NEON MERCURY's ++ ps360ii Lite ++ thread -weaning you off WoW since 07

[cinemanarchist]

Finally beat GTA IV in 39 hours. What a work of art that game is. Didn't truly hit me until the credits when they flyover the whole city...almost brought a tear to my eye. Epic. Oh and if you haven't beat the game yet, go with revenge over money...much cooler ending in my opinion.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=189284&skip=yes

Fallout 3

Sitting in Bethesda's temporary European HQ in the heart of London's trendy Soho, just near the excellent Red Lion pub and some brothels, Bethesda's resident do-everything man Pete Hines is extolling the virtues of the free-roamer RPG.

"I could tell you what you'd be doing every single minute of Call of Duty 4,"
he begins. "Don't get me wrong - that game is fucking amazing, but I could tell you what happens in every minute of every single mission within very small parameters. What weapon you were using... everything.

"With Fallout 3, you could be 10 hours in and I couldn't even guess 20-30 per cent of what you'll have done. We made our reputation by doing big and crazy - things people hadn't tried before. We feel that we've gotten good at it now."

This much is incontrovertible, the open-world structure of Oblivion was sometimes seamless to play through and the AI-driven daily routines of Cyrodiil's denizens a delight to play around with. The same will be true of Fallout 3, when you're out in the wastes.

"You could be walking along and there'll be a diner off to the side, you'll wonder what's over there - and it'll turn out to be a Raider base and there's mutated bodies hanging from the ceiling," explains Hines.

"Suddenly the Raiders could show up - and that's just due to the time of day. If you want to play the game hardcore, you can sit and wait and watch these guys over a period of time and figure out what their schedule is - go in while they're out, or when they're sleeping."

Begin Again

The start of the game though, as it was with Oblivion, will be inherently linear - although perhaps not in the temporal sense. There's probably no need to bore you with the way the action cuts in and out of various events of your childhood, nor with the fact that many of your perks, stats and abilities will be selected at various points within this.

So let's just cut to the meat and reveal that when you're born, a left-click of your mouse will make you cry. And then, when you're a year old and escaping from your wire-fence playpen, the same button will make your character say stuff like, "Dadda!"

No word if you can go rooting though Liam Neeson's cupboards and valiantly attempt to drink bleach just yet though.

As soon as you're out in the wilderness in your late teens, everything opens up before you - the landmass is smaller than that in Oblivion, but Bethesda insist that it won't necessarily feel that way.


"When you started Oblivion you had all these cities around that you knew about - you could travel all over the world, then explore from each one," says Hines. "In Fallout 3, you emerge from the Vault and you don't know shit. You're not getting anywhere in a hurry."

The idea is that being forced to travel around on foot, with no real idea of what direction stuff lies in, will force you to appreciate your immediate environs more - as well as give you a strong sense of exploration.

Much as in the original Fallout games, where you'd only be told settlements were vaguely to the south or were completely unmarked.

This 'less is more' ethic extends to NPCs as well, having a more limited number of wordier tykes milling around, rather than the hundreds of three-line conversation 'tell me rumours!' variety that inhabited Oblivion.

In the new scenes on show in Pete Hines' presentation, the improvement was marked - when bickering with a childhood bully there are at least six or seven different retorts to your foe, for example.

We're also promised that there are at least 60 voice actors and that the more recognisable ones from Oblivion ('You have my ear, citizen!') haven't made the cut. Hines reckons they've nixed the old chestnut of conversation between NPCs being stilted and dull to boot.

Greetings

"When they talk to each other they can do it by name," he explains. "They understand that this person is someone they have a certain sort of relationship with, and so they can talk about a certain set of things.

When the player sees that, it's more realistic. The more we can do to make characters believable when you walk past them, the better."


What of Dogmeat though? We touched on him last issue, but now his full range of capabilities has been laid bare.


You talk to him as if he were a real person - no doubt causing a few raised eyebrows in the wastes - and can tell him to help out in combat, scavenge the vicinity for food, weaponry or stims (which could take him up to two in-game hours if hard pressed) or simply to head back to the entrance to Vault 101 and wait for you there.

He won't level up or learn anything new ("He's just a dog," says Hines) but if he dies then he's dead for good - and you won't meet any other muscular, English-comprehending canines either. Dogmeat's a one-off.

