Kjarista

Regular gameplay...combat without VATS gets annoying when the mob is very close and doing what I call the Oblivion kite...running around you like a Bnet kiddie doing WoW PvP. I might resort to VATS in that situation. Otherwise, at longer ranges, I didn't feel that the combat controls were awkward. With a little practice, one can effectively lead moving targets and compensate for sniper rifle trajectories. Get up on that bridge near Dukov's with your sniper rifle and practice on the raiders in the camp down by the river. Good moderate-longer range shots. It won't take long to learn how to lead targets and compensate for the off borsighted crosshairs of the standard sniper rifle. Not using VATS doesn't take that much more player skill...it's not close to the skill needed for most shooters, for example, and the various weapons can be used as designed.

I disagree completely: Main story should not be linear, and should be OPTIONAL. There should be numerous sidequests, both in quest hubs and "hidden" away in the wasteland. I'm all for memorable characters and choices with consequences.

RE VATS: I have not used VATS in quite some time. I would prefer to have VATS continue to be optional.

If you are going to single shot it, what's the point? The increased accuracy/velocity of a full size weapon and the option of full auto in a pinch. All I said was that it's not less accurate than a pistol. I guarantee you can shoot it more accurately full auto than a pistol converted to full auto. The M3 is not a full size weapon. Any trained shooter can empty a 45 pistol in the time an M3 can empty it's clip, and hit MORE TIMES than the M3 can hit. When I say by the time the third round leaves the M3, the sights are well off the target, I'm not kidding.

There's no way to control the muzzle of the M3, and the barrel is only...I can't remember, something like 6 inches. The Thompson, according the the friend who showed me his, also had substantial muzzle climb, but it did have a compensator that cut down on that a bit, and a detachable hand grip forward,which would also help control muzzle climb, although those features were deleted on the military production models. Just the extended barrel length made them more accurate. My uncle claims that they were highly pissed when they were told to surrender their Thompsons to be replaced by the M3s. Many, including him, refused to do so. He said that a couple Thompson could lay down effective final protective fire and that the 45 provided excellent stopping power. So ya, back to the M3: Having an M3 is better than not having anything, but given the choice, it's really not that great a weapon. Pistol range = grenade range, and in that battle, grenades probably win most of the time.

If you are going to single shot it, what's the point? The only real use it has is to give you more rounds in the magazine. They only gave them to vehicle drivers and where compact weapons were required. General consensus at that time was to leave them in the arms room and draw an M16. They were deleted from inventory about the time the P92's entered service.

What they don't have in FO3 are the big gun machine guns...the bozars, the M60s, SAWs, etc. I'd like to see those return, for use with the big gun skill. I'd also like to see a Barrett 50 cal sniper weapon, also for big gun skill.

I don't think that's quite right. I guarantee it. With a pistol, I can put 7 rounds through a half man target with ease. With the M3, the first shot is a guaranteed hit, but after that, even on short burst, the muzzle goes all over the place.

From what I understand, their biggest saving grace, vs the Thompson, was that the M3 was relatively cheap to manufacture. I think that's right. The Thompson is a beautiful firearm. I've seen one but not fired one. Receiver is machined. The M3 looks like cast aluminum sides welded together. The barrel screws onto the front, and the bolt block just blows back on two rods with springs. Can't cost more than a couple dozen bucks to make. Can say the same for an AK though, and the AK is a much better weapon.

I like it because it's actually based on one of those ridiculous things of the Cold War era, and in a game of portable miniguns and power armor there's no reason it doesn't fit the setting. I would rather it had been some kind of a one time deal though, like the only way to defeat a particularly powerful boss. As it was it was just a way to one shot the one or two enemies I couldn't take out with a single round of vats, and the novelty faded quickly because it usually had no discernible effect on the environments. I spent some time finding the largest explosion possible using Fatman. I think shooting it in the abandoned car tunnel near Dupont Circle wins.

I think 10mm recoil is even worse than .45 ACP. Then again, you carry around miniguns in Fallout so... I think it is more the dimensions of the weapon that make it seem unwieldy for one handed firing rather than the power of the cartridges. I see the M3 as more along the lines of a Thompson, which I also have difficulty imagining being fired one-handed. it's both, actually. It's very front heavy. Even when using both hands, it's less accurate than the pistol of the same caliber. They really aren't that useful.

