Review Chefe does Fallout 3

[SuicideBunny]

hm, while well written, that review is missing a lot of stuff, most noticeably anything about the karma system.

I consider it a worthwhile investment if discovery is your thing and you’re willing to take a break from the high fantasy worlds and high-tech sci-fi environs that populate most of today’s industry.

the problem with discovery and exploration in fallout 3 is that it gets really boring rather fast, and is somewhat broken. with the exception of main quest and the few "special encounter" locations, most of the time it doesn't matter whether you explore a nuka cola plant, car factory, robot factory, nuclear warhead storage of a fort, or a power plant, because they all look the same, and you probably won't be able to find anything unique in them (unless you visit them after triggering some quest branch that explicitly states that you will find something there. there are a few exceptions though).

overall the game would have felt better in terms of exploring and atmosphere if they cut half or even two thirds of the locations, concentrating more on the remaining ones.

 

[Amateur]

The choices are much better then Oblivion but other than that this game completely follows
Oblivion instead of Fallout Series.

Fast travel takes away a huge aspect of the original series where you choose your path and spend days on the road travelling. Here, there is a small city where you can walk from one end to the other in less then a day (a day in terms of game timescale).

And the choices though being much better then oblivion it is still far inferior to FO series.

And when you get a sequel 10 years later you expect some improvements while other then Graphics the game is only inferior to the previous series.

Nice review Chefe, but I don't agree that this is a Post Nuclear Role Playing game.

I think I'll post my opinions too after I finish the game...

 

[Severian Silk]

Interesting. So, you can gain more experience if you slept well the night before? That's actually a pretty clever way of handling resting (as well as XP for dreaming).

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Forgot to mention, another welcome change is the removal of level scaling.

If you go out walking in the wastes at level 1, you're gonna die fast. Especially if a giant radscorpian, supermutant or yao guai gets you. Similarly, when you're level 20, there are still plenty of bloatflies and radroaches hanging around.

 

[Hory]

Gotta appreciate Chefe for moving up from spamming ":DeclineOfTheCodex:" to declining the Codex.

 

[sqeecoo]

Didn't like the review. Too many abrupt changes of subject and strange transitions and sentences (like the bee thing). I didn't get a clear picture of the game either - examples from the game and specific comparisons to other games would have been good. No mention of several important things (character creation, main story).

The last sentence did not mesh well with the tone of the rest of the review.

 

[BethesdaLove]

It felt like "forced academic style"... -> gay

 

[Helton]

Oblivion > NWN2OC > ME > F3(?) > Heaps of other shit > F3(?) > NWN2MOTB > Fallout, PST, etc.

Allie the Alligator always wants to eat the greater amount of fish.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Nice try Chefe, but I won't be fooled again. This is either a joke or you're so desperate that you're clinging to the literal straw. Everyone can see from the screenshots/videos that this is at best a slightly above average console game.

I'm playing a racing sim (rFactor with the '77 Le Mans mod) at the moment, and I have time to wait and see what happens here. I bet all the people here who bought F3 will have realized their mistake in a few weeks. And Bethesda will laugh about you, it will make the earth shake.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Everyone can see from the screenshots/videos that this is at best a slightly above average console game.

Is that what everyone says?

 

[DefJam101]

Oblivion > NWN2OC > ME > F3(?) > Heaps of other shit > F3(?) > NWN2MOTB > Fallout, PST, etc.

Fucked up your signs. As in, they're backwards.

Was waiting to see if anyone noticed.

Not sure what I was thinking. I was trying to use the arrow as some sort of a 'progression' and forgot it meant greater than.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Oblivion > NWN2OC > ME > F3(?) > Heaps of other shit > F3(?) > NWN2MOTB > Fallout, PST, etc.

Fucked up your signs. As in, they're backwards.

Was waiting to see if anyone noticed.

Not sure what I was thinking. I was trying to use the arrow as some sort of a 'progression' and forgot it meant greater than.

It's because you're black.

 

[dagorkan]

Nice try Chefe, but I won't be fooled again. This is either a joke or you're so desperate that you're clinging to the literal straw. Everyone can see from the screenshots/videos that this is at best a slightly above average console game.

Everyone can see from your posts that at best you're an idiot.

 

[Burning Bridges]

not this shit again

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

sheek is right tho'

 

[HanoverF]

I consider it a worthwhile investment if discovery is your thing and you’re willing to take a break from the high fantasy worlds and high-tech sci-fi environs that populate most of today’s industry.

I have to dispute this, at least in my playthroughs. While there are a great number of places to discover, they almost all go no where. Even when they have a quest or something thanks to the final kick in the balls that is the ending (or lack of one) the side quests are pretty meaningless too, which is either a great nihilistic statement, or the sign of an utter shit game. Like the vaults you don't have to go to with the hallucinations or clones (omg spoilerz) maybe you get a few bottlecaps or ammo, but that's it, just a pointless nonsensical diversion. Way to take the shittiest idea from Fallout 2 and run with it like a chicken with its head cut off, Beth. In other places you'll find some safe (or area) that hasn't been opened in who knows how long and you'll find pre-war money and books... and lots of jet. Some locations have some good buildup, but no payoff (wow a ghoulified raider and a radioactive obelisk... chilling)

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Yeah, that's my main problem as well. I guess it makes sense, but it provides no incentive to explore. There was even once place, some office building, where there was a door that required a key to open... I went down into the basement, got the building key from a super mutant master, went back up, opened the room, and found... some pre-war money, scrap metal, a paint gun and an ammunition box.

