# Fallout 3 - Today's the day!



## EricNoah (Oct 28, 2008)

So who's got it?  Any opinions? 

My birthday is Friday so I think that's how long I have to wait yet...


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## Chainsaw (Oct 28, 2008)

Getting it after work. Totally pumped. Been a long time since I played Fallout and Fallout 2!

By the way, quick question to anyone who might know - can you play a female character? I can't remember if that was an option in the first two installments. I ask because my wife's recently gotten into RPGs and usually has more interest when she can customize her character a little bit.


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## Arnwyn (Oct 28, 2008)

My birthday is this Thursday, and I await the cornucopia of EB gift cards that shall rain down upon me. This is likely one I'll pick up, now that I've read the reviews.

[Yes, you can play a female character.]


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## Chainsaw (Oct 28, 2008)

Thanks!

Any negative outliers in the reviews? If so, what's the major complaint?


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## elawai (Oct 28, 2008)

My major complaint was that my bobblehead came off his base and had to be re-glued.

Hopefully, that's my last complaint (still installing the game).


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## Blackrat (Oct 28, 2008)

Being european, I still have to wait for thursday. But it should be waiting for me in the mail when I get home from work then...


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## Psionicist (Oct 29, 2008)

I've been looking forward to this game since 1998, so my expectations are high. I re-played Fallout 1 and 2 earlier this year for the first time since the early 2000's, and I'm really looking forward seeing the next installment. (By the way, regardless of the relative eye candy of modern computer games, the graphics of Fallout 1 and 2 surprised me - both games look _excellent_.)

I have to update my computer before I can play Fallout 3 though. Intel is releasing a new processor series - Core i7 - next month, and reviews should start popping up next week. This hardware will be really expensive unfortunately (especially now after the USD rally), so unless it gives extraordinary performance I'll build a new Core 2 system instead.


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## JediSoth (Oct 29, 2008)

Oh bother. According to all report, I can't play it. It requires at least an ATI X850 GPU and I have a mere X800.

Looks like it's time to upgrade the old video card again.


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## EricNoah (Oct 29, 2008)

I've been seeing glowing reviews.  I stopped by a forum and saw complaints that some folks had "accidentally" broken or solved the main quest through some weird random wandering or something...


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## Shayuri (Oct 29, 2008)

My mini-review follows:

In a nutshell, Fallout 3 is the kind of game that makes me want to just lie down in a pile of game CD's and roll delightedly around in them. Metaphorically. The storyline is simple but compelling out of the gate, using family ties with a hint of darker mysteries and hidden agendas to drive the plot forward. However, the game's true strength is the 'genuine' feel of just being able to pick a direction and stride out into the wasteland, looking for trouble.

The graphics are gorgeous in the sense of openness the landscapes convey, and the level of detail they provide of this broken, scarred world. Granted, the scenic grassy forested vistas of Oblivion are gone, replaced by barren brown earth, scorched grey and black building husks and granite outcroppings...but this relative lack of color is more of a feature than a bug in my view. The world of Fallout is not a beautiful fantasy kingdom. It is an ugly, torn up, dead place...rendered in loving, awful detail. One thing I appreciated very much was that there's no 'backdrops.' When I climb a hill and look out and see the Capitol Dome way off in the distance, I know that if I spend enough time...and brave enough horrors...I can get there. This is probably old news for gamers nowadays, but I still remember when 3D games were built in "boxes" of closed space, with distant details just painted on the sides.

The appearances of creatures and characters have the same good points and bad points as Oblivion, unsuriprisingly. The details of textures are excellent. The animations...less so. Faces have limited range of expression, which jumps out a bit more since the voice acting is generally very good. To hear expressive voicing and not have it echoed on the faces is a little jarring, though this is not what I consider to be a major issue.

Gameplay is easy, especially for Oblivion grognards. The game can be played more or less identically once you learn the new hotkeys and get accustomed to the heavy involvement of firearms. The much-ballyhooed VATS system does add an entertaining new mechanic to the mix. I don't use VATS for every fight, but I find it invaluable against tough foes at relatively short ranges. When a supermutant with a two-by-four in its hands charges you, bust out VATS. The system offers some continuity with previous Fallouts, but more importantly, it automates the otherwise frustrating difficulty level of trying to fight in melee when you're being whaled on and knocked around and you can't aim your return blows. VATS works even with melee weapons, though you can't target body parts with it then. Sorry guys, no more punching mole rats in the eyes and making them explode.

The details of SPECIAL and perks and so on should be familiar to Fallout fans, and work the same way, with adjustments to fit the new mechanics. Perks are gained every level now, which I rather like. Certain skills are innately useful...noteably Repair which is used not only in many quests, but can also disarm traps (the components of which are sometimes very useful) and allow you to maintain your weapons by cannibalizing other weapons of the same type. This is a clever mechanic that means you'll always want to collect the weapons of your fallen foes, even if you already have one of the same kind. It also means that while you can find a laser pistol early in the game, you may only get a handful of shots out of it until you can get it fixed up. Repairs to weapons and armor are available from vendors too, but will cost ya. On a similar note, Speech is useful for unlocking quests and getting better rewards, and Science can get you all kinds of juicy info from the frequently encountered computer terminals you'll find. Sometimes those terminals also allow you to take control of nearby security systems, like robots or automated turrets. Doing this can turn a difficult area into a cakewalk.

One unusual mechanic is radiation. The area you're in isn't radioactive anymore, but most of the water table is contaminated. This means that most food and water also has low levels of radiation in it. In game terms this means you can't just regain hit points for free. Stimpacks are safe, and can be found or bought. Sleeping is free, but not always safe, and you can only do it when you find something to use for a bed. You will find LOTS of food and drinks that heal you...but increase your radiation count. As your radiation count increases to toxic levels your attributes are penalized. If you rack up a big enough count, you'll die. Radiation doesn't go away unless you take a drug called RadAway, or get purged at a doctor's clinic. The system isn't too draconian...it takes a fairly large amount of consumption before you start getting penalties...but it makes resource management trickier and more interesting, as well as fitting the survival theme of the setting rather well.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable game.


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## EricNoah (Oct 29, 2008)

Thank you!


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## Pyrex (Oct 29, 2008)

*grumbles about how EBGames cancelled his preorder due to their system being busted and now he has to wait another week before his reorder from Amazon arrives*


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## EricNoah (Oct 30, 2008)

Mrs. Noah surprised me with an early b-day present and I've spent the past couple of hours enjoying Fallout 3!  It's very Oblivion-y which is excellent in my opinion.


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## Blackrat (Oct 30, 2008)

Girlfriend just messaged that my copy arrived in the mail. Still 6 1/2 hours until I can get home though .


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## Felon (Oct 30, 2008)

Thanks for the mini-review, Shayuri. One thing I noted playing Fallout 1 & 2 was that playing a character that focused on non-weapon skills wasn't really viable. Sounds like I may have more options here to talk, sneak, and hack my way around problems.


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## Shayuri (Oct 30, 2008)

Yer welcome!

A point of warning though. Fallout 3 is still an action RPG...which means you'll need some kind of combat skill. It doesn't have to be astronomically high or even tagged, but you can't get by -completely- with noncombat. 

Sneaking, especially with a Stealthboy, can make things easier. A stealthy headshot will decapitate just about anything, and if your target is alone when you do it, you can often not attract any more attention. This makes it possible to sneak around assassinating folks.

You can also just sneak around, but without a Stealthboy there will be places you can't go without exposing yourself, and the Stealthboys are limited use items. Hacking helps, but not every location has turrets and robots to use...and robots are pretty fragile, and probably won't singlehandedly wipe out your foes (though they make terrific distractions).

You can sometimes surrender to enemies by holstering your weapons, but I haven't tried that. Not sure if Speech skills come into play there or what.

These skills are all very important, don't get me wrong, but they won't make combat nonexistent. Just easier.


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## Rackhir (Oct 30, 2008)

My amazon Survival edition just showed up (2 days early and in time for the weekend!). The Pip Boy clock I got it for is actually cooler than what I though it was. You can actually wear it like your character does in the game, but it doesn't have any alarm fuctions.

It's crying out for someone to mod an iPhone into it to replace the clock display.


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## EricNoah (Oct 30, 2008)

So I had the day off today and found that somehow I ended up playing for like 7 hours.  Yikes!  It's very fun but I gotta ease up a bit! 

edit: Oh, I am now in the market for a good FO3 info site, something akin to the Oblivion Wiki.  Something that will allow me to learn about the game but will take care not to spoil things if I don't want to be spoiled.  (I clicked on a random FO3 site last night and within one click I was on a screen that had a very, very spoiler-filled sentence on it that I had not anticipated!  ). Suggestions welcome.

Also, is there something you can buy or make that will shed light (a torch or lantern or flashlight)?  I'm getting tired of really dark areas where I'm possibly missing good loot...


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## Falkus (Oct 30, 2008)

Your Pip-Boy has a flashlight in it. Hold down on the Tab key to activate it.


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## EricNoah (Oct 30, 2008)

Sweet, thanks!


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## Blackrat (Oct 31, 2008)

Falkus said:


> Your Pip-Boy has a flashlight in it. Hold down on the Tab key to activate it.




Or for those on XBox, hold down the B button for few seconds. Also, holding down X for few seconds holsters your weapon... In case you don't like running around pointing your gun to everyones face


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## Thanee (Oct 31, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> My birthday is Friday




That would be like... today!

Happy Birthday! 

Bye
Thanee


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## Thanee (Oct 31, 2008)

So, is this more Oblivion-turned-Fallout or Fallout-with-some-Oblivion?

If you would just swap the world and textures and so on, would it then basically be Oblivion (with Firearms )? Does it play pretty much exactly like Oblivion?

Any who really didn't like Oblivion, but still do like Fallout 3? Is this possible?

Bye
Thanee


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## D.Shaffer (Oct 31, 2008)

I got the game yesterday after an hour search of the local area to find one that actually still had a copy left.  Actually ended up getting the display copy at the local gamestop. 

Anyways, I meant to only play for a couple hours...and ended up playing till 3 in the morning. Not a good thing when you need to be up at 5 to go to work.   One thing I noticed, it really overestimated my computer's abilities, setting the default level at high.  Which made the game hard to play on.  Setting it on Low made it playable, but it's not quite as nice looking. It's still pretty good.  On higher levels, it's not just slow, it crashes a lot. That might be something to try for those of you with constant crashing issues.

My default Fallout character type is the sniper/genius type, high INT and AGI with tagged repair, science, and small arms.  For a change of pace from my previous Fallout characters, I'm playing a female.  I made the 'mistake' of exploring a bit before looking for Megaton and was rewarded with a nice hunting rifle. It's in bad condition though.  Thanks to a couple raider nests I've cleared out, I've got a pretty good 10mm as well as an AWESOME set of spiked knuckles+hockey mask (+5 to unarmed!).  At close ranged (Like inside the school) they're actually more effecting then my pistol is. I'm also loaded down with raider armor, which I really need to sell off.  It got to the point I made some caches in the area which I need to get back to at some point.


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## EricNoah (Oct 31, 2008)

Blackrat said:


> Or for those on XBox, hold down the B button for few seconds. Also, holding down X for few seconds holsters your weapon... In case you don't like running around pointing your gun to everyones face




Yeah, I found that out pretty late in my experience. 

Also found out about assigning hotkeys 1-8 recently.  Handy for switching between a ranged weapon, melee weapon and grenade-like weapon.


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## EricNoah (Oct 31, 2008)

Thanee said:


> That would be like... today!
> 
> Happy Birthday!
> 
> ...




Thank you!

As to your oblivion-v-fallout question ... to me, it's like Fallout-flavored Oblivion.  The feel and look of the game, how you act, how you need to respond to the world around you, is very Oblivion like.  Plus, when you are up-close-and-personal with things like SuperMutants or Radscorpions, it's not the same experience as viewing it high in the air with the creatures and the violence very far away from you.  Fallout was like playing with toys, whereas Oblivion was like being a toy.  Even if you are in 3rd person mode (which I am not very often in FO3 or Oblivion), it is much more personal, much more like it's happening to you.


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## Felon (Oct 31, 2008)

Still waiting on Gamefly to deliver (but frankly, I have plenty of good games to tide me over now--Far Cry 2 is still in its sleeve). 

