Fallout 3 impressions

[Beev]

Lockpicking is hard? I find it insanely easy. Hacking is much more annoying. Not really hard, but takes too much concentration that I think it detracts from the rest of the game.

 

[RS8]

Imp, I've had a few raiders respawn at places I don't visit after a few days. Randomly quick traveled to the bed & breakfast after a while and was mobbed by a bunch of raiders.

 

[ZappDogg]

Lockpicking is hard?

I'm using a gamepad, so probably harder than m/kb.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Beev
Lockpicking is hard? I find it insanely easy. Hacking is much more annoying. Not really hard, but takes too much concentration that I think it detracts from the rest of the game.

yes, i couldn't do it to save my life

 

[VashHT]

I've played for 3-4 hours so far, here are my impressions on it. I'm a big fan of the first 2 games, so keep that in mind for some of these points.

The story, atmosphere and characters all seem good so far. The voice acting seems a little better than Oblivion so far, and the dialogue system is mainly the same as FO1 or 2 which is cool. It's good to see they kept the humor in the dialogue choices, some of the stuff you can say is hilarious.

My biggest gripe about this game atm is that the combat really sucks ass imo. It's like they took a crappy FPS and wrapped a really good RPG world around it. I was hoping VATS would be more like a true turn based combat system, it really just allows you take aimed shots at an instant in the real time fight. I noticed crippling body parts aside from the head is basically worthless and does not really mean anything. For example, I was fighting a guy and I critically crippled both his legs using VAT's. After this though, he was still able to sprint at me full speed, I thought that was really stupid.

Crappy combat aside, I like everything else, so I'll at least beat the story. This is basically what I did with Oblivion, after I finished the story I couldn't force myself to play much longer because fighting was so tediously boring.

 

[Magusigne]

Originally posted by: VashHT
I've played for 3-4 hours so far, here are my impressions on it. I'm a big fan of the first 2 games, so keep that in mind for some of these points.

The story, atmosphere and characters all seem good so far. The voice acting seems a little better than Oblivion so far, and the dialogue system is mainly the same as FO1 or 2 which is cool. It's good to see they kept the humor in the dialogue choices, some of the stuff you can say is hilarious.

My biggest gripe about this game atm is that the combat really sucks ass imo. It's like they took a crappy FPS and wrapped a really good RPG world around it. I was hoping VATS would be more like a true turn based combat system, it really just allows you take aimed shots at an instant in the real time fight. I noticed crippling body parts aside from the head is basically worthless and does not really mean anything. For example, I was fighting a guy and I critically crippled both his legs using VAT's. After this though, he was still able to sprint at me full speed, I thought that was really stupid.

Crappy combat aside, I like everything else, so I'll at least beat the story. This is basically what I did with Oblivion, after I finished the story I couldn't force myself to play much longer because fighting was so tediously boring.

Honestly I love the game so far..but I do hear you.

I was hoping VATS (while still AWESOME im my mind) would yield some interesting choices in combat. For instance..I wanted to cripple some guys arm so he couldn't swing at me with his weapon. So I "crippled" it and he was taken aback for a second before attacking me with that same arm.

I believe however that this could easily be fixed with either a patch or a user mod..there are alot of possibilities.

 

[Canai]

Well sheeiit. Color me impressed. I picked F3 up on the way home from work last night, and I played for about ten hours straight haha. Aside from a couple CTDs, I didn't run into any problem at all with it, and it doesn't remind me that much of Oblivion. My only major gripe is headshots do no more damage than body shots, and it takes multiple clips from the assault rifle to drop someone, while one grenade will blow the heck out of a bunch of guys. I VATS grenaded some guys who were rushing me, and one of them flew at me and smacked a guy who was trying to smack me with a stick, knocking him away. I thought that was pretty great.

While it's certainly not a *true* Fallout game, it is good on it's own right, and I'm really looking forward to the mods.

*disclaimer* Fallout and Fallout 2 are my all time favorite games, and I'm one of the NMA elitists but I still find the game entertaining.

 

[pontifex]

any way to switch firing modes on weapons, like single, burst, full auto? i found a 10mm machine pistol or something and it shoots in 3 shot bursts using VATS but I can make it shoot single shots in real time mode. I want it to use single shot in VATS too.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: pontifex
any way to switch firing modes on weapons, like single, burst, full auto? i found a 10mm machine pistol or something and it shoots in 3 shot bursts using VATS but I can make it shoot single shots in real time mode. I want it to use single shot in VATS too.

Yeah, just click on the weapon icon in the bottom center of the screen

I wish you could target their eyes in VATS.

