Here's a new thread for a new game. This time it's Fallout 3. This is an open world RPG from the buys who brought you the Elder Scrolls game. The setting is post apocolypse; after a nuclear war.
I hadn't intended to pick this one up just yet, but was out to pick up the new Tomb Raider game and got this one too used. Both games are for my Xbox 360 as my computer is challenged when it comes to the horsepower you need to run these games. My intent was to play the Tomb Raider: Underwolrd first, but given that Fallout 3 was used, I put it in just to make sure it ran properly. I've had at least 2 dozen used games and only had trouble once, but you need to check them out ASAP regardless.
Anyway, I thought I'd just see what the game looked like at the start before switching over. Big mistake! This thing sucked me right in from the start. Fallout 3 has what must be the most unique character design/tutorial/game introduction set up that I've ever seen. It's all combined into one.
You're born in a place called Vault 101. It's a fallout shelter that's the only home you've ever known. No one goes into the outside world, or so they say.
The game starts out with you being born. Literally. The first thing you see is a nurse and your father above you. Your father asks if its a boy or a girl and you make your choice right there. The scene continues on based on your gender choice. I choose girl at this time.
Your mother and father talk for a bit, but you really can't see your mother at all. As a character, you can't do anything. After all, you were just born!
Your father says that they are going to call you.... and that's when you input a name for your character. Next a machine comes in and it'll show you what your character will look like as an adult.
At this point you choice your race. You're human, but have the options of being African-America, Asian, Caucasian, or Hispanic. I choose caucasian. Next there is a nice selection of faces to choose from, along with at least 2 dozen hairstyles. Lastly you pick the color of your hair and eyes.
The scene blacks out as your mother seems to have a heart attack. You learn leater that she dies.
We skip ahead a year and you're 1 year old. Your dad's there and he talks to you some more. You can talk now, but it just comes out as baby talk. He urges you to walk towards him and you learn how to move in the game. He puts you into a pen and has to leave for a bit. You get out and look around.
You find a book that gives you the rundown on the game states. It's an illustrated childrens book with the info in verse form. Very cute! At this point you have 5 points to spend on your stats. Each stat has a base of 5 already, so you can boast the ones you want. You can look around some more, but the scene quickly ends with dad returning and you walking off to go play with the other children.
The next scene picks up on your 10th birthday. There's a party being held for you with some other adults and children. You get you first real chance to interact with other people. You're given your PIP, a PDA-like device that straps to your wrist. It's used to access your inventory, view stats, and so on.
You and your father leave the party. He's got a special gift for you, a BB gun. You do some target practice and use the BB gun to kill a Ratroach, a cat-sized cockroach grown huge by the radiation. The scene ends with you and your dad posing for a picture.
We skip to you now being 16. Today you're taking your GOAT test. Its an amptitude test where what career you're going to be trained for is discovered. The test consisits of 10 questions for 4 possible answers. Some answers are serious, some are funny, and some are rebellious. Once given, you're offered three primary skills based on your answers. You can choose these three or take other ones. These are the things you are best at.
Once that scene plays out, you get to see your character for the very first time in first person.
We jump three more years ahead and now you're 19. Much to your surprise, you learn that your father has left Vault 101! The leader of the vault is outraged by this and seems to have murdered your father's assistant. The guards are coming after you and you grab what you can and try to flee. Fourtunately, there is an attack by Ratroachs at the same time so you can get out without too much trouble. So you're 19 years old, out in a radioactive wasteland for the first time looking for your father.
That's about as far as I went for now. There's a town close by called Megaton and made it to there. The game looks great on the 360. The people are better looking than in Oblivion. The game uses the same engine as Oblivion and the controls and mechanics are similar. No screenshots this time as I'm playing it on the 360.
More from this once I get passed Tomb Raider: Underworld. Stuck in the endgame of that one, but should finish it soon.
Fallout 3
Re: Fallout 3
You got FO3? I'm so jealous! That does sound like an amazing character creation system. I look forward to hearing more from you on the game play, story, etc.
Gordon
Gordon
"Tilt....with explosives.....running.....mmmm don't like it." - Flux (Bruce)
Re: Fallout 3
I finished up the Tomb Raider game the same day I put up my initial post, so that one took me from Wednesday evening until Saturday afternoon to complete. No, not a long game and maybe I'll devote a seperate post to it as it is the 3rd part of a trilogy of games, including Legend and Anniversary.
So later that day it was back into Fallout 3.
First off I'm going to correct some mistakes from my earlier post and clairify a few things. It's not Ratroaches, its RADroaches. But they're still icky!
Your character has 7 stats and their initials form the word SPECIAL. The title of the children's book was You Are Special, or something like that. Each stat starts at 5 and maxes out at 10. Other than certain items found in game, there is no way to increase your stats.
There are no classes in F3. You are who you are. You have 13 skills and the three you choose after your GOAT test, which stands for Generalized Occupational Amptitude Test, become your primary ones and you're better at these than the others. Everytime you gain a level, you get 15 pts to spend on your skills. Skills can reach 100 I believe, like in Oblivion.
Each time you gain a level you get to pick a Perk, which is something that gives you an advantage in game or in the mechanics. Perks are limited by level and stat requirements. Some of the ones I've take so far are Black Widow, which gives you a damage bonus vs males and also opens up dialogue options you otherwise wouldn't have. Others include Fast Learner, which gives you a 10% bonus to your XP's across the board. Another is Daddy's Little Girl which gives you a bonus to your science skills, a different one 3 more pts to spend on Skills when you level up and so on. Some Perks can be purchased more than once and as you gain levels more and more of them become available.
Apparently your father's appearance is determined by your appearance, so regardless of whatever race you take, he'll look like an older male version of you. In the intial baby scene you can't see his face as he's wearing a surgical mask and the lighting is poor. Although I think it might be odd to here his voice coming from anyone but a caucasion person. (The voice actor is Liam Neesun (SP?)and you can't help but mentally picture him when he speaks.)
There are some intersting things that I have found out along the way. This is not Oblivion, and I don't mean that in a bad way. It takes some of the ideas from Oblivion, but this isn't just and Elder Scrolls game in a post-apocolypse setting. For one thing that game actually ends when you complete the main quest. Another thing is that there is not as many side quests.
Downloadable Content has already been announced that will allow you to continue on past the end of the game. A game construction set for the PC will be out in December and then 3 new adventures will be released each month starting in January.
One good thing is that there isn't as many ruins when compared to Oblivion. In Oblivion you couldn't go anywhere without falling over an ancient elfin ruin, an abandoned fort, or a cave network. In F3, the places you go to are varied and pretty logical for the enviroment.
For instance, one of the early places you explore are a school, a supermarket, and a police station. The only heavily reused set pieces are the mass transit subway system and stations, but that just makes sense.
While the game is one part Oblivion, the other part didn't hit me until last night. F3 is the love child of Oblivion and Mass Effect. Mass Effect has the same RPG elements as Oblivion, but it's also a workable Shooter. Fallout 3 is very much a RPG/Shooter as guns are the primary weapons. Again, that's not a bad thing.
Combat can get very gory with the VATS targeting system. It's entirely possible to blow heads and limbs clean off.
The language in game is very adult and salty. F-bombs are common as are other curse words. The game is NOT for kids!
The primary currency in F3 is caps, or rather bottle caps.
The setting is very drab and given where it takes place, it makes sense. The towns are not nice and neat. The buildings are haphazardly constructed with whatever material is on hand, so they are mish-mash of materials as is the armor and clothing.
