Well, I stopped reading about a third of the way though when you made the point that 'there are no cities'. The largest cities in Fallout 3 (Rivet City, Megaton) have less going on in them than the small side towns in New Vegas like Novac or Jacobstown. Vegas itself has more dialogue, quests, and soul than Rivet City, Megaton, Canterbury Commons and Tenpenny Tower all rolled into one, so this criticism is just ridiculous.

Sounds like he didn't even play New Vegas.

Rivet City has far more going on in it than Novac or Jacobstown, places you can essentially "clear" in one visit. The suicidal man, the courtship of Angelo and Diego, Tammy and her brat kid, the woman hiding out from slavers - and these are just the unmarked quests. What's there to do in Jacobstown beyond the 'cure the nightkin' quest? Why would you ever want to visit the place more than once?

Do those quests have any impact on the ending or the gameworld? Right, they don't. Just another checkbox that gets filled and 100XP. The end. :brokencomputer:

The things you just mentioned last literally less than a minute each. To compare to Novac, which has a lot of interesting dialogue with an ex-ranger (who gives an unmarked quest), a singer on the run, Boone's starter quest (which is awesome), the crazy old man, the ex-Enclave pilot, and the vendor who sells the t-rexes. Novac has a lot more going on, and that's not even including the Come Fly With Me quest. Another point you'll notice is that everything I've mentioned is actually well written and ranges from amusing (Cliff Briscoe and his t-rexes), to depressing (the ex ranger and his quest), to enraging (Boone's quest). Did anything invoke even remotely similar emotion in Fallout 3? No.

Jacobstown has the quest to shoo away the mercenaries, and is involved in several other quests... but this point I'll concede, after thinking about it a bit. Rivet City has more going on than Jacobstown, barely.

But Rivet City didn't have Marcus.

To quote the fellow above you, apart from Boone's quest,



Now, I don't think this matters myself, but you lot seem to think that only quests that get referenced in the end-game slides are of any worth, so presumably Boone aside, Novac's a waste of time too. Me, I liked it, I thought it had character, but then I liked Rivet City too and seem to be operating to a completely different set of criteria here. I'm quite happy to concede that the writing is of a higher stndard in NV, though, I've no argument there, but I suppose that's less of a deal-breaker for me. I don't play videogames for the quality of writing, y'know?

Anyway, there are plenty of quests in NV that have no impact on the gameworld where one would expect they should, like 'That Lucky Old Sun', 'Booted' and 'Cold, Cold Heart'.

The ex-Enclave pilot does influence the ending.

The only highlights of Fallout 3 for me was...

-The Android
-Moira & The Wasteland Survival Guide


That is a bit lame. If I am going to be doing exploring it had better have a strong storyline attached, or offer interesting dungeons and activities, like in Zelda. I am definitely looking forward to New Vegas, because I want something along the lines of Fallout 2's character. While it had fairly tedious combat and wasn't particularly good looking, it is a gem because of the atmosphere, choices, and storytelling.

As does Boone's and your decision in Come Fly With Me.

Anyway, a quest doesn't have to be featured in the ending to be meaningful or good. That helps, but there were plenty of good quests in Fallout 1 and 2 that had no impact on the ending, but were good for other ways. For instance, the quest in Vault City to get the woman's husband out of the slave pen in FO2. There were several different ways you could achieve this, depending on your skills. Evil players could even extort six out of the poor girl in exchange for her husband's release.