Fallout 3 - Codex Opinions Thread

[JarlFrank]

Actually I like the game up to now. It's definitely better than Oblivion. Okay, I did like Oblivion in the beginning until it began to show its level-scaled flaws, but Fallout 3 leaves a generally more favourable impression than Oblivion. There are dialogues instead of just using keywords, which is a lot better, and the voice-acting sounds better than in Oblivion. But somehow it seems that the graphics are looking worse than in Oblivion. Especially character models. Hands are too big, feet are to small and horribly modelled [looked waaaayyyy better in Oblivion], but the faces are a lot better. And somehow every male has a beard, probably to show that Bethesda now *can* make beards [as they argumented "WE CAN'T MAKE BEARDS THEY INTERFERE WITH LIP SYNC" in Oblivion]. Well, at least the faces look kinda good this time, and the beards too.
What I don't like is that there are only two armor slots: head and torso+legs. I hope they're not keeping this for their next Elder Scrolls game. Also, the "Intelligence" dialogue options are stupid. When you have high int, you get some additional dialog choices, but... most of those are damn fucking obvious, you should be able to get those options with low intelligence, too. And, basically, some of the dialogues are pretty retarded. Still better than anything Oblivion did.
Combat actually is quite fun, at least when you use VATS. Shooting without VATS is horrible. And melee combat is even more horrible. Really, really horrible. As in, totally unresponsive and awkward.
Quest design is a mixed bag. Some quests are cool, others are retarded, others are both cool *and* retarded like the quest with the fire ants. When that professor starts blabbering pseudo-scientific crap you get the urge to slap the guy who wrote his dialogue lines. It's an insult to everyone who knows anything about basic biology. The fuck.

All in all, it's a rather enjoyable game, even though combat is clumsy and some of the dialogue is FUCKING RETARDED. Scratch that, not some of the dialogue, most of the dialogue. Also, massive overuse of swearwords where they're not needed. Bethesda probably wanted to seem cool or something by doing that.

 

[Drakron]

What I don't like is that there are only two armor slots: head and torso+legs.

Fallout 1+2+T only had one armor slot, armor ... that was it.

 

[Quilty]

I still wish jimbob would do an LP.

 

[Heresiarch]

Anyone here like me getting the Hellgate London vibes when walking through the building ruins?

And I agree someone mentioned before, the gore decoration in raider bases is ridiculous. Are they cannibals or zombies or something? This is not Dead Space for god sake. And even your own house's raider theme will give you mutilated corpses hanging and lying everywhere.

One thing I really like in the game though is the "mystery" behind the Minefield.

 

[S_Verner]

Guys, I must have been gone for a while, I mean, VD isn't a fucking mod?

Which fucking asshole is responsible for that, how did he pull that off, why the fuck did VD not void some fucking drives and finish it once and for all?

 

[vrok]

Since he started enjoying Fallout 3 despite it being a terrible non-Fallout game. True story, I swear.

 

[S_Verner]

Since he started enjoying Fallout 3 despite it being a terrible non-Fallout game. True story, I swear.

You have to be fucking with me.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Vault Dweller suddenly declared that he was prejudiced against all races, including south americans, so The Management sacked him. He runs his own little nazi schoolyard at Iron Tower now. Go tell him he's a jerk for choosing the diplomatic option regarding Fallout 3. Never forget, Vault Dweller. Never forget.

As previously noted, the design of this game is *bloody* ridiculous. Everything is so way, way over the top, bordering on "so bad it's good." These people seem to think this is what a game meant for grown-ups is supposed to be like, but the only people that can possibly like this crap are twelve year olds. Or morons.

 

[Helton]

These people seem to think this is what a game meant for grown-ups is supposed to be like, but the only people that can possibly like this crap are twelve year olds. Or morons.

I take it you're having a blast?

 

[Andyman Messiah]

These people seem to think this is what a game meant for grown-ups is supposed to be like, but the only people that can possibly like this crap are twelve year olds. Or morons.

I take it you're having a blast?

Over your mother's face? Absolutely.

 

[DefJam101]

ohhh burn

 

[Andyman Messiah]

BOOM SHAKALAKA!

 

[A user named cat]

 

[Claw]

Re: Impressions plus a Question

A Question:
So, I sided against the geezers who want to blow up megaton. This resulted in the Sheriff and I confronting the sleazy suit guy and a fight ensues.
The Sheriff gets his ass capped but I still managed to kill the suit guy.
A big message says I've fucked my chances of blowing up Megaton (I presumed that would be the case), but what are the repercussions of having the Sheriff killed?
Have I cut off some quests there as well?
Have I removed my chance of getting a Megaton dwelling?

I understand the Sheriff is the opposite of Mr. Burke, giving you the quest to disarm the bomb and possibly more.
However, I believe his son can also give you the key for you little house. You may still need to disarm the bomb first.

