Fallout 3 discussion

**TinCow** · 02-20-2009, 20:31

There's a pretty decent preview of DLC 2 - The Pitt up on The Escapist:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/arti...nds-On-at-DICE

**Zenicetus** · 02-20-2009, 21:31

I just read that Escapist preview. WARNING: it has a few spoilers about the plot line. Don't read it if you want a completely fresh start on the expansion. Although frankly, the plot developments are fairly predictable once you know the basic "post-apocalypse city run by slavers" premise. We've all seen this movie before.

On the one hand, it's good that it's a more story-driven episode, and not another linear shoot-'em-up like the Anchorage DLC. That was very disappointing. What I'm wondering about though, is how much fun it will be to play with a capped level 20 character? That almost didn't matter in Anchorage, except for making easy combat even easier. There wasn't enough time or tactical potential in that short episode to make much use of the fancier skills and abilities. With the new DLC though, I don't know if that will work. One of the main things that keeps players motivated in RPG's is the continual increase in skills and abilities. When that's capped off, the game has to offer a very compelling story, or very challenging new enemies (which this might do, based on the preview), or gear and weapons you haven't seen before. One or two new weapons are mentioned in the preview, but I'm not a melee specialist that would be interested. If they have something for a sniper, maybe.

This time I'm going to wait for some user feedback before jumping on it.

**tibilicus** · 02-21-2009, 02:12

Originally Posted by TinCow

There's a pretty decent preview of DLC 2 - The Pitt up on The Escapist:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/arti...nds-On-at-DICE

You sir have just made my day.

**Veho Nex** · 03-25-2009, 07:10

I heard a rumor the pit was just released, but my internet isn't working... still, about the only website i can seem to get on is this and my brothers website. can someone confirm?

**frogbeastegg** · 03-25-2009, 11:53

The PC version was released and is available AFAIK.

The xbox version was released, discovered to be a huge, buggy mess and was pulled down. It's got giant red placeholder markers instead of new art assets, floating trees and rocks, crashes, and all sorts of other issues. Glad I didn't buy it.

**tibilicus** · 03-26-2009, 00:46

Originally Posted by Veho Nex

I heard a rumor the pit was just released, but my internet isn't working... still, about the only website i can seem to get on is this and my brothers website. can someone confirm?

Yes it is, but I personally wouldn't get to excited about it..

So far I'm actually finding it less enjoyable than Operation Anchorage. Also if your a high level character you probably wont get much out of it unless you crank your difficulty right up.

**Veho Nex** · 03-27-2009, 23:25

Bought it but as I was installing it computer froze up and died. That was on wensdat right after I read FBE's post. Anyways, I think I killed the HD where FO3 was on, when it was only a IDE cable death. So I have to start anew. I'll give a review when I am done.

**tibilicus** · 03-28-2009, 00:08

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** · 05-10-2009, 19:37

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:

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 ...