Fallout 3

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Fallout 3
Fallout 3 Logo.jpg
Studio United StatesUnited States Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher United StatesUnited States Bethesda Softworks
Senior Developer Todd Howard (Game Director)
Emil Pagliarulo (Lead Designer)
composer Inon Zur
Erstveröffent-
lichung
North AmericaNorth AmericaOctober 28, 2008 October 31, 2008 December 4, 2008 (Xbox 360) January 1, 2009 (PlayStation 3)
EuropeEurope
JapanJapan
JapanJapan
platform Windows , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3
Game engine Gamebryo
genre Computer role playing game
Game mode Single player
control Mouse , keyboard , gamepad
system advantages
preconditions
  • OS : Windows XP / Vista
  • CPU : 2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
  • RAM : 1 GB (XP) / 2 GB (Vista)
  • Graphics card : DirectX 9.0c capable graphics card with 256 MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 / ATI X850 or higher)
medium 1 DVD-ROM (PC, Xbox 360) ,
1 Blu-ray Disc (PS 3) ,
download
language German, English a. a.
Current version 1.7
copy protection SecuROM
Age rating
USK from 18
PEGI from 18
information The unabridged version was indexed in Germany until February 26, 2016.

Fallout 3 is a computer role-playing game of the US game developer Bethesda Game Studios in the post-apocalyptic game world of the eponymous Fallout -Spielereihe . It is the fifth release in the series and the third game in the main series after Fallout and Fallout 2 . The setting is the urban area and surrounding area of Washington, DC , which has become hostile to life due to a nuclear war , which the player character explores for the first time after growing up in a nuclear shelter in search of his father. Fallout 3 was released on October 28, 2008 in the US and on October 31, 2008 in Europe. It was delivered over 4.7 million times (as of November 2008), and several download extensions were released in a row. Two years later, the branch of Fallout 3 was released, Fallout: New Vegas .

action

background

Unlike its two predecessors, Fallout 3 does not take place on the west, but on the east coast of the USA in the US capital Washington, DC The scenario is based on a post-apocalyptic world in the year 2277. On October 23, 2077, the world was replaced by the "Great War", a two-hour nuclear exchange between the US and China, largely destroyed. Only those people who found refuge in gigantic atomic bunkers, so-called vaults, escaped this war unscathed; everyone else was either killed or otherwise affected.

The player himself comes from Vault 101, one of several vaults in the Washington area. At the time of the game, the world outside the vault, the so-called “wasteland of the capital”, a ruined atomic desert, is populated by different, often warring factions with different goals and a sometimes grotesquely mutated fauna. Political or social structures are practically non-existent, and there is also no official US government. Human traces are limited to small settlements and camps. The Washington, DC metropolitan area is a war zone.

The events in Fallout 3 take place in an alternative universe, in which human culture has stopped in the ways of seeing and thinking of the 1950s. Above all, the naivety of the 1950s regarding a possible nuclear war is omnipresent. Much of the environment as well as the appearance of the non-player characters are strongly reminiscent of fashion and taste of the 50s. Only in the area of ​​nuclear technology and robotics has significant progress been made, which leads to strong contrasts - on the one hand laser rifles, suspension trains and nuclear-powered cars, on the other hand the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star as the standard fighter pilot of the US Air Force of the year 2077.

The world of Fallout as a whole is based heavily on the real ideas that people had of the future in the mid-20th century.

The entire game is extremely sarcastic, if not macabre: In the opening credits of the game, for example, you can see a slide show advertising the Vaults and war bonds, while in the background I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire by The Ink Spots can be heard. The Megaton settlers are settling around a live atom bomb that can detonate at any time, while the guard robot in front of the gate claims that it is absolutely safe and that there is no need to worry. All over the wasteland there are so-called “Pulowski conservation bunkers” - one-person “protective bunkers” for nuclear emergencies, which are more like a ventilated advertising column and cars are consistently equipped with nuclear engines that detonate in spectacular explosions if the slightest damage occurs (and thus everyone make a small accident a very unhealthy thing). In the German version there is also a food called "Steinhartes Falloubst".

Main story

Note: Due to the different ways in which the player can act, the sequence of certain key situations may vary in detail. Therefore, only the consistent results are given here.

Logo of the fictional nuclear shelter manufacturer VaultTec

Fallout 3 begins when the player character is born. In three short sections, the game leads through the key scenes of childhood, in which the player generates his character. At the age of 19, the player character's father James flees the sealed off vault for no apparent reason. Chaos then breaks out in the vault because, on the one hand, dangerous giant cockroaches plague the vault, and on the other hand, because the angry overseer sees this escape as a danger to the vault's continued existence and takes draconian countermeasures. These countermeasures also force the player to escape from the allegedly hermetically sealed vault. As a result, he goes in search of his father's whereabouts.

Starting from the nearby city of Megaton, which was built around a non-detonated atomic bomb in the center, the player explores the wasteland around the former capital Washington and comes across the so-called "Project Purity" in the course of his search. Behind this is what was once an ambitious project to construct a gigantic drinking water purifier that was supposed to supply the entire wasteland with clean water from a water tank in the Jefferson Memorial. It was largely driven by the player's parents until work came to a standstill with the death of the mother and the retreat of the father in Vault 101. Since his escape from the vault, the player's father has been trying to revive the project and bring it to a close. His father's records give the player character pointing out that for the successful implementation of a "GEEK Module" ( " G species- E nevertheless E rstellungs- K it", s. A. The action to Fallout 2 ) requires, from which he one in suspected nearby Vault 112. Its inhabitants turn out to be prisoners of a virtual world called Tranquility Lane, under whose spell the player's father is now also.

Emblem of the enclave

After the successful liberation, father and child manage to carry out initial repair work on Project Purity even without a GEEK module with the support of scientists from Rivet City. However, the resumption of work calls the troops of the enclave, the successor organization of the former US government, on the scene. A commando raids the facility at the Jefferson Memorial and the enclave takes control. The player's father is killed in the course of the attack. The main character's escape leads him to the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Steel, a counter faction of the enclave. Here he receives a decisive indication of the GEEK module he is looking for. The player character can finally recover it from Vault 87, which is heavily guarded by super mutants, but is captured by the enclave. In their headquarters, the former government bunker Raven Rock , the player meets Enclave President John Henry Eden, who turns out to be a so-called ZAX supercomputer. From him he learns of the enclave's plans to eradicate any form of mutation in the wasteland through Project Purity and a modified form of the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FE). The AI hands the player a dose of the virus and allows them to escape from Raven Rock.

The player informs the Brotherhood of Steel about the plans of the enclave, whereupon they begin an attempt to recapture Project Purity. The attack succeeds with the help of a giant combat robot called Liberty Prime and the player arrives together with the female guard Sarah Lyons in the control room of Project Purity, where there is a final confrontation with the military commander in chief of the enclave, Colonel Autumn.

Since the radiation level inside the control cell around the Jefferson Memorial water tank is fatal and the impending explosion of the conditioner due to overloading can only be prevented by activation, the player has to make a serious decision that also marks the end of the game.

  1. The player sends Sarah Lyons, who is present, to the control cell to enter the activation code. Sarah dies when activated.
  2. The player does nothing to stop the overload and dies when the conditioner explodes.
  3. The player enters the control cell, feeds the FE virus into the network, enters the start code and dies of acute radiation poisoning. Much of the people in the wasteland die from the virus.
  4. The player enters the control cell, enters the code without first feeding in the virus and also dies of acute radiation poisoning.
  5. The player sends the companion Charon or Fawkes, if available, to the control cell so that they enter the code. Both Charon and Fawkes are immune to radiation. This end only exists if the Broken Steel add-on has been installed beforehand .

In all cases you can see the credits that are slightly different depending on the decision. With the installation of the Broken Steel add-on , the player does not die in any of the cases, but is rescued by the brotherhood at the last second, wakes up in the citadel and can continue the game after the credits to end any remaining side quests. This change is primarily a retrospective response to customer complaints.

Side quests

In addition to the main story, there are numerous side quests that bring the player money, equipment or contacts and differ greatly in their complexity and scope. The biggest side quests in the main game are The Wasteland Survival Guide and the Big Town quest line.

Gameplay

General

The introduction to the game, created as a tutorial, enables the player to create an individual game character. Among other things, he defines his gender, his appearance, his character values ​​according to the SPECIAL system typical of the series (strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck) as well as his initial skills in various areas (weapons, computers, etc.).

Fallout 3 supports both the first-person perspective and the third-person perspective . The game is set in a freely accessible world and contains many RPG-typical properties. With each completed task or won battle, the player receives experience points, which are required to level up. Once such a level increase (maximum of 20 levels, increased to 30 by the Broken Steel add-on ), the player has the opportunity to improve a total of 13 different skills such as medicine, sneaking, language or various weapon skills with a limited number of skill points can also unlock so-called "perks", which give the player additional options for designing his character. In addition, the character can only carry a certain weight of objects. With the help of the so-called Pip-Boy 3000 , the player is able to revisit places already discovered in the game using the fast travel function. The Pip-Boy also serves as a quest log and source of information on experience points, items carried and the severity of the ionizing radiation dose .

