Fallout 3 Official Multiplatform Thread

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

Who's still playing the game? What have you been doing while in the game?

[Bakken Hood]

Loving it, mostly. I loved Mass Effect for the deep, detailed game universe it created, and I loved Oblivion for being so damn huge. Fallout 3 is more open-ended than the former, more of a true sandbox game, and more richly detailed than the latter. It feels more alive than either of those games ever did.

I love Fallout's approach to morality. I haven't played Fable II yet, but in the first game, evil was a hobby more than a lifestyle. In Oblivion, the Dark Brotherhood quest line was just so much brainless slaughter. In Fallout, you have a valid reason for playing the bad guy if you're so inclined. That helps it to feel more real, even for a compulsive goody two-shoes like me.

How 'bout them Centaurs? Dear God, those things are horrifying.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

I've been pummeling Centaurs with my trusty sledgehammer. The bad thing about those is when there's one around, there's a Super Mutant nearby. It's not too bad when there's just one, but I went into a new part of DC (can't remember name) and I saw some Raiders get slaughtered by 4 Mutants carrying miniguns. I hauled ass out of there.

Now, a Glowing One is usually disaster. I've ran across just one of those.

For my character, I went off the beaten path and created a chick named Huntress (same name as one of my Oblivion High Elf chicks). She's a combination of a complete alcoholic (she's been cured twice while still having a beer in her system), a female version of Mad Max, and a Saint. How do those all fit together? I dunno. There's a few mercenaries on her path because she didn't want to do something for someone. I finally got a place to stash some of the stuff, since I was always having her maxed out in weight, which led to drinking to get stronger, which lead to being an alcoholic. My character is also Champion Over ALL Fire Ants. They took her out plenty of times at a weaker level. Now, with her trusty hunting rifle and level 12, she can't be stopped. Also, I play the game in 100% 3rd person view. The animation may be as stiff as Too Human, but it doesn't take away from the game.

As far as Fallout 3 compared to Oblivion, I still think Oblivion is champ. I like how almost everything you do in Oblivion helps with leveling up. In Fallout 3, my character is slow and it's hard to increase her strength in the game. Overall, I'm really enjoying the game, though it's best for me to just play it on the weekend. It's too time consuming to play during the week.

[Bakken Hood]

The first DLC packages will come early next year (http://www.bethsoft.com/eng/news/pressrelease_112508.html). You get to fight: (January) Commies in Anchorage, (February) Raiders in Pittsburgh, and (March) Enclave goons in the Capitol Wasteland itself. (PC players get a construction kit in December; needless to say, we don't.) No word on how big any of them are going to be. They all sound too focused to be Shivering Isles huge, but Pittsburgh can't be that small.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

Sounds good. I have the PS3 version, so I won't be able to play it. It's not a bad thing, since I'll be pretty burned out as soon as I'm finally finished with the game. Also, after playing Shivering Isles, I felt like I wouldn't have missed much if I didn't pick up that expansion. I guess that kind of puts a damper on my interest for Fallout 3 DLC, even I was playing the 360 version.

Then there's LOTR: Conquest (RPG?) and Sacred 2 coming early in 2009, so I'll end up focusing my attention on those games.

About the construction kit: I never seen what the big deal was about with those. After all the subways, sewers, Super Marts, Vaults, and stuff that I have explored, I wouldn't have much interest in creating my own stuff.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

I beat Fallout 3. It sucks that the trophies were available after I was already 2/3 done with the game.

I think it took around 86 hours total. It felt like I did most of the sidequests along with the main quest, so I'm not looking to go back to the DC Wastelands until later next year.

[Mochan]

No way RBH, you just never got to experience modding. A year after you're done with a game and have a hankering to give it a second run you'll appreciate the construction kit.

By then you'll have several new full-length campaigns and maps, a few total conversions, new graphics and perks, weapons, enemies, a whole pleyhota of new rulesets, etc.

Nodding isn't just about new levels that are more of the same it's about adding new things to the game, and I'm not talking anything lame like horse armor and saddlebags, when you give it a mid makeover you'll nary recognize the game anymore. It's like having a new game or three down the line.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

There's a few things I plan on doing next time I play Fallout 3 (changing residents...about as much as I want to say w/o spoiling anything), along with playing the game a different way. I'll put a lot of time in between now and when I play again, so it won't feel like I just played the game. Plus, I'm ready for a different kind of RPG. Next up, Sacred 2 in February.

