<center>[ Day 1 ] - [ Day 2 ] - [ Day 3 ] - [ Day 4-5 ]
Day 4 - The Fire Ants Dungeon</center>
Played some more. A lot more. Exploring the same looking ruins and tunnels gets boring at times. Isometric is more suited for dealing with large areas of same looking stuff. Anyway...
I decided to look for the kid's father, which turned out to be a fairly involved quest. I found the father's body in his house. He was killed by fire breathing ants. Btw, ants quickly reduced my ammo surplus. The game doesn't have any shortages of ammo, contrary to what Todd claimed, but it takes a lot of ammo to kill things, especially in RT mode, so unless you are killing ammo-carrying enemies, you can run out of ammo easily.
The dead father had a key, which I used to open a shack where some scientist guy used to work. Both the scientist and a missing ex-soldier (according to the kid) neighbor across the street had working computers. I know it's not a Fallout game, but it's been a LONG time since the war and working home computers look weird. Fallout had a great "two worlds" atmosphere: the PA world and the "long gone past" world: vaults, military bases, etc. You step inside one of those and you feel that you are in a different world, you see things that the outside world hasn't seen for decades. In FO3, even though it's been a lot longer, the "long gone past" is everywhere. It feels like the war was 10-15 years ago. Anyway...
Btw, I failed to hack into the ex-soldier computer because I didn't take it seriously, expecting to be able to try again soon. I slept for a day, but the computer is still locked. So, while the hacking mechanic is kinda silly, at least you can't try until you get it right.
Turned out that the scientist had something to do with the fire ants. I was given a location and I went a-looking.
PA environments.
Found this nice scoped magnum. Nice. Also, found a silenced 10mm pistol. Very nice. Killed a guy quietly while sneaking.
Also, found a tape. A dead guy asks you to deliver a package since he obviously failed. He tells you where you can find the key and where the safe is. No directions, no arrows, which is a welcome change. I have to figure it out on my own. The message isn't cryptic, but it sounds like what a guy would actually say, and thus it's not clear at all. Found the key, but not the room where the safe is.
I got sidetracked and ran into these fine Brotherhood boys. They were looking for their initiate. I offered to help.
What? Just because I asked for something in return? Anyway, I killed a bunch of mutants, found dead initiate, returned to the BoS guy, but turned out he died in the firefight with the mutants. His pal survived, but he wasn't a quest giver. He assured me that the area is secured now, but didn't have anything else to say. Oh well... There goes my reward. Well, come to think about it, his armor is the best reward, so...
What? You've gotta be kidding me. THANKS BETHESDA!
Fast traveled to that small town for healing and used this opportunity to tell the kid about his father. The mysterious dialogue writer strikes again.
Found the scientist. I'll surprise him with my, uh, intelligence.
I bet you didn't expect that, Mr. Scientist!
A magic lab coat? Oh boy!
Stat-increasing ant crap? *rolls up his sleeve* Fill me up!
That's the lab.
Hmm... I have a feeling I've seen this door somewhere...
The scientist dude wants me to kill 5 ant guardians, to give him some one-on-one time with the queen.
The guardians are dead. The scientist gave me a booster shot and now I feel stronger and more resistant to fire. I could have picked either Str or Per, but since Per seems useless and I like carrying a lot of junk around...
The magic lab coat.
I found a Duck and Cover book under this bridge. And a mine. I found the mine the hard way though.
Lovely PA shot.
Finally! The power of Grayskull is mine!
Another good PA shot.
Returned to Megaton and happened to talk to this fella. Looks like he's aware that the sheriff is gone. Nice.
<center>Day 4 - The Animal Kingdom: Behemoth, Three Dog, and the Lyon's Pride.</center>
That's me in my leather armor and a 10mm SMG. Brings back memories.
I had a mine in my inventory and I noticed that the lie line was updated. Or maybe it's because my Speech was increased. Either way, it's a nice touch. Compare to the previous line:
Anyway, it's time to visit this Three Dog fella.
As expected I ran into the Brotherhood's finest on my way to the radio station.
I have a bad feeling. That's why I'm holding a nuke launcher. Reddin doesn't have a bad feeling, which is why she's running toward a scripted event and her untimely death.
Loading this bad boy. Gives me Starship Troopers (the book, not the shitty movie) feeling. They didn't mind nukes in that setting.
Boom!
Single-handed? You don't understand what a NUCLEAR WEAPON is, do you?
Three Dog. The one and only. Actually, he's alright. Much less annoying in person.
Riiight...
Would have been nicer if he actually explained the situation, the groups, who wants what, fits in where, and why they give a damn about this "pie".
