Printable View
A quick tip for those who don't like the default repair system: there's a console command to access a NPC-style repair screen, but using the player's repair skill. You won't need to use other items for repairing, but it does cost caps like usual. For this reason it's quite not cheating. ~;p
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Originally Posted by Sarmatian:
:gasp: Yay! :grabs gun, runs out into wastes:
Could be that I just didn't bother with looking under every stone, but I didn't find too much caps. Ammo neither. It may seem much now, but believe 60 rounds for 10mm pistol is not much. It's practically nothing. When you had out to the wastes, you'll find that your ammo disappears rapidly.
Another factlet I've found about criticals. According to the official guide, being in VATS mode gives you a 15% chance to critical. Add that to my character's 9% from luck and it's no wonder heads are exploding all the time. Once I collect that +5 perk I will have a 29% chance at a critical hit. That is crazy!
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg:
Don't forget the perk that adds an additional 50% damage on a critical hit!
Another factlet I've found about criticals. According to the official guide, being in VATS mode gives you a 15% chance to critical. Add that to my character's 9% from luck and it's no wonder heads are exploding all the time. Once I collect that +5 perk I will have a 29% chance at a critical hit. That is crazy!
Sneak + Sniper + Commando + Finesse + Better Criticals = Oh my god.
Yeah, with Sniper + Commando + Better Criticals and 100 in energy weapons I was killing ghouls (feral obviously with me being the boyscout hero of the wastes) in single headshots with my laser pistol (in VATS).
Later on it is the only way to keep your ammo usage remotely reasonable. I mean when I made the switch to energy weapons I had over 1500 rounds for the Laser Pistol. I though I would never run out, but some of the later enemies take a lot of killing.
The fact that picked up weapons only have 8 rounds of ammo really helps the balance and prevents things getting silly. And that you use them to repair your equipment is good too. I mean, repairs by merchants can get expensive and there are big advantages at keeping you weapon 100%. Also with the limited carry capacity you get into the habit (especially later on) of simply leaving anything you don't need to repair your stuff.
Also note that ammo has no weight, unrealistic sure, but at least it avoids the inventory shuffle from Fallout 2...
I blew up Megaton and...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Finished the game. I must say I'm a little disappointed. Considering the scale of the game, how many locations and NPCs there is, there should have been far more quests, and they should have been more interesting. Actually, not that they aren't interesting, but they usually involve huge dungeon crawl in complex labyrinths. While doing quests, most of my time was spent on figuring out which freakin' corridor to take to get to the next level.
I've also found energy weapons overrated. With 100 invested in them and 90 in small guns (level 17), I've used guns far more often, even against opponents in power armour. Chinese Assault Rifle, Combat Shotgun and Hunting Rifle are much more versatile. Not to mention that it's far easier to repair them and get ammo for them.
I guess I'll try a female melee/big guns build next. There's nothing sexier than a scantily clad chick with a flamethrower :laugh4:
Some first impressions after starting the game last night (this is the PC version, BTW). There are some annoying things here and there, but overall it's a fun game and I'm looking forward to diving back into the post-apocalypse tonight. I never played the earlier Fallout games, or Oblivion. Lately I've been playing the Witcher EE, so that's an inevitable reference point for some things, since they're somewhat similar games.... sort of a RPG/FPS hybrid.
Good Stuff:
The post-nuclear world feels right, and it's fun to move around in. I love the trashed and rusting "1950's idea of a 2000 future" cars and trucks. The radio music and the graphic design on the faded ads and billboards feel a bit like a Bioshock ripoff, but it still helps establish the setting.
I'm using an older PC (Athlon 64 3800+, 2 gigs RAM) with a newer, but not state-of-the-art video card (GeForce 8800 GTS). The framerate is very smooth with full effects on, at 1024x768. I haven't tried running it at my monitor's native 1600x1200 yet, but it might be okay there too.
I like the way your hit points don't replenish automatically between combat events, like they do in the Witcher and some other games of this type (including "rest anywhere" variants of the D&D games). Auto-healing has a tendency to reduce the feel of danger and risk. You take more chances, and enemies are less scary. In Fallout 3, I'm being much more cautious about initiating combat, I'm being careful about my supply of food, water and meds, and that's good.
The interface is pretty good. The main screen isn't too busy, and the wrist gadget thingie works well to handle all the inventory, quest info, maps, etc.
Not So Good Stuff:
I don't like how fast weapons and armor deteriorate and need repair, but I can live with it until someone mods a reduced rate. A little deterioration over time would feel realistic, but this seems over the top... just a game mechanic to force the player to spend money or invest in repair skills.
The over-the-shoulder 3rd person view of your character isn't very well animated. The combat moves are okay, but I hate how your avatar rotates like he's on a turntable when you turn around. It just breaks immersion. Would it have killed them, to animate the character taking steps while turning in place? The transition from standing still to running is a bit wonky too. I've gone to the full frame/shooter view so I don't have to watch my guy move around.
The text display for conversation is MUCH LARGER than it needs to be, for a PC game. Probably due to it being a cross-platform game, but I still think it looks a bit cartoonish. Maybe there will be a mod for this.
