Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The trailer. The trailer never changes. Yes, the first teaser for Obisidian’s upcoming Fallout 3.5, New Vegas, has arrived. As has a release date, ish – this Autumn. I.e. yer traditional pre-Christmas silly-season, then. Find the video and some words about it above. I mean below. Gosh, you’d have thought I’d have learned that by now, wouldn’t you?
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Thanks to Jun Shen Chia for sending in a link to this first episode of what proposes to be an ongoing series made in Fallout 3, which I’ve posted below. Further episodes can be found here. I have to admit it’s been a while since I’ve paid any attention to the machinima scene, so do feel free to send in other efforts that are out there on the web. This particular piece is by Drakortha Productions, a chap who has done a whole bunch of game movies before now.
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While on the surface this is act of love… it’s rather peculiar. It’s a Fallout 3 mod created for a single purpose, and a single person: to ask a Fallout 3 player player to marry the girl who – with the help of the Fallout 3 modding community – made it. The full story begins here on the Bethesda forums, and continues here. To cut a very long story short: a video of the marriage proposal mod being played is below. And he said yes.
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We don’t waffle much about Fallout 3 here, as it wasn’t a game that especially grabbed any of us. Which hardly matters a jot inna final analysis: the rapturous reception from other critics and gamers alike has meant Bethesda have cheerfully been DLCing up it to the eyeballs since release (with, I gather, wildly varying degrees of success). The upcoming Mothership Zeta caught my eye more than the others (aside from the ‘yeah, we did mess up Fallout 3’s ending’ admission that was Broken Steel), simply because it takes us out of that desaturated post-apocalyptic wasteland and onto a fully armed and operational alien battlestation, via the fun plot-twist of having you suffer alien abduction. Are there colours in space? Find out after the break…
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The notion of open game worlds has always appealed to me, ever since Elite. When there’s even the faintest whiff on a free roaming environment, or virtuality that I can go off an explore, I’m interested. It’s an impulse that leads me to spend endless hours in Stalker, or to expend an entire day driving around Fuel. But whatever game I play, I end up feeling somewhat dissatisfied. It’s kind of dissatisfaction that does not seem to be so common with linear or arena games. I think it’s to do with a specific tension that open world games create: between what the game is about, and what the environment – and its openness – implies.

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News just in from Gamasutra. Bethesda’s Pete Hines, speaking in London, revealed that KOTOR2/NWN2 veterans Obsidian are working on a new Fallout game going under the name “Fallout: New Vegas”. The only facts we have are that it’s not Fallout Tactics, Brotherhood of Steel and doesn’t impact what the actual main Bethesda Fallout team are doing. Which does make the puzzle be exactly what it could be. My gut response guess would be something using the Fallout 3 engine, in a locale well away from where Bethesda are operating – perhaps, I dare say, in Vegas – and probably set in a different period. But that’s just nonsense I’ve just made up, obv. It could be a Fallout Slot Machine Game for all I know. The comments thread is your place for speculation.

I’d have enjoyed Fallout 3 a whole lot more if it had more than three colours in it. Fortunately, an enterprising modder felt the same way, and has taken it upon himself to restore the chlorophyll to the wasteland’s washed-out world. On paper, making the trees and grass clinging to life in a post-nuclear landscape a healthy shade of green sounds absolutely ridiculous, but in practice it makes an incredible amount of difference to a game that often coasts on limited artistic imagination. It doesn’t end up looking like Oblivion 1.5 – rather, it still looks very much like the devastated wasteland it’s supposed to. It’s just that, now, plantlife’s doing okay for itself even if humankind isn’t. And it makes me want to explore so much more.

Grab this green and pleasant mod-ette from here.

Fallout 3 has released its first batch of downloadable newness. The DLC, called Operation Anchorage, is apparently available now. You’re trying to gain access to a shelter, which requires you complete a military simulation of the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska, set between 2076 and 2077. Once it’s installed, it’s announced on the radio, and you can hot-leap to its location. There’s a smattering of new content, including a new perk: Covert Ops. What follows is my attempt to get it.

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Hip-hip-hooray. Fallout 3’s official mod tool is out, and I’m celebrating by badly quoting Tina Turner songs. I’m far too stupid to use the construction kit myself, but I’m dead excited to see what Fallout 3’s community (both those who love and those who want to see Bethesda strung up by the nipples for it) comes up with. Oblivion was massively enhanced by its mods, but Fallout 3’s wilder, weirder world means there’s room for all manner of madness.
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My affection for Fallout 3 just increased tenfold:

Boogie!

If you are super-sensitive to such things, there’s a possibility this includes a couple of really minor location spoilers. I honestly don’t think there’s anything in this that’ll truly impact your F3 experience (bar wishing its NPCs really were this funktastic), but Angry Spoiler Men should consider themselves warned.

Thanks to Homunculus for pointing this out.