"There are human companions as well," adds Hines by way of consolation. "It'll probably end up as one companion, so you can have a human and Dogmeat with you.

"What kind of companion you have depends on your karma and the karma of those willing to be your companion. The karma has to match up." Dogmeat isn't fussy, as he's a dog. They're dim like that - Hitler had a dog, for example.

Sadly, there is some wavering in my worship at the Fallout 3 shrine. These are more a few moments of disquiet rather than an outraged notice nailed to Bethesda's oaken doors, but a worry nonetheless.

The last thing I was shown was an all-action piece set in a ruined Washington, starting at a battered Washington Monument (that you can climb to the top of) and ending with a Fatboy nuclear explosion battle in front of the Capitol building.

Between these, beautifully imagined, tourist spots was a network of trenches where the Brotherhood of Steel and Super Mutant factions have warred for decades - now riven by trenches, tripmines and bomb scars.

Bedecked in Power Armour (robbing you of perception and agility, but maxing out your bullet-soaking abilities) you'll fight your way through the area, but it did get me worrying how Fallout 3 will work as a shooter.


All the time-halting VATS stuff still looks great, but what of the non-tactical shooting - will it feel as weighty as it should? Are Bethesda biting off more than they can chew when they enter the realm of the FPS?

Time will tell, but the (admittedly max-ammo and max-stimpack) jaunt through the DC trenches didn't allay any fears. Fallout 3 will still be roleplaying game of the year. After all - it's got Dogmeat in it!

[Chest Rockwell]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

I dunno, seems like stuff they've been saying all along (it'll be free-roaming, non-linear, etc.). Although a Dogmeat companion is really cool.

I personally don't care at the moment because I have no way to play it, but I'm currently awaiting the newest release of the Fallout 2 Restoration Project and do another play-through. Just look at all that new content the guy added! I haven't tried it yet but apparently it's all content that's in the game files but wasn't included in the actual game.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Newer than 1.1?  I've been checking out the new patch and it's beautiful.

[Chest Rockwell]

Supposedly the final release will be 1.2, which is supposed to come out any day now. It was supposed to come out before June, but the guy keeps putting it off a couple more days... not like I have any right to complain.

Although truth be told, I'm more excited about seeing Dogmeat walk around in metal armor more than anything.

[Stefen]

You guys should give me a crash course in Fallout. I'm stoked about Fallout 3 because I had alot of fun with Oblivion, but I know absolutely nothing about the franchise. To be honest, the only thing I had heard of it before I heard about part 3 was what Chest has been saying over the years and his various avatars. I know nothing about the gameplay, story, or even what genre the other games were in. Were they action? RPG? FPS?

[cinemanarchist]

RUMOR: 360 to get Blu-Ray by Christmas
source:Kotaku

We have no confirmation or sourcing of our own on this, so, we don't vouch for its accuracy. But we will be watching the clock at 10 am Crecente time tomorrow, as CrunchGear is rumormongering that Microsoft will announce Blu-Ray Xboxes will be shipping by Christmas, at that time. Rumor has it they'll cost less than an Elite.

The announcement would apparently be timed to upstage Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference which kicks off an hour later in San Francisco. Here's the full rumor from CrunchGear's tipster:

"I'm told MS will upstage Apple with a Monday 9am PDT announcement (1 hour before WWDC) via press release that the Xbox 360 will get Blu-Ray before Christmas. Price was "under the current Elite," but i could get any more details."

We'll be pursuing this tomorrow as our means of pursuit are limited today. Carry on.

[Chest Rockwell]

You guys should give me a crash course in Fallout. I'm stoked about Fallout 3 because I had alot of fun with Oblivion, but I know absolutely nothing about the franchise. To be honest, the only thing I had heard of it before I heard about part 3 was what Chest has been saying over the years and his various avatars. I know nothing about the gameplay, story, or even what genre the other games were in. Were they action? RPG? FPS?

Well the good news is that Fallout 3 isn't connected by narrative that much at all, so you don't have to know much.

