Fallout 3

[Pop]

The game gets a bit harder with higher difficulty. Enemies do more damage, so you have to watch your health when fighting super mutants especially.

 

One thing that Fallout 3 improves over both Oblivion and the original Fallouts is the use of traps. They're fairly creative, and mines complicate combat situations nicely.

 

Also, grenades are actually useful!

 

Overall I've been extremely happy with the choices in quests, but I've reached the first quest that I REALLY disliked: Tenpenny Tower.

 

 

Ok, so there is a quest to take care of ghouls who want to move into Tenpenny Tower living in a subway and you get a quest to kill them. Here's the thing, Tenpenny and some of his residents are bigoted jerks against the ghouls, while some of the residents are open minded 'nice' folk and families. Again, the ghouls have a real a$$hole as their leader. He feels entitled to live in Tenpenny and wants to release a pack of feral ghouls on the residents of Tenpenny Towers. Some of those people may deserve to get munched on, but not all of them. Likewise, I feel very sorry for some of Roy the Ghoul's followers.

 

Here is part of the stupidity. Tenpenny is actually willing to let the ghouls live in the tower if you can convince the residents that it would be a good idea, yet you receive positive karma and a finger if you kill Tenpenny. Roy, on the other hand is near dead set on killing everyone yet I receive negative karma for killing him. Lame.

 

Also, if you are thinking why didn't I do it the diplomatic way? Well, if you do get them living together the ghouls end up killing everyone, even the decent families, and dumping their bodies in the sewer over a 'misunderstanding' yet this so called diplomatic method earns you the most rewards and karma.

 

I ended up killing the ghouls. I felt guilty for killing two of them, no guilt for Roy despite negative karma.

 

The game may consider what I did the most 'evil', but I'd prefer to spare a fairly large amount of open minded folks in Tenpenny Tower the horror of being eaten alive or murdered and dumped in the sewer because the game considers offing a few bigots worth the heavy collateral damage of the other open minded individuals.

 

Hated this one!

They read up on the Vault City / Gecko docs, I bet. I'm fairly impressed by the quality of the quests in the game. The Family quest was pretty lame, but there's some pretty nice stuff elsewhere. Nothing New Reno caliber, but nice.

Edited November 8, 2008 by Pop

[Aram]

My favorite part of the game was early on when it still felt like a hunter gatherer survival game instead of a kill everything and save the world game. Searching abandoned shopping centers to scavenge food and drinking from toilets for water--the game almost unintentionally had a gritty, brutal nihilism which I quickly realized wasn't a real part of the game. I went around desperately scrounging supplies and ammo and fending off rats and raiders with the little ammo I had, and for about five minutes I felt like I was actually playing a game version The Road. Then I started throwing away food because I was carrying too much and my personal robot supplied me with purified water on demand. Then it felt less like a wasteland and more like a playground.

 

If the game is easily moddable, I'd like to see a mod where your only mission is to survive, or reach a certain location alive--a sort of post-apocalyptic Survivor Man. You actually have to eat the food you find, drink filthy irradiated water, and find a warm place to sleep to survive. Food and ammo are scarce. Insane cannibals roam the wastes. You can't afford to be charitable. Your only ally is your dog, because he can sniff out food--and if you can't find enough food for you both, you have to kill or abandon the dog. Or you can resort to cannibalism yourself. There could still be quests and moral decisions--ie, do I offer this dying man on the road my last bottle of water, do I try to save this family from these cannibals--but the wasteland actually becomes the game rather than the setting.

[Arkan]

My favorite part of the game was early on when it still felt like a hunter gatherer survival game instead of a kill everything and save the world game. Searching abandoned shopping centers to scavenge food and drinking from toilets for water--the game almost unintentionally had a gritty, brutal nihilism which I quickly realized wasn't a real part of the game. I went around desperately scrounging supplies and ammo and fending off rats and raiders with the little ammo I had, and for about five minutes I felt like I was actually playing a game version The Road. Then I started throwing away food because I was carrying too much and my personal robot supplied me with purified water on demand. Then it felt less like a wasteland and more like a playground.

 

If the game is easily moddable, I'd like to see a mod where your only mission is to survive, or reach a certain location alive--a sort of post-apocalyptic Survivor Man. You actually have to eat the food you find, drink filthy irradiated water, and find a warm place to sleep to survive. Food and ammo are scarce. Insane cannibals roam the wastes. You can't afford to be charitable. Your only ally is your dog, because he can sniff out food--and if you can't find enough food for you both, you have to kill or abandon the dog. Or you can resort to cannibalism yourself. There could still be quests and moral decisions--ie, do I offer this dying man on the road my last bottle of water, do I try to save this family from these cannibals--but the wasteland actually becomes the game rather than the setting.

