Why is Fallout 3 so hated?

On the other hand, my main issue is that tried to apply their TES formula to a Fallout game.
I couldn't care less of what they do with TES itself. It is their baby, they can mess with it.
Beside that the core of their game alway been the size of the map and the fact you walk a lot. If it work for their fanbase, it is ok.
On the other hand, the thrill of walking a lot is totally off-topic when talking about Fallout.
 
Nah, I don't think the exploration aspect is that bad of an idea for Fallout, but they should probably re-structure it so it can cover more real life distance, and making hub towns bigger.
 
It becomes an issue while it has became the focus of a game that isn't about that.
Even if i have issues with FoNV, there is alteast writting/C&C/RPG/challenge/worldbuilding. Even if there is a lot of useless locations, those useless locations aren't the focus of the game, unlike Fo3.
And even if exploring useless locations was the point of a post-apocalyptic game, why not ? Just don't betray an IP that is supposed to be an RPG, in order to focus on the endless repetitive scenery walking.

On a side note, i dislike the word exploration when talking about walking on endless generic scenery.
I explored a lot the lore in Fo1-Fo2. In Fo3, it didn't feel like exploring but rather hopelessly looking for something worthy.
In order to explore, you need things worthy of exploring.
You don't explore the void, you don't explore the repetition of the same thing, you don't explore the endless waves of critter bothering you.
 
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I never say to make it the focus, just that it is a good element to implement into Fallout, needs some reworking, but as long as it doesn't become Skyrim I don't see the issue.
 
Exploring in Fallout 3 was just badly done. It's not a bad idea for a side activity, just wander around the wasteland, see the sights, kill the people, take their stuff - could be fun. Bit repetitive after a while, but that's why it's a side activity. In FO3 it just isn't satisfying, because what you'll find will always be some random crap. Even the unique weapons aren't much, because they are just renamed with changed stats. You could make those in GECK in 3 minutes (counting the load time). Of course making your own weapons as a mod doesn't come without difficulty - you'd have to place the chest somewhere. And end up not entirely happy with its location.
 
Should've been "from Oblivon on", after implies that it is the stuff right after it, but not including it.

The best parts of the New Vegas DLCs was actually finding stories and a narrative in the locations, secret caves and rooms with visual details and notes that help to flesh out the story of the location, so phisical exploration does add a lot to the game, imagine if everything was done simply through exposition, you would feel like the character is just reading articles from the wiki to you.
 
I found that what pushed me to exploration in such games was the promise of something unique. Could be an item, a note, information - anything. The point was that finding this elsewhere was rather unlikely. This does not happen in FO3. I didn't feel compelled to explore, because what would I find? Gray walls, generic enemies, randomly generated stuff and a story. Now the story could be unique and cool and worth it, but there is a catch. They go:
1. Normal day, nothing special.
2. War happens.
3. Notgoinginsane notgoinginsane notgoinginsane.
4. Randomly bashing your face on the keyboard is a sure sign of insanity.
Almost every time.
 
Hunting for parts of the Survivalist's journal is a show of true mastery in doing it well. Because you'll end up running around the entire Zion, discovering Clark's stashes, piecing together a story. And the best part? It's worth it in the end, because that is one hell of a story.
 
It's not only for fo3, all games developed by beth after oblivion should be criticiesd.
RPG is genre of intelligence and endurance.
it's requires lots of effort.
and JRPG came out, they don't require intelligence but still they require effort.
and beth's corrupted RPG came out.
it doesn't require neither intelligence nor effort.
it's just sightseeing.
and it became kind of model for good RPG while it's worthless trash as a RPG.
In other words, Bethesda doesn't make RPG's... they make LARPing/Hiking/Scavenger-hunt simulators that they falsely market as "RPGs", a practice that's had a detrimental effect on the mainstream portion of the RPG industry (by which I mean there's still hope for the indie and crowd-funded portion of the industry).

I can certainly agree with this statement.
 
I wonder if they will end up stuck into a corner.
They main selling point was open world in which you could walk anywhere.
Now, they are many other franchises that try to do the same (Gothics, Risen, Arcania, The Witcher). There are even one-man team indie dev that manage to do open-world. (Frontiers)

Amongs all that crowd, they must be people with talents, which could lead to their downfall, as people will notice that they could have both open-world and an actual game with actual things to do, beside walking.

Another possibility is that the casual gamer get as bored as i am to see open-world games everywhere and turn towards the more focused games.
 
