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Travel Advisory
I am a nervous flyer. It's not that I worry about falling out of the sky with a hundred of my closest strangers, though the thought doesn't help. My nervousness comes from taking my normal routine and replacing it with a series of stressful timed missions. Get to transportation by this time, the the airport by that time, etc. I start worrying the night before generally, which leads to me not sleeping, which ultimately leads me to a 6:40PM flight to DC with my 6'6" frame jammed between the windowless bulkhead in the very back of an airplane and a woman I can only describe as cackling Mama Voodoo, who had starting drinking in preparation for the flight sometime in the mid 70's.
The hour long delay on the tarmac due to the presence of 'weather' failed to brighten my mood considerably, and I spent the entire flight trying to read a book with my head crooked at a 45 degree angle, afraid to doze off lest my seat mate snatch a tuft of hair or an errant fingernail for use in dark magics beyond my comprehension. I swear at some point between landing and disembarking she dissolved into a pungent smoke and oozed through the ventilation system to freedom.
I was driven to the hotel the press was gathering at by a Ukrainian man who stood in line for a day and a half to buy his wife a PlayStation 3 back in November. He was a photography hobbyist with the deep-seated love and respect for the architecture and history of the nation's capital you only find in immigrants from other countries. I had hoped to catch some shuteye on the way from the airport, and instead found myself being taken the long way in order to drive by monuments I had only ever seen in pictures or video. If you've never been to DC before I'd highly recommend finding someone like that man to show you around.
The Hotel At The End Of Forever
The Hotel Helix on Rhode Island Avenue is best summed up by a sentence from their web brochure. "Can we interest you in a game of Twister?" It's retro hip and trendy. When you call the main hotel number you get a message from someone sounding like Austin Powers. You get the idea.
I dropped off my luggage and took stock of the room, noting the ostentatious fake fur comforter covering the bed. Who could sleep on such a ridiculous thing? With a shrug I headed down to the lounge area, where a little party was running from 7pm to midnight.
"Where's Brian?" I got that a lot as I nervously attempted to socialize, generally followed by people peeking behind me just in case Crecente was hiding back there. Most of the food had already been devoured by ravenous members of the press, but I did manage to salvage a single cookie. Holding it aloft and looking lost in the time honored tradition of the socially awkward, I was beckoned over to a table full of friendly Europeans and spent the remainder of the evening discussing American beef, Ralph Fiennes's pretentious pronunciation of the name Ralph, and inevitably World of Warcraft.
Around 12:30am I stumbled into my room and fell face forward onto that stupid fur comforter. When next I opened my eyes it was 9:00, and time to head to Bethesda HQ.
The People On The Bus
We went up and down, and the wheels went round and round. I am almost certain they purposely took a circuitous route to the offices so we couldn't find them again if we tried, and I ran out of breadcrumbs to make a trail halfway through the trip. Poignant conversation topics included cereal and toys from the 1980's, bad horror films, and The Oozinator.
Don't Go Back To Rockville
Bethesda Softworks' offices are located in Rockville, Maryland, Money Magazine's number 26th best place to live in America. More importantly it is the country's number one place to develop Fallout 3, which is of course why we were there that morning. After having our badges checked we were escorted downstairs to the main lobby, where a receptionist's station lined with an impressive array of awards greeted us. Soon we were ushered through the offices to a newly built auditorium, where everyone found their seats and got settled in. Then they mentioned breakfast was available in the cafeteria and everyone got up again, like we were part of some bizarre hive mind. After donuts and coffee we tried the whole auditorium thing again.
What You've All Been Waiting For - The Demo
Once everyone had settled back into their seats with full bellies, Executive Producer Todd Howard took the floor. He explained that Fallout 3 was ultimately a product of Fallout fans, for Fallout fans. Just a group of folks who thought it would be neat to make a Fallout game and eventually got that chance, with the game being worked on since 2004. They spent lots of time pouring over reviews of the first two games and figuring out what they wanted in this one. The tone of the first game without the over the top self-awareness and adult of the second, with plenty of violence...in fact, that was one of the running themes throughout the demonstration. "Violence done well is fucking hilarious."
Eventually the lights dimmed and Howard took up an Xbox 360 controller. The beta launcher was loaded and the teaser trailer we've all seen started running...only this time it continued.
