I'm somewhat of a hybrid being that I am a big fan of both Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. I remember comparisons made, even early on, between the FP open worlders and the isometric post nukers, which basically amounted to apples and oranges. I enjoyed both styles, but for different reasons.

In Fallout 1 & 2, I loved the retro-sci fi/spaghetti western smash up. I liked figuring out ways to abuse the game system, like going into "steal" mode to plant plastic explosives (that I had set the timer on) on some guy I wasn't tough enough to kill yet so I could get the guns, ammo, and body armor from him and his room full of cronies. I also liked blowing a mutant's head apart like an over-ripe melon with my Blade Runner looking .223 pistol, or going special agent and talking may way through the entire last dungeon.

In Oblivion (and even more so in Morrowind), I spent an inordinate amount of time simply - exploring. I'd forget about the main quest and just wander around, sometimes getting into side quests, sometimes doing some dungeon looting, sometimes just collecting ingredients for alchemy. In Morrowind, I liked the ability to cast a locking spell on a door to prevent some monster from killing me.

Fallout never had the level of "aimless wandering" that the Elder Scrolls games did. The world map received the Indiana Jones treatment and my character's progress was a thin line.

The Elder Scrolls games never really had the complexity of Fallout. They tried - stealing the glass vessel from the wanna-be Lych DID remind me of my old days of planting plastic explosives and dynamite on Slavers, but the game was just designed differently.

I'm looking forward to this game. It will most likely be the reason that I finally get my wayward 360 repaired.

I'm sure there will be enough "Hell yes, this IS Fallout" moments to offset the "Uh, this is totally different...I want my hex grid!" moments. And if I get a sudden yen for some true old-school Fallout nostalgia, I can play 1&2 again.

The Aurora Engine in NWN2 is about as "old school" as I'd like a new western RPG to be (though I wouldn't mind one that was better coded, for shit's sake, it's got to be one of the buggiest, slowest engines ever).

I would just like to repeat this because holy crap it's an awful engine.  It's curious that the guys at CDProjekt managed to make The Witcher, which was based on a modded Aurora Engine 1, look much better and run much more smoothly than NWN 2 could have ever hoped for.

My opinion on this game is the same as my one for Red Alert III. If they fuck this one up I will be very hesitant to play a game by the publisher again.

When EA devoured Westwood Studios everything went to hairy shit for the C&C series.
They better not ruin Fallout or I'm gonna become one of those fags who says they ONLY play retro games. (Gosh golly yeah what a pretentious teenage generalisation/Rockmanism)

I hope they satisfy your needs.

Why is it that people assume that they will 'fuck it up'?

Personally I think Elder Scrolls are better games than Fallout anyway...

About the camera: from an interview I found

the game is fully playable in third person. You can run around, adventure, get into combat (”run and gun”) etc. all in third person, and the camera was designed to accommodate that kind of gameplay, unlike the third-person camera in Oblivion, which was more of a “vanity mode.”

You can zoom the camera back pretty far in third-person, but there comes a point where it becomes less and less effective the farther back you pull the camera, just because you’re so damn small and it’s hard to gauge where the crosshair is at that point. So yeah, you can use third-person for combat, but the game wasn’t really designed to be played with the camera pulled ALL the way back, isometric style. That’s more for fun, and to survey the scene. It’s really no different than any game that lets you zoom a third-person camera back.

A couple other points of clarification:

– When you enter dialogue, the camera zooms into first-person.
– When you enter V.A.T.S. the camera zooms into first-person.

If you were in third-person when you went into one of those mode, you’re back in third-person when you come out.

Unlike Oblivion, the game was designed around the 3rd person viewpoint.  Obviously the further you zoom out the harder it is to effectively judge depth and distance but the game's combat sounds very much like Mass Effect which (despite a few bugs and dumb AI) was a pretty solid combat system.

Also, it's been confirmed that there's about 200 endings.  I'm certain these aren't COMPLETE ORIGINAL endings but like in Fallout, your choices will determine how the world evolves after you beat the game. 

Oh yeah, addictions and diseases are in the game.  Apparently you can actually spread diseases but this hasn't been OFFICIALLY confirmed yet.

About the camera: from an interview I found

Unlike Oblivion, the game was designed around the 3rd person viewpoint.  Obviously the further you zoom out the harder it is to effectively judge depth and distance but the game's combat sounds very much like Mass Effect which (despite a few bugs and dumb AI) was a pretty solid combat system.

Yeah this was said in like the second interview ever. speaking of interviews, though I do try to keep up with all the latest fallout 3 info, I usually avoid the boards, so I believe I missed the Karma one you were talking about, do you have a link to that one?  While Mass Effect's battle system was solid, I personally spent most of my time in battle using my powers(I've only played as a sentinel so far), which Fallout 3 won't have, though i suppose vats may provide similar effects on occasions.  Of course, I would have preferred turned-based combat(or real time/turnbased hybird, like Fallout Tactics or Kotor) the maybe my main tactic would have been something other then 'stand behind the wall right in front of the entrance for cover and wait for the enemy to poke its head out'.  Also maybe then I'd actually get full control of the party, lack of which being my main complaint with FO1 and 2, something the Van Buren beta looked like it was gonna fix, Fallout Tactics style, and fallout 3 seems to be completely ignoring(all you get is dogmeat and one merc last i heard).

