Fallout 1 and 2 were the games they were due to a very specific combination of factors. Fallout 3 does not have that combination of factors. I don’t think that makes it a bad game, but I do think it makes it very different and maybe shouldn’t be judged by the same yardstick.
Squee
5122
Since I loved the originals and have been doing a happy dance since I heard there was going to be another game in the series, it kind of is from my perspective.
Not that it’ll really matter since I’m dying to pick it up and play it anyway.
Sarkus
5123
Don’t forget that it’s been 10 years since the RPG’s. The reality is that most of the potential market for this game never played the originals. The reviews have to describe the game on terms non-Fallout players can understand, and that means comparing it to that other Bethesda RPG that sold millions of copies.
Wait and see what the long-time reviewers like Tom, Desslock, and others have to say before adopting the NMA line, which is biased by anger over decisions that were made a long time ago.
Eurogamer gives a 10/10 .
Sarkus
5125
Just spent a few hours with it, now going to bed. My early impressions are a little mixed. I’m not going to go all spoilery, but some things are much different than I was expecting. And VATS has it’s moments, but I don’t need to see a third-person cutscene (though they are very short) when I miss.
And the 10mm pistol: weak, weak, weak. I know part of it is skills, but this is one of the things I was worried about with gunplay and a FPS type RPG. It’s hard to go from shooters where a head shot is pretty deadly to nailing a guy in the head multiple times before he goes down.
Grifman
5126
And it was weak, weak, weak in the original :)
I know part of it is skills, but this is one of the things I was worried about with gunplay and a FPS type RPG. It’s hard to go from shooters where a head shot is pretty deadly to nailing a guy in the head multiple times before he goes down.
Yeah, but that’s an issue with almost many games and just not headshots. One shot kills or incapacitations should be very common but they’re not for gameplay reasons.
Mordrak
5127
Is there a put away your weapon command? I like to walk around in third person without my weapon drawn sometimes, but can’t seem to find anything in the options for that.
One minor quibble, they recycled some music (well at least a significant theme) from Oblivion. I recognize a bunch of sounds, though that was the only one that really bothered me.
Oooooooh, can’t wait to pick this up today. I’ve already called in sick to work, so I should have a good six hours to myself to get lost in Fallout.
Hold down the reload button to holster your weapon. I’m not sure that’s listed anywhere, but it might be in the brief tutorial window.
Also, if you don’t like the 10mm pistol, just be glad you don’t have a .32.
-Tom
McCrank
5130
Hrmm… last line of the review…
Bethesda has once again delivered a game of life-affirming brilliance that will be heralded as a classic, and talked about for years to come.
Obviously this is a Bethesdaboy reviewing this. I need someone who hated Oblivion like I did, to give me their unbiased opinion!
-Chris
Ah, that reminds me of the classic Penny Arcade comic about goofy, unintutive Xbox360 controls on some random demo.
Yeah, the left stick to move and the right to look around? How wildly unintuitive is that?
I was a little confused by IGN. It actually says 8.8 at the bottom of the review and 9.6 to the right. I think that the lower score was the actual review score and the 9.6 was reader reviews. But I could be wrong. As I said - I was confused.
Considering how much time the reviewer spent talking about the shortcomings I really think it’s the lower one.
Cubit
5135
^ 8.8 is the IGN UK rating. IGN did give it a 9.6
p.s. come on steam, you know you want to unlock any time now…
5 more hours according to Steam, the question is, if this game is going to end up being modded down the road, is Steam the place to buy it? I ask because I had heard there were issues, but I genuinely do not know.
You can actively ‘Wait’? Now that’s roleplaying!
David Ellis mentioned on the latest 1upYours that it took him around 5 or so hours to get into it, whereas he was into Oblivion from the get-go. I’ll be interested to hear how it’s growing on you after a few more hours. I myself can’t wait to get home and play it tonight.
Crater
5139
It really does have the Oblivion “feel”, though. And that’s not a bad thing, necessarily. If I tilt my head the right way, it almost feels like an Oblivion expansion pack with swearing and guns.
That being said, it still has a unique feel separate from Oblivion. I think they did a great job with the atmosphere and quests, and the biggest thing to me - is that I’m enjoying a lot so far.
The biggest issue I could see is if there is a tool like Oblivion script extender, which accesses the .exe and does not work with downloaded versions of Oblivion like direct2drive.
