Fallout 3 review from sweden

[PopeDragunov]

Oct 8 so it is old. Spoilers, kinda.

I just got the October issue of swedish PC gamer and they have a review of the PC version of fallout 3.
In short:
score: 81%
Pros:
VATS
SPECIAL
Megaton at night
Cons:
A feeling of lifeless backdrops
Lifeless/stale Characters
To much on a too small area

Its Written by Joakim Bennet, who has proclaimed love for Fallout many times over the years he has been at PC gamer sweden.

Other short stuff(not quotes):
Vats is great, realtime combat isnt. The realtime combat (damage/hits etc) doesnt seem to be in sync with whats happening on the screen.
HtH combat in 3rd person is just as bad as in oblivion
Bennet misses the world map, random encunters, the empty wastes.
AI isn’t great. Enemies running in circles and no reaction from NPC that gets hot from a long distance is quite common.
You can pick up anything that isn’t bolted to the floor.
The SPECIAL system and Perks works great

He also writes about four important points and compare them to the originals:

The Fallout atmosphere
The story
Combat
Perspective(transition to 3d)
Bennet writes that the game delivers on these four points but not all the way.

Heres some short translated segments (English isn´t perfect though :D):

“I`m going to take the edge of this review right away. Fallout 3 IS “Oblivion with guns”, No matter what i said earlier. There, I said it, now theres no return.”

“…And everything would be wonderful but that feeling that the game is missing something. I cant quite define it, Call it a feeling, call it whatever you want, but when the gates of vault 101 lies far behind me, the eyes have adapted to the light and 15 hours have passed i start to think. About hopes that have fallen short.
Because in fallout 3 i get most things served on a silver plate right away. Bethesda has tried to fit as much content as possible on a little area. One second im running into a pack of Radscorpions while 30 meters further ahead theres a little settler town. Around the corner i meet some slavers with their captured slaves and beyond the hill some raiders have set up camp. A few minutes of running brings me to some ruins swarming with lethal deathclaws that wants to eat me. Its compressed, maximized and anonymous all at once. It feels like a huge orgy where no ones want to actually “do it”. A lot of bumping and grinding but no friction and no excitement. Many parts but they don’t paint a whole picture.”

“Fallout 3 is an uneven game if I´ve ever seen one”

“I manage to “aquire” a house that I decoratedin pre-war style, and my very own robot-butler, Wadsworth, that always greets me with a delighted cry and calls me madame. But when i sit down in an old dusty sofa and listen to Maybe by The Inkspots on my Pipboy 3000, i notice how soulless my own character is. Lifeless eyes, skin that looks like plastic. Fake. Phony. Bethesda still haven’t managed to instill life into many if the people that inhabit their universe.”

He doesn’t like the voice actors but the dialog is good:

“the dialogs will piss people off, but mostly because they are recorded with voice actors of extremely varying quality. Had some of the lines been put into the original games or vice versa, no one would have complained.”

“… But first and foremost, the game doesn’t let go of you, despite flaws. the story always makes you want to take a few steps more, and after every disappointment there will be a moment of awe. The details, the at times stunning landscape and the possibility to change the main characters look in all eternity.”

“Its hard to let go of my baggage as an old Fallout player, but when i sit down with the third part of the game i really try to stop comparing the games, and at once it feels much better.”

[Pltcl Sniper]

ehhh Ill wait for IGN or gamespot though gamespot is hit or miss with its reviews, ore metacritc or what ever its called that averages all the major reviews. But I would like oblivion with guns though.

[HodgeMASHEEN MkIII]

“Its hard to let go of my baggage as an old Fallout player, but when i sit down with the third part of the game i really try to stop comparing the games, and at once it feels much better.”

So, I should stop thinking about how great the original games were and placidly accept the heap of commercialized mediocrity being sold to me. :kak:

[Pltcl Sniper]

“Its hard to let go of my baggage as an old Fallout player, but when i sit down with the third part of the game i really try to stop comparing the games, and at once it feels much better.”

