Fallout 3

The Game Room
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I’ve heard other reports of Walter (who is in the habit of leaning on the railing outside the water processing plant) taking a fatal dive. I don’t think it’s related to the quest, since I had already fulfilled it by the time it happened.

In the first playthrough I hadn’t picked up Dogmeat until I was already pinned at 20th level, and much of what I was meeting in the wasteland was Giant Radscorpions. Dogmeat died repeatedly, and I ended up leaving him at home. But then during one main quest encounter he magically appeared next to me. Anyway, I figured that among the first things you’d see in fan mods would be a removal of the level cap and a more durable Dogmeat. Ka-ching. I’m playing through again, now in Very Hard mode (because it had been stupidly easy before, seriously), but with the level cap set at 30 and Dogmeat set to ‘essential’ (unkillable). It’s tougher this way, even with not having to worry about Dogmeat getting killed, but it better resembles the struggle for XP and booty you’d find in the old Fallouts, especially before you played it through enough to optimize your critical path.

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If you book it, you can make it pretty far before the Captain gives the counter order for them to fire. By then you are past the Jail area guards, and have a bit of time to look around if no guards walk by. There are some stimpaks in the area, but I don’t know if you can reach them off hand. Also I’m trying to remember if there is a sink(or toilet :wink: in the area. Drinking from them is a great healer if you hadn’t yet, and they would be purified water in the enclave so no risk. if they exist at all there I mean.

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Having Fawkes along would help.

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Walter died twice on me, both times in the same spot, hidden away. I teleported to him in order to resurrect him.

Also, the “Head of State” group got ripped apart by dogs, before I could save them. I’m guessing they were ripped apart more by normal NPC behavior of shooting and moving indiscriminately. I couldn’t get to them fast enough upon reload. I had to get lucky with the sniper rifle to save them.

Also had to shoot Dad up because he thought melee was the best answer against a Yao Gaui (or however they are spelled).

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Where was he? And how do you ressurect?

My Wallter is missiing. I just figured he’d bought all the scrap he wanted and went walkabout.

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Anyone ever save the NPC with the bomb on her back?

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In my case it was a guy, and I met him right after leaving Megaton for the first time, so I didn’t have enough demo skill. Blammo.

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I did. I disarmed it, and she ran off and hid behind a boulder while I killed the raiders chasing her. When I went to talk to her afterwards, all she had to say was “Thanks, you saved my life!” I just shrugged and walked on, thinking it was pretty lame.

Then Three-Dog talked about it a few days later during his newscast :slight_smile:

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Well, I beat it today. My impressions of the game from the first few days have been wiped away for the most part and I’d say I really liked it alot. Maybe my favorite game this year. Some random thoughts:

I was bummed that they did such a great job on the story and then threw it all away with a stupid forced decision path in the last 60 seconds of the game. It’s already been covered in this thread but I can’t believe they couldn’t find a better way to do that.

I finished in 28 hours. Lvl15. I used the Hunting Rifle, Combat Shotgun and Chinese Assault rifle for 90% of the game. Then I switched to the Laser Pistol/Rifle for the last 10%.

One BIG tip for people starting the game is, IMHO, you MUST get your Science skill up to at least 50% in the first few levels. There are so many terminals and the majority can’t be hacked with less than 50% Science. It aggravated the hell out of me because there was normally good story stuff in the terminals and there are a TON of them. I felt a tiny bit cheated that so many terminals were locked to my skill level yet the story depended on them so much. There are times when you can find key cards or passcodes etc… but 98% of the time it just depends on your Science skill.

After beating the game I think the skills that are MUST haves are (in order) Science 50%, Lockpick 100%, Repair 100%, Small Guns 100% and in my case Sneak 100%. The rest is just gravy but having low lockpick or Science will affect the flow of the game dramatically. Moreso than in the old Fallouts.

VATS made the game too easy on the default difficulty. I don’t have time to play through again like some of you though and that’s fine with me. I was playing for the story and I got most of that.

I had the Paladin companion for 50% of the game or so. I thought she was very helpful and tanked for me effectively.

I thought Power Armor was WAY under powered in this game. Same for energy weapons. I remember in 1&2 fiending for the power armor and laser rifle because they were so powerful. In this game I never botherd with power armor because it was just way too heavy for the DR it was giving. Energy weapons weren’t much more powerful than my Chinese Assault rifle either.

I beat the game without dieing once, except for a few times on purpose, but I never lost a fight. I almost got killed in the wastelands though when about 8 Rad Scorps swarmed me. IT was close.

