Hooked on FO3

[Ricamundo]

OK,  I have to say im officially hooked on FO3. 8) I haven't even bothered to go back and finish my current playthru of FC2, nor have i touched any of my 3 currently installed racing games in the last week.

Imagine, i actually haven't touched FC2 for a whole week, even tho ive been glued to my PC. :P

PZ, if you're hesitant, like i was, don't be. The open world aspect is enormous, it feels way bigger than FC2. Imagine both maps of FC2 put together, and possibly then some. 8) I know im still in the early stages, but so far it works quite well played as an FPS game, but just by touching the mouse scroll wheel, you can toggle to 3rd person, just to see what you look like wearing some of the clothes you find in abandoned houses, as well as miriad variations of armour, and so on. in one house, i found some silk PJ's just like Hugh Hefner's. ;D

About the scale of the world, it is huge, and so far, i haven't found any vehicles i can drive around in, although there are lots of abandoned motorcycles all over, i cant activate any of them. No dune buggies, or gun trucks either. you have to walk it. There are wrecked cars everywhere, and even old military supply trucks.

Mercifully, there is a quick way of getting from A to B, as long as you have already visited that area. You just click on it in your Pipboy(HUD) and you can zap in a couple of seconds to that location. Too bad they didn't try to cover up quick travel the way they did in FC2 with the busses, to make it more realistic.

The RPG aspect is actually quite cool, in fact, i proposed over @ Ubi forums in anh FC3 wish list thingy, that Ubi should try to add some RPG characteristics to FC3, such as interation with NPC's apart from killing them that is. ;)

Some of the dialogue that you can select when having a chat with an NPC is hilarious. You can even sleep with the town hooker. :o It's the only "sleep" where the game tells you, you are "well rested" ;)

There are no safehouses, but in areas cleared of enemies, you can often find a mattress or bed to sleep in for variing no. of hours. Sleeping in FO3 will cure all health issues, even 1 hour usually does it. Sleeping, like in FC2 allows you to manipulate the time of day, so you can wander around in daylight, which i recommend. Night time in FO3 is darker than FC2, and enemies are even harder to spot.

Speaking of enemies, the compass has a built in radar of some kind that warns you of enemies ahead, if they're close, as well as how many ther are. This is a help, because they blend in so well with the landscape.

You will spend quite a lot of time scrounginmg for bottle caps(currency) to buy repairs to weapons, which degrade faster the more you use them. Ammo is also at a premium for some weapons, except the .32 pistol or .32 hunting rifle, both of which as well as  .32 ammo is plentiful.  My fave wepons so far are the Assault and Chinese Assault rifles, sniper rifle, 10 mm sub machine gun(lots of ammo for that 1) and a scoped .44 magnum. The sheer variety of wepons is impressive. There's all kinds of heavy stuff as well, flamers, miniguns, missile launchers, and PZ there's several different kinds of mines and grenades as well.

You can also repair weapons yourself. All you need to do is find a duplicate gun or 2 lying around and "use " parts fron one to fix the other. The skill points you get after amassing enough experience points(via dicovering new sites and killing enemies) allow you to manipulate your preferred skills. I like lockpicking, and gun repair, although you can acquire computer hacking skills, and many others as well.

I could go on and on, but ill leave it here for now. Long story short, if you want an FC2 substitute to occupy lots of game play hours, until the next FC comes out, get this one. I have founf myself playing for 5 or 6 hour stretches, just like when FC2 was still new to me. 8)

[retiredgord]

Thanks Ricamundo for the good report on FO3. I'm thinking it's gonna go to the top of my wish list for games. It looks and sounds like it's a great immersion game so it should grab the players' attention.

[fragger]

Yes, cheers, Ricamundo :-X Nice rundown, you've piqued my interest... I'm always on the lookout for something new.
If it distracts you from FC2, it must have something going for it!

[Art Blade]

there is a 450 pages strategy guide available... excellent read and loads of info... and kills flies with a single blow  ;D

[Fiach]

Couple of hings, just jotting them down as they occur to me.

Motorbikes, you will find parts near them, maybe brake and tank (been awhile fr me), but when added to a lawnmower rotor blade, you make a flame sword (shishkebab its called I think).

There is DLC called Broken Steel, this raises the level cap, if you have the PC version, there maybe a trainer to do that already.... but may not have the post Lv 20 perks available.

