Fallout: Now With Slow-Mo Headsplosions

[Balmas]

But boy is it fun.

It was bound to happen. I've spent hundreds of hours and read--quite literally--millions of words of fanfiction about a strange world of magical ponies and nuclear devastation.

It was only a matter of time before I cracked and decided to see what all the fuss was about. Two weeks ago, that moment came when I cracked and purchased Fallout 3. Since then, I've logged what is perhaps an unhealthy amount of time in running around the Capitol Wasteland, blasting away anything and everything that isn't amenable to talking civilly.

Actually, no matter how you look at it, eighty-six hours in two weeks is probably a bit overzealous. However, to me it's just a testament of how addicting and overwhelmingly expansive this game is. No matter what level you are, no matter where you begin, there's always more to do, more to see, more to explore.

And, of course, more things to shoot in the face.

Gentlemen, grab your killing device of choice, whether it be a flaming sword, a scoped revolver, or a bloody nuke-launcher, and let's go. Ante up, my friends; the Wasteland awaits.

[factotum]

If you get that addicted to Fallout 3, wait until you try New Vegas.

[Chen]

If you get that addicted to Fallout 3, wait until you try New Vegas.

Yeah I really expected to like New Vegas less but damn I was surprised how much better it was.

[Essence_of_War]

Especially since the ultimate-all-dlc-rolled-together-edition patched most of the bugs! I had a very nearly bug-free NV experience.

FO3 is awesome, but the main plotline isn't very good.

FONV takes all of the things I liked about FO3, and married it to a fantastic story.

[IthilanorStPete]

Yay New Vegas! SO much fun.

One question: I've been using Cass as my companion, and she's been ridiculously strong, even with just a Caravan Shotgun. Like, killing multiple Nightkin and only taking 5 damage strong. Is that normal?

[thethird]

Fallout = Good

New Vegas = Awesome

New Vegas + DLCs = OMGBBQ

Yeah, those are really good games, on Cass she is a monster with a shotgun. She has Shotgun Surgeon as a hidden perk and you can get both her quest related perks one increases damage and the other increases her health, so yeah, she can take a beating and give back two. Also Nightkin tend to melee, and being close to a shotgun is normally a bad idea.

[IthilanorStPete]

Fallout = Good

New Vegas = Awesome

New Vegas + DLCs = OMGBBQ

Yeah, those are really good games, on Cass she is a monster with a shotgun. She has Shotgun Surgeon as a hidden perk and you can get both her quest related perks one increases damage and the other increases her health, so yeah, she can take a beating and give back two. Also Nightkin tend to melee, and being close to a shotgun is normally a bad idea.

Ooh, didn't know she had Shotgun Surgeon. That'd make sense, yeah.

[Maxios]

I liked how many solutions there were for quests in New Vegas (especially Beyond the Beef) but I loved the atmosphere in Fallout 3.

Also, assuming you're playing on the PC, I have a large list of mods you may be interested in. Quest mods, companion mods, perk mods...nudity mods...

[Balmas]

So, if I understand what y'all are saying, New Vegas is pretty good, then?

So, story time! When traveling across country, I've gotten into the habit of crouching every few seconds to see if anything has spotted me. It helps to cover the tunnel vision I get when seeing that little arrow in the eyes forward...

Heh. I have difficulty of thinking of it as anything but an Eyes-Forward Sparkle.

Anyway, I crouch to see what's spotted me. So yesterday, near the Republic of Dave, I crouched and found that there was something angry at me. A quick scan showed a Bloatfly over off to the left. VATS and Ol' Painless takes care of that quickly.

But... the little [DANGER] icon hadn't gone away. Switch to VATS to see what it is... and I'm treated to a lovely freeze-frame of the Deathclaw about to strike right behind me.

[Farix]

Alright a Fallout thread, been needing one of these.


So I know I'm in the minority here but I preferred Fallout 3 to New Vegas.

Now don't get me wrong, New Vegas is a tremendous game, one which surpasses 3 in most every area. Mechanically it plays better, has better characters (though no Moira), better DLC (although 3 has its moments, poor Canada), and a better feel of an interconnected world. But my issue with it is one of setting. There was never a moment in New Vegas where I felt as though I was in a post-nuclear world. Sure Freeside and the various towns are kinda run down, sure there's some radiation (ugh, Vault 34), sure there are a handful of mutants, but none of this feels like its anything serious. Compare this to the Capitol Wasteland with the ruins of DC and the Mojave seems like its just a bit run down.

I recognize that this is a bit of a necessity, you're not going to have a world as lived in as the Mojave which looks like DC. There's just too many people living in the space to have something as rundown as the Capitol was. But with that in mind, at least have some sort of ruins, say an old city nearby that wasn't under House's missile shield, something to remind the player that yeah, the world did get nuked and you're not just in some wacky futuristic desert setting.


Favorite moment in the series discussion? Mine probably goes to the Giddyup Buttercup room, no explanation why its there, it just is.

But... the little [DANGER] icon hadn't gone away. Switch to VATS to see what it is... and I'm treated to a lovely freeze-frame of the Deathclaw about to strike right behind me.

Welcome to Old Olney, home of the Fighting Deathclaws! Go Team!

Ante up, my friends; the Wasteland awaits.

I see someones found Project Horizons.


So speculation on Fallout 4? We've gotten some hints, rumours that its gonna be in the US Northeast and might somehow involve everyone's favorite Jockey of Discs. What would you like to see from it, have added in/removed, etc.?

[Gamerlord]

Going to worth my hat in with the New Vegas Love Bandwangon, I think it's probably one of the best RPGs I have ever played. Although number 3 was still pretty good.

Now don't get me wrong, New Vegas is a tremendous game, one which surpasses 3 in most every area. Mechanically it plays better, has better characters (though no Moira), better DLC (although 3 has its moments, poor Canada), and a better feel of an interconnected world. But my issue with it is one of setting. There was never a moment in New Vegas where I felt as though I was in a post-nuclear world. Sure Freeside and the various towns are kinda run down, sure there's some radiation (ugh, Vault 34), sure there are a handful of mutants, but none of this feels like its anything serious. Compare this to the Capitol Wasteland with the ruins of DC and the Mojave seems like its just a bit run down.

I recognize that this is a bit of a necessity, you're not going to have a world as lived in as the Mojave which looks like DC. There's just too many people living in the space to have something as rundown as the Capitol was. But with that in mind, at least have some sort of ruins, say an old city nearby that wasn't under House's missile shield, something to remind the player that yeah, the world did get nuked and you're not just in some wacky futuristic desert setting.

Personally, I preferred it like that. Fallout 3 made it look like the bombs dropped just a few days ago, it's pretty odd for the world to still be an irradiated wasteland after all those years. And there was The Divide in one of the DLCs (At least, from the pictures I have seen of it it looks like a radioactive wasteland, haven't gotten around to doing Lonesome Road yet.)

So speculation on Fallout 4? We've gotten some hints, rumors that its gonna be in the US Northeast and might somehow involve everyone's favorite Jockey of Discs. What would you like to see from it, have added in/removed, etc.?

Get rid of or fix the crappy Pip Boy interface (Or at the very least, add a few keyboard shortcuts for each section), and use an engine that isn't Gamebyro. I have a lot of other various wishes and wants, but those are my two big ones. Oh, and Bethesda needs to get new writers.
Favorite series moment? Far too many to possibly decide between for me.

EDIT 2: Oh, and the ability to hold down the Use button when I'm drinking out of the toilets, sinks, and lakes would be nice.

[Eldonauran]

I have both FO3 and FONV. They are both amazing games. Have all DLC? Yes, please.

Are you playing on a PC? If you aren't, you are missing out on all of the fan-made mods out there. For FO3, there is a mod called Ironsights that gives it Vega's aim down the barrell view. This was out BEFORE FONV was even annouced.

48 hours in two weeks? Reminds me of when I hesitantly rented the game (I hate first person games) and played it. I think that was the first time I played a game for 10 hours straight. I've gotten close before but after 10 hours, my brain couldnt automatically ignore my stomach anymore.

[Kesnit]

I really don't know if I like FO3 or NV better. Both are amazing!

In terms of story, I have to go with FO3. The story was more personal. Sure, in NV, it starts personal, but after meeting with Mr. House, it gets more world-based, as opposed to person-based. In 3, you have the entire Capital Wasteland, but it's all about finding your father and continuing his mission.

