360 but I’ve played several games that blow away Oblivion in the graphics dept (IMHO).
You are correct.
I don’t meet the system requirements. I wonder if it’s worth buying a new PC just for this game.
Hmm, so it sounds like a gamepad would be pretty inferior to the mouse, since there’ll be a lot of FPS stuff? Not that I’m that upset about it, but this silly gamepad I bought is getting very little use…
Just finished my first play through (played almost all good-karma style) and got two endings (just changed how I played out the very end) and here are my thoughts. Also note I played on the 360
It’s MUCH better than Oblivion, I hated the leveling system in O and F3 takes it’s roots more from Fallout than Elder Scrolls. The graphcis are a bit better, and for whomever complained aboutit being TOO dark, you might have the camera pointed at the sun. If the sun is in your eyes everything gets darker, if you look down towards the ground a bit more than you can see better, least that’s what I’ve noticed.
VATS is great, you have limited AP so basically you fire off a few shots FPS style, pop up VATS and spend your points, then switch back to FPS to wait for a recharge (or pop some drugs to instantly give you more AP) if you haven’t finished everyone off yet. Combats is fun, I really like it, and you can definitely get in over your head.
The story was good, it was paced well, and there’s plenty of opportunity to go running around. I think I spent about 15 hours on hte story and another 15 doing other random stuff, and I didn’t get anywhere NEAR doing everything (like NOWHERE near, but I have other games to try, currently working through Dead Space, also great). THat said, the dark humor from the previous Fallout games wasn’t QUITE there, and the dialogue trees are much more Oblivion style than Fallout style (in earlier fallouts you had many more options, and you could get results ranging from teh guy trying to kill you to the guy giving you a present. here it seems more like one of only two options can result) ALso you can’t shoot people in teh balls or in the eyes, but you can blow off a leg, make them drop their gun, or simply take their head off.
My skills focused mostly on Speech, Energy Weapons (I highly recommend this) lock picking (I highly recommend this) with some other stuff in barter, medicine, small guns, that sort of thing.
Next time I’m going to play an evil stupid chick who will be very strong and punch her way through most situations, I’m also going to try and join the slavers, and see if I can prostitute myself around like you could in Fallou 2, though I doubt it.
A very nice touch was Galaxy News Radio, whose DJ (three dog) updates his news castings to say what your character has been up to. It can get repetitive, but it’s a nice little touch, and he doesn’t only talk about story-based missions, either.
was VATS clunky? not really, sometimes it’d get a little wonky when switching between targets, but it wasn’t something I encountered often nor did it really hinder anything (instead of selecting the head on an ant it’d go back and forth between the antanae and body a few times, which got annoying, but the game is paused so it didn’t really affect gameplay, and just remember head is ALWAYS up, regardless of it’s position relative to you or the rest of it’s body, which is odd sometimes but once you figure that out it’s not a big deal. Ender’s Game style, the enemy base is down!)
will update more later, but I gotta run to class now, my students make fun of me cause I’m always late! =)
How did you beat this game already when it just came out today? You spent 30 hours on it???
Doesn’t surprise me. I remember being in Warhammer the first day and thinking ‘Cool, got in before anyone else!’…then looking up and seeing a level 25 running around.
It will probably be 2 or 3 months before I even get close to finishing Fallout 3.
-XT
That might be a different reason - in MMOs sometimes they’ll give a group of testers a higher level character so that they discover bugs in higher level content before the masses reach that point.
True…but this guy could be a beta tester or programmer or something (maybe someone who works for a games magazine…the guys that reviewed on GameSpy for instance have played 30 hours so far according to the article) who got an advanced copy. Wouldn’t surprise me.
-XT
I have certain connections I exploit at various times for various reasons 
I used to be a QA (beta tester) at Electronic Arts (EARS, actually, EA Redwood Shores) so, for instance, I played Dead Space well over a year ago. It’s come a LONG way since then, MUCH better game now that, you know, everything works =) I’ve also worked for a few other companies on both sides of the spectrum. I was sent to E3 2001, for instance, with a press pass. Won’t talk too much about it, but I get some games early, others I wait for like everyone else, either way I usually have to agree to NDAs or me and my friends will all get in trouble
Oh yea, and I got Fable 2 about a week early but, to be honest, I still haven’t played it, hehe
I also feel (sorry, tried to edit my last message, but time ran out) the need to mention that this is not an FPS with RPG elements, it’s an RPG that lets you do FPS. Meaning your accuracy is more based on your stats than simply where you point your crosshairs. Also, your character is not as maneuverable as he would be in an FPS, though he does handle pretty well. VATS is meant to be used, though it doesn’t have to be (and if you suck at firing things like missiles or something it’s often better to simple fire them without VATS as if you miss in VATS they often go whizzing by the enemy, whereas if you aim low it’ll blow up in front of them causing splash damage. Though things like the Fat Man (nuke launcher) have a bit of an arc to them so VATS can help even if you have no skillz)
As I thought. Bullets not going where my crosshair aims is completely unacceptable.
Thanks for the reviews; I’ll give this one a pass.
Why? Most straight shooters do this anyway these days, by modelling each weapon’s cone of fire and effective range. What’s the big deal about a game modelling your character’s shooting skill, too? It’s an RPG after all - role-play someone who’s good at shooting (by practising and spending skill points in the relevant areas), and your shots will get closer to the crosshairs.
Unarmed and melee are venerated methods of playing through Fallout, heathen!
The game is pure awesomesauce.
Aye, Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 are both worth more than their weight in gold. Very awesome. PC versions of both are thankfully superior to the console versions (and I wouldn’t support the console versions anyway, because PC gaming is, and always will be, the best).
I put in 8-10 hours yesterday, and the game was everything I’d hoped for. The only two wishes I have are a) that they’d fix the Pip-boy so individual sections could be mapped to individual keys (i.e. mapping “M” to the world map, for example). That’s something Oblivion messed up on, too. And b) the lack of a paper doll. I’m not entirely sure how many pieces of apparel I can wear. It seems to be one “suit,” one hat, and one pair of glasses. Anything else? Also, my character was rocking a flamethrower while wearing a June Cleaver-style dress. Whenever I would get the 3rd-person view in VATS, I loved how it looked.
I miss the descriptions of items. I wonder if that’s something the community could put into the game.
I am a huge fan of the lineage, and therefor was skeptical as hell about Fallout 3. I was wrong, do not pass this up.
The combat isn’t FPS shooter combat. It has that perspective, sure, but you have to play it like a tactical turn based game. I’m hitting cover, waiting for vats to charge, than popping out and blasting off a few targeted shots before finding cover again. It is exactly how I played the other Fallout games, and this new perspective makes the combat more immediate and invigorating. I’m a convert.
Anyone else get a little motion sick while looking at the Pip-Boy? It jiggles just enough to make me go woozy now and then.
Okay, so how long have you had the game for and how long did it take you to finish one run-through (did you play fast or did you try to milk it?)
I talk to people daily who can’t afford the time or the money to play all of the half-dozen-plus games out recently in genres from FPS to horror to role-playing to board games.
If you enjoy core gaming and can’t find something this fall worth playing, it’s not the games that are the problem.