Fallout 3 Is Better Than You Think

Armenius

Armenius

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Came across this 2 hour video arguing that Fallout 3 may be the best entry in the series. It is well researched and sourced, making a convincing argument. I found myself agreeing more than disagreeing. I'm only half way through, but I can't stop listening.

I still feel New Vegas is the better game due to the characters who I feel were better developed and the branching storyline. I never really agreed with a lot of the dislike for 3 and I thoroughly enjoyed, though. But Fallout 4 really got on my nerves.
 
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He does an incredibly good job at explaining his thoughts and his arguments. I caught the video yesterday when he uploaded it and couldn't stop listening. I've always had a hard time really "getting" New Vegas. The game never clicked with me the way FO1-3 did. Something always felt off about it. Before any DLC even came out I had put close to 100 hours into FO3 but with NV I always find myself burnt out after 5-10 hours, even with a lot of mods to tweak the experience. Its bugged me for years because NV is a game I should have absolutely loved, but I just never could. I think this video has finally given me some closure on that mystery and helped me understand what always put me off the game while my love of FO3 has remained since its release. It also answers why I really did not enjoy FO4 all that much.

The video makes me want to go back to FO3. It has been several years since I've played it and now I have an itch to see how it holds up nearly a decade later.
 
FO3 was my first FO game and it was very quickly one of my favorite games ever... I put 18hrs into FO:NV and couldn't finish it because I could not stand the cowboy / western theme.

Interesting timing for this thread and for me to see this thread, as I just continued playing FO3 on XB1 this week since it came free with FO4. I don't get the hate for FO4 though... sure it wasn't as good as FO3 IMO, but still a fun game. I technically put in more hours into FO4 but just because I had more free time by the time that game came out. FO3 is still my favorite, and I will surely pre-order any next Fallout.
 
Fo3 was fine, not sure why it needed a hour justification. It had one problem, a shit ending, and that was patched to be an ok ending.
 
Tweak155 said:
FO3 was my first FO game and it was very quickly one of my favorite games ever... I put 18hrs into FO:NV and couldn't finish it because I could not stand the cowboy / western theme.

Interesting timing for this thread and for me to see this thread, as I just continued playing FO3 on XB1 this week since it came free with FO4. I don't get the hate for FO4 though... sure it wasn't as good as FO3 IMO, but still a fun game. I technically put in more hours into FO4 but just because I had more free time by the time that game came out. FO3 is still my favorite, and I will surely pre-order any next Fallout.
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My problem with FO4 is that everything you do in the game is pointless. It was fun for the first 10 hours or so. After that the story branches out in about a dozen directions and the ending basically comes down to one decision: did you or did you not piss off the Brotherhood of Steel. All the settlement building, sidequests and other filler doesn't matter in the slightest. FO3 had a clear and curated narrative, while NV had clear delineation in who you decided to align with.
Aireoth said:
Fo3 was fine, not sure why it needed a hour justification. It had one problem, a shit ending, and that was patched to be an ok ending.
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A lot of the details as to why FO3 is disliked were lost to internet history and became talking points while nobody remembers why. After 11 years I think a video like this is justified because that.
 
I guess I just play fallout games to become the wastelander these days. Thus 4 did not bug me in the slightest, I was still able to do, hunt and loot in a massive open world.

Bethesda quests are always hit and miss, generally I find the quirky ones hit, but the serious ones can fall flat, and the main plot is always... Meh?
 
FO3 is a fun game, and he is right that a lot of the hate is overblown and not really justified.

FO3 is a mediocre role playing game. The story line isn't very branchy, and the RPG element means just stat manipulation. This is fine for many RPGs, but FO3 goes one less by letting the FPS representation of combat replace the RPG element. Just don't use VATS.

FO3 isn't a good FO game. While many RPGs embrace the above Nearly everything dressed up as a decision isn't a decision, it's a card force. It's the appearance of having a choice and make believe impact on the world (with some minor exceptions that make me believe this was initially intended, but cut for whatever reason). FO as a franchise blew people's minds by having whole chunks of content cut off by your decisions/perk choices/success or failure, or changed drastically and that is nearly totally missing. Then as he points out for some content it does a lot of things different than what people loved about FO2. His opinion is "ooh look its getting new fascinating stuff" and for others it's "you didn't give me what I have been waiting for". It's a beloved franchise and ... well you fuck with what the fans like at your peril. In that regard, it was screwing up by making VATS effectively optional by either not being rewarding enough, or by making real time FPS fighting not expensive enough due to ammo supply being a non issue fairly early in the game. Then there was the map. It was pretty constrained in lots of places. FO2 felt VAST. FO3 felt smaller than any other fallout game except maybe tactics. The dialogue, cast, maps, locations variety, etc. It also was a fair amount lighter on the humor, dark or otherwise.

New Vegas improved on almost all of the things that fans felt had been reduced or removed. So people liked it better in general.

FO4 seemed to make a decent compromise where both the FO3 fans and FO:NV fans liked it a lot. So All this discussion is kind of moot.
 
