Of Deathclaws & Radscorpions: A Fallout Thread

F'rinstance, that's how I found out about the books Earth Abides(1948 book about a return to tribalism after a virus wipes out the planet) and A Canticle for Leibowitz(where the idea for the Cathedral in FO1 came from). Note that both books take place in the Western part of the U.S., same as with the first two Fallout games.

the "see you at vault 69" cheesecake one was for a while, too.

plus, it's cool to see the design notes for Fallout 3. Like using screengrabs from the Road Warrior to instruct the production artists...

the fact that it was farmed out to a different gamedev probably didn't help, among other things.

but you can get both games from p2p, and thru ebay/amazon/macplay, etc

the game engine needed more work, too

I was very disappointed in Arcanum. It was a good idea and had good story bits in it, but the actual gameplay was executed so poorly that it was hardly worth playing. I was expecting another Fallout, but it didn't happen.

other fun: in FO2, when you're in the Bucanneer's Den town, you know how the kids pick your pocket? Just remove everything from your inventory except for a think of plastique or dynamite with the timer set. The little scamps pick your stash, then get a nasty shock 30-60 seconds later, and you don't even get in trouble! So handy.

WHAT

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HURRY UP AND RELEASE IT BETHESDA

(Fallout 3: YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY)

http://www.fallout3.phx.pl/ie_twojbohater_karma.htm

http://www.fallout3.phx.pl/obrazki/perki/pornstar.jpg

http://www.fallout3.phx.pl/obrazki/perki/jetadict.jpg

http://www.fallout3.phx.pl/obrazki/perki/psycho.jpg
You have a chem addition. If you do not take Psycho on a regular schedule, you will suffer. If you do, others will suffer.

http://www.fallout3.phx.pl/obrazki/perki/tragic.jpg
You feel a burning desire to open another box of tragic cards.

http://www.fallout3.phx.pl/obrazki/perki/sexpert.jpg

Also, does anybody know why this game is apparently such a cult hit in Poland?
http://www.fallout3.phx.pl/obrazki/perki/virgin.jpg
Virgin of the Wastes

Alternatively, it may be the gigolo picture, which my 14-year-old ass ALSO was in Fallout 2. But I remember that one having a mustache because I remember thinking "why does it have a mustache?"

I also remember the tragic cards. They were fricking awesome. Their full name was something like Tragic: The Saddening or something. And they all had sad things on them. You didn't get to look at them, though. But your guy could get addicted to opening booster packs.

Maybe....................

I think I'm going to have to give up at some point, my head is being seriously wrecked.

god I would love a MMORPG of this. I have so much fun having huge gunfights and doing lots of drugs.

also, make sure you get the fan-patch.

i can't remember if food does anything. check gamefaqs or SA or something.

That is all. Good tip on the square though. Will try that cheers.

Think I'll have to make another, right after I finish, as an evil guy, so many fun opportunities missed. Car is best filled with the microfusion ammo for weapons like the plasma rifle. Believe you can also use the laser/plasma pistol ammo on it, but the ratio is poor enough that it isn't worth it. Arcanum is definitely worth playing too, if you can find a copy of it.

here ya go, Arcanum, fifteen bucks

great game, a few annoying bugs

If you don't want to pick up the childkiller perk, you can also empty your inventory of everything except primed dynamite, then let them pick your pocket. 30 seconds later, and there's child guts on the walls.

the Fallout PnP game is a-comin'

http://interplay.com/

Check out their SEC filings for legalistic-related lolz

Trailer apparently comes out today. Liam Neesom is doing the voice of the player's father.

some of the concept art has made it out, showing a Washington DC in ruins

Official site:

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/

Nice little test pattern:

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/countdown/images/standby.jpg

http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=35862

For those interested in playing the original Black Isle Fallout 3 tech demo.

wtf trailer can't see at work arrrgh

Have you tried any of the mirrors?

i can't see at work either but that's because i don't so much have a cublicle as an open office space where coworkers walk past my desk CONSTANTLY. UGH. it would not look like work. not like ilx :D

Okay, got it to work.

Fade-in: a close-up of a vacuum tube radio, tube comes to life and innocent postwar american pop tune plays(think the opening songs to FO1 & 2). Camera slowly zooms back and dollys out to show that we're in a ruined city bus, dolly out again to show a destroyed eastern american city. Grey and grey-black and blue-grey are the only colors. We zoom out again to show a dude in FO1-era power armor on the left hand of the screen, packing an automatic. Dude turns and looks at the camera, then slow fade-out.

Ron Perlman does the classic line, then "FALLOUT. 3" appears before dissolving into "FALL 2008"

Radio is a Radiation King. Bus adverts are a "ENLIST today!" and one for the local Vaul-Tec vault, featuring Pipboy.

please do not let it look like oblivion is all I'm asking

More grey, less brown

On June 5, 2007, Bethesda released the Fallout 3 Teaser trailer. The press kit released with the trailer indicates that Ron Perlman is on-board with the project, and cites a release date of Fall 2008. The trailer also features the Ink Spots song "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire", which the previous Fallout developer Black Isle Studios originally intended to license for use in the first Fallout game. The trailer, which was completely done with in-engine assets, featured a closing voice over by Ron Perlman.

And this has been confirmed for PC, 360, and PS3

well fuck them then

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200706/N07.0605.1221.21984.htm

Latest ish of Game Informer has several pages on the game, actually showing gameplay.

Find scans here

You start at birth in Vault 101, and they kept the SPECIAL system.

And they will have a dog in the game.

Also, Tombot, you should get a kick out of the setting: a wasted Washington DC.

At some point, your guy has to use abandoned Metro lines to get around.

I'm not spending $400+ for a platform to play it on though

my way or the highway

you should get a kick out of the setting: a wasted Washington DC.

At some point, your guy has to use abandoned Metro lines to get around.

this is different from IRL how, lol

thing runs on PC, you shouldn't have to buy a new console. if you can run Oblivion, you should be able to run this(i hope i hope).

and the number of supermutants on the current metro lines isn't quite as noticeable as in the game.

I guess I could go find a copy of xp and dual-boot or whatever

XPpro damn well better be cheaper now that shitty vista is out. my win2k doesn't like the new games coming out.

lol paying fr windowz

lol capitalism

fuck the non-auth shit. i don't want to put up with that annoyance anymore, after having already borrowed my dad's neighbor's copy, which went bad on me.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1uuDKrY7eW0

vid of the aborted Van Buren/Fallout 3 project, before Interplay cut the funds and decided to make that stupid console game. Really. They had a choice between FO3 and F:BOS, and they went with the one that sold less than like 25K.

Also, NMA-Fallout has some new screengrabs and interviews w/ Bethesda from E3.

I can't stand to watch that Van Buren video. It makes me sad for what could have been. Like Silent Storm only /good./

BTW, you know there are ways around the non-auth, right?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=157

piecing together the bits & threads of what is known about the next game so far, which still has a year plus before release. Apparently we'll get a demo, tho.

Emil: "We went back and forth with the impact of dialogue on the character, and ultimately decided we didn't want to penalize or reward the player for carrying on a conversation."

So this is a Fallout game how :(

http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=755135

Are you not afraid that introducing a father figure limits the freedom to imagine your avatar and imposes motivation on the player that may not be in keeping with the avatar he imagines?

ah hell, somebody let the NMA-fallout guys start asking questions

If it weren't phrased so assholishly I'd almost agree... I don't feel good about Fallout 3 anymore. I TRIED SO HARD TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT THOUGH

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=154

Chris Avellone(of Kotor 2/black isle/obsidian) gives an illustrated monologue to writing dialogue.

http://community.lionhead.com/forums/2/2883417/ShowThread.aspx

Turns out that you will have a dog companion. Dorks on the Fable 2 boards are calling foul.

Good. One of hte things I really liked about Oblivion was the addition you could have to get a pet. Stomping thru dungeon with a dog made things better.

Someone should tell Fable 2 fans bout a little game called Fallout 1 that came out in, like, 1979. With a dog companion.

http://kotaku.com/378937/gamestop-details-fallout-3-collectors-edition

http://www.gamestop.com/gs/landing/fallout3/fallout3_details.jpg

available 7 oct 2008, or so they claim

im looking forward to this a bunch.

just the bobblehead, i mean. not interested in the game.

I'll buy the special edition and sell you the bobblehead for ten bucks.

Then all I gotta do is sell the game off cos i REALLY want that lunch pail.

I kid, I kid... I can't wait for moar fallout.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uncertain-world/2053942/SITE%27s-embarrassment-as-Islamist-%27Washington-apocalypse%27-image-turns-out-to-be-from-Fallout-3-game.html

lolz.

ha!

http://www.amazon.com/Fallout-3-Amazon-com-Exclusive-Survival/dp/B0017QFX30/ref=br_lf_m_1000233051_1_9_ttl?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=videogames&pf_rd_p=405465401&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1000233051&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1SE02ACGE05BNKS636SK

the extra special Amazon-only version has your own pipboy digital clock.

a $50 plastic clock

The $50 includes the lunch pail and the bobblehead and the art book and the soundtrack in addition to the clock, yo.

i'm paying for a $50 lunch pail, personally.

