Fallout 3 Impressions and Opinions

[TC Pilot]

Remember, this is a giant wasteland mystery. Where could he be? Maybe it's a ghost story? Super secret Pinkerton disappearanc! Maybe the bow is haunted, even though it's alleged to be full of technology? With all this, nobody could be fucked walking 100m to find out.

To be fair, there's a Super Mutant camp right next to it and in the Jefferson Memorial beyond that. Besides, even if someone just crossed over from the flight deck, it wouldn't exactly be easy to get from the top of a wrecked carrier to the bottom.

[SylasGaunt]

And there's all the fun booby-traps he left behind to.

[Stark]

And there's all the fun booby-traps he left behind to.

Name one.

Oh, you mean the shotgun of 2hp damage in the side room? Wow, I'm stunned, clearly this is impassible.

There were no super-mutants near the pontoon when I went htere, and regardless, that'd block trade too so it's an issue for the lolbertarian police of Rivet. It's a sad, pathetic demonstration of how everyone in DC except the PC is a mouth breathing retarded legs-broken lazy no-skill cipher of nothing.

[TC Pilot]

Name one.

The exploding door console, the gas trip-wire, a frag mine, and some pressure pad that caused a spontaneous explosion next to me somehow.

There were no super-mutants near the pontoon when I went htere, and regardless, that'd block trade too so it's an issue for the lolbertarian police of Rivet.

True, when I went past there weren't any Super Mutants either (although there was a prisoner, oddly enough), but really, no matter which way you go you're going to run into Super Mutants that "block trade" (the other way was worse: rockets > hunting rifles).

Though I'll admit, like Oblivion, there are plenty of things that strain credulity and SoD pretty much to the breaking point, Rivet City among them (what the fuck is an aircraft carrier doing on the Potomac, for starters)

Quick question: is the alien blaster the best gun in the game? It's pretty fun one-shotting mutant bears and Super Mutants with a pistol.

[Pulp Hero]

A bit off topic, but I was thinking about it last night:

Does anyone think that the U.S. nuked D.C.?

Because there are a shit-ton of Chinese weapons (and corpses of Chinese soldiers) everywhere. That leads me to believe that the Chinese were successfully attacking the capital (likely a paratrooper attack, though maybe amphibious assault is possible).

There is an aircraft carrier sitting on the river- more evidence the situation was going badly for the U.S.

And lastly, in Megaton, that is a nuclear BOMB, not a nuclear MISSILE/ICBM, meaning a plane had to drop it. Countries would go on the offensive with ICBMs, not bombs.

I believe that the U.S. was losing the fight so badly they decided to nuke the capital, so that no one could have it or to cover a retreat out.

[Vendetta]

From the logs and stuff you can find in computers, it does seem like the war had been going on for some time before the nukes started flying (anything up to maybe 10 years before people went into the vaults). So it's entirely possible that the huge waves of Chinese manpower were winning the day.

[Karza]

From the logs and stuff you can find in computers, it does seem like the war had been going on for some time before the nukes started flying (anything up to maybe 10 years before people went into the vaults). So it's entirely possible that the huge waves of Chinese manpower were winning the day.

President Richardson in Fallout 2 says (the quote might be a bit off) "Our brave boys fought from Yukon to Yangtze, and were winning too, until those damn reds launched all they got. We barely had time to get our own birds up." Also, one of the Sierra Army Depot news archive tapes says the US managed to throw the Chinese out of Alaska thanks to tech advantages like power armor, and I think there were some other allusions to the US having the upper hand in the conventional conflict. Both bits of data might of course be just propaganda. The original Fallouts also had no trace of any Chinese equipment anywhere, but they happened in the west coast too. Maybe the Chinese invaded the DC area as some sort of a last ditch attempt to decapitate the US? Then the Chinese would either resort to nukes if that failed, or the US would resort to nukes if it worked?

Personally though, I just suspect the designers didn't really even think how Chinese gear could end up in DC. That would be perfectly in line with Tactics introducing the AK-47 as the mainstay small arm in post-apocalyptic Chicago area .

[TC Pilot]

Well, the Germantown Police Station was converted into a military hospital. Wouldn't make any sense for it to be there unless it was close to a front.

[Ohma]

It could've been a last ditch effort by chinese spies (err, not spies...that other thing that's more fighty than a spy...man it's too early for me to be writing this). A holodisc in the Glow in Fo1 mentions that the research teams at West Tek were moved because of fears that the facility could've been infiltrated. Additionally, the chinese had been using biological weapons for some time before the end of the war (long enough for the FEV to be more or less perfected in response, but never used outside the secure facilities it was developed in).

[Hotfoot]

Or, perhaps, they invaded DC to try and remove the ability of the US to launch nukes in the first place. Take over the Pentagon/War Room, and then launch the nukes, all while staying safe from retaliation.

[Vympel]

The designers did think with how Chinese special forces could end up in DC, actually. Go to Mama Dolce's Processed Foods, near Arlington Cemetery, check the computers.

Now back to my assignment.

[Stark]

From the logs and stuff you can find in computers, it does seem like the war had been going on for some time before the nukes started flying (anything up to maybe 10 years before people went into the vaults). So it's entirely possible that the huge waves of Chinese manpower were winning the day.

