I've been wondering if Fallout 3 lives up to the expectations set by Fallouts 1 and 2. Oblivion, quite frankly, was a downpoint in The Elder Scrolls, I'd like to know if Fallout 3 would disappoint me or if it's still pretty good in terms of complexity and RPG elements.

I dunno man, I'm a Fallout vet too, and I love this game, though I'm a minority, most others hate it with the fire of a thousand hells.

RPG-wise, I'd say it's weaker than the previous Fallouts. Save for a few, most NPCs lack a lot of depth. The writing is a bit "light." And the Main Storyline leaves a lot to be desired.

But the game does a good job of bringing the world of Fallout to life from a ground-level perspective. Which is what I love the most about this game and why I wasn't disappointed.

So I, for one, think it's worth buying just to continue the Fallout story and to experience what it's like living in the Wasteland.

It is spectacular game. The complaints are that it isn't a carbon copy of Fallout1+2. It is it's own game and 50 dollars is a bargain for it, I think it will win Game of the Year or Runner Up. So, In summary: BUY IT.

I'd say Fallout 3 is worth buying... But that's my opinion. Watch a review of the game or so, see if its gameplay is up your alley. After all, if you want to just know the story you can read it.

If you didn't like Oblivion you will not be 100% pleased with FO3 or FOO (Fallout Oblivion) as some call it.

Its a good mostly brainless action RPG. Some of it really feels amazing, when you gaze out over the destroyed landscape. Then you recall it suppose to be 200 years AFTER the bombs drop, and it looks like 10, so you turn off your brain and it still looks nice.

The problem is the main quest is crap, and you don't need to use your brain ever.

Remember how in Morrowind where you couldn't quite figure out where to find your quest objective and you had to back track? Or fallout 2 if you played a low intelligence character people would treat you like a moron? Well now its quest markers and % based dialog that seems like it was written by a software engineer (in other words someone who can't write).

If you can't open a lock, it tells you the skill you need, and if you are close enough you put on your magic +stat outfit and you can now open it. If you can't hack a computer, you just hit exit and then start over again.

The game is very low consequence. It would make a great FPS but the animations and combat is very unresponsive, like you would expect from a Bethesda game, that feel has been the same since Morrowind.

There are issues with the fallout lore, and well lots of things.

Now as has been said before its still a good game its just not a good fallout game. Its an action RPG light inspired by the fallout universe, but if you were looking for depth or story, this isn't it.

Personally I'd wait to see if mods can inject more of a true fallout feel, they helped Oblivion a LOT and I'm sure with the kind of fanbase the original fallouts have we have a good chance of a total conversion type mod putting some lipstick on this pig.

Lipstick on a pig only covers up the so-called-pig.

That being said; I would never call FO3 a mindless game; nor anything but a great game. Think of it as Batman Begins and the Dark Night. Both went away from pervious versions of the original Batman Movies; and they turned out fantastic. Although I love Tim Burton's Batman, and Batman Return (the other 2 not so much ; I absolutely have to give credit to the Chris Nolan films for their work. There are many shades of the Fallout universe, and from someone who experienced it the first time through FO3, I couldn't be more impressed.

And chiming in as a Fallout 1/2 veteran, I was happily impressed with Fallout 3. I won't lie, there are sore points - some of the dialog could be better (Although in a few places it's outstanding), and the main quest is a little short. But the amount of side-quests and sheer volume of detail put into the world is staggering. I have absolutely no problem with calling this an honest successor to the Fallout franchise.

It's different but it's still a great game. If you imagine fallout mixed with bethesda rpgs in a good way: Fallout 3 is that game.

I loved morrowind,

hated oblivion,

loved the fallouts and arcanum

and I'm really enjoying this game.


-edit I don't have a problem with the "magic stat gear". All this is is a small bonus to reflect the fact that you're wearing appropriate clothes (can assume with small tools/equipment in the pockets) to help you do the task.

I suppose they could replace them with a "medical kit" or an "engineers toolbox" or a "hackers collection of holotapes/whatever"... but this is 'funner'. Otherwise there's very little point in changing your attire in the game.


And I don't think mods help oblivion much. It's just a flawed game on so many levels. I'm so happy bethesda are back on track with fallout 3

I started playing Fallout 3 and immediately comparing everything to Fallout 1 and 2. Big mistake, now I can enjoy the game but before I really had some hard times.

Some things I really liked about the first 2 just isn't much in this game. Real indepth conversation isn't really here. You destroy a whole town, only one survivor and the woman is cheerful even if you tell her you blew it all up. Daddy is disappointed in me for destroying the town, my real father would be horrified to say the least.

I also feel there is a general lack of purpose. Yes you can visit and explore a lot of things, but when I enter, let's say, a Vault, then I want to search the place for something special and unique or at least some background information regarding some Fallout lore. It's mostly just not there, I ended up with some more ammo or maybe a suit of armor I can find all over the place, so that was a missed opportunity for me. Makes exploring and visiting everything a lot less entertaining.