The $70 Collector's Edition includes all that.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36039.html

Fuck, man, they're really playing it close to the vest. I want gameplay vid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_3#Film_festival

they're starting to ramp up the promo events.

here's your gameplay vid...
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36197.html

almost put me to sleep :(

holy smokes; all anticipation I had for that just went out the window

looks AWFUL

fallout 2 on lots and lots of downers?

sorry I meant half-life 2, duhh

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36238.html

This one looks a bit better.

More of a proper trailer, i guess: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36238.html

Also probably some of the opening cutscene, if history is to judge.

http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/fallout-3/preview/fallout-3-hands-on/a-20080714133932662026/g-20070327151320531089

Somebody on SA pointed out that pretty much all of the promo footage we've seen is just combat, which is only part of the actual(full? proper?) experience, but is a damn good way to get your casual xbox fratboys interested in the title.

Check the vid here:

http://e3.g4tv.com/e32008/videos/26939/Hands_On_Fallout_3.html

You hear the mouthbreater contingent in the studio audience agape over the slo-mo gore.

Hopefully there'll be more substantive vid coming up, that actually shows the dialogue bits and other parts of the game. Yeah, that's a full-on visually entralling part of gameplay(look, kids! you can CLICK DIALOGUE CHOICES!) and doesn't do shit for an attract-mode, but whatever. I play rpgs for the narrative bits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg9t7uXkLyA

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/07/hands-on-fallou.html#more

ruh roh

shit. Oh well, we'll see.

Jeeez. I'm so far out of the loop (I have a Wii, but an out-of-date mac and a lack of friends with a PS3, Xbox 360 or powerful PC) that trailer that put everyone else to sleep looks pretty good to me.

-Luddite

http://www.destructoid.com/e3-08-fallout-3-hands-on-95691.phtml

Not sure how to react to this one

I am still as apprehensive as I was the day I heard Bethesda was taking it. So far no surprises. :(

Destructoid with terrible writing and lack of genuine insight... not too surprising. Pretty much the reaction of that hollering G4 audience.

Not that Bloody Mess wasn't pretty amusing when I was a teenager myself, but, yeah, I wouldn't put too much stock in that foaming review. But man, it would be nice if one of these previews actually talked about dialogue choices, world changing effects and reputations, non-violent and alternative solution paths, that kind of thing that Fallout is ALSO known for, you know...

Yeah that destructoid preview is absolutely fucking terrible. "I shot some old ladies!!! I love this game!!!" Ladies and gentlemen, videogames blogger.

Probably worth watching...
http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/20175

They cover a lot of the same ground as in the microsoft press conference, but since they're talking through it and taking their time, I thought it seemed more interesting. It does look like it might be a world with spending some time in. I'd like to see some character dialog interaction still, however

Okay, that one's much better, even going over (literally) the same ground. There's far less mouthbreather bro yelling over the gore.

Yeah that destructoid preview is absolutely fucking terrible. "I shot some old ladies!!! I love this game!!!" Ladies and gentlemen, videogames blogger.

-- El Tomboto, Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:40 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

seriously. "I. SHOT. A. WOMAN." wtfffff

and to think he's not even the worst journo on that site

see one jim sterling

Maybe this has been answered before, but I can't search through the whole thread...

So I never played any of these games before, but now I finally want to (plus only six dollars each on gog). Should I start with the original Fallout, or should I just skip to Fallout 2? Are they basically the same, or is there some kind of ongoing story? I assume the games are fairly long and I never have tons of time for long games (so I worry I won't have time for both)...

Start with the originally Fallout. They aren't that different and once you play one you'll want to play both.

And they do have loose thematic connections.

Yeah, a lot of references in the second game are lost on you when oyu havewn't played ther first (and it spoils the story of the first completely). Plus the first is much shorter, so you cna beat it quicker and move on to 2.

Thanks - I'm downloading the first one. 47 minutes to go!

Awesome. Savor it! You're probably going to want to play through it more than once.

i remembering downloading my err backup copy of fallout in 98 or so. it was like 500 mb and took like an entire week, lol slow.

I was almost killed by rats before I could figure out how combat works...

if i were you, i'd call an exterminator before i got around to playing an old rpg.

does the GOG stuff work on Mac? I have a pre-boot camp ibook...

I am probably down with doing this too once I finish playing through bioshock... twice. So you know, maybe November? Is it worth it Jeff?

I played a bit more tonight. I guess I have to find a rope? So I wandered around looking for it through the deserts and mountians, barely escaping a gang of rowdies who wanted to "party," but ended up being killed by three giant scorpions a short while later. Where dat rope?

I guess I'm into it, mostly because so far it's slow, weird, and unlike the games I usually play. I've yet to advance very far though

It's not that linear, Jeff (ie: Find the rope, go into the well, get the thing, solve the puzzle). In fact, I only remember one "quest" in the game that actually requires a rope to complete.

Ooh, look:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=243314

Yeah, Fallout would be perfectly complemented by... hmm. What's an album that's like... doom metal slow but route-66-westerny music feel? If that exists, that's Fallout basically.

White Zombie?

Friends of Dean Martinez/Calexico

there's a rope in the town between the vaults, hidden in a bookshelf or drawer. can't remember what house. although the game doesn't have to be played in order, this quest can be done right from the start of the game, and it can give you the location of another town.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Rope

http://jl13.com/images/fallout_billboard.jpg

As I rounded the corner from Amoeba Records in Hollywood, I didn't expect to see that.

seriously!! they have a certified printers in hollywood!?!

LOL

Metro Center station, the big downtown hub of dc, has basically had every available space for ads bought up to promote this. It's even weirder than the usual clean coal/military contractor ads we get.

Been seeing a lot of TV ads for this... during Sons of Anarchy tonight I saw one of those longer commericials with Todd Howard (?) talking over game footage. I'm surprised, because I don't remember any of the Elder Scrolls games (let alone previous Fallout games) getting this level of advertising dollars.

i really hope that this is good. been patiently waiting for a sequel for years.

GOG.com opened its public beta today, so you can get FO1, 2 or Tactics for $6 if you so choose.

real talk, everyone: fallout 2 isn't half as good as fallout 1

imho

I've always preferred the original too. Second definitely a case of more not necessarily meaning better. Still a great game tho.

it felt like a halfassed expansion pack to the original

It was essentially Fallout 1.5, but the original formula was good enough that I didn't really care.

real talk: so psyched for this

I've been visiting No Mutants Allowed on occasion for Fallout 3 news/reviews/etc. Made the mistake of venturing into the forums. I can understand being annoyed by or skeptical of the new direction, but these dudes are like the most aggressively obnoxious examples of fanboys fucking ever. Like I want to buy 5 Super Deluxe copies of F3 just to spite their unpleasable asses.

good lord, ILG is 3 years old

wau.

omg, 100 hours of gameplay should feel like a wonderful treat not a burden. what has it come to when i read that and cringe.

i really really want this to be good. this is coming out at just the right time for me. exactly the kind of thing i want to play.

I'm in the same boat as RS; this is the perfect game for me, being released at the perfect time. I'm going to sink my whole week into it and just become immersed in the world.

I really wanted to like oblivion but the theme and setting really turned me off; a version of oblivion set in 'the road' however... oh boyyyyyyyy

I've read some pretty annoying harping by fallout fans all over the place as well; tht stuff is spirit sucking

2008 has been an INCREDIBLE year for games

It was essentially Fallout 1.5, but the original formula was good enough that I didn't really care.

OTM. Also bear in mind that Fallout 2 came out EXACTLY one year to the day after Fallout, so they were pretty crammed for time to push it out.

I wouldn't be too bothered about the online fan stuff, what do you expect? It's a deservedly beloved game from a decade ago - add the nostalgia and the internet, you get the expected pre-reaction to a game that hasn't even come out yet. As for me I'm probably going to wait until it drops low enough in price, likely next year.

current list of reviews (copied from elsewhere):

PC Gamer France, 93% - Good variety of quests, lots of replayability

PC Gamer Sweden, 81% - VATS is nice, but there is too much content in a game world that is too small, NPCs feel lifeless

PC Gamer UK, 90% - Excellent dialogue, combat, depth and minigames, but MQ is shortish and it's easy to miss things if you're not paying attention

GMC Italy, 9/10 - Good atmosphere and turn-based combat, lackluster AI and mini-games

OXM '10' - "Between its engrossing story, ginormous world, well-crafted RPG side and white-knuckle FPS combat, Fallout 3 completely, utterly gives you your $60 worth."

