It's just a game ... or is it?
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It's just a game ... or is it?
Fallout 3 made me nostalgic about Fallout 1 and 2...
...which made me play Fallout 2...
...where I play a slaver lesbian than sold her wife to slavery :laugh4:
<---- Which is why Bethesda can never make a fallout game.
When a game makes you quit playing it to finish its 11 year old predecessor then...well...
...it isnt Fallout. It is just a nice game.
I got Fallout 3 (latest DLC and patched, Steam version) and I was wondering, what mods are highly recommended and rather simple to install to expand my game experience.
Any mods that removes that green overlay.
Hah, I like the idea of that. I am going to use it.
Some screenshots are up at the main Bethesda/Fallout site for the Mothership Zeta DLC, which I think is coming at the end of the month.
On the one hand, that type of environment with lots of corridor crawling is my least favorite in the F3 game. I prefer the open spaces of the Wasteland, and that's one reason I enjoyed the Point Lookout DLC. The plot sounds like it will be fairly linear too, unless the ship is humongous and allows some exploration and side plots.
On the other hand, okay... a few cool new weapons, some new armor types. Maybe it'll be fun. Based on the screenies, it looks like you won't be stomping around in power armor (probably stripped of armor and weapons as part of the abduction scenario).
I can't say I love the look of the spaceship interiors. Why would an alien mothership use a 1930's German industrial design motif? I'm almost expecting to see rivets everywhere. I was hoping the Bethesda designers would go nuts doing a really weird-looking environments, but this just doesn't look all that different from the other F3 interiors.
Point Lookout...
Well I just finished playing through PL and I have to say, wow. That was probably the blandest DLC i've ever played. My own belief about DLC is that it's a great way to expand upon the game world by throwing you into a unique situation not seen inside the original game. It's like adding another sandbox, inside the sandbox.. but this one has, say, ice cream in it!
Point Lookout is not that kind of DLC. It just adds nothing new, plain and simple. Sure, some of the enemy types are nice, but there's just so little to do that it blows my mind. I've heard there's lots of hidden side quests but frankly who cares? The moment i saw a Feral Ghoul Roamer kicking around near the Cathedral I knew I was in trouble. Yeah, haven't seen one of those before. The enemies who are unique felt like they were tacked on at the last minute for interesting screen grabs. You encounter the new enemies so rarely that if you do all the main quests you will only run into the new enemies a handful of times. I'm not joking.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The difficulty was a roller coaster, up one moment and down the next. I went in at around level 12 with a decent enough arsenal and found that some of the enemies were quite tough to bring down, while the new weapons could kill me in five shots! Unfortunately Point Lookout practically throws Stimpacks at you, I don't think i dropped below having 20 once. So while the enemies hit hard and provided a quick bloody nose, when I realized I'd never run low on healing it became trivial.
The main quests...I don't like them. One made literally zero sense as to why my Vault Dweller would want to even do it. It's called the Velvet Curtain and.. well...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
As for The Pitt, I won't comment to much on it other than saying:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Ahhh the pitt choices....
As for point lookout, despite the times where I could swear I was back doing Agatha's vault quest and the shroom experience, don't get me started on that thing.
As for any new content, so much of it made little sense including what monk touched up on.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Well, I enjoyed PL, but I can see where it wouldn't be everyone's cup of radioactive tea, and it did have some weak plots in some of the side quests.
About that Velvet Curtain quest and the "little to no new weapons"...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Ah yes... the new weapons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zenicetus
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
:yes:
Problem for me was I don't use rifles. I have my Machine Pistol and my .45. Those are all I need fore 90% of the quest and exploring. I never seem to run out of ammo for either.
I used the sniper rifle, till I swapped for the Gauss Gun, because it was really taking its toil on dealing any real damage, and now, even the Gauss Rifle isn't doing much. Takes like 7 shots to take down a super mutant brute, and it is a real killer if you use VATS. The knock back from the gun is great, but if it pushes them behind an object while in VATS, VATS just continues and it wastes ammo.
