Fallout 3

About Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game currently under development by Bethesda Game Studios. It will be the third major game in the Fallout series, which has also spawned the spin-offs Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Fallout 3 will take place in the year 2277, 36 years after the setting of Fallout 2 and 200 years after the nuclear war that devastated the game's world.

Initial previews of Fallout 3 revealed that the game will feature both first-person and third-person perspective. Main character creation occurs as the player experiences the character's childhood. The character's mother dies in labor in the Vault 101 hospital, immediately after which the player decides the character's general appearance through a DNA analysis conducted by the father. Afterwards, the father removes his surgeon's mask to reveal a face similar to the one chosen by the player for the character. As a child in the Vault, the character receives a book titled "You're SPECIAL," whereupon the player can set the character's seven primary aptitudes. The character receives training weapons and a PIP-Boy 3000 later on during childhood, and the player's performance in various tests determines the rest of the attributes. Additionally, several quests inside the Vault will be able to influence the player character's relationship with his or her father. Skills and Perks are similar to those in previous games: the player chooses three Tag Skills out of 14 to be the character's specialties. Four skills have been cut out from the game (Fallout and Fallout 2 had 18 skills) but it is unknown which skills have been removed. The maximum level the player can achieve is level 20. The Traits from the previous Fallout installments were combined with Perks in Fallout 3, and the player can choose a new Perk each time after gaining a level.

The Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S., will play an important part in the fighting phases of the game. While using V.A.T.S., real-time combat is paused creating a combat system that the Bethesda developers have described as a hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat. V.A.T.S. will also allow the gory deaths in the game to be shown in slow motion and great detail. Various actions cost action points, limiting the actions of each combatant during a turn, and both the player and enemies can target specific body areas for attacks to inflict specific injuries. The game will feature a new health and radiation system as well. The player can measure an object's radioactivity and gauge the effect it will have on the character.