Eurogamer Fallout 3 Review: 10/10

[Krynn72]

So I played it for about an hour. I'm liking it a lot more than I thought I would. It may just be the beginning that is awesome, but hopefully the rest of it will be as well. I'm going to go ahead and buy it when I get my paycheck. Hopefully some Collectors Editions are left at my Gamestop.

 

[Jintor]

I just played for... uh... 3 hours.

This game is so awesome.

I really like how VATS is implemented. It's an interesting system.

It still has some major Oblivion glitches, though, like NPCs would start gliding around or they would carry on full conversations with you without turning their heads. Things like that. It's pretty immersion breaking but yeah.

I just got ****ing ambushed by a supermutant. The bastard. I heard a 'ting! Saw a big greeny-yellow thing jump out at me, and then my feet exploded.

THE DOUCHES KNOW HOW TO USE GRENADES

 

[Tagaziel]

If you remember, Fallout 1/2 had the same thing with pistol rounds being able to cut bodies in half and such...so I don't know how you can complain about it in F3

For. ****'s. Sake.

In Fallout, you had to score A CRITICAL HIT to blow chunks of meat off the enemy and it happened very, very rarely with basic small arms.

In FO3, it happens at every ****ing step. It's entertaining, but also annoying and breaks immersion.

The biggest problem so far is the Brotherhood and Supermutants. They just don't fit in at all. Especially when you realize how pathetically easy SM's are to defeat.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I'm quite addicted, not looking forward to a game makes you like it more if its good

 

[French Ninja]

Out of curiosity, has anyone rolled a diplomatic character (no violence)?

If so, is it possible to get by so far?

Also, is it true that by killing a lot of innocents you can befriend raiders/slavers? (as stated previously)

 

[Shamrock]

For. ****'s. Sake.

In Fallout, you had to score A CRITICAL HIT to blow chunks of meat off the enemy and it happened very, very rarely with basic small arms.

In FO3, it happens at every ****ing step. It's entertaining, but also annoying and breaks immersion.

The biggest problem so far is the Brotherhood and Supermutants. They just don't fit in at all. Especially when you realize how pathetically easy SM's are to defeat.

Lols. Get angrier at a video game! I love to read your worthless posts. Hey, I don't think this game lives up to the original at all so I'm going to bash it for not being fun even though I've always had this preconceived notion that won't leave my mind that this game was going to suck even before they announced it was being made, but I'm going to post like I'm playing the game and giving a fair opinion and then burst out in rage when others actually like the game and comment on it and also compare bits and pieces of it to it's ancestors, but if that doesn't stop you from reading my posts, sometimes I'll be civil and post decent criticisms just to bash you if you respond at all in the most civil way, I'm going to be the most condescending bastard and take your response as you taking a shot at my personal life, values, family, and even my eyeballs.

Shut the **** up Mikael. I'm sick of reading your bull shit posts bashing a pretty damn good game.

Out of curiosity, has anyone rolled a diplomatic character (no violence)?

If so, is it possible to get by so far?

Honestly, I don't think it's possible at all because of the fact that if you do something nice for someone, you're bound to get shot by someone else. Unless your.. Speechcraft (Oblivion joke ) is all the way up and you swindle people is the only way I can see you being a completely diplomatic character.

 

[Jintor]

Out of curiosity, has anyone rolled a diplomatic character (no violence)?

If so, is it possible to get by so far?

No.

I think there is a sequence during the tutorial where combat is impossible to avoid, although you might be able to run straight past them (i haven't yet tested it).

Mikael's points are fine, but I think he goes overboard on how badly they **** the game up. They're minor points, nothing horrible.

 

[Top Secret]

I'll be honest, this game was a straight 10 for me.




Until I left the vault.

Now it's an 8.

 

[Jintor]

Meh. Reverse.

It was a 8 in the Vault, and 10 once I got outside.

It was nice to see how the isometric Vault was translated into 3d though. That really looked cool.

 

[Kyorisu]

For. ****'s. Sake.

Someone needs to calm down and realise not everyone is a Fallout nut. Besides critical hit or not it still doesn't make any sense. What you pulled the trigger a certain way and magically transformed the bullets calibre as it left the chamber?

 

[Tagaziel]

I think there is a sequence during the tutorial where combat is impossible to avoid, although you might be able to run straight past them (i haven't yet tested it).

The escape is a pretty combat-heavy area.

Mikael's points are fine, but I think he goes overboard on how badly they **** the game up. They're minor points, nothing horrible.

I already said it's not a bad game on it's own. It just fails to rise to the level of Fallout 1 and 2 as an RPG. Still, it's enjoyable.

If it wasn't for the ****ing dungeon crawling and excessive, nonsensical gore. Gaaah.

