Fallout 3 reviews, hype, thoughts?

Disconnected said:
It's not so much that they're mono-dimensional. Most of the Fallout NPCs were as well. It's that the game in general, NPCs included, goes out of its way to protect the player from himself. In TES:Fallout, you're not going to get shot down as a mad dog because you pull out a gun and point it at the city guard. The only way to upset anyone/anything, is if the game gives you special dispensation to do so, and then only after repeatedly affirming that "yes, I really do want to do this" to the extent it becomes a meta game, rather than role playing.
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Very true... But I also miss the lack of accents. Ever noticed just how clearly each and every one of them speaks english? But this is just a minor thing nothing big. However I do agree to the rest of what you say that it's an outright chore to upset anyone, but this is more of a writing/dialogue problem then a problem with the characters.

Disconnected said:
TES:Fallout is far better balanced than the Fallouts ever were. That's not saying much, of course, but still.
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I'd argue wether that's a good thing or bad... if by balanced you mean you can'T do anything wrong and you can basically make it through the entire game at even the lowest levels, that is absolutely true. And it's a real drawback. IMO Fallout 2 was just as balanced as it needed to be. If a little twerp messed with a gangster they tore him to shreds. Similarily if you went into the military base unprepared, you got your ass handed to you.

Disconnected said:
The real difference is that character builds no longer affects gameplay in any meaningful way. In TES:Fallout failure is almost impossible to achieve, and there's no "great!", "good", "not so good" and "oh fuck!" story/quest paths that kick in based on the kind of character you play.

In Fallout, every character had a different, often radically different, experience of the game. It's an aspect of play completely absent in TES:Fallout. It's also what makes Fallout replay heavan, and makes me hesitant to give TES:Fallout another go (because I didn't realise the game would end with the storyline).
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I agree completely. What's the use of over 200 different endings if they're all vague, empty and present the same thing in a different wrapper? Oh well.. Still I say it is a much better game then I expected.
 
I thought the accents were pretty clear. Granted, it sounded a lot like I was talking to Jim Raynor or Arcturus Mengsk from Starcraft.
 
I think the 200 endings has been established as just different slideshows there are 2 good and 2 evil i think, [spoiler:f9cbb9a07b] the good ones diff is you die for the cause like your father and 2 you make Lyons die. I think there should be a third one where Fawkes just laughes at you and says how smart are you vault dweller you never asked the immune to radiation man to punch the code in.[/spoiler:f9cbb9a07b]
 
I've got the strategy guide and it shows all the variations of ending. It's very small stuff. Like, if you are black, then the portrait of you in the picture with you and your dad will be black. There is 4 variations right there based on race, and two more for sex. Then there is different variations from Karma. The ending isn't bad, but I'd really like to know how what I did affected other towns like Megaton. I mean, I could have blown Megaton up, then been an angel and gotten my Karma level to "very good." Then I'd have been called a "saviour of the wastes" even though I killed the 2nd largest settlement in the Capital Wasteland.
 
Let me get this straight. They boasted 500 endings, but in reality there are only three variables with narration, for a total of 12 permutations?
 
Per said:
Let me get this straight. They boasted 500 endings, but in reality there are only three variables with narration, for a total of 12 permutations?
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8 permutations.

In addition to that small things change according to character appearance (lulz), and there's a possibility one or two pictures of the same event scroll by. That's about it.
 
I find pacing the biggest problem with Fallout 3. You gain too many levels too quickly.

You see, I really wanted to enjoy the game, and so far I have. But I wasn't really interested in completing the main quest and instead went on to explore the wasteland doing some side quests. But now I suddenly find myself catching up on level 18, and I haven't really even got to DC. I haven't joined the Brotherhood, I haven't fought the Enclave and haven't seen a single Behemoth, yet soon I will hit the level cap. What's there to achieve then? Then again, you can't got exploring once you finish the main quest either.

Slight spoiler (Oasis):
[spoiler:bf86cfe1dd]I also hated what they did to the poor ol' Harold. Should have kept that shit in Oblivion. It really killed the atmosphere for me.[/spoiler:bf86cfe1dd]
 
Should we play the game then in the Harder difficulty level?
Seems to me your saying that.

Also when you say Repair was a waste of points? Don't you find damaged weapons and/or use weapons, especially melee and various armor and gear that is worn and can use Repair to repair them like in Oblivion where you can get hammers and repair armor/weapons?
 
Willybean said:
Should we play the game then in the Harder difficulty level?
Seems to me your saying that.
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Honestly? I'm not sure that would help. The way the game fits enemies to your character level is just sad.

Willybean said:
Also when you say Repair was a waste of points? Don't you find damaged weapons and/or use weapons, especially melee and various armor and gear that is worn and can use Repair to repair them like in Oblivion where you can get hammers and repair armor/weapons?
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That is about as useless as it gets. If I want something actually repaired I either sacrifice 4-5 or even more of the same weapon. Instead I simply went to a merchant and got them to repair it. And the fact that basically you have no chance to repair something to it's fullest, to me seems like just another reason why it's a waste of points.

Think of Power Armor. Do you find a set around every corner? No... you have to pay for it to be repaired by some merchant unless you kill BOS soldiers on a regular basis. Might aswell not put any points in Repair. At max put repair up to 40 points or so. You can repair anything you might find multiple copies of, up to about 80 percent with that.
 
From what I've seen so far Repair is there to keep your weapons' max damage up, or your armor's damage reduction up. Best example I can come up with is the Railroad Rifle. In bad condition it gets about low 30s damge, best condition it can get mid 40s damage. The difference that makes is good condition crits will pretty much automatically amputate the limb you were aiming at for a quick kill.
 
Gooscar said:
From what I've seen so far Repair is there to keep your weapons' max damage up, or your armor's damage reduction up. Best example I can come up with is the Railroad Rifle. In bad condition it gets about low 30s damge, best condition it can get mid 40s damage. The difference that makes is good condition crits will pretty much automatically amputate the limb you were aiming at for a quick kill.
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You really should read through the thread more. Yes what you say is true, but you can only repair something yourself if you sacrifice other instances of the same weapon. Otherwise you'll be using a merchant's repair services. And to be honest I found it easier to use a merchant. You can repair your guns enough to work with yourself even if you don'T put any extra points on the repair skill, and you can repair them better at the nearest merchant. But neither way can you really get any weapon up to 100% condition. It's a waste of points to put simply. Anything the repair skill does can be done by NPCs.
 
The cost of a merchant repairing is more than the value of the weapons that you would have sacrificed. Also, the highest repair I've seen a merchant do is up to 70%, and that was after investing twice. Your effectiveness is capped if you don't take repair.

Also, it's not like skill points are at a premium. Repair is one of the more useful skills anyway.
 
Repair skill helps for looting. Since you combine several weapons into one, you can carry more, but the price of the combined wpns is the sum of the original prices.
 
Well to be honest I had no issue finidng caps. Always had at least 2k. And if there's a specific weapon you need repaired that you can't find other instances of, you can have all the repair skill you want, you'll still be screwed. Hence I used the merchants mostly.

As for help with looting, I probably wasn'T clear enough on that but yes that is a good use. But even with a repair skill of 40 or so I was well off repairing stuff to around 70% so I don't see why max that one out. Overall my complaint is that skills don't effect the gamplay near as deeply as they should.
 
Misanthropicus Grandiosus said:
Overall my complaint is that skills don't effect the gamplay near as deeply as they should.
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Yes. And no other skill does. Thats a 'balanced' Bethesda game for you.
 
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