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Games Entertainment

Fallout 3 DLC Detailed 137

Posted by Soulskill from the ninjas-out-of-nowhere dept.
Eurogamer spoke with Bethesda's Jeff Gardiner about the upcoming downloadable content for Fallout 3. The new gameplay will be bundled into three different segments, the first of which is due this month. The last segment will raise the game's level cap to 30. Gardiner had this to say about how the Strike Teams would work: "The player will be able to choose, from a limited resource pool, what type of team members will accompany him or her on several missions within the simulations. These choices include different troop types like snipers or heavy weapons troops. They'll also be able to make tactical decisions on how to deploy these troops in certain situations. The Chinese Stealth Suit was what I was hinting at last week — it works similar to stealth boy every time you crouch!"
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Fallout 3 DLC Detailed More

Fallout 3 DLC Detailed

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  • Paranoia (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Thanshin ( 1188877 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @05:13AM (#26383803)

    I know it's possibly paranoia but the concept of downloadable content still makes me think they're actively removing things from the original game to release them later as downloadable content.

    It's like releasing the Fantastic 3 and then include the invisible girl as downloadable content.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by im_thatoneguy ( 819432 )

      I can't possibly see how they can be accused of releasing a game with more than 100 hours of gameplay that was "holding back" anything. :D

      I am still finishing quests and still having fun months later--about 60hours into the game.

      I got my money's worth. I really really doubt they would risk bad reviews and poor sales in exchange for a few extra bucks later.

      • I would be more inclined to agree with you... except that every other Bethseda game had no level cap. Suddenly, we have a level 20 cap that you reach after 10 hours of gameplay (if you were foolish enough to take the XP perks, than even sooner.) Now the "expansion" raises the cap 10 levels a la MMO?

        It's the biggest joke I've seen in a game. They didn't *remove* any code from the game, they actually *added* code TO the game, so that you couldn't level any higher.

        Not to mention, people have firmly said *NO*

        • Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Insightful)

          by j85ason ( 1183933 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @09:24AM (#26385151)

          Not to mention, people have firmly said *NO* to Bethseda DLC before.

          Horse Armor != Knights of the Nine.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 )
          Suddenly, we have a level 20 cap that you reach after 10 hours of gameplay (if you were foolish enough to take the XP perks, than even sooner.)

          I just completed the game last weekend. About 34 hours of gameplay according to the save file. I only made it up to level 18. I'm curious to know specifically what you did to get to level 20 so quickly. I realize you get way more XP for different choices, but 10 hours seems like a bit of a stretch.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by SDF-7 ( 556604 )

            I don't remember exactly when I hit it -- but it was about 1/5th of the way through sidequests [I stopped worrying about the Main quest after finding out where Dad when post-Megaton]. Pretty easy to do if you:

            + Explore the map / try to do all sidequests
            + Pick every lock you can (even allowing for my Good character not stealing very often from towns), hack every terminal. [Note: usually you can do both if there's a terminal for a safe... just hack the terminal and don't unlock the safe, then pick the safe].

            T

          • Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Insightful)

            by discord5 ( 798235 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @11:35AM (#26386915)

            I'm curious to know specifically what you did to get to level 20 so quickly.

            I got to level 20 in about 15 hours of gameplay. All I did was exploring and killing things... Lots of killing. The game hands you XP for practically anything. Discover a location? Pick a lock? Disarm a mine?

            The level cap was a bit silly in my opinion, but the truth is that once you're 20 there's practically nothing in the game that can stop you anymore. With the right choice of perks and skills the game becomes either a sneak-and-snipe splatterfest, or you can start going one on one with supermutants in unarmed combat.

            This game had both the most awesome and disappointing ending ever though. Having a giant robot wreak havoc through a destroyed Washington DC while firing lasers and shouting "Accept democracy or be eradicated!" has to be one of the better moments of the past 2 years in gaming. Not being able to continue playing after finishing the main quest was kind of weak though.