Well I would have to disagree with you on the Velvet Curtain, after fulfilling your fathers mission it doesn't really make sense to anything else beside (IMO) head up north to the commonwealth and find the scientific paradise and hopefully join it as Doctor Li does in the Broken Steel expansion. Unless your character is supposed to be an adventurous person which validates any side quest they give you, because in a post apocalyptic world you have two choices to live your life, find a place safe and secure (in this case you know of the commonwealth by the time you finish activating project purity and could probably join it) and try to live your life in peace or go out and explore the world and fill your time by going on adventures such as completing an old Chinese spy's mission, I mean in that situation where the U.S. and China as we know it has been gone for 200 years why not? You say all Communist people you come across try to kill you so why would you help them, but at this point everyone connected to it is dead, it wouldn't help anyone and you can't spend one in game day without someone trying to kill you anyway. It's an exciting adventure though and there is no T.V., movies or books for you to be spending your time with anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
I am guessing this dilemma of "not making any sense" is why they made your character die in the first place and changed it only because enough people complained about not being able to continue on in an open sandbox after that.
Also for the Pitt, I absolutely loved the morality trap they give you. I love any RPG that has options in shades of gray instead of black and white (save slaves and give cure=hero help slavers=bad), it makes for a very unrealistic world which is completely opposite of what the Fallout world really is, it's not black and white but shades of gray that would be prevalent in a world of people doing horrible things just to survive another day. It's probably why I also connected more with KOTOR 2 then the first.
I agree with the previous post about the Vault Dweller's motives. If you didn't go north to the Commonwealth, and the Brotherhood after Broken Steel is still treating you like a second-class hired gunslinger (I really hate those guys at this point)... then you're just still exploring to see what excitement and loot is out there. This feeds into the next and final DLC (Mothership Zeta), where you're still just wandering around the Wasteland looking for adventure.
Not true! There are certainly places in the capital wasteland where you can find chinese ghouls who will shoot you on sight. There's even a radio broadcast that they keep going. Explore the DC ruins near Arlington to find out their story, i won't spoil it for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It could have made perfect sense if I knew there was a reward going into it, but I didn't. I was just going through the motions because i knew outside of the game there would be compensation. Inside there was no real sign that this was nothing more than a waste of time.Quote:
I am guessing this dilemma of "not making any sense" is why they made your character die in the first place and changed it only because enough people complained about not being able to continue on in an open sandbox after that.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I'm all for shades of gray but when you throw a curve that late in a quest progression without giving any indication it's coming it doesn't count as a good plot twist for me. If I had no way of figuring things out for myself then it's nothing more than a beginner's trap. I understand fully what they went for, it's just executed horribly.Quote:
Also for the Pitt, I absolutely loved the morality trap they give you. I love any RPG that has options in shades of gray instead of black and white (save slaves and give cure=hero help slavers=bad), it makes for a very unrealistic world which is completely opposite of what the Fallout world really is, it's not black and white but shades of gray that would be prevalent in a world of people doing horrible things just to survive another day. It's probably why I also connected more with KOTOR 2 then the first.
It's not that I didn't enjoy the DLCs, it's just I took issue with many of their plot choices. Mainly because i've seen much better within the same game. If you take it for what it is, Fallout 3 trying to be a sandbox then it's perfectly acceptable. However that is exactly why I took issue with it, it breaks the immersion factor that Fallout tries very hard to maintain. I still spent enough time in the swamp to get the Bog Walker achievement, so is it nitpicking? Possibly. It's simply something that I think hinders Pitt and Point Lookout, they could have been much better than they are. :shrug:
I have been to Mama Dolce's but that is mostly likely a separate group on a different mission then the dead Chinese operatives you come across in point Lookout. What I mean by connected I mean the Chinese government is likely completely destroyed with perhaps a Enclave like remnant which is more likely to be interested in retaking and rebuilding China then in completing some 200 year old mission.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
It is supposed to make sense in the way I described in my above post where your character is not doing it for compensation but in the thrill of having an adventure, otherwise the vast majority of side quests don't make sense without injecting some imagination in there.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I agree completely with your last paragraph.
For me I really thought that covering areas such as the Pitt in just 3-5 hours ruins the region, because it's such a large city that has the opportunity to be another whole game on itself but is kind of dumbed down for the sake of adding on a new and different region to an all ready large game, which definitely does hurt the immersion.