In addition to the typical characteristics of a role-playing game, the character can also take drugs to improve some skills for a short time, but taking them too often can also make them dependent. The withdrawal symptoms in turn worsen the character traits, in which case you either have to take more of the drug or have a doctor cure you. Objects found in the game such as weapons and armor also wear out, which requires regular repairs by the player himself or by dealers.

The character's karma plays an additional role in the game. Karma determines how non-player characters behave towards the player. By doing good deeds in the game you gain a high reputation in the world of Fallout 3 , which usually has a positive effect on the conversation possibilities in the game. Negative action makes the non-player characters react aggressively, fearfully, or upset.

VATS

The game also includes the VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System). By activating this system, the current fight is paused and the player can select parts of the body or weapon of an opponent in order to eliminate or limit them by targeted fire (called "cripple" in the game), which gives the player a strategic advantage. This targeted damage can also be inflicted on the player himself. The VATS is an attempt to translate the tactical depth of turn-based combat in Fallout 1 and 2 into the real-time first person view of Fallout 3 .

Communication and freedom of action

The player has the opportunity to freely choose his statements during conversations with people and thus determine its course. So he can z. B. particularly influence or convince the interlocutor through the property "language".

The side quests in Fallout 3 can, due to the freedom of action in the game, depending on how the player thinks it is right. Usually the player gets an order and can work for or against the client. Often one side quest influences another, the best example of this is the side quest "The Power of the Atom" in which you either defuse the unexploded atom bomb in Megaton's center or work for Mr. Burke, Mr. Tenpenny's right-hand man. In the second variant, the player should attach an explosive charge to the bomb, travel to the Tenpenny Tower, a kind of hotel in the wasteland that is far enough away, and detonate the bomb, which destroys the city in a spectacular explosion, ending some side quests, or changed.

weapons

Although the game looks more reminiscent of the late 1950s, there are both conventional and futuristic weapons, which are divided into five categories (unarmed, melee, small arms, large arms, energy weapons). The player can opt for a simple air rifle or a modern alien blaster. In addition, the player can acquire heavy weapons such as a rocket launcher. With the Broken Steel add-on , new weapons such as the Tesla cannon are added, which have been censored in the German version. The game also includes hand weapons such as pistols, baseball bats and brass knuckles. The player can also find or buy special blueprints. These blueprints are instructions for building mines, grenades and various melee and firearms. These are assembled from objects such as lunch boxes, crutches and motorcycle tanks, which the player finds on his way through the wasteland with opponents, but also in many random places. Doing it yourself is a lot cheaper than buying ready-made copies, or easier than looking for them in the 50 km² world.

All weapons wear out in use and need to be repaired regularly.

Armor

The world of Fallout offers a wide variety of personal protective equipment and clothing, ranging from simple pre-war clothing (with very little protection) to nuclear powered power armor, a type of armored exoskeleton . Many items of clothing have an impact on certain character values. Power armor increases strength, but restricts mobility.

Armor is damaged by hits and eventually destroyed if not regularly repaired. The exception here are three power armor that do not need to be repaired.

However, the aforementioned power armor can only be worn through training that is completed towards the end of the main missions. Thus, they can only be used if extensions are purchased, as only these continue the story.

Game world

The world of Fallout is populated by a rich fauna and countless NPCs. While the fauna is almost always hostile to the player (excluding the mutated cows, so-called "Brahmins"), NPCs can be friendly or hostile, depending on the faction. They differ in number, appearance, equipment and destination, from simple travelers to heavily armed street warriors, everything is included. The majority of NPCs in the wasteland are hostile to the player.

The settlers

The settlers of the wasteland live in various scattered settlements such as Megaton, Canterbury Commons or Rivet City and are differently disposed towards the player depending on his behavior - everything from hostile to friendly.

A special feature is the Little Lamplight's settlement, which is only inhabited by children. These children are the descendants of the people who visited the caves at the time of the nuclear attack and, after all adults died or disappeared, over time they built a well-organized - but nonetheless anarchist - society. The over 16-year-olds, who are excluded from the community after their birthday, mostly move to Big Town, where they spend the rest of their lives - provided that they are not collected by super mutants or slave traders. "Big Trouble in Big Town" is a side quest of the game in which the player can end the permanent threat to the city.

The settlers raise Brahmin, huge two-headed cows in their settlements, which serve as a source of food and means of transport for the wastelands. Dogs also appear occasionally.

Ghouls

Ghouls are people who, despite deadly radioactive contamination, have not died - instead, their bodies have changed. Visually, they are the Fallout counterpart to zombies . They look like walking corpses and some of them are over 200 years old, so they are "survivors" of the Great War of 2077. The typical long-term fate of a ghoul is to transform itself into a "savage" due to increasing radiation exposure - a " real “zombie who attacks everything he encounters (except other ghouls) - unless he finds a place that doesn't shine and where he can stay. The ghouls that have not yet overtaken this fate are usually treated with condescension by other people, so most of them have retired to their own settlement, where the player can act and sleep like in any other main settlement.

