View Full Version : My review of Fallout 3.


Caelas
12-09-2008, 10:43 PM
Fallout 3 was perhaps one of the most anticipated games this year, and it delivered for the most part. The gameplay is very solid, shooting can be done traditionally, or in the VATS system. I prefer to use a mixture, and I think that was the way Bethesda intended the game to be played. My major beef with th gameplay is the real time shooting. It seems that the accuracy for weapons such as the sniper rifle are WAY off. For example, I have a small guns skill of 83, I have the Reservist's Rifle, the uber sniper rifle. I see a band of raiders and take aim, the bead right under the raider's head, he is standing perfectly still when I fire. The bullet misses, I cannot see where it went due to the recoil, and I just gave myself away. Although there are several mods on the PC version that fix this issue, this is a major gameplay flaw that prevents players from truly roleplaying (Playing as a sniper/hitman character). My other beef was the way your guns skill levels up, I now find myself shooting 5 feet to the left of an enemy, but my bullets seem to home in, this isn't really a problem, but it takes away from the immersion. Overall the gameplay is fun, the bloody dismemberment never gets old!

The story, much like oblivion gets off to a great start, but seems to falter after the first major twist in the story father's death. The final stages of the story passed far too quickly, and left much to be desired. Nevertheless, the side missions are FANTASIC. Each tells a miniature story and has fantastic characters. My personal favorite was the Tenpenny Towers mission, each mission has several choices, which is fantastic for roleplayers. Each mission serves players of any level of karma, with good and evil choices, and rarely a neutral choice (Earns you both good and bad karma.) There are also a massive amount of freeform quests that I won't spoil, along with random encounters, and many other set encounters. (If you blow up megaton, a band of wastelanders will track you down and try to kill you.) If you really make the effort to immerse yourself in the game you will have one of the best gaming experiences of your life.

The graphics in Fallout 3 are stellar, and the seemingly dry and drab pallete is actually quite varied. In fact, the dark and moody enviroment allows some creatures to stand out, other to blend in, and also makes items such as nuka cola easy to distinguish. Although I have come across some big graphical glitches, some freezing (damn you microsoft!), and some texture dropout. These are pretty minor though and don't happen too frequently. (I've had 3 freezes in about 57 hours of gameplay.) The main graphical problem is the animation, the quality is pretty shoddy, but you get used to it after a while. Hopefully some mods will improve the animations, but we shall see.

I give fallout 3 a 9/10 for some graphical problems, minor gameplay issues, and a dissapointing main story. The Pros far outweigh the cons, and you can be sure I'll be playing this well into 2009.

Please leave comments this is my first review of a game, and I did it in around 20 minutes. Be harsh if you need to be, I like an argument.

Tobitron
12-09-2008, 11:54 PM
I like it, not so much detail, but I like it.

And damn you for having so few freezes and glitches, I had a period of 3 weeks when I couldn't play for more than five minutes :lol:

Caelas
12-10-2008, 12:05 AM
yeah, going into detail in some areas can ruin the game for people, and I think most people know about the VATS system anyways.

That's crazy, I think the patch must have helped though, mine has been reasonably stable, but I think my 360 is dying, it gets louder every day. Good thing my new PC is coming soon! Fallout 3 at a stable 115 fps, now I like the sound of that.

Tobitron
12-10-2008, 03:07 PM
yeah, going into detail in some areas can ruin the game for people, and I think most people know about the VATS system anyways.

That's crazy, I think the patch must have helped though, mine has been reasonably stable, but I think my 360 is dying, it gets louder every day. Good thing my new PC is coming soon! Fallout 3 at a stable 115 fps, now I like the sound of that.

The problem is that 7/10 times it the Games For Windows Live, so that might be something you might want to include for an 'update' if you want. And I would give plus points for almost little DRM.

Caelas
12-10-2008, 05:12 PM
Fudge windows live, but I know how to fix it, you need to remove it, then re-install, it should fix any problems you are having at the moment.

DeathByWaffle
12-10-2008, 09:42 PM
Fallout 3 is probably my favorite game that came out this holiday season, though there are some slight problems. I also had problems with sniping. I use the Victory Rifle (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Victory_Rifle), another version sniper rifle and I had the same issues you had. It gets pretty annoying, but luckily it doesn't happen too much.

AssassinsClaw
12-11-2008, 02:56 PM
cool, nice review!

Caelas
12-11-2008, 06:20 PM
Thanks AssassinsClaw, and yeah, I need to get that victory rifle tomorrow, thanks for the link! (I found a massive stash of 0.358 rounds, so now I can waste 'em!) Also, as an update, I was speaking to someone with relations to Bethesda, and he said that they were aware of some of the graphical and gameplay glitches/problems and are currently working on a patch to fix this. Expect it anywhere between late January and early March, bets are that they are woking on a new Elder Scrolls title, however, nothing has been confirmed.