Long story short: Fallout 1 + 2 were turn-based RPGs released in the late nineties by Black Isle Studios, who also developed or published such games as Planescape: Torment, the Icewind Dale series, and the Baldur's Gate series. All these games have left pretty formidable legacies, especially in RPGs (possible exception being Icewind Dale). Fans love the Fallout games because of its deep character creation, non-linearity in terms of what and when you can do things or go places, multiple paths to finishing quests, and in general the awesomeness of the writing and the game world. If you want to know plot details you should just read the wikis on them, although I doubt Bethesda will make too much reference to the previous games; Fallout 3 takes place in D.C. where the first two were in California. But I recommend you play them, because they're both a lot of fun. If you can stomach slow combat and late nineties 2D graphics (and if you make sure they're patched before you start).

So far from what I've seen, Bethesda's direction has been to compromise the core concepts of Fallout and make them... not commercial poison. The VATS (something-assisted targeting system) combat that Bethesda has been touting is based off Fallout's turn-based aiming system but adapted for real-time combat, for instance. Hardcore fans hate Bethesda, and I'm not in that crowd, but I couldn't really get into Oblivion (see this)... so here's hoping they do Fallout right.

Oh, and 1.2 of the restoration project came out yesterday. I know what I'll be doing for the next couple days.

[Myxo]

What was the movie you saw that changed your mind?

Crank..

A guilty pleasure of mine. I know it's a horrible movie but god damn I love it.

[Reinhold]

I've been addicted to the Mercenaries side game in Resident Evil 4 for the last few days. I am making myself take a break because i'm starting to expect zombies around corners and through doorways in reality.

[Gamblour.]

So, I FINALLY got a PS3 bundled with the new Metal Gear. Anyone playing this? It's quite amazing to look at. I also picked up the Simpsons game, which may save the Simpsons for me. It's really funny.

[picolas]

i've been playing.

pros
- best looking game ever in terms of pure realism and wicked cyborg ninja shit
- speaking of that, some cut scenes are AWESOME. and some are actually scary.
- lots of interesting twists and turns in the story
- continues the realistic but out there vision of the future of war which was part of what made the series so interesting
- my favourite thing, not knowing what kind of game you're going to be playing from moment to moment. a real action-adventure in that the gameplay changes.
- i'm still impressed by the octocamo.
- unprecedented number of weapons and customizations
- many different ways to play. i'm sure i'll go through it more than once.

cons
- sometimes the writing and pacing in the cut scenes is fucking atrocious. like. *very minor first mission brief spoiler* olga's daughter is offended by snake not wanting to eat her eggs. and we spend about 2 minutes 'subtly' building this stupid tension between them. he's just not hungry. absolute waste of everyone involved's time. and so many stupid pauses that lengthen the already long scenes unbearably and dumb deliveries and lines in general.. i get the feeling it's not just the translator's fault because of other stupid things like naomi's outfit. which i know is a reference, but it's so unbelievable it makes things ridiculous. sometimes kojima hits this wonderful balance between realism and the absurd. the drum can or cardboard box for example. then he fails.
- naomi's british accent inexpicably gone
- some cut scenes could have been gameplay. it's lazy game design to use cut scnes so often to get from point a to b. in mgs1 the cut scenes were more essential. here there are so many missed opportunities that exlude the player from the game.
- some gameplay feels outdated now. the cover system isn't really there. the targeting reticle is adequate but too broad. no control of the closeness of the camera. snake's "GA!GA!GA!" whenever he's shot. i feel like if the graphics had been dumbed down this maybe could've been made for the ps2.

overall i'm enjoying it a lot. i just hate all these obvious mistakes and things that could've been corrected easily.

[Gamblour.]

I totally agree about cut scenes that should just be playable. I haven't played since MGS on Playstation, so I feel like I'm pretty behind in history, unfortunately. I'm trying to just roll along with it, but it's quite the universe.

I'm definitely going to have to play through one more time because I feel like I'm not appreciating as much as I'm supposed to, due to being lost in backstory and objectives in general. This is the first system I've owned since PS/N64, so it's been a while.

I do remember there being more of an emphasis on stealth before, whereas I can kinda plow through these levels with no real consequences. I think that's what I'm missing.

I'm nearing the end of Act 2, I think. There is some really scary shit going on.

[picolas]

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/movie-based-games.php

movie-based games

[squints]

So I just started playing Fallout 2. The best rpg of 1998! Its pretty cool if not a little confusing.