Preview GameSpot UK spends a bit more time with Fallout 3

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Fallout 3

Bethesda went to London to plug their game. <a href="http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/fallout3/news.html?sid=6195314">GameSpot got a bit more time and decided to try out a few new areas</a>. Here's what they found:
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<blockquote>As we entered the first town that we could find, we came across a small boy named Bryan Wilks who was trying to find his father. Fallout 3 uses a dialogue system that's based around morality, so you can choose to be sympathetic or dismissive when you come across individuals. We're not usually that friendly toward strangers, but in the interest of seeing some of the side missions, we decided to play nice with the kid and help him find the father. As he went and took refuge in a nearby diner, we pushed on through the town to have a look around.
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After searching around, we came across the boy's father, who was unfortunately lying dead on the floor of his house after being attacked by the ants that his son had been so recently been expressing his disapproval of. Sad as it was, the world of Fallout is harshly low on resources, so we had to scavenge what we could from the body and the rest of the house. Although it was obviously of little help to him, he'd stashed plenty of ammunition and a Chinese assault rifle, which was a much better weapon for taking out the remaining fire ants than our standard sidearm. Stocked up, we returned to meet the boy and give him the bad news. We had three responses to choose from: "Bryan, I'm sorry, but your father is dead," "Your father's dead," or "Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food." We decided to switch from good cop to bad cop and go for the last option, which was met with a response of, "You're an a**hole."</blockquote>
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So many different choices to make. Bethesda certainly are showing the real variety you have in dialogue. <a href="http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/fallout3/news.html?sid=6195314">Read the rest</a> to discover that the voice-acting is apparently good, swearing is in, the fire-ants make nice noises and every town you encounter has tougher enemies than the last town. Also, listening to Billie Holiday is chilling. People who speak Polish might also be interested in the <a href="http://www.fallout-trzy.pl/">Fallout 3 voice-over competition</a> where "The winner of the contest will voice one of the characters in Fallout 3".
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.nma-fallout.com">Odin's Playhouse</a>

 

[Talby]

In a similar quest in Neverwinter Nights, you had the option to lie to a widow and tell her that her husband was fine. Not the best quest ever, but at least they tried to give a couple of different choices.

I like the way Bethesda has tried to give the appearance of choices and different outcomes without there actually being any. Fooled the reviewers.

 

[Darth Roxor]

People who speak Polish might also be interested in the <a href="http://www.fallout-trzy.pl/">Fallout 3 voice-over competition</a> where "The winner of the contest will voice one of the characters in Fallout 3".

Oh yeah, but first you have to buy the collector's edition, and then persuade your whole town to vote on your audio sample. No thanks.

And lol, "audio samples that are: vulgar, offensive or contrary with wide-known moral norms will be deleted with the accounts of the uploading users". Yup, so I guess this concludes trying to say "You asshole" like little Bryan did.

 

[Volourn]

"In a similar quest in Neverwinter Nights, you had the option to lie to a widow and tell her that her husband was fine."

You sure that's in NWN? It had a similar quest that was actually better as depending on what you tell her she'll run away.. right into an ambush by thugs... L0L

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Stocked up, we returned to meet the boy and give him the bad news. We had three responses to choose from: "Bryan, I'm sorry, but your father is dead," "Your father's dead," or "Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food."

What the fuck? Where's the two missing options? "Got to go, bye." or "[LIE] Your father is fine." I want those, not three different versions of saying the same thing. A good option, an evil option, a lying option and an option to walk away. That's what dialogue should be like in a Fallout game.

 

[hpmons]

Bethesda says that if you can see something in the distance in Fallout 3 you can go there, but you'll have to explore the landscape on foot before you can press a button to automatically transport between locations.

Urgh, that really pisses me off. Plenty of people complained about that feature in Oblivion, so why do they continue to use it? Thats something I really liked about Morrowind - the variety of ways to travel and trying to work out the best way to get somewhere, instead of just clicking once and magically getting there.

Stocked up, we returned to meet the boy and give him the bad news. We had three responses to choose from: "Bryan, I'm sorry, but your father is dead," "Your father's dead," or "Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food."

What the fuck? Where's the two missing options? "Got to go, bye." or "[LIE] Your father is fine." I want those, not three different versions of saying the same thing. A good option, an evil option, a lying option and an option to walk away. That's what dialogue should be like in a Fallout game.

