Construed

Decisions, decisions…

Keep Megaton alive or send it packing?

[spoilers ahead]

The first town in Fallout 3 you approach after leaving Vault 101, is the community built around an unexploded atom bomb – Megaton which has a population of people that have tried & failed in the past to get into Vault 101. It’s also the first quest hub area in the game you’re likely to come across with some big decisions to make along the way.

Maybe the most important quest in Megaton is The Power of the Atom which ultimately decides the future fate of the town. What surprised me, I hope this continues in Fallout 3, is there’s no need to decide straight away what course of action to take. You are allow, not penalised, to accept both opposing quest choices – allowing you to make the tough decision later on.

I love that Fallout 3 allows players to accept opposing quests that will mean someone will be betrayed ultimately. For me this feels more how a decision should be made in a game – allowing the player to make a decision that will change the games landscape/storyline forever.

If you chose, like I ultimately will do, to nuke Megaton then your Karma will be sorely reflected but I do hear  that with the removal of Megaton, Mr Burke plans something nice & shiny in its place.

Next up – Dogmeat discovered & more quest surprises.

DM∞

Halloween is with us, once again & I’m sure you’ll all be too busy playing the ghoul to do much feed reading tonight. If you make it back before the witching hour, here’s a few things that have caught my eye recently:

PS3 Attitude gets a make-over!

Well done to the team lead by DolphGB from moving away Blogger & using WordPress to redesign their site. Much better look to it, clear & polished – they’re already benefiting from the new look with a good hive of comment activity with each new post.

My one time meeting with DolphGB was a chance one at this years Play.com LIVE event at Wembley. While we both waited for our passes to the show, we hit it off & was probably my highlight of the day. I wish him & his team all the success with PS3 Attitude.

Michael from Brainygamer hits the nail on the head for me, concerning the pace we set ourselves to play all the games we want – why do we rush when we should always stroll? Like him a consider myself a slow gamer & it takes some will power not to rush through a game, just so I can have an opinion about it.

Mbp notes an interesting article @ Wired, making his own feelings on the topic felt. The lead paragraph in the  Wired article will alone get bloggers backs up & sure enough there’s 70+ comments reacting to it:

Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.[1]

Like mbp, I’m not going to stop writing here at Construed anytime soon but the whole thing has got me thinking about the blogging vs social networking argument. Look out for a poll about it soon, here on Construed.

DM∞

Well OK, only one poll to report on here at Construed – ‘Which platform do you expect future MMOs to thrive on the most?’

I like the idea of polls but they’re obviously easily swayed without the need of argument. It’s still a useful feature to be able to add into a post but it’s worth being clever about the structure of future polls, including how to word each question & the optional answers. I have also decided to keep any of the polls I put up, continuous – unless of course the question involved has a finite lifespan.

Onto the results update of the first poll then & so far, 83% of you believe the PC will still be the platform of choice for future MMOs. Maybe MMOs have kept gaming on the PC alive beyond its natural sell by date? Without MMOs would the PC have much market share of videogaming & would gamers have spent more time console gaming if MMOs hadn’t emerged? This possibly could be an argument for another time & another poll.

Happy Halloween!

DM∞

As a new player to the Fallout franchise, I am looking to fully immerse myself in the story that is presented in Fallout 3.

[Spoilers ahead]

10th birthday party in Vault 101 - very few childhood friends have been made, you social outcast!

The games early story takes the player from birth(you later discover, once free of the Vault, that you may not have been born in 101) to age 19 with the years 1, 10 & 16 all having bearing to the development of the players character. Each highlighted year has a scene or two for the player to watch through & then react too.

I found this early storyline to be endearing & well paced, introducing some key characters & items like the PIP-Boy 3000. You also know that the relative safety of Vault 101 wont last long & this made me want to make the most of the encounters here before being force forward into the wasteland outside.

This early storyline works well as a tutorial to the game but even if you think you know what your up against I advise you to take some time here to enjoy the feel & effect it has on the game experience.

Here’s a brief breakdown of what to expect in the years spent in Vault 101:

The 10th birthday party is where the player first interacts in a meaningful way with other Vault 101 inhabitants & gains some insight into what is going on around you. As well as some rather meaningless gifts, your father has a extra special gift in mind for you – a BB gun. Expect some target practice!

In the 16th year, as with everyone who turns that age in Vault 101 – the G.O.A.T(Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test) has to be taken, which acts as a guide for employment prospects of each individual. It’s a rather humorous set of 10 questions which are asked while a sideshow is presented in class. If you wait for the other classmates to hand in their answers first, you can here what future vocation lies in wait for them. I ran thought the G.O.A.T twice, each time picking a random set of answers(the test is multiple choice). Each time the outcome of the test remains the same.

Year 19 sees your escape from Vault 101, after the discovery that your father himself has escaped the Vault leaving you behind & supposedly plenty to answer for! The leader of Vault 101, the Overseer is at this point none to impressed with your father & the conditions of his leaving.

With the help of Amata, the Overseer’s daughter, you can plan your escape but by killing the Overseer on route this strangely does not stop Amata aiding you – she just gets upset but what can she expect though after handing you the Overseers gun in the first place?!

Next up – life after Vault 101.

DM∞

Now that the game diary is starting to grow here at Construed, I thought to give it its own category. This way you can follow all my videogaming diary thoughts easier by just clicking through the link in the sidebar.

Just so you are wise to what I should be covering in my game diary, over the nexr few weeks, here’s a list of furture coverage:

• More Dead Space, FIFA 09

followed by

• Saints Row 2
• Fallout 3
• Spider-Man: Web of Shadows
• Call of Duty – World at War

If you have anything you’d like to see covered here in a game diary, I am happy to take suggestions – leave a comment or email me.

DM∞