Review Edward R Murrow's Dissertation on Fallout 3

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Fallout 3

What, just one review for the most widely anticipated Codex game in years? Not bloodly likely. Here now, gentle readers, is <a href="http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=178">Edward R Murrow's Critical Dissertation on Fallout 3: Islands of Good Awash in a Sea of Mediocre, Time-Wasting Drivel</a>:<blockquote>Generally, it was pretty much what I suspected it would be, with a few pleasant surprises, and a few "How could they be that thick?" moments. It's a Bethesda game through and through, with all of their trademark flaws and few of Fallout's strengths preserved. Fallout 3 basically plays much like a post-apocalyptic Oblivion with guns and a few tweaks, despite what some might say. Bethesda did not stray far from their formula, for better or for worse. It does some things right, and it does a whole heap-load of things wrong. I wasn't exactly pleased with it, but it could have been a lot worse.</blockquote>How could it have been worse? <a href="http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=178">Read on</a>...

 

[DefJam101]

 

[jiujitsu]

Good review. You focused mostly on the negatives, but it isn't as if you said anything that was untrue. I agree with this review for the most part. I probably enjoy playing more than you do, though.

 

[Longshanks]

You seem to have had a similar experience with the game as I did. I found little to enjoy in it. The lack of consequences, both in quests and in stat selection was a big letdown. It seems to me that they picked up Fallout-style quest design from the originals and Van Buren's design docs, lifting the quality from their previous titles, but could not bring themselves to include the consequences. It's as if as if they were unsure if their audience would go for it, especially as it runs exactly counter to the design of Morrowind and Oblivion. Some of the quests may be structurally quite sound (aside from the consequences), but I'm unable to separate that from the poor to average writing, some sheer silliiness in setup and the over-abundance of combat.

If we stick to comparing it to open-world sandbox RPGs, I could see how some would consider it good, as there are relatively few around, though it's still inferior to Gothic and I believe Morrowind (due to being so badly disjointed). Compare it to other fairly recent RPGs, and it does not fare so well - Mass Effect is a better story-driven RPG than FO3 is a sandbox RPG, as is KOTOR 2, The Witcher is just hands-down a better RPG (still a game I'd only rate as good) as is NWN2: MOTB and Vampire: Bloodlines. GTA IV is an infintely more polished open-world game, with far better writing, and a hell of a lot more fun. Given the lack of RPG releases, that puts Fallout 3 quite a way down in the pantheon, add some older games and it struggles to reach mediocre.

Review could have done with some segmentation.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Very nice write up and logical deconstruction of Fallout 3. I agree that some segmentation, like "Chapters" with titles and such may have been helpful, since it is a pretty good sized wall o' text.

 

[Tintin]

Did Section8 write one (as was said previously)?

 

[bezimek]

Very good review.

 

[Shannow]

Haven't come further than this in the review, but I just had to comment on this. How long has it been since you played FO?

Later, I decided to give the sequel Fallout 2 a go, as I figured it should be pretty good. In the end, I was satisfied, but in the beginning I was pretty doubtful, seeing as the first few locations are terribly done, and your character has little to no freedom in how to do things (at least compared to the first) until you hit the Den. Fallout 2 was definitely rushed, and lost a lot of Fallout's polish and care. It was still fun as can be, just not as great. Later I found out it was an entirely different group leading the team, and it definitely showed.

Because I thought similar to you just that I always liked FO2 better. Now I just finished FO yesterday and have to say it is exactly the other way around. FO felt really unpolished. Before you cry "Blasphemy!" I suggest a replay. It is fun and only took me 3 days although I had much to do and didn't spend much time playing.

EDIT:

On Stealth: Stealth kills are possible. 80% of all head shots in stealth mode (critical hit + sneak crit?) will kill the target enemy. The 20% failure chance comes from enemies with lots of health, e.g. SM Masters, and with difficulty of always hitting the head. But you are right with close-up kills.

