Hi! I'm new here, not that it's hard to tell. Anyway, I've lurked on these forums for a few years now, reading threads to pass the time when I worked at Intel, working long nightshifts. I've been a huge fan of the original Fallout game since it came out, and I enjoyed the second quite a lot as well. I've played through them more times than I can count, and every computer I've owned has had them installed on it. I never played tactics, because I don't like that sort of game, and I've played BoS once, my brother had a copy, but I shunned it.
When I heard Van Buren was canned I was heart broken. I didn't know much about it until later, when I got on here, but I knew it was a much anticipated follow up that I would not get to see come to fruition, and that was depressing. And then I heard a whisper that Fallout 3 was indeed going to be made.
Of course when I found out WHO was making it, my reaction was basically similar to a lot of yours. I was not a fan of Morrowind, and Oblivion was, putting it kindly, lacking.
Still, as hard as it was, I tried not to prejudge. Not until I finally got a copy in my hands and played it, which happened two days ago.
I've started two characters already. One, the first one, was blatantly evil, I just went from location to location killing everything that crossed my path. I actually had some regulators show up, but I blew them away as well. The second character I am playing as a goodguy, or at least trying. But that's neither here nor there.
My general observations... Well, as a game, it's not horrible. I love the way the wasteland looks, it's pretty amazing. The control scheme is pretty neat, VATS is kind of cool, ect. The story isn't even horrible, though at times I am left scratching my head going "really?" All in all, as a stand alone game, it's not bad.
But put the name Fallout in the title, and things quickly shift. I loved how you could play the orignal Fallout without firing a shot at a single person. I loved that tweaking your stats would not only radically change gameplay, but also change what options you had as far as what you could say go. I loved how even though, yes, Ian you bastard, you shot me in the back, at least he was mildly useful versus the NPC's in this game are. I loved how much personality the first two games had. VATS seems out of place in a Fallout game. In fact, FPS seems horribly out of place, and took some getting used to. I tried it with the third person, but watching my character move around made the gaming experience worse for me, so I toggled back to first person. This game was clearly made with the Xbox in mind, and it shows.
Storyline issues have been addressed a thousand times over, and I haven't gotten as far as some people yet, so I can't comment on a whole lot, but there were a few things I wanted to point out. And granted, I may be wrong on a lot of my info, as I haven't played the first two Fallout's in about a year or so.
[spoiler:08aae40f73]The first thing deals with that boy that comes and gets you in front of the Supermarket. He says his little village has been ravaged by the fire ants (who knew they'd actually start fires?). So I agreed to go help him. The issue was the neighbour across the street from Navarro? How the hell did he get from Navarro all the way to DC, and with only a pistol no less? He was talking about needing more firepower and bought himself a shit sawed off shotgun? I have to wonder exactly how he got so far as to have made it to DC, with a wife and little son, when the wastelands are brutal (at least in hard mode).
Another gripe is the Super Mutants. Are they immortal? I thought they were going to die out and since the vats were destroyed there would be no more, since they are impotent. How are there super mutants in the east? Maybe they are more resilient and able to travel that far, though then again, since that one guy can go from Navarro to there, maybe it's not entirely impossible for them to do it either.
And then of course there's the Enclave. But that's the same issue as with the Super Mutants, I thought they were defeated in the second Fallout.
the Brotherhood also poses the same problem.
So do caps.[/spoiler:08aae40f73]
I wont keep going on with the things that are so so so wrong with this game, as they've been beaten to death, but those are a few of my thoughts. The game is nothing like the Fallout we all love. Fallout wasn't an FPS, which, while they say you can play in both 3rd and 1st person in this game, it was clearly designed as an FPS, just like Oblivion. It's not exactly Oblivion with guns, but it's pretty close. They wanted name recognition, but did not take the time to consider (or maybe they did) the damage they would do to said name.
Sorry for the rant that basically says... Well. Anyway. Those are my thoughts.[/spoiler]
When I heard Van Buren was canned I was heart broken. I didn't know much about it until later, when I got on here, but I knew it was a much anticipated follow up that I would not get to see come to fruition, and that was depressing. And then I heard a whisper that Fallout 3 was indeed going to be made.
Of course when I found out WHO was making it, my reaction was basically similar to a lot of yours. I was not a fan of Morrowind, and Oblivion was, putting it kindly, lacking.
Still, as hard as it was, I tried not to prejudge. Not until I finally got a copy in my hands and played it, which happened two days ago.
I've started two characters already. One, the first one, was blatantly evil, I just went from location to location killing everything that crossed my path. I actually had some regulators show up, but I blew them away as well. The second character I am playing as a goodguy, or at least trying. But that's neither here nor there.
My general observations... Well, as a game, it's not horrible. I love the way the wasteland looks, it's pretty amazing. The control scheme is pretty neat, VATS is kind of cool, ect. The story isn't even horrible, though at times I am left scratching my head going "really?" All in all, as a stand alone game, it's not bad.
But put the name Fallout in the title, and things quickly shift. I loved how you could play the orignal Fallout without firing a shot at a single person. I loved that tweaking your stats would not only radically change gameplay, but also change what options you had as far as what you could say go. I loved how even though, yes, Ian you bastard, you shot me in the back, at least he was mildly useful versus the NPC's in this game are. I loved how much personality the first two games had. VATS seems out of place in a Fallout game. In fact, FPS seems horribly out of place, and took some getting used to. I tried it with the third person, but watching my character move around made the gaming experience worse for me, so I toggled back to first person. This game was clearly made with the Xbox in mind, and it shows.
Storyline issues have been addressed a thousand times over, and I haven't gotten as far as some people yet, so I can't comment on a whole lot, but there were a few things I wanted to point out. And granted, I may be wrong on a lot of my info, as I haven't played the first two Fallout's in about a year or so.
[spoiler:08aae40f73]The first thing deals with that boy that comes and gets you in front of the Supermarket. He says his little village has been ravaged by the fire ants (who knew they'd actually start fires?). So I agreed to go help him. The issue was the neighbour across the street from Navarro? How the hell did he get from Navarro all the way to DC, and with only a pistol no less? He was talking about needing more firepower and bought himself a shit sawed off shotgun? I have to wonder exactly how he got so far as to have made it to DC, with a wife and little son, when the wastelands are brutal (at least in hard mode).
Another gripe is the Super Mutants. Are they immortal? I thought they were going to die out and since the vats were destroyed there would be no more, since they are impotent. How are there super mutants in the east? Maybe they are more resilient and able to travel that far, though then again, since that one guy can go from Navarro to there, maybe it's not entirely impossible for them to do it either.
And then of course there's the Enclave. But that's the same issue as with the Super Mutants, I thought they were defeated in the second Fallout.
the Brotherhood also poses the same problem.
So do caps.[/spoiler:08aae40f73]
I wont keep going on with the things that are so so so wrong with this game, as they've been beaten to death, but those are a few of my thoughts. The game is nothing like the Fallout we all love. Fallout wasn't an FPS, which, while they say you can play in both 3rd and 1st person in this game, it was clearly designed as an FPS, just like Oblivion. It's not exactly Oblivion with guns, but it's pretty close. They wanted name recognition, but did not take the time to consider (or maybe they did) the damage they would do to said name.
Sorry for the rant that basically says... Well. Anyway. Those are my thoughts.[/spoiler]
