[Capella]

Ooh, Fallout 3. I'm not playing it personally, but one of my housemates is, and I love being a video game spectator- it's fun to hang out on a couch watching people do cool stuff. The game is really nifty, and I spent like half of Sunday night on the Fallout wiki reading up about the Vaults, Vault experiments, everything. I'm not sure who wants him to finish it more, me or him.

[Luca]

One trick to picking locks is to pay attention to how far you're able to move the lock before the bobby pin starts wiggling. If the pin starts jiggling immediately, then you should turn it a significant distance in one direction or another. If it turns a fair amount before it starts to wiggle, then you're close and you'll only need to make minor adjustments.

[Maciej]

Originally Posted by Luca One trick to picking locks is to pay attention to how far you're able to move the lock before the bobby pin starts wiggling. If the pin starts jiggling immediately, then you should turn it a significant distance in one direction or another. If it turns a fair amount before it starts to wiggle, then you're close and you'll only need to make minor adjustments.

I think this is the best advice. The lock opens when its at 270 degrees around from the starting point, so if you're not reaching that you've gotta readjust. I just go slowly on the screw driver until I get an idea of how far my current position will go. Then I stop and readjust the bobby pin. It's pretty simple once you get the hang of it, just gotta go slow or else you won't have the reaction time to stop the screwie before it breaks the bobby pin.

[Wrao]

I have 100 lockpick skill, almost every lock is just a twist of the right analog stick.

[Luca]

As far as I can tell, your lockpick skill doesn't change the difficulty of the lockpick minigame. All it does is let you attempt to pick higher level locks. Same with hacking.

I have noticed, though, that the hacking puzzles on "Hard" terminals are indeed more difficult than the ones on "Medium" and "Easy" ones. I imagine the same applies to locks. Again, your own lockpick skill level doesn't affect the difficulty, only which ones you are allowed to try. Picking a difficult lock does require more precision than picking an easy one.

[Maciej]

Originally Posted by Wrao I have 100 lockpick skill, almost every lock is just a twist of the right analog stick.

Haha, me too but the "very hard" are pretty frustrating. Especially when you only have one bobby pin, I'm always starving for bobby pins. A lot of them you can just force at lvl 100, too...

EDIT: But experience does help...

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by Luca As far as I can tell, your lockpick skill doesn't change the difficulty of the lockpick minigame. All it does is let you attempt to pick higher level locks. Same with hacking.

I thought this as well, but, then I noticed that almost every easy,average and hard lock I encounter now is solved by rotating only the right analog stick, and leaving the bobby pin at 12 o'clock.

[Luca]

I beat the game last night. It was cool but the ending was rather abrupt and anticlimactic. My biggest problem is that, after the game ends, you can't just keep playing like in most RPGs. You have to load a previous save and specifically avoid going to one certain location. If you don't have a previous save and just use the autosave, you're out of luck - you have to start over from the beginning.

Lucky for me, I do have old save files available. I want to explore the wastes more. Then I'll do an evil character

[Maciej]

Originally Posted by Luca I beat the game last night. It was cool but the ending was rather abrupt and anticlimactic. My biggest problem is that, after the game ends, you can't just keep playing like in most RPGs. You have to load a previous save and specifically avoid going to one certain location. If you don't have a previous save and just use the autosave, you're out of luck - you have to start over from the beginning. Lucky for me, I do have old save files available. I want to explore the wastes more. Then I'll do an evil character

I'm in same position, finished on Sunday. Only reason I finished so quickly is cause I ran out of side quests, and I didn't put enough effort into finding new ones, but I have an old save I'll try today.

[jdcfsu]

Originally Posted by Luca I beat the game last night. It was cool but the ending was rather abrupt and anticlimactic. My biggest problem is that, after the game ends, you can't just keep playing like in most RPGs. You have to load a previous save and specifically avoid going to one certain location. If you don't have a previous save and just use the autosave, you're out of luck - you have to start over from the beginning. Lucky for me, I do have old save files available. I want to explore the wastes more. Then I'll do an evil character

Read this on Penny Arcade the other day. I like that though, it means if you don't care to look for your dad, don't worry about it and go for everything else. But, if you do want to find him, then go do that instead.

