Fallout 3 reviews round-up #56

[Per]

SCI FI Channel.<blockquote>If you're used to just walking down corridors and shooting things, this game will take a lot of getting used to. You literally have no idea what you 'should' be doing. You might be making horrible, irretrievable mistakes, and you'd never know. But this is the game's strength - you gain experience and points as you go along, but where and how you go - that's up to you. Odd that the closer games come to real life, the more fun they are.</blockquote>Bad Rhetoric blog.<blockquote>Overall, it’s the best PC game I’ve played since Bioshock, and I think Fallout 3 edges it out. The first half of the game was incredibly tense, given the overall vunerablity of the main character and the constant need to scavenge. Later on, as the plot progressed and dying didn’t feel like a constant threat, I felt the urge to explore every corner, and it took me an incredible amount of time to exhaust the possibilities and feel like I was ready to finish the main plot. When I did, the payoff was reasonable.</blockquote>Zero Punctuation. A bit transcribed by iridium_ionizer:<blockquote>What I'm saying is make the most of the talent. Bethesda seems to be in the habit of hiring the biggest named voice actors they can find and having the character drop of the face of the Earth before you've even picked a class. They did it to Captain Picard in Oblivion. Now they've done it to Oscar Schindler in Fallout 3.

It's a shame because Liam Neeson's smooth, authoritative tones really helped ease the trauma of the games opening in which you are dropped bleary-eyed and blood-stained out of your mom's vagina. And now are expected to come up with a gender, name, and future appearance which is a lot to ask of a new born baby.</blockquote>Tom's Games, 9.0/10.<blockquote>The stories were never what attracted me to the first two Fallout games and, when thinking back on them, I can't remember many details. What I enjoyed most about Fallout and Fallout 2 was the freedom. There was a sense that you could do anything and kill anyone without breaking the game's story or hitting imaginary walls. Fallout 3 continues that legacy giving the player the option to interact with the other characters in a variety of ways; the caveat being that there are always consequences. It's the essence of "role-playing."

Comparing Fallout 3 to Fallout and Fallout 2 isn't a mistake, but the only real similarity between the old and the new game is the sense of the environment. It's clear they all take place in the same universe but Fallout 3 realizes it much clearer than ever before.</blockquote>EzineArticles.<blockquote>Fallout 3 provides an immersive atmosphere, along with brilliant graphics, a well-made character development process and awesome game play. This title should be present in any fan of the series or the genre of action RPG.</blockquote>SavyGamer blog.<blockquote>I think one of the things that really makes Fallout 3 work is the rules. It is incredibly open ended, but everything makes sense. I don't really think there is a 'bad' type of character to play as. Whatever type of character you create, you will have strengths and weaknesses, but always something that makes you think "I am glad I chose to have that stat quite high".

There is always a multitude of ways of dealing with any scenario, and it forces you to think "What would my character do?", and for the first time in a long while in an RPG, over time, that changed to "What would I do?". In the past I've really struggled with the Role Playing part of RPGs, often I've just played them for the gameplay or the story, but Fallout 3 has been a an incredible role playing experience for me.</blockquote>Xboxlife, 9.5/10.<blockquote>The people you meet all have certain unique personalities, and the amount of trivial people with no significance has been minimized. Instead you now meet people with names and backgrounds and you get the impression that they have a place to fill. It is also unusual that you meet new people and feel that they have the same voice as someone else, and this is true throughout the entire game.</blockquote>Dark Diamond, 8/10.<blockquote>Where the sound design really falls flat on it’s ass is the obvious recycling of character voices. It wouldn’t be a huge problem if the voice actors managed to change their voices even subtly for each role. However, when almost every Brotherhood of Steel Paladin has the same voice, it gets a bit unsettling.

The biggest flaw in the story is the fact that many of the points in the story can be completely skipped by passing a few fairly easy Speech skill checks while talking to NPCs. This becomes most apparent when you find out you can actually skip the entire final battle of the game with a few smooth words.

The morality system is the only real complaint I have about Fallout 3.</blockquote>Testfreaks, 9/10.<blockquote>Ok, so I’ve heard that Fallout3 is controversial but I can’t figure out why exactly though or what’s so controversial about this game. The controversy could be that Bethesda made such a great game all the others will be left behind?