Click! 8.75/10 - * Gameplay - 9.25 (Playability: 9.5, Longevity: 9.5, Variety: 9, AI: 9); * Graphics - 8.25 (Appearance: 8.5, Animations: 8 ); * Sound - 9.5 (Music: 9.5, Effects: 9.5); * Technical quality - 7.38 (Fluency: 7, Loading times: 8.5)

OXM UK - '9'

Score (Poland) - 93%

Level (Poland) - 10/10

PSM3 - 9/10 (PS3 version's graphics noticeably inferior to the PC and XBox 360 versions)

havent read any of the fan comments, but oblivion was a dogshit game by a dogshit developer (bethesda) so i can understand some frustration/pessimism by hardcore fans

The stuff that annoyed me was kinda:

fanboys: we want X in a Fallout game.
new review: "bethesda really captures X. blah blah. 9/10"
fanboys: another review purchased by Bethesda/Fallout is not even really about X, it's about Y
new review: "the A,B,C,D elements are fanastic. E falls kinda flat."
fanboys: GOOD JOB FUCKING UP E BETHESDA. LOL HI-FIVE GUYS.

Whatever dudes, have fun being miserable.

well to be fair, when's the last time a video game review meant shit to ANYONE? gaming journalism is uniformly dominated by tardbabies, i wouldn't trust a word of any of that shit

It's not really about the accuracy of Game Reviews, which admittedly is always suspect, it's the fact that negative news = shining truth, positive news = ignored or total bullshit. I mean, I'm not really surprised by this, it's your typically repellent fanboy mindset, but still that shit never ceases to get on my nerves.

OK I FEEL U NOW N/H

"The Fallout 3 team's hometown Best Buy in Rockville, Md. will serve as the flagship location of the midnight events, with special festivities including game kiosks, giveaways, contests, and a live broadcast from the event with DC 101 FM. Game director Todd Howard will be on-hand along with other key members of the development team to sign copies of the game and chat with fans. In addition to the Rockville event, 11 Best Buy stores across the country will be hosting special midnight sales events."

I'll feel like a total nerd, but I'm probably going to that Rockville event. It's only like 20 minutes away.

nice little retrospective up on gametrailers for those who can't be bother playing through fallouts 1/2

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42026.html

WHAT DO YOU MEAN "CAN'T BE BOTHERED", YOU SONUVA-- actually, that video is a pretty good recap. (Though I disagree about FO2 being significantly harder - it was much longer but also had many more opportunities to buff your character, much better party AI, etc.) The only thing is at the end, the weird thing about the Fallout license is that I believe it is now wholly owned by Bethesda. Interplay is actually licensing it from them to make the Fallout MMO, paying Bethesda royalties on it.

Bankruptcy is a bitch, but from what I understand Interplay brought it on themselves.

Just preordered Fallout 3 an hour or two ago. Do we have a special thread for F3?

reviews are out!

another 10/10 in EG!

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=270173

I met the developers last night! Nice guys. Game is awesome so far despite weird little things. Animation is awkward and comical sometimes. Combat can get a little wonky. I killed a guard with one bb to the chest (?) and enemies don't really react to getting shot. Only 3 hours in. Spent most of my time wandering around a town chatting with people. Can't wait to get back to it.

http://www.thejhohcableshow.com/pix/1219157885484.jpg

i really love this so far.

Started last night. I found the first hour and a half or so in the vault pretty clunky & kind of boring (in retrospect). I've just stepped outside and already it feels better. I'm hopeful things will pick up from here.

Just got this. I'd be interested in someone selecting certain post-war pop tunes as a 2ndary soundtrack. I'd ask ILM for their own tracklist suggestions, but...you know.

How long you think it'll be before someone cobbles together their own pipboy with some wrist straps and an iphone? maybe 12 hours or so?

if I had this on 360 I would probably set up an all-dub playlist for it with like all the early 80s scientist records as a starting point

Is it true that certain people in DC have been unnerved by the promo adverts showing a destroyed capitol?

Yep, it's been boingboinged.
Now that I just got past my first (wounded) deathclaw and marauded the shopping center, I got to say this is so addictive and fun and engaging. Improved Oblivion basically with a much more agoraphobic and nihilistic setting. I've been real happy with the pirate radio on the PIPboy, but I suppose I should put together a thirties soundtrack of swing/jive/pop for backup. Will post here once I've created.

You know what had some great music that would probably fit into the Fallout setting? The Bioshock Licensed Soundtrack.

Heh. True.

I'm zipping a disc of thirties and forties mood music; a bit more diverse than what Bioshock and Fallout offer, but a good time nonetheless: Gene Autry, Raymond Scott (Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals, duh), Billie Holiday, Betty Hutton, Louis Jordan, Nat King Cole, The Carter Family, The Five Jinks, Doris Day and more! It's just long enough to be ripped to a disc and then put on your 360 HD for fallout fun. I'll post briefly.

Here go; it's quickly thrown together, but not bad for a half hour of track pickin':
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WOSUBSQ5
I'd be curious to hear how this sits.

Btw, I finally beat that bastard GTA IV mission. (off-topic)

Congrats!
I need some DC folk to let me know how true this hews to actual topography/landmarks.

Ok, so this is scarily addictive and ridiculously fucking awesome so far. I've already logged 20 hours (school and work obligations gonna nail me next week). Haven't even really touched the main quest yet. The sidequests are mostly excellent and feature a surprising amount of different outcomes. The game feels huge but not stretched thin. The replay value I imagine is ridiculous. I'm super impressed overall, it's worthy of the Fallout name.

i definitely agree with the scarily addictive tag. first time in a long time that i've done that thing where i thought 10 minutes had past and it was an hour. so far i am impressed but not yet blown away. when i first arrived at Megaton and did my early exploring it really did feel like i was just back playing Oblivion, but the more i play it the less i find i can rely on the tactics and the approach i used playing that game, which i am very pleased about.

forks, have i told you recently that i love you? thanks for sharing :D

^co-sign; awesome upload forks, have been listening to all morning while staring wistfully at my unopened copy of fallout 3 and weeping

glad you like it; I went heavy on the morbid. Let me know what it's like to kill wasters while listening to strange fruit.

thanks for that soundtrack forks! it's great.

the only problem with listening to good music when playing video games is that for the rest of your life you will associate those songs with playing a video game and to me that is depressing

Not if the game's good!

Yeah! For me, GTA III and "Penny Lane" are inextricably linked.

blue suburban skies indeed

i find it kind of grim

I have a permanent link with the original Tomb Raider and Substance 1987 by New Order. Still don't know how I feel about that.

Large chunks of Stankonia are forever linked to FFTactics.

according to experts.

So forks, is there a way to play this inside the game (like as one of the radio stations), or do I just need to stream it through the XBOX?

Continued off-topic: (Computer World and Super R-Type for me)

You would want to rip it to your hard drive and then stream through xbox, yes.
The further I get into this game the more vast it feels. Just got a house with requisite robot butler and am on the third chapter of Moira's crazy book and am ready to take some time off from that particular quest batch. I can't walk out the door without some oddball thing happening: robot firing lasers at me, three man merc hitsquad after my bounty, giant crab men chasing me down the street, fire ants that breathe actual fire, mine infested bridges... it's always something new!
I am regularly struck by how uncomfortable I am killing folks who've set up little shelters under bridges or in utility sheds; they see me running up the hill with an assault rifle and of course they're going to start firing. Then I kill them and take all their stuff. And _I_ get the good karma?

Thank god for fast travel.

You would want to rip it to your hard drive and then stream through xbox, yes.

I play my music via an external hard drive using the USB port in the back.

whoa Forks you just made this game sound superb

haha he really did.

I'll make a second disc of this stuff if it's that welcome.

Anybody else notice that the "at-rest" theme background music in the overworld is a direct lift of the theme from Roy Budd's 'Get Carter'?
Compare:

pls make a second disc, if it's not much trouble (not that I've been able to play the game). I'm just greedy : )

I merged your unOST w/the bioshock OST for a slightly less morbid fallout 3 megamix

does this work with pc?

wow this music is excellent. A little AM broadcast processing/compression and it'd be PERFECT.

Christ, I can just imagine wandering thru downtown Portland with this on the player. Alternately surreal yet moribund. Depending on how the election turns out, I just might do that.

Man, for the first time since Deus Ex (!!), I'm afraid I'm playing through the game too quickly. I just can't put it down. I must be 20 hours in, and I'm scared to death it's almost over (and then I glance at the achievements list and see that I'm more like 1/4th in). I just completed the coolest sequence in any video game since, probably, A Mind Forever Voyaging. No exaggeration. So creepy, so cool, and such a cool resolution -- I'm putting the game down for a bit just so I can dwell in the experience.

I'm hopelessly addicted too. I promised myself I wouldn't play for the first half of this week so I can get some work done. We'll see what happens.

GUYS PLEASE STOP TALKING ABT HOW GREAT THE FALLOUT 3 IS SOME OF US HAVE THE RRoD IN

/weeps silently, refreshes UPS.com

how are you dudes playing through, as a goodie or a baddie or something inbetween?