I started at Normal, like I usually do with a new game, and might have to re-start at a higher level. I'm leaving the Vault with more stuff (gun, ammo, armor) than I thought I would. I had this image of having to get by in a very hostile environment with just a crowbar and a T-shirt and jeans. I feel awfully buff for my first encounters with the outside world, and combat so far is going a little too smoothly.
The combat design works pretty well, although it's disappointing that there's no cover system, as in Mass Effect for example. It's fun to watch the "bullet time" animations after you've selected actions in the V.A.T.S.
However, I think the realism suffers from the number of bullet hits it takes to bring down even a lower-level "soft" enemy, like a human Raider with minimal armor. If a V.A.T.S. sequence shows 3 direct hits to the head (no helmet), you don't normally expect a standard human to keep running at you. The number of allowed hits may be related to the way the player's character can also soak up a lot of damage. Or maybe it's to make the starting weapons weaker, so there's room for the damage inflicted with better weapons. But either way, I'd prefer a more "realistic" game like Bioshock, where one single shot to the head from a revolver will take down a splicer. And you're equally vulnerable, more or less. That matches real-world expectations better than what I'm seeing, so far, in Fallout 3. Maybe this will change as I get deeper into the game.
Speaking of head shots...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I'm still very early in the game so take this with a grain of salt, but what I've seen so far of the enemy AI during combat, isn't very impressive. It's mostly just bum-rushing the player with no apparent tactics or use of cover, and the occasional scripted surprise (locked door behind you suddenly opens and they jump you). I've see too many human enemies rush straight into my gunfire, bringing the proverbial knife to a gunfight. You expect that from critters, not humans. About the only impressive thing I've seen in the AI so far, is one Raider bailing out of a fight and running away, after taking some damage. It's not a game-breaker, but in a game that relies fairly heavily on combat, I was hoping for more.
Bad Stuff:
I ran into one area that triggered constant crashes to desktop. I avoided that area, then came back later and it was fine. I'm hoping that's rare, or will be cleaned up in a patch soon. My current gaming rig is very stable and never crashes with a well-programmed game.
That's enough for now. Gripes aside, I'm glad I bought the game.
I've noticed that the longer each individual session of playing becomes, the more likely I am to suffer a CTD. To combat this, I save often and if I'm in a marathon session, I restart the computer periodically. I remember similar issues with Oblivion and memory leakage.
I love the Winchester-esque "Repeater" I found. To bad I haven't found a Cowboy hat to go with my Regulator duster, so I could properly wander the Wasteland dispensing Kinetic Justice.
We've received patches for your major CTD problems.
:sigh: 9 hours play and character level 8; it still doesn't catch me. I've done quite a bit of exploring in the wastes and got some major and minor side quests completed, and the game isn't working.
I still have way too many caps and little to buy. 4,000+ caps and growing. If I didn't have a couple of bits of gear which require me to pay others to repair them then I'd have much more. The one thing I would like to buy I can't find anywhere selling: bobby pins. After the initial handout at the start of the game I have had to collect all others from the corpses of feral ghouls.
I still have far too much ammo and easy sources to get more. 160+ 10mm, 70+ for my rifle, 120+ for my shotgun, and a whole locker stuffed full for guns I don't use.
I still have more loot than I can sell without tedium. I've taken to leaving everything except the better items lying in the dirt.
Combat has changed a bit; now it is either numbingly easy or I die in two hits. Numbingly easy is the most prevalent. I stormed a camp of super mutants at level 4 with a pistol, empty shotgun and a broken rifle and won, admittedly just barely and with the use of a couple of stimpacks. Even so. Multiple super mutants. Pistol. Empty shotgun. Broken rifle. Wimpy level 4 character with 4 endurance. No use of stat boosting drugs or explosives. I won. I'm on 'normal' and it feels like I accidentally selected 'very easy'.
I'm still waiting for the much talked about moral dilemmas, unexpected results and grey areas to appear. So far it has been depressingly black and white.
The atmosphere will dash through the door and apologise for being late any minute now. Maybe it’s stuck in traffic? Maybe it was involved in a fatal car crash on its way over? Someone try calling its mobile and see what happened.
It's crashed my xbox again.
Dungeons. Didn't I spend 60 hours running about badly lit, confusing and repetitive tunnel/cave based dungeons in Oblivion? Yes, I did. Didn't I hate that? Yes, I did. And didn't I spend a lot of time doing that in Morrowind too, and hate it? Yes, I did. Didn't I clear out this set of subway tunnels an hour ago? Yes, I di - oh, wait, that was the other one a bit further to the east. Or south. Or in the city. Or ...
The experience itself leaves me cold. I don't care about - or like - the people, the quests, the setting, the world, or any of it. I don't care about quest rewards or finding loot. The one thing I do care about is gaining XP; levels are the only reward which feel valuable in this game. Skill books are ok; I get 2 points from each and that's enough to create a minor blip of almost excitement each time I discover one. Bobble heads do manage a minor blip of excitement; 10 skill points or a skill point make a noticeable difference to my character. I've found 4 so far.
There doesn't seem to be much to look forward to as you advance in the game. Better armour? I'll take power armour, all the rest is minor stat variations on the same old boring. Guns? The ones I have are plenty good. Having another +3 to damage on my shotgun won't make much difference. Other misc items? I barely use them as it is. Levels. It's all about levels and the stats gained thereby.