 

[imported_Imp]

After going through the manual yesterday, I gotta admit that the ability to 'cripple' is a lot less than it should be. Turns out you can screw with someones vision, mess up their aim, and make them unable to run. It would have been so much cooler if you could immobilize someone and make them unable to fight back by taking out all their limbs (mechwarrior...).

 

[Magusigne]

Originally posted by: Imp
After going through the manual yesterday, I gotta admit that the ability to 'cripple' is a lot less than it should be. Turns out you can screw with someones vision, mess up their aim, and make them unable to run. It would have been so much cooler if you could immobilize someone and make them unable to fight back by taking out all their limbs (mechwarrior...).

I'm hoping that someone smarter than I will find that relatively easy to mod..lol

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: Powernick50

Originally posted by: Imp
After going through the manual yesterday, I gotta admit that the ability to 'cripple' is a lot less than it should be. Turns out you can screw with someones vision, mess up their aim, and make them unable to run. It would have been so much cooler if you could immobilize someone and make them unable to fight back by taking out all their limbs (mechwarrior...).

I'm hoping that someone smarter than I will find that relatively easy to mod..lol

Yeah I'd love to be able to blow arms and legs off of people before actually killing them. Damn I sound twisted.

I was happy to see the Bloody Mess perk is still in the game. I thought I read a while back that they had decided to remove it.

 

[zinfamous]

Is it all 1st person? any way to go into 3rd person mode?

<--despises 1st person games & misses the isometric style

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: Canai

Originally posted by: Powernick50

Originally posted by: Imp
After going through the manual yesterday, I gotta admit that the ability to 'cripple' is a lot less than it should be. Turns out you can screw with someones vision, mess up their aim, and make them unable to run. It would have been so much cooler if you could immobilize someone and make them unable to fight back by taking out all their limbs (mechwarrior...).

I'm hoping that someone smarter than I will find that relatively easy to mod..lol

Yeah I'd love to be able to blow arms and legs off of people before actually killing them. Damn I sound twisted.

I was happy to see the Bloody Mess perk is still in the game. I thought I read a while back that they had decided to remove it.

If they can keep the F-word in there, I don't see why they'd need to cut that.

 

[CrystalBay]

Ahem,sleeping with Nova was a ripoff !!!

 

[matas]

I need some help in the game. I got to the mission where 3 dog gives you a task. My quest is to go to some museum and find a radio satellite part and go somewhere else to fix the radio station. When I try to make my way over there, it is really hard to get past the super mutants.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Man, this game can be a mind F*** at times.

Go to small town for quest, search house and find the skeleton of a small girl in bed with all her toys still out and wearing the tattered remains of the dress she was wearing when she died. After moving through the town I find a dog owning about 5 bandits and comes over to me all nice and friendly, now I have a pet dog that can hold his own in a fight. Shortly after from out of nowhere a woman comes up to me screaming "THE BOMB IS GOING TO EXPLODE!", she then runs away and promptly explodes, right about then is when the homicidal robot from the old Lost in Space attacks me. THEN as I'm sneaking my way though a ruined downtown area of some place two guys in ragged clothing run past me screaming followed by this MASSIVE scorpion which totally ignores me and proceeds to chase down and kill the two guys.

I LOVE THIS GAME.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: matas
I need some help in the game. I got to the mission where 3 dog gives you a task. My quest is to go to some museum and find a radio satellite part and go somewhere else to fix the radio station. When I try to make my way over there, it is really hard to get past the super mutants.

That might be because they're super mutants. Get some decent gear, use grenades, use cover. You need to have a few tricks up your sleeve to take down muties.

 

[matas]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: matas
I need some help in the game. I got to the mission where 3 dog gives you a task. My quest is to go to some museum and find a radio satellite part and go somewhere else to fix the radio station. When I try to make my way over there, it is really hard to get past the super mutants.

That might be because they're super mutants. Get some decent gear, use grenades, use cover. You need to have a few tricks up your sleeve to take down muties.

Perhaps I should do side missions or something to level up more before I am ready to do main mission. Also, where can I get ammo? I tried going to armory but the door was locked.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Originally posted by: matas

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: matas
I need some help in the game. I got to the mission where 3 dog gives you a task. My quest is to go to some museum and find a radio satellite part and go somewhere else to fix the radio station. When I try to make my way over there, it is really hard to get past the super mutants.

That might be because they're super mutants. Get some decent gear, use grenades, use cover. You need to have a few tricks up your sleeve to take down muties.

Perhaps I should do side missions or something to level up more before I am ready to do main mission. Also, where can I get ammo? I tried going to armory but the door was locked.

For ammo, raid a few buildings occupied by raiders, lots of loot around usually. The mission for the store owners book (in megaton) leads you to such placed and you get extra goodies. You can also buy ammo from the store. Having 6 in luck also helps find extra ammo in totally random locations.