Playing as a pragmatic good guy; willing to shoot a bitch in the face but only if it's absolutely necessary and willing to give purified water to a bum for free as long as I got plenty... but only one bottle.
I'm aiming for that "protagonist of The Road" feel.

Out of self-preservation, I too am trying to limit my playtime so some stuff gets done around the house. About eighteen hours in, but I'm playing kinda ponderously and mostly avoiding fast travel in favor of exploration.

Anybody got any followers yet?

i am also going the ponderous/exploratory route. i lack the self-discipline to stop myself being distracted by everything i wander across so the main quest hasn't seen much love.

i think it;s the kind of game where you benefit greatly from having some kind of character or archetype in mind when you set your attributes and skills. i decided i wanted to be a roguish trader style dude and have realized of late that i am trying to be Han Solo. i haven;t killed anyone that hasn't been trying to kill me, but i haven;t gone out of my way to help anyone without a decent reward being offered, and i will steal anyone's shit, no hesitation.

Interesting. I only steal when I'm absolutely safe and when it's really worth the trouble. I have preemptively killed a few folk; if I have any doubt, you get shot. Apocalypse role playing can be a little discomfiting.

I'm mostly playing a good guy. Tho I've stolen shit and broken into places, my karma is so high at this point that there's no use pretending otherwise.

My guy's about right in the middle. For the most part I choose the heroic option, but I'll go evil if it sounds more fun and it sits OK with me. I have trouble playing as a truly heinous character. I mean, I break into people's places and steal everything that isn't bolted down. I lie a lot and try to swindle money out of folks whenever possible. But I'll give the homeless guys some purified water or help an orphaned kid find a new home. I guess I'm sort of a rogue-ish character with a flickering sense of social responsibility.

did anybody try to set off the bomb at megaton?

that's for the next time thru

Yeah, I def. want to play this as a mustache twirling nefarious villain and start killing children.

Just not this go-round.

you can't kill children in this, I heard, tho I'm sure you were being metaphorical an that

Tranquility Lane was an interesting touch.

Holy shit - Roberto Spiralli has been playing this lately and jjust watching him play is scaring the crap out of me. I'm gonna have nightmares. Am v glad I didn't really watch while he played Dead Space.

just started playing, already uneasy w/some of my "moral ambiguity". so far, though, unbelievably great.

I just did Trouble on the Homefront, and going back there - especially after completing The Waters of Life - broke my heart so much I teared up. When the resolution of Trouble on the Homefront occurred - where there really is no happy ending - I felt so sad. There might have been a better solution for the quest, but I couldn't find one - and what I ended up doing to complete it made me feel awful. It sortof reminded me of the Liquidation Plot in the Brotherhood sequence in Oblivion.

seriously considering playing through initially on hard - think it'd up the desperation vibe and force you to scavenge more thoroughly and run away from dudes

It's pretty hard already just on the default difficulty.

I think I'll get this tomorrow, yes yes

just got this, going to play it all night while waiting for McCain to concede. #

I usually play Fallout games as a smooth-talking evil guy (yeah I know there's no point in being smooth-talking if you're just going to kill everyone) so I think I might do that again.

I've been playing on hard ever since I had that first skirmish outside 101 and some guy was just unloading shots in my face. Hard has occasional frustration moments and lots of reloading but absolutely makes the game more interesting and stressful.

The fucking fireant mission is a good example of that; those little bastards are TOUGH and eat up a lot of ammo. Also: "I'm only going to say this one time: give me the naughty nightware!"

I'm going to grandson this Butch cunt the second I get a chance.

ok, I have killed so many people already.

So it seems like you need at least 3 playthroughs to get all the achievements (since there's an achievement for hitting levels with Good, Neutral and Evil alignment). I guess you could technically get around that by saving well before a level up and then doing Good/Evil stuff and then reloading?

did anyone else think lolpalin when you meet the supply chick in the atom bomb town? I kind of want to kill her now.

OMG. I totally did. She was rocking that accent.

I'm about 15 hours in and have done almost nothing to advance on the main quest, which is great. Anyone else end up with a dead sheriff almost immediately in Megaton? his orphaned kid is bumming me out.

haha how did you manage that... someones brother just appeared dead in the middle of town like the second day I was there ??? no idea why but I took his stuff.

also I play as a sneaky chick named "le tigre"

thats the thing thats killing me about this game, the replay value seems pretty phenomenal, because obviously the storyline is just as fluid as i was hoping for.

I didn't even know the sheriff had a kid! It's easy to get him killed, just tell him about the guy at the saloon who wants you to blow up the joint.

Also: fuck a main storyline. Guys at Penny Arcade intimated that beating the game ENDS the game, so I'm not going that way until I'm well and truly ready to put it down.

Hey Forks, can you put together a second OST disc?

this goes out to the entire ILG collective as well. Grabs your tracks, rar them up, stick 'em where they can be accessed, etc.

One would wonder if ILM could help with this, but probably not.

Also, I will say this: the game doesn't really like Oblivion; it does feel more like Fallout.

Truly in the tradition of previous Fallout games -- this game is buggy as hell.

Just got a corrupted save on my 360. Luckily I think I have a recently saved file I can revert to.

Um. Nevermind. All is not good. The game keeps locking up in the same place. I guess I'm going to have to call Bethasda.

yeah this is a buggy piece of shit. I've had 4 crashes and twice I've been stuck inside of objects and had to load my last save.

This is what happens when you combine a historically buggy developer with a historically buggy game series.

5 crashes now! Just jumped off the bridge that goes over the river in the south-east going across to DC and the second I hit the water it crashed. Jesus jones.

Constant autosaves and fast loadtimes offset the bugs for me ... but then, maybe I'm used to having a computer that deals with tough games with the same problems.

The way to play this that works for me is episodic; one quest per night played through to as close to completion as I can manage. Last night was the blood rites.

on what system are talking about the crashes ?

360.

360 and my 360 has never crashed prior to playing this game.

yep. having the same problem (although not as frequent) on my 360. infuriating at times, but survivable. PATCH PLZ.

I called them, but they had no help for me. I may have to just put this game aside and either play something else, or start a new Fallout character while I wait for a patch.

That bad for you? I've had maybe two game-restarting issues.

this goes out to the entire ILG collective as well. Grabs your tracks, rar them up, stick 'em where they can be accessed, etc.

I'll do this when I get home later. The Forks collection had a few of my favorite tunes in it.

I've had Fallout freeze-up on my 360 once in the 30 hours I've dumped into it. I guess I'm in the minority.

ive only had one full-on freeze, but it was at a TERRIBLY FRUSTRATING point, so i am really irritable about it and probably overstating the case.

Just found this:

"It looks like this patch (for PC) might not being going up today, but you should expect it sometime this week. You should know the patch only fixes some crashing on exiting the game, as requested by Microsoft.

We’re also moving along with pulling together a more extensive update. We’re still in the process of going through and looking at any issues/fixes, and once that is done there is lots of additional testing/fixing that has to be done before it can be released. Similarly, we're looking into matters on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

When I’ve got more information, I’ll pass it along."

-Guy from Bethesda

0 freezes here. I've switched to hard mode since I was killing everything too easy /nerdbraggin'

constant crashes on pc, but whatevs. i now have the labtop and an extra monitor on the computer desk, so's i can type on here, watch last night daily show and "talons of wang chiang", and still play.

the only part of oblivion this really felt like was swimming around the depths.

Good news. I took some time in some other parts of the world, followed some more of the main quest, and when I tried a few hours later, the bug was gone. Yay.

It's so good, btw. I hit level 20 and I still haven't explored half the world, I feel.

Guys, every time I fire this up I become more and more enamored. This has got to be the best RPG of the 00's. Eh?

I mean seriously, as much as the hardcore NMA fanboy type guys bitch about the game, I'm impressed with how well Bethesda brought it into Next-Gen console era. It doesn't feel compromised.

I was a hardcore NMA fanboy type, and I think this is the best of the three games so far. It really builds on the earlier mythologies brilliantly and fleshes out the world. I find myself desperate for a Fallout 4. And then 5. Hell, I'd be okay with Bethasda continuing this franchise for the next 20 years.

And yes, best RPG of the '00s so far. Deus Ex is the only one I can think of off-hand that would be competitive for that slot (and that came out early 2000, IIRC?).

TRIO OF DEATH:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c102/OfMarrow/fallout.jpg

yes, i sold a child into slavery for that headpiece.

rather than wait to play through a second time after i've finished, i am more and more tempted to play a simultaneous second game as an evil dude. i am presently weighing the merits of two charcter ideas: gigantic lumbering evil retard or stealthy evil ninja assassin. it is a huge credit to this game that whichever i choose, my experience of the game really will be significantly different.

a goon posted this:

OLD TIMEY RECORDINGS HERE

Internet Archive;

http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio - 1,578 different recordings of old radio shows that should be just right for Fallout 3. Download'em, put'em in your soundtrack folder, enjoy. Look, here's Dragnet, http://www.archive.org/details/dragnet, pure awesome.

http://www.archive.org/details/78rpm - 78rpm recordings, cylinder recordings. These are real old, even for Fallout 3.

http://www.archive.org/details/cylindertransfer - C'mon, you really should just click all of these links and populate a massive oldies folder. This one's even more good recordings, click the different artists on the right side menu if you're looking for some top picks.

http://www.archive.org/details/worldwarIInewsOTRKIBM - News broadcasts surrounding World War 2, probably the most perfect for your soundtrack folder.