The whole game has a neat retro feel to it. Imagine taking the style of a 50's sci-fi move set in the future and that'll give you an idea on the game appearance. The only issue I had early in the game was finding places to sleep as they were not easy to come by.
The game is not quite as open world as Oblivion is. There are places you cannot go. This is espeically true in the ruins of Washington. There are buildings with doors that cannot be opened. At times the game very much channels you along, as it'll use buildings you cannot go into and debris piles that you cannot climb over to force you into going certain directions.
That should cover the general gameplay for now.
So later that day it was back into Fallout 3.
First off I'm going to correct some mistakes from my earlier post and clairify a few things. It's not Ratroaches, its RADroaches. But they're still icky!
Your character has 7 stats and their initials form the word SPECIAL. The title of the children's book was You Are Special, or something like that. Each stat starts at 5 and maxes out at 10. Other than certain items found in game, there is no way to increase your stats.
There are no classes in F3. You are who you are. You have 13 skills and the three you choose after your GOAT test, which stands for Generalized Occupational Amptitude Test, become your primary ones and you're better at these than the others. Everytime you gain a level, you get 15 pts to spend on your skills. Skills can reach 100 I believe, like in Oblivion.
Each time you gain a level you get to pick a Perk, which is something that gives you an advantage in game or in the mechanics. Perks are limited by level and stat requirements. Some of the ones I've take so far are Black Widow, which gives you a damage bonus vs males and also opens up dialogue options you otherwise wouldn't have. Others include Fast Learner, which gives you a 10% bonus to your XP's across the board. Another is Daddy's Little Girl which gives you a bonus to your science skills, a different one 3 more pts to spend on Skills when you level up and so on. Some Perks can be purchased more than once and as you gain levels more and more of them become available.
Apparently your father's appearance is determined by your appearance, so regardless of whatever race you take, he'll look like an older male version of you. In the intial baby scene you can't see his face as he's wearing a surgical mask and the lighting is poor. Although I think it might be odd to here his voice coming from anyone but a caucasion person. (The voice actor is Liam Neesun (SP?)and you can't help but mentally picture him when he speaks.)
There are some intersting things that I have found out along the way. This is not Oblivion, and I don't mean that in a bad way. It takes some of the ideas from Oblivion, but this isn't just and Elder Scrolls game in a post-apocolypse setting. For one thing that game actually ends when you complete the main quest. Another thing is that there is not as many side quests.
Downloadable Content has already been announced that will allow you to continue on past the end of the game. A game construction set for the PC will be out in December and then 3 new adventures will be released each month starting in January.
One good thing is that there isn't as many ruins when compared to Oblivion. In Oblivion you couldn't go anywhere without falling over an ancient elfin ruin, an abandoned fort, or a cave network. In F3, the places you go to are varied and pretty logical for the enviroment.
For instance, one of the early places you explore are a school, a supermarket, and a police station. The only heavily reused set pieces are the mass transit subway system and stations, but that just makes sense.
While the game is one part Oblivion, the other part didn't hit me until last night. F3 is the love child of Oblivion and Mass Effect. Mass Effect has the same RPG elements as Oblivion, but it's also a workable Shooter. Fallout 3 is very much a RPG/Shooter as guns are the primary weapons. Again, that's not a bad thing.
Combat can get very gory with the VATS targeting system. It's entirely possible to blow heads and limbs clean off.
The language in game is very adult and salty. F-bombs are common as are other curse words. The game is NOT for kids!
The primary currency in F3 is caps, or rather bottle caps.
The setting is very drab and given where it takes place, it makes sense. The towns are not nice and neat. The buildings are haphazardly constructed with whatever material is on hand, so they are mish-mash of materials as is the armor and clothing.
The whole game has a neat retro feel to it. Imagine taking the style of a 50's sci-fi move set in the future and that'll give you an idea on the game appearance. The only issue I had early in the game was finding places to sleep as they were not easy to come by.
The game is not quite as open world as Oblivion is. There are places you cannot go. This is espeically true in the ruins of Washington. There are buildings with doors that cannot be opened. At times the game very much channels you along, as it'll use buildings you cannot go into and debris piles that you cannot climb over to force you into going certain directions.
That should cover the general gameplay for now.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
The main quest is the primary thrust of the game and what drives you on. Unlike Oblivion, but very much like the Bioware RPG's, the main quest is very personnal to you. You're looking for your father. Just outside Vault 101 is a small town of Springvale. Most of the buildings are ruins, but the school is mostly intact and you find raiders based there.
The makeshift town of Megaton is close by and it's your primary base for the early game. It has the usual shops, saloons and doctors clinc. Megaton is so named as there is an unexploded nuclear bomb at the bottom of the crater Megaton is built around. There is a quest to either disarm or trigger this bomb.
It seems that I forgot to talk about Karma in the game play section. Karma is a measure of the good and/or evil actions you take. Each has its own rewards. I have very high karma right now and wastelanders will actually stop you to thank you and give you gear.
Your PIP picks up radio stations and these are very important in game. There are 2 primary ones. The first is generated by a fraction called the Enclave and from what I've read they are the bad guys of the piece. They are very much a pro-American, nearly fanatical sect. So the station alternates between fiery speeches from its leader to patriotic music.
The second station is GNR, Galaxy News Radio and its hosted by Three Dog who is dedicated to telling you the truth. The station is also a good source for rumors and your own exploits will turn up in its news reports after a time. This channel plays standards from the fifties. The selection is small and you do get tired of them rather quickly. I've mostly played with the radio turned off.
Asking around Megaton about your father leads you to the saloon and man who talked to your dad. He has info, but only for a price. There is a side quest you can do, but to complete it and get the money you need requires an act of bad karma. So you're mostly forced to scavenge for bottlecaps to pay the guy off.
The buying and selling system is different. You don't buy or sell items. You select them enmass and a running total is kept. The vender has only so many caps to buy stuff with and if you go over it and complete the transaction, you'll lose money. That happned to me a few times before I caught on.
There are some minor quests in Megaton, such as repairing leaky water lines, but you need to have high enough skills to do so. The woman runs the local general store gives you the biggest quest here. It's a multi-part one as she's writing an Wasteland Survival Guide and you get to be her guinea pig. One part is going to a local supermarket to see if food and/or medicine can be had there. Raiders are using it as a base, so its a fight there. Another of her mission is to test out a repellant for creatures called Molerats. In another part you are ask to contract radiation poisoning so she can test her cure and so on.
Once you get enough caps to buy the information you learn that your dad was here, but has moved on already. (A very common theme, by the way.) He's gone off to the GNR station in the ruins of Washington. So you're off in pursuit again.
Overland travel is dangerous and there are many perils along the way from mutated animals, to raiders to the dreaded Super Mutants, huge hulking hulk-like mutants. They're big. They use tires as shoulder guards on their arms!
Typically you can only travel so far before having to turn back. The typical reason to turn back is that you're loaded down with gear or are badly hurt. There is a critical hit system and your limbs can be rendered useless. These can only be repaired by medicine or by resting.
So travel is going so far, at least to a travel point where you can fast travel back to, and going back to rest. That makes any cross-country travel a challenge. It took me multiple forarys to make it into town and have good fast travel points.
Reaching the radio station brought the channeling affect to the game I noted above. There was a couple of routes, but you seemed to have to go out of your way to get where you wanted to go. Travel was both above ground and below.
After finally reaching the station you find it guarded by the Steel Brotherhood, another fraction. They seem to be the good guys who are trying to protect the GNR broadcasts and the downtown area in particular. You travel with them for a bit and end up in a battle with a Super Mutant Behemoth, a giant version of the regular one. Fortuantely, I had a rocket launcher and missiles and took him down pretty easily.