Couple questions:

1) How does stealth work? Do you get something akin to the eye from Oblivion? How good is the AI with regards to line of sight, the character making noise or using his pipboy to shine light? 

2) How does persuasion work? I don't think they kept the persuasion wheel from Oblivion. Do we just get different response options a la Mass Effect?

3) Are the AI's flawless shots even at extreme range? I'm always annoyed when a game provides the player with sniping from extreme range as an option, but then as soon as heads start popping the AI returns fire with pinpoint accuracy with whatever weapons they have on hand.


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## Shayuri (Oct 31, 2008)

1) How does stealth work? Do you get something akin to the eye from Oblivion? How good is the AI with regards to line of sight, the character making noise or using his pipboy to shine light? 

- When you're in Stealth mode, your character crouches down and moves more slowly, though not as slow as a walk. You gain an indicator at the top of the screen that tells you if you're Hidden, if you're in danger of being spotted (when it says CAUTION), and when a hostile has pinpointed you and is coming to attack (it says DANGER). It also tells you when a nonhostile has seen you, in which case it reads DETECTED, but doesn't turn red.

It takes line of sight and the light level where you are heavily into account in determining detection. The weight of your apparel also figures into it. I haven't tried sneaking with the light on yet, but since it raises the light level around you, I imagine it would be harmful to success odds. 

2) How does persuasion work? I don't think they kept the persuasion wheel from Oblivion. Do we just get different response options a la Mass Effect?

-- The game makes certain responses available to you if your Speech skill is high enough. These responses have a percentage chance of success based on your skill level. The game also checks other stats and skills too, depending on the conversation. Sometimes you can get responses that key from other skills like Science or Medicine, sometimes from stat checks like Strength or Intelligence. When a particular response is opened up by a stat or skill check, there's no percentage chance of failure. The response will have the check type that opened it up in parentheses, so you can tell it's not just an 'ordinary' response.

3) Are the AI's flawless shots even at extreme range? I'm always annoyed when a game provides the player with sniping from extreme range as an option, but then as soon as heads start popping the AI returns fire with pinpoint accuracy with whatever weapons they have on hand.[/QUOTE]

-- Depends on where you are and what they're shooting. Harder foes have better weapon skills and therefore hit more often. Foes scale with you to an extent, but only up to a certain point. Location on the map also factors into difficulty of encounters. Plus, weapons have range limits. A raider with a shotgun will have to get closer to shoot you than a raider with a hunting rifle or, god forbid, a super mutant with a minigun.


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## Thanee (Oct 31, 2008)

BTW, do they still have the funny low-INT PC answers in dialogues?

Bye
Thanee


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## evilgenius8000 (Oct 31, 2008)

I've been playing the game for a few days, and I really love it. It does remind me quite a bit of Oblivion, but I think they've really improved on the formula AND added in Fallout flavor. One thing that I really like is how they've removed the scaling feature that Oblivion (and Morrowind to a lesser extend) had, so if you wander into certain places when you're a lower level there's a chance you might be unable to clear it out.

And, to answer a question above, you basically crouch to enter stealth mode, and a little text thing says "Hidden" if nobody sees you, "Detected" if something sees you but isn't trying to attack you, "Caution" if an enemy hears you but can't see you, and "Danger" if you've been spotted and are under attack.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Oct 31, 2008)

Thanee said:


> BTW, do they still have the funny low-INT PC answers in dialogues?




I called the sheriff of Megaton "Calamity Jane."  He didn't take too kindly to that.  I've been mouthing off to most everyone so far.


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## BrooklynKnight (Nov 1, 2008)

Where is Bigtown and how do I install the Infirmary?


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## Shayuri (Nov 1, 2008)

If you head to Arafel overland from Megaton, you'll probably bump into Bigtown.

Can't help ya with the Infirmary. There's some quests you get from folks in Bigtown though.


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## EricNoah (Nov 1, 2008)

My first guy is a guns/repair/scientist/sneak guy and he's mostly very nice to people though he's a bit of a klepto.  He's got the coolest beard, though... [sblock]there's a robot servant in a house you can buy/earn that will allow you to change your hair choices.[/sblock]

I think I will do a melee/unarmed guy next time and choose the dark path instead.


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## evilgenius8000 (Nov 1, 2008)

Related to the above spoiler:


Spoiler



You'll actually find at least one other being who can give you a hair cut, and even one that can do some form of plastic surgery to change your appearance 



edit: Weird... how do you do the button spoiler?


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## Phaezen (Nov 1, 2008)

evilgenius8000 said:


> Related to the above spoiler:
> [sblock]You'll actually find at least one other being who can give you a hair cut, and even one that can do some form of plastic surgery to change your appearance [/sblock]
> 
> edit: Weird... how do you do the button spoiler?




Like that?

The code is sblock inside the square brackets instead of spoiler.

Phaezen


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## Felon (Nov 1, 2008)

So, I've been playing a couple of days now. Feeling a little undergunned, as the 10mm pistol does a poor job of stopping things like radscorpions and giant ants. And there's no way in heck I can survive Super-Duper Mart. Is there some easy way to get a better weapon?

I guess I brought some of the trouble on myself, as my prime skills are Lockpicking, Science, and Sneak. Then again, the only benefit I see in picking those three skills is a one-time 15-point boost to each.

I like that each ability score seems useful, as do most of the skills. No obvious dumpstat.


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## evilgenius8000 (Nov 2, 2008)

Reply to Felon: [sblock]You probably shouldn't have gone to the Super Duper Mart first. The Springvale Elementary school's a bit easier, and you'll get a rifle that should make the Mart easier.[/sblock]


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## Shayuri (Nov 2, 2008)

Another hint for the Mart

If you have high Stealth, you can actually get some goods in the Super Mart without getting seen.



Spoiler



Sneak before clicking on the door. When you appear inside the Mart, look to your right. There's a little office area over there that you should be able to get to without being seen. Inside the office are various goods, including a laser pistol.


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## Pants (Nov 2, 2008)

Felon said:


> So, I've been playing a couple of days now. Feeling a little undergunned, as the 10mm pistol does a poor job of stopping things like radscorpions and giant ants. And there's no way in heck I can survive Super-Duper Mart. Is there some easy way to get a better weapon?
> 
> I guess I brought some of the trouble on myself, as my prime skills are Lockpicking, Science, and Sneak. Then again, the only benefit I see in picking those three skills is a one-time 15-point boost to each.
> 
> I like that each ability score seems useful, as do most of the skills. No obvious dumpstat.




[sblock]Since you have Science and Sneak, at the far end of the Super Mart, right across from the entrance is a terminal. If you hack that, you can get into the storage area and release a guard robot that will attack the raiders.


Let it do its thing and it could conceivably kill a bunch for you. I didn't, as I mined the door and blew it up when it tried to walk out of the room. [/sblock]

I got the Bloody Mess perk last night. Wow is that thing fun. Shooting a raider in the torso with a shotgun sends bits of erm... 'residue' flying in every direction. VATS combat is so much fun.


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## Felon (Nov 3, 2008)

Thanks, guys. It'll be interesting to hear how different builds work out.

Though, to tell the truth, Saints Row 2's co-op campaign is probably the most fun I've had this year in a video game.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Nov 3, 2008)

Pants said:


> I got the Bloody Mess perk last night. Wow is that thing fun. Shooting a raider in the torso with a shotgun sends bits of erm... 'residue' flying in every direction. VATS combat is so much fun.




I got that as well.  The only drawback is that you have to find the little bits in order to loot them.  Luckily, you can loot the entire corpse from as little as a foot.

I had one raider's weapon fly about a city block.


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## D.Shaffer (Nov 3, 2008)

F'ing ants.  Those who've been on the mention know what I'm talking about, but the name really DOES suit. Big, damn, BULLET EATING F'ing ants! I swear to god, I want to go toast a few anthills now, just to make sure these things never pop up again.  Dousing an anthill with gas and setting alight would be poetic justice. 

On another note...anyone know where the key to the cell is in the Hideway?  From the looks of things, it's a Raider camp that got overrun by Radscorpions, (Hah! Eat Ripper, Radscorpion! DIE DIE DIE!) but I cant find the key on any of the bodies.

I think random encounters ARE in the game in some form.  I got attacked by a bunch of hitmen with a note telling them who I am. I have no idea who the guy who sent them after me is, but apparently he's REALLY unhappy with me.  Really close one there as they were heavilly armed.  A little kid came running out that drew their fire and helped me to survive.  Should have capped him there as I would have avoided the ants.

Another time, I got randomly attacked by a Protectron just out of the blue.  Luckilly, he blundered into a trader.  A weapons trader. That was fun to watch.  I got to see a bunch of Talon Mercs blunder into a colony of mirelurks too.  I'd thank them for the armor and free gear, but they're feeding a bunch of oversized crabs now.  Dont mess with Mirelurks.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Nov 3, 2008)

If you end up with a good alignment after a certain point, those Talon dudes will show up.  I feel like going to their camp with a few-mini-nukes and saying hello...


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## Rackhir (Nov 3, 2008)

D.Shaffer said:


> F'ing ants.  Those who've been on the mention know what I'm talking about, but the name really DOES suit. Big, damn, BULLET EATING F'ing ants! I swear to god, I want to go toast a few anthills now, just to make sure these things never pop up again.  Dousing an anthill with gas and setting alight would be poetic justice.
> 
> A little kid came running out that drew their fire and helped me to survive.  Should have capped him there as I would have avoided the ants.




They are quite the bastards, kid could have mentioned they were literal FIRE ants.

Never having played Oblivion, I can't comment on it's Oblivion-y-ness, but it is feeling like an old Fallout friend.


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## EricNoah (Nov 3, 2008)

The city sections of the game are annoying me a bit -- they did a nice job of making it very mazelike and blocking out out of areas you aren't supposed to be able to reach, but the cost is that you don't have that "I can literally go anywhere" feeling like in Oblivion.  

I also find I get lost easily, particularly in the vaults...


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## Kid Charlemagne (Nov 3, 2008)

I'm playing a female character, and trying to go evil without going "spree-kill" evil.  I took the Black Widow perk and now Mr. Burke wants to marry me.


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## Rackhir (Nov 3, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> I also find I get lost easily, particularly in the vaults...




I had this problem too, until I started making heavier use of my Pip Boy Maps. Checking them more often and noting what direction I was pointed in on the map and in character quickly got me much better sense of direction and location.


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## Blackrat (Nov 4, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> I also find I get lost easily, particularly in the vaults...




In that case... Do avoid Vault 106... It's more than a maze...

Not going to spoil it anymore than that.


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## EricNoah (Nov 4, 2008)

Last night I accidentally stumbled on the end!  I thought maybe there were a couple more plot twists ahead but suddenly, bam, done.  So I will go back to a previous saved game and do a lot of exploring and side quests as I think there's still a lot for my first character to do before winding things up.


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## Felon (Nov 4, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> The city sections of the game are annoying me a bit -- they did a nice job of making it very mazelike and blocking out out of areas you aren't supposed to be able to reach, but the cost is that you don't have that "I can literally go anywhere" feeling like in Oblivion.
> 
> I also find I get lost easily, particularly in the vaults...



This isn't really a spoiler so much as a tip for everyone, so I'll go ahead and tell you that when you're blocked out of an area, it often means that you're supposed to use the metro system.

Regarding my previous comments, I'll also add that I've found it vitally important the puny 10mm pistol be phased out as your primary sidearm. That 6 damage is pretty much nothing, and certainly not the weapon to use on the big ants. If you can't find a better weapon and you're feeling discouraged, then heed this spoiler:



Spoiler



keep following the main storyline and you'll soon have more guns than you know what to do with


.


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## Felon (Nov 4, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> Last night I accidentally stumbled on the end!  I thought maybe there were a couple more plot twists ahead but suddenly, bam, done.  So I will go back to a previous saved game and do a lot of exploring and side quests as I think there's still a lot for my first character to do before winding things up.



Not sure whether to say congrats or sorry. 

I've heard of this happening. I hope I don't stumble across this abrupt ending.


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## Agamon (Nov 5, 2008)

By the power of Greyskull, this is a wicked fun game!  In fact, I feel fine calling it the best RPG EVAR (and yeah, I've played 1st 2 Fallouts, KOTOR, BG, Planescape: Torment and LoZ:OoT).

