Fallout 3 discussion

[tibilicus]

I can actually say towards the end the Pitt was really quite good if not a bit short.

With out spoiling to much I'll just say the moral choice you have to make is really quite challenging and a taxing one, much harder than any decisions made within the main campaign..

[frogbeastegg]

I waited a month before buying The Pit. Now it's fully fixed and the game's level cap has been raised I downloaded it, along with Broken Steel.

The Pit is hard to recommend. It's better than Operation Anchorage, in that it's not pure run and gun. It's underwhelming in that the new area is cramped and dull, the main quest is short and dull, the new NPCs are dull and dull, and it features the mother of all Fallout collection quests ... which is annoying and dull. Collecting 100 steel ingots took me over an hour with a printed guide, and would have been intolerable without one.

The only good is that while the two sides may look obviously good and evil, they're not. Don't get too excited though; the truth is simultaneously obvious a mile away and poorly telegraphed. It revolves around a child born with a unique resistance to mutation.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The slaves should be the good side because they are slaves, right? Wrong. Problem: the only way you will know they're not the good guys is if you kidnap the baby as requested and take it to their lab. At that point you can see it's a rat hole filled with clueless idiots who can't wait to butcher the brat to get themselves a cure.

Fortunately I baulked at kidnapping the baby. I left it with the evil slaver faction, figuring that at least it has a safe, clean environment and loving parents, and that the experiments were being done with the child's welfare as the primary concern. The quest then required me to hunt down the slave leader; that's how I found the grotty lab filled with evil scumbags, and got the slave's speech about gaining the cure no matter what and with no concern for the baby. Quest completed I then was able to talk with the parents and discover that the evil slaver overlord has plans to free his slaves, spread the cure to everyone, and rebuilt the Pit as a proper city full of goodness and hope. He's ex-brotherhood of steel and a hero, blah blah.

IMO it was poorly done, set up more as a trap for the player than as a real choice. It completely relied on you making an environment based decision as I did, without knowing what the second environment would be like at all. Why couldn't they have allowed the player talk to both sides a bit before the need for the choice?

Broken Steel is ... meh. Quests which take you through yet more tunnel dungeons, followed by an assault on a huge base where your options get stripped away. Got 100 points in stealth? Tough, these enemies can still spot you most of the time. Want to hack and use something other than brute force? Tough, all you do is release more enemies or turn off a couple of turrets. The base is filled with tedious enemies who take and give a lot of damage, and behave exactly the same as the last 640 humanoids you killed. Yawn.

Broken Steel has killed the game's stability. I'm playing the xbox version and it's locked the console up multiple times. It has severe frame rate issues in that huge base. I'm seeing quite a few glitches I never encountered before, such as shots from weapons getting stuck and hanging in mid air forever.

(At this point I feel obliged to add that the first version of Broken Steel had problems registering achievements on the xbox, and was broken on the PC. The xbox version now has that fixed, and I haven't heard the same about the PC version. I would also add that the xbox fix was not as good as promised, and has broken some people's gamertags and achievements for Fallout 3 entirely. This after the debacle of The Pit, where it took 4 or 5 attempts before the xbox recieved a fully functional version of the DLC. A lot of people lost their game saves in that mess, primarily those with high level characters and many hours invested in the game. Completely and utterly pitiful.)

One of the new enemy types, the ghoul reaver, is either a glitchy mess or completely ill-conceived. It spasms around like the animation is fighting with the ragdoll effects, and soaks up so much damage it's nearly impossible to kill. I'm talking hundreds of bullets from a fully repaired top end weapon here. In a fight with 2 of them my combat shotgun went from fully repaired to completely broken before I killed them, and I used a unique laser and a unique Chinese assault rifle for lots of shots too. It's an understatement to say that a single one of these ghouls has more health than an entire dungeon worth of high level enemies. Meanwhile they do around 100HP of damage to my level 24 character with ultra amazing armour; she has just over 500HP. Spamming stimpacks is a tedious must. They're faster than you so running away is no good, and you can't sneak around them even with 100 points. The other new enemies are not nearly as tough; they feel as though they are operating on the same scale as the original enemies, so they represent the same kind of step up as a super mutant master did to a brute etc.

The new content does do a good job of sorting out the abysmal original ending. This is how it should have been. Being able to get to level 30 is very nice. The new perks are mostly complete rubbish.

All in all I can't recommend any of the DLC to the general player. Broken Steel is worth a purchase if the raised level cap is really important to you.