Why do I fail every speech challenge where I have a success of over 60% but succeed frequently on those where I have between 40% and 59%? The law of percentages must be warped by my character's unnaturally good luck :inquisitive: Should be the other way around: failing most of the lower percentage ones and passing most of the higher, with some losses on both because even 99% doesn't mean guaranteed win.
The voice acting continues under whelming. Hurrah for the option to advance to the next line at the press of a button; I can read far faster than these people can drone. The robots are the only good voices thus far.
Is it a good thing when you’re wandering around the wastes and classifying all the inhabitants as lazy good for nothings who would rather wallow in filth then try to nail a tile on a roof and not get doused in radioactive rain? Yeah, the food and water is irradiated and civilisation as we know it is dead, but does that mean you can’t sweep that pile of rotting radioactive junk out of your shack? Because that might, you know, help stop you dying from disease and radiation poisoning.
I do love my combat shotgun and rifle combo. :loveg:
The one thing the game is doing an excellent job of is making me want to play as an evil character. That's highly impressive - I always have a halo early on in any RPG. I can't stomach being evil, and struggle to play that way. Here, oh give me a shotgun and let me loose! So many NPCs would benefit from a head exploding critical! We'll see how long the froggy ethics last; I have a shiny halo and like people running up to me in the streets to give me gifts to support my heroic efforts.
I am shocked with my feelings on this game, a little horrified too. Oblivion was a game filled with problems and built up around the most broken character system I have seen, yet I managed to enjoy most of the time I spent with it. Fallout fixes some of those problems and brings an awesome character system, and then completely fails to engage me.
Maybe I should restart on hard, dial down my intelligence and luck, and play to be pure evil. :considers: That would mean repeating 9 hours of stuff I didn’t enjoy the first time around, with a character build aimed at skills I don't want.
Over 24 hours now since I installed this, and I've played it for 17 hours, and I'm feeling very sleepy, still I could not resist sharing this, the funniest thing happened when I was playing an hour back....
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I just reached level 7, and aside from one difference of opinion with Froggie (I do like the feel of the world, and enjoy roaming around in it), I'd agree with everything else.
The combat is still feeling a little too easy on Normal... maybe due to the Sneak-Sniper-Commando etc. spec I'm using. But I'm not feeling like re-starting the game at a higher level, now that I'm in this deep. Maybe if there had been fewer dungeon crawls. There really are too many of those, and I have a feeling there are plenty more to come.
So far, the conversations and choices are... meh, about average for this type of game. Meaning, it's not cringingly adolescent in the writing of the plot and the dialogue, but so far it's no literary masterpiece either. It's a little too predictable (so far), in terms of where I know I'll have to go and what I'll have to do. There are a few surprise twists, but overall it's missing that element in a good RPG of not know what's going to come next.
I'll probably finish the game on Normal, set it aside for a while, and then see if I ever want to re-play it with a different spec and moral alignment in a few months (or years). I am still enjoying the post-nuclear war atmosphere... all the ruined buildings and junk lying around. Maybe it's because I've overdosed on medieval and sword & sorcery games in the last year, so I'm primed for this.
The combat dynamics have a few good things, like the slow-mo animations in the V.A.T.S., and some tactical considerations in targeting. But other aspects seem flaky. The manual says V.A.T.S. shows a percentage to hit. However, a higher-end opponent like a Super Mutant will show reduced percentage to hit than a weaker one (like a radroach), using the same ranged weapon, at the same distance. I don't understand this. It's like the V.A.T.S. is factoring in inherent toughness or something, and that's causing more chance for me to miss the shot? Whatever it is, it doesn't feel right. I don't care if I cause less damage to a tough target, but it shouldn't be harder to place a bullet on a big, lumbering target like a Super Mutant than a smaller, weaker, faster one.
Another thing getting to me is the need to engage with guns at very close range, to have a decent chance to hit. I'm at level 7 with a good setup of S.P.E.C.I.A.L., skills, and percs for small arms and energy weapons. To get a decent chance to hit, I still have to either run up close to the target in spitting range, and start firing away, or wait for the target to run close to me. And then there's a silly dance where I fire while backing up, just to keep a charging target close enough for decent percentages in the V.A.T.S.... when I should never have had to get that close in the first place! That can involve some interesting and challenging uses of cover at close range, but it just doesn't feel like guns should work this way.
Maybe the devs are trying to leave room for improvement in your targeting skills in the upper levels. Or maybe it's a concession to smaller console game screens, where they want you to see the enemy up close, instead of a dot hiding behind a bush. Whatever the reason, it just just feels dumb to have to get so close to enemies in a gun-based game.
Related to that, there doesn't seem to be a big difference in accuracy (chance to hit) between guns that should have a pretty wide spread, like pistols vs. assault rifles vs. long guns like the rifle.
These are relatively minor gripes, I suppose, because I'm still having fun just being in this game world. And the range thing isn't as glaring a flaw when fighting indoors. Close-quarters combat can be intense, and feels about right (other than numbers of hits a human enemy can take to the head... sigh).
The ranges are definately truncated. But I have to say, with my Sniper rifle and my high lvl character and 100 in small arms plus the right perks and I have hit guys on the catwalks of the large satellite dishes from a pretty fair distance away...
Mind you it is in keeping with the original Fallout, percentage to hit could drop at a ridiculous rate given the ranges possible in FO and FO2...