SPOILERS
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You meet a girl in a building and do a quest for her, she will give you a great SMG, you can also glitch a dialogue loop with her, so she keeps giving one to you, it can be repaired with normal smg's.

You will meet some Rangers, if ou rescue them, they will give you a choice between some armour and a big gun (forget the name), they are both good, but the gun is more versatile as there are lots of armours.

Theres a bunch of hippies/druids in the north, if you find them, make sure you get Lindens Armour, I forget the quest requirements, but do a search it should be easily findable.

You will find some vampires, if you agree with their leaders principles, you will get a special skill which is pretty cool..... or you could kill the I guess :)

Theres a chick who is a bit bonkers and collects Nuka Quantums, she starts a pretty cool quest. She has a boyfriend with a realy cool shotgun, see were I'm going with this?

If you play a girl character, you get a perk called Ladykiller, which is very good.

The perk, Mysterious Stranger is very underated, he saved my a$$ lots of times on the Broken Steel section, when my team mate was useless.

Charon is a good team mate to get, he has a cool attitude, if you decide to get him, the chick yu need to kill goes outside for a smoke break between 6 and 9pm.

DONT :
Drink Nuka Quantums, hoard them as you can get a perk later to turn them into grenades, they are 4X better than std grenades.
Also dont drink Nukas if you can help it, hoard them as every ten can be made into a quantum.
Dont buy a Nuka machine in the shop, it makes the nuka cold and you cannot make them into quantums then.

[PZ]

Great informative posts Ricamundo and Fiach - makes me want to stop by the store this afternoon and pick the game up = I think I've seen it in various places.  :-X

PS: lol @ Art's fly swatter

EDIT: just went to the Fallout web site and there is a graphic character reminiscent of Tintin or one of the Wilhelm Busch characters on the front page ;D

[deadman1]

You spend some points on computer hacking. It will some of the later quest a lot easier since you will be able to hack security computers (which is required for one of the quests if I remember correctly) and turn off static defences, unlock doors and such. Also check the FO3 forums hint section for some cheatcodes to enter in the games console.

Spoiler!!!!












There is a place (forgot the name) where if you manage to hack the computers, they will give you clues to where you can find a special chinese assault rifle.

[PZ]

Have been doing a bit of browsing on YouTube and saw a video of the wasteland.  Reminded me a bit of the dilapidated landscape in FC2, which I dearly love.  There also seems to be other areas where the environment is the same.  I'm not too fond of the futuristic regions, but maybe they would grow on me like Wolfenstein did.  :-X

Is Fallout 3 based on issued missions like in FC2 and do you have the option of doing them at your own pace?  I like being able to wander around in the open world exploring and eventually encounter what I need to accomplish.

[Art Blade]

almost total freedom to do what you like. If you don't want to follow the storyline (missions) you have hundreds of side missions going. It is just so simple: Walk around, meet someone, and he might have a mission for you. I spent many hours with that game, it is addictive during the first through, and still attractive afterwards. The only downside for me was the fact that enemies don't respawn. Like that, the wasteland turns into an empty and abandoned map. Good is the EDEN kit, you can create mods (I made super extreme weapon upgrades and armour etc) and there are cheats. Both combined can add a lot of fun :)

[PZ]

Sounding better all the time - thanks for the information everyone.  Although I like everything about FC2, one of the best features is that you can wander through the world doing what you want, and Fallout sounds similar.  The only down side is that you eventually kill everyone without the re-spawn.  (Remember how the trolls used to bitterly whine about FC2 re-spawn rate on the other forums, and here we are lamenting the fact that there is no re-spawn in FO3!)  ;D

[Art Blade]

hehe :) Although I have to admit, when I first got the game, those respawning mercs got on my nerves. But I coped with them, later got used to them, then I started to like them... and now it's the engine of the game ;D

[Ricamundo]

Ok, i just finished another lengthy session. Gawd my rear end is getting numb from sitting here. ;D

About the respawn, the baddies will re spawn outside, but not inside, at least thats what ive noticed, so PZ you can wander to your haart's content, shooting every enemy you want, and if you wait a bit(not sure how long) and return, somebody, or something will be there to "greet" you. ;)

Another thing that ive found is that on my travels, ive come across quite a few travelling scavengers, who will sell you ammo, and weapons as well as repair your guns. Although it's kind of hit or miss as to what they can repair and what ammo they have in stock. You can also buy stimkits from them, which are very much like serettes, and a must to have, on the road.

