Fallout 3

[Wselfwulf]

C'mon, who's excited? Now all we need is Troika to rise from the dead and make Arcanum 2.

[Konietzko]

C'mon, who's excited? Now all we need is Troika to rise from the dead and make Arcanum 2.

Honestly? I'd be more excited if this wasn't a Bethesda game, and wasn't likely to basically be Oblivion: SciFi Edition. Don't get me wrong, I love Bethesda, and Oblivion is a good game. Now. But it's taken 40+ mods, and countless hours of work from the fans to make Oblivion acceptable. Vanillia Oblivion is pretty much over-hyped garbage. I just hope the same thing doesn't happen to Fallout 3.

[outwarddoodles]

I'm getting this game immediately when it comes out!!

I've played the previous Fall-Out games, and I have Oblivion, I'm simply dying for a Fall-Out I can play on my Xbox 360.

*fan-girlish*

[Wselfwulf]

To be honest I really disliked Morrowind (except when I became a werewolf in the expansion, of course ) and although Oblivion improved in parts (like maybe interfacing) it didn't solve much for me. But I think in translating the perk system and the playing style of the old fallouts, they'll have to go in at least slightly a new direction - I reckon that's a good thing.

[outwarddoodles]

To be honest I really disliked Morrowind (except when I became a werewolf in the expansion, of course ) and although Oblivion improved in parts (like maybe interfacing) it didn't solve much for me. But I think in translating the perk system and the playing style of the old fallouts, they'll have to go in at least slightly a new direction - I reckon that's a good thing.

I haven't played Morrowwind, but apparently a lot of Morrowwind fans claim that Morrowind was a much more unique and refreshing look on a fantasy world -- While Oblivion was simply stereotypical high fantasy.

Fallout's gameplay may not be all that different from ElderScrolls -- but I value Fallout most of all for it's ironic mood and creative setting. I have a feeling that Fallout 3 is probably not going to be all that different from the last versions: but the fact that I have only a 360 at this point in time, and my adoration for Fallout's previous games are what are going to make me come back and buy the newest version.

[Wselfwulf]

*craves iguana-on-a-stick*

[outwarddoodles]

WOO! It came out today!

('course, I have no money to buy it.)

[Kaebora]

I'm getting this game immediately when it comes out!!

Yay!

WOO! It came out today!

('course, I have no money to buy it.)

In hindsight, you could have saved the money for it in anticipation of the release date.

[outwarddoodles]

I'm getting this game immediately when it comes out!!

Yay!

WOO! It came out today!

('course, I have no money to buy it.)

In hindsight, you could have saved the money for it in anticipation of the release date.

I have no job whatsoever, and I recently used what $30 I had to buy my brother a game. xD

Pity me, I'm poor.

[Wselfwulf]

Pfft. In Australia PAL region games typically cost AU$10-$40 dollars more than you bloody pay for them. And I'm a full-time student...

[Berserker]

Fallout 3 (PC version) would be great if it weren't for the game-breaking stuttering bug that no one knows how to fix. Lol, it's really fun when the game freezes for 10 seconds everytime you do well... anything! (Psssst Bethesda... it's not our video card drivers, onboard sound chips, service packs, fragmented hard drives, codecs, background resources, faulty RAM, or any other cop-out excuse. It's your game's crappy untested coding. Fix it please!)

[outwarddoodles]

Played Fallout 3 with my bestfriend yesterday.

AWESOME.

[Searif]

Been playing it for a while now, gotta say, trying to keep your ammo up is a annoying thing to worry about, but it brings a bit of realism to it.

[Wingman]

Been playing it for a while now, gotta say, trying to keep your ammo up is a annoying thing to worry about, but it brings a bit of realism to it.

A Rock-It Launcher, or Shishkebab can make this a bit more manageable. Well, until you go through 300 5mm rounds in a bare minute when you get your first minigun. Fun!

The novelty of killing someone with a plastic cup will never fail to impress. Or to kill them with a bunch of pre-war money. The only bad part is that all of the applicable junk ammo weighs at least 1, which makes carrying a large supply a bit tiresome.
But still, I did manage to kill three feral ghouls with a single ashtray. Shoot it, scramble to grab it and reload it, and repeat.

