Fallout 3 - Review @ ComputerGames.ro

Myrthos

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ComputerGames.ro have a lengthy review of Fallout 3 available ranking it with a 7.2. Their final thoughts are these:
To me, Fallout 3 is Bethesda's best game yet, but it's got more holes than a sinking ship. It's a perfect symbol for contemporary games: oversimplified, too accessible and way too commercial. The clever, edgy dialogues are gone, along with the complex relationships and the depth of the game world, replaced by a flawed visual feast, generic conversations and a gameplay fit for the masses.
An interesting side effect of Fallout 3’s release was that many players who were unfamiliar with the series decided to give the first two titles a try in order to “get it”. Which lead to a worrying amount of people registering on forums and writing things like “I can’t get out of that cave at the start of Fallout. This game is too damn hardcore / difficult.”
The Fallout games aren’t really difficult. Least of all hardcore. However, they do demand a minimum amount of logic and thought from the player. Compared to Mass Effect or Oblivion, they don’t push you towards the end. You need the determination and a minimum degree of inventive thought to make your way up in the world, and towards your own objectives.
This is perhaps Fallout 3’s biggest failure: it’s not nearly complex or cerebral enough for the role in role-playing game to really shine.

So despite the claims of Pete Hines, I stand my ground. Fallout 3 hasn’t been released yet. And since Obsidian’s website doesn’t have an announcement about it...
Bethesda-created-Fallout-spin-off, you may have set the world on fire, but you didn’t manage to start a flame in my heart.
More information.
 
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Pretty much it really, though you can save the sheriff of Megaton in his scripted encounter.
 
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This is probably the review I agree the most with so far. While it is *slightly* venomous in tone (though I feel that's a breath of fresh air after the amount of slobbering this game has caused), it brings up some good points that other reviews manage to miss. Especially the actual roleplaying elements.

Good review.
 
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Hehehe yeah level headed if it agrees with your view.
 
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Yeah, I guess. Kind of what you want from reviewers though isn't it - writers who you reckon share your tastes, and so whose opinion is a fair gauge of whether the game's worth your thirty quid. I think it's more cautious and considered than the 9s and 10s the major sites I've seen have been throwing around.
What about the review doesn't sit well with you?
 
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The tone of the articale was like he already has his mind made up before he even played the game. The game is a 9 to me though so I may be biased:)
 
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Yeah, agreed that it sounds like he went in with some reservations. That's to be expected though; this is the third game in a well-regarded series from yesteryear. His reservations are my reservations too :)

That said, considering the niggles, disappointments and dubious design decisions he mentions, a 7 is a robust score. I'm more inclined to consider a furtive purchase of the game after reading that, than the almost suspicious praise-heapings from Eurogamer, IGN et al.
 
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Come on how are they suspicious? You aren't implying they are paid off are you?
 
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Come on how are they suspicious? You aren't implying they are paid off are you?
Not really, although that's a possibility.
I meant they're suspicious in the sense that the high-profile reviewers seem to me to be too easily pleased, caught up in a hype, too forgiving. Something makes me feel suspicion towards the glowing, gushing reviews. Probably because I've been disappointed by much-vaunted big releases in the past.

I see "9 or 10 out of 10! A masterstroke! Bellissimo! Totally engaging! Epic!", and I think "Hold on. Let's not get carried away here. Show some Critic's Restraint or something."

With the glowing reviews I've read on Fallout 3 in the past, it's felt like they spend 30 seconds going "Oh yeah, the animation's crap, the quests are stupid/illogical, the plot's rubbish, the VA's laughable, combat's easy but you can wander around a big placeandlookatthiscoolthing..."

I want to know what makes something bad as much as what makes it good - a balanced view if you will. I don't trust people who spend 2000-odd words enthusing about something, only dispensing actual criticism in passing.
Focus on the criticism, the bad points. Elucidate. Really think about it. That's how you avoid being just another consumer swept up in the Big New Release Enthusiasm; who just happens to get games for free, a bit earlier, and you get paid to write about it on a website.

This is turning into a boring sermon though, moving away from the point. I think the review's good, it highlights positive and negative facets that are important to me as an individual consumer; rather than mentioning potentially deal-breaking shortcomings as if they're trifling concerns.
Maybe that's because of "Birds of a feather" as you say though, rather than some universal truth or pretensions of being a realist.
 
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The point of a review of a game or a book is to point out both the strengths and weaknesses of the game or book. Today, though, it seems that many game reviewers have forgotten this; only reviewing the good parts of the game, forgetting the bad parts of the game.

For instance: If I were to write a (short) review of Drakensang, I might mention that I like that there are non-combat quests, I don't like the respawning of animals in the forest, I like that stats & skills actually mean something, and I don't much care for the camera modes. (I should note that this is just a first view review based on the German demo).

And even if game reviewers include the bad parts of the game, they tend to overlook them when they hand out their scores at the end of the review. If you think Fallout is about comic violence, shooting people's heads off, and survival in the Wasteland, roaming around freely and killing supermutants and other monsters, then of course, the score will be high like 9 or 10 out of 10. If you don't think that and actually think that a role-playing game should be telling a story or showing you the consequences for the choices you've made or that your stats should be the only thing determining whether your hit your opponent or not, then of course (maybe?) the score will be low.

From what I've seen so far - on youtube etc. - Fallout 3 - seems to be a very good post apocalyptic game. Maybe it is not that great or good a role-playing game?
 
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Who decides what is a good role-playing game?

Oh, nobody, of course. All games are excellent. All products are wonderful. Raise no criticism or you're just an elitist hard-to-please bore.

*eyeroll*
 
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From what I've seen so far - on youtube etc. - Fallout 3 - seems to be a very good post apocalyptic game. Maybe it is not that great or good a role-playing game?

That would depend on what you understand by "role-playing game." I would say that by most common definitions it is also a good (if not great) role-playing game:

* Character skills are more important than player skills
* Includes choices with mutually exclusive consequences
* Conversation-heavy: many decisions are made in conversation
* Includes explicit role-related mechanics, such as karma, which affects the way people react to you and what quests you're offered

IOW, it ticks most of the boxes, and it ticks them more than just superficially. There's more role-playing in FO3 than (IMO) in Jade Empire or Neverwinter Nights. I would rate the quality of that material as "good" on a scale from "terrible" to "unforgettable."
 
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Yeah, but saying "that's more role-playing than NWN1 or JE" really does not say much.
 
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To what purpose? To lead into a wanky discussion about what makes/defines an RPG which has been rehashed--and rehashed and rehashed--countless times before?
 
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To what purpose? To lead into a wanky discussion about what makes/defines an RPG which has been rehashed--and rehashed and rehashed--countless times before?
Haven't you just described the raison d'aitre of all RPG sites/forums?
 
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