Fallout 3

Downloadable Content

Development

Bethesda first announced it acquired the rights to the Fallout series in 2004, though no information was released till 2007 when a teaser video and other media was released. Bethesda purchased the license from struggling Interplay for just over $1 million in cash, considered an up-front payment on future royalties. Reactions in the gaming community were broadly positive. Bethesda, with the highly acclaimed Morrowind's release two years previously and having reached the final stretch of development for the much hyped Oblivion, had become a well-respected developer in the RPG space, garnering a considerable pedigree. Controversy within the Fallout community abounded, however, when it became apparent that Fallout 3 was going to move away from the style of game that drove the original games in the series.Fans were split right down the middle. Some were disappointed that their long wait for a sequel would be a total deviation from the style of the older games, whilst the rest had faith that Bethesda would handle the license appropriately.

Gameplay

Fallout 3 in Third Person

Deviating in a major way from Fallout and Fallout 2, Fallout 3 takes place from a first person perspective, however there is an optional third person over-the-shoulder perspective included for those who prefer to play it that way. Bethesda themselves have said that it was designed to be played from first person, evidenced by the often poor appraisals of the third person viewpoint. When Fallout 3 was demoed at PAX (Penny Arcade eXpo) and other gaming conventions in 2008, onlookers described it as very "Oblivion like", with very similar gameplay and structure. This is no coincidence, as Oblivion was highly successful, and the framework was already in place to create such a game in the shape of the Gamebryo engine and tools used by the team during the development cycle. The game seems to retain the distinct sense of humor and extreme violence from the first two games by using new, more destructive weapons such as the incinerating Laser Rifle, and hugely damaging Fat-Man mini nuke launcher, as well as the classics like the Shotgun. The jokes and violence are the two main elements that fans wished to see preserved, however it is debatable how closely Fallout 3's style of humour follows that of the original games.Fallout 3 retains some elements of past titles in the franchise, including a skill and feat system, but the level cap has been lowered to 20 from Fallout 2's 99. Vault Boy also makes a appearance as a sort of visual shorthand to describe the game's various perks and stats, often presented in a humorous way.

V.A.T.S

In addition to the real-time first person action, Fallout 3 introduced a feature called V.A.T.S (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which allows the character to queue up attacks on specific enemy body parts while calculating the odds of each shot hitting the target. The percentage chance of a hit and the damage done by each queued attack depend on several factors, including level, distance from target, perks obtained and skills. Each shot queued in V.A.T.S. takes a certain number of points, depending on weapon power, expending slightly less than a quarter with a single shot with some pistols while expending them all with weapons such as the Fat-Man; the points must then regenerate in real-time.V.A.T.S was placed within the game in order to appease fans of the originals who wanted a more strategy-based experience that was dictated by RPG factors, however it is nigh-on impossible to play the whole game using just this mechanic. V.A.T.S also leads to sloppy tactic choice, with players deciding simply to rush the enemy, coming within touching distance in order to score some guaranteed and highly damaging hits. Some have claimed this "broke" the game, as they could get one or two hit kills with every single encounter. V.A.T.S can create some extremely gory moments, as even eyeballs and internal organs can be removed from mutilated bodies with well-placed shots, and it's a lot more likely to happen when using V.A.T.S than in normal combat.

Karma

The Karma system implemented in Fallout 3 rates the player's actions throughout the game and portrays them as either an Good, Neutral or Evil character depending on their choices. For instance, stealing, killing innocents and generally being horrible will earn you bad Karma, resulting in an Evil character, wheras good deeds, such as helping hobos and treating people well will result in positive Karma and a Good character. A balance of these actions means the character will stay neutral. Many quests have different outcomes, and the player can usually choose which of these to pursue. The easiest way to do something often ends up with a lot of dead people and bad Karma, but the more skill based, reasonable or long winded methods usually have a reward of positive Karma. Being a Good character leads to helpful items and such from Neutral or Good NPCs, and vice versa for Evil characters. Karma is points based and starts at zero, and based on how many points towards Good or Evil a character has, they are given an appropriate status:

Good

• 250 Karma: Defender
• 481 Karma: Shield of Hope
• 751 Karma: Guardian of the Wastes
• 1001 Karma: Savior of the Damned

Evil

• -250 Karma: Betrayer
• -481 Karma: Sword of Despair
• -751 Karma: Scourge of the Wastes
• -1001 Karma: Demon Spawn