On this note, I finally got to the Pentagon.

 

[Kyorisu]

Oh god dungeons don't get me started on dungeons. It's bloody worse that a bunch of them happen to be linear as **** subway lines. I'm still wandering around the wastes, skipped the bs find daddy quest by finding him myself without help.

 

[Unfocused]

*paragraphs, man*

Shut the **** up Mikael. I'm sick of reading your bull shit posts bashing a pretty damn good game.

Anywhoo.

As a standalone game, 7/10 - it's enjoyable, if severely unpolished.

As a Fallout spin-off, 8/10, it does capture the atmosphere and flavour (so far).

As a Fallout SEQUEL... 2/10. It simply isn't a Fallout sequel.

Fair.

 

[Tagaziel]

Though honestly, while I'm playing, I'm constantly being reminded of Wasteland rather than Fallout.

 

[Jintor]

I'm being reminded of Oblivion mixed with Fallout. Which is fair enough.

I REALLY WISH THEY HAD FIXED SOME OF THE HORRIBLE NPC BUGS THOUGH

I hate it when people start gliding along the floor, or doing these really weird uncanny-valley-type things. Or when they deliver their horribly stilted auto-coversations. Urrrrrgh.

Just can't shake that Oblivion feeling.

 

[Cerpin]

Rivet City was a huge disappointment after I had seen the amazing concept art.

 

[CptStern]

I'll be playing this game with pretty much zero knowledge of the game beforehand (besides the basic plot) ..havent played fallout2 for at least a decade, havent kept up with anything Fallout 3 besides the odd screenshot, a few articles, and skimmed over a couple of reviews so I'm walking into this game with zero pre-conceived notions or expectations. there's nothing to be disappointed about because I havent given myself an expectation for the game to live up to ...I enjoy games much more that way

 

[Lucid]

It feels very much Oblivion to its core but, I'm enjoying it so much more than Oblivion.
Even though the terrible animations(gliding creatures and NPCs) can break my immersion pretty easily, I get over it and soldier on.
I haven't actually died once though, except for accidentally falling to my death in Megaton.(miscalculated a jump. ), health items are pretty plentiful.

 

[Gray Fox]

Fix for crashing

WhiteBarbarian opened his big mouth to say:
I am going to repeat myself here. Add fallout3.exe to the exception list in ffdshow audio & video decoder settings. Crashing should stop.

I just can't believe that no one is using it here. You may didn't install it directly, but it could have been installed among with codec pack. For example, CCCP.

By default ffdshow already have Oblivion.exe in the exception list. As Fallout 3 is being better Oblivion and uses the same engine, it is a good thing to add it to the exception list too

And the same for video decoder

 

[Bakurei]

Just tried the game on my friends Xbox, thank god I canceled my pre-order. It really felt like Oblivion with guns, sub-HL1 animation, friggin gibbing happening all the time, VATS being the ultimate god mode. I'm just going to forget this game was ever released and be happy with Fallout 1 and 2.

 

[Gargantou]

It feels very much Oblivion to its core but, I'm enjoying it so much more than Oblivion.
Even though the terrible animations(gliding creatures and NPCs) can break my immersion pretty easily, I get over it and soldier on.
I haven't actually died once though, except for accidentally falling to my death in Megaton.(miscalculated a jump. ), health items are pretty plentiful.

ROTFL, exact same here, opinion-wise and death-wise, I died in Megaton after jumping from outside the pub by accident, my leg broke off, looked pretty roffle.

 

[knut]

How the hell does caps/trading with people work? I go to buy a drink from Gob with 200 caps, I buy a few stim backs and now I'm down to 13 caps! Albiet, I'm not sure what I'm doing, so could someone explain?

EDIT: Never mind, I get it, I'm just a little confused as to how I lost so much so easily. I'm getting it back now by getting rid of unneeded crap.

 

[Kyorisu]

Fix for crashing

Soon as I noticed an ffdshow tray icon whilst tabbed out of F3 I quickly added it to the blacklist.

 

[CrazyHarij]

I just bought the collectors edition. ****ing ace lunchbox and the pipboy wobblehead is just awesome =) Gonna play some now.

 

[Barnz]

It's now out in Europe.

 

[knut]

Man, I am in desperate need of weapons, ammo and health. Any tips? I don't think I should of gone straight towards Galaxy Radio as soon as I got the quest... or should I? It's tough opposition around there but I can't quite grasp whether the game wants me to build myself up before going there, or if it's actually a really minor quest that I should get straight into. From the looks of videos I presume that area is quite a hotspot so I'm not really sure what to do if I'm honest...

