Fallout 3 - Gen. Discussion & Info - 'GOTY' Edition w/All 5 DLC Packs 10.13.09

If the wastes of D.C. and Alaska just weren't enough places for Fallout 3 fans to visit, then the next DLC pack, The Pitt, for the Xbox 360 and PC should satiate the explorer within. According to UK OXM, 'The Pitt' brings the dystopian story of Fallout to 'The 'Burgh,' specifically taking place in Steel City's industrial district. There-in lies an abandoned steel yard, a vaguely-described "dungeon" area, and a settlement divided into "Downtown's" slave dens and "Haven's" upper class community.

Other details regarding this March-scheduled DLC include new interactive elements with the wasteland scavengers known as Raiders; it appears you can possibly talk with them as opposed to being shot at upon sight. It also seems that Raiders will play a central role in The Pitt as OXM reveals that one major quest involves investigating a Raider boss who supposedly found a cure for mutation. Lastly, new weapons and items are expected to pop up, including the all new Auto Axe. It's apparently a chainsaw-type weapon.

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Survivors of the Capital Wasteland will need to wait for Fallout 3's next two DLC packs a little longer. GameSpy reports that the follow-ups to Operation Anchorage, The Pitt and Broken Steel, will be delayed until March and April, respectively.

A Bethesda spokesperson confirmed to us the information is accurate. Guess this will give us more than enough time to finish the seemingly never-ending Nuka Cola Challenge.

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Bethesda just sent us word that the first Fallout 3 DLC, Operation Anchorage, will officially debut on Xbox Live on January 27th for the aforementioned price of 800

($10, 50 caps or 100 pieces of scrap metal), which will hopefully give us just enough time to plow through the new content for Mirror's Edge and Fable 2.

Additionally, the developer has also pushed out a patch today for all platforms, which, among other fixes, finally keeps those pesky, murdered NPCs dead. Sure beats them coming back from the grave all bitter and willing to give you directions to the nearest hotel. It's the same patch PS3 owners got in mid-December, so check out the full patch notes here.

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Feeling like a feral ghoul? Buck up, because Bethesda has dropped a mini-nuke's worth of screens from its first Fallout 3 downloadable episode, Operation Anchorage. As we reported yesterday, the DLC is a virtual reenactment of the US offensive against Chinese forces in Alaska from Fallout lore.

What can we tell from these shots? Well, for one, Metal Gear Solid 3's Shagohod is in there. (Okay, just a sort-of-look-alike.) Oh, and there's a new weapon, the Gauss Rifle. Neat! Also: a guy looking at a map and – could it be? – an oil pipeline. Dear heavens. Sadly, there's still no official word on when we'll be able to get all cold and frisky in pre-Brotherhood of Steel power armor.

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There are plenty of reasons to pre-order Fallout 3. Maybe there's a cute checkout boy/girl at your local game retailer that you'll take any opportunity to see or, maybe, it's because Fallout 3 is almost certainly going to be completely and utterly rad. Either way, those that lay a five-spot on the game at their local GameStop are going to be walking away with a five-song Fallout 3 soundtrack disc, according to Bethesda's official blog.

As you can see here, there are a few licensed tracks as well as some originals by recently-announced scorer Inon Zur. As you can also see above it's gorgeous and we want it so bad and please Fallout 3 just come out today oh please please we need this please. Please.

Please.

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Dammit, I knew I should have hit up eBay earlier. GameStop has the details on the collector's edition of Fallout 3 due out this fall, and some of the contents look rather familiar. For $20 more than the normal edition ($79.99 console, $69.99 PC), you'll be receiving the much-coveted Vault Boy bobble head in all its encephalitic glory, a hardcover Art of Fallout 3 book, a Making of Fallout 3 DVD, and the game itself. All of this comes neatly packaged in a completely customized Fallout 3 lunch box, which I now have in both broken and non-broken varieties, thanks to the lovely folks at Bethesda. This is one collector's edition that seems well worth an extra $20, unless of course you already own half of it.

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WARNING: The following article contains some spoilers. When I saw Fallout 3 at last year's E3 I thought it looked cool but not being one of the cult of Fallout, I viewed it with the same sort of interest that I do most games I know nothing about: Curious, but not what I would call overly excited. All this changed however, this past Tuesday when I headed downtown to check out the new build of the game that Bethesda was showing off.
From a training system tied to a child's development to the fifties-meets-Steampunk look of weapons, Fallout 3 may not have a solid date yet, but after seeing this build, I can honestly say I am well and truly smitten.