Allow me to demonstrate my intelligence, Three Dog. Do not fear my vast mental powers just because you can't understand them.
Three Dog mentioned that he knows where a pre-war military cache is. You bet your ass, I'm doer.
So, here is the story. Three Dog knows where my dad, the middle age guy, went. He aint telling because he needs my help. I tried several "please help me" lines but failed. Then I see this too good to be true speech check. Surely, it's a fake, I'm thinking.
Success! Bethesda deserves a medal for this. That's a great feature in RPGs. Overall, it looks like Speech makes a lot of things optional. Thumbs up.
I convinced T-Dog that once I find my dad, both of us would help him and he agreed. He said that my dad went to the Rivet City, the "aircraft town" built by scientists. Well, I don't mind leveling up, err, I mean helping out a friend, so I offered my help anyway. T-Dog needs a new antenna because super mutants damaged the one he had. I should be able to find one in the museum of technology. That's where I'm going next.
The radio station.
<center>Day 5 - The final update.</center>
I bought me this workstation since I like making things.
An atmospheric shot.
I opened the door and this poor bastard fell out. Guess that shelter didn't help him and his buddy much.
After a tough battle I acquired this sawed-off shotgun. Now I can fix my old one.
New Stealth Boy.
The Vault-Tech expo.
The Washington Monument or what's left of it.
A view from the monument. If you're wondering what I'm doing up there, I've just finished hooking up a satellite dish I lifted from the Voyager.
A turret that's about to go out of business.
Very atmospheric shot.
The ghoul "city". He's talking about the Brotherhood of Steel. The writing is much better now.
It's a tough new world out there, buddy.
My brand new ripper. Well, not brand new, but it gets the job done.
When you say it like that, how can she say no?
While it may appear that the Brotherhood is a one dimensional savior of humanity, way too many people complaining about the BoS offer an alternative point of view.
The Rivet City. Looks pretty damn good.
Overall, Fallout 3 is the best Bethesda game since Daggerfall and while it does have flaws, inconsistencies, and poorly thought through features (like the combat system), it has a lot of well done features and design elements, which, I'd say outweigh the flaws. I'll explain in details in my review. Your comments are welcome.
<center>[ Day 1 ] - [ Day 2 ] - [ Day 3 ] - [ Day 4-5 ]</center>
Day 4 - The Fire Ants Dungeon</center>
Played some more. A lot more. Exploring the same looking ruins and tunnels gets boring at times. Isometric is more suited for dealing with large areas of same looking stuff. Anyway...
I decided to look for the kid's father, which turned out to be a fairly involved quest. I found the father's body in his house. He was killed by fire breathing ants. Btw, ants quickly reduced my ammo surplus. The game doesn't have any shortages of ammo, contrary to what Todd claimed, but it takes a lot of ammo to kill things, especially in RT mode, so unless you are killing ammo-carrying enemies, you can run out of ammo easily.
The dead father had a key, which I used to open a shack where some scientist guy used to work. Both the scientist and a missing ex-soldier (according to the kid) neighbor across the street had working computers. I know it's not a Fallout game, but it's been a LONG time since the war and working home computers look weird. Fallout had a great "two worlds" atmosphere: the PA world and the "long gone past" world: vaults, military bases, etc. You step inside one of those and you feel that you are in a different world, you see things that the outside world hasn't seen for decades. In FO3, even though it's been a lot longer, the "long gone past" is everywhere. It feels like the war was 10-15 years ago. Anyway...
Btw, I failed to hack into the ex-soldier computer because I didn't take it seriously, expecting to be able to try again soon. I slept for a day, but the computer is still locked. So, while the hacking mechanic is kinda silly, at least you can't try until you get it right.
Turned out that the scientist had something to do with the fire ants. I was given a location and I went a-looking.
PA environments.
Found this nice scoped magnum. Nice. Also, found a silenced 10mm pistol. Very nice. Killed a guy quietly while sneaking.
Also, found a tape. A dead guy asks you to deliver a package since he obviously failed. He tells you where you can find the key and where the safe is. No directions, no arrows, which is a welcome change. I have to figure it out on my own. The message isn't cryptic, but it sounds like what a guy would actually say, and thus it's not clear at all. Found the key, but not the room where the safe is.
I got sidetracked and ran into these fine Brotherhood boys. They were looking for their initiate. I offered to help.
What? Just because I asked for something in return? Anyway, I killed a bunch of mutants, found dead initiate, returned to the BoS guy, but turned out he died in the firefight with the mutants. His pal survived, but he wasn't a quest giver. He assured me that the area is secured now, but didn't have anything else to say. Oh well... There goes my reward. Well, come to think about it, his armor is the best reward, so...
