Fallout 3

[Gorgon]

Well you won't have a 100 score or a perfect condition weapon until late in the game.

[Slowtrain]

Well you won't have a 100 score or a perfect condition weapon until late in the game.

 

 

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.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Get the mod that increases your carry weight to 999.

 

Mini guns I found basically useless except the gatling laser. All they do is miss the target 75% of the time. Better to use a rifle and get a direct hit.

[Slowtrain]

Get the mod that increases your carry weight to 999.

 

Mini guns I found basically useless except the gatling laser. All they do is miss the target 75% of the time. Better to use a rifle and get a direct hit.

 

 

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

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Huh, found Protectron's Gaze. Its inacurate at short range, as if it wasn't a pistol but a laser shotgun, but other than that it does decent damage. It also uses laser minigun ammo, so I've got plenty of that (around 889).

[Volourn]

"I would be curious to know what you think."

 

Nah, you don't really mean this - espicially if you like the game.

 

Anyways, i was gonna make a new thread with my thoughts on the game; but that would be a waste of time... much like the game.

 

I'll start with the positive: Character creation is fine. The music/radio is cool. The opening sequences are very solid and entices one to play one for the most part (minus the stupid baby crying).

 

Negatives: Graphics are good at bets; but are ruined by the blandness/sameness of everything (and, not just because it is a wasteland). The role-playing is ehh. However, the two things that annoy me the greatest are the combat which is some of the worst combat of all the time... and, the 'exploration' which is just ugh. All it is and running around randomly for more baddies to kill. Gah.

 

I haven't TOTALLY given up; but bah, FO3 early on is HORRIBLE, and since the combat/exploration is the main reason why, I don't see it improving.

 

Yeah, yeah, I know. People are gonna say I have to state these things because I was biased from the getgo. But, oh well. It's my fualt for buying a Bethesda game even if it on discount and a sequel to FO3.

 

This game has such poentital early on but why did they have to ruin a good thing with such crappy combat, and exploration!?!

 

 

R00fles!

[Slowtrain]

I haven't TOTALLY given up; but bah, FO3 early on is HORRIBLE, and since the combat/exploration is the main reason why, I don't see it improving.

 

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.

 

 

 

Yeah, yeah, I know. People are gonna say I have to state these things because I was biased from the getgo. But, oh well. It's my fualt for buying a Bethesda game even if it on discount and a sequel to FO3.

 

 

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.

[alanschu]

I enjoyed the exploration.

 

In Oblivion I used fast travel all the time. In Fallout 3, hardly ever.

[Slowtrain]

I enjoyed the exploration.

 

 

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

 

In Oblivion I used fast travel all the time. In Fallout 3, hardly ever.

 

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.

[CoM_Solaufein]

VATs is the best thing about combat.

[Slowtrain]

VATs is the best thing about combat.

 

 

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.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

VATS has some neat mods, like the

. I really should get this for PC.

[Nightshape]

Nah, you don't really mean this - espicially if you like the game.

 

Actually I do mean it as I remember you saying you had no intention of playing it for some time when it was released, so naturally I'm wanting to see if you think it is actually as bad as you initially thought it would be.

 

Anyways, i was gonna make a new thread with my thoughts on the game; but that would be a waste of time... much like the game.

 

I'll start with the positive: Character creation is fine. The music/radio is cool. The opening sequences are very solid and entices one to play one for the most part (minus the stupid baby crying).

 

Negatives: Graphics are good at bets; but are ruined by the blandness/sameness of everything (and, not just because it is a wasteland). The role-playing is ehh. However, the two things that annoy me the greatest are the combat which is some of the worst combat of all the time... and, the 'exploration' which is just ugh. All it is and running around randomly for more baddies to kill. Gah.

 

I haven't TOTALLY given up; but bah, FO3 early on is HORRIBLE, and since the combat/exploration is the main reason why, I don't see it improving.

 

Yeah, yeah, I know. People are gonna say I have to state these things because I was biased from the getgo. But, oh well. It's my fualt for buying a Bethesda game even if it on discount and a sequel to FO3.

