Fallout 3 Creation Tools, DLC Coming Soon

By Joe Haygood | November 25, 2008

For those few people that have run out of things to do in Fallout 3, Bethesda has the cure for your ills, and it is called the G.E.C.K. Creation Tools set. Yes, the slightly delayed editor tools will soon be available for those that own the PC version of Fallout 3. The tools will allow for user created levels, and mods for Fallout 3, similar to editor tools that have been available for other Bethesda products.

Also announced was that three new DLC mission packs will be available over the months of January, February and March of 2009. The missions will be called Operation Anchorage, The Pitt and Broken Steel. The DLC will be available for both the Xbox 360 version, as well as the soon to be launched Games for Windows Live Marketplace. Bethesda did not release any info on length or cost of the DLC. The level editor tools should be available as a free download.

Click the jump for a full press release. Picture of G.E.C.K. via wikipedia.org

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Fallout 3 Review (Xbox 360)

By Joe Haygood | November 17, 2008

“War. War never changes.” With those immortal words from Ron Perlman, Bethesda re-opens the Vault door on Fallout 3, a triumphant return to our favorite post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Fallout 3 takes a new spin on the classic franchise, by not only moving the clock forward, but by taking you to a whole new location in the world, good old Washington D.C. You have been tasked with trying to find out why, under strange circumstances, your father has left the safety of The Vault, a giant fallout shelter built inside a mountain. You follow him into the Capital Wasteland, not only to find his trail, but to explore and take in this new, forbidden world.

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First Thirty: Fallout 3

By Joe Haygood | October 28, 2008

So Bethesda was nice enough to send over a 360 copy of Fallout 3, and while I waited for the midnight launch of Fallout 3, I decided to pop it in and start playing it. This is the first thirty minutes of that playthrough.

First off, instant fanboy service is granted with Ron Perlman dropping his famous line, “War. War never changes.” It is a fitting start to a game that was 10 years in the making. From the intro, we are delved into one of the strangest openings to a game ever. You start off, blurry eyed and spattered with blood as you exit your mother’s uterus. Ewww! Yes, you start from child birth, setting up your sex and name. You also set up your look, through a process called genetic prediction.

From there we move forward one year, and we are just learning to walk. After good old dad gives you a pep talk, he leaves you by yourself while he goes to work. Someone needs to work on parenting skills in the Vault. This stage has you picking your beginning stats and traits. Very cool stuff. You continue to go forward, with each age step giving you new items like a PipBoy or your skills. It is very in-depth, and to be honest, took up almost all of my first thirty minutes. The last thing I got to before I shut down the game for the evening was an initial walk about the outside area near the Vault. This initial walk out of the Vault immediately gives you a scope about the size of the world.

The VATS combat system is my preferred method of combat, and I never seemed to run out of enough action points where I could not use them anymore. I stuck with the first person view, as I found the third person view kind of awkward. It looks like you are floating on the ground, instead of walking in the world.

So just figure that your first thirty minutes of the game is spent just getting out of the Vault. It is not a bad thing, but just surprising that they spent so much time developing that attachment to the Vault. Look for a review a little down the road, as I assume this will be a long game.

What Happens When No One Shows Up For A Midnight Launch

By Joe Haygood | October 28, 2008

Originally, my goal was to cover the midnight launch for Fallout 3 here in Riverside, CA. I got the call last night from the Gamestop autodialer telling me to come on down for the festivities of a midnight launch. Oh, and they told me to bring trades towards my copy of Fallout 3. You had to know that was coming.

So, I debated whether to go down there for most of Monday, made harder by the fact that Bethesda was nice enough to send me a copy of the game on 360 today. So I debated further, whether to play the game all night, or go to the midnight launch. At 11:00 PM, I decided to head over to my pre-order location, expecting to be at the end of a long line. One problem, there was hardly anyone there. Including the three staff memebers, there were five people there. My goal of covering a midnight event was washed away, as it was obvious nothing would come of this. I did banter with the guys that did show up (eight in all), and I walked away with my badass collectors edition of Fallout 3.

And just for good measure, I found out the PC version of the game got the most collector’s edition orders.

A Great Fallout Primer For Those New to the Series

By Joe Haygood | October 27, 2008

The fine folks over at Game Trailers have put together a great video retrospective for the Fallout series, that covers the games from their spiritual beginning with Wasteland, and work their way all the way up to the early Black Isle Fallout 3 concept footage. So if you are new to the series, or are looking for a great trip down memory lane, check out the video.

Also, many Gamestop stores are holding midnight sales for the game, and as an incentive, they are giving 30% extra credit on any trades you bring in. So if you have not pre-ordered as of yet, here is an great way to help you get a copy.