I hope that's truly it for DLC. No more please! I don't know why I keep doing this; I wasn't that fond of the original game in the first place. I guess it is because I keep hoping to find the wow-awesome game so many others did; got to be better than the tunnel dungeon trudge with awful writing and dire plot I played ...

[Zenicetus]

Note: this is about the PC/Windows Live version of The Pitt and Broken Steel.

I did the Pitt shortly after it came out, and concur with Froggie's review; she really nailed it. I won't say it was a complete waste of time, because I still enjoy running around in the post-apocalypse world as a change of pace from the other games I've been playing recently. The hot and steamy color palette of the Pitt was a nice contrast to the cool blues of Anchorage. Art-wise and environment design-wise I thought it was pretty good, although it did feel very cramped. I thought I'd be wandering around a city similar to the scale of D.C. like the main campaign, but it was more like being confined in a small neighborhood section. I understand the constraints, for a low-cost, minor DLC release like this, but it was still disappointing once I realized how small an area I was going to be moving around in. It conflicts with the big, open-ended feel of the main campaign (more on that below).

One nice thing I enjoyed was more use of the vertical in the environment. You can get up on rooftops in one area, and there are lots of catwalks. At least it was a little different than the corridor crawls.

I didn't have the patience to do the full steel ingot run, I only did the part that advanced the plot. I agree about the "big moral choice" too. That was very badly handled, with not enough information for the player.

Depending on what difficulty and character type you're playing you'll probably want to do the Pitt at somewhere around level 15-17. I did it with my character post-Anchorage at level 20. Other than a few surprises from scripted attacks, it was pretty easy.

Due to the aggravating way Microsoft forces you to buy points in blocks instead of just enough for the current game you want, I had some leftover points after The Pitt. Fallout 3 is the only reason I have that execrable Windows Live thing installed (I don't own an XBox), and since with the leftover points it only cost me $6.25 USD to buy Broken Steel, I did that. At that price I figured it couldn't be too terrible.

I'm about halfway through Broken Steel, trying to stretch it out a little, and my reaction so far is... meh. It's okay, I guess, although like the previous two DLC's I'm still feeling railroaded through the plot. These "mini" DLC's are not a good match for a game like Fallout 3, where the main campaign takes place in a very large environment where you can do a lot of exploration, and pursue dozens of side quests. I love wandering around the wasteland and discovering stuff.

For me, the three DLC's haven't been total failures, because they don't cost that much. On the other hand, they don't deliver that much either. They're just little stabs at expanding the original game world. Frankly, I would rather have paid another $30-$40 for a single "real" Fallout 3 expansion pack that extended the main campaign, with new character levels, and made the explorable world larger, with dozens more quests and not just one major, railroaded plot line that I'm forced to follow. On the other hand, major expansions like that are larger risks for the game developer. I guess it makes economic sense to do it this way, but I'll definitely be more wary of this approach. Ladling out fresh content in little dribs and drabs isn't a substitute for traditional, major expansion packs.

[frogbeastegg]

I did some digging on various forums. Turns out that the ghoul reavers are broken; if their animation is spasming about they are effectively invulnerable. When they are not spasming they are only a little harder than a Glowing One. The lock ups and other issues I have encountered are being experienced by quite a few others too. I should have waited a bit longer before buying - all of the fuss last week was focused on the broken achievements, with little attention paid to the gameplay issues.

I forgot to mention that I had trouble with The Pit too. A certain speech cut off halfway through, leaving me stuck. I had to reload. Later on another event failed to trigger, once again leaving me trapped with nothing to do except reload. I'm playing the fixed version, and have never downloaded any of the faulty ones so it can't be blamed on residual bad files at my end.

Colour me highly unimpressed. Putting out DLC for a closed environment like a console should be relatively easy to get right on a technical level. Most companies manage it; I can't think of any besides Bethesda which have managed to make such a mess.

I love wandering around the wasteland and discovering stuff.

That's the part of Fallout 3 I do like. It's still nice to wander the wastes and find the last few locations I have missed.

The DLC is like a capsule containing everything I dislike about the game, Broken Steel's main plot line being the worst offender of all. Inane dialogue -> tunnel dungeon -> pick up object -> return for more inane dialogue -> tunnel dungeon -> repeat until it's finally over. They even throw in some plot objects which don't make sense. Minor spoilers for the final plot mission:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If the Brotherhood of Steel have no air capacity whatsoever - as we've been told repeatedly throughout the game - then how can they air drop a crate of supplies into an Enclave base? And why does said crate contain an unencrypted voice message any idiot could pick up and listen to, detailing the Brotherhood's attack plans? It's dropped into a corner of a busy base; it would have been spotted as it parachuted in if logic was anywhere at work in the set up. And why couldn't they give me the orders and gun before sending me out to slog through a bunch of tunnel dungeons on my way to the base?