            • Well, I don't mean to be a stickler for the laws of causality here, but your own death kind of puts a crimp in your plans for future questing. Plus, depending on the ending you get, the wasteland can be totally different. I'd like there to have been one continuable ending, but I can certainly see why all the existing endings weren't.

            • If you're clever you can go one one one with super mutants right at the beginning of the game.

              I would always have a random encounter at the baseball field. The first time all it happened all I had was a bat (even though all my stats were stacked into agility and shooting). I killed two super mutants with my baseball bat and I was only level 3.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by ADRA ( 37398 )

            I doubt they actually did what they claimed. I went through the game a second time and capped out faster, but it still took no sooner than 20 hours to get it. Even with the XP perks, you're only levelling up at max 50% faster than you were normally.

            Mind you, I was actually playing the game and not just level grinding (Is it even possible to grind in this game?).

            • I noticed that as well. This was the first computer RPG I've played (going back nearly 20 years) that didn't have any grinding. I'm not sure if I miss it or not...

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by ink ( 4325 ) *

          Just raise the character level using the command interface:

          setgs iMaxCharacterLevel 50

          • Be careful with that - if you've capped all your skills, once you gain a level you won't be able to get past the skill point distribution screen.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by brkello ( 642429 )
          Uh, no, having a leveling cap does not add code to a game. If you had a higher level you would have more abilities, stats, etc. Stopping you from getting more xp and levels isn't much more than an if statement. Do you have an MBA or something?

    • The funny thing is (Score:5, Informative)

      by Moraelin ( 679338 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @05:25AM (#26383859) Journal

      The funny thing is that some of that has been done already by the modders. There is a suit which makes you slightly harder to see when crouched. There is one which gives you 25% chameleon _all_ the time.

      Heck, transplanting the Stealth Boy enchantment to a suit of your choosing is such a trivial affair, I had made my very own long before the GECK was released. The FOMM/TESnip already had all you need for that. Turns out someone else already had made the 25% one, so mine was never released, though.

      Raising the level to 30? That is one global variable. That was one of the first mods released.

      So I'm not really thinking they intentionally cut anything out, because most of it is _trivial_ stuff. Well, there'll be new maps and stuff so obviously it's more than just the items, but the "Ivisible Girl" in your example just made no sense to remove from release because it doesn't save anything at all.

    • I don't know, to me it seems FO3 had too much of certain types of content to begin with. Namely, at level 20 you are a god capable of single-handedly killing just about any kind of enemy force you might encounter, and when you have friends with you... Hopefully the combat in the simulation battle will be much more challenging than it was in vanilla Fallout 3, otherwise I don't see the point in having a system for group tactics.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mahdi13 ( 660205 )

        Try some of the mods that change the armor/hp/damage ratings to be closer to how they were in F1 and F2...I have a level 20 character that gets ripped apart in less then 2 seconds from a single turret.
        If you're looking for more of a challenge find those mods. If you're on PS3 or XBOX, stop complaining and accept that you have already given into corporate conformity =)

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Xugumad ( 39311 )

      I think you have to take each game on its own merit. I think DLC is frequently content that hit the cutting room floor to make it to launch, yes, but I don't think we're exactly being short-changed on Fallout 3. There's always going to be content like that (Deus Ex 1 lacked a bunch of content, including a moon base level, apparently).

      For a game like say Spore, I think there's a lot more evidence that it was chopped up to sell more expansions. As people have pointed out, there were stages with more content s

    • Re:Paranoia (Score:4, Funny)

      by Chris Mattern ( 191822 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @09:47AM (#26385383)

      t's like releasing the Fantastic 3 and then include the invisible girl as downloadable content.

      "But how do I *know* the Invisible Girl's been installed?"

      "Take our word for it. $10, please."

    • Well, the DLC is just about entirely outside of the main game's environment. It's not stuff that could take place in the capitol ruins and doesn't use the same main character.
      Also, the level cap would be pointless to lift in the main campaign. It's already easy, going above level 20 is just over kill.

