Fallout 3 (Van Buren)
Note: I used to have the Van Buren tech demo up for download. Since the movement of all the files to a different server, I have not put it up again yet. The reason is just the huge size of the file, it takes me two or three hours to upload it, so it's not something I'll upload to a temporary place. It should be up again with the beginning of October or so.
After the release of Fallout 2, luck ran out for the Fallout fans. Of course, Interplay could have pushed out a new sequel every year or two using the same engine with slight updates and the same graphics, just adding constantly to the latter. The fans would have been happy, and Interplay's accounting department should have been happy, for this kind of development isn't all that expensive.
Ten or fifteen years earlier, this is probably exactly what they would have done. It's how Ultima and Wizardry started out. But the nineties were all about graphics, not about content, and no self-respecting developer could do this kind of thing any more. Having one sequel of this kind had already raised enough eyebrows with the critics.
So a new sequel with a new engine and everything was announced. But somehow developing Baldur's Gate was more important. Traditional RPGs in a fantasy setting sell better, they said. Then they decided they would make a new Fallout, but it would be a tactical RPG, since that is easier to do. So in 2001 Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel came out, with one of the highest numbers of pre-orders in history, but finally disappointing everyone. Since an editor was later released, it still has a modest popularity with modders.
In 2003, it looked as if Fallout 3 was finally coming out. An internal demo was created (it was released years later, and is probably why you are here) and three screenshots published. Then Interplay decided to go console, released Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (known as FoPoS by fans) and soon afterwards closed its doors.
On 2004-07-12, it was announced that Bethesda had acquired the Fallout license and was going to develop Fallout 3, but that's another story.
This demo, of course, was never meant to be released to the public,
it was for internal use only. Judging from the time stamps on the
files, it was compiled late in 2003. It was released on 2007-04-02,
when the Van Buren project was long dead. It's main purpose was to
demonstrate the rendering engine. Many gameplay details were not
fully implemented yet, and the demo offers very little gameplay
anyway, in spite of its huge size.
So, a warning beforehand: You will probably spend more time downloading it than playing it. This is not a figure of speech. Regardless of the speed of your connection, be prepared for at least 40 minutes, more realistically an hour download time. And the demo is good for maybe ten or fifteen minutes of gameplay.
There is no installation routine, just unrar it to a folder of your choice and start F3.exe. The screen may stay black for quite a while, get a coffee and be patient. You are then treated to the Interplay, afterwards to the Blackisle animated logos. You can cancel both with esc, which might be a good idea if you want to see the title screen animation in full.
The title screen shows a bald guy in a prison jumpsuit and someone looking like a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, both with some idle animations. In the background, a box car rolls in, the actual title painted on its side. I found that if I didn't escape the Blackisle logo the box car would already be there once the title screen showed.
Of the menu buttons, only Start New Game and Exit Game work. For now, it might be a good idea to exit game. You will find that the demo has created an F3 folder in your standard My Documents folder. Open the F3.ini you find in this folder. Under [Graphics], you will find settings for height and width. Set them to 768 and 1024, respectively. The fonts will display best at this resolution. At the 800×600 resolution the demo starts at, they are nearly unreadable, and some messages are too long for the window they display in. You might also want to set fullscreen to 0 to run the game in a window.
Now that this is taken care of, start the demo again and choose Start New Game. You will be taken to a character creation screen, familiar yet a bit different. You will recognize the bald guy from the title screen as your player character. Due to the limited nature of the demo, it does not matter very much what you do on this screen, but you can explore the settings, which include lots of options for the appearance of your character.
Don't start the game with a female character. She will start with 1/10 hitpoints and won't survive the first hit she takes.
Once you are finished with character creation, you will be taken to a settlements with two brick buildings and some Junktown-style shacks, one of the only two maps the demo contains. The BoS guy from the title screen will stand next to you and introduce himself as a GMC soldier.
Van Buren is not 2D-isometric, it is 3D-rendered in a top-down or isometric perspective similar to Neverwinter Nights. You move your character with the left mouse button, you can move the map with the left and freely rotate the camera with mouse movements while holding down x, something that takes some time to get used to. Theoretically the left and right arrow keys should rotate the map by 45°, but that didn't work for me at all.
That's about all you need to know to get started. Now, what can you actually do in the demo? Not all that much. First you cross the derelict settlement, which has some communist insurgents (the demo equivalent of raiders; I don't think any would have featured in the game proper) to fight and a single shelf to loot. Then you enter the vault, leaving your power-armored companion outside (you can kill him for his gear, he won't fight back), and get a small quest, in the course of which you will pick a locked door and repair some machinery.
It's not much, but it does give you a feeling how Van Buren would have played.
Why 240MB for a demo with only two maps? Well, by now it's pretty obvious that the demo files contain about everything finished at the time, only most of it is not accessible—directly, that is. The GRP file format has already been hacked, giving access to interface graphics (standard targa files) and dialogs:
The file formats for maps and 3D objects are as yet unknown.
What is it?
