First of all, I’d like to tell you that I’ve been playing Fallout 1, 2, BoS, and a little Fallout Tactics. I love the first and the second Fallout. It’s truly everything RPG needs (I don’t have to review it again here). And since then, I’ve waited with anticipation whether there will be Fallout 3 or not. The waiting is over. That’s great!
Not!
But why not? Isn’t FO3 the game of the year? It received best gaming award everywhere!
Follow up:
Maybe I’m too old, or call me a gay gamer, whatever. I just don’t get it when game developer pushing nice “niche” graphics but forgetting the reason why we want to play the game. Yes, almost all modern games nowadays using that formula. High quality graphic beats gameplay. For FO3, I must admit the graphic is 10 out of 10! Do we really want to see cool raytraced reflection/refraction over a dented metal textures? This is RPG for goodness sake. A reminder, you can even play it using only pen and paper!
Oh come on, first person gameplay?
I always got this dizzy headache when it came to FPS. It’s like the world spinning when all I do is stay sits in front of the screen monitor. I can’t concentrate on examining my surrounding. And I notice the FOV (or focal length, whatever) of the camera isn’t right! It’s like seeing with prescribed cylinder eye glasses. The duration I can endure the pain? No more than 1 hour, then I have to puke!
Beautiful 3D graphic, but my eyes and brain cannot take it.. poor me!
Even if this game is an FPS, you have to admit the engine is sucks. Try comparing FO3 with lets say.. Half life? Also try running, jumping, sneak, block, strafe, fast. Hmm.. no good.
My mistake, the 3rd person view is here!
Yup, I thought that too before. But when I switch to 3rd person view, you gotta be kidding me! Bethesda, 
what were you thinking? Unplayable, un-customize, annoying 3rd person view, that’s what I call it.
If any of you can play with that mode, I’ll worship you! Have you played Tombraider series? That’s one of the best 3rd person view out there. Or more recently, Assassin’s Creed. Comparing FO3’s 3rd person view with Assassin’s Creed is like high school soccer league to world cup championship.
I’m disappointed by “Is it action game or ROLE playing game?” feeling. For what I’ve experienced, RPG isn’t something YOU great at playing it, but YOUR CHARACTER is the one who’s great. That’s why experience point is there in the first place. You have to build-up your character. That’s why you don’t need fast “clicking” trigger happy finger to do a-deadly-back-flip-acrobatic-attack! Sure there’s VATS on FO3 (to mimic FO1 and FO2 turn based), but it’s boringly monotonous waste of time! Not to mention badly done John Woo style slow motion camera.
FYI, I have 7 point Perception, and of course the “real” me is bad at aiming my mouse. So, Perception point is a waste for my character.
The infamous Pip-Boy!
Again, it makes me dizzy and hurting my head. What’s with this drifting pip-boy? It’s like looking WAY too close to my extremely big watch and cannot control of my own hand!
When the first time I played FO1, I remember being overwhelmed by the menu, stats, and user interface. But I didn’t find any difficulties, and always knew what to do because every time I move (or click) the mouse pointer over something, there’s explanations. With FO3? Don’t expect too much. RTFM until you are bleeding. And don’t expect to see detailed real-life handgun image. I feel sorry for my trustee Desert Eagle. Welcome “laughable” BB gun image.
I need to see real detail weapon images, not like this!
Wow, I’ve found som..what? Hey! what are You doing? Why are you shooting at me!
The enemy and everybody else (I call it NPC) is what makes this game is a game. They just running straight at you and attacking you madly. In Fo1 and FO2, when you encountered random battle, you almost felt it’s natural. You can see their expressions, chatter and sometimes the enemies are afraid of you. They’ll undraw their weapons and retreat. That’s good for them.
What’s good about Fallout 3? I don’t know. Perhaps it has Fallout name and everything Fallout ideas in it. But for me, 
I really miss the Black Isle version. Which I can relax and enjoy playing for hours, without getting dizzy and sweating overtired finger. They really know how to make great RPG. The good feeling of playing it still stays over 11 years!
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4 comments
Anybody who admits to playing BoS and then says that that F3 was a disappointment loses all credibility as a review and a gamer.
BoS was a lame attempt by Interplay/Black Isle to get into the console market before the company went belly-up. They made a game that butchered the canon and had NOTHING to do with the Fallout universe. BoS is so bad that NMA (No Mutants Allowed), a site dedicated to Fallout games, does not and will not talk about it.
Fallout 3 may have been a 'disappointment' but at least they're going in the right direction with it, now for your gripes:
Third person: Really? Your going to complain about that? i know of very few people who play in third person when first person is available.
Engine Sucks: LOL looks like somebody doesn't know a good game engine from a bad one.
Taking all FPS into account the Fallout 3 engine is extremely good, you want a bad engine? play Psi Ops or something even older like the over-hyped Daikatana then see how you feel.
Role-playing (or lack of it): On this we agree, Bethesda hasn't nailed down the Role-playing aspect since Morrowind and it's totally lost on F3.
