Day one has been good. The Microsoft and EA press conferences was enjoyable, I was shocked by Left 4 Dead 2 and Forza 3 looks beautiful. I didn't get the chance to watch each of 'em the whole way through, I love my internet connection. But I did pretty much watch the Ubisoft press conference all the way through. The longest of the three, a nice two hours. Best of all it is 3:00 am here now that it is finsihed and you know what? It was awful, but funny and not by that terrible host. From the constant use of the word "tween" and a Frenchman shouting "COOO A BUNGA" after a TMNT trailer it was a weird press conference. James Cameron talked for twenty minutes about Avatar and didn't even show anything, TWENTY FUCKING MINUTES. Pele gibbered on for ages too, yeah I know... that Pele. There was all that Imagine crap with "tween" (shudder) crap. Is this a theme of E3 2009? People taking about audiences that don't know what E3 is, yeah I am looking at you EA Girls. Also cameras are also a big thing, with the one at Microsoft and now Ubisoft. The guy showing Red Steel 2 was on crack, the dude presenting Rabbids Go Home was SOOOO annoying. Rabbids Go Home should win the weirdest trailer ever award. They took away Barack Obama's clothes and he was wearing a pink thong, take that Modern Warfare 2!
So I enjoyed my semi watched Microsoft and EA stuff, but no Half-Life 2: Episode Three *grrr*. If you thought Nintendo's conference from last year was stupid and crap, which it was, then gather around children and feast your eyes on Ubisoft's train wreck of a press conference. Sadly I will miss Sony and Nintendo tomorrow, but hopefully on Wednesday, I can watch 'em without any spoilers or post-conference news. Roll on E3!
Did you download the new Operation: Anchorage DLC for Fallout 3? Not great is it? I personally was really looking forward to some more Fallout 3 action but..... OK lets just get this out in the open, Fallout 3's combat is just bad. Its stiff and its clunky. Also what you get for your 12 bones is not much. I finished it in about... hour and a half, two tops. For what! Some armour, a bunch of weapons I already have and the odd stimpack. Whats up with the lack of new custom weapons and crazy ass armour?
So we got two more packs coming and I think I don't have it in me to play more Fallout 3. I love the game, for all of its problems its a great game but the more I play it seems samey and I realised that the combat could have been slicker. We will see what the future packs hold but if they offer what Opearation Anchorage holds, it will be time to shelf Fallout 3. Anyone else out there ready to stomach s'more Fallout?
2009 is now here. The 2008 was a great, for me anyway, game wise. I finally got my Xbox. I still have a big stack of Xbox games from 07 and 08 to get into. Hopefully 2009 will be as good as a year for games as 2008/2007 were. I don't have to many games I am dying to play. Here's a few ones to look forward to,
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
MadWorld
The Conduit (maybe)
Not excatly the biggest list in the world. I have played any Resident Evil games, not to sure on Bionic Commando and I'm not the biggest Street Fighter fan. But still, here's to a new year.
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Fallout began as an isometric RPG game back in the mid-90's on the PC. Betheseda Softworks recently pick up the rights to bring out a new Fallout game. Fallout 3 is it. Fallout 3 looks nothing like the first two games in the series as it is viewed from the first (or third) person. This makes the game feel a lot like Betheseda's most recent game: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which is certainly a good thing.
Fallout 3 offers many dialouge options. Some of which are very funny Fallout 3 is set in the post-apocalyptic Washington D.C in the 23rd century. Washington is now a wasteland, Capital Wasteland as the game describes it. You begin the game litreally from your birth into Vault 101, one of the few underground dwellings designed to keep people off the Wasteland. The game flashes forward through a few tutorials but then when you are 19, your Dad is the first person to leave Vault 101. After getting into trouble with the Vault Security Guards, you leave the Vault to search for your Dad which is where the game really begins.
Throughout your adventure into the Capital Wasteland, you can make decisons in the game which affects your karma. In other words if you play nice, the NPC's will act nicely toward you and possibly give you free gifts. If you want to be a badass, the NPC's will act hostle toward you and if they don't give you a free gift e.g. Assault Rifle, if you are evil you can just kill them and take it anyway. Like for example, very early in the game you can decide to blow up the town of Megaton. Of course if you do it, you get bad karma and a nice explosion. If you don't, all the townpeople will think your a hero. The karma system works well and gives you many, many possible endings to the game.
V.A.T.S in actionThe actual quest system in the game is straight up from Oblivion. Though in Fallout 3 there are less quests, but they are longer. When it comes to actually killing something there is a system called V.A.T.S. You just press RB, time stops, you pick a certain part of the body to shoot and then you fire. Of course you can't do this to everything in the game as you have a finite number of Action Points which repleinish over time. The V.A.T.S is a throw back to Fallout games of the past and its good but not perfect. The shooting when not using V.A.T.S does feel a bit wierd. While its not bad, it still feels it's tough to aim and shots at the enemy don't always feel right.
