Category Archives: Mothership Zeta

Around the Web

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Time to make the donuts for another update…

Wanted to let you guys know that tomorrow night at 6pm EST, X-Play is hosting their G-Phoria special – an awards show on G4TV where the awards are voted on by the fans (YOU!). Tune in to see if Fallout 3 (or any of your other favorite games) take home an award.

You may recall a few weeks back 1Up’s Scott Sharkey wrote about the Crappiest Videogame Dads. This week he’s back with a feature on the five videogame enemies he feels bad for — a list that includes Fallout 3′s Feral Ghouls. Here’s a look:
“I didn’t have too much trouble capping the guys, until I managed to acquire a ghoul mask, which allowed me to pass among them and observe their empty lives like a zombie Jane Goodall. Kind of left me wishing I hadn’t spent the first half of the game pinning their heads to the walls with railway spikes. I got over it, though. Go cry, emo zombie.”

Moving right along — with Mothership Zeta’s release this week, reviews are beginning to show up online. Here’s an excerpt from G4TV’s review:

“As a combat mission, “Mothership Zeta” is excellent. It’s fast paced, full of enemies, and great for loading up on XP. I finally hit level 30 about two-thirds of the way through. You won’t just be fighting aliens — abducted ghouls and raiders can also be found in certain sections of the ship.”

More reviews can be found at GameFocus, Gamervision, Examiner.com, and AtomicGamer.

Wrapping up this “Around the Web,” I thought I’d share some id Software news. First, at TeamXbox, you can find plenty of new details on the multiplayer component for Wolfenstein — due out this month on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Meanwhile, the Twitter page for RAGE has announced there will be a video blog for the game — and it will start during QuakeCon next week. Head here to submit your questions.

Mothership Zeta Trailer and Team Diary (Updated)

Before Mothership Zeta launches on Monday, we’ve uploaded a new trailer. Check it out on our site or through our Bethesda Softworks YouTube Channel. Special thanks to Matt Killmon for all his awesome work on all our DLC trailers.

We’ve also got a new Team Diary from Fallout 3 Lead Artist Istvan Pely, who spearheaded Mothershp Zeta. In the diary, Ist discusses what went into making this “far out” DLC — detailing the hard work and countless hours put in by members of the team. Here’s an excerpt:

“And with that begins the Vault Dweller’s final and most fantastical adventure in the Capital Wasteland, or rather several hundred miles far above it. The concept of the UFO visit emerged early in the idea-toss sessions we had for DLC, in fact it was the very first thing to pop into my mind; it just seemed a natural fit. But we saved it for last, as a fitting conclusion to the Vault Dweller’s story.”

You can read the rest here — complete with new screenshots.

Updated: Polish site Polygamia.pl has a Mothership Zeta interview with Brian Chapin. It’s in both Polish and English. For consistency’s sake, I’ll post the snippet in English…

We know that the main quest in this add-on will be to escape from the spaceship. How many side-quests and achievements can we expect from it?

BC: There aren’t any explicit side quests, but Mothership Zeta is a pretty big place. While you’ll be receiving three of the four achievements from completing the main quest line, you’ll have to do some searching off the beaten path to get the last achievement. And it’s worth exploring just to see everything that the aliens are up to — they’ve been doing some pretty strange things.

For those keeping track, we’re less than two days away from Mothership Zeta!

Around the web (Updated)

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Here’s a quick web update.

We’re less than a week away from Mothership Zeta, and there’s a pair of new interviews with DLC Producer Jeff Gardiner at Go! Gaming Giant and Talking About Games. Here’s a look at a snippet from the latter:

What was the motivation behind taking players onto an alien spacecraft for Mothership Zeta? Did someone on the team have an encounter?

Jeff Gardiner: We thought it would be a very unique environment to explore, a far cry from the dust ravaged wastes of DC.  The lead designer, Emil Pagliarulo, and I are interested in Alien conspiracy theory…  There’s a lot of information to sift through on the internet, while neither of us is quite sure what to believe it makes for interesting coffee conversation.