PipBoy: I've heard a lot of complaints on this game but you are the first to bash the PipBoy system.
So...you need to see detailed weapons not Vault Boy holding it, right?.....wow, just wow.
All you need to know is the durability of the weapon and how much ammo is left, the PipBoy does that, if you want to see what it looks like....equip it.
Enemy Dumbassery: We agree on this also, you forgot to mention that in Fallout and F2 the bad guys had a higher chance to pick up fallen weapons and use them against you.
F3 excells at throwing wave of enemies at you with little rhyme or reasoning too it.
What's good about F3: Walking out of the Vault and for the first time seeing an entire city destroyed, drinking in the amosphere of a ruined world struggling to cope.
Going into that first "lost" Vault, hearing the groaning of the Vault door open only to see madness within.
Watching a Super Mutants head explode from 300 yards.
I'll stop here, this post is long enough as it is.
on 08/04/09 at 19:37
I'm not comparing BoS or Tactics to F3. Only Fallout 1 and 2, because those are what make Fallout fans craving for its series in the first place.
The engine. What I meant was that the 1st person FOV is unnatural, narrower and optically distorted. Notice the first screenshot above, some people just can't watch that moving around (let alone examining surrounding for a longer time). That's why I said, poor me (even I do 3D everyday with no problem).
-- there is a solution though, by entering console (~ key) and changing FOV with "fov 90" command. I played with this "cheat".
And changing it to 3rd person view with no luck. Hey, that's not "Thee 3rd person view". More like 1st_person_on_the_3rd_person_eye view. The camera moved a little bit to the right and it feels like my character walking sideways (if not backwards all the time avoiding enemies). Also notice every time there's some object between the character and the camera, it suddenly warps in front of that object. Using the 3rd person view in a small room is only good for "looking on opposite wall".
Never played Psi Ops, and OMG Daikatana!
John Romero tried to prove something back then.The PipBoy. ugh.. maybe you're right. There are no other complaints on that thing. Only me, I always got this nauseous drifted feeling. (and I thought I can tweaked it in .ini file or console command, no dice)
Anyway, I enjoyed playing Fallout 3 despite having "personal" trouble enduring the pain, and it's more Action then RPG. Don't get me wrong, The reason I made this rant is because I really love Fallout universe and I mean it. (still got Fallout 1 poster hanging on my room, and I made a yellow and blue t-shirt with 13 on the back
).On the good side, I agree with you, Fallout 3 (and community made MOD) is a beautiful game (if not wonderful) and it stay true to it's root. If F1 and F2 made me fantasize about post-nuclear war, F3 puts me right into it.
Why not like and thank a game like fallout 3
There is no other game like this
I admit that there are a few things wrong with it but it's an awsome game
If you don't like it then don't play it
Very simple
Step:1
Put the control down
Step:2
Put the game back in it's box
Step:3
Sell it to someone who likes it
Step:4
Don't bitch and moan about why you didn't like the game
Like I said before if you don't like it don't play
Now to point out it's worst rpg shortcomings.
What Fallout 3 lacks in - compared to F1&F2 (games which used to define good rpg) - is the behavior of enemies.
Improvements made in F3 (like graphics mainly) missed out on AI of your enemies. Even a single pitiful F3 raider with a knife and grenade charges much better equipped PC (power armor, minigun etc.). I'd like to see big guns working as a deterrent in addition to making great damage. It's true some enemies like monsters even should behave like that but simply labeling every enemy a monster would be a poor excuse (although in case of F3, sadly a rather necessary one)
Enemies takes every hostile encounter like a death-match from the moment they catch sight of their target. In F1&F2 enemies inferior in numbers and/or equipment had at least enough sense to try an escape (inteligence handicap is no excuse that an enemy does not know when to quit). Havent seen an enemy in F3 start to panic, try to retreat/regroup (not that I can remember seeing enemy regroup in any game - but it's sooooo long since people make video games that someone should at least try
). I would love to see an rpg, where certain enemies would attempt to parley/surrender their position/treasure... (i know, just keepin' dreaming!)F3 improved in portrayal of the inanimate/unliving world like terrain, object interaction in lot of ways - cant see transition to 3D as a bad thing here (item maintenance/deterioration system was rather too excessive, although I m sure some mod already covers that), even turn-based to real time transition solution via VATS turned out quite gracefully (if it's still rather peculiar) - but NPC INTERACTION (dialogues to name one aspect) turned for MUCH WORSE.
(Re)playability in F3 is mainly built around world/object interaction where PC is able to roam freely and explore.
In contrast F1&F2 also ephasized
NPC interaction and replayibility and I greatly miss that aspect in later 'RPGs'
In RPG genre it is (or in any other one in my opinion) the measure/complexicity of the PC-world relations that define the extent in which the game feels 'REAL' (the 'world' aspect here includes 3 main elements: enviroment, objects, npc's). Ambitious RPG's should overly neglect none of aforementioned elements of virtual world. I dare say that in last of them F3 'just' managed...
I can see why dude's disappointed in F3 but personally I still like it.
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