My weekend in gaming – Fallout 3 impressions

Fallout 3 is fun, but before I get anymore on topic I’ll make a quick detour – I’ll make the prediction that GTA5 will be a long way off, if I were a Houser brother I’d be looking at Fallout 3 as the perfect illustration of how much fun can be had designing an open world. Imagine if Rockstar’s next sandbox isn’t some boring old city – these guys have great imagination, and I’d love to see a game where the world and rules are created by them. I’d imagine they feel the same way.

But enough about Rockstar and their future wares, I’m here to talk about Bethesda’s latest effort.

Fallout 3 is fun and brims with possibility – I don’t think I have ever been exposed to a game that is just so open. Open, of course, in the sense that you can trek it to any part of the landscape, where you go is completely your decision – but the ‘openness’ that I refer to and that impressed me so much was that of how the game interacts with the player. Put simply, it doesn’t.

During a battle where I paired with a bunch of Brotherhood of Steel dudes (and dudettes) against a super super mutant, I found myself scavenging from the bodies of the fallen instead of focusing on the battle at hand. Why was I doing this? Well it wasn’t because I needed health, ammo or whatever other resource – in that regard, collecting from those bodies certainly could have waited until after the battle.

The reason I went out of my way during combat was because of some hard-coded assumption I was making subconsciously about the game – I was collecting the wares before the boss died and triggered an event, possibly propelling me into a new area. Well I should have known better, F3 doesn’t roll like that – the game never takes over, you’re always in control and never locked down. It’s cool, and when paired with geographical ‘openness’, it works to great effect. At anytime you can go anywhere in Fallout 3 – if I wasn’t compelled to progress through the door that ending the boss opened, I didn’t have to.

Fallout 3 street date broken, finally!

So it might not be as big a score as getting your hands on LBP a few weeks early, but if you happen to have the afternoon off work and would like to start your post apocalyptic journey sooner (today) rather than later (tomorrow), it might be less hassle than expected. 

Although the official release date is hard coded at 31/10/08, lucky reader Mark has managed to get his hands on his copy today. Although they didn’t have stock on shelves, JB Kedron were happy enough to hand a copy over – I guess the massive embargo, as one JB staff member put it, hasn’t convinced everyone.

EB Games, staying true to their formula have declined to sell the game early or at a reasonable price, and are asking $119 as apose to JB’s $89.

Gametraders Chermside (and assumably other stores) have the game in stock and on shelves today, also priced at $89.

So there you have it, if anyone needs to get a copy a day early you do have options.

Fallout 3 can be completed in 75 minutes

Fallout 3 may still be over a month away from gracing store shelves, but that hasn’t stopped Bethesda from setting the first speedrun record for the game.

Apparently a bit of a tradition when a game nears completion, the internal speedrun contest was cleaned up by Bethesda QA tester Sam ‘I Am’ Bernstein, and his prize – a pie of his choosing. A prize well earned.

Playstation 3 Fallout 3 Survival Edition SOLD OUT

I’m sure the majority of Playstation 3 users will survive, they’ll just find themselves slightly less prepared for their upcoming stint in the post-apocalyptic environment of Fallout 3.

PS3fanboy have dropped the news that Amazon.com, the only distributor with the exclusive Survival Edition of the game, have completely sold out of the PS3 flavour of the package (at time of writing they are displaying the items status as Currently unavailable).

Containing all the ingredients of the Collector’s Edition, with the inclusion of a replica PIP-Boy 3000 (with the functionality of a clock!), the Survival Edition is the bookend of the available versions.

For the record, Amazon does not disclose the number of units ordered, but it’s clear Playstation 3 users are as ready as any to dive into the world of Fallout 3.

 

Amazon.com via PS3fanboy.com

Med-X: Safe for Australian consumption

First it was refused classification. Then it was modified and resubmitted, and finally accepted. Fallout 3 had a rocky ride toward legal sale in Australia, and that ride didn’t get any easier when the news dropped that the Australian edit of Fallout 3 would in fact be the only edition – The edits made to negotiate our tricky classification board would be forced on gamers globally.

But don’t fret, according to Pete Hines (VP of Public Relations & Marketing for Bethesda), it seems our worst fears of game experience alterations haven’t been realised, just yet…