[Fixiwee]

Any PC user tried to play a heavy modded Fallout3? I recently installed FOOK, a mod that adds most of the classical F1 and F2 weapons (.223 pistol hehehe) and many other stuff to it. Then there is also Marts Mutant Mod that's supposed to make ghouls more like zombies. They attack in larger groups, are tougher and so on. Also adds Floaters and Geckos to the game.
It all seems to be expand the fun with a better feeling of the old Fallouts, allthough I have only played them for a short time.

[frogbeastegg]

I hope that's truly it for DLC. No more please!

:sigh: I finally dragged my way through the rest of Broken Steel this afternoon and breathed a big sigh of relief as I deleted the whole lot off my console's hard drive. Guess what? Bethesda instantly announce two more lots of DLC! Gah! Please. Just. Make. It. Stop!



I've finished this game 3 times now! 3! And every single time they release more content so my game ends up returning to unfinished status! 3 times I have deleted the content off my xbox, 3 times I have breathed a sigh of relief that I don't have any reason to ever, ever go back! 130 hours! I have played nearly 130 hours between two characters! I worked hard to get 100% on the commercial game and they keep on taking that away. I don't like the game much even though I am an RPG fanatic, and they keep on giving me a reason to try it yet again just in case it's not as boring as I thought.

Please let me sling the game on my completed pile and never need to touch it again. Please. It's not too much to ask for, is it? Let me keep my completed status and leave me alone. Please?

[johnhughthom]

That announcement mentions DLC coming for PS3, I was under the impression Microft paid a fortune to make it 360 only a la GTA 4. I guess they only put up for a limited period of exclusivity.

[Centurion1]

I enjoyed Fallout 3. The DLC's eh i guess i just hate glitchy console games, you know i understand laggy games on my computer, cause computers are all built to different standards. But come on all Xbox 360s are the same how the hell can you make a game that doesnt work on a standardized operating system. If its too much then just tone it down a little.

The original game i loved, even though i sorta missed my character after killing him off cause my D bag of a super mutant companion wouldn't just walk into the damn room. Also about fawkes, uh hes a littleeeeee overpowered. In other words he broke my game. I just sat back and let him do my killin. So i got rid of him and took back my trusty companions, Jericho and my pet doggy. Plus i get to fit out Jericho in BA armor and make him a total BAMF but fawkes cant wear nothing (hint give the super armor you find in that quest to jericho and give him the best weapon you cant reapir. Because he doesnt use up the stuff and at least someone gets some use out of it). Also jericho said way better stuff.

While im ranting about companions i just want to say that they are totally an awesome feature. There isn't anything like having a little backup for a teamwork freak like myself (like seriously i preserve my marines in Halo 3, and if they die i give them a 21 gun salute. Do you have any idea how hard it is to preserve a 4 man squad on legendary in Halo, yeah a little hint here,... its hard)
So overall i give bethesda a thumbs up.
(sorry for my excessive use of parentheses and also my ranting)

[Zenicetus]

I enjoyed Fallout 3. The DLC's eh i guess i just hate glitchy console games, you know i understand laggy games on my computer, cause computers are all built to different standards. But come on all Xbox 360s are the same how the hell can you make a game that doesnt work on a standardized operating system. If its too much then just tone it down a little.

The technical problems are frustrating, at this late date in the game's development cycle.

On the PC at least, it seems to be mostly related to the "Windows Live" thing, which has nothing to do with the original game and just complicates things (like having to stay online while you play the DLC content). Frame rates and overall performance are still fine, but ever since the Pitt DLC it makes the game do a hard lockup of the computer on exit, requiring a reboot. It's been a year or two since I've played a game that actually locked up the entire Windows (XP) OS like this and required a cold restart, instead of just a crash to desktop.

On the positive side, I've revised my opinion of Broken Steel a little. The raised level cap does encourage exploration outside the main plot line. I usually don't look at online game forums or Wiki's unless I get stuck on something, but with the raised level cap there was an incentive to keep exploring the game world, and find a few of the unique weapons I had missed. BS beefs up the random encounters with the new higher-level baddies like supermutant Overlords, so it was fun finding these things. When I was capped at level 20, I just didn't have the motivation to finish this game content, and there weren't enough dangerous enemies to make it challenging. So, kudos to the game devs for providing incentive to continue exploring the world they created.