The graphics, gameplay and storyline are all top notch, Bethesda did an excellent job with Fallout 3, and I personally can’t wait for a Fallout 4. I can easily see Fallout 3 winning game of the year and many awards, it’s just an all around excellent game.</blockquote>ActiveXbox, 94%.<blockquote>Overall the game is superb, for those of you out there who can’t afford many titles, this is the one to get. It will last you ages with so many quests to get through if you don’t follow the main storyline. The whole game is well written and has a great atmosphere. It isn’t perfect, animation is poor and it has crashed once on me but you won’t get a better game this year on the 360 that is for sure.</blockquote>Cathode Tan blog.<blockquote>In terms of a story, this game approaches Deus Ex levels of good for me and honestly blows Bethesda's previous attempts away. This doesn't feel like the story about gates or a story about some weird messiah - but it feels like your story, about you entering a wasteland of a world in search of your father. While the main character is mute, you do control the conversations with the other characters and feel like you have a part to play in the world.

There's a few other things, like the fact that herding your dog can get a bit tiresome ... but c'mon, you get a freaking dog - so who really cares.</blockquote>GameStar, not just a score any more, 93% (thanks to Kashrlyyk).<blockquote>Fallout 3 kidnaps us into a world, in which exactly these ostrich tactics went wrong. And this desert of the human failure produces a dramatic and ironic RPG spectacle. For the large play art, for the other maintenance very good in each case.</blockquote>

 

[Jenx]

Overall, it’s the best PC game I’ve played since Bioshock

Soo is this guy 12 or something? That would explain why he hasn't played any of the PC classics.

 

[Beelzebud]

The fact that Yahtzee at Zero Punctuation likes it tells you everything you need to know.

This guy is notorious for hating RPGs.

He gushes about this like any other first person shooter.

And yeah, Jenx, I had to just shake my head at that. Bioshock is the best PC game he's played, and yet Bioshock is just a console port... It's a decent game, but it's an obvious port. Much like Fallout 3...

 

[AskWazzup]

It is also unusual that you meet new people and feel that they have the same voice as someone else, and this is true throughout the entire game

You cannot stand to be in the dark. You stay constantly aware of your surroundings, peering into dim corners and dark shadows to see if something is there. This lifestyle has raised your perception by +2

 

[Casual Gamer]

The fact that Yahtzee at Zero Punctuation likes it tells you everything you need to know.

This guy is notorious for hating RPGs.

He gushes about this like any other first person shooter.

He's notorious for hating almost every game he reviews. To say he "gushes" about first person shooters is patently ridiculous.

I think the Zero Punctuation review deserved it's own article.

 

[Sander]

The fact that Yahtzee at Zero Punctuation likes it tells you everything you need to know.

This guy is notorious for hating RPGs.

He gushes about this like any other first person shooter.

He's notorious for hating almost every game he reviews. To say he "gushes" about first person shooters is patently ridiculous.

I think the Zero Punctuation review deserved it's own article.

It doesn't. It has even less substance and relevance than almost every other review out there, putting up an entire newspost just for that would be silly.

 

[TheRatKing]

You literally have no idea what you 'should' be doing. You might be making horrible, irretrievable mistakes, and you'd never know.

Wait, I think you missed the quest function on your pipboy, it even gives you a nice little compass arrow.

What I enjoyed most about Fallout and Fallout 2 was the freedom. There was a sense that you could do anything and kill anyone without breaking the game's story or hitting imaginary walls

However, in Fallout 3 there are "essential" NPCs that cannot be killed, because killing them would break the plot. There are so many imaginary walls in Fallout 3 also. God I hate having to take the metro system when climbing over a couple feet of rubble would be so much easier.

It's clear they all take place in the same universe but Fallout 3 realizes it much clearer than ever before.

Oh I completely agree, IMO, Fallout 2 should have had a mininuke launcher, and should have trivialized the atomic bomb, among other things./sarcasm

There is always a multitude of ways of dealing with any scenario, and it forces you to think "What would my character do?", and for the first time in a long while in an RPG, over time, that changed to "What would I do?". In the past I've really struggled with the Role Playing part of RPGs, often I've just played them for the gameplay or the story, but Fallout 3 has been a an incredible role playing experience for me.

