Fallout 3 Release 28th October
- Thread starter anaemic
- Start date
-
Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.
My expectations are as follows
The fun will be what is expected of a Bethesda game, but the bugs shall come in droves.
The fun will be what is expected of a Bethesda game, but the bugs shall come in droves.
I finally broke down and picked the game up -- ultimately, I'm a whore for cyberpunk.
About 30 hours into the game, I feel completely justified in standing by my earlier claims of "oblivion with guns". Granted, it's a somewhat improved oblivion with guns, but it's still oblivion at the core.
I'm glad to see that Bethesda can convincingly pull off the post-apocolyptic cyberpunk feel. Nothing could be more different in design aesthetic from their previous titles, and it works very well.
The AI and vioce acting is much improved. I've yet to run across any "talking to myself" conversations other than deliberately anonymous trash NPCs, and no instances of out-of-character tone switching. The only one I did see was a very obvious switch between two completely different voice actors, and it had an in-game explanation, so kudos. I'm glad to see NPCs having more personal and directed conversations with each other (Nova and Moriarty, for example), and overall I like what they've done with the dialogue engine now supporting unique responses for stat/perk checks. This goes hand-in-hand with perks like Child at Heart, which a lot of people find useless but I happen to enjoy for the extra role-playing of having unique character interactions. I like that they made the avatar more personal by having subtle dialog changes to reflect the gender choice you made at the start of the game.
VATS is a mixed bag. I can never get enough of slow motion ragdoll physics, so I don't mind that aspect of it. It annoys me that vats is "optional", and by that I mean you can go through the game without touching it, but you'd be a fool to do so. It's like how you can play Ken without using the shoryuken, but why in the hell would you want to? VATS is too powerful relative to non-vats gameplay, though since I've played a ton of games with cone of fire implementations I'm used to the inaccuracy at range.
The stats are... yeah. Some of them are entirely useless, and it upsets me that there is now a definitively optimal character to build that is outright better than all others. As I said, unique perks that help define a character are there and they're nice, but there's just too many clearly superior options for perks, skills, and stats. For example, the radiation-related perks are all useless, because rads don't really factor into the game if you're not dense. Charisma has very little if any effect on the game, even for dialog, so there's no reason to put points into it. They could have done a lot better on that.
Animations need work. Lots of it. There is absolutely no excuse, in 2008, for reload animations to sometimes repeat parts of themselves for no reason at all (try spamming reload with a laser pistol).
All in all, a decent game, and one I'm enjoying mostly for the setting and story. It solved a lot of my major gripes with Oblivion, but then turned right around and broke some things that were working just fine. But it's still just Oblivion With Guns.
About 30 hours into the game, I feel completely justified in standing by my earlier claims of "oblivion with guns". Granted, it's a somewhat improved oblivion with guns, but it's still oblivion at the core.
I'm glad to see that Bethesda can convincingly pull off the post-apocolyptic cyberpunk feel. Nothing could be more different in design aesthetic from their previous titles, and it works very well.
The AI and vioce acting is much improved. I've yet to run across any "talking to myself" conversations other than deliberately anonymous trash NPCs, and no instances of out-of-character tone switching. The only one I did see was a very obvious switch between two completely different voice actors, and it had an in-game explanation, so kudos. I'm glad to see NPCs having more personal and directed conversations with each other (Nova and Moriarty, for example), and overall I like what they've done with the dialogue engine now supporting unique responses for stat/perk checks. This goes hand-in-hand with perks like Child at Heart, which a lot of people find useless but I happen to enjoy for the extra role-playing of having unique character interactions. I like that they made the avatar more personal by having subtle dialog changes to reflect the gender choice you made at the start of the game.
VATS is a mixed bag. I can never get enough of slow motion ragdoll physics, so I don't mind that aspect of it. It annoys me that vats is "optional", and by that I mean you can go through the game without touching it, but you'd be a fool to do so. It's like how you can play Ken without using the shoryuken, but why in the hell would you want to? VATS is too powerful relative to non-vats gameplay, though since I've played a ton of games with cone of fire implementations I'm used to the inaccuracy at range.
The stats are... yeah. Some of them are entirely useless, and it upsets me that there is now a definitively optimal character to build that is outright better than all others. As I said, unique perks that help define a character are there and they're nice, but there's just too many clearly superior options for perks, skills, and stats. For example, the radiation-related perks are all useless, because rads don't really factor into the game if you're not dense. Charisma has very little if any effect on the game, even for dialog, so there's no reason to put points into it. They could have done a lot better on that.
Animations need work. Lots of it. There is absolutely no excuse, in 2008, for reload animations to sometimes repeat parts of themselves for no reason at all (try spamming reload with a laser pistol).
All in all, a decent game, and one I'm enjoying mostly for the setting and story. It solved a lot of my major gripes with Oblivion, but then turned right around and broke some things that were working just fine. But it's still just Oblivion With Guns.
Last edited:
I like how everything you said was different than Oblivion and then you call it Oblivion with guns.
What aspects of the game make you say Oblivion with guns? The game couldn't have felt more different than Oblivion to me... if anything it felt more like Morrowind.
What aspects of the game make you say Oblivion with guns? The game couldn't have felt more different than Oblivion to me... if anything it felt more like Morrowind.
People refer to it as "Oblivion with guns" because
A: The world around you stands still while talking to someone who is also stiff as a brick. Characteristic of Morrowind and Oblivion. You may think why not name it Morrowind with guns then? Well go to B
B: More people probably played Oblivion. If that isn't true then go to C
C: Morrowind with guns doesnt have that "oomph" that Oblivion with guns has.