I haven't tried re-playing the game from scratch (and won't), but I suspect that the higher-level enemies added by the BS DLC throughout the Wasteland might reduce that uber-powered feeling you get around level 15 in the original campaign.

I'm still not sure I'll buy either of the two announced DLC's. The alien one is interesting thematically, so I might go for that one. The "horror swamp" one doesn't sound that enticing... just more killing stuff, over and over? I dunno.

The original game i loved, even though i sorta missed my character after killing him off cause my D bag of a super mutant companion wouldn't just walk into the damn room. Also about fawkes, uh hes a littleeeeee overpowered. In other words he broke my game. I just sat back and let him do my killin. So i got rid of him and took back my trusty companions, Jericho and my pet doggy. Plus i get to fit out Jericho in BA armor and make him a total BAMF but fawkes cant wear nothing (hint give the super armor you find in that quest to jericho and give him the best weapon you cant reapir. Because he doesnt use up the stuff and at least someone gets some use out of it). Also jericho said way better stuff.

I play a small arms and energy weapons specialist, going for sneak and sniper skills. I like to scout the terrain before advancing, take out perimeter guards with a sniper rifle, etc. For that style, when I use a companion at all, Charon (contract ghoul) is a good one. He'll go into sneak mode when I do, which keeps him out of trouble most of the time, and he doesn't feel overpowered.

The main problem with companions is the way they'll take off on their own if they spot nearby enemies before you can engage them yourself. It's usually related to pathfinding; especially in complex vertical 3D environments where they're spotting enemies above or below you. So I'll often tell Charon to just wait somewhere while I scout ahead, or when I go into buildings with complex vertical levels. I like the way he grumbles under his breath, and complains about areas not being safe.

[frogbeastegg]

I haven't tried re-playing the game from scratch (and won't), but I suspect that the higher-level enemies added by the BS DLC throughout the Wasteland might reduce that uber-powered feeling you get around level 15 in the original campaign.

Unfortunately not. I'd planned my second character around the 3 DLC episodes, so I had plenty left to do after completing the plot and DLC missions. I found that with the metal blaster and 100 points in energy weapons the overloard and albino radscorpion were going down in 5-8 shots. One's a strictly melee enemy and seldom got to hit me, the other was just another gun user who did more than average damage. Unbugged ghoul reavers I could kill in a single stealth critical or in 2 normal shots.

The enclave troops were the toughest IMO. That new flamethrower is nasty and the ones with hellfire armour take a tonne of shots to drop. I didn't encounter any outside of the Broken Steel plot line.

[Zenicetus]

The enclave troops were the toughest IMO. That new flamethrower is nasty and the ones with hellfire armour take a tonne of shots to drop. I didn't encounter any outside of the Broken Steel plot line.

I've run into a few of the new Enclave guys outside the main plot in the wasteland, at those small encampments with the portable satellite dish. They're easy to spot at a distance from the blue glow. Usually it's something like one guy in the new Hellfire armor, with two in Tesla armor and maybe one scientist.

I also ran into one lone guy in Hellfire armor right outside the door to the Citadel, with no Brotherhood guards around. I had just teleported in to that location, so it was probably one of those random threats the game generates for teleport arrivals.

[Centurion1]

Yeah i havent really run into many of the new enclave. So how much better is the hellfire armor at full strength

[Zenicetus]

Hellfire armor has the same 50 damage reduction as T51b armor (highest in the game), slightly less rad resistance at +15, and it adds +30 fire resistance and +1 strength. Like the T51b there's no agility penalty. Unlike the T51b which costs money to repair (and can't be repaired completely past 88% I think?), you can repair Hellfire armor with other Hellfire armor taken from Enclave soldiers. Together with the strength bonus, that makes it the best armor in the game, I think, if you're into wearing power armor. I gave my T51b armor to my companion as soon as I figured out how easy Hellfire armor was to repair.