I'm doing my best to leave the main quest aside for side quests so as to not "stumble across the ending" as has been mentioned, before getting done what I want to do.

Man, Mirror's Edge is out this month...it's gonna hafta wait a bit, I'm sure.


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## Agamon (Nov 5, 2008)

Felon said:


> Regarding my previous comments, I'll also add that I've found it vitally important the puny 10mm pistol be phased out as your primary sidearm. That 6 damage is pretty much nothing, and certainly not the weapon to use on the big ants. If you can't find a better weapon and you're feeling discouraged, then heed this spoiler:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Strange.  I'm not heeding your spoiler at all, but I don't remember the last time I needed to use a pistol other then to finish off someone badly wounded.  My primaries are rifles and shotguns (and the minigun, which is fun against the super mutants and such).


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## D.Shaffer (Nov 6, 2008)

Met the Family last night.
You KNOW you're starting to get into the mentality when you usually play good characters, but you start hoping they end up your enemy just so you can loot the place because of all the ammo they have.  "Stay good, self, stay good"  Wierd little freaks, but I got a free perk out of it.  Arefu seems to like me too, although their tokens of gratitude are a bit...uh, strange.  

Him: "Here, have this. I've been storing it in case things started to get bad"
*You receive Beer* 
"Good survival strategy there..."

And then there's the crazy lady.
"Here! Have one of my delicious chocolate chip cookies"
*You received dented tin can*

For those who are following the evil path: When you gut someone in a town, will they automatically all turn hostile toward you, or does it only count if they see you?


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## Felon (Nov 6, 2008)

Agamon said:


> Strange.  I'm not heeding your spoiler at all, but I don't remember the last time I needed to use a pistol other then to finish off someone badly wounded.  My primaries are rifles and shotguns (and the minigun, which is fun against the super mutants and such).



Not sure what you think is strange about my post, but the point I was addressing is that some people might have trouble finding a rifle or shotgun in the first place (there's no weapon store in Megaton, just a supply store that carries a random assortment of junk), and might not be aware exactly how sub-par that 10mm pistol they start with is.


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## Felon (Nov 6, 2008)

D.Shaffer said:


> Met the Family last night.
> You KNOW you're starting to get into the mentality when you usually play good characters, but you start hoping they end up your enemy just so you can loot the place because of all the ammo they have.  "Stay good, self, stay good"  Wierd little freaks, but I got a free perk out of it.



A free perk, huh? All I got was a schematic for a melee weapon. 

You can steal like crazy without it hurting your karma much as long as you actually choose the do-gooder path for missions themselves. I'm the biggest klepto/pickpocket/burglar/hacker you've ever seen, and my pipboy still displays me with a halo over my head. Of course, all of that karma actually cost me the opportunity to recruit a follower. I was literally too good for him.


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## D.Shaffer (Nov 7, 2008)

Felon said:


> You can steal like crazy without it hurting your karma much as long as you actually choose the do-gooder path for missions themselves. I'm the biggest klepto/pickpocket/burglar/hacker you've ever seen, and my pipboy still displays me with a halo over my head. Of course, all of that karma actually cost me the opportunity to recruit a follower. I was literally too good for him.



Talk to Vance again.  See if you get a 'Teach me the ways of the vampire' option.


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## EricNoah (Nov 7, 2008)

Ok, so after a week with this game, I am realizing that while I enjoy it, it will ultimately not hold a candle to the amount of time I have spent with and the pleasure I got from Oblivion.  Which is probably good as I've been neglecting my life over the past week!  But I hit that spot where it has become as much a chore as a pleasure. It happens to me a lot in games, so no biggie.


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## Felon (Nov 7, 2008)

With me, it's been just the opposite. I started out with the impression this was going to be such a slog (as Oblivion was a slog for my combat-weak thief), but as time goes on I'm discovering new ways to raise hell. Wish I could find Dogmeat, or at least one follower, but that'll give me something to work towards this weekend (no spoilers on that thanks).

Though I will says that stealth seems like a kind of weak skill for stealth kills. I've got about a 65 now, and I can't creep up on any hostile mob, even in the dead of night.


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## frankthedm (Nov 7, 2008)

I have not played it yet, but an associate of mine fees the game while very fun, also feels disappointed with how the VATs is now "the easy button" rather how it had been the character's action and defense economy.


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## Silverblade The Ench (Nov 9, 2008)

Some tips:

Giant radscorpions are B*****DS!! I hate 'em ugh, only deathclaws are worse.
but, I found soetehing out..they seem very vulnerable to mines!
I don't know if it's because most of their body is over a mine (so more damage) or a deliberate weakness, but 3 or 4 fragmines, or a single bottlecap mine blows the swine flying through the air, muhaha!!!

put them down in a pattern, so one blast won't set off ALL the mines in the larger pattern.
So, for giant radscorpions,what I like doing is making a cross, with 3 or 4 fragmines in each position.

The Railway Gun is a hoot! and note it is indeed RAILWAY, not rail, gun 
Awesome fun sneak critting, cause it looks so damned fun as the spike goes through them.

Note, when sneaking unless you have a perk (can't recall name) or veyr high skill, you better go to WALK mode, as the defualt RUN mode adds a penalty to your Stealth skill.

To earn EXPLODING PANTS, what you do is sneak up to an enemy pick pocket them, and give them a frag grenade, which becomes a  LIVE frag grenade...BOOM!
hahahaha!! hysterical. needs high sneak skill or use a Stealth Boy.


dart gun schematic can be bought from a vendor in Tenpenny tower. one of the best weapons in the game. low damage, but, it cripples the enemy's legs automatically and does damage over time, so, if a monster is a meleer or you wish to pul it through mines, it's ideal.

Watch when shooting vehicles, as they may epxlode, causes a nuclear epxlosion, which can of course...be very useful....

Companions (not Dogmeat) can carry stuff for you, and Charon can use rifle type weapons, so I give him a Chinese assault rifle.

Shooting grenades in enemies' hands sets them off...

If your explosives skill is high enough you cna not only disarm "grenade necklace" tripwires, you can take the grenades as well!

The "Fatman" mini nuke launcher _lobs _the nukes in an ARC, so watch that, takes practice or VAT to hit targets.

Note, that if you are in sneak mode, and an enemy goes over a mine of yours...it counts as a sneak attack!! much evil fun!

There more often more than one way of doign things, but, there's a sort of open cast mine area with raiders...
[sblock="Sneakiness"]
Instead of jsut shooting them you can do this:
they have a mutant behemoth inside an electrified enclosure. if you shoot the generator with a sniper weapon or scoped 44, from afar, the generator blows up, the electricity goes off and the mutant behemoth come sout and kicks most of their asses, haha!!!
[/spoiler]

Do NOT get the perks for extra xp or levels, you are capped to lvl 20, so you'll get there anyway and lose out on perk slots for useful things. Wish I had know that!! 

Repair is a VITAL skill. repair one item with a same, or similar item (Lincoln RIfle is repaired by a standard Hunting rifle for example). Good condition weapons are hugely more effective.

Do NOT rush through the game, epxlore epxlore explore! don't go through the main quest arc, exclusively, there's tons to see, and do out there! 

Quesiton though: laser weapons have sucky damage, what's the advantage of them, beyond setting gas off? (igniting gas is fun, lol).


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## andargor (Nov 10, 2008)

Silverblade The Ench said:


> Watch when shooting vehicles, as they may epxlode, causes a nuclear epxlosion, which can of course...be very useful....




I shot at a raider and missed a couple of times before hitting him. I saw him fly through the air, and fly, and fly, until I exited VATS and realized that the drive-in he was in was packed with a dozen cars and I had hit one with my misses. Most incredibly awesome explosion I've seen in a game.



Silverblade The Ench said:


> Companions (not Dogmeat) can carry stuff for you, and Charon can use rifle type weapons, so I give him a Chinese assault rifle.




Charon can wear power armor too, so if you can't, he can.



Silverblade The Ench said:


> Quesiton though: laser weapons have sucky damage, what's the advantage of them, beyond setting gas off? (igniting gas is fun, lol).




I use a laser rifle all the time. Don't forget that damage is dependent on the appropriate skill, maybe that's it. Also, I get a lot more shots off with the laser rifle or pistol than other guns, so perhaps comparable DPS with less AP.

The plus is turning targets into a glowing pile of ash. The plasma rifle is good for turning them into goo.


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## Blackrat (Nov 10, 2008)

andargor said:


> Most incredibly awesome explosion I've seen in a game.




I take it you haven't seen this one guy with his nuclear mine-field yet . That's one awesome Kaboom.


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## Shayuri (Nov 10, 2008)

Re: Lasers

1) Good range and accuracy. Especially with the rifle.

2) Abundant ammo, primarily with pistol. They also have pretty big "clip" sizes.

3) Quick quick quick firing. In VATS this represents a low AP cost. Out of VATS it means you can shoot as fast as you can push the button. Damage per shot isn't terribly high, but damage per second seems on par.

That said, a fully repaired laser tends to be pretty big bucks to sell, so if you're not focusing on Energy Weapons, you've got nothing to lose by selling the lot off.


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## D.Shaffer (Nov 10, 2008)

Well, I finally found Dogmeat...surrounded by the corpses of 5 raiders who apparently were scripted to start attacking him as soon as I hit the Scrapyard.  GOOD dog, Dogmeat! GOOD dog!  

I also almost lost Dogmeat (Not to mention myself) when I hit a car with a couple rounds...and it started setting off the other cars.  Ouch.  Luckily was in a clearing so I didnt get hit as badly as I could. I did make it a point to get out of the Scrapyard before the rest of the cars went out. 

As for Sneak...I see that more as a Sniping skill rather then something for melee.  Get close enough so they cant see you while you're lining up a shot. Especially nice for those tight corridors with the combat shotgun.  Turn a corner, hit vats before it switches to Danger, and get those lovely called shots to the head.  Mmmmm.

Also saw the strangest complaint about the game else where.  Someone saying that Fallout 3's opener was stolen from Bioshock.   Nevermind it's a fairly close riff of the original Fallout 1's OP...well...it doesnt seem to be all that close to the Bioshock opener, except for the use of some old music.


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## Shayuri (Nov 10, 2008)

Bioshock...hee...

It was just a remake of the same old "war never changes" thing that's been part of Fallout since the start.

As for Dogmeat, congrats! Save OFTEN. He dies a LOT. He has a tendency to run right into packs of enemies, who will focus on him before they attack you, even if you run right after him and get in the middle of it all.

Dogmeat is durable, but he will die quickly under sustained fire. And deathclaws MURDER him. It took me ten tries to kill a deathclaw before it could kill him once, and I had a head start on the 'claw. Dogmeat heals very quickly out of combat, and you can feed him a stimpack if need be...but it's hard to do in the confusion of combat.

Best thing to do is tell him to 'stay' if you're going into very dangerous territory. Dogmeat is at his best against light to medium armed animals and humans. He can survive supermutants as long as you kill them quickly while they're distracted by him. He can solo little annoying things like radroaches, molerats and even normal radscorpions (NOT giant ones and NOT those Yao Guai things), which mean you don't have to use ammo or degrade weapons over those things. He can usually solo raiders too, as long as there's just one at a time.

He can find stuff too, but I haven't yet found this to be terribly useful. Since the things you tell him to find are usually in something hostile's inventory, he tends to just lead you straight into a combat situation.


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## Rackhir (Nov 10, 2008)

The lasers also seem to have a very high crit rate and more devastating crits when they happen (IE. instant death disintegration).

The mini-gun is awesome when firing if you have a good subwoofer.

Want to get that last bit of loot home? Drink a beer to bump your str by a point, then you can fast travel home to sell the stuff, before the alcohol wears off.

Apparently Bethesda is raking it in with Fallout 3. It's nice to see a classic series really starting to get the attention it deserves.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Nov 10, 2008)

Shayuri said:


> And deathclaws MURDER him. It took me ten tries to kill a deathclaw before it could kill him once, and I had a head start on the 'claw.




