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I play a lot of different RPG's and was not a fan of Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I will list the pros and cons as impartially as possible so you can be the judge on what matters to you.
PROS:
You are left to explore and find things to do and quests on your own. This game is a true RPG. You have one main quest. Everything else are side quests.
Over 100+ hours of places to explore. and more than 100+ unique map locations.
Tons of perks and ways to develop your character. Become a science genius or concentrate on stealth and your lockpicking ability. Invest in large guns and go into places with guns ablaze. Play the game how you want. Be good and people will love you, be bad and people will fear you.
Replay value. This is rare in RPGs but Because of the many different ways you can play the game I see myself playing this game again to play a different type of character.
Some people complain about the targeting system known as VATS. This game is not an FPS. VATS gives you a wonderful 1st person shooter feel with an RPG style or turned based combat. Score a critical by shooting your enemies head and it might explode. Shoot the enemy on his weapon hand and he will not be able to attack you very quickly.
The graphics are amazing. Its a beautiful post apocalyptic mess. The detail from the stains on a found mattress or a found comic called "Grognak the Barbarian and the Lair of the Virgin Killer" are all amazing. You can tell a lot of thought went into detail.
The voice work is nice. Almost every character talks out loud. This allows you to listen and respond instead of just watching a mouth move and reading dialog all the time.
Enemies do not automatically level with your character. This was my biggest problem with Oblivion. Some people liked the fact that enemies would always be your level. I found it totally unrealistic. Go ahead, run your level 1 character through the Wastelands. You might come across an easy roach or a mutant with a minigun. In my book this makes the game more fun and much more realistic.
I have read on the forums and some bad reviews here that they can not find tons of ammo. This is not Halo, Call of Duty or any other FPS. People need to take the right mindset. This is a world 200 years after major Nuclear war. Things will break, ammo is sometimes scarce, radiation is a fact of life, bottle caps are money, people trade everything and you live in a harsh world. I think some people need to watch the Madmax series just as a primer to understand the world created here.
Instant travel. Once you have visited an area you no longer need to walk to the location. You can locate the area on your map (through the PIPBoy 3000) and select it to instantly travel.
The PipBoy 3000 Interface works great. This allows you to keep track of stats, items, equipment, quests, notes, maps, and karma very easily. The UI is easy and it keeps all the data you need at your finger tips.
CONS:
AI is nothing special. It's not bad, just nothing special. When I am shooting a shotgun at you, running at me with a pool cue might not be the smartest thing to do. They will sometimes run away if severely over matched (which is the smart thing to do). The AI is no worse then any other games, just no big improvements here.
Lack of good music. You can find radio stations on your PIPBoy but I was not a fan of the music. The background can be ok but not great. Sometimes when alone in the Wasteland you want some good background music.
I had the game crash once but not a lot of times like some people are reporting. Still unacceptable but manageable. Loading and saving times can take anywhere between 10-30 seconds which is kind of slow.
No item descriptions. The important data like weight, condition value, and perks of the item are still displayed but full description of the items are no longer available. This is different then Fallout 1 and 2 where each item had a paragraph describing it.
Additional thoughts:
This game is rated "M". This means you shouldn't play this game with kids in the room. This isn't a Con for me but this might be a problem for all you gamer mom and dads out there. Seriously, no kids allowed. Women offer there "Services", cussing, blood splatter on the screen when you get injured, mutants hanging people on meat hooks, tons of drug use, and of course blowing peoples limbs off. Good times but not for the kiddies.
No, its not perfect but it is a lot of fun and the best RPG currently on the market. My 5 star review was based on that fact. This is the best RPG I have played since FFX (Final Fantasy X). I hope you enjoy it.
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I have been enjoying Fallout 3 for about 70 hours now and I am having as much fun now as I was 50 hours ago, which is to say A LOT.
I cannot speak to the bugs that others seem to be experiencing. In my 70 hours I have had my game freeze only a handful of times, and none of them were anything that was game breaking. I have several friends who are also playing and none of them have expressed any serious glitches either.
I have played both the previous Fallout games and vastly enjoyed them both, so to make a blanket statement that "anyone who was a fan of the first 2 Fallouts will hate this game" is just erroneous. I would agree with someone who said this game is more of a Next Gen title in the Fallout Universe rather than a true sequel to the Interplay games.
However, that does not in any way detract from the epic amount of fun to be found in Fallout 3.
The adventuring around the Wastes is the highlight of the game to be sure. The amazing amount of freedom to roam the Wastes is just phenomenal, so much so that once you do decide to progress the Main Story it can seem very limiting and cramped at times, especially when crawling around through the DC Ruins and all the subway tunnels required to get to the Main Mall.
However, compared to the vast scope and size of the experience, this is a minor complaint and really a very short and small portion of the game. It should only take maybe 5 hours to explore it all and finish up some questing, then you can Fast Travel back whenever you want and get back to tearing it up in the Wastes.