[Bakken Hood]

I just finished my first playthrough. I doubt it'll be my last, but man, what a lame ending. I can't believe the creators of "Stealing Independence" (no spoilers, but seriously, the climax of that sidequest is worth sixty bucks all by itself) couldn't think of a better note to end on.

I still say that no one can touch Bethesda for creating a game world that feels real. (Granted, I only know Bioware through Mass Effect, but I never felt as "connected" to their version of the Milky Way as I did to the Capital Wasteland, or even to Cyrodiil.) Not just the graphics that create beauty in a bombed-out hellhole, but the way that individual places tell stories, and the way that little details make the world feel more lived-in. They're so damn good at making a world worth saving; I really don't know why I can't save it through a better storyline.

I'm looking forward to the expansions. If I haven't said so already, I love how detailed the CW is, but I really have crawled every dungeon there is to crawl, and I need more incentive than GS points to do it over. I hate to say it, but the replay value just isn't what it should be. I've done everything Oblivion has to offer, but I can still play it knowing that there are still caves and ruins I haven't explored. They may be sterile and lifeless compared with abandoned offices in the D.C. ruins, but the fact that they're there just creates a sense of freedom. *sigh* I want a construction set.

[ilnadmy]

I don't know man, I feel like Bethesda's worlds are totally lifeless. Not because they're not detailed, God knows they are, but there are so few people you come across that it just feels...desolate. Maybe that was their intention with Fallout 3, but it definitely wasn't their intention with Oblivion, and I think the reason they chose to make a game like Fallout 3 is that it asks for an environment that feels desolate and abandoned, which is the only kind of environment that Bethesda can make.

[Aku]

I got it for Christmas and just started playing....I'll have to give my impressions on the game world later. I like Megaton though. And great prologue.

[trebor]

I'm about 60 hours in and nearing level 19. My character is pretty badass, but there are definitely things I would have done differently if I had known better. Like which perks I selected. I'm going to have a more streamlined and focused character next time through. I tend to play RPGs as a complete goody-goody, and then play different styles for second and third play-throughs.

Can't think of the name of the quest I just completed, but it's where I help the former slaves get into the Lincoln memorial.

Right now there isn't any kind of creature I can't annihilate fairly easily - it's just a matter of using the right tools for the job. Super Mutants, for instance, fall pretty easily to shotgun blasts to the head - use combat shotguns on them. Most raiders fall easily to a plasma rifle blast - most times a single shot will turn them into a pile of goo. Centaurs are pretty easily defeated due to their slow movement.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

For some reason, I always kept a hunting rifle in my gear until near the end. It's not too powerful, but the long range always helped out.

I'm definitely going bad karma next time I play.

I must have missed something with "Stealing Independence". I don't remember a great ending to the sidequest.

[Aku]

I've been playing this game for about five hours now, and I feel like I'm playing Stalker. Same burned-out buildings and odd junk laying around, mutated animals roaming the radioactive areas. Makes me want to play Stalker more than the old Fallouts. They shoulda called this game Stalkout.

[BaneNWN]

I don't know man, I feel like Bethesda's worlds are totally lifeless. Not because they're not detailed, God knows they are, but there are so few people you come across that it just feels...desolate. Maybe that was their intention with Fallout 3, but it definitely wasn't their intention with Oblivion, and I think the reason they chose to make a game like Fallout 3 is that it asks for an environment that feels desolate and abandoned, which is the only kind of environment that Bethesda can make.

this coming from a person who played WOW talk about desolate lol

[Mochan]

Stalkout sounds about right, LOL.

[Aku]

this coming from a person who played WOW talk about desolate lol

Yeah you take away the human players and WoW is about as lifeless a world as you get. Even on a sever with 5,000 other people I could go to any number of areas and feel like I was the only person in the whole world. Actually, for desolate world, I've had more npc interaction in about twenty hours of Fallout than in a thousand hours of WoW.

[Cuddly Knife]

I started playing FO3 the other day, and got caught in a glitch where I couldn't take the GOAT. I had looked online, and the only way for me to not have the glitch happen was to tell the test-giver to just have me arrange like I did take it. It was stupid.

I don't know if that incident soured the whole game for me, but now I just can't seem to enjoy one single bit of this game, no matter how hard I try(I wasn't enjoying it ever before that, but still). I hate having to listen to what seems like hours of dialogue, especially when the characters really have so little to say. I hate when my guy shoots his weapon, dead aim, and the bullets don't connect. I hate having to go on three different quests just to complete an earlier one. I hate micro-managing weapons, and the whole toxic deal.

