Fallout 3: Post-play impressions and reviews [Archive]

mute

October 30th, 2008, 06:43

Reading all the historical pieces around the net and watching the feature on game trailers... i realized i never finished Fallout and Fallout 2. I thought i did manage to get through number 1, and in number 2 i know i lost interest after half the game.

Hm, perhaps i am before my time and really looking forward the consolification seeing i love Dead Space so much. I want to be hand held and led through the experience. Perhaps i should blame the work for frying my brain with solving puzzles and trying to make people work together as a team.

Perhaps i am looking forward to a game where i can enjoy it as a rollercoaster or as a free roamer as time permits.

Anyway, really looking forward to get the game today.

Btw, is there anyone here playing it with the XBOX controller on a PC. (After Dead space i really like it - even replayed crysis warhead with the controller and thought it was cool and fun and easy).

- if i was younger i would have been so right feeling this way. Nowadays it feels like i am betraying my own kind saying that consolifications is a good thing! :)

rune_74

October 30th, 2008, 06:59

Hey basilisk,

Yeah I spent three hours so far as well, I do disagree that its a shooter(why do we always want to place games into genre?) I would more clasify it as a action rpg just because you do not really play this game like a shooter.

I think alot of you will be surprised with just how well they hit the feel of fallout with this one. Props to bethesda for this. I rated it excellent by the way.

Remus

October 30th, 2008, 13:34

How it performs on your system and on what setting? Better still take a screenshot as an appetizer...:)

BTW, anyone getting the Fallout 3's collector edition? I checked but the price kind of scary. How's the Vaul-tec lunch box look like?

SadExchange

October 30th, 2008, 16:01

I've played it for a few hours myself and have quite enjoyed it so far. I, like the previous posters don't really look at it as a shooter, because of how many other things that are in the game, not to mention, the ability to talk your way out of a bad situation.

I have enjoyed the character customization quite a bit and look forward to multiple playthroughs going different routes. And the different customization that can be done with weapons, from what I hear is pretty cool unto itself.

I don't have a terribly powerful rig, mine's a AMD 3000 64, 2 GB Ram, and a Nvidia 7600 GT and I can run it pretty smoothly in medium settings, the engine seems pretty optimized from early estimations, but I think I'll also be picking this up for the Xbox 360 because of how it'll run better overall, maybe towards Christmas or something.

pibbur

October 30th, 2008, 16:31

It's out here on Friday.

Are you sure? It's not that I don't trust you. But here in Norway some shops said 31st of October, others said 30th, so there was some confusion.

It was released today here.

Dhruin

October 31st, 2008, 12:18

Well, I now have a whole three hours under my belt and my thoughts are...mixed. I found the opening truly painful. Just woeful. Getting out into the Wasteland and Megaton was certainly better but it's still missing something for me (thus far).

The wasteland looks and sounds spectacular and the atmosphere is fantastic. It probably looks too crowded but that's being pedantic. I've been a little surprised at the number of skill checks and even consequences - so far, they've done quite well with that.

On the other hand, the early quests I've done have been dull and none of the characters have been interesting. The voice acting is ordinary at best and some of the dialogue is quite awkward.

Lastly, VATS...dunno. It's better than the realtime gunplay but hasn't quite grabbed me yet. Trying to play a sneaky sniper, the gameplay has come off as a bit Deux Ex (not necessarily bad) but I'm not sure VATS can support all the combat.

All that said, there is a solid RPG framework and with some better quests, I might really enjoy this.

mute

October 31st, 2008, 14:04

It sums my experience pretty well too.

The questing however became better last night, then I initially thought. The starting sequence was : "Cool, then i wtf and lastly - please wheres the door, i just don't care".

I am cautiosly positive! .... and hopeful.

mute

October 31st, 2008, 18:40

Hm, this is a game i won't vote on for a while. Exploring the wasteland was so much fun and listen to the radio. I change my mind all the time and i currently love it. Hope its stays in this "zone" ( :) ).

(Playing with a xbox controller on the PC and having Windows Live running. Cool pointless feature - now my brother can keep track off me while he plays NHL! )

souha13

October 31st, 2008, 22:47

I like the darkness of the game. People are shabby and nasty without feeling cliché. Wasteland is atmospheric.

Ive some peeves though. Walking around in houses or dungeons hurts my eyes and brain. Too dark and messy to get about (without constantly using the pipboy which is annoying and on the border to cheating). Melee is ridiculously overpowered. I put no points in melee but stilll have better results than with small guns which has thrice the points. Also VATS is inferior to real time combat.

Dasale

November 1st, 2008, 00:36

Fallout 3 has been released for PC? I believed the initial release was for 360 only.

Mmm last comments from beginning playing aren't that bad. I've seen the collector edition, a big metal box like survival kits in fallout 1 (if I remember well). Damit after Oblivion I swear that I won't be cough again to buy a RPG I don't like at all, I feel curiosity will blow out the good resolutions... When will I learn from past errors? :biggrin:

Alrik Fassbauer

November 1st, 2008, 15:30

(Playing with a xbox controller on the PC

Imho this "Games for Windows" logo certification just boosts the sales of the controller manufacturers, nothing else.

MS isn't manufacturing these controllers as well, are they ?

mute

November 1st, 2008, 16:52

Well, MS is probably getting well paid for the XBOX logo atleast. Games for windows logo isn't the same as they are forcing us to the controller. It merely states that if it supports a controller, then it will support a MS XBOX controller.

I am glad the support is there. Although after i activated the Live part of the game (couldn't resist since i am brainwashed :) ) the controller lost some functionality. I had to delete the fallout.ini files for making it work again. Mostly irritating.

Dasale

November 1st, 2008, 17:18

About logo, they are ugly crap on box games, for example The Witcher Collector and EE suffer of this problem.

The Fallout 3 collector edition manages this problem, it has a light external package to support the logo, and the game box is virgin of any logo. Quite good. That said the package isn't that great, the box is fine but apart that the Fallout 1 puppet is... what it is, the internal game box is just the standard, there's also one making of dvd and a small illustrated book. Ha well I knew its contents.

Ok now waiting one year to play it, the time it gets patched! :biggrin:

txa1265

November 1st, 2008, 17:56

For most games I don't care about the X360 controller, but for platform style stuff it is nice to have logo support. And the PipBoy functionality is more fluid with the controller than the normal PC config.

xSamhainx

November 2nd, 2008, 03:43

finally out of the vault, and i get a lock up. Thank glot that one can ctrl-alt-del into task manager and kill the program!

Explored a little, so far so good. I think the character creation process was interesting, albeit a little drawn out. That's cool tho, now for my initial setup phase where I run around the "opening area" and test out how i want to set up all my buttons and what gunplay and all that is like. I have to say that the existing configuration isnt that bad, and i can play the game switching back and forth from first to third person, exactly like i played Oblivion. Game looks and runs good at 1280 x1024, except for the lock up...

Embolus

November 2nd, 2008, 21:13

I made sacrifices in order to play FO3 this weekend straight; and was pleased. It’s easy to get caught up in exploring every nook and cranny of this post apocalyptic world, and the amount of engaging quests is incredible. I’ve had 3crashes in the 20+ hours I’ve played, which in the scheme of things is not that bad. The game runs great on my ‘medium’ performance pc.

FO3 makes excellent transitions between RPG and FPS, so it’s easy to switch focus on combat or story, which is great for holding my attention at length. I don’t know what else to say really until I’m done: it’s simply a great game.

Go Dogmeat!!!

Dez

November 2nd, 2008, 23:33

Got it for myself this weekend.. It is a fun game that feels like a fallout. The scenery after stepping out of vault 101 really looks spectacular. Barren and dusty land all the way to distant horizon, like a nuke had gone off somewhere. :) When you begin exploring further this new world, you'll get to find signs of life..Human race is really something, no matter how bad things look, we always find our way like roaches. The new way isn't very nice though. The old elementary school for example is quite a nasty place...

Few words about npcs. Imo benth has done some really cool stuff here. Not your generic oblivion characters, nope they are really alive and colourfull people who curse, cry, laugh and so forth. Basicly every range of emotion and personality you can possibly expect from men and women whose whole life is centered around surviving in a hostile environment. Some go totally nuts (church of atom anyone?) or stay focused and use their time effectively. Naturally many people drop somewhere in between these two extremes. Just trying to survive for an other day would be the most typical attitude.