Archive.org, along with other things like libraries, are meant to give people fair access to information and media. If you haven't yet checked it out, you're missing a ton of awesome old movies, news, software, you name it.

Why does everyone want old timey recordings? Didn't the fallout happen in the '50s? Shouldn't there be a lot of '50s and '40s music, and potentially popular stuff rather than obscurities?

Old-tymey recordings have that properly lo-fi production, that tinny sound which makes me think that I'm hearing something from a very different time, a lost era if you will. Which is what the game is from; you have a world of scavengers picking over whatever bits & pieces they can find, including the pop culture refuse.

Obscure scratchy recordings are more fun than just elvis tunes for a game set in an alt-universe, IMHO. Unknown rockabilly would work, tho.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fallout3/news.html?sid=6200678&mode=all

Fallout 3 ships 4.7 million in first week
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Posted Nov 6, 2008 10:41 am PT

Bethesda proclaims that postapocalyptic role-playing game for 360, PS3, PC topped $300 million in sales at launch.

Last week's launch of Bethesda Softworks' after-the-bomb role-playing game Fallout 3 was, appropriately enough, explosive. The publisher took a victory lap today by announcing some early statistics for the game. Bethesda said that it shipped roughly 4.7 million copies of Fallout 3 around the world last week. Sales of that massive stockpile surpassed the $300 million mark.

Both of those figures stack up reasonably well with last year's release of Halo 3. Microsoft's heavily hyped first-person shooter posted sales of $300 million in its first week on analyst-estimated shipments of 4.2 million. It's worth noting that Halo 3 was an Xbox 360 exclusive, whereas Fallout 3 is available on the 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and the installed user bases of those platforms have increased significantly in the intervening year.

Fallout 3 was released on October 28 in North America and October 31 in Europe. It may receive another sales boost in the near future, given that Bethesda has planned a Japanese launch for the game on December 4.

PC patch is out. v1.0.0.15. we'll see if this helps or not.

So, this game is amazing. I'm going to be finishing my first playthrough tomorrow and I seriously already can't wait to play again. (The only thing stopping me from finishing is that I want to collect all the bobbleheads before I quit this character -- so that I at least get the achievement.)

and FWIW, here's what the wiki currently says:

Soundtrack

The Fallout 3 soundtrack continued the series' convention of featuring sentimental 1940s American popular music, in addition to a foreboding, menacing score.[80] The score was written by noted composer Inon Zur. In a review of the game for Kotaku, Mike Fahey commented that "while Inon Zur's score is filled with epic goodness, the real star of Fallout 3's music is the vintage songs from the 1940's. (sic)"(81)
# Title Music Length
1. "I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire" The Ink Spots 3:07
2. "Way Back Home" Bob Crosby 2:54
3. "Butcher Pete (Part 1)" Roy Brown 2:28
4. "Main Title" Inon Zur 2:07
5. "Megaton" Inon Zur 3:26

and the wikia:

Songs

Crazy He Calls Me by Billie Holiday
Easy Living by Billie Holiday
Happy Times by Bob Crosby and The Bobcats
Way Back Home by Bob Crosby and The Bobcats
Anything Goes by Cole Porter
Civilization by Danny Kaye (with the Andrews Sisters)
Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall by Ella Fitzgerald
I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire by The Ink Spots
Maybe by The Ink Spots
Might, Might Man by Roy Brown
Butcher Pete by Roy Brown
A Wonderful Guy by Tex Beneke

http://www.wikia.com/wiki/c:fallout

ooo, new username

They really could've done with about double the # of tracks.

there are some other music radio stations out there...

i accidentally beat the game the other night. the main quest is really short. i had several older saves to go back to so it wasn't really an issue. the sidequests are better than than the main quest anyway, 40+ hours in and still finding lots of cool shit.

are there? I've found a few other radio stations (and some distress calls), but no other music radio stations.

there's at least one other music station that i received for a quest. there are only a few tunes on it but it's nice every once in a while.

The forties feel of the sound seems deeply motivated by Bioshock's success; once they committed to the inkspots for the ad, I think they shrugged and went for postwar stuff. The game takes place in like 2770 though right; shouldn't some kind of postpunkcrunkrapveeblefritz music be appropriate?

In any case, the fact that most of that stuff is available with minimum (or no) licensing fee is probably what's really drawing designers to it. Not that I'm complaining, I love postwar doo-wop/r&b/pop.

Fallout games have always had a 40s/50s song at the start of the game. Louis Armstrong's "A Kiss to Build a dream" on is at the start of Fallout 2. And one of the songs that is in Fallout 3 was the opening song of the original Fallout. The game has always taken place in the future but the Pip Boy/Vault ads and etc. have always had the 1950s Cold War feel.

While trying to work out who was voicing the president of the enclave earlier, I first suspected Michael Richards before realising it was Malcolm McDowell o_0

Oh man, i finally got my house. Thank god i can actually have a place to dump all this shit. Not having the car with its trunk from FO2 is a drag, but there you go. And the english droid butler/barber makes up for it.

this is quite useful on PC where the NPCs sometimes disappear/die:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Recovering_missing_NPC_in_Fallout_3

I'm kinda pissed that the game is still this buggy, but as long as you can pop the hood and root around inside to fix things again(like with most Bioware/Black Isle games), it's a little better.

wow, this IS buggy as fuck, isn't it.

Haha. Which one did you run into?

soundtrack mod
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=159

pacing mod
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=80%3Cbr%20/%3E

i ran into a shitload of freezes getting by some mirelurks and then more when I was going to rivet city. Weird music/sound hitches. A spot where the world geometry came apart and trhrew me into a black hole. At least five cases where I've run into divots of rough terrain that I simply couldn't extricate myself from. Doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason and it comes and goes.

But I can't stop playing! Working on the Deckard replicant quest and FINALLY finished that goddamn book for the Wasilla salesman at Megaton.

This has now made my xbox crash 10 times!

It's definitely a testament to this game that despite the bugs, I can't remember anything I've enjoyed playing more.

Tho I did take a frustration break last night and play through Portal.

There's plenty of games I've enjoyed playing more, but I've notched up 37 hours in a week and despite now having it crashed 11 times and corrupting a save game I'm still persisting at it. Actually if I was to enumerate all the lame things in this game that pissed me off about it it would sound like I disliked it, but that couldn't be further from the case.

By the time they get an xbox patch out, I will almost certainly have logged fifty hours and stopped playing.

wow, you guys are getting slammed by crashes a lot more than i am. i still only have the one under my belt.

http://kotaku.com/5082637/bethesda-censors-fallout-3-for-japan

got my 360 back and decided to play as a ruthless rogue and killed the first person I met after leaving the vault then stole all her shit

What's the first easy NPC to recruit? I've barely started and I have the bomb defusing quest done along with the radiation and food/meds quest from the Wasilla woman. Thinking about heading to the radio station next.

Dogmeat. Find him in the Scrapyard east of the Meresti Trainyard.

Like with Oblivion, I think it's great to have a dog companion on our massive overworld adventure. You can send him out to go nick things for you, too; ammo, food, meds, etc.

Dogmeat's easy to get. Look at the scrapyard near Minefield.
xpost

question

can you murder children in fallout 3

no

Really? i mean i haven't tried, but it certainly seems like you can...
I know what I'm doing when I get home.

You can't vats them and when I tried to gun down the kids at the Republic of Dave my bursts seemed to do nothing.

yeah, you can't kill them.

Lord knows I've tried!

Little Lamplight is very disappointing for this reason. At least I got to sell one of those brats into slavery.

I tried to do that but I blew up the guy's head by accident (the mezzers occasional side-effect).

mezzer's

you're all sick

Not me! I took enough Rad-Away and I'm back to normal!

hmm, after getting to level 20 everything seems a little futile. I could complete the main quest, which I'm pretty sure I'm right at the end of. Might just kill or trick in to slavery everyone I can to see if I get some sort of special award for being so evil.

lol, u guys.
I'm apparently too good to get involved with slavers; my little PIP boy karma character has now taken on a robe, long hair and a beard and looks like Jesus.

I don't even know what Mezzers are!

yeah, im jesus right now too.

what is with the "pants exploded" tally, btw?

i got in a extended firefight with the dudes from the military base (i think they shot me while trying to shoot a bloatfly oops) and stopped my freeforall killspree when i saw that my karma was plummeting, because this supergood deal is giving me loads of benefits.

that being said, cant wait to play through a second time as a horrible bastard.

also, got dogmeat killed and did an oldsave for the first time because i felt really bad ;_;

i am such a overblown fanboy for this game, srsly.

yeah, same with my dog from Oblivion(and Fable II when I finally play it). I can't handle having my dog get killed.

