Fallout 3 DLC Detailed 137
Eurogamer spoke with Bethesda's Jeff Gardiner about the upcoming downloadable content for Fallout 3. The new gameplay will be bundled into three different segments, the first of which is due this month. The last segment will raise the game's level cap to 30. Gardiner had this to say about how the Strike Teams would work: "The player will be able to choose, from a limited resource pool, what type of team members will accompany him or her on several missions within the simulations. These choices include different troop types like snipers or heavy weapons troops. They'll also be able to make tactical decisions on how to deploy these troops in certain situations. The Chinese Stealth Suit was what I was hinting at last week — it works similar to stealth boy every time you crouch!"
Paranoia (Score:5, Insightful)
I know it's possibly paranoia but the concept of downloadable content still makes me think they're actively removing things from the original game to release them later as downloadable content.
It's like releasing the Fantastic 3 and then include the invisible girl as downloadable content.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't possibly see how they can be accused of releasing a game with more than 100 hours of gameplay that was "holding back" anything. :D
I am still finishing quests and still having fun months later--about 60hours into the game.
I got my money's worth. I really really doubt they would risk bad reviews and poor sales in exchange for a few extra bucks later.
Re: (Score:1)
I would be more inclined to agree with you... except that every other Bethseda game had no level cap. Suddenly, we have a level 20 cap that you reach after 10 hours of gameplay (if you were foolish enough to take the XP perks, than even sooner.) Now the "expansion" raises the cap 10 levels a la MMO?
It's the biggest joke I've seen in a game. They didn't *remove* any code from the game, they actually *added* code TO the game, so that you couldn't level any higher.
Not to mention, people have firmly said *NO*
Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to mention, people have firmly said *NO* to Bethseda DLC before.
Horse Armor != Knights of the Nine.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I just completed the game last weekend. About 34 hours of gameplay according to the save file. I only made it up to level 18. I'm curious to know specifically what you did to get to level 20 so quickly. I realize you get way more XP for different choices, but 10 hours seems like a bit of a stretch.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't remember exactly when I hit it -- but it was about 1/5th of the way through sidequests [I stopped worrying about the Main quest after finding out where Dad when post-Megaton]. Pretty easy to do if you:
+ Explore the map / try to do all sidequests
+ Pick every lock you can (even allowing for my Good character not stealing very often from towns), hack every terminal. [Note: usually you can do both if there's a terminal for a safe... just hack the terminal and don't unlock the safe, then pick the safe].
T
Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm curious to know specifically what you did to get to level 20 so quickly.
I got to level 20 in about 15 hours of gameplay. All I did was exploring and killing things... Lots of killing. The game hands you XP for practically anything. Discover a location? Pick a lock? Disarm a mine?
The level cap was a bit silly in my opinion, but the truth is that once you're 20 there's practically nothing in the game that can stop you anymore. With the right choice of perks and skills the game becomes either a sneak-and-snipe splatterfest, or you can start going one on one with supermutants in unarmed combat.
This game had both the most awesome and disappointing ending ever though. Having a giant robot wreak havoc through a destroyed Washington DC while firing lasers and shouting "Accept democracy or be eradicated!" has to be one of the better moments of the past 2 years in gaming. Not being able to continue playing after finishing the main quest was kind of weak though.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I don't mean to be a stickler for the laws of causality here, but your own death kind of puts a crimp in your plans for future questing. Plus, depending on the ending you get, the wasteland can be totally different. I'd like there to have been one continuable ending, but I can certainly see why all the existing endings weren't.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're clever you can go one one one with super mutants right at the beginning of the game.
I would always have a random encounter at the baseball field. The first time all it happened all I had was a bat (even though all my stats were stacked into agility and shooting). I killed two super mutants with my baseball bat and I was only level 3.
Re: (Score:2)
I doubt they actually did what they claimed. I went through the game a second time and capped out faster, but it still took no sooner than 20 hours to get it. Even with the XP perks, you're only levelling up at max 50% faster than you were normally.
Mind you, I was actually playing the game and not just level grinding (Is it even possible to grind in this game?).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Just raise the character level using the command interface:
setgs iMaxCharacterLevel 50
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Fallout games have always had a 20-level cap. This is the 3rd fallout game in the series. You'd expect its game mechanics to follow the other two, even if it is in 3d and not 2d isometric.
I would expect it to follow the previous game mechanics. Unfortunately the other games do not all cap at twenty. I remember clearly going well past 20 in FO2 after discovering the in game strategy guide.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Fallout games have always had a 20-level cap. This is the 3rd fallout game in the series. You'd expect its game mechanics to follow the other two, even if it is in 3d and not 2d isometric.