The devs have also writen quite many cool questlines and this time around they are proper rpg quests with choises..so i don't really understand whats this talk of bad quest writing actually is. Some of you guys must have really high standards.

A minor dissapointment for me has been combat. Vats is fun and cool, but its way too easy to kil mobs in vats mode. Although I boosted my agiliy to ten from the begining so maybe its because my character is actually Roland-good with his pistol :) The real time fps combat however is clumsy at best. Dont' get me wrong it does what it should,.but its not very spectacular. Firefights aren't very thrilling if you know what you are doing.

I'd give a grade "good" at this point. (6 hours of playing time).

Maylander

November 3rd, 2008, 12:48

About halfway through it by now, and "Good" seems to fit perfectly. There are too many things annoying me to call it excellent, but it certainly is well above my expectations.

wolfing

November 3rd, 2008, 15:53

Played a lot during the weekend so I probably have some 20+ hours into it. The game is 'good', it's very variable as to what experiences you have in a situation depending on many factors. For example, I read a passage from someone when they went to the 'Underworld' (city of ghouls), and what they described was completely different to what I experienced, but I mean *completely* different, probably because my character's karma is really high and I rejected some options while the other guy probably was more 'shady'. I'm looking forward to replaying the game with a really bad attitude to see the game through different eyes (and probably experience a different game).
As for if the game is a shooter or not, I do think it is a shooter. Not your typical 'shoot everything' shooter, but a shooter nonetheless. A shooter with RPG elements and many options, but combat is shooter-oriented.
The story so far is not strong, maybe because I haven't advanced too far into it (still need to find my father), but there are many side-quests and they're well done.
I loved the introduction to the game, all the way since the moment you're born to the time you leave the vault, well done.
I can't talk about the voice-acting as I ignore that feature in all games (I just read the text, much faster).
I've crashed a few times, but normally not an issue as the game autosaves every time you 'zone', and there are of course the quicksaves.
Game is recommended.

JemyM

November 3rd, 2008, 16:30

Bought the game today. I probably wont be able to give the game any serious time though. Is there anyone who knows of a website that discuss character building and the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system?

rune_74

November 4th, 2008, 01:49

Its kind of funny the oens who gave it negative reviews have nothing to say...the more I play teh more I love this fallout game:)

txa1265

November 4th, 2008, 01:56

Its kind of funny the oens who gave it negative reviews have nothing to say...the more I play teh more I love this fallout game:)

I have yet to finish what I consider to be a 'significant portion' ... ~20 hours out of a 100 hour game? For some that might be more than enough to do a review, but not for me.

JDR13

November 4th, 2008, 04:49

Where are all the FO3 haters now? Those who were claiming the game was going to be "horrible"? They're suddenly nowhere to be found. :)

Embolus

November 4th, 2008, 04:55

Wow... the internets are dead! Everyone is play teh Fallouts!

xSamhainx

November 4th, 2008, 05:45

what ive seen so far in my 4 hours of play I like. So far, Bethesda hit it outta the park imho. I hope it stays that way!

Benedict

November 4th, 2008, 12:34

I thought I'd take advantage of Good Old Games and replay the original fallout as a bit of a warm up, I'd forgotten how awkward the interface was :[]

I'd imagine much of my nostalgia will get beaten out of me in the next few hours of play leaving me free to really enjoy FO3 :)

JemyM

November 4th, 2008, 13:12

I read that "Charisma" was mostly useless, but I decided to go with high charisma anyway. I am not a combat character really so if I fail I will probably have to play the game all over again. Or cheat.

I have just ran the "tutorial" up to the time in which you leave the vault and I found it to feel a lot like fallout even if it feels weird to be "in" the vault rather than looking down from above. There were a few occasions that I got an "Oblivion-feel" but not in a bad way. I enjoy the story so far and for once I thought it was nice to see NPC's who feels more than randomized.

woges

November 4th, 2008, 15:33

I don't think it's as witty and stylish as the originals, it's a lot more "down to earth" which I think was bound to happen. However, it does have rather impressive graphics with the washed-out sky look and long viewing distance, and a lot of work seems to have gone into the crafting of the map/gameworld.

There seems no mysticism in the rpg conversation aspects, that your character is capable of, so you can use the "save before talking" and try untill you get the roll as much as you like. I'm guessing some options won't come up at all if you don't have the required stat/skill score - I certainly haven't had many charisma roll opportunities with my base stat of 5 (4 with my Enclave Power Armour Helmet I'm currently wearing).

I've had very little trouble with crashing or bugs so far and none since I updated to this months Nvidia drivers release. Same system I've had for awhile plays it on high nicely (3800+, 8800GTS, 3GIG RAM edit: XP). I have had some corrupted textures pop up though rare and maybe before I updated can't remember.

Enjoying it so far...

Prime Junta

November 4th, 2008, 16:04

You guys talked me into it. I just bought it. If it disappoints, I swear I'm going to send a Vault Boy voodoo doll stuck full of pins to Bethsoft. Or something.

woges

November 4th, 2008, 16:20

Glorian

November 4th, 2008, 16:36

I think we are going to see a lot of people bash what might be a generally good game simply because it fails to mimic it's predecessors.

It is not Fallout as we know it, but I really have to say I am having fun with it for what it is: a sprawling post-apocalyptic shooter with RPG elements. In some ways it's what I had hoped STALKER would have been. I have rated it "good" after about 3 hours of play time.

Exactly my opinion :-)
It's a solid post-apocalyptic RPG-Shooter with extremlely high production values and I truly enjoy it.

skavenhorde

November 4th, 2008, 16:38

Just got it. Could only get the collectors edition since that is the only one available at this time, but what the hell the lunchbox and bobblehead Vault dweller are a nice touch.

It's pretty much as good as everyone has said, so far. I rely on Vats for every combat situation. I've only been killed once when I ventured too close to the river. Won't go into details but be careful where you venture if you only have a 10mm pistol.

I still think it's not Fallout but it's not that bad as a fun post apocolyptic game. Definatly better than BOS, lol. I guess if they had to do an offshoot of the original isometric Fallout this isn't that bad. I really wanted to hate this game too. I was going to buy it no matter what, but it would of been satisying to know that they screwed it up and we all could of said "I told you so, Troika should of got the IP." However they didn't screw it up. It's not perfect but definatly a lot better than I thought it would be.

I've had the same crashes that mostly everyone else has, but I'm downloading the latest drivers right now and hopefully it will help. *Thanks Woges for the heads up on updating your drivers.

Ionstormsucks

November 4th, 2008, 17:21

I've heard it's pretty short - that true?

woges

November 4th, 2008, 17:26

One thing I'm just wondering about (away from my comp here) is that the Pip-boy 3000 doesn't have a Pip-boy mascot on it. Or did I miss him?

JemyM

November 4th, 2008, 18:03

It feels much like a Bethesda game than a Troika or Interplay one so it may well feel like a vain attempt after getting through the story. The NPCs aren't exactly full of charisma but I thought the same of The Witcher.

I do not know if I can say the same. I do not know what you associate with a "Bethesda game". Sure, this IS the Oblivion engine, that's one thing for sure, but the only things that gave that away for me is the face engine and the fact that almost every item in the game, including kitchen forks/knives, can be picked up.

The quests/dialogue so far felt closer to Bloodlines or KOTOR. I also like that the game isn't strictly good/evil.

