Fallout 3, Dead Space, Far Cry 2, or Fable 2

The Game Room
21

I think the “it is Fallout” mantra is a lost cause, at this point. The whole project has been plagued by jaded fans since its announcement - some people only want to see an isometric, tactical turn-based game when they hear the word ‘Fallout,’ and those people will be sorely disappointed in two weeks. It will still have Fallout-type humor, feats, and wide-open gameplay, but after that it will be a lot like what Bethesda is famous for.

I never finished Oblivion, but I plan on playing the hell out of Fallout 3, and it’s currently my most-anticipated game of the year. I’m just torn between the 360 version (with which to entertain my family) or the PC version (with the undoubted plethora of free mods).

I’m currently renting Dead Space, since it’s gotten stellar reviews, even though I normally hate horror games. Far Cry 2 will be another rent, but the Half-Life-style immersion in it may be unparalleled, so it may hit the big time, but only if the balance on things like car and gun breakdowns isn’t horribly annoying.

Fable 2 looks like it’ll be one of the best console RPGs available, but, since my money’s between that and Fallout, I don’t think I’ll be into it for awhile yet.

22

If Oblivion is anything to go by, if you’re not getting the PC version, don’t bother. The mods are what made that game good, both to fix things like the levelling system, and to add new and wonderful things.

23

Fallout 3, definitely. And Dead Space also looks awesome and has gotten great reviews. Fable 2 looks like a huge step up from Fable 1 but it doesn’t enthral me near so much as Fallout 3.

Far Cry 2, form what I’ve heard, is WAYYY too big and way too unfocused. THere’s just far too much time spent traveling around getting attacked randomly before you can get to a mission, at which point the enemy AI has super-vision so sneaking is impossible and you just run-and gun for the most part. Though the graphics look amazing. Mind you, I haven’t played the game myself, just heard about it, so I can’t give you a personal experience or anything

From my limited time with Fallout I can honeslty say I like it a LOT better than Oblivion, which I found boring and uninspired (I played Elder Scrolls and Morrowind and loved them both. I’m also a long-time Fallout fan). So here’s the skinny based on what I can actually say about the game. The story, so far, is good. Can’t talk about it, but it’s pretty good. The Sidequests are quite great and range from being able to blow a whole town up with a Nuke to helping someone write a survival guide and giving them real or completely made up information. My one big complaint is that, unlike Fallout and Fallout 2, where dialogue trees could result in the person hating you or giving you a gift depending on how you answered, all the dialogue trees in F3 seem to end in either getting what you want or the person saying goodbye and you have to go through the tree again.

The leveling system is MUCH more Fallout than Oblivion, I’ll tell you that straight of the bat, and the enemies don’t scale so you can easily get in over your head, which I really like. The SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Int, Agility, and Luck) System is back, so are most of the perks plus a few more, and so is the Karma system. Do good things you get good Karma, do bad things you get bad karma. This affects how people react to you in game (give you stuff or run away) whether certain groups will try and kill you, and whether you can have certain characters join you, etc.

There’s a lot to the game that’s definitely Oblivion in feeling, but it’s also a very different beast. I highly anticipate October 28th, that’s for sure

24

Leveling is what broke Oblivion. I’m excited to hear that Fallout doesn’t have the same leveling and scaling issues.

25

Fallout 3 for sure, Fable 2, maybe Dead Space. Far Cry, well, I’ve heard that the first is better for game play. I’d probably just pick up the original sometime and see if I’m still hungry for more later.

26

Actually, I’ve heard it has at least some of them. Ah well.

Anyway, my big beef with Oblivion, aside from levelling an scaling and the relative lack of deep, complex quests (but it wasn’t bad on that end, just not quite good enough) was the terrible dungeon design.

Most of the game’s dungeons, and nearly every last non-quest dungeon, was horrifically designed. It generally wasn’t worth bothering with them, as they gave you nothing. Of course, nowadays the game with mods is pretty good, but I never go into a non-quest dungeon because there’s little of interest. Corridor/1 mob, room/1 mob, corridor /1 mob, room/2 mobs(Two whole mobs!)

Unfortunately, F3 is much the same.

27

Dead Space is like Bioshock, only in space, and with some puzzles and physics gimmicks thrown in. The environments are very pretty and so far the game has been very enjoyable.

I haven’t played any of the previous Fallout games, but Fallout 3 is on my must-have list. Especially since I’ve been jonesing for a decent RPG on the PS3

28

IIRC, the guy who did the assassin’s guild quest line in Oblivion did all or most of the Fallout 3 quests. Since that was easily the best quest series in Oblivion, I’m really looking forward to it.

(I wish I could’ve done some Fallout 3 quests. Dark but humorous is what I write best.)