Combat is quality, but it is NOT a Shooter. People expecting Shooter mechanics will be disappointed, as even point blank shooting still utilizes an in game Dice Roll to determine whether you hit and how much damage you do etc.
It is likely that people complaining about Ammo or clunky targeting are unaware of this game mechanic, but it is what makes the game an RPG, not a Shooter. There is ample amounts of Ammo (I have never run out in 70 hours of gameplay and I have killed over 1000 living -isms according to my in game stat sheet), but it is not unlimited like a Shooter.
The VATS mode is a good way to illustrate the difference. You queue up VATS and it will give you a stop-time targeting system. Within this system, you will be given percentages to hit on various Body parts: 87% to hit the head, 95% to hit the Body etc. However, these percentages are also indicative of how much of a chance you would have to hit those body parts OUT of VATS as well. So if you have a 50% chance to hit a leg in VATS, you have that SAME chance to hit in real-time it just does not illustrate it anywhere. SO even if your targeting arrow is Red, you still only have the same percentage to hit as you would in VATS. Which is to say you will miss and waste a ton of ammo if you just think "my target is red I can unload a clip".
Dice Rolls are a staple of RPGS, Oblivion had them, it was just not as noticeable because you were using Melee weapons, but every time your guy reared back to swing it rolled the dice to see if you would hit, how much of a damaging blow it would be etc.
The game has a wide array of voice acting, some is great, some not so much. The story has its ups and downs, but is good enough to not take away from the overall (it certainly helps that the great Liam Neeson is the Vault Dweller's Father, he is an example of the Great voice acting). Various mini-quests are actually more entertaining and interesting than the main story, so there is definitely enough Good story in the game to keep it interesting.
However, the game's strength is in solo-adventuring IMO. While you can get sidekicks and helpers, the real fun is being a Hero of the Wastes and taking down Super-Mutants, Raiders, Slavers and Death Claws all by your lonesome as you scour the Wastes in search of unique weapons, caps, ammo and mini-quests littered throughout.
Overall, I would rate the game a 9/10 and consider it the only game on Xbox 360 that gives Mass Effect a challenge for best title.
Best Deals for Fallout 3 - Xbox 360
Update 4 in 2013: I recently downloaded the Fallout 2 from gog. Well, I got to say that, Fallout 2 is still infinitely times better than Fallout 3, regardless the upgrade in graphics.
Maybe you would argue that this is just "Oblivion with guns", but this "Oblivion with guns" has more to offer than just "Oblivion with guns", it has a massive story (according the guide I received today, after you completed the game you got tons to do), also the SPECIAL is back! Pipboy is back, I cant help crying after I created my character and saw a whole new wasteland, which was far more detailed than the game I played 10 years ago. Maybe you would argue again, Bethesda is incapable of doing top-notch black humor like Black Isle, but the feels of exploring the wasteland is back. Here I listed a few pros and cons
Pros
+ build of the whole wasteland
+ mission design
+ user interface
+ storytelling
+ Pipboy
+ tons of things to explore
Cons
cant skip the VATS slow motion
making choices wont affect the whole game too much, unlike Fallout1 &2, you have to pay for what you ve chosen
no item description........(huge disappointment for some old fans maybe)
In general, I would recommend this game to those who love Oblivion.
Update: the system is much more similar to Fallout 2 than to Oblivion, you have skills and perks, and at each leveling up you have 10-20 skill points(depends how much Intelligence you have) to distribute into a variety of skills, then you have perks like Lady Killer or Animal Friend. The system is deep and fun since you could be an agile and slick thief or a strong and stubborn warrior based on how you distribute your points and the initial attributes(S.P.E.C.I.A.L.).
Update 2: for those of you concerning CE, I got my CE from amazon on the releasing date, and this is the nicest CE I bought this year comparing to the Fable 2 CE and GTA 4 CE. The CE package has a neat looking lunch box, you could either put it somewhere as a decoration or use it as the storage for small stuff. That Pipboy figure is a fine-maded bubblehead. There is also an artbook of 100 pages featuring the concept art in Fallout3, and a DVD of making of the fallout 3. I think the CE is totally worth the price especially now amazon is offering the $10 giftcard.
Update 3: this game is not for you if you are looking for a first-person shooter like Far Cry 2 or Call of Duty! This is a role playing game.
Honest reviews on Fallout 3 - Xbox 360
I bought this game a few days ago, hoping that I made the right choice by picking this game over Tom Clancy's End War. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice now. Not since Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 have I ever found a game this addicting.
The world map is beautiful and extremely detailed. From radioactive rivers, to piles of rubble and smashed up concrete, the detail in these objects is amazing.
