Fallout 3

[Wrestlevania]

Okay, the DLC is starting to come out.

Shit, already?! I need to get a move on.

I was going to ask for MS Points from my relatives for my 30th, because the F3 and GTA IV DLC packs are looking like essential purchases.

[toblix]

When I get my Xbox 360 back, I will move to make The Lost and Damned a requirement for future GTA sessions. Then I will move to whack everyone off their bikes with a bat.

[Nappi]

Okay, the DLC is starting to come out. Does anyone know how these are "plugged" into the game? Do they just appear somewhere in the wasteland, or are the explicitly "launched" in some way from the game?

The one that was released today is set in Alaska in the year 2076.

If I remember correctly, one of the later ones was supposed to extend the storyline of the original game, though.

[Wrestlevania]

Getting whacked off by toblix? Worth the price of admissi-oh shut up you twat.

[miffy495]

YAY! TL&TD comes out in the middle of reading week! I can feel a marathon play session coming on!

[Noyb]

Eurogamer didn't like the expansion. 2.5 hours on a leisurely playthrough. Focused on action more than story.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/fallout-3-operation-anchorage-review

I'm not picking it up. From what I've read, it doesn't seem to tell a good story for the price, which is pretty much the only thing that would get me to buy new content since my level 20 character is so rich and god-like that any additional items would just break the late-game economy and difficulty curve even further.

[Wrestlevania]

Eurogamer didn't like the expansion. 2.5 hours on a leisurely playthrough. Focused on action more than story.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/fallout-3-operation-anchorage-review

Just so much of what makes the Fallout 3 experience such a complete and all-encompassing one is stripped away, and if you've already spent a fair proportion of the past four months in the DC wasteland you'll feel like you're only playing half the game you love.

...

[toblix]

Oh, now I get it!

I spent yesterday trying to do the first main quest, finding the GNR HQ. Assuming this first quest would be easy, I was shocked to find myself constantly close to death and counting bullets. I went through a bunch of subway stations killing off dudes and super mutants. I went all over the place, and each time I got out of a subway station I wasn't anywhere close to where the map marker was.

So it turns out I took a wrong turn right at the beginning and headed deeper into DC, a place I obviously wasn't meant to go just yet. When I found the right subway station to enter (the one near the Super-Duper mart) I noticed everything becoming easy again, with cockroaches and those soft ghoulies, and I found tons of awesome meds and ammo. After following the BoS soldiers for a while, I'm weighed down with huge guns. There's plenty I could never pick up, though. Do corpses disappear when I leave the area?

[Nappi]

Not immediately at least. Don't know if they do after a long time. Just fast travel back and forth if you have found a place to put the excess stuff.

[toblix]

You mean there are safe places to put stuff? All right, so I can put stuff in, say, my Megaton house instead of just selling everything?

[gdf]

Yeah, you can just dump it on the floor if you want.

You can do that with any box in the game, just like Oblivion, however if you put it in one that is marked with the sort of "Don't Steal" icon, when you retrieve the stuff it will count as stolen.

[toblix]

It amazes me to no end that, with all the game state to take into account, saving in Fallout 3 is basically instantaneous. They must do some crazy awesome shit.

[gdf]

Haha, I'm so glad it is though.

F5 and F9 have given me some excellent non-canon murder shots.

[Zukalous]

...

So Eurogamer said the Alaska expansion was stripped down. Is this expansion considered Oblivion-with-guns but Fallout-without-stuff?

[Freezerr]

So Eurogamer said the Alaska expansion was stripped down. Is this expansion considered Oblivion-with-guns but Fallout-without-stuff?

More like Hitman with VATS and bad AI, so far.

You sneak around with a silenced 10mm pistol and headshot guys in VATS. Bodies can't be looted and you have no food. Apparently you can "go in guns blazing" with the Chinese Assault Rifle you find; I haven't really tried that yet.

[Garple]

Is it just me, or do all the woman in this game have the exact same face? It has a dehumanizing quality and makes me feel sociopathic because they're all objects to me and I don't mind killing them. I want to link to a blog post I did about my early Fallout impressions, because I have had a lot of trouble getting "into" this game and I'd like some advice on how I might be able to appreciate it more. Yes, the blog has only one post. I was planning to write more posts before I told anyone that the blog existed, but I figure a link is less obnoxious than quoting the whole thing right here.

http://digsmi.blogspot.com/

Please sucessfully change my mind if you can; I feel left out, but for whatever reason, the game just hasn't clicked with me.

[Wrestlevania]

I finally managed to progress (and complete!) the Big Trouble in Big Town quest. I needed to speak to Bittercup again, having placated her with indulgent emo schmooze last time. She must have been inside one of Big Town's houses the last couple of times I visited, following the quest marker but finding nothing.

Loved the rescue, even though I'd already cleared out the Germantown station of most mutants prior to this. I really liked going to save Red's friend, Shorty, down in the basement, too. Listening to the super mutant shouting at Shorty whilst he gets ready to cook him - and Shorty arguing back - was a neat little set piece.

The back-story for Germantown was fascinating too, though I neglected to mention that before. The feelings of despair and hopelessness you get, from the concentration camp-like setting, plus the nurses' station computer terminal, really strikes a chord.

