Fallout 3

[Vyrosama]

First Impressions:

-Game reference tag line: It's like oblivion w/ guns, gore, and bullet time!

-Props for them making it based in DC instead of the west coast like the other games. I think I started off close to where peijin lives, but it's hard to tell with it being a nuclear wasteland out there. I was planning on heading over the key bridge to visit georgetown but the bridge was in shambles and the water was radioactive so I decided to head west to see if my house or jason's house is still in tact. Then a giant radioactive scorpion ate me....

-Being a pack rat gamer, I love picking up/looting everything possible (even if the profit is abysmal to sell). But then I realized that the same thing happened in oblivion and it just got old real fast since you literally will see junk everywhere. I do have hope, there's a supposedly "junk" launcher out there that should be fun to use

-The game plays like a FPS but you have skills that affect your accuracy. It's still a very odd sensation to shoot a gun in this game and watch the bullet go nowhere near what I aimed. Sure, there's a margin of error with any gun, but I guess I'm just used to all those FPS where the first shot usually goes where I was pointing (especially if I'm standing still and so is the target).

-the VACS system allows you to pause the game and aim at specific parts of the enemy's body. Depending on the number of "action points" you have, you'll be able to queue up attacks like a turn based system and watch them play out in slow motion (bullet time!) usually from a cinematic camera view. What really makes this cool is that these attacks usually do a lot more damage/criticals and nothing is more entertaining then watching a a raider's head blow up with a well shot bullet in slow motion!

[quantus]

damn those giant radioactive scorpions!

[Vyrosama]

-32 hours into the game now (game clock, not including save-reload/afks/etc)

Game is somewhat buggy:
-It crashes to desktop on occasion but since I save often and there's an auto-save function, it doesn't bother me as much.
-Since the setting is in a post-apocalyptic world, there's tons of rubble and junk everywhere. It's fun to see what you can salvage
from random ruins, but it's not so fun when you get stuck in it (character get's clipped inside the terrain and can't move). This is rare
but does happen, just remember to avoid those troublesome spots after you reload...
-Crash zone(s), there appears to be a bug which many suffer (include myself) where if you do the main quest out of sequence, it will completely corrupt an area around Jefferson Memorial also nick-named "the dead zone" by some players. Any player who enters this area will automatically glitch and crash-out. Only way to avoid this is todo the main quest IN sequence...or you can cheat and teleport inside the Jefferson Memorial. So I lost about 5 hours worth of gameplay to load a previous game to do the main quest in order. The annoying thing is that I did all of this non-intentionally just by exploring and doing side quests. Guess the game scripts weren't robust enough to handle all the open-ended permutations a person could take while playing the game...(for all those who do play...DO NOT GOTO Rivet City before finishing off the GNR building/quest).

But other than that, the game has been very entertaining. Heck I even found that giant scorpion and gave him a nice serving of shotgun shells . My goal in this game is to be a lawful good laser wielding cyborg....next game I'll try to be a sneaky chaotic evil ninja with a fist attack of death!

[Dave]

I've gotten tired of super large exploration games these days, and almost prefer short linear, on-rails, games that are entertaining. Im guessing I wont like Fallout 3 if I couldnt stand Morrowind?

[Vyrosama]

Exploration can be a big part of the game...or you could just follow the main quest. It's fairly well scripted and there'll be plenty of sightseeing opportunities along the way. You can always ignore them or if you're curious, explore them. For example, you might come across a random kid in the wasteland, crying for help. You could a. Tell him to beat it, b. Get the waypoint on your map and do it at your leisure, or c. kill him and loot his body.

I say it's one of those games that's definitely worth trying out at least. There's definitely some eye-candy experiences that's worth trying out. I'd say if you're really hesitant on spending too much money, torrent it or just rent it for the weekend on the xbox360.

[Jonathan]

I thought children were not killable. C/D?

[Vyrosama]

I thought children were not killable. C/D?

Yea damn buggers don't die. Hmm, well in that case you can sell him to slavers . Maybe I should go back and see if I can kill him (technically..he's more of an adolescent than a child...::shrug::)

[Alan]

I had fun with it for a while, but I never seem to learn my lesson that I inevitably lose interest playing hugely open ended games.

Then again I lose interest in every game fairly quickly.

