Official Fallout 3 Thread

[oznerol]

Originally posted by: dreadpiratedoug

Originally posted by: ducci

Originally posted by: warcrow
No no please continue on with the uninformed commentary--it's really entertaining.

Alright. So there's really very little need to be a douchebag about it, then.

You realize that you're trying to be snide to someone who reviews for a living, right? It is funny to see you simply state that Oblivion is better and then keep going on. That's like someone saying CoD5 is better than CoD4 but they keep playing it. If there's a better game, play that.

Sigh, I'll defend myself for no other reason than I'm bored at work and these tirades kill time.

I don't really agree with your "better game, play that" logic - but I really have no problem having a conversation when people disagree with me. But he didn't say that - he was just being a douche to me for no reason. And I seriously am wondering if warcrow is confusing me with someone else. Unless he is holding a grudge because I said I don't like and openly criticized his podcast a while back? But I complemented his Fallout 3 review, so I don't know. I honestly have no idea where "That's pretty much the reaction that's on par with what we expect from you" came from.

Anyway, he doesn't review games for a living. And even if he did, how is that remotely relevant? Game reviewers aren't "video game experts". They're writers. A hobbyist gamer's opinion is just as valid, because ultimately, that's all they are - opinions. If you disagree with me, excellent. We'll talk. The conversation goes on. That's what forums are for.

I said I enjoyed Oblivion better than Fallout 3. I do. I had more fun with it. It grabbed me immediately and I really got into my character. Fallout 3 - not as much. Is it "mediocre" - the word that probably bothered warcrow the most? Not really. Though that really hasn't kept me from playing a game for a while before - Too Human, I would consider truly mediocre, but I kept playing it until I got a new game.

I have a thread already about how I consume games. And yes, I fully plan on going on to the next one - that being Fable 2. I don't have it yet, so I'll get achievements in Fallout until I do. If it truly bothers you that I'm currently playing a game I criticized - or a game that is not my absolute favorite - then, I really don't know what to tell you.

I apologize for not falling in love with Fallout. I apologize for calling it mediocre. I apologize for still playing it even though I don't love it.

 

[warcrow]

It's official--I have a ghost writer! How did you know ducci! :shocked:

 

[nycxandy]

Originally posted by: ducci

Originally posted by: dreadpiratedoug

Originally posted by: ducci

Originally posted by: warcrow
No no please continue on with the uninformed commentary--it's really entertaining.

Alright. So there's really very little need to be a douchebag about it, then.

You realize that you're trying to be snide to someone who reviews for a living, right? It is funny to see you simply state that Oblivion is better and then keep going on. That's like someone saying CoD5 is better than CoD4 but they keep playing it. If there's a better game, play that.

Sigh, I'll defend myself for no other reason than I'm bored at work and these tirades kill time.

I don't really agree with your "better game, play that" logic - but I really have no problem having a conversation when people disagree with me. But he didn't say that - he was just being a douche to me for no reason. And I seriously am wondering if warcrow is confusing me with someone else. Unless he is holding a grudge because I said I don't like and openly criticized his podcast a while back? But I complemented his Fallout 3 review, so I don't know. I honestly have no idea where "That's pretty much the reaction that's on par with what we expect from you" came from.

Anyway, he doesn't review games for a living. And even if he did, how is that remotely relevant? Game reviewers aren't "video game experts". They're writers. A hobbyist gamer's opinion is just as valid, because ultimately, that's all they are - opinions. If you disagree with me, excellent. We'll talk. The conversation goes on. That's what forums are for.

I said I enjoyed Oblivion better than Fallout 3. I do. I had more fun with it. It grabbed me immediately and I really got into my character. Fallout 3 - not as much. Is it "mediocre" - the word that probably bothered warcrow the most? Not really. Though that really hasn't kept me from playing a game for a while before - Too Human, I would consider truly mediocre, but I kept playing it until I got a new game.

I have a thread already about how I consume games. And yes, I fully plan on going on to the next one - that being Fable 2. I don't have it yet, so I'll get achievements in Fallout until I do. If it truly bothers you that I'm currently playing a game I criticized - or a game that is not my absolute favorite - then, I really don't know what to tell you.