With respect to setting, FO3. I lived in the DC area when 3 came out, which added something to the game. I worked out where my apartment would be. I worked out where the in-game cities were in real life. (Some are obvious, like Germantown and Bethesda. Others took some time.)

For companions, NV, hands down. In FO3, I only used a companion at end-game. I could have picked one up earlier, but just didn't see the need. Even once I got them, they were as much mule and "extra target" as "character." In NV, the companions feel like real people. (And ED-E is AMAZING!!!)

I can't really compare the DLC, since I have only done 1 DLC for NV. (Dead Money, which I did not like very much since I was not statted for melee or energy weapons. I also wasn't very fond of the story.)

I didn't think I would like HC mode in NV, but had to try it since I want 100% achievements. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be, although I admit to playing on the easiest difficulty! It actually gives a nice extra kick to the game. I doubt I will play with it again, but it does add a little something.

In terms of replayability, NV all the way. There's so many different options, not just in which ending to go for, but in ways to build and skills to use.

[The Extinguisher]

I prefer New Vegas but I agree the setting was weaker. Ive think we've run the course with the West. Im glad Fallout 4 will be exploring new areas.

[Logic]

I loved New Vegas and FO3, but characterizations win the day for me, thus NV takes the crown as the better Fallout.

As for the next Fallout, I want to see another West Coast game, probably far north of anything we have seen in the previous titles. Perhaps the greater Seattle or Portland area, or even as far north as the border of Canada. I really liked the inclusion of Nellis AFB in NV, so I'd even be willing to do a game based around a nuked former military outpost, especially one where a portion of America's nuclear arsenal would have been kept.

[Sharoth]

I love, love, love, love FO NV. I really enjoyed FO3, but NV was so much better. ~grins~ Yes, I was playing on my X-Box 360, so no mods, but the DLCs were awesome. Dead Money takes some getting used to, but once you have it down, it is a good DLC. Especially if you can get out with the loot without a certain person seeing you. ~WEG~ I think Lonesome Road was the weakest of the DLCs.

As for FO 4, I know I will get it, but I worry that they will just repeat FO3 and make the same mistakes.

[Balmas]

I see someone's found Project Horizons.

And Heroes, and the Ditzy Doo Chronicles, and Pink Eyes, and Murky Number Seven, and Taking Life By The Horns, and...

Anyway. Yes. I've read Project Horizons, and am going through a rereading of the original. If it weren't for FO:E, I wouldn't be in this thread.

So speculation on Fallout 4? We've gotten some hints, rumours that its gonna be in the US Northeast and might somehow involve everyone's favorite Jockey of Discs. What would you like to see from it, have added in/removed, etc.?

Hmm. I'd like to see something done about the movement. All too often, I'm skirting around rocks and getting caught on the edges of them. I can back up and then jump over them, but can't do it right on the edge of the item. It's just a little thing that breaks immersion.

Get rid of or fix the crappy Pip Boy interface (Or at the very least, add a few keyboard shortcuts for each section), and use an engine that isn't Gamebyro. I have a lot of other various wishes and wants, but those are my two big ones. Oh, and Bethesda needs to get new writers.

What's wrong with the Pipboy interface?

Mind you, some key shortcuts would be nice.



On a random note: I really wish I had the technological skills to make something like this.

[Triaxx]

Does Fallout three have Bounties? No? New Vegas wins. :D

Alright, I've had the argument before that New Vegas doesn't feel particularly post-apocalyptic and the concensus generally comes down that it's in a desert, it's already a wasteland, so all the bombs did was introduce a little background radiation.

That said, there's something about the Fallout series. If you started with the first couple, there's a special attachment to the west as a setting. The wild west feeling, that combines with the 'one person alone against the hostile wilderness' feeling that makes you all the more inclined to think of it as a western with laser guns.

On the other hand, I far more enjoyed Fallout 2 than I did one so I admit genre bias.

[Gamerlord]

What's wrong with the Pipboy interface?

Mind you, some key shortcuts would be nice.

A: It is very fond of lagging at the worst possible moments. Seeing as how this happens in both games, I'm not sure it's a bug when it takes 10 seconds for the Pip Boy to load up and a bunch of Deathclaws are charging towards me.
B: The lack of key shortcuts can get very annoying very quickly when I have to constantly click through everything to get to anything.
C: For some reason, they decided to stash the Hunger/Sleep/Drink meters for Hardcore Mode in New Vegas in the Pip Boy, which means you have to be constantly checking it over and over again to make sure you aren't about to start starving. Thankfully, there are mods to fix this one.

