Toe Jam and Earl: Back in the groove is also on Epic this week too. I played TJ&E back in the megadrive days so it’s a blast from when if I fire it up.
Just ran across this post on r/patientgamers:
At least one person considers Darkwood a masterpiece, apparently. Still free until Thursday.
The Sims 4 is free beginning today, 18 Oct, probably in the morning USA Pacific Time.
This week in Epic, we’ve got Evoland: legendary edition and Fallout 3: GOTY edition
How does Fallout 3 stack up to the other Fallouts? One of the good ones?
I’m also interested in whether Fallout 3 is good. I might have played it (and not had it linked to steam or epic account, it’s that old I think) for a bit, I remember playing A Fallout for a bit. I’ve got Fallout 4 and New Vegas sitting on steam unplayed yet though.
It’s pretty good I think.
There are better Fallout games for sure but for free definitely worth getting.
New Vegas is much better and if that is your measuring stick I think Fallout 3 will disappoint.
But again…free. So why not?
I have Evoland 2 on my iPhone. It’s an interesting game, it combines different kinds of classic games as different “modes” in a single adventure game. I haven’t played the original one but if it’s anywhere near as good, it’s worth grabbing for free. (I’ll be doing so.)
Oh, it’s great. You should definitely get it. I’ve played Fallout 1, 2, 3, 4, and New Vegas.
New Vegas is probably the best, but 3 is also really excellent.
100% get it and play it.
Thanks much for all the feedback, sounds like it’s worth a flyer.
I haven’t fully played any fallout games yet, but I do have fallout 4 still installed. I played about an hour and liked it, but I think I was way too into cities skylines at the time. I should get back to that; I am looking for a new game.
If the only two fallout games I have are 3 and 4, and I’ve never played any of them, should I play 3 first?
I found 4 to be the better game but there’s a kid in 3 who appears in 4 as an adult mercenary and can be hired as a venturing partner.
I’m a huge Fallout fan.
Fallout 1 is basically a turn-based RPG with very simple isometric graphics.
Fallout 2 is basically a turn-based RPG with very simple isometric graphics.
Fallout 3 is more of a real-time RPG. It has the “VATS” system which is kind of a compromise to the turn-based fans (and I personally hate it so that I never use it), but it otherwise has a real-time combat system. Overall though, it is a true RPG, so the emphasis is on role playing and not on combat. If you really like shooter games, FO3’s combat is a bit clunky. The main quest is a bit linear, and in the base game ends with you (the player) dying for no really good reason. The GOTY edition with all of the DLC fixes the ending and gives you some options. Side quests are generally good and are reasonably well thought out. Aside from being a bit linear, the main quest is good and is well thought out, so it makes sense. The graphics are a bit underwhelming by modern standards.
Fallout New Vegas is basically the same game engine as FO3, with some survival additions that make the game much more enjoyable from a role playing point of view. It’s a much better RPG, with more options that are meaningful and several different factions. Not only do you decide which faction “wins” at the end, but you can decide the fate of numerous other factions as well. Again, combat is a bit clunky compared to a modern shooter, but as an RPG this is by far the best Fallout game in the series. It’s the same graphics engine as FO3 (basically) so again, a bit underwhelming by modern standards.
Fallout 4 is a shooter. The gameplay as a shooter is much better than FO3 or FNV. Power armor is very much improved, and “feels” like power armor instead of just another outfit to wear. The graphics are a huge improvement compared to FO3 and FNV, but Bethesda advertised the improved graphics as the best new thing to hit gaming in years, and they are a bit underwhelming compared to other modern games. But definitely an improvement compared to FO3 and FNV. If Bethesda had advertised them as greatly improved over previous games and not tried to advertise them as the best in the business then maybe they wouldn’t have received so much negative feedback for their outdated game engine. Overall, graphics and combat is good. As an RPG, Fallout 4 is miserable. The main quest holds your hand the entire way. You only get to make one significant choice in the entire game, and that is which faction wins. Nothing else you do matters. Conversation options are stripped down, and every conversation has four answers: Yes, No (but somehow ends up being a type of yes), yes sarcastically, and some other answer that also means yes. No matter which one you choose, the result is the same. In FNV, if you say the wrong thing to someone, they might not ever talk to you again. Conversations matter. In FO4, nothing you say matters. You can be as sarcastic and rude as you want. The NPCs won’t care. You get a few minor variations in some conversation, but that’s it. Nothing meaningful.
