After reading a lot of comments and seeing pictures it seems Fallout 3's dialogues are still stuck in 90's. I don't think original fallout had particularly outstanding dialogues. There have always seemed to be, Good, Bad, Neutral and wannabe cynical options and they were fairly obvious. But those were 90's and you expect that the game in 2008 would improve on that, but no. It actually gets worse. DIalogues are short, lacking discussions and stating obvious. It's always about good, neutral and bad choice.I hoped that Witcher would set new standards for dialogues and choice and consueqence in games. In witcher, it wasn't about choosing good, bad or neutral. It wasn't so much about choosing between lesser of two evil (at least not for me), it was about choosing. There wasn't a good or bad choice. Only choices and consequences. Brilliant example of that is dealing with squirrels that came for Haren's crate. You can try to play as the goody-doer, but the game shows you that life isn't that simple.The witcher may not be open ended, it may not be about exploration, it may even deal with sex immaturely (some of the lines leading to cards are just ridiculous), but I believe it is a superior game to fallout 3 in the most importan aspects of the role-playing-game.
Pre-ordered the collectors edition, got it the day it was released....went back up to the store and exchanged it for a copy in which the lunchbox was not dented and the bobblehead not broken into two pieces.... Overall, I've been enjoying it. It's far superior in my mind as a sequel than Fallout Tactics was (I never played BOS...but I understand it actually managed to be worse than Tactics).As to the list above: The Good: I agree with. As to the bad.... Well, I'll agree with some of those. The V.A.T.S. though isn't that bad. It's sort of an attempt to bridge the original combat system with the new FPS perspective. Regarding 'too much loot': Actually, I thought this was an improvement. There's bits and pieces of old machins and what lying all over the place (lawnmower blade, pilot light, motorcycle gas tank...) that you can pick up and in some cases kludge together into new items. Compare this to the prior games where basically all you could pick up were weapons, armor, and medical items or items _directly_ connected to the quests. Yeah, you might wind up having a pack full of useless junk now, but it's a bit more realistic than finding laser rifles lying all over the placeLicaonKter said:
...definately didn't like the 'noticeable limits" in the Capitol Wasteland though. I mean, how many areas can you have where, by pure chance of course, buildings have crumbled/exploded/whatever to form an inpenatrable wall over _every_ street leading into an area, yet the area itself is fairly free of debris? That could've been handled a bit better...Definately seems to be an improvement over Oblivion to me in terms of enemy/loot levelling and the like. (that just got absurd in Oblivion....just because my character goes up in levels, suddenly every wannabe thief and highwayman in the region has switched from rusty daggers to the best swords available? So, wait...if I do the quest now, I get armor that barely improves my abilities, but if I wait three levels the armor I receive gives me five times the bonus? Yes, I'm exaggerating a bit, but still...)read the whole review, it's pretty on the spot, IMHO
the clothes that improve skills are a dumb thing... given the hyper-real-post-apoc setting, but anywayi like the Oblivion reference, all the big media reviews made such references, even Todd Howard was speaking in an E3 video about the stuff they did right in FO3 and which was broken in Oblivion, and i was shocked, how the hell can any reviewer give a game a 10/10 score in March 2006, and in October 2008 write that FO3 is better than Oblivion and start to list all the broken things that s/he did not see 2 year ago? ( if you don't believe me just go to any game site, read the FO3 review that get >9/10 and then read the review for Oblivion )this makes one think about the level of trust we give to game reviewers, they get payed to review a game, they get presents/payed trips from the game devs, they get to play only 10% of a game in order say something about the game...things just don't add upi mean, come on, would you trust a movie reviewer that watched only the first 17minutes of a movie?Quixote said:
...okay, yeah, that was a stupid bit. I mean, I can understand _some_ outfits-give-bonus possibilities, like if an outfit gave a bonus to sneaking (or, similarly, give a penalty if the outfit in question was metal armor...I have a chainmail shirt iRL. You're not likely to be sneaking in that, let alone anything involving metal plates)....but things like '+5 to energy weapons' because of your outfit?LicaonKter said:
Ignore professional reviewers, for movies and games and books. Rely on word of mouth from friends or fan sources. That way you not only avoid the paid reviewers/advertisers (*cough*Payola Scandal*cough*) but you also avoid the "art" types where nothing measures up to their standards except for products that 99.95% of the public won't watch. (See example: 1978: Just about any review connected to Star Wars; '98: Siskel & Ebert's "This is stupid! Why are they rereleasing Star Wars? We didn't like it the first time and no one will go to the theater to see a film that's been out on video for nearly two decades!LicaonKter said:
...totally ignoring the legions of fans who not only went, but showed up in costume as well....okay, granted a number of said fans later got into Han Shot First arguments, but...)still debating the issue ---------I have the others --------so we wait a while untill the price goes down I guess ----------- mostly for the collection ------------ just played a little of the firstinto fantasy more than sci fi
I definately agree with you on that one. The witcher is much much better. The more I play Fallout 3 the less I want to call it an RPG. I've been feeling like a good FPS from time to time and this fits that itch perfectly. Dialog is definately weak in Fallout 3.Hamenaglar said:
Sneak peak of NMA's review that's coming next week or so...
andthe review of the imaginary Capital Wasteland: Revelation@NMA
I have to agree on that one the story and dialog choices are very weak compared to even oblivion. Though not as weak as that quote leads on. There is a reason he went into vault 101 and why water can't have radiation removed the "Easy" way. You just can't blindly trudge through the game as quickly as possible and get all the background info. Take your time pay attention to what is going on... it helps but story is still very weak especially the have you seen old guy line. Come on it isn't even a voiced line so at least make it descriptive somewhat. "I'm looking for my father, he looks just like me but x years older." Would of been a much better and even shorter line... Just like oblivion thought the main story is a very small part of the game that if you rush it can be done very quickly without any insight into what is going on. I could hardly get myself to play Oblivion, but I been playing Fallout 3 since it came out, so they must of done something right. Maybe lack of new good RPGs is the main reason but...
they got some things right toohey, maybe their next game will be betterphalzyr said:
Edward R Murrow's Dissertation on Fallout 3@RPGCodexjust a snippet:
...hopefully gamers read user-made reviews too, not just big media reviews rating this game with 10.1/10
Codex is not trusted site to me anymore. Every news about the Witcher is rather negative while their review was positive. Their news aren't factual at all, but maybe they never wereLicaonKter said:Edward R Murrow's Dissertation on Fallout 3@RPGCodexjust a snippet:...hopefully gamers read user-made reviews too, not just big media reviews rating this game with 10.1/10
I saw they find F3 rather enjoyable game http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=176. Every news is the personal and not factual opinion. Pls guide me if I'm wrong.Yes, unfortunately most major review places are into opinnion rather than actual review. Though I am having a lot of fun with FO3 I'd give it a 6 at best most like a 5, right now in vanilla that is. With all the mods that already came out and will come out... The witcher though I'd give a 9Mike said:Codex is not trusted site to me anymore. Every news about the Witcher is rather negative while their review was positive. Their news aren't factual at all, but maybe they never were
it's negative about the Witcher cause everybody hates marketingthe general opinion is that the Witcher is a good game, but every "get the new bug fixed EE" news item is treated separatelymore opinions means better perspectives for meMike said:Codex is not trusted site to me anymore. Every news about the Witcher is rather negative while their review was positive. Their news aren't factual at all, but maybe they never were
That is even without the tools, imagine if they do release them.flashintheflesh said: