Escape from New Vegas

[Aeriath]

Warning, the following opinions are from someone who didn't play through the original Fallouts and therefore they may be hazardous to your health:

Fallout 3 vs New Vegas is a toughie. In 3 you have Moira Brown and Three Dog. Now, I know that a lot of people hate these characters but they had a sincerely positive attitude in a world gone to shit and I liked that.

Fallout 3 also had a very depressing atmosphere and some very interesting locations. However, while playing the game I was annoyed by a few things. In the 200 years since the bombs fell, civilisation in the Wasteland really hasn't gone anywhere. It feels as if the people living in the Wasteland are just waiting to die. The main quest aims to improve their living conditions by purifying the water but the people living there don't seem to be making an effort to rebuild so I doubt the water situation would change much.

New Vegas is a big contrast. The atmosphere is more positive and there is some excellent humour. The people of the Mojave have reinstated some kind of order. They are organised, with proper settlements and supply trains and travellers. It's like you're exploring an actual, living world which has arisen from the ashes of nuclear fire. There are also a lot of gameplay improvements in NV, from the factions system, multiple quest lines, new weapons etc. It's just a shame that the radio sucks.

I suppose that if you ignore the gameplay upgrades then I prefer New Vegas because of the positive outlook on the post-apocalypse world rather than 3's depressing one.

You are completely right that you go throughout the entire DLC for the gold and only get to carry out 5 or 6 of them. In theory.
Unless you glitch your way out of the vault with all 37 through the forcefield with mines and other explosives

Just wanted to mention that with very precise timing and a high sneak skill you can get the bars out without glitching.

 

[Insanityblues]

New vegas had more interesting, morally ambiguous characters. As opposed to Fallout 3 where the brotherhood are all armored saints and the Enclave all eat puppies for breakfast.
Also, in Fallout 3, enemies were always the same level as you, no matter where you were. In New Vegas however, there are places where you'll get your ass handed to you if you're not careful, I liked that, it added a sense of adventure. Wondering how powerful your foes would be also gave the game some tension wich was lacking from Fallout 3.

 

[Zenn3k]

For a few years i was uneable to play any modern game. However, with brand new PC i am finally back on tracks so to speak. I consider myself hardcore Fallout fan, so it should be pretty obvious what were first titles i wanted to play.

Fallout 3 was pretty good. Much better than anticipations - oh i do remember those rusty "orcs with rifles" arguments and i'm happy they have been proven wrong. I played FO3 a little, finished main quest, tried a few mods. Then i installed New Vegas.

Long story short, i am very dissapointed with this abomination. I can't uderstand why to some people NV seems superior to FO3. However, i am aware that this topic is dead and i don't want to ressurect it.

Instead, i'm curious. Indulge me please : are here people like me - that tried both games and went back to FO3 ?

I've played both.

I found NV to be superior, but only slightly.

It had a much stronger narrative and better use of skills to be sure. Also, hardcore mode is a blast.

Beyond THAT, they really aren't that different. The one major negative that NV has is the lack of freedom to explore that FO3 had.

The world of NV is smaller and much more A-B-C, without any possibility to deviate. You'll always go south, then up through Novac, then to the bridge trading area, then to Vegas. In FO3 you could run straight to Rivet City from the Vault if you wanted...sure, you'd break the story a bit in the process, but you still COULD.

Either way, I haven't played either of them in ages. Hopefully the next one will be built on the Skyrim engine and will be amazing.

 

[TimeLord]

You are completely right that you go throughout the entire DLC for the gold and only get to carry out 5 or 6 of them. In theory.
Unless you glitch your way out of the vault with all 37 through the forcefield with mines and other explosives

Just wanted to mention that with very precise timing and a high sneak skill you can get the bars out without glitching.

My sneak skill was something pathetic like 28 xD

In response to the rest of your post. I also am a non-pre-Fallout 3 player and I think Fallout 3 trumps New Vegas. I agree that New Vegas is much more positive than 3, but the people in 3 were stifled by a lack of leadership and oppressed by Super Mutants all over DC and the wasteland.
However, I am a great fan on the Brotherhood of Steel and enjoyed their increased involvement all over the wastes compared to New Vegas' 'we're gonna hide in our bunker and even though we keep saying that some of us were locked out, they are never seen in the Mojave'... syndrome.
I enjoyed the wasteland itself in 3 over New Vegas, even with the wild wasteland perk, but maybe that was more the reason I prefer 3's wasteland. It just felt more interesting and involving than New Vegas'. Not to say that New Vegas had a poor wasteland to explore, but I think 3's was more immersive, to the point where I liked to trudge across the Wasteland but preferred fast travelling the Mojave.