SPECIAL

The SPECIAL system used in Fallout 3 is similar to that used in the previous games in the series. It is a set of seven attributes that govern each of the game's skills. They are first encountered during early childhood when the player is handed a big picture book called "You're SPECIAL", which is subsequently used to assign points to the SPECIAL attributes. Each one starts at a level of 5, and at this moment the player is asked to split up a further 5 total points between the skills. There is little use in leveling one attribute up to 10, because then it cannot be improved later in the game. SPECIAL can't exceed 10 or drop lower than 1, so if they reach these caps even if an item is equipped or a chem or foodstuff consumed that could add a point to one of them there will be no change. The SPECIAL attributes and the skills they govern are as follows:

• Strength - Governs Melee Weapons
• Perception - Governs Energy Weapons, Explosives and Lockpick
  
• Endurance - Governs Big Guns and Unarmed
• Charisma - Governs Barter and Speech
• Intelligence - Governs Repair and Science
• Agility - Governs Small Guns and Sneak
• Luck - Governs nothing, but has an effect on almost everything the player does

Skills

The player is asked to tag three skills at the beginning of the game, adding a bonus of fifteen points to each. Fallout and Fallout 2 had 18 skills in total, but there were some alterations made in order to better streamline the game and get rid of superfluous or all too similar skills. Gambling and Outdoorsman skills were removed entirely. Skill levels can be increased by 10 by finding Bobbleheads scattered around the Wasteland, and can also be affected by perks, reading books and equipment and chems, with a maximum skill level of 100 attainable. It's very time consuming and difficult to max out all skills, however.

• Barter - Affects the prices you get from buying or selling items
• Big Guns - Affects how you use oversized weapons like Fat Man, Missile Launcher, Flamer, Minigun etc.
• Energy Weapons - Affects how you use energy based guns, such as the Laser Pistol and Plasma rifle
• Explosives - Affects power of thrown explosives, set mines and ease of disarming hostile explosives (replaces Traps and Throwing skills of the old games)
• Lockpick - Affects ease of opening locked doors and containers
• Medicine - Affects how many hit points you replenish when using a Stimpak (replaces Doctor and First Aid skills)
• Melee Weapons - Affects damage dealt by any melee weapon, such as the Baseball Bat or Super Sledge
• Repair - Affects maintenance of equipped armor and weapons, as well as the condition of any home-made item
• Science - Affects hacking of terminals and use of technology
• Small Guns - Affects how you use small weapons, such as Pistols, Rifles or Shotguns
• Sneak - Affects overall effectiveness of sneaking around enemies, and ability to pickpocket (incorporates Steal skill of Fallout and Fallout 2)
• Speech - Affects advantages you can receive while talking to NPCs
• Unarmed - Affects damage dealt with bare fists, or with another "unarmed" weapon, such as Brass Knuckles or Power Fist

Perks

Fallout 3's perks are gained every level, rather than every three like the old games (hence Fallout's level cap of 21, the nearest multiple of three to 20). Since the Traits have been removed, which had both positive and negative effects on the player character, some of them were incorporated into the available perks.