Originally Posted by Bob the Insane:
Well, maybe it's for scaling reasons then, to allow for improvement in the upper levels. Between the short practical engagement range for guns (at least in the first half of the game), and the way you can soak up a fair amount of damage... I'll be tempted to try a melee specialist spec if I ever make another run through the game. Toss a grenade, then run up and beat the tar out of the enemy. Not sure how that would work with multiple opponents though, or the tougher mutants and robots.
The ranges are definately truncated. But I have to say, with my Sniper rifle and my high lvl character and 100 in small arms plus the right perks and I have hit guys on the catwalks of the large satellite dishes from a pretty fair distance away...
Originally Posted by Zenicetus:
It didn't work too well for me. You're handicapped since enemies can start shooting before you close up to them. One on one encounters are doable, but they're doable with almost every weapon. When you try to deal with a group, they will spread out, even if they were tightly packed. Basically, you get shot at while you're moving towards them, when you get to them, you can pummel one while the others move in opposite direction and shoot at you. When you kill the first one, you have to move to get within striking distance of the second one and again you get shot at. Also, when you're running, you can't use cover and so on. Melee just isn't worth it. Although I have a 10 strength character with 75 in melee, I use my small guns with 30 skill rating and 6 agility.
Well, maybe it's for scaling reasons then, to allow for improvement in the upper levels. Between the short practical engagement range for guns (at least in the first half of the game), and the way you can soak up a fair amount of damage... I'll be tempted to try a melee specialist spec if I ever make another run through the game. Toss a grenade, then run up and beat the tar out of the enemy. Not sure how that would work with multiple opponents though, or the tougher mutants and robots.
Anyway, I know we've had our fair share of first impressions and reviews, but for those still interested, this is by far the best, most objective and most hype-free professional review I've found.
Hmm. I'm not thrilled with the game but I don't find myself in agreement with that review. It's very ... ah, well if I say it's very no mutants allowed does that make sense to other people? Far too hung up on the fact that this is a new game, and therefore it can't possibly be much good because everyone knows new games are shallow, dumbed down, derivative and aimed at people with an IQ of 3.
Even my limited (not quite 10 hours now) playtime proves some of his points inaccurate. Teleporting about the map without penalty? Sure - until you drop into an area which has repopulated with enemies. Dead on arrival isn't that much of an understatement for the time I dropped into the midst of a raider group via fast travel. Fast travel out into the wastes is a gamble; you'll be fine most of the time and you don’t know disaster awaits until it is too late. The spoiler point about the sheriff? If you're good enough then you can intervene and stop that - I managed it. Karma does have an effect: I noticed NPCs being nicer to me after I started to reach higher karma levels, and my halo-sporting character gets random gifts from people for "being a hero". I've been attacked on sight by evil folk, and had assassins sent after me.
Other points are nonsensical. As unimpressed as I am with the voice acting, the comment about "characters in a post-apocalyptic world spoke with the same tone (and occasionally, the same pronunciation) as the fair gentle folk of the Victorian age." is pure hyperbole. The ability to choose whatever path you like at the ending regardless of the moral alignment you have taken throughout the game? It's been in nearly every western RPG I have played, including those classics which people like this reviewer don't class as dumbed down for the idiot masses. It's present in games for a reason: player choice. Even the evilest of characters might have a change of heart when they find that pushing the big red button fills the world with fluffy bunnies. You're unable to create your character for the long run because it's impossible for you to regret perk choices? Amazing; I regret 2 perk choices already. Planning is vital for the better perks: they have pre-requisites. I tried to plan ahead from the start, and I have still made quite a few decisions I regard as mistakes.
If I were going to do a melee character I think I would go for high END and average STR. Close combat will mean you take more damage, so your health needs to be sky high. STR only has a small effect on damage (.5 per point). Perks and skills would drive most of the killing ability. AG could be ignored or robbed for points because VATS isn't much use in close combat. I'd keep a good luck score too; every build benefits from more criticals. With good intelligence you could pump up unarmed and/or melee very quickly, then flesh out your support skills. A high medicine score would be important; anything to make your stimpack stores go further. Sneak would be a handy skill as it would enable you to pick and choose your fights and start the combat from a more advantagous direction. Maxed iron fist for unarmed ASAP, a level or three (depending on what other perks you want) of toughness, fast metabolism, possibly adamantium skeleton or life giver if you find you're more fragile than you like, chemist if you use them a lot, probably cyborg (damage resist!), better criticals, maybe chem resistant if you took chemist, paralysing palm, ninja. The first few levels would be the hardest; survive them and it might start to shine.
As far as combat goes, I think a variation on my current tactics would work. In my current game I try to get quite close before calling up VATS and opening fire so my accuracy is maximised; zigzagging about and running from cover to cover gets me to the range I want without taking too much pain most of the time (my 4 END character is made of tinfoil). Sometimes I need to plan my approach a bit, sneakily loop around to better ground before letting the enemy spot me. I'd hotkey stimpacks for quick, seamless healing. Landmines and grenades would be very powerful when faced with tougher foes or groups. Going for an ultra-pure close combat build would be much harder IMO.
In a way unarmed might even be easier than a ranged character. You wouldn't need to lug an inventory of guns about, would have more caps from selling off guns and ammo, and you would never need to worry about your favourite gun running out of ammo or breaking. All you would need is stimpacks, good armour, possibly some explosives, and a sprinkling of chems for tough situations.
