Category Archives: Preview

Around the Web – It’s a party!!

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Happy Mardi Gras to everyone! We hope that anyone celebrating today has a great time, but also remembers to stay safe. If you’re like me, and don’t really have the time to parade in the streets, here’s some new Fallout coverage we spotted that you can read up on while working, studying, or doing anything else that doesn’t involve drinking, wearing beads, or dressing up in ridiculous costumes…

Destructoid’s Reverend Anthony put together a list of “The ten most meaningful videogame quotes of all-time” that includes Ron Perlman’s famous first words, “War. War Never Changes.” It’s a pretty good list with a mix of older (Zork, Super Mario Bros.) and newer (Portal, Bioshock) memorable quotes. Discussing Fallout, he writes:

“Fallout may be one of the most cynical, nihilistic game franchises in existence, which also makes it one of my personal favorites. Rather than half-assedly cultivating a world-weary tone through a sepia color scheme and needlessly gruff-sounding protagonists (I’m looking at you, Gears of War), the Fallout series tells the tale of some people who try to act with common decency in a world utterly lacking in it, and who are subsequently tortured and killed and exiled for their troubles. Cormac McCarthy would be proud.”

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Around the Web: Looking back at Morrowind, looking forward to Fallout 3

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Thought I’d share some interesting mentions that I came across today and over the weekend.

Next Generation has put up a retrospective piece on Morrowind that was recently in Edge. It’s crazy to think the game’s been on shelves for nearly six years. Here’s a sampling of the feature:

“The island of Morrowind that exists on the disc can be threadbare and tenuous, but be undeniable and persistent in your mind. Also, even on Xbox, it’s a game that throws up snapshots of austere, worldly beauty, where sunrise and landscape conspire against any shortcomings to provide a memorable montage; again, these moments feel personal in a way few other adventures can match.”

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Around the Web – Frozen Edition

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I’m not sure what we’ve been experiencing up until now, but it wasn’t really winter. NOW it’s winter. I realize a wind chill in the single digits is pretty paltry compared to what folks are experiencing in other places (like those people freezing their tails off in -24 degree weather in Green Bay last night…the three girls at the game in bikini tops need to seek professional help…it was TWENTY FOUR DEGREES BELOW ZERO), but up until this point it was pretty mild weather here. Now it’s just freezing out there.

Worthplaying put together their list of the most anticipated games of 2008, placing Fallout 3 at #1. You can head over to read comments from lots of folks at WP as to their level of expectation, how they see things shaping up, and so on.

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Around the web…

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Thought I’d point out a couple of interesting tidbits I’ve noticed across the web this week…

Over on Voodoo Extreme, there’s a fan poll titled, “Most Wanted 2008 PC Games.” There’s a lot of good choices to vote for. Currently, Fallout 3 is receiving the second most votes behind Blizzard’s hugely-anticipated Starcraft 2.

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More Fallout 3 Coverage

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This week I’ve noticed a few interesting articles about Fallout 3 across the information superhighway.

Up first, Kieron Gillen of PC-enthusiast site Rock, Paper, Shotgun has contributed an editorial on Fallout 3 — the latest in their “Games of 2008″ series that has also included Starcraft 2 and Spore. Within the piece, Gillen focuses on why we decided to take on the challenge of making a new Fallout game. Here’s a sample:

“It may just be as simple as plain lust for Fallout, the plain desire to write a sequel to a game they think is brilliant. This sort of things strikes even the brightest creative minds – look over at Comics, where there’s a strata of some of the medium’s brightest minds whose most heartfelt desire is to have a shot at Superman. They’re insane, and if they had any sense they’d be doing their own thing… but that they don’t have that sense means that it’s done as an act of devotion. This is actually a good reason to give a damn about Fallout 3. People working on something that’s genuinely invested in, on average, leads to better work.”

Also looking at the Games of 2008, Gaming Shogun lists Fallout 3 as one of their ten “Most Anticipated PC Games of 2008.”

Freelancer Lou Kesten has written a 2008 preview that leads off with Fallout 3. The article is making it’s way around on several sites…including The Morning Call, where I found it.

Finally, in the February issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the mag previews 2008 with a politically themed feature called “Decision ’08,” which includes more than 60 games that they think folks may elect to purchase.

Preparing for the future

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This week, a couple of sites, Shack News and Team Xbox, have started making lists of games to look forward to in 2008.

In Nick Breckon’s article for Shack News titled, “The Year Ahead: PC Gaming in 2008,” Fallout 3 leads off the list, where the Fallout franchise is compared to the Star Wars saga with the burning question, “Will it (Fallout 3) be the Phantom Menace that taints the franchise, or the Empire Strikes Back that only enhances it?” I suppose only time will tell, but I’m glad we dropped the planned pod race sequence (*rimshot*).