Edit: New Vegas' story trumps 3's story, 3 trumps NV's side quests, I wouldn't like to choose between the DLCs for each game

 

[flamingjimmy]

That seems like a cop out to me, I'm not asking for them to define every aspect of my character, just to give him some sort of context, with the complete blank slate approach there is absolutely no emotional investment at all. I'm perfectly comfortable with role playing (I used to do d&d every week) so its not that. I just expected more. It's like I said, there's no first act.

They did give you context;

You're a courier for the Mojave Express who was delivering a package and was hot in the head and left for dead.

A backstory that can (and just has been) summed up in a single very short sentence. That's not enough.

The emotional investment is what you give to your character, personally I found F3 forced too much emotion on you and expected you to care for your father and want to find ol' daddy, which to me felt like a cop out.

Even if you discount the part with your dad there's still loads more stuff in the intro to fallout 3 than there is in new vegas. The fact that there's a place where your guy came from that is an actual community with people that know you makes a load of difference to me. It's the classic adventure story first act: Young innocent guy grows up in a (sort of) idyllic community where everything seems rosy and fine, then all of a sudden, an event throws everything the guy has grown up with into chaos and you have to set out into the big wide world on the adventure of a lifetime. New vegas doesn't even try to have a first act, just a 2 minute cutscene and that's it.

If I want to be a murderous dickhead I should be able to and tell my dad to go fuck off with his little project. And no, inserting the FEV does not count, all it does is make a couple of people sick, and you never get to even join the Enclave.

I'm not commenting on the game as a whole, just pointing out that it failed to draw me in, I've got no idea what choices you get to make later on in New Vegas.

Well that's you, personally I was drawn in as soon as an NCR soldier walked by and Easy Pete pronounced Caesar with a hard "c".

Well I didn't play the old fallouts for more than a few hours round a friend's house so for me, the game has to stand up on its own, and can't fall back on nostalgia.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I like them both but I like Fallout: New Vegas more. I don't think 3 should have been set 200 years after the great war maybe have it in 2177, having it between Fallout 1 and 2 would have been better. For me it is a bit like Morrowind and Oblivion. One is much better (Morrowind/New Vegas) but the other one is still very good (Oblivion/3.)

 

[JPArbiter]

my biggest issue with new vegas is that even post patches I keep getting corrupted save files and freezes. it got to the point where I shot the disc with a .308 (67% cnahce to hit in V.A.T.S. at 30 yards), and am waiting to replace it when Obsidion puts all the DLC on the disc.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I did TRY to go back to Fallout 3, but I already had 400+ hours in it, so I had done pretty much everything. Three times.

I really don't understand the hate for NV. Yeah, it wasn't as god as 3, but it had some GREAT improvements and the whole narrative was far superior.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

It seems to me that people who prefer Fallout 3 had never played or disliked Fallout 1 and 2.

I enjoyed both Fallout 3 and NV, but I prefer the latter much more.

I also cannot stand playing the original games - I simply cannot get into the combat system.

 

[Aeriath]

In response to the rest of your post. I also am a non-pre-Fallout 3 player and I think Fallout 3 trumps New Vegas. I agree that New Vegas is much more positive than 3, but the people in 3 were stifled by a lack of leadership and oppressed by Super Mutants all over DC and the wasteland.
However, I am a great fan on the Brotherhood of Steel and enjoyed their increased involvement all over the wastes compared to New Vegas' 'we're gonna hide in our bunker and even though we keep saying that some of us were locked out, they are never seen in the Mojave'... syndrome.
I enjoyed the wasteland itself in 3 over New Vegas, even with the wild wasteland perk, but maybe that was more the reason I prefer 3's wasteland. It just felt more interesting and involving than New Vegas'. Not to say that New Vegas had a poor wasteland to explore, but I think 3's was more immersive, to the point where I liked to trudge across the Wasteland but preferred fast travelling the Mojave.