It's mainly the toughness of the guys wearing the armor, and their heavy weapon, that make them hard to kill. It's not so much the armor itself. These are the stats from the Fallout 3 Wiki page on the Hellfire Trooper:

Statistics

* Level: 24
* Health: 250
* SPECIAL: 6ST, 6PE, 6EN, 3CH, 4IN, 4AG, 4LK

Skills

* Big Guns: 100
* Energy Weapons: 100

[Centurion1]

Yeah i ran into some yesterday so now i have a fully powered up set of armor. Yeah it looks nice and the guys are a pain in the @$$ to kill. I also give the t51b armor to my companion i mean otherwise its useless in like five minutes

[Quirinus]

I just bought the game, having played it briefly in a cybercafe a while back.

Are there any suggestions for the new player? Like, what skills/perks/items to avoid, etc? In Oblivion I was most comfortable with a archer/poisoner/thief type. In particular, is it worth investing on speech or charisma or whatever it's called? The speech mechanic looks different than that of Oblivion. An interesting skill, 'Black Widow', intrigued me when I played it briefly, I wonder if it's possible to play a femme fatale throughout the game.

EDIT: Wow, guys, nothing? Ah well.

[rasoforos]

Oblivion with Guns...

...I am now at lvl 14 and this certainly is not Fallout. All the dirty risquee elements are out and attempts towards humour are very sub par. Dialogues and voices are the usual Bethesda stuff (make you want to be deaf and illiterate). The funny elements have been killed off (you cannot shoot someone in the groin...) The atmosphere is Oblivion, the trading is Oblivion (who on Earth liked that?) and it even has a...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

vampire clan

...Oh and am I just unlucky or they kicked out special encounters too??!

It is still an enjoyable game,although boring at times, but Fallout it ain't.

Whilst it is not a Total Failure, I would be glad if Bethesda sells it's rights to a developer that has the guts to create a proper Fallout game.




Even more frustrating is the total disregard Bethesda and Microsoft have for my sweet sweet money. Games for Windows does not support my country so no DLC for me. An option to pay by credit card to download it does not exist. Of course there was no such information available when I bought the game so in essence I bought a compromised product.

[frogbeastegg]

Are there any suggestions for the new player? Like, what skills/perks/items to avoid, etc? In Oblivion I was most comfortable with a archer/poisoner/thief type. In particular, is it worth investing on speech or charisma or whatever it's called? The speech mechanic looks different than that of Oblivion. An interesting skill, 'Black Widow', intrigued me when I played it briefly, I wonder if it's possible to play a femme fatale throughout the game.

EDIT: Wow, guys, nothing? Ah well.

Black widow gives you a tiny number of special dialogues throughout the game. It’s not worth taking for that. It is worth taking for the bonus damage against men in combat – many of the human enemies you encounter will be male.

Drop charisma down and put the points into something useful. Charisma is totally useless.

Intelligence is probably the most powerful stat. The more points you put in it the more skill points you gain on levelling up. With 10INT and a particular perk you can gain 23 points per level. You'll be a powerhouse after a few levels if you put the points into a selection of key skills (a weapon, repair, sneak, speech once the others reach 75) and by the time you reach level 20 you will have maxed out pretty much every skill you would ever want to use.

Endurance is either awesome or not. Depends on how much you expect to get hurt. If you're going sneaky stealth then you won't need as much health as a toe to toe bruiser.

Strength is likewise. If you plan on big guns and the like then it's good. Otherwise drop it to 4 and add the point to something useful like INT. There's an easy way to gain +1 to STR early on in the game, so you can soon bump it back up to 5. Loot isn't important after the first few levels; it's possible to become stupidly wealthy with very little effort. I had more caps than I could ever spend by the time I was level 8.

Luck should either be pumped or ignored. You gain extra chance at critical hits and +1 to all of your skills.

Perception is quite important. If you get it to 7 you can get some very good perks. Shouldn't need more than that.

Agility should be pumped. More action points = more time in VATS = easier combat.

Pick a single primary weapon and get it to 75 ASAP. Work on a secondary weapon type later. Small guns are the best type to start with as they are common, have plenty of ammo, and don't have the drawbacks of the other types. Big weapons are heavy and a bit rare. Energy weapons take a while before they start to drop in loot but do good damage and have a low AP cost in VATS, so they're great for mid to high level characters. Explosives are more of a support than a main. Hand to hand and unarmed are quite specialist; if you take them then you need to build your character around the idea with lots of health, high STR, high medicine etc.

Explosives of 25 is needed if you want to solve a quest you can find early on in a certain way. The quest will sit there and wait for as long as you need so there's no huge rush, however the reward is very nice.

Barter is totally useless. Don't put points into it. After a few levels money is not a problem.