Once that's over with, you can go inside and talk to 3 dog personnally.
The makeshift town of Megaton is close by and it's your primary base for the early game. It has the usual shops, saloons and doctors clinc. Megaton is so named as there is an unexploded nuclear bomb at the bottom of the crater Megaton is built around. There is a quest to either disarm or trigger this bomb.
It seems that I forgot to talk about Karma in the game play section. Karma is a measure of the good and/or evil actions you take. Each has its own rewards. I have very high karma right now and wastelanders will actually stop you to thank you and give you gear.
Your PIP picks up radio stations and these are very important in game. There are 2 primary ones. The first is generated by a fraction called the Enclave and from what I've read they are the bad guys of the piece. They are very much a pro-American, nearly fanatical sect. So the station alternates between fiery speeches from its leader to patriotic music.
The second station is GNR, Galaxy News Radio and its hosted by Three Dog who is dedicated to telling you the truth. The station is also a good source for rumors and your own exploits will turn up in its news reports after a time. This channel plays standards from the fifties. The selection is small and you do get tired of them rather quickly. I've mostly played with the radio turned off.
Asking around Megaton about your father leads you to the saloon and man who talked to your dad. He has info, but only for a price. There is a side quest you can do, but to complete it and get the money you need requires an act of bad karma. So you're mostly forced to scavenge for bottlecaps to pay the guy off.
The buying and selling system is different. You don't buy or sell items. You select them enmass and a running total is kept. The vender has only so many caps to buy stuff with and if you go over it and complete the transaction, you'll lose money. That happned to me a few times before I caught on.
There are some minor quests in Megaton, such as repairing leaky water lines, but you need to have high enough skills to do so. The woman runs the local general store gives you the biggest quest here. It's a multi-part one as she's writing an Wasteland Survival Guide and you get to be her guinea pig. One part is going to a local supermarket to see if food and/or medicine can be had there. Raiders are using it as a base, so its a fight there. Another of her mission is to test out a repellant for creatures called Molerats. In another part you are ask to contract radiation poisoning so she can test her cure and so on.
Once you get enough caps to buy the information you learn that your dad was here, but has moved on already. (A very common theme, by the way.) He's gone off to the GNR station in the ruins of Washington. So you're off in pursuit again.
Overland travel is dangerous and there are many perils along the way from mutated animals, to raiders to the dreaded Super Mutants, huge hulking hulk-like mutants. They're big. They use tires as shoulder guards on their arms!
Typically you can only travel so far before having to turn back. The typical reason to turn back is that you're loaded down with gear or are badly hurt. There is a critical hit system and your limbs can be rendered useless. These can only be repaired by medicine or by resting.
So travel is going so far, at least to a travel point where you can fast travel back to, and going back to rest. That makes any cross-country travel a challenge. It took me multiple forarys to make it into town and have good fast travel points.
Reaching the radio station brought the channeling affect to the game I noted above. There was a couple of routes, but you seemed to have to go out of your way to get where you wanted to go. Travel was both above ground and below.
After finally reaching the station you find it guarded by the Steel Brotherhood, another fraction. They seem to be the good guys who are trying to protect the GNR broadcasts and the downtown area in particular. You travel with them for a bit and end up in a battle with a Super Mutant Behemoth, a giant version of the regular one. Fortuantely, I had a rocket launcher and missiles and took him down pretty easily.
Once that's over with, you can go inside and talk to 3 dog personnally.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
Three Dog tells you that your dad was here, they talked, and he moved on, yet again. Three Dog will tell you want you want to know, provided you do a favor for him. It seems that his signal strength is weak due to a transmitter placed on the top of the Washington Momument being damaged. He wants you to travel to a museum, take a new transmitter from an old NASA spacecraft on dispay there. Then take it to the Washington Momument and install it.
And so it's back out into the ruins trying to reach the museum and avoiding the hordes of Super Mutants. Just reaching the area took some time and multiple forarys. Fortunately, the museum and the Washington Momument are in the same area, but there are many Super Mutants to take out along the way so it's running and gunning, hiding and sniping and advancing so far and then withdrawing until you can reach the musuem.
Once you get the transmitter, the quest is just about over. I heard rumors that a bunch of gun nuts were hold up in the momument, but it was just the Steel Brotherhood, so once there it was easy to complete the mission. That done, it was fast travel back to 3 Dog.
Three Dog tells you that your dad has gone to Rivet City. Fortunately, I passed the area along the way to the GNR station, so could just fast travel to it. Rivet City is actually an ancient battleship. There you talk to a Dr. Li, who was a former assitant to your father.
Your parents, along with Dr. Li were working on something called Project Purity before you were born. It was your birth that stopped work on it. It seems that you were not born in Vault 101 like you originally thought. When your mother died in childbirth, your father took you to Vault 101 so that you could grow up in a safe enviroment. But he never gave up hope on Project Purity.
The purpose of Project Purity was to change eradiated water into pure water on a massive scale. The process works on a smaller scale, but the project was to purify entire lakes and rivers. According to Dr. Li, your father went to the Jefferson Memorial, the sight where the original research took place. (Another your dad was here, but he's now gone situation.)
Fortunately, you can see the Jefferson Memorial from Rivet City, so you''re off once more. More Super Mutants are fought and you finally make it inside. The place is deserted, but you find recordings your dad made. You play them and learn that he set out for Vault 112 as it was the location of a brillant scientist who might have the key technology to make Project Purity a reality.
Of course Vault 112 is on the otherside of the map, in fact further west than Megaton. I fast traveled to Megaton and found that I could now complete some of the earlier quests. (Oh, she is closing in on 8th level right now.) The leaky pipes where fixed and the nuclear bomb was disarmed.
By disarming the bomb, she was given shack to call her own. Finally, a place to call home! The home comes with a robot butler who tells bad jokes. It can also cut/restyle your hair should you so desire.
The cross country trip to Vault 112 wasn't too bad and made it 1 one go, but I did avoid what appeared to be a major Raider base in the process. The entrance to Vault 112 is located and in you go. No too far inside you run into a robot that tells you that you are 202.3 years late in your arrival. It has you done a proper Vault 112 jumpsuit and that you should report to the Tranquility Lounger.
Other than robots, Vault 112 appears to be deserted. There's a large room with these loungers in them. One is empty and you get inside. They look like giant pods that can open up and you can get inside.
As you might suspect, this is a virtual reality system. You appear in a picturesque 1950's small town as a small child. A little girl in a dress in my case as the characters female. This simulation is controlled by the man your father came to see. He's in the form of a little girl named Betty and what's really disconcerting is that he/she alternates between a little girls voice and an older man's voice.
The situation is that Betty is controlling this reallity. You can either play her cruel games on the other inhabitants to get the info you need or try to find another way to escape. Her cruelty includes making another small boy cry, breaking up the marriage of another couple, and finally finding a creative way to cause the death of another inhabitant.
You learn from Betty that your father was here and still is. Betty tranformed him into a dog! All he can do is bark at you.
The other way out is to find a way to actitvate the systems controls and initiate a new scenario. By doing so, an exit appars and you can escape. Once you exit, you return to reality and your dad is there. You talk some more and I agreed to accompany him back to Rivet City. He has the information he needed to continue with Project Purity. You can also talk and learn more about your past.
I quick traveled to Rivet City and your dad talked to Dr. Li convincing to help. When I pick up the game next time, we'll be returning to the Jefferson Memorial to continue the research. That's as far as I've gotten thus far.
More as the game progresses...