The design, the artwork, the look of the game, the sound etc is Fallout. I also realised this morning that I have already associated I don't want to set the world on fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSajHaXt_O8) with the Fallout universe.

wolfing

November 4th, 2008, 18:48

I've heard it's pretty short - that true?
It's as short or as long as you want (basically like the other Fallouts). If you just do the main quest, I guess it can be completed in under 20 hours (like almost any other 'open world' game). If you explore the world and do all the quests, it's probably more than 100 hours. I'm in the middle of the road, as I think most are, basically I do the quests I find without really exploring. So, I start in the vault, I do the quests there, then following the main quest I go to Megaton, then I do the quests I find there. When done I continue the main quest and go to the next place. If in the road there I find some town with more quests I do them. What I don't do is explore just for the sake of exploring. So in my case, I'm thinking the game will be a solid 40 hours or so. (And then, I'm planning on playing it again with a different personality character, which promises to be a completely different experience, so add another 40 or so hours there)

sherwinz28

November 4th, 2008, 19:24

If someone who wanted to hate the game, "likes" it, I'm definately going to get it then. Already ordered a new 8600GTS video card ($20 from Newegg AR) for playing some of the newer games.

woges

November 4th, 2008, 20:13

I do not know if I can say the same. I do not know what you associate with a "Bethesda game". Sure, this IS the Oblivion engine, that's one thing for sure, but the only things that gave that away for me is the face engine and the fact that almost every item in the game, including kitchen forks/knives, can be picked up.

The quests/dialogue so far felt closer to Bloodlines or KOTOR. I also like that the game isn't strictly good/evil.

The design, the artwork, the look of the game, the sound etc is Fallout. I also realised this morning that I have already associated I don't want to set the world on fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSajHaXt_O8) with the Fallout universe.

I don't think the look and art design are the same, the originals are more comic book like a la 2000AD, a "real yet drawn" style (though looking at Van Buren Bethesda seem to have done a fair job of where Interplay were taking it). The way you talk to the NPCs is the same as Oblivion and it's a free roam (for the most part) over the whole game map in 3d. The music is very Morrowind unless you're listening to the radio (both rather different to the John Carpenter eerie ambience of Fallout) but sure there is influence (and homage) to the previous games. After all, little point in buying a license if you're not using any of it. There seems to be more conversational RPG elements than in previous Bethesda endeavors. It's a mix of both styles.

xSamhainx

November 4th, 2008, 21:13

im not too thrilled w/ the vats thing. I mean, from an entertainment standpoint - sure. I like watching the head go boom real good too, im down w/ the old ultraviolence as much as the next fun-loving cyber criminal.

But from a utilitarian point of view, it's like im cheating or something. I just cant help but feel a little diminished when i square off mano/mano and suddenly freeze time and go grab something out of the fridge while my bullets careens toward my defenseless opponent. I know for a fact that samurais wouldnt be hip to it, and while im not as stringently bound to a code of honor or anything I still like to think of myself as a legitimate badass now and then.

Still kinda torn on how much I'm going to use it, as it stands now I'm not really using it unless I know Ive already pretty much beaten the opponent and want to see him/her/it go boom for the yucks. Pending further investigation

Prime Junta

November 4th, 2008, 21:59

Walp, I just started it and... it's okay. Not mind-blowingly wonderful, but not cringe-inducingly awful either. Definitely more Bethsoft than Fallout, but in a good, Morrowindy kind of way. Writing is more Bioware than Fallout -- "How nice to see you, stranger, now let me tell you about my mother..." -- and lacks Fallout's twisted, light-hearted, evil wit.

Early days yet, but I have to admit that BN and VD nailed it -- it's a pretty good game, as long as you forget it's supposed to be a Fallout sequel. Oh, and, melee definitely seems too easy. I'm a total wimp (STR 5, no points in melee), and I easily beat up multiple thugs and armed guards during the tutorial mission.

Dhruin

November 4th, 2008, 22:06

I do not know if I can say the same. I do not know what you associate with a "Bethesda game". Sure, this IS the Oblivion engine, that's one thing for sure, but the only things that gave that away for me is the face engine and the fact that almost every item in the game, including kitchen forks/knives, can be picked up.

The quests/dialogue so far felt closer to Bloodlines or KOTOR. I also like that the game isn't strictly good/evil.

The design, the artwork, the look of the game, the sound etc is Fallout. I also realised this morning that I have already associated I don't want to set the world on fire (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSajHaXt_O8) with the Fallout universe.

Really? I have found the writing mediocre at best and downright awful at worst - I thought Brian Mitsoda did pretty good stuff by video game standards in Bloodlines. I really can't see the writing or quests as anywhere near Bloodlines.

The Oblivion comparisons are everywhere - from the identical conversation system to the way the Pipboy is organised similarly to Oblivion's interface to many of the same animations. It's definitely not "Oblivion with guns" but there are plenty of similarities.

I also don't think the art is the same but I must say I'm really enjoying their version of a post-apoc urbane landscape.

But the writing....really?

Still kinda torn on how much I'm going to use it, as it stands now I'm not really using it unless I know Ive already pretty much beaten the opponent and want to see him/her/it go boom for the yucks. Pending further investigation

In my experience, you'll tear through your ammo way too fast without it. Once you get to dealing with supermuntants and the like regularly, I wouldn't want to go toe-to-toe with them.

KasperFauerby

November 4th, 2008, 22:39

I voted "Excellent" for this one! Really enjoying it so far. In fact it's the best game I've played for a long long time... since "Eschalon Book 1" I think :) A nice surprise after a couple of let-downs (on a varying scale) like "Mass Effect", "Warhead", "Sacred 2" and "Assassins Creed".

woges

November 4th, 2008, 22:49

I've had a full on lock up tonight, had to switch the computer off kind. Just to amend what I said before about problems.

txa1265

November 5th, 2008, 00:47

Really? I have found the writing mediocre at best and downright awful at worst - I thought Brian Mitsoda did pretty good stuff by video game standards in Bloodlines. I really can't see the writing or quests as anywhere near Bloodlines.

I think I find the writing a bit better than you ... but agree on the 'not up to X' standards (insert classic RPG of choice here).

I find it best to think of it as a STALKER-like with more extensive RPG elements.

HiddenX

November 5th, 2008, 06:33

Bethesda is the opposite of hardcore rpg gaming

1.) because VD said it is to easy - I play on "Hard" - nevertheless I can kill every guard in the tutorial with with the greatest of ease :(

2.) After the beginning they tell me I can change all my attributes - choices WITHOUT consequences - I hate this.

Fallout or not Fallout -> I fear here comes Oblivion again -> 200 wasted playing hours.

... back to Far Cry 2 Multiplayer Online

PS:
fighting in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was H.A.R.D.

Prime Junta

November 5th, 2008, 07:27

2.) After the beginning they tell me I can change all my attributes - choices WITHOUT consequences - I hate this.

I disagree on this point. It would be highly annoying to have to replay the beginning every time you wanted to experiment with a different character build. This whole interactive character generation thingy is a Bethsoft signature feature, and it pretty much requires this twist.

Of course, there's no reason they couldn't have done a plain ol' fill-in-the-sheet character generation thing either. But I kinda like the... what's the word again... "immersiveness" of the in-world approach.

Dhruin

November 5th, 2008, 09:07

GhanBuriGhan

November 5th, 2008, 09:43

Well, it sounds like I will be getting it. The reviews are near unanimously good to very good and more importantly indicating that it's an actual RPG. And even critical minds like VD, BrotherNone and Dhruin seem to agree. In addition the modding animals at the TES forums have started modding this game even before the bloody CS is out. I just love these guys. So I guess I'll put FO3 on my xmas shopping list :)
Thanks to everyone contributing to the various discussions on this game, it was very useful to me.

HiddenX

November 5th, 2008, 10:58

The main problem with Morrowind and Oblivion:
After 10 - 15 gaming hours you are godlike, if you're godlike character-building makes no more sense (Auto-Leveling made things even more meaningless).
I played through both games (Morrowind ca. 400 hours and Oblivion ca. 200 hours) in search for a challenge I rarely found them. I enjoyed them as an easy action adventure but not for the character building.
The last Bethesda-games in which you need to powerplay to survive and build a powerful character were Battlespire and Daggerfall.

Prime Junta

November 5th, 2008, 11:16

The main problem with Morrowind and Oblivion:
After 10 - 15 gaming hours you are godlike, if you're godlike character-building makes no more sense (Auto-Leveling made things even more meaningless).

I agree.

However, FO3 doesn't have the "jump up and down to level up" mechanic -- it has a traditional "level up and assign points" mechanic. I don't know (yet) how well it's balanced, but normally that would lead to genuine character differentiation. I don't know if powergaming is necessary to win (probably not), but it's quite likely that experimenting with different builds will lead to different gameplay experiences -- stealth/melee/firearms/speech, etc.

