Fallout 3 Impressions and Opinions

[Darth Onasi]

The Brotherhood Outcasts are odd to me. It seems they've gone to the other extreme that the capitol wasteland Bos have gone, utterly hating outsiders. C'mon. Even the West coast BoS took on new recruits if they were worthy enough and I don't see the outcasts getting reinforcements either.
Oh and thanks for stealing my outcast armor, Casdin! Jackass.

Hum haven't found that one yet, where is it? Granted I haven't done much of the main quest as I've been doing all the side side and exploring. Plus gotta say the opening to FO2 was much better than FO3 opening. Gotta love the look of the helmeted guy as they guns were going off.

A Satcom station in the north west corner of the map, you'll know it's the right one as there are Talon Company goons inside.

[Vendetta]

Is there a point to the ICBM that you can almost launch from Ft. Constiane? Or is it one of those things they thought would be neat, Hey look its a almost launchable nuclear missle.

I don't know what's worse, that or the missile satellite at one of the satcom stations.
"Oh shit I just launched the entire payload of an orbital nuclear missile satellite! I'm doomed!"

*a dozen missiles drop down around me, making explosions no bigger than a Fat Man or a nuclear car*

"..... what?"

One of the notes or consoles mentions that it's a mini-nuke platform. It's designed for pinpoint orbital delivery of the same ordinance the Fat-Man fires.

[Lonestar]

Damn this game is unstable. Does anyone know if there's a patch out for PC yet(as there doesn't appear to be a "check for updates" option...)?

[The Grim Squeaker]

Damn this game is unstable. Does anyone know if there's a patch out for PC yet(as there doesn't appear to be a "check for updates" option...)?

There's been a minor patch released which is supposed to help stability with Q6600's and freezes after alt-tabbing, but apparently it's pretty useless. Looks like we'll be waiting a few weeks for a massive patch, as was the case with Oblivion again.

[Lonestar]

There's been a minor patch released which is supposed to help stability with Q6600's and freezes after alt-tabbing, but apparently it's pretty useless. Looks like we'll be waiting a few weeks for a massive patch, as was the case with Oblivion again.

Is it especially bad with Q6600s? That's what I'm rolling with...

[K. A. Pital]

Totally stable by me. In fact it's one of the smoothest running games recently. Bugs are so very minor. Hell, Mass Effect was 10x more buggy on my PC.

[Vympel]

Exact opposite for me. ME runs like a dream. Fallout 3 does too - then it crashes at extremely inopportune moments.

[The Grim Squeaker]

There's been a minor patch released which is supposed to help stability with Q6600's and freezes after alt-tabbing, but apparently it's pretty useless. Looks like we'll be waiting a few weeks for a massive patch, as was the case with Oblivion again.

Is it especially bad with Q6600s? That's what I'm rolling with...

I have a Q6600 and it runs like a dream, except for the random crashes every hour or two. The patch didn't change a thing for me.

Are there any interesting mods out yet? (It's been over a week already )
Edit: http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewto ... 26a8009961
Nothing to interesting there so far... (No Mutants Allowed - The biggest Fallout Fansite)

[Darth Onasi]

Best place for mods is fallout3nexus.

Mostly cosmetic mods, but there are quite a few great balance mods. Some I couldn't play without, such as an XP reduction mod to stop levelling so damn fast.

Also, there are mods that Make Moira hot.
Clearly of utmost importance.

[K. A. Pital]

There's a great killable kids mod, and that alone justifies going there.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Also, there are mods that Make Moira hot.
Clearly of utmost importance.

Well... they took care of her mustache... But did they have to dunk her in a vat of eye-liner? (Though it could just be the PC engines shadows...)


On a prior note: Roy is the trigger for everyone else dying. If you kill him, the folks in the tower don't get killed. Assuming you went the mediator route. So, it's one way to get the mask, and still have the humans in the tower.

[Darth Onasi]

Also, there are mods that Make Moira hot.
Clearly of utmost importance.

Well... they took care of her mustache... But did they have to dunk her in a vat of eye-liner? (Though it could just be the PC engines shadows...)

No the intense eye-liner is intended. And if you think that's too much you should see my character.
Over the top? I suppose. I kind of see it as intense wasteland eye protection, ancient Egyptian style (yeah yeah, flimsy excuse I know).

Still the game's only been out a couple of weeks, I'll bet we'll see some truly excellent textures sooner or later.

Edit: One more great thing the PC version has is the console.
Right now I'm having fun spawning things in my house or wherever. For some reason I find spawning a GECK in Megaton then activating it to be hilarious..

[Vendetta]

Also, there are mods that Make Moira hot.
Clearly of utmost importance.

Well, as much as they can with the mutant faces the Oblivion/Fallout engine uses.

(Preferred Reillly anyway...)

[Stark]

Beth's inability to make faces is as absolutely ludicrious as it is funny. There are even licencable products that do it better than their consistently Goonies efforts, which supports the 'Beth honestly think they know what they're doing' interpretation of their decade of failure.

Is F3 really going to have the mod lifetime that Oblivion did? I mean, Oblivion wasn't even as good in this sense as Morrowind, but they've BOTH got more meat than F3. It'd have to be something pretty interesting to get me to ever play this game again, and not just 'lol supah gunz' and 'wewt cool shirt!!', as opposed to Morrowind etc that take so long to play/dick around with that you can mod before you finish it.

[charlemagne]

Is F3 really going to have the mod lifetime that Oblivion did? I mean, Oblivion wasn't even as good in this sense as Morrowind, but they've BOTH got more meat than F3. It'd have to be something pretty interesting to get me to ever play this game again, and not just 'lol supah gunz' and 'wewt cool shirt!!', as opposed to Morrowind etc that take so long to play/dick around with that you can mod before you finish it.

I'm thinking the same thing. FO3 is fun and dandy for one playthrough, but I got bored trying to play an evil bitch after a couple of hours. I'll try it again in 6 months or so to be sure, but it certainly didn't grip me like Oblivion did - I played that one heavy modded for 6 or 9 months.

[Covenant]

I agree with the sentiments of Fallout feeling rather small compared to Morrowind and Oblivion. I enjoyed my playtime intensely, but it was startingly easy to break the storyline through extremely cursory exploration--getting into DC didn't feel like entering a Warzone, and popping down to Rivet City was as simple as swimming the Potomac, which ruins the entirity of the storyline. Even though your walking speed is slow, you can't use speed potions, or ride a horse... travel feels slow, and everything feels remarkably nearby. This makes the game playable, but I think that it also limits the long-term viability of the game, especially when it comes to modding in new things to do, it will be hard for modders to create mods that don't overlap. In a case like this, you really need someone to do a "Fallout 3 Wastelands Mod" or something to lay the groundwork for future mod efforts, creating a blanker canvas to work with.

Something I see as helpful would be consolidating Fallout's towns somewhat, and using that extra area to add more interesting venues. Girdershade, for example, is a worthless place to put two talkable NPCs, and consumes a little bit of map geography in the process. Canturbury Commons has one NPC that is of any value whatsoever, and the two quest locations are irrelevent as they're interiors and could be relocated in two seconds of editing. Arefu is nearly pointless too, only of miniscule use as a quest location but consuming a merchant marker and map geography. The Regulator HQ, for example, could be moved to Megaton (even if you nuke Megaton, it makes sense) while also increasing Megaton's prominence and density of interest. The two residents of Girdershade could be moved to any of the other towns, and would fit well in Rivet City. I could think of places to put the other people that would make more sense.

Do these things and you're able to mod freely without every new mod being a Vault, Cave, or Bunker. I get sick of holes in the ground, and this game is a triumph of being able to see far in an open environment. It's a shame that so much of what you see is just useless. It's not even Wasteland-style useless, it's just filler trash, it adds nothing, it's just a dump spot for items, schematics, bobbleheads and so forth.

