"Fallout 3 is not the game that hard-core, longtime Fallout fans are hoping for." (4) "The game is not the infallible masterpiece many ... expected." (6) "The real trouble is there's this air of ... incompetency to the game at large." (7) "You really notice it when you bump up against the technical and storytelling limitations of the game and its narrative structure." (3) "The game's filled with cock-ups so glaring that you almost wonder if it ever got play-tested before release." (7)

"There's no denying Fallout 3 is, as many already observed, 'Oblivion with guns.'" (5) Superficially, the world that Bethesda has created for Fallout 3 seems like Oblivion with a Fallout paint job. (4) "As was the case with Oblivion, they stumble badly when it comes to details and production values." (7) "Combat in Fallout 3 is also an obvious evolution of Oblivion's, right down to having the exact same delay timing when swinging a melee weapon." (4) "Dialogue is another element very similar to what we've seen in Oblivion." (5) "Fallout 3 does suffer the same failings as Oblivion, and one can't help but think these could have been improved upon." (8)

"Fallout 3's story ... just isn't as good as those of past Fallout games." (4) "The biggest single problem is the scriptwriting, which varies in quality throughout the whole venture. ... Every once in a while you'll hit upon something that's wincingly overblown, or else simply not appropriate for a Mad Max-style wilderness." (9)
"It even occasionally feels a bit stiff and sterile, thus diminishing the sense of emotional connection that would give some late-game decisions more poignancy." (1) "The silly comments made during fights and the consistently inane conversations detract from the overall sense of accomplishment." (6) Indeed, "the double whammy of shonky dialogue and wobbly acting rips the affecting edge off [the] atmosphere." (7)

While the ballyhoo around Blizzard's announcement of Diablo 3 kept us all sleep deprived and glued to our screens this last weekend, some were left not as impressed as others. And by some, we mean Fallout 3 production director Ashley Cheng, who feels the series' third trip to the well is too 'conservative.'

"I must say," wrote Cheng on his blog, "I am disappointed that Blizzard has stayed on the conservative side in terms of design with their updates to Diablo and Starcraft." However, he tempered his displeasure with a measure of excitement, writing that he "loved" the game's destructible environments and that the vaunted action RPG looks "pretty amazing." Even so, take heed, dear Blizzard. Try not to be so restrained when you finally get around to revisiting Starcraft: Ghost; we think casting Nova in a post-apocalyptic wasteland is a guaranteed way to win our hearts.

US-based monitoring group SITE said there has been a video released on Islamic militant forums encouraging terrorists to detonate WMDs in America. According to Australian-based News.com.au, "SITE also released a computer-generated image, showing Washington DC in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, which reportedly appeared on an Islamist forum." If that released image, featured in the article and reprinted above (sans kangaroo, we added that), looks familiar, that's because it's concept art from Fallout 3, released back in May 2007 (a high-resolution image is available here).

To be clear, we're not faulting SITE or anyone else involved in this story -- after all, it's an unmarked piece of concept art that does illustrate the terrorist's goal, and SITE doesn't make any claims as to the origins of the image. It's more of an oddity than a joke, but it's interesting to see how a simple thing such as concept art can be interpreted in different ways.

[Via A Post Nuclear Blog; thanks, Andy]

Mandatory game installs have become an expected burden for PlayStation 3 owners, a tax paid in time for the pleasure of playing games on Sony's latest console. And while the time spent watching the bar creep across the screen has ranged from modest to absurd, we're still not accustomed with having to wait at all. It's a sentiment echoed by the developers at Bethesda, as the company recently let slip that the PS3 version of its radioactive RPG Fallout 3 will not include any upfront installation at all.

"The answer to that is no, there isn't," Bethesda marketing guru Pete Hines recently told Joystiq concerning Fallout 3 on the PS3. "That doesn't mean we don't use the hard drive, just that it does it in the background as opposed to a large, upfront install." As far as how much hard drive space the game will require, the exec wouldn't say exactly. Hines did mention that the RPG will require "a similar amount" of HD space as Oblivion, making us expect to fill up the PS3's juicy interior with about 4-5 gigs of atom-splitting data when the game ships this fall.

No matter what platform we choose to take on Fallout 3's radioactive wasteland, we will be doing so to the musical styling of seasoned game music composer Inon Zur.

If Zur's name isn't familiar to you, it's likely you've hummed along to some of his more notable tracks heard in games like Crysis as well as each of the three expansions to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. And speaking of three, a trio of the songs Zur created for Bethesda's hotly anticipated RPG are available to listen to on the official Fallout 3 website, from in-game tracks "Megaton" and "Into the Wasteland," to a bass-heavy title track that has us climbing the walls in our underground shelter in the march up to the game's release this fall.

Music is an integral part of any game. It's important that the right composer is put in charge of bringing the aural atmosphere to life. For Fallout 3, the right man to pen the musical score would apparently be Inon Zur, composer of game soundtracks from Crysis and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

Fallout 3 executive producer Todd Howard had this to say about Zur's original music for the game: "He's created a score that has epic sweep; from the lonely ambience of the wasteland to dramatic fights for survival." True enough, Zur is well-known for that sort of sound. Don't believe it? Then hit up Fallout 3's official website to listen to three songs from the soundtrack. Also, you can hear some of Zur's older work at his official website.