Too bad you can't roleplay an evil childkiller...

Where the sound design really falls flat on it’s ass is the obvious recycling of character voices

it gets a bit unsettling.

The biggest flaw in the story is the fact that many of the points in the story can be completely skipped by passing a few fairly easy Speech skill checks while talking to NPCs

The morality system is the only real complaint I have about Fallout 3.

Ok, so I’ve heard that Fallout3 is controversial but I can’t figure out why exactly though or what’s so controversial about this game. The controversy could be that Bethesda made such a great game all the others will be left behind?

You finally figured it out man! Kudos! That is exactly why Fallout 3 is controversial .

- so who really cares.

I care.

 

[Dionysus]

Overall, it’s the best PC game I’ve played since Bioshock

Soo is this guy 12 or something? That would explain why he hasn't played any of the PC classics.

Technically, it just means that he liked Bioshock better. It doesn't say anything about games that predate Bioshock.

Anyway, the ZP review was lame. He's not entertaining when he likes something.

 

[Beelzebud]

The fact that Yahtzee at Zero Punctuation likes it tells you everything you need to know.

This guy is notorious for hating RPGs.

He gushes about this like any other first person shooter.

He's notorious for hating almost every game he reviews. To say he "gushes" about first person shooters is patently ridiculous.

I think the Zero Punctuation review deserved it's own article.

It's not ridiculous at all. The man likes shoot-em-up action games. He may not gush over every single FPS that comes out, but if you actually pay attention to his track record you see that the only games he likes are action games. He hates RPGs. He slams RPG's just for being RPG games.

He's the type of person that would totally hate Fallout 1 and 2 if he actually could settle his ADD long enough to play them. So I stand by what I said. The fact that he likes Fallout 3 says it all.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

It's not ridiculous at all. The man likes shoot-em-up action games. He may not gush over every single FPS that comes out, but if you actually pay attention to his track record you see that the only games he likes are action games. He hates RPGs. He slams RPG's just for being RPG games.

He's the type of person that would totally hate Fallout 1 and 2 if he actually could settle his ADD long enough to play them. So I stand by what I said. The fact that he likes Fallout 3 says it all.

He basically liked it because it was less god awful than Oblivion, he likes stealing shit, and it had guns. He likes single player action games, he hates RPGs and other slow paced games, they bore him. If the game is fast paced enough to be enjoyable to an action game junkie like Yatzhee then you know that it isn't going to be anything like Fallout, which he would undoubtedly hate.

 

[Kindo]

Did you guys even watch Yahtzee's review? He most certainly did not like the game, and was very diligent in pointing out many of its flaws. Granted, he did not bring up everything an old Fallout-fan would, but I still did not get the impression that he he actually loved the game, as you seem to think he did.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

He didn't love it but he liked it, hence his pickle spread too thin on too big of a piece of bread analogy at the end. That said, he didn't gush all over it, his compliments were basically that it's better than Oblivion, it has some immersive parts, VATS wasn't monotonous for him, and that it was a good game, the rest was criticism. Still, I thought that this was another bad review by Yatzhee (he's been on a slow decline IMO), it had some funny parts but it wasn't hilarious.

 

[Leon]

I still did not get the impression that he he actually loved the game, as you seem to think he did.

I agree. The review was pretty soft and I doubt he played it for more than twenty hours since he seemed to miss some of the more glaring flaws, but he most certainly didn't give it the BEST GAEM EVAR treatment most mainstream reviewers do.

 

[iridium_ionizer]

[Titles show, "Zero Punctuation Reviews Fallout 3"]
[Yahtzee pondering game]
Yeah, it's pretty good.
[ending fakeout]
Alright, alright. If I had Liam Neeson phone number, I will tell you what I would do. I'd nervously call him up and blurt out something about how Darkman was alright before slamming the receiver down and running away.
[Liam responds, "What an amazing fellow"]
But hypothetically, if I wasn't an idiot and talked him into doing voices for my video game, I would have him voice a character called Captain Dynamite who has the face of Frank Zappa and had nuclear missiles instead of legs. He'd fly around the player for the entire course of the game sprinkling rose peddles and friendship.