I fast travelled to Farmingtons place or whatever it is called and was instantly attacked every time. I’m sure there are other locations like this too though.

I only found 5 bobbleheads, though I wasn’t actively seeking them out.

I didn’t use any sort of guide for the game.

I dont understand hoe some of you hurt for cash, stims and ammo in this game. I was overflowing with all of it and I didn’t really sell much gear. The map scouting for the rangers will keep you full of cash for the whole game. And I found so much ammo it was silly.

There’s my random thoughts for tonight.

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Finally ran across a box of Sugar Bombs and promptly returned to Murphy…only to find that he’d been killed by a Mirelurk.

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Plasma rifles are much better, especially at any kind of range. I don’t think any humanoid enemy in the game could survive more than a couple hits (to the head, of course). I used the improved plasma rifle, the improved hunting rifle, and the improved combat shotgun for my last 30 hours or so of playtime.

Anybody here take the bad karma route? I’m considering doing a quick second run through, but am not sure if there’s enough difference to make it worthwhile.

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When I was first starting the game I thought Three Dog was absolutely awesome, but I became disappointed in him as the game wore on. There were things that he should have commented on, but didn’t like: when I made Enclave radio go off the air by making Eden self-destruct and other times that he didn’t update what he was saying to reflect that I had solved a quest. It was a really nice feature, but felt very unfinished. Ideally each quest would have had a commentary.

It also would have been really nice if they had included more than an hour’s worth of music for his station :slight_smile:

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This seems the thread to mention this: I have just discovered that the original Fallout is being offered as a free download on GameTap. It used to be a couple bucks, and I’m not sure when the price changed. Anyway, now no one has an excuse for not having played the original.

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Did they modify it in some way to make it easier to run on modern systems?

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I love this game. I’m new to the Fallout series, and I find this setting utterly engrossing. In fact, I like that the mapping feature is so crummy because it keeps me engaged with my surroundings rather than with a mini-map.

I just finished my first game as a very good-karma character. 10 int with the other stats at 5, and with medicine, speech, and energy weapons tagged.

Speech is handy, but you kinda need to max it out ASAP, because it sucks to keep failing speech challenges when your speech is in the 50s-70s. Often, though, it feels like it just lets you take shortcuts through quests, which made me feel like I was missing out on part of the game.

You can start investing in energy weapons right off the bat. The weapon-dealing caravan was outside Megaton on the evening of my first day out of the vault, with a laser pistol for sale. It was a while before I got any other energy weapons, though. I suspect that small guns would be better largely because you generally find more bullets than energy-type ammo.

Repair is godly. When you “combine” two pieces of, say, raider armor, little or no value is lost (i.e. 38 cap armor repaired with 27 cap armor should be worth 65 caps) as long as you don’t go past the maximum. This compression effectively lets you carry much more loot and make much more money.

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I’m playing the game in much the same way I played Oblivion, as sort of a wanderer. When I left the vault I climbed up the hill, fought some scavengers, and haven’t did any of the main storyline quests. Actually about the only quests I’ve done was some of the Tenpenny quests. I’m basically exploring the landscape, looking for the unfilled triangles on the compass that mark points of interest. Just like the icons on the Oblivion maps that marked dungeons and other places. I’ve covered the western 1/3 of the map pretty thoroughly.

I’m up to level 7 now, pure evil, have a decent arsenal, although I’m thinking of actually going to a town to stock up on some ammo, I’m not getting enough from kills.

HOPEFULLY I’m not screwing up quests by clearing out places like the satellite relay stations without actually having a quest that tells me to go there. Worst case I’ll start over.

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I finished it last night. Took me about 25 hours and I was at level 14. Never had a companion the entire game, other than the 2 minutes or so Fawkes helped me out.

I didn’t find a single bobble head and never hacked a terminal (my science level was essentially nonexistent). Also, in reading the comments above, I’m seeing references to places and events I didn’t even know existed.

I started a new game immediately (which I never do), focusing on science, lockpicking, and speech, which were things I was weak on in my first game (where I was all about guns guns guns). The first thing I did in my new game was to blow up Megaton, which netted me a cool 1000 caps and got me the apartment in Tenpenny Tower. 1000 caps is more than I ever had in my first game, so I’m thinking already that how many caps you get (and how much ammo, etc) depends largely on how you play the game.

Overall, this is definitely my game of the year, and probably my favorite game I’ve ever played.

COD: World at War will be at my house by the time I get home tonight, so we’ll see whether it can tear me away from Fallout.