Right now I'm looking for the Family. This game really is Oblivion with Guns - even the goddamn dungeon crawling! Urgh, do not want. Everything else is alright though, I guess. I need to play some more but like I said, right now I'm really bogged down/overwhelmed with things to do, and I'm not even sure how I go about doing said things. I just need to clear the air a little and build my character up, or something.

 

[Tagaziel]

1. Get a Hunting Rifle
2. Get a Combat Armour set
3. Sell everything except for Stimpaks, .32 ammo and the rifle.
4. Pour skill points into Small Guns

The game is ridiculously unbalanced.

 

[knut]

Where can I aquire armour? I can't find any good stores, though the armour in Megaton always seems to be locked.

I've gotten some pretty good shit on my travels anyway - minigun, rocket launcher, flamer. Man, the outskirts surrounding D.C. are packed with good loot, you just got to fight for it. I could of had me some neat Brotherhood armour but it turns out you need some kind of special training.

 

[Top Secret]

Pro tip:

Unless you're a melee character, only put one point into strength.

You might say

"But you won't be able to carry anything!"

And I say:

"With 1 str, you can carry 160 pounds at first level, not to mention ammo is free!"

Also, since they removed the str requirements from weapons, there is zero incentive to have anything else.

My current stats look something like this:

S 1
P 5
E 4
C 4
I 10
A 10
L 8

I'm running around with a missle launcher and a mini gun taking down super muties....


... with one strength.

*Edit*

Speaking of which,

why am I running around with a missile launcher and taking down super muties at level 5?

Granted, in FO2 you could acquire power armor very quickly IF YOU KNEW WHERE TO GO.

I just walked into a shop, plucked down a few hundred caps and walked out with a rocket launcher...

 

[Krynn72]

I haven't actually died once though, except for accidentally falling to my death in Megaton.(miscalculated a jump. ), health items are pretty plentiful.

Yeah, the only time I have died so far was after I took this screen shot. I climbed up the broken chunk of highway right outside the vault, took the screen, went "yeah, this looks nice" and then strafed one step to the right and fell to my death. I lol'd in real life.

Looking at the screenshot though, I can definitely say its a lot more impressive when you're playing. The character looks great, but the environment kinda sucks in still images without shadows. I really, really wish they had incorporated environment shadows.

 

[Shamrock]

Yeah, the only time I have died so far was after I took this screen shot. I climbed up the broken chunk of highway right outside the vault, took the screen, went "yeah, this looks nice" and then strafed one step to the right and fell to my death. I lol'd in real life.

Looking at the screenshot though, I can definitely say its a lot more impressive when you're playing. The character looks great, but the environment kinda sucks in still images without shadows. I really, really wish they had incorporated environment shadows.

*snip*

You've got to realize that the radiation has stopped the shadows from being transmitted to the ground.

 

[Jintor]

God damnit.

This is stupid. NPCs in Megaton keep mysteriously dying, possibly from RAD damage or just from falling off walkways. Douches.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Okay, at level 5 and some bit into the game my impressions are as follows:

Brilliant atmosphere, the game is just huge. The environment is vast. They really nailed the setting.
One thing I don't like is that you get bad karma for stealing, which you didn't in FO2 =) I'm turning out to be quite an evil ****, maybe that's because I blew up megaton. But that just feels like a must in your first run of the game, the oopportunity to do stupid/evil/fun stuff.

Getting quite decent ammo for my weapons so enemies aren't impossible to deal with. A lot of fun options when you talk to people, and very different ways to deal with stuff, quests, including disregarding whatever you don't want to do =)

Animations are way crappy, especially during dialogue. But it works.

The VATS system works amazingly well. I just don't get tired of it, if you think you'll outgrow it, consider that when it's successful you've just owned a difficult enemy. Fun for the whole family.

FAllout setting is pretty nailed. It really feels like I'm living in the FO universe. Maybe the vault boy being all over the game is a good contributor for that haha.

Some minor bugs here and there, but nothing that really detracts from the experience. The character animations detract from the believability of every single character you interact with, to the point that I just see most people as a weapons/bottlecap/stimpak container with a pulse.

In a rough fight with a Super Mutant Behemoth right now. But my grenades and VATS took care of him. Yay!

I'd have to wait for a final conclusive opinion about what makes FO3 work or not, but right now I can just say it's a really good game. It takes combat and gameplay elements from Stalker, RPG from the earlier Fallouts, the world and gameplay of Oblivion and stirs it with a post-nuclear world, reminiscent of fallout (duh), tiberian sun, and pretty much every imagined idea you'd ever have about what it'd be like. And it's terribly believable.