Edit: New Vegas' story trumps 3's story, 3 trumps NV's side quests, I wouldn't like to choose between the DLCs for each game

I'll grant you that the Capital Wasteland is a far harder place to live than the Mojave. I sill feel that they are behind the curve of recovering after the war though. With all the weapons and manpower available, you'd think they'd be killing a fair few Super Mutants (especially the Enclave, and when they arrive the BoS). I'm not entirely sure about this so call me on it if I'm wrong, but isn't the population of Super Mutants in DC finite? Eventually over the course of 200 years you'd expect the Super Mutant population to dwindle. After that the threat level is much lower than the Mojave (because let's face it, Cazadors have their own danger level, I'd rather meet a Deathclaw or 10...).

The BoS in NV were a bit of a disappointment, but they did show that the organisation is human and prone to failures. In 3 they were a bit White-Knighty for my tastes although that can probably be attributed to the karma system.

DC certainly is a haunting place, it is so atmospheric that I can't think of any other game worlds that match it. This is actually one of the issues that caused me to be uncertain about NV for the first 10-20 hours, but when I got to Vegas everything just kind of clicked into place that I needed to look at it differently to fully enjoy it. This was also a problem for me in FO3, at first I hated it but then I decided to just wander the wastes and I fell in love with DC. I suppose you could say that I fell in love with FO3 for the setting (and Moira and Three Dog!) and NV for everything else.

Can't comment on the DLC unfortunately as I've only played the first 3 NV ones.

 

[JamesStone]

...why aren't you writing for this site?

I'm not 18 (which I think is a requirement), and I'm busy with school. Plus other than Fallout and maybe some more less known video game series I wouldn't know what to write about.

I agree with this, but there´s something I can explain. DC isn´t rebuild after 200 years because it was one of the most bobmbed places in America. It was their capital and almost everyone died. Only a few poor bastards that couldn´t leave the area because Super Mutants would fuck their shit up in the moment they tried. Only a few communities could rise because there wasn´t a) many people to begin with b)fertil space. But that doesn´t excuse Mothership Zeta, so, agree with almost everything, prefer NV so much more. I play Fallout 3 for the rollercoster experience.

California was bombed pretty hard too, Los Angeles was almost completely wiped out. Plus the NCR city was built from the ground up, it wasn't based around the ruins of a city. Also about fertile space, there really isn't any reason ever given as to why there is no living plant life around D. C.

P.S: Also, to everyone complaining about FO3 Super Mutants and FEV:

Spoiler: drumrolls please

It was a government experience, and the Enclave could have access it in no time. Considering Vault-Tec´s afiliation with the Enclave and their desire to conquer everything, they gave it to one of their Vaults to experiment a prototype version. Combine the prototype stage with the Nuke that hit Vault 87 and allowed for major mutations and you get your explanation about different Super Mutants. True the Behemoth was taking it a little to far, but it´s still believable considering everything that can occur with genetics. [/spoilers]

Spoiler: drumrolls please

The thing is that it's never explained in the game.

Yes it's possible, but when it comes to important things like FEV and super mutants, Bethesda really should have given a reason and background info as to why Vault 87 was given a prototype FEV. Sometimes a little ambiguity is a good thing, but not in this case.

Spoiler: drumrolls please

To the first response, true, both California and Los Angeles were also bombed pretty badly, but the thing is, it´s not the location, but the situation. Los Angeles, for example, survived because their Vault wasn´t a social experiment, it was a "how this will be" but without the hallucinogenic drugs, or the ultra sounds reaction, or the "Im gonna lock you away foreva" deal. So enough pre-War men survived to use their knowledge. Now in DC almost every Vault was a social experiment that went wrong, and the ones out there were been ravashed by +50 years of Rad creatures that evolved a lot, not to mention a bunch of green dumb bastards that kill or capture everything on sight, and use fear tactics like treatining to eat their victims, and dismember the ones they kill. You see, if only a few things go wrong at first step, everything in the future will be compromised, like a giant domino effect.

