They said it would never might happen. And now it has. Fallout 3, controversially released without official modding tools, will be blessed with the GECK come December. That’s the Garden of Eden Creation Kit in the Fallout universe, but in our rather less post-apocalyptic universe it’s the F3 equivalent of The Elder Scrolls games’ powerful Construction kit. Oblivion’s a game that quickly became mpre than the sum of its officially-made parts thanks to the unending glut of enthusiastic and often enormous mods. So, toys to bend’n’shape Fallout 3’s delightfully ravaged world can only be good news.
It’ll be entirely free, and it’s only for the PC release, so we needn’t worry about it being some watered-down mini-tweaker. This is the official description:
“Users can create, modify, and edit any data for use with Fallout 3, from building landscapes, towns, and locations to writing dialogue, creating characters, weapons, creatures, and more. “
Which, I hope, will quickly lead to a version of Fallout 3 devoid of poxy crabmen, with crappy characters like Mr Burke either removed or rewritten, and more talky quests. If someone can get rid of that mandatory slo-mo violence sequence after a successful VATS kill I’ll be an especially happy man.
Seems as though Bethesda intend to fix another of F3’s failings too – specifically, that its main quest’s abrupt and lousy ending also curtailed your general adventuring in that big old wasteland. Downloadable content is due in addition to the GECK, and while it’ll carry a pricetage, it’s really not another case of horse armour. There are three chunks of bonusy stuff scheduled:
Operation: Anchorage. Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.
The Pitt. Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.
Broken Steel. Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.
It’s the first and the last that sound most promising. Fallout 3 has some splendid setpiece moments, so Operation: Anchorage’s flashback war is certainly worth getting excited about. The Broken Steel pack’s the really interesting one, though. Does it mean self-contained questing as brand new character, or will it somehow let you continue doing whatever, wherever with your old character? Clearly there’s much to discuss about the latter possibility, but let’s keep those ending spoilers in comments to a minimum please, folks…
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Telejano?
How about changing the effects of stats, a la F1 and F2? Like what that review that was posted here said about stats. Change that. Yeah.
I never used the modding stuff for Oblivion, so is this likely to be of the easy-to-use-difficult-to-master variety? Or for simple folk like me would I just be knee-deep in gobbledegook from the off?
@Speedy: yay.. yea is me. And you seems Speedy, the mapper and texture maker. Long time no see. func_messageboard is still alive, and quakesrc is dead, so score one for mappers. You guys are cool *&* immortal. Is unfair :-(
@Tei
I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I don’t think I implied anything was impossible. There is the Marvel Zombie thing and there probably is an alien one as well. While modders can do almost whatever they like, they too have lives and what not. I have waited patiently over a year for a mod to be released. A Mario Fallout might be possible providing everything works, I don’t think it’s feasible to expect one.
Considering alot of the Morrowind and Oblivion mods were many times better than the pay-to-be-disappointed DLC, Im excited!
Fallout 3 Fan-restoration-project commences soon!
Fallout: Armageddon Empires?
Heh and to think i was on this site when everyone was saying it wouldn’t happen :P (I was one of them yes…)
@ Stromko
Offtopic: No Mass Effect sequel? Wha?
“Personally I await a jetpack or hang glider mod. A little extra speed and the added vantage point would be a welcome relief when trekking across the wastelands a second time.
Of course, more likely is probably either a car or motorbike I guess, although I’m not sure how well something like that would do, given the terrain.”
Think big: vertibirds! Although they should be made less weak. I can shoot them down with 3-4 shots.
Ofcourse, can’t wait for a drivable Liberty Prime as well.
Somehow I knew the SDK (or GECK as the case may be) would be a December release. They were gonna go the cheesy obvious “Merry Christmas” route.
…and I don’t mind at all. *START POSSIBLE SPOILERS* Personally, I’m looking forward to someone expanding on the medic armor. Maybe make it inject more meds. A stimpack when you’re at a quarter health, automatically stim your broken limbs, pop in some Psycho when you’re within striking distance with a melee weapon, or Buffout when you get overloaded, etc. Maybe give it a command console to set if and when it hits you with meds.
There’s so much you can do with that armor alone!
*spoiler* make the final robot driveable
yes please!
“Communism is the very definition of FAILURE”
“They are killing what once was THE best true RPG franchise.”
You are joking right? The original FO series are good games (for their time), but they are far from perfect (the companion AI is laughably bad). This constant mythologising of them as the ‘one true road’ to RPG Nirvana really is an unhealthy attitude for a progressive medium.
I feel Fallout 3 was a very good game, but I honestly don’t think it should be compared to the previous two, they’re very different styles of game, and more importantly, they both mess up on different things.
Fallout 3 really nailed the atmosphere whilst you were journeying the desolate post-apoc wasteland, just playing the lone wanderer, gazing at the distant horizon and saying “hey, what’s that over there“, and new possibilities are opened up to you. The VATS combat system surprised me by actually working and being a decent addition to combat.
Where I felt Fallout 3 fell down though was in the characters, dialogue, and the ending (oh man I hated the ending), things that I feel that Fallout 1 and 2 managed much better. For me there were far more memorable and in-depth characters in either of the first two fallout games than there were in this new incarnation. Heck, even Liam Neeson’s role ended up feeling more like a bit character to me.