So, I should stop thinking about how great the original games were and placidly accept the heap of commercialized mediocrity being sold to me. :kak:

No use your own judgement reivews are just opinions. If need be "try" before you buy. :arr:

[MeanPatrick]

I tried to lay off posting reviews from other countries since I wasn't sure if they had legal copies.

Anyways, the French don't seem to like Fallout 3, though to be honest it sounds like they're looking for problems.

Critical Hit on our hopes...

The more time passes, the more I feel like this dog, barking and foaming at every car that happens to be passing by. I run after them, trying to bite their wheel rims, to crush their tires, their muffler, but I miss.They are going too fast, too far from me. And even if I succeeded ? What would happen anyway ? I bite a moving wheel, it stomps my face, I assault some scrap, it smashes my teeth. Some things are so lifeless, so sluggish that you can't possibly let off steam on them. Fallout 3, anyone ?
[...]
This article is not a test. Just an "introduction for things to come". Why? Because the conditions under which I had to play this "RPG" were not acceptable: sixteen hours in a row in a luxurious hotel on an almost finished build, Bethesda asking to see my screenshots in order to "approve" them...These factors, going from obnoxious to truly scandalous would have made my review biased or even dishonest. Well, I mean a little more dishonest than what I usually do. But have no fear, even though I was deprived of my screenshots, I'm not deprived from my opinion. Condolences: Fallout 3 is a sluggish device, soulless, not exactly terrible, actually almost enjoyable, but totally forgettable because of uncountable dishonest compromises.
[...]
From what I've seen, Fallout 3 does not have any of the qualities of the previous episodes. But that was to be expected. However, it has none of the diffuse magic of the Elder Scrolls series. It feels like Bethesda made a break with this new title, a sad bend towards products multiplying "fan service", the dumb, goofy stuff that will make the client laugh, the "awsum roxxorz" elements and micro-gameplay to the detriment of world coherence and deeper mechanisms. To sum it all up, expect loads of shallow combat spoiled by VATS and slowmotion sequences as gore as pathetic, a terribly short main quest - a Spanish colleague has finished it in less than an afternoon, during his first playthrough - nice secondary quests, but which completely missed the intelligence and density of the series, the whole being flavored with failed occasions.
[...]
With technical means a lot inferior, Fallout 1 and 2 managed to depict this world in all its rococo excess and misery in a formidable manner. But no, despite the dismantled bridges, the huge depth of field, the buildings trying their best not to fall down, it just does not work. By the way, when I came back to CanardPC and people asked me "How is Fallout 3?", honestly, all that I could say at first was "Brown". These ochre shades smash, make the most eccentric idea - let's say, why not, the Washington area transformed into a battlefield scarred by trenches - bland, commonplace, immediately boring. Even worse, where the atmosphere of decay should have been palpable, when you are walking in a city overflowed by skyscrapers ruins, disembowelled roads, peopled by half-savages, one can focus on but one thing: ruins placed strategically to prevent you from crossing the street because designers decided that you shouldn't take THIS path.
[...]
Most locations you can discover are "raider dungeons". City ruins are copy-paste of the same and only model, here and there flavored by the same and only model of tricycle (the very poetic "Red Ryder") and even worse, the main quest will get you through an Hellgate London-ish nightmare in which you had to pass through kilometers of underground for hours and hours.
[...]
How about random encounters ? Well, I have yet to see one. Caravans wander in between cities, you can meet on or two non-aggressive guys in the underground but nothing original at a random road crossing, nothing spectacular at all. Worse than this, Dogmeat is to be found in the exact same spot at the north east of the map while we were originally told that his location is random. However, depending on your karma, you will come across bounty-hunters. I know that this is a cool thing, but remember that you'll never be attacked during fast travels.
[...]
Even when you want to explore things and let alone the main quest for a while, it still tastes weird. Besides the cardboard sets, the feeling of emptiness suddenly goes away. Just like in Oblivion and Gothic 3, adventure awaits at every corner of the street. Literally, unfortunately. A two minute walk and you're there! A design decision which probably has everything to do with the average attention span of the console gamer.
[...]
The Sims 2 : Apocalypse