[scratt]

After being super slack and not even bothering to go to town to get Fallout 3 I had it delivered today from a place in Hong Kong. Even with import duty, shipping etc. it still worked out cheaper than buying here, and only about $5 more than the US price.... Plus I get a $5 discount on my next order so that will go towards Little Big Planet!

What with super cheap and tasty delivery food, internet banking and now this I never need to leave home ever again... except for weed!
I am sure my wife will nix those plans... but I can dream!

It's sitting there still wrapped in it's cellophane, calling to me.... But I have also just downloaded the Bad Company map updates....

What to do this weekend!?!?!!

[jdcfsu]

Last night I got into the "Those!" quest. What a good bit of running around that is....

For those that picked Megaton, make sure you do the Survivalist Handbook quest. It'll take a good bit of time, but it's well worth it. The perks are pretty good.

[tomoe]

Originally Posted by jdcfsu Last night I got into the "Those!" quest. What a good bit of running around that is.... For those that picked Megaton, make sure you do the Survivalist Handbook quest. It'll take a good bit of time, but it's well worth it. The perks are pretty good.

Is that part of the Main Quest or a Side Quest? I haven't seen it yet.

[jdcfsu]

They are both sidequests. Those beings if you find a kid running around the supermarket southeast of Megaton. The Survival Guide starts by talking to the Moira in the Megaton store.

[Wrao]

Just finished the game.

The Ending was abrupt. I really didn't do all that many sidequests, and as a result the end slideshow was pretty plain. At first I chose to sacrifice myself, then I reloaded and had Lyons go. The change in the ending between that choice was kind of pathetic. It was basically the exact same thing only adding "not", "didn't" and "unlike" into the monologue. Which makes me think that the rest of the "200+ endings" will be equally bland. All in all, I have to say, the ending does spoil the game for me in a few ways. Notably the whole, self-sacrifice thing, just kind of I dunno, cliche. I would have much preferred the age-old "self destruct initiated, get the fuck out". But, mostly I think the game's ending would have been significantly stronger if, after winning, you could... keep playing! I remember in fallout 2, after winning, you could keep playing, but only one town actually acknowledged that you'd done anything at all, but it was good, all breaking the 4th wall type stuff. Ah well. My other gripe was that, it seemed as if Enclave soldiers became incredibly puny near the end. When I first encountered them, at level 19, they nearly killed me many times, and I struggled taking them down. But during the whole ending sequence from the Enclave base(which was maddeningly confusing to navigate) all the way to project purity, they were 2-shot kills. Granted, along the way I picked up a full condition plasma rifle. But still... Perhaps though, the most annoying thing about the ending was that. Well, When you arrive at the Citadel, at least 3 major quests seem to open up. At least, I thought these were going to be quests.... 1) discover the mutant base 2) learn more about the enclave(i.e. perhaps steal their tech and deliver to the brotherhood), discover their base 3) find power for Liberty Prime Instead, the main quest kind of threads you through all three objectives without actually really addressing them. I thought it was pretty goofy that I was running around in enclave armor at the citadel and listening to their scribes talking about how little they understood about the enclave technology. Oh well.

Still, the game was incredibly enjoyable to play, but although it has a zillion replay options, I don't imagine I will be firing it up again anytime soon.

[Maciej]

Yuppp, same thing happened to me Wrao. Bogus.

I started a whole new character now. I'm that bored.

[Wrao]

Overall, the game leaves me with the impression that, Bethesda, in their SPECIAL allotment put too many points in 'atmosphere', 'immersion', 'environment' and 'choices' at the cost of knocking a few away from 'plot', 'storytelling' and 'lulz'.

Don't get me wrong, I would still rate this game a solid 9.4/10 or so, if one were to pay me to rate video games, and I eagerly await Fallout 4. Just... one of those things.

[Luca]

I'm very much with you there, Wrao. First of all,

they spent too much time playing up how "mysterious" the super mutants were for them to just leave it hanging like that. Stupid. Also, the Brotherhood is cool and I wish I could have done some side quests for them. But I guess not. Also, what's with dying at the end? I ended up walking around the irradiated area for a long time with little effect, since I had power armor and plenty of Rad-X and Rad-Away. I eventually gave up and looked up online what I was supposed to do (you have to type "216" into the keypad, after that Bible verse your dad keeps bringing up. Not sure how I was supposed to know that). And then, of course, I immediately died. Dumb. I had tons of anti-rad meds. Oh, and where's the final boss?

