Fallout 4 announced. Here's the official trailer.

[PZ]

Here's a short YouTube on the special strength attribute in Fallout 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4D85q7CuNQ

[mandru]

I asked this once before but didn't spot if a reply had been posted.

I wanted to know if each in the  FO 1-4 series (especially this latest release FO4) are created as pure stand alone or if you have to build on stats and XPs from previous games in the series to be able to play the full content of later releases.

I'm kind of looking for the next worthy game that would allow me to be in on the OWG group discussions during the discovery and exploration stages rather than coming in after it's been panned out.

[PZ]

The other FO games I have played are stand-alone, so I presume this one will be the same.  In fact, I do not think the other FO games had an online component, and if it did, then I never knew about it.

[mandru]

Thanks PZ.  :-X

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah from what I've seen, each game is a separate entity, with a different story line. I haven't seen the first two games, but I just recently installed #3 and New Vegas because my friend gave me a copy of each with all the DLC, so I figured I might as well. FO3 and NV have two separate stories with different lead characters, and from what I see, FO4 will be a new character and story as well, I don't think it will matter if you've played the previous games except for being familiar with how the perk and skill systems w@&k, or how the V.A.T.S. head-shot-o-meter operates.

[PZ]

Hope you have fun, D_B  :-X

I really liked the environment and story line of FO3, but didn't like NV so much.  What I like the best is the availability of just about any kind of mod you can think of, from visuals to completely changing areas and the game itself.

[mandru]

I guess I should ask one last defining question before getting my hopes up and zeroing in on FO4.  You know, the typical process I have to go through to convince myself that I can justify spending $60 on a video game.  :-\\

Is FO4 locked into being played through a Steam account?

I've no intention of engaging in online team play and for me Steam would be deal killer.  :(

[PZ]

I don't know, but if Bethesda continues with it's prior method, online will not be a requirement.  Previously it was a stand alone and Steam was not involved.  However, you never know if they will change up their method of doing business.  My gut feeling is that because the prior iterations were so single player focused, my hope that this one will be the same.

[mandru]

Thanks PZ, sounds promising.  When you guys start loading it up I'll check back to confirm.  :-X

[PZ]

I hope the game is as good as the graphics appear to be.  My only concern is that the world is in the rebuilding phase rather than the bleak environment I have come to appreciate.  Oh well, we'll see how it goes - not too much more of a wait.

[Dweller_Benthos]

In the copies that my friend gave me (he just bought the super deluxe all in one set that comes in a case that looks like an A-bomb so he gave me his old copies, some not even opened), the copy of FO3 was stand alone, installed without asking about any Steam account or even asking for an install key. The New Vegas copy opened Steam on install and asked for a Steam key. I haven't run it yet, but I would imagine that the only part of being online that is required is to register the copy with Steam, then can be played offline like most other Steam games. The only need to go online would be to get updates, I would expect.

[mandru]

 :(

[mandru]

I looked at FO3 as an alternative to avoid Steam while adding another game to my collection until I realized that it came out in 2008 which maybe a little too retro for me.  It kind of makes me feel that I may as well reload the original Doom or my Descent 1,2, and 3 discs.  ???

[Art Blade]

heh, retro all the way back, mandru  :-D

[PZ]

Yes, a bit retro when compared to the games of today, but still a very good game. I like it because you are a loner in a hostile world, much like in FC2. Even when you complete the game, you can find all kinds of free addons and mods that extend the game by dozens if not hundreds of hours.

For about the cost of a fast food meal (less than ten bucks at Amazon for the PC version), it might be worth the investment because it would keep you entertained far longer than the duration of that fast food lunch  :-()

[Dweller_Benthos]

Descent, wow, there's a blast from the past.

Just to be clear that I'm thinking of the right game, is that the one where you have a space ship and dive into the caverns of a planet and try to find the reactor while fighting off enemies, and when you blow the reactor, you better know your way out fast because you don't have a lot of time before it goes and if you're not out, it takes you with it?

