The More You Know: Facts From The Fallout 3 Demo

[gamer]

Between the demonstration of Fallout 3 I attended at Bethesda's offices and the question and answer session with Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo and Executive Producer Todd Howard that followed, a wealth of new information has surfaced about this latest entry into the much beloved Fallout series. These factoids have been pulled together from both the Q&A session as well as notes taken during the demo itself.
On Leveling - Characters will be able to reach up to level 20, with points towards stats being awarded every level, and perks awarded every two levels.
On Corpse Eating - The loading screen shows random statistics, one of which was Corpses Eaten. They would not tell us what that referred to. Sounds delightful though, doesn't it?
On the PC version - Windows Vista will not be required to play the game. The reason given being more display options available in DX9 over 10. I suspect the actual reason is much more colorful.
On Setting - The game takes place 30 years after Fallout two on the other side of the country. Washington DC will be represented on a small scale, though not accurately modeled...though on my way out of the event I heard Emil mention that a certain game studio's offices might wind up modeled int the game.
On Weapons - Create your own weapons by gathering resources from fallen foes. Weapons will deteriorate over time and with use, so maintaining your arms is a constant consideration.
On Nipples - Completely remodeled humans with detailed nipples. I don't know why they decided to focus on nipples, but I'm not going to argue. I get to type nipples, which makes me happy.
On Beginning the Game - Characters start off as babies, where their DNA is mapped to determine their looks. Then various flashbacks introduce new game concepts, until at the age of 19 your character is fully formed. As with Oblivion, exiting this area will pop up an option to keep your stats and such as they are or modify them.
On Titles & Karma - The karma system will be in place, and depending on their deeps a player can earn any number of displayable titles. Players can choose to either walk a neutral path or sway to the side of good and evil, with NPC reactions changing accordingly.
On Music - The company has licensed 20 songs from the 1940's that will played via an in-game radio station, complete with its own DJ. The radio will also be used to discover new areas, picking up signals as you approach bases and settlements.
On Difficulty Ramping - In certain areas the level of the creatures and challenges within with be fixed as soon as the character enters, giving players the chance to go back after they've leveled up and basically feel like Billy badass, as opposed to the game leveling with the character to provide constant challenge.
On Children - Children will be in the game, though no word on whether you can kill them or not. This was an actual Q&A question. An excellent follow up question would have been, "If you can kill children, can you eat their corpses too?"
On Story - The main storyline of the game will run around 20 hours, with side quests fleshing the total out to around 40. The game currently has 9-12 endings in place, and the devs seemed to suggest there could be even more down the line. The story is highly mutable, meaning you can make choices that destroy entire quest lines and or open new ones.
On NPCs - While you will not be able to form a party, you will be able to hire NPC mercenaries who will fight along side you much like the NPCs in Oblivion. The game features far fewer NPCs than Oblivion did, but with more AI options. The living, breathing world aspect is being looked at with great attention to detail. There are 30-40 different voices in the game, lessening the possibilities of hearing the same voices over and over as in Oblivion.
On Death - There are many different ways to die in the game, all based on hit locations and various other factors that provide for some truly surprising death scenes. They described it as Crash Mode in Burnout with body parts, which sounds utterly beautiful.
On Vehicles - No vehicles in the game.
On Online Play - Ditto. No online play.
On Weather - Weather will indeed be a factor in the game...expect dust storms and the like, as will a day & night cycle.
On Collectibles - There will be 21 collectible bobble head dolls in the game. Why? Because people love those bobbleheads, dammit.
There you have it folks. I've run out of notes. Enjoy the information and try not to think too hard about corpse eating in regards to detailed human nipples. It's no party inside my head right now.

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