[spoilers= Lots of stuff coming up] And to the fact that Bethesda didn´t explain the FEV thing: There´s no need for it. We can conclude something without the game having to hold our hands and explaining everything. I mean, think about it: it is said that Vault-tec was a Enclave related company. The Enclave have indirect and direct control over the US experiments. They could have easily transported FEV to Vault 87, but obviously it was a prototype, because it caused a inconvient effect of stupidifing it´s subjects, even more if the subject is irradiated (but that last bit was only knowed after the War), and causing gene mutation over time. It was transported to a vault because the Enclave knew that a nuclear war was coming, and Super Soldiers are the best way to garantee dominance to whatever comes in their way after the bombs. The Enclave didn´t have direct control over the experiments at Mariposa and West-tec, so Vault 87 was probably their little failsafe, just in case they couldn´t hold the research bases. See, I used my mind to think about the most likely reason that FEV ended up in Vault 87. And this FEV might not have been a prototype, maybe it mutated after a direct warhead hit the Vault blast doors. [/spoilers]

 

[TimeLord]

In response to the rest of your post. I also am a non-pre-Fallout 3 player and I think Fallout 3 trumps New Vegas. I agree that New Vegas is much more positive than 3, but the people in 3 were stifled by a lack of leadership and oppressed by Super Mutants all over DC and the wasteland.
However, I am a great fan on the Brotherhood of Steel and enjoyed their increased involvement all over the wastes compared to New Vegas' 'we're gonna hide in our bunker and even though we keep saying that some of us were locked out, they are never seen in the Mojave'... syndrome.
I enjoyed the wasteland itself in 3 over New Vegas, even with the wild wasteland perk, but maybe that was more the reason I prefer 3's wasteland. It just felt more interesting and involving than New Vegas'. Not to say that New Vegas had a poor wasteland to explore, but I think 3's was more immersive, to the point where I liked to trudge across the Wasteland but preferred fast travelling the Mojave.

Edit: New Vegas' story trumps 3's story, 3 trumps NV's side quests, I wouldn't like to choose between the DLCs for each game

I'll grant you that the Capital Wasteland is a far harder place to live than the Mojave. I sill feel that they are behind the curve of recovering after the war though. With all the weapons and manpower available, you'd think they'd be killing a fair few Super Mutants (especially the Enclave, and when they arrive the BoS). I'm not entirely sure about this so call me on it if I'm wrong, but isn't the population of Super Mutants in DC finite? Eventually over the course of 200 years you'd expect the Super Mutant population to dwindle. After that the threat level is much lower than the Mojave (because let's face it, Cazadors have their own danger level, I'd rather meet a Deathclaw or 10...).

The BoS in NV were a bit of a disappointment, but they did show that the organisation is human and prone to failures. In 3 they were a bit White-Knighty for my tastes although that can probably be attributed to the karma system.

DC certainly is a haunting place, it is so atmospheric that I can't think of any other game worlds that match it. This is actually one of the issues that caused me to be uncertain about NV for the first 10-20 hours, but when I got to Vegas everything just kind of clicked into place that I needed to look at it differently to fully enjoy it. This was also a problem for me in FO3, at first I hated it but then I decided to just wander the wastes and I fell in love with DC. I suppose you could say that I fell in love with FO3 for the setting (and Moira and Three Dog!) and NV for everything else.

Can't comment on the DLC unfortunately as I've only played the first 3 NV ones.

To my knowledge, Super Mutants evolved due to Vault experimentation post war. So they had a few years to multiply and then leave the Vault. Also, Super Mutants are made via exposing a normal human to the FEV virus and that mutates them. Since SM's cant multiply via sexual means.

You should remember that very few bombs fell on the Mojave. None on Vegas itself. They didn't need to re-build much in the Mojave AND they had proper leadership or an occupying force (the NCR). Whereas everything in DC got nuked and no one took much charge outside of their bubbles like Rivet City. The BoS themselves being distrustful of outsiders.

 

[JamesStone]

snip.

I agree with this, but there´s something I can explain. DC isn´t rebuild after 200 years because it was one of the most bobmbed places in America. It was their capital and almost everyone died. Only a few poor bastards that couldn´t leave the area because Super Mutants would fuck their shit up in the moment they tried. Only a few communities could rise because there wasn´t a) many people to begin with b)fertil space. But that doesn´t excuse Mothership Zeta, so, agree with almost everything, prefer NV so much more. I play Fallout 3 for the rollercoster experience.


P.S: Also, to everyone complaining about FO3 Super Mutants and FEV:

Spoiler: drumrolls please

It was a government experience, and the Enclave could have access it in no time. Considering Vault-Tec´s afiliation with the Enclave and their desire to conquer everything, they gave it to one of their Vaults to experiment a prototype version. Combine the prototype stage with the Nuke that hit Vault 87 and allowed for major mutations and you get your explanation about different Super Mutants. True the Behemoth was taking it a little to far, but it´s still believable considering everything that can occur with genetics.

fixed, make sure when you make a spoiler that you end it with "spoiler", not "spoilers".

no biggy tho


OT: i guess it's just personal taste, however OP you seem to be a bit...trollish.

i personally prefer NV in every single way, and think FO3 is garbage comparitively in every single category to it, but i do get that everyone prefers different things so i'm not gonna choke you because you prefer FO3 to NV.

but still..;lsdjkaf;lsjadf;lj0asdfl;dsafsdf is how i feel when trying to compare these games.

