Fallout 3- Feel like a dick or be the games bitch.

[Gizmo-5]

Fallout 3 --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7jKRDTg8m8

Ok so i purchased Fallout 3 and ive been playing it for the last week or so, im about level 12, just got to rivet city, taking my time and enjoying the system.

The game felt quite fresh for me, i didnt play oblivion (not a fan of swords and sourcery fantasy, like me some gun) And it was wierd playing a game that let you take what you want. It would punish you, but it wouldnt necesarrily stop you. The combat system is spectacular for an rpg, VATS is something Bethseda should be really proud of, its fantastic, and everytime i shoot something in the face and it just EXPLODES in slow motion while i reload my hunting rifle makes me spooge without fail.

The main problems i have with the game are these, and i wanted to see if anyone felt the same. I like being a good guy (currently Very Good: Capital something or other). Thing is, when i gain karma, i dont so much feel like im being good, or kind or whatever, i just feel like the games bitch.

Let me explain.

For example around the world there are several places where their are slaves who have been captured by super mutants, when you untie them they say something along the lines of "Oh thank you so much, here take these supplies theyre all i have" and i get options that basically say, "Yea you better give me your bitch ass supplies scumbag!" or "No keep them, ill happily root around in bins for bottlecaps" and with a sigh, i give up my reward just to maintain my karma levels. I feel the game falls a bit flat in the character department, i dont feel the gratitude of the people when im a good guy, they still charge me ridiculous amounts of money and they still treat me like any other character, i just get a lot fewer rewards for a lot more work and cant get what i want half as fast as the guy who just shot everyone in the face.

Maybe im not far enough in for it to start paying off yet, but i just feel like the wastelanders take me for granted, youd think that if they were just about to be eaten by supermutants and got saved for free theyd atleast tell someone about it so they wouldnt charge me so much for goddamned amunition!!!!

The other thing that i find slightly dissapointing is that the art team have made everything look Horrible. Now before i have the realists start jumping on me saying that "ITS POST APOCALYPSE SHTOOPID! EVERYTHINGS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE A DIESEL ENGINE TOOK A DUMP ON IT!" The problem with this is simple, when i play a videogame i am being stimulated visually, and regardless of the setting, if i am looking at a horribly bland brown and grey landscape for 6 hours im going to enjoy the experience a lot less. Im not saying that they should make everything blue with lasers, im just saying that theyve got some lovely concept art (enclave robots, building designs, guns) but theyve covered them in horrible low resolution brown crap, which makes everything look dull and uninteresting.

If you experienced any of the above knock yourself out and respond, especially if you played a badguy, id be interested to know how the game changes, i always assumed it was, you see something, you take it.

 

[PsiSoldier]

I recall spending at least 25mins (not game time, REAL time) just trying to find my home in Megaton, simply because everything looked the same in low light levels. However, if the modding community is anything like it was for Oblivion, you can expect there to be plenty of 'beautification' mods

 

[Nanor]

I love how the only reason Gizmo posts on THN is to whine.

If you accept the things the slaves give you it's measly things like a few pieces of ammo and a couple of bottle caps. Maybe a stim pack or two.

How do I get my doggy?

 

[Pingue]

How do I get my doggy?

There's a doggy!!!???
But anyways. I've been playing in (almost all of) my spare time for the last week. It's a damned good game, and I certainly won't deny it that. Slightly spoilt by a few bugs which I seem to have picked up on, but that'll surely improve with a couple of updates (I hope).
As for gameplay, I'll agree, the V.A.T.S system can provide some really rewarding screenshots, and the levelling system is a lot better than I've seen in some other games.
However, while the story line is pretty damned good, and reasonably convincing, there are certain important parts which just don't act out very well. I really don't want to spoil the story, but at times I was left wondering - what the hell just happened, and why is everyone acting so calm about it all? Also, I'll totally agree that the navigation can be a bit confusing at times (I spent hours lost around Megaton, which is why I took so much pleasure in blowing it up. I mean, why on earth build a town around an unexploded nuke. It's just asking for it).
You may have guessed I've taken the completely badass route - I have no karma left - if left to the gods, I'm gonna be reincarnated as some sort of foul smelling weed. However, I've been playing at roughly the same speed as someone who's taken the goody-two-shoes route, and we've both been kicking ourselves in equal parts for not taking the other route.
All in all, I'm loving it so far - the storyline, gameplay and overall feel of the game just really make it something to pop in and out of. And with that, off to play a bit more!!!!

 

[Gizmo-5]

Absolutely, the way theyve devided the gameplay into zones is wonderful and allows you to jump in and out, whilst meraculously retaining the MMO quality of "Just a bit more, ill just go here" and BOOM youve spent 6 hours of working time

In terms of bugs ive only seen one or two, sometimes (but rarely) badguys get stuck on street furniture, allowing me to pop them in the head, and once i crashed to desktop. Also for those of you out there, forget what you know about combat, a park bench is the best cover EVER!