 

[Futile Rhetoric]

Yeah, that's my main problem as well. I guess it makes sense, but it provides no incentive to explore. There was even once place, some office building, where there was a door that required a key to open... I went down into the basement, got the building key from a super mutant master, went back up, opened the room, and found... some pre-war money, scrap metal, a paint gun and an ammunition box.

Procedurally generated loot is the best, like all the ammo and stimpacks in random mail boxes.

 

[elander_]

This is why i dslike static sandboxes like Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3. Give Fallout or Daggerfall with a world map and random/special encounters. Exploration by map scanning which is what we do in recent Bethesda game is boring like hell.

It's much better to have a location marked in your map through a quest or as a reward for having a good dialog skill and being able to get that info from an npc. This kind of exploration is also more believable. To know the location of the military base in Fallout 2, for example, i have to join a certain faction in New Reno and get on the good side of their leader. Otherwise i will never get to know the location of that place.

In later Bethesda games you walk around in a place the size of a park until and bump into unexplored places full of loot. It ruins immersion much more than having world map with big map locations.

 

[poocolator]

Oblivion > NWN2OC > ME > F3(?) > Heaps of other shit > F3(?) > NWN2MOTB > Fallout, PST, etc.

Fucked up your signs. As in, they're backwards.

I almost choked on some vomit when I saw that list... Fallout & PS:T at the fucking end? No way! Then I realized they're backwards. That douche. Unless of course he does think Oblivion is the second coming....

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

ayeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Longshanks]

Forgot to mention, another welcome change is the removal of level scaling.

If you go out walking in the wastes at level 1, you're gonna die fast. Especially if a giant radscorpian, supermutant or yao guai gets you. Similarly, when you're level 20, there are still plenty of bloatflies and radroaches hanging around.

It's not removed, jsut different. It is improved, but still has a few quirks.

 

[Jamshh]

Playing skirmish with a Deathclaw is rather fun.

i.e. Set up a bottle-cap mine, flank that with some frag mines for good measure, run forth and tease with a few .32 rounds, retreat and +50.

 

[Darkness40k]

Its not really that I disagree with the review. But its shortness, lack of detail, and the way it picks the game apart only to call it great at the end...?

What choices and consquences are there? Past the power of the atom quest, nothing you do matters. Sure you can be a slaver or kill them all in the main quest... Thats all I can think of.

Even the megaton quest is poor. Choice is: Room in Ten penny, or room in Megaton. First time through I destroyed megaton, because I kinda fancied living in tenpenny. Cool you go down to most hated person in the world. Before I'd found my father I'd got my karma back to last best hope (or close) and 2 dog was singing my praises on the raido. Even though every second news announcement was about me destroying megaton.

Afraid megaton just shows to me the complete lack of choice in the rest of the game.

And the speech skill checks SUCK. As does Black Widow, and Child at heart. These 3 do one thing, SHORTEN quests. You can solve the megaton quest by missing out on a large part of it, you can get into littletown thingie without having to go to the slavers, you can get the info from 3 dog without having to repait his dish... missing out on CONTENT. Whats the point on a skill that removes the game?

And the auto leveling is gone? Has the author played the game past level 15? Because once you hit 20 the damn waste is full of those annoying Gaint Rad Scorps that take 100 bullets to kill and punch through power armour like paper. Even 4 shots with 100 energy weapons from a named plasma rifle in vats gets 50% health or something... those were not in the waste land before level 18 ish. The most noticeable indicator of the level up system are the super mutants. Brutes quickly become the normal mutants you see, and the normal ones all but vanish.

Suppose my biggest complaint about F3 was the lack of towns, it was pretty much just Megaton, rivet and underworld. There were a couple of others, Afeu, big town, little thingie town, and the one with the cannibals. But they were basically one street, and about 10 minutes of dialogue. When I think back to FO1, and then to the huge amount of locations in FO2. Well... I feel like the game could have done with 2 more large settlements.

Anyway... ranting about nothing. I posted, and I've been silently lurking here for years. I posted for the first time in years to express my shock at this review. Its just not the detail that this game deserved. Good or bad, its the return of Fallout, the review should be epic.

For a review that I feel hits the spot more than this, see:

http://www.giantbomb.com/fallout-3/61-20504/reviews/

This review is slightly better than the one posted, which pretty much highlights my disppointment that this is how the codex represents itself. Sorry chefe, no offense, I know you probably worked hard to write this. Its really the "staff" of the site that should have picked up on this.

*Goes back to lurking for another 5 years*

 

[Chefe]

A puzzle

tuollaftluaviregnar
dlorahmabmobraelcun
onerwenohcytehtstav
hcaordarretsamluohg
foyobpipnaigmsidnat
tnatumeritashsedara