Much like in STALKER, I've found myself usually carrying 4 weapons. In this case, a 10mm submachine gun, a .32 hunting rifle, a 5.56 Chinese assault rifle, and a laser pistol. And lately my kebab has been with me at all times, for those rage-induced moments where I simply cannot shoot my gun fast enough and the only release is chopping the enemy into burning little pieces. Running around with a sledgehammer, swiping off limbs did have its appeal as well.

I did manage to cut that down a bit, now that I've got Commando and Sniper, and some more Luck. Boom, headshot.

Altogether, I find that it is a marked improvement over Oblivion, even if they do still have the Telekinesis grabbing, rather than having the characters physically grab the item. The whole Eagle-Eyed NPCs issue is a little annoying, glance at something that's not yours and they warn you not to steal it, and how everyone assumes you want to talk to them, simply because you're near them.
Seriously, I'm standing there, looking across the room, and a guy behind me asks what I'm bothering him for.
Pretty funny how NPCs have completely different tones depending on if you're talking to them or not.
In passing, Sister is super happy to see me, when I try to talk to him he clearly wants me to die.

V.A.T.S. is simply amazing. Let the exploding heads reign eternal! The Mysterious Stranger, Dogmeat, and I; carving a path across the ruins of DC, exploding heads near you.

I even managed to punch a feral ghoul's head off! Though for a moment I did feel like I was playing Resident Evil when I was in a subway station populated entirely by feral ghouls, and I was sneaking around putting bullets in their heads.

Altogether, a very good game. Now I just need to figure out what that whole "Blue Shift" thing was that happened in the vaults. A little strange to be attacked by people that were not there, or to see someone disappear halfway through your attack. The odd part is that I could still see him, partially, and even killed him. Also need to find out how to explode pants, though I suspect that's caused when you slip a grenade into someone's pocket.

[Wselfwulf]

Just got it, installing as we speak...I'm sure I'll have a good enough moment to post in time

[Vagrant]

I have to say that I loved it too. The mechanics are a bit broken in places, and it's an entirely different kind of game to the previous Fallouts, but the feel is true, it genuinely does feel like a modern reimagining of the first one.

I think my favourite new element though are the robots, they're so perfect. All one has to do is look at 50's/60's Sci-Fi to see where they got their inspiration for all of them. Fallout has always had this retro 50's/60's retro Sci-Fi chic going on, so the robots fit into that perfectly.

And my favourites have to be the Protectrons, which are literally right out of Forbidden Planet, even with awkward robotic English!

To be honest, I wish the PC version of Fallout 3 had the same kind of SDK that Oblivion and Morrowind did, because I'd love to put a couple of NPCs in there: namely a drunken Englishman and his personalised Protectron, who would natter back and forth, with said drunk mostly taking umbrage at the poor standards of foreign robotics construction.

Something like...

"Watt-o, a new face!"
"...wot? No. No, no, no, you baleful bucket of bolts, look, it's what ho, it's really not that hard. Just enunciate, try again... what ho."
"Rrr... zzrnnn... waaa... tt... 'o? ERROR #319: Speech synthesis routines incapable of this inflection! Please contact your nearest RobCo outlet for further help."
"... *sigh* You try to bring a little elegance to the wastes, and this is what you get."

Possibly hiring him and his Protectron as followers would be a laugh, too.

"Tally-o, we shall give them a good what for!"

Still, I'd need the SDK for that, and I'd need to figure out what manner of speech alteration program and settings they used for the Protectron. But it would be worth it.

[Wingman]

My humor emitter requires recharging.

Does anyone else detect a certain hint of mockery when your house robot in Megaton says that he need more time to dispense any more beverages. The way he says it makes it sound like he's urinating into my Purified Water, and is enjoying it immensely.

Odd, I've lately been getting a bug, or something. Dialog will be skipped, usually too fast to be read, and then the character mouths the line but no voice is heard. A group of wastelanders just attacked me, something about an Oasis, when they're at the wrong end of DC.

