Why the hate for Fallout 3?

[DragunovHUN]

And the fact that you've never heard of or played the first 2 tells more about you than the games.

I was eight when Fallout came out. It's not really surprising I missed out on a series intended for people a decade older than myself.

I was 7 at the time but some backtracking doesn't hurt. You can still find retail copies that contain Fallout 1, 2 and Fallout Tactics. You can also buy them from gog.com.

I do enough Retro Gaming to know that Rose Tinted Glasses are a Cursed Item that grant negative modifiers, not positive. I've already spoiled several games for myself by obtaining them and playing once more, only to realise what was awesome in my childhood is now, frankly, shit.

How the hell I used to play Destruction Derby for hours on end is beyond me...

In short, I'm willing to believe unquestioningly that Fallout 1 and 2 used to be great games... back in the day. However, I remain skeptical as to whether they would still be as fun to play now.

I've seen some screenshots, and whilst I realise you can't judge by graphics, they don't look fun games. Not in the way Fallout 3 is; the First Person mode is part of what really makes the game for me.

I see your point, but i do believe that really good games stay good. I'm on a constant hunt for my old favorites and gaming classics, and i'm having fun with them to this day. I just obtained a copy of Steamland and i'm just as excited for it as i was for GTA IV.
While old games might not handle as smoothly as new ones, i find joy in their superior depth, atmosphere and somewhat challenging gameplay. Did you know that the demo of Fallout 1 had more endings than the full version of Fallout 3? But i agree that doesn't mean much if you just can't get into the game and enjoy playing.

 

[SigmondK]

It's the same reason Chrono Trigger fanboys hated Chrono Cross: it was a sequel too radically different from the source material. I'm pretty sure had Bethesda renamed it, these people would not be vociferously arguing against it because the brand name recognition would not be there.

Yes, but those very fanboys that hate it will still buy it, and some will change their tune. Not all mind you, but some do. The source material is very rich in possibility. Granted it is horribly under utilized even in the old games. There are so much things you can do in a nuclear wasteland. The mutations, there interesting locations, and well the possibilities. Mainly all they used were super mutants, bandits, enclave, centaurs, deathclaws, and ghouls with the occasional wildlife to make things interesting. The enemies could have been so much more imaginative. Fanboys will always hate something that changes radically, but at the same time I am happy that the franchise lives on. I want more information in this universe as much as anyone else so it's something to look forward to.

EDIT: But if you want enemies that Bethesda didn't just take from the previous games. The super mutant behemoths, yao gui, eye pods, mirelurks/kings, and umm yeah. Pretty sure that's the majority.

 

[Teebor]

I love and play the original fallout games even today, they are great games and I feel they are timeless

I got my hands on Fallout 3 and I was of the opinion of "this is different and doesn't feel quite right", I played it and found myself to really be enjoying it and I had a great fight with some super mutants and then it happened.

I started on the plot arc with the vampires which begins with a small town whining about how they are being victimised by the family and they basically want you to go and kill them. I failed a check once I got to the family's home and as such couldn't get in without a fight anyway, so I killed everyone and freed the guy I went to see. Returned to the town to find the whole town was now against me

After researching online it turns out that the town and the family share the same reputation.

Now in itself this would have been not too bad but it costs me hours of game play and wrecked the style of game I was trying to play. I closed the game and have not gone back to it since and I have no plans too either.

So for me the game is bad, really bad as they have overlooked massive problem areas that affect game play.
I remember in the original games being able to take control of different gangs, slavery, and lots of other stuff that added depth and fun and just seem to be missing now

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

Look, I'll be the first to admit that Fallout 3 is a great game and has many appeals. I have all the PS3 trophies for it; that's how much I've played it.

The thing with Fallout 3 is that glitches were rampant, quests and gameplay were biased towards the good karma side in terms of making caps, there were visual issues with framerate on the consoles, and the ending was both stupid and terminating. These things really made what could have been a masterpiece into only a very long good to average game. They broke the flow and didn't live up to expectations. However, it was wrong of many people to expect any different from Bethesda.

Pretty much.
They also went against the previous and removed a lot of the stuff that fans really liked so while it did bring a lot of new fans to the Fallout universe and please some older ones, it did piss off a lot of the fans of the earlier games.

Though with the new downloads a lot of issues with the game will be fixed, for PC and 360 players at least.

 

[Flour]

I played Fallout 3 for a good while. But it had this strange presence of slow-ness to it and there not being enough ammo to find for the firearms.

The game grew so meh I gave it away to my bro.

In my experience, Bethesda-made games are best enjoyed on a PC with a few mods.

I fixed part of the game's pacing by increasing movement speed. While it destroys the size of the game world, it also makes combat more interesting. Enemies will be near you in a few seconds and they're a lot harder to catch when they decide to run away.

The ammo problem is fixed by adding an ammo dispenser. If you don't want it to be too "cheaty" just make it work only once every in-game day, or change it to a crate and make it respawn, that way the ammo is refilled 72 hours since you've last visited that location.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Pretty much this [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheyChangedItNowItSucks].