Oasis

The self-proclaimed keepers of the grove watch over their "deity", a ghoul named Harold, already in Fallout 1 and 2 , who grew a tree called "Bob" out of his head and who "stuck" in the wasteland. Since then, Bob has established his saplings well beyond the borders of Oasis, which gives hope that the wasteland will soon be greened. One of the game's side quests can be found in Oasis. Harold - tired of his immobile existence and deeply depressed - asks the player to kill him. If you do this by setting him on fire instead of just destroying his heart, the Guardians will become hostile.

Wild ghouls

Wild ghouls are more animals than humans. Their brains have been so destroyed by radioactive radiation that they are only capable of primitive actions and attack everything that comes within their perception (with the exception of other ghouls). Wild ghouls exist in various forms and mainly populate the underground facilities in the wasteland - metro tunnels, sewers, caves - and the deeper areas of ruins. A particularly vicious variety of the wild ghouls are the so-called "shining ones" - walking radiation conductors that can throw radioactive radiation around them. Worst of all, however, are "feral looting ghouls" - which are extremely damage resistant and also cause a lot of damage.

Animals

The mutated animals of the wasteland, which can usually be recognized by the abbreviation "RAD-" in front of their name, are consistently viewed by the player as a snack for in between. The weakest among them are the RAD cockroaches. They are followed by the RAD flat flies and the RAD scorpions (the RAD scorpions are divided into normal, giant and albino scorpions). There are also crossbreeds between moles and rats (so-called mole rats) and descendants of the black bear, which are called Yao Guai. There are also mutations of crabs, so-called mirelurks, which even organize themselves in primitive clan associations. A notable subspecies of them are the Nuka-Lurks in the Nuka-Cola factories.

By far the most dangerous creature in the capital's wasteland is the death claw, which was created through genetic experiments on three-horned chameleons - large, tough, fast, strong and extremely deadly in close combat.

Groupings

In Fallout 3 there are different groups that the player can partly join. Some groups are generally hostile to him, others can become hostile through the player's behavior. The enclave known from its predecessors as the successor to the US government and the techno-religious order of knights of the Brotherhood of Steel play a leading role in the course of the plot. The Brotherhood has split into two subgroups in the Washington area. The main group around their leader, the Elder Lyons, is in a bitter war against the super mutants. The outcast faction, on the other hand, has left the community in a dispute and is concentrating on the Brotherhood's main goals, the exclusive recovery of technology. The sub-factions are hostile to each other. In addition, criminal raider gangs and other local groups determine life around the capital Washington.

The regulators

The regulators are committed to justice and order. They hunt down murderers and other criminals to make the wasteland - as far as possible - safe. They are comparable to sheriffs and Texas rangers. If the player takes the evil path and his karma exceeds a certain negative value, the regulators hunt him down. You can join them from level 14 with the special ability “Bringer of Law”.

Reilly's Ranger

Reillys Rangers are a small group of mercenaries who map the wasteland and which the player can save in a side quest ("Reillys Rangers"). After a successful rescue, the ranger's headquarters are available to the player as a base. In addition, the player can choose between a "minigun" and the "ranger combat armor". Apart from the two T51b power armors, the armor is the best in the game.

Super mutants

Super mutants were formerly people who mutated into two-meter-tall, green-skinned giants through experiments with the so-called "Forced Evolutionary Virus" in Vault 87. They have a certain residual intelligence and, with two exceptions, are generally hostile to the player. (A captured super mutant named Fawkes can be freed from his prison and taken in as a companion, the other named Uncle Leo wanders through the wasteland). Your social structure - if you can call it that - is strongly hierarchical. True to the motto: "The strongest survive". Super mutants hunt down normal people in order to contaminate them with "green stuff" - the FE virus - and turn them into new super mutants. Super mutants themselves are sterile and cannot reproduce.

The type and strength of the super mutants can be recognized - as with many opponents in Fallout 3 - by their name. The super mutants are divided into "normal", super mutant beasts, super mutant masters, super mutant superlords who only appear after the Broken Steel add-on has been installed , and super mutant behemoths.

Talon Company

The Talon Company is the exact opposite of Reily's rangers and regulators - trigger-happy mercenaries for whom no job is too dirty. If the player takes the right path and his karma exceeds a certain positive value, he will be hunted by the Talon Company's killer squads.

Slave traders

The slave traders hunt people to sell them as slaves. They appear as an independent faction, but you only meet them in scripted events or in their main base Paradise Falls - depending on your sentiments, you can trade with them (even slaves) or fight them.

development

Interplay entertainment

Logo for Interplay's Van Buren project

Attempts to continue Fallout 2 have already been made by Black Isle Studios . The studio belonging to Interplay Entertainment worked on a successor after the release of Icewind Dale II under the working title Van Buren . However, due to financial problems at Interplay and a change in management strategy, the developments were stopped shortly before completion and all rights to the Fallout license were ultimately sold to Bethesda Softworks for $ 5.75 million.

In an interview, Leonard Boyarsky , former art director of the first Fallout title and co-founder of Troika Games , said the following about the sale of the Fallout rights to Bethesda Softworks:

“To be perfectly honest, I was extremely disappointed that we did not get the chance to make the next Fallout game. This has nothing to do with Bethesda, it's just that we've always felt that Fallout was ours and it was just a technicality that Interplay happened to own it. It sort of felt as if our child had been sold to the highest bidder, and we had to just sit by and watch. Since I have absolutely no idea what their plans are, I can't comment on whether I think they're going in the right direction with it or not. "

“To be completely honest, I was very disappointed that we didn't get the chance to do the next Fallout. This has nothing to do with Bethesda, it's just that Fallout our opinion after getting us belonged and it was a purely random technical formality that it was owned by Interplay. It felt like our child had been sold to the highest bidder and we could just sit and watch. And since I have absolutely no idea what they are up to, I cannot comment on whether they are going in the right direction or not. "

Bethesda Softworks

Release years of the Fallout series
 
1997 - - Fallout
1998 - - Fallout 2
1999 -
2000 -
2001 - - Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
2002 -
2003 -
2004 - - Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
2005 -
2006 -
2007 -
2008 - - Fallout 3
2009 -
2010 - - Fallout: New Vegas
2011 -
2012 -
2013 -
2014 -
2015 - - Fallout 4
2016 -
2017 -
2018 - - Fallout 76

Bethesda Softworks announced in July 2004 that it had started work on Fallout 3 , but the practical part of the programming only began after the release of their project, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion , its plugins and the Shivering Isles expansion . Bethesda used no parts of the "Van Buren" code or any other material previously developed by Black Isle Studios for the development of Fallout 3 . It was decided to keep the final product Fallout 3 close to its two predecessors, with the focus on non-linear gameplay, a good story and black humor. Bethesda decided to develop the game for an adult audience and to adapt its content to this audience as well in order to come very close to its predecessors. Similar to its predecessors, the developers decided to integrate jokes and allusions into the flow of the game, which reinforce the impression that the Fallout universe is a fictional future.

In February 2007, Bethesda began with the press work for Fallout 3 and published the following statement on the progress of development: "a fairly good ways away from release" (still a long way from publication). In this statement, Bethesda also announced that the first material can be expected in the course of the year. In addition, Fallout 3 has become a cross-platform project. The Game Informer website has since listed the game for the Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 and PC. On May 2, 2007, a teaser page for Fallout 3 went online. In addition to music from the new game and some concept art images, this website also contained a countdown that ended on June 5, 2007. When the countdown ended, the first trailer for Fallout 3 was on the website and a preliminary release date: "Fall 2008". According to developer Bethesda, Fallout 3 reached gold status on October 9, 2008 and thus adhered to the announced release date without further delays.

Also in May 2007, Bethesda released the first technology demo of the Fallout 3 engine, which is based on the game engine Gamebryo from the group Emergent Game Technologies, also used in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion . The Radiant AI introduced in Oblivion to control NPC behavior was also taken over and expanded. The system has more behavior towards Oblivion and can instruct NPCs to interact with certain objects within a specified area. Within the game, for example, it ensures that NPCs eat, sleep and carry out certain activities, and controls, for example, the merchant caravans moving through the wasteland.

In an Official Xbox Magazine podcast interviewing one of the game designers, Todd Howard, the latter announced that the size of the world was roughly comparable to that of Oblivion . Originally, according to Howard, twelve final cut scenes were planned, but with further development on Fallout 3 there were around 200 possible endings, including all possible decisions that can be made by the player.

Bethesda Softworks decided to present the first live demo developed for the Xbox 360 to a public audience at E3 2008. Designer Todd Howard showed a scenario specially developed for the demo in the center of Washington, DC Howard presented some of the weapons contained in the game, including the "Fat Man", a catapult that can fire mini atomic bombs. In addition, the VATS system was presented for the first time. The demo showed a fight with an enclave force near the Brotherhood of Steel-controlled Pentagon. Howard also announced that more downloadable content would appear for the PC and Xbox 360. The PlayStation 3 version of the game is excluded from this. However, on May 19, 2009, Bethesda Softworks announced that the download content that had previously been released for Xbox 360 and PC would now also be published for the PS3 and that it was working on two additional downloadable content for all versions.