In other news, I found the repeating rifle. FUCK yeah.

does the game still use the SPECIAL system?

The SPECIAL system is still there, yes.

Abe Lincoln's repeater gave about double the damage of my best gun at the stage that I picked it up. Only trouble was I kept running out of ammo for it.

'Exploding Pants' = use a stealth boy and then sneak up beside an enemy. Pickpocket. When you take everything from them, switch out to 'give' mode and put a frag mine in their inventory. Jump back and watch the fun as they try to figure out what's going on and then WHOOOMP there it is

oh hahahahahah ok going to have to try that

ah, I just read about that yesterday on one of my loading screens, hadn't done it yet.

Same way I played through Gears of War 2 and didn't realise until five minutes 'til the end that you got 'nade tag people by doing a melee attack on them while you had a 'nade in your hand. Lose.

Exploding pants also gets you some achievement points the first time you do it if thats your thing.

I just exploding panted the guy in megaton who stands preaching at the bomb all day; doofus

wish that worked with the guy in GTA IV

I was totally expecting the megaton church to freak out on me when I disarmed the bomb, but it doesn't seem like he even noticed?

http://auctions.samsclub.com/scripts/ListingInfo.asp?LotNo=79620374

haha:

-The BoS statue itself weighs 121 pounds and is 7' 11" in height; its base is 2.6' x 2.7'

-Easy assembly instructions are included with the shipment

http://community.livejournal.com/vault13/

spoilers, obv

don't agree w/this game's morals some times eg I just went to tenpenny tower and agreed to kill roy the ghoul but then when I went and talked to roy the ghoul he persuaded me to kill the body nazi elitists in tenpenny tower but I got bar karma for helping these poor dudes who are forced to live in tunnels under the world, but I would have got good karma for killing them?? ffffffffff that; anyway, tenpenny tower is a mess now and I accidentally got carried away and killed the chick I was supposed to mezz in there : /

I am an "evil marauder" now apparently : / maybe cos I mezzed tht chick in big town too

I accidentally stumbled across vault 112 last night and completely fucked up my progression in the main quest. I had only done the very first mission in the main story line and had everything replaced, thus kinda missing out on the entire plot. Needless to say I had to go back quite a bit and lost about 3 hours worth of raider killing and looting.

I'm confused. Why did stumbling across vault 112 fuck up your main quest?

Oh, I just looked it up. Apparently it forwards the quest to that point and skips all the necessary information from beforehand.

I debated pressing on with it since I just slayed everyone in the outside area of Evergreen Mills but I'll be back...

I snuck in and blew up the generator next to the Super Mutant Behemoth pen at Evergreen Mills. The resulting carnage wasn't as great as I was hoping but it was definitely worth it.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/fallout-3-outsells-all-previous-titles-in-the-series-combined

Fallout 3 outsells all previous titles in the series combined
--
Bethesda's Fallout 3 has hit the top of the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC charts in the UK.

The game has outsold combined sales in the region of the original Fallout and its sequel, and spin-off titles Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

First week sales were also 57 per cent stronger than the first week performance of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

According to data from GfK Chart-Track, 55 per cent of all sales were on the Microsoft format, 28 per cent on Sony's home console and 17 per cent for the PC...
---

http://planetmedia.gamespy.com/wiki/planetfallout.gamespy.com/default/uploads/3/36/Special03.jpg

holy shit, i didn't know this was active again:

http://fallout.blackisle.com/

Apparently it forwards the quest to that point and skips all the necessary information from beforehand.

wtf? that sucks

is FOT any good?

if by that you mean tactics, no

i helped the zombies at tenpenny too. it is cute when you go back later ^_^ I started off all holier than thou but have slid to neutral. side quest note: no ear if you sandman someone is kind of bullshit.

i have just arrived at vault 112. have spent a lot of time mindlessly fucking around, of course, and intend to continue with that, so i have two questions:

1. am i near the end of main quest
2. does completing main quest finish the game?

i am just a few stimpaks shy of 200. i think i maybe could've played this on hard.

2. finishing the main quest does finish the game : /

AVAST! that makes the answer to Q1 even more important then.

You got a little ways left to go I think. Just know that once you hit the Brotherhood of Steel's HQ, don't go any further w/ the main quest.

sweet, cheers dude

I think safely you can play until escaping from Ravenrock on the main quest. After that, don't go back to Brotherhood unless you're ready to finish things up.

interactive map

http://planetfallout.gamespy.com/maps/1/Capital-Wasteland

loving this game. what do people think the best specialities are?

if it's anything like the first two games, then a throwing/gambling specialist should easily dominate the wastelands~

I'm gonna start playing this soon. Should I play on medium or hard?

Play on hard.
I invested heavily in lockpick, science, sneak and small guns. Seems to be working okay.

hard, or else it will go too fast.

i went explosives, small guns, and sneak. chucking grenades around is fun b/c you get to hear the slow-mo "oooooooohhhhh shiiiiiiiiiit"

i also blew way too many points in perception at the start which is not all that valuable.

Small Guns is pretty important. You'll likely be using them through most of the game whether you like it or not. I would also suggest Lockpick.

Has anyone dabbled with melee weapons?

I always finish close up fighting with the shishkebob, that thing is dope for most animals and super mutants with nailboards.

The cheap way of doing combat is grabbing that plasma rifle from Rivet City early on (easy quest to get it). That thing is a monster and I basically used it throughout the entire game.

Enclave soldiers generally took 2 headshots a piece to drop with it.

I'm still playing Fallout 1 for the first time. I have 100 days left on the water chip, and I just went to Junktown for the first time (I'm level 3, very close to level 4). Have I fucked things up yet in terms of time left?

FALLOUT - Week 1 Discussion

if you go to the Hub you can pay 1000 caps to have a water caravan go to your vault which extends the time limit by like 80 days. the catch is that the mutant army will find your vault a lot sooner if you do this, depending on the version you're playing. regardless of whether or not you send the caravan, there's a hard coded limit of 13 in-game years to complete it.

by 'it' i mean the game.

Small Guns is pretty important. You'll likely be using them through most of the game whether you like it or not. I would also suggest Lockpick.

― circa1916, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 8:10 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Has anyone dabbled with melee weapons?

― mayor jingleberries

In answer to both these posts: you don't have to use small guns at all. My bro has played through using melee weapons, he used a death claw gauntlet, which ignores armour. He just made sure to have a sneak so that he can get in on close to his targets before they spot him, after a while his sneak became so good that he hardly gets spotted and can get criticals quite a lot.

is this better than mass effect or not?

i haven't played an rpg on a console in years

Well, yeah, I guess you don't need Small Guns if you're doing something cuh-razy like going the melee route (kidding, that's actually pretty cool), but if you plan on doing a lot of shooting, you're going to have an easier time with Small Guns than Big Guns or Energy Weapon because of the abundance of Small Guns weapons and ammo in the game.

xpost

oh yeah, probably agree on that. I did usually have quite a lot of missiles and minigun ammo, but I hardly ever used them (most of the time used the Chinese Assault Rifle or Abe Lincoln's Repeater. Would be interesting to see if it was tenable to go down a route when they were your primary weapons.

I'd say it's much, much better than Mass Effect. Not even in the same league.

Big Gun stuff is scarce at the outset, but you're right, I had a whole load of missiles and minigun ammo by the time I hit level 20. That's mostly because I barely used any of those weapons even with my Big Guns skill maxed. The minigun is crap at anything but close quarters and the missile launcher isn't as powerful as it seems it should be. The only sensible use of the Fatman is against the Behemoths, given the scarcity of the ammo. Seems like a pretty weak skill honestly.

Small Guns is all around the most practical combat skill I guess. But then a lot of fun is in taking other, less-traveled routes.

xpost

Still, most effective weapon i've found is the combat shotgun. Not other device so easily makes a dude or a ghoul's head pop like a ripened grape

That's what I use.
Just finished the Tenpenny quest; I played nicey nice and made normals and ghouls kiss and make up. Very funny spoileriffic coda that I'll refrain from sharing here... but I lol'd!

where do you get abe lincoln's repeater? (I know I could google it but that would feel even more like cheating than asking on here)

American History wing of that museum that has Underworld in it.

I think when you're hunting down the Constitution, it's in that same vault area.

this game is great but it totally gobbles time

I stumbled onto vault 92 last night, weird atmosphere in there

I should probably have waited until after exams to start this game.

ok, i have now reached the point in the main quest where i was advised upthread to pause before finishing. i have mint condition plasma rifle and tesla armour, which together with the bobblehead i just swiped boosts my energy weapons to a handy 100. i haven't decided exactly how to spend my last hours before leaving the capital wasteland, but it will probably include some kind of rampage. i am excited by this prospect.