Hey thanks. And yeah, Fallout New Vegas is better, I was just saying that Fallout 3 isn´t all that abominable as some people try to make it look.

 

[DarkRyter]

I like New Vegas much much more than 3.

The story is better.

And for me, that's all there is to it. When Bethesda inevitable makes a Fallout 4, I dearly hope they get JE Sawyer and Chris Avvelone to work on the story.

Being the ultimate factor in a standoff between the warring factions and schemes of Vegas just seemed alot more interesting than

"Let's clean water, Dad! OH NO! Enclave! Pchoo pchoo!"

Pchoo pchoo are laser noises.

 

[Pjotr84]

In all honesty, I don't see how anyone could think Fallout 3 were better than Vegas. F3 completely lacks the Fallout soul and I'm not sure it even qualifies as an RPG. The defining characteristic for this genre is choice and consequence, which was really poorly implemented in 3. Blow up Megaton or let the town live? Help the Brotherhood or ... aid the enclave? It all just didn't matter. The actual role playing component was also completely lacking due to the fact one would have his useful skills maxed by lvl. 20. For me Fallout 3 was a big world filled with emptiness, in more ways than one.

Somehow 3 is held in high regard by many and it's being harolded as a great RPG, but if this is what is meant with the term RPG, we should invent a new one for games like Fallout 1 and 2, Planescape, Knights of the Old Republic and the like.

 

[5t3v0]

Why isn't DC just a massive crater? I'm pretty sure that the enemies of the US, China, would not want the capital of the US to still exist. If Vegas/nevada had around 200 Nukes launched on it (where only 7 hit thanks to Mr House), Why weren't 1500 launched on the US with most hitting.

Three reasons.


1: New Vegas was defended by a civvie with money. DC was defended by the government itself. Do you honestly thing that civvie is going to have access to better gear than the government?

2: DC was slammed. Look at the difference between the east and west coasts. DC is still in the "Huddling in whatever scrap I can find" stage of recovery, whereas the west coast has formed governments, credit lines, paper currencies, limited manufacturing capabilities, all sorts of stuff like that. DC itself is a nearly uninhabitable ruin.

3: For gameplay reasons, there had to be something left of the city. Playing a game set in a big-ass crater wouldn't have done anything.

#1- Yeah, sure, but I think lore states that the government did not actually do much, and I think there may have been a likelyhood that Robco Had more money than the US with its economy in shambles due to Peak oil, and the war effort. I know, I must be a dickhead because I brought lore up...
#2- it was slammed, but not really as much as you would expect. You could still go places without bathing in radiation, and a great deal of the city is still there. The Citadel, while probably would have been protected in a preliminary stage, still probably would have been hit with a fuckton of Bunkerbusters, leaving not even the lower levels intact. The only building from what I have seen on the fallout wiki (didn't get fallout 3 expansions) in DC that got a realistic fate is the whitehouse, and some would expect that would have gotten even more protection than the pentagon.
#3 was my reasoning. Don't really mean to be a dick (sorta...) but I was trying to point out that DC shouldn't exist in the fallout world anymore, rather than just bethesda trying to shoe horn a location that Lore-wise wouldn't exist in.

 

[Agayek]

Instead, i'm curious. Indulge me please : are here people like me - that tried both games and went back to FO3 ?

I love New Vegas, much more so than 3. It had a sense of humor that was sorely lacking from FO3. The Mojave just felt a lot more vibrant than the Capital Wasteland, even if it was just a different flavor of dirt.

New Vegas was simply more interesting and more fun than anything in FO3.

Oh, and my Elite Riot Gear is amazing, in all ways.

