Fallout 3

[Erkki]

Jesus, this game is awesome but I can only play about 20 minutes at a time before I freak out and quit.

Yeah, this happened to me too. I played for several hours in a row on occasions, but mostly I just played for half an hour or so, then quit, then came back soon. But then again, the constant crashing helped that. Patch seems to have reduced the crashing (if the Steam version got patched -- can't really tell).

I just played it again, trying to go almost as fast as I could, focusing on speech and repair and being neutral, while paying attention mostly to new stuff I didn't see before. Took 8.5 hours. I bet a "speedrun" can be done in 4 hours or less.

[miffy495]

Toblix, with regards to your extermination issues:

There is indeed a giant queen ant. Getting to her is a little awkward though, as the path leads through the research facility of the scientist who created the mutagen that gave the ants fire-spitting capability. He asks you to clear out the fire-breathers and then make a path for him to get to the queen and administer another mutagen to take away their fire from the next generation onwards, making them just regular giant ants. It's totally up to you if you want to just kill the queen and the scientist of course, but yeah, there's more to it.

[Erkki]

I just played it again, trying to go almost as fast as I could, focusing on speech and repair and being neutral, while paying attention mostly to new stuff I didn't see before. Took 8.5 hours. I bet a "speedrun" can be done in 4 hours or less.

3:51 Man, I'm too obsessed with this game.

[miffy495]

I'm more than 12 hours in and I haven't even been to see Free Dog yet. What the hell, man? Isn't half the point of this game to become immersed in the world and explore things? To me, a speed run is the complete antithesis of what Fallout is trying to achieve.

[toblix]

Is there another entrance to the caves, then? I seriously couldn't find anywhere to go.

[miffy495]

I remember at one point I exited the caves by accident and shot out through a subway tunnel. That's the best direction I can give you without going back into the game right now, which mountains of homework has prevented me from doing for about a week now. I think the subway entrance was pretty close to the Potomac, if that helps.

[Erkki]

Isn't half the point of this game to become immersed in the world and explore things?

Well, I already did that. Must have spent more than 60 hours on it already.

[DanJW]

Toblix, with regards to your extermination issues:

Oh man I missed that bit with the scientist. I did find an Ant Queen somewhere else entirely though.

That's the thing about the game. You are almost garunteed to come at some quests 'sideways', and play them as if they were just random encounters. Which is kind of cool. But also slightly maddening for a completionist like me.

For instance, the best weapon (for my stats) that I found in the game - the xaunlong assault rifle, which I guess is unique because I never saw another one - was on the mangled remains of a named NPC. I never even knew who the guy was.

[Wrestlevania]

For instance, the best weapon (for my stats) that I found in the game - the xaunlong assault rifle, which I guess is unique because I never saw another one - was on the mangled remains of a named NPC. I never even knew who the guy was.

I just snatched my first sniper rifle off the corpse of a guy named Arkansas, over in Minefield. I'd just started opening up when I noticed he was a properly named NPC, instead of some random. I really didn't want to kill him, but couldn't see any way around it at that point.

Cheers for the gun though, Ark. However, just out of interest:

Does anyone know if this character is involved in a quest of some sort? I'm sure he must be, as he has a name and was obviously camping out in Minefield--possibly to promote the theory that it's haunted?

He took several long-range pot shots at me while I was skulking around the outskirts, which appeared at the time to be just some random cars catching on fire and then exploding as I approached them.

There was also the occasional snick of what I now realise was a rifle slug ripping into the dirt around me, which I thought could possibly be something like STALKER's poltergeists.

Oh, and Dan, here are the details on the Xuanlong Assault Rifle:

You're absolutely right--it's an instanced unique that only appears based on certain trigger conditions (pardon the pun).

[DanJW]

Cheers for the gun though, Ark. However, just out of interest:

Does anyone know if this character is involved in a quest of some sort? I'm sure he must be, as he has a name and was obviously camping out in Minefield--possibly to promote the theory that it's haunted?