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I just finished my first play-through at just slightly over 51 hours, very good karma, science, repair, and explosives tagged/maxxed (and eventually small guns, sneak, and speech as well). Hit level 20 right before the final assault (Grim Reaper Sprint breaks the game … but is so cool). Found 10 bobbleheads. Preferred weapons - Grenades (any type), Lincoln Repeater, combat shotgun, scoped magnum, and exploding pants. Preferred armor- Ranger armor, raider bandana, and sunglasses :slight_smile: I’d estimate only 50-60% of the wastes explored; I may go back to a prior save and explore some more or just start a new character and explore with a new skill set. After watching this youtube video, I’m tempted to go the unarmed route, just for giggles.

Thoughts on the game after 50+ hours (probably spoilers):

Lunchbox, Bobbehead, Art book, and Pipboy digital clock from Amazon’s Survival Edition: HUGE thumbs-up, worth every penny. Not going to turn my lunchbox into a bottlecap mine though, that would be bad. Only thing that could’ve made it better was if the Pipboy had an alarm feature and an optional, removable plug – I can never have enough help waking up in the mornings, and it’s going to eat batteries like mad.

Scarcity of ammo/supplies in the beginning instills some very good gaming habits from the get-go. I would’ve liked this to continue later on into the game, somehow, as it become a little too trivial – so much so that I stopped looting items that had a weight, and just used ammo as my main barter currency. This did allow me to be extremely reckless with my grenades and mines though, which was fun (how high can you make Tenpenny fly? – not my vid, but I ended up playing with similar ideas).

Mixed feelings on the last 2 minutes of the main story – it’s always challenging for a developer to make a satisfying ending that’s not a happy ending. Story-wise, I appreciated this. The gameplay behind it fell extremely flat though. It felt forced, especially with Fawkes there.

I would’ve liked to see more end-game slides on how my character influenced the places I’d visited. Perhaps I needed to explore more, but I felt a little robbed with what I had accomplished not getting much mention – especially after the way Fallout 2 handled this.

The assault with Liberty Prime was awesome, especially with his anti-Commie battlecries.

It’s great that you can uncover so much story through exploration, even without having your hand held by the game through quests. The level of detail put into these little side-stories is what elevates this game from your standard fare.
– Finding the other vaults is a fine example in subtle storytelling. You don’t get quests to go to these places, but you can read old files about 1) what each vault was experimenting on, and 2) seeing the disastrous results once you enter, in addition to uncovering more details about the experiments. Reading about the mind-altering gasses released into the ventilation system, and then having hallucinations yourself – incredibly freaky, and really added to the atmosphere. Gary? Gary! Gaaaaryyyy… Classic! Malkovich!
– Picking up transmissions of actual morse code (and if you put in the effort of translating them, they’re actually legit radio codes in the proper format). Following the signal strength takes you to the source, and tells you a little story about whoever transmitted it (through inference, not overtly).
– Even the arrangements of corpses and skeletons tell a story. In Minefield, two skeletons embracing in a bed and a nightgown on the floor, telling a brief story about how these two spent their last moments as the bombs fell. Unlocking the door to a small shack and finding a small skeleton, 10mm pistol in one hand and teddy bear in the other – very spooky and sad. So many stories to find, and the game rightfully never leads you to them – it’s all up to the player to experience this rich and detailed world.

One of my favorite moments: Evergreen Mills. After so much mention on GNR, I decided to find this place and see what was up. I arrived in the evening, just as everyone was going to sleep. I picked off the few roaming guards in the darkness and planted mines outside the doors of the buildings. I waited until morning, and as people started waking up and walking around, the bodies went flying. The handful of raiders left had their hands full as I used my sniper rifle to blow open the electrified cage holding the Super Mutant Behemoth. It took me 3 trips to loot/store/sell everything heh.

Gripe: Companion AI, Dogmeat in particular. Would’ve loved if I could set him on passive mode, instead of having him run headfirst into missiles and miniguns. Fawkes was competent, and it was funny hearing a Super Mutant occasionally spouting words of wisdom in that stupid super mutie voice (“There is safety in mindfulness!” when I knocked stuff over while running around).

Overall, a solid, immersive, rich, and detailed game, with only a few minor complaints. I’m very happy with it :slight_smile:

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I’m having rotten luck with posting links lately :smack:

is the correct url

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I can recall when Bethesda boasted over 200 endings. Funny story… turns out there are actually four endings with maybe subtle difference in the slide show presented as they’re read off. I guess they figured having Three Dog doing the Warriors routine was good enough, but I didn’t think so. First of all, I didn’t need my ass kissed nearly that hard. Second, it didn’t tell us about the future of those places.