Fallout 3 Preview Overload, Part Two

The massive dose of Fallout 3 previews continues, as more websites offer up impressions of what they saw at the press event Bethesda hosted last month. The first is at IGN:

The one radical departure Bethesda is making to the Fallout format is that they’re putting the game in a first person format. There are also options for a Resident Evil-style shoulder camera, or a more traditional isometric view. Even though those other two cameras are included, Bethesda intends that the players should benefit from the immersion provided by the first-person perspective.

The second is at WorthPlaying:

The player starts in Vault 101, a nuclear bomb shelter that’s been in use since the nuclear war. No one ever leaves or enters the vault; people who are born in Vault 101, die in Vault 101. You start off at birth, which is when you create your character’s physical appearance; the game then advances to your 10th birthday, when you are given your first gun, and it walks you through the controls of the game. At the age of 16, you must take a mandatory oral exam, which basically selects your starting skills and “class.” The game actually starts when your character reaches the age of 19.

The third is at Eurogamer:

Also gone is Oblivion’s somewhat frustrating levelling system. You’re free to wander where you choose, but should you go into certain areas early on you’ll get whooped. There’s still some behind-the-scenes balancing going on that we don’t pretend to understand, which makes two very interesting changes. Firstly, the first time you enter a zone, it will level itself appropriately. But, go back later and it will stay at the level it first generated. Bethesda have realised from Oblivion feedback that people missed a sense of improvement. So what better than to revisit the area you struggled through earlier, and just kick endless ass? The second change is the monster levelling. A ‘species’ of creature is fixed at a certain level, and will stay that way throughout. Get stronger, and it gets easier to defeat. It’s simple, but it should let you feel the progression in a way many games prevent.

The fourth is at Next Generation:

Punishment is distributed using a targeting system called (V.A.T.S.), i.e., the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. This allows you to virtually freeze time and target specific parts of enemies’ bodies in a manner more akin to role-playing games than first-person shooters. With V.A.T.S., you can pause the game and queue up moves, lining shots up with different body parts that carry varying percentage values.

And the fifth is at Destructoid:

Choices, sacrifice, and survival. These are key themes found throughout Fallout 3, and they can be seen in the story, in the quests you choose to undertake, and even in the core gameplay itself. Radiation, for instance, has seeped into every pore of the world. The game features a RAD meter which will measure how the radiation is affecting your character. Certain things, like water, are also contaminated with radiation. But water is also necessary for survival. Will you drink the water to raise your health at the cost of having the radiation seep into your blood?