And so it's back out into the ruins trying to reach the museum and avoiding the hordes of Super Mutants. Just reaching the area took some time and multiple forarys. Fortunately, the museum and the Washington Momument are in the same area, but there are many Super Mutants to take out along the way so it's running and gunning, hiding and sniping and advancing so far and then withdrawing until you can reach the musuem.
Once you get the transmitter, the quest is just about over. I heard rumors that a bunch of gun nuts were hold up in the momument, but it was just the Steel Brotherhood, so once there it was easy to complete the mission. That done, it was fast travel back to 3 Dog.
Three Dog tells you that your dad has gone to Rivet City. Fortunately, I passed the area along the way to the GNR station, so could just fast travel to it. Rivet City is actually an ancient battleship. There you talk to a Dr. Li, who was a former assitant to your father.
Your parents, along with Dr. Li were working on something called Project Purity before you were born. It was your birth that stopped work on it. It seems that you were not born in Vault 101 like you originally thought. When your mother died in childbirth, your father took you to Vault 101 so that you could grow up in a safe enviroment. But he never gave up hope on Project Purity.
The purpose of Project Purity was to change eradiated water into pure water on a massive scale. The process works on a smaller scale, but the project was to purify entire lakes and rivers. According to Dr. Li, your father went to the Jefferson Memorial, the sight where the original research took place. (Another your dad was here, but he's now gone situation.)
Fortunately, you can see the Jefferson Memorial from Rivet City, so you''re off once more. More Super Mutants are fought and you finally make it inside. The place is deserted, but you find recordings your dad made. You play them and learn that he set out for Vault 112 as it was the location of a brillant scientist who might have the key technology to make Project Purity a reality.
Of course Vault 112 is on the otherside of the map, in fact further west than Megaton. I fast traveled to Megaton and found that I could now complete some of the earlier quests. (Oh, she is closing in on 8th level right now.) The leaky pipes where fixed and the nuclear bomb was disarmed.
By disarming the bomb, she was given shack to call her own. Finally, a place to call home! The home comes with a robot butler who tells bad jokes. It can also cut/restyle your hair should you so desire.
The cross country trip to Vault 112 wasn't too bad and made it 1 one go, but I did avoid what appeared to be a major Raider base in the process. The entrance to Vault 112 is located and in you go. No too far inside you run into a robot that tells you that you are 202.3 years late in your arrival. It has you done a proper Vault 112 jumpsuit and that you should report to the Tranquility Lounger.
Other than robots, Vault 112 appears to be deserted. There's a large room with these loungers in them. One is empty and you get inside. They look like giant pods that can open up and you can get inside.
As you might suspect, this is a virtual reality system. You appear in a picturesque 1950's small town as a small child. A little girl in a dress in my case as the characters female. This simulation is controlled by the man your father came to see. He's in the form of a little girl named Betty and what's really disconcerting is that he/she alternates between a little girls voice and an older man's voice.
The situation is that Betty is controlling this reallity. You can either play her cruel games on the other inhabitants to get the info you need or try to find another way to escape. Her cruelty includes making another small boy cry, breaking up the marriage of another couple, and finally finding a creative way to cause the death of another inhabitant.
You learn from Betty that your father was here and still is. Betty tranformed him into a dog! All he can do is bark at you.
The other way out is to find a way to actitvate the systems controls and initiate a new scenario. By doing so, an exit appars and you can escape. Once you exit, you return to reality and your dad is there. You talk some more and I agreed to accompany him back to Rivet City. He has the information he needed to continue with Project Purity. You can also talk and learn more about your past.
I quick traveled to Rivet City and your dad talked to Dr. Li convincing to help. When I pick up the game next time, we'll be returning to the Jefferson Memorial to continue the research. That's as far as I've gotten thus far.
More as the game progresses...
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
Here's some more from Fallout 3. It seems that I wasn't very far from the end of the main quest and the end of the game. Given that I'm going to cut back on just how much I spoil things from now own. I actually finished the main quest on the same day as my previous posts.
Let me try to put this into words. The ending is not a good one and I've read on other forums that most people are not happy with it. Dont get me wrong, this is a very good game, but the ending is lacking and frankly not very logical.
In a way in reminds me of some of the shortcomings I had with Oblivion. They come up with these interesting scenarios that should change the game world significantly, and yet somehow don't. It's like they want to shake things up, but at the same time not change the status quo.
To even talk about the ending, I do have to spoil it somewhat. Basically, for a game that prides itself on being open ended where you have choices on how things play out, you get very little choice at the end. Basically there are 2 choices, but really probably only 1 for most players. You either sacrifice yourself, or if you're a total rat bastard have someone else sacrifice themselves. Either way the game ends.
Now that in itself is fine. But they've already announced 3 DLC packs starting next year. Two of these are set in new areas, Alaska and Pittsburgh. (The main game takes place in and around Washington DC.) So that begs the question, seeing how the game ends, does your existing character somehow end up in these places? It seems unlikely as mass transit no longer exists. My guess is that you have to make a new character unique to that particular setting. I could be wrong, but that's how it looks on the surface.
The 3rd DLC continues on from the end of the game. Again, the question is does your character get ressurected or do you have to make another new character? And if this continues on from the main game, why wasn't it part of the main game to begin with?
And there should have been other options open to you at the endgame. For instance, I picked up a companion along the way. This companion COULD have done what your character dies doing and would have not been killed in the process! (The end involves a lethal dose of radiation, but this companion thrives on radiation.) But when asked, the companion says no, this is your destiny? It's the characters destiny to die needlessly when there is another logical alternative? Does that make sense to anyone, beyond the makers want to end the game there?
So I wasn't happy with all of that. I ended up not even getting back to the game for several days after that. From what I can tell from various sources online, there's about 17 side quests in the game and I did about 4 of them, so there was still lots to do in that game. So I made a new character, male this time, and set out to do some of the stuff I missed the first time around. He progressed for a time but then I got tired of it and stopped all together.
A few days ago, I got visited by the dreaded Red Ring of Death and so my 360 is now broken. This repairs appears to still be under warranty, so I shipped the consol off this morning to have it fixed. I really can't complain, I mean it lasted me almost 2.5 years with hardly any problems at all. Given the time of year, I don't expect to get it back until January. So, for the time being, no more F3 or any other 360 game for the time being.
That's all for here for now.
Let me try to put this into words. The ending is not a good one and I've read on other forums that most people are not happy with it. Dont get me wrong, this is a very good game, but the ending is lacking and frankly not very logical.
In a way in reminds me of some of the shortcomings I had with Oblivion. They come up with these interesting scenarios that should change the game world significantly, and yet somehow don't. It's like they want to shake things up, but at the same time not change the status quo.
To even talk about the ending, I do have to spoil it somewhat. Basically, for a game that prides itself on being open ended where you have choices on how things play out, you get very little choice at the end. Basically there are 2 choices, but really probably only 1 for most players. You either sacrifice yourself, or if you're a total rat bastard have someone else sacrifice themselves. Either way the game ends.
Now that in itself is fine. But they've already announced 3 DLC packs starting next year. Two of these are set in new areas, Alaska and Pittsburgh. (The main game takes place in and around Washington DC.) So that begs the question, seeing how the game ends, does your existing character somehow end up in these places? It seems unlikely as mass transit no longer exists. My guess is that you have to make a new character unique to that particular setting. I could be wrong, but that's how it looks on the surface.
The 3rd DLC continues on from the end of the game. Again, the question is does your character get ressurected or do you have to make another new character? And if this continues on from the main game, why wasn't it part of the main game to begin with?