 

 

I agree that once you reach a certain stage of the game, it feels less like fallout and a bit too much like half-life, but for the most part, it DOES feel like fallout. From the different size settlements, to quirky little "towns" like Andale. From high tech locations to eerie ruins like Dunwich (sp?).

 

It feels dark and gritty, but a little over the top sometimes, like when you wander into a permanent settlement, and there are still skeletons in the beds and bathtubs.

 

 

The problem with the difficulty is that when you turn it up, it also increases the amount of experience you get, which is the opposite of what it should be. You level up way to quickly, I think, given the size and scope of the wastes. That being said, if you follow the main quest out of the gait, you'd probably end up at level 10 or lower, I'd imagine.

[Arkan]

Another thing that probably makes the game too easy in the long run is that you get a perk every level, instead of every 3 levels. If you only got 7 perks throughout the game (not counting the ones you get for quests and such), they would be much more valuable. As it, after level 10 or so, you're just waiting until the next tier of perks open up so you can pick something useful for your character. The rest in between are just filler.

 

Some perks are WAY overpowered, depending on how you play. Comprehension being one of them. On extra point doesn't sound like much, but it effectively DOUBLES the benefit you get from reading books, and given that skills only go up to 100, this is a big deal.

 

Which leads me to question why they didn't make skills go to at least 200, like they did in Fallout, and adjust accordingly...carry-over from Oblivion?

[Pop]

Nay, I did that my first playthrough, and I ended the game at level 16, I think. I basically only completed sidequests that started in Megaton. And that was on Easy.

 

My second playthrough on Medium I'm at level 11 having not advanced through any of the main story at all. I'm going to get rather bored once I hit 20.

[Dark_Raven]

Weapons

 

I find the mini guns worthless compared to the original games. Up close they should be doing hundreds of points of damage but no, we have muties shrugging those bullets off like they were bothersome mosquitos.

 

Weapons with scopes you should be able to go into VATS from a far off distance.

 

The laser rifle should have a scope on it, it is far more effective than the sniper rifle from far off distances. I can hit targets that are nothing but a spec with the laser rifle.

[Aristes]

Playing at Medium and doing a bunch of sidequests still gets you to level 20 before the end. Playing on hard gets you to 20 super fast. I really don't care about game difficulty, though, so it's a non-issue for me. ...But the game is still plenty hard enough of hard in certain fights. I agree that the fps aspect can make it a bit easy since you can dance around people and avoid damage during most of the fights. For my low endurance person wearing combat/ranger armor, it's not like I'm a tank wading through people.

 

If you want the bards to tell stories about your exploits through the ultra tough game of the century, this won't be your chance without some modding. I rarely play games for the challenge anymore though. Even easy, I find Fallout 3 addictive.

 

I agree with aram about enjoying a mod that makes the whole game about saving your own skin rather than the wasteland. ...But I don't think the fact that I could see myself enjoying a game of aram's description as detracting from the current game. I think it's got a great mix of campy humor and gritty wasteland feel. ...And both Fallout 1 and 2 got to the same point where the PC has essentially unlimited funds, ammo, and weapons. Fallout 3 is no different.

 

At least in Fallout 3 we have some incentive to spend a good chunk of caps.

I've bought everything for me home, purchased a theme and then changed three times (I'll probably get bored and finish off the themes altogether just to see the look), and ugraded each of the caravans twice.

 

 

So it's all good. Yeah, it doesn't take itself as seriously as Fallout 1. *shrug* That wasn't an issue for me at the time. Unlike some folks, I played the games in order when they each hit the street and I still think Fallout 2 is probably my fave of the 3.

[Maria Caliban]

Bah! I hate you all. I played at easy, discovered over 39 locations, finished 9 quests, and haven't even reached level 10 yet. I play on normal and die.

[~Di]

... Even easy, I find Fallout 3 addictive.

 

Me too!

 

At least in Fallout 3 we have some incentive to spend a good chunk of caps.

I've bought everything for me home, purchased a theme and then changed three times (I'll probably get bored and finish off the themes altogether just to see the look), and ugraded each of the caravans twice.

 

Huh? I didn't know you could

upgrade caravans. Where are these caravans and how does one upgrade them, please?