So it basically comes down to whether you prefer a casual shooter or an in-depth RPG. FO3 is an RPG. The interesting stuff is in the conversations. FO4 is a shooter. The conversations only exist to break up the action and add a bit of flavor to the shooter. If you are a casual gamer, you probably don’t care about a lot of the details and just want to get to the shooting. This is what FO4 was made for, and you probably won’t like FO3. If you’re an RPG player, you will greatly prefer FO3, and will especially prefer FNV. Casual gamers find deep RPGs to be confusing, because casual gamers don’t want to invest a huge amount of time and energy learning the lore and figuring out what each faction wants and that sort of thing. They just want to play the game. But an RPG player wants that depth. FO4 has all the depth of a shallow puddle. Quests aren’t well-thought out and in same cases make little or no sense if you really stop and think about them. But it’s a shooter. You aren’t supposed to care about the quests. The quests in FO4 are just to set up the story so that you can go shoot stuff. The emphasis is on the shooting.
FO3 is a good RPG. FNV is an excellent RPG. FO4 isn’t an RPG.
Which one you prefer depends on what you enjoy in gaming. If you like shooters, you might hate FO3 and FNV. If you like RPGs, you’ll prefer FO3 and FNV and will likely be disappointed in FO4.
I personally am a huge Fallout fan, but I’m an RPG fan. I was hugely disappointed by FO4. And let’s not even talk about FO76. I finally got FO76 for free and even then I am having a hard time playing it. It’s just not that enjoyable.
Oh, and there’s a big bit of foreshadowing in 3 in regards to a major faction in 4.
I don’t know if I’m an RPG guy, really. I might be; I don’t know if I’ve ever played one.
I wistfully think back to DDO, which I played extensively from 2011 to 2015, before my game was ruined by reaper mode.
quick backstory on DDO
I only played heroic elite; reaper mode made that pointless for the entire player base so I never had anyone to run with again. Not even my longtime guildmates, since they ran reaper like everyone else. Not running reaper not only meant no one wanted to run with me on elite, it also meant I was way underpowered and could not contribute to reaper runs with anyone else. My guild mates were fine and happy to carry my underpowered ass, but I felt useless. Because I was. My entire play style was just killed in a single update. I’ve been looking to scratch that itch ever since.
I don’t think there was any RPG element in DDO, but there was extensive character building. D&D style character building combined with active combat is really what I’m looking for.
Anyway, it sounds like I should do fallout 4 first, because if it turns out that I am an RPG guy, I’ll hate 4 if I run 3 first. But if I do 4 first I won’t know that yet and so will have the best chance to enjoy both.
Maybe you’re like me and prefer exploration, which is where 4 really shines. The ability to explore in 3 diminishes in relation to the distance from downtown, unless you like exploring subway tunnels. Storywise, all that rubble blocking aboveground travel makes sense but if you play 4 first, you’ll likely get spoiled by being able to freely explore Boston while hardly ever having to go underground.
That’s what really grabbed me about 4, the feeling of “what’s around the next corner?” Can’t get that in 3, at least in downtown, because what’s around the next corner is probably a subway entrance.
I did not hate Fallout 4 and none of the main games(Fallout 1-4 and New Vegas) are bad, but I found 4 to never fully grip me, though Far Harbor(a DLC) kind of did.
Yeah Fallout 3 is probably my favorite overall but the way Washington DC was split up (for technical reasons I guess) got on my nerves a bit. Still a very great game, wonderful story and atmosphere.
That is a pretty good comparison of F3 and F4, but I think you’re underrating the RPGness of F1 and F2. Of course they’re ancient games at this point so they can be hard to stand for their limitations, but at least F2 is a good RPG.
Fallout 4 is kind of bad at everything. People will say “it’s by far the best fallout shooter game!” - sure, but it’s garbage at being a shooter game compared to actual shooter games. A decent world to explore is pretty much all it has going for it.
The zenith of this concept is all the “radiant quests” the factions have. You can literally just play the game doing nothing but radiant quests and just rack up XP and loot. They serve no purpose other than that. They don’t impact the storyline. They don’t change NPC attitudes toward you. They don’t do anything special for your character. They never end and are just spontaneously regenerated. They will eventually randomly repeat because there are only so many combinations programmed into the game.
They are also boring for an RPG. Really boring. Because they serve no purpose outside of “lets shoot things and get loot.”
Genesis: Alpha One (Deluxe Edition) is free on GOG for the next 72 hours. Look at the store page and decide if you want to click through to the store giveaway banner like all the other GOG giveaways