When I heard that Bethesda were going to make Fallout 3 I was well stoked, having enjoyed the first two games back in the day. I kept up with the development process and actually bought the game on the day of release...

But, three months later, I'm really struggling to love Fallout 3 - at least in the way that I fell in love with both Morrowind and Oblivion.

I've been thinking about it, and I think that it has something to do with entering into an immersive role playing experience. When I'm in Tamriel, I'm immersed in a world which is not only believable, but attractive and interesting on many levels. I roam the roads of Cyrodil and feel a frission of excitement as Anvil or Bruma comes into view. Although I rarely play MW nowadays, I still remember the feeling of awe the first time I stepped off the Silt Strider and saw the panoramic view of Balmora before me. I'd genuinely like to be able to live in Tamriel in real life :liplick: But I'd hate to be in the world of Fallout. Yes, I realise its meant to be a post-apocalyptic wasteland and mankind is struggling to survive - but, still, the unrelenting sense of brutality and constant toxic landscapes are depressing. Nobosy would choose to live there - and that hurts the immersion, for me.

Recently, I feel I've been forcing myself to play Fallout, and I think I'm going to give it up as a bad job. I'll do a fresh install of OB, load up a shedload of mods, roll myself a new character and immerse myself in Cyrodil once more

Is it just me, or do other people feel like this?

um. Should'nt this be in Follout 3 General Disscusion?

I did wonder quite where it should go..... it didn't quite anywhere

If a passing Mod would care to move it , then that would be cool...

the reason oblivion blew me away was cus of the new engine. fallout 3 felt like skin a mod of oblivion to me. i cant wait for ESV XD

Wrong forum paulwalker71.

your not the only one mate

I think if Bethesda had created a Fallout world where the player actually wanted to live then it would count as a crushing failure. The brutality and brooding toxic depression is what pulls so many people in. In TES games there's never really the same human instinct connection with the basic struggle for survival, which is partly what makes the Fallout series so good.

Just curious, what forum did you put this in?

I thought it was awsome at first, but the problem, Fallout 3 has is the same, as Oblivion does. IT'S ALL THE SAME TERRIAN! I think that is why I can fall in LOVE with Morrowind the land is different. It varies and it's not the same blah landscape. Oblivion was OMFG awsome at first, but you get use to it, and it becomes boring after awhile. The same went for Fallout 3 to me too. WOW OMFG it is so awsome, but during my travles, I just get use to it, and go Meh now, seen it before.

Minde you when I got to Rivit City, it was like WOOEEEE that is something you don't see every day.

It was in TES General Discussion.

That's funny, it's the opposite for me. For me Oblivion isn't as immersive as Fallout 3. When I played Oblivion I played it like any other game: I thought of the most efficient way to do things as possible: Find the best equipment and build the perfect character. I'm not sure why, but that game lacked the immersion that Fallout 3 has for me.

Maybe it's the theme. Oblivion was your typical medieval era RPG with magic and demons. Good guys were Paladins and bad guys were Necromancers. Good guys were always rewarded and bad guys were always punished.

In Fallout it's not that way. In the wasteland, [censored] will happen to you even if your the nice guy that hands out water to thirsty men. Raiders despise you and mercenaries will hunt you. It's a dog eat dog world and I like that because your actions aren't dictated by a quest reward but from your heart. I may have no problem rescuing a strangers sibling for no reward but I will am willing to steal even the smallest pack of cancer sticks.

Plus the setting is actually interesting. Post-Nuclear War may start becoming generic nowadays but Fallout keeps it unique with pre cold war culture. People may have developed laser weaponary but they are still listening to old 8 track music or whatever.

No, I dont atleast its one of my top 5 games I've ever palyed. But hey to each his own right?

I have only loved one game quicker and that was FFVII.

8 Tracks are from the 70's, try 33rpm or 45rpm vinyl records. Youngsters!

Well this probably isn't the best place for the topic even if it is the Discussion forum because by this time most people here actually enjoy Fallout 3. It all boils down to taste and this doesn't meet yours. That's not a bad thing just don't blame it on Bethesda when you say "bad job" because a lot of us think they did a terrific job on it.

I have really enjoyed Oblivion as well. I have over 400 hours on my current Oblivion character and maxxed out the mods I can install (game engine limitation or I would have had more). But Oblivion is a totally different game and I enjoy it for different reasons. It is still on my HD and will be there for quite some time.

So no I don't find Fallout 3 hard to love. In fact it is just the opposite for me in that I absolutely love it. If I did find it hard I would probably be on a different forum instead of here looking for other people that don't like a game I won't be playing.

No.

But I'll give you this: Fallout is not for the faint of heart. Honestly if your into the series like alot of us are you can fall in love with this game. While its an aquired taste its be no means a cult game like your making it to be.