 

[TheRockNRolla]

Honestly? I have no idea. I didn't run into that many bugs, granted my 360 froze like... twice while I played it. It's probably just because it's gone through a major change.

 

[painfull2006]

Chill yourself fanboy.

It was released fucking RIDDLED with bugs, many still remain today, that alone is reason enough to tear it a new one.

BUT THEN, it turns out you can't play after the ending, no RPGs do that nowadays, that pissed a lot off too.

Oh, and then theres the SLIGHT detail of them not adding post-ending gameplay or DLC to the PS3 players.

Do your research buddy. In a nutshell, the game was glitched and they made enemies of half the console fanbase.

He didn't have morrwind or oblivion and bought the game because he liked the look of it...

how does that make him a fan boy?

I haven't come accords any bugs at all in my gaming

You can play after the ending in broken steal

Dont cry about not getting DLC baby, you should be thankful that you even got the game on the PS3

'In a nutshell' Everything you said is wrong =D

 

[Fronken]

My major problem with Fallout 3 is that its not a new game, its Oblivion but in the future.

And for a Copy-Paste job it isnt really done all that well, its to blatant, i tried the game for about an hour and the only thing i saw that i hadnt seen before was the VATS system (which btw kinda destroyed the game for me, as its way to easy), i mean you use the vats, get a couple of shots of, shoot some without vats, then use it again....where's the challenge?

The only real challenge i met while playing Fallout 3 was the sniper guy in some old town, i had major problems with him because i wasnt aware of the mines at first.

So to keep myself short:
Fallout 3 may be a great game for those who havent played it in its improved version (Oblivion), but for me that's a big Elder Scrolls fan, i just cant get over the fact that Bethesda was so lazy while developing it.

 

[klakkat]

I started on the plot arc with the vampires which begins with a small town whining about how they are being victimised by the family and they basically want you to go and kill them. I failed a check once I got to the family's home and as such couldn't get in without a fight anyway, so I killed everyone and freed the guy I went to see. Returned to the town to find the whole town was now against me

Odd. I did the same thing, (bumbled into them and killed all the 'vampires') and didn't notice the town being angry at me. Actually, I'm not sure I ever went back there, it was pretty much a shithole of a town anyway.

In my experience, Bethesda-made games are best enjoyed on a PC with a few mods.

I fixed part of the game's pacing by increasing movement speed. While it destroys the size of the game world, it also makes combat more interesting. Enemies will be near you in a few seconds and they're a lot harder to catch when they decide to run away.

The ammo problem is fixed by adding an ammo dispenser. If you don't want it to be too "cheaty" just make it work only once every in-game day, or change it to a crate and make it respawn, that way the ammo is refilled 72 hours since you've last visited that location.

I watched a friend of mine play for a bit, and he seemed to have constant ammo troubles, which I thought was very odd. I say that, because I only had a couple problems at the start, and then never again. By around level 4 or 5 I had enough ammo for every gun I used to fight off an entire building of supermutants, and by the end of the game I had enough to shame an entire army. Maybe play style has something to do with it, but I've never understood the complaints about no ammo in the game. I was constantly thanking god that ammo weighs nothing anymore because I was toting around something like 10,000 shots of several different ammo types by end game. Same with medkits... I've heard people complain about a shortage of those, but looking back on it I always had more than I could conceivably need at all times.

 

[SigmondK]

Chill yourself fanboy.

It was released fucking RIDDLED with bugs, many still remain today, that alone is reason enough to tear it a new one.

BUT THEN, it turns out you can't play after the ending, no RPGs do that nowadays, that pissed a lot off too.

Oh, and then theres the SLIGHT detail of them not adding post-ending gameplay or DLC to the PS3 players.

Do your research buddy. In a nutshell, the game was glitched and they made enemies of half the console fanbase.

He didn't have morrwind or oblivion and bought the game because he liked the look of it...

how does that make him a fan boy?

I haven't come accords any bugs at all in my gaming

You can play after the ending in broken steal

Dont cry about not getting DLC baby, you should be thankful that you even got the game on the PS3

'In a nutshell' Everything you said is wrong =D

Please don't flame him. I already trounced him a while back with an actual in depth of the one major glitch a found in my play through. It is far from a perfect game, but it's no big deal. We can all be friends sharing opinions and the like. Of course being thorough and giving examples gives your case more credence and he was only a troll so it was no big deal.

 

[Hawkez]

I think the game is good. I must qualify that though. I think if fallout 3 had been another turn based game like the first 2 it would have failed in the current market. I also think that had it been released with the same engine, but no one knowing it was based on Oblivion, that the Oblivion with guns argument would have never come up. I loved the first two games. I don't think any development house that is still around could have done a better job. Messed up story elements and bugs aside. It is much better than letting a great property die, which is what would have happened.

 

[klakkat]

I think the only recurring bug I ran into was the game crashed every time I tried to exit the program. So, the game crashed when I tried to close it manually... So I didn't give a shit. It also crashed twice while I was playing it, but thanks to autosaving I lost basically nothing. I can't think of a single other glitch I ran into.