But the visuals are great. Going out the Vault is really impressive, as are the first encounters with new creatures and Deathclaws.

At some point I just dropped the game. I was done with it, it didn't add anything for me. Just a week ago I picked it up again, turned off my inbuilt Fallout 1 and 2 enjoyment implants and somehow started to enjoy playing Fallout 3. It's just a matter of principle really. I like Fallout 1 and 2 much, much more, but Fallout 3 is a nice addition to the series, even if some things annoy me even more than with Oblivion. Just enjoy the game for what it is, it could be so much more but the Fallout fanbase way wasn't the way to go.

Yes, much of nerd fans of past fallout will never accept a game that the majority of people can enjoy, because it isnt extremely complex, and cannot be restricted to uber nerds circles.

I'm a Fallout veteran, and Fallout 3 is definately worth buying. I would however urge you to progress slowly with the main quest since it's very short. Fallout 3 is a very good game but "overall" it is not as good as Fallout 2. Fallout 2 gets 10/10 in my book and Fallout 3 is like... 7-8/10.

I've played Fallout when it first got out back in 97, I must say that I love Fallout 3 but it's not perfect. It's not as bad as Fallout 2 when it first got out (Fallout 2 unpatched was a nightmare) and it can only get better.

I've never been such a fan of Oblivion but I must say Fallout 3 takes the best from both games.

If money is not an option buy it and if you're low on cash buy it from a disappointed Fallout vet who didn't like it maybe you can get a sweet deal.

What are you 12 and feel the need to be insulting because I insulted the best game EVAR! Seems far more "nerdy" to me.

Grow up kid, no one said you can't like it because I don't.

It will depend on what you're looking and hoping to get with this game. It's clearly inferior to the first 2 Fallout on the scenario, which is one of the lamest I've ever been through, the writing which goes from terrible to just okay and with some very rare dialogues which are actually good. However, if you liked the Elder Scrolls main strengths, which are a huge open ended universe filled with a lot of stuff to do, you'll like this Fallout 3. It also has the quality of being far less generic than Morrowind or Oblivion with a lot more specific places. But it's also far more inconsistent with still-working computers in totally ruined environments, DC ruins in a remarkable state of conservation for a city which is supposed to have been hammered by its fair share of nukes even still featuring a lot of working restrooms, water sources and propaganda poster in near perfect state albeit a bit decayed. Well that's good for a Wasteland 10 years after the war, but it's consistently said it's been 200 years... That being said, energy weapons, power armours and other highly advanced stuff remains rare until you progress the main quest enough to see place and people which truly have some reasons to have this stuff. So you won't find raiders equipped with plasma guns and power armours.

You'll find some complexity in the large number of weapons available, that you can manufacture your own weapons with the proper schematics (and the Shiskebab is a great invention) and most of the quests features skill, reputations and other various kind of tests opening new dialogue options. The downside is that sometimes, it's just used to skip parts of the quests and thus, skip parts of the game content (or at least, directions and the idea to go there), which quite not the way I would like to use my character speech skill but it's quite consistent with what you'll be asked to do (in this case, irradiating yourself to a high level). One of the main strengths of the game is that you can wander in the Capital Wasteland and actually find interesting places and even be given some good quests very reminiscent of the old Fallout in their design or even more rare, their writing. You'll have to avoid as much as possible the main quest, which as I've said before, is the worst part of the game and to be fair, the worst and dumbest main quest-line I've ever played through. That's a total disappointment and what I really call a critical miss from Bethesda.
But once you decided to do the side quests and concentrate on doing what you want, this is where this Elder Scroll: Apocal... ooops, Fallout 3 really shines. Most of theses quests have many ways to be solved and depending on how you do them, you might have as a reward 50 caps, some interesting perk or an enhanced Plasma Rifle (pile of green goo in case of critical hit). One of them begin in the very uninteresting form of a fed-ex one to evolve in a kidnappers hunting (with three possible places to find them without anything more than markers on the map) to finish in a possible reconciliation, slaughter or maybe even something between these two extremes. In another one, you'll have to choose between 3 or 4 ways to handle a little problem with a very well known character of the Fallout franchise each ending in different rewards ranging from an useful perk to a Power Armour. Or you might just be asked by a women to collect a lot of glowing Nuka Cola bottles to discover that the man next-door would like to have these bottles to seduce the woman. Or you might want to choose between helping those poor ghouls to enter this nice upper class and heavily guarded tower to discover, that, erm, these ghouls were not as helpless as they might have looked and begin to be quite elusive when asked on the whereabouts of the previous owners.
To sum it up, you'll find most of the fun and the interest of the game in doing everything save the main quest.