I apologize for not falling in love with Fallout. I apologize for calling it mediocre. I apologize for still playing it even though I don't love it.

Um, professional game reviewers are "experts." There is somewhat a science to reviewing games. You can correlate this with automobile reviews. Is a sports car review by a grandma as valid as by ones who write about and review cars for a living? Heck no.

 

[dougp]

Originally posted by: warcrow
It's official--I have a ghost writer! How did you know ducci! :shocked:

Now I want my cut since you've told them. Pay up, or we'll get the mods to change your name to deadcrow!

 

[warcrow]

Haha--it's in the mail. ;p

 

[oznerol]

Originally posted by: nycxandy
Um, professional game reviewers are "experts." There is somewhat a science to reviewing games. You can correlate this with automobile reviews. Is a sports car review by a grandma as valid as by ones who write about and review cars for a living? Heck no.

I think a better comparison would be other forms of entertainment - not cars. Something like movies/music reviews. Those kind of reviews are occasionally technical - but more often than not are just opinions based on other movie-going experiences.

You can question their tastes, sure - many do quite vehemently. But ultimately it's just the opinion of a gamer who writes well.


And I suppose you can stretch it to car reviews - like I said - a hobbyist gamer's opinion is just as valid. So in the case of cars, if "grandma" was, say, a sports car aficionado or maybe even a hobbyist mechanic, then it still fits.

Originally posted by: warcrow
It's official--I have a ghost writer! How did you know ducci! :shocked:

Just basing that on the quote from your podcasts' website I recalled reading a whiles back - "And Mark, who works with the Federal Government, is a Network Engineer and has been a hardcore gamer all his life bringing a ton of opinions with him."

I generally don't keep up to date with the careers of random people on the internet, so if you pulled in a full-time gig writing more reviews like the one you did for Fallout 3, then cool.

 

[warcrow]

Yup--that would be one source of income.

 

[R Nilla]

What's with ganging up on someone trying to share their honest opinions of the game? I think you guys are being a bit harsh, unnecessarily.

 

[Qbah]

I find writing about games the same as writing about music or food You try it first then state an opinion.

It's different with cars, for example a 4L monster that does 0-100 in under 5s is an awesome piece of engineering no matter how you look at it And it's always fun to ride

Now coming back to Fallout 3... It was a nightmare to make it even run. I found out in the end that there was somethign wrong with my codecs (yeah... codecs! O_O ). Removed the old ones, installed K-Lite Basic and voila... the game runs great. Had a lot of missing textures outdoors too. Installed the newest Catalyst 8.10 beta and enabled DXT textures or w/e in CCC. Solved all my issues. Well, sure, the game hangs once in a while during gameplay (very rare though) and sometimes when I exit the game. Nothing big though.

Now for the gameplay itself. I like it, a lot more than Oblivion. I found the fighting very disappointing at first, but I got used to it and it works nice now The story... hmm... not much I can tell, still in Megaton, **minor spoiler**running and doing some stuff for the guide.**imnor spoiler**. Looks ok, I guess. But... the game just doesn't feel like Fallout. Sure, it is nice and all, but it sure as hell didn't capture the spirit of the previous games.

And where the hell are the item descriptions?

Also, they could really work a bit more on the texture quality. Cause even at Ultra High with AAx4 many of the things look very very low rez.

Ohh, hooked my PC to my HDTV and playing it at FullHD. Awesome!

 

[dougp]

Originally posted by: Qbah
I find writing about games the same as writing about music or food You try it first then state an opinion.

It's different with cars, for example a 4L monster that does 0-100 in under 5s is an awesome piece of engineering no matter how you look at it And it's always fun to ride

Now coming back to Fallout 3... It was a nightmare to make it even run. I found out in the end that there was somethign wrong with my codecs (yeah... codecs! O_O ). Removed the old ones, installed K-Lite Basic and voila... the game runs great. Had a lot of missing textures outdoors too. Installed the newest Catalyst 8.10 beta and enabled DXT textures or w/e in CCC. Solved all my issues. Well, sure, the game hangs once in a while during gameplay (very rare though) and sometimes when I exit the game. Nothing big though.