Sounds like fun; I'm almost tempted to try it. If only the game were as enjoyable to play as it is to theorise about. ~:(
That build reveals the biggest flaw with Fallout 3's character generation IMO: INT and luck are so good I can't see any build where I wouldn't pump them.
In contrary to Froggy's comments, I have never once had any trouble what so ever with fast travel. Once a static enemy dies, they stay dead for the entire game. Unless you're playing a total pacifist, you won't have any trouble going back to areas that were previously explored. The exception to this is apparently Deathclaws, which repop every time I traveled to that area (Old Olney, I think).
Playing a close combat character is world's different than playing a run-and-gun character. In contrary, again, early levels are surprisingly easy for a CC. It's the later levels that will kick your butt, as everyone and their grandmother will have rifles and variations of combat or power armor. The worst are the missile launcher-equipped enemies or enemies with frag grenades. The choice of playing either Unarmed or Melee is up to the player, but it all boils down to how early you can get a Ripper/Super Sledge or a Deathclaw Gauntlet. Another choice is if you want to spend perks on Iron Fist increasing your Unarmed damage (by a HUGE amount), or go Melee and spend those perks elsewhere. Either build you choose, building up both skills for Ninja is a requirement. Paralyzing Palm may seem cool, but having to throw away your Unarmed weapon (Deathclaw Gauntlet, Power Fist, etc) just doesn't make it all that worthwhile.
Another thing to note about close combat characters is that followers = life. They kill things often more quickly than a ranged character, and have a ton of hit points. Keep them alive, and they will keep you alive. If you have good karma, picking up Fawkes at the end game is a VERY good idea. He can mow down anything in his path. Both ends of the karma spectrum can pick up the ghoul follower in the Underworld.
And I've never once bothered with Luck, except for purposes of getting the 6 Luck requirement needed for a few perks. An extra 1% critical chance is not worth sacrificing an additional 10 to your carry limit. Besides, with a good sneak, you will get an automatic critical with bonus damage if you land a sneak attack, often enough to kill the enemy outright. I usually start with 4 Luck, spend a perk to increase it once, and find a bobblehead.
awesome game. they just need to fix the memory leaks that drops my framerates from 25 to 10 within fifteen minutes of play.
It has been a long time since a game made me laugh, but I did when I found the Board of Education weapon. :gring:
I'm pretty sure that Power Fist works with Paralyzing Palm. My Big Guns / Unarmed character with Fisto! has gained several "targets paralyzed" stats, and I'm quite sure that I've only been using Fisto! (for "unarmed") since I picked the ParaPalm perk.
On a side note, it's quite fun to sneak attack Super Mutants and gib them into pieces with a single power fist strike. :laugh4:
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg:
I get your "NMA" point but I'd say the review doesn't suffer from that syndrome. It acknowledged good points of the game. It awarded it 72/100, which is a fairly good game. The game you play through once or twice and then forget about it. Contrary to other RPG legends like BG or original Fallouts, which hardcore gamers played again and again.
Hmm. I'm not thrilled with the game but I don't find myself in agreement with that review. It's very ... ah, well if I say it's very no mutants allowed does that make sense to other people? Far too hung up on the fact that this is a new game, and therefore it can't possibly be much good because everyone knows new games are shallow, dumbed down, derivative and aimed at people with an IQ of 3.
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg:
Teleporting without danger refers to the fact that nothing can happen to you while you travel. There is no danger of a random band of raiders and things like that. Sure, every once in a blue moon you'll teleport somewhere where bad guys are, but that can hardly be called consequence.
Even my limited (not quite 10 hours now) playtime proves some of his points inaccurate. Teleporting about the map without penalty? Sure - until you drop into an area which has repopulated with enemies. Dead on arrival isn't that much of an understatement for the time I dropped into the midst of a raider group via fast travel. Fast travel out into the wastes is a gamble; you'll be fine most of the time and you don’t know disaster awaits until it is too late. The spoiler point about the sheriff? If you're good enough then you can intervene and stop that - I managed it. Karma does have an effect: I noticed NPCs being nicer to me after I started to reach higher karma levels, and my halo-sporting character gets random gifts from people for "being a hero". I've been attacked on sight by evil folk, and had assassins sent after me.
People giving you several caps, bits of food and 10 bullets isn't what I consider "karma having an effect". When you're good, bad guys randomly spawn to kill you, when you're bad, good guys randomly spawn to kill you. Not because you've wronged someone or something. They just want to kill you. Again bad game design.
Originally Posted by frogbeastegg:
Voice acting is generally bad. Alistair Tenpenny has the perfect British aristocrat accent. Where did he acquire it when was either born in the Vault on the east coast or in the wasteland, remains a mystery.
Other points are nonsensical. As unimpressed as I am with the voice acting, the comment about "characters in a post-apocalyptic world spoke with the same tone (and occasionally, the same pronunciation) as the fair gentle folk of the Victorian age." is pure hyperbole. The ability to choose whatever path you like at the ending regardless of the moral alignment you have taken throughout the game? It's been in nearly every western RPG I have played, including those classics which people like this reviewer don't class as dumbed down for the idiot masses. It's present in games for a reason: player choice. Even the evilest of characters might have a change of heart when they find that pushing the big red button fills the world with fluffy bunnies. You're unable to create your character for the long run because it's impossible for you to regret perk choices? Amazing; I regret 2 perk choices already. Planning is vital for the better perks: they have pre-requisites. I tried to plan ahead from the start, and I have still made quite a few decisions I regard as mistakes.