I had the same thought, but my experience was the same as yours. Occasionally I would come across named raiders, who I assume were their leaders as they often had a key to the safe or whatever. So perhaps some tough enemies are just named. Or maybe they are targets for the contract killer perk, which I never took (I took lawbringer instead, the background of which was a minor dissapointment).

[Wrestlevania]

Or maybe they are targets for the contract killer perk, which I never took (I took lawbringer instead, the background of which was a minor dissapointment).

Interesting...

When it becomes available to me, I might take the Contract Killer perk in that case. Quite like the Wild West bounty hunter aspect of that - seems to fit perfectly with the setting to me.

[lobotomy42]

I've managed to get through quite a bit more of the game now, and my feelings have shifted a bit.

First, it should be noted that this game has completely consumed my life for the past two weeks. Seriously, all I can think about when I'm not playing this game is how much I wish I was playing this game. I've been missing work, avoiding friends, and letting my apartment turn into a mess as I continue to try to overturn every last rock in the Capital Wasteland. Someone actually mentioned going to the Jefferson Memorial to me today, and my first (unspoken) thought was "Overrun with Super Mutants."

Not that I've actually finished the game, because I haven't. I actually reached a fairly awkward point a few days ago when I was wondering why I couldn't initiate any of the remaining sidequests (the existence of which I had inferred from all my missing Achievements.) After briefly checking a FAQ, it turned out that most of my remaining quests *were* the main plot. I had sort of assumed that I was almost at the end of it, but it turns out I had plenty to go. (The game has become a little more boring after that, as there's now usually only one or two places I'm supposed to be heading to at any given time.)

Despite my apparent obsession with this game, there are a few things that have struck me as weird.

There are a lot of characters who you can talk to but who really only have a sentence or two to say. These are a bit annoying - it makes me wonder why they're even in the game. They don't add to my suspension of disbelief, because they're so clearly "more people we added to make this town appear to be a city."

This was especially notable in Tenpenny Tower, where *every* character would only talk about ghouls, Alfred Tenpenny, and what it's like to live there. Is this a relic from Oblivion's topic-based dialogue system, perhaps?

The voice acting is a little rough. It hurts that so many characters are voiced by relatively few actors. Primarily, this hurts because it becomes difficult to tell characters apart, but I think this also took a toll on the performances. A lot of the lines sound like they're not being read in context of the conversation that is supposedly taking place, and I wonder if the actors even know which lines are being read for which characters. Even Liam Neeson's lines sometimes sound like he doesn't know what's going on.

I also wonder about the dialogue writing itself. I don't know if this is nostalgia talking, but my fondest memory of playing Fallout is the awesome and often hilarious dialogue. I get the impression with this iteration that the quality (specifically the comedy) have fallen victim to the high quantity. But then again, I haven't compared it directly to the previous Fallouts, so I could be imagining things.

There have, however, been some truly hilarious moments:

• Convincing Button Gwinnett in the "Stealing Independence" quest that I am actually Thomas Jefferson
  
• Just about everyone in "The Republic of Dave"
  
• The dialogue option "Mmmm, money. I sure love money..." or something to that effect in The Arlington Library
  

In other words, still loving this game, very much.

[Wrestlevania]

I've pumped about 12hrs into the game now and I'm still scouting around Vault 101 and Megaton. I really want to find and explore every last nook and cranny of the world, stalling progress in the main quest for as long as possible.

I'm exactly the same as a lot of people, too: when I'm not playing Fallout 3, I'm usually thinking about it when I get a spare moment. And I have never gotten addicted to a role-playing game before. In fact I can't actually recall off-hand the last game I got this obsessed about.

It really is a huge achievement, despite its noted quirks and flaws.