Remus

November 5th, 2008, 11:24

I will order the game as well, maybe this weekend together with few other titles. With an active modding community, the few problems such as console friendly interface will be corrected soon.

Maylander

November 5th, 2008, 12:00

I find it very well balanced actually. You might run out of ammo a lot, which can cause a lot of trouble, but this is the Wasteland - you're supposed to run out of ammo. Other than that, it's fairly challenging if you play a realistic "roleplay" character (as in, not a powerhouse), and it certainly has quite a few choices with consequences.

In my opinion, this is the best game Bethesda has made so far (my previous favourite being Morrowind).

woges

November 5th, 2008, 13:19

I voted acceptable, the open wasteland is the best part of the game for me. The NPCs and story writing have got nothing on the likes of Bloodlines as far as I'm concerned. Maybe playing a bastard is more interesting?

CarcusRex

November 5th, 2008, 22:40

Bethesda is the opposite of hardcore rpg gaming

1.) because VD said it is to easy - I play on "Hard" - nevertheless I can kill every guard in the tutorial with with the greatest of ease :(

It IS just the tutorial, you know. Have you ever played a game where the tutorial was anything really challenging?... You know this part of any game is not about challenge... like all tutorials, it's just to get you familiar with the feel for the mechanics and the combat... nothing more. I mean, your just a lowly, 19 yr old, lvl 1 punk... if the devs wanted to apply 'reality' to this part of the game, you'd be dead before you even started the game... going up against a platoon of experienced armed guards. I don't know why you let this bother you.

You want challenge... go out into the wastes, and before going to Megaton, just roam around a while. You'd better have a lot of stimpaks. I did just that. I died quite a few times... although, in the end, I did get to Megaton with a sniper rifle and a flamer, which I'm woefully unskilled to use well yet, and I arrived with just two bars of HP left... the walking dead, hehehe...

Dhruin

November 5th, 2008, 23:23

I agree with you but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have written a better scenario for the tutorial that at least made some reasonable sense. Shouldn't the overseer and/or guards own my newbie ass, which teaches me the perfectly reasonable point that you won't necessarily be able to cake-walk over everything you see? Instead, the tutorial teaches you that everything can be killed without difficulty or consequence and then sets you free in an open gameworld where you could wander into a camp of super mutants and get mini-gunned straight down.

It's a pedantic point but this isn't a technical hurdle - it just takes some common-sense writing.

CarcusRex

November 6th, 2008, 06:16

You'll get no argument from me that the dialogue mechanics and story flow offer little to no measure of common sense. The writers were sorely lacking in this department, not only in the tutorial, but throughout the game. But the implementation of a tutorial, as adopted in most games today, is not at all about teaching you how to survive in the gameworld, what to expect from the inhabitants, and preparing you for how you should approach the world, it's simply about familiarizing the player with the controls, etc...

I just don't see the need for heady critisizm when it comes to the silly tutorial not being challenging enough. But that's just my opinion. The way I see it, the challenge lies beyond the Vault.

As for the dialogues, I'm not so much unhappy with the content of the scripts, it's just that Bethesda didn't use much logic or sense in how they use the dialogues. Player responses take too much for granted, and many times don't seem to flow with the proceedings.

But the game has it's moments. I can't say it's horrible in any way. Just a little moronic at times.

Corwin

November 6th, 2008, 07:38

Beth$oft has never had decent dialogue in any of their games!!

xSamhainx

November 6th, 2008, 08:18

oh come on, like you wouldnt ask some random stranger that walked into a bar to set off a nuclear warhead in the middle of town? ='.'=

Some of it's kinda lame, but most of the time the greatest offenders are people that just come off as total assholes, without any provocation. Then again, everyone is having a real bad day in the greater scope of things...

Prime Junta

November 6th, 2008, 09:20

Beth$oft has never had decent dialogue in any of their games!!

True, and by Bethsoft's standards FO3 dialog is actually rather good. Unfortunately, FO standards are rather higher than Bethsoft standards.

But how hard can it be to find some writers who can... you know, write?

Jaz

November 6th, 2008, 10:25

Beth$oft has never had decent dialogue in any of their games!!Umm, I thought dialogue in Redguard and even Battlespire was pretty good. Haven't ever met a more annoying bunch of self-righteous virtual pricks than the denizens of the Battlespire, my character and her replies included.

After reading all of the posts down there
| I feel an urge to play FO3 after all, despite the setting.
|
|
v

JDR13

November 6th, 2008, 10:48

I feel an urge to play FO3 after all, despite the setting.

The setting is one of it's strong points. Of course if you don't like post-apocalyptic.....

Maylander

November 6th, 2008, 14:04

GhanBuriGhan

November 6th, 2008, 15:10

That being said - Black Isle had the best writers in the business. Comparing that writing to anything else isn't really fair. :)

Oh it's entirely fair. It's something to aspire to. Sooner or later something will come along to surpass it, even if it doesn't look so right now. Computer/Video Gaming is a terribly young medium - by the time its as old as the printed word, or even film, I hope it will have created its own fair share of storytelling masterworks, hopefully.

Naked Ninja

November 6th, 2008, 15:44

Shouldn't the overseer and/or guards own my newbie ass, which teaches me the perfectly reasonable point that you won't necessarily be able to cake-walk over everything you see? Instead, the tutorial teaches you that everything can be killed without difficulty or consequence and then sets you free in an open gameworld where you could wander into a camp of super mutants and get mini-gunned straight down.

It's a pedantic point but this isn't a technical hurdle - it just takes some common-sense writing.

Agreed. What makes it worse is you can explain the fact that the guards are a cakewalk fairly easily. Just add in some dialogue explaining that the guards are vault volunteers who have never actually seen any REAL action, kinda like security guards at the mall, and it helps explain why a fit, young adult could beat them fairly easily, at least in melee.

Only played about 5 hours, but my finding is that the tutorial level/megaton was actually the worst part of the game, it seems to be getting better as I venture out further.

fragonard

November 6th, 2008, 21:15

FO3 is OK, I guess, but I was hoping for more. After about 15 hours of play, it's already getting old. I loaded it up last night and started to play but after a few minutes I quit and reloaded a Mount&Blade save and had some fun for an hour.

Dhruin

November 6th, 2008, 22:03

The writing in FO3 is miles ahead of Oblivion though, and the characters you meet feel so much more like actual people than the idiots in Oblivion. One thing I like is that some of the chatter you can overhear as you pass by actually makes sense, instead of "Have you heard anything about the king of thieves?" - "I bought an apple today".

That's not my experience so far. I agree about the chatter but despite a bunch of misgivings about Oblivion, I found a number of the quests interesting and even a little creative (within the confines of their linear-with-no-choices structure). So far, I really haven't found any interesting or creative quests in FO3. I'm really enjoying wandering the wasteland and I'm glad they put a bunch of speech checks in dialogue but eveything has been "fetch" or "kill". Admittedly, I've put more time into random exploring than specifically looking for quests, so maybe I've just missed them so far.

woges

November 6th, 2008, 22:22

Crashes a lot more with this mini patch for some reason.

Corwin

November 7th, 2008, 00:08

Never be the first to try a Patch!! :)

skavenhorde

November 7th, 2008, 04:03

I ran into a certain area that was badly executed. It had so much potential to be an intersting area, but instead the writers screwed it up horribly by not explaining what the heck was going on.

This area is a little west of Megaton, if you have explored west of Megaton maybe you came across this area and had a different experience or even a quest associated with it. Read the spoiler if you've gone west of Megaton.

There is a vault west of Megaton, vault 106. When you get there you come across one of only two computers that you can hack in this vault. The computer talks about gas and people acting strange. Then you go farther into this area, kill some insane vault people and start to have flashes.

Farther down you kill more guys, read a note from someone tripping out and come across another computer that says the security should stay in the designated spots till after the experiment.

So you get to the end of this vault, come across a scientist, kill him and that's it. No more... Not one damn word about what the scientist was doing there or anything. This could of been an interesting sidequest or not even a quest just a place to explore, but after I killed the scientist there wasn't a computer or notes or anything to explain what he was doing there and why.

