NMA: Capital Wasteland: Revelation review

Funny how your Karma drops for stealing from evil people but rises from killing them.
 
I love how Beth gives us "morally gray" quests, and then goes and gives out negative karma for people who completed a quest a different way then Beth wanted them to. (Example, Blood ties).
 
Ausir said:
Funny how your Karma drops for stealing from evil people but rises from killing them.
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Funny how people still own beds and stuff after they're dead.
 
Funny how it's not stealing if you loot raider's boxes, even when they are alive, because hey, they aren't going to be alive for long.
 
Alright, I admit it's a well-written editorial, but I was expecting a much more harsh approach. I understand where are you coming from Brother None, but I *am* surprised you didn't burn it to the ashes for the ridiculous amount of bugs and nonsense present in the game. Also, the game suffers from the same syndrom that Oblivion does - you play and play for *long* hours only to realise in the end that the game wasn't worth your time. Because when it comes to complete crap moments vs good moments, it's like 10:1 at least.

As I said, I was expecting more criticisim, Fallout in the title or not.
 
samrbrts said:
Brother None, what were your settings in the game?
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Most stuff on low was what it advised me. I upped some things, like draw distance, but basically playing on low - notice not all the screenshots in that article are mine, though, they also come from Pope and Serge 13.

I'm not a graphic junkie so I'm honestly not bothered by having to play this game on low - even if it is a bit weird because I can play BioShock on high and Far Cry 2 on medium (with some things on high) without stuttering. But once again, the game's a bit of a hog. Just like Oblivion.

Ravager69 said:
I understand where are you coming from Brother None, but I *am* surprised you didn't burn it to the ashes for the ridiculous amount of bugs and nonsense present in the game.
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I didn't?

Ravager69 said:
Also, the game suffers from the same syndrom that Oblivion does - you play and play for *long* hours only to realise in the end that the game wasn't worth your time.
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Isn't that exactly what I said with my cheerleader analogy?
 
Brother None said:
I didn't?
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Brother None said:
So what do we have? Blind recommendation? No. This is still a good game, just too flawed to be considered a great game or a classic.
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Doesn't look like to me.

Brother None said:
Isn't that exactly what I said with my cheerleader analogy?
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Perhaps, I may have overlooked that part, as I wrote the post here a day after reading it.

Also, I ought to see those interesting quests you were talking about. Some more examples please.
 
Ravager69 said:
Doesn't look like to me.
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Did you only read the conclusion? Your complaint was that I did not criticize the game for its bugs/being unfinished, but there's an entire paragraph dedicated to just that:
Oh gorsh, the big one. Here it is: on the day of release, this game wasn't finished. Not a big shock in today's gaming industry, but it's not just about technical polish this time. Don't factor out technical polish, this game manages to be a bug-laden mess on all 3 platforms it has been released on, many people encountering hard crashes, freezes, save corruptions and a large variety of quest-ending bugs.

But that's not even what I want to talk about. Here's the thing: this game was made with either an enormous lack of attention to detail or an even bigger lack of basic professionalism. We'll just put it in a catchword of “laziness”. I have no way of knowing how the development of CW:R went so I can't pinpoint where it all went wrong, but fact is that it did. This game shows some attention to detail in world and quest design, but it's all sporadic. If you look at the bigger picture, you'll see Bethesda just had people who sometimes focused on crafting certain spots, and the rest was just painted with one big lazy brushstroke.

Constant repetition of the same models. Some of the worst animations I have ever seen. The same voice actor being used for all old people. The game offering freedom but adapting very badly to people using this freedom (dialog will always respond as if you took the “normal” path without skipping anything). The odd implementation of owned beds and sleeping mechanics. Gun design not making any sense realistically. Barely improved facial animations since Oblivion (modelling has been improved though). A main plot that is more full of holes than Swiss cheese. Even little things, like the fact that fire doesn't burn you. Or, to get back to an earlier point, a setting that shows a complete lack of a single, dominant vision of what the game should be, and instead went with the design school of “let's add anything that's cool”.

And they did. They added a lot of cool stuff. And the net result is a messy, inconsistent and unfinished game.