EDIT: Okay from reading all the hating going on, I think we either don't play the same game, or you just had ridiculous expectations. It's a game, with a reasonable timeframe for release and compatibility. It's not really revolutionary, if you were expecting that, but it's much more fun than most games I play, and that's enough for me. Cheers

 

[Mirage]

Vault 112 was certainly...interesting. I hope I encounter more missions like that.

 

[Shamrock]

EDIT: Okay from reading all the hating going on, I think we either don't play the same game, or you just had ridiculous expectations. It's a game, with a reasonable timeframe for release and compatibility. It's not really revolutionary, if you were expecting that, but it's much more fun than most games I play, and that's enough for me. Cheers

BAM! The quote of the day right here! Good job Harij. Thank you for pointing out to these people that criticize even the most bizarre things; shoe size, The unnaturalness of NPCs breathing in and out, and the size of Moira's wiener.

<3 CH.

 

[MRG]

I'm currently only at level 2, so my impression of the game is very limited. However, I think it is safe to say, that "Bug Baseball" has never been so much fun.

Story:

Still within Vault 101.

While trying to avoid 101 Security, I was running down a corridor towards a set of stairs leading up. At the top of the stairs was a walkway overlooking an area below the Overseers round window. While running up the stairs, I heard the fluttering of wings, alerting me that enemies were near. Once I had made it to the top, before me & the only door were 2 Radroaches. Deciding to conserve ammo, since I did not know how available more would be, I equip a baseball bat & face the overgrown cousins of the lobster. Once directly in front of the them, I enter VATS & target the heads of both roaches with 2 hits each. I then press "E".

With a perfect side view cam running in slo-motion, my character swings the bat down with an overhand swing, mashing the roach into goo. As my character was doing this, I see the other roach leap up & begin his attack. Without missing a beat, the cam switches to a different view as my character pivots & swings at the second roach, the one that had leaped up. It was as if I was playing T-Ball again. My character connected squarely with the second roach, waist high, sending it flying over the railing and into the area below.

While the Radroaches of course do very limited damage, it was a rush to kill them in such a manner. I am in love with this games VATS device. I reloaded the game, to see if I could repeat the performance, but this time, neither roach jumped & so my character smacked one with the bat & stomped the other with his foot. All in glorious Slo-motion.

Apart from knowing the name & watching a couple gameplay vids awhile back, I have not been following the hype or development of this game & so everything is new to me. I had no "expectations" before playing & So I am "greatly" enjoying myself.

-MRG

 

[Jintor]

Some minor bugs here and there, but nothing that really detracts from the experience. The character animations detract from the believability of every single character you interact with, to the point that I just see most people as a weapons/bottlecap/stimpak container with a pulse.

---

I'd have to wait for a final conclusive opinion about what makes FO3 work or not, but right now I can just say it's a really good game. It takes combat and gameplay elements from Stalker, RPG from the earlier Fallouts, the world and gameplay of Oblivion and stirs it with a post-nuclear world, reminiscent of fallout (duh), tiberian sun, and pretty much every imagined idea you'd ever have about what it'd be like. And it's terribly believable.

What would have solved it would have been if they had taken the writing and voice-acting and character animation of VTM: Bloodlines. Can you imagine how awesome it would have been.

VATS is so wonderful, but the aim without it is so shoddy I often find myself just hiding behind stones waiting for enemies to run around corners or just jumping out and potshotting them once my AP builds up again. Of course, that's a waste of ammo, and man ammo is scarse in this game. I love how rare ammo is, it's not very often I run out of bullets for anything in a game.

 

[Shamrock]

What would have solved it would have been if they had taken the writing and voice-acting and character animation of VTM: Bloodlines. Can you imagine how awesome it would have been.

VATS is so wonderful, but the aim without it is so shoddy I often find myself just hiding behind stones waiting for enemies to run around corners or just jumping out and potshotting them once my AP builds up again. Of course, that's a waste of ammo, and man ammo is scarse in this game. I love how rare ammo is, it's not very often I run out of bullets for anything in a game.

The funny thing is, the aim is so easy if you are in melee, and also, the combat is even easier. If you circle strafe any, and I'm talking ANY enemy, you can just bash the hell out of them with your melee weapon. You can use VATS as well and since you are so close, it's bound to be a powerful hit, and then you just continue circle strafing.

 

[Krynn72]

I usually kill in the same amount of shots whether i'm using VATS or not. Seems decently balanced to me.

 

[Jintor]

I dunno. Anything above 30% in VATS is pretty likely to hit, iirc.

The thing I find annoying about VATs is that it doesn't calculate environmental factor blockage. Or rather, it does, but then it doesn't. For instance, I just used 4 shots in VATS to kill a ghoul, but none of them hit, because a chain-link fence was in the way.

:<