 

This game has such poentital early on but why did they have to ruin a good thing with such crappy combat, and exploration!?!

 

 

R00fles!

 

So you ended up being right for you... Fair enough.

 

I wouldn't outright disagree with you, the visuals are fine, but the animations are a freaking joke, I'm certain that Bethesda must hire trained monkey's to do the animation, it's genuine CRAP work. Some of the texturing is rough on the many environmental objects, it doesn't actually feel like it has the same visual production values as Oblivion. Characters actually look bland also, no real facial animation etc...

 

So much time seems to have been invested in the world itself (they screwed up and actually ended up cutting alot of the world... They made it too big initially). I don't dislike the concept of FO3 being first person, I do think it could have been done better but Bethesda didn't seem to iterate on the correct area's. It's better than Oblivion in some respects, such as a ruleset that works better, worse in others.

 

FO3 does alot of things wrong, but I'm certain that it was successful enough to mean that we'll probably see some more offerings.

[Pidesco]

VATS is not only really awful as an EXTREME gameplay device, but also it effectively breaks the gameplay. It's quite literally a cheat button, and I'm amazed F3 wasn't lambasted for it, even by mainstream reviewers. In fact, I'm really surprised it even passed alpha. It really is a horrible idea, and terribly implemented, at that.

[alanschu]

Heh, I liked VATS, and it never got old for me!

Edited April 6, 2009 by alanschu

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I didn't mind VATS but it does sound like a really stupid concept when you think about it.

[Slowtrain]

Its cool that you guys all like it.

 

For me though, the very static aspect of VATS, just doesn't fit well with a first person action game. I want to be running and shooting and hiding, not standing around paused in some frozen slice of time.

 

The concept of the targeting worked better in FAllout 1 and 2 because it fits better with the more static, deliberate gameplay of the overhead TB combat that those games had.

 

But I give Bethesda credit for giving gamers the option of using it or not. That was cool of them to do, and I wish more games would offer that sort of choice.

[Tigranes]

VATS isn't actually a 'different combat mode' because they don't even fire back or react most of the time. It is, in fact, a glorified Bullet Time move - a 'special ability' that you just get to use quite generously (or not).

 

Obviously it can still be very fun (or not), but I think it's a misconception (maybe hype) to think of VATS as giving FO3 two 'combat modes'. That's like calling the gravity gun a mode.

 

Coming from that perspective, I don't have an issue with VATS being in a FPS game - Max Payne, after all. It's just the decision to make slow-motion death unskippable (it's not actually a 'bad' decision, because so many people love it, which makes me more depressed) and the fact that enemies stand around and hardly react that makes it a broken system.

[Gorgon]

They should have made it so action points for use in VATs took much longer to regenerate. That way you would be fighting real time most of the time, and VATs would be like a strategic aimed shot you could pull out of your arse one or two times in an average encounter.

 

All bullet time all the time gets old pretty fast. It's a strange relic from turn based combat, only they decided to skip enemy turns altogether.

Edited April 6, 2009 by Gorgon

[Slowtrain]

VATS isn't actually a 'different combat mode' because they don't even fire back or react most of the time. It is, in fact, a glorified Bullet Time move - a 'special ability' that you just get to use quite generously (or not).

 

Obviously it can still be very fun (or not), but I think it's a misconception (maybe hype) to think of VATS as giving FO3 two 'combat modes'. That's like calling the gravity gun a mode.

 

Coming from that perspective, I don't have an issue with VATS being in a FPS game - Max Payne, after all. It's just the decision to make slow-motion death unskippable (it's not actually a 'bad' decision, because so many people love it, which makes me more depressed) and the fact that enemies stand around and hardly react that makes it a broken system.

 

 

That's an interesting point. I had never thought of it that way. Maybe making it more of a special use ability that can be built up the course of gameplay and making it perhaps more powerful and interesting, but only able to be used for very short periods of time at widely spaced intervals would make it work better.