Publications

The game was released on October 28, 2008 in the US and on October 31, 2008 in Europe.

On January 27, 2009 and March 24, 2009, the two add-ons Operation Anchorage and The Pitt were released for download via Xbox Live and Games for Windows - Live . Both consist of around four to five hours of gameplay each without affecting the main plot of the game.

Another add-on, Broken Steel , was released on May 7, 2009 and continues the main story.

On May 19, 2009, Bethesda Softworks announced two new downloadable episodes for Fallout 3 , Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta . Point Lookout takes place in a huge swampy landscape, while Mothership Zeta plays on an alien spaceship into which the player has been kidnapped and which he is exploring with some fellow prisoners.

On October 15, 2009, the Game-of-the-Year edition of Fallout 3 was released , which contains the original game and all add-ons and is also available through normal retailers.

Changes in the German version

In all versions, the names of real drugs like morphine (became Med-X) have been replaced by fantasy names. The entertainment software self-regulation did not give permission for minors. In the cut German version there were no bursting or detachable body parts. Robots did not explode / implode either. In addition, the quest "The Power of the Atom" should be removed from the German version, because in this quest you can destroy the city of Megaton with an atomic bomb. The quest was only removed from the Japanese version of the game, it is still included in all other versions. The uncut European version was on the index until February 26, 2016.

Voice actor

role English speaker
teller Ron Perlman
James Liam Neeson
President John Eden Malcolm McDowell
Amata Almodovar Odette Yustman
Elder Owyn Lyons William Bassett
Stanislaus Braun Dee Bradley Baker
Three Dog Erik Dellums
Various Jeff Baker

Extensions

Several extensions are available as download content for Fallout 3 . They are included on DVD in the “Game of the Year Edition”.

The DUDE

The GECK (Garden Eden Creation Kit), German: GEEK (Garden of Eden Creation Kit), is the official editor for Fallout 3 and available for the Windows version of the game. It was released in late 2008 and is available for free on the official Fallout 3 website.

Operation: Anchorage

Operation: Anchorage is the first expansion for Fallout 3 . With the expansion installed, players of any character level can launch it outside of Vault 101. After leaving the vault, the message “New signal received” appears and the player can use it to select and start the quest at any time.

The player comes to an outpost of the Brotherhood of Steel outcasts. They try to open an armory in an old pre-war bunker in order to salvage the equipment, weapons and technologies stored therein and to preserve them for the future of humanity. However, the chamber can only be opened if someone wearing a Pip-Boy as an electronic interface is completing a multi-part task in a virtual reality with the help of a simulation unit. Since the player has a Pip-Boy, he is selected for it. The simulation was developed before the big nuclear war in the year 2077, so that American soldiers virtually the liberation of previously by in their Chinese occupied Alaska could train. A linear first-person shooter simulation shows the fight for Anchorage in the course of the liberation of Alaska. In addition, the player can acquire some new and unique weapons and equipment.

The simulation must be completed before the player can return to the real world and take his rewards from the armory that is then opened.

The Pitt

The Pitt extension logo

The Pitt expansion takes the player to the industrial city of Pittsburgh . As soon as the game is started with the expansion installed, the player receives an emergency signal from the alleged slave Wernher , who has escaped and leads him to the northern edge of the map, where a group of slave traders rest. Wernher tells the player about a cure for mutations that Ishmael Ashur, ruler of Pittsburgh and former member of the Brotherhood of Steel, is believed to have developed. Wernher promises the player to share the knowledge about the production of the cure with him if the player frees the slaves of Pittsburgh from the rule of Ashur and his raider army in return. The player makes his way to Pittsburgh to gain access to the city - disguised as a slave - and to end slavery in Pittsburgh or, alternatively, to support Ashur in suppressing the slave revolt. In addition to the main quest, the player has the option of completing a number of side quests in order to acquire some unique equipment and weapons.

The player cannot leave Pittsburgh until he has completely completed the main quest of the expansion. After successfully completing the expansion, however, the player can return to Pittsburg at any time to have ammunition for his firearms produced free of charge from scrap parts in the local steelworks.

