Fallout 3 - Previews @ MSN UK & Play.tm

Bethsoft is pointing out two new Fallout 3 previews from the UK.  They both cover familiar territory but here's a snip from tech.uk.msn's interview/preview:

Bethesda’s Pete Hines insisted that, despite the morality of the choices, those that picked the evil route would not be preached at or forced into the light.

“There are two things we were looking to achieve,” Hines told tech & Gadgets. “We wanted the player’s choices to be meaningful and we wanted to avoid the player getting all the way through then have a choice to make that changes the game regardless of what you did up to that point.

“So Fallout 3 has lots of different endings – we think about nine to 12 – based on a number of different things.

“In some cases you will make a choice that is unrecoverable. Obviously if you do something like blow up Megaton you can try to work your way back up the Karma system but you’re probably not going to get back to even neutral – because you can’t make up for being that evil!

This is not Oblivion, however, and Bethesda will stand no more comparisons. Likewise, those likening the game to a first-person shooter will be forcibly removed, I'm almost warned entering the theatre. Though it has to be said that, purely from an aesthetic stand-point, Fallout 3 isn't dissimilar to an FPS, even if no one will thank me for noting it. Similarities are thankfully little more than superficial, and even the combat - which can be tackled FPS style - is more intelligently approached using the pseudo turn-based VATS combat system - which allows you to pause the action and select parts of an enemy to hit, with your timing and shooting ability effecting how likely you are to succeed with that tricky head-shot, or the disabling leg-shot. Likewise, enemies will lose percentages from every part of their body - meaning that you can save ammo and take fewer risks by concentrating on a foe's weak spots via the combat system. FPS fans may of course prefer to engage in more 'traditional fire-fights', which can still be impacted by a player's strength, skill, and various environmental factors (radiation from exploded atom-powered cars and the like).