Hmm, point taken though I still find it a bit lazy on the writer's behalf. I just kept thinking to myself "Come on Bethesda you're better than this" as I was doing the quest.
Well at least we can agree on something. :laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
I just finished Broken Steel last night and I have to say it's my favorite DLC thus far (haven't played Anchorage but it looked terrible). I only had one bad thing to say about it really and, again, it comes back to plot points. It was so trivial though that it in no way hurt my enjoyment of the content so I'll let it pass. As for an ending it does its job while keeping the world open for exploration and that's really all you can ask for in a sandbox.
Think I am done with Fallout for a while, though. I pushed the game passed 1000 gamerscore (first game i've done that with, gotten close with some but never hit the 1k mark) and satisfied my need to kill some muties. I also kept Dogmeat alive through it all this time, which was no easy feat!
Please remember to use spoiler tags!
[spoil ]text[/spoil ]
Sorry! Got too caught up trying to keep track of my large post.
Anchorage is the worst of them all, all it does is give a good impression of what the Chinese forces were back during the war. However there is information to be had about the simulation that the general you come across in the simulation commissioned the simulation in real life and rewrote it a thousand times making it unrealistic as to how it actually played out, so I guess with most insights into the larger world you come across, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
If you are planning on not playing Fallout for a while I would advise you to at least power through Anchorage and wait until Mothership Zeta (the last DLC) comes out in early August. From the screen shots and info released I am very hopeful that this one will be the best. You can already see the entire world in one of the screenshots as the character travels the space ship traveling through space. Also it was revealed that significant people from Earth's past will be also held captive on the ship, which you can elicit help from, which I have interpreted as some exposition on the world before the war or at least creating a connection between Fallout 3 and its predecessors with some cameo appearances.
FO3 wasn't a bad game but neither was it a good one.
It really did play like oblivion with guns.
I'd give it a 5/10.
They did all of the crappy Oblivion stuff while trying to make it a real fallout game.
A B- for effort and a C+ for execution.
The really funny thing was reading their forums and everyone was complaining that they couldn't max out(sigh).
Bethsoft needs to decide if its making games to please a younger or older crowd.
Bethsoft did the best they could with the game:hide: Personally, I am surprised it sold as well as it did....with how much people complain:laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by John the Mad
The bottom line is if it sells:yes:......but I think they did a good job, mostly:beam:
With all the complaints the game is still the greatest of 2008. I give it a solid 9/10.
So I finally broke down and bought a couple of DLCs through Games for Windows Live. Two thoughts:
- Games for Windows Live is not ready for retail. If it were open-source software the version number would be 0.3.
- Four support calls later, still can't get the content to show up in the game. Unforgivable. I will never say a mean thing about Steam again.
I had no problem with it in the game. Did you download it and which DLC are you on about? You have to go to the areas to get them.
I have the retail version of the game, patched to 1.6. I picked up all of the DLCs except for the Alaska one, which seemed rather thin. I'm on support call to GFWL number five, and trust me, there are real problems.
I know all about going to special areas to get the missions, but thank your for pointing this out.
I've been all over the support boards trying to find a fix. If they would just release a manual download for the 1.7 patch, I'd be oh-so-much-closer to having this work, but it's only through GFWL, for reasons that passeth understanding.
By the way, the GFWL support number is a well-guarded secret. Microsoft's main support line claims it does not exist, and it's listed nowhere on the GFWL site. I'll let you in on the magic: (877) 274-4349.
-edit-
And I finally solved the "patch to 1.7" problem. I had a hunch IE8 was the culprit and I was right. (My hint was the fact that you cannot buy "points" with IE8, a known compatibility probme with GFWL). I uninstaleld IE8, downloaded and installed a copy of IE7, and was able to get GFWL to patch F3 without crashing. Man, this GFWL is some touchy, unstable tech.
It is really weird, I had absolutely no problems at all. Though I do own the Steam version of the game. What is the nature of the errors? I am truly curious.
That's the key; you're using Steam. Which is a robust, mature service. I changed out my mobo, moved everything onto a new drive with a new drive letter, and Steam still fired up immediately. That's hardcore.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beskar
GFWL follows the Microsoft philosophy where everything is dependent on everything else. So the entire GFWL interface is a subset of Internet Explorer. And I knew from previous wrangling that IE8 does not play well with the GFWL service. Hence my hack, which works.