Broken Steel

Broken Steel extension logo

If the player installs and activates the Broken Steel expansion , the story of Fallout 3 will continue after the end of the main game's final main quest. Broken Steel contains an alternative ending to the main story. The add-on must be installed and activated before the end of the regular main story so that the player can see the additional game decisions that lead to a continuation of the story when making the last game decision of the main game of the main game. If the player then makes the appropriate game decision, the player character wakes up from a coma two weeks after the end of the main story, is immediately appointed a member of the Brotherhood of Steel as a thank you for his services to liberate the wasteland and henceforth fulfills assignments on behalf of him the brotherhood. Essentially, the missions serve the purpose of helping the Brotherhood to track down and capture or destroy the last major bases and weapon platforms of the enclave in the greater Washington area, as well as to destroy the remaining troops in the enclave.

In addition to the extensive main quest, Broken Steel also has a number of optional side quests, the type and possible solutions of which are also influenced by the specific decisions the player made when solving the last main quest of the main game. The appearance of the wasteland and its inhabitants as well as the ways in which the player interacts with the wasteland inhabitants also depend on the game decisions made in this final main quest of the main game. As part of Broken Steel, the player also gets access to some new large map areas, both inside and outside the regular map, to which the player can return at any time. As soon as the expansion is activated, new enemy NPCs appear all over the wasteland and some new weapons and armor are available. Furthermore, immediately after activating the expansion, the maximum level limit for character development is increased from 20 to 30, so that the player can further increase the skill values ​​of the player character. After the Broken Steel main quest has been completed, the game does not end, but the player can continue to roam the wasteland in a kind of endless game and complete any side quests of the main game and the installed expansions that have not yet been completed.

Point lookout

Point Lookout extension logo

The fourth expansion takes the player to Point Lookout , a coastal town with an amusement park and huge marshland in which there are numerous places to discover. As always, there are new weapons, armor and enemies here.

As with Operation: Anchorage , Point Lookout is automatically activated after exiting Vault 101.

Mothership Zeta

Logo of the
Mothership Zeta extension

Mothership Zeta is the fifth and final expansion. The main character picks up a strange radio signal and is then kidnapped by aliens into their spaceship. The story takes place exclusively in an alien spaceship. This expansion is comparable to Operation: Anchorage in terms of game length and focus on combat operations . As with Operation: Anchorage , Mothership Zeta is automatically activated after exiting Vault 101.

reception

Ratings (PC version)

"Inexpressibly large and complex, post-apocalyptically gloomy and definitely the best PC role-playing game of 2008!"

"An epic role-playing game for friends of post-nuclear conflicts and consequences."

"The high-class rebirth of a cult classic, respecting the character of its predecessor, in contemporary 3D graphics with an appropriate playing time - what more could the gamer soul want?"

"Bethesda's work has given me so many action-packed, exciting, motivating hours in such an atmospheric, cleverly structured world that you have to suffer from role-play allergies in order not to have any fun."

"A unique, coherent role-playing experience: wonderfully evil and unspeakably complex."

“The game graphics [are] an absolute stunner. [...] The exciting gameplay, peppered with numerous gags, is also unparalleled in the world of computer games. "

"Attention to detail, funny, atmospheric - I have to look it up in the Duden, because I'm running out of superlatives for this title."

"Fallout 3 is very complex and extensive."

"Despite quirks a must for all RPG fans."

"Fallout 3 has become the promised blockbuster."

Awards

  • Game Critics Awards
    • Best exhibit in 2008
    • Best RPG of 2008
  • Game Developers Choice Awards
    • Game of the year 2009
    • Best Screenplay 2009
  • MTV Game Awards
    • Game of The Year Award 2009
    • Feel the Magic Award 2009 for blowing up Megaton City as the most impressive scene in a video game
    • Living in a Box Award 2009 for the Pip-Boy 3000 as the best in-game item

In 2011, Fallout 3 was one of 80 games featured in The Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum following a public vote .

Modifications

Due to the included editor, there are numerous modifications for Fallout 3 , ranging from new weapons and armor to additional quests, new animations and complete overhauls of the entire game.

Follow-up projects

In October 2010, the offshoot developed by Obsidian Entertainment Fallout: New Vegas appeared . Many of Obsidian's employees were already involved in the development of the Fallout title Interplay for Black Isle Studios , including the discontinued Van Buren project . As a result, parts of the design concepts for Van Buren flowed into the development of Fallout: New Vegas and its download extensions in a modified form . The action begins four years after the events of Fallout 3 and is set in the greater area of ​​the former Las Vegas , which suffered less from the nuclear war than the coastal areas. The game uses the same engine as Fallout 3 , but is not an add-on or sequel.