At Team Xbox, the staff has compiled their “Most Anticipated RPGs of 2008,” where Fallout 3 rounds out the list. Talking about what to expect from the game, they write:

“We’re also expecting that Fallout 3 will have hybrid gameplay elements, such as combat that resembles a first-person shooter—though with more intricacies and nuances. And the little bits we’ve seen reveal character dialogue that could actually be as entertaining as the gameplay. Imagine, a smart, sassy and challenging RPG….”

As we discover new coverage on Fallout 3, we’ll continue to keep you guys updated.

Around the Web

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Yesterday GamePro put up a feature called “The 48 Best Games of 2008,” which lists the games they’re most anticipating for next year. On the list, Fallout 3 came in as the #3 most anticipated title with Metal Gear Solid 4 and GTA IV being #’s 2 and 1, respectively. To see what they had to say about Fallout 3, jump here.

1Up announced their nominees for their 2007 awards and Shivering Isles was included on the list for Best RPG along with, uh, everything else even remotely RPG-like. Bring a snack before you start to read the list for Game of the Year. You’ll probably need some kind of intermission. I’d put Carcassone ahead of more than half of the 30 games on that list and not think twice about it, but that’s just me. Head over and cast your vote today for your favorites.

Also worthy of mention is the fact that the folks over at ShackNews have started up a blog of their own. Their news site is somewhat blog-like, but I guess this will be a place where they can inject more of their own opinions and commentary than they might normally. Plus, they can curse on the blog, and never underestimate how liberating that can be. I’m green with envy. Anyway, I’ve been reading ShackNews for as long as I can remember, so felt like it was worth pointing it out.

Update: I noticed over on Kotaku that X-Play has Shivering Isles nominated for “Best DLC”

Fallout 3 Coverage Tidbits

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Noticed that yesterday CVG put up part two of their interview with me over on their site. Here’s an excerpt:

How many hours will Fallout 3 take to finish in the first play through?

Pete Hines: That’s a play-style thing. It’s probably about 20 good hours for the main quest and all of the side quest stuff is probably at least another 20 hours. Then there’s all the miscellaneous freeform stuff, the exploring.

Head over to CVG for the rest of part two. If you missed it before, you can find part one of the interview here.

In addition, if you’re located here in the U.S. you’ll see the next issue of Games for Windows magazine (image above) features Fallout 3 on the cover as part of their cover story on the Top 10 PC Games of 2008.

A preview and a podcast

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This week there’s some more coverage out there on Fallout 3 you can read/listen to at your leisure. The 1Up Yours podcast, which goes up on every Friday, includes a segment early on where Shane Bettenhausen and James Mielke share their impressions upon watching the “E3 Demo” last week. The podcast is a long one at over two and a half hours, so if you’re just looking for the Fallout discussion, join in on the podcast about twenty minutes in. Download it here, or subscribe via iTunes.

In other coverage, Gwynne Dixon of TVG shares impressions after watching Pete preview the game previously. Here’s an excerpt:

“We’ve also been promised a wide variety of possible endings to Fallout 3 and a quest system that focuses more on player choice, rather than sheer volume. ‘The quest system is actually very different. Rather than having lots and lots of quests where you can do any of them that you want without being locked out, Fallout has a much smaller number of quests and how you do one may lock you out of doing other stuff,’ Pete told us.”

Click here to check out the rest of the preview.

Continued Leipzig Coverage

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Thought I’d share a few links to some Leipzig coverage of Fallout 3 from the past week.

Spanish gaming site HardGame2.com seems to have enjoyed their screening of the demo at GC. The game walked away with their award for “Best RPG” on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game also captured their “Best Xbox” game award, as well as the “2nd Absolute Best Game in the Show” behind Mafia II. If you’re fluent in Spanish, you can also read Roberto Hidalgo Burgos’ preview that’s on their site. We’ve got a bit of it translated below:

“Even if at E3 it was barely shown, at GC we enjoyed an in-game demo of more than an hour, where Bethesda left us completely stunned in the same way they do about a year ago with Oblivion. Fallout 3 unites again in a title a wide and diverse gaming experience, with top-notch graphics, all wrapped with a rich and highly immersive background, promising dozens of gaming hours.”

In other international coverage, Scandinavian game site Game Reactor is hosting an interview up with Emil Pagliarulo in which Emil talks about his favorite elements of Fallout, some of the creatures that will appear in the game, and more.

Finally, back here in the states, GamePro writer Vicious Sid has put up his preview that covers some of the basics about the game:

“Just before the war, many sought refuge is massive underground bunkers called Vaults. Once sealed, the Vaults are sealed permanently — nobody enters, nobody leaves. This is the dark world of Fallout, a cult hit on the PC in the late 90′s and now an upcoming action-RPG from Bethesda Softworks, creator of The Elder Scrolls series.”

Update: Looks like there’s another Spanish preview up on Meristation. Time to head over to Babelfish.