Now for the gameplay itself. I like it, a lot more than Oblivion. I found the fighting very disappointing at first, but I got used to it and it works nice now The story... hmm... not much I can tell, still in Megaton, **minor spoiler**running and doing some stuff for the guide.**imnor spoiler**. Looks ok, I guess. But... the game just doesn't feel like Fallout. Sure, it is nice and all, but it sure as hell didn't capture the spirit of the previous games.

And where the hell are the item descriptions?

Also, they could really work a bit more on the texture quality. Cause even at Ultra High with AAx4 many of the things look very very low rez.

Ohh, hooked my PC to my HDTV and playing it at FullHD. Awesome!

You're in the console section Might want to go over to the PC section to talk about those issues. Now if you wanna talk about gameplay, stick around! Fun game, give it some time ... I find that big guns are better for non-VATS shooting.

 

[Qbah]

Originally posted by: dreadpiratedoug
You're in the console section Might want to go over to the PC section to talk about those issues. Now if you wanna talk about gameplay, stick around! Fun game, give it some time ... I find that big guns are better for non-VATS shooting.

Yeah, noticed when I couldn't find the thread in the PC Section Ohh well, got an Xbox 360 anyway Though I bought Fallout 3 for the PC. Will get back on the gameplay more, once I put in a few more hours into it.

 

[sygyzy]

I am barely out of the Vault and into the city. Can anyone suggest a better way of navigating? With all the multilevels and different pathways that all look similar, I just go around in circles. It took me 10 minutes just to find the shop again. I know you can use the map markers but it's as the crow flies, and quite confusing.

 

[AstroManLuca]

.

 

[AstroManLuca]

******SPOILERS******





The ending sucked. Why does it put a time constraint on a puzzle? I ended up pausing the game and looking up the code I was supposed to enter. Stupid. Plus I had tons of anti-rad meds, so why did I die anyway?

Why do they go to the trouble of hinting at the origins of the super mutants but they never actually finish that story?

Most of all, why is the central storyline so damn weak in the first place? It's so short! There are so many great side quests it's too bad it pushes the central storyline on you. I completed it before I really wanted to. I do have a saved game from earlier, but still.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
I am barely out of the Vault and into the city. Can anyone suggest a better way of navigating? With all the multilevels and different pathways that all look similar, I just go around in circles. It took me 10 minutes just to find the shop again. I know you can use the map markers but it's as the crow flies, and quite confusing.

Megaton is just tricky to navigate. After a few tries, you'll figure out how to get to the more important places in it quickly.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: warcrow

Originally posted by: ducci
So you can find people throughout Fallout 3 to change your original settings - appearance, hair, etc. Is there any way to reallocate your skills/points or do you need to start from scratch?

This is one of the things I miss about PC gaming - you can easily just download a cheat or something to alter your stats to whatever you want.

For such a mediocre game you sure seem to be spending a lot of time playing it. There are so many good games out there, why not move on? Perhaps you mispoke and the game isnt mediocre? I now seem to recall that this is a habit you have with games in general if I'm not mistaken. Complain wine and moan, right?

Still spamming Played after every episode?

 

[erwos]

So, I finally beat the game on Sunday after doing pretty much all of the major side quests (sans the "get slaves!" one since it was my good run-through).

Let me now quibble:
1. The level cap of 20 is too low for the dedicated exploring crowd, even on normal. Having a cap of 30 or 40 would be better. I'm hoping they'll raise this in a patch or expansion. Oblivion's leveling was too slow, IMHO, but Fallout's is pretty quick my most standards. I think they were trying to make it so your character couldn't do everything, but if you're going to let us tweak combat difficulty, you may as well let us tweak our level caps.
2. The game ends rather abruptly, and the ending fight isn't all that epic on normal - it lasted all of one VATS round for me.
3. The schematic weapons were _mostly_ superfluous. Railway guns should have been far more powerful then they were. The only weapons that I think were worth bothering with were the melee weapons and the dart gun - and the latter is only all that handy against a couple enemies.
4. (SPOILER) None of the additional vaults you found were populated, at least by anyone you could talk to. I was desperately hoping for more vault drama.
5. There are no really easily accessible early game companions without running through some quests. I'm not saying I need a Fawkes-like beast for a buddy at level 3, but Jericho for a thousand caps isn't cutting it.
6. Radiation is a total non-issue. The scale should have been cut to 100 rads being poisoning to 500 being death.
7. Some of the edge locations on the map weren't well integrated into the game.
8. The environment might be the DC area, but it's so condensed it may as well be anywhere. They did get the metro station architecture mostly right, though.