I agree that the ending is by far the worst part of the game. It comes too suddenly and it doesn't give you enough choices or flexibility. And it's just stupid. The rest was great though. Exploring the wastes is fun.

[Maciej]

Its like as if by the time they got to the ending, everyone at the studio was tired and they just wanted to go home.

[dmegatool]

It doesn't surprise me for the ending. I played Morrowind and Oblivion and both endings were the worst I've ever seen. So I guess it's a Besthesda trademark now.... shitty ending.

Still, I'll probably buy the game anyway so I will be able to tell if it's worst or equaly shitty to the other endings

[scratt]

Well notwithstanding the ending, which is a long way off for me, whatever it is..

It's awesome..
I am sucking up any mission, no matter how small..
VATS if fun. Not got bored of that yet. And I doubt I will!

And after reading the reviews I was really worried about PS3 glitches, and wooden animation / flat textures etc... With the latter it probably helps that I have been playing a lot of Half Life 2, and not so much MGS4 recently.. But overall it seems solid, really well put together, and I am loving loosing myself in this world..

[jdcfsu]

For anyone who has taken the Nuka-Cola Challenge:

I've gone through the Factory twice and can't find the shipping manifest... where is it? I read online that there is supposed to be some sort of shipping robot, but all the robots I've come across are security. I've followed the stupid "Shipping" arrows through the whole thing and they lead right back to the front door. Anyone have some better directions?

[Luca]

Another problem. NPC pathfinding is some of the worst I've ever seen in a game. You'll get access to some NPCs eventually (I only got one, just before the end of the game), but they're horribly stupid.

[Wrao]

Sigh... I just wrote out a very long reply, and it was lost due to timing out my login or something like that.

[tomoe]

Originally Posted by Luca Another problem. NPC pathfinding is some of the worst I've ever seen in a game. You'll get access to some NPCs eventually (I only got one, just before the end of the game), but they're horribly stupid.

Agreed. Star Paladin Cross (from the Citadel) joined me, but I couldn't for the fcuking life of me get her to a) not cause a ruckus and shoot enemies while I'm trying to sneak (ergo wrecking the surprise), or b) use a weapon other than her stock laser rifle and/or super sledge (even though I gave her much better weapons).

[Maciej]

Originally Posted by Luca Another problem. NPC pathfinding is some of the worst I've ever seen in a game. You'll get access to some NPCs eventually (I only got one, just before the end of the game), but they're horribly stupid.

Yeah I mentioned this above somewhere.. mine kept getting lost. They would disappear for a couple loads, then magically reappear after a load.

[Wrao]

Okay, How I think Fallout 3 should have gone:

You arrive at the Citadel, but you are not entirely trusted. You are restricted to certain areas, and you have no access to their tech. Nonetheless you are still briefed of the situation involving the Brotherhood, the Outcasts, the Super Mutants, the Enclave, Liberty Prime, Project Purity and the GECK. You are sent to retrieve the GECK. You arrive at vault 87 and discover that it is in fact the Super Mutant base. You learn while you are there that the Super Mutants have been scouring DC looking for information/tech that will enable them to distribute the FEV virus into the wastes on a massive scale. They need the GECK to do it, thus, you discover it is not there. You learn of their location, they are in the White house ruins. You arrive at the White House ruins, you confront the Super Mutant leader, and you resolve the situation. There are two violent paths(destroy everyone and everything directly, or with a bomb type solution), a sneak path(retrieve the GECK and leave), and a diplomatic path(convincing the leader that the plan can't work for whatever reasons). You return to the Citadel. You inform Elder Lyons that you have neutralized the Super Mutant threat, and he rewards you with full access to the Brotherhood's facilities, armory, tech, and training(you can speak to Gunny to improve your choice of 2 or 3 skills by 5-10 or adding points in SPECIAL). If you did not resolve the threat, and chose the sneak path, then you are still awarded with XP, and some equipment, and you are informed that the Brotherhood will deal with it from there. The Brotherhood now turns their full attention to the Enclave threat. But they acknowledge that they cannot face the threat in their current state.They need to reunite with the Outcasts if they are to stand a chance. They send you to liaise with the Outcast leader and work out an agreement. You arrive at Fort Independence. The Outcast leader agrees about the Enclave threat, and he proposes that the best way to engage them would be to infiltrate their base and acquire some of their tech, to level the playing field. You are sent to Raven Rock. Two primary paths to take. One is sneaking in and stealing some tech and leaving. One is more directly confronting them. On the direct route you are brought before President Eden, who has heard about you and is impressed you made it so far. He reveals his apocalyptic plans, and gives you the choice to join or die. If you choose join, you are confronted by Colonel Autumn, who lashes out at you and reveals to you that the Enclave really aren't psychotic mass murderers, they are only trying to reunite the country and tear down the various threats that exist...etc...etc. If you choose die, then you are taken away, but Colonel Autumn intervenes and reveals all the same stuff to you but in a more sympathetic tone(though you can still choose to say eff you, and then you are killed and lose the game) He presents you with the option to join him to usurp the President and seize control of Project Purity for the good of the country, or you continue to follow the President's order, which would involve blasting your way out of Raven Rock as you fight through the troops that are loyal to Autumn. You are not required to blast your way out. (While at Raven Rock you can interact with Enclave Scientists, spend time with their computers, perform a handful of banal(but still with rewards) errand/quests within the facility, and receive lots of Fallout Lore relating to the westcoast BoS, the vault dweller's descendent, deathclaws, the US government...etc.) Assuming you choose to listen to Autumn, he lets you go, whereupon you return to the Citadel and the newly reunited Brotherhood of Steel. You reveal to them that the Enclave is not only fractured, but that they are not 'evil' either. The Brotherhood does not accept this, and it is revealed to you that the Brotherhood's grudge against the Enclave is largely personal, stemming from jealousy and insecurity over their tech and organization and the threat it poses to their dominion in the wastes. OR, if you chose the sneak route and didn't obtain any of that information, then you would present the BoS with Enclave tech, which would cause essentially the same reaction, because it would empower the BoS and they would then decide to activate Liberty Prime to thwart the Enclave threat. But, because Liberty Prime is not fully operational, it ends up becoming confused and it decimates the Citadel and kills most everyone inside, it heads out into the wastes recklessly destroying everything in its path. Now you have to stop the giant Robot. A few options exist for how to do this. You can goto the Satcom stations near Raven Rock and you can activate a nuclear strike to destroy the robot. This would require you to first obtain some piece of information to enable you to train the sats to the Robots location. Alternatively, you can coordinate a joint offensive with the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave, who, being remnants of the US government, have access to information that can be used against the Robot. Alternatively, there would also exist an option to resolve the matter by disabling the machine, or otherwise being crafty/sciencey about it. I would like to say that Project Purity is destroyed during this. Since I think Project Purity was kind of bollocks. Clean water won't stop the Super Mutants, it won't make deathclaws disappear, it won't make raiders become sane, it won't heal ghouls(who in fact live on radiation). In all likelihood, the "clean water for all" would hurt the wasteland, since mutated life existing there probably requires radiation to live(fallout science). But, in Project Purity's destruction, and in the conflicts leading upto it, the Enclave is forced to face the reality that their old-world government cannot exist in the wasteland, and they begin to integrate themselves with society, using their resources to provide stability and rebuild the wastes, forming a new government with the Brotherhood of Steel, who they acknowledge as being worthwhile due to the religious-like preservation of knowledge and tech. Cue, endgame slideshow, telling of how the Brotherhood and Enclave begin to work together, as well revealing the fates of the various towns and groups you interacted with(a la fallout 1 and 2). The End flashes and you are brought back to the Jefferson Memorial, post-robot destruction. Where you can freely continue to play, reach level 99, have new access to the best weapons and equipment, and be allowed to do whatever you want(perhaps unlocking a new dungeon or two of extra-tough enemies) There might be some logical inconsistencies in there, or some plotholes, additionally I have thought of a handful of alternatives for each quest/objective, but didn't want to write them all out. I reckon all of this would add an additional 15 hours of gameplay, so although I describe it fairly quickly, the actual mechanics of each objective would be more drawn out. Further notes to correct issues relating to how absurdly overpowered you get near the end of the game: * Accessing your inventory during combat would cost half of your action points, and would not be possible if you had less than half AP. * Repairing equipment would not be possible when enemies are around(just like quick travel is not possible) * Tesla Armor on Enclave soldiers would absorb half damage of all energy weapons, thus requiring you to switch tactics when fighting Enclave soldiers and not just mowing through everyone with plasma guns * Regular Power Armor would absorb half damage from bullets, but full damage from energy weapons.