Im the type of gamer that HAS to explore every room, and check every nook and cranny to ensure that I have every thing that the building/zone has to offer. It takes me anywhere from 1-2 hours to completely clear most buildings and kill all the enemies inside. With the hundreds of buildings in the game, you can easily spend 100+ hours playing this game on a single character. I have read the complaints about running out of ammo, its complete crap. I havent run out of ammo yet, and I have a little over 40 hours completed so far. You may run out of "condition" on your weapons, but if you have your repair skill up, that shouldnt be an issue. If you play the game smart, and pick up the most valuable items you see and dont weigh yourself down with a lot of junk, you should have plenty of "caps" to buy ammo and repairs for your weapons.
In all, I can see myself making 2 more characters easily, just to experience the game differently. The current character I have is a good guy, but I will have to make an evil guy soon just so I can see how it affects the storyline. This game is definately a good buy!
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I didn't write a review for Oblivion because there were hundreds of decent enough reviews that encapsulated my experience. I saw no need to add to the "ALSO, I LIKED IT, TOO, AS WELL" crowd without any negative comments worth mentioning.
The same dealy applies to Fallout 3, yet because of the sheer size and scope of it compared to Oblivion, I can be bothered to put both positives and negatives together into a decent enough review.
For note, I have never played any of the previous Fallout games, and showed no interest in them prior to this.
Also, I'll be dropping the name "Yahtzee" a bit, referring to video game reviewer Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw and his video reviews for The Escapist magazine.
Positive:
-The world is indeed tremendous, and compared to Oblivion, which to Yahtzee was merely a square mile of English countryside multiplied again and again with wolves and bandits added, this world is simply a gaping epic story in itself to look at. Ten hours into the game, I still can't get over stopping and staring at the horizon, and knowing that This is the way Washington D.C., has looked for two hundred years! Being a historian, this trapped me in a quantam vortex of awesome and pee-pants.
-The V.A.T.S. targeting system, which has slow-motion angle shots for combat scenes. While Yahtzee mentioned that it looked "groovy pants", he also pointed out that because it's basically the same thing every time you use it, it would gradually just become "pants". For me at least, it hasn't yet become pants, after ten hours of play.
-Realistic gore! The M rating is put to use here, in the form of excessive violence. While nowhere near the sort of explicit body explosions of something like "Rambo", I never get tired of seeing a point-blank gunshot to someone's head have a chance of blowing their head up in a mess of blood, bone, and mushy meat fragments. Nor do I tire of crippling someone's arm and seeing their gun fly out of their hand, or firing at someone's limb enough times to dismember them, or to sever their head from their body by utterly destroying their neck with bullets.
-Insanely top-notch graphics for a game of this sheer size.
-Play as male or female, with dialogue options altering to fit your gender (ie, you'll get compliments as to how much you look like your mother if you're female, or how beautiful you are, or how much of a bitch you are for trying to steal from them).
-Genuinely interesting story that pans itself out gradually.
-Interactive people all around, including Ghouls who are nice to you (there's even an implied lesbian Ghoul couple who run a hotel in the Underworld)
I'm sure there's plenty more great things to be said, but I can't think of any major ones to speak of and so I'll have to move on to the bad.
Negatives:
-I can't vouch for male characters just yet, but the customizable options for females is an utter mess. Faces are disgusting lumps of blotchy, rugged, seemingly acne-scarred messes (which considering that the character isn't raised in the Wasteland, but rather in the highly clean and stable environment of Vault 101, is a curiosity), and for some odd reason, every pre-set and color option always ends up with the same result---the women have 5 o'clock shadow on their upper lip, and around their chins.
None of the other in-game women suffer from these sort of options, managing to look like actual women, whereas your character is forced to look like a pre-op transsexual without a long, long time spent into wrestling with dials and sliders which, like Oblivion, are connected to one another, making it hell to mold the flesh with one slider without every other slider moving on its own to screw up your changes.
-The game is an action/adventure RPG, but it's still an RPG, so damage both taken and delivered tends to border on the ridiculous, as in one scene I had a pistol and used the V.A.T.S. system to put three bullets into a human opponent's head, and not only did they not die, but they were still standing, and continued to beat me half to death with a baseball bat until I had to punch them to kill them dead.
-Occasional game freezes.
-The instant-transport system from Oblivion is back, which has both good and bad implications in that you can easily move back and forth from places without spending hours wandering around the ruins, but it's done without any consequence to time or health or fatigue anything in between, so you can just teleport from place to place as much as you want as quickly as your game will load.
-As Yahtzee mentioned as the biggest problem with Oblivion's immersion failure, there is a limited number of voice actors for the Ghouls. I can thankfully say that unlike Oblivion, not everyone has the same two voice actors, but with the Ghouls in particular, there are quite literally only two voice actors, one male and one female, and they don't even bother changing up their voices when playing the Ghouls. As such, every Ghoul you speak to of a certain gender will sound exactly like one another.
-There are some audio tapes/files in the "Notes" section of your Pip-Boy (such as your father's personal diary entries and such) which are almost completely inaudible due to the low sound mixed with the poor recording quality. It's only by sheer luck, determination, strain, and high volume, that I've managed to understand half of what is said in these diary entries.