I think I am just done with this type of game. It really is boring. Boring to look at, boring action, boring character dialogue. I enjoyed Oblivion for some reason, must've been because it was a new experience to me and the very natural scenery. This game just feel;s very tired, if that makes sense.

I don't know. I guess I just don't enjoy RPGs, in any form(although Mass Effect was the shizz). Does the game pick up the pace after Megaton? I wanted to see the bomb go off, but it turns out that I had to be bad to do so, and before I knew so, I ended up killing the guy I wasn't supposed to, and that ended that idea. Grrr. The game is annoying to play.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

Which version are you playing?

I had a few freezes in my PS3 version, but it wasn't surprising since I had a few freezes in my 360 version of Oblivion. With games as big as these, I don't expect Bethesda to get out every single bug.

It sounds like you're as annoyed with this game (or this genre) as I am with most of Gears 2. I'm still surprised you were able to enjoy Mass Effect after finishing it in only 14 (?) hours.

[Cuddly Knife]

Playing the PS3 version. And the game didn't freeze. I was able to look around in my seat, but that was it. I sat there for fifteen minutes, thinking something was supposed to happen. Something was supposed to happen, but it never did.

I'm wondering if the reason i don't like it is because of how much I liked Mass Effect. Sure, ME was an RPg, but it played like a straight-up shooter, while FO3 plays like an RPG. Maybe i'll go back and play some ME to make sure I liked it as much as I say I do. Need to beat the DLC, anyways.

[Aku]

I started playing FO3 the other day, and got caught in a glitch where I couldn't take the GOAT. I had looked online, and the only way for me to not have the glitch happen was to tell the test-giver to just have me arrange like I did take it. It was stupid.

I don't know if that incident soured the whole game for me, but now I just can't seem to enjoy one single bit of this game, no matter how hard I try(I wasn't enjoying it ever before that, but still). I hate having to listen to what seems like hours of dialogue, especially when the characters really have so little to say. I hate when my guy shoots his weapon, dead aim, and the bullets don't connect. I hate having to go on three different quests just to complete an earlier one. I hate micro-managing weapons, and the whole toxic deal.

I think I am just done with this type of game. It really is boring. Boring to look at, boring action, boring character dialogue. I enjoyed Oblivion for some reason, must've been because it was a new experience to me and the very natural scenery. This game just feel;s very tired, if that makes sense.

I don't know. I guess I just don't enjoy RPGs, in any form(although Mass Effect was the shizz). Does the game pick up the pace after Megaton? I wanted to see the bomb go off, but it turns out that I had to be bad to do so, and before I knew so, I ended up killing the guy I wasn't supposed to, and that ended that idea. Grrr. The game is annoying to play.

I don't know about the goat glitch, but I'm playing the pc version. Anyway, like the teacher explains to you, the test is just a bunch of b.s. for assigning young vault dwellers to their future jobs. I took the test and still changed my skill points afterward. That shouldn't ruin the game for you. I liked the whole opening sequence, I thought it was nicely thought out.

I think spoken dialogue should be appreciated, it makes a game more immersive and saves you from the tons of reading usually associated with an rpg. The npc's don't have little to say, a lot of their dialogue is pertinent to the story or a specific quest or information about the game world.

Bullets connect with your target based on your attributes and skill level, as well as what perks you get. If you could hit the mark every time with a gun the moment you stepped out of the vault, it wouldn't be an rpg, it'd be an fps.

You get a choice to blow megaton up or not. Your reward for doing it is a spectacular explosion, and your reward for not doing it is to continue to enjoy the town and to get your own home there that you can use to crash in and store your gear, plus add some bonus items from Moira's. I deliberately chose not to blow up megaton.

This game doesn't feel tired to me at all, it's got a lot of style and plenty to see and do. It will get even better when the mod community kicks in now that the editor is out.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

I'm wondering if the reason i don't like it is because of how much I liked Mass Effect. Sure, ME was an RPg, but it played like a straight-up shooter, while FO3 plays like an RPG. Maybe i'll go back and play some ME to make sure I liked it as much as I say I do. Need to beat the DLC, anyways.

Did you play Jade Empire and KOTOR I on the Xbox? I thought both were great, especially Jade. After Bioware finishes Dragon Age for consoles, I hope they make Jade 2 before Mass Effect 2.


You get a choice to blow megaton up or not. Your reward for doing it is a spectacular explosion, and your reward for not doing it is to continue to enjoy the town and to get your own home there that you can use to crash in and store your gear, plus add some bonus items from Moira's. I deliberately chose not to blow up megaton.