I got the impression in the earlier games that the early war period was one where the war was safely limited and apart from the US average people (the war in Alaska and into China etc) until the Chinese went nuclear.

[Nephtys]

The Rivet City carrier can be pretty easily explained. It's a Museum. Which is why the flight decks are covered in planes from like the 1960s, why there's no munitions lying all over, and why it looks like a WW2 relic. While Fallout's retro-style may have a factor, like with the fusion powered musclecars dead in the streets, those planes look pretty un-retro-futuristic.

[Soontir C'boath]

Hopefully third person will lessen the nauseating feeling I get playing it. I managed to play for about an hour before I decided to stop. In so far, I had just reached Megaton.

The voice acting is dreadfully boring. I'm just going to read the subtitles.

I encountered my first glitch during the G.O.A.T. test and reloaded the game from there to fix it; how unbelievably lame that they didn't catch this.

Overall, it's ok so far given how little I covered. I hope by playing in third person, the enjoyment factor will be much better when I don't feel like hurling my lunch.

I am playing it on the PS3.

[Thunderfire]

Argh I hate plot stopping bugs. I can't get into the Citadel - the NPCs are already inside.

[Ryan Thunder]

I'm currently dealing with the Family. What and who the fuck are these? Vampires?

EDIT: Yes, I've listened to the dialog and it sounds more like that these guys are genuine vampires. What? I am really confused now. Are these people genuine vampires or just really, really sick cannibals?

Spoiler

They're all cannibals. However, Vance has brainwashed them into being satisfied by drinking blood instead of eating flesh. They go to great lengths to act like they're vampires, though.

[Quetzalcoatl]

In a ghost town I found a comatose guy in need of medical attention...

"You open his artery and let him bleed out. You know even a doctor will think he simply died of his wounds. You bastard."

This game has a sense of humor, at least.

[Pulp Hero]

*SPOILERs DUH*


Stupid Vault 87!

So I made it to Lamplight, and got stopped by the little kid who wants me to do a quest before he lets me in. I'm like fuck that, I don't need this punk's secret Vault entrance, I'm going go in through the goddamn front door!

I then went back to Megaton to pick up my radiation suit and my 20+ packs of RadAway and returned to make a beeline from Lamplight to the Vault.

I shot up the three Super mutants guarding the front and experimented for the best way into the radioactive crater where the door is visible. I ended up going from behind the door and sliding down the cliff, because that was route with the smallest amount of radiation (it got crazy high though, like 550 rads a second.) I made it by taking RadAway every couple of steps and made it to the door just as my supply ran out. I hit the interact button on the door, get "Door Inaccessible," and then die from radiation.

If I power through all the way to the door through that kind of radiation, I ought to be able to get in damnit.

[Stark]

Later, when you 'have to' release some mutant motherfucker to get the foozle, you can just tell him to get bent and get it yourself, the radiation isn't very serious.

[neoolong]

Could someone tell me why Fawkes doesn't want to go into the chamber at the end and makes me do it, only to follow me inside anyway? Jeez, I loved the game right up until the shitty ending.

No wonder everyone wants to kill the mutants.

[Ohma]

Could someone tell me why Fawkes doesn't want to go into the chamber at the end and makes me do it, only to follow me inside anyway?

'Cause if he'd gone in when you asked him Bethesda would've had to record a a whole third ending dialogue for that part, and just having him say something like "Umm, no, I'm gonna' go now..." and leaving would've been like, effort or something.

Or, perhaps, they invaded DC to try and remove the ability of the US to launch nukes in the first place. Take over the Pentagon/War Room, and then launch the nukes, all while staying safe from retaliation.

Actually, after finishing a play through of Fo1 (I'm in a Fallouty mood, but I'm pissed at 3 after I entered Megaton to find Walter dead on top of that fucking bomb due to crappy path finding) that Chinese invasion of DC idea makes more sense than I thought it did.

According to a log you can find on one of the Military Base computers (link), the soldiers there (who eventually went on to found the Brotherhood of Steel) had stopped replying to radio messages from their commanders for at least 2 days without anyone showing up to find out what had happened to them, and didn't get any response for the 3 days after they sent a message back that they were no longer under the command of the US government. In fact, they apparently only learned that the nukes had started flying when a transmission between them and the West-Tek facility was cut short by that facility getting hit.

A massive last ditch effort by China to invade the US and DC with more conventional means would rather explain all that.

[Pulp Hero]

Oh man, 'Take It Back' was fucking awesome.

I finally decided to blow through end game and quit the sidequests I was doing. My one regret was never figuring out how to get Liberty Prime working. That was until the BoS powered him up. Hell's yeah.

[Vendetta]

A massive last ditch effort by China to invade the US and DC with more conventional means would rather explain all that.

There's also at least one nuclear armed satellite in geosynchronous orbit over DC and pointing straight down at it's own command station.

You can fire it, too.

[charlemagne]

I'd still love to hang some of the posters you see in-game over my desk. Some of the artwork is pretty awesome.

[Zixinus]

Is there a flashlight in the game? I read something about "pip-boy's light" but I can't make it open and there is no key binding to it. I really need it as some of the areas in the game are eye-straining dark.

EDIT: Nevermind. I've figured it out. I have to hold down Tab.