Intelligence: 40 additional skill points, plus minor skill ups and the most dialogue checks

What do you mean here? I had 10 Int (always take it) and that gives 20 SP per level.

You...liked...Andale?!? The same Andale where

Spoiler

:The inhabitants were obviously Cannibals. Where the boy is disturbed by having to marry a relative although nobody ever tought him the immorality of incest. Where the boy tells you you are his hero after killing his parents. Where you get positive Karma for killing the parents whether they were hostile or not but negative karma for breaking into the shed/basement?[

That Andale?!? Not to mention the bad dialogue after leaving the shed.

I like the review, but you focus a little much on the negative and fail to explain much of the positive (which you say is there). I'm exactly the same. I don't have any fun with exploration and combat, anymore. Combat started off ok and became boring, very fast. Exploration started off good and became boring, slowly. Now I really dislike both, but for the first 10-20 hours I had fun with them (dispite all the criticism I had from the start). Might you have had a similar experience/development?

 

[Chefe]

Excellent review. It highlighed the good parts and adjusted their actual impact with the bad parts.

The SPECIAL section was a little under developed. Those of us who have played Fallout 3 can read between the lines here and already know the disadvantages of everything, but if you haven't, it's not obvious why INT is leaps and bounds better.

Strength: 10 points of additional carrying capacity per point on top of the base 150 plus some melee damage.
-10 points per point? You mention ammo weight being a non issue, but what about the other things? How much melee damage are we talking about?
Perception: Better radar and minor skill ups
-Is radar important? What skill ups, and how significant?
Endurance: More HP and more rad resistance, plus minor skill ups
-Is rad resistance a problem? Is HP a problem? You mention later on that HP is not a problem for enemies, but does high END help your health significantly? It helped your HP and resists in the original Fallout, but both ended up being useless. I never put mine above 2 or 3.
Charisma: A scant few checks and minor skill ups (the dump stat)
-How scant? Have you tested to see if it does anything small, such as the ability to recruit certain followers or increase NPC dispositions? Do NPCs even have dispositions? (again, I'm talking as someone who hasn't played FO3 would)
Intelligence: 40 additional skill points, plus minor skill ups and the most dialogue checks
-As mentioned, this isn't obviously better in light of the rest of the list. 40 additional skill points in the original Fallout wasn't anything to laugh at, but it wasn't that amazing either. It had quite a few dialog choices behind it, but mentats were easily purchased and could give you the same effect. What's the case in FO3?
Agility: minor increase in action points (65 plus 2 times agility) plus minor skill ups
-65 action points? Holy hell! The original only gave you a max of 10. How much AP is required for attacks? Is this pointless, because 65 plus 2 times agility seems very significant.
Luck: critical chance goes up and minor skill ups
-How much? Does crit matter? You keep mentioning the skill ups, but don't explain what they are.

That's just nitpicking though, because this is the Codex and I'm obligated to say something negative and critical. It's much better than some other reviewers that only played the game for around ten hours, didn't complete the main quest, and were overwhelmed by hype and fanboyism, then tried to make excuses when people called him out on it... *cough*

 

[bozia2012]

Where's skyway?

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPaD28tL ... re=related he put so much pressure on his back that the head exploded

EDIT2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jGPNs3sPA8&NR=1 LOL

EDIT3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaVYxlpZI9A&NR=1 i'm speechless

EDIT4: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/user ... 87679.html OH GOD ITS HEAVAN

 

[Volourn]

FO2 > FO1

 

[bozia2012]

FO2 > FO1

As true as D2 > D1

 

[bozia2012]

very true then.

Check that Chuck Norris vid - oh god I want to play this game so badly.

What's with that Opeth quote in your sig?

 

[inwoker]

Wut? No pics in review? Are you insane?

 

[Elwro]

Post your method of taking screenshots on an Xbox, then.