• Action Boy/Girl - Level 16 - Additional 25 Action Points for use in V.A.T.S
• Adamantium Skeleton - Level 14 - 50% reduction to all damage taken by limbs
• Animal Friend - Level 10 - Animals don't attack you, and on the second rank they may aid you in combat (2 ranks)
• Better Criticals - Level 16 - Increases damage done when a critical occurs by 50%
• Bloody Mess - Level 6 - 5% more damage, plus your enemies will usually die in the bloodiest way possible
• Cannibal - Level 12 - Option to sacrifice Karma to eat human bodies in order to regain health
• Chem Resistant - Level 16 - 50% reduction in the possibility of chem addiction
• Chemist - Level 14 - Chems are 50% more effective
• Child at Heart - Level 5 - More benefits in dialogues with children
• Commando - Level 8 - Increases VATS accuracy when using rifles or other two-handed weapons
• Comprehension - Level 4 - Additional skill point with every book read
• Computer Whiz - Level 18 - Extra attempt to re-hack any computer you were locked out of
• Concentrated Fire - Level 18 - Increases VATS accuracy on a body part after repeated hits
• Contract Killer - Level 14 - When you kill a good character, you can sell their ears to a certain individual for profit and negative Karma
• Cyborg - Level 16 - Permanently increases damage, poison, and radiation resistance by 10%, and boosts Energy Weapon skill by ten points
• Daddy's Girl/Boy - Level 2 - An additional 5 points to the Intelligence and Medicine skills (3 ranks)
• Demolition Expert - Level 6 - Additional 20% damage dealt to enemies when you use explosives (3 ranks)
• Educated - Level 4 - 3 extra skill points each time you advance in level
• Entomologist - Level 4 - 50% increase in damage dealt to radioactive insects, such as Bloatflies or Radscorpions
• Explorer - Level 20 - Every location of the map is revealed
• Fast Metabolism - Level 12 - 20% more health gained from Stimpaks
• Finesse - Level 5 - Increases chance to get critical hits
• Fortune Finder - Level 1- Increases chance to find caps in random containers
• Grim Reapers Sprint - Level 20 - If you successfully kill an opponent using VATS, all VATS points are restored immediately upon exiting VATS
• Gun Nut - Level 2 - An additional 5 points each to Small Guns and Repair (3 ranks)
• Gunslinger - Level 6 - VATS accuracy is significantly increased when using pistols or other one-handed weapons
• Here and Now - Level 10: Immediately grants enough experience to earn another level, with all the benefits that brings
• Impartial Mediation - Level 8 - An additional 30 points are given to the speech skill if the character has and maintains Neutral Karma
• Infiltrator - Level 18 - Grants one more attempt to pick a broken lock
• Intense Training - Level 2 - Increases the level of any SPECIAL attribute by one (10 ranks)
• Iron Fist - Level 5 - The player does an additional 5 points of damage when fighting unarmed (3 ranks)
• Lady Killer/Black Widow - Level 2: 10% more damage to the opposite sex, plus additional dialogue options on occassion
• Lead Belly - Level 6 - 50% less rads when you drink from irradiated water sources, such as Toilets or Fire Hydrants
• Lawbringer - Level 14 - When you kill an evil character you may sell their finger for profit and good Karma
• Lifegiver - Level 12 - 30 additional hit points
• Light Step - Level 14 - You can never set off enemy mines or traps
• Little League - Level 2 - Melee Damage and Explosives skill get a 5 point bonus, each (3 ranks)
• Master Trader - Level 14 - Purchases from NPCs are given a 25% price knockdown
• Mister Sandman - Level 10 - Option to silently kill sleeping humans or ghouls for additional experience points
• Mysterious Stranger - Level 10 - Stranger with a Magnum will randomly appear in VATS to help you out every so often
• Nerd Rage! - Level 10 - Strength is increased to 10 and a 50% damage resistance is granted when health drops to 20% or lower
• Night Person - Level 10 - 2 points each to Intelligence and Perception when the sun is down
• Ninja - Level 20 - Sneak attacks do 25% more damage, plus a 15% better chance to critical, normally (Used for Unarmed and Melee, only)
• Paralyzing Palm - Level 18 - Chance to execute a paralyzing punch when fighting unarmed in VATS, which paralyzes target for 30 seconds
• Pyromaniac - Level 12 - 50% more damage when using flame based weapon, such as the Flamer or Shiskebab
• Rad Resistance - Level 8 - 25% more rad resistance
• Robotics Expert - Level 12 - 25% damage dealt to robots, ability to deactivate robots if you are able to sneak up behind them, additional dialogue options occassionally
• Scoundrel - Level 4 - 5 point boost to both Speech and Barter (3 ranks)
• Silent Running - Level 12 - 10 points to Sneak skill and running no longer factors into a successful sneak attempt
• Size Matters - Level 8 - 15 points to Big Guns skill (3 ranks)
• Sniper - Level 12 - Chance of a headshot in V.A.T.S is significantly increased
• Solar Powered - Level 20 - When in the sun, you gain 2 points towards strength and slowly regenerate health
• Strong Back - Level 8 - The player character can carry 50 pounds extra equipment
• Swift Learner - Level 2 - 10% bonus when experience is earned (3 ranks)
• Tag! - Level 16 - Instantly increases any skill by 15, except those tagged when creating character
• Thief - Level 2 - 5 points each to Sneak and Lockpick (3 ranks)
• Toughness - Level 6 - 10% more general damage resistance

Weapons

Unarmed:

Your Fists - Power governed by your Strength rating, but usually the weakest option available. Don't leave home without them.
Brass Knuckles - Now we're talking! Significantly more stopping power than your mitts alone.
Spiked Knuckles - Add some spikes to your Brass Knuckles, and here you go. A bit more powerful than the Brass Knuckles.
Power Fist - A metal glove you wear on your right hand that can be absolutely devastating, with plenty of Unarmed training.
Deathclaw Gauntlet - A home-made weapon, made out of a freshly-picked Deathclaw hand. Very powerful, and ignores opponents armor rating.