And there should have been other options open to you at the endgame. For instance, I picked up a companion along the way. This companion COULD have done what your character dies doing and would have not been killed in the process! (The end involves a lethal dose of radiation, but this companion thrives on radiation.) But when asked, the companion says no, this is your destiny? It's the characters destiny to die needlessly when there is another logical alternative? Does that make sense to anyone, beyond the makers want to end the game there?
So I wasn't happy with all of that. I ended up not even getting back to the game for several days after that. From what I can tell from various sources online, there's about 17 side quests in the game and I did about 4 of them, so there was still lots to do in that game. So I made a new character, male this time, and set out to do some of the stuff I missed the first time around. He progressed for a time but then I got tired of it and stopped all together.
A few days ago, I got visited by the dreaded Red Ring of Death and so my 360 is now broken. This repairs appears to still be under warranty, so I shipped the consol off this morning to have it fixed. I really can't complain, I mean it lasted me almost 2.5 years with hardly any problems at all. Given the time of year, I don't expect to get it back until January. So, for the time being, no more F3 or any other 360 game for the time being.
That's all for here for now.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
I'm glad you decided to cut back on the spoilers, Ken. I was starting to think I needed to stop reading this thread.
It's disappointing to hear that the ending is so limited. I would have expected something much more open-ended from BethSoft. From your mention of the add-ons, it looks like this is another game from them that I would be best off to wait a couple years before buying. The GOTY versions of their last few games have been a much better way to get into the game, in my opinion.
Sorry to hear your 360 is fried. That sucks big time. At least it's still under warrantee, so you're not out a bundle of cash.
Gordon
It's disappointing to hear that the ending is so limited. I would have expected something much more open-ended from BethSoft. From your mention of the add-ons, it looks like this is another game from them that I would be best off to wait a couple years before buying. The GOTY versions of their last few games have been a much better way to get into the game, in my opinion.
Sorry to hear your 360 is fried. That sucks big time. At least it's still under warrantee, so you're not out a bundle of cash.
Gordon
"Tilt....with explosives.....running.....mmmm don't like it." - Flux (Bruce)
Re: Fallout 3
Sorry about all those spoilers, Gordon, but I was really into the game at that time. The ending was like being sucker punched and took much of the wind out of my sails. While I did write alot, there's alot that I didn't write either. You might have an idea what's going to happen, but not just how. Believe me, that was just a very bare bones synopsis.
There was some more news about the first DLC coming in January, the Alaska one. Apparently its a VR simulation, so it could easily fit into the main game. But, most likely, you'll have to do it as part of the main game before reaching the end. It promises more vehicles and weapons, but if they are only in the VR Sim, then it's not really something you can get your hands on in game. It adds 4-5 hours of game play.
Hard to say about what the GOTY edition will offer. The 2 Elder Scrolls GOTY editions did not include all the DLC either. They did include the 2 major expansions for the games, but not the smaller ones. Hard to say at this point, as it's only speculations.
I've heard that there's around 100 hours of game play here, and I managed only 24 with the first characters. The level cap is 20 and I only made it to 12, so there is lots to do apart from the main quest. I never even found a bobblehead the first time around, but have 2 thus far with the new character. He even found a dog companion!
The 360 is at the repair shop right, now so probably a few weeks away from getting it back. What I didn't know before is that the hard drive for it is detachable. Indeed, I never even knew where it was until I was going over the shipping instructions! They ask you to detach the harddrive and not ship it. So even if it wasn't covered, I could just get the bare bones Arcade version and then add my hard drive to it and get back all my data and saved games. Not that I really want that kind of expense right now, but it was an option.
Looking forward to getting back into this once I get my machine back.
There was some more news about the first DLC coming in January, the Alaska one. Apparently its a VR simulation, so it could easily fit into the main game. But, most likely, you'll have to do it as part of the main game before reaching the end. It promises more vehicles and weapons, but if they are only in the VR Sim, then it's not really something you can get your hands on in game. It adds 4-5 hours of game play.
Hard to say about what the GOTY edition will offer. The 2 Elder Scrolls GOTY editions did not include all the DLC either. They did include the 2 major expansions for the games, but not the smaller ones. Hard to say at this point, as it's only speculations.
I've heard that there's around 100 hours of game play here, and I managed only 24 with the first characters. The level cap is 20 and I only made it to 12, so there is lots to do apart from the main quest. I never even found a bobblehead the first time around, but have 2 thus far with the new character. He even found a dog companion!
The 360 is at the repair shop right, now so probably a few weeks away from getting it back. What I didn't know before is that the hard drive for it is detachable. Indeed, I never even knew where it was until I was going over the shipping instructions! They ask you to detach the harddrive and not ship it. So even if it wasn't covered, I could just get the bare bones Arcade version and then add my hard drive to it and get back all my data and saved games. Not that I really want that kind of expense right now, but it was an option.
Looking forward to getting back into this once I get my machine back.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
It's been a while and here's what new on this end. I got my Xbox back on Dec 29th, but really haven't done much more with Falllout 3.
However, the first of the DLC came out yesterday-- Operation: Anchorage. It's not bad. It's not quiet as long as they indicated. The time frame given was 4-6 hours and it took me about 3.5, but some of that was just reaching the area where it took place. There might be some things to explore in that aea too, so that should add more time.
Much of the intial impressions I had when this was first announced were wrong. A case of what they said was correct, they just led the readers to reach their own conclusions.
The DLC goes something like this. You pick up a new radio frequency on your PIP boy and this leads you the new area. There, outcasts from the Brotherhood of Steel are trying to raid a vault they believe to be holding weapons and armor. But, this is a training vacility and the vault only opens when you've completed a training virtual reality drill. They don't have the tech to interface with the VR system, but your PIP boy does. So with a promise of a share of the spoils, in you go.
From this point on you're in the VR scenario. The scenary is very good, and a refreshing change from the wastelands. You gain new VR gear and a companion. The scenario is set during the battle against the Chinese in Alaska. I should note that you never actually see the enemy, they're completely covered up from the cold. The first mission is to infiltrate and destroy a trio of artillery cannons that are bombarding your sides positions.
This plays more like a stright shooter than RPG. There are some nice touches here. Enemies de-digitize when killed and fade away. There are points where you can recharge your health and restore your ammo. The only thing they were really missing was the exploding barrels you find in those kinds of games.
Once that missions complete, you're given command of a small unit whose composition you can choose. There are like six different types of units, so mixing them up can give you different results. This leads into a three-part mission. The first part is to take out a fuel depot, and then a listening post. The last to is to disarm a 'pulse field' so that you can take out the enemy stronghold. There's a strong WWII vibe to this, just with better weapons.
After surviving this, the vault opens and you get acess to the stash. So you do get some of the new gear. There's some nice armor and weapons including those used in the simulation, so its a bonus.
This scenario has to be done during the main game. It doesn't extend past the end of the game at all. It's not a bad add on, but probably a bit too much $$ for the time it takes you to do it.
However, the first of the DLC came out yesterday-- Operation: Anchorage. It's not bad. It's not quiet as long as they indicated. The time frame given was 4-6 hours and it took me about 3.5, but some of that was just reaching the area where it took place. There might be some things to explore in that aea too, so that should add more time.
Much of the intial impressions I had when this was first announced were wrong. A case of what they said was correct, they just led the readers to reach their own conclusions.
The DLC goes something like this. You pick up a new radio frequency on your PIP boy and this leads you the new area. There, outcasts from the Brotherhood of Steel are trying to raid a vault they believe to be holding weapons and armor. But, this is a training vacility and the vault only opens when you've completed a training virtual reality drill. They don't have the tech to interface with the VR system, but your PIP boy does. So with a promise of a share of the spoils, in you go.
