Quote Originally Posted by TinCow
As for the skills... well, I gotta be honest, it entirely depends on the skills that were removed. There were so many totally useless skills and perks in the Fallout games. I personally NEVER used more than 14 skills. Not even close to that number. Sorry, but Gambling simply doesn't do it for me. First Aid AND Doctor? Why both? Totally redundant, the only reason to use First Aid was when you ran out of daily uses of Doctor and wanted extra healing. Even then, easier to simply use Stimpaks. Outdoorsman? I wouldn't expect that to work well in a game without the world map anyway. If you want to avoid a random encounter... walk around it. Throwing? Who ever specialized in Thrown Weapons?

Subtract Gambling, First Aid, Outdoorsman, and Throwing. There ya go, 14 skills left. Not so painful, was it?
That's entirely your opinion mate.

- I used gambling excessively in FO2. Contrary to what ya'll may think, it does have quite a bit of use, and there were more than a few skill checks on events that looked for high gamble. Further, I don't like wasting time running around looking for random encounters to kill stuff to loot $500 worth of gear that isn't going to make a dent in getting more fusion cell ammo that I need which is $1000+ a whack. This is esp. true when running against the clock attempting to complete tasks/the game within a timeframe as a challenge.

- First Aid was a bit frivolous, but not for people short on stimpacks playing for time. Doctor did heal a bit more but took an hour or two off your timer, as opposed to the 15 in FA.

- Outdoorsman. Again playing for time. And the thought of FO3 being like Oblivion in terms of the world makes me a sad panda. And being able to get around the map without being stopped every 1 cm was far less frustrating.

- Sticking a few points in throwing weapons was incredibly useful for lobing grenades around when playing a shooter char. That saved my hide more than a few times when up against a number of super 'mutes or floaters that bunch up. Also there are people who do like to specialize in throwing and/or melee based characters. Just because you may have not, doesn't mean that others haven't or don't want to. This is the exact same as the lack of weapon diversity in Morrowind vs Oblivion.