DontBeThatGuy
Member
I tried and tried to get into this, but after 25 hours of fits and starts, I gave up. Maybe if I would've played the PC version, I wouldn't felt somewhat differently. (never played New Vegas)
I loved it in 2008. But yeah after New Vegas came out and did everything better (I do like the radio in 3 a bit more though), I just can't go back to it. I even tried last week and got much further than any recent replay, but I just can't do it. Hopefully Bethesda paid a lot of attention to what Obsidian did.
Hold the fuck on, if there's a discussion about the cheese in Fallout we need to have a talk the LARPing Slavers, the Legion. When NPCs were talking about the Legion had sounded intimidating and threatening, but then you meet Vulpes Inculta and his merry band; all that anticipation just faded away. Even after meeting Caesar, the Legion never became the threatening force NPCs had often proclaim to be.
Honestly, the most threatening force in both games are the Deathclaws. The ultimate mistake walking into Quarry Junction...
Anyways, I like both Fallout games and I hope for the best for Fallout 4
Hold the fuck on, if there's a discussion about the cheese in Fallout we need to have a talk the LARPing Slavers, the Legion. When NPCs were talking about the Legion had sounded intimidating and threatening, but then you meet Vulpes Inculta and his merry band; all that anticipation just faded away. Even after meeting Caesar, the Legion never became the threatening force NPCs had often proclaim to be.
Honestly, the most threatening force in both games are the Deathclaws. The ultimate mistake walking into Quarry Junction...
Anyways, I like both Fallout games and I hope for the best for Fallout 4
The legion is pretty hardcore. Did you see what they did to Nipton?
To be fair to the Legion though every human group in both games are pushovers. Your character can pretty much be the Mojave Angel of Death and wipe out both the NCR and the Legion if you chose. The only human NPC I remember giving me somewhat of a challenge was Legate Lanius, which makes me wonder why Caesar didn't just send him in to wipe out the NCR.
[*]The game suffers from that weird scaled leveling BS that was seen in TES: Oblivion. End-game enemies are scaled to always be bullet sponges long after you maxed your character and have the best gear. Some enemies were dishing and talking way too many damage for my tastes. Power armor is pretty much trash in this game because of this and how Bethesda implemented damage resistance and that super lame equipment condition system.
[*]I made the mistake of playing Fallout 3 after sinking my teeth into New Vegas, so I noticed all of the unrefined gameplay elements that Obsidian Entertainment fixed. Stuff like the more valuable perks, weapon repairing, VATS, crafting, the improved skill system, weapon mods, and hardcore mode.
New Vegas also has more invisible walls and tries to force you along a certain path with with Fallout 3 it's much easier to just go wherever the hell you want. I enjoy the bigger freedom aspect of the game. Also it has a very poorly implemented karma system shoved in there along with a bad ammo crafting system. The world of NV is also much more barren and boring to explore than the DC area.
New Vegas never gripped me quite like Fallout 3 had. The opening sequence of Fallout 3 made me fall in love with my own character, for example, yet I could never create a character in New Vegas that I felt it was the "me" version of this other world.
New Vegas felt both more competent technically (which I expected completely given that it is a sequel and therefore never valued it much), but also the story lacked some heart, I guess. On Fallout 3 I felt like I was actually making a difference on this bleak horrible world (tho the ending only makes sense if you bump your head on the wall to cause brain damage enough to forget that your sacrifice was pointless).
New Vegas, I was like, just kind of agreeing or disagreeing with NPCs and then stuff happened, but nothing really made me feel bad... or good.
It's a while since I played both games, it's just what I remember. I think New Vegas tried to be too realistic in terms of scale/world building at times, for its own good. I remember the Boomer location barely had any NPCs in proportion to its scale. I just didn't enjoy the two minutes walks from unique character to unique character all the time. Maybe if it had some nice vistas but we're talking about Fallout. That location absolutely wasn't that bad, though. As already said, that RNC airport was probably one of the worst. I also remember the location with the Great Khans that basically had nothing to it, or that super mutant village.
....
Fallout 3 maybe didn't have many different clans/tribes that played an important role but I really liked Megaton, handful of unique characters and still compact. Rivet City was similar with all its merchants and unique characters. Then there was this location with Harold which was also very compact and actually beautiful to look at and therefore a great change of pace regarding that huge, dead open world. Little Lamplight comes to mind as well.
Playing New Vegas, it usually felt like the people behind it were more concerned about making the world look realistic instead of being fun to explore which never makes any sense when your engine and graphics is this outdated and when you have no access to a horse or vehicle to speed things up. Not saying Fallout 3 did a perfect job.
