Fallout 3: What it could be, not what it is

[Lonewulf]

First of all, I have yet to play Fallout 3 myself, but I predict that I will enjoy what is in it currently. I don't pretend to call it a "real" Fallout, but I don't harbor much hate for it in general. Instead, I try to look at it not how it is, but how it could be. I don't even really try to focus on the main quest -- to me, Bethesda's "main quests" are always optional, and always "on the side".

Oblivion was okay for me, not a great game, but I liked it nonetheless. Still, replay value was incredibly limited, until I downloaded tons of mods to make the game a wonderful game that nearly changed everything that it was, outside of the quests.

When the Construction Set gets published, I'll be pushing it to the max, and I hope others will too. I want to see this game be made the pinnacle of fallout gaming thanks to powerful fans that push it as much as they can.

Of course, this is under the presumption that it's not so bad to go from isometric to first person perspective; personally, I don't mind that transition. To me, plotline, dialogue, and interesting characters are far more important than the perspective. Further, I'd rather Bethesda stick with first person perspective, since that's what they've done and that's what they know (the game may have been utterly worse if they went with isometric view...)

Either way, I for one want to see this game made into what it could be, so I will stick around to wait for the construction set, and then I will attempt to make my own alterations where I can. Although I admit, I'm at best an amateur with mods (in fact, I haven't modded anything at all), and I'm just a beginning storyteller to begin with.

Still, I hear of many fans selling their Fallout 3 CDs and in one or two cases, actually destroying them. So I'm wondering how many other people view Fallout 3 as I do -- not as what it is, but as what it could be?

(I hope I don't offend anyone with this post; to be honest, I haven't really poked around this site as much as I could have, I just haven't really seen a post in the Fallout 3 section that seems to be on similar material)

 

[Misanthropicus Grandiosus]

My viewpoint was similar. I knew Bethesda wouldn't pull off perfect sequel no matter how hard they tried. My way of looking at it was 'it will probably suck'. And with such low expectations it was a very pleasant surprise, and as I said in my main post 'Fallout 3 reviews, hype, thoughts?' I do enjoy playing it.

I'm sure the fanbase will make it a lot better when and if the modding tools arrive, but for something to constitute a great game wouldn't it be the job of the developer to make it one in the first place? If this is the way we're heading soon gaming will consist of the scriptable engines for sale with a title and you'll ahve to make your own game out of it...

As for the perspective, I wouldn't, and don't really mind the change, but I'dve expected more on the dialogue/RPG front... much more... not to mention from the main story...

[spoiler:ba8f7fb0c8]When you find your father in Vault 112, that is the turning point... until then the story is rather strong and well done bar the simplistic dialogue. From then on heading to the purifier, your father gets killed when the Enclave tries to take the purifier over. You can't really do anything about it, but shoot a few enclave goons...Then you go to the BOS Citadel, do some simple tasks and this is where it really starts to go downhill... you -MUST- go thorugh Little Lamplight with kids that make you want to shoot them into a bloody pulp just because of how they act even if you help them. Of course you can't hurt them...The fighting into the Vault there is okay, and the Vault itself is pretty good actually, but it's just a momentary flash before the Enclave nabs you. And it goes to hell... Throughout the Enclave you barely have to do any fighting, even though supposedly the entire base is on alert by that time. And that's the way it goes... Talking with the president, the twist that it's a computer isn't really surprising and much less the entire conversation is just lazily done and shabby. From then on you go back to the BOS, which again is nothign but a few lines of dialogue. Heading on from there, the robot was a nice addition. I actually liked that idea a lot! "Red is Bad!" But it just makes the entire game too easy. I at least expected a heavy firefight to get into the Purifier, but the robot and the troop of BOS soldiers do it for you. And what do you get at the end? Instead of some hard bossfight that tops off the game, you get to kill the bastard colonel and two enclave soldiers before having to choose if you die or the girl from the BOS. And that's it... the end...[/spoiler:ba8f7fb0c8]

Talk about a crappy ending...

It's a decent game, enjoyable, but nothing spectacular and certainly not something I see myself playing over and over again. And I'm quite sure that modding it to be good should not be somethign the fans have to do themselves...

That's my opinion.

 

[Lonewulf]

I'm sure the fanbase will make it a lot better when and if the modding tools arrive, but for something to constitute a great game wouldn't it be the job of the developer to make it one in the first place?

Well, true.

If this is the way we're heading soon gaming will consist of the scriptable engines for sale with a title and you'll ahve to make your own game out of it...

Personally, I don't mind so much. It gets a lot of people to demonstrate their skill and talent with telling stories, without them having to be "trusted" by a company beforehand. Getting good modders out into the open and in the public view seems to be a good thing, in my PoV.

There's still plenty of games being made that you cannot mod at all (well, not officially), and I don't think that those kinds of games will ever really disappear.

I do think that roleplaying games should allow more abilities for players to make their own stories, personally. I think that goes further with the roleplaying concept than most videogames do. (In fact, I'd say that a game with a construction set like Oblivion is more roleplaying than any Final Fantasy game, which were nearly 100% linear).

As for the perspective, I wouldn't, and don't really mind the change, but I'dve expected more on the dialogue/RPG front... much more... not to mention from the main story...

Yeah, from what I've been seeing, I'll probably end up agreeing with you on that one.

Talk about a crappy ending...

It's a decent game, enjoyable, but nothing spectacular and certainly not something I see myself playing over and over again. And I'm quite sure that modding it to be good should not be somethign the fans have to do themselves...

That's my opinion.

I agree that the game could have, and should have, been better as a base game. I do agree that Bethesda Softworks could have done a lot more with Fallout 3, and given it a better base story. And I consider this sort of criticism to be very valid, and I wouldn't even think of suggesting that people shouldn't give this kind of criticism.

But I also think that there is some real potential here, and let's face it; there's a lot of real dedicated fans on this site that are willing to go a long ways towards modifying a game. People that are highly motivated by their love of the older games.

I want to see this potential tapped. And from what I've seen of the Fallout 3 Modding forum, I can see that it will be.

That's pretty much the one thing that keeps me optimistic about the whole thing, and less hateful at Bethesda; although I do want to know why they're taking so long in publishing the CS...

 

[popej]

The perspective doesn't bother me at all. I'm damn sure that a classic Fallout game worthy of its predecessors could be designed in the 1st person. Bethesda just didn't do it right.

I've said it since day one, the modders will make or break Fallout 3, just like they did with Oblivion. Sadly I'm no modder myself, I don't have the time or know-how to do it but I have faith in the fans that do.

I honestly think, with the sort of passion Fallout fans show that a modding community even larger and better than the TES community could easily come about.

I'm sure the fanbase will make it a lot better when and if the modding tools arrive, but for something to constitute a great game wouldn't it be the job of the developer to make it one in the first place?

Don't worry about that dude, Oblivion was a 6/10 game on release, imo the modders turned it into a 10/10. Vanilla Fallout 3 is much better than vanilla Oblivion.

 

[zioburosky13]

The perspective...

I try to like Oblivion. But when I think of playing the game without the need of installing mod to fix level scaling, telepathic AI and waypoint, I won't install it.
Mod is suppose to add more fun factor, not fixing bugs that developer doesn't bother to fix.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

Don't worry about that dude, Oblivion was a 6/10 game on release, imo the modders turned it into a 10/10. Vanilla Fallout 3 is much better than vanilla Oblivion.

Wait, do you mean... FOO will turn into a 14/10 game?? AARGH, my brain is fried now!