Fallout 3 (PS3)

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: RPG
Release Date: Q3 2008
ESRB: TBA

The Fallout series is iconic, storied, and means a lot to a lot of people. The team at Bethesda, thus far, has seemed cautious about the liberties it takes with the series' basic elements but more than willing to stick to its guns in regards to bringing it to the modern age. The game's big reveal went down almost a year ago -- more than long enough to assuage the misgivings of (sober) would-be critics. We know Bethesda is probably on the right track. We just want to play it already, especially after a recent visit in which the developer showed off a few scattered bits and pieces of Fallout 3

The Wonder YearsFallout 3 will kick off with the most seminal moment in your character's life: his or her birth. Your early years actually comprise a clever take on the standard character-creation/tutorial sequence. You'll pick your gender straight out of the womb, and telegraph what you'll look like when you grow up soon after (your features, as vaunted all over, will be replicated on your father's face, which is conveniently obscured by shadows during this birth sequence). Compared to Bethesda's last attempt at face generation in Oblivion, Fallout 3 comes out leagues ahead, with lots of solid-looking presets available, and evidently more believable results overall.

Fast forward one year later to your first birthday, and you're in a lab room with daddy, who dotes on you momentarily before locking you behind a playpen. This is where you'll learn how to move and interact with objects in the world. Objective one: jimmy the playpen's lock. Two: pick up the book entitled "You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L," and allocate your attribute points. You're able to set values for your strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck attributes. No word yet on whether perks will come into play on character creation, though.

The next milestone occurs when you turn 10 and attend your birthday party. Vault 101's overseer presents you with your very own Pip-Boy 3000, which will serve as your quest log, map, and radio receiver throughout your wasteland jaunt, sporting a handsome cathode ray tube display that doubles as a flashlight when clicked on its highest setting. Your 10th is also an opportunity to interface with a group of unsavory youngsters who are apparently destined to grow up to become some of Vault 101's troublesome hooligans in their later years. Keep those faces fresh in mind for when it comes time for BB gun practice.

"...and let slip the dogs of war."

There are certain elements that, if absent from a Fallout game, would cause its obsessive fanbase to bust a few crucial synapses. The series' iconic Vault Boy is one of these, and Bethesda has prudently festooned the impish character everywhere a hardcore fan would think to deem appropriate. Likewise with the attribute system -- it's as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. as you remember, though at this point, frankly, all we have is Bethesda's word that "intelligence" and "charisma" will play as concrete a role in your day-to-day successes and failures as stuff like "strength" and "agility." A less obvious constant of the series, but nonetheless one that fans would probably cry foul at the exclusion of, is Dogmeat, the player character's canine companion who's figured prominently in the saga of the Wasteland.

Fallout 3's iteration of the beast is tied into one of the game's boldest ideas: its flirtation with definitive consequence. See, if Dogmeat dies in battle, he's gone forever. There are no vets in the Wasteland, apparently, and stimpacks will only work on a beating heart. Now this could either be the catalyst for some of the most earnestly charged combat sequences yet seen in gaming (who could stand losing their beloved doggy forever, after all?), or simply an invitation to save and reload, ad nauseum, till you get it right. ("Right," in this case, being a scenario in which Dogmeat survives. That's a good boy.)

Risk-averse players can always issue Dogmeat a permanent "stay" command, which will cause him to sit outside the door to Vault 101, waiting for his master out on errand. It seems like he'll be quite useful if you allow him to tag along, though: initiating dialog with the hound enables you to command him to run out and fetch vital resources for you, including arms and ammo, radiation meds, and stimpacks. There's no guarantee that he'll come back with anything beyond a wagging tail, but at the same time, there's zero risk he'll be harmed while on the trek. This is one dog, apparently, who's learned it isn't wise to get too close to a steaming latrine.

Justice for All

Turns out that super mutants have taken hold of the nation's capitol following the nuclear holocaust. Bethesda's Pete Hines, our host during the demo, gave a guided tour of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (the park area between the Capitol building and the Lincoln Memorial, which has incidentally been stripped to its foundations in Fallout 3's world), which wasn't much more than a series of tunnels and trenches surrounded by the ruined husks of former museums and ministries. Hines did battle with super-mutants armed with all sorts of weapons, including RPGs and powered sledgehammers called "supersledges." He himself was decked out in power armor, and strapped with a mini-gun.

After making short work of the mutants occupying the trenches, a conflict-in-progress came into view as he approached the Capitol building. According to Hines, the humans going up against the mutant occupiers were mercenaries working for the Talon Corporation. Rather than join the battle in earnest, though, to mark the end the demo, he simply lobbed a few Fat Men (those mini-nukes that caused quite a stir when the game was first announced), and unceremoniously hurled himself in the wake of one. Thank you for watching. We'll be seeing more of Fallout 3 come E3 in July.