I think if you do blow up Megaton, you get a place somewhere else, I think. Next playthrough, I'm going to find out.

[Cuddly Knife]

I did play KOTOR and Jade, and really liked Jade Empire. Knights was OK(I loved the story more than any of the six movies), but I didn't enjoy the fact that the game relied on the whole dice throw mechanic for combat, or something like that. I never felt in any real control. Jade was different though. I would love to see Jade Empire 2.

I played a couple of more hours of FO3. I figure I'll give it a couple of more hours of playtime, and if it still is doing nothing for me, it's getting shelved.

There are two main things that i can't deal with. One, is the PC-nature of the game. This game(like KOTOR, Half-Life 2, Doom3, and a few more games just don't feel like I'm playing a console game. I'm not sure if you guys understand what i mean, but there's just something about the way the whole of the game feels that grinds my gears. The third-person view also sucks arse. I still feel like I'm playing in first person with some doucher in the way of my screen.

2 would be the randomness that is in this game. Not the good kind of random where enemies don't do the same old motions depending on your actions. A couple of examples of bad random would be when I was talking to the bar guy about my Pa, and after he finished speaking, he laughed. The first time I did that scene, all the motions(as few of them that there are during speaking segments) were fine. I had to do it again after a reload, and when he was supposed to laugh, his face did nothing but stare creepily at me while the audio was still going. Another example of this was when I fought my first Super-duper Mega Mutant at the radio station. The first time I fought him, I wasted all of my machine gun ammo and some handgun ammo before he offed me. The second time I fought him, I wasted him with only a few shots of my machine gun, scoring multiple critical hits. For some reason, I find that kind of gameplay to be very silly.

I do like the Fatman, though. Very cool weapon.

[Aku]

There are two main things that i can't deal with. One, is the PC-nature of the game. This game(like KOTOR, Half-Life 2, Doom3, and a few more games just don't feel like I'm playing a console game. I'm not sure if you guys understand what i mean, but there's just something about the way the whole of the game feels that grinds my gears. The third-person view also sucks arse. I still feel like I'm playing in first person with some doucher in the way of my screen.

2 would be the randomness that is in this game. Not the good kind of random where enemies don't do the same old motions depending on your actions. A couple of examples of bad random would be when I was talking to the bar guy about my Pa, and after he finished speaking, he laughed. The first time I did that scene, all the motions(as few of them that there are during speaking segments) were fine. I had to do it again after a reload, and when he was supposed to laugh, his face did nothing but stare creepily at me while the audio was still going. Another example of this was when I fought my first Super-duper Mega Mutant at the radio station. The first time I fought him, I wasted all of my machine gun ammo and some handgun ammo before he offed me. The second time I fought him, I wasted him with only a few shots of my machine gun, scoring multiple critical hits. For some reason, I find that kind of gameplay to be very silly.

While this game has the third person option, it is really meant to be played in first person. You are dealing with probabilities in combat in an rpg. If you have a 50% chance of hitting something at your skill level you might fight the mutant and miss the first two rounds, leading to you getting killed, then on the reload you hit on the first two rounds, and you kill him. You more or less flipped the coin and called heads after the reload and got heads. It's not silly, it's just how rpg's work.

This game has some good random encounters. I came across an escaped slave fighting some ghouls in a barn, then on a reload it was a settler fighting a deathclaw. I've come across other examples of this, one where a slave had a bomb attached to her that needed to be disarmed.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

I played the entire game in 3rd person. To me, it just doesn't make sense to have a RPG where you can create and customize a character, only to be stuck in 1st person. With Fallout 3, yeah, the 3rd person isn't great. Stiff animation, the off-set aiming recticle, but I find the game to be 100% more enjoyable than using a 1st person view.

[Mochan]

Why not RBH? You only need third person for ogling your character's looks, in Western RPGs like Fallout 3 the emphasis of character creation is on your stats, not on your clothes. While many do allow you to paper-doll, the point of Fallout especially is to customize your character's stats, which translate to a different playing experience depending on your strengtgs.

Like Cuddly has pointed out and like I always say, 3rd person is really bad in shooter type games because there's this big lug blocking your view every second of the way.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

Do you use 3rd person to for ogling your character? I don't, I just like being able to see more of the game, and you can't do that when you can only see what's directly in front of you due to a 1st person-only view.

If the character is in the way, then it's the developer's fault, not the viewpoint. RE4 didn't get the view right, and I wonder if RE5 will have any improvements.

If you enjoy 1st person view, use it. It's not going to change which view I prefer to play games in, though.

