The highlight of Bethesda Softwork's post-Fallout 3 press event party (which took place in the hip, downtown Washington D.C. lounge, Chloe) was not the free booze. I wouldn't even say it was the crowd of highly intoxicated videogame journalists as a result of said free booze. Even the 80s hair metal cover band that rocked the house, while awesome, didn't quite do it.
Without a doubt, it was the magnificent "bloody mess" cake, inspired by Fallout 3's iconic Vault-Tec mascot, Vault Boy. From the twisted brain of Pete Hines, Bethesda Softwork's V.P. of Public Relations and Marketing, this cake was brought to life by the talented folks at Charm City Cakes (of Ace of Cakes fame).
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to eat any of the cake -- my old and brittle bones required me to leave the party before I crumbled. But word on the street is that it tasted like Oblivion with frosting.
[Note: In case you guys missed it in the other thread, I'm planning a follow-up post to my Fallout 3 preview , where I'll touch on some things that didn't quite make it into my original article. There was a lot and it hurts my puny human brain, so if you have any specific questions, feel free to leave them in the comments of this post.]
Contest:
3:59 PM on 07.01.2007
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So for future reference, if anyone wants to throw me a party, make sure there's a cake that has a Ghoulie popping out of a toilet.
Think about it.
It's some confusing stuff, for sure.
Give the gamer the honor of cutting the cake by beheading their favorite villain in all it's bloody gory!
"The thing is I think they may have already compromised the Fallout formula with this "detonate the nuke" quest. Sure its pretty dark and ironic that a warhead that's been stable since the end of the war gets blown up by some foreign interloper, but a nuke? Maybe the nuances of the dialogue will make it feel less cheap, and more fitting with the overall storyline... any chance of more specifics on this Nick?"
I should say now, I haven't spent much time with the original Fallout series, so I can't comment on how it compromises the formula. You may be right.
That said, a more fleshed out version of story (based on the demo, which was an accelerated quest processes) is: you're looking for you father. Along the way, you meet the mysterious Mr. Burke who doesn't reveal much info, but does imply that he may know where your father is, and why he left the Vault. He asks you to help him wipe Megaton off of the map, referring to it as a "blight on this suburban landscape," or something to that effect.
You do have choices -- the simplest is to say yes, and go along with the plan. You can also say no, and I suppose that branching path goes no further. Finally, you could say yes, but then turn around and tell the town's sheriff some dude asked you to nuke his town.
There's probably a lot to the narrative and character interaction that I'm/we're missing; this was only a demo after all.
It was implied you could play the game to its finale FPS style, but I don't think that would be an effective method of play.