Edit: ooh! How many bobbleheads have you guys found? ive got 4 (Pm trade anyone )

 

[PsiSoldier]

Level cap of 20, say what?

 

[Nanor]

I've only got 3 bobbleheads. The medicine one you get from your fathers lab, the strength one and the agility one.

You can change that using a console command, Psi. Not sure what that is though.

 

[Xarlaxas]

Boo for level caps, I'm already almost at 20 with my first character, and the whole scaling enemies is a bit irksome too, I wonder why they kept it in after people complained so much about it in Oblivion? -_-

I am however enjoying Fallout 3 quite a bit (got a good character and an evil character running around at the moment) and it does indeed seem like the game rewards you a lot more for being evil than being good, though this might only be in the short-term....

 

[PsiSoldier]

You can change that using a console command, Psi. Not sure what that is though.

I know you can change your level through console, but it changes your level and only your level (IE you get no perk points or skill points). However I doubt you can change the level cap, as in Oblivion it was hard-coded (As I recall).
One way to get around it I suppose is by just setting your level back to 1 again (But then thanks to scaled enemies everything will be piss-easy to kill).

*Waits for OOO style overhaul mod*

 

[Traxata]

Spoiler

advlevel will level you up, and give you those skill points and perks, however you can only use it to go upto about level 36, after that you physically can't use your skill points anymore, as you've maxed them all out so you can't click on continue...

That's a cheat though, basically.

 

[Silk]

Within 4 hours of playing I'd managed to lodge myself between a bed and a wall (had to load a 30 min old savegame) and despawn the guy you need to talk to in megaton about your Dad. Yeah.. he got lost somewhere in the wastelands because I did a sidequest first. Go figure.

Seems an ok game, as with oblivion I fail to see what the hype is about and see myself getting bored soon.. I'm already considering giving up at level 4 because walking, on foot, from one town to another.. painfully slowly and with nothing much to see en-route.. is boring, very boring.

 

[PsiSoldier]

Within 4 hours of playing I'd managed to lodge myself between a bed and a wall (had to load a 30 min old savegame)
walking, on foot, from one town to another.. painfully slowly and with nothing much to see en-route.. is boring, very boring.

If you get stuck use 'tcl' in console (ToggleClipping, basically noclip)
If you don't like to walk to places use tmm1 (ToggleMapMarkers, shows all the fast-travel markers on the map so you can fast-travel without actually visiting first) OR use movetoqt (MoveToQuestTarget, self explanitory)

and despawn the guy you need to talk to in megaton about your Dad. Yeah.. he got lost somewhere in the wastelands because I did a sidequest first. Go figure.

Yeah this gets damn annoying, I just make a habbit of hitting quicksave every 5 minutes (Literally, not exagerating here)

 

[Pingue]

I just make a habbit of hitting quicksave every 5 minutes (Literally, not exagerating here)

Same here, if not more often. However, as a rule, once you've been to a few places, you can quicktravel to somewhere nearby fairly quickly.
However, the vast scale of the game lead to some very interesting side-effects. At some points, missions almost completed themselves, purely by chance. However, the one thing that really bugged me was the Mysterious Stranger perk, which basically finished the main "boss" battle at the end in one shot. While I had no health and really needed it, it sort of took away from the fun. Oh well

 

[Velaphor]

Yeah i can understand wat Gizmo is sayng you do feel like a pussy when you do good thing and when you blast innocent ppls heads off then you feel shitty.
the thing is that im lvl 13 with two characters one evil one good. i found you get better things as evil, the place you get your home with as evil has pure water non stop and is well guarded.
on the good side you get random ppl giving you crap gifts like 1 stimpak to dirty water, hurray!
also as evil, random evil ppl that would shot you in the wasteland decide not to. but if your good then they purposely find you to kill you.


also i would like to ask if any one has suffered from lagging and freezing in the game.
cos even tho my computer should play it fine in medium graphics and ok in high, im playing it in low graphics and im still getting stupid amount of lag. i've looked on other fourms to see if there is a way of sovling it and i've done everything they say but im still getting it.
so if anyone has any ideas i would love to hear them thanks =]

 

[Pingue]

I regularly get lag when going into VATS. Bethesda seem to know about it (a lot of people have mentioned it), but the workaround is to alt-tab out of the game, and restore it again. Pretty crappy, but hopefully they'll fix that particular bug soon.
Even if people hunt you down when you're "good", the 'regulators' will hunt you down if you're bad.
All in all, pretty balanced either way.