One other thing i didn't talk much about was not only is there this massive world to explore, which you can wander about with NO level changes, but there are also tons of buildings/bases/subway stations/sewers/houses, etc to check out. That's where you see level changes, when you open a door to go inside something.

if any of you are familiar with the Washington DC area, theres lots of familiar landmarks to check out. I just visited something called the Rotunda, and i think i saw the Capitol waay off in the distance.

One thing i should warn anyone not familiar with the game, is that if you enter many of the indoor areas, like subway stations, or large multi story buildings, you will end up feeling a bit like a rat in a maze. At least that's the way i felt, trying to negotiate my way around these places. ???

About the quests, i have found you can have several ( no idea if there's a limit or not) quests ongoing at the same time, and keep track of them all with the HUD, which ive found to be a wonderfully easy gadget to use.

[Art Blade]

I am not so sure about inside and outside respawns. Well, if you are new in the game, there are LOADS of creatures and people. After a while, though... most of the missions involve killing something, one way or another, which thins out the world population. In the end it means, a place once visited and "cleaned" will remain that way.

So, if you have favourite tracks to walk back and forth on, which you will have once you start dumping the trash you keep collecting, you will walk in an abandoned world. Best place to dump it is your own home, and there is only one (out of two) to stick to, all game long. At least I tried to have all my collected stuff organised in lockers, desks, even the fridge, so I could get it if needed. If you carry too much around with you, you will have a hard time to find what you need :) Oh, and you can overload yourself with stuff, rendering you immoveable until you drop enough weight on the floor  ;D

[PZ]

OK, I can't stand it - am going to take a break and see if I can find it in one of my local stores (not well-stocked, they are)

[Art Blade]

OK, I can't stand it

HAHAhaha  ;D ;D ;D :-X

[deadman1]

Have fun PZ  :-X

[PZ]

Well, I'm now the proud ownner of the Game of the Year Edition - will go home and install it to see how it goes.  I'm in the mood for a bit of wasteland-style devastation  :-X

[Art Blade]

have fun, mate :) :-X

oh, a funny tip: try to slip a live handgrenade into the pocket of an unsuspecting victim...  ;D

[PZ]

haha, that sounds like fun - installing now...

[Fiach]

Gratz PZ! Go get 'em tiger! RAWR!!!!  :P

I think the outside respawns have a time factor, maybe 3 days or someting.

There was one house Dun-something or other (Dunwich?), man it scared the crap out of me going through there, if you do find a big tower with a similar name and stuff starts moving on its own, get out of it unless you are 20+, there are critters in there that are vicious, its a great quest btw, but scariest place I have seen in a game yet.

[PZ]

Sounds great, thanks Fiach for the tip!  Funny but BestBuy wanted to cheat me on the price - they wanted $49 when on their own web site it is listed for $26.  I got them to fix that one (lucky that I asked for a price check first) but to compound the problem, I had also wanted a movie DVD that was listed for $29 on sale for $19.  Guess what they wanted to charge me!  :D

[Art Blade]

good you noticed :-X

[Ricamundo]

Cool PZ, im waiting for your first impressions. :-X You will notice that it takes a while to get going, as you have to go thru birth, and growing up, along with that rather tedious 10th birthday party. but that's when you get your Pipboy.

Im still not sure about the respawns. i know that there's a trailer near Big Town that repawns a Mutant brute or 2 every time i happen by, which is every few game days.

Speaking of game days, ive noticed that the days go by alarmingly fast, like a whole day in a couple of hours RT. >:( Kind of annoying when i have to find a bed to sleep until dawn again and again.

Can anyone explain to me the deal with the Citadel? I found it yesterday, and tried talking with the rather arrogant Brotherhood of Steel, or whatever they call themselves. They wouldn't let me in and i couldnt find a way in, anywhere. >:(

[Fiach]

You may need to go there as part of the storyline first.

BTW, there is a guy there that will train you so you can wear Power Armour.

[PZ]

I love the post-apocalyptic theme in which you see artifacts from the past such as old cars, planes, tricycles, vending machines, etc.  Kind of reminds me of a Twilight Zone experience.  This is the first game that I've played that is RPG (role playing)?  You talk with different individuals and the outcome of the conversation changes the destiny of the game.  Great fun so far interacting with the residents of Megaton, and have killed a slick operator named Buddy because he killed Sheriff Simms.  I can see where you could spend countless hours interacting with the characters in the game.  So far, so good!  :-X