GB Feature: Fallout 3 Preview

We’ve conjured up our own preview of Fallout 3, based on the demo shown by Bethesda’s Pete Hines at this year’s Leipzig Games Convention.

Setting-wise, Fallout 3 keeps quite a bit of the originals intact. The Vault Boy icon, identified by the original developers as one of the original’s key elements, is fully utilized. The world crafting is also well-done at points, like the Vault which is an accurate 3D recreation of the originals. The atmosphere outside is pretty bleak, with well-made deserts and ruined towns setting the tone.

Also graphic-wise, not only is the atmosphere quite well-done, but they’re simply a notch up overall from Oblivion. The addition of real water refraction and parallax mapping to create more realistic ruins and bullet-holes are some details, but what the average player will immediately notice is that the NPC faces look a lot better than the somewhat ugly faces of Oblivion. Dialogue also looks a bit improved by providing the player with full lines as choices rather than wiki-style dialogue.