[Maciej]

Haha, I like your style.

I don't use plasma at all, is it really that overpowered? I didn't get to max out the energy weapons...

Did you meet the guy in the alley way, with all the bombs? He made me laugh, with him just spouting off utter nonsense... And then he EXPLODED I'm still laughing.

[scratt]

Ok.. I have now spent an entire weekend playing this game very very thoroughly.. I have no idea how far I am through, not far I suspect / hope as I am exploring everything and anything, and taking my time with it all. I intend to hold off on the main quest as long as possible and do all the optional stuff wherever I can.. I am even learning about quests and leaving them alone until I decide it's time to do them, so as to try and maximize things I won't be able to do after closing off certain story lines..

The only thing I cheated on was getting some hints about the location of Dog Meat early on so I could make sure I didn't miss the chance of getting him. Some reviewers said they managed to complete the game without finding him, which seems a shame to me. I am not one of those to play a game through again so I need to make sure the first run is a good one.

Quite simply it's the best game I have played so far *ever*.

I was always attracted to Oblivion but am not into Sword and Sorcery anymore, so this kind of game put into a different time line is a very cool thing from my POV.

In order of games that have affected me in recent years..

Halo was the first computer game I played for a long while after getting fed up with the whole gaming industry for a good 5 - 6 years and ignoring it. It had a profound effect on me and got me back into both writing and playing games..

The next game to really float my boat was the last Resident Evil on PS2. I was depressed when I finally finished that...

After that BioShock and Mass Effect. I think I preferred the styling of BioShock (which is similar to Fallout 3 in many ways), but enjoyed the setting / story of Mass Effect more. Neither are a patch on Fallout 3.

I am looking forward to Fallout 4 more than I am looking forward to a sequel to any of the above games. In fact I can't wait for a sequel to Fallout 3. I am scared what's going to happen when I finally finish the damn thing... I'll be banging on Bethesda's door, and I hope this thing does not revert to Black Isle.

I know it has bugs. And I have crashed it this weekend.. Dog Meat has got stuck because he can't get to people on a bridge above him, and I've had to go kill them before he'd move one.. I've also got stuck in a corner in a tunnel and had to blow myself up with a rocket launcher to get out of the game.. That was fun.. I piled about 20 frag mines under myself and then let rip... But it is quite simply the best thing I have played in a long long long time.. I am totally immersed when I play it. Love the depth, love it love it, and I love it when I jump when the radio crackles and I am sneaking down corridors... It's just super super amazing to play.

Just one thing.. Anyone know a sure fire place to find Bobby Pins? I seem to spend a lot of time skulking around trying to find them.. Initially I seemed to have loads, but now I am always looking for them, and no-one seems to sell them... I keep having to sneak into dodgy people's houses and steal them!!

Throughout the day yesterday I went from a little angel to an evil murderer with a bounty on my head! I also seem to have got addicted to all the medications and drugs in the game.. Ah the irony!

[jdcfsu]

Originally Posted by scratt Just one thing.. Anyone know a sure fire place to find Bobby Pins? I seem to spend a lot of time skulking around trying to find them.. Initially I seemed to have loads, but now I am always looking for them, and no-one seems to sell them... I keep having to sneak into dodgy people's houses and steal them!!

I've not had an issue finding them in containers and such. In fact, I can't seem to use them fast enough.

Dogmeat is great, but he died on me the other day and I didn't feel like reloading the autosave mainly because, well...

Charon is freaking monster! Charon is a, well, he might be a slave. At least I think he was before. You can find him in the Underworld and you can buy his contract. When you do, well, it's awesome. After that, he's yours. He complains about the safety of places, sometimes he grumbles, but he kills... everything. I've armed him with some super high-end Power Armor I found on a quest but can't wear and a mini gun. Roaming the wastes has never been as much fun.