Change of heart is possible, but unfortunately in FO3 most of the times it's used as an excuse for bad game mechanic.
Although there are few good points, it still boils down to: uninteresting quests that in 99% are simple dungeon crawls, half imbecile dialogues, boring NPCs and uninspiring main quest. Pretty much everything that makes RPG an RPG. Not everything is that bad, it's an enjoyable game. But compare that to Fallout 2 which is a legend, classic, even a cult game for some, and you'd see that just an enjoyable game is a big step back. Yes, FO3 is a new game, it's not FO2, but you can't make a sequel and expect people not to compare it to original. That would be silly. It will always be done. We can't say "hey, let's not compare prequel Star Wars trilogy to the Original, those are new films". No, we can and we should.
My thoughts on the Oasis quest:
(no spoilers within, just an image)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Being a hardcore Fallout fan, it both saddens me to see a legacy end, but it also makes me happy that the developers have obviously spent time reading the Fallout Bible.
Originally Posted by Sarmatian:
Funny thing is that when Fallout 2 was released the fanbase hated that game, calling it not a sequel to Fallout 1 etc.
But compare that to Fallout 2 which is a legend, classic, even a cult game for some, and you'd see that just an enjoyable game is a big step back.
Now they love it.
Kinda reminds me of TW community.
People hate the new game until the next game comes along and then all of the sudden the previous game is being loved.
I suppose when Fallout 4 comes out, people will call Fallout 3 a classic.
Overall I think Fallout 3 lives up it's name and I enjoyed the game just as much as I did with Fallout 2 even if it lacks the adult nature of Fallout 2.
But it's still good to be back in the fallout world and in FPS mode as well.
Originally Posted by Kekvit Irae:
I played a bit more this afternoon and got killed twice when fast travelling back to areas which I had entirely cleared. The first time I spawned in the middle of a super mutant mob, including my first mutant master. The second I was surrounded by raiders. Hehe, the super mutant spawn was so bad that the space between the area loading and watching my head spin across the landscape was so short I didn't have time to draw my weapon. Lots of areas in the wasteland respawn; I see it when I'm wandering on foot too. It seems to take around a week of game time, and the new enemies will be scaled to your current level. For example, when I originally cleared the area which had the super mutants, I faced bloatflies and mole rats. There weren't any super mutants for miles. Indoor locations don't respawn in my experience, with the exception of a single respawn in the super duper mart.
In contrary to Froggy's comments, I have never once had any trouble what so ever with fast travel. Once a static enemy dies, they stay dead for the entire game. Unless you're playing a total pacifist, you won't have any trouble going back to areas that were previously explored. The exception to this is apparently Deathclaws, which repop every time I traveled to that area (Old Olney, I think).
If it moves and is coded in red, I kill it. XP - it's all I care about. I collect all that I can see. Every. Last. Point. I'll chase a fleeing enemy halfway across the map rather than let its points escape.
Heck, last weekend I spawned in the middle of a raider mob when I went back to Tenpenny Towers and that's a) not territory which had enemies immediately by it, and b) surrounded by well equipped human guards.
Originally Posted by :
Increased carry limit is something I haven't felt the need for. I've got STR 5, increased from 4 with a bobble head. If I were using heavy weapons then yes, I probably would want more. In that case I'd go with the bare minimum to get the boosting perk, as the perk provides a better return than spending special points. Then again I might not: I'm carrying 5 weapons plus heavy armour plus a spare to repair my two favoured weapons plus grenades and other supplies, and still don't feel the need for more capacity. I leave low worth loot behind because I've got over 6,000 caps I can't seem to find a use for. The plentiful criticals, on the other hand, bear much of the responsibility for making combat a breeze. Stealth gives you one critical; luck gives you a whole chain of them on groups and on tough monsters.
And I've never once bothered with Luck, except for purposes of getting the 6 Luck requirement needed for a few perks. An extra 1% critical chance is not worth sacrificing an additional 10 to your carry limit.
Originally Posted by :
I did that one this afternoon. Same pictures apply, though possibly not for the same reasons. (vague spoilers ahoy)
The Oasis quest
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Originally Posted by Sarmation:
Funny thing: If I'd walked I would have survived both of the encounters which killed me this afternoon, and I'd have done it with ease. Fast travelling killed me. I died, had to reload, and then needed to change my plans. That's a consequence. You lose the chance to gain additional XP and loot by fighting as you travel. That's a consequence. Time passes too; the well rested bonus effectively lasts for less time when you fast travel because a part of its duration is taken up by a period where you don't do anything.That's another consequence. You lose out on the chance to see a blip on your radar or some ruins in the distance and wandering off to discover a new location. That's a consequence.
Teleporting without danger refers to the fact that nothing can happen to you while you travel. There is no danger of a random band of raiders and things like that. Sure, every once in a blue moon you'll teleport somewhere where bad guys are, but that can hardly be called consequence.
Loading due to dropping in on a super mutant party might not sound like a bad thing. It can be. I've noticed that the area's population sometimes changes when you load. I can be killed by 4 raiders at a specific location, load, go right back to the exact same point, and now it's populated by rad scorpions and dogs. Or super mutants. Or - in one rapidly fatal and very messy case - those incredibly lethal mutant bear things. You can end up losing potential XP and gear, or end up stuck with a situation you aren't able to deal with. This applies to mobs found both fast travel and ordinary travel, and it's made me curse on multiple occasions. :weeps for that raider group with combat shotguns which got replaced by a single mole rat:
Hmm. On reflection, most of my 'getting from A to B' deaths have come from fast travelling :sweatdrop: If I walk then I have a far higher survival rate, since I can sneak, snipe, pick my approach, and am aware that I'm heading into a combat situation. When I fast travel into danger I rarely have time to start VATS up, let alone counter attack. Taking the traditional route allows me to run away too! Hard to do that when you're in the middle of a mob, disoriented, viewing the world through a screen splashed with blood, and unsure what is attacking you, how many, and where from.
You know I sort of wonder why I use fast travel at all.
Hmm, another thought. The only difference between fast travel in older RPGs (the first Fallouts IIRC, also the Infinity Engine games) and what I'm experiencing in Fallout 3 is that the combat comes on arrival, not in the middle of transit. If anything the older games handled it in a less harsh manner because you had chance to react. Fallout 3 has the bad habit of dropping me in completely surrounded by enemies with powerful close range attacks.
Originally Posted by :
As opposed to most other RPGs where nothing at all happens based on your good/evil stat? Except perhaps determining whether you do flavour A or flavour B on a single sidequest? I didn't say it was a good effect, merely that for once there is one.
People giving you several caps, bits of food and 10 bullets isn't what I consider "karma having an effect". When you're good, bad guys randomly spawn to kill you, when you're bad, good guys randomly spawn to kill you. Not because you've wronged someone or something. They just want to kill you. Again bad game design.
Originally Posted by :
It's Hollywood wannabe British. No, it doesn't make sense. Yes, it is rubbish. I still say it is hyperbole. Hyperbole in that it is a single character, not an entire world. Hyperbole in that Queen Victoria's accent was entirely different to the 'classic' British accent people think of (that would be BBC news reader circa 1940), which in turn is quite different to the one predominant today. Fallout's world is full of people who say :shivers: "y'all", a word that was surely created for the purpose of making the English cringe. Fallout's version of DC is full of Americans, who use American slang, have a tendacy towards aggressive phrasing, and who swear and curse frequently. I don't see how else they would sound.
Alistair Tenpenny has the perfect British aristocrat accent.
Originally Posted by :
It's always a bad mechanic. Always. The point was, it's a staple bad mechanic, and one which has appeared in the classic games this reviewer has such a fond opinion of. The way it is included in the review feels like a case of selective memory. I've seen plenty of spoilers for Fallout 3's ending; if half of them are true then it has a tonne of problems and a change of heart mechanic is by far the least of them.
Change of heart is possible, but unfortunately in FO3 most of the times it's used as an excuse for bad game mechanic.
Originally Posted by :
My earlier posts on the game in a nutshell. At this point I don't know whether to go with a ~:) for "I am not trying to be a smart idiot" or a ~:( for "I wish it wasn't so"
it still boils down to: uninteresting quests that in 99% are simple dungeon crawls, half imbecile dialogues, boring NPCs and uninspiring main quest.
While I am an avid player of RPGs and a vet of many of the classics, I'm not a Fallout fan, in that I played them both and found them to be good but not awesome. I avoided the pre-release hype and the wailing, avoided previews, read only one review, and did my all to go in with an open mind and very little in the way of expectations. I wanted the game to show me what it was. I'm still stunned that I have ended up disappointed. That shouldn't have been possible - I've completed and had considerable fun with games like Two Worlds, a buggy, lower budget "I want to be Oblivion too!" game which needed huge patches before it was remotely playable.
Looking at it with an analytical eye I can see it should be good, if flawed. I know it has fixed many of Oblivion's worst problems and is a better game for it. I can see it should be a good game. I know that a lot of care and love went into it. I can tell that some of it is meant to be funny, touching, whatever. In practice? Total disconnect.
I have been struck 4 times by a particularly nasty bug which has the potential to be a game breaker. If you fast travel into a horde of enemies, press the right trigger to draw your weapon and/or right bumper to enter VATS, then die, all in a very short space of time, the game sometimes glitches when it reloads your autosave. You get stuck with your character attacking all the time, and nothing stops it. If you put your weapon away it gets pulled out again. If you swap to another weapon then that fires continuously instead. If you run out of ammo your character continues to attempt to attack. If you manage to change locations and force the game to load the glitch nearly always continues in the next location. If you load a save game then the glitch often carries over, even if the save dates from hours ago. If you pull the batteries out of the controller, replace them and turn the controller back on then it does not make a jot of difference. You can't talk to people. You can't go near people without hurting them. You can't pick up objects. It's very difficult to activate doors because you have to time it between the attacks. You burn through your resources pointlessly.
