Jason Moyer on 13/12/2008 at 13:32

---

I think the ending would have been fantastic if it had taken into account more of the different ways the player is able to approach it. As it stands, it doesn't even take your followers into account in any way, which is seriously immersion breaking. I also think that if they wanted to have an emotionally charged ending, they really needed to flesh out the bonds between the various characters more. The main questline really felt like it needed about twice as many missions to make your relationships with everyone seem significant. I mean, I took the obvious good ending the first time, but ffs, why the hell would I care if Lyons dies? I've spoken to her what, twice the entire game?

Toxicfluff on 14/12/2008 at 03:38

---

Very late to the party, but I'm enjoying it so far (to be honest, I've done a lot more of the adjunct quests than stages of the main one, because it hasn't really draw me in). The game is certainly much wider than it is deep, and it's suffered in spades for that.

As for people's comparisons to F1/2... well, I can't comment on 1 as while I loved F2, I've only just started playing the original, but I think they're heavily wrinkled and rose tinted in the main.

F2 had tons of humdrum, perfunctory and just plain bad writing and its fair share of flat characters so I don't get the talking down on this at all. And in both the originals, the majority of dialogue being text only, it bore all the more heavily on the experience that the writing was decent.

It's worth noting that I hold game writing against a different standard than books and cinema as in my opinion its headiest heights are mediocre in comparison to the apex of those other more mature mediums. It offsets its shortcomings by offering you a hand in the story.

In writing terms, where F2 wildly outpaces F3 is in internal consistency, the amount of dialogue and characters, and the reflection of your stats and new events in dialogue possibilities. Most of the time in F3, once you've depleted the conversation of an area's characters and done its major quest that's it... same old shite ad nauseum, even when you've found out or done something pertinent to the area. F2, on the better hand, sometimes amazed me in how detailed characters' responses were to your stats and events in the world.

Having said that, I don't think the kind of detail F2 had can be produced under the technology and polish demanded of a major title these days. Every extra dialogue option means more studio time, more actor wages. Every unique action requires more animation, which drains more resources even with Bethesda's apparently pitiful standards.

Combat is better in F3, despite it not holding up to dedicated shooters, as you would expect really, given the constraints of time, money and ambition. I hate the levelling enemies, because one of the things I loved about Fallout 2 (and I assume it's the same for the first) was that you had the freedom of going anywhere you wanted from the start, and that freedom coming at a price. The first thing I did upon introduction to the world map was wander off in the direction of Broken Hills to find my arse kicked six ways to sunday... and I loved it. Being totally out of your depth and having your own weakness force you to run or play by the rules really added to the harshness and authenticity of the world. F3 bungles this horrendously.

There's also too much combat in my opinion, same as F2 but worse. Whereas F2's combat areas usually culminated in a non-combat point, F3's are just more firefodder, more filler more junk. Speaking of junk, there's too bloody much of it. After all this time, RPGs are still padding out their span by enticing players to rummage through their things. It's boring, it's often unrealistic and it's always a fucking bastard compelling waste of life. I've hated it in every game that's displayed the trait. I don't know if the lack of stuff was a bug, but in F2 when I reached San-Fran and realised that most containers were emtpy, resolving to only check those that were logically useful, I was relieved beyond belief.

Still, at least in a big fight you don't see your next birthday sooner than your next turn.

The world looks fantastic. Great job on Bethesda's part, I reckon. Having the draw distance so huge was a great choice for the atmosphere and must have taken quite a bit of work, especially in respect of maintaining a decent framerate on aging graphics cards (like mine, some budget Nvidia card). F2's environments were so dull I was occasionally gripped by the urge to thrust a pencil into my eye, especially after seeing Planescape Torment which I had the misfortune (in terms of kicking F2's world art to dust) of picking up around the same time. Still, tiling is tiling be it tiling of pixel clutches or glorious technicolour 3d prefabs, and although the F3 wasteland looks great as a whole there's far too much repetition indoors. More breadth than depth, in this respect it's a feckin' two dimensional heifer from the side on. They should have cut a good third of the locations in my opinion, rather than compelling the OCD sufferers amongst us to traipse through yet ANOTHER subway or office lacking even a decent sized precipice from which one might throw oneself.

All these drunken ramblings aside, I like it. Geeksome lore issues aside, it isn't Fallout for me in some pretty core tenets, but in many respects I think it's quite Fallout given the times.

Alai912 on 16/12/2008 at 04:41

---

The reason why I got this game and not first two versions is because they revamped the POV and combat system. I don't usually like those top down isometric view and turn by turn battle.

So I guess there is some validity to why the fallout 3 developers made the change. I love the new view(s) and real-time/VAT combat system.

michaelg on 17/12/2008 at 03:52

---

I think the game's a lot of fun. I haven't reached level 10 yet and have put in over 40 hrs. And that's without going to Rivet City yet, so there's definately a lot of content to be found if you just kind of roam around and take in the sights. I've yet to use fast travel. It seems like cheating to me especially with no explanation for it.

Having said that, I've yet to meet any interesting NPC's other than the dopey chick that I'm helping write the survival wasteland guide. And she's only good for some comic relief. I have no idea either how to progress the Megaton bomb quest either. If I go to it, my only option is to set the detonator, which I can't do anyway because my explosive skill isn't high enough. :wot:

Still though, I love the setting of the game, and the little tidbits you find out about the world by just traveling around. It does seem though that the characters in the game are really Blasé. That could be because I'm playing VTM Bloodlines at the same time which in my humble opinion has the best cast of NPC's ever assembled in a game.

michaelg on 17/12/2008 at 14:27

---

Thx. The only problem is. I killed Mr. Burke! Trying to play as a goodie two shoes in this run through although the further I get into the game I can see myself turning a bit more evil. :ebil:

I did the Big Town quest and after saving the touchholes, that bitch Red had the audacity to try and charge me for stimpacks!

Either way is the Megaton quest now borked? No big deal really but just wondering because I've heard there are multible ways to complete most quests.