Excellent point.

i love them both equally. recently ive been playing fallout 3 alot but oblivion is so relaxing and compelling,beautiful

I found it hard to love but not for the reasons you mention. I actually cannot stand anything Bethesda has done prior to Fallout 3 which I actually like quite a bit. It's just that I don't "love" it like I love Fallouts 1 & 2 (and even Tactics to a degree). What's ironic here, is that for all the reasons you might "love" Morrowind and Oblivion...I find those the same reasons I don't "love" Fallout 3 in comparison to the original games. They just don't quite go all the way, do they? When I think about the original games I think of that golden era...that Black Isle, Bioware, Tim Schafer, late 90's adventure and RPG boom for the PC when games had great dialog scripting and voice-acting because graphics weren't quite able to be shiny yet and good storytelling was all anybody cared about who had a PC. Now...hell. Now, I don't even want to talk about now.

I loved every bit of the game, except the ending and the choice you have to make

I wouldn't play a game if I had to force myself to play it. It's not fun for me it's give it away or use it for target practice.

Moving to appropriate section.

well vi guess you just arent any good at the game then its plenty fun and can be very pleaserable

Actually, in regards to the OP, it's the well-crafted environments, and atmosphere that allow me to overlook some of thing that I consider it's other shortcomings. The things that seem to deter the OP from "loving" the game are basically exactly the sort of things that I do love about it. I guess more variety would be a good thing, of course, so long as it stayed true to the atmosphere. Places like Oasis and Tranquility Lane serve as a nice breath of fresh air, I think, to an otherwise depressing mood. I would like to see them go a little further with this, but I find it quite "immersive" to pick my way around the Wastes.

In terms of storytelling, ideally you want to have mixed moments of bleak, depressing, and dramatic, with breaks in between. "Comedic relief" usually serves this purpose in movies. (Myself, I'm a hard-core Joss Whedon fan mainly because I think that's one of his greatest strengths.) The darker parts are thrown into starker relief if you have something to contrast that out of.

So for me, going into Oasis and taking a break from all the depressing environs of the Wastes served as a sort of palette cleanser for me. Going back into the Wastes after that quest just made everything seem bleaker by comparison.

In a Fallout 4, I think they'd be best served by adding a bit more "variety" in terms of areas like this. Places that are a little more "happy," (at least on the outside) so that not only do you get a break from "bleakness overdose" but to add a bit of variety in the locations you visit. Obviously, this is something that's always a factor when you're making a Fallout game, that element of dark humor is very important for a game like this.

Frankly, I thought Bethesda did a pretty good job for their first time out trying to do something like this. Hopefully they'll take Fallout 3 as a learning experience, and any further sequels can only improve on what I think is a fairly solid foundation. (Even if it is need of some improvements here and there.)

I just finished it (with more than half of the map unexplored) and was very let down. Ending was way too short. I was expecting to see the results of your actions in each town. Even in fallout 1 they showed the effects of your actions. Not to mention the main quest was way to short. I didn't even explore the whole top half of the map except for the enclave base. I guess I should have explored the rest of the map first but I figured the quests would lead me there before I finished the game. The leveling was way too fast as well. I was level 20 before I finished clearing out the Downtown DC area. At that point I had only explored the bottom right quarter of the map. With 75% of the map unexplored at level 20 combat felt pointless and easy. Once level 20 none of the fighting was a challenge so I turned up the difficulty to Very hard but then it just seemed silly that to kill somone with no armor took about 30 rounds with an assault rifle. Instead of fear of dying now I spent all my time repairing my items. It seemed for every bullet you fired the the quality of your weapon went down by 1%. Soon I had little desire to loot boxes, desks etc. I already had thousands of ammo for each weapon except for things like the sniper rifle and Missles etc. Not to mention I had about 15K waiting to buy some really cool item but there never was anything.

I must say I love the atmosphere and when there was fear of dying and when resources were scarce I had a complete blast and was telling everyone that this is the coolest game ever then as I leveled up it just got easy and there was little incentive. I think I will start it over and explore the top part of the map before doing the main quest. I think a difficutly mod would greatly help this game as well as make ammo/weapons more scarce. I looked at a few mod sites but don't see anything that addresses this yet. Anyone know of any?

Also I played whole game in First person mode. I'm wondering if vats would make it more exciting but I really love that plays like a first person shooter.

Azyke

Thanks for replies everyone

And thanks to the Mod who moved it. The reason I didn't post it here is because I didn't to simply attract people who really liked Fallout3 to say things like 'if you don't like it, then you're obviously just not very good' and stuff like that Oh well.

Just to explain that the reason I persist in playing games that don't initially grab me is partly because I'm a bit of tight wad and don't really like to think I wasted my hard-earned cash, but also because I've enjoyed previous Bethesda games and wanted to give it a really fair chance to grow on me. Don't people ever find that a game that initially doesn't 'work' for them, eventually rewards a bit of persistence and ends up becoming a favourite? It happens to me, anyway!

Don't get me wrong, I think Fallout3 is a decent game. I'll play it from time to time, and I'll eventually get around to finishing the main quest. I'll have a blast doing it, but I doubt that it will take over my gaming life for the next few years. Or maybe mods will eventually help (I'd never play Oblivion now without a clutch of mods)

I can certainly understand your position, I'm an old fan of the first two myself. I thought Fallout 3 did a great job at presenting the story and atmosphere of the Wasteland, though; it's not perfect but neither was Morrowind and especially not Oblivion. I loved Fallout 3, but hey it's not for everyone.