The problem was that when GFWL attempted to update F3 from 1.6 to 1.7 it would hang at 99%. If you could not complete the update, you could not see your DLC. And in fact GFWL would deny you the ability to play the game if it could not update. Stalemate.
Everyone who has reported no problems is using ... Steam.
Like I said, I'll never say a mean thing about Steam again. For at least the rest of the day. Okay, for an hour.
I ran into a similar problem with one of the DLC's, I don't remember which. I'm using the box/DVD version of the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemur
IIRC, I fixed it by shutting down the game and GFWL, then going to the Bethesda web site and downloading the latest F3 patch and installing it manually. Once GFWL recognized the current version, it would install and run the DLC content.
Yup, this is the only way i could play the DLCs. Patching inside of GFWL is completely broken, you have to install the patch manually through an .exe from bethesdaQuote:
Originally Posted by Zenicetus
The patching froze once completed for me. But other than that (just closing it) it worked fine,
Problem being that Bethesda and/or Microsoft have decided that there will be no manual download of the 1.7 patch. It has to be done through GFWL or Steam. Hence the brick wall I ran into.Quote:
Originally Posted by Monk
So Bethsoft goes and makes it so you can max out a character with the DLC(Not that it was that hard to do before the new content).Quote:
Originally Posted by White_eyes:D
Half the people playing it whined the game was too easy and the RP aspects of it didn't give you the same choice's or consequences as the first two games..the other half whined they wanted to be able to max out all stats..guess which half they listened to?
I guess they tried their best but the latest installment in the series played more like Oblivion than Fallout.
Besides that i can't complain as FallOut would be dead without them picking up the franchise.
Though maybe it still is dead as the game played like Elder Scroll VI>though there were glimpses of a good Fallout game.
Thats why i give it a 5/10.They took the worst of their last game and tried.
They get points for trying.
John the Mad, you might find your milk less curdled if you knew that the next installment, Fallout New Vegas, is being made almost entirely by Black Isle veterans. If the guys who worked on the first two can't make it Fallouty enough for you ... well ...
I hope officially, they sort of merge Fallout: Vegas with Fallout 3. Not many games doing that, which is disappointing.
Mothership Zeta trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_6ihZmTK8U
Thought I'd post this here since I just got back into Fallout 3 ( yes, again. Silence!)Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemur
Bethesda apparently caved in to peer pressure as 1.7 is now up on their site for download. GFWL and Steam haters, rejoice!
As a side note I own the Steam version and we don't get updates through steam. That's right. Bethesda doesn't allow it. There's even a huge petition to bring Fallout updates to steam but so far nothing's come of it. GFWL has really done a number on us all. :no:
I don't think Games for Windows: Live is that bad, I am just hoping it comes to the point you can play Xbox360 games on the computer using it, then it would become really good.
The new and last (supposedly) DLC is out now -- Mothership Zeta.
I went ahead and got it, for basically two reasons. First, I like the game overall, and since I never played the original Fallout games I'm carrying less baggage into it. Also, Bethesda/Microsoft arranged it so that if you buy all the DLC's for the PC, you won't end up with any leftover points on that stupid MS Live! system. Zeta only cost my $6 USD and change, since I had to overspend on "point blocks" to buy Point Lookout. At that price, and to close out my "points" (and hope to never use Microsoft Live! again), it was a no-brainer.
Just a quick first impression here... mostly negative, but I just dipped my toe into it. Maybe it gets better.
Negatives:
This looks like just the rail-shooter I was afraid it was. No real exploration so far, just a linear corridor crawl. It has a very similar feel to the quest where you're captured by the Enclave in the original campaign, so if you enjoyed that quest I guess you'll enjoy this one. Again, this is just a very early first impression and maybe it gets better.... but I don't know how much you can do to avoid a linear DLC when you're trapped on an alien ship and are trying to escape.
