Fallout 3: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying & Love RPGs

[Lightknight]

What a fascinating story. It's interesting to see someone who was FPS and sports-only suddenly be converted by a game like that.

Fallout 3 also took me by surprise. But I have been an RPG player all my life. FO3 really showed me what an RPG world could be. As a fan of Bethesda games I was more prepared for such a game, but no less impressed.

 

[Michael Lapierre]

Well, here we go again... ;-)

I was born in 1947, watched the birth of video games, (Berzerk, anyone?), and I've watched this debate over and over again.
Tiresome...
You know, I have played one FO3 play through for more than 200 hours, and in fact, just bought a new copy, the GOTY edition, and I still don't understand one thing.
How people fail to see a miracle in front of them. Yes, there are bugs, yes, sometimes the world is not always 'realistic', but you know what?

You get to see a new world, new experiences, and new emotions.

I don't like the word 'entitled' that gets thrown around too freely in my opinion, but damn people...

Stop fanboy-ism, stop bitching, have fun, and enjoy the trip as the present becomes the future!

Game On!!

 

[wolfyrik]

Cool, now go play New Vegas. The good one

I totally disagree. Fallout Three is a far superior game in terms of story, pacing, atmosphere and relation to fallout universe. I much prefer it's addons, to the short arse NV faire, except for OWB of course. That was gold! I'll say that the New Vegas mechanics are superior, though. Armour means more.

The best way to play either of these games of course, is through Tale of Two Wastelands. That mod gives the best of both, in a pretty coherent format.

 

[Do4600]

So you primarily played FPSes and sports games.

Then you played a watered down action-RPG and declared it the future of RPGs.

If Fallout 3's """"""interactivity"""""" blew your mind, i don't even want to know what would RPGs that actually have some interactivity(Fallout 1, Planescape Torment) do to your mind.

This is my exact sentiment. I can't help but feel terrified that this opinion is really the baseline of video game culture and the primary reason Fallout 3 sold so well.

It just completely ignores the first 30 years of gaming. By the time the first FPS was released there had already been 22 adaptations of Dungeons and Dragons alone and that doesn't even count games that used the system but didn't credit TSR. That doesn't even begin to describe the weight of RPGs in gaming, before the Pentium all you had was either side scrollers, strategies or RPGs, because the resources weren't there to do anything else, that's why nearly every Avalon Hill war-game ever published was at some point committed to floppy disk. I wouldn't be surprised if western RPGs outnumbered Japanese RPGs by a ratio of 4:1.

You can go ahead and call me elitist if you want, but Fallout 3 just barely spoon feeds you RPG elements. I suppose if all you've been doing is running around those little wire cage levels in Call of Duty shanking people like a rabid psychotic hamster then the idea that killing someone in a video game can actually be programmed to have a consequence other than giving you 10 points must be like receiving a holy revelation of fire and thunder from Indra.

Fallout 3 is to RPGs what the radiation in Fallout 3 is to the fireball that consumed the earth. Fallout 3 is the afterglow of an era, it's barely a glint of light off the tallest spire from Atlantis buried below.

From my perspective you just burst in here yelling about your first kiss on the cheek from a teacher that felt sorry for you and I've been married to that woman for seven years, sure you got a little affection, but you will never experience the true depth and excitement that comes from that relationship.

It's unlikely RPGs will ever be that awesome ever again, because they had 30 years to sharpen the experience. It's no surprise that the best action-rpgs are at the very tail end of the reign of rpgs, just after Interplay. Games like Deus Ex and System Shock, there is a reason they are always mentioned, it's because they had the full depth and practice of RPGs behind them, things like branching stories, multiple play styles, endings, reliance on story and consequences. Since then RPGs have been dulled and the remakes of Deus Ex and System Shock(Bioshock) have no resemblance to the game play of the originals other than you point things at other things and they die. The blade is dulled and as far as mainstream gaming is concerned it's obsolete and it's going to be left to rust away because it's more worthwhile to run around a little wire cage shanking people and noobtubing until our eyes bleed than to have a experience in a world where your own actions and consequences can tell a story that isn't totally pre-scripted.

 

[JediMB]

It never really forced you onto the path, though. My first character arrived in New Vegas at level 7, having gone north directly after clearing Primm. It only took a little patience and judicious use of binoculars to sneak past.

Yeah, and my most recent character made it to New Vegas at level 1. Wanted to get a few implants before hitting level 2.

Plus, the faction options you get once you make it to New Vegas, and the various ways you can resolve your personal story, really push the game far beyond Fallout 3.