[Triaxx]

Strangely, while there are no keyboard commands, there are maps for the 360 controller, to navigate the pipboy.

[Craft (Cheese)]

A: It is very fond of lagging at the worst possible moments. Seeing as how this happens in both games, I'm not sure it's a bug when it takes 10 seconds for the Pip Boy to load up and a bunch of Deathclaws are charging towards me.
B: The lack of key shortcuts can get very annoying very quickly when I have to constantly click through everything to get to anything.
C: For some reason, they decided to stash the Hunger/Sleep/Drink meters for Hardcore Mode in New Vegas in the Pip Boy, which means you have to be constantly checking it over and over again to make sure you aren't about to start starving. Thankfully, there are mods to fix this one.

D. Very poor economy of space: Almost all of it is wasted on cosmetic areas, and the giant fonts waste what precious little space is left for actual information or navigation bits.

E. All the clickable areas on the pip-boy are so frickin tiny! The buttons to switch between stats/items/data and the tabs to switch between the sub-menus are much smaller than they probably should be, which leads to extra time aiming the mouse so you click on the right spot, about 1-2 extra seconds for every tab you switch. This doesn't sound so bad but when combined with D, you have to switch through tabs a dozen times to actually get anything done, this can add up to several extra minutes spent ******* around in the menu every time you bring it up. Time that could have been spent doing actually fun stuff like, I dunno, playing the game?

F. Furthermore the menu is very confusing and opaque. It's not usually apparent where something might be and where the best place to look for it is unless you already have the menu layout memorized. This leads to a lot of players (like me) struggling with certain aspects of the game unnecessarily just because they never figured out what certain parts of the menu were for: For example, it wasn't until long after I had beaten the game that I found out you could check your current radiation level with the pip-boy. While I was actually playing and I wanted to see how many rads I had, I would intentionally give myself a dose of radiation to bring the indicator up in the top right corner. This is indefensible.

Overall, the pip-boy is a crime against sensible UI design.

Anyway, in my view New Vegas is superior to Fallout 3 in just about every way: The only thing FO3 has going for it are the area designs. FNV is loaded with mysterious invisible walls and confusing mazes where it's very easily to accidentally get spun around.

FNV just takes its characters and setting... seriously. The only justification I can come up with for FO3's stupidity (or at least the only one that doesn't make me start to contemplate suicide) is that it was one big practical joke, like Bethesda seriously thought that nobody would care about any of this stuff but they have to add it in anyway, so they might as well have some fun at the player's expense. The only way I can imagine a functioning human being designing Little Lamplight is they were handed down the news that children in the game would be invulnerable and decided to express their frustration with sadism.

[Triaxx]

The first two games had killable children. Had Lamplight been there, the massacre would have been immediate.

[Ailurus]

The first two games had killable children. Had Lamplight been there, the massacre would have been immediate.

Of all the plot issues with FO3 (and while I did like it there were several fairly large plotholes) Lamplight was easily the worst one. I can think of no way that such a town could exist. The formation of it makes sense. Still existing that long after the bombs fell, yeah, not so much.

[factotum]

The first two games had killable children. Had Lamplight been there, the massacre would have been immediate.

Not in the European and UK versions, they didn't...although they removed the children by just removing the sprite and the hitbox, so you could still hear them and they could still steal stuff from you!

[Balmas]

If there's one criticism of Fallout I'd make, it's the things you find. One time I just paused the game so I could try to wrap my head around the idea of there being a baseball bat and a vacuum cleaner in the same mailbox.

Seriously, why are these things here? What kind of crazy pre-war existence was it when nothing was stored in a locked safe but shotgun shells? Why is there a pistol inside the desk in an elementary school?

And, to paraphrase Littlepip, why are there so many locked boxes? Am I the only person in two hundred years to figure out how to pick a lock?

[Jayngfet]

Am I the only person in two hundred years to figure out how to pick a lock?

That's what really gets me. According to the timeline the war ended two hundred years ago and yet it feels like it's been less than a generation in Fallout 3, in some places. Everything isn't just charred even though it'd have grown back, but so much else hasn't changed. The grocery stores are explicitly still full of food and medicine, even if they've been occupied. Heck, preservatives be damned you'd expect SOMETHING to go bad in that time. Or perhaps the people who've evidently been living outside the vaults for so long would learn to build things that didn't look like hobo-gadgets.