Wrong! None of the older Fallout games had a level cap. In Fallout the last new perks came available at level 18 and in Fallout 2 & Tactics last perks were at level 24. Of course you would run out of meaningful quests at around this time, but there was nothing stopping you from gaining experience or levels in random encounters or by slaughtering the whole ingame populace.
The funny thing is (Score:5, Informative)
The funny thing is that some of that has been done already by the modders. There is a suit which makes you slightly harder to see when crouched. There is one which gives you 25% chameleon _all_ the time.
Heck, transplanting the Stealth Boy enchantment to a suit of your choosing is such a trivial affair, I had made my very own long before the GECK was released. The FOMM/TESnip already had all you need for that. Turns out someone else already had made the 25% one, so mine was never released, though.
Raising the level to 30? That is one global variable. That was one of the first mods released.
So I'm not really thinking they intentionally cut anything out, because most of it is _trivial_ stuff. Well, there'll be new maps and stuff so obviously it's more than just the items, but the "Ivisible Girl" in your example just made no sense to remove from release because it doesn't save anything at all.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Try some of the mods that change the armor/hp/damage ratings to be closer to how they were in F1 and F2...I have a level 20 character that gets ripped apart in less then 2 seconds from a single turret.
If you're looking for more of a challenge find those mods. If you're on PS3 or XBOX, stop complaining and accept that you have already given into corporate conformity =)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I think you have to take each game on its own merit. I think DLC is frequently content that hit the cutting room floor to make it to launch, yes, but I don't think we're exactly being short-changed on Fallout 3. There's always going to be content like that (Deus Ex 1 lacked a bunch of content, including a moon base level, apparently).
For a game like say Spore, I think there's a lot more evidence that it was chopped up to sell more expansions. As people have pointed out, there were stages with more content s
Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Funny)
"But how do I *know* the Invisible Girl's been installed?"
"Take our word for it. $10, please."
Re: (Score:1)
Also, the level cap would be pointless to lift in the main campaign. It's already easy, going above level 20 is just over kill.
Re: (Score:2)
It wouldn't be so much overkill if they dropped the perks to every other level, or every 3 or 4 levels, as in the original. The perks are WAY too plentiful in F3.
Re: (Score:2)
My request... (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks!
Re: (Score:2)
Ha, you actually bothered to free that retard?
Sucker.
Re: (Score:2)
*SPOILERS*
/ * SPOILER WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP */ Did you not make friends with Fawkes? He was more than willing to venture into a lethally irradiated area for me.
You haven't played until the end, eh? (Score:4, Interesting)
So you haven't bothered playing the ending, then?
*SPOILERS INCOMING*
Because, yes, that's what makes him stand out like a sore thumb. He already showed you that he's immune to radiation, and ventured for you in that room in the bunker. But at the Project Purity end scene there is _no_ option to send _him_ into the irradiated room to press the four buttons to activate the installation. You get to choose whether you die or the paladin dies, but there is no freaking option to go, "Hey, Fawkes, you're immune to radiation, right? Can you go in there and press these four numbers for me, please?"
Now I understand the climactic choice and all, but the very presence of Fawkes there spoils it in a major way. Suddenly that choice and sacrifice makes no bloody sense. It's like deciding whether me or you rush some evil guys and take a bullet, while having Superman standing around obliviously watching the whole debate. It makes no sense.
Re:You haven't played until the end, eh? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I am SURE I have some random piece of junk in my back pocket that I can give him to use as a friken stylus!
I'm sorry, I don't want to rob you of your destiny...
I realyl should have killed him before going in my self...
Re: (Score:2)
The second time I played through (before I knew that the good/bad karma endings were essentially the same, unlike Fallout 1 & 2), I did.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
Actually, you do have the option of asking him. He'll decline though, stating that this is not his task to do, not wanting to take the credit for it, or something. I'm guessing that this is a partly a cop-out for the developers but also an attempt to make the moment seem more epic (which really didn't happen).
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The sad thing is that this is a huge step backwards for the saga. In Fallout 2, they're at least smart enough not to give you the radiation-warped mutant until after he would have come in handy.
Re: (Score:2)
In Fallout 2, they're at least smart enough not to give you the radiation-warped mutant until after he would have come in handy.
Problem is that there is no after this scene. To quote from Aliens : "Game over man... Game over".
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously. What's even worse is with the amount of rad-x, rad-away, natural rad resistance + environment suit, the amount of radiation I got in there was small. I actually went ahead and got the GECK since Fawkes was so slow. Used 3 rad-aways I think.
Anyways, yes. Fawkes makes the ending really nutty. Thankfully, I think the Mod community will fix this, and, in the end, deliver us even more wonderful product. Probably even better than the DLC we'd pay for. It is interesting to see how they are taking someth
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
What a shocking notion... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
You're missing the important fact that Fawkes is/was a 'she'. (True! Check the computer terminals in Vault 87.) Which means that she was just being a woman and letting the man (you) do the dirty work.
(To any women here: I kid, I kid. ;) )
Still makes no sense, sorry (Score:2)
Even if Fawkes is a she,
1. Then what's her excuse when the player character is a woman too, not to mention that the paladin is a woman too? That she's just a bitch and wants to see one of the other two women die horribly? That fits soo good with the whole Fawkes the righteous good supermutant act. Not.
2. _If_ they wanted to do it gender-based, then how about letting me use the Lady Killer perk there? I mean, wtf, there's this perk which mysteriously makes women do my bidding in game, despite of the fact tha
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Dude, we're on Slashdot. Beggars can't be choosers, and all that ;)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ahhh. Ok. Yeah. I got right up to the point where I'm supposed to run in and activate project purity and am doing all the side quests I ignored previously.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, it's not just Fawkes, but you could also have Charon, who's also completely immune to radiation (and who'll also refuse to go in).
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Fuck that, I was so doped up on rad-x and my tesla armor was blocking it...I stood around for about five minutes inside the chamber, popping rad-away once in a while. Finally I decide to punch in the numbers, and THEN I die.
I tried it again and did it fast, and amazingly, as soon as I hit that last button, boom, I die.
Seriously, I could have gone in, hit the numbers, had a nice little picnic lunch, and then wandered out at my leisure, but no, as always, the scripted death. Lame.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think Fawkes was immune. I think he was just very hardened against it.
Charon, however, is definitely immune as ghouls are healed by radiation.
But your point is well taken... They just wanted the character to die for no reason. I'm sure I could have run in, hit the buttons and run out before the radiation got to me... especially with all the gear and medicine I was carrying for radiation.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How do we know what the radiation levels are in each of those environments?
I think the GECK one is significantly lower. In fact, if you kill Fawkes, I'm pretty sure you can go in and retrieve it yourself using the suits and medicine in the room right outside that.
Re: (Score:2)
Ha! I came to ask this same question.
What will they do to fix the ending?
Why wait till last to raise the level cap? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I still say [mrzaius.com] they shouldn't raise the level cap. The game is pretty off-balance at the current one, and I hit it with a third of the map unexplored and four-six more hours left in the primary quest. I wish they'd just drop the level of experience gained, across the board.
The quest rewards were excessive (Score:2)
The enemy rewards, especially on the high end, were okay, if even a little small. But the quest rewards were huge - often bigger than what you would get for all the enemies you'd face completing that quest.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This is as it should be; Fallout isn't a combat RPG, so there shouldn't be huge XP gains for killing things. Your stealthy guy or social guy or techie guy or whatever should have a reasonable chance of making it through too.
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, I'm looking at you. Getting through to the last part of the game is NO problem with a stealth or a social guy. The last part, however, is a giant combat gauntlet.
Worked in Fallout 1 (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
'Grim Reaper's Sprint' is so awesomely broken. You want to have only one mission in which to play with it?
Personally, I kind of like having a fair amount of game still there in which to run around the wasteland with godlike abilities. It beats getting something awesome only after it would have been useful. I mean, I hit level 20 at about the time I got the GECK, and I haven't even f
Petition for DLC for PS3 (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah I'm sure a petition will make them reconsider the $xx million dollar contract that they signed Microsoft.
This is a case where Bethesda is effectively working for microsoft on contract. I doubt the contract allows them to sell the work to other clients.
Re: (Score:2)
DLC isn't just about content (Score:3, Insightful)
If I buy the DLC on my Xbox it is linked to my console. Not only does that make it impossible for me to sell, it also can be a real pain in the ass getting DLC stuff back if your console breaks or gets stolen. I know why the DLC model exists, I just wish us backwards types could get it on physical media.
Re: (Score:2)
If I could post a picture of a dog cocking it's head in confuzzlement, I would.
Console broken? Mail it in, it gets repaired, your DLC is transferred. Done.