Some of the most fun I've had in Fallout has just been wandering through Downtown DC - particularly the less explored, more out-of-the-way parts. You should do that :)

oooooooooh prototype medic power armour

Get the 'Backgrounds' app for iphone, and you can find this nice little graphic, or just stick it on there yerself:

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/9493/vaultboytf5.th.jpghttp://img357.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

vault boy on your iphone!

my friend at g4 got herself a promo pipboy

http://bestmessageboardever.com/uploads/monthly_10_2008/post-579-1225306944.jpg

wanted to kill that bitch

Holy shit, that's insane. Clunky and very very in-jokey.

The cheap way of doing combat is grabbing that plasma rifle from Rivet City early on (easy quest to get it). That thing is a monster and I basically used it throughout the entire game.

― Mordy, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 4:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah, that thing almost ruins the game. My energy weapons skill sucked and it didn't matter.

the railroad gun is fun just for the sound and pinning someones head to the wall.

Yeah, the plasma rifle is given a bit early on. I only use it for blasting droids, mainly. Supermutant, human, and ghouls explode better with a shotgun.

still working the basic weapons template mostly, even though i'm 40+ hours in, mostly because of my steadfast avoidance of the main quest i suppose (although the modded chinese pistol i have that shoots flaming 9mm is great for laffs and sneak shots.)

also, shooting tenpenny in the face was well worth the slight tweaking of that quest. plus, i got good karma for it!

OK so I ended up w/the WORST outcome of the replicated man quest

: (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

you probably thought you were being all "good guy superhero" and protecting people's identity by giving fake machinery to the hunter. ha! serves you right for trying to be altruistic!

I wasn't, I just couldn't be bothered dithering about out on the wasteland, finding pinkerton, etc. laziness more than moral fortitude!!! story of my life

Oh, Pinkerton is in Rivet.

now do I need to wait for the enclave to turn up before I can get a plasma rifle or is that it?

yah, tht's the annoying thing, I went and found him afterwards anyway

this game is so great; I was really vacillating for a while there (cos there's so much going against it, talked about at length elsewhere tho not least the v.clunky engine) but I have been pouring time into it; something v/satisfying abt trawling the wasteland helping individuals out w/their stories.

the kids in little lamplight don't seem to mind tht I sold one of their pals into slavery

how does it work, if I've already killed everyone in paradise falls (+50xp for eulogy jones' ladies? yes pls)

what happens to the grown-up kid when you first hit lamplight? I refused to escort him and then he just turned up loldead

the one who wants to go to big town? if you escort him, I think you can then have him as a side-kick

the side-kicks are a bit useless (I ended up bagging charon the ghoul) but the mysterious stranger is badass (and pretty useful)

charon tried to catch one too many of my grenades.

i tend to leave dogmeat at home because he's such a stimpack sucker and it makes me nervous he's gonna get killed every time.

Dogmeat lasted approx 3 minutes for me, killed in crossfire between talon Mercs and Regulators while i hid. fuck that dumb mutt.

So when you play as evil does Three Dog broadcast about how much of a bastard you are? I hate it that this game demands that I replay it again. Im saving a bunch of things on my first play so there will be some newness for game 2.0.

Fawkes the Super Mutant has been a pretty helpful companion. That laser minigun thing does some decent damage.

I also typically leave Dogmeat at home. I like the idea of having a dog in the game and all that, but dude gets killed too easily in combat.

My dog survived my whole first game! I just reloaded whenever he died. (I saved ALOT.)

so I've just left ravenrock, if I report to the citadel is that it all over?

Yes.

i'm playing as a scientist/repair/medicine type. am i a moron?

Medicine + Repair were pretty worthless for me. But they'll probably be cool for you (and let you make cool custom weapons.) I think the only concern might be combat skills.

http://kaiju.net/junk/fallout3kulture.jpg

Escapee from the Wing-Nut Right-Wing Cartoon blog?

hah the funny thing is that i was going to recommend maxing up repair and medicine while boosting strength luck and agility as the strategy that worked best for me, although i i find myself wishing i had started science and lockpick higher.

yeah, science and lockpick seem pretty essential (though I maxed the perk that adds +5 to science, rather than plowing points into); put my points into small guns, sneak (don't use it much), lockpick and repair

also, fuck one fire ant

anyone know where my old room is in vault 101? I can't find it on any of the levels : /

someone please explain that cartoon to me.

I think its a lorelol.

it's essentially old-school political cartoon style "omg, they be rapin' my fav game franchise" shit with, as far as i know, little to no irony. funny thing is Fallout 3 is at least as good as the original games if not better. so JOKE IS ON THEM.

ah, it's from the purists

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0217529/

Erik Dellums, voice of Three Dog, played Dog 3 in She's Gotta Have It

I did not know that.

Chick who plays Amata was the reefer girl in Walk Hard:

http://www.inbaseline.com/Images/27214/27214_small.jpg

liam neeson's your pa

so much blood on my hands

...

NMA's review

That review is ridiculous in some many ways.

do not read if you suffer from hypertension

It's weird, because I'm a huge Fallout fan and I played the first two games many, many, many times over the years. (I've even beaten Wasteland a few times.) And I loved Fallout 3 and think it is, in many ways, the best game in the series. So when I read a review like that, I have to wonder whether these people are the Star Trek-equivalent of video game fans. They are more obsessed with canon than with fun.

I finally turned HDR on to see if I would get a performance hit. It worked fine, and all the glowy bits now look even better. Turning a raider into a disintegrated solution of green globules is one thing, but liquifying adude's head and having it glow in the dark is another.

I've stated it before, but the NMA guys are almost entirely unpleasable, anal-retentive fuckwits. I'm a huge fan of the original games too, I've played through the first game in particular several times, but I don't understand these dudes.

Mordy, I'm kinda right there with you on all accounts.

x-posts

anyone stumble on the mad preacher surrounded by mines and nukes? how did you, uh, 'handle' it?

also what armour/clothing get-up do you dudes have?

reading about everyone's abundance of stimpaks, ammo and cash makes me think I should maybe have picked those perks ('scrounger'?) that increase the chance of finding those things lying around : /

also, still loving forks' soundtrack but thinking about compiling one of my own from the other end of the century to switch it up a bit... thinking vangelis and other 'futuristic' music... what else?

i didn't have any of those perks and still found a lot of meds and drugs. Sniper rifle ammo was hard to maintain.

I never went power armor b/c I liked to be sneaky. mostly recon + the stealthy hat.

I am slowly going through again as a big, drug addicted thug.

where do you find the time?

I take a lot of Jet.

never liked the sniper rifle. just got the plasma gun and, with seven levels to go before 20, am planning on putting much of my skill points into energy weapons. In the meantime it's combat shotgun, ghoul mask and talon armor all the way.
I never loaded my own soundtrack!

And just found vault 112 last night before going to bed.
WHAT SECRETS LURK WITHIN??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I could maybe make a second soundtrack of FUTURE SOUNDS if there's interest?

Just dont unlock the secrets of vault 112 if you're way behind on the main quest, as I bitched about upthread.

I started a new game after beating it as a self righteous patsy on Saturday. Am now a surly super strong be-mohawked young lady who just annihilated megaton after finishing survival guide quests and taking Lucas Sims bobblehead. Im also recently discovering that putting skill points in melee was a big fucking waste.

step off, forks!! joeks; I am lazy and would probably never get round to it anyway :)

i don't know; i think the older stuff works better b/c so much of the game is soaked thru with a sense of loss, of melancholy nostalgia...

"Maaayyyyyy-beeeeeee
Youuuuu'llllll think of meeeeee...."

etc

I just did the lovecraft quest in the southwest and that was one of the most interesting, odd experiences I've had in a video game. I got the ghoul mask earlier, so it was mostly just exploring an abandoned multi-level building, following the storyline and saying hi to zombies all over the place. Really a special in-game moment.
I finally blew Moriarity's legs off with the exploding pants. Not as satisfying as I thought.

Bethesda proved with Oblivion that they were quite willing to support their products long after launch and it appears that Fallout 3 will get the same treatment.

Today Bethesda announced a whole load of exclusive 360 and Games For Windows DLC that comes in the form of three downloadable mission packs released in the early months of next year and the G.E.C.K which will be available for free in December.

The G.E.C.K is the Garden of Eden Creation kit and it "provides the community with tools that will allow players to expand the game any way they wish. Users can create, modify, and edit any data for use with Fallout 3, from building landscapes, towns, and locations to writing dialogue, creating characters, weapons, creatures, and more." Which I'm sure will no doubt please everyone.

The mission packs as planned contain the following missions:

* Operation: Anchorage. Enter a military simulation and fight in one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. An action-packed battle scheduled for release in January.

* The Pitt. Journey to the industrial raider town called The Pitt, located in the remains of Pittsburgh. Choose your side. Scheduled for release in February.