What? You've gotta be kidding me. THANKS BETHESDA!
Fast traveled to that small town for healing and used this opportunity to tell the kid about his father. The mysterious dialogue writer strikes again.
Found the scientist. I'll surprise him with my, uh, intelligence.
I bet you didn't expect that, Mr. Scientist!
A magic lab coat? Oh boy!
Stat-increasing ant crap? *rolls up his sleeve* Fill me up!
That's the lab.
Hmm... I have a feeling I've seen this door somewhere...
The scientist dude wants me to kill 5 ant guardians, to give him some one-on-one time with the queen.
The guardians are dead. The scientist gave me a booster shot and now I feel stronger and more resistant to fire. I could have picked either Str or Per, but since Per seems useless and I like carrying a lot of junk around...
The magic lab coat.
I found a Duck and Cover book under this bridge. And a mine. I found the mine the hard way though.
Lovely PA shot.
Finally! The power of Grayskull is mine!
Another good PA shot.
Returned to Megaton and happened to talk to this fella. Looks like he's aware that the sheriff is gone. Nice.
<center>Day 4 - The Animal Kingdom: Behemoth, Three Dog, and the Lyon's Pride.</center>
That's me in my leather armor and a 10mm SMG. Brings back memories.
I had a mine in my inventory and I noticed that the lie line was updated. Or maybe it's because my Speech was increased. Either way, it's a nice touch. Compare to the previous line:
Anyway, it's time to visit this Three Dog fella.
As expected I ran into the Brotherhood's finest on my way to the radio station.
I have a bad feeling. That's why I'm holding a nuke launcher. Reddin doesn't have a bad feeling, which is why she's running toward a scripted event and her untimely death.
Loading this bad boy. Gives me Starship Troopers (the book, not the shitty movie) feeling. They didn't mind nukes in that setting.
Boom!
Single-handed? You don't understand what a NUCLEAR WEAPON is, do you?
Three Dog. The one and only. Actually, he's alright. Much less annoying in person.
Riiight...
Would have been nicer if he actually explained the situation, the groups, who wants what, fits in where, and why they give a damn about this "pie".
Allow me to demonstrate my intelligence, Three Dog. Do not fear my vast mental powers just because you can't understand them.
Three Dog mentioned that he knows where a pre-war military cache is. You bet your ass, I'm doer.
So, here is the story. Three Dog knows where my dad, the middle age guy, went. He aint telling because he needs my help. I tried several "please help me" lines but failed. Then I see this too good to be true speech check. Surely, it's a fake, I'm thinking.
Success! Bethesda deserves a medal for this. That's a great feature in RPGs. Overall, it looks like Speech makes a lot of things optional. Thumbs up.
I convinced T-Dog that once I find my dad, both of us would help him and he agreed. He said that my dad went to the Rivet City, the "aircraft town" built by scientists. Well, I don't mind leveling up, err, I mean helping out a friend, so I offered my help anyway. T-Dog needs a new antenna because super mutants damaged the one he had. I should be able to find one in the museum of technology. That's where I'm going next.
The radio station.
<center>Day 5 - The final update.</center>
I bought me this workstation since I like making things.
An atmospheric shot.
I opened the door and this poor bastard fell out. Guess that shelter didn't help him and his buddy much.
After a tough battle I acquired this sawed-off shotgun. Now I can fix my old one.
New Stealth Boy.
The Vault-Tech expo.
The Washington Monument or what's left of it.
A view from the monument. If you're wondering what I'm doing up there, I've just finished hooking up a satellite dish I lifted from the Voyager.
A turret that's about to go out of business.
Very atmospheric shot.
The ghoul "city". He's talking about the Brotherhood of Steel. The writing is much better now.
It's a tough new world out there, buddy.
My brand new ripper. Well, not brand new, but it gets the job done.
When you say it like that, how can she say no?
While it may appear that the Brotherhood is a one dimensional savior of humanity, way too many people complaining about the BoS offer an alternative point of view.
The Rivet City. Looks pretty damn good.
Overall, Fallout 3 is the best Bethesda game since Daggerfall and while it does have flaws, inconsistencies, and poorly thought through features (like the combat system), it has a lot of well done features and design elements, which, I'd say outweigh the flaws. I'll explain in details in my review. Your comments are welcome.
<center>[ Day 1 ] - [ Day 2 ] - [ Day 3 ] - [ Day 4-5 ]</center>