Anyone get a quest assoicitated with this vault or come across something maybe I missed? If not, then man they could of turned that vault and story into something a hell of a lot better than what it is now.

JDR13

November 7th, 2008, 04:43

fragonard

November 7th, 2008, 04:45

I agree; it seems that the main reason for vault 106 was to have a place to put a "bobblehead"].
The more I play, the less I respect Beth's design choices. I'm about ready to chuck it in. This game could have been so much better with just a little more attention to detail.

skavenhorde

November 7th, 2008, 05:25

skavenhorde, it sounds like you might have overlooked something. I seriously doubt that was all there was to the situation. The problem with large sandbox games is that it's easy to screw up quests by killing the wrong person, or by talking to npcs in the wrong order.

That's what I was thinking too. That's why I asked the question :) If anyone has run across a quest for this particular area or maybe I did miss out on a note on the ground or something (FLASHLIGHTS would be a nice little invention, lol). I've also come across a few NPCs out in the Wasteland with names that just attacked me and I was thinking I hope I didn't miss out on something, but this was a little different. They could of at least put a note or something at the end explaining what happened. It's like they teased you with the info on the two computers then decided it would be too much work to put one more computer in at the end of the area.

The school near Megaton with the Raiders was great, well not great but interesting at least. I went there with no quest and found a note on a dead raider explaining that they were trying to dig into the Vault and were attacked by ants or you could find this info by hacking the computer. Then you go to the digsite kill the ants. Everything makes sense, sorta. It's hard to believe they would just dig all that way into a vault but hell they're raiders, not the smartest people in the world, so at least I understood why the raiders were there and what they were up to.

One or two notes and a computer are great narrators. I wish they had more voice recorded messages like System Shock 2, especially in that vault. The spooky atmosphere, the flashes and then have voice recordings of the citizens going insane would of been great. Instead you just got one note from someone tripping out on acid or something. There is so much missed potential for that one little area.

@Frag my man, I think you should put some "spoilers" around that information. Some people might not know about that certain goodie there and might want to find it for themselves :)

Maylander

November 7th, 2008, 14:35

I experienced the exact same thing as you skavenhorde, and I still haven't got a clue as to what was actually going on there.

I also experienced something very odd in there - every now and then, the light would turn pink/purple-ish, and it's like I was in vault 101 again - I saw the girl who helped me escape 101 run down a hallway, and I even saw a scientist named "Dad" one time. I'm thinking there must be some sort of gas that makes you go a little crazy in there.

Edit: Here is the solution to Vault 106:
http://gamesblog.ugo.com/index.php/gamesblog/more/fallout_3_vault_106_walkthrough/

Anyway, I have now completed it once, and started a new character who will try to make a few different choices to experience more of the game. All in all, Fallout 3 is well above my expectations (not saying a lot, since it's been quite some time since I was a fan of Bethesda). I enjoyed it a lot, and hope to be done with the 2nd run through it by the time Wrath of the Lich King and NWN2: Storm of Zehir are released.

CarcusRex

November 8th, 2008, 00:44

I read a lot how while FO3 is a fairly good game unto itself, it's NOT in line with the fallout universe, and its a poor successor to the franchize even if it is fun to play.

After spending about 10 hours with the game, I have to disagree... to a degree. I think, in large part, this looks, feels, and smells a lot like the Fallout1/2 universe and is a fairly decent progression on what is an aging game. After all these years, Beth's interpretation is not all bad. And I just can't see where this "Oblivion with guns" idea comes from. Comparing this game with Oblivion is like comparing apples to oranges.

Other than lacking in sofistication when it comes to NPC personalities, and fairly poor implimentation of dialogue branching (true, I admit, a let down, and what we all knew would be Beth's weak spot), everything else is Fallout to me. You've got all the chem stuff goin' on... along with addiction if your not careful; book-reading stat increases; brahmn milk, stimpaks, 50's post punk everywhere you look; what I think is a very cool Pip Boy interface - which is a good progression for the franchize; you've got good computer usage stuff... links, quest info notes, activations, errors and technical gliches gallor, unlocking doors, hacking (I really like the wordplay hacking minigame) - all fallouty fun stuff. Many different routes to take for different situations: lockpick skill too low, don a stat boosting garment, drop a mentat... or if that doesn't work, do the same with science and hack a terminal to get into that safe or past that door or by that gun turret. Short term boosting of S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats corrolates to boosts in skills - which leads to tactical options; gunplay is vicious and satisfying, all the gore is there, and you can get your ass kicked in a hury in some situations... where using frag mines and grenades have definite uses, and knowing just when to break out the missile launcher, or perhaps switch to your shishkabob at the right time to save ammo all lead to some degree of tactical involvment. Intermingling between Vats and straight shooting feels good to me. (I use Vats sparingly)

Yes, dialogue can be lame at times, but at least you've got skill checks. And skills make a difference, where low skilled big guns will leave you emptying a full minigun magazine into an enemy at close range without doing much damage... which is excellent in the consequenses department - indeed a good incentive for lvling when you imagine all the carnage you can deliver later with a better skill rank. You've definately got the atmosphere, the desolation and utter destruction, the sense of despair and survival. And I don't know why, perhaps because of the ballistic weapon combat, with its array of ammo types and all the post modern do-hickies - as compared to a fantacy setting with swords and magic, but I find the looting a juicy part of the gameplay.

I don't know... its all very falloutesq to me. How is all this stuff NOT Fallout, besides the gay NPCs??? (I may have just answered my own question... but it's only one part of the whole)

Okay, Fallout buffs... let me have it. Rip me a new one... Yeowser!

P.S. Why did they have to make some of the characters so f@#@#@G CORNY??? I'm thinking Moira and doc Luskin (if that's his name) for starts. Their corniness is really a drain on the immersiveness of the game world. Did the devs really think such gayness was funny, or something? They've got the creativity and imagination... but their sorely lacking in maturity.

Dhruin

November 8th, 2008, 08:41

Just finished two major sidequests (Arefu / The Family and There! / Fire Ants). In both cases I enjoyed the general exploration / killing things but I'd really like some quality content for a change of pace. Both of those were rather disappointing in the end.

So, for those a fair way in, what's the best sidequest you've come across in terms of dialogue, choices, creative scenarios, great NPCs. Best use spoiler tags but you don't need to give all the details away - just a location or direction and who to talk to or look for.

txa1265

November 8th, 2008, 15:07

Just finished two major sidequests (Arefu / The Family and There! / Fire Ants). In both cases I enjoyed the general exploration / killing things but I'd really like some quality content for a change of pace. Both of those were rather disappointing in the end.

I used my intelligence and charisma to work my way through the family quest, which seemed really cool a=until being back in Arefu ... then you have all those plastic idiotic NPC's doing silly things that add nothing. I agree - disappointing ending.

Prime Junta

November 8th, 2008, 15:15

I'm starting to enjoy it too.

Rolled up a new character -- max Intelligence and Charisma, high Luck, medium Agility, low S, P, E, tagged Speech, Repair, and Small guns; made him black and named him Barack. ;)

Now I've been wandering around the DC wasteland being charming to people and, occasionally, shooting their heads off. Haven't got too deep into any quests yet. Observations so far:

* Nice scenery. Very rich, detailed, and interesting take on the post-apoc-50's-kitch-punk theme. If anywhere, Fallout's legacy lives here.
* Bad writing. I haven't met any characters beyond the "painted stick with a corny accent" level yet. If anywhere, here's where the game lets down the FO franchise most.
* You can tell the devs had fun making it, and that means a great deal for any game.
* The combat is OK -- nothing spectacular, but not too bad either, and the character skills appear to factor into them nicely. This is more Deus Ex than Fallout, Oblivion, or VtM:B. Truth be told, I'm enjoying the combat a lot more than I did in FO -- running away is a viable survival strategy, and I don't get anywhere near as much bogged down shooting rat packs, since that can be done on the fly. Not much to do with FO here, but it works, so I'm not complaining. Seems fairly well balanced -- occasionally challenging without being insta-killing.
* It seems a bit too generous with the junk. Lots of guns, ammo, food, and medicine lying around, which sort of undermines the "post-apocalyptic wasteland" thing IMO.
* Too many things that don't make sense. FO's world was internally very consistent -- you really felt like you were intruding on something that was there despite you. Here, there are lots of places that feel like set pieces put together for your enjoyment.
* Technically solid -- runs impeccably on my (somewhat aging) rig and looks and sounds great; I get occasional crashes on startup and on quit (even post-patch), but only one freeze on scene transition so far when playing.