Deathclaws murder everything. I got myself into a fight with three at once, and the only way to pull it off was to order my companion (Clover) to stay back so she could fire from a safe position so that she didn't run in and get sliced apart.  I prepped the battlefield with frag mines and used up a bunch of missiles - though after selling out Tenpenny Towers to the ghouls I had lots of those, 40-soemthign stimpaks and about 4K caps....


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## Shalimar (Nov 10, 2008)

Is anyone else having the game freeze up?  I am playng on a PS 3 and its crashed maybe 5-6 times so far on me since I bought it the day it came out.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Nov 11, 2008)

Shalimar said:


> Is anyone else having the game freeze up?  I am playng on a PS 3 and its crashed maybe 5-6 times so far on me since I bought it the day it came out.




I've got the PS3 game, and its locked up on me 3 or 4 times (I'm almost 18th level).  I've also gotten stuck in rocks once or twice so that I couldn't move, and I've had a weird thing happen where the controller button for firing stops working, but when I come out of pip-Boy, I squeeze off one shot for no reason.  Restarting the game, or reloading solves all those issues.  I haven't had a lockup since I downloaded the latest firmware update, though that may be a coincidence.


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## DonTadow (Nov 11, 2008)

Silverblade The Ench said:


> Some tips:
> 
> Giant radscorpions are B*****DS!! I hate 'em ugh, only deathclaws are worse.
> but, I found soetehing out..they seem very vulnerable to mines!
> ...



I can't really describe how much i love thi sgame.  I like any game that's not linear and the fact that I have been playing for two weeks and just decided yesterday to continue the main quest made it so much more awesome.  

Right before I was going to finish the main quest, I decided to check out two places i needed to go for other quests.  Good thing i did, because i skipped like 3 or 4 chapters of the main quest apparently.  Awesome.  THe game did a good job of making me not feel lost in the story despite my exploration revealing things that weren't on the "straight" line.


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## DonTadow (Nov 11, 2008)

Kid Charlemagne said:


> I've got the PS3 game, and its locked up on me 3 or 4 times (I'm almost 18th level).  I've also gotten stuck in rocks once or twice so that I couldn't move, and I've had a weird thing happen where the controller button for firing stops working, but when I come out of pip-Boy, I squeeze off one shot for no reason.  Restarting the game, or reloading solves all those issues.  I haven't had a lockup since I downloaded the latest firmware update, though that may be a coincidence.




I am level 13 and it has locked up 3 times, one time iwas able to save and reload and get out of it, the other times i needed to reset the game and start from an earlier save.  Lucikily i save a lot so it wasn't no biggie.


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## D.Shaffer (Nov 11, 2008)

I got the PC version and it's locked up/crashed on me several times at the beginning.  It more or less went away as soon as I lowered all my graphics options.  The autodetect on the setup is just a wee bit optimistic.


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## Enforcer (Nov 11, 2008)

I've got it for the Xbox 360 and it's crashed 4 times on me. I'm almost level 14 and just completed Tranquility Lane. It hasn't crashed on me in some time, however, it was a few levels and lots of quests ago.

Still, for a console game to crash is pretty much unacceptable--it's no like they had to design the console version to work with several different processor and GPU configuations...


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## Rackhir (Nov 11, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> Still, for a console game to crash is pretty much unacceptable--it's no like they had to design the console version to work with several different processor and GPU configuations...




Er, since when have the PC, PS3 and 360 all had identical hardware? It is a cross platform game after all. So actually they do have to deal with not only different hardware, but wildly differing programing environments.

Also the current generation of consoles is orders of magnitude more powerful and thus more complicated to work with than your old SNES or PS1. If ya want those tasty, near photorealistic, 3D environments, it's gonna be rather more complicated to program than if you're just moving 2d sprites on a flat plane.


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## Enforcer (Nov 11, 2008)

Rackhir said:


> Er, since when have the PC, PS3 and 360 all had identical hardware? It is a cross platform game after all. So actually they do have to deal with not only different hardware, but wildly differing programing environments.
> 
> Also the current generation of consoles is orders of magnitude more powerful and thus more complicated to work with than your old SNES or PS1. If ya want those tasty, near photorealistic, 3D environments, it's gonna be rather more complicated to program than if you're just moving 2d sprites on a flat plane.




I never said they did have identical hardware, but for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions they knew exactly what they were dealing with. Or should have.


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## Rackhir (Nov 11, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> I never said they did have identical hardware, but for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions they knew exactly what they were dealing with. Or should have.




Yes and my point was that when you are trying to get the same piece of software to work on wildly differing platforms, it's never going to be as reliable as when you can target it to a specific platform. Things that cause bugs on one, won't on others and something that works fine, might crash the others.

Also, given the greater inherent complexity of the software and the hardware, there is inevitably going to be a decrease in reliability, simply because of that.


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## Kaodi (Nov 12, 2008)

Without spoiling what happens, is it possible to say whether it makes sense, in context, for the game to finish after you complete the main quest?


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## EricNoah (Nov 12, 2008)

It did for me.  There may be multiple endings and perhaps there are some where it doesn't make as much sense?


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## Felon (Nov 13, 2008)

Found Dogmeat. He is sort of limited in utility. I hate talking to him because there's usually two sets of dialogue options to go through, with no way to simply cancel out. He spends a lot of time running into walls and attacking things without being directed to do so. I think he screws up my use of the meznetron by attacking people I'm trying to mez. Sending him off to find stuff is risky because there's no way to call him back once he's out of sight.


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## Agamon (Nov 13, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> It did for me.  There may be multiple endings and perhaps there are some where it doesn't make as much sense?




If you take in every slight change, there are over 1000 different endings, which makes me think there is a greater chance of one getting an ending that does make sense as opposed to not....


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## Fallen Seraph (Nov 14, 2008)

I decided a week ago to finally give in and spend the $70 on it (hard choice for a college student). I am quite amazed at how pretty it looks on my laptop even with it just being on medium difficulty (runs completely smooth too).

I am currently level 15 and just got to the Rivet City part of the Main Quest. I have been mainly exploring and doing side-quests. 

It is funny this is one of the first RPGs where I didn't have to consciously make a good choice to be good it came naturally. I am right now a "Ambassador to Peace". Next character I plan on making a "screw civilization and being good I want to be a evil Raider." 

Also, EAT FOOD! I have found that by simply eating food and drinking water you will save yourself tons of hurt since it means you'll have a very large quantity of Stim-Packs (currently got over 70).


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## Aus_Snow (Nov 14, 2008)

Hey, anyone feel like posting their character's SPECIAL qualities? So to speak.

I mean, it's a RPG forum, so level, stats, skills and perks - and maybe choice of gear - seems downright appropriate, I reckon. 

Or should that be a forked thread. . .?


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## Fallen Seraph (Nov 14, 2008)

Strength: 2
Perception: 10
Endurance: 3
Charisma: 5 (6+)
Intelligence: 10
Agility: 10
Luck: 5

My three big skills, all maxed out too 100 are:
-Lockpick
-Science
-Small Guns

Repair, Speech and Sneak are also fairly high.

I am currently at level 15.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Nov 14, 2008)

I don't have my exact stats right now, but I made them pretty even across the board (4-7), then boosted Charisma to 10 via the Intense Training perk.  I'm playing an evil chick, and I've got the Black Widow, as well as contract killer and cannibal.  I'm level 18, and I've got Science maxed out.  Lockpick is pretty high, and I'll max it next level.  Speech, Small Guns are both in the 70-80 range, and I'm bringing up my Energy Weapons skill.  Repair is in the 50 range.

I like to use the Reservist Rifle to start off (though right now I'm low on ammo) and also switch between the 10mm submachine gun and the Chinese Assault Rifle depending on the situation and my ammo level.  I'll pull out the laser pistol to toast radroaches and other small targets, and I'm starting to use the Laser Rifle a little more.


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## Fallen Seraph (Nov 14, 2008)

Ammo wise I am doing really good right now:

Chinese Assault Rifle: 1000+
Laser Pistol: 800+
Laser Rifle: 900+
Submachine Gun: 500+
Hunting Rifle: 100+

How many special guns have you gotten so far. Myself; got the Alien Blaster, special Chinese Assault Rifle, special Submachine gun, special Combat Shotgun.


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## EricNoah (Nov 14, 2008)

I happen to like Lincoln's Repeater.


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## Silverblade The Ench (Nov 15, 2008)

Re-playing it, as I'd messed up, shouldn't have take the 10% bonus xp perks as you  hit the level cap, grrr.

Ok:

Flamer is awesome up close, the "Burnmaster" named flamer, found in highly radioactive tunnels under the city some place, is hell on wheels!!! Muhaha!

Charon is an awesome companion, especially when you give him the "antAgonizer" helmet...haha, it looks so damned silly!!

There are two massive nuclear suprises in game...
[sblock="Nuke Em Till They Glow!"]
Around the land out, doors only, you find 5 tapes from the KELLER family, these unlock a place in the National Guard amrory...a named Fatman nuke launcher. The warheads "MIRV", that is, split..so, you get 8 mini nukes when you fire it in a spread....OMFG....!!!

You know the big satellite towers way north west? I haven't done this one yet, but...apparently there is a command that will trigger a nuclear strike..that is, not a mininuke, but full on multiple nuke strike on the surrounding area...this one I have GOT to see!!!
Satcom Array NW--05a

[/sblock]

the games fabulous, but, it's so upsettign seeing nuked schools etc, and some of the sad, well-done vigeettes, like the relay radio broadcast begging for help for a guy's sick son..you find them both, long since dead 


The "nuke booby trapped alleyway" omg, I didn't expect that, hehe!!
_"The worm! THE WORM IN MY HEAD!" 
"Make him SHUT UP!!!"_

Oasis, that's a cool and very odd scenario indeed, and links to Fallout 1 and 2.

"Exploding Pants", is the best thing ever...I didn't know you could do it with mines!! Bottlecap mines would be a bastard for that, muhaha!!


I found an Ant tunnel way out by Shalebridge, iirc, where you find small, green (non enemy) ants, you can inject their eggs with a stimpack to increase growth...no idea what that's for. Quest ?


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## DonTadow (Nov 16, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> I happen to like Lincoln's Repeater.




I found it today and have been heistant to use it for fear of devaluing it. At a value of 500 gold I thought it was  a quest item. Does look nice though, I think it has a max 46 damage which is more than my combat shotgun. 

Everyday I seem to love this game more.  I think I"ve spent one day not playing it for at least an hour. Its such a well designed world and though it has its humourous moments I like though glimpses of realism. You got to try to keep a sense of humor when the world is pretty much destroyed.  

It seems everytime I lookup, there's something new.  I was doing the main quest for a bit, then the other day I just decided to go for a walk and explore the north a bit more. Then I'm back inthe heart of DC looking for the lincoln memorial.  Tomorrow I'm going to look for the white house, its the only major thing i can think of that i haven't seen.


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## andargor (Nov 17, 2008)

DonTadow said:


> I found it today and have been heistant to use it for fear of devaluing it.




You can use very common hunting rifles to repair it.

Like my Waser Wifle can user regular Laser Rifles to repair.


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## DonTadow (Nov 17, 2008)

andargor said:


> You can use very common hunting rifles to repair it.
> 
> Like my Waser Wifle can user regular Laser Rifles to repair.




Finally buckwheat makes it to the big time ... who would av tought.

Seriously i'll have to try it, i have been keeping everything i find in the game in my house until i actually need cash, with over 5k worth of cash, i have just been storing hunting rifles pretty much (off the super mutants).  Which reminds me, what in the world do i spend cash on in the world. Don't need ammunition too much, i've bought m;y theme (science) and the workbench and science lab (the infirmary seems kinda counter productive considering 50 radaways i have.  What else is there?

Also, and this may be a spoiler so i don't need details, but is there anything i need the mininuke for. Also are there a heck of a lot schematics around. I got schemetics for 5 things, but 100s of misc items.  



Spoiler



outside of those big super mutants


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## Silverblade The Ench (Nov 18, 2008)

Well...

[sblock="Who's yer daddy?"]
In the bottom of the Deathclaw Sanctuary, there is a pool of blood...you will find a pretty interesting weapon, Vengeance, gatling laser does double usual damage....it slaughters things!!!

ALso, if you find the 5 KELLER holotapes aorund the map, they unlock a cache in the National Guard Armoury...a super Fatman launcher
not got it yet, is it magazine fed, or does it really fire 8 shots at once?