Well, at least, from what I saw, Risen didn't abandoned to be RPG.
while they add quest marker, they give enough information to finish quests without quest marker.
and I actually like Risen2. it has it's own characteristic and good feeling of RPG.
Risen1 is better RPG but I don't like it much because it's not much different from Gothic 1,2.
too much things are copied from Gothic 1,2.

and for Gothic3, it's great game.
if PB get enough time to developping it, it can be great RPG.
for writing, NV is better but for construction of quest(I mean main quest) , Gothic 3 is far better.
it's real non-linear RPG. no story things bother me to finish the game.
all I have to do is finding clue of how can I finish the game.
it's awesome thing because most so-called RPGs are dominated by story which make game more and more linear.
 
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Even the unique weapons aren't much, because they are just renamed with changed stats. You could make those in GECK in 3 minutes (counting the load time).

Just a nitpick but I don't think it's really fair to say that a game sucks because you can make better weapons with mods. I do acknowledge that there are weapons that are renamed and all that but most games have weapons like that - weapons with just slightly changed statistics. Fallout 3 has other problems, but I don't think complaining that one can make better weapons with mods is one of them.

It would be like buying a car from a dealership, and then putting in hydraulics, a big stereo system and a bunch of other gadgets and then complaining about the fact the dealership doesn't fit it's cars with those things off the lot.
 
You misunderstand my point. My point is that I don't feel compelled to explore in Fallout 3, because pretty much everything I'll ever find will be the same old crap. My point was not that I could make better weapons in GECK, but that Bethesda didn't bother to make them stand out and make them unique, thus even the 'unique' weapons can be counted among the crappy generic loot. I didn't feel like exploring in FO3, because why look for stuff if you know you will find nothing of interest, just the same stuff scattered everywhere else you go?
 
I get it now, my mistake. I just thought the line was about "it's bad because I can make better mods than ingame stuff", which sounds stupid to me.

But I did like some of the actually "unique" stuff, but most of those were in DLC's so I don't know if they really count. Although to be entirely fair, "unique" doesn't mean it has to be different in appearance, just that it's different from the normal versions. Alhough I still would have like more unique looking weapons. Good thing New Vegas had some pretty cool looking unique weapons.
 
Point. But even so, the game failed to make me curious. And what's exploration without curiosity? If you encounter a ruin in FO3, do you ever think 'I wanna go in there, maybe I'll find something cool'? I don't. Because whatever I find, it'll be the same or very similar to stuff from the last dozen of ruins I've been to. This something doesn't need to be a weapon or armour. Could even be a cool level design or a fun side feature like the X-8 splicing facility in Old World Blues. Hell, in Point Lookout I actually enjoyed roaming around the place just for the creepy atmosphere. The base FO3 just didn't dangle anything in front of me.
 
Shortly after the announcement of Van Buren development, I spend several years without games, completely ignoring them. Two years of military service, family stuff, exhausting job.. When those real-life things settled up and I've found some free time for myslelf, I jumped on F3 immediately. To this point, I still expected Van Burenesque F3 - simulation of tabletop game, with rock solid ruleset, turn-based combat system and intelligent content. And now, prepared for some sweet old school game, I've realized that Van Buren has been canceled and Todd with Pete turned the most cool and stylish computer game ever published into a generic, cheap, copy-pasted, consolitis riddled turd.

Worse than nutkick, let me tell you! So I just raised big howl, burned by flames of pure hatred and that's it! From this moment I hate that useless piece of stinky crap with passion.
 
Shortly after the announcement of Van Buren development, I spend several years without games, completely ignoring them. Two years of military service, family stuff, exhausting job.. When those real-life things settled up and I've found some free time for myslelf, I jumped on F3 immediately. To this point, I still expected Van Burenesque F3 - simulation of tabletop game, with rock solid ruleset, turn-based combat system and intelligent content. And now, prepared for some sweet old school game, I've realized that Van Buren has been canceled and Todd with Pete turned the most cool and stylish computer game ever published into a generic, cheap, copy-pasted, consolitis riddled turd.

Worse than nutkick, let me tell you! So I just raised big howl, burned by flames of pure hatred and that's it! From this moment I hate that useless piece of stinky crap with passion.
Perfect example of why I endeavored to follow FO3'd development, rather than jump in completely in the dark. My qualms with the game were always finely polished and refined, never grounded in any knee-jerk hate, because I knew exactly what to expect. I knew years before I bought it that it would not be Van Buren, and that it would be a FPS hybrid with "efforts" to incorporate third person perspective. I knew it was going to be very similar to TES. FO3 was graced with a completely untainted benefit-of-the-doubt by me because I kept myself current on its development, from the moment there were only rumors about Black Isle disbanding, to the moment those rumors had been confirmed, to the nebulous years-long period where FO3's fate seemed slated to echo that of Duke Nukem Forever (at the time, a game perpetually shifting between "in development" and "canceled"). I always knew what to expect, if there was anything TO expect, so when I found problems with the game, it was from a reasonable place, where actual faults had been determined with the game. They really could've made it worked, if they'd actually tried. The sad thing is that they just didn't... =(
 
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