The first two treated them with awe [nukes], and the third one made them a game unto itself. I got a lot of joy dropping a mininuke on top of a vertibird at max fatman range. The explosion was...impressive. Fallout 3 just trivialized the whole thing for me ~set the tone for the entire game that and everything else, it seems. Regardless, I enjoy it.

The first two treated them with awe [nukes], and the third one made them a game unto itself. I got a lot of joy dropping a mininuke on top of a vertibird at max fatman range. The explosion was...impressive.

It's a lot of fun to use, realism aside for a moment.

Hah. Some people still are. The .223 and the AR-15 are a late 50s development, actually. The heyday of 7.62mm battle rifles was the 50s. I can believe both of those, in some strange primitive-but-simultaneously-advanced form. The Vulcan gun which the minigun is the "mini" version of was also developed in the fifties, the mini version in the early sixties which were not unlike the fifties at all. I'm not particularly offended by the miniguns in Fallout because I can believe they would scale them down for use with power armor. They actually fit the setting very well. They should just be the end all be all of gunpowder weapons, should require power armor or very high strength, and ammo should not be nearly as available for them as it is. I could believe their feasibility in FO3 because based on their damage output I assumed their were firing something like a .22 short cartridge. That man portable minigun, ala preditor, was a microgun, 5.56 mm. The gun, with 1000 rounds, weighed a bit less than 100lbs, if I remember correctly. It was a prototype, and never issued, probably because it was a black hole for ammo. There's some photos of this thing clamped to Huey skids, but the 5.56 ammo was too weak for helicopter mount, or for normal machinegun operations, for that matter.

I wonder if it would be possible to randomize the stats...within boundaries or by a small but noticeable amount, within type. That is, maybe the M3 I pick up now is slightly more inherently accurate than the one I already have. Could be justified by the thought that many of the remaining guns have been parted together with not quite matching parts. Might make scavving a bit more interesting.

FO2 had the M3. And it used the one handed sub-machine firing animation of the 10mm. WHich always bugged me a little. I've never fired an M3 myself, but I find it difficult to imagine it could be fired accurately with one hand. Can't fire it accurately with 2 hands either, but you are correct.

We had a fairly large discussion about this on the Beth boards. I'll repeat my argument here. I don't think there would be a problem using generic or fictional religion and religious sects in game, but using real religious sects would be asking for trouble, no matter how positively they are portrayed. It's a PR nightmare risk that need not be taken.

Critical hits can blow the mob into chunks, and these chunks can be found a fair distance away. It's more likely with bloody mess perk.

Or a real doctor skill, like in the originals.

I finished it in around 7 hours to finish it but kinda rushed through it. I'll have to go through it again to see if and how all the different 'endings' of FO3 influence the BS beginning & ending. But really, Bethesda should've put this content in from the very beginning, even if they only started working on BS reacting to customer feedback regarding the ending. What bothers me the most about all of this is the potential for Fallout to be their console franchise, and/or that Beth fully goes console. I suppose I don't mind some consolification, but Broken Steel went too far in terms of perks. I don't know about gameplay yet.

Troika is dead, and they probably would have pulled a BIS: Cancel the Fallout as they go down in flames. As far as these perks, well, they are disappointing, but most of them seem to be designed to allow the console gamers some of the flexibility that PC users have to pay with the game systems. Console commands in the PC version can cover what is done by most of these perks. The Xbox players don't have access to that tool, and console players vastly outnumber us PC players.

Signal to noise ratio is still quite low, it appears. Lets hope for some news. Meanwhile, I'm glad the NMA shocktroops are focusing over here for the moment.

I guess ez mode is better: Hey, no imagination required., and you don't even have to think about what you see. Here is the story, in your face, just like it's TV.

lulz. i hate that argument. i'm sorry, but that is NOT "storytelling." it's atmosphere enhancement and every game should have it regardless of story. it should not appear in lieu of an actual well-planned and written storyline. trying to argue that graphical dumps like that are the story is the laziest bunch of b.s. i've ever heard. That's a cheap shot, and a strawman argument. There are several instances of well executed storytelling in the game, and those little stories makes exploration fun. I guess it's not for everyone.