BREAKING NEWS: NEW EXCLUSIVE FALLOUT 3 TRAILER

[Pidesco]

Melee will be useless in Fallout 3. It's becoming increasingly unlikely that I buy the game.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Oh gods, that's just...

[Hurlshort]

Missing in melee can be a little lame. You've got this big weapon, and you are standing right next to the person. It's one thing if they dodge or parry, but I always thought it was ridiculous how often you missed in the early levels of many games.

 

I can understand lowering damage if you aren't particularly skilled.

[Morgoth]

I never wanted to have this game, so any glitches in melee combat doesn't matter to me at all.

[Musopticon?]

Forget about always hitting, they can easily balance it with lower damage based on your provenance with the melee skill. Dropping strength requirements from weapons is far worse. So, ok, now they don't weigh anything when you use them? What the hell? Why even put points into strength anymore? Or are you seriously suggesting that a melee build is viable enough in a world where people carry portable nuclear launchers and laser rifles and that justifies keeping strength in? I really don't see the point, unless there's serious stealth gear and power fists available mid-game.

[Tigranes]

It just strikes me that they never thought about adding block/dodge animations. Was the same in Morrowind/Oblivion. You are STILL going to have stilted characters who run at you like they have a disability, then stand still and shoot at you, before their limbs explode from being shot by a teddy bear.

 

Anyway. There's a leaked Bravo TV gameplay footage on FO3 that seems to have made its way everywhere (will try and find a link later) - it shows pretty standard stuff, actually. But what struck me there is how the wilderness exploration and combat.... well.... plays exactly like Oblivion. I don't mean that in a technical sense - I watch for how the game 'feels'. So you've still got that big vast expanse (I think it does look pretty good - maybe not 'jaw-dropping' like all the journos say, but its definitely not bad) you walk around... and eventually you'll come across some humanoids who will do their stilted run-at-you-like-a-duck thing, and the only difference between the way Oblivion combat plays and FO3 combat plays is that you have VATS. Which is fine if you still love Oblivion, but I got sick of it the first time round.

 

Let me reiterate, though, that personally, I think the gameworld looks very nice. That's partly because with any kind of canon, I tend to turn a blind eye to graphical changes - I don't think its that important to be graphically canon. I think stuff looks pretty cool, with bits of Fallout in it. The gameplay remains nearly exactly Oblivion, and that's what you're starting to see in these trailers.

[Jaesun]

The gameplay remains nearly exactly Oblivion, and that's what you're starting to see in these trailers.

 

Bethesda has already stated that "Fallout 3 is Oblivion with guns".

[Tigranes]

To be fair, they said that with a pretty big caveats. I think it represents their game better than they think it does, though.

[Dark_Raven]

Melee is kinda useless in the old games any way. Hitting a mutie or someone in power armor isn't gonna do much good.

[Slowtrain]

. Hitting a mutie or someone in power armor isn't gonna do much good.

 

It wasn't really hitting that was the problem though. It was closing the distance on someone carrying a mingun or a plasma rifle, then standing next to them for a few rounds while you whacked them, that was the big problem to melee combat. Your pc was liable to be on the receiving end of some serious damage. Melee worked best indoors if you had a lot of action points and bonus moves so you could duck around walls and doors.

[Pop]

Playing through Fallout 2 with a strictly melee build, I dispute that. This is far and away the most powerful character I've ever made, even before getting the Slayer perk and increased HtH attacks and going totally ****ing bat**** on the world and tearing through every encounter my Energy Weapons builds ran screaming from (hello, enclave patrols. hello, fire geckos. hello, large pack of aliens). All you need is EN >5 and the best power armor you can net yourself. The latter is the most important part. But everybody who plays the Fallouts gets the power armor (moreso 2 than 1)

Edited August 13, 2008 by Pop

[Pidesco]

An unarmed build is the best possible build in Fallout 2. After playing through it with one, I never was able to play it again without an unarmed build. It was just so awesome to run around the Enclave punching people in the eyes or, occasionally, the groin. The only problem was chasing your enemies because after hitting them they could go sliding away until they hit a wall. Being able to get 5 or 6 hits in a turn with Slayer was just incredibly powerful.

[Musopticon?]

Well, duh. Unarmed in Fallout 2 is just about unbeatable as long as you aren't against super mutants with rocket launchers. A concentrated unarmed build was absolutely ridiculous, both in terms of how powerful it was and in terms of how unbelievable a guy busting heads in a world of nuclear mutants and miniguns was.

 

But this isn't F2 and with the focus they seem to have put in shooting, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Edited August 13, 2008 by Musopticon?

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Has anyone noticed how the enemy AI is incredibly awful? I swear, one of them just ran around in front of the player while he was trying to shoot him.

 

I've never played Fallout. And even then I can't possibly be positive about the crap gameplay.

[Tigranes]

As I said, that's a hallmark of Oblivion AI. It's really not comfortable with h aving you, or the world, around it. It would rather get together and talk about mudcrabs in a vacuum.

[Darque]

That's just stupid.

 

this.

[Dark_Raven]

Truly it is?

[jaguars4ever]

Unarmed? Pfft.

 

For all you unarmers, I have two words for you: ALIEN BLASTER.

[Dark_Raven]

An awesome weapon with cool effects.

[Slowtrain]

All of the above are far less stupid than killing a raider with flying teddy bears. Once you've seen something that dumb, none of this other stuff can even raise an eyebrow.

[Pop]

I love that people think that demo was actual gameplay.

[Tigranes]

It was, just with a cheated up character & bloody mess.

[Pop]

Exactly. Killing someone with a teddy bear will be just as easy as killing someone with a BB gun.

[Tigranes]

Oh, I'm not worried that I'll be able to make people explode with teddy bears on a regular basis (although I'm pretty sure that IS possible) - and I'm pretty sure, as well, that if you conscientiously chose to avoid this kind of juvenile indulgence, you would be able to, by and large. What bothers me is how this kind of crap will form how most people think of and play Fallout, so that far from being a paragon of good RPGs, it'll just be another game which encourages a culture of "OH DID YOU SEE THAT BLOOD COOL". (Which, yes, was in the originals, but not like this).

[Slowtrain]

The BB gun in Fallout was dumb, too, (The LE version, not the regular Red Rider), but its not close to the same level of dumbity as teddy bear bullets.

 

Again, its ignorable. but it just shows where Bethesda has choosen to set the dumbness bar. Not missing in h2h combat is so far beneath the current dumbess level that it is not even noticeable really. It's like someone spraying you with a hose while you're in the swimming pool.