Ever seen "Split Second" ?
_"We need some big, big, BIG ****** GUNS!"
"Hallelujah!"_
muhaha 
[/sblock]


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## Shayuri (Nov 18, 2008)

Lincoln's Repeater is my headshot gun of choice...I like it even more than the Reservist's Rifle (named sniper rifle) because it carries more ammo at a time, and does more damage.

Plus, sniper rifles and .308 ammo is fairly uncommon, so it's tough to keep them maintained and with adequate shots.

[Sblock=More uniquesSmuggler's End - Laser Pistol that does 19 damage fully repaired. Elder Lyons' wall safe (which is NOT stealing for some reason) in the Citadel.

Reservist's Rifle - Sniper Rifle that does much better damage, but only carries 3 rounds per clip. A crazy Oasis guy has it in a Chapel not far from the satellite towers in the northwestern area of the map.

Sydney's Ultra 10mm SMG - The relic hunter you can team up with in the National Archive has a SWEET customized SMG. To get it, you must either let her die, kill her, or encounter the corpse of her father in the Reilly's Ranger quest. Explore the hotel thoroughly and you'll see a skeleton on a bed with an audio log beside it. That's her dad. After you finish the National Archive, Sydney will trust you enough to open up and tell you about her father abandoning her. Give her the log. She'll be grateful, and decide to leave the merc biz behind, and give you her gun plus some ammo for it. This gets you good karma. If you don't find her dad before finishing the National Archive, it's okay. She goes to the Underworld to hang out. You can bring the audio log to her there for the same result.[/sblock]

There are a LOT of really cool little side stories and non-quest goodies. Here's a few:

[sblock=Fun Side Things]Southwest corner, not far from Girdershade, look for the Dunwich building. Check it out, and be sure to explore all of it. Creepy and fun!

Also in the southwest, though not as far west, is Andale. This place was just awesome, mainly because it's so low key. Once you figure out what's going on there though, you'll get the screaming meemies! Gloriously dark.

Hubris Comics, in the south side of the DC Ruins. A weird detour, but has good loot, a weirdly entertaining text adventure minigame, and a crazy dude with a minigun.

There's an old Armory in the northeast that's -heavily- guarded by raiders, but is swimming in good loot if you can get past them. Be good at hacking and/or lockpicking, as the main armory room is still sealed. Be warned the raiders are well armed, including one with a missile launcher.

There's a ruined car factory north of the DC ruins that is infested with giant ants. There's a queen in the assembly line area...a tough fight, but great exp. You get ant pheremones from her, which can be useful in a side plot in Rivet City.

...I could go on like this forever. There's an -astonishing- amount of content in this game![/sblock]


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## Blackrat (Nov 18, 2008)

Shayuri said:


> There are a LOT of really cool little side stories and non-quest goodies. Here's a few:




For creepyness, visit Vault 108, just south of Canterbury Commons. For some reason that place has scared me the most so far. And yeah, I mean 108, not 106. 106 was lame compared to that.


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## Shayuri (Nov 18, 2008)

[sblock=vault 108]gary![/sblock]


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## Ranger REG (Nov 19, 2008)

Are Deathclaws easy to kill? Encountered one while trailing an Outcast patrol. The pair in their armor got easily shredded by it but managed to weaken it for me to finish the creature.

Besides Rad Regeneration and Hemo ... the one where you can use blood pack like purified water for healing oneself ... what other bonus perks out there?


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## Blackrat (Nov 19, 2008)

Ranger REG said:


> Are Deathclaws easy to kill? Encountered one while trailing an Outcast patrol. The pair in their armor got easily shredded by it but managed to weaken it for me to finish the creature.



They are by far the second toughest enemies in the game. Under lvl 10, you are more propable to die than win against one. But finding good sniping points, or getting sneak critical can enhance your chaces significantly.



> Besides Rad Regeneration and Hemo ... the one where you can use blood pack like purified water for healing oneself ... what other bonus perks out there?




[sblock=Very Minor Spoilers]hmm. You get a perk that increases either your str or per from one quest. There's the power armor training perk that you get once you get far enough to the MQ. You can get a perk that mutates your skin tougher giving you DR 5. There's others but I can't remember them right now.[/sblock]


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## Shayuri (Nov 19, 2008)

There's the perk you get from finishing the Wasteland Survival Guide.

The specific bonuses from it depend on how well you do in getting info during the quests, as well as how well you answer her questions.

Hmm...

I'm sure there's more.


----------



## Kaodi (Nov 19, 2008)

If that one spoiler for the name of the relic hunter is any indication, I am guessing that Fallout 3 continues the tradition of being rife with pop culture references?


----------



## Enforcer (Nov 19, 2008)

The Dart Gun custom weapon is a big help against Deathclaws. One shot cripples the legs, which gives you the time needed to kill it with bullets before it gets to you. Headshots in VATS with the Combat Shotgun do the trick.


----------



## DonTadow (Nov 19, 2008)

Ranger REG said:


> Are Deathclaws easy to kill? Encountered one while trailing an Outcast patrol. The pair in their armor got easily shredded by it but managed to weaken it for me to finish the creature.
> 
> Besides Rad Regeneration and Hemo ... the one where you can use blood pack like purified water for healing oneself ... what other bonus perks out there?




I use bottlecap mines for them. They are very agresive and make it real easy to set a trap.  Then i finish them off with a shotgun blast to the head (from a distance).


----------



## Shayuri (Nov 20, 2008)

I have found a sneak headshot with Lincoln is a good way to soften them up before pouring a clip of Chinese Assault Rifle into their faces.

Combat Shotty also does good.

...

Or alien blasterage. If you can spare the ammo.


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## Ranger REG (Nov 20, 2008)

Kaodi said:


> If that one spoiler for the name of the relic hunter is any indication, I am guessing that Fallout 3 continues the tradition of being rife with pop culture references?



There are a lot of references which I would call them easter eggs in the game.

The settlement of Arefu is a reference to the little village near Dracula's castle.


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## Ranger REG (Nov 20, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> The Dart Gun custom weapon is a big help against Deathclaws. One shot cripples the legs, which gives you the time needed to kill it with bullets before it gets to you. Headshots in VATS with the Combat Shotgun do the trick.



Oh, great. Now I have to find the schematics for a Dart Gun.

So, aside from the bonus perks you get for finishing certain quests, what are your top 5 favorites?


----------



## EricNoah (Nov 20, 2008)

I have so many of those Galaxy News Radio songs stuck in my head ... the one going through my head now is "I'm Tickled Pink."  Driving me crazy!


----------



## andargor (Nov 21, 2008)

Ranger REG said:


> Oh, great. Now I have to find the schematics for a Dart Gun.
> 
> So, aside from the bonus perks you get for finishing certain quests, what are your top 5 favorites?




Action Boy
Better Criticals
Commando
Sniper
Grim Reaper's Sprint

Do NOT take Here and Now, you'll hit the cap too quickly.

If you want the full list (including SPOILERS): http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_perks


----------



## Enforcer (Nov 21, 2008)

Action Boy and Grim Reaper's Spirit are both waaay awesome. Educated and Comprehension are both quite nice too. You can never have too many skill points.


----------



## Silverblade The Ench (Nov 21, 2008)

Deathclaws:
there's a named sniper rifle, NOT the "reservist's", that knocks enemies down on a crit, so, sneak shot = auto crit, = automatically knock deathclaws on their arse, and easy to kill, hehe!
as a hint, you need 100 lockpick skill to get that rifle and it's West of Arefu...

Yes bottlecap mines are great vs deathclaws + dart gun.
Efficient way to do it is this:
Position companion tell them to "wait", sneak forward, put down mines, pull the deathclaw with dart gun, stand up, and run, so he follows quickly, as  sneak can make them lose you at times.
By time it gets to you, mines and companion will have ganked it.

Another VERY good tip is: when playing if you aren't sure what will occur when you shoot an enemy, open a door or whatever, put mines down around places enemies may come from, say, side doors, or aorund your position.

Hinty spoiler:
The teddy bear in the cage is so cute...he waves at you, his friend, though....


Oh, there is an UBER named Chinese assault rifle in game: Xualong assualt rifle, iirc. ANd of course, the MIRV Fatman!
[sblock="xualong"]
Museum of technology, a terminal will give a message, and you have to find 3 terminals with #001, #002 and #003 and aswer, in any order and get all right
if done, go to place it says and find dead raider with chinese assualt rifle with 36 shot clip and +50% damage or so!

MIRV fatman is...sick, lol!! 8 mininukes in 1 shot!! Fire it up high so they spread out and slaughter EVERY damned thing!  

find all 5 "Keller" tapes, head ot the national guard armory, go through it all, you come out in a seemingly pointless area up top, where oyu can only jump back down to the exit...there's a switch up there that opens up an area below, you NEED the keller tapes, all of them,to go through the doors.
[/sblock]

Also, there's a satellite tower that, if you do stuff, will call down a multiple nuclear strike...

this game rules!


----------



## Shayuri (Nov 21, 2008)

Went on a major exploration/conquest binge last night...found a bunch of new named weapons. Some of y'all may know these already...

[sblock=Special weapons]Blackhawk - Scoped Magnum, 58 damage at 100 Small Guns and fully repaired: Bring Agatha (violin lady) a book of sheet music. I found mine in the Academy near Evergreen Mills. Bunch of supermutants in there...and there's a stage set. Off to one side there's a set of music stands, and the sheet music is on the floor there.

Terrible Shotgun - Combat Shotgun, 82 (!!) damage at 100 Small Guns and full repair: In Evergreen Mills, owned by one of the raiders in the "bar" area. Just search all the bodies.

Xuanlong Assault Rifle - Chinese Assault Rifle, 65 damage at 100 SG and full repair: The Metro center to the west of Vault 101. Just sitting in the diner on the body of some guy called Prime. Easiest gun in the game. 

Vengeance - Laser Gatling Gun, 111 (!!!!) damage at 100 Energy and about 4/5ths repair: At the far end of the Deathclaw Sanctuary, in a pool of radioactive water that's been stained red with the blood of all the bodies lying in it...this weapon not only does more damage than the alien blaster, but it's VERY rapid firing. I gunned down the last deathclaw with it before it even had a chance to leap at me. Uses Electron Charge Packs, so save those suckers up![/sblock]


----------



## Enforcer (Nov 21, 2008)

I'm playing through again as an evil guy, and instead of Small Guns and Energy Weapons I'm doing Sneak and Unarmed. With one rank of Iron Fist and a 50% Condition Spiked Knuckles I'm knocking down Super Mutants in about 3-4 hits, and damn can I punch FAST.

So yes, Unarmed is totally viable in this game, though it is nice to have Jericho back me up with his assault rifle...


----------



## Aus_Snow (Nov 23, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> So yes, Unarmed is totally viable in this game



Yeah, and this surprised me no end, to begin with.  First off, it was guns, guns, guns. Actually, I still tend to go that way - mainly because the range of cool firearms (including named ones) is so much fun.

You might want to try to locate the schematics for this, then: 



Spoiler



Deathclaw Gauntlets


. Not much of a spoiler, mind you, given I can't remember where my (previous) character came across it. . . 

Anyway, very nice.


----------



## Ranger REG (Nov 25, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> Action Boy and Grim Reaper's Spirit are both waaay awesome. Educated and Comprehension are both quite nice too. You can never have too many skill points.



Yeah, I kinda cheated with the Comprehension. I saved my Grognak comic from my 10th birthday until I get the perk that would give me 2 not 1 skill point in Unarmed.

The same goes for the books in Springvale Elementary and Super-Duper Mart.


----------



## Ranger REG (Nov 25, 2008)

Shayuri said:


> [sblock=Special weapons]Blackhawk - Scoped Magnum, 58 damage at 100 Small Guns and fully repaired: Bring Agatha (violin lady) a book of sheet music. I found mine in the Academy near Evergreen Mills. Bunch of supermutants in there...and there's a stage set. Off to one side there's a set of music stands, and the sheet music is on the floor there.[/sblock]



Funny, Agatha didn't bring that up on our conversation. Seems I'll have to complete her quest first (get her THE violin).

I found my music paper in Springvale Elementary. Funny how things could be hidden just under the desk (the area where you normally push your chair in).

Query: What's the best way to kill Mister Gutsy?


----------



## andargor (Nov 25, 2008)

Ranger REG said:


> Query: What's the best way to kill Mister Gutsy?




They are kinda tough to kill with regular weapons, but pulse grenades or pulse mines are the way to go. Of course, nothing a high enough level and a laser rifle or plasma rifle can't fix later in the game.

Too bad there's no EMP ammo like the previous fallouts.


----------



## Shayuri (Nov 25, 2008)

One thing about Gutsy's is that their main weapon is a plasma blaster. This means if you engage from a good range, you can actually dodge the bolts as they fly. Plasma travels more quickly than missiles, but hasn't got that nasty blast radius. 

When fighting them, I generally either lob a pulse grenade or three, or hang back near cover and plink at their torso with sniper/Lincoln/assault rifle shots. Note that this is a fairly ammo-intensive strategy, even if you have the timing down perfectly for dodging plasma.

The REAL pains in the necks are the Sentry Bots. Laser Gatling and missile launcher. Heavy heavy armor. Tons of hit points. I -hate- sentry bots. 

As for Agatha, I got the sheet music by coincidence and brought it to her on my own, so I never actually got the quest to bring her paper. Presumably once you do the violin quest and some time passes, if you go back and talk to her she'll ask for paper. But I don't know that for sure. When I brought paper though, she talked as if she'd asked me for it, so I assume she will under the right circumstances.


----------



## Ranger REG (Nov 25, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> I'm playing through again as an evil guy, and instead of Small Guns and Energy Weapons I'm doing Sneak and Unarmed. With one rank of Iron Fist and a 50% Condition Spiked Knuckles I'm knocking down Super Mutants in about 3-4 hits, and damn can I punch FAST.
> 
> So yes, Unarmed is totally viable in this game, though it is nice to have Jericho back me up with his assault rifle...



If you're going to emphasize Sneak, you might as well try plant grenades into your victims' pants (like picking pocket but put a grenade from your stash into his or hers).


----------



## Ranger REG (Nov 25, 2008)

andargor said:


> They are kinda tough to kill with regular weapons, but pulse grenades or pulse mines are the way to go. Of course, nothing a high enough level and a laser rifle or plasma rifle can't fix later in the game.
> 
> Too bad there's no EMP ammo like the previous fallouts.



So laser rifle shots penetrate through MG's body armor like a bullet through apple?


----------



## Ranger REG (Nov 25, 2008)

Shayuri said:


> As for Agatha, I got the sheet music by coincidence and brought it to her on my own, so I never actually got the quest to bring her paper. Presumably once you do the violin quest and some time passes, if you go back and talk to her she'll ask for paper. But I don't know that for sure. When I brought paper though, she talked as if she'd asked me for it, so I assume she will under the right circumstances.



Well, the music paper was the key to get her husband's Blackhawk (enhanced .44 Magnum gun) as a reward.


----------



## Ranger REG (Nov 25, 2008)

Shayuri said:


> One thing about Gutsy's is that their main weapon is a plasma blaster. This means if you engage from a good range, you can actually dodge the bolts as they fly. Plasma travels more quickly than missiles, but hasn't got that nasty blast radius.



Yeah, but from my current situation at LOB Enterprises (inside the building) I don't have a good [sniper] range, just short range. Guess I'll have to buy some pulse grenades ... at Moira's?

Query: How can I get the Talon Mercs (with a contract hit on me) off my back ... permanently?


----------



## Enforcer (Nov 25, 2008)

To get the Talon Mercs to stop hunting you, drop your Karma significantly. They hate good guys.

When I played through the first time I loved the Talon Mercs though. I'd Quick Travel somewhere and there'd be a squad of black-clad XP/Equipment carrying goons to kill. Better than delivery!


----------



## DonTadow (Nov 25, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> To get the Talon Mercs to stop hunting you, drop your Karma significantly. They hate good guys.
> 
> When I played through the first time I loved the Talon Mercs though. I'd Quick Travel somewhere and there'd be a squad of black-clad XP/Equipment carrying goons to kill. Better than delivery!




lol me 2. i love those guys, they always have pricy laser rifles and combat armor to repair my own.


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## andargor (Nov 26, 2008)

Ranger REG said:


> So laser rifle shots penetrate through MG's body armor like a bullet through apple?




I'm biased 'cause I went energy weapons, I am not sure the Gutsy has a particular vulnerability to these. However, shooting at the tracking sensors seemed to do more damage and shooting the combat chip (or whatever its called) on the back side puts a bot in a confused frenzy. Kind of like a _confusion_ spell. 

Yes, they are a pain at the lower levels.


----------



## Enforcer (Nov 26, 2008)

Combat Shotgun at close range will mess anything up, including Mister Gutsy, in my experience.


----------



## D.Shaffer (Nov 26, 2008)

They announced that they're releasing the mod tools soon. 
They're actually caling it the GECK.  Color me amused. 
Some new missions too, including one with a 'Play after wthe storyline is over' modifications.  Hopefully this will also change the horrible forced ending.

Fallout 3: Creation Kit, DLC Hits Fallout 3


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## Shayuri (Nov 26, 2008)

Well, the Talon Company has a base at a Fort in the southwest of Megaton...though I forget it's name...

It's a tough fight. I'm not SURE that this gets them off your back either, because I did it just before I went on to finish the game.

Personally, after the first two or three ambushes, I was using so much of their gear that I started to depend on them attacking me to get their stuff so I could maintain my gear.  Just be super careful on level transitions...go into sneak before exiting to the Capital Wasteland, and you'll buy yourself some time to hit them first usually.


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## Felon (Nov 26, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> I'm playing through again as an evil guy, and instead of Small Guns and Energy Weapons I'm doing Sneak and Unarmed. With one rank of Iron Fist and a 50% Condition Spiked Knuckles I'm knocking down Super Mutants in about 3-4 hits, and damn can I punch FAST.
> 
> So yes, Unarmed is totally viable in this game, though it is nice to have Jericho back me up with his assault rifle...



Heh. If I were you, I'd be making a beeline for a Fisto stat. Lemme know if you want a spoiler on where to get one.


----------



## Rackhir (Nov 26, 2008)

Shayuri said:


> I was using so much of their gear that I started to depend on them attacking me to get their stuff so I could maintain my gear.




Yeah, you can also use their armor to repair the combat armor you get from saving the mercs. Which seems to be the best non- powered armor. But be careful you don't wind up using the merc armor to repair some of the Talon armor. That sucked and cost me a good hour or two of backtracking.


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## Shayuri (Nov 26, 2008)

Oooo, yeah...that'd be bad.

And honestly, the Ranger armor is better than most power armor. Even when I had fully repaired Enclave armor at my disposal, I could only beat the Ranger armor with Tesla suits, and even then only fully repaired ones.

I'll have to get the tb51 power armor my next time around. I understand it's better than normal...


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## Enforcer (Nov 26, 2008)

Felon said:


> Heh. If I were you, I'd be making a beeline for a Fisto stat. Lemme know if you want a spoiler on where to get one.




You mean the Power Fist? Yeah, I know where to get one. Not sure I'll need it though. I do want to make a Deathclaw Gauntlet this time around though.


----------



## andargor (Nov 27, 2008)

Enforcer said:


> You mean the Power Fist? Yeah, I know where to get one. Not sure I'll need it though. I do want to make a Deathclaw Gauntlet this time around though.




No, he means "Fisto!", a named power fist. 

Edit: a bit of trivia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisto


----------



## Blastin (Nov 27, 2008)

I need a PIPBOY rehab program...I'm spending WAY too much time playing this game


----------



## Hammerhead (Nov 28, 2008)

And just where is said uber power fist?


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## Enforcer (Nov 28, 2008)

Hammerhead said:


> And just where is said uber power fist?




Fisto! - Fallout Wiki - The Vault


----------



## stonegod (Nov 30, 2008)

Just finished after exploring most every nook and cranny. Overall, I had a blast: It was engaging and I enjoyed the character interactions. The story had some meat to it, and there were some nice twists.

Two issues, both about the endgame:[sblock=Endgame spoils!]- The false choice of sacrificing yourself or Lyons to power the purifier. Uh... during the whole conversation, there's Fawkes in the background. You know, the guy who already went through lots of radiation to get me the G.E.C.K.? I realize what they were trying to do story wise, but it was a bit of cheat.

- No aftergame wrap up other than what generally happened. One of my favorite parts about the Fallouts (and Arcanum) was the story on what happened to each place after the game was over. Hey, I told the Brotherhood where to find the supermutants.... did that have an effect? I killed every slaver in Paradise Falls.... did that have an effect? Vault 101 is now open... did that have an effect? Etc., etc.[/sblock]I still had a great time, and will play through (at a slower pace) as some sort of bad-dude, but those two things stuck out to me.


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## Hammerhead (Nov 30, 2008)

Griping about ending (spoilerz):


[sblock]
Also: why is unleashing the virus to kill all of the mutated creatures Evil? It seems like it's probably more of the good thing to do, since it helps to make life in the Wastes actually livable. It kills off all of the horrible, dangerous, mutant animals. Oh, and it would end the Super Mutant threat (one guy doesn't really redeem an entire group of bad guys), and the Ghouls. And they're evidently bad too, b/c you get Good karma every time you kill one. 

I guess the game just thinks that killing stuff with a virus is somehow Eviler than doing it with a shotgun. 
[/sblock]


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## stonegod (Nov 30, 2008)

A response on this one:
[sblock]


Hammerhead said:


> Griping about ending (spoilerz):
> Also: why is unleashing the virus to kill all of the mutated creatures Evil? It seems like it's probably more of the good thing to do, since it helps to make life in the Wastes actually livable. It kills off all of the horrible, dangerous, mutant animals. Oh, and it would end the Super Mutant threat (one guy doesn't really redeem an entire group of bad guys), and the Ghouls. And they're evidently bad too, b/c you get Good karma every time you kill one.



Feral ghouls yes, non feral, no (I don't think so, anyway).

However, this is a callback to Fallout 2. If the modified FEV worked as it did there, it would kill everyone with some mutation or exposure to the original FEV: I.e., anyone note long out of a vault (so, that's most of humanity in the region that is not Enclave). Definitely a bad thing.
[/sblock]


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## Shayuri (Dec 1, 2008)

[sblock=Endgame stuff]I totally agree that I wanted more detail. The very limited decision/outcome nodes was really disappointing, especially considering all the things you could affect in the game, both large and small. It'd have been really cool...albeit possibly very long-winded...to have an accounting of all the results of those accomplishments.

As for the Evil option, the idea is that the Enclave's method is indiscriminate. It destroys all "nonpure" human(oid) life. As others have noted, this includes most human beings who have been out of the vaults for a generation or so. After 200 years, that's a lot. It also includes "non-evil" mutants and ghouls. Killing mutants more personally is discriminatory...it's not evil unless you -decide- to be evil about doing it.

That's my take on it at least.[/sblock]


----------



## Pyrex (Dec 3, 2008)

Thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts other than stealing my way back to neutral Karma.  (which may or may not even work...)

I'm trying to finish the Blood Ties quest but Talon mercs are waiting for me in Arefu.  As soon as I get within encounter distance they aggro, then kill one of the townspeople, which sets the town to Hostile against me and fails the quest.


----------



## Blastin (Dec 3, 2008)

well..you could kill all the random scavangers that are scattered about...


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## DonTadow (Dec 3, 2008)

Pyrex said:


> Thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts other than stealing my way back to neutral Karma.  (which may or may not even work...)
> 
> I'm trying to finish the Blood Ties quest but Talon mercs are waiting for me in Arefu.  As soon as I get within encounter distance they aggro, then kill one of the townspeople, which sets the town to Hostile against me and fails the quest.



You're in a bind, depending on where you are, it can be quite tedious to try to get to neutral karma. What you might want to do is go to an earlier save and pop up somewhere else until they come, kill them there. then go to the location you need. I have never seen the talon mercs appear at two locations. Another thing you can do is pop up in a location thats nearby where you want to be, fire from long range and draw their fire.


----------



## D.Shaffer (Dec 3, 2008)

Pyrex said:


> I'm trying to finish the Blood Ties quest but Talon mercs are waiting for me in Arefu.  As soon as I get within encounter distance they aggro, then kill one of the townspeople, which sets the town to Hostile against me and fails the quest.



