion by allowing you to customize almost every aspect of your character, ranging from the shape of your nose, cheeks, and mouth to even your age. This time Fallout 3 will feature a new way of character creation that will be a first in games. Creating your character will literally start from birth. A hazy cinematic sequence will start with a perspective from the operating table as you are being born from your mother. This is where you will choose your character’s gender and name.

If we think other games outside RPG as well, Bethesda has offered nothing new. Many sportgames offer you the possibility to shape your own players face as much as you want, even import your own picture as a face. True Bethesda offers a story to the character generation but still nothing that hasn't been seen before...

Also, the article claims that Beth presents the old good Dogmeat from earlier games. Well, didn't Bethesda already claim that no characters from earlier games is in the Fallout 3? So, this gives us two options:
A) Bethesda lied, and it really is the same Dogmeat
B) Bethesda told the truth, and the Dogmeat is not the same dog, just another dog with the same name. Thus the article would be wrong.

I'm myself going for the second option, as there is by no chance that Dogmeat would be there. True, Interplay also used characters in the second game who shouldn't have been able to survive the time between the games (over 80 years? come on!).

[galraen]

Originally Posted by Lady Dragonfly

How about "a hazy cinematic sequence will start with a perspective from the squeeky bed as you are being conceived. This is where you will choose your father from a long list of your mother's friends."

That is an absolute gem LD, it literally made me laugh out loud.

[Brother None]

Originally Posted by Kipi

B) Bethesda told the truth, and the Dogmeat is not the same dog, just another dog with the same name. Thus the article would be wrong.

This is correct. Bethesda has been very clear in this: this Dogmeat is kind of a homage to the original, not the same dog.

Originally Posted by Kipi

I'm myself going for the second option, as there is by no chance that Dogmeat would be there. True, Interplay also used characters in the second game who shouldn't have been able to survive the time between the games (over 80 years? come on!).

The Interplay Dogmeat was an easter egg. Another joke, as so many things in Fallout 2.

[Tricky]

I agree with Kipi and I can't shake the idea that this is some kind of childish reaction to Lionhead Studios. A search shows that Dogmeat wasn't mentioned by Bethsoft until a podcast interview with OXM, mid-March 2008. Although Lionhead's string of press demos took place in the month after Bethsoft first made it known there going to be a dog NPC in their game, actual mention of it by Lionhead precedes it by exactly one year, followed by months of silence and a slight revival around December.

So, around the time Bethsoft noticed that Lionhead Studios was gearing up for their big press catharsis, they had a look at what they could use to cut Fable to the chase. They had three months to program something that would fall within their licence. Let's make an educated guess and assume that the 'actual' Dogmeat will be the equivalent of Bethsoft's downloadable content. And just think about that for a moment. What did they say Dogmeat would be capable of doing? Right, it could search for a weapon and you could issue it some commands. Nothing we haven't seen before in an Elderscrolls game. I'll bet that Dogmeat will turn out to be a fairly unremarkable blip of code. Pete knows how to make the little things shine before release though.

All that nonsense aside, ten years of popular culture later and the best Bethsoft can do is a rehash of a cult reference taken from the first game of a now 33 year old movie? That doesn't bide well.

[Kipi]

Originally Posted by Brother None

The Interplay Dogmeat was an easter egg. Another joke, as so many things in Fallout 2.

Actually, I was referring to other characters, especially Tandi

[Brother None]

Originally Posted by Kipi

Actually, I was referring to other characters, especially Tandi

Tandi is 16 in Fallout 1, she's 96 in Fallout 2. And she looks the part.

[DesR85]

This Dogmeat.... aren't those actions almost similar to that of Fable 2's pet dog? I smell plagiarism if you ask me, yet the media didn't give a hoot about it.