Slowtrain

Maybe its just something you get used to. Everytime I try AA it just looks like I'm trying to play a game with a thin leayer of petroleum jelly smeared across the monitor screen. TO me, it makes more sense just to crank up the resolution.

Hitman wasn't horrible. It was just forgettably bad. Horrible should be reserved for those very rare movies that manage to be completely wretched. Like Waterworld. Or 300.

AA just makes things look blurry. I guess some people prefer blur to jaggies. But I prefer crisp lines even if it means jaggies.

I applaud the lack of muddy browns and greens. Yay for pastels!

Arcanum is fab. Its buggy and has some balance issues as far as tech vs magick and melee vs ranged. Not so good animations. But overall its a very solid crpg. There aren't many better actually.

Its interestinng how Bethesda does almost everything wrong in their crpgs, except they don't do romances. It's like the one saving grace.

How come alien female human/human thingies aren't fat with acne?

I have little doubt that Bioware runs every bit of promo material through some sort of cool-o-meter to make sure it hits in the red before it goes out. But, eh, they make decent games, so no biggie.

It's not worth the money. I'm not opposed to the business model per se, although it doesn't strike me personally as a particularly enjoyable way to play a game, but I'll just purchase all the content when it comes out collected onto one dvd at the store. A gold edition of the game or whatever.

Better to give it a shot and see what happens. At current rate sof consumption there won't be much left of the planet in a few years. Not such a big deal for people who are adults now, but for babaies just being born and stuff, its a pretty bleak ecological future.

brewwwtal legend

Once I hit level 5 or so, things became a lot less interesting. Hmm... that must have come pretty quick then. Leave Vault 101 -> level 2. Clear out Springvale School -> level 3. Enter Megaton, do first chapter of Moira's quests -> level 4. I used a mod that cut combat XP way back and increased the amount of XP required for each subsequent level. It actually took a decent amount of time to hit level 5. I can't imagine anyone playing this game without an XP mod to slow leveling. I still found levels 5-10 interesting enough, but I found I tended to grow board after level 10. That's what happens your character is a walking god.

I much prefered the early game as well. Mostly becasue every little scavenged item was important and becasue there was at least some real threat in the world. Once I hit level 5 or so, things became a lot less interesting. I tend in general to prefer low levels in cprgs, mostly because the uberness just gets out of control at higher levels. I know that some people do prefer the uber epic levels of games, so its just a matter of what interests you I guess.

I thought the unique weapons were a nice addition and worked well. If the standard combat armor hadn't been repairable with Talon Combat armor, it would have made wearing combat armor much more difficult. So that was a good thing.

I too used the Raider Badland armor a lot as well. It was light, easy to find, repairable by all raider armors, and looked the best of all the armors in the game. So generally I would still be wearing it at upper levels, especailly since I tended to rely on hitpoints and stimpacks rather than armor to see me through the tougher fights. edit: Otoh I never used either the recon armor and/or metal armor. It was so rare and fell apart so fast there was no point. AT least so it seemed to me.

Yes, but don't hesitate to freestyle that into related topics. I'm just curious. I think I would probably agree with mkreku and Lyr and others that more weapons with less variablity to their damage is preferable. However, that's partly due to the fact that I don't see repairing gear as being that important to the Fallout (or any other crpg experience) so I would prefer degradation and repair having as little effect as possible. However, I would hasten to add that I don't think lots of weapons should be added just to have lots of weapons. Putting in a bunch of weapons that are virtually indistingushable from each other, save an extra bit of damage or a different caliber ammo, seems to me to be a waste of valuable dev time. I think a smallish number of carefully considered weapons, each of which is very distinct both visually and functionally from one another is highly preferable. Fallout 3, I felt, had too many weapons that were either useless right from the start, very quickly obsolete, or just reptitive. Obviously the chinese pistol and .32 pistol really shouldn't even be in the game (as currently balanced). The assault rifle and the 10mm pistol and to some degree the laser pistol (its use of the small energy cell as ammo gives it some value) go obsolete so fast that it seems almost a waste to spend time balacing them and putting them in the game. The Chinese Assault Rifle and the assault rifle were too similar as well. Really the game only needs one of them. The assault rifle could have been left out without anyone noticing. I like mkreku's idea of using mods and upgrades to enhance a weapon (or armor even) and give it a personality as the game develops, but I don't know if that sort of thing is supported in the engine design. I mentioned it before but the way the attachment system worked in Crysis was pretty interesting without being horribly complex or clunky. Deus Ex also did the same sort of thing, by presenting the player with most of the base weapons early in the game but adding the opportunity to modify the weapon as the game progressed. Bioshock did sort of the same thing in a lesser way with its upgrade stations. I think its a nice way to allow the player to develop a weapon(s) they find intersting and fun to use in a way that fits their playstyle. On a completely somewhat unrelated note I'd like to talk about armor vs health balance: When playing Fallout 3, I would often find myself taking OFF my armor prior to a big fight or a melee encounter with a deathclaw or Yao Guai because it was easier to deal with hitpoint damage than it was with armor damage. When you combine the facts that A)armor deteriorates so rapidly (a single melee fight with a deathclaw can wipe out a full health combat armor) B)armor is heavy and hard to carry around in multiple sets and C) armor doesn't actually provide that much protection and D) stimpacks are weightless and easily available, it made much more sense to fight in my underwear rather than in armor. The fact that I could even do that let aloine do that and be better off is to me a major problem with the game balance between armor and hitpoints.

They don't cost much so my guess is lots. IIRC though they have been turning less of a profit with each new entry. However, they still gross way more than they cost to make.

One of the best things about digital distribution is the potential to knock retailers out of the loop. Here in the states anyway, big retail chains have a huge amount of indirect control over what kinds of games are made or published, since if they refuse to carry it (for whatever reason) that's a huge loss in sales, one that most publishers and developers can't afford.

It becomes even less noticable when the weapon skill is taken into account as well. For example: if your current small guns skill gives you only 40% of a weapon's total efficiency, then any apparent gains from the repair skill will be reduced by 60%. So it will only be at 100% skill in small guns that you will see the full effect of the the gains provided by the repair. Which make it even more difficult to see the benefit. Especially for people like me who play most of the game with their weapon skills at 50% or less.

Are you asking if we'd like to see a smaller number of total weapons in the game but have their damage increase (and decrease) dramatically depending on condition vs having a large number of weapons in game but having their damage not change all that much depending on condition?

I wouldn't be opposed to removing the player repair skill and having all repair having to be done by an NPC. Similar to STALKER:CS. Weapon degradation rates would have to be slowed significantly however so that you wouldn't have to keep running back to an NPC for weapon and armor repair after every battle. Another option would be to have better classes of weapons that degrade at a slower rate. Those would definitely be worth finding. Regardless, I think, as this thread has shown, there are many possible changes to the weapon and armor repair mechanics of Fallout 3 that are both more interesting AND less annoying. Which is kind of a win/win.

@mkreku: That sounds like a great idea. I'm all for armor and weapon repair if it can be done without a great deal of tediousness and manage to add variety to the game. For a long time I thought SS2 had fastest degrading weapons in a game. Then I played Fallout 3.

There are Yao Guai & Deathclaws at level 1 in the western part of the map. I don't think there's level scaling, only area scaling. There are a small number of areas that have high level enemies regardless of level, but most of the world is level scaled. It IS much more well done than Oblivion, however. I would just like to see them go the rest of the way and eliminate it all together. There's nothing good that can be said about level scaling.

I missed last weeks episode. I think I'm done with the show.

It's all very super sekret. You can understand why. VATS, shotguns, deathclaws, Vegas: It just might change the world.