I'd rate this as a solid "Buy" thus far -- it's not like we're swamped with cRPG's these days.

Remus

November 8th, 2008, 16:34

I'm starting to enjoy it too.

Rolled up a new character -- max Intelligence and Charisma, high Luck, medium Agility, low S, P, E, tagged Speech, Repair, and Small guns; made him black and named him Barack. ;)

That's interesting, imaging him running around preaching "change" and "yes we can" in a game with famous tagline "war, war never changes". Let me know how well he survives with those non-combat skills and traits...

Foss

November 8th, 2008, 17:05

I used my intelligence and charisma to work my way through the family quest, which seemed really cool a=until being back in Arefu ... then you have all those plastic idiotic NPC's doing silly things that add nothing. I agree - disappointing ending.

Did you return to the "vampire" leader again? It doesn't say in the quest I think, but he does want to hear if the town acceptet the agreement and reward you for it.

woges

November 8th, 2008, 19:25

There's far too much of:
"Too many things that don't make sense. FO's world was internally very consistent -- you really felt like you were intruding on something that was there despite you. Here, there are lots of places that feel like set pieces put together for your enjoyment."

I also thought:
"Technically solid -- runs impeccably on my (somewhat aging) rig and looks and sounds great; I get occasional crashes on startup and on quit (even post-patch), but only one freeze on scene transition so far when playing."

But after a fair bit of rambling and some broken quests the game is crashing rather consistently every 5min. Maybe that was patching mid play through?

Starwars

November 8th, 2008, 20:29

I'm so-so on the game. It's one of those games where the highpoint is the initial exploration, and it's a lot of fun in this game. While it's inconsistant to say the least, some areas are very atmospheric and well done.

Once I explored most of the map though, I'm really feeling the repetition step in. I tried restarting as an "evil" character and I'm actually very disappointed so far in this part of the game. Many quests simply don't have an evil way of solving them, unless you want to blow everyones brains out. The much touted Saving Megaton vs Blowing up Megaton isn't a fork in the road at all. Gameplay wise, there is no incentive to blow up Megaton because even if you save it, you can still gain access to Tenpenny Towers and the main quest associated with it. You miss out on the Tenpenny suite, but if you save Megaton you get a pad there instead.

There are choices in this game, which is a wonderful breath of fresh air after Oblivion. But most are really lacking in consequences. The ending was gigantic disappointment in this regard as well.

It's a really solid Elder Scrolls-y PA game though. But as with those games, the more I play Fallout 3, the more the design flaws starts to emerge and ruin the experience.

I do not think it's good when judged as a sequel to the Fallouts but it's definetely worth a look if you like the freeroaming nature of the Elder Scrolls and could do with a bit more... Hm, personality injected into the game.

mute

November 8th, 2008, 20:52

Waited for my opinion until i finished it. And i must say that this was a really good experience. I had no CTDs in game but got one once when i exited the game.

I found the MQ really satisfying, don't know if i need to see the other endings though. I am however curious about lots of choices i did in the game. The final play time, in game clocked in at 25 hours. But seeing that there is alot of reloads when i was dying i guess i took me 26-27 hours to beat it first time through. I utilized some fast travels, and did some quest i wanted to do because i found them. But i could easily have done more!

I must say that the experience was the best ever from a bethesda game. I felt connected to the game and i will most certainly try it again. There is alot still unexplored.

I feared the level cap a little. But i ended up only beeing level 16. I have no feeling off rushing through the game. So i think it was spot on. I don't have so much time playing so for me to be able to finish a game is an accomplish in it self.

Its not the "greatest game", it could have been better. Some part in the MQ i really felt WOW - i even stopped wathcing TV for se what would happened next.

Never bought a addon to a game unless it was included in a game of the year package. But i do think i will be very curious about what they will release in the future. Hopefully they'll release some other odd 20hours adventure to complete.

So to sumerize my experience: A good game, well deserved to be played!

Dhruin

November 8th, 2008, 23:59

So, come on....someone must have seen some really compelling quests to direct me to?

Starwars

November 9th, 2008, 00:07

The actual quests are really quite uninteresting now that you mention it which is a real shame. The Tenpenny vs Ghoul situation has an interesting twist to it depending on your choices, but it leaves the whole thing feel very unfinished and the twist would've been better left in an ending slide.

Most of the fun I got from the game is exploring certain areas. The Dunwich Building (southwest corner of the map) is good for example. But yeah, the quest content is actually not very interesting.

woges

November 9th, 2008, 03:31

I re-installed my divers and it seems to crash less often, though I'm still getting hard BSOD crashes in XP.

Try the Android quest in Rivet City it seems to have quite a few options on it's outcome.

CarcusRex

November 9th, 2008, 06:49

I'd have to say the Android quest in Rivet city has been the best implemented so far in my experience. Three choices to conclude it, a fairly decent reward (at least on one of the choices... nice Plasma rifle which can turn your enemies into a viscus, glowing green puddle of goo with a crit hit... nice!) multible inquiries needed, and I liked that after finding some pieces of the puzzle, you had new dialogue options to inquire further. Fairly decent... as far as RPG quests go.

CarcusRex

November 9th, 2008, 07:05

Hey, Skavenhorde, hold down the key you've assigned for your PipBoy to toggle your flashlight.

mute

November 9th, 2008, 09:11

One surprising sidequest apperared to me when i was passing by Vault 101. It had some interesting ideas to beat it.

Also, another particular quest, although i think its connected with the MQ, but you don't have to make it if you find other ways around it make me think about Deus-Ex.

I really didn't want to do it the "obvious" way so i stormed in guns blazing. Beeing "the good" guy. Surprised how i earned Karma doing it.

It seems that most solution has different way to solve it. And pointing out one particular "grand" quest is hard. Most interesting quests i stumbled upon.

I think however that doing research for the "book" was one of the best way to get introduced into the world.

My findings is that the sidequest isn't "good" on their own. But when they appeared for me i did enjoy them immensly. They added to the universe and the experience.

Many quest was connected to and referred to by other quests. It made everything more beliveable. BUT i also think that it will differ from person to person. How you choose to do and play it. I followed the mainquest pretty strahightforward and always felt like i had to replay the game to experience it so i didn't bother on exploring to much. That i wanted to do in my next play through.

(Its hard writing about good quest since i don't want to mention them since then, if i had read about them i would probably gone: Ah, now that is that quest! :) )

Dasale

November 9th, 2008, 11:33

Is it really the first free bug game released since decades? :biggrin: I wonder if it worth to wait next patch or not.

Elwro

November 9th, 2008, 12:16

It's not entirely bug-free. E.g. there are situations in which you character knows something (s)he shouldn't have any idea about, which is shown in the dialogue options.

Also, my game crashed twice when loading a savegame. I hope they fix this.

Ionstormsucks

November 9th, 2008, 12:32

Bah I really don't know if I should buy the game. On the one hand I really want to, but then again there is a lot of funky stuff coming out this month...

Elwro

November 9th, 2008, 12:47

Still, this one won't be hitting the bargain bin anytime soon...

Dasale

November 9th, 2008, 12:54

Bah I really don't know if I should buy the game. On the one hand I really want to, but then again there is a lot of funky stuff coming out this month...
I already bought Fallout 3 (not sure when I'll play it) because I felt fun to have the collector edition even if the 3 isn't that good. I wonder what CRPG "funky stuff coming out this month"?

Elwro

November 9th, 2008, 13:04

Depending on location, and loosening the RPG requirement, there's at least Sacred 2 and King's Bounty to consider.

Personally, I was also thinking about the new Colonisation because I simply love Sid Meier's games. So for me, the last month brought 4 titles I'd at least consider buying.