The Pip-Boy 3000Early in the game you are given the Pip-Boy 3000 wrist device. This handles all of your inventory, shows stats etc. The stats in the game are divided up by S.P.E.C.I.A.L. You can have up to ten points for each of the letters, (S for strength, L for Luck) these in turn determine your skills such as Small Guns, Explosions and Speech. You can also pick three of these skills as your main skills and so they recieve a bonus number of points. Each time you level up (the max is level 20) you can pick a perk. This include things like stat bonuses and adding one point to one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L abilites. Overall the skills, S.P.E.C.I.A.L, perks work really well and are well balanced. As I mentioned above, Pip-Boy also handles your inventory. This where one of the problems from Oblvion shine. You see nearly all items in the game have a weight. You can only hold so many items until you become over-emcumbered and walk very slowly. The problem is that the weight maximum is just way too low. Constantly through the game you have to manage your items constantly which takes away some of the fun.
Fallout 3 is not as long as Oblivion, but it is definetly no slouch. I finished in about 27 hours, but there were still many locations to be found and a handful of side quests. I probably won't even find this side quests unless looking at a guide. A lot of the game can be skiped though. Once you find a location you can just fast travel there, as in Oblivion. If you were just, to stick to the main story, you could finish the game in a few hours, but why would you want to do that? The game world its self is very, very big. When they say Capital Wasteland they mean wasteland as a lot of the world is just nothing. Though every interior location looks different in it's own way exepct for the Metro tunnels which are quite basic.
Fallout 3 is a beautiful looking game. It may all be brown and green but the games draw distences just goes on and on for miles. Explosions look nice, textures are detailed, character models look very well (not so much when they talk) and just looking into the distence seeing the sun glowing off the Washington looks wonderful. There is some slow down but its rare and nothing too serious. Also some objects on the ground flicker for no reason and there is just a hint of texture pop up but apart from that it is definetly one of the best looking games of the year.
It's a big, big world. Fallout 3 with all it's goodness, there a lot of small problems. Nothing that destroys the gameplay but still annoy a bit. First off the game's ending is not all that good. Though there are differnet endings to an extent, the game still has the basic ending. Also when the game ends, it ends. As in you need to load and old save or start a new game. Since Fallout 3 is a lot like Oblivion it does share some of it's faults. For example, the auto save system can destroy your save. If you fast travel or go through a door, the game saves. Which can end up in some awkard outcomes. So good advice is to have a back up save ready. Also the character moving animations are a bit off. NPC's will randomly bring into sprits and even the walking looks a bit floaty. The third person view is complete rubbish. The aiming is tough and your characters movement is very off.
Even though it has a few flaws, Fallout 3 is one of the best games of the year. All of its small problems are outwayed by the immersion, the graphics, the quests. If your in the mood for a long game to keep you entertained look no further than Fallout 3.
Do you know what really grinds my gears, go on take a guess it's in the title. Yeah, FANBOYS, especially the PS3 and 360 kind. Have they ever sat down and released, " Wow I am
Xbox 360, PS3 there all good rooting for a piece of metal that's plays games, thats made by a company whose goal is to make money". Also these days what does it matter which system you pick. Third-party exculsives are ceasing to exist and both the 360 and PS3 online capalbities are near identical, well bar the odd feature but the main idea is the same. 360 owners always knock the PS3 because it has no games, which recently has changed with Little Big Planet and Resistance 2. But the 360 isin't perfect, it has a high failure rate and is as loud as all hell. Know you might be thinking that I'm Just everyone give each other a huganother "PS3 fanboy" thats hating on the 360 but no, I have a 360 not a PS3, but I like both consoles equally. Like there video game console for god's sake, one is white and the other is black. I mean PS3 fans, what isin't there to like about the 360, great games and nice online. Also 360 fans, the PS3 is not a hunk of crap, its a lovely looking console with some great games as well. Also exculsives. Remember when Devil May Cry 4 was also annouced to be on the 360, all the PS3 lovers got real pissed and signed a online petiton to boycott Capcom's future games. What a load of HORSESHIT. So what if more people get to play. This could mean more money for Capcom which could help them give more funding for I dont know, Devil May Cry 5, which could make it better. So pick whatever console you want, PS3 or 360 your are still getting a great console. So forum fanboy idoit shut the fuck up, please? Also, hey what about that Wii?
Finally over here in Ireland, Fallout 3 has been released. I got my copy this morning. I have to say, it is definitely Oblivion with guns. Its been rough going at some parts of the Wasteland though I am still only level 2. I'm really getting worried with the pile of games I have to play. I got my Xbox a month ago now and the games have been piling up since. Let's see GTA IV, Gears of War, Halo 3, Forza 2 and in the last few weeks I bought Bioshock, Saints Row 2 and Fallout. I have between now and Christmas to at least finish them all. Waiting for Christmas to get Guitar Hero (fucking expensive!) and Chrono Trigger DS. I will probably get Gears 2 but I still have to finish the first one. Also Call of Duty: WAW is coming soon. Not sure on that one. I have really enjoyed the Beta but I'll see when the time comes. I wonder what is gonna happen next Christmas. I really hope with all my heart that there won't be a new Xbox. I just finally got one. With the way they killed the first one off, I am pleading for it not to happen again.
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