 

 

And could someone please tell me where to find a

stealth boy? I've heard I'll need several on my next Wilderness Guide quest, but as yet haven't run across even one.

 

Edited November 9, 2008 by ~Di

[Arkan]

Fun with Fallout 3

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwVDgTxr7fM

 

http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.ph...906130&st=0

[Pop]

re: the second part

stealth boys are... around. I can't give you a specific place to find them. But I remember at some point that they weren't that rare, I had maybe 6 or 7 at one time. The one way I know to get one is by completing the optional mission objective for Moira in Megaton w/ the mirelurks, which requires you plant a bug in the heart of their lair without killing one of them. You can try and sneak, but that's a terrible hassle, so what I did on my second playthrough is went through and killed all the mirelurks before getting assigned the mission (you'll get assigned the mole rat mission first, and the Anchorage Memorial where the mirelurks come from is right next to the Tepid Sewer where the mole rats hang out. Kill two birds with one stone while getting at those mole rats) That way I got all the spoils and XP and was able to plant the bug without actually breaking any objective parameters. Bethsoft products always have these little holes to be exploited.

Edited November 9, 2008 by Pop

[Arkan]

... Even easy, I find Fallout 3 addictive.

 

Me too!

 

At least in Fallout 3 we have some incentive to spend a good chunk of caps.

I've bought everything for me home, purchased a theme and then changed three times (I'll probably get bored and finish off the themes altogether just to see the look), and ugraded each of the caravans twice.

 

Huh? I didn't know you could

upgrade caravans. Where are these caravans and how does one upgrade them, please?

 

 

And could someone please tell me where to find a

stealth boy? I've heard I'll need several on my next Wilderness Guide quest, but as yet haven't run across even one.

 

 

I remember finding one during one of the Wasteland Survival Guide quests. Other than that, I just find them out in the wastes.

[Maria Caliban]

And could someone please tell me where to find a

stealth boy? I've heard I'll need several on my next Wilderness Guide quest, but as yet haven't run across even one.

 

I found one in

Vault 67

. I don't know if loot is random or hand placed in this game though. Moria also sells them to me.

[Gorgon]

I started another game and I plan on seeing it through to the end of the main quest.

 

 

The metro areas are a real hassle, the quest markers don't seem to work. Instead of pointing you in the right direction they tend to mislead you. So far getting around has been trial and error and ignoring the quest markers.

[Maria Caliban]

The real problem is that the local area maps are horrible. They look neat and I imagine that's the sort of image a PipBoy would generate, but they're difficult to work with in multi level mazes.

[Volourn]

FO3 fanboys unite: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=176

[Maria Caliban]

I found the Charisma bobblehead

in the clone lab in Vault 108 to the far northeast

. I can't find the 'log' for that one though.

There's a female dorm. Is there anyway to get into it? I'm wondering if Gary was just one guy who went insane, killed everyone, and cloned himself, or if he was the only one placed in the Vault

.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Found a TON of stealthboys in

The Museum of Technology. Its near many national monuments like the Lincoln Memorial and easy to find if you follow the main story quests a bit.

[crakkie]

FO3 fanboys unite: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=176

The end times approach.

[Maria Caliban]

This is silly. I was halfway to level 10, upped the difficulty, cleaned out one Vault and leveled up. Maybe two of the people in the Vault had guns, the rest were lead pipes, knives, and fists.

[Aristes]

I have found tons of those stealth things. I've even used one once, but I haven't been stealthing so I've sold them. Like all these games, you're filthy stinking rich by the mid game.

 

You just have to be a complete-nic, ~Di. You'll get so many of those Stealth thingies that you'll create your own black market.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Stealthboys are great for pick pocketing. I've run into a few situations where I've wanted to steal a key or some cool weapon off someone, but had a skill level that was too low and the stealthboy helped me greatly.

 

I'm rather pleased with the balance of the game. I've been level 20 for some time now and I run into certain enemies that I still have to be careful about. I also run into the weaker Raiders and I can stomp them into mincemeat.

[Aristes]

I found a new weapon a while back.

Vengeance

It must count as a heavy weapon, unfortunately, since I can't target anything worth a damn. Too bad, though. It looks like an energy weapon.

[Arkan]

Here's a great mod for those who are hitting the level 20 cap too soon

 

Slower Leveling Mod:

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=97

[random n00b]

FO3 fanboys unite: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=176

That's pretty even-handed. I didn't expect such from a 'Codex review. OMG, I'm blinded by prejudice!