Also, it's been confirmed that there's about 200 endings.  I'm certain these aren't COMPLETE ORIGINAL endings but like in Fallout, your choices will determine how the world evolves after you beat the game.

They still got their work cut out for them, Fallout 1 had about double that and 2 had about 500. Much better then the 16 they originally said they had planned at least.

Oh yeah, addictions and diseases are in the game.  Apparently you can actually spread diseases but this hasn't been OFFICIALLY confirmed yet.

I hope that includes STDs, that would make getting the Gigolo title so much more interesting.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/865/865461p1.html

Fallout MMORPG confirmed...

oh MY GOD THEY ARE GOING TO TRY AND CONTINUE EARTHWORM JIM

This article talks about karma

They still got their work cut out for them, Fallout 1 had about double that and 2 had about 500. Much better then the 16 they originally said they had planned at least.

They originally said 9 to 12 but they said they were unique endings.  Like I said earlier, the endings in the first games were just short sentences that gave you a small little epilogue.  These guys are talking about actual endings where all of your actions come together to form a cinema or cutscene.  As much as I liked knowing how my actions affected the world at the end of the game, the Fallout games never did have proper endings (well, if you have bloody mess in Fallout 1 the 2 minute ending was much more satisfying) but I wanted an actual cinematic SOMETHING to go along with all the story events I had to blast my way through.

Which boils it all down to how the game is advancing.  Fallout 3 will be a much more story driven cinematic game.  The way the intro alone is handled can tell you that much. 

http://pc.ign.com/articles/865/865461p1.html

Fallout MMORPG confirmed...

confirmed in the sense that a company that hasn't really produced anything notable in the last DECADE is desperately begging for a ridiculous amount of money to work on something they personally ADMIT TO THE PEOPLE INVESTING IN THEM might not ever even be released.

This has Star Trek: The MMORPG written all over it (though at least the Star Trek MMO was actually on track for a release at some point last I checked)

I didn't mean to attack your post, just the announcement. It sounds really desperate and frankly a little depressing, though perhaps that is just the wording. I liked MDK and Earthworm Jim as much as the next guy but I think their chances are pretty slim.

*insert fallout fanboy, anti-fallout 3 rant here*

I'm one of these people. I agree with nearly everything on the NMA mainpage (whatever overly hateful stuff there is on the forum I might disagree with. Sometimes). But the concerns on the mainpage are valid ones as far as I'm concerned.

I stopped following FO3 news some time ago (since nothing new ever came up and the only things that did come up were something new and dumb the designers had said), but it seems it will be hailed as a 5/5 top star ranking game and then a couple of months later the next similar game will have comments like "Though Fallout 3 was flawed the <developers> are promising to fix all the problems that were so prevalent in FO3". When they did months earlier give the game a full score claiming stuff like "FO3 is virtually flawless", "A 10/10 game. I don't think it gets better than this".

I don't think FO3 will be a shit game. I think it won't be what fans want. At all.

I didn't mean to attack your post, just the announcement. It sounds really desperate and frankly a little depressing, though perhaps that is just the wording. I liked MDK and Earthworm Jim as much as the next guy but I think their chances are pretty slim.

It is depressing.  Interplay is one of the oldest companies around but they caught the SEGA disease and suddenly forgot how to market to gamers.  Rather than try to invent a new franchise they just relied on their old TSR/Shiny dealings but people were too busy playing Halo and Civilization 3 to care.  They tried to expand to consoles but it was too late and 50 million dollars worth of debt smacked them in the face.

This is pretty much their final gamble.  They're almost out of the hole and could come back with a new franchise but man, if Fallout MMO fails the company is finished.

Here's an up-to-date article from someone who actually played the game (as of a few days ago)

I'm dissapointed he didn't mention anything about dialog but I'm glad the combat system isn't a mindless run-n-gun and attributes and stats still play effect in battle.

I'm glad the combat system isn't a mindless run-n-gun and attributes and stats still play effect in battle.

Did you ever honestly doubt this?

I don't think FO3 will be a shit game. I think it won't be what fans want. At all.

What is really sad about this is that many Fallout fans have decided to hate this game ahead of time.  Even if it *is* exactly what fans have wanted, they will all change their opinions the second they play it.  It's more important to be upset than it is to have fun I guess!

I don't think FO3 will be a shit game. I think it won't be what fans want. At all.

I think there's probably a disturbing number of fans who CHOSE to hate the game the very SECOND it was announced and that it was Bethesda behind the wheel. Which is unfortunate but also highly common with this sort of situation (the return to an old old cult classic franchise by a different developer).

There's probably a well developed niche of fanboys who want nothing more than Fallout 2 with better graphics or something.

edit: shi***t.....maladroithim posted the exact same thing as me.

wait...  so is FO3 coming to PC also, or just the 360...
I may have to invest in a 360 if the latter is the case...  which I really don't want to do.

Did you ever honestly doubt this?

Yes.  Bethesda's never really worked with ranged combat on this level before.  It's like asking the Halo team to make a puzzle game.

wait...  so is FO3 coming to PC also, or just the 360...

PC, PS3, 360.  The game will be using DIRECTX10 on the PC.

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition

i've never played a fallout game before so i think this looks sweet as hell

also if they accurately reproduce the streets of dc that would be so awesome because then i would already know my way around the game

Fallout 3 Collector's Edition

AWESOME IMAGE

Is this for real?  Because holy crap man I am pretty sure I would actually buy that for the $30 premium or whatever.