Having completed that, I've now gone back to Those! (the fire ant quest). And I realised what I'd done:

I completely missed the door opposite the scientist before, mistaking it for a simple bulkhead. So I've gone through there now and am at the entrance to queen's lair.

Really into Fallout 3 again now, after just 45 minutes of play for the first time in ages.

[Wrestlevania]

Gah, someone take it away!

I've just noticed that it's almost 2:30am here, which means I've spent about 5 hours straight playing Fallout 3 tonight... Unheard of for me in years.

Having said that, I've completed the Galaxy Radio mission. Which was surprisingly easy, even though DC is crawling with super mutants. I'm still not great with any weapon particularly, though I seem to do extremely well with the hunting rifle. (More powerful guns seem to cause less damage - while also being much less accurate - and I don't know why.)

I've just taken the Gunslinger perk, mind, and that's made the scoped .44 Magnum as powerful as I originally hoped it would be. Definitely one of the best guns in the game for me atm, though ammo seems to be rarer than rocking horse shite.

I haven't taken any perks for larger weaponry as yet. But my character's almost hit level 13 now, so I'm trying to diversify before hitting the level cap.

Oh, and I inadvertently found the publishing house for Groknak the Barbarian by...

--crawling into a radioactive storm drain in central DC. Very bizarre, but also a very cool place, filled with booby-traps and an absolute nutter camping out in the place.

I also did my first truly evil, malevolent act of wanton violence tonight:

Granny Sparkle irritated the shit out of me the moment I spoke to her. As she turned to leave, I was immediately compelled to blow her brains out with my combat shotgun. So I did.

...and she had a lot of good stuff stashed away!

I've noticed a few glitches suddenly appearing in my game tonight, too.

What's with Initiate Pek appearing whenever you wake up, or emerge from a location after you've spent a couple of hours roaming around inside? It's fucking creepy, because he appears right in your face when the loading screen closes.

In addition, when Initiate Pek suddenly pops up like this, he's sometimes accompanied by a Brotherhood of Steel disciple in full battle armour and brandishing a mini gun. The disciple will immediately caution you to get back as soon as you move, before sprinting off back to wherever he's meant to be.

For example, this happened when I slept in my house in Megaton. As soon as I exited the house, Pek and the disciple were right outside the door. The disciple growled a warning at me, then legged it off through Megaton, heading for the main gate.

[Zukalous]

What do you all collect that is not necessary to any game quest?

I have at least 75 baseballs and 25 toy cars stored back at the house that I will probably assemble into some virtual art installation.

[James]

What do you all collect that is not necessary to any game quest?

Lots of stuff, but my favourite is body parts. I will actively make space for a body part. I was kind of hoping I could make some sort of grotesque abomination, but keeping all the bits in my fridge is good enough for me.

[Wrestlevania]

What do you all collect that is not necessary to any game quest?

I have at least 75 baseballs and 25 toy cars stored back at the house that I will probably assemble into some virtual art installation.

Actually, the cars - and no doubt the baseballs - can be used as ammo for a junk-throwing weapon you build yourself. You can buy the blueprint from Moira in Craterside Supplies, though I haven't built one yet myself.

As far "going clepto" goes, I get too fed up with getting over-encumbered during a decent trek that I end up eating loads of stuff without needing to. And shooting up on meds or stimulants sometimes, too. Got a few nasty habits now it seems...

[DanJW]

I seem to remember that the toy cars are used to make one of the custom weapons. Can't remember which one though. Might be the dart gun. Pretty much everything can be fired from the junk launcher.

The toy vans might be purely for collecting though. That's the thing about this game; you never know if some apparently useless piece of rubbish might turn out to be useful later if you speak to the right person.

[Scratch]

you never know if some apparently useless piece of rubbish might turn out to be useful later if you speak to the right person.

So true. There was a time when I was absolutely hauling every little piece of junk around, with the thought "You never know, this is a wasteland after all. Everything is valuable."

Example:

I noticed pretty early in game, that there were two different models of non-readable books: burnt and pre-war. I though someone out there might pay a decent price for these. Hey, if someone was willing to pay for scrap metal....someone else might buy these books.

Well so I collected a whole lot of the pre-war ones, until I had to dump them to clear space in my inventory.

Now only if I had met the BoS lady in the Library (somewhere) who's collecting these books for a price. I could've made a whole lotta caps from that.

It's one of the things I get frustrated about in Fallout. I hate inventory management, especially when I am forced to drop some of my weapons. I remember having a similar problem in Oblivion.

[DanJW]

Yeah that kind of thing got to me too. Finally I gave up on keeping stuff in my inventory, and started keeping a caché in each town, and even in some places in the wasteland and DC that were on my main travel routes. Every so often you collect all the, say, scrap metal from all of your stash-holes and then flog it.

Not only does this make inventory easier, it feels like something that you would actually do in post apocalyptica

[Zukalous]

It's one of the things I get frustrated about in Fallout. I hate inventory management, especially when I am forced to drop some of my weapons. I remember having a similar problem in Oblivion.

Ya this game is worse than Banjo-kazooie 64 on the collectibles. At least in B-K each gadget and gizmo didn't have a weight.

I noticed you put the collectible in spoiler tags. I wouldn't have minded having a list when I started this game that said "FYI: Save all pre-war books, scrap meta, etc... for later you will need them."