Fallout Series: Because Arguing Never Changes

The only things I really hated in Fallout 3 were the many, many, many metro sections. I'm claustrophobic in real life, and for some odd reason those sections brought on my condition. The rest I sort of loved. Apart from those hicks in Point Lookout who could take a Gauss Rifle shot to the face and not flinch.

In the 2008 E3 ad for Fallout, there was a phone number you can call. It tells you that you have to wait 78,643 hours. Now, converting that, it equals 8.97156 years. 8.97156 years from June 15-17, 2008, (The three days of E3, obviously), it roughly equates to July 4, 2017. Fallout 4 Confirmed!

edited 24th Jul '14 12:02:14 PM by GethKnight

so I finished the first game. Shot up the Master and shooting up much of the mutant army, though I was too late to save Necropolis and the Hub. I know there's a diplomatic route, but there is no way I could have guessed how on my first run without using thoroughly an online guide. I may try it again with mods.

I exploited what I think were glitches to be able to get through it, such as how you can go over your carry weight by taking buffout even after it fades. The most tactical: I got the Master to shot one of his floating eyes, and the other started attacking him while he took no action against it. It had weak attacks, but whittled him down a bit while I took care of the mutant army.

Not wanting to use guides resulted in me visiting the Glow, Mariposa and Necropolis twice, and I don't know how I would have guessed on my own things like having to take Rad-X instead of Rad Away at the Glow. They really needed to give the player more hints, such as how you can disable the forcefields. Oddly enough, the guide I had went right against my experience when it came to fight difficulty: the first fights I found impossible without companions, while the Master was quite straightforward at level 13. Maybe I just became that much better.

A few story elements puzzle me: why does the Cathedral explode, other than being a genre convention? Why do psychic powers come in right at the end and have no obvious effect on the story? Why do I read that in Fallout 2 it's canon that you wipe out the Khans even though there's no real reason to do so in this game?

Getting back to the diplomatic options, it really surprised me that even the raiders don't attack you when you go to bring back Tandi (though NPCs can explode from twitchy dialogue, and once a fight starts, you can't make them surrender or tell your companions to not chase them when they run). It's ironic that the big problem I have with Fallout: Equestria is how the heroine goes around shooting remorselessly evil people right and left, an application of video game logic that doesn't belong in written fiction (see Pannic's liveblog for the details) and is averted by the first game.

I'll be playing Fallout 3 next, if my computer allows it. (I got the two games from a charity shop.)

If you don't destroy the Khans, I don't think Shady Sands becomes the NCR, which was kinda needed for FO 2.

shady sands is most likely the first place the player will end up in after leaving the vault.

the big quest to do in shady sands is to take out the khans.

ergo, canon is that fo1protag did this thing that he was in fact fairly likely to do.

(also, the cethedral is blown up by either the vault dweller himself, or by the master when he realised his mutants are sterile)

for reasons unbeknownst to anyone, the master rigs the nuclear device on the 4th floor to explode if he dies in combat with you.

edited 24th Jul '14 3:38:45 PM by Tarsen

I'll have to reinstall the first two Fallouts. In the meantime I installed #3, so I can explore it.

First place I ended up was dead halfway to Vault 15 due to two Radscorpions the first time I played Fallout 1 a few months ago.

yeah? neat.

the game doesnt railroad you. you can go anywhere. but im pretty sure theres an npc in the vault who directs you to go east and the first stop there is shady sands. regardless, even if it isnt the most likely place you'll go to, its a settlement with a big quest attached. its hardly the only one the canonical vault dweller did, im pretty sure.

You're only told that you need to go to Vault 15 for a working Water Chip. That's it. It's in your map and you can fast travel there right away. No one knows that Shady Sands even exists.

seriously?

theres a fast travel option?

Between Vault 13 and 15 right off the bat, yep.

Started a game of FO 3 as a red head named Angus MacGyver. Unfortunately, I'm already unlike him. I've killed people for the experience points and I'm wielding a pistol for the sake of safety.

I really should go back and redo F1 and 2. Kinda.... lost the flow with it - same as with Arcanum - felt very overwhelmed by the game. Which is strange as I used to love the "no real concrete direction" games.

Nowadays I feel half blind without a quest log or a walkthrough to make sure I get the "golden ending". I blame the Internet. And my desire to be a completionist.

So, this weekend, going to try for another playthrough of F3. Pondering whether to use a save I haven't touched in ages or to try from scratch. I think I got to the purifier on my last playthrough, but I'm weighing up whether I can be arsed with redoing all the megaton and side questy stuff... or the Anchorage DLC... ugh.

Finding all the collectibles in that sodding one was an arse.

:/

And yes I realise that "collectibles" are kinda anachronistic to a survival game in the wasteland, but I was Cheevo hunting at the time! I swear yer honnah!

So, yeah, Wondering whether to do my usual "medical / intelligence / stealth" route or whether to go for the archetypal bruiser? I usually end up trying to be as long range as possible.

The Wasteland equivalent of leaning back and flailing at the enemy. With lasers.

Nah, that was my disapproving fanboy face at you playing Fallout 3 sooner through again before completing first two games at least once

... I deserved that. Yeah I need to play through them properly. I must just suck at them, as I get my arse handed to me each time. I appear to be rubbish at managing resources or getting the hang of equipping followers.

I also despise the followers in F3 as I feel I spend most of the time trying to keep them aline with no real tactical control. That's one of the major failures of the game (But is symptomatic of the engine)

That and the damn metros being spread across so many maps. If they made the engine a bit better they could've made a large metro coverage.

I'm a bit of a skipping record on that, I know.

Anyway, for the originals, is there a "best way to play" that anyone favours?

Eh, if you get beaten at combat, try one of pregenerated characters, they appear to be balanced better <_< I mean, even diplomacy character in first game is able to kill rats in cave well enough, while in comparison my diplomacy characters can't hit anything and need save scumming to win

I restarted FO 3 after it locked up on me. Went from Mac Gyver to Kowalsky. I figured I'd rather get into combat and not avoid fights like a Mac Gyver character would try to do. There's something oddly satisfying in the dichotomy of giving a raider a beatdown in the middle of an elementary school as patriotic music plays through the Enclave station on the radio. If I wasn't considered a mutant, they might like that.

Now you can't Mac Gyver together any of the weapons!

edited 25th Jul '14 8:24:14 AM by GethKnight

Mac Gyver can't lethally use them for the XP, either. I gave my Kowalski knock-off repair skill so he CAN repair weapons with other weapons. And he can treat Raiders and Enclave like Jaffa and Goa'uld, running and gunning with the occasional use of V.A.T.S. for taking down people in his way.

And I've already been surrounded and killed once, so the Kowalski curse still lives.

On the matter of the Khans, you don't need to attack them at all; in fact you get more experience if you free Tandi by stealth or bargaining (and you're likely too weak to fight them). You can go back later and wipe them out, but there's nothing pushing you to. I killed various raider bands in random encounters, but not the Khans, and Sandy Shades became the NCR without trouble.

@Tarsen: You start off with Vault 15 on the map and you can skip Sandy Shades, but if you take the direct route you will see it, and you have good reason to go there.

Custom characters in Fallout 1 do seem oddly weak in combat at the start. And random encounters can very well be out of you range. Get Ian first thing.

I got through the main quest of Fallout 3, doing plenty of exploration and side-quests along the way. I agree with what others have said, many quests are boring or dumb, the dialogue and voice acting don't help, and the world doesn't make much sense as a whole. Too many elements reused from previous games without being used well this time.

Also, far too much grey. Radioactivity does not translate to loss of colour (and it's not graphical limitations, as shown by the Oasis).

Gameplay-wise, I didn't enjoy the shooting much, but I don't know if that's the game or my underpowered rig. Often enemies wouldn't show up until they were almost jumping on me.

But in exploration, the game is great. I really don't think the change to first-person was any sort of unwarranted, it would not feel the same if I could not put myself in the Lone Wanderer's eyes and scan the horizon. The freedom to move about a huge (if incoherent) world is incredible. The monsters, especially the mirelurks, are well designed, though they could have been less photorealistic. And some good ideas like Tranquility Lane, though again some don't fit together well.

What makes me cringe the most is not the dialogue but the karma system. Too many people being evil for its own sake. (Why aren't the slavers turning their technical skills to repairing the many robots? Who are the predators feeding on, and the raiders stealing from?) And it's far too easy to become a saint (in Fallout 1 there was usually a reason why a local couldn't do the task required of you).

Then comes the ending...

My biggest problem isn't the contrivance or thematic irrelevance but the very fact the game ends. The first two games were plot-driven and had to end in some way, even if you die (where you get a short cutscene and are returned to the menu). But 3 is an open exploration game and should let the player continue like GTA does (and when you die, it goes back to the last save). All the worse since it has just given you power armor training.

So I tried to install Broken Steel through Steam... and I'm told I have to purchase the game through Steam first.

So I have a question: at what point should I stop in the main quest to explore the world, preferably with power armor?

Also, it has made me realise I have to get New Vegas. I have bought it with all DLC and I'll be playing it soon.

New Vegas ends too.

Just keep a save before the final stretch of the game...

Honestly dude, do whatever you want. You wanna run around in Power Armor do it. Don't think its as fun as it was in the orginal games but I guess you could have a good time.

edited 24th Aug '14 1:06:05 PM by MikeBreezy92

The difference, I think, is that New Vegas is a lot more similar to Fallout 1 and 2 in terms of theme and purpose, I suppose.

I mean, yeah, you can explore, but that's more due to the fact that it had to be based on Fallout 3's system.