Others

  • The mini atomic bomb launcher in Fallout 3 is called "Fat Man". The same name was given to the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki . For this reason the name of this weapon has been changed to "Nuka-Launcher" in the Japanese version.
  • A dog named "Dogmeat" can be found in a junkyard in Fallout 3 . Dogmeat is also called Mel Gibson's dog in the movie Mad Max .
  • The radio announcer Three Dog Galaxy News Radio in Fallout 3 speaks in the same tone as the crazy radio announcer Angry Bob (voiced in the original English Iggy Pop), from the movie MARK 13 - Hardware in 1990.
  • There's a mayor named RJ McCready in the Little Lamplight Caverns. A hidden clue to the main character of the John Carpenter film The Thing (1982).
  • The side quest “Those!” (In the German version “Formicula”) pays homage to the film Formicula with the original title Them! from 1954.
  • The Fallout 3 uses intro Like its predecessors, the line "War, war is always the same" (Original: "Was ... was never changes"), which initiates a game of Fallout series. It also serves as the closing word in the credits.
  • The perk "Autobahn des Teufels" refers to the song Highway to Hell by AC / DC .
  • Sergeant RL-3, a possible companion, often comments on fights with "I love the smell of plasma in the morning" - this pays homage to Apocalypse Now ("I love the smell of napalm in the morning").
  • The "Children of the Atom" church in Megaton is an allusion to the return to the planet of the apes , in this film a cult worships an intact atom bomb.
  • In the "Technical Museum" the flag of the USS Ebon Atoll depends who was mistakenly sunk by friendly fire - "Ebon" means "black as ebony" Atoll called a coral reef, the ring-shaped islands formed - this is an allusion to the Black Isle , the Development studio of Fallout 1 and 2 , which were "sunk" by Interplay .
  • "Nuka-Cola" is the Fallout version of Coca Cola , the appearance of the bottles and vending machines resemble the design of the 50s. Sierra Petrovita in Girdershade is addicted to this drink - the original Coca Cola recipe included small amounts of cocaine .
  • The comic series "Grognak the Barbarian" is a reference to Conan the Barbarian .
  • The explosives training book "Duck and Cover" is an allusion to the educational film of the same name by the US Civil Protection Agency from 1951.
  • The DC History Museum features an "Action Abe Action Figure" modeled after Abraham Lincoln .
  • The super mutant and companion Fawkes is an allusion to the film V for Vendetta or its main character "V". In the film, this takes its name from Cell V, which he lives in a laboratory, and later disguises himself with a mask from Guy Fawkes . The super mutant Fawkes is also found by the player in cell V in a laboratory of Vault 87. In addition, both V and Fawkes have been disfigured or mutated through scientific experiments.
  • The "pre-war books" found for a quest are exclusively copies of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Fallout update page
  2. [1]
  3. David Jenkins: Fallout 3 Ships 4.7 Million Units In One Week . In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . November 6, 2008. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
  4. Mark E. Johnson: Q & As ( English ) In: Spong . May 1, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2011: “ That was specifically in response to folks reacting to the fact that the game had an ending, and they wanted to keep playing. So yes, I'd say fan reaction played a big role. "
  5. ^ Rus McLaughlin: IGN Presents the History of Fallout . In: IGN . News Corp. . January 28, 2009. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
  6. Jon "Mr. Teatime “Piano: Interview with Leonard Boyarsky about Troika's PA game ( English ) In: Duck and Cover . August 27, 2004. Retrieved September 28, 2011.
  7. Jon "Buck" Birnbaum, Thomas "Brother None" Beekers: Fallout 3 Interview ( English ) In: Gamebanshee . October 22, 2008. Archived from the original on January 9, 2010. Retrieved on February 17, 2013.
  8. Crecente: Cannibalism, Slavery and Sex in Fallout 3 ( English ) In: Kotaku . July 8, 2008. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
  9. Fallout 3 Available October 28
  10. Bethesda Softworks: Operation: Anchorage lands on Xbox LIVE, GFW LIVE . January 27, 2009.
  11. Bethesda Softworks: Issues with The Pitt (updated again) . March 24, 2009.
  12. http://www.gamestar.de/news/pc/rollenspiel/1956199/fallout_3.html
  13. http://www.pcgames.de/aid,684894/Fallout-3-dt-Zwei-weiter-Download-Inhalte-fuer-das-Rollenspiel-geplant/PC/News/
  14. gamestar.de : message from October 9, 2008, accessed on October 31, 2008
  15. Bethesda's blog announces the release of the GECK . December 11, 2008. Retrieved December 28, 2010.
  16. Test on spieletipps.de
  17. The Art of Video Games Voting Result ( English , pdf; 1.0 MB) Smithsonian Institution . May 5, 2011. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
  18. Kris Graft: Smithsonian Art Exhibit Recognizes Games From Pac-Man To Heavy Rain ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc. May 5, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
  19. Shacknews.com: Fallout Veterans Return with 'Fallout: New Vegas' , April 20, 2009