Fallout 3 Level Cap Increase Coming

Bethesda released some new screenshots from the upcoming DLC, Operation Anchorage, for Fallout 3(winner of the XYBA RPG of the Year award). But with the screenshots came information about another DLC coming in March and bringing with it a level cap increase from 20 to 30.

The game currently limits players to a maximum level of 20 so 150% increase is pretty substantial.

The increase will come with a DLC pack called Broken Steel.

I'm excited about both of these DLCs. Anything to add to Fallout 3 is good in my book.

Fallout 3 Now Edited for Everyone!

Remember when Australia banned Fallout 3? And then Bethesda edited the game so it could be played by gamers Down Under? Well, now that version is the only version that will be released.

It sounds worse than it is. The main problem Australia had with the original Fallout 3 was the drug use in the game. There have ALWAYS been drugs in Fallout. Your character can get addicted to drugs. And getting addicted to drugs in Fallout really, really sucks.

But apparently, the problem Australia had was that Fallout 3 referenced real world drugs. The edited version has changed the drug names to fictional names. This doesn't sound that bad to me. I don't really remember any real world drugs in the other Fallouts. There were drugs like Jet, Mentats, and Stim-Paks.

As long as these are the only real changes, it's no skin off my back. (Besides, I'll pretty much buy this game no matter what. Hell, I owned Brotherhood of Steel. I'm hardcore!)

Fallout 3, Now With Over 500 Endings...

That's the word from a recent interview with Bethesda's Peter Hines. There are over 500 different variations at the end of the game.

Now, sadly most of my so-called "gamer" friends have never played Fallout or Fallout 2 so they might not understand what this means. Does this mean there are over 500 individual endings? No. There are variations.

See, in Fallout and Fallout 2, at the end of the main quest, they do a little ending. In this ending, they tell you what happens to the various factions, groups and settlements in the game. Some of them are destroyed, some prosper. It all all depends on how your character interacted within that group or if you encountered them at all. In the first two, I believe there could have been as many as four endings for each faction(and some only had two) and I wouldn't say there were more than ten factions(the Brotherhood, Enclave, various towns, etc.) so 500 is still an impressive number.

I'm also enjoying all the Fallout 3 information that is pouring out. Bethesda actually did their reporter previews right. They let them play the game for 30 minutes. They don't force them to go on any particular quests or anything. Most of the articles I read the reporters simply head out into the wastelands and start exploring. Since it's a totally open world, you get a lot of different things from the different reporters. Good job, Bethesda! I've been looking forward to this game for a long time.

Opinion: What's With All the Banning, Australia?

It came out in early July that Australia has banned Fallout 3 in their country. Fallout 3 was officially banned because of drug use, although the violence could have gotten it banned as well. It crossed my mind then that they seem to ban or restrict a lot of games.

Australia bans games usually because of violence or sexuality or a combination of both. Sometimes a censored version of the game is later released in Australia.

At least 26 games have been banned in Australia, including all of the GTAs since GTA III, Duke Nukem 3D, both Manhunts, and 50 Cent: Bulletproof amongst others.

But what's with all the banning? I couldn't find any country that banned more games. Germany bans games that have Nazi references and a few just for being really violent. But I can understand wanting to ban Nazi references in Germany.

Brazil is actually the second largest game banner with 12 banned games, but most of this is the result of a man in 1999 going on a killing spree which the government believed linked with the man's love of video games.


But Australia? Apparently, one of the problems is that Australia doesn't have an equivalent M rating for video games. They do have an R rating equivalent for movies, but not for video games.

This issue was just recently brought up when citizens questioned the Australian government why there wasn't a higher rating for video games. The response was pretty much "Nobody pays attention to video game ratings so having a higher rating would just let kids get corrupted by games meant for adults."

This sounds like the government should work more on penalties for retailers not enforcing the game ratings instead of penalizing Australian gamers and depriving them of some great games.

More Fallout 3

I was tempted to post about the teaser video that is now available on the Fallout site. I was tempted to blog that the projected release date for Fallout 3 is Fall 2008 (so far away!). But I decided not to.


But I was forced to blog when I stumbled across this gem: Fallout 3 will be released on the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Gameinformer's July issue will have an exclusive look at the game but just their cover leaks the aforementioned multi-platform release.

Personally, I don't know. I've always played the best Fallout games on the PC. How will this change it?

Fallout 3!!!

That's right, I put in three exclamation points! That's how excited I get about the next installment of Fallout. I loved Fallout and Fallout 2. I even enjoyed Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Of course, they were no Fallout or Fallout 2, but I love post apocolyptic worlds. The Fallout world captures this beautifully.



Anyway, here's a recap of all the info so far: Yes, it is being created by Bethesda. Bethesda also owns the rights to create Fallout 4 & 5. When is it coming out? I have no idea. Bethesda actually finalized their rights to it in 2004 but apparently weren't concentrating too heavily on it until Oblivion came out.

Liam Neeson will do some voice work for Fallout 3. New screenshots were released today. And a trailer will be out in June(possibly the 5th).