Dasale

November 9th, 2008, 13:21

Ha ok I understand what you mean. Well trying Sacred 2 demo disgusted me, I won't buy any Russian video game or music production until a long time and I'll wait much more patches before trying a copy, and I agree Colonization is an interesting approach, Civ4 has been the best of the series with Civ1 on Mac, in fact I already bought too Colonization and not yet played.

Ionstormsucks

November 9th, 2008, 15:51

I already bought Fallout 3 (not sure when I'll play it) because I felt fun to have the collector edition even if the 3 isn't that good. I wonder what CRPG "funky stuff coming out this month"?

Well, I'm not playing just CRPGs... unfortunately other genres cost money too. WotLK is coming out (which I'll buy anyway - resistance is futile), Left 4 Dead is coming out (which I'll also buy because I'm a huge fan of zombie horror), then there is The Chronicles of Spellborn and Mines of Moria which I'll might have a look at, so... it's just a lot of money at a time.

Maylander

November 10th, 2008, 12:10

I agree that the android quest is one of the best questlines. Also, I really like exploring the Vaults and trying to figure out what went wrong - it's often hard to figure out, and with too little information available, but it's still possible to complete the puzzle.

Prime Junta

November 10th, 2008, 12:47

I must've totally missed out the complexities on that one:

I got the android quest at the science lab in Rivet City. Then I noticed that Sister has unusually glittery eyes, just like the Canadian's android bodyguard (not to mention the giveaway in Blade Runner, which this was obviously referencing), so I went and snooped in his hotel room. Found the evidence, got approached by the Railroad person, agreed to help her, took the part to Commonwealth guy, end of quest. Left me thinking "WTF, was that it?" (Was it?)

woges

November 10th, 2008, 12:52

The ambience of the Vaults is very similar to the originals I felt, they use music that's very similar to the original underground, rather than the orchestral score you hear above ground. The 3d works really well in this situation because not being able to look around a corner adds a certain suspense.

woges

November 10th, 2008, 12:58

PJ, that was nothing like my experience with that quest, interested to know if you get a follow up from that conclusion.

GothicGothicness

November 10th, 2008, 13:09

I won't buy any Russian video game or music production until a long time and I'll wait much more patches before trying a copy

If you are talking about kings bounty, just reconsider it, first of all it is the most bug free game I played in a long long time. After I solved the crashing issues, it has been rock stable, and I haven't encountered a single bug so far. I am just telling you to reconsider and just buy it, it is the best game in a long long time, much better than any products from any other country as of this year.

And it is availiable as a silk smooth 30 minutes ( with my connection ) download from gamersgate for just $40 ( a steal ), which also gives you the patch and a manual. If you have problem with the game they'll refund you.

Maylander

November 10th, 2008, 13:41

The android quest:
Basically, you can complete the android quest about halfway through it, by doing what PJ did. However, if you want the full experience, you have to learn from various places that a Dr H. Petterwhatever did surgery on the android. When confronting Dr H. Petterwhatever he tells you everything - the identity of the robot, the surgery, etc. You now have a few options: Tell the robot everything, but hide his identity, and recieve one of the best weapons in the game - an uber plasma rifle (special version that's even more uber than the normal ones). Tell Zimmerman about the robot - recieve a special perk with some significant permanent bonus. I believe you can also get both the weapon, and the perk, if you first talk to the robot, agree to keep his identity safe, and then talk to Zimmerman and tell him everything. Haven't tried though, since I usually play a good karma character.

Elwro

November 10th, 2008, 13:42

As a die-hard fan of the original two games, with strong preference to TB-combat and having no qualms with the isometric look... I'm having a blast with Fallout 3. Sure, it has a fair share of goofiness, but so far the good bits have overgrown the bad bits for me. It's nice there are numerous skill- and statchecks. I constantly feel challenged and am always low on bottlecaps and ammo. Exploration is great fun.

woges

November 10th, 2008, 13:59

Maylander:

You won't lose any Karma once you have permission to off "Tyrell" so you can take his gift then deal with him. That's one of the reasons I felt it was a Fallout quest because you can exploit the situation for more gain, of course, you don't have to do this.

Remus

November 10th, 2008, 14:45

i'm surprise to hear praise on Fallout 3 coming from RPG Codex's review (chefe) and some of its members..;)

JemyM

November 18th, 2008, 11:58

Ok, here goes...

I have been playing Fallout 3 for a couple of days now, solved some quests, done some progress on the main story and gotten used to the game.

The Good
I remember when I was playing Gothic and I found it difficult to compare the game with something else, so I compared it with Fallout. Why? The free-roaming experience was rare back then. I loved the kind of game that allows you to create a character then go out to explore the world your way, getting by through the unique skills of yours. Well, Fallout 3 is probably the best free-roaming RPG in a long time and it really does the thing proper. Unlike Oblivion I am actually trying to explore the various places I see because most of them actually feels unique. I find exploration fun, and that's a thumbs up to Bethesda.

I also like the radio. It's a small but nice touch. Sometimes I just have to stay up for awhile and listen to the latest announcement, and it does mimic what I am doing in the game, quests I solved, my behavior etc. And being able to listen to old songs is another nice touch. I miss the unique kind of music that the first two games had though.

I actually found the V.A.T.S. system kinda useful. It's an unique take on the FPS+RPG thing. I thought I would play the game like an FPS, but instead I am using V.A.T.S all the time.

There are games that are simply nice but simple, that provide a brief experience and little extras. Then there are those games that are worked through and keeps surpising you. F3 seem to belong to the second type.

The Bad
So far I found the dialogue to be predictable and the story havn't gave me "woah, I hadn't expected that" kind of experience yet. Bethesda really need to hire a good writer for their next game. I think they can afford it... It's a tremendous improvement over Oblivion though so they are heading into the right direction.

I am mising a party. I know that you can hire companions but I haven't found one yet. I will have to get back on that point.

So far I havn't felt that my stats matter that much. I have a character with 9 charisma, 9 luck, and started out with very low strength and endurance and mid-range agility/perception. I do not have any trouble winning fights but I do not see much of extra dialogue where my high charisma makes a difference. I like that they actually are using their skill system in dialogue, it just could have been done better. With Biowares dump in Mass Effect and Jade Empire, I have felt that properly made skill systems have been missing out recently, so I am hopeful bethesda will keep on trying.

The overhyped radiation system haven't really felt important so far. I have swimmed around in radiated water without reaching a high rad, and with the medical station in my home I just clean out whatever radiation I got once in awhile. I always stack up on stimpacks and I have a decent med rating so I do not need to eat radiated food.

The Ugly
I find it hard to call out anything really bad with the game, even if I am trying to be nitpicky. The worst in Fallout 3 is "average". Maybe I will discover something to hate later on. It's a worked through game with no obvious glitches or holes in it.

In general I found Fallout 3 to be one of the better RPG in years. If that means that the game is good or if I am starved for decent RPG's, I cannot tell.

GothicGothicness

November 19th, 2008, 10:41

I am woundering whatever it would sell much less if it was not called fallout ?

If they didn't call it fallout they'd not have all of these people complaining because it is not a turn-based isometric RPG.

On the other hand they'd not get nearly as much hype I guess ?

txa1265

November 19th, 2008, 11:29

If they didn't call it fallout they'd not have all of these people complaining because it is not a turn-based isometric RPG.

The resultant loss in sales based on all of that is likely rounding error compared to those who bought the game solely on the fact that you could have bloody and gore decapitations in slow motion.

Alrik Fassbauer

November 19th, 2008, 14:25

I am woundering whatever it would sell much less if it was not called fallout ?

"Woundering" ? Interesting new word ... *noted*

GothicGothicness

November 19th, 2008, 15:48

I tend to use more and more urban english these days.

The resultant loss in sales based on all of that is likely rounding error compared to those who bought the game solely on the fact that you could have bloody and gore decapitations in slow motion.

Hmm, I thought about it much. I really think Beth calculated very carefully and realised the hype generated from naming it "Fallout" would make them have a bigger sells increase than the IP costed them. I think we will see more and more IP's treated in this way.

Bateman

November 19th, 2008, 22:29

I changed my opinion please count

"An Excellent Game" -1
"Good" +1

Phonix

November 20th, 2008, 01:36

After had played it for 15 hours, I would vote "An Excellent Game ", but after 25 Hours, im down to "Good".