I didn't really ever feel like I was playing a Fallout game though. And I think I gave up once I realized there wasn't going to be a Gauss Rifle for me to use. It got kind of disappointing to not get hold of a new weapon for over 15 hours or so of play-time.

[Vyrosama]

yea, the weapon selection seems a bit limited compared to the previous fallout games. I was cyborg w/ a crappy laser rifle for a looong time. Then I got a nice shiny new plasma rifle. Not only does it cause enemies to eplode on implact as if they were hit by a gernade, it then proceeds to melt all the body pieces into neon green goo...now I'm happy

[Dave]

So I ended up getting this game for xbox. Played a bit, killed some guy's mom and stopped. Any recommendations on character builds? I was probably going to use a gun and play on very easy.

[Vyrosama]

depends on if you want the "ultimate build" or not...but it really isn't that difficult of a game (especially toward the middle/end levels of your character and since you can tweak the difficulty setting) so I'd just go with what you feel like playing with...I'd up the difficulty to default normal otherwise everything will be too easy.

small guns have the most variety and are easily obtainable (staple build choice)
big guns are hard in the beginning since you won't have access to any decent ones and ammo can be an issue early/mid game (although they have some pretty cool weapons)
energy weapons have a few crappy ones available early on but you get some nice ones later on (this is the one I choose)
melee - you can't use VATS to target body parts but there are some interesting weapons out there...(but these are uncommon loot or craft only)
unarmed - you can't use VATS to target body parts and weapon choice sucks...but there's some endgame perks you could potentially get (death ninja!)
explosives - I originally didn't get this but after I saw how cool explosives look in slow motion....couldn't resist...should not be primary attack skill due to limited ammo

choose lockpick or science, you really don't need both...but I just wanted to picklock and hack everything in sight...so I got both =).
sneak - depends on your style...but it's such a useful skill......
medicine - could be useful if you are on a high difficulty and don't save often (there are a lot of traps out there....) but otherwise it's not really that necessary.
speech - very handy if you are trying to be "good"...otherwise just use other "methods" to convince npcs....
repair - I got this as well...I just like repairing everything I can get my hands on.....(most npcs can repair up to 50% condition for a fee...so it's not entirely necessary...but you do get more money for better condition loot and are a bit more efficient gear-wise)
barter - worthless

I think at level 19 I have the following skill levels something like that:
barter - 20?
sneak - 90
small guns - 50
big guns - 20
energy guns - 95
explosives - 80?
repair -93
science - 93
lockpick - 93
medicine - 60
melee - 20?
unarmed - 20?
speech - 30?

next game I'm going to go for
unarmed 100
explosives 100
sneak 100
science 75
melee 75?

on the highest difficulty setting. something like that....

[Dave]

How to waste $60.

Buy Fallout 3
Open box
Place in console
Power up
Get though introduction
Exit Vault
Follow the dots to a guard.
While aiming at guard, mash buttons to shealth gun
Shoot guard.
Get pwned.
Turn off console.

lol... ill probably try again later. I still need to bear GTA4!

[Vyrosama]

actually I don't know how to unsheath a gun....and I don't think it matters that much (I think you move a little slower but it's negligible).

finally beat the game this weekend. 60hrs to complete...probably only explored 1/2 the map, didn't feel like looking at all the other places since I was already at max level and had the best weapons. During the "last quest" I went around cloaked and started placing land mines in enemies' inventory just to see them scuttle around trying to figure out where the beeping sound was coming from only to explode moments later...very entertaining ("Pants Exploded - 15").

MINI SPOILER:
You should at least visit megaton, I mean what game nowadays gives you an option to blow up your starter town?

And to digress....

How is GTA4? Worth getting? I think they finally released it for PC so I might get it. San Andreas was a blast to play, I really liked how the character customization turned rpg-ish plus some of missions were very enjoyable.

[Dave]

I fail at driving at high speeds and aiming with a controller, so I never really got into GTA4 since I'd fail missions randomly because I would be driving a shitty car trying to kill 20 ppl on motorcycles. Story is interesting enough to make me want to beat it eventually. Then again, I also own Deadspace, and haven't gotten around to it either.

[Vyrosama]

I played san andreas on PC as well, so I never had issues with aiming . Also I used the motocycle extensively for those annoying drive+shooting missions because you could shoot things in front of you so you don't have to aim much, just tail the other vehicle at a safe distance and fire away...just hope he doesn't slam on the breaks...