29

I’m getting Fallout 3 no matter what some killjoy Frenchmen say. My biggest dilemma is whether to buy it for PC (which can just about run it, it runs Oblivion fine) or 360 (no need to worry about technical stuff, but no mods either)…

Apparently Fable II is pretty damn good. I’m definitely getting it when it comes out, which’ll be Friday for us hapless Euro-gamers. Never mind the fact that the team who developed it is British…grumble.

Dead Space I don’t know a tremendous amount about, I don’t tend to be a big fan of the survival horror/Aliens type genre so might give it a miss.

Far Cry 2 I’d be far more exited about if it was the same people making it, I loved the tropical setting of the first one.

30

I’ve heard the quests are good. Just that the game is overall very short. I was talking more about dungeon design, though. The Dark Brotherhood quests had almost no dungeons. :smiley:

31

(bolding mine)

Really? All the information I’ve seen mention about 20 hours for the main quest, another 20 for the side quests, and then some time for the rest of the stuff. For some reason, though, Bethesda has a tendency to seriously underestimate the amount of time their games take (they said similar things about Oblivion, and I know very few serious players who haven’t hit triple-digit hours in that game), so I expect that number is about double that.

32

Fallout 3 for sure. I like what I’ve read about it (and never played much in Oblivion, so I have no opinion there) in the previews on IGN and GameSpy.

Dead Space looks cool but I think my time cupboard is full at this point. Between Warhammer Online, the mini-expansion for Sins and Fallout 3 (and work and real life), I think I’m at maximum game saturation…at least until Total War Empire comes out. At that point I think I’ll quit my job and become a computer gaming hermit…

-XT

33

Bethesda never seems to take into account the “shooting NPCs in the face and mutilating their corpses” quests that most players undertake for hours on end.

34

They tend to overestimate/underdeliver the main quest.

35

Like I said, I’m not all that familiar with Bethesda titles these days. I think the last game I played by them was Daggerfalls, which admittedly was a pretty horrible game when it shipped. Like being turned into a newt though…it got better.

In any event I really like what I’ve seen and read so far about Fallout 3. There are a whole bunch of podcasts on them game, and plenty of previews out there to read through. I think the VATS system really looks like it will take some of the twitch gaming FPS (which I don’t really like now that I’m old, fat and slow) aspects out and give you a lot of the tactical shot selection from the older games. A lot of the old perks and skills seem the same as the old games as well. And from watching the podcasts it looks like to me that the quest system and NPC interaction aspects are more than adequate to hold my own interests.

I try not to hold past games against a company (and I TRY not to let my expectations rise to high when one of the gaming companies I like puts out a new game…I’ve been disappointed even by the best companies and surprised by some of the ones I considered pretty bad). In this case, unless I see a review from someone I trust stating the game is the worst ever or unplayable, I’m going to check it out. It IS a Fallout game afterall…like with pizza, it could only be so bad. :stuck_out_tongue:

-XT

36

As far as mods are concerned, from what I’ve heard the Xbox360 and PC versions are getting the same mods (as far as developer created mods are concerned) and it’s just the ps3 version that’s being left out.

As far as time, well, let’s just say I have it on damn good authority that the french dude saying his buddy beat it in an afternoon was full of **** and the main quest will take you closer to 20 hours than “an afternoon.” I’ve heard estimates that if you try and do everything it’s closer to like 100 hours, which I find a bit ridiculous and probably an overestimation, but still, it’s a long game. That and there are quite a few different endings you can get so yea, lots of replay there.

37

Ideally “all of them,” but I’m saving myself for Fallout 3. I’ve lately been acutely aware of how awful the pacing of game releases can be…I think I bought one game during the first eight months of this year and there are literally about 30 that I want releasing between now and December.

38

I hate that they do this, too. During the summer when I’m on vacation (I’m a teacher) I have nothing to play, but during the winter when I’m busy as heck working often at least 10 hours a day there are WAY too many games that I want to play. It pisses me off that they’re so fall/winter-centric in the gaming industry that releases just get burried. I mean, Fallout 3 and Fable 2 would be enough to keep me going for another few months, add to that Legendary, Dead Space, GOW2, Mirror’s Edge, Prince of Persia, Etc and you have a very busy camper in this neck of the woods. At least I can take solace in the fact that I simply can’t afford to buy all those games so many of them will have to wait, as opposed to me buying them immediately and just not getting around to playing them for another 3 months

39

Fallout 3, Left for Dead, and Gears of War 2.

Fable 2 might come in there somewhere. I doubt it. I can see Fallout not making the cut if it comes down to it.

40

Fallout 3 for PC. Fable 2 when it comes out for PC.

I don’t know if Fallut 3 will be a good game, a great game or a bad game. I do know that I want to play it.

If Fallout 3 ships with an editor like Morrowind and Oblivion, then regardless of how good it is when it ships, it will be awesome within a couple of months.