I am a huge HUGE Fallout fanboy (you can search some old posts I’ve written on the subject if you’re interested). I can’t say whether F3 truly lives up to the legacy of the first two until I’ve played through 5 or 6 times to see what kind of crazy shit I can pull off. But so far it’s pretty good. The guys at Bethesda have obviously played the originals a lot. The atmosphere is close to the originals, although there’s a bit of Elder Scrolls feeling in the way people look and talk. Character creation is well done on first playthrough, although I think it will get irritating on following playthroughs when you just want to skip some of the preliminaries and get to it. Item stats have been simplified a bit, which I find somewhat disappointing but a lot of people will probably like. The story is cool so far, but where F1 and F2 truly shine is in their complex branching storylines. If you have never played them, you don’t know how awesome an extremely nonlinear and player-driven plot can be when done really well. Just as an example, in F2 there is a murder mystery in New Reno that you can resolve about 6 different ways, only 1 of which is the actual truth. And there are various repercussions depending on how you present your findings as well. Only time will tell if F3 has that sort of thing too.
For those of you complaining about the FPS combat, you’re looking at it wrong. F3 is not a shooter with RPG elements, it is an RPG with shooter elements. If you truly only enjoy FPSes, this is not your game.
Just a quick strategy question: what’s the best way to take on the stronger mutants (the guys in armor and so on, not the simple zombies?). Basically I just plug away at them via VATS and pot-shots, but even with my best equipment I’m taking like 15 hits on each guy. Am I missing a certain class of weapon or a certain weakness on their part?
I’ve now spent more time on this game in the past two days than I care to admit, considering I do have a job and responsibilities and a girlfriend and such, but nonetheless.
I still love it. But I’ve found a couple of mild criticisms.
First, I’ve gotten stuck twice. Like, physically stuck. Got myself into a corner I couldn’t get out of. No matter which way I tried to move, I couldn’t get out. Had to reload from my last savepoint (is there a way to jump? Because if there is, then I’m officially an idiot and was not, in fact, stuck. My apologies to Bethesda if that’s the case.
Second, I’m getting awfully tired of the music repeating on the radio station. I can either listen to Yankee Doodle Dandy or hear “I don’t want to set the world on fire” for the 97th time this week. Please tell me I’m going to find a new radio station soon.
Oh yeah, one last criticism. I was trying to play as a heartless killer, but I keep gaining karma points. I’m too nice a guy. I just can’t bring myself to be rude to people.
Thanks for reminding me. On a Bethesda game it’s a good idea to make the console available so you can switch to NOCLIP mode on occasions like this.
I was thinking that as much as I like Butcher Pete, it could get old pretty quick if there isn’t a pretty good selection for rotation. If they made it possible to run my own jukebox, I’ve got loads of music of that general type I could play.
I played as a renegade in Mass Effect, taking the assholish dialogue choice whenever it wouldn’t actually cut off the quest, and I still nearly pinned in paragon points. I’m hoping I can maintain good karma even after I start stealing like crazy.
I have Small Weapons as my main offense and I can kill pretty much any Super Mutant in 1-3 shots in VATS and I’m only lvl 5. The key, IMHO, is to run up close to them then stack 2-3 VATS shots up and let loose. One of them will almost always crit hit and kill them.
I’m sure when the sniper rifles and what not come later it will be easier to hang back and take pot shots but I never start shooting until they are inside about 15 ft.
Also, I’ve found that energy weapons don’t work very well on them.
Ah. It’s a different kind of console. PC games usually have an option in the config file (or a parameter for the executable launch) that allows you to open the debug console, usually by pressing Tilde (~) during the game. There you can type in commands that the developers used to test the game’s functionality, but which are also good for cheaters or for people who’d like to try something nutty or just tool around in God Mode for a bit. But it’s often useful to have the console available even if you don’t plan to cheat for the NOCLIP mode if nothing else. If you get stuck, you can turn it on to float freely through all obstacles to a spot where you aren’t touching anything and then let go and return to the ground.
VATS is lame. I can see how they were trying to combine turn based combat with twitch FPS, but it doesn’t come close to the strategic depth found in previous Fallouts. There’s no strategy involved with VATS. It’s basically a glorified bullet time mode with regenerating energy meter. There are no choices involved. You pick a limb with the highest percentage and stack your magic bullet shots until he crits into a bloody pile. Speaking of which, crits happen WAY too often. I think Bethesda got obsessed with watching heads explode. I shouldn’t be making enemies explode with a pistol every 10 shots without the bloody mess perk.