      • It wouldn't be so much overkill if they dropped the perks to every other level, or every 3 or 4 levels, as in the original. The perks are WAY too plentiful in F3.

    • While I'm generally a paranoid person myself, I feel it is ludicrous to accuse Bethesda of leaving things out to use as expansions later, even hypothetically; that game is freaking huge. Love the game or hate it, you'll be hard pressed to find anything else these days that gives you so much to see and do, so many people to eat^H^H^Hinteract with.

  • My request... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by meringuoid ( 568297 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @05:16AM (#26383819)
    ... can we have an expansion in which characters who are entirely immune to radiation are in fact willing to walk into irradiated rooms in order to press four buttons and then leave? As opposed to, you know, just standing there and watching while someone else does the job and dies horribly?

    Thanks!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by QuantumG ( 50515 ) *

      Ha, you actually bothered to free that retard?

      Sucker.

    • *SPOILERS*

      / * SPOILER WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP */ Did you not make friends with Fawkes? He was more than willing to venture into a lethally irradiated area for me.

      • You haven't played until the end, eh? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Moraelin ( 679338 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @05:31AM (#26383899) Journal

        So you haven't bothered playing the ending, then?

        *SPOILERS INCOMING*

        Because, yes, that's what makes him stand out like a sore thumb. He already showed you that he's immune to radiation, and ventured for you in that room in the bunker. But at the Project Purity end scene there is _no_ option to send _him_ into the irradiated room to press the four buttons to activate the installation. You get to choose whether you die or the paladin dies, but there is no freaking option to go, "Hey, Fawkes, you're immune to radiation, right? Can you go in there and press these four numbers for me, please?"

        Now I understand the climactic choice and all, but the very presence of Fawkes there spoils it in a major way. Suddenly that choice and sacrifice makes no bloody sense. It's like deciding whether me or you rush some evil guys and take a bullet, while having Superman standing around obliviously watching the whole debate. It makes no sense.

        • Re:You haven't played until the end, eh? (Score:5, Funny)

          by Canazza ( 1428553 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @07:18AM (#26384367)
          Ofcourse not, he's a super mutant, his fingers would just mash the keyboard and there's no time to send away for a dialing wand...

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Thansal ( 999464 )

            I am SURE I have some random piece of junk in my back pocket that I can give him to use as a friken stylus!

            I'm sorry, I don't want to rob you of your destiny...

            I realyl should have killed him before going in my self...

            • I realyl should have killed him before going in my self...

              The second time I played through (before I knew that the good/bad karma endings were essentially the same, unlike Fallout 1 & 2), I did.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Dan667 ( 564390 )
            Just get the super mutant a mac wheel. Problem solved.

        • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Actually, you do have the option of asking him. He'll decline though, stating that this is not his task to do, not wanting to take the credit for it, or something. I'm guessing that this is a partly a cop-out for the developers but also an attempt to make the moment seem more epic (which really didn't happen).

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Devalia ( 581422 )
          You can talk to him and ask him (after agreeing to go in instead) but he gives some rubbish about it being your destiny..

        • The sad thing is that this is a huge step backwards for the saga. In Fallout 2, they're at least smart enough not to give you the radiation-warped mutant until after he would have come in handy.

          • In Fallout 2, they're at least smart enough not to give you the radiation-warped mutant until after he would have come in handy.

            Problem is that there is no after this scene. To quote from Aliens : "Game over man... Game over".

        • Seriously. What's even worse is with the amount of rad-x, rad-away, natural rad resistance + environment suit, the amount of radiation I got in there was small. I actually went ahead and got the GECK since Fawkes was so slow. Used 3 rad-aways I think.

          Anyways, yes. Fawkes makes the ending really nutty. Thankfully, I think the Mod community will fix this, and, in the end, deliver us even more wonderful product. Probably even better than the DLC we'd pay for. It is interesting to see how they are taking someth

        • You're missing the important fact that Fawkes is/was a 'she'. (True! Check the computer terminals in Vault 87.) Which means that she was just being a woman and letting the man (you) do the dirty work.