[Tolya]

Can anyone explain to me, why the hell did I have to die from radiation while activating the goddamn purifier?

The whole "you or me" talk with Sarah was just bullshit, especially with Fawkes standing right next to us. What, his fingers were too big for the damn keyboard?

Of course, nobody even cared to explain HOW did I die with a 100% radiation resistance, but I guess I'll let it slide.

If anyone ever asks me about idiotic game endings, I'll mention Fallout 3. Im not against the PC dying, but just make it credible and logical for fucks sake.

[Darth Onasi]

Never under estimate the stubborness of modders, or the Fallout fandom.
Morrowind and Oblivion are still being modded and expanded to this day, and so are the original Fallout games.
Given time, and the TES/Fallout communities together, I'm sure Fallout 3 will be something very special. And then Bethesda will take the credit. Despite refusing to release the Fallout 3 CS.

Can anyone explain to me, why the hell did I have to die from radiation while activating the goddamn purifier?

The whole "you or me" talk with Sarah was just bullshit, especially with Fawkes standing right next to us. What, his fingers were too big for the damn keyboard?

Considering the buttons on the control pad were bigger than those on a children's toy laptop and that Fawkes was able to use one of those standard one-piece terminals with their tiny keyboards, he doesn't even have this as an excuse.

Of course, nobody even cared to explain HOW did I die with a 100% radiation resistance, but I guess I'll let it slide.

A wizard did it.

If anyone ever asks me about idiotic game endings, I'll mention Fallout 3. Im not against the PC dying, but just make it credible and logical for fucks sake.

Ever play Terranigma? Basically at the end, the protagonist has to destroy the very thing that keeps him alive, effectively killing himself. He does this to save the world, and it was quite moving for it's time. And this was a SNES game.
A SNES game which managed to invoke the very desperation and sadness Fallout 3 tried to give us, and failed.

[TC Pilot]

You dare insult SNES games!?

[Darth Onasi]

You dare insult SNES games!?

Hell no, my beloved early-ish days of gaming are all about the SNES.
Still the fact remains that while designing a competent game, Bethesda can't reach the immersion of a 16-bit cartoony action-JRPG.

[Zixinus]

Can anyone explain to me, why the hell did I have to die from radiation while activating the goddamn purifier?

So you would learn a valuable and fitting story about sacrifice.

[Ohma]

So you would learn a valuable and fitting story about sacrifice.

Blood for the blood god?

Yeah, I'm waiting to continue my game until either an actual patch comes from Bethesda or the modding community. Cause seriously, important NPCs dying as a result of crappy superfluous path finding is bullshit.

[Tanasinn]

Fallout 3's big problem, insofar as I'm concerned, is that Megaton is the only "real" city, with the others being assholes squatting in a wrecked structure. I know this is supposed to be a nuclear apocalypse, but come on now, it's 200 years hence, and even FO1 and 2 had some settlements with real roots.

[Nephtys]

Compare any FO3 city to any previous one. The scale is pretty bad.

The Hub in FO1 was a pretty fair sized city. It was mostly wrecked structures, true. But hey, it's at least three or four city blocks worth of that. We don't see that in FO3 at all.

New Reno, NCR, San Fran and Vault City in FO2 were WAY beyond anything we saw in FO3. They were literally rebuilt communities. Or in Vault City's case, a scratchbuilt community with a few hundred people, a GECK, and some giant laser batteries.

The biggest two cities (or only two cities) in FO3 are Megaton and Rivet City. Megaton is a small dump like Klamath (first screen) in FO2, and Rivet City is basically that Oil Tanker docked with San Fran. Hardly even remotely on the same scale.

...at least the Vault's bigger.

[Darth Onasi]

Eh, some Vaults seem bigger. But then they're mostly dungeon crawls anyway.
101 actually seems smaller, with all it's closed off areas. I liked the uniform design of the California vaults anyway.