Provided that you play on very hard difficulty mode, the Oblivion with guns stuff works pretty well after all. You'll actually find a very challenging game in the beginning, which has sometimes forced me to use drugs (which I've never made in Fallout 1 or 2, but maybe it was because I used the 10 AG 1 CH 1 LK trick to ease my way through the game) and pushed me to cleverly use the VATS to tactically disable my opponents (since they had too much HP to be killed quickly). This also has the effect of consuming an awful lot of ammunitions and stimpacks and I remembered a bit the good old days of System Shock 2 (where you never had enough stuff to feel really comfortable to handle the next fight but happened to be just enough to beat the game). Like the old Fallout, the more you progress, the more you'll have stimpacks, ammunitions, powerful armours and weaponry so in the end the fights become far more easy and far less challenging but you still might be able to die thanks to critical hits or mishandling the fact due to overconfidence.

But for me, it's like every Bethesda game: a game marred by a lot of congenital flaws which manages somehow to be interesting thanks to its technical abilities and its open-ended world.
I'm just still startled to see that Bethesda doesn't even seems to be willing to fix their own flaws in writing and scenario since a game combining the qualities of a Fallout 1 or 2 and Fallout 3 would be pretty awesome, to say the least.

Too bad. Fallout is our game series you arrogant ass. If you don't like it, there are hundreds of other games for you to play. Don't steal ours and insult us.

Fallout 3 is awful. Pure and simple. No redeeming aspects whatsoever. Terrible combat, dialog, graphics, animation, story... You name it, and F3 messes it up. More importantly though, it isn't a real Fallout game. It tries hard to be and fails miserably.

Fallout fans don't hate it because it isn't a carbon copy of the original games like most of the moronic gaming public seem to think. We hate it because it svcks. It svcks like if Oblivion, Morrowind, and Brotherhood of Steel got together and had a baby.

Fallout 3 is a great game.

It has inconsistencies or things that don't make too much sense (if you think about them) but aesthetically it fits together extremely well so its effortless to suspend your disbelief.

There's nothing about the game that jars or bugs you constantly, or is just bland/generic... like oblivion was all the way through.

The only thing I found to redeem oblivion was that it was a decent dungeon crawl game for that part of the game.

Fallout 3 is not like that at all. It's really good, I'm not sure how you can hate on it so much. I liked the original 2 fallouts but I guess we must differ on why.

I liked the atmosphere the exploration etc in fallout... I guess you liked the 'consquences' or whatever stuff (which was done much better in arcanum btw, another game I love).

In a word "Effing yes" ok that's two words.

FO3 is by far the best game this year.

I'm also a fallout vet (although not as hardcoe as some here it has to be said) and I think it stays true to the FO story.

I'm a fallout vet, and I feel that 3 is closer to the first in the series than the 2nd was, in terms of mood.




Who's us? What's hilarious is that there wouldn't be anything to steal, as you say, if some company didn't buy the license from interplay.
And so many complaints I hear about in this game were present in the first two games!
The story in the second Fallout was pretty weak as well...
"Veterans" hate fallout 3 because liking it would somehow make you feel you're one of the masses instead of being a part of the circle that "gets it."

Speak for yourself - REAL Fallout fan here. The difference is I'm not pretentious enough to claim I speak for eveyone who likes something.

If you liked the setting, and story of fallout, and liked the interface, mechanics, and "solve the quest any damn way you please" of deus ex, Fallout 3 is the game for you.

If this game is the child of any two games, its the child of fallout, and Deus Ex.

I've got news for you, bucko. It's not your game series. Might want to think about the whole "arrogant ass" thing if you think it's "yours".



"Pure and simple" bulldrek.



Take your "we" and go back to playing Fallout 1 and 2 for the eleventeenth time. This fallout fan is quite content with this game.

Deus Ex is definitely in my list of best five games ever. I actually just re-installed it this morning to take some screenshots of something for a project, and got svcked into playing it again... The game is painfully linear in terms of storyline, but the freedom within any one mission is fantastic.

But the interface... eeek. Probably because I've logged a couple hundred hours in F3 lately, but the interface keeps slapping me around. I hit "tab" to bring up my inventory, and instead toss my stealth pistol into the ocean. I right-click to zoom in, and instead I holster my weapon. Need to sit down and reconfigure it I guess, but I've never had that much trouble with it until now, and I've played through it at least once a year since it came out.

I mean interface in the FP RPG style, not so much the specific keybindings. Dunno how it plays on the PC as I'm lovin' it on my PS3

People complain about not have the mood of pop reference of FO2, but fo2 is like 80's, it has nothing do to with 50's style. Even FO3 is more linked to fo1 in those terms. Also people scream just because you cant be "porm actor"..hell...

Oblivion a down point?!? You mean the one that was Game of the Year for 2006? The one that gets accolades from all the critics and gamers? Is that the one you meant? The one on the PS3's greatest hits collection? The one on the top 100 greatest games of all time list? surely you jest....

Taken as a game, Oblivion was great. The reason a lot of people are sore about Oblivion is that compared to it's predecessor, Morrowind, it felt like a step backwards in a lot of ways. And it's a fair cop, it was.

Of course, a lot of us are still pining for Daggerfall, so...