[Erkki]

A review @ NMA

Overall, it would be easy to write a report worthy of an EU bureaucrat listing all the silly and stupid things Bethesda has shoehorned into Fallout 3. The biggest problem is not so much that it isn’t Fallout, but rather that the setting doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Bethesda had an opportunity to craft a cohesive “living & breathing” world, but instead chose to build an amusement park with a bit of everything ‘cool’ they could think of. To be fair, some things Bethesda did are brilliant and atmospheric, but they are isolated elements that never form a coherent and consistent world that makes even the most basic sense.

If you read it with a NMA filter (which removes the Bethesda-hating bits), it's actually pretty spot-on criticism about the game, I think. Even though it drew me in more than any recent games have done, I did have the feeling that the wasteland was just full of some really interesting encounters and places, but they were quite disconnected and didn't form a whole.

[Wrestlevania]

Official F3 mod tool and DLC announced!

The mod tool, craftily entitled "the G.E.C.K." (just to piss off NMA even further, obviously), will be available on PC free of charge. Three DLC packs will be released for both PC and Xbox 360 platforms, however, utilising Games for Windows Live and Xbox Live respectively:

"Operation: Anchorage" will reproduce the liberation of Chinese-occupied Alaska, and will ship in January 2009. Another pack, the Pittsburgh-area "The Pit," will ship in February, and a third, "Broken Steel," will ship in March, continuing the main quest line by allowing players to join the armored Brotherhood of Steel.

There appear to be no plans to offer DLC for the PlayStation 3 version for the moment. Early heads up courtesy of @IdleThumbs on Twitter - cheers, Chris!

Whilst this is exciting news, it's also a really sore point for me; I'd really love to try making something in Fallout 3, but there's no way my PC could handle the game. Cry me a river... :\

[miffy495]

Shit. Stupid RRoD'd 360 meant that I bought the PS3 version, and now have to miss out on the awesome-sounding DLC. If it's good enough, I may have to buy it again on Steam just to play...

[ThunderPeel2001]

So, er, I borrowed my friend's copy. Haven't got anywhere it in yet, although liking the tutorial so far. Just one question: I really want to link up my XBox gamertag with a Windows LIVE one, but you need the CD Key from the box.

Is this thing actually unique? That is to say: If I use it, will it bugger it up for him and prevent him from using it? I assume it's just something you use to enable Windows LIVE and not actually stored anywhere or anything(?).

[ThunderPeel2001]

Sod it. I just picked up a copy from Game.co.uk for £20

[miffy495]

Well, I've made up my mind. If no PS3 DLC stuff is announced by January when the first expansion hits, I'm buying it on Steam for sure. I'll probably want to check out some of the G.E.C.K. created stuff anyway...

[Cigol]

Just get it on the PC. You'll be missing out on all the user made modifications if you don't anyway.

[ThunderPeel2001]

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

I'm four hours in. I've just spent the last two talking to everyone in Megaton and exploring everything. Then I accidentally opened the door to the Armory when it was RED and now the whole town wants to fuck my ass to oblivion. The game auto-saved as I immediately back-peddled and now I just keep re-loading in front of a massive angry mob.

All that talking, all that exploring and now my game is fucked?!? What the hell??

[ThunderPeel2001]

Turns out leaving the city and coming back again fixes everything. Hmmm.

[DanJW]

Ha, yeah, well only in Megaton. It is possible that if you can escape they will eventually forget your trespassing. The rest of the game world has its own factions.

edit: oh you found that out already

The game has a valuable lesson to teach you: Don't get caught. There's goodies to be had, just make sure you're skilled enough to get them

[ThunderPeel2001]

Ha, yeah, well only in Megaton. -snip- The rest of the game world has its own factions.

What do you mean? What makes Megaton unique?

Edit: Ah, I think I get you... Megaton's citizen's would be the only ones who reacted that way?

I wouldn't mind, but it was totally by accident. There should be a "are you SURE you want to break the law?" pop-up window or something.

[miffy495]

That's what the thing being red is supposed to imply. Doing a red action will lower your karma and get anyone who sees it mad at you. Another example, cannibalism. If you take the perk, you can eat anyone you want. If someone sees you eat someone though, you quickly develop a reputation.