From this point on you're in the VR scenario. The scenary is very good, and a refreshing change from the wastelands. You gain new VR gear and a companion. The scenario is set during the battle against the Chinese in Alaska. I should note that you never actually see the enemy, they're completely covered up from the cold. The first mission is to infiltrate and destroy a trio of artillery cannons that are bombarding your sides positions.
This plays more like a stright shooter than RPG. There are some nice touches here. Enemies de-digitize when killed and fade away. There are points where you can recharge your health and restore your ammo. The only thing they were really missing was the exploding barrels you find in those kinds of games.
Once that missions complete, you're given command of a small unit whose composition you can choose. There are like six different types of units, so mixing them up can give you different results. This leads into a three-part mission. The first part is to take out a fuel depot, and then a listening post. The last to is to disarm a 'pulse field' so that you can take out the enemy stronghold. There's a strong WWII vibe to this, just with better weapons.
After surviving this, the vault opens and you get acess to the stash. So you do get some of the new gear. There's some nice armor and weapons including those used in the simulation, so its a bonus.
This scenario has to be done during the main game. It doesn't extend past the end of the game at all. It's not a bad add on, but probably a bit too much $$ for the time it takes you to do it.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
My thinking is that they really need to include all DLCs in the GotY editions that they release. I'm a little hacked off that they didn't do so with Oblivion. At least with Morrowind, any official add-on that isn't in the GotY edition is free from the Bethesda website.
Gordon
Gordon
"Tilt....with explosives.....running.....mmmm don't like it." - Flux (Bruce)
Re: Fallout 3
Hard to say what the GotY edition will have and not have on it. I imagine that it won't even be out until next fall, at the earliest and with really only 3 DLC's, it would make sense to include them all.
The DLC not on the Oblivion GotY edition is not what I would call essential and you do get the 2 large expansions with it. Both Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles are probably as long as all the Fallout 3 DLC's combined in size and play time. So you're still getting a lot of bang for your buck. I'm also figuring that by the time Elder Scrolls 5 comes around, the Obilvion DLC will all be free by them. Their cheap now, but I already have them on the 360 and will not buy them twice.
And really, only Mehrune's Razor is what I would consider to be essential to have. it's basically the largest dungeon out there in the vanilla game. As for the rest, they are nice, but you can get mods that do the same thing and in many cases do it better.
The DLC not on the Oblivion GotY edition is not what I would call essential and you do get the 2 large expansions with it. Both Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles are probably as long as all the Fallout 3 DLC's combined in size and play time. So you're still getting a lot of bang for your buck. I'm also figuring that by the time Elder Scrolls 5 comes around, the Obilvion DLC will all be free by them. Their cheap now, but I already have them on the 360 and will not buy them twice.
And really, only Mehrune's Razor is what I would consider to be essential to have. it's basically the largest dungeon out there in the vanilla game. As for the rest, they are nice, but you can get mods that do the same thing and in many cases do it better.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
I've done a lot of Fallout 3 these last few days. I've pushed my second character all the way up to 16th level and I've barely touched the main quest. The game caps levels at 20, but the last of the 3 DLC's will raise it to 30. I've only taken the main quest to the point you first go to Rivet City and learn that you have to go to the Jefferson Memeorial thus far.
I've gotten into a good grove with the right combination of armor and weapons for my style of play. The armor is the Chinese Stealth armor from Operation Anchorage DLC. It adds a bonus to your stealth and has a built it camoflauge screen to it. The primary weapon I use is the Combat Shotgun. This little guy packs a wallop and you can get out 12 shots before having to reload.
I've gotten quite good at sniping enmies, even with the combat shotgun. But I mainly use the Guass Rifle from the DLC for long range sniping. This bad boy has a nice scope to it and does lots of damage. Coupled with the critical hit bonus you gain from attacking while hidden, it can down many creatures in a single hit. When all else fails, there are frag grenades and the missile launcher.
I'd say the most important skill to learn in this game is the repair skill. You use this to repair your gear, as it breaks down slowly from use. You can do the repairs yourself, or hire a merchant to do it for you. Repairs in this case, is usually cannibalizing another copy of the weapon for parts to repair another one. The real difference between here and Oblivion, is that the merchants can only repair things so far. The highest I've found thus far is 54% repair rating. I've pushed my character's repair to 90. The higher your repair rating, the better your weapon and the more damage it can do.
Lockpicking is another important skill. Locks are usually rated based on your lock picking skill. For instance, if a lock has a rating of 50, your locking picking has to be 50 or higher to even make an attempt to open it. If you can try to pick the lock, it triggers a mini-game. Fortunately, this lock picking mini game is much, much easier thant he one in Oblivion. This one is more common sense then skill with the controls.
Science is another important skill, as you can use it to hack computers. This works the same as locking picking. Your rating has to be high enough to even make the attempt with the computer. But the mini-game is different and a bit harder. This one is a guess the password kind of game. There is a certain logic to it, but its much harder than the lock picking one. Hacking computers can do some neat things, such as open safes, let loose robots that will attack your enemies, and turn on or off weapn turets.
There are so many things that I didn't get to the first time around. This game is huge. The downtown DC area is gigantic. It's just a matter of figuring out how things work in this game. Typically, the downtown areas are an area of variying size that is sealed off from the rest of the city. You have to use the old subway tunnels or the sewers to travel between these areas.
Some of the places that I've been thus far include the White House (actually a bombed out crater), the Capital Building (A very huge area), the National Archives, Arlington Memorial Cemetary, a hospital, a hotel, a food factory, and even the Lincoln memorial. Recovered some neat things, such as the Declaration of Independance and the Bill of Rights.
The next DLC, the Pitt, is supposed to be out in early March with the last one a month later. Really looking forward to them and hope they don't get delayed again.
I've gotten into a good grove with the right combination of armor and weapons for my style of play. The armor is the Chinese Stealth armor from Operation Anchorage DLC. It adds a bonus to your stealth and has a built it camoflauge screen to it. The primary weapon I use is the Combat Shotgun. This little guy packs a wallop and you can get out 12 shots before having to reload.
I've gotten quite good at sniping enmies, even with the combat shotgun. But I mainly use the Guass Rifle from the DLC for long range sniping. This bad boy has a nice scope to it and does lots of damage. Coupled with the critical hit bonus you gain from attacking while hidden, it can down many creatures in a single hit. When all else fails, there are frag grenades and the missile launcher.
I'd say the most important skill to learn in this game is the repair skill. You use this to repair your gear, as it breaks down slowly from use. You can do the repairs yourself, or hire a merchant to do it for you. Repairs in this case, is usually cannibalizing another copy of the weapon for parts to repair another one. The real difference between here and Oblivion, is that the merchants can only repair things so far. The highest I've found thus far is 54% repair rating. I've pushed my character's repair to 90. The higher your repair rating, the better your weapon and the more damage it can do.
Lockpicking is another important skill. Locks are usually rated based on your lock picking skill. For instance, if a lock has a rating of 50, your locking picking has to be 50 or higher to even make an attempt to open it. If you can try to pick the lock, it triggers a mini-game. Fortunately, this lock picking mini game is much, much easier thant he one in Oblivion. This one is more common sense then skill with the controls.
Science is another important skill, as you can use it to hack computers. This works the same as locking picking. Your rating has to be high enough to even make the attempt with the computer. But the mini-game is different and a bit harder. This one is a guess the password kind of game. There is a certain logic to it, but its much harder than the lock picking one. Hacking computers can do some neat things, such as open safes, let loose robots that will attack your enemies, and turn on or off weapn turets.