My first thought, as the character spawned deep inside of Vault 101, was of Bethesda's RPG triumph, Oblivion. Howard switched between first and third person views and when he encountered an NPC the same head turning, zooming effect was present. It looked a whole lot better mind you, but the feel was the same.
The game begins with your birth in the Vault, where your genes are scanned to determine what you will look like as a grown man or woman, with those results used to generate the face of Liam Neesom as your father. The game then progresses in a series of flashbacks, jumping through various points in your life, acting as both a tutorial of the games aspects as well as a look at life in the sealed Vault 101 deep beneath the nation's capital. By the time you reach the age of 19 you have determined your skills, learned combat, explored some of the technology available and are ready to be placed into a position most beneficial to the Vault's continued existence.
The sudden disappearance of your father is the catalyst used to propel you from the Vault into the ravaged post-apocalyptic wasteland, giving you one last chance to change your statistics before setting forth on an epic journey of discovery and dismemberment. As the character stepped out into the surface world the screen flared with light and several members of the audience shielded their eyes reflexively. It was just a brief moment, but right then I felt this game was going to be something much more than The Elder Scrolls: Fallout.
Teenage Wastelander
The character wandered across a rubble-strewn wasteland that once again demonstrated how much progress the made since creating Oblivion. They've learned the hardware and now they are taking advantage of it, squeezing out every ounce of detail from the Xbox 360 the demo was running on.
Soon we stumbled across our first enemy, a good-old, giant mutated ant. The character drew his weapon and fired, killing the radiated critter as easy as you please. How was this Fallout? Enter V.A.T.S. VaultTech Assisted Targeting, an optional system that turns battles from 1st and 3rd person shooter standard into a strategic, turn-based affair allowing you to target specific body parts on your enemies to induce status effects. Shoot a leg and the enemy slows down. Shoot an eye and it might stumble blindly...or it's head may explode. The system basically allows for players to switch between two types of gameplay to suit their needs. It will be interesting indeed to see which is more widely used once the game launches next year.
How I Came To Love The Bomb
Coming across a small settlement, Howard demonstrated the branching dialog system, making the audience chuckle by calling the friendly town sheriff a dick. Exploring the town further he came upon an NPC with an interesting quest. Nuke the town. The entire town.
Yes, in Fallout 3 you will face some big choices, just like this one. Nuking this small settlement of course kills everyone inside, cutting you off from any quests they might have offered, but in doing so you open up the quest giver's town. Huge chunks of gameplay shifted with a single decision. That's not merely an awesome amount of power...that's an amazing amount of replayability. At the time of the demo there were already between 9 and 12 different endings to the game in the works, and it sounded to me like they wanted more. The Fallout series has always been one that fans played over and over again, and it looks like this installment will really make that pay off.
As the small town went up in a mushroom cloud the logo flashed on the screen...our brief tour was over. We were ushered once more into the cafeteria to let what we had just seen sink in.
Lunchroom Talk
"It's The Elder Scrolls: Fallout!"
"The game has to evolve. They can't just make Fallout 1 again."
"You going to eat that cookie?" - They had really good cookies.
"Why are they proudly displaying a Star Trek: Armada poster?"
"What happened to Rogue Trooper?"
Questions and Answers
Lunch was followed by a Q&A with Todd Howard and Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer of Fallout 3, a large fellow with a healthy sense of humor and an obvious passion for this game, which speaks more towards the potential success of the game than any list of technical details could. In fact the feel I got from the whole team, even in the face of questions concerning angry fan reaction is that they believe they are making the best Fallout game they can, and in the end what more could the fans ask for?
I'll be detailing fun facts gathered from the Q&A session in a forthcoming post.
Winding Down
There was a lovely dinner planned for that evening, along with a private party complete with an 80's cover band (because a 40's cover band would have put us all to sleep), but judging from the way I was dozing off during the bus ride back to the hotel it might have been a better idea to use the time I had left to get some sleep before my 4AM departure time the next morning. It was only the responsible thing to do.
Well at least I managed to get a good hour and a half sleep during the plane ride home?
Fallout 3 - As It Stands
After getting a chance to see the game in action and looking past the similarities to Oblivion to experience how much work they've put into enhancing the engine for this game, I can honestly say I am optimistic about Fallout 3. Bethesda is crafting a beautifully ugly world rife with the unique Fallout feel and flavor that the series is known for, while bringing into the next-generation with both boots firmly planted. While it might not be what many fans of the franchise wanted, it's shaping up to be the best Fallout experience it can be.
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