[Aku]

I prefer first person for for one reason - immersion. Makes me feel like I'm there. Doesn't mean I don't like third person games. Two series I can think of are Gothic and Hitman. And of course Tomb Raider. But when I'm in a game world that is so real looking and "out there" like this one, and third person doesn't give you an inherent advantage over first person (like in Hitman the game mechanics are geared specifically for third person, like his hand combat moves), I like the total immersion experience.

[Bakken Hood]

What? RBH doesn't like first person? When did this shocking turn of events happen?

I have to tip my hat to games like GRAW and Fallout that give you the choice of different views, because each one has its own virtues. To me, playing Halo in third-person is almost as unimaginable as Splinter Cell in first person. The main value that first-person has, at least in shooters, is that you're less likely to waste ammo on the wall you're trying to take cover behind. When your line of fire is the same as your line of sight, it's infinitely easier to line up your shots in close quarters. The virtue of third-person is situational awareness. Seeing around corners is cheap but useful, and more importantly, you have a wider field of view, so you know what's right next to you.

In my experience, third person always has its charms but is hard to get perfect. The closest thing to a perfect 3PS camera I've seen is SWBF 2. The way your character becomes semi-transparent when the camera is forced to pull in close, plus the quick toggle between far and close cameras, means you can shoot accurately in tight spaces without the FPS horse-blinders effect.

I don't buy immersion as an argument for first-person. For me, landing Gordon Freeman's invisible feet in the radioactive ooze for the thousandth time makes the game feel less realistic. Plus, good animation adds to the realism; Scott Mitchell breathing hard after running for a while, Sam Fisher reaching for his knife as he nears a guard-- things like that make those games feel more immersive. Now, watching Max Payne die because you can't see the bad guy through his painfully chic leather duster and oh-so-stylish reload animations? Not immersive.

If you're still reading this, I'll recap: Both views are good for something, and games that give players the choice are taking the best approach possible. It's a shame one of the views always winds up as an afterthought.

[BaneNWN]

Best game ive played where 3rd person worked well was rainbow 6 vegas 1 and 2.Games like GRAW 1 and 2 were meant for First Person it totally ruins the immersion with 3rd.

[Mochan]

You see Bakken, third person gives you immersion in the sense that you are an omniscient god watching over a character. When you see details like your avatar doing little things it immerses you as a viewer.

But this is totally different from the kind of immersion you get from first person, which is immersing you into the game, as an actor and not an observer. This is something third person can never achieve, and it's the kind of immersion that is gold when you are playing in a highly-detailed world like Crysis or Oblivion.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

What? RBH doesn't like first person? When did this shocking turn of events happen?

Breaking news, huh? I can honestly see myself not getting a FPS this entire year. According to my 2009 list, there's just one on there (Killzone 2) and that may get punted from the list.

Dead Space is a game that can be added to Bakken's list, to go with GRAW and the Splinter Cell games.

I feel like I'm wearing horse blinders in about every FPS game I have played. It's not a long list, but I just prefer being able to see more. Take Mirror's Edge. It's a pretty good game, even in 1st person, but if the devs would have put in an optional 3rd person view, you could probably get rid of the indicators to tell you where to go, since you could see more of the game. That would make the game a lot more fun, IMO.

As far as the immersion thing, it differs from person to person, so I think you're pretty off on your statement, Mochan. 1st person doesn't make me immersed in a game. I don't feel a need to "be the character" in a game, or feel like "I'm in the game". If I wanted to do that, I would just create myself in RPGs and sports games.

[Aku]

As far as the immersion thing, it differs from person to person, so I think you're pretty off on your statement, Mochan. 1st person doesn't make me immersed in a game. I don't feel a need to "be the character" in a game, or feel like "I'm in the game". If I wanted to do that, I would just create myself in RPGs and sports games.

I don't think Mochan is off at all. The type of immersion you want depends on the type of game. When I'm playing Sim City or some other builder game, I want to be a god and look at my creation, I don't want to be on the streets of my city walking around as myself. When I play an rpg, I want to create other characters. but when I play a game like FEAR, for example, what makes it scary is that I'm the one walking around these creepy places having all sorts of horrors jump out at me. I couldn't even imagine playing a game like System Shock 2 in third person.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

I could play any FPS in 3rd person, if the devs gave gamers the option.

[Aku]

I don't know how you could say that if you played a game like SWAT or Raven Shield. Those games are meant to be first person. Third person is like a cheat, letting you see things that the character couldn't by virtue of your behind the shoulder/free look perspective. Games like those you should only be able to see through the eyes of the character in the game.