Repair is vital. Better condition means more damage from your weapons and more protection from your armour. Guns in poor condition can jam when you reload. It's also a good way to handle loot; repair items so you are carrying less weight but higher quality. Items in good condition sell for more caps than broken ones.

There are bobble heads and books which raise stats and SPECIAL scores. That's why you don't want to start out with a 10 in anything, or take a skill to 100 early on.

Some perks are awesome, many are poor. Try to plan ahead.

IIRC my last character (smart, stealthy small guns talker) was something like:
S:4
P:6
E:4
C:4
I:9
A:9
L:7

TAG: small guns, repair, speech.

On level up I put points into repair and small guns until they reached 75. Then stealth to 75 while doing locking and science to 25. Once stealth was 75, I got science and lock picking to 50 because at that point you can open most locks and computers. Then I worked on speech, energy weapons, medicine.

NB: That's from rough memory; I don't know if the points add up to the correct total or not. There may actually be more points to use than that; if so bump END to 5. Use it as a guideline not a rule.

I would be glad if Bethesda sells it's rights to a developer that has the guts to create a proper Fallout game.

Heard about Fallout Vegas? Obsidian has some of the original Fallout 1/2 team.

[rasoforos]

Heard about Fallout Vegas? Obsidian has some of the original Fallout 1/2 team.

No I havent.

You 've made me a very happy misanthrope

Let's hope for the best.

[Quirinus]

I'm at Lvl 14 now, roleplaying a goody-two-shoes stealth gunner. I've been enjoying the game immensely. It's certainly "Oblivion-with-guns", but as I enjoyed Oblivion very much, this is a plus rather than a minus for me.

The world is very immersive, and, though from the map I could see that the world is not that big, it feels big when exploring it. The quests are pretty good, except for the Wasteland Survival Guide quests... Moira is very annoying. I'm role-playing a good character so I can't kill her. I can't wait for when I replay as an evil character.

VATS is a godsend for someone with a retarded trigger finger like me, but even without VATS combat was ver satisfying. I do hate the interface though. I get that they're trying to build on a post-apocalyptic theme, but I hate the PipBoy's monochromatic display. I think there's a way to bind weapons to the number buttons, but I haven't figured out how. The repair system doesn't bother me as I pumped skill points into repair early. But I wish they had implemented something like Hellgate: London instead (break down unused loot to scrap metal).

I haven't played the first two Fallouts, so I don't know if they were in them, but I don't like the Super Mutants. They just seem too much like a fantasy orc to me, and- who are they supposed to be anyway? How come some swing nail boards but some can operate missile launchers and miniguns? I love the Ghouls as a race though, and the Ghoul Mask is awesome. I keep wearing it around when killing even if I don't happen to be killing feral ghouls. It just looks so darn cool.

Apparel-wise, the choice seems pretty scanty so far. I don't think I've encountered a new piece of apparel for ages. The modding community is no help here. It's because it's a new game I'm sure, but the FO3 modding community is small compared to Oblivion's. My favourite weapons so far are the scoped .44 Magnum and the hunting rifle. Nothing like sneaking up to a raider and blowing up his head over an iron sight. It's not as cool with the sniper rifle because it kicks and you can't really see the target go down. And the scoped .44 Magnum... well it's the world's most powerful handgun... with a scope. =o

A pretty entertaining game so far, all considered.

[Greyblades]

I think there's a way to bind weapons to the number buttons, but I haven't figured out how.
In the pip boy screen, just hold down the number key and click the weapon you want to bind to it.

[Justiciar]

I haven't played the first two Fallouts, so I don't know if they were in them, but I don't like the Super Mutants. They just seem too much like a fantasy orc to me, and- who are they supposed to be anyway? How come some swing nail boards but some can operate missile launchers and miniguns?

Super Mutants were the bad guys in Fallout 1 and have featured in every other game in the series. It's only in Fallout 3 that they became braindead Orc-things, however. Initially they were intelligent megalomaniacs that thought themselves superior to all other creatures but at the same time were cursed with infertility and - as a result - inevitable extinction.

[Zenicetus]

The trailer for the Lookout Point DLC is out (release date is June 23):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5uSZ7REcWg

I was assuming this would just be a basic shoot-em-up, and was more interested in the last DLC, with the aliens. But 'ya know.... the Zombie horror movie vibe in the trailer looks like it could be fun.