Eesh.

Only thing I can suggest? Level up a bit and build up your small arms/sneak skill.  Try to attack one of them at extreme range with manual shooting and run. If you can find one, use the Sniper rifle or Scoped Magnum as they have a high level of zoom.  Hopefully you can get them to run after you while you're still beyond their firing range.

Alternatively, find a Stealthboy.  This makes you VERY hard to see.  Combine with a melee weapon (NOT a ripper) and knife them in the back before they can open fire. It's tough, but possible.

Also, so long as they dont kill any of the townsfolk, if you run and come back a few days later, they might not like you, but they wont have 'Shoot on sight' scripted anymore either.  Try doing some Good Karma related quests in the meantime.


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## Pyrex (Dec 3, 2008)

Unfortunately I don't think Stealth will work.  The mercs attack the Evan King as soon as they spawn simply because he's within range.

I suspect I'm going to have to grind my karma back to neutral.  Probably by stealing everything in Megaton that isn't nailed down...


----------



## stonegod (Dec 3, 2008)

Pyrex said:


> Unfortunately I don't think Stealth will work.  The mercs attack the Evan King as soon as they spawn simply because he's within range.
> 
> I suspect I'm going to have to grind my karma back to neutral.  Probably by stealing everything in Megaton that isn't nailed down...



Re-accessing a private hacked machine also lowers karma for each access (very sloooowly....)


----------



## DreadPirateMurphy (Dec 4, 2008)

*Subtle things I've noticed*

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this game...  Here are a few things that struck me as useful:

1)  There is a max percentage you can repair things based on your Repair skill.  It seems to be higher if you fix a low % item with a high % item instead of the opposite.  So, fixing a 10% with a 60% is better when maxing out.

2)  If a lock can be picked OR hacked, you can still hack the computer after you pick the lock for more XP.  The reverse is not true.

3)  You can usually disarm mines by crouch-walking up to them while keeping the cursor on the mine, even with a very low Explosives skill.  The trick is to keep moving forward, as you have a very short time between the beeps and the boom.  Hit the disarm key as soon as the square brackets appear.  

3b)  Mines make great markers in tunnels -- they glow, you can't set them off yourself, and they guard your back if you bypass doors and/or tunnel mouths.

4)  PIPBoy pausing can be seriously exploited in combat.  You can actually repair armor and weapons, or put on medical garb to give yourself meds more effectively.  Feel free to eat 20 or so food items, while you're at it.

5)  Pick up EVERYTHING.  Feel free to drop the junk into the nearby trash can, but I've collected a fair number of unexpected things like skill books or energy cells that were quasi-hidden among piles of ruined books or tin cans.  I also dump out any wooden boxes, pots, etc., even if they seem empty at first glance.  Takes a little time, but there are some surprises.  Using the flashlight also helps (hold TAB on the PC to turn it on -- took me FOREVER to figure that out 'cause I missed it in the tutorial).

6)  Cars aren't the only things that explode.  So do floor cleaners, and fire extinguishers.  Also, mines and grenades lying around will go off, especially under flamer or missile fire.  Traps can be set off by fire or even objects kicked into tripwires (by you or by others).  Usually, this is not to your advantage unless you're being clever.  There is one quest you can get in Megaton from Sarah Palin's twin sister where this is REALLY annoying -- you know it if you've played it.

7)  Try all the custom items at least once -- there is a schematic for every category of weapon other than energy.  Trust me -- sometimes it is freakin' hysterical.

8)  Find the roving trader's outfit and hat -- together you get +10% to barter, which is free money.  You only have to wear it when you talk to merchants, of course.

9)  House tips:  the Lover and Science themes for your apartment include skill books, which are a limited commodity in the game.  The other themes aren't worth the caps.  Also avoid the jukebox, as it does the same exact thing as your PIPBoy, i.e., plays the radio.  (If you're drowning in caps, go ahead and splurge -- thievery can make that possible.)  Also, don't forget to go back to your robot butler for purified water periodically.  Besides the rad-free hp boost, you can also give it to beggers to counteract negative karma.

10)  Things to almost always buy:  schematics, house upgrades (see 9), ammo (especially the rarer types like .308 or .44 if you use the related weapons), heavily damaged armor and weapons for repairs, bobby pins.  Most other things you will easily stumble across in your travels.  Some things like skill books and Nuka-Cola Quantums are almost never available for sale.  Why waste money buying a 75-cap fission battery when you can go out and waste a robot that will have one as loot?  Hold onto pre-war money until you find something you really want, as it weighs nothing.  Stimpaks are also good weightless commodities, though you don't usually want to sell them.

OK...enough with the tips.  

One last thing, though.  I lived in the DC area for many years, and I have to say that while the game setting is off in some very important ways, the guys at Bethesda have done a great job of getting the feel of DC down.  From the hexagonal tiles in metro stations, to the view from Dupont Circle, to the placement of most things in relation to each other -- things _feel_ right, with only a few exceptions (looking at you, Georgetown!).


----------



## Ranger REG (Dec 4, 2008)

Pyrex said:


> Thought I'd see if anyone had any thoughts other than stealing my way back to neutral Karma.  (which may or may not even work...)
> 
> I'm trying to finish the Blood Ties quest but Talon mercs are waiting for me in Arefu.  As soon as I get within encounter distance they aggro, then kill one of the townspeople, which sets the town to Hostile against me and fails the quest.



Save before you fast-travel.

Or commit some bad deeds out there until you gain Neutral Karma. There's always that addict Silver living inside Springvale, or the thirsty dude just outside of Megaton.


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## D.Shaffer (Dec 12, 2008)

As a FYI...
The GECK is out!  Let the modding frenzy begin!


----------



## DonTadow (Dec 12, 2008)

D.Shaffer said:


> As a FYI...
> The GECK is out!  Let the modding frenzy begin!



Cool, I'll jump on the playstation store and and downloa... oh wait.. we got screwed. Nevermind


----------



## EricNoah (Dec 13, 2008)

And as another FYI...

I'm a mighty, mighty man.  I'm young, and I'm in my prime!


----------



## Silverblade The Ench (Dec 14, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> And as another FYI...
> 
> I'm a mighty, mighty man.  I'm young, and I'm in my prime!





*groan!* 
just something so...wrong about that and some of the other tunes as you lay waste to the place and limbs get bown off, lol!

I know the thematic of Fallout Universe, but much rather have AC/DC, the Stones and Motorhead as the radio tunes!


----------



## Shayuri (Dec 14, 2008)

Oh yeah? Well...

Give me a kiss to build a dream on...and my imagination will build upon that kiss.

So there.


----------



## Webby140 (Dec 14, 2008)

*"I don't want to set the world on fire..." *The irony is amazing.


----------



## Megaton (Dec 15, 2008)

Silverblade The Ench said:


> *groan!*
> just something so...wrong about that and some of the other tunes as you lay waste to the place and limbs get bown off, lol!
> 
> I know the thematic of Fallout Universe, but much rather have AC/DC, the Stones and Motorhead as the radio tunes!



I think it'd be pretty cool if all games let you put in your own soundtrack or songs. I don't think I'd take advantage of it very often, but I agree, listening to big band music as heads explode is a little weird.


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## DonTadow (Dec 16, 2008)

Ok, someone just told me that Santa Clause was not real. 

Seriously.  

I have been in love with this game, and after doing everything possible (and knowing that the ps3 won't have content) i decided to beat the game, expecting a phenomenal ending.

What a let down.  Not just a let down, but an enormous let down.  I saw 3 different endings, all horribly disappointing. 

I warn you ... all of you... don't beat the game... don't ruin whatever good image you have of the game.  I was so upset i woke up this morning and traded mine end.


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## TheAuldGrump (Dec 26, 2008)

EricNoah said:


> And as another FYI...
> 
> I'm a mighty, mighty man.  I'm young, and I'm in my prime!



Heh - I found myself singing one of the songs from Fallout 3 the other day. I could have understood it if the song was Butcher Pete or Civilization... but Let's Go Sunning?!!! 

Let's go native, sun your cares away.
Be creative, learn to laugh and play....
Pretty flowers need the sun,
This applies to everyone....

Gah! 

The Auld Grump


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## JediSoth (Dec 31, 2008)

I picked this up after Christmas. While I can see the ties to Oblivion (just because of the game engine), it really does feel like Fallout to me.

Just being myself (I'm level 8), I'm a total goody-two-shoes. Fortunately, I lost some Karma when I 



Spoiler



wiped out Andale just 'cause I thought those cannibals were freakin' creepy.


 And of course, after 



Spoiler



working with the Ghouls and the inhabitants of Tenpenny tower to help the two groups live in harmony, I had to pop a cap in Tenpenny's wrinkled ass 'cause he's the MFer who put the contract out on me. heheh I got positive Karma for that one.



Moira in Megaton totally reminds me of someone from _Fargo_. She just has that Minnesota accent and is just so chipper about everything. I've heard some people compare her to Sarah Palin, but I think she's just too creepily into her research for that.

Can't wait to get that Fatman launcher, though. I've already started stockpiling the mininukes.


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## Phaezen (Jan 1, 2009)

TheAuldGrump said:


> Heh - I found myself singing one of the songs from Fallout 3 the other day. I could have understood it if the song was Butcher Pete or Civilization... but Let's Go Sunning?!!!
> 
> Let's go native, sun your cares away.
> Be creative, learn to laugh and play....
> ...




For those that are interested, a list of songs and lyrics from Fallout 3

Fallout 3 Song List | Legal Geekery

Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes.

Phaezen


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## stevelabny (Jan 1, 2009)

DonTadow said:


> I have been in love with this game, and after doing everything possible (and knowing that the ps3 won't have content) i decided to beat the game, expecting a phenomenal ending.
> 
> What a let down.  Not just a let down, but an enormous let down.  I saw 3 different endings, all horribly disappointing.




Sad but true. 

I put 120 hours into this game. The first time I've done that in who knows how long. And it has the WORST video game ending of all time. 

The amount of suck rolled into this ending is unbelievable. Railroady, contradictory, anticlimactic, short and ugly. 

GAH.


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## Rl'Halsinor (Jan 2, 2009)

Hey, sorry if this isn't the correct place to ask this but will my socket 939 PC run this game decently?  I have read so many conflicting things about what system specs work or don't work I'd like to hear directly from people who actually play the game.  Here's my hardware (again, this is a socket 939):

Athlon 3800+ dual core (2.0 GHz)
XP Pro w/SP2
2 Gigs of OCZ Platinum PC3200 RAM
7200 SATA hardrive
9600GT 512 mb DDR3 video card

* My LCD maximum resolution is 128-x1024 which is where I like it anyway

Thanks for the help.


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## Aus_Snow (Jan 4, 2009)

Rl'Halsinor, that should be fine, as far as I'm aware. The 9600GT is a solid card, and that's the most important component, beyond having the minimum CPU and RAM, and space to install it, obviously.

If you've played Oblivion on it, that'd be a fair gauge. Maybe not precisely the same reqs, but close enough, I suspect.


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## Ranger REG (Jan 5, 2009)

Rl'Halsinor said:


> Hey, sorry if this isn't the correct place to ask this but will my socket 939 PC run this game decently?  I have read so many conflicting things about what system specs work or don't work I'd like to hear directly from people who actually play the game.  Here's my hardware (again, this is a socket 939):
> 
> Athlon 3800+ dual core (2.0 GHz)
> XP Pro w/SP2
> ...



You could test your system: Can You Run It? Powered by System Requirements Lab

Click "Can You Run It?" Select the game you want to play on your PC.


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## JediSoth (Jan 6, 2009)

Ranger REG said:


> You could test your system: Can You Run It? Powered by System Requirements Lab
> 
> Click "Can You Run It?" Select the game you want to play on your PC.





This utility is awesome. I never purchase a game now before I run this on my system to see if I can run it.

I like that it shows you how you stack up against the minimum AND recommended system requirements.


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## RangerWickett (Jan 6, 2009)

Just beat it. The only thing I regret is not getting Agatha her violin. Oh, and the fact that I beat it. Unpleasant ending. But at least now I won't feel compelled to sit in front of the TV for 6 hours at a time roaming that wonderful little world.