Or something along the lines of "I'll tell you...If you give me enough money"

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Bethesda says that if you can see something in the distance in Fallout 3 you can go there, but you'll have to explore the landscape on foot before you can press a button to automatically transport between locations.

Urgh, that really pisses me off. Plenty of people complained about that feature in Oblivion, so why do they continue to use it? Thats something I really liked about Morrowind - the variety of ways to travel and trying to work out the best way to get somewhere, instead of just clicking once and magically getting there.

Stocked up, we returned to meet the boy and give him the bad news. We had three responses to choose from: "Bryan, I'm sorry, but your father is dead," "Your father's dead," or "Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food."

What the fuck? Where's the two missing options? "Got to go, bye." or "[LIE] Your father is fine." I want those, not three different versions of saying the same thing. A good option, an evil option, a lying option and an option to walk away. That's what dialogue should be like in a Fallout game.

Or something along the lines of "I'll tell you...If you give me enough money"

Ah, yes. Another good one. Of course, Bethesda wouldn't think of something like that.

 

[Zomg]

It'd be nice if people realized a quest design that shitty should be more embarrassing to Bethesda than sprite seams or shader glitches.

 

[Talby]

"In a similar quest in Neverwinter Nights, you had the option to lie to a widow and tell her that her husband was fine."

You sure that's in NWN? It had a similar quest that was actually better as depending on what you tell her she'll run away.. right into an ambush by thugs... L0L

I think that's the one. It has a few different outcomes depending on wether you save her child or not, and then what you tell her when you've defeated the monsters in her house.

It's sort of becoming a trademark of Bethesda games that every quest will have the exact same outcome no matter what you do.

 

[MetalCraze]

"Bryan, I'm sorry, but your father is dead"
"Your father's dead"
"Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food."

are those good/neutral/bad choices? lol

We decided to switch from good cop to bad cop and go for the last option, which was met with a response of, "You're an a**hole."

consequensaz!
And what an example of non-linear quest and different outcomes I must say.

And I personally can't see how "Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food" is any different from the choice 1 or 2. It's basically the same thing said in different words. A "bad cop"? This choice does not sound as bad at all. What are they talking about?

 

[Rat Keeng]

Fallout 3 uses a dialogue system that's based around morality

Bwahahaha, that's about as far as I got. Jesus Christ, what hilarious bullshit.

It's almost as good as this other game that uses a dialogue system based around text. Novel ideas; boggled minds.

Very complex dialogx:::

1. "Bryan, I'm very truly deeply sorry, but your father is dead."
2. "Bryan, I'm very deeply sorry, but your father is dead."
3. "Bryan, I'm very truly sorry, but your father is dead."
4. "Bryan, I'm very sorry, but your father is dead."
5. "Bryan, your father's dead."
6. "Your father's dead, Bryan."
7. "Bryan... Your father's not alive anymore."
8. "Your father's dead."
9. "Hey kid, your dad's stopped breathing."
10. "Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food."
11. "That was one dead dad back in that house."
12. "Everyone who's dad is still alive, take one step forward-NOT SO FAST BRYAN!"

 

[hpmons]

And I personally can't see how "Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food" is any different from the choice 1 or 2. It's basically the same thing said in different words. A "bad cop"? This choice does not sound as bad at all. What are they talking about?

They could have made it slightly more varied if the dad had an item on him or a letter, so the good reply would be "Hes dead, I think he'd want you to have this", neutral "Hes dead" (so you keep the item), evil "Hes alive, I helped him survive, he told me you'd give me a reward" or crazy "Hes dead, I helped kill him. I have spoken to the fire ants, they want me to kill you too, mwhahaha".

12. "Everyone who's dad is still alive, take one step forward-NOT SO FAST BRYAN!"

haha

 

[RGE]

A "bad cop"? This choice does not sound as bad at all. What are they talking about?

I agree. It sounds more like 'rugged' to me. Clearly they should've added a "hehe" somewhere in there to make the malicious glee obvious. Or better yet, an option to brag about the newfound loot. The good choice would've been to give the loot to the kid to give him a fighting chance against the horrors of the wasteland.