* Broken Steel. Join the ranks of the Brotherhood of Steel and rid the Capital Wasteland of the Enclave remnants once and for all. Continues the adventure past the main quest. Scheduled for release in March.

More missions for Fallout 3 can be nothing but good. Happy days. No word on price yet or achievements but when we know, you'll know

Ten bucks a pop sounds likely and about right... but who the heck needs MORE from this game?

At least they're finally putting out a SDK to let the folks go wild on it. Nice name for it, too.

Found Hubris Comics last night, and the text adventure in the basement. I like having the Explorer perk, as it reveals every single place; I feel like i'm cheating but i'm not! Huzzah!

Also, I did cheat a little and found the UFO crash site and the alien blaster, for what little good it does while it lasts.

As Forks or someone else mentioned earlier, playing this game episodically seems the best way to go, and I like that the best missions each seem to be a short story:

-"Today, the Doctor is trapped in a virtual reality experiment and must outwit its mad controller to escape."

-"Today, the Doctor must rescue a squad of colonial marines trapped on a hotel roof, surrounded on all sides by Super Mutants, and running critically low on ammunition."

-"Today, the Doctor investigates the strange goings-on at the remote Dunwich Building. Will the scattered remnants of diaries and log entries give some clue as to what transpired here so log ago?"

etc

If nothing else, it breaks up the monotony and routine of your standard collection of fetch quests. The guys at Obsidian and Bioware would have probably done a better job of strengthening and filling out the story bits for the quest, but for a big-budget/blockbuster title, I'm happy with what we got.

walking around the wasteland to terre thaemlitz' "D.C. D.O.A." so classic

also "I hear a new world" bridges the gap between forks' GOLD SOUNDS and my FUTURE SOUNDS unOSTs perfectly

post that shit yo

I am really, really thirsty (in RL) and stuck in the middle of class so I can't get a drink - which translates to my thinking about the role of water in this game and I wanted to throw something out there and get all your impressions on it. For me, a huge part of this game is the trade-off between drinking water and getting radiation. Something I actually don't think is severe enough (only a few times during the game did I need to take Rad-Away to decrease my radiation level because of drinking water). This is nothing quite like drinking from a sink or toilet in the middle of a bombed out building because you need to build up your hp - and you know you're slowly killing yourself while you're doing it. And I think this mechanic speaks in really interesting ways to the game world - this idea of every choice you make to succeed being one that ultimately kills you (either your health or less literally, your morality/soul - particularly I think about the choices in Oasis and the choices in Tenpenny Tower Quest). This relates to problems I had with the conclusion of the game (which I won't go into at depth because of spoilers). I think what this game does that is absolutely amazing is offer these sorts of sacrifices throughout the game, and the conclusion fails because it undermines that notion.

I will, forks, I'm still putting it together

You know, I never used the toilet/waterfountain/sinks after I tried to use the urinal and got zapped; too frightened by the rad issue and lack of radaway in game. That heals you? I never even knew!

Last night I got the level one animal friend perk and with that, plus the ghoul mask, I've suddenly got about half as many enemies in this game. If I can figure out a way to effectively deal with mirelurks and giant scorpions, I'm pretty much home free.

the water mechanic doesn't feel properly developed enough for it to have any significant or meaningful impact on the way you play the game and so the way you interpret its meaning - however I do agree that the end of the game does seem to undermine a lot of what's gone before (inasmuch as its somewhat redemptive)... for me, it's the finality that jars (I know, right? the game has to end) as so much of the game is about the world and its inhabitants scratching through but for the most part slowly wasting - memories wasting, and bodies wasting physically (psychologically, and emotionally)... I would have preferred something a little more elliptical, less obvious, more elision less bang

Weren't you ever deep in a building, or something, and not have enough stimpacks? XP

(don't know where that second set of brackets turned up from)

I went through the dunwich building pretty early in the game (picked up some of the holotapes but am yet to listen to them) and only saw some of the spooky stuff I learned about from googling it just now

a toilet with doors that open themselves?

anyone seen the plunger room of death building?

Oh, things wasting away definitely important motif in my playthru. Starting with the rush of voices in the white-out screens during cgen. And then the experience in the vault with the hallucinations. Other places as well - finding people lying on the street asking for mineral water (and you can never give them enough that they can stand up and start their lives), not to mention that besides the main quest, much of the game seems to be in holding pattern. No one is trying to take over the world (like the mutants in the first game) and in fact, if your father had never left the vault, the Big Bad Guys would never have involved themselves in the city (presumably). It's a world where everything has already happened. Certainly aesthetically (and my Townhouse experience, which I think I described above, was so powerful for that reason).

Mordy, I've always horded stimpacks and shot my way out of most situations. Even on hard, it's not that hard... at least I thought so.
But I did clock my #100 save game last night, sooooo....

And incidentally, why DID the game have to end? Oblivion/Fable II/GTA4 doesn't, right? So why stamp the thing shut? Or is it spoilerish to discuss?

The G.E.C.K is the Garden of Eden Creation kit and it "provides the community with tools that will allow players to expand the game any way they wish. Users can create, modify, and edit any data for use with Fallout 3, from building landscapes, towns, and locations to writing dialogue, creating characters, weapons, creatures, and more.

Okay, I just processed this. If this is available for Xbox, oh boy oh boy. ILXOR apocalypse a go go! HOOS ghouls! Some Dude fetch quests! Killer Eukyarotes!

But did Bethesda ever provide user gen scenarios for xbox oblivion? Is this likely to not happen on the console version for F3?

Btw; the poem that the robot reads to the children is "There Will Come Soft Rains."

(To tie back the idea of wasting away with the importance of water/rain in this game.)

I mean, it's not a secret that this is a game about water. The final puzzle/solution (and interestingly the only Myst-type puzzle in the game) is dependent upon recognizing that as the major game motif.

don't think the g.e.c.k will be available for xbox... : (((((

I do hear you though Mordy; it's not like you're really working to make a difference or "save the kingdom", you're just exploring a planet that was fucked long before you came on the scene. I dig that the mainquest seems to be engineered towards culminating in a 'heal the world' scenario, but I'm much much less interested in fixing things than I am in being the best equipped endtimes tourista.

Geck really DOES need to be available for xbox; they're all fired up about community and this is a community that would be huge.

I had such strong reactions to so many moments in this game. And I'm still working a bunch out. Have any of you done the return to Vault 101 quest yet? That broke my heart.

Bastards still won't let me back in. What starts it?

After bringing the scientists back to Project Purity in the main quest, you go near Megaton and pick up a distress signal coming from the vault.

oh. not really near there yet.

is there anyway to export an itunes playlist as MP3s? this seems like something that should be easy to do : /

haha brilliant, I love this game! came across a town cut into rocks at the end of a train line, with a massive behemoth caged up in the center of town... stalked round the perimeter of the town, trying to see if I could get the lock on the behemoth's cage open from a distance with my rifle... ended up shooting the generator next to the cage: cage door opens and the raiders and behemoth then have a MASSIVE set-to while I sit above it all watching it unfold : DD

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Cultural_references_in_Fallout_3

A good starting list.

seriously i come to this thread and i don't know what the fuck you guys are talking about half the time. but i love this game and obviously need to put more hours in. hello thanksgiving.

game of the year though, right?

I've read everything on this thread, despite the fact that I've never played it, and won't get a chance until mid December. I'm dying to play this.

At this point, I'd go game of the year. Trying to think of what else comes close...

Yeah, it's my pick.

same here.

is there anyway to export an itunes playlist as MP3s? this seems like something that should be easy to do : /

One convoluted way is to burn it to CD and then rip the CD to MP3, but there's got to be an easier way.

It's definitely my game of the year. Maybe my game of the 00's.

Man, look at all the major league shit that shipped this year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:2008_video_games

"Ron Perlman as the voice of the Narrator"
Wait, when does this happen?

"War. War never changes."

Also the whole ending.

lots of complaints about repeating art assets, identikit offices, metro stations and caves around too

http://img.skitch.com/20081126-j5f75b19u9dfweqpucgxi3mce5.jpg

fwiw, what I'm enjoying on my trip thru the wasteland; too big to rapidshare : /

nice

lots of complaints about repeating art assets, identikit offices, metro stations and caves around too

― czn (cozwn), Wednesday, November 26, 2008 5:23 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

there is some of this but I thought they did a lot better job then with Oblivion.

I don't know if it completely fits Fallout, but I made a country western mix that might be good listening. It's mostly pre-1975 stuff, but with a few newer songs as well. Email me if you'd like the link. I only stole one song in it from Tofu's mix.

the speed with which i seem to get my NPC party members killed is kind of alarming. also, i can't count the number of times the mysterious stranger perk has saved my ass.

^^was totally waiting to see some supermutants breaking it down, but it never happened =(

i want to see a behemoth cuttin' rug

Saved the kids in Paradise Falls, have Charon and Dogment waiting safely out of the way over by the slave pens, time to clean house with the Alien Blaster...

*puts on Lucky Shades*

...Miami-style.