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It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't even in the same universe as Fallout 2 or even Stalker by comparison. The game had many terrible design decisions, finding 170 year old tv dinners & food scattered throughout the wasteland really broke the immersion factor, granted, you find one in a refrigerator in the first game, it was meant as a joke. Bethesda took the joke to a ridiculous level, the first two Fallout games kept them very subdued. Also, the Super Mutant design was horrendous, they were meant to be imposing characters to come across, in Bethesdas Fallout universe, they seem just like another enemy with a larger health pool. Don't even get me started on the Behemoth, just terrible.

I think Fallout 3 could have been far greater than what Bethesda gave us, had it been created using an engine other than the archaic Gamebryo engine. I really wish the game would have turned out like the concept art envisioned. I have the Collectors Edition and the concept art in the book is far superior than what we got in the game, probably due to the limitation of the engine.

I think the number one factor that broke the game was that you never felt weak, you always had enough supplies and you didn't have to think about actually completing a difficult task. Goals were more or less given to you, instead of staring you in the face, which in turn gave the player less of a sense of accomplishment. You were more of a leaf floating down stream than a fish swimming upstream.
 
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I liked Dead Money for New Vegas the buried Vault in Sierra Madre or whatever it was. The problem I had with Fallout 4 just too wide open I didn't know where to go.... it had it's moments but I'm sure Fallout 5 will be better setting up my own camp yeah I did that but it mine was a POS and I didn't want to spend hours making it good.


 
Krenum said:
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It wasn't a bad game, but it wasn't even in the same universe as Fallout 2 or even Stalker by comparison. The game had many terrible design decisions, finding 170 year old tv dinners & food scattered throughout the wasteland really broke the immersion factor, granted, you find one in a refrigerator in the first game, it was meant as a joke. Bethesda took the joke to a ridiculous level, the first two Fallout games kept them very subdued. Also, the Super Mutant design was horrendous, they were meant to be imposing characters to come across, in Bethesdas Fallout universe, they seem just like another enemy with a larger health pool. Don't even get me started on the Behemoth, just terrible.

I think Fallout 3 could have been far greater than what Bethesda gave us, had it been created using an engine other than the archaic Gamebryo engine. I really wish the game would have turned out like the concept art envisioned. I have the Collectors Edition and the concept art in the book is far superior than what we got in the game, probably due to the limitation of the engine.

I think the number one factor that broke the game was that you never felt weak, you always had enough supplies and you didn't have to think about actually completing a difficult task. Goals were more or less given to you, instead of staring you in the face, which in turn gave the player less of a sense of accomplishment. You were more of a leaf floating down stream than a fish swimming upstream.
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The jokes in FO2 were "subdued"? Are you nuts?

FO2 had a crashed Enterprise shuttle, the Monty Python questions 3 guy, a crashed whale a la Hitchhikers Guide, the "unwashed villagers hunting a spammer" (forum community reference) and tons of other crazy stuff.
 
Comixbooks said:
I liked Dead Money for New Vegas the buried Vault in Sierra Madre or whatever it was. The problem I had with Fallout 4 just too wide open I didn't know where to go.... it had it's moments but I'm sure Fallout 5 will be better setting up my own camp yeah I did that but it mine was a POS and I didn't want to spend hours making it good.


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Funny, I hated Dead Money. The toxic clouds and radios/speakers and lack of ammo/stimpaks all just annoyed me.

I haven't watched the video yet, but I never hated FO3. I thought it was a fine first entry into the series. The ending definitely sucked ass though. I doubt the video is going to do much to convince me though since I like the game but still consider it the worst of the series.
 
FO3 was by far my favorite in the Fallout FPS series, I've finished it several times. Never played 1 or 2.
 
I never played 1 or 2 so 3 was my entry into the franchise and the only one I've actually played. It was a decent enough game that I played through it and the DLC (although some of the DLC was crap in my opinion). I left the game installed after I finished the main game and the DLC thinking I might want to fire it up again but there was never enough interest to play through it again. The biggest issue for me was how buggy it was. It seemed like I'd stop to save the game every 10 steps I took simply because it would crash constantly and for no apparent reason.

Despite the crashing issues it was good enough for a single playthrough but that was it for me.
 
Fallot 3 was great and i loved playing it when it came out. After completing i never played it again. To me NV was jut a more improved version of FO3 o i played that a hell of a lot more. FO4 was kind of a disappointment for me but i think i need to go back and try that one over again.
 
I spent over 200 hours on Fallout 3. I absolutely loved it. warts and all. I don't ask for something to be "perfect." I ask for something to be involving. Which, I found in spades with Fallout 3. Sure, the main narrative was a little...meh. But, the experience is definitely more than the sum of it's parts. It's about the whole package together and the individual stories you craft while completing the objectives. Trying to get the Lincoln repeater while pure stealth and in dire need of ammo was a great experience. Something pulled straight out of a Boy and His Dog or some other Post-Apoc story.

Loved it. I tried New Vegas and Fallout 4, but I just burnt myself out on the formula with Fallout 3. No regrets. I bet those are great too.
 
I guess I'm fortunate; my preconception of games ( and movies ) tend to inform my final opinion of them.

I loved every FO game so far ( and I've played them all ), but FO3 was probably my favorite. Great atmosphere, tons to do. I haven't played 1 or 2 in years, but I remember 3 being the first to really drive home the 1950s nostalgia for me ( which isn't to say it wasn't present in the first two; it obvious was, but 3 made it more "real" to me ).
 
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