The second element that makes me think that Fallout 3 is condemned to mediocrity, as a Fallout episode but also as an RPG, is the total lack of coherence between all the elements of gameplay. Just an example. Pretty soon, you'll discover that the game has more to do with a doll's house than with roleplaying: you spend your time picking up clothes or armor parts that, *magic trick*, influence your skills. Pick up a surgeon overall, gain five Medicine points. Wear a camping suit, your agility is increased. All of a sudden, the building of a "role" - a specialized but unique and believable character, exactly what made the core of Black Isle's RPGs - is blown away. You just have to spend your caps on weapons, but even that is not necessary...For the rest, everybody who thinks for at least thirty seconds can make a multivalent character. One just needs the appropriate clothes, drugs to suddenly turn into a pyrotechnician, scientist, or burglar.
[...]
On the other hand, don't expect to be able to convince anybody that originally does not like you. NPC reactions are determined by your Karma and even a professional liar won't be able to convince someone who does not like him to become his partner. But have no fear: you can change your reputation just like you can switch clothes. You're too good to obtain what you wish? Steal, kill generic NPCs (those with no name) and here you are: the incarnation of evil! But don't worry: after three days, people forget about your deeds and you are forgiven.

Your karma is too low for a particular quest? Just kill bad guys and give water to hobos (it comes for free if you have your own house) and there you go: holier than saints. Where the first Fallout episodes where built around balancing your own desires and deciding what sacrifices you were ready to do in order to fulfil them, Bethesda sweeps this and allows you to switch styles at will. Nothing is important any more, everything becomes relative. Everything black. Everything white. No need for grey when redemption and condemnation are made so easy.
[...]
Secondary quests are a bit more original, from the fight between a woman who thinks she is Queen of the Ants and a "graduated robotologist", to a black and white remake of Desperate Housewives flavored with Happy Days. Certain situations could lead to absurd results, like becoming the official crash dummy for a Wasteland Survival Guide. Unfortunately, everything remains nice and unoffensive. It echoes the impossibility of killing children and the completely avoided sex scenes - pay a prostitute and she will go to bed and sleep, not offering any particular dialog choice or text, not even a black screen. Bethesda's hero is apparently no hero in the sack...
[...]
In certain cases, I even feel like the usage of VATS is indispensable. Example: while underground, I come face to face with two gatling turrets and some feral ghouls. I kill the ghouls with the FPS view and then, unable hit the defense system, after several death and increasing frustration, gave up and switched to VATS. With hit chances like 3 to 5%: no way I'm going to succeed. Still, two critical hits. Gatlings destroyed. But only if you aim the sensors: elsewhere it does not work. Honestly it feels as if enemies had weak points and if you shot them where the developer expected you to shoot, then stats suddenly become useless, immediately replaced by critical hits. There we go: Dragon's Lair.
[...]
VATS slow motion may be the worst crime against video gaming since the invention of the auto-aim and checkpoint based save system.
I don't know what the people of Bethesda had in mind... Maybe they feared that the game would be too short and imposed a twenty seconds on us at each targeted shot to extend the gameplay length, maybe they really desire that we notice their face modeling with independent eye globes, maybe they simply suffer from blaring bad taste, from a love for Brotherhood of Steel they want to share at any price?

Either way, this "feature" that retarded teenagers and moronic fans of "self-confident but still crappy" violence will love (and even then, not beyond the 10 first minutes), guarantees that you will avoid using the targeted shot system at any price. It sucks, it's ugly, it's not funny, it's long et absolutely useless.
Worst of all, there's no way to skip it or deactivate it in the options. You will be then forced to endure these scenes not even worthy of Soldier of Fortune 3.
[...]
Lambda players will probably enjoy it. But, us? Well, we still cannot swallow it, this mucky heresy. Sure, I could destroy it, dip it into a vat of hatred just to clean the insult. But it wouldn't make it better. It wouldn't bring Black Isle back. So if you don't mind, I'm going to stop here and have a drink at the café of broken dreams.