[Via press release]

Last night Bethesda Softworks dropped three fresh screens for the upcoming, and highly anticipated, first-person roleplaying title Fallout 3. From the looks of the latest screens it certainly seems that Bethesda has nailed the world that wraps the storyline, much like the world did in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

The first screen crashes a birthday party being held within a diner, complete with decorations and cone birthday lids! The second is more in line with what we've seen in the past, a monster engulfed in flames being taken to task with a mini-gun. The last screen shows the main character, who is fully customizable in looks and in specs, trying to coax a dog to him with food (we know this because of the image's original filename). We're getting excited for this one folks!

Did you know that it was scientifically possible to desire Fallout 3 more than you already do? We didn't until this morning when we saw the (unconfirmed by Bethesda) listing for the collector's edition of it at Gamestop. For $70, you'll get a Vault Boy Bobblehead doll, a hardcover book of art and a behind-the-scenes DVD. Oh, and the whole thing comes in a metal Vault-Tec lunch box. Yes. Please.

There's also a date for the game of October 7, but that could just be an estimate. As far as we're concerned (thanks in part to today's announcement) the official date for Fallout 3 is "Not even close to soon enough."

Information extracted from a GameStop mailer brings details about Fallout 3's Collector's Edition and what fans will receive for their extra $20. Yup, $20 extra for this Collector's Edition, but we have to say that it does include some pretty nifty items. Fallout 3 Collector's Edition items including a Vault Boy bobblehead (w00t!), a 100 page hardcover art book and a making-of DVD all carefully placed in a Vault-tec lunch box that is said to withstand radiation. Though, we're not sure how we can test that. We have a feeling only the diehard Fallout fanboys will be willing to pay an extra $20 for this beefier edition, but that said, we know we'd love to own a Vault Boy bobblehead. He'd be our "yes man".

[Via IGN]

It looks like yet another triple-A title will be getting the special edition treatment. This time, it's Fallout 3's turn to join the high-end club with its Collector's Edition set. Revealed through an advertisement on GameStop's website, Fallout 3's Collector's Edition will include the following:

• Vault Boy bobblehead
• 100-page hardcover art book
• Making-of Fallout 3 special DVD
• Metal Vault-Tec lunch box

It's a pretty standard set of goodies for this sort of thing. The lunch box will surely be interesting as it'll double as both a game case and an actual lunch box. Imagine the look on people's faces when you show up to work/school with such a thing in your hands. The price for the PS3 Collector's Edition: $79.99. The extra cost compared to the regular version: $20. The comforting feeling that only a gamer's lunch box gives after being beaten up in the school cafeteria (or co-worker ridicule): priceless.

In a hotel conference room, Bethesda's Pete Hines recently demoed the latest version of the Fallout 3. He trudged through a collapsed building, firing a machine gun at ambling, radiated mutants. The gore made me wince a little, with blood gurgling from zombie limbs. Earlier, he shot the head off another enemy, and blood arced straight out of the neck, as if it was trying to reach the brain one last time.

Only minutes earlier, he'd shown me how the player's character grows up in an underground bunker, with those moments acting partly as tutorial and partly as a character creator. Your father, for example, stays hidden in the shadows after your birth until he checks out how the infant will look grown up. Players use a medical gadget to see (read: design) their appearance, then he emerges with roughly similar, paternal features.

We've covered the game a few times before, so in addition to my general impressions, I talked with Hines about some recently revealed features.

Speaking with videogaming247.com, executive producer Todd Howard for Fallout 3 said that unlike the last Bethesda Softworks release, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, their latest title will launch simultaneous across all platforms.

The Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions of Fallout 3 are expected to launch in the third quarter of 2008 and takes place 200 years in the future in a post-apocalyptic Washington, DC. We personally can't wait to see what the title has to offer especially considering the team is looking for inspiration from various forms of media, specifically Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road.'

PS3 owners worried that Fallout 3 might come to their system of choice later than Microsoft's box(es) can put their fears to rest. Executive producer Todd Howard said that Fallout 3 should (unlike the company's last big release Oblivion) see a simultaneous release. "They should all be the same date," he said. "That's our plan."

It's definitely happy news, but we're going to wait until a bit closer to the game's Q3 release before we go get our SIXAXIS-shaped champagne flutes out of hock. As evidenced by a bevy of PS3 game delays, programming for the system is apparently about as predictable as raising mogwais.

Quite a lot of tantalizing news concerning Fallout 3 was dropped by Peter Hines (Bethesda Softwork's VP of marketing) in a recent interview. He compared the new game to another Bethesda RPG epic, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and revealed that Fallout 3's world would be a smaller size at around 50-80% than that of Oblivion's. A smaller world for Fallout 3 is actually befitting in the sense that interesting locales in a sparsely populated post-apocalyptic wasteland would logically be more far-in-between than that of the bustling Imperial Cyrodiil in Oblivion.

Another revelation was in the voice acting department; when questioned about criticism on Oblivion's lack of voice acting, Hines replied that Fallout 3 would have "two or three times more" than that of Oblivion. Hines also declared that Ron Perlman, will reprise his narrator role as he did in the first two Fallouts. Liam Neeson has also been added to the roster doing the voice of the main character's father -- a character central to the plot of Fallout 3. There are quite a few more interesting bits in the interview, so you might want to have a read of it for yourself.

[Via Kotaku]