Slowtrain

I like the Yao Guai. They've got personality. And they are somewhat intimidating early on. More of FO3's enemies could use both.

Press V. Click to select a target click to select a body part click again for second shot click again for a third shot Click accept Watch slow motion animation play Repeat 1 billion times or until end of game VATS makes watching paint peel exciting.

I do, too. But a) it is highly reptitive and b) if one doesn't like the exploration early, then one is not going to suddenly like it later Same here. Though as I approach level 12, I find myself fast travelling with increasing frequency. FO3 seems somewhat front loaded, in the sense that I really haven't seen anything new, other than locations, since about level 8. One problem is that for such a large gameworld it has a pretyy small selection of enemies to fight and most of them are not terribly inspired. I also don't think the weapons and items are terribly interesting. ANother problem is that the world doesn't really change at all. AFter walking the same path between Megaton and Rivet City 10 times, there's not much point in doing it anymore. A little more of a dynamic model to the world would have made the game more interesting. The raiders are probably the most intersting since they still make me laugh with the things they say sometimes. FO3 is still tons better than Oblivion though. Overall.

Exploring doesn't really change or improve, so if you don't like early, I don't see you liking it later. It's really just how much enjoyment you get otu of poking about in all of Bethesda's odd little places. Ultimately its highly reptitive. Combat is simply bad. WHich is too bad because IF the combat had been good, this could have been a really good FPS. AS it is, the combat is too poor to really make it stand out as an FPS, and the game is a terrible CRPG, possibly worse than Oblivion. Have you tried playing the combat without using VATS? VATS is this horrible static boringness that only makes the bad combat worse. At least outside of VATS combat has a little bit of dynamism to it. I'm not going to say that. I'm going to give you a lot of credit for at least giving it a try. As I said before, I am amazed you even bothered.

Taking a break from Fallout 3 to play some Wizardry 8. I don't usually play two games at the same time, but I was getting a little tired of FO3.

Amen. I dont' care what the project is as long as it helps keep them going. If peoplle at Obsidian are happy today, that's good news. Especially after all the Sega crap over the last few months.

I bought a collection of Glen Cook's Dread Empire novels published by Night Shade books. Given how much I love his current work, I thought I'd revisit his older stuff and give it another chance.

BAseball is a subtle game, and I think one has to grow up with it, especially if its a strong baseball franchise. I grew up with the Red Sox and they were a huge part of my life as a kid from about 1975 up through the mid nineties. I don't pay much attentino to sports anymore, but I stil enoy an occasional Red Sox game. COntrary to mkreku's post, baseball IS a pretty mental sport. If you don't know what's going on, it can seem pretty boring. Not saying it is better than other sports, but it's no worse, for sure. And there is alot more physicality to the game than most people think.

If you ever been hit in the genitals by a baseball traveling 150 km/hour, you'll understand why baseball players wear cups.

I've always thought of low fantasy as dealing more with "ordinary" people; mercenaries, thieves, bandits, going about small dark plots in worlds that are generaly low on both magic and grandeur and do not have a clear or imperative sense of moral right and wrong Whereas to me High fantasy is more about kings and the wars of huge kingdoms against monstrous evil with very clealy defined good and bad and lots of magic and swords with names. Its a broad and very generalized distinction of course, and some fantasy, like much of what Michael Moor**** wrote, has elements of both.

That would have worked, I guess. I really hope that the LOST people are seeing this and making their ending satisfying. They don't even need to tie up every little bit, it just has to make sense within the world that they have created. Tgats the problem when you make it up as you go. You end up painting yourself into a corner with no good way out. Its more a problem when you just write things to shock people and then have to figure out how to get out of what you just wrote. What they did to Starbuck was total crap. It comes across as the writers playing with themselves.

permadeath rules.

I personally wouldn't define "good" AI in a computer game as having to be the most like a real soldier. The gameplay of these sorts of things is inherently unrealistic. 1 person against endless hordes firing bullets that don't kill when they should etc. If the AI behaved truly realistically, the player would not only always lose, but most likely never get more than three steps. And If developers wanted to, they could build AIs that would smoke the player instantly, but what would be the fun in that? A good AI, to me, is one that a) makes the game fun and b) doesn't break the suspension of disbelief by doing things that are obviously retarded. And that includes making it not as realistic or as tough as it could be in certain circumstances.