Don't want to mail it in? Buy a new one. Log in with your Xbox Live account. HoLY CRAP all your DLC works.
Don't want to need to log in? Use the handy dandy
Re: (Score:2)
Stop using Xbox Live, but still want your DLC on a replacement console? You're fucked! Unless it's an original Xbox, and you have the hacked DLC installers, that is. Most of the DLC doesn't work off of Live anyway, at least on the classic Xbox. Wouldn't know about the 360, but for example the Crimson skies, Mechassault, and MA2 content is multiplayer-only.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Your downloads aren't linked to your console they're linked to your account. As in your account keeps a record of your purchases, so you can redownload all your purchases if you have to get another xbox. Or if you wanted to sell your xbox, all you'd need to do is wipe the hard drive and you're good to go.
How about a fix for... (Score:1, Informative)
the bug that causes my xbox 360 to freeze completely, requiring me to turn it off and back on and then it still locks up when I try to restart. grr
Having repeatedly seen that... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have played around 30hours and never had any kind of freeze on my xbox360
DLP TV? SegaScope 3d? (Score:2, Offtopic)
This is new? Many DLP TVs [dlp.com] support this [zdnet.com] even though not many probably care (I have one and I don't).
It took over 20 years to come out with what looks like the same technology as the Sega Master System's [wikipedia.org] 3D Glasses [gametrailers.com]?
I also think I saw Captain EO [wikipedia.org] with the same glasses back when Michael Jackson was loved by most.
Re: (Score:2)
Holy wrong thread, batman!
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Do you ever wonder why your opinion is different to everyone else's? I mean, sure, some people think Fallout 3 sucked, but shit, even Yahtzee [escapistmagazine.com] thinks it is awesome, and he's paid not to like anything. That's a piss funny video BTW. Feel free to go watch it and come back saying it wasn't funny.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Name the bugs then. I've played hundreds of hours of this game and experienced no crashes. That's more than I can say for any other game I've played lately (except maybe Eve Online, that's probably the most rock solid "game" I've ever played). There's absolutely nothing wrong with using the same engine.. I think more companies should do it. The Oblivion engine is so good that I hope they make a dozen more games using it.
Did you watch the video? It really is funny, honest.
Re: (Score:1)
Name the bugs then. I've played hundreds of hours of this game and experienced no crashes.
While I haven't had any really showstopping bugs, the game has crashed on me 4-5 times in my 70 hours of playtime.
Nothing critical though, just close it down and restart, and you're good to go.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
One I've experienced: NPCs wandering off into the ether or just dying due to a pathfinding glitch. The character Walter (Megaton Water Purification guy) for instance is known to either wander off through a clipping error, or to kill himself by falling off the *top* of Lucas Simms's house. I've personally experienced him disappearing (if I teleported to him with the console, he'd obviously wandered through a clipping error and couldn't get back), and I brought him back through a cheat using the in game con
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget the regulator leader(Sonora Cruz) who will spaz out if there are enemies outside the Regulator HQ and run off never to be found. Oh and the enemies spawning appears to be random, the fix for this is just use the console and resurrect and bring to player(Xbox and PS3 are probably out of luck). The other glitch is if you kill unnammed Brotherhood outcasts you get a finger(indicating bad people), but kill the named outcasts and you lose karma, wtf?
Re: (Score:1)
I've actually found this bug quite charming.
I just thought "Man, radiation really fried peoples brains here. Maybe living in a bomb crater isn't such a good idea after all".
Other than that, it crashed only one time (xbox version) in about 120 hours playtime total.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ah. Thanks, I wondered where Walter went. I've been playing on the PS3 since it came out, and have been enjoying being relatively "spoiler free" by not visiting any sites.
Outside of Walter disappearing, I haven't seen any other glitches (that I'm aware of :) ).
Guess I'm glad that I already finished his quest, but its too bad, I was saving up scrap metal hoping for his return. :/
Re: (Score:2)
I quit after getting baffled by the teammate system. I befriended Dogmeat and he was a real asskicker, but then I fast travelled somewhere and never saw him again. 2 hours later, out of the blue, I got a message that said "Dogme
Re: (Score:1)
Aside from instability related to running it in Vista, however, I had no other problems. And who the hell cares if it was built on the Obli
Re: (Score:2)
NPCs are constantly walking off and killing themselves. There's at least one mission I cant finish because of a bug and another I had to do some weird work-around I found online to finish. There are occasional random crashes too.