What I'm saying [Yahtzee directs Liam, "Now in a womble voice"] is make the most of the talent. Bethesda seems to be in the habit of hiring the biggest named voice actors they can find [shows Richard Nixon] and having the character drop of the face of the Earth before you've even picked a class. They did it to Captain Picard in Oblivion. Now they've done it to Oscar Schindler in Fallout 3.

It's a shame because Liam Neeson's smooth, authoritative tones really helped ease the trauma of the games opening in which you are dropped bleary-eyed and blood-stained out of your mom's vagina. And now are expected to come up with a gender, name, and future appearance which is a lot to ask of a new born baby. [Doctor hands clipboard to baby and says, "Sign here please"]

The character creation sets the scene by having you play through various key points of your miserable childhood in a small underground room populated by around 10 people. And it's fairly effective at drawing you in [Head stuck in TV] even if the all important immersion [flashes "IMMERSION!"] does receive a little hairline fracture when you are leaving the Vault when a window pops up going "Just a moment. Was there any part of your childhood that you were unsatisfied with or wish to alter with your magical, time-traveling, false memory syndrome."

But anyway, you emerge blinking from the underground for the first time with an endless land of possibilities rolls aways in every direction, evoking many conflicting emotions in your naive young mind. All eventually silenced by one overpowering realization: This seems a hell of a lot like Oblivion.

For the most part it's like they just took that game and put new wallpaper over it. There are green hills painted brown, a few houses bombed, imps changed into mutant flies, and the fleets of garbage trucks sent around to dump rubble all over the landscape. The scenery a bit more varied and interesting, but you'll see is more copy pasted interiors of subways stations than an indecisive hobo. And the characters of Fallout 3 and Oblivion seem to holiday in the same part of the uncanny valley.

Voice acting has improved a little though [shows Bethesda logo whipping voice actor while shouting "Emote!"] so at least when you hear different peoples spout the same verbatim [two NCP converse one saying, "Talky Wordy" and the other replies "Wordy Talky"] they sound a little into it. They still do that thing where they stand ram rod stiff while talking and never break eye contact like they're incredibly paranoid that you are going to pick their pocket the moment that they look away, which might sense because I usually do!

Of course the main difference is that they didn't have assault rifles in Cyrodil which is a shame because it would have livened up the arena fights, no end. With guns comes the much touted VATS aiming system [PC enters VATS, highlighting enemy's "head", "sword", and "future offspring"]. In my E3 video I speculated that watching every single gunshot happen in slow-motion from a different camera angle would get old after a while, but that's not the case. Watching a supermutant's body fly off in one direction and his head in three others never loses its charm as a spectacle.

But in a nutshell, it's a system for lobster accountant who mistrust the uncoordinated flailings of their pincers and would rather let numbers decide the outcome of battles. For people who actually know which end of the gun makes the loud noises, it's essentially a magic "Hey look over there" button that keeps the enemy holding nice and still while you carefully pick off their testicles. And when you're out of action points you can still fire manually. There's a good reason why no one has ever tried mixing real-time and turn-based combat [throws clock and chessboard into cauldron] and it's the same reason that no one has ever tried mixing jam with puss.

You also level up a lot faster than you in Oblivion and you can even do it while you are awake. I ended up putting a lot of points in lockpicking and stealth partly because I sometimes experience minor brain hemorrhages and I forget that the Thief series are the only games that have ever done stealth well. And partly because I was going to steal shit.

Games have spent the last 20 years ingraining into me the instinct that being the stalwart hero of the land basically overruled society's petty ownership laws - a rather objectivist philosophy on reflection. But I'll be buggered before I unlearn that for one fucking game. As long as no one is looking you can pretty much help yourself and most people are too busy staring at walls to worry about you.

By the time I had hit level 4, I was sitting on a hoard worthy of a dingy, post-apocalyptic Croesus. But still I had the highest karma level because of the quests I had stumbled into. So the people were showering me with praise [NPC says, "You're a saint". PC in burglar stripes and mask responds, " 'kay"] even while they wondered where their wallets had gone. Eventually I lost interest because I was basically wall-papering my house with money, med-kits, and ammo; and all the challenge had exited the game with nary a farewell or tip of the hat.