I can only assume you use VATS. Since miniguns rip things apart like there is no tomorrow in realtime combat. Sure you miss some, (all the automatic weapons are hideously inaccurate) but you've got 240 rounds to play with. The single shot weapons certainly have their place, especially the magnum which has a great combo of accuracy, damage, rate of fire, and ammo capacity. But all the automatic small guns are pretty useless. The Chinese assault rifle is so inaccurate that it is only real useful at point blank range, but there it is severely hampered by its 24 round magazine. The regular assault rifle seems to be somewhat more accurate, but does much less damage so there ends up not being much differeence between the two. The submachine gun is the best of the small gun autos: it seems the most accurate and its slightly larger magazine helps, but it is still pretty weak. Again this is all based on my experience with the weapons in RT combat. I've only entered VATS mode a handful of times, so I can't say from personal experience, but based on everything I've read, FO3 combat plays out very differently in VATS vs realtime

I get my repair skill up high pretty early. I'm level 12 now and have had my repair skill around 80 since about level 5 or 6. COmbined with mentats and the utility jumpsuit. I have an effective repair skill of around 97, My bigger problem is finding enough weapons to keep things well repaired. Assault rifles and hunting rifles are no problem since everyone seems to use them. But everything else is hit or miss. Also when it comes to big guns, its pretty hard to keep enough free carry weight so I can carry around all the extra miniguns, rocket launcher, and flamers for repairs. Spares add up pretty quick in terms of carry weight. I have a 10 strength with the strong back perk and I am always right around the 300 unit limit. I'm not a huge fan of the way the repair system was implemented in FO3.

The great thing about the miningun (and gatling laser as well) is that you can spray your damage across multple targets and swing from one to the next without letting the barrel spin down when you play in real time. SIngle shot weapons, while great for plinking away, are somewhat useless in real time since you are either a) getting simultanoeusly attacked by multiple enemies or B) getting charge by a powerful melee fighter. When a death claw targets you, you get one shot while they are closing, then they are right on top of you. SIngle shot weapions are pretty useless there, even the high damage ones. In all honesty though, if I had to play the whole game with only one weapon, it would be the shiskabob. It is without question the best real time combat weapon in the game. At least the best that I have found so far. The super sledge was a huge disappointment.

Big guns ftw. lol

This game is going to be sweet.

Those screens are fab.

Interesting. As much as I prefer 2D IE based games, the FO's always looked like crap to me in screen shots. There's a certain psychological aspect to it, I think. Seeing the original games in a nice high res plus knowing how good the gameplay was just makes Fallout 3 seem even more mediocre. I agree that Fallout never looked great. EVen back when it was first released.

Just looking at those pics makes Fallout 3 seem so weak as a game. I can't believe I even enjoy FO3 really.

There really aren't that many of them though. Outside of Bethesda's ES games and the curent run of NWN2 + xpacks there isn't much in the way of fantasy crpgs. The only other names that spirng to mind are The Witcher and Gothic 3 and those are both pretty niche. edit: I am talking western crpga here; obviously if one includes jrpgs then the number of fantasy rpgs is greater.

I hope its good. I could really use a crpg. High fantasy or low fantasy, romances or not; I don't much care. S

In the real time non-vats, Big Guns are pretty sick. The only real downside is ammo; they tend to burn through a lot and the various Big Gun ammos are not that common. But combined with a good melee weapon to take out minor enemies without wasting ammo, Big Guns really kicks. The mingun really shreds enemies at medium range and with its massive ammo capacity reloading is rarely an issue. The flamer is devestating against charging enemies at close range and when used in conjunction with the dart gun, it is good night for deathclaws and other fast melee atatckers. The missile launcher doesn't pack a ton of damage given its slow rate of fire, but its ability to hit multiple enemies at range is awesome. The gatling laser is just sick. Except for ammo, it is one stop shopping. THe fat man, though powerful, is annoying because its range is so short. I've come close to blowing myself up a few times. Of all the Big Guns it is the one that I never really use. I will say though that one of the best weapons I've found so far is the lowly and simple dart gun. I fell into the sewers by accident in Old Olney and that little dart gun (plus the flamer) saved my life and got me back out in one piece.

I think Big Guns is the way to go. COmbined with melee, Big Guns really rips it up.