Its not too bad, but releasing a patch to fix the six or seven bugged missions would have been nice, instead we're probably getting "horse armor" and "more fancy dresses" for your character.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, the engine is a mishmash of purchased products, most of which have fairly good reputations (Bink, SpeedTree, Gamebryo, etc, though admittedly, some features like SpeedTree are now included as part of Gamebryo). To me it always felt assembled from those pieces because they have a certain design that they never seem to let go of. There is no reason for load times from a graphics standpoint (Gamebryo supports asynchronous scene loading), for instance, but they still load scenes one at a time and ru
Re: (Score:2)
This was one of my huge pet peeves with Fallout 3.
I would be ungodly good. I would have saved their town numerous times. I would be known worldwide as the salvation of mankind. But if my eyes so much as glanced near their door they would start being pissy at me. "You better not be thinking about stealing that!"
"Or What! What are you going to do puny human being? Punch me in my Power Armor? You should be practically worshipping me and offering me your daughters to do with as I please--of course you know
Re: (Score:2)
I'll name the bugs since I'm one of the main people providing fixes.
Sound-loop buzzing - can only be fixed by turning your audio acceleration down to Basic or None - SAME WITH OBLIVION.
Audio/Framerate sync stuttering - No fix, Present in Oblivion and FO3. Seems dependent upon combinations of Older sound cards and newer graphics hardware for it to be triggered.
Framerate dropping - Timing issue in the OBLIVION ENGINE which was NEVER PATCHED.
You want more? Give me two more weeks of hacking through the code wit
Re: (Score:2)
I speak as someone who played the PC version and, despite being a diehard original Fallout/Fallout 2 fan, managed to enjoy Fallout 3 on the basis of "well, I would have liked it if they didn't put Fallout's name on it, so it's clearly not a bad game." I still wish they hadn't used Fallout's name, though.
That said, I found the game to be incredibly buggy in many respects. The most annoying was the absurd number of times I crashed to desktop. I'm talking northward of a hundred in maybe 50-60 hours of gamep
Re: (Score:2)
My 360 version crashes every couple of hours due to bad DVD reads. It'll try to load a conversation file and hang.
Re: (Score:2)
I think that your DVD drive is on it's way out. I have the same issues, even on games that are scratch free. I suggest transferring the game to the 360 hard drive (you *do* have a 360 hard drive, don't you?). I was having the same exact issues as you until I did that. Never any read errors and the game loads up much faster too.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
reading through forum posts from people complaining about the insane number of bugs in the game.
Ya know, on the Internet, we have this think call a "hyperlink" that you can use to show someone what you're talking about.
Really, I have no problems with this game. I can't help it. Am I just lucky? Do I just happen to play the game the same way the play testers did?
are turning the console world to crap.
That might be relevant.. I'm playing on a PC.
Re: (Score:2)
I love Fallout 3 and have never encountered a gameplay-breaking bug (with the exception of vampires in a sci-fi game...not sure how that slipped through testing). 3 crashes (quit to desktop) in more than a hundred hours of gameplay so far is more than acceptable to me.
But some people have definitely found bugs. Perhaps an unofficial patch ala Oblivion or Vampire Bloodlines will fix these.
Here's your "hyperlink". [wikia.com]
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair they weren't real vampires, just glorified cannibals.
I've had a few crashes and one time in the Enclave base I got stuck under the floor railing and wasn't able to get to the stairs. Only happened once though and wasn't repeatable.
I think most of these 'its buggy' people just nitpick over everything for the sake of nitpicking over everything. I've seen graphic glitches, animation glitches, pathing issues and lots of havoc quirks but nothing that would send me on a quest to belittle the game claim
Re: (Score:2)
Some days it runs just fine for me. Other days it crashes to the desktop every 10 minutes. *shrug* It usually seems to the nvidia driver crashing which takes down all of Fallout. Happened in Oblivion also.
Could be because I'm running it on Vista 64, who knows?
Re: (Score:2)
And what bugs. What problems. What glitches. Show me, show us. Because I haven't hat a single problem yet ...
Re: (Score:1)
The PS3 version is a buggy mess. Maybe the PC or 360 are better.
Re: (Score:2)
There's a list of known bugs here:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_Bugs [wikia.com]
Slowdowns can sometimes be fixed by cleaning the cache or even defragging your disk. More memory helps, as well, as does lower graphics settings. Personally, I've only seen a couple of crashes, both during long sessions and because the game ran out of addressable memory (pretty much screaming "I leak like a sieve!"). If you have lots of RAM, you'll probably never see a leak related crash, however (I have 2GB).