OTOH... I can't quite see this working with my level 26 uber warrior with Hellfire armor and a Tesla cannon. It just doesn't fit the vibe in the trailer. I'd rather be that guy in the trailer with just light armor, a baseball bat and a shotgun.... maybe a level 10 character, with enemies scaled appropriately. Otherwise, if it's scaled for players who completed Broken Steel, the ghouls (or whatever they're showing) will have to be even tougher than the Feral Ghoul Reavers in BS.

I could see the final Alien encounter DLC working that way. You should need to be near level 30 with the highest-tech weapons to fight an alien, but how much do you need to off zombies in a swamp? That's baseball bat and shotgun territory, if we're going to stick to the classic horror cliches. It will be interesting to see how they balance this one. Maybe it would be worth starting a new game and running up to level 10, if it's actually scaled that way.

[Greyblades]

Eh, they'll probably have some sort of special zombies that take more punishment for the higher level players.

[Quirinus]

Whew! Finally finished the Main Quest at level 19. I still like it, though perhaps a bit less than I did at level 13.

One main gripe for me is the limited scope of the game. For a freeform game, FO3 is awfully short on quests. The major city in the game, Megaton, has one short quest and a long series of errands (Moira's quests). The other settlements are pretty much the same. Coming from Oblivion, where a town can hold tons of quests, this is something of a disappointment. I was expecting being able to join a caravans' guild, or a merc organisation, or something.

I don't know, it seems to me that a lot of extra missions could have been tacked onto the sides of the existing missions without much additional work. For example, considering that raiders/slavers are such a big problem, there could have been a quest to raid a raider den. Or if you choose to listen to Mister Burke, there could be have been a line of 'dirty work' missions-- kill this NPC, threaten that NPC. Or: convince the Rivet City citizens to take Pinkerton back. Etcetera.

Throughout the game, I never really felt that I was scratching a living out of a barren wasteland-- caps and ammo were relatively abundant, and radiation wasn't such a problem. Of course, while it detracts from the apocalyptic setting, imo it does make the game more playable. In this respect it's similar to Left 4 Dead.

The perks are somewhat unbalanced-- some perks are clearly better than others. Come on, "Computer Whiz" at level 18? Really?

Gripes aside, however, I still enjoyed it while it lasted. The world of the Capital Wasteland is interesting to explore, and I was hooked into the game. I think I'll play through it another time with an evil character before I uninstall it.

Looking forward to blowing up a certain blight on the landscape of the Wasteland. ;)

[Lemur]

Best video on the subject ever.

[Zenicetus]

The Point Lookout DLC for Fallout 3 is out. I'm such a sucker... I had to see what it looks like, so I bought it on the execrable MS Live thing for the PC. Still downloading, won't be able to play until later tonight or tomorrow. Is anyone else here trying it?

If I use my main character that went through all three of the other DLC's (Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel), he's at level 25 and can kill anything. From the look of the trailer, Point Lookout is more of an atmospheric storyline (hopefully) instead of just wasting large numbers of teched-up soldiers like Broken Steel. So I'm planning to drop off my Hellfire armor and most of the uber energy weapons at my shack in Megaton... just hop on the steamship with light armor, a rifle and shotgun, and see how it goes.

After running through the main campaign and the three DLC's so far, one thing I *dont* have to worry about, is having enough ammunition.

[White_eyes:D]

Funny thing is....I didn't drop off most of my gear for Point Lookout.... Ended up over weight most of the time.....it was nice but....(My guy is pretty much unkillable...I basically have over a thousand skims....I can drink just about anything...because my guy absorbs rads over time...and all my stats were at a hundred....) Point Lookout is more based for a up and coming character....not one who has "Seen it all and laughs at your petty attempts to harm him"

It was nice to kill a couple of hours with.....but I wouldn't really think it worth much more then that...

[Zenicetus]

I played a little bit of Point Lookout last night, just enough to get oriented to the area and the general vibe. Not very far into the plot yet... just looking around. The environment design and atmosphere is well-done, I think. It feels a little less "plot on rails" than the other DLC's, but we'll see how that goes.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

While wandering around, I got jumped by some rabid locals straight out of the "Deliverance" movie. That was a nice touch... I was expecting only ghouls as the main enemies.

I agree it's probably better as a side-quest for medium level characters, but I think it still works if you're willing to roleplay it at a higher level, and go very light on armor and weapons. Light armor makes you more vulnerable even at level 25.

I'm having fun fooling around with melee weapons too, which I never really did in the main campaign or other DLC's. Staying simple there too, with either a shovel, baseball bat, or that fancy sword from the Chinese general at the end of the Anchorage DLC. The sword looks good with my leather armor and confederate cap. Yee haw!

