What did Bethesda actually do better than Black Isle?

And how is that better? Explain please.

I would be curious if someone could come up with something important that was actually done better, not combining (read: dumbing down) skills and making it first-person or whatever else people nowadays think is cool.

 

i kinda like the condition of weapons and repair skill now....one up IMO

 

Developed a combat system that maintained the strategy and satisfaction of aimed shots and action points but without the painfully slow turn-based process.

Made science slightly (emphasis on slightly) more useful beyond a very small handful of interactive spots.

Further showed in-game the style and science of pre-war America. Instead of some notes, the nuclear car, and the Vaults, you have a lot more visual and gameplay elements that show that the world of Fallout wasn't just us-after-the-bomb, but a truly different but compellingly similar world with a pre-rock culture and a scientific landscape that's more Tesla than Edison. Of course these aspects were in FO and FO2, but FO3 really shows you, beyond the Vaults and text.

Nuclear weapons. They're not realistic, but they're sure fun.

 

If by less clunky and annoying, you mean dumbed down (for the console crowd) and nonsensical; I agree wholeheartedly.

 

Yeah, less of a hassle... I mean, damn it... many a times I was trying to figure it out: do I need to use first-aid or doctor? Man, I wish they had the technology back then to combine two skills into one.

And that's related to merging first-aid and doctor into one, how? Ah, right... going the only known way known to you people: if you don't have any arguments you just start pointing out other problems like they are relevant in any way. Especially since this problem was fixed in Fallout 2, so...

WAT? They did that too? Or is just your imagination going ahead of Bethesda's?

...

For that matter what's wrong with merging all skills into one called: AWESOMENESS!

 

Thank you, you have just proven you have no idea what you're talking about and thus you are irrelevant to this discussion.

Besides the fact that the doctor skill also recovers hit points, I'll ask you back: is it not possible for someone to know just first aid? Oh, I think it is, they're called nurses usually.
In fact, I have a feeling that nurses might be better at first aid than doctors themselves who practically never do it. Not saying they are unable to, which doesn't happen in Fallout either like you just again babbled incoherently.

 

Mending them, but not healing. That's why they're called nurses not doctors.

I'm not saying that the system in Fallout is perfect, but combining them in one skill because "they sound the same" is simply dumbing down. And yes, before someone starts screaming, I'm aware that Van Buren did something similar and I still don't agree.

 

Actually, having been an ambulance man for some time, I can affirm you, that most practicing doctors are completely overchallenged when taken out of their natural habitat, surgeons too, lacking all the assistents and medical devices of their OR.

The Mac-Giverism, at the cost of sterility if neccessary and the stress of a situation where there is no back-up and you may be as endangered as the patien't, isn't something you can learn in a lecture hall, and most doctors simply lack the experience in this area.

On the other hand, the medic doesn't heal, his task is to rescue and stabilize the patient so that he can be transported to a doctor.


...Not that a first aid expert (i.e. field medic) was really neccessary or realistic in Fallout 1+2, that would've required at least shock and bleeding wounds, and the lack of healing po... uhm... Stimpacks.

 

Traps are laid on the ground, sometimes with carefully laid out triggers.

Throwing is throwing, not laying on the ground.

The only way to combine those is by making a trap trigger a catapult that launches grenades on the target.

 

Better? They made more money. But thats about it I guess

 

I think merging Doctor and First Aid was one of their better ideas. If they really felt the system needed to be simplified, that seems like the logical choice...

Unlike merging Throwing and Traps. I don't see the logic in that. I understand that neither skill was all that great in the first two games, but instead of merging them into one skill, they should have used the opportunity to expand the usefulness of either skill.

It wouldn't have been that hard. It would have been as simple as adding a greater variety of throwing weapons and traps and making them a more prevalent part of the game world.

 

Maybe I missed something... where's the strategy in VATS?

 

I can tell you one thing Beth did worse than BIS, and that was kill the unique feeling behind making a character. By the end of the game, I was able to do most everything. There was no feeling of wanting to play a different character cause I didn't have the skills to do something. If you think lockpicking or science is a reason to play through the game again, then fine. But those are the only two instances where I felt my character lacked the skills to succeed.

When I first played Fallout 2, I was amazed at all the things I missed, on every playthrough. That game encouraged uniqueness, cause you couldn't get every dialogue option, every quest, every choice. It took me over five playthroughs to see most of what the game has to offer. I just beat FO:3 and started a new character. Other than being good instead of evil, I can not find things I can't do that my first character couldn't. Simplifying things does not even come close to making it "better." IMO, it kills the reason to make a unique individual. TAG! skills are useless. I tagged science, lockpick, and unarmed on my second playthrough, but put lots of points into speech with a few levels. There is nothing this character can't do that my last guy (small arms, sneak, and speech) couldn't do as well. This is extremely dissapointing.

 

I can understand merging Med and Doctor, even accept sneak+steal, but throwing+traps makes so little sense. What if the trap is *gasp* not an explosive?

I do have to agree, good job on weapon and armor repair. Hacking and lockpicking are kind of fun too, I just wish they made the minigames harder instead of setting ridiculously high stat requirements.

 

They didn't do it better than Black Isle, they did it the same as Black Isle (in Van Buren).