There are so many things that I didn't get to the first time around. This game is huge. The downtown DC area is gigantic. It's just a matter of figuring out how things work in this game. Typically, the downtown areas are an area of variying size that is sealed off from the rest of the city. You have to use the old subway tunnels or the sewers to travel between these areas.
Some of the places that I've been thus far include the White House (actually a bombed out crater), the Capital Building (A very huge area), the National Archives, Arlington Memorial Cemetary, a hospital, a hotel, a food factory, and even the Lincoln memorial. Recovered some neat things, such as the Declaration of Independance and the Bill of Rights.
The next DLC, the Pitt, is supposed to be out in early March with the last one a month later. Really looking forward to them and hope they don't get delayed again.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
Well, the Pitt did get delayed and then the original download was corrupted, but they got it fixed by the next day and it plays fine now.
The Pitt was much better than the first DLC. I'm not sure if I spent any more time there then I did with Operation: Anchorage, but I felt that I got money's worth from it. Plus it's returnable, so you can go back and still do things there.
The Pitt starts out with you recieving yet another new radio signal for help. This time it takes you to the far extreme north of the map where you learn about the Pitt. It's a slaver stronghold where the inhibitants are regularly exposed to radiation. Unlike what happnes in the wastelands, those in the Pitts go through several stages as they progress. They initially become Wildmen, but still mostly look and act like humans. Then they change into sub-human Trogs who crawl around on all fours. Really creepy! But it seems that a cure for the radiation poisoning has been found, but its in the hands of the slaves masters. Your mission is to infiltrate the Pitt and find the cure.
This would be a difficult mission for a low level character. First off, you let yourself be captured and in the process loose all your equipment. You're first job is to retrieve steel bars from an area called the Steelyard. You only need 10, but if you collect all 100 of them there's an achievement for it. The Steelyard is huge. There's a good sized ground level and then it keeps going up and up on open air stairs until you're even above the constant fog from the blast furnaces!
There's a train tunnel that you enter at the edge of the Wasteland Map that takes you to the Pitt Map. It's instant travel, you don't have to walk all that way for a change.
The Pitt is like many situations in F3 where you have to make moral choice You have the choice of siding with the slaves, or with the slavers. I'll have to try the other side to see how that plays out.
There are new weapons and armor again, but nothing that I found really outstanding. The 'Man-Opener" was interesting to use. It's basically a two-handed metal cutting saw that you can use in combat.
With the second character I've been to every location on the game map. He's gone over 90 hours in play time and maxed out his level long ago. He also managed to locate all 20 bobblehead collectables with a great deal of help. There's probably only 5 or 6 that I found on my own.
I finished the game with the second character last night and started again with a 3rd. As i noted above, there are multiple points where you have a choice that affects how the game proceeds. So I wanted to try those other options to see where they go. These are mostly the bad or evil choices, so it'll be interesting to see how those play out.
For instance there are 2 houses that you can actually own, but you can only have 1 or the other. Not both. So I'll try for the 2nd one, but to get it you have to do something nasty that will eliminate the settlement the first one is in. Consequences!
There's a still a few different quests that neither the first 2 characters ever completed or even got, so will have to try for those too.
At least this time, on my 3rd go through with the opening scenario I was able to save someone I asn't able to before, so it's already a bit different.
I'm guessing that the last DLC will be out in a month or so. Broken Steel does pick up after the game ends and pushes the level cap to 30. I'll be interesting to see where that all goes to.
The Pitt was much better than the first DLC. I'm not sure if I spent any more time there then I did with Operation: Anchorage, but I felt that I got money's worth from it. Plus it's returnable, so you can go back and still do things there.
The Pitt starts out with you recieving yet another new radio signal for help. This time it takes you to the far extreme north of the map where you learn about the Pitt. It's a slaver stronghold where the inhibitants are regularly exposed to radiation. Unlike what happnes in the wastelands, those in the Pitts go through several stages as they progress. They initially become Wildmen, but still mostly look and act like humans. Then they change into sub-human Trogs who crawl around on all fours. Really creepy! But it seems that a cure for the radiation poisoning has been found, but its in the hands of the slaves masters. Your mission is to infiltrate the Pitt and find the cure.
This would be a difficult mission for a low level character. First off, you let yourself be captured and in the process loose all your equipment. You're first job is to retrieve steel bars from an area called the Steelyard. You only need 10, but if you collect all 100 of them there's an achievement for it. The Steelyard is huge. There's a good sized ground level and then it keeps going up and up on open air stairs until you're even above the constant fog from the blast furnaces!
There's a train tunnel that you enter at the edge of the Wasteland Map that takes you to the Pitt Map. It's instant travel, you don't have to walk all that way for a change.
The Pitt is like many situations in F3 where you have to make moral choice You have the choice of siding with the slaves, or with the slavers. I'll have to try the other side to see how that plays out.
There are new weapons and armor again, but nothing that I found really outstanding. The 'Man-Opener" was interesting to use. It's basically a two-handed metal cutting saw that you can use in combat.
With the second character I've been to every location on the game map. He's gone over 90 hours in play time and maxed out his level long ago. He also managed to locate all 20 bobblehead collectables with a great deal of help. There's probably only 5 or 6 that I found on my own.
I finished the game with the second character last night and started again with a 3rd. As i noted above, there are multiple points where you have a choice that affects how the game proceeds. So I wanted to try those other options to see where they go. These are mostly the bad or evil choices, so it'll be interesting to see how those play out.
For instance there are 2 houses that you can actually own, but you can only have 1 or the other. Not both. So I'll try for the 2nd one, but to get it you have to do something nasty that will eliminate the settlement the first one is in. Consequences!
There's a still a few different quests that neither the first 2 characters ever completed or even got, so will have to try for those too.
At least this time, on my 3rd go through with the opening scenario I was able to save someone I asn't able to before, so it's already a bit different.
I'm guessing that the last DLC will be out in a month or so. Broken Steel does pick up after the game ends and pushes the level cap to 30. I'll be interesting to see where that all goes to.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
It's been quite a long time since I posted anything about Fallout 3! Since the last post I've played all 3 of the next DLC's: Broken Steel, Point Lockout, and Mothership Zeta. I'll probably get into that at a later date.
What I did want to give a link to is this here:
50 Things to do in the Capital Wasteland
It's pretty funny if you have any knowledge of the game. There are plenty of spoilers on the list so if you plan to play this game you might want to avoid them. But otherwise you might get a chuckle of them.
What I did want to give a link to is this here:
50 Things to do in the Capital Wasteland
It's pretty funny if you have any knowledge of the game. There are plenty of spoilers on the list so if you plan to play this game you might want to avoid them. But otherwise you might get a chuckle of them.
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
Here's a quick review of the last 3 F3 DLC's.
Broken Steel is the best of the bunch. This one continues the game past where it normally ends. Instead of perishing at the end, you were just knocked out. You come around 2 weeks later and the game continues from there. The main gist of the quests is to finally defeat the Enclave forces and this is spread out over several missions. One mission involves retrieving the parts to build a Tesla Cannon, one of the most powerful weapons in the game. The you need to infiltrate the Enclave Base itself to destroy their command center. This is done by going into the tunnels underneath the White House as there was a underground railway linking the two. With skill and some luck you complete the mission and the Enclave is defeated, although you might find remnants of them still in the wasteland.
What I did like is that the DLC does deal with the ramifications of Project Purity working and just how unscrupulous people can twist it to their own ends.