My problem is that the "good looking" wasteland, loos its charm after a while, as you dont see any new screenery as you move forward in the game.

zakhal

November 21st, 2008, 13:53

What kind of resolutions & PCs are you running it? Do you get smooth framerates?

I have winxp c2d 2,4 @ ~ 3,0Ghz, 4GB mem and 8800GTS640 but Im having doubts whether it could run the game atleast in 40FPS on 1920x1080 on max detail. I want to buy a new graphics card but Im still waiting for the new 4870x2 models to do it.

After had played it for 15 hours, I would vote "An Excellent Game ", but after 25 Hours, im down to "Good".

I find that to be true for most games. Usually the downwards curve starts earlier though.

Prime Junta

November 21st, 2008, 15:05

I have a rig similar to yours although not quite as fast (Athlon 64 X2 4800+, 8800GTS320). FO3 runs on it flawlessly at (near?) maximum detail... but, I run it at a fairly low resolution (1280 x 960, IIRC).

However, this lets me use quite high AA levels: IMO the end result looks better than many games I do or can run at maximum rez. I certainly don't feel any pressure to upgrade my rig for this particular game.

woges

November 21st, 2008, 15:10

I have AMD 4000+ 8800gts (640mb) and 3gig of ram and I run it on high as default and it ran on high on my 3800+ but it burnt out which I discovered was the source of my crashes with Fallout 3.

wolfing

November 21st, 2008, 16:00

zakhal

November 21st, 2008, 16:20

Sacred 2 was developed by germans not russians.

Remus

December 11th, 2008, 14:39

Voted "Good". As already mentioned, the animation, writings (story) and dialogs requiring the most attention for improvement.

The FPS perspective implementation feels okay, including weapon handing, though not as good as many real first person action games. The music, sound effect, weapon, quest & questing, and weather system are either acceptable or above average. One thing that did pretty well is the game world design, littered many items you could collect, sale or use.

My level 8 character, specialized in Lock pick, speech, small guns.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/retsnom/wwws.jpg

Elwro

December 11th, 2008, 21:39

I've written my opinion here (http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=177), if anyone's interested.

cptmaxon

December 15th, 2008, 19:50

well, it's a nice game even though the dialog does suck... and the sheriff in the first town was stupid... I mean "lead the way sheriff"?! yeah right, what wasteland did he grow up in?

at any rate the only big complaint I have against bethesda is those annoying mini games in lockpicks and hacking, I mean why can't I roll on those? it's just stupid to waste time on these things!, and also why did the first location I checked out on my own had laser pistols?! and lots and lost of energy cells are just laying around?!, what kind of a place is this?!

Damian Mahadevan

December 15th, 2008, 22:11

I beat the game. I found it okay. It just felt like a dumbed down version of fallout. "Tag" was a pretty useless skill now. The combat was pretty lame since you can hit anything if you are close enough to it. And there were no critical failures. And teh ending was dumb since you cant get the mutant to do it for you, saying it was his time for glory or whatever.

lanux128

December 17th, 2008, 04:29

still playing, the main quest is kinda short so i'm off to explore the wastelands. quite fun too with the slow-mo replay when shooting with VATS.

Tycho

December 21st, 2008, 03:36

Being a rabid fan of the original Fallout games, you can probably take my opinion with a grain of salt ;)

Anyways, my first hour or so of the game pretty much sums up my feelings: I rushed through the tedious birthing and grow up phase... seriously, someone needs to sit down with Bethesda and let them down as easy as possible that the whole "SUPER INTUITIVE CHARACTER CREATION!!!!!!!" is lame, tired, and TEDIOUS. Thank God they at least make a save when you exit the vault so you can create a character from it.

Anyways, I wonder around for a bit and tripped over a bunch of food and other crap which I mindlessly picked up. Got to Megaton and the sheriff babbles for a minute and tries hard at being tough. Then my character starts asking about a bomb? What bomb? The game hadn't introduced the bomb yet, but regardless my character simply knew... he also knew that bottle caps were the accepted form of currency in The Wasteland. Talk about immersion...

So rather then bore you (are you still reading?) with other little nitpicking I'll just sum things up: I ran around, killed stuff, and sold bent tin cans and other crap to people who, for some reason bought it. Then I got to a part of the game I guess I wasn't suppose to be at and my character basically advanced the main quest way beyond what it was suppose to be at and of course he simply knew about all kinds of events that I didn't even play. Around this time I decided this isn't a Fallout game and I uninstalled. At least I didn't pay for it...

Remus

December 21st, 2008, 04:47

still playing, the main quest is kinda short so i'm off to explore the wastelands. quite fun too with the slow-mo replay when shooting with VATS.

Could you continue playing after the main quest ended?

Corwin

December 21st, 2008, 05:15

You can't continue playing after finishing the main quest. Tycho, this is a very strong anti-piracy board. Advocating, or boasting about not paying for games is grounds for instant banning. You have been warned, nicely!!

Remus

December 21st, 2008, 10:08

Currently finished just 13 quests, killed about 700 both creature and human, and 63 locations discovered. Yup currently i am exploring the map more often than taking on quest.

The early dozen quests didn't impress me much and pretty similar to previous Bethesda games. There should be more interesting story attached to the quests. Unfortunately as in current state, Fallout 3 doesn't has good writing/dialogue and story. I don't even see a descriptions on weapons and tons of other items that scattered around the game world.

The place i'm visiting now is the slaver town and it's kind of disappointing: there no exciting, long or complex quests or story here; and no memorable NPCs either. Couple kids here asked to be rescued while at the same time calling me the potential saver "mungo", "stupid", and "asshole". Strange stuff. Unfortunately so far i yet found an option to tell the slave master about the kid's plan. Also, it will be good if Bethesda introduces a companion here with story and quest, etc. But so far i don't see that coming.

Corwin

December 21st, 2008, 11:34

I just killed all the slavers and rescued the kids. There is actually a quest associated with this, but you have to visit another place first to get it.

lanux128

December 23rd, 2008, 03:25

Could you continue playing after the main quest ended?

yes, with the free play mod. i had not finished some quests like Agatha's Song and Oasis and there is still a lot more exploring to do.

Remus

December 23rd, 2008, 14:20

I am about half way through the main quest line ("the water of life" quest); seen nothing extraordinary yet but most of the quests are at acceptable quality. Here is my current stats:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/retsnom/Fallout3stats.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/retsnom/Fallout3appearance.jpg

I botched the quest on solving problem between the Ghouls and Tenpenny Tower's residents when i wipe out the ghoul first before encountering the quest. Since it was too late so i wipe out the Tenpenny residents as well to get an evil alignment. But the Evil alignment didn't changes my gameplay much. In fact, there's hardly any evil gameplay options available to evil character. You could kill and lie, become a slaver, and maybe couple things that i don't remember. Most characters i encountered still treat me as usual - e.g Moira Brown cheerfully serving me even i'm child slaver with alignment tag saying "Very Evil - Fiend".

lanux128

December 24th, 2008, 02:33

for me, the only instance where being evil or goody two-shoes makes a difference is when the vault-dweller's trying to recruit followers. e.g Jericho at Megaton would refuse your offer if your karma is too high while that Paladin at the Citadel would leave you if the karma level drops.

curious

December 24th, 2008, 04:31

there is a companion in paradise falls, and since you are evil you can "hire" her. i didn't use a companion my entire first playthrough 'til meeting fawkes which at that point i was 75% through the entire game, and i mean the entire game as every dungeon, even if not a location, was fully explored. this time through though i picked up clover and as i'm playing a thief character and trying to stick stringently to the stats for it i had to steal quite a bit to get an evil enough karma to aquire her. i'm still using the recon armor i aquired in the first few hours and i'm nearing the 100 hour mark on this go through. steath in this game is better than any other rpg i can think of if you stick with it, though nothing like a thief game, or even assassin's creed for that matter. sticking to mainly handguns and melee has made the game interesting as well.
by the way clover in an "oasis druid hood" and sunglasses looks like the unabomber which is rather amusing i've found and have yet to tire from.