 

[pontifex]

i learned a few things so i decided to start a new character but i still can't decide where to put attribute points and what skills to take.

attribute points right now are 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 7, 5. not sure i want to spread so thin or specialize more.
anyone have a list of what all of the stats do exactly, like how much extra carry weight each point of ST gives, or how many HPs each point of endurance gives?

i like sneak, small guns, and lockpick, because i think they will be useful, but i'm wondering if I should drop one of those for maybe medicine or repair or even other ones.


oh, and hacking is ridiculously hard...why do they have to make stuff in these games so difficult? i just keep clicking different words until i get the right one.

 

[Slew Foot]

Originally posted by: pontifex
i learned a few things so i decided to start a new character but i still can't decide where to put attribute points and what skills to take.

attribute points right now are 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 7, 5. not sure i want to spread so thin or specialize more.
anyone have a list of what all of the stats do exactly, like how much extra carry weight each point of ST gives, or how many HPs each point of endurance gives?

i like sneak, small guns, and lockpick, because i think they will be useful, but i'm wondering if I should drop one of those for maybe medicine or repair or even other ones.


oh, and hacking is ridiculously hard...why do they have to make stuff in these games so difficult? i just keep clicking different words until i get the right one.

Theres a faq over at gamefaqs which details out all the attributes and their effects.
FOr hacking, you can eliminate the dummy words by finding all the sets of [], {}, (), that appears in a line, then you strategize the words that will give you the most bang for the buck in terms of finding the correct one.


This game is awesome so far, im taking it slow, exploring things very carefully.

 

[RS8]

Oh man, was walking around and ended up in the hospital and eventually the hotel. Oh man, there must've been at least 50 super mutants, brutes and masters in there.

here's a random shot of my set up: http://resonating.deviantart.c...ut-for-fun-1-102222390

 

[ZzZGuy]

On top of what Slew mentioned about hacking here is what I learned.

When you get say 2 out of 5 right, the two letters that are right ALWAYS stay in the same spot, A might be in the password but if you pick a word and A is in the wrong spot it is still wrong.

Example: You pick the word BOOKS, 2 out of 5 are right, you next try GOOSE and 3 out of 5 are right.
This means *OO** are right and the password MUST have OO in the same location, as well as either begin in G or end in E.

With what Slew said it becomes very easy, not to mention that you can exit when you are down to one last try before you get locked out if you feel unlucky, this will reset the number of tries but also what the password is so you have to start over. You can also quick save then reload if you fail but it will also reset the password.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Slew Foot

Originally posted by: pontifex
i learned a few things so i decided to start a new character but i still can't decide where to put attribute points and what skills to take.

attribute points right now are 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 7, 5. not sure i want to spread so thin or specialize more.
anyone have a list of what all of the stats do exactly, like how much extra carry weight each point of ST gives, or how many HPs each point of endurance gives?

i like sneak, small guns, and lockpick, because i think they will be useful, but i'm wondering if I should drop one of those for maybe medicine or repair or even other ones.


oh, and hacking is ridiculously hard...why do they have to make stuff in these games so difficult? i just keep clicking different words until i get the right one.

Theres a faq over at gamefaqs which details out all the attributes and their effects.
FOr hacking, you can eliminate the dummy words by finding all the sets of [], {}, (), that appears in a line, then you strategize the words that will give you the most bang for the buck in terms of finding the correct one.


This game is awesome so far, im taking it slow, exploring things very carefully.

traditionally, sneak is pretty useless. if you're into small guns, then focus on perception and luck. As I mentioned in the other thread, each previous game gets you power armor at some point, which when equipped will boost your strength, added to the likelihood of finding a doc that can permanently boost stats permanently. Perception increases your hit chance, and luck increases your criticals. Luck also increases your rare encounters--not sure if that's a factor in this one, but it allowed you to get the better weapons before.

strength doesn't affect damage from guns, so anything more than 5 was always a waste before. (as power armor + boosts would get you to 9-10 near the end of the game) Charisma can be lower than you think--put ~7 into intelligence, and tag speech.

Does this have the attribute that lets you boost all stats by 1 from the start? I always chose that, much better than "skilled," as skill points become rather meaningless the further you go.

I usually went with S: 5, P: 7-8, E: 4-5, C: 1-2, I: 7-8, A: 6-8, L: 7-9. I always tagged small guns, speech, and lockpick. In the previous games, that pretty much opened up all the possibilities and you become devastating with the rifles. Once you start finding energy weapons, start putting some points into that.

Does Fallout 3 limit your level max?

Oh yeah: this is all based on the design before Bathesda took over...so not sure how much those numbers apply now...