Another huge Bethesda world with nothing to do.
.
Right
You know you can go inside all those caves, vaults and metro stations
Right
That's a thing you know
I'm playing fallout 3 now first time with quite a few mods. Is new Vegas just as long/big?
The Bethesda Fatigue is a very real thing, though. Usually for me it kicks in at around 100 hours or so. Probably a lot to do with the fact that sooner or later you inevitably turn into a demigod.
The early game hours when you're dirt poor, have to run away from fights and dig trash in the hopes of finding something decent are by the most fun I have in Bethesda games.
this is definitely true, but honestly, after 100 hours, i feel like I got my money worth and could probably just uninstall the game
The invisible walls were annoying in NV, but I much prefer them to the way you're forced to use the metro in 3 to get around the city. Ammo crafting system wasn't "bad", and the karma system was pretty much just a leftover mechanic from 3, with faction reputation taking its place. And I personally found NV's world more interesting because a lot of the landmarks made logical sense, with a ton of backstory, and they felt less like a theme park attraction like in 3.
With the metro in three you could mostly just not use them if you didn't want to because there is a whole world outside of the city, while with NV your almost forces along a certain path whether you want to do the main quest or not, which is really dumb for an open world game.
The karma system was still poorly implemented in NV. You could kill a convict and gain karma but loot their stuff afterwards and you lose karma. And with the faction reputation it was dumb, accidentally shoot one person and suddenly the whole faction in the whole desert hates you and sense your now kill on sight it's pretty much impossible to do anything about it so you lose that mission tree.
How does the game force you along a certain path exactly? And you had to use the shitty metro system in 3 if you wanted to do the quests in that area.
Karma system was nonsensical in places, I agree with that. The reputation mechanic was done pretty well. Yes, shooting someone in a faction will result in that faction not liking you, how is that dumb? And I've killed NCR soldiers in a playthrough, and haven't been shot at on sight in other areas controlled by them unless my rep got really low.
while I agree that new vegas is superior to 3, it also had the karma system, looting, vats and some other stuff you are criticising. I think the only biggest thing that new vegas is superior in is the story line, but they're both very very similar.
How does the game force you along a certain path exactly? And you had to use the shitty metro system in 3 if you wanted to do the quests in that area.
Karma system was nonsensical in places, I agree with that. The reputation mechanic was done pretty well. Yes, shooting someone in a faction will result in that faction not liking you, how is that dumb? And I've killed NCR soldiers in a playthrough, and haven't been shot at on sight in other areas controlled by them unless my rep got really low.
Most players would probably consider the Death Claws a barrier that forced them to go a specific route.
Maybe, but I much prefer that to everything scaling to your level. And it's a good challenge for more experienced players to try and get past them early on instead of going the conventional way around.
A Tale of Two Wastelands mod is the best, because you can use the Terrible Shotgun from FO3 in New Vegas.
It's the best of both worlds because it adds all of FO3 as an expansion to the mechanically superior NV. While I like a lot of the quests in NV and especially the improved dialogue / choices (you can lie to a lot of people), the atmosphere of FO3 still stands out to me way more.
Ugh, Mothership Zeta was such a fucking bore.
Also, fuck those goddamn subway systems.
Besides that, it's a pretty rad game, save for all of Bethesda's standard technical jank. And their weird obsessive need to make sure every player can experience as much content as possible. Besides being a good guy or a douche, they really try to tailor the games to players being able to see as much of it as possible, and it always comes off as silly and immersion breaking. Oblivion did the same shit, and Skyrim to to a degree.
Remember in Morrowind when you could kill any NPC, including main quest NPCs, and doing so simply gave you a message informing you that you've doomed the world and all hope is lost? It let you go about your business doing whatever else you wanted, but you could totally fuck over any questline simply by killing NPCs involved in their progression. They even though to add a pretty well hidden secret backdoor for the main quest that you lets you complete it differently just in case you fuck it up the normal way, a method you can ALSO fuck yourself out of being able to complete. How rad is that? I loved that in New Vegas, entire sections of the game would change or get closed off based on choices. It actually made those choices meaningful.
I really hope Fallout 4 doesn't just try to lavish me and hold my hand through all of its content. Let me make some deep choices with impact (no, blowing up Nuketown didn't actually have any functional impact on that game's world) and fuck, let me kill any NPC I want to, even important ones voiced by famous actors.
BRING BACK REAL FREEDOM AND CHOICE.
Looks like I should play New Vegas. Only played 2, never touched 3 (and OP convinced me I shouldn't even bother) or anything afterwards. Pretty awesome when games can give such divergent experiences.