That crazy guy near the Capitol Building, the one hiding in that alley with all the explosives, I love him to death. The random stuff he's spouting makes my day. I almost don't want to find out a way to get past the mines to deal with him. Well that and I kind of can't figure out how. Even with my sneak at 100(95 +10 from recon armor and a hat, should be 110), I can't sneak close enough to disarm more than a single mine.

[Vagrant]

My humor emitter requires recharging.

Love that line.

Also: "Go Underworld! Go Ghouls! Yeaaahhh! ...damned pansy-*** zombie programming."

Does anyone else detect a certain hint of mockery when your house robot in Megaton says that he need more time to dispense any more beverages. The way he says it makes it sound like he's urinating into my Purified Water, and is enjoying it immensely.

I think the model of Mr. Handy that turns up in one's Megaton House is actually modelled upon the Butler of the same name (Wadsworth) from the movie Clue, and there was one scene in Clue where he'd pointed out that the champagne was likely poisoned directly after one guest had drunk it. So I imagine it might be a play on that.

Odd, I've lately been getting a bug,

That's a weird bug, saw that one listed at the Fallout 3 wikia. I actually got a particularly bad bug myself: I cannot go anywhere near the Jefferson monument without crashing, it meant that I had to skip one sidequest in my first run-through of the game because of it. Fallout 3 is positively riddled with bugs ranging from irritating to very game-breaking, but this is a Bethesda game so I knew to go in with my hard-hat on.

I still love it though, despite all the bugs. And that's not counting the Radroaches.

That crazy guy near the Capitol Building, the one hiding in that alley with all the explosives, I love him to death.

I don't think I've seen him, I'll have to look that NPC up. What was his name?

Post edited to add...

Now that I think of it, has anyone else messed around with the Mesmetron? I love that gun. It's basically a slaver weapon, but it has a number of uses...

1) Induce a hypnotic, drunken stupour in the subject.

"I saw a thief passing through this area, and you look a little out of it, I think it might be a good idea if you were to give me your stuff so I could guard it for you."
"What? ...hmm? Oh yeaaaahhh, hold my stuff for me? I wouldn't want it stolen."

2) Cause the head of the target to explode.

Little needs to be said about this other than the fact that it can cause unexpected hilarity.

3) Thanks to some script, some NPCs are tagged in such a way that they can't be mesmerised. Instead they go into a completely rabid rage and attack anything and everything nearby, without any negative ramifications upon the player.

Remember the irritating preacher in Megaton?

...what irritating preacher in Megaton?

[Wingman]

I don't actually know his name, since I haven't actually spotted him yet. If you get too close, even outside the alley, he'll blow himself, and hopefully you and the frightened wastelander, up.
He spouts stuff about The Worm, how we put the sun in a jar, and how the sun will rise in the...north, or northwest, for two months or so, and we'll never know.

Dogmeat is hardcore, if slightly hotheaded. Yeah, charge the Super Mutant Behemoth, that's a good idea. Which made it even better when right as Dogmeat attacked it, some Talon mercenary launched a Fat Man at it, so it seemed as though it was a nuclear dog. The bad part is that I didn't get any xp for killing the behemoth after I reloaded the game and stuck Dogmeat in a corner, and I did it with a Chinese Assault Rifle too! Gotta love those critical sneak attacks.

[Vagrant]

That NPC sounds particularly wonderful, and I like his imagery. I'm really going to have to track this fellow down.

As for Dogmeat, he is fairly insane. I actually had trouble keeping him alive, because I got him fairly early on, I became wholly acquainted with the "Dogmeat has died" dialogue, which often lead to muttering followed by reloading.

Then I got Fawkes, and Fawkes is wonderful, shi's like Dogmeat's guardian angel, and shi gets really ticked off if anyone attacks Dogmeat, and usually lays into them. This is handy because Fawkes happens to have a Gattling Laser with infinite ammo, this means almost instant death to anyone that ticks hir off, now Dogmeat isn't threatened by anything.

I'm not sure if the hermaphrodite classifications of gender there are fitting, but I'm not sure how to classify Fawkes, the notes in the Vault say that Fawkes was female before becoming a Meta-human, and that the Meta-human (or Super Mutant, whichever you prefer) process made its subjects asexual.

But regardless, having Fawkes around has been a boon.