Melee:

Baseball Bat - One of the first weapons obtained, it deals out decent damage in the early stages.
Chinese Sword - A powerful melee slicing weapon.
Knife - A short range melee weapon.
Lead Pipe - A simple, brutal piece of equipment that is indicative of the survivalist nature of the Wastelanders.
Police Baton - The bat used mainly by the guards of Vault 101, but can also be found in the Wasteland.
Ripper - An unholy hybrid of a dagger and a chainsaw. Don't be on the receiving end.
Sledgehammer - Powerful, heavy and brutal two-handed wapon.
Super Sledge - Upgraded form of the Sledgehammer used mainly by Super Mutant Brutes.
Switchblade - Similar to the Knife, a low damage short range slicing weapon.
Shiskebab - A gas-powered flame sword. Very high damage, burns enemies for a period of time, and totally awesome.
Repellent Stick - A short piece of wood with Molerat repellent on the end. Useless against most enemies, but can kill Molerats and other small creatures in a couple of hits.
Nail Board - A basic and brutal stick with some nails sticking crudely from the end. Weapon of choice for many Super Mutants.

Small Guns:

BB Gun - The first gun obtained, used to shoot targets in the Vault as a child. Pretty useless for proper combat, and ammunition is scarce. I'm avoiding "Christmas Story" humor.
10mm Pistol - 10mm round-firing pistol. Useful for its moderate rate of fire and readily available ammo.
10mm Sub-Machine Gun - Rapid-firing, with moderate damage and uses the same, common ammo as the Pistol.
Silenced 10mm Pistol - The same base as the 10mm Pistol, but with a silencer that suppresses noise, but decreases the range and damage.
Chinese Pistol - A poorly manufactured pistol that breaks easily and does low damage, but also uses 10mm rounds.
Scoped .44 Magnum - Powerful Six-Shooter pistol, with a modest zoom feature.
Assault Rifle - Powerful, with a decent range and fast rate of fire. Sadly it eats up 5.56 ammo rather quickly.
Chinese Assault Rifle- A slightly more powerful version of the Assault Rifle, but otherwise essentially the same.
Hunting Rifle - A reliable and accurate bolt-action rifle, chambered in .32 caliber.
Railway Rifle - A home-made rifle that shoots railway spikes that can be found in their hundreds. Can also pin removed body parts to nearby walls or floors.
Sniper Rifle - A rifle with a mounted scope that allows players to take shots at much farther away targets. Very powerful, but has very rare ammunition.
Combat Shotgun - Spread shot that has very high damage at close range, often resulting in one shot kills if close enough.
Sawed-off Shotgun - A double-barreled shotgun with a shortened barrel.
Lincoln's Repeater - A unique lever-action rifle formerly belonging to the President. Uses .44 Magnum ammunition, as is possibly the most powerful Small Gun in the game.

Energy Weapons:

Laser Pistol- Fires a very accurate laser beam.
Laser Rifle - A more powerful version of the Laser Pistol.
Mesmetron - A non-lethal stun gun used to incapacitate targets for the purposes of enslavement.
Plasma Pistol - Similar to the Laser weapons, but fires Plasma.
Plasma Rifle - Bigger, better and more badass version of the Plasma Pistol.
Alien Blaster - A powerful weapon of unknown origin. Ammo is limited, so keep that in mind.

Big Guns:

Fat Man - Launches mini-nukes; devastatingly powerful, and irradiates area for a period of time.
Flamer - Flamethrower in all but name.
Gatling Gun - A minigun that is very heavy and inaccurate but has a blinding rate of fire.
Missile Launcher - The name says it all.
Gatling Laser - Similar to the Gatling Gun, but uses Micro-Fusion cells as ammuntion.
Eugene - A slightly more powerful Gatling Gun.

Explosives:

Frag Grenade - Thrown explosive that deals decent damage. Can be placed on an enemy's person, live, in order to blow them up.
Frag Mine - Can be laid as a trap for unsuspecting foes. The player can disarm them if they come in range of a live one and reach it before it explodes.
Pulse Grenade - Like a grenade, but emits an electrical field that is effective against robots.
Pulse Mine - To the Pulse Grenade what the Frag Mine is to the Frag Grenade.
Plasma Grenade - Along the same lines as the Frag Grenade, but uses plasma energy rather than explosives.
Plasma Mine - See Pulse Mine.
Nuka Grenade - A makeshift grenade constructed from a tin can and some Nuka-Cola Quantum.
Bottlecap Mine - A home-made mine made using a lunchbox, a sensor module, a cherry bomb, and some bottle caps.