The first 3 times I got struck by this bug I managed to wriggle out of the endless attack cycle by forcing the game to load many times in short succession; entering and leaving areas, loading and reloading saves. This afternoon, after another death by fast travel, I got stuck in the cycle yet again, and no amount of loading would fix it. Fortunately shutting the console down did. I hope that means the problem is something which lives in RAM, because if it isn't that means that there's the possibility your game can be stuck with your character permanently attacking, rendering it unplayable.
I did find the majority of today's playtime to be more fun than any of the previous. Why? I didn't play it like an RPG, and I ignored most of the main content. I went on a scavenger hunt for bobble heads and skill books. I checked a list for the name of a bobble head's location and got a very rough idea of where in the wastes it was, then set out to find the location and search for the bobblehead with no further spoilerage. It's post apocalyptic Challenge Anneka. :laugh4:
I'm beaten to submission by the sheer weight of text :surrender2: :laugh4:.
I've enjoyed our "little" discussion but it's getting too painful to argue. There are many complicated point that I would like to get across, but my English isn't that good. Actually, maybe it is, but I don't want to spend half an hour or more to write a response. Respect.
So I'm just going to post a link to a short video on youtube, called Greed Never Changes.
I too have been wondering about accents, I haven't come across Tenpenny(just his goons trying to kill me) but Moriarity's accent baffled me. How did he get an Irish accent? Is it even an Irish accent? What on earth is it? Are Bethesda just mocking me, perhaps everybody who buys the game has a character who makes a woeful effort at their accent?
Yeah, Moriarty jumped out at me as well. His weird faux-Gaelic thing had me shaking my head. Really threw me out of the game.
It's strange that Bethesda lavishes so much detail on, say, a floor texture, then drops the ball so badly with the voice acting. And there are still too many repeat voices. Here's a thought: Don't hire expensive Brit actors to do bad impersonations of American accents (did nobody tell Malcolm McDowell about how we pronounce "schedule," among other words?), and instead hire a slew of low-cost voiceover actors so's you don't have repeats.
Take, for example, their wheezy old man voice. He shows up over and over again. And there's a Redguard voice who sluts around from character to character. It's quite irritating.
Originally Posted by Lemur:
When I played the alpha version, a lot of the voiceovers were done in deadpan by the Bethsoft employees. While not exactly quality voice acting, they were bizarrely humorous. I encouraged them to keep a few of the Bethsoft voiceovers, but apparently they did not.
It's strange that Bethesda lavishes so much detail on, say, a floor texture, then drops the ball so badly with the voice acting. And there are still too many repeat voices. Here's a thought: Don't hire expensive Brit actors to do bad impersonations of American accents (did nobody tell Malcolm McDowell about how we pronounce "schedule," among other words?), and instead hire a slew of low-cost voiceover actors so's you don't have repeats.
Take, for example, their wheezy old man voice. He shows up over and over again. And there's a Redguard voice who sluts around from character to character. It's quite irritating.
Originally Posted by Sarmatian:
:gring: :laugh4: Large posts are an old froggy trademark. They aren't seen as often nowadays as they were when I first registered.
I'm beaten to submission by the sheer weight of text :surrender2: :laugh4:.
Monkey Island. I loved those games. Adored them. Played them repeatedly. The 4th game does not exist :puts fingers in her ears and refuses to listen to anyone trying to tell her it was good: The Infinity Engine games too. I hate AD&D, and because I'm dyslexic I had a huge struggle understanding the character system, spells, combat, and so on. It was incredibly tough to play them. I completed all of them and loved them dearly. Planescape: Torment is still my favourite RPG of all time. Mass Effect nips closely at its heels.
Originally Posted by johnhughthom:
I had flashbacks to Atlas from Bioshock. Except Atlas' acting was good.
Moriarity's accent
Speaking of voice acting, was I the only one who was completely under whelmed by Liam Neeson as the father? The birth scene and the scene where you toddle around and look at the SPECIAL book were atrocious.
Originally Posted by Lemur:
He's in there? I don't think I have encountered him yet. Unless ... is he the one on the Enclave radio station? He's done a lot of work in games I've played, and he is frequently at the better end of the scale. Pity if he isn’t here.
Malcolm McDowell
Originally Posted by :
It's more bizarre when you think that they use a fake English accent and a fake Irish accent, despite having actors on the crew who have real versions of both.
Don't hire expensive Brit actors to do bad impersonations of American accents, and instead hire a slew of low-cost voiceover actors so's you don't have repeats.
Voice acting is something Bethesda has always struggled with IMO. There are so many games in recent years with good to great voice acting that there's a large stable of quality actors to draw upon. You'd think Bethesda would look at games like Mass Effect, sneak a peek at the credits to see who provided all those excellent voices, and get on the phone to try and hire some of them. Celebrities don't tend to make very good voice actors. However good they might be as an actor, they are not used to conveying everything with their voice alone. Properly trained voice actors are.
I have to say my interest in Fallout 3 started to wane when Lucien Lachanche popped in for a visit in a dirty suit after plastic surgery calling himself Mr Burke. I had been looking forward to meeting Mr Burke, thinking a mission to detonate an atomic bomb and blow up a town had to be fun. Then that annoying, pretentious fool from Oblivion arrived. It took me four goes at Oblivion before I did the Dark Brotherhood quest because that voice acting made me kill him and I certainly don't want to hear anymore of it. So basically Lucien Lachanche and a bizarre Irish accent in the same room were too much for me.