          (To any women here: I kid, I kid. ;) )

          • Even if Fawkes is a she,

            1. Then what's her excuse when the player character is a woman too, not to mention that the paladin is a woman too? That she's just a bitch and wants to see one of the other two women die horribly? That fits soo good with the whole Fawkes the righteous good supermutant act. Not.

            2. _If_ they wanted to do it gender-based, then how about letting me use the Lady Killer perk there? I mean, wtf, there's this perk which mysteriously makes women do my bidding in game, despite of the fact tha

        • Thanks for the spoiler warning. The lack of some kind of ability to label / tag / mod something as a spoiler is rather unfortunate. Yes, we're all geeks here but unless you spend your money on nothing but games it's not always easy to keep up with everything as soon as it comes out. :)

        • Ahhh. Ok. Yeah. I got right up to the point where I'm supposed to run in and activate project purity and am doing all the side quests I ignored previously.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by llin ( 54970 )

          Actually, it's not just Fawkes, but you could also have Charon, who's also completely immune to radiation (and who'll also refuse to go in).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Khamura ( 664892 )
      That's going to happen with the third DLC (Broken Steel, the one that also raises the cap), as far as I have been able to find out.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by duffel ( 779835 )
      IIRC, there was so much radiation in that chamber to *melt* the person in there, so I doubt even Fawkes would have survived. In this case it's less about physiological hardiness as it is about molecular cohesion.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Ambiguous Coward ( 205751 )

        Fuck that, I was so doped up on rad-x and my tesla armor was blocking it...I stood around for about five minutes inside the chamber, popping rad-away once in a while. Finally I decide to punch in the numbers, and THEN I die.

        I tried it again and did it fast, and amazingly, as soon as I hit that last button, boom, I die.

        Seriously, I could have gone in, hit the numbers, had a nice little picnic lunch, and then wandered out at my leisure, but no, as always, the scripted death. Lame.

      • If there was enough radiation in that chamber to melt a person, what on earth was the glass surrounding it made out of? It couldn't have been more than a few inches thick.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Aladrin ( 926209 )

      I don't think Fawkes was immune. I think he was just very hardened against it.

      Charon, however, is definitely immune as ghouls are healed by radiation.

      But your point is well taken... They just wanted the character to die for no reason. I'm sure I could have run in, hit the buttons and run out before the radiation got to me... especially with all the gear and medicine I was carrying for radiation.

      • The problem is the fact that when in Vault 87, Fawkes goes and gets the GECK for you. The radiation present in those tunnels is significantly higher than that present in the rotunda (and outside the Vault 87 entrance kills nearly instantly). It's simply irritating to know that they make up a story about how it'll kill whomever enters, except that it doesn't. To have someone on hand who has already been exposed to quantitatively far worse and survived simply adds insult to injury...and then you die at the

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Aladrin ( 926209 )

          How do we know what the radiation levels are in each of those environments?

          I think the GECK one is significantly lower. In fact, if you kill Fawkes, I'm pretty sure you can go in and retrieve it yourself using the suits and medicine in the room right outside that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mex ( 191941 )

      Ha! I came to ask this same question.

      What will they do to fix the ending?

  • Why would they wait until the last expansion to raise the level cap? While I liked Fallout 3, the fact that I hadn't even started the final mission before I hit the cap was kind of irritating.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrZaius ( 321037 )

      I still say [mrzaius.com] they shouldn't raise the level cap. The game is pretty off-balance at the current one, and I hit it with a third of the map unexplored and four-six more hours left in the primary quest. I wish they'd just drop the level of experience gained, across the board.

      • I wish they'd just drop the level of experience gained, across the board.

        The enemy rewards, especially on the high end, were okay, if even a little small. But the quest rewards were huge - often bigger than what you would get for all the enemies you'd face completing that quest.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by SuiteSisterMary ( 123932 )

          This is as it should be; Fallout isn't a combat RPG, so there shouldn't be huge XP gains for killing things. Your stealthy guy or social guy or techie guy or whatever should have a reasonable chance of making it through too.

          Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, I'm looking at you. Getting through to the last part of the game is NO problem with a stealth or a social guy. The last part, however, is a giant combat gauntlet.

    • While I liked Fallout 3, the fact that I hadn't even started the final mission before I hit the cap was kind of irritating.

      'Grim Reaper's Sprint' is so awesomely broken. You want to have only one mission in which to play with it?

      Personally, I kind of like having a fair amount of game still there in which to run around the wasteland with godlike abilities. It beats getting something awesome only after it would have been useful. I mean, I hit level 20 at about the time I got the GECK, and I haven't even f

  • If you (like me) bought the PS3 version of this game, then consider signing this petition [petitiononline.com] to adding DLC to the PS3 version as well.

    • Yeah I'm sure a petition will make them reconsider the $xx million dollar contract that they signed Microsoft.

      This is a case where Bethesda is effectively working for microsoft on contract. I doubt the contract allows them to sell the work to other clients.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cyborch ( 524661 )
        Depends... If a million people sign the petition, and each of those million people will buy a game for $60... you do the math...

  • DLC isn't just about content (Score:3, Insightful)

    by N1AK ( 864906 ) on Friday January 09, 2009 @05:51AM (#26383989) Homepage
    Fallout 3 is a very large game, I certainly don't feel like it wasn't well worth its price. I have no issue with paying a fair price for them to add more. But it isn't the value side that bothers me.

    If I buy the DLC on my Xbox it is linked to my console. Not only does that make it impossible for me to sell, it also can be a real pain in the ass getting DLC stuff back if your console breaks or gets stolen. I know why the DLC model exists, I just wish us backwards types could get it on physical media.

    • it also can be a real pain in the ass getting DLC stuff back if your console breaks or gets stolen. I know why the DLC model exists, I just wish us backwards types could get it on physical media.

      If I could post a picture of a dog cocking it's head in confuzzlement, I would.

      Console broken? Mail it in, it gets repaired, your DLC is transferred. Done.

      Don't want to mail it in? Buy a new one. Log in with your Xbox Live account. HoLY CRAP all your DLC works.

      Don't want to need to log in? Use the handy dandy

      • Stop using Xbox Live, but still want your DLC on a replacement console? You're fucked! Unless it's an original Xbox, and you have the hacked DLC installers, that is. Most of the DLC doesn't work off of Live anyway, at least on the classic Xbox. Wouldn't know about the 360, but for example the Crimson skies, Mechassault, and MA2 content is multiplayer-only.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by zoips ( 576749 )
          Live is different for the 360; everyone with a 360 has Live because Live Silver is free. Subscribing gives you Live Gold, but it's still the same Live account.

    • Your downloads aren't linked to your console they're linked to your account. As in your account keeps a record of your purchases, so you can redownload all your purchases if you have to get another xbox. Or if you wanted to sell your xbox, all you'd need to do is wipe the hard drive and you're good to go.

  • How about a fix for... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    the bug that causes my xbox 360 to freeze completely, requiring me to turn it off and back on and then it still locks up when I try to restart. grr

    • It's not just the game. It happened about every two game hours on my original (first-run) 360. When the DVD drive finally died, I replaced it, and I haven't seen it happen once in the last 12 hours.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by $1uck ( 710826 )
        It happens only when I am playing fallout and it happens every time I try to load the last saved game. It most certainly is not the dvd drive and is the game.

    • I have played around 30hours and never had any kind of freeze on my xbox360

  • This is new? Many DLP TVs [dlp.com] support this [zdnet.com] even though not many probably care (I have one and I don't).

    It took over 20 years to come out with what looks like the same technology as the Sega Master System's [wikipedia.org] 3D Glasses [gametrailers.com]?

    I also think I saw Captain EO [wikipedia.org] with the same glasses back when Michael Jackson was loved by most.

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