Thread: Fallout: 3 *wo0t*

Bumping this thread because I don't see the point of creating a new one.

I picked up FO3 yesterday and have about 12 hours total into the game (jesus, time flies...)

The character creation process isn't too far removed from the previous two games', but it's also a lot more streamlined. Your stats, honestly, don't matter as much in this game, and you really only need one stat (aside from Intelligence... everyone needs Intelligence, character theming be damned) - the one that governs your primary combat skill. In the original games, for example, you needed lots of Agility for action points, you needed Perception for accuracy at extended range, and then you might need Strength to use those bigger, heavier guns like Plasma Rifles and Miniguns. Not so in FO3 - so far, I haven't seen any weapons or armor that have stat requirements, though some give stat boosts (or more often, skill boosts.)

Additionally, the Traits system from the previous games (option things you picked at character creation that gave you a benefit and an accompanying drawback; for example, the Gifted trait gave you a bonus to all of your stats but a penalty to all of your skills), though some aspects of the trait system have been reincarnated as perks, minus the drawbacks (the Intense Training perk emulates the former Gifted trait, for example.) You also get a perk with every level, instead of every three levels, so the perks themselves are generally somewhat weaker. Some old favorites like Action Boy/Girl and Mysterious Stranger make their returns, and there are a handful of new ones.

Being a masochist, I'm playing on Very Hard, and enjoying it a lot. I first started as a pretty normal Fallout character - tags in Small Guns, Speech, and Lockpicking, and some investment in the Repair and Medicine skills as well. I played roughly eight hours as this character (who I made to look like Elvis Presley and gave them the appropriate name and the Lady Killer perk) and it was more challenging than I'd expected - ammo became a huge concern, because on Very Hard, enemies do double damage while you only do half damage. It was because of these ammo concerns I learned how to like using mines and grenades, and I eventually saved my progress (in case I want to continue it later) and started a new character, this time tagging Melee Weapons instead of Small Guns, and balancing out my stats accordingly (7 Strength, 5 Perception, 7 Endurance, 4 Charisma, 7 Intelligence, 5 Luck.) My previous character had 10 Agility, since I thought Action Points would be as critical in FO3 as they were in the previous two games - definitely not so. I spent more time free aiming and free shooting than using VATS, so those points in Agility ended up being largely wasted.

At any rate, I'm about four hours or so into my new character and playthrough, and I'm definitely enjoying it. Melee combat is, in many ways, better for Very Hard (though weapon condition is definitely a concern... expect to be spending a lot of money on repairs) since it allows me to save my ammo for either cash or, more likely, for use on guns I pick up and occasionally need to use against baddies I don't want to get close to (like Deathclaws and Mirelurks.) I've also invested in the Explosives skill (which directly affects grenades, mines, and even some big guns like the Missile Launcher and Rock-it Launcher), and it's an extremely useful skill. My understanding is that, RPG elements aside (such as defusing a certain bomb in a certain town), it's something of overkill on the easier difficulties, since the explosives themselves tend to do a lot of damage and without the huge damage penalty present in Very Hard, you don't really need the extra damage. I can definitely say that the points in Explosives, when combined with frag grenades and traps set with frag mines and the occasional bottlecap mine, have saved my bacon more than once and definitely make things easier. Plus, there's a lot of fun to be had using nades in VATS - a slow-mo "Oh, SHIT!" from your victim followed shortly by an explosion and raining giblets.

The crafting system is also a ton of fun. You can get access to three schematics pretty early - the Shiskebab, the Rock-it Launcher, and the Bottlecap Mine, and they're all both powerful and just plain fun. The Shishkebab is literally a flaming lawnmower blade. The Bottlecap Mine is an anti-personnel mine made using a lunchbox and bottlecaps, and the Rock-it Launcher kills people by blasting teddy bears, coffee mugs, ashtrays, paperweights, and other assorted debris at them at high speed - there's something very satisfying about blowing a super mutant's head off with a teddy bear fired at 500 mph.

Since I just recently picked up a registered version of FRAPS, I may decide to try my hand at writing a real review of Fallout 3 complete with video caps and screencaps to illustrate how well it runs (and how pretty it is) even on a fairly middling system, but I think I'm going to actually finish the game before attempting it... as in the other games, I expect the endgame may prove to be a bit of a let-down (being way too easy.)

I spent about 2 hours today trying to get Games for Windows Live! to work properly so I could at least look at the DLC available, if not buy it outright. I got a whole mess of errors and wading through their forums seems to indicate that I'm hardly the only one with this issue - in fact, it seems that some folks (especially ones that have picked up the most recent DLC, Broken Steel, which apparently raises the level cap, expands the main quest, and adds new perks) have paid for their DLC and can't get it, or can't use it once they get it. Microsoft apparently isn't able to find a solution for these people yet (beyond the standard copypasta "check your firewall/router/antivirus" schtick) and doesn't seem inclined to offer refunds, either. Bad business, but I guess when you're as rich as Microsoft you can screw over a couple thousand customers and not need to worry.

The game itself has been running fine for me, but since GFWL doesn't seem to want to do what it's supposed to do (that is, connect so I can use the account and gamertag I set up for Fallout 3's use), I'm unable to access the achievements - I can meet the requirements for them, but since I've only been able to play using an offline profile so far, they don't get unlocked. While achievements are hardly a crucial part of the game, they're fun milestones to mark how far you've gotten and what cool things you've done. I'm just glad I picked up FO3 through Steam... there are also reports of people having a bunch of hell trying to patch the game via GFWL.

Maybe Bethesda will just ditch GFWL and stick with Steam. Hell, Games for Windows Live! makes EA's customer support look spotless.

i get this overwhelming feeling i'm getting this game this weekend, 50% off for the game i've yet to hear a bad review for?

Soo hard to hold off, i know i shouldn't spend the money but its sooo...hard........ :8


EDIT: I bought it, sounded wayyy too good not to get it and just waiting for it to hurry up and install so i play

while im at it - it seems hes spammed in a few other threads...oh dear.

Got it. Cheers LP.

RAD!

Yeah, it's worth the money.

There are a lot of cool "dungeons" and side areas in the game that you generally can't find without just wandering around.

There's a "dungeon" called the Dunwich Building, and it's a big long reference to H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror. You find these journals laying around about some dude trying to find his dad, and he starts talking about how he's found this book that's warm to the touch... he finds the fucking Necronomicon. Fun stuff.

I spent a little bit looking for decent mods at work today and there don't seem to be many out there. There are a few mods I think I'll check out - higher resolution textures, more realistic gun sounds, stuff like that - but I swear I think about 90% of the ones I saw were just glorified porn.

There's a "BABE" mod that purports to add more customization to female avatars by allowing you to adjust torso (read: boobage) size and also seems to make their lines a little smoother, and there's a mod for that mod that just plain makes women nude when not wearing anything instead of the standard Fruit of the Loom stuff usually worn. I can understand wanting to customize your avatar (and frankly I think a little more customization would be nice since you pretty much never see your head or face once you're wearing power armor some other helmet types) but it really is just nothing more than glorified porn.

There was a mod called Greenworld that adds grass, shrubs, and adds leaves to trees... makes the game look a lot like Oblivion, if that's your thing.

With such a lousy selection of mods, it's not really surprising the DLC is about the only kind of "mods" you'd want to bother with.