 

[Wargamer]

My major problem with Fallout 3 is that its not a new game, its Oblivion but in the future.

Personally, if I wanted to play Oblivion I would turn off the PC/Console, and pick up the dozen D&D books on my table; I really don't need another generic Fantasy RPG title when the genuine article is readily to hand.

Post-Apoc is a genre my RPG collection is rather lacking in.


Also, what the hell is with this "you can't play after the end" business? Why would I want to play a game after the story has finished? It really isn't that hard to go and find all the side-quests and hidden items before finishing the game (okay, it is hard, but you know what I mean).

 

[painfull2006]

Please don't flame him. I already trounced him a while back with an actual in depth of the one major glitch a found in my play through. It is far from a perfect game, but it's no big deal. We can all be friends sharing opinions and the like. Of course being thorough and giving examples gives your case more credence and he was only a troll so it was no big deal.

ok ok sorry

it just annoys me so much

Yes the game is far from perfect but it still is an amazing game with or without DLC
I would recommend it to anyone who likes RPG/Shooters/Whatever

 

[Vern]

I enjoyed it, but it's really empty. There's a relatively large area to explore, but there's so few quests to do. And all the loot you find is worthless, there's a limited amount of special weapons, really no special armor aside from the Rangers, and there's no weapon creation. Which is pretty much the same as the first two fallouts, except fallout 3 had a piss poor story line and your individual choices made almost no difference. You blew up megaton, or you didn't, you killed Harold's heart, or you didn't, you sacrificed yourself at the end, or you didn't. Plus the fact that everything looks exactly the damn same no matter where you go. I can certainly understand the hate, and I think Bethesda dropped the ball on it. They made it too simplified in every respect. Story wise, item wise, weapon wise, quest wise, loot wise, environment wise, enemy wise. It was just too limited in everything that you could do. It was fun, and I put over 90 hours into it, but it just feels like it could've been alot more. I started playing Oblivion after I beat Fallout, played Morrowind and Daggerfall before it, and after playing Oblivion I realized how much was missing from Fallout. Yeah the same voices get old, but there's so many more quests to explore, the stats seem to actually matter, the environment varies, you've got several types of weapons and magic, alchemy, guild quests, it's quite a bit richer. It just seems they skimped on Fallout 3, I think they could've done alot more to actually bring you into the world. Especially with side quests that involve more than collect X many nukacolas.

 

[SigmondK]

ok ok sorry

it just annoys me so much

Yes the game is far from perfect but it still is an amazing game with or without DLC
I would recommend it to anyone who likes RPG/Shooters/Whatever

It's quite alright. I figured sharing my glitch story and hearing nothing else from him kinda confirmed that he was a troll.

It is a fun game and I'm not saying that it having flaws stops that from being true. Amazing is a bit strong, but really if a game is fun that is all that matters. Though let us not dwell on the past when the future has diamond encrusted jewels of glorious Obsidian being the next developer of the next installment of Fallout. Being as it was one of the two studios set up after the fall of Interplay I'm very excited what comes out of that. Not to change the subject radically onto something partially related that is.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I found Fallout 3 enjoyable enough to play twice, as good and evil, and while I felt the ending was a bit 'sudden' the first time, I really enjoyed the game.

Sure there's downsides, but its not a bad game, I think the criticisms levelled at it, would bring it from excellent down to good or very good, not the disaster some make it out to be.

Of course, I'm talking as a review, and we're all entitled to an opinion, but when there's so many bad games out there, I think it's a shame to see a good one bashed so much.

However, when an anticipated game is good, instead of astounding, it often upsets people, and gets bashed, look at GTA IV for another example.

 

[Susurrus]

I picked up 1 and 2 and tactics the other day for a fiver I've played 2 before, just not one or tactics. (and I played 2 long before 3)

I really liked 3. I thought it kept the tone, it kept the elements of hopelessness and hostile landscape, it kept the sense of a massive world, and I thought the size of it was good. I've only briefly played oblivion, because i didnt like it, but I loved fallout 3.

I found VATs to be a waste of time, because it was simply a lot easier to shoot my opponents, but I used it occassionally for the slow-mo factor..

I played an unpatched version and didnt encounter any glitches. However, I have yet to return to the Jefferson Memorial (im not QUITE finished...).

The thing that made the game for me was the moment that I slipped a live grenade into the pocket of a power-armour-wearing enclave soldier whilst hidden with a stealthboy, and watched both him and his mate panic, until they both blew up. AWESOME.

EDIT: ALSO Fronken, how did you not realise about the mines? The bloody place is called MINEFIELD for goodness sake!

 

[banthesun]

Fallout 3 has its problems, and the're big ones, but on the whole it's a good game. I havn't played the earlier games, and from my perspective at least the game -felt- right. VATS was helpful for me (on a laptop) and the world looked nice (in a nuked to hell kinda way). Yes the bugs were annoying, and it didn't feel like it supported RPG fans well, but it was a good game!
Can we stop flaming about it now?!