Fallout 3 To Ship On PC Minus DRM

By Joe Haygood | October 1, 2008

Pete Hines is in quick fashion becoming a hero of mine. He is never at a loss of words, and everytime he talks about Fallout 3, he continues to show the love for PC fans. Well, mostly love, as they won’t have mod tools at launch, but one downer, within a stream of positives is good enough for me.

Today, Pete went above and beyond the call of duty for PC players everywhere, as he stated that Fallout 3 would ship with little to no DRM whatsoever. He would not go into specifics, except to say that it would use the same system as Oblivion, which just used a simple disc check algorithm.

He admits that it will probably assist with some piracy of the game, but he feels more people will buy the game if it does not have overly obtrusive DRM. Anyone at Electronic Arts listening right about now?

via FiringSquad

Ones to Watch on PS3 and PSP for October 2008

By Paul Munn | October 1, 2008

October promises to be a very big month for the PS3 with a bevy of potential cross-platform blockbusters, a couple of ports, and some possibly huge exclusive titles. So many of these games look so good that I’m suspecting I won’t be the only one trying to make tough decisions about what games should be bought now and what should be picked up later. That said I’m going to give a fuller rundown than usual and I’ll start out with the platform exclusives on the PS3. That includes the game featuring the guy here who just might end up becoming the console’s mascot. And not to worry PSP fans, this month has a few nice treats coming our way as well, aside from the PSP-3000 refresh of the system itself.
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Bethesda Nixes Fallout 3 Mod Tools At Launch

By Joe Haygood | September 24, 2008

Bethesda has always been known for putting together some of the best mod kits together for gamers to tweak and add to their games. One only has to look at the endless mods available for Morrowind and Oblivion to see how much gameplay can be added to a game via mod tools.

Unfortunately, the news came out today via an interview at Rock Paper Shotgun, that there will be no mod kit available at the time of Fallout 3’s launch. While it is comforting to know that during the interview, Pete Hines, VP of PR and Marketing, did say that the tools may come at a later date, but not at launch. However, there is no guarantee that the tools will ever be available for those itching to add some new flavor to the Fallout 3 universe.

I have never used the mod tools that came with Morrowind or Oblivion, but I have used mods created with them, and they have always enhanced my enjoyment of those games immensely, because of the spruced up graphics, new quests, and items. It is sad the tools are not there for Fallout 3, but maybe enough outcry from the public will get them shipped eventually.

Fallout 3 Achievement List Released

By Joe Haygood | September 2, 2008

It has been a blast of Fallout 3 information this week, with a flood of videos on the Xbox Live marketplace, and I would assume on the PS3 marketplace as well. Also, GameTrailers has a ton of footage up as well. Now, we get the most important information, and that would be the achievement list, for the 360 and PC (it is suppose to be GFW Live enabled).

Fallout 3 will ship with 50 achievements, worth a total of 1000 points. Most of the achievements seem to be based on completing major quests, which means you will be playing through the game several times, as some tasks can only be opened based on certain events happening in the game world. My personal favorite is the Psychotic Prankster, which is for planting a live grenade on a person. Good times!

Check out the full list here, via ActionTrip.

PAX 08: Fallout 3 Impressions

By George Walker | August 30, 2008

If you liked Oblivion, you will like Fallout 3. If you liked Fallout 1 and 2, you will like Fallout 3.

Because, they have done an AMAZING job of melding RPG elements from the originals into Fallout 3. The old stats like Action Points and Perks are, of course, adapted for the new 3D platform, but far from feeling tacked on, I felt very much the same as I did when I played Fallout for the first time.

The level that they had available was basically just the area outside Vault 101, and as you step out into the wasteland the landscape looks pretty good. Bleak… desolate… And you can even see the shelled out remains of the U.S. Capitol building off in the distance. Since there were no real objectives in this demo beyond “go see what you can find” I headed off down an old abandoned highway. As I sauntered into the midst of some shelled out buildings the game chimed “You’ve discovered Springvale!” Huh. Cool.

I continued further down te street and I saw a large sign that said Springvale Elementary. I decided this might be worth checking out. I approached the ruined building and was told “You’ve discovered Springvale Elementary!” Sweet. I’m gonna sneak in there. I clicked down on the thumbstick to enter sneak mode (which was an integral part of both Oblivion and Fallout, in the past) and began checking out the school. It was pretty dark, as I suppose you would expect for the post-apocalypse, and I started picking up bad guys on my indicator. As I approached, they detected me and started unloading on me with revolvers. This is where the combat system kicked in, which you’ve hopefully seen in the game

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