While Fallout 3 is a vast improvement over Oblivion. It is much more immersive, and I found myself relishing the long hikes through the wasteland to my next objective as I drank in the atmosphere, met interesting characters, and nicked all of their stuff. But there is something rather monotonous about it that watered my enthusiasm. It is certainly closer to Branston pickle than most games but they chose too large a sandwich and spread the Branston pickle so thin that there weren't any particularly chunky mouthfuls. But it's still Branston pickle and if you let it take you in you will soon be swimming in it 'til your eyes fall out.

Fallout 3 that is! [end]

 

[Kashrlyyk]

...GameStar, not just a score any more, 93% (thanks to Kashrlyyk).<blockquote>Fall out 3 kidnaps us into a world, in which exactly this bird STR outer tactics went wrong. And this desert of the human failure produces as just as dramatic as ironical Rollenspielspektakel. For the large play art, for the other maintenance very good in each case.</blockquote>

"bird STR outer tactics" actually should be "ostrich tactics". Vogel Strauss = ostrich
And: "For the large play art, for the other maintenance very good in each case." = For some people great game art, for others at least great entertainment.

Wasn´t there some guy who said send German stuff to him he translates it? I am not doing it, because the only bad thing he mentions about Fallout3 is there are no shortkeys for your weapons and the map.

 

[Brother None]

I think the Zero Punctuation review deserved it's own article.

What. Why?

He's the type of person that would totally hate Fallout 1 and 2 if he actually could settle his ADD long enough to play them. So I stand by what I said. The fact that he likes Fallout 3 says it all.

He's played them - or at least one of them - but didn't finish because - if I recall correctly - "too many quests"

 

[Kashrlyyk]

The fact that Yahtzee at Zero Punctuation likes it tells you everything you need to know.

This guy is notorious for hating RPGs.

He gushes about this like any other first person shooter.

He's notorious for hating almost every game he reviews. To say he "gushes" about first person shooters is patently ridiculous.

...

In the Oblivion review he tells what kind of games he likes. From that it is pretty clear why he likes Fallout 3: It has more instant gratification in it.

 

[iridium_ionizer]

In the Oblivion review he tells what kind of games he likes. From that it is pretty clear why he likes Fallout 3: It has more instant gratification in it.

To me it seems that he mainly liked the Vault introduction and the wasteland atmosphere. But yeah, with him it's sometimes hard to tell just when he's pointing out flaws for the sake of a joke and when he absolutely detests something.

 

[Air Rifle]

Did you guys even watch Yahtzee's review? He most certainly did not like the game, and was very diligent in pointing out many of its flaws. Granted, he did not bring up everything an old Fallout-fan would, but I still did not get the impression that he he actually loved the game, as you seem to think he did.

Have you seen any of his other reviews? This is definitely a 'positive' review for Yahtzee.

edit: Also a healthy GUFFAW directed at all of the folks that were looking forward to this review and the supposed thrashing Fallout 3 would get. The sour grapes "Well, Yahtzee hates RPGs anyway, the fact that he likes it means it sucks. He likes stupid games." reaction is delicious too.

 

[Public]

I've seen allllll Yahtzee's reviews few nights ago (or maybe two).

1. In Bioshock review, he said the game totally rips out Fallout. So probably he played Fallout.

2. He's pointing out pretty much the same problems in FO3 like in Oblivion (stupid AI, etc)

3. He hated The Witcher

4. He priced Painkiller (which is good )

The last part with

It is certainly closer to Branston pickle than most games but they chose too large a sandwich and spread the Branston pickle so thin that there weren't any particularly chunky mouthfuls. But it's still Branston pickle and if you let it take you in you will soon be swimming in it 'til your eyes fall out

. made the review very possitive. And even his tone of speaking the first part of it was very calm (not like in other reviews).
But the thing is, not everyone likes Branston pickle, especially overused, and anyway...you will definatly get bored of it

He's played them - or at least one of them - but didn't finish because - if I recall correctly - "too many quests"

I don't like him for saying RPG gamers are nerds...