There are plenty of new perks as well, including "Puppies!" Anyone whose played Fallout knows who Dogmeat is. Well, he's here too, but tends to die a lot. With this perk, should Dogmeat die you can pick up one of his offspring right outside of Vault 101.
Point Lookout is next and this one as a very southern swampy vibe to it. A river boat transports you from the wasteland to Point Lookout which used to be a resort area. The main quest is kind of strange and really trippy. You have a bizarre drug induced trip in this one. At the end you get one fo the strangest things you're liking to find. A piece of your brain in a jar!
There are multiple side quests as well with this one. The inbreed swamp folk are just plain nasty enemies.
Mothership Zeta is the final DLC. In the regular game there is a crash site of a small alien scout vessel complete with dead alien. Also lying there is most powerful weapon in the main game, an alien blaster. The only catch is that there isn't a lot of ammo to it. You're limited, for the most part, to 110 shots and that's it. So it's used sparingly as a weapon of last resort.
A radio signal draws to the crash site and then you're beamed up the alien mothership. A series of disturbing images follows as you're half conscious while the aliens do their examination.
When you do recover you're in a cell with another captive. You escape and are running loose on the ship. Eventually you take control of what remains of this ship and destroy a second one. Along the way you learn that the aliens have been around for a very long time. In cryo-sleep you can rescue a cowboy, a feudal samurai, an astronuat from the 60's and so on.
Along the way you can pick up recordings of past victims. Some of are quite funny, while others are very disturbing.
And that's about all there is to the game. You can probably squeeze as many as 150 hours of game play from the game and all 5 DLC's. More with Mods if you have the PC version, which unfortunately I do not.
Bring on Fallout New Vegas!
Broken Steel is the best of the bunch. This one continues the game past where it normally ends. Instead of perishing at the end, you were just knocked out. You come around 2 weeks later and the game continues from there. The main gist of the quests is to finally defeat the Enclave forces and this is spread out over several missions. One mission involves retrieving the parts to build a Tesla Cannon, one of the most powerful weapons in the game. The you need to infiltrate the Enclave Base itself to destroy their command center. This is done by going into the tunnels underneath the White House as there was a underground railway linking the two. With skill and some luck you complete the mission and the Enclave is defeated, although you might find remnants of them still in the wasteland.
What I did like is that the DLC does deal with the ramifications of Project Purity working and just how unscrupulous people can twist it to their own ends.
There are plenty of new perks as well, including "Puppies!" Anyone whose played Fallout knows who Dogmeat is. Well, he's here too, but tends to die a lot. With this perk, should Dogmeat die you can pick up one of his offspring right outside of Vault 101.
Point Lookout is next and this one as a very southern swampy vibe to it. A river boat transports you from the wasteland to Point Lookout which used to be a resort area. The main quest is kind of strange and really trippy. You have a bizarre drug induced trip in this one. At the end you get one fo the strangest things you're liking to find. A piece of your brain in a jar!
There are multiple side quests as well with this one. The inbreed swamp folk are just plain nasty enemies.
Mothership Zeta is the final DLC. In the regular game there is a crash site of a small alien scout vessel complete with dead alien. Also lying there is most powerful weapon in the main game, an alien blaster. The only catch is that there isn't a lot of ammo to it. You're limited, for the most part, to 110 shots and that's it. So it's used sparingly as a weapon of last resort.
A radio signal draws to the crash site and then you're beamed up the alien mothership. A series of disturbing images follows as you're half conscious while the aliens do their examination.
When you do recover you're in a cell with another captive. You escape and are running loose on the ship. Eventually you take control of what remains of this ship and destroy a second one. Along the way you learn that the aliens have been around for a very long time. In cryo-sleep you can rescue a cowboy, a feudal samurai, an astronuat from the 60's and so on.
Along the way you can pick up recordings of past victims. Some of are quite funny, while others are very disturbing.
And that's about all there is to the game. You can probably squeeze as many as 150 hours of game play from the game and all 5 DLC's. More with Mods if you have the PC version, which unfortunately I do not.
Bring on Fallout New Vegas!
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
Here's a quick list of some of the neater things I've liked about the game in a non-spoiler way.
Two words: Liberty Prime!
There are perks and skills in the game that can give you unique dialog options and these can lead to some really amusing things.
Female characters can take the Black Widow perk that gives you unique dialog options with males and you also do more damage to men in combat. There are also some places where you can get a fun result.
There's tiny place called Girdershade in the southwest wastelands. It's 2 shacks underneath an elevated thruway. (Under girders in the shade.)
Anyway, a woman named Sierra lives there and she's really, really into Nuka Cola, the soft drink in the game. She gives you a collection quest called the Nuka Cola Challenge where you need to bring her 30 bottles of Nuka Cola Quantum. (It glows because of radiation!)
Also living in Girdershade is a man who has the hots for Sierra, and shes completely oblivious of this. After receiving the quest, the man will approach you and asks that you sell the Quantum Cola to him so that he can give it to Sierra so that he can finally score.
With the Black Widow perk, you get this unique Dialog option and I'm paraphrasing here:
"Tell you what, handsome. You bring us some Quantum Cola, we'll make it a three-some!"
The man stammers in shock for a second and then will yell, "Hell yeah!" and run off. Typically right into a wandering encounter and die.
Later, when you talk to Sierra again you have the option of talking about the mans attraction to her. In fact, you pretty much say that he's been trying to get into her pants. Her response is:
"Well, that's just plain silly! There way to small for him!"
Two words: Liberty Prime!
There are perks and skills in the game that can give you unique dialog options and these can lead to some really amusing things.
Female characters can take the Black Widow perk that gives you unique dialog options with males and you also do more damage to men in combat. There are also some places where you can get a fun result.
There's tiny place called Girdershade in the southwest wastelands. It's 2 shacks underneath an elevated thruway. (Under girders in the shade.)
Anyway, a woman named Sierra lives there and she's really, really into Nuka Cola, the soft drink in the game. She gives you a collection quest called the Nuka Cola Challenge where you need to bring her 30 bottles of Nuka Cola Quantum. (It glows because of radiation!)
Also living in Girdershade is a man who has the hots for Sierra, and shes completely oblivious of this. After receiving the quest, the man will approach you and asks that you sell the Quantum Cola to him so that he can give it to Sierra so that he can finally score.
With the Black Widow perk, you get this unique Dialog option and I'm paraphrasing here:
"Tell you what, handsome. You bring us some Quantum Cola, we'll make it a three-some!"
The man stammers in shock for a second and then will yell, "Hell yeah!" and run off. Typically right into a wandering encounter and die.
Later, when you talk to Sierra again you have the option of talking about the mans attraction to her. In fact, you pretty much say that he's been trying to get into her pants. Her response is:
"Well, that's just plain silly! There way to small for him!"
Try it and find out!
Re: Fallout 3
Another list of stuff to check out:
http://www.planetxbox360.com/article_81 ... re_You_Die
It's a list of great 360 game moments, complete with videos. On page 2 at #5 is one from Fallout 3 that I've mentioned may months ago.
Other games that I've played are also present, including Halo 3, Lost Planet, and Bioshock. Of particular note at #10 is Mass Effect and the video shows the start of the end game. I've been saying just how cinematic this game is. Now you can see for yourself!
http://www.planetxbox360.com/article_81 ... re_You_Die
It's a list of great 360 game moments, complete with videos. On page 2 at #5 is one from Fallout 3 that I've mentioned may months ago.
Other games that I've played are also present, including Halo 3, Lost Planet, and Bioshock. Of particular note at #10 is Mass Effect and the video shows the start of the end game. I've been saying just how cinematic this game is. Now you can see for yourself!
Try it and find out!