There is an absolutely terrible design flaw (IMO) involving game balance and immersion. The comment below is a big spoiler (although you might be expecting it anyway if you've played The Pitt DLC). It involves something that happens in the first 20 minutes of gameplay, so if you've gotten further than that, click the tag:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Positives:
The abduction scene is short, but well-done. The overall feel is a little darker and creepier than I was expecting.
Early in the game, you meet a character that's clearly modeled on a classic sci-fi movie. If there's more of that kind of pop culture sci-fi reference in this DLC, it could be fun.
The 3D interiors are very good, and it looks like almost all new, original work... not recycled from the earlier F3 environments. I still want to know why the alien ship uses rivets... but so far, I'm enjoying the scenery even if it is a bit claustrophobic. Bethesda does do scenery well.
My milk ain't curdled i'm just suffering from lactose intolerance.:laugh4:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemur
I'm actually suprised at how well they did FallOut.Its just the more you play the game the less it plays like fallout and the more you see oblivion creeping in.
I guess i'm still mad about when they gave into the Max Stats crowd.
You could complete the game several times over,easily,playing as any character type.Yet they felt the biggest problem was that.
I've got mixed feelings about MZ. The setting is great, atmosphere is awesome and the motivations of your captors is actually pretty well done (if a bit cliche). The one problem I have is once you get around 30 or so min into the game you (or at least I) ran into serious problems. The DLC tells you one thing but actually finding out how to do that is a whole 'nother adventure in of itself. There were many parts where I said allowed "What am I supposed to do!?" Say what you want about Point Lookout, at least it never confused the heck outta you.
Not only that but I encountered a bug... towards the end of the DLC (wont spoil anything) there's a door that one of your friends helps unlock. She says "Okay it's clear!" and despawns, obviously having walked through the door. The main issue comes in the fact that for you the door stays locked. I tried everything but I couldn't figure out how to get around the door. Finally I broke down and unlocked it through the console to continue my adventure. :no:
Now for plot spoilers. Won't be anything major, but there's still some spoiltastic stuff so here we go!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I played Point Look last night. I got fed up of Fallout 3 taunting me with its 'unfinished' status. After sinking over 120 hours into completing it with Broken Steel, it itches to have the game sat there whispering that there's another 5 hours left.
In short, it was the most fun I've had with Fallout 3 despite containing all but one of the things I dislike about the basic game, and having new problems related to its status as a cheap, small download. Bethesda finally gave up on trying (and failing) to tell a serious story and aimed for a freaky, crazy one instead and that worked far better because dodgy writing and voice acting plays right into this tone. That is how you do a hallucination sequence! Far, far better than the one in the basic game - I actually had quite a bit of fun following it around and seeing what the designers had come up with. The exploding mansion was a bit good too. Not many tunnel dungeons either, praise be.
I shall do Mothership Zeta tonight. And then that will be Fallout completed yet again, hopefully for the last time. Please, no more.
If I had to describe Mothership Zeta in one word that word would would be "tedious". It's nothing but an overly-long kill-crazy corridor shooter, a tunnel dungeon with different artwork and particularly lame enemies. It had some bad performance issues too; the frame rate went right down to slide how on many occasions, and I could hear my xbox struggling to cope.
It's like Bethesda listened to what people hated about the first DLC packs and then bundled it all together to make MZ. We've got wannabe FPS gameplay, no options other than jumping through pre-defined hoops, no roleplaying, banal NPCs, linear pathways and a 'find all the junk' subquest with an annoying amount of junk to gather some of which is in areas you cannot return to. Rubbish - the worst of the 5.
I thought it was abit boring too but I have to say getting some more alien blaster ammo and those Gels that could repair all your weapons to full without paying a NPC or sacrificing another weapon was a somewhat decent reward.Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I was so excited about this last one. But once I saw that the only characters from Earth's past would beI knew that this would suck. Broken Steel should have been the only expansion I bought.Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
On the people:Quote:
Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
On the Boss battle:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Like i said, i've got mixed feelings about this DLC, i loved the atmosphere but everything else just... ugh. :no:
The character named in ACIN's spoiler as annoying is voiced by the same person who did Moira, aka the Fallout 3 Queen of Annoying. Certain vowels and words gave it right away, times where the actress couldn't hold the new voice and lapsed into pure insane shopkeeper.