But how does that reward the player for being 'good'? Aren't people supposed to get rich from good deeds? Isn't that how fantasy-RPGs work?

 

[Naked Ninja]

12. "Everyone who's dad is still alive, take one step forward-NOT SO FAST BRYAN!"

I lol'd.

I've got to think of a way to add this into SoW for the lulz. :D

 

[MetalCraze]

How come that a random codexer can come up with better and more cynic dialogue ideas than a "profeshunul" Beth writer?

 

[Naked Ninja]

Because, being a codexian, he's been immersed in some of the finest cynicism the planet has to offer, for some time now, by the look of his post count. No normal writer can match that.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

"Hes dead, I helped kill him. I have spoken to the fire ants, they want me to kill you too, mwhahaha".

Killing children is badong, therefore they were made bullet-proof in Fallout 3.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

"Hes dead, I helped kill him. I have spoken to the fire ants, they want me to kill you too, mwhahaha".

Killing children is badong, therefore they were made bullet-proof in Fallout 3.

Well, originally there was no reason to believe Fallout 3 would have anybody younger than 60 in the game, like in Oblivion.

 

[MetalCraze]

Also

We're not usually that friendly toward strangers, but in the interest of seeing some of the side missions, we decided to play nice with the kid and help him find the father.

Oh judging by that other dialogue I already see this

Bryan: help me find my father using your magical quest compass

PC:
1) Yes kid I will help you (karma ++)
2) No, sorry kid I will take this mission later
3) No shut up kid I will help you later (karma--)

 

[Shoelip]

How come that a random codexer can come up with better and more cynic dialogue ideas than a "profeshunul" Beth writer?

Because Matt Stone and Trey Parker are much better writers than Bethesda's guys.

 

[Carrie Underwood]

Fallout 3 uses a dialogue system that's based around morality

Bwahahaha, that's about as far as I got. Jesus Christ, what hilarious bullshit.

It's almost as good as this other game that uses a dialogue system based around text. Novel ideas; boggled minds.

Very complex dialogx:::

1. "Bryan, I'm very truly deeply sorry, but your father is dead."
2. "Bryan, I'm very deeply sorry, but your father is dead."
3. "Bryan, I'm very truly sorry, but your father is dead."
4. "Bryan, I'm very sorry, but your father is dead."
5. "Bryan, your father's dead."
6. "Your father's dead, Bryan."
7. "Bryan... Your father's not alive anymore."
8. "Your father's dead."
9. "Hey kid, your dad's stopped breathing."
10. "Sorry kid. Your old man is ant food."
11. "That was one dead dad back in that house."
12. "Everyone who's dad is still alive, take one step forward-NOT SO FAST BRYAN!"

Good, but the American Hare version is better.

- [Hold the boy's shoulder] "He made one hell of a last stand, Bryan."
- [Lie] "Your father defeated the ants, and decided to go off on his own and rid the world of their kind."
- [Lie] "You're father is still alive, Bryan. He should be back any day now."
- [Attack the boy] "You're father has traveled into the great beyond. Soon, you shall join him!"
- "I didn't find anything. Good luck in your search though."
- "You're dad's dead, kid."
- "I have some very bad news. Your father has perished."
- "I'm out searching for my father. Your parental search, however, will only take you to a chewed up corpse."
- "Unfortunately, your father did not save against death."
- "Can you remind me what a 'dad' is again? I sure hope it isn't a half eaten corpse with a picture of you in its pocket."

 

[Joe Krow]

If only the ants had been scaled to the fathers level. What a shame.

Rest in peace clichéd missing parent. May your death make Giant Ant Encounter #574 seem slightly more interesting.

 

[Fez]

You can give fifty options if you want, but it's a heap of shit if they don't actually have any real effect on the dialogue. I can remember in the KOTOR games (and others) that annoying me. I'd choose one option instead of another and the reply from the NPC would be the same as the last time and the whole conversation would unfold the same too. Lame. Fake choices.

 

[bezimek]

If only the ants had been scaled to the fathers level. What a shame.

Rest in peace clichéd missing parent. May your death make Giant Ant Encounter #574 seem slightly more interesting.

Good one :twisted:

 

[Texas Red]

This quest is basic. A bunch of guys on a forum can improve it. You can involve loot in it and your evil character will have a bigger motive.