Sites continue to give away Point Lookout Codes. GameFocus is the latest with a contest running through tomorrow.

In preview coverage, NowGamer has a new preview for Brink. Here’s a sample:

“Your character will be entirely user-created, giving you the chance to be totally unique. Our short demonstration pointed to a customisation engine that appeared to ensure your character looked damn cool no matter what you did with it – quite a feat.”

For more on Brink, check out E3Coverage.com’s interview with Richard Ham.

Finally, if you haven’t checked out the trailer for The Book of Eli — starring Denzel Washington — you might want to give it a look. On several sites, including Kotaku, comparisons to Fallout 3 are already being made.

Updates: This morning on Kotaku, I spotted some cool Fallout “accessories.” Learn how to put them together at The Weekly Geek.

Elsewhere, you can learn more about the technology for Brink at PC Games Hardware — who has an interview with Arnout van Meer — Splash Damage’s Technical Director.

If you’re planning on attending QuakeCon — check here for details on how you could win a 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe. Sadly, I’m not eligible, so I’ll have to stick with Nike and New Balance.

Around the web — new Mothership Zeta interview

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Here’s a quick look at what’s going on around the web.

Following our news on Mothership Zeta’s release date, GamePro has a new interview with DLC Producer Jeff Gardiner. Here’s a snippet:

Will there be different types of aliens, such as Face Huggers and full-grown entities?

Jeff Gardiner: Yes there are different versions of the standard alien, an alien robot and another creature I can’t spoil just yet.

More after the break….

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Mothership Zeta lands August 3rd

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Today we’re pleased to release the first four screenshots for Mothership Zeta, our fifth and final DLC for Fallout 3. Head to the Fallout 3 Official Site to see them in all their glory.

As the subject line already states, we’re bringing Mothership Zeta to Games for Windows LIVE and Xbox LIVE on MONDAY, August 3rd for 800 MS Points. The DLC will be released at a later date on PlayStation 3.

Stay tuned between now and August 3rd for more details on Mothership Zeta.

PlayStation 3 DLC Update

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Over at PlayStation.Blog, Ash put together a blog post with an update on the status of Fallout 3 DLC. Here’s a snippet from Ash’s post:

“So when can you expect Fallout 3 DLC? We still have a ways to go. We are knee deep in testing at the moment. We’re hoping to have the first DLC out by the end of September. That long? Yes, unfortunately. Keep in mind that not only do we need to test each DLC on PS3, we also need to test each DLC when used in conjunction with each of the other DLC, as well as all of them together, along with the entire original game.

I do have good news! We have decided that Broken Steel will be the first release since it is easily the most requested DLC from our fans. Broken Steel allows you to continue playing the game after completing the Main Quest, raises the level cap to 30, and includes 4-6 hours of additional gameplay. It is also the one DLC that requires you to finish the Main Quest from the game to play the new content.”

Read Ash’s post for the latest. When we have more details to share, we’ll let you know.

Around the web

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The weekend’s almost here, but before we head out, here’s one last web roundup.

There’s a trio of new interviews that went up in the last day. Jeff Gardiner answered Mothership Zeta questions at OXM UK, GameObserver chatted with Production Director Ashley Cheng, and Skewed & Reviewed interviewed Pete about ZeniMax’s acquisition of id Software.

Moving to features, there’s a couple to check out at Gamasutra. Up first, they have a list of 20 Essential RPGs — which included The Elder Scrolls series. Elsewhere on the site, James Portnow has a feature about designing moral choice in games that discusses Fallout 3.

Similar to the Gamasutra piece, there’s a featured story at Destructoid by zombiekiller13 about the tough choices he made while traversing the Capital Wasteland. Here’s a snippet:

“But here it is; I became so engrossed in this game that I began to envision them as living, breathing people. People who went about their lives while I was out exploring the world. What were they doing during my abscence. Did Moira tick anyone else off with her condescending attitude? Was Nova bedding as many of the residents as she could, or was she waiting for me to make a weekly visit? Was the sheriff taking care of a drunken Jericho who was making advances on a reluctant Lucy?”

More after the break.

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