Fallout 1+2+T only had one armor slot, armor ... that was it.

Yeah, but from Morrowind (Oblivion?) it's a step down.

 

[Suchy]

You found Power Armor Mk. II Right Bracer....
Nah.

 

[Suchy]

Re: Impressions plus a Question

A Question:
So, I sided against the geezers who want to blow up megaton. This resulted in the Sheriff and I confronting the sleazy suit guy and a fight ensues.
The Sheriff gets his ass capped but I still managed to kill the suit guy.
A big message says I've fucked my chances of blowing up Megaton (I presumed that would be the case), but what are the repercussions of having the Sheriff killed?
Have I cut off some quests there as well?
Have I removed my chance of getting a Megaton dwelling?

If you kill Burke before he shoots the Sheriff, he drops dead a moment later anyway. Multiple quest outcomes Bethesda way.

 

[jiujitsu]

I like Fallout 3. I don't have any major complaints, really. It reminds me of VtM:B sometimes. Only, not nearly as buggy and infinitely more open ended. They didn't do a bad job. Perhaps the humor is a little less subtle than it was in the previous Fallouts, but it doesn't seem far off. I try to picture the story and stuff, but in the old Fallout engine look. It doesn't seem too far off to me. Not as gritty maybe. All in all, I can tell they really gave it their best shot(Bethsoft) and they didn't do too bad a job. It may not be exactly what I'd have wanted, but it's still fun.

A couple things I don't like: High chance to hit with guns even when you aren't skilled with guns. At point blank range that is. I know it worked like that in previous Fallouts, but even in those you could be standing right up against an enemy and you may just have a God awful chance to hit if your skill is low. I've been playing in Very Hard mode and it is pretty difficult combat wise. I was trying to play through as melee/sneak, but I've had to resort to point blank combat shotgun usage against really tough melee enemies. I don't see how I could possibly go toe to toe with a deathclaw as melee. I have to do some tricky shit to kill one and it has nothing to do with melee weapons. Two three hits and I'm dead.

Ah well, it's a fun game and I'm not really sorry it turned out the way it did.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Ron Paul Jr finds himself faced with a dilemna. The town of Megaton is clearly plagued by the neocon mindset, but would blowing it up be Constitional? He cannot rightly tell.

Please, people of the Codex, advise this true American on what to do.

You do know that Ron Paul would be more likely to break bread with the neocons than he would be with say.. The other party. He'd be far more likely to endorse a Republican neocon over a Democrat.

You found Power Armor Mk. II Right Bracer....

Right. Anyone trust Bethesda to make a decent mechanic revolving around only wearing a partial set of power armor? Not saying such a thing can't be done, just saying that Bethesda never has impressed me when they try to do something new.

 

[1eyedking]

Too many favorable impressions in this thread so I'll go as I've completed it.

The main quest is written by a 12 year old through and through.
End "slider" is a joke.
Most (90%+) side quests are stupid.
Dialogs are stupid.
Monsters are braindead.
Combat is ridiculously easy.
VATS is even worse.
AP regen is insane.
Gore is stupid.
Humor is stupid.
Choices are stupid.
Consequences are practically non-existent, as in far less than any Bioware game (which suck at it).
Repair system is decent.
Hacking mini-game is better than most mini-games.
Ron Perlman is awesome.

All in all, worse than Mass Effect or any other Bioware game in every possible way but slightly(!) better than Morrowind. So my score lies somewhere between meh and terrible. Mehrible? Something like that.

(And no, I never once compared to an actual Fallout game or any other actually decent RPG since this one isn't a Fallout game at all. I can barely even compare it to a Bioware game without choking.)

More like this, please. Oh, and you forgot:

Perks are stupid (+1 to stat, +10 to skills, +5 damage, +1 stupid dialogue line, etc.)
Voice-acting is stupid ("Hi there", "Move along, wastelander", etc.)
World design is stupid (Megaton doors open for a single person using a huge fucking turbine wasting precious energy, instead of using an entrance like Junktown's empty container - and where the hell does the Tenpenny Tower get its power from? I see no fucking Gecko-like power plant nearby - and how the hell do computers and fluorescent lights still work?)
Knowledge tracking is non-existant ("Welcome to Rivet City!", after which you can ask "Where is Doctor Li?" - More like Doctor Who, goddamit!)

This game couldn't be any dumber.

 

[Fat Dragon]

I like Fallout 3. I don't have any major complaints, really. It reminds me of VtM:B sometimes. Only, not nearly as buggy and infinitely more open ended. They didn't do a bad job. Perhaps the humor is a little less subtle than it was in the previous Fallouts, but it doesn't seem far off. I try to picture the story and stuff, but in the old Fallout engine look. It doesn't seem too far off to me. Not as gritty maybe. All in all, I can tell they really gave it their best shot(Bethsoft) and they didn't do too bad a job. It may not be exactly what I'd have wanted, but it's still fun.