With some improvements it could be awesome. You should be able to choose between shot types in VATS. Aimed shots that up your percentage but take up more AP, for instance. The ability to use healing items in VATS, with an AP cost. You should be able to move a bit in VATS by using AP. Strategy and RPG games are about choices. VATS is like playing chess with only one type of piece.
If you get stuck (Physically stuck) you can open up your map and do a quick travel to the nearest location. Sucks, I know, but what can ya do? Better than reloading from a previous save.
Mutants are easiest to kill if you pot shot 'em in the head. Some of the bastards require running and hiding in an area they can’t reach (damn goliaths…) but most of em, even the Masters, can be taken out without too much damage if you’ve got cover and can pop out, run up kinda close to em and VATS shot them in the head, then go back to cover. Maybe use a grenade or two. Mines are also good as they often just come after you but remember to get back far enough that when it goes it doesn’t hurt you as well
Also whoever said energy weapons aren’t that effective… seriously? I foudn them to be EASILY the best weapons in the game. The laser pistols suck, but the laser rifles, the plasma stuff, all get to be ridiculously good. Laser rifle does less damage then a hunting rifle but is more accurate, holds more bullets, and fires MUCH faster.
I didn’t say energy weapons sucked, just that they don’t seem to work well on super mutants.
You stack VATS shots by hitting the trigger multiple times before pressing A. You can stack as many shots as you can fit into your available AP.
I mentioned this earlier, but I’m finding myself to be disappointed in how the game deals with exploring. I feel like I’m screwing up the story by wandering around finding new areas because I’m triggering stuff before I’m told to do it, which is resulting in some very weird scripted sequences.
Don’t have the game yet, because I keep hearing “Oblivion with guns”, and that worries me a lot, so I have some questions I’m wondering about before I commit.
First, how far can you customize the physical appearance of your character? Do you pick from preloaded heads, or tweak the actual features?
Second, and most importantly, are the NPCs/shopkeepers all wooden and lifeless like in Oblivion? I couldn’t get into that game because when I talked to people, it was the same set of interactions over and over and over. No one had a distinct personality, no one had anything interesting to say, my own character’s responses never seemed to make a damn bit of difference in the conversation, and there was a very small number of voice actors and character templates that were just reused ad nauseum. One of the biggest draws of the original Fallout series for me was the dialogue and the character interactions in general, and I’m afraid I’m going to miss that here.
Well…got the game today (ended up coming home a day early). And it doesn’t work seemingly. I loaded the game, launched it, went through the opening sequence got to the point where it asks you if you want to be a girl or boy and then…just sits there. It’s not locked because I can hit <esc> and it pops up a menu for settings and exit. But that’s it. I let it sit there for 5 min and nada.
There is a small amount of tweaking you can do with your appearance but nothing to write home about.
The answer to your second question is, unfortunately, yes. Most of the people sound wooden and every ghoul is voiced by the same person. There is only a small number of character templates. It’s alot like Oblivion. BUT, the dialoge is well done, though not as witty as the other Fallouts.
All in all it’s a great game,. I hated Oblivion because it bored me to tears and I think if this game wasn’t based in the Fallout universe that I already love I would be bored by this game too. Oh well, I’m liking it.
I actually disagree with this. A lot of the shopkeepers are distinct (the lady in Megaton is COMPLETELY different from Flak and Shrapnel in Ratchet, etc) and the ghouls all sound similar, but if you’re in Underworld you definitely notice distinct voices.
Also I’d say there’s about as much tweaking as could be done in Oblivion, I was really only disappointed by the hair options, only maybe 10 of them or so. The dialogue options range a bit more than in Oblivion, too, though not as much as in previous Fallout games. It definitely feels a bit like Oblivion, but with a MUCH better atmosphere and much more interesting characters, IMO.
VATS is a computer-assisted aimed shot. That’s the entire point, you’re not relying on your mouse to try and aim. The inherent bonus is VATS is it ensures that you’re shooting at your desired body part (though you may miss of course), instead of trying to line up your sights on some guy’s head from a long-distance, while he’s moving. You’ve just complained that VATS makes it too easy, so you want it to be even easier? :dubious:
And you can already pretty much insta-heal through the pipboy, adding that to VATS wouldn’t make any sense.