Still no idea if it's a good bang for buck. I'm trying to stretch it out and play in small doses instead of just running through it, so it may take a few days to finish.

[Monk]

I played a little bit of Point Lookout last night, just enough to get oriented to the area and the general vibe. Not very far into the plot yet... just looking around. The environment design and atmosphere is well-done, I think. It feels a little less "plot on rails" than the other DLC's, but we'll see how that goes.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

While wandering around, I got jumped by some rabid locals straight out of the "Deliverance" movie. That was a nice touch... I was expecting only ghouls as the main enemies.

I agree it's probably better as a side-quest for medium level characters, but I think it still works if you're willing to roleplay it at a higher level, and go very light on armor and weapons. Light armor makes you more vulnerable even at level 25.

I'm having fun fooling around with melee weapons too, which I never really did in the main campaign or other DLC's. Staying simple there too, with either a shovel, baseball bat, or that fancy sword from the Chinese general at the end of the Anchorage DLC. The sword looks good with my leather armor and confederate cap. Yee haw!

Still no idea if it's a good bang for buck. I'm trying to stretch it out and play in small doses instead of just running through it, so it may take a few days to finish.

Thanks for the first impressions, Zenicetus. Will be very interested to hear what you (and any others) have to say about Point Lookout. The only DLC i've gotten thus far for FO3 is Broken Steel and that was solely to get to a more satisfying ending.

[Zenicetus]

A follow-up on Point Lookout. I finished it recently, or at least the main quest and almost all the side quests. I think there's one more minor quest that I need to find, but the area is 90% explored.

For me, this was the most enjoyable of the DLC's, mainly because it has a more open, relaxed feel than the first three. There is a main plot, but you can take it at your own pace. It doesn't dominate the area or keep pushing you forward in a linear path, the way the three previous DLC's did. There are 5 other side quests, 3 mini-quests (ones that don't trigger info on your quest log), and lots of little easter eggs and hidden loot in the area. This DLC rewards exploration in a way the other three DLC's didn't. It feels like a miniature version of the original game.

After fighting Enclave guys in power armor in the last DLC, it was nice to get into a low-tech area like this. To fit the theme, I used only Ranger armor, and only small arms and explosives. No heavy weapons or energy weapons. Ranger armor works well in PL, because it can be repaired with combat armor, and you can find that on smuggler bands that respawn in the area. Combat armor is also sold by one of the vendors. If you choose any of the lighter armor types, you should be able to repair easily. There is no power armor except maybe one or two sets in trunks or boxes, so self-repair of that type can't be done as easily as in Broken Steel. There is plenty of ammo to be found for heavy and energy weapons, but you'll run into a similar difficulty finding weapon spares for repairing. Aside from a few smugglers with rocket launchers, and a few robots here and there using lasers, I saw no higher-tech weapons.

I have to revise my earlier comment about it being for mid-level characters. It might feel that way if you go in with power armor, the best unique weapons and a post-20's character, but there are some very tough enemies in Point Lookout. A few have attacks that bypass damage reduction stats, and they have very high hitpoints. That's actually about my only complaint with Point Lookout. It's not that the enemies are tough, but there's a disconnect between what they look like -- wearing normal clothing, un-armored, no headgear -- and how much damage they can take. It just doesn't look right for a "tribal" human to take three or four shotgun blasts direct to the head, and keep coming at you. I suppose people would complain it was too easy otherwise, But it does break the immersion a little. Maybe it's just all my guns going rusty and the ammo getting wet and ineffective, from walking around in the swamp water? In contrast, there is a new monster type...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

a humanoid MireLurk with obvious Creature from the Black Lagoon influences

...that was always easy to kill. It should have been a lot scarier. Someone screwed up the balance there.

Anyway, for me it was a good DLC. Easily the best bang for the buck. In retrospect I would have passed on Anchorage and The Pitt, and would only have done Broken Steel for the higher level cap.

Speaking of that... maybe they were trying too hard to avoid making the player too powerful, but I just can't get very excited about the perks past level 20. Nothing is all that interesting or useful. I think I ended up putting points mostly into the early part of the list that I had bypassed. Also I think it would have been better to increase the cap on weapon skill past 100, so you could still have some sense of specializing in one type or another. When you get up into about level 27 or so (where I am now), you'll probably have most of the weapon types maxed to 100, and you have to use "house rules" like I'm doing with Point Lookout (no heavies, no energy weapons) to play a more interesting game.