 

[ChupathingyX]

To the first response, true, both California and Los Angeles were also bombed pretty badly, but the thing is, it´s not the location, but the situation. Los Angeles, for example, survived because their Vault wasn´t a social experiment, it was a "how this will be" but without the hallucinogenic drugs, or the ultra sounds reaction, or the "Im gonna lock you away foreva" deal. So enough pre-War men survived to use their knowledge. Now in DC almost every Vault was a social experiment that went wrong, and the ones out there were been ravashed by +50 years of Rad creatures that evolved a lot, not to mention a bunch of green dumb bastards that kill or capture everything on sight, and use fear tactics like treatining to eat their victims, and dismember the ones they kill. You see, if only a few things go wrong at first step, everything in the future will be compromised, like a giant domino effect.

What you say is true, howeverm I think that Bethesda took the whole experiment thing a little too far. Don't you think Vault-Tec would have installed at least one "normal" vault, maybe one for their employees considering their HQ was located in D.C.?

Spoiler: Lots of stuff coming up

And to the fact that Bethesda didn´t explain the FEV thing: There´s no need for it. We can conclude something without the game having to hold our hands and explaining everything. I mean, think about it: it is said that Vault-tec was a Enclave related company. The Enclave have indirect and direct control over the US experiments. They could have easily transported FEV to Vault 87, but obviously it was a prototype, because it caused a inconvient effect of stupidifing it´s subjects, even more if the subject is irradiated (but that last bit was only knowed after the War), and causing gene mutation over time. It was transported to a vault because the Enclave knew that a nuclear war was coming, and Super Soldiers are the best way to garantee dominance to whatever comes in their way after the bombs. The Enclave didn´t have direct control over the experiments at Mariposa and West-tec, so Vault 87 was probably their little failsafe, just in case they couldn´t hold the research bases. See, I used my mind to think about the most likely reason that FEV ended up in Vault 87. And this FEV might not have been a prototype, maybe it mutated after a direct warhead hit the Vault blast doors.

1. For spoiler tags, it's just

Spoiler

, not [spoilers].

I think there is a need, FEV was a big part of the Fallout world, and to just introduce it to the east coast without any explanation was either an attempt to make something really important ambiguous, or just lazy. Ambiguity works better for things like character morals and actions, or certain battle events, but not for something this important.

Plus, the FEV tests didn't become successful until about 2 years before the bombs fell. Now I'm not saying it would take more than 2 years to get the FEV across to the east, but with all the problems America had at the time it's kinda hard to believe.

 

[hyzaku]

-snip-
Dead Money also gives a very interesting twist at the end when you find out that the Sierra Madre treasure is a vault of gold, gold too heavy to even carry out meaning everything you did was for almost nothing. This reinforces the story of the DLC about greed and letting go.
-snip-

You should do a proper review with all that in that post, but I just wanted to point out this bit. You are completely right that you go throughout the entire DLC for the gold and only get to carry out 5 or 6 of them. In theory.
Unless you glitch your way out of the vault with all 37 through the forcefield with mines and other explosives

Ironically you actually CAN make out with all the gold. You have to get Elijah to come down to the vault, then hide in a corner near where he enters while using the only stealth boy in sierra madre. Wait for him to approach the vault then you can literally just walk (without sneaking) right out as Elijah gets trapped inside forever.

It was tricky to figure out the timing of when to start walking so that you don't get discovered or trapped by the force field, but oh man the caps. You pull it off and you never have to worry about money the rest of the game. Selling them with max barter gets you over 9k caps each and there are 35 of the buggers.

 

[Chiasm]

Honestly, I can't help but feel sad knowing that someday Fallout may go back to Bethesda. Fallout has and always will be THE game that got me into gaming as a young girl, before Fallout I only ever played Mario. I still remember when I first played Fallout 2 and how engrossing it was, I had zero idea what I was doing or what any of it was. I spent literally weeks just figuring out how to make a character it was after all the first pc game I had ever played.

I would bring the manual to school sneaking it behind my textbooks reading every word. Slowly with the manual at my side I was able to figure out all the skills, how burst mode worked, how to recruit companions and which perks to take. The lessons didn't even stop there as the game continued to teach, showing how every action has a reaction, how the short term gain of selling yourself has a long term effect on your karma I could go on and on about this for pages. But simply Fallout 2 is what opened the door of gaming to my 12 year old self, without it I would never have tried Baldur's Gate or even be a "gamer" today.

So to sit back and watch Bethesda basically change and destroy not just the story of Fallout but it's soul isn't even the worst part. It's knowing that many people don't even know about Fallout 1 or 2, and that to them Fallout 3 IS Fallout and all I can do is sit back and watch this Impostor steal the identity of my favorite series.