That said, the game is pretty amazing overall, and is easily a 95%+ in my book.

 

[sygyzy]

I am running out of bullets too quickly! I have only completed one quest (Minefield) but I keep finding myself stuck in gun fights and barely surviving or dying. Any tips? I am using the RB mode and guns. Should I try melee more?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
I am running out of bullets too quickly! I have only completed one quest (Minefield) but I keep finding myself stuck in gun fights and barely surviving or dying. Any tips? I am using the RB mode and guns. Should I try melee more?

I had the same problem at the beginning. Ammo is scarce when you first start but it gets better as you do more quests. You basically just have to explore everything to pick up ammo and other items and trade that for money to buy more ammo.

Go ahead and do the other two Moira quests to help with money and ammo. Also explore the Elementary School. I also always shoot the enemies arm first to dislodge their weapon. This lowers the amount of damage they can dish out and leaves more ammo for you to pick up.

 

[erwos]

The Scrounger perk is your friend when it comes to ammo. Until then, conserve as much as possible with melee and getting up close for easy headshots. Also, don't be afraid to carry lots of weapons with you - more guns means more ammo that you can use. Keeping your guns in good repair can also be helpful if you can do it yourself - the shops charge an arm and a leg for the service, alas.

I think a lot of it is just genuine unfamiliarity with the system, though - I'm doing a second run-through right now, and I'm not finding ammo to be nearly as much of a problem.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: erwos
Also, don't be afraid to carry lots of weapons with you - more guns means more ammo that you can use. Keeping your guns in good repair can also be helpful if you can do it yourself - the shops charge an arm and a leg for the service, alas.

This too. Keep the best weapon for each ammo type. Repair and sell the rest for money to buy ammo and supplies.

 

[sygyzy]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I explored the elementary school and it was pretty scary. Ok dumb question, but is the person I am supposed to give the letter to at the school? It seems like it because the waypoint seems like it's flashing sometimes. I think the waypoint compass thing is kind of annoying/confusing to be honest

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
Thanks for the tips everyone. I explored the elementary school and it was pretty scary. Ok dumb question, but is the person I am supposed to give the letter to at the school? It seems like it because the waypoint seems like it's flashing sometimes. I think the waypoint compass thing is kind of annoying/confusing to be honest

Heh. Yeah, I made the mistake of going into the Elementary School prior to going to Megaton after leaving the Vault. That was pretty tense because I was still learning the ins-and-outs of how to fight in Fallout 3 plus I was extremely low on ammo.

I think the letter you are talking about is from the blonde girl in Megaton? You have to go to Aref for that. Go to your world map and it should show you where Aref is.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Aikouka
I've never played Fallout before, but all of this talk about it is making me want to splurge on the fancy (and expensive) Amazon version .

Fallout 1 & 2 have been added to Good Old Games for $5.99 each, drm free.

I think they're also up on Gametap.

If you go to GoGamer.Com right now, there is about ten hours left on their 48 Hour Madness Sale. They have the Fallout Collection (Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel) together in a DVD case edition for $12.90.

So how many of you actually played WASTELAND back in the Apple IIE days?

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: erwos
The Scrounger perk is your friend when it comes to ammo. Until then, conserve as much as possible with melee and getting up close for easy headshots. Also, don't be afraid to carry lots of weapons with you - more guns means more ammo that you can use. Keeping your guns in good repair can also be helpful if you can do it yourself - the shops charge an arm and a leg for the service, alas.

I think a lot of it is just genuine unfamiliarity with the system, though - I'm doing a second run-through right now, and I'm not finding ammo to be nearly as much of a problem.

I think of Scrounger as comparable to the bottle cap, +50lb and bartering perks. You get any 1 of them, and a second would only be unnecessary overlap. For example, if you get the 50lb perk, like I have, it means you can hump more stuff back to town to sell, which in turn leads to more money to buy more ammo. Same goes for more bottlecaps and better bartering skill. Scrounger you can pick stuff up in the field and rarely have to make return trips to town, but with fast travel, you may as well.