Eh up. Where's the thread for this then? Just been reading the preview on GAME and wondered what the early reviews say?

Some missions kicked my ass though (mostly side missions). The ending features 'something' that makes it alot easier. You dont have any control over it. Maybe I was lucky.

After completing it i went back to the side quests. I was a little worried as I seem to go off a game once I've completed the main missions but there's still so much for me to do so its all good.

I've currently found 40 out of 100 locations. Level 17. 7 side quests to do/find.

I stumbbled across a factory yesterday filled with ants. Thought it was fairly boring until i found something at the back of it that suprised me ! I wont spoil it if you haven't been there yet but it was huge.

looking back over this thread, i hadn't realised that pumpkin was a photo of a real carving. wow!

there's loads more on kotaku.com




my character has positive karma even though i'm always nicking stuff, but i did have a little rampage after saving last night.

seems like you can't target or damage children. well, you can't damage them physically, but you can kill their parent and then blow the limbs off with a shotgun so i like to think there's psychological damage there at least.

How far are you barticle ?

I have 3 more side quests to do, another one cant be done this playthrough as Im too much of a cunt.

Then it's down to finding 100 locations, and all the other achievments.

i thought the game ended if you completed the final mission?


i'm almost at Level 10 (Mysterious Stranger perk ahoy!) but i spend ages hunting for junk and trading. there are huge areas of the map i've not reached yet.

btw i've read that the level is capped at 20 so choose your last few skill increases and perks wisely!

played for 30 hours now and still haven't taken the story past Megaton!

i usually decide to pick up a side quest i've found, then find something else on the way there, then get distracted by a new location to explore, pick up a new mission there, go to a trader to sell gear, etc etc. maybe end up at my original destination 5 hours later if i'm lucky... love it!

reasonably un-negative review from ZP this week...!

escapistmagazine.com

he's right about the (optional) targetting system. think i'm about 60 hrs in now (again no further with the main story) and i still enjoy watching the slo-mo cinematics of each shot and seeing the target turn to gore, ash or goo as appropriate. :)

it's interesting to see concepts from paper-based RPG's like hit percentages, action points and critical hits in a real-time game. i think they've done a good job of integrating it. i love to sneak around a corner and score a sneak-critical headshot. mwahaha!

new DLC has been announced for the 360 and PC versions. three packs released one per month in 2009...

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

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

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

there's also the GECK (Garden of Eden Creation Kit, named after Fallout 2) which is a content editor for the PC version and will be available for free some time next month.

destructoid.com

sweet! that's why I'm gettin Fallout 3 for PC after an upgrade next month. the user-made missions should keep us busy for months.

it does sound awesome...!

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

why spend time and money developing new DLC when the gamers will do it for you?

yea exactly. this is good news because I am giving my PC an upgrade next month and with most good games coming out for the 360 anyway I couldn't find a reason to justify a purchase of an expensive gfx card. Multiplayer-wise I think I will still prefer the 360 since it's such a fluent experience and most of my mates are there. But user generated content for Fallout 3 is really enough of an excuse :)

Oblivion became a far better game on the PC after the modders got to work.

So how many quests has anyone done in total?? Ive found 147 places ( if i remember right) but only found 26 quests!! I'm guessing as I was a good boy that I missed alot on the slaver side of things!? and obviously the other "bad guy" misions!

The oasis mision was weird!

And the alien gun was cool but ive run out of bullits!

Its a great game (even though i got ps3 version...ouch). The only complaint is the main quest is short, easy and has a anti-climatic ending which left me shrugging shoulders and shouting why cant I just continue killing things and level up!!

There is already talk of the G.E.C.K editor arriving on the pc! which should be fun for the modders!!!

But to be fair the oblivion mods were somewhat shite! apart from the official ones!

i checked a basic grid map online to make sure i'd found all the locations but didn't count them. fantastic game map - big, varied, loads of interesting locations to discover and exploration is always well rewarded.

there were a lot of "mini quests" that didn't show up on the Quest menu. there's plenty to do but more of an emphasis on exploring i thought, even insignificant side characters make interesting diversions and sometimes just the basic placement of items in an unpopulated location tells a story. definitely felt like there were less side-quests than Oblivion though.

my character was mostly Good too, despite widespread thievery, although when i made what i thought was a reasonably moral choice at Tenpenny Tower the game disagreed and i went straight to Very Evil. oh well, it made entry to the (literally) wicked slaver town a breeze!

yeah the oasis location was very odd! i only found the alien gun right near the end but i'd already got the unique versions of most of the Small Guns by then and repaired to kickass condition!

you could play through the main story very quickly, which i guess is actually an advantage if you want to try different types of characters. was a shame to stop getting XP after hitting the max level but i took the Comprehension perk very early and ended up with high stats in most skills. favourite perk had to be Mysterious Stranger though - very cool, slightly silly and helped me out of many a scrape!

i clocked up about 130 hrs on my play through, i preferred to do it all in one go. i could always make a "murder and lie" character or a Big Guns or Speech specialist (and try different perks) but would want to pick up all the bobbleheads and skill books again.

it was buggy in places - and i don't mean the radroaches - and it was very prone to lock up too (apparently deleting the game data from the hard disk helps?) so it's a testament to how good the experience is overall that i kept playing regardless.

other things i liked...

o great sound design
o nicely presented on-screen info
o good controller config
o very atmospheric
o beautiful (in an austere kind of way) scenery and lighting
o cool setting (50's art dec style meets sci-fi and Mad Max)
o lockpick and hacking minigames that required skill to pass
o very cool slow-motion combat cinematics
o unscripted game world (i love watching NPC's from different species/factions fighting)
o permanence of objects and bodies is impressive, although save files are huge!
o background NPC dialogue is better than Oblivion and character specific
o wide range of weapons, all look cool and have nice reload animations

negatives...

o buggy and freezy
o maps don't show one floor at a time
o didn't feel sufficiently desperate or bleak (maybe they have to allow for players that don't explore but i had tons of ammo, health-ups, anti-rad meds and money)

overall...

fantastic gaming experience

Yeah cant fault it really! I'm playing through it again at the mo, trying to be a badder person.

Bugs a plenty, although none of them ruined the game, apart from the tenpenny situation!!....I was the diplomat and speech-ed my way into getting the former residents to let the ghoul fellows in, only to have it announced by three dog that I had murdered all the residents to get the ghouls in!! so I went back and shot that knob roy in the face with the terrible shotgun!!

Also I spoke with herbert daring dashwood in tennpenny towers and he makes refferences to argyll being out in the wastes. Has anyone seen him?? if so where?? and did anyone really get all the bobble heads?? Ive only got seven :(

Made me very happy to discover Davetopia hehe

heh! good job! gotta love that gun at ultra short range.

great example of sandbox freedom there too.


yeah, he's in a random cave. you didn't miss much.

fallout.wikia.com (minor spoilerz)

i'm thinking about adopting the middle name Daring. :)


i explored a lot - had to use a guide to find the last two.


i guess you want your own museum too now?

I got all excited when he mentioned a museum, oh i was so disappointed in that

i took the guided tour. :)

"obvioulsy it's not a Brahmin skull as there's only one of them"