 

[spectre]

A mobile phone camera? :-P

Nice review overall. I only wish that my personal fetish of atrocious interface was adressed more, but you played it on the xbawks so I guess that's forgivable.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Post your method of taking screenshots on an Xbox, then.

edit: goddamn ninjas.

 

[Elwro]

Yeah, I'm sure such screenshots would be fantastic and way better than any screenshots you can find on google images or in any other review of the game.

 

[Tintin]

On a side note, the Codex content pages are very poorly designed and annoying to read. Start by having an indent between the sides of the bar and the text.

 

[Claw]

[Editor's Note: Edward assures us that nothing was physically removed from an inventory]

Wait, what is the "editor" really trying to say here? I'm pretty sure I know what "nothing was physically removed from an inventory" means and it strikes me as odd that he would want to assure us that this is what occurred.

Intelligence: 40 additional skill points, plus minor skill ups and the most dialogue checks

What, 40? According to VD's review, you get 10+INT skill points at level up, so where does 40 come from? Or is that a special bonus during creation?

Agility: minor increase in action points (65 plus 2 times agility) plus minor skill ups
-65 action points? Holy hell! The original only gave you a max of 10. How much AP is required for attacks? Is this pointless, because 65 plus 2 times agility seems very significant.

What? Do you mean the difference between 75 AP at the "average" Ag of 5 and 85 AP at 10 Ag seems very significant?
I feel the problem with stats, especially Strength and Agility, should be pretty obvious based on the formulas. Instead of an important value like AP being determined to a large degree by a stat, it's primarily based on a static value. In Fallout, you could almost double your AP by maximizing Agility. Strength had an even greater impact on carrying capacity. In FO3, these dynamic elements are dwarfed by a large buffer.

You keep mentioning the skill ups, but don't explain what they are.

He probably didn't think an explanation was necessary. I didn't feel like I needed one. He did point out that you can max several skills relatively fast, so that implies that any skill up you recieve at the beginning would not be very significant.

 

[Ion Flux]

EDIT4: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/user ... 87679.html OH GOD ITS HEAVAN

Chuck Norris bitchslap decapitations for teh win.

It seems like player made videos making fun of Bethesda games are the most fun thing about their games. Which is great for me since I have to neither buy, nor play the games. Perfect.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

[Editor's Note: Edward assures us that nothing was physically removed from an inventory]

Wait, what is the "editor" really trying to say here?

That Edward didn't pirate his copy because quite surprisingly, that sentence works in the literal¹ sense too.

¹or non-literal, depending on how you look at it.

 

[The Rambling Sage]

[Editor's Note: Edward assures us that nothing was physically removed from an inventory]

Wait, what is the "editor" really trying to say here?

That Edward didn't pirate his copy because quite surprisingly, that sentence works in the literal¹ sense too.

¹or non-literal, depending on how you look at it.

Only if he is one of those african pirates or something :wink:

 

[DarkUnderlord]

It depends on how you view the sentence. That meme started as an excuse used to indicate pirates (people who stole) "weren't stealing". I've used it in the same way, as a euphemism for stealing by saying nothing was stolen. "It's okay, Edward assues us that nothing was stolen".

For example, if you borrow it from a friend who rented it (not saying that's what Edward did but as an example), then technically nothing is being physically taken from inventory either. Given the copy has already left the inventory of a store, it's already been removed, meaning it can't be removed again until it's replaced when it's returned. Unless you're talking about the friend's inventory but generally their game collection isn't viewed as an inventory.

It's quite a complex situation which probably deserves more discussion.

 

[DefJam101]

Yes but when your friend rented the game from the store, he transferred the game into his own inventory, albeit temporarily. In order for your friend to have lent you said product, it would have to enter your own inventory. Thus, you have removed the game from an inventory.

The only exception to this would be if you both played the game together at his own place of residence. As he would control the flow of play (he could kick you out of his house at any time and shut off the Xbox) he therefore retains control of of the game, and the game stays within his own personal inventory.