I guess it doesn’t help that I also felt the monologues that Ron Perlman was given were really bad this time around. I mean, Kudos for even bringing him back to narrate the intro, but the opening dialogue they gave him just sounded so cheesy compared to the first two (and whilst even THOSE were plenty cheesy, at least he was able to carry them off in style), even he sounded bored narrating it. The lack of a proper ending was made worse by that as well. I was really looking forward to seeing the “myriad” endings that they had continually talked about and how my decisions had affected the wasteland, but that was at best them being deceptive, and at worst an outright lie.
It’s not like any of that can really be corrected by the modders, but hey, at least the journey can continue now.
More Mod Wishlist:
- Re-energize opening monologue w/ remix of “WAR” song.
- Bramin Rodeo
- Fast forward VATS
- New Perk allowing you to telekinetically crush people’s heads between your thumb and forefinger, KITH style.
- crackwhore questline
Hmm, I wonder what the Daily Mail would make of using VATS against Zombie Crackwhores. Hopefully the sight of it would be enough to induce heart attacks.
P.
Reply to SPD
Fallout 1 and 2. They were a whole lot fightier than you seem to remember. You spent at least 80% of your time fighting random encounters or respawning bads. Usually this was on your own because the companion AI was so appalling.
Fallout 3 is a good game. Betheseda spent time making a SDK. Betheseda is not Satancorp. Get over it.
I’m personally surprised they announced it coming out this soon. They said it might take awhile.
And people whining about the lack of ____ can now re-add it.
@Paul Moloney: No, I want to BE a crackwhore.
You are joking right? The original FO series are good games (for their time), but they are far from perfect (the companion AI is laughably bad).
It’s not the technical polish (such as the horrible AI and awful inventory) the games are praised for, you know. FO3 somehow manages to be worse even than the originals in some of these respects, oddly enough.
Hot Coffee, coming to Fallout 3 soon.
And Mr Burke is not a crappy character. In my game he capped Lucas Simms’ useless ass and got me a neat coat and hat.
I agree with most of the complaints in this thread, fallout 3 was still a great game to me. The atmosphere and the world were phenomenal, the combat worked, the skills were more or less balanced and the quests were fun and varied. It’s the best PC RPG I played since Gothic II (I did not play Witcher yet).
I’m so glad you can mod Fallout 3 right now.
There’s already a tool for removing Mr Burke from the game.
It’s called a gun.
And what’s wrong with Mirelurks? Other than being bloody scary the first time you meet one.
@Homunculus: Awesome! :-)
Nice. Just ordered the game but now it looks like I will leave it in the box until the first mods come out :) Did the same with Oblivion and that definitely saved me some frustration.
Come to think of it, I did it with XP and Vista too ;)
I nearly startled a witch reading that. Bwahahahaha.
Better back up and use a Fat Man, it’s the only way to be sure.
Here are My mod Ideas…
1) I would like to see some cooler guns like the ones in Hitman Blood Money, Where you can upgrade them with cool things.
2) if possible make fallout 3 playable online a massive world where players can shoot each other (much would have to be done especially with vats)
3) Having a Mortacycle would be nice there are plenty in the game a player should be able to scavenge parts and repair it.
4) Allow more followers and make new ones (really would like to see a Yao Guai)
5) More Armor and better looking ones for those that are all ready there (a ninja outfit would be cool)
6) More Hairstyles would also be nice
7) More thrown weapons like the throwing knives (bring back the desert eagle and other guns from the old fallouts)
These were not in any paticular order
Also a few new schematics would be nice and edit the dartgun to look nicer and the railgun so it doesn’t sound like a train {silenced sniper Rifle :)}
Just a few I know not all will and maybe could be done but I will try to make some myself I never made mods before so it could be interesting
@Homunculus – cheers bro – that is funkalicious
Thank-you and I came up with another idea I would Like to see.
I hord everything and it is tiring to take it all back to the house/Condo so how about a storage compartment in your pipboy 3000! It will act like a portable locker. To the left of the screen when your pipboy is up there is empty spots place a button there that says Storage. When you open it up its opens a screen like the lockers. You cannot use anything that is in storage until you move it to your inventory. But the storage has unlimited wait compacity and spce to store everything you hord.
You see I would Like not have a home but storage is needed. I even took the RL-3 robot and cheated his storage compartment to carry everything but lets face it I don’t really like having him around.
Anyways another thing and probably the first thing I am going to try and add. (like I said I never made a mod before so I will be learning with this)
Here is another interesting thought… (I know I come up with alot) Make alternate firing modes. For instance the 9mm make it so with a click of a button (maybe use “alt” key) you put on a silencer, press it again to take it off. With silencer slightly reduces DMG amount but is more stealthy. That way you don’t have to carry 2 guns around!
Most weapons could have alternate firing options if some thought would be put into it
Man the possibilities of modding is unlimited
(Dual wield sub-machine guns)
P.S. sorry about a couple of typos in last post I will try to slow down and reread before submitting
Hello I have been checking back most everyday and it seems the nukes must of went off because everyone is dead here.
am I alone?
is this the end of the world?
Oh no did I forget to turn the stove off?
LOL Come on guys where are you all at?
i would like to have a mercenary camp with endless companions
instead of posting ideas ill post my trouble… my geck bugs like hell!!
yes i have vista, but i am logged on as admin and i have made sure the geck is installed at the same direction as fallout… yet i still experience 2 problems first i cant drag object into the render window wich makes modding impossible… the second problem appears when saving a mod. even though i make sure it is saved in the correct data folder and that the location is completely correct, it does not safe. the geck says it is saving but in the data folder no new esp file appears ….plz help somebody …thanks