"I'm looking for my father. Middle-aged guy. Maybe you've seen him?"

When I saw this, I turned off the game, and never played it again. My character had 9 intelligence, so how could I justify choosing that line (which was obviously what was needed to advance the main quest in the first town in the game)?

Yes that was one of the most ridiculous lines in the game.

Oh yeah a middle aged guy I know exactly what you mean, how descriptive, we don't see those a lot! :rolleyes:

I agree complete. I was almost going to post a thread on it but stopped myself.

I really enjoy Fallout 3. I have over a 100 hours on my current character alone.

But that is is a phenomenally stupid line. And it start the game.

Do you expect someone to say "Oh, yeah I saw the middle aged guy, how can you forget a thing like that, he's over there!"

And there are so many other things that could have been said if they gave it half a thought like.

Have you seen my father, he's a doctor?
Have you seen my father, he's a scientist?
Have you seen my father, he looks like me?
Have you seen my father, he just got out of a vault?
Have you seen my father, his name is James?

etc, etc, etc.

Good game, but Sheesh. What a brain dead line.

When you say "my father" that means the person would be looking for a resemblance of some sort. Also, he only passed by a few hours ago, at most. How many middle-aged strangers enter a bar within the same hour during a certain day? Especially since it's not happy hour or anything.

I didn't mind the line at all..

In fact, the easiest and most obviously accurate line would been 'Have you seen my father? He's wearing a pipboy on his wrist like this one I have.'

Then why not say "Have you seen my father, he looks like me" like I say above.

Or "Have you seen my father, he would have just passed through here"

There is nothing in the line about your father being a stranger or having just passed through. For all they know he might have been one of the settlers there for years.

It is a completely, utterly brain dead line to start the game with.

While I don't understand you never playing Fallout 3 again just because of that, I agree that was a very undescriptive thing to say when looking for someone. That's like saying "I'm looking for my best friend, a woman, have you seen her?" or "I'm looking for my brother, he was born a capricorn, have you seen him?"

But as stupid as that one little line was, Fallout 3 is still a great game and has so much better lines then that one.

And Holy Assassin, I can't think of a single middle aged guy who goes to Moriarty's Saloon. Except Jericho, Mister Burke, and of course Moriarty.

News at 11: Bethesda does not have the best dialogue writers in the industry, by far. After that: Revelation, TV has gotten dull in the last few years! ^_^

By the way, that line reminds me of some lines from the Simpsons TV Show:

Homer is trying to remember someone: "Hey Marge, who was that guy we used to know, always wore a shirt"

Or Police Chief Wiggum describing a fugative: "Suspect is Hatless, repeat Hatless"

So you 'purchased' a game and just because you didn't like a line of dialogue early on, you quit playing it :rolleyes:


and......?

I agree, its not the greatest line in the world, but its certainly no reason to never play fallout 3 again....

Plus the Lone Wanderer would expect Dad to be wearing the same vault suit he/she is wearing too. Seeing no other people walking around town in vault 101 suits, it seems reasonable that by asking someone if they've seen your middle-aged dad, they would be able to tell you whether or not they recall meeting a guy who looks like you and is wearing a vault suit.

It's not the best line that could have been written but it's certainly no reason to stop playing a game.

Edit: Gah, get out of my head, Lt. Andronicus

I didn't literally stop just because of that line, but because it game me no reason to expect that any attention or care had been devoted to the dialog in the game. Since this is a key aspect of fallout games, I stopped playing, rather than waste my time being bombarded by lines which might be passable at best.

A typical playthrough of Fallout 3 might take me sixty hours. Of that sixty hours I would estimate that about twenty to thirty minutes is taken up by reading dialogue. Let's be generous and say an hour. Either way, it's a piddly amount of playtime. I would suggest that for this Fallout game, dialogue is not one of the key aspects. Perhaps it should've been, but that's another question.

So you're one of those "original fallout" disciples who just can't stand FO3 because it's not a fallout 1/2 clone and you need to bring that up.....ok

Personally, I'm not that anol. I played the originals back when they came out and loved the games....and when I heard another fallout was coming out I was psyched. But I knew it was purchased and being created by bethesda so I didn't expect it to be a copy of the originals. I simply wanted the "atmosphere" of a post apocalyptic world again with that retro-future feel and I thought they did a great job with that....I enjoyed the game alot.


So you bought FO3 and shelved it shortly after starting because it wasn't what you wanted....that's too bad that you couldn't just enjoy it for what it is

No, the worst line is the INT response to Three-Woof. :stare:

I did not liked F3's story and writing. And no, I am not shelving the game yet, so there.

I'm fighting the good fight from my radio station!
[Intelligence] So you're fighting the good fight with your voice?
OMG you're so smart!


There's also a bad one with the fire ants doctor.

"He was the man who single-handedly built the rocket and went to the moon. What was his name? Apollo Creed?"

I know its a long shot, but I would love to hear from whoever wrote this line. Maybe there is a justification.

The justification is he/she was a chimp hitting random buttons on a keyboard.

That's exactly how Shakesperes works were made... Why shouldn't Bethesdas writers do the same?

While it certainly is a dumb line I cant believe someone would stop playing the game because of it. You saying you have not played Fallout 3 at all because of this? Or did you turn it off, brace yourself, and then continue?

The Lone Wanderer could have said something like "I'm looking for my father who recently left Vault 101. He's probably wearing a Vault 101 suit and a Pipboy on his arm. Have you seen him?"

Not perfect, but better. Would this have made you continue playing the game?

To everyone who is not satisfied with the father response, http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2053 mod is for you then.

Yeah it's a stupid line, but don't you think never playing again is a little over board?

Yea because post apocalyptic bars have plenty of mysterious strangers in vault suits passing through