Short soundtrack

Soundtrack

01 - "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire" - The Ink Spots
02 - "Way Back Home" - Bob Crosby
03 - "Butcher Pete (Part 1)" - Roy Brown
04 - "Fallout 3 Soundtrack - Main Title"
05 - "Fallout 3 Soundtrack - Megaton"

Versions

Collectors Edition

Like many games these days, this game will have a collectors edition. Here is a list of what you can get if you buy this version of the game:

• Fallout 3 Game
• Metal Vault-Tec Lunchbox
• 5" Vault Boy Bobblehead Figurine
• The Art of Fallout 3 Hardcover Concept Art and Commentary Book
  
• The Making of Fallout 3 DVD

Survival Edition

Awards and Nominations

Fallout 3 was nominated for the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2008. It was nominated in the Best Of Show, Best RPG and Best Console Game. It succeeded in taking home Best Of Show and Best RPG, beating the likes of  Gears Of War 2, Mirrors Edge and Dragon Age. It lost Best Console Game to PS3's LittleBigPlanet.

Van Buren

Van Buren was a Code name for Black Isle’s version of Fallout 3. It was canceled in 2003 when Black Isle went out of business, although the game itself was nearing completion. It would have had Multiplayer and a combat system where the player could wield two weapons. A Tech Demo was created but Bethesda will not be releasing it to the general public.
The story took place around the year 2250 and unfolded across Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. The player was going to find him or herself in prison for crimes that they were either innocent or guilty of. One day they’d wake up in a different cell than they had  went to sleep in. Then an attack on the Prison would rupture the walls and give the player (and many others) a chance to escape into the Wasteland. Once free the player is besieged by Robots and Questions.

The villain was a man called Presper. He was a mad scientist who planned on using remaining nuclear weapons to totally obliterate all the life on the planet as he deemed it unworthy. The attack on the Prison was one step in that plan. The Prisoners were all marked as contaminated with a virus similar to FEV called Limit 115. When a large majority of Prisoners were returned to the Quarantine Zone (otherwise known as the Prison) a Super AI called Ulysses that controlled it would scan and purge the world's contaminated zones to prevent further contagion. The problem was that so much of the world was tainted it would result in a new and more devastating nuclear strike than what had come before. Presper was counting on this and those he deemed Pure would survive on in his Boulder Dome until a time he decided the Earth was safe for resettlement. At that point they’d ascend to the surface and start again. The player's mission was to uncover his plot and stop it. Ultimately, though, the player would at least partially fail. In the critical moments some nukes would launch and it was up to the player to decide exactly what got hit and what didn't. 

In the Fallout continuity, all the events of Van Buren are considered non-canon.

Rating Controversy

On July 4, 2008, Fallout 3 was refused classification by the OFLC in Australia, thus making the game illegal for sale in the country. In order for the game to be reclassified, the offending content in the Australian version of the game would have to be removed by Bethesda Softworks and the game resubmitted to the OFLC. According the OFLC board report, the game was refused classification due to the "realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method (bringing) the 'science-fiction' drugs in line with 'real-world' drugs. However, just a month later, Australian retailer Gamechip started taking pre-orders for a drug-free version of the game. It now looks like the game has been modified for release instead of outright banned though nothing is official.Australia is no stranger to banning games, in 2008 Dark Sector, Shellshock 2: Blood Trials and Fallout 3 were banned. In August of 2008, however, the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) granted a rating of MA15 after changes were made to in-game drug references, particularly the renaming of morphine to "Med-X." In their report on the revised edition of the game, the OFLC found that "The drug references within this revised version are justified by context and lend a strong playing impact to the game." The report also notes that drugs in the game are now "depicted as stylized icons on a menu with the drug use itself not depicted."

Original ruling

The original ruling by the OFLC's stated that  "the game contains the option to take a variety of drugs known as "chems" using a device which is connected to the character's arm. These "chems" have positive and some negative effects (lowering of intelligence, or the character may become addicted to the chem). The positive effects include increase in strength, stamina, resistance to damage, agility, and hit points. Corresponding with the list of various "chems" are small visual representations of the drugs; these include syringes, tablets, pill bottles, a crack-type pipe, and blister packs. In the Board's view, these realistic visual representation of drugs and their delivery method bring the 'science-fiction' drugs in line with 'real-world' drugs. The player can also select and use Morphine (a proscribed drug) which has the positive effect of enabling the character to ignore limb pain when the character's extremities are targeted by the enemy."

PC System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements:

• Windows XP/Vista

• 1GB System RAM (XP)/ 2GB System RAM (Vista)

• 2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
• Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 or better/ATI X850 or better)

Recommended System Requirements:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 2 GB System RAM
• Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA 8800 series, ATI 3800 series)

Xbox 360 Game Installation

Fallout 3 requires 5.9GB of space to install on an Xbox 360 HDD.  Installing has been reported to slightly lower load times, as well as lead to a decrease in the amount of freezing.