A: The world around you stands still while talking to someone who is also stiff as a brick. Characteristic of Morrowind and Oblivion. You may think why not name it Morrowind with guns then? Well go to B
B: More people probably played Oblivion. If that isn't true then go to C
C: Morrowind with guns doesnt have that "oomph" that Oblivion with guns has.
Last edited:
It's still Oblivion with Guns because it is essentially the same game, at the core. Just with a new coat of paint. The sneaking/pickpocketing system is the same, the crime model is the same, the melee system is just a simplified version of Oblivion's (they just removed directional power attacks but left in the basic standing one). The dialog system works the same way with the only change being the addition of skill-based topics (and you could have done that in Oblivion with the construction set, Beth just didn't by default -- it's just a player skill check condition on a response), as do quests and the quest marker system. The map is the same system with different graphics, and sleeping/waiting is handled the same way. It handles "plot-essential" NPCs the same way. The list goes on.
Yes, the theme is different. But ultimately, it is the same game with only a few minor changes.
Yes, the theme is different. But ultimately, it is the same game with only a few minor changes.
I also picked this gem up recently. I'm at level twelve and basically been playing the detour quests. And thoroughly enjoying myself in the process. Having never played Oblivion, I can't compare. But the first thing that came to me when I stepped out of the vault was "S.T.A.L.K.E.R."....except that this game doesn't suck.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the V.A.T.S. system at first. But after a bit of combat seasoning it's really a fun feature. I usually use it for close-quarter finishers, but it's hardly the "cheap shot" I was expecting. It does require a certain finesse to use properly. If you don't mind your accuracy perks/upgrades you'll accomplish little more that wasting ammo on the walls and panels around a target as they move in for a better position to bullet rape you when slow mo wears of. That, plus the limitations in using it repeatedly, make for a surprisingly balanced system.
I especially enjoy the freedom of the game though. It's rare for games to be so fair when attempting a balanced "saint/jerk" system. And being able to approach any situation with a huge variety of choices is very rewarding to me as a gamer. And there is a kind of charm to any game that allows you to get addicted to painkillers and suffer from withdrawal.
EDIT: If I have an issue with anything at this point...it's that the main quest really got lost to me early on. I know Liam Neeson is my dad an everything...but I haven't so much as thought of the main "story" since I played. Which, actually, shouldn't be a complaint. It's nice to buy game and know that you'll be messing around with it for more than a couple of weeks.
EDIT 2: Does anyone know where the hell that guy "Zimmer" is found? I spoke to him one time early on somewhere...forgot about that quest...and now I need to find him again.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the V.A.T.S. system at first. But after a bit of combat seasoning it's really a fun feature. I usually use it for close-quarter finishers, but it's hardly the "cheap shot" I was expecting. It does require a certain finesse to use properly. If you don't mind your accuracy perks/upgrades you'll accomplish little more that wasting ammo on the walls and panels around a target as they move in for a better position to bullet rape you when slow mo wears of. That, plus the limitations in using it repeatedly, make for a surprisingly balanced system.
I especially enjoy the freedom of the game though. It's rare for games to be so fair when attempting a balanced "saint/jerk" system. And being able to approach any situation with a huge variety of choices is very rewarding to me as a gamer. And there is a kind of charm to any game that allows you to get addicted to painkillers and suffer from withdrawal.
EDIT: If I have an issue with anything at this point...it's that the main quest really got lost to me early on. I know Liam Neeson is my dad an everything...but I haven't so much as thought of the main "story" since I played. Which, actually, shouldn't be a complaint. It's nice to buy game and know that you'll be messing around with it for more than a couple of weeks.
EDIT 2: Does anyone know where the hell that guy "Zimmer" is found? I spoke to him one time early on somewhere...forgot about that quest...and now I need to find him again.
Last edited:
Yeah. I didn't say the game was bad or anything, just that it's more Oblivion with a few tweaks. But Prophet hit the nail on the head -- this is the game STALKER wanted to be but failed to achieve. I'm only a little disappointed that they seem to have removed the weather system from Oblivion so you only get day and night with no rain or anything.
And it's good that you're forgetting the main story for now, Proph. It's short and has a point of no return that, unless you keep multiple save files, effectively ends the game for that character and makes you start anew. And just following the main quest skips so much of the game... probably 80%~90%
And it's good that you're forgetting the main story for now, Proph. It's short and has a point of no return that, unless you keep multiple save files, effectively ends the game for that character and makes you start anew. And just following the main quest skips so much of the game... probably 80%~90%
I figured as much.
Right now I'm trying to find a bunch of kids I rescued from some slavers a while back (who I only released after having a bad conversation with the doorman, who proceeded to attack me. After that I kind of went on a murder spree on the whole slaver town and killed their pimp). They went somewhere...south, I think. I'm also digging all the new perks that pop up with the more levels I get. Some of them are really awesome.
Right now I'm trying to find a bunch of kids I rescued from some slavers a while back (who I only released after having a bad conversation with the doorman, who proceeded to attack me. After that I kind of went on a murder spree on the whole slaver town and killed their pimp). They went somewhere...south, I think. I'm also digging all the new perks that pop up with the more levels I get. Some of them are really awesome.
& if you did it randomly rather than from following the main quest you've just saved yourself a bunch of time later on, mongo 
No it was random. I found the place when I was looking around for The Family. I didn't realize it was a main quest requirement. There was an old guy there who was speaking gibberish, and he didn't run off with the others. I kind of left him there.
EDIT: Ran into some feral ghouls recently. Holy ****. If I woke up looking like that I would run toward the nearest living thing and kill it.
EDIT: Ran into some feral ghouls recently. Holy ****. If I woke up looking like that I would run toward the nearest living thing and kill it.
Last edited:
