How much choice does Fallout 3 REALLY allow for?

[Ghengis John]

-snip-

FPSRPG/Action RPG is how I've seen it described.

Yes, it's first and foremost an RPG, but the fact that it has FPS elements (by which I mean that it's basically a FPS game) means that it's also classed as an FPSRPG.

You could just as easily argue that Half-Life wasn't an FPS game, as you could (ish) walk through the game with ONLY the crowbar, but that's obviously just a fucking retarded statement.

It doesn't have any FPS elements if you don't play it like that, and you're never pushed in that direction. It is built to allow you to play how you want, whereas Half-Life is geared towards shooting specifically, and whilst I'm sure someone is dull enough to try and crowbar their way through, it's still an FPS.

It doesn't have them if you don't want to play like that, BUT THEY ARE BUILT INTO THE GAME are they not? You still aim your police baton or dragon sword with your crosshairs, the FPS foundation is inescapable. And if you never engage in any combat at all, good luck getting Paul or Manny out of their respective predicaments alive.

 

[Woodsey]

-snip-

FPSRPG/Action RPG is how I've seen it described.

Yes, it's first and foremost an RPG, but the fact that it has FPS elements (by which I mean that it's basically a FPS game) means that it's also classed as an FPSRPG.

You could just as easily argue that Half-Life wasn't an FPS game, as you could (ish) walk through the game with ONLY the crowbar, but that's obviously just a fucking retarded statement.

It doesn't have any FPS elements if you don't play it like that, and you're never pushed in that direction. It is built to allow you to play how you want, whereas Half-Life is geared towards shooting specifically, and whilst I'm sure someone is dull enough to try and crowbar their way through, it's still an FPS.

It doesn't have them if you don't want to play like that, BUT THEY ARE BUILT INTO THE GAME are they not? You still aim your police baton or dragon sword with your crosshairs, the FPS foundation is inescapable. And if you never engage in any combat at all, good luck getting Paul or Manny out of their respective predicaments alive.

OK, and where exactly is the shooting in all this melee combat?

As for Manny and Paul, you don't need to save either, so you could just sneak away, or you could set a trap using explosives, or mix it up.

No shooting necessary.

The Two Thrones has chariot racing in, that doesn't make it a chariot racer - and this is talking about a part of a game that's forced. Deus Ex never forces it.

 

[manaman]

...When Fallout 3 has the same 10 or so voice actors it kinda ruins the game when you hear the Imperial City Guard for the 100th time, or something along those lines.

Well now I have to ask if you even played Fallout 3. That doesn't seem like the kind of mistake you can make talking about that game. Seeing how there isn't even a hint of an empire, or a non destroyed city, in that game.

HE means the cat from oblivion/morrowind who played the imperial city guard. I dunno if you played those games but they were also by Bethesda. He is referring to the fact the game has about six voices you hear over and over till you want to beat your brains in. Like, "okay man, now you're making a bayou accent. I can tell you're still the same guy who voiced the guard down the hall".

Man when I was playing Dead Rising it really annoyed me that I had trouble learning the combos in Marvel Vs Capcom 3.

Yeah, it makes about as much sense as what you said.

He is talking about faults in Fallout 3, why would he bring up faults in voice acting in a completely different game as an example?

 

[Ghengis John]

OK, and where exactly is the shooting in all this melee combat?

You still aim your police baton or dragon sword with your crosshairs, the FPS foundation is inescapable. And if you never engage in any combat at all, good luck getting Paul or Manny out of their respective predicaments alive.

When you're trying to escape the majestic 12 base you will not have enough explosives to clear the way for Manny/Miguel to escape. You can hand him a knife and watch him get gutted I suppose, same for Paul. If you don't mind them dying at all I guess you could say you were never forced into combat. And since when was the use of explosives not combat? Explosives I might add you place on the wall with your crosshairs.

Speaking of hairs. Quit splitting them. A game can be two things at once. You're pretty dense or pretty staid if you can't accept the concept of a hybrid. Is it an RPG? Yes. But it's also an FPS. It's both. One thing does not preclude the other. They are not mutually exclusive entities. Get over it.

 

[FernandoV]

...When Fallout 3 has the same 10 or so voice actors it kinda ruins the game when you hear the Imperial City Guard for the 100th time, or something along those lines.

Well now I have to ask if you even played Fallout 3. That doesn't seem like the kind of mistake you can make talking about that game. Seeing how there isn't even a hint of an empire, or a non destroyed city, in that game.

HE means the cat from oblivion/morrowind who played the imperial city guard. I dunno if you played those games but they were also by Bethesda. He is referring to the fact the game has about six voices you hear over and over till you want to beat your brains in. Like, "okay man, now you're making a bayou accent. I can tell you're still the same guy who voiced the guard down the hall".

Man when I was playing Dead Rising it really annoyed me that I had trouble learning the combos in Marvel Vs Capcom 3.

Yeah, it makes about as much sense as what you said.

He is talking about faults in Fallout 3, why would he bring up faults in voice acting in a completely different game as an example?

Are you serious? Please use some logic, he was drawing an analogy using another game? THAT'S THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF AN ANALOGY. You don't