[mandru]

That's the one D_B.  :-D

[fragger]

I have fond memories of the Descent series. I used to love flinging that little anti-grav space fighter around 8) Because it had six axes of movement (roll, yaw, pitch, and x/y/z translate) it was a handful to play with just a keyboard because you would need twelve keys just for moving, two for each axis. Then you would need four fire buttons for weapons, missiles, mines and - whatever the other thing was. My old Thrustmaster 2000 joystick was perfect for that game as it had a thumb-operated "hat" on top of the stick proper and four fire buttons, which allowed me to control eight direction axes and the weapons with just one hand, and use the direction keys on the keyboard for the other four axes.

I also remember getting lost and disoriented a lot in that game, with it's tunnels and corridors branching off in all directions including up, down, and all sorts of screwy angles :-()

That was a great joystick, modelled on an F4 Phantom stick. I miss it but it was analog and needed a sound card with an analog socket to plug into, so with the phasing out of analog device support it eventually became obsolete. Pity, because it was a very sturdily-made thing with a heavy base and solid metal mechanisms that felt like they would last forever. I think I gave it away to someone... I'd love to get a Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog stick and throttle combo (if anyone made flight-sims anymore, that is) but at over $560 AUD, it's well up there on the unjustifiable expense meter at the moment :-\\

[mandru]

And then there was the goofy robot sidekick who was often harder to manage than herding cats.  ::)

You could tell you were coming up on a hot spot and that little sucker would get a whiff of it and zip in before you could size it up setting off every alarm in the sector.

I think it was Alan Arkin and Peter Falk's 1979 espionage movie The In-Laws where Peter Falk (at one point) is so exasperated with his inept tag along partner he shouts "If you do that again I will shoot you myself!  More than once I shrieked that sentiment at the companion ro-bungler.

[fragger]

lol :-D

I'd forgotten about the guide-bot. He was hard to follow sometimes, the way he'd go whizzing off with zestful abandon and you'd be like, "Hey, wait for your guidee, stupid!" You'd often lose track of him, and although he'd usually come back for you if you did, sometimes if he got too far ahead around the twists and turns he wouldn't come back even when ordered to. Or if you lost him and ordered him back, you wouldn't see him coming until the loud, ship-shaking clang let you know he was back in the bot-bay. Since you'd still be none the wiser as to where he'd been, you'd have to redeploy him and try to keep up - until you lost sight of him again. You'd often need a guide-bot to take you to the guide-bot, but since you only ever had the one, that wasn't an option :D

[Dweller_Benthos]

I don't remember the guide bot at all, might not have gotten to that point in the game. But I think I bought a joy stick just to play it, as it was impossible on keyboard. I think I used a mouse and joystick together if memory serves. Mouse for freelook and the joystick to move the ship and fire weapons. But I could be wrong on that, confusing it with something else.

About the same time there was another similar game, that I forget the name of, but there was a version that Microsoft did for Windows (back then the games were still DOS) that was called Fury 3. Similar concept, though you were flying over the surface of the planet fighting other ships and blowing things up on the ground. It also had some underground caverns, but not as extensive as Descent.

[Art Blade]

Descent vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDcVoKYTgWA

[fragger]

I don't remember the guide bot at all, might not have gotten to that point in the game.

D_B, now it comes back to me - the guide-bot was a Descent II innovation, it wasn't in the original game.

Nice little little blast-from-the-past vid 8)

[mandru]

 :-D  :-X

[Dweller_Benthos]

Ah, OK, I don't think I ever played the second or third one. I think by that time, I was deep into Unreal and nothing else mattered or caught my eye. That lasted a few years, and I even skipped the first Half Life game because of Unreal. I didn't get around to playing that until just before Half Life 2 came out.

Pretty much what's happening with the Fallout stuff, to get this topic back on some sort of track to what it was originally.