Don't get me wrong, Fallout is a great series I've wasted over a hundred hours on, but this kind of thing just gets under my skin.

[Balmas]

In other news, I just got the Chinese Stealth Suit, and thus can't be bothered to care about realism since I'm having too much fun. Sure, I could suit up in Tesla armor and duke it out with lasers, but why bother when I can just sneak behind them and show them my new flaming sword?

(The best part is when--if the shishkebab is in low repair--the enemy walks away, announcing that it was nothing, as he merrily burns to death.)

Enclave? Meet sword.

Deathclaw? Meet sword.

Super Mutant Behemoth? Meet Nuka-Grenades, thank ye very much.


Also: Death Angel Sprint + Action Girl + 100% VATS crit rate on sniper rifle makes for some very amusing gameplay, especially when playing a part of the game with infinite ammo and a gun that doesn't degrade.

[mangosta71]

But my issue with it is one of setting. There was never a moment in New Vegas where I felt as though I was in a post-nuclear world. Sure Freeside and the various towns are kinda run down, sure there's some radiation (ugh, Vault 34), sure there are a handful of mutants, but none of this feels like its anything serious. Compare this to the Capitol Wasteland with the ruins of DC and the Mojave seems like its just a bit run down.

I recognize that this is a bit of a necessity, you're not going to have a world as lived in as the Mojave which looks like DC. There's just too many people living in the space to have something as rundown as the Capitol was. But with that in mind, at least have some sort of ruins, say an old city nearby that wasn't under House's missile shield, something to remind the player that yeah, the world did get nuked and you're not just in some wacky futuristic desert setting.

Aside from what's already been said, you have to consider that in a nuclear war the bombs would be falling on population centers. DC would get hit HARD (even more so because it's also a target of major political importance), while the Mojave would be pretty much untouched because nobody lives there.

For FO4, "US northeast" is an area of high population density. Lots of economical infrastructure, too, so it should have been hit almost as hard as DC. I'm thinking the game proper will likely be around NYC, with possible DLCs for traveling to Philly and Boston.

The first two games had killable children. Had Lamplight been there, the massacre would have been immediate.

My favorite moment in the FO series: driving into The Den, shoving everything I own into the trunk of my car except for one block of C4, heading into town, save the game, start the timer on the C4, walk up to a child and wait for him to pick my pocket, follow from a safe distance until the BOOM. Possibly that should be "favorite moments" because I did it over and over and over...I'm pretty sure I wiped out an entire generation in that town, and I'm fairly confident that the fact that I think it's hilarious makes me a terrible person...

[Bryn]

My understanding was that Fallout 3 was intended to be set 20 years after the war, and changed to 200 during development (I guess so they could include the Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel in a way that's vaguely consistent with the first two games, or maybe to set up the idea of Vault 101 being sealed long-term). This is why a lot of elements of the game (Little Lamplight especially) do not remotely seem to make sense 200 years after the war.

New Vegas shouldn't feel so immediately post-apocalyptic, because it's set after Fallout 1 and 2. Over the course of the three games you see the NCR (for example) grow from a tiny town to the enormous faction it is in New Vegas. Also, Mr House destroyed almost all the nuclear missiles aimed at Vegas, and would have got them all if they'd come a day later giving him time to use the Platinum Chip.

I prefer New Vegas to 3 for its great characterisation and attention to detail (what do they eat?), giving most of the factions plausible motivations and histories (for example, contrast 3's raiders to NV's Great Khans), a plot with fewer holes that (to me) is a lot more interesting than 3's, and its connections to the old Fallouts. But I think 3 deserves lots of credit for successfully bringing Fallout to a 3D open-world and it has fantastic sound design (the 'you got a quest' noise...) and atmosphere.

I still need to play Broken Steel and most of Point Lookout. Maybe it's time to reinstall 3 and have another go...

Would anyone like mod recommendations? I've probably spent almost as much time modding these games as playing them...

[Toastkart]

I've been thinking of playing New Vegas again since I only played through it the once on my old computer that couldn't run it very well. I'd appreciate some mod suggestions.