[Tuulos]

I've waited long for the situation to use this image.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n191/Tuulos/SwedenSucks.jpg

[PopeDragunov]

Shut up, Tuulos O'Brien

[pk!]

So, Oblivion with guns after all, it seems.

could be worse, and I guess the mod community will be all over it. I enjoyed Oblivion, but I wouldn't bother re-installing it, unlike Morrowind which I've played for years.

[PopeDragunov]

I can handle oblivion with guns.

In fact thats what pissed me off the most about morrowind and oblivion was the fact that after that initial shot with the bow, they were pretty fucking useless, and if you had the right enchants on a really fast dagger you were jesus incarnate.

[MeanPatrick]

So, Oblivion with guns after all, it seems.

could be worse, and I guess the mod community will be all over it. I enjoyed Oblivion, but I wouldn't bother re-installing it, unlike Morrowind which I've played for years.

They've said they aren't really looking to release modding tools.

[pk!]

basdits. Oh well I expect there'll still be a few mods - nobody released the STALKER modding tools either. And maybe the TES tools will do something.

[Moe_Rahn]

They've said they aren't really looking to release modding tools.
source or it didn't happen, since everything I've seen so far has only said that they won't be out with the game itself, since they've been sort of busy working on, you know, the actual game

all I can find is stories from a month ago that really only say that they won't be out at launch, unless you've been reading way more into those than I was

[pk!]

manual here
http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/22300/fallout3_us_pc_manual.pdf?t=1224882949

[MeanPatrick]

I can't remember the actual source, but I should have clarifed that ATM they aren't bothering with it.

-e- http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3170123

[Moe_Rahn]

I can't remember the actual source, but I should have clarifed that ATM they aren't bothering with it.
so pretty much exactly what I was talking about, the statements from Bethesda that say that mod tools won't ship with fallout 3.

direct quote here:

“Folk probably took for granted that every time we make a game, there’s a mod tool. We explained to folk that it takes a lot of time and effort to get that tool ready for release, and it’s not on our schedule right now. We need to get the game done and out. It’s not to say we won’t do it. It’s that right now we have an enormous amount of work to do, for three platforms and all these different languages to get it out around the wall. Right now, we can’t say definitively ‘there will be mod tools, and here is when they’ll be out.’ That work remains to be done.”

“Is that to say it’ll never come out? No, I’ll never say that. If we have the time, we’d absolutely like to put them out. As we’ve seen with Oblivion and Morrowind those things definitely create a sense of community and there’s tons of people out there modding. We have our own little blog we run from Bethesda, and every week we’re out there interviewing people from our mod community – so it’s clearly something we support, something we take interest in and something we place value in and spend a lot of time highlighting good mods. It’s just the tools take time. They don’t magically appear.”


this is from a month ago, so for all any of us know, it could be on their schedule now that the game is gold (although if it actually is, one wonders why they wouldn't announce it just to shut the entire internet up)

[MeanPatrick]

Basicly.

[Splitlip]

I can handle oblivion with guns.

In fact thats what pissed me off the most about morrowind and oblivion was the fact that after that initial shot with the bow, they were pretty fucking useless, and if you had the right enchants on a really fast dagger you were jesus incarnate.

Hi dagger with paralysis! Bye any semblance of combat!

[PopeDragunov]

I like some of those perks in the manual. Im totally gonna be a hannibal lector cannibal that stabs people in their sleep and eats them.

[Matt]

well hello clarisse........

[HodgeMASHEEN MkIII]

"No, you fuck, don't expect everything to just be a graphical upgrade FUCK I HATE YOU CUNTS"

oh lawd I had a hearty lol reading that rep. own up!

[CheeseSteakJim]

sounds like blindsite

[Matt]

10/10 in OXM.