If you’re like me, then you loved the original Fallout and its sequel Fallout 2.
Again, if you’re like me, you savor any minute details about the upcoming Fallout 3 from Bethesda Softworks. Even though it’s still a year away, you can’t get enough of juicy details.
So here are some that should satiate your appetite:
- Fallout 3 takes place 30 years after the events of Fallout 2, though not in a continuity kind of way. Bethesda also doesn’t consider Fallout Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel part of the series.
- The game will take place on the East Coast, primarily around Washington D.C.
- Initial gameplay begins in Vault 101. The beginning segments will involve several key points of your character’s life. At birth, for example, you mold and create your character’s appearance–your father will mirror your choices too. At age 1, you begin walking and choose your character’s personal stats from a fill-in-the-blanks children book (the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system returns: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck).
- At age 10, you get a BB gun and your Pip-Boy accessory. The Pip-Boy is attached to your wrist and acts like your character sheet. It displays your stats, quest log, items and in-game radio. At age 16, you take the G.O.A.T. (Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test) and that ends the character creation.
- Main quest is to find your father, who leaves after you’ve grown up. He’s voiced by actor Liam Neeson.
- Brief game loading times; they’re present and noticeable but much less than Oblivion.
- Pip-Boy also acts as a Geiger counter, which measures radiation. As stated, it also plays music, where 20 licensed songs will be featured. Also you can hear DJs relaying news about the world and eventually you can meet the DJ.
- Combat system is called V.A.T.S. You can pause time to take aimed shots at specific parts of an enemy’s body or go real-time. Also combat is supposed to be really violent. No more groin shots unfortunately.
- Weapons, old and new, include the Rock-it launcher (literally shoots rocks) or the Fat Man (a tiny and personal nuke). Also you can craft items; take a lunchbox and fill it with bottle caps and explosives to create a frag bomb. Also weapons can be damaged and can be repaired.
- First and third-person view returns. Different camera angles for third-person view too.
- Game world will have around a few hundred NPCs. Also Bethesda expects people to finish the main quest in 20 hours and the various side quests in 20 or so hours. Still, the game world will be large and a form of fast travel will exist (subway tunnels).
- Karma scale returns; all quests and dialog will have appropriate responses for good, neutral and evil. At the end of the game, based on your reputation and karma, there will be 9 to 12 different possible endings.
- Character level cap is at 20. Also every other level, you can choose a special perk, which returns from the original two games.
- You can hire mercenaries but the game won’t focus on parties.
- No planned multiplayer but downloadable content is a possibility.
Fallout 3 will ship for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in fall 2008.
Via [Joystiq]