A couple things I don't like: High chance to hit with guns even when you aren't skilled with guns. At point blank range that is. I know it worked like that in previous Fallouts, but even in those you could be standing right up against an enemy and you may just have a God awful chance to hit if your skill is low. I've been playing in Very Hard mode and it is pretty difficult combat wise. I was trying to play through as melee/sneak, but I've had to resort to point blank combat shotgun usage against really tough melee enemies. I don't see how I could possibly go toe to toe with a deathclaw as melee. I have to do some tricky shit to kill one and it has nothing to do with melee weapons. Two three hits and I'm dead.

Ah well, it's a fun game and I'm not really sorry it turned out the way it did.

I actually have to agree with this after having played the game for some 10+ hours. Sue me.

If you kill Burke before he shoots the Sheriff, he drops dead a moment later anyway. Multiple quest outcomes Bethesda way.

It was obviously a glitch. If you kill Burke quickly enough the sheriff thanks you for saving him and gives you a base of operations to be used for healing and storing items as a reward. He doesn't drop dead. You don't have to have either killed though. It's possible to persuade Burke to leave Megaton alone and leave peaceably.

Anyways, having a lot of fun with this game surprisingly. Pretty flawed for sure, but I'm liking it. I was never really expecting it to be like the previous Fallouts so no bone to pick there. Only real annoyance I've with the game is the mediocre writing. The game turned out better than expected. Far better than that piece of shit Oblivion. Call this game a new guilty pleasure of mine.

 

[JarlFrank]

I guess the reason why I like this game is the low expectations I had. I thought it would be exactly like Oblivion, only more ridiculous, but it manages to be better than Oblivion and the writing and voice acting is surprisingly good for a Bethesda game. Yes, mostly retarded, but better than the boring crap in Oblivion. Some characters are way too wacky and overdone, though, like that old man in Megaton who's some kind of nationalist.

But the retarded parts of the dialogue aren't that bad if you try to see the game as a parody.

 

[uhjghvt]

I'm enjoying it more the longer I play. there are a lot of stupid things about it (mostly the dialog and animations) but the fact that so many locations are unique is really amazing to me. just about the only repetitive dungeons are the subway tunnels, virtually everything else is one-of-a-kind.

I especially like the places in downtown DC where you can leave building interiors in upper floors and go out on a balcony or roof, I get a huge boner every time.

 

[Fat Dragon]

so many locations are unique is really amazing to me.

Same here. I really like all of the towns so far. There's Rivet City which is a huge town that's been built inside of an old beached super freighter, really liked that one. Megaton has a good design too, very Mad Max-ish. Big Town wasn't half bad either. The ghost town Minefield was fun to explore as well, and was made better with the sniper taking all those shots at you while you made your way through it with no clue where he is as well as having to watch out for mines. Maybe it's because I'm playing on hard mode but enemies using sniper rifles in this game are fucking anti-christs. Arefu was a pretty good village too, it's built on top of this giant bridge that's missing a section. The only way into the town is heavily guarded. Good design since it shows that the people who settled their had good town defense in mind.

just about the only repetitive dungeons are the subway tunnels, virtually everything else is one-of-a-kind.

Not out of laziness though, if you've seen one subway tunnel you've seen them all. Not much you could really do to make them all really different from one another. Everything else though is pretty good. Ones I've explored so far have been the school, old police station (which had old archives you could read of people calling in for help before the fall of the bombs), super duper market, and some old sewage facility with a bunch of Mirelurks in it.

It was pretty fun in that one, one of the optional objectives for my quest there was to complete my task without fighting one of the Mirelurks. Got through the entire dungeon without engaging in combat once. Tested it out in other areas too, you can bypass a lot of fighting if you've a good sneak skill.

 

[A user named cat]

People are just forcing themselves to swallow this game.

 

[Konjad]

They mention the bad animations and character models but still give 9 on graphics, wtf?

Todd's little penis was so cute.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Ron Paul Jr finds himself faced with a dilemna. The town of Megaton is clearly plagued by the neocon mindset, but would blowing it up be Constitional? He cannot rightly tell.

Please, people of the Codex, advise this true American on what to do.

You do know that Ron Paul would be more likely to break bread with the neocons than he would be with say.. The other party. He'd be far more likely to endorse a Republican neocon over a Democrat.

I'm pretty sure he told people to vote for Obama over McCain, but regardless, he's always focused somewhat on how the Republican party has been hijacked by neocons and I'm LARPing it from one of his barking mad Digg fans' point of view, so neocons it is. I've been trying to find a Democrat equivalent to balance it out, but can't really find anything... maybe the ghouls?