Ravager69 said:
Perhaps, I may have overlooked that part, as I wrote the post here a day after reading it.
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To come full circle, here's another way this game reminds me of Oblivion: it tries to wow you with first impressions and then just basically entice you on. Both games are like hot cheerleaders who you follow a year as they tease you on. And finally you sleep with them (both). And maybe this realization hits outright, maybe it takes a few years, but at some point you'll suddenly go: “hey, hang on, they were crap in the sack!” Capital Wasteland: Revelation works like that: it tries to wow you, sometimes in rather farcical ways (a mini-nuke catapult? Really?), and then it tries to take you by the nose and have you explore as you try to find the next awesome spot. But the thing is: most spots are really boring, a lot of quests are uninteresting and none of the NPCs come even close to being memorable...except for Moira Brown: I have never felt so passionate about killing any NPC as I did her, sometimes I had no choice but to exit dialog and shoot her in the face because she's just that annoying.

Ravager69 said:
Also, I ought to see those interesting quests you were talking about. Some more examples please.
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Quests with interesting structures include: Oasis, Wasteland Survival Guide, Head of State, Blood Ties, The Replicated Man, Power of the Atom, Tenpenny Tower, Strictly Business, You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head, Trouble on the Homefront.

Note a lot of these quests are retarded in concept (Survival Guide, Blood Ties, Replicated Man) and some are less interesting in execution but kinda neat in concept (Strictly Business, You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head)

But still, this is more than half of the PipBoy-listed quests, AFAIK. Just avoid the main quest and there's some neat stuff out there.
 
Some of those quests I never reached and never will, because I already sold my copy of F3 to a friend, (at least I got most of my money back).

I agree that these quests were done with a more Black Isle-like approach, but are immiediatly spoiled by a bug or crappy dialogue\VO or some nonsense idea\crappy reward, so they change nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I had fun with F3 for some time, but the farther I went, the more lackluster the game became and the little amount of interesting content *does not* compensate for the overall pathetic workmanship of the game. Looking on the game as an objective reviewer, I cannot ignore the incredible amount of fuck-ups the game has. For example - Vampire Bloodlines had some major bugs, but hell, it was almost a masterpiece of gaming (at least to me). That game offered *a lot* to compensate for the bugs - can you say the same for F3?

I do not mean to argue to death with you about how I think you shouldn't like the game, but as I said before, I am surprised you enjoyed it more than little. If I remember correctly, you said that you aren't even interested in playing this type of game (though I understand why you did - free game is a free game and it's always better to see it with your own eyes). That been said, I don't think there's need to discuss this further.

*EDIT* Oh, I forgot - I did read the whole article, I just didn't do it again before posting here - my mistake.
 
Szeder said:
Not to imply anyting, but this is your review, isn't it ? You "work" (as a journalist you indeed) work at/for NMA and as such, your opinion is prone to be identifyed with that of the site......waiting for the NMA review though..
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Any "journalist" worth the title is supposed to be as objective and unbiased as possible, (although to be so completely is impossible) regardless of where he works.

Who's writing the NMA review?
 
Interesting article, almost makes me want to play it. Perhaps someone should concentrate on modding out the Fallout rather than tackling the task of modding out the suck?
 
requiem_for_a_starfury said:
Perhaps someone should concentrate on modding out the Fallout rather than tackling the task of modding out the suck?
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What? You mean, we should mod previous Fallouts rather than fixing FO3?
 
I think he said that modding FINO3 into Capital Wasteland: Revelation would be better than trying to mod it into Fallout 3.
 
Great review, Brother None. I wholeheartedly agree with your opinions on this game.

"Capital Wasteland: Revelation" is the perfect name for this game.
 
TheRatKing said:
I love how Beth gives us "morally gray" quests, and then goes and gives out negative karma for people who completed a quest a different way then Beth wanted them to. (Example, Blood ties).
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That's because Karma doesn't show if you're good or evil. It's kind of a meter to show if you think like the Bethesda game devs.
 
Sorrow said:
I think he said that modding FINO3 into Capital Wasteland: Revelation would be better than trying to mod it into Fallout 3.
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Easier not necessarily better, certainly playing CW:R would be less likely to raise blood pressure than playing FINO3.
 
Enjoyed the article/ review/ alternate reality simulation. On an experiential level it was quite entertaining, though at the end I was somewhat disappointed for the lack of mock descriptions of the character system (I was interested from the start in seeing an 'innovative' adaptation of the TES design) since SPECIAL would not have been raped and creampied in this dream reality.

As for the commentary on the real game, shaved of the biased of fallout fandom, I can't really comment having not played the game. Nonetheless, I feel the analysis on a whole was critical of the issues we've known about for...years...and certainly did not laud the game, moreso kinda finding something positive out of a mess, a very human, understandable, and ultimately impartial-appearing position.

All in all, the review feels like a genuine opinion, which is all anyone can ask for in a review these days.
 
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