I work overnights and it's completely dead. I think I'm gonna rant for a bit...
First of all, people, it's Sci-fi. It always has been and it always will be. To bitch about the water purifier is like bitching about the GECK. They are SCI-FI plot devices. The water purifier is at least somewhat original. The GECK is the Genesis device from Wrath of Khan except in a briefcase instead of a torpedo... Use your imaginations, they won't hurt you.
Raiders terrorizing the wastes? I'll buy it for the time being. Nobody bitched about Raiders just taking over the guy in the Hub's house. Or the shit ton of random encounters you have with them. It is clear some are more civilized and organized than others. So you kill a bunch of raiders. Never saw the raider hierarchy? Oh, probably because you killed their leader on the baseball diamond. They're dumbfucks. IMAGINATION.
I'd rather critique the fact they have human bodies hanging as decorations in their hideouts. Then again, people in the dark ages were throwing dead bodies in their water supply. You're giving our species waaaaay too much credit on the intelligence meter. You think we're a 9, we're more like a 4 overall.
The ending was a little thin, but it was an open and shut linear conclusion for the game...much like Fallout 1. You had two choices, to purify the vault or not to purify the vault, then you had a small choice of whether or not to kill the Master first or last. It was that simple. The Master was 100x better than Eden, but you cannot complain about the meat behind your choices since they were so slim before.
The aliens...yeah. Bullshit. But I believe the suits were crying for more content, hence we receive Broken Steel and Mothership Zeta. This is just the nature of the business nowadays. If you look at this old article, there were only supposed to be three add-ons initially... Didn't other designers make all dlcs besides Point Lookout? That's what I've heard, just want to clarify if I'm wrong.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88061-Fallout-3-Designer-Talks-DLC
One of the above posters mentioned Canterbury Commons. I would most definitely agree. Fallout 3 was highly lacking in the town department. There were always about one or two structures in each and very little content between said structures.
Obsidian had two years to utilize an already built engine and it's assets to create a new, unique environment. It looks more alive, but we as consumers have gone through hell to experience it to its fullest. I guarantee you setting up a functioning reputation system and the crossing paths was a major bitch to do, but they had all the necessary pieces pieces from the beginning. Look at the most recent patch. It looks like they had a hell of a time re-tweaking and optimizing the memory to help improve high traffic areas like McCarran. This is showing the impact of how large amounts of NPCs really mess with the system...The point is, Obsidian needed a foundation to build off of. Bethesda now has a new foundation to build off of. If they backtrack, then fuck 'em.
I'm currently replaying Fallout 3 GOTY after taking a long hiatus from it and playing the shit out of New Vegas. I am rediscovering how much I did enjoy the game as a whole. The writing is definitely weaker, but the only thing that is consistently pissing me off is the fact they placed it 200 years into the future. Other than that, all I've seen is a different perspective and a different set of priorities being applied. Bethesda has the right idea. They need to learn the necessity of having a design bible. In this regard, F3 feels closest to F2-- as in the ideas are all over the place.
Simply put, Fallout 3 revitalized a dead franchise, New Vegas revitalized a dying genre. Both were necessary and both have their strengths and weaknesses. However, to say that one doesn't have heart and soul is to be close-minded. They just have different tastes and different views on what's important.
(BTW, Liberty Prime seems much more plausible than BOS Zeppelins. Discuss.)
One last point on the Elder Scrolls comment: wasn't each game (UNTIL Skyrim) set during the reign of Uriel Septim VII?...How could they be millions of years apart?
