Fallout 3

[Alinestra Covelia]

Fallout is openended enough that you don't really need to powergame in order to beat it. Pretty much all the quests are completable for a wide range of skillsets.

I will say that I regret not going to the Dunwich building till I was level 20. I gather it's supposed to be a very scary place, but by the time I was level 20 there really wasn't much that could harm me.

[FrostyBoy]

So now that you guys (and gals) have played it for a few weeks now, what do you rate it out of 10?

[Felch]

Using the whole scale instead of the 6-10, I'd give it an 9 (8 is great). With mods, it could easily be a 10 (Civ 2 and 4 level of perfection). Basic issues have been discussed here - stats don't make much difference, it's a little too easy, etc. It's definitely an excellent game, with some good improvements to the franchise. You will get sucked into it for a long time, at least 40 hours. Without mod tools though, it'll eventually get stale.

Better than any TES game, and I loved those.

[Alinestra Covelia]

With 5 being average, and on the understanding that 10 is rarely attainable, I'd give it an 8, borderline 9 if they get the glitches fixed.

The execution is really slick and the gameplay is very enjoyable. It's held back by a few glitches that should have been ironed out in bugtesting (suicidal people in Megaton, which can make some side quests impossible to complete) and also by some design issues (some areas are completely lethal if you "fast travel" there but not if you "slow travel" there because the former spawns you in media res of a firefight).

But all in all it's a really good translation of a formerly turnbased 2D isometric game to a gloriously realized 3D realtime one. The VATS system is very good too. Stylewise, the game is very polished and the story it tells is a mature and well-thought-out one. It's very openended and the side quests are all entertaining with no dull moments. Characters and locations actually make me care about them. I even escorted Sydney back to the Underworld to make sure she got there all right. Likewise, I felt a mixture of awe and sorrow to find that the magnificent American landmarks were now empty hulks.

It's pretty much the best RPG or FPS game I've played all year, beating out the likes of Fable 2 and Gears of War 2.

[Solver]

Agreed, it's a borderline 9. It does have flaws, in typical Bethesda fashion, but the overall execution is better than in the previous games. It will definitely be a 9 if they release mod tools for it. It's a damn immersive game. That said, still not the best game this year, in my opinion.

[snoopy369]

Biggest flaw, in my book, is that interior locations don't respawn, or at least clean out ... nothing's worse than coming to an area you haven't been to for half the game, and finding dead bodies on the floor. The bodies should go away... and I'd like to see them respawn as well, given how little there is of interest in the outside areas that do respawn...

[Solver]

But that helps the immersion and the feeling that you actually accomplish something. If you went on to clear a metro station and 2 days later the location is full of ghouls again, it feels like you, for all your heroics, can't even clear one goddamn tunnel.

[snoopy369]

Well then they need to do something else to provide combat ... it still has the Oblivion problem that there simply aren't enough monsters out in the wild, I think. You're right that it's not as big of a deal due to it being a post-nuclear wasteland ... but it still makes walking places boring, meaning I only fast-travel, and when I walk from one place to a very further away place I can't fast travel to, I'm bored out of my skull ...

[Felch]

Here's a short list of changes I'd like to see, once mod tools come out.

• Organize the raiders. Painspike armor should be worn by one gang of painspike raiders, and another could have hockey masks, and so on. Then each gang could have a region to control, and you might come across rival gangs fighting on their borders. Sort of like how gang colors work, this would be a nice addition to the game's flavor.
• Skill tweaks to encourage some variety. Specifically, science should give a small bonus when fighting robots, so that it's not just a tiered skill. Lockpicking can be made more flexible by having locks of different strengths, and perhaps using a (lockpicking : lock difficulty) ratio to determine how hard the minigame is. As it is, you basically have either 25, 50, 75, or 100 points. That's kind of silly.
• People should only purchase goods that they sell, unless a speech or barter skill check is made. They still shouldn't be willing to pay the same price as a merchant who specializes in that category.
• One change I'd like to make would be to alter how weapons degrade. I think kits to maintain weapons should be included, and they would prevent a weapon from degrading below the value that the character has in the relevant skill. So if you have a hunting rifle kit, and 75 in small guns, your hunting rifle will never go below 75. To balance this, repairs should only be possible with a workbench. It's kind of silly that you can repair a weapon in the middle of a firefight.

In making this list, I'm trying to avoid mods that would require a lot of graphical changes. Based on experience with previous Bethesda kits, do you guys think these would be plausible?

[Solver]

So maybe fast travel is your problem? I don't do that, except to get out of or sometimes around DC, and I find that I get attacked enough in the wild. There's always Raiders and the occasional Yao Guai.

[Quillan]

Besides, if you don't like the Yao Guai, you can always take the animal friend perk. Mole Rats, dogs, and yao guai won't attack you if you have that perk.

Felch, your second point is already implemented with some things. The grenade bouquets you'll sometimes find as traps require explosives skill of 30 or 35 to disarm them, and the rigged shotguns require a repair skill of 40 to unrig the shotgun (which gives you a combat shotgun, 4 shotgun shells, and 4 microfusion cells). I don't know why they stuck with the Oblivion system of 0/25/50/75/100 on Lockpicking and Science, although I did once find a door that required a Science skill of 67 to rewire it to be able to open. It wasn't a computer, so perhaps that's why.

[Felch]

Originally posted by Quillan
Felch, your second point is already implemented with some things. The grenade bouquets you'll sometimes find as traps require explosives skill of 30 or 35 to disarm them, and the rigged shotguns require a repair skill of 40 to unrig the shotgun (which gives you a combat shotgun, 4 shotgun shells, and 4 microfusion cells). I don't know why they stuck with the Oblivion system of 0/25/50/75/100 on Lockpicking and Science, although I did once find a door that required a Science skill of 67 to rewire it to be able to open. It wasn't a computer, so perhaps that's why.

Very good to know. Not quite ideal, but better than a pure five tiered system.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by FrostyBoy
So now that you guys (and gals) have played it for a few weeks now, what do you rate it out of 10?

I'd give it 8.5 out of 10. So far it's the best game released this year

[asleepathewheel]

goty for me

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Solver
So maybe fast travel is your problem? I don't do that, except to get out of or sometimes around DC, and I find that I get attacked enough in the wild. There's always Raiders and the occasional Yao Guai.

No, it's the inverse. I fast travel because it's too boring not to. I'd prefer to NOT fast travel at least some of the time... but in most areas it's entirely boring to do so; especially in DC, where I'll be traveling through empty railway areas.