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## Shayuri (Jan 6, 2009)

Loved the game. Disliked the ending.

But don't trade it away just yet. Downloadable content is coming that will extend the game past the final quest, and bump the level cap up.

Hurrah!


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## Shalimar (Jan 8, 2009)

Shayuri said:


> Loved the game. Disliked the ending.
> 
> But don't trade it away just yet. Downloadable content is coming that will extend the game past the final quest, and bump the level cap up.
> 
> Hurrah!




Is the extra content still non-PS3.  I can't believe they'd cut off 1/3rd of the gamers like that.


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## Silverblade The Ench (Jan 8, 2009)

Certainly think it's one of the best games ever made, the music did enhance it's, oh, piquante flavour, lol!


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## stonegod (Jan 8, 2009)

Shalimar said:


> Is the extra content still non-PS3.  I can't believe they'd cut off 1/3rd of the gamers like that.



That's assuming equal distribution. That's like saying not making a Mac & Linux port of a game cuts of 2/3rds of non-console gamers. 

I don't know the percentages, but I would be a little surprised if they were equal. Doubt they are as bad as the Mac/Linux/PC mix, though.


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## Rackhir (Jan 8, 2009)

stonegod said:


> That's assuming equal distribution. That's like saying not making a Mac & Linux port of a game cuts of 2/3rds of non-console gamers.
> 
> I don't know the percentages, but I would be a little surprised if they were equal. Doubt they are as bad as the Mac/Linux/PC mix, though.




I'm pretty sure it's more down to MS's willingness to back up truckloads of money to the developers than any % calculations.


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## DonTadow (Jan 9, 2009)

Shalimar said:


> Is the extra content still non-PS3.  I can't believe they'd cut off 1/3rd of the gamers like that.




Tell me about it.  It still irks me. I keep reading forums wandering if they changed their mind.  Trying t osee if there was some quest i missed.  I don't know how i got the red headed step child of the video game industry.


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## Rackhir (Jan 9, 2009)

DonTadow said:


> Tell me about it.  It still irks me. I keep reading forums wandering if they changed their mind.  Trying t osee if there was some quest i missed.  I don't know how i got the red headed step child of the video game industry.




You will probably see it on the PS3 eventually. It's just going to be a year later or something like that.

Given that the primary program is done for the PS3 + near zero distribution cost + no game store middleman, means that the DLC is going to be essentially free money. So you will see it, you'll just have to wait for the exclusivity period MS bribed them for, to expire.


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## DonTadow (Jan 10, 2009)

Rackhir said:


> You will probably see it on the PS3 eventually. It's just going to be a year later or something like that.
> 
> Given that the primary program is done for the PS3 + near zero distribution cost + no game store middleman, means that the DLC is going to be essentially free money. So you will see it, you'll just have to wait for the exclusivity period MS bribed them for, to expire.




The problem with fallout is the problem with the ps3 during launch, for some reason they aren't buying the eclusive rights like they did with the ps2.  With the ps2, they through money to konami, square, capcom, even some ea titles.  Thsi tme around they just aren't doing it, and microsoft sees how the game is playing and is flat out buying exluclision rights.  The fallout dlc exclusion rights don't have an expiration date, so unless microsoft has a change of hearts, which i don't see, we won't be seeing it.  Essenitally microsoft has spent the big money to either have exclusive rights or to multiplatform other games.


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## Aus_Snow (Jan 10, 2009)

DonTadow said:


> for some reason they aren't buying the eclusive rights like they did with the ps2.



Well, I heard that every PS3 has been sold at a loss (for Sony). If that's true, that could be one of the reasons, perhaps.


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## MonkeyKing (Jan 10, 2009)

Actually all video games systems (xbox, wii, ds ect...) are all sold at a loss.

_The economics of game consoles dictate that the machine is sold at a loss so that money can be made from game licensing_

From the blog of a former Mircosot employee John Carrol

Game consoles are evil | A Developer’s View | ZDNet.com

Its not a problem unless your not making that much on the licensing end.


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## Aus_Snow (Jan 10, 2009)

Ah, OK. Just a thing I heard being made a fuss of, a while back. Like it was a big deal, or a big loss perhaps. Anyway, I didn't bother looking into it any further, because it has literally no impact on me, whatever the case.

But thanks for clearing that up.


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## Rackhir (Jan 10, 2009)

Actually game consoles being sold at a loss are a relatively recent development.

Acts of Gord - The Book of Chronicles

(the rest of the web site is VERY funny as well).



> The problem with fallout is the problem with the ps3 during launch, for some reason they aren't buying the eclusive rights like they did with the ps2.




I don't think "buying" exclusivity is the entire story frankly. With the previous generation the X-box was a complete flop in japan and MS was persona non grata over there. Even with the most recent generation, up until most recent price cut the 360 was getting beaten in sales in japan by the PS2. Unit sales were in the hundreds per month. It has been taking off much more, there since then and MS has spent considerable time and effort for this generation courting the japanese developers.

Also for some reason US developers seem to be much more dominant this time around for some reason and MS has always had much more pull/influence with them, for obvious reasons.

Sony came into the previous generation with an ENORMOUS commanding lead and the PS2 sold like hotcakes. They were really the only game in town for most of the previous gen. At the start MS was an unknown quantity (in the console world), not exactly well liked in the developer's community and Nintendo was following an expensive flop (n64) with a clearly second rate system (gamecube). It's been far more mixed tale this time around and Sony has done a lot to piss off developers over the previous two generations.

That said the economics of things pretty much dictate that they are going to have to grab all the money they can. So I am confident that you will see the DLC for Fallout 3 on the PS3, but you may well have to wait for quite a while for it.


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## Nebulous (Jan 14, 2009)

JediSoth said:


> This utility is awesome. I never purchase a game now before I run this on my system to see if I can run it.
> 
> I like that it shows you how you stack up against the minimum AND recommended system requirements.




Holy Mommajamma.  That utility IS awesome!  Thanks.


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## andargor (Jan 28, 2009)

Operation: Anchorage DLC is available on Game for Windows Live and XBox live.

However, I have no idea why I have to install a piece of Microsoft spyware on my machine and pay "800 points" to get it. It's not free? Can someone that has a clue explain?

EDIT: Here's a review: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/01/27/fallout-3-new-content-adventures-in-gfwl/


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## Aus_Snow (Jan 28, 2009)

andargor said:


> Operation: Anchorage DLC is available on Game for Windows Live and XBox live.
> 
> However, I have no idea why I have to install a piece of Microsoft spyware on my machine and pay "800 points" to get it. It's not free? Can someone that has a clue explain?



Well, Microsoft plans to own you body and soul, obviously.

As for DLC costing money. . . don't expansion packs and stuff like that usually cost money, like, for most games. . .? 

Regardless, you can get plenty of free mods for Fallout 3 (thanks to the GECK, and thousands of people with too much free time  er. . .) if cost is the thing that's bugging you most of all. They won't be in the same league, of course, but some of them are pretty neat.

Hm, if you're running Windows, or some kind of Windows compatibility, that is.


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## Felon (Jan 28, 2009)

DonTadow said:


> Tell me about it.  It still irks me. I keep reading forums wandering if they changed their mind.  Trying t osee if there was some quest i missed.  I don't know how i got the red headed step child of the video game industry.



Well, MS gets to double-dip both console and PC gamers. That's the MS advantage. There'll be an MS-exclusive new set of chapters for GTAIV in a few weeks as well.


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## Felon (Jan 28, 2009)

andargor said:


> Operation: Anchorage DLC is available on Game for Windows Live and XBox live.
> 
> However, I have no idea why I have to install a piece of Microsoft spyware on my machine and pay "800 points" to get it. It's not free? Can someone that has a clue explain?



Worse still, there's more DLC coming in February and March. The one in March will continue the game past the widely-criticized ending (which I havne't experienced yet) and expands the level cap to 30.

Of course, this is all part of the MS strategy: never give anything away for free if you don't have to. They'd make peculiar crack dealers.

Then again, the decision of whether or not to charge for DLC is usually left in the vendors' hands. Bethesda gave some of the Oblivion DLC away for free during a small window, then later would start charging. And then it all culminates in an "Ultimate" pack that incorporates all of the DLC to date for the price of just the original, much to the annoyance of fans who paid for everything piecemeal.


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## Ranger REG (Jan 29, 2009)

Felon said:


> Worse still, there's more DLC coming in February and March. The one in March will continue the game past the widely-criticized ending (which I havne't experienced yet) and expands the level cap to 30.
> 
> Of course, this is all part of the MS strategy: never give anything away for free if you don't have to. They'd make peculiar crack dealers.
> 
> Then again, the decision of whether or not to charge for DLC is usually left in the vendors' hands. Bethesda gave some of the Oblivion DLC away for free during a small window, then later would start charging. And then it all culminates in an "Ultimate" pack that incorporates all of the DLC to date for the price of just the original, much to the annoyance of fans who paid for everything piecemeal.



If MS is selling DLC, then some of the revenue has to be given to Bethesda. I don't think they're making DLC for free.


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## Vigilance (Feb 15, 2009)

Anyone who doesn't know Bethesda's business model by now hasn't been paying a lot of attention. Even in the Morrowind days they released two expansions, then later on, a "Game of the Year" edition that had everything, but was much cheaper. 

On the topic of DLC, the first DLC was *ok*. I'm looking forward to the others more.

And since I am playing the game on the PC, I can avoid most of the MS BS. I just moved the Operation Anchorage files manually like any other mod and I can play the DLC without messing with GFWL crapware. 

I think Fallout 3 (and I can't imagine I am saying this) is the best game in the series so far and one of the finest PC rpgs of all time.


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## Ranger REG (Feb 15, 2009)

Vigilance said:


> And since I am playing the game on the PC, I can avoid most of the MS BS. I just moved the Operation Anchorage files manually like any other mod and I can play the DLC without messing with GFWL crapware.



So, how'd you get the DLC without the MS Points?


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## Vigilance (Feb 17, 2009)

Ranger REG said:


> So, how'd you get the DLC without the MS Points?




Oh I had to do the points nonsense, I just figured out a way to RUN the DLC without having to use GFWL. You can move the files of the DLC to your Data folder, like any other mod, and just run it.


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## Megaton (Feb 17, 2009)

Ah, I never would have thought of that, that's pretty inventive.


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## Ranger REG (Feb 18, 2009)

Vigilance said:


> Oh I had to do the points nonsense, I just figured out a way to RUN the DLC without having to use GFWL. You can move the files of the DLC to your Data folder, like any other mod, and just run it.



Isn't that what you're supposed to do after downloading it?


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## Rackhir (Feb 18, 2009)

Ranger REG said:


> Isn't that what you're supposed to do after downloading it?




Not quite, MS is a big believer in trying to force you to use other products of theirs in order to use what ever you've actually bought, in order to lock you into their stuff as much as possible.

So they are trying to force you to use and install GFW in order to use the DLC for Fallout 3 on PCs. So that they can keep you enslaved and not use stuff like Valve's Steam or just blackmail all the ISVs into paying them a cut in order for you to use their software on a PC, just like they get to with the X-box.


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## Vigilance (Feb 20, 2009)

Ranger REG said:


> Isn't that what you're supposed to do after downloading it?




No, you are supposed to install the GFWL and be online every time you play Fallout 3 from the moment you install the DLC, forever, even though the original game was totally offline.

Also, you have to move all your saved games to a different folder, or they will not work. 

In short, it takes the original game, adds a bunch of crapware and online requirements to it, and makes you manually move all your old saves to some different place. 

That's if you do it the way MS wants you to do it, which I did not.


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## EricNoah (Feb 20, 2009)

I couldn't get it to run from the "hidden" location so I too had to move the files to the main Fallout 3 directory.  Seems to work fine from there.  Major pain though!


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## Rackhir (May 20, 2009)

So it turned out to be a 6 month delay on the DLC for the PS3.

Fallout 3 DLC coming to PS3, with upcoming new content - Ars Technica

Late june for the "Operation : Anchorage", with "Broken Steel" and "The Pitt" following at 4-6 wk intervals.

The two newly announced DLCs are also coming to the PS3. With some degree of unspecified lag in their release, though since there's going to be a $60 "Game of the Year" edition with all of the DLC released in Oct. So, presumably no later than then.


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