After skipping through the opening cinema which we had seen previously, we got straight to the beginning of the game which I have to say was one of the cleverest set of training levels I have ever seen. You start the game as an infant just being born. Once you have been birthed, you meet your father who had the pleasure of delivering you. A series of dialog choices allow you to choose the sex of your character and his/her name. Then a "Growth Projection" machine is brought over to show what your character will look like when they "grow up." Here you can customize the look of your character by using the many features or simply choose a pre-made character. In an interesting mechanic, the choices you make in creating to your character will be used to create the features of your father, who's face (at this point) is covered with a surgical mask. While in this infant mode, pressing the A button will elicit crying from your character.
Soon you have grown up and you're are now a year old. Your mother is nowhere to be found, but your scientist father is at the ready to care for you. (Pressing the A button will give you baby's first word, Dada) After a series of simple tasks like playing with your toys and opening your playpen, you can explore the room a bit. Now it's time to start picking your character's base attributes. This mechanic is accomplished by the ingenious use of a baby book you find lying on the floor. Each page has a different attribute along with an explanatory rhyme. Here you can add or take away attribute points to suit the way you want your character to advance.
Look at that. Our little boy is growing up so fast! It is now your tenth birthday and it is celebrated by your father and friends with a party in one of the rooms of Vault 101 where you currently reside. The momentous occasion is marked by the receipt of your Pip-Boy 3000, a wrist accessory that will remain with you for the rest of the game. The Pip-Boy 3000 has many of uses for interacting with your character as well as emitting light for use in those darker areas of which there are many. Apparently there is another training level where you turn sixteen and are presented with a BB Gun which will help you train up in your shooting. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see that one but instead, fast forwarded to check out some of the real meat of the game.
The next level we were privy to was a Junkyard scene where you meet the dog who will soon become your companion. Once acquired, your best bud can help you find food, chems and weapons. He can also come in handy in a pinch by helping you attack enemies. But, be careful to keep him healthy because he can die if not properly taken care of. If things get too dangerous, you can always have him wait nearby or send him back to Vault 101 where his safety will be assured.
Now we get to the really fun part, the combat and enemies. As any of you who are familiar with Fallout will know, your enemies are mostly radiated mutants or "ghouls" as they are called in the game. There are various strata of ghouls ranging from simple ones who still have some of their functions and can actually be spoken to, to glowing ghouls who are so infected that they practically leak radiation. The ghouls can use this radiation power to harm you while simultaneously healing themselves and other ghouls around them. But ghouls aren't your only worry, the Brotherhood of Steel is roaming around causing trouble as well and you will often come upon two factions locked in battles of their own.
Taking down these enemies is a snap (well, maybe a few snaps) when you make use of the myriad weapons at your disposal. Weapons can be purchased, stolen or taken off of conquered enemies and it would behoove you to get as many as you can. I really loved the design of the weapons themselves, they really exuded a sort of "SteamPunk" style melded with an almost fifties style. Everything looked as if it was cobbled together from what could be found around the devastated environment. (The Fat Man Rocket launcher was a particular favorite of mine) And of course, as you all know by now from seeing the screenshots, the environment is a fictionalized Washington DC that has been ravaged by nuclear war.
The combat moves beyond the simple point and shoot with the use of Action Points. Your character has a set number of these points that can be used for various actions that target certain parts of an enemy's body. Once an enemy is targeted and the proper buttons pressed, the various body parts of said enemy will light up showing you the percentage chance you have of hitting that body part. Then you are free to deploy those Action Points and watch your enemy's limbs and head fly off in all directions. This mechanic is made even more interesting by pulling you out of your regular first person mode into a third person camera mode that will allow you to see more of the delicious mutant killing action. Once the Action Points have been spent, they will regenerate over time, but using your weapons and running around like a madman will slow that regeneration down.
Of course, Fallout 3 isn't all killing and nuclear mutations. You also have the added pleasure of being able to upgrade you character using experience based skill points to bump up your various skills. There are also Perks that can be used to add to your base abilities and allow you to beef up parts of your character that might have been neglected when you first created it. You max out at level twenty though, so be sure to spend those points wisely.
Everything I saw about this game was impressive, but what really got my attention was its overall art style. The optimistic fifties design juxtaposed against the destroyed landscape is a great choice and is seen everywhere from the HUD to the atomic design of Vault 101. Seeing it sprinkled around the world gave me the same feeling I got the first time I saw the art-deco wonders of BioShock. It's nostalgic yet at the same time seems so fresh and new because we rarely see that style of design in modern games, especially FPSs. It also gave the design team a chance to inject the game with a subtle humor that is evident throughout, even seeping its way into the dialog choices and sound.
The team is still on target for a release in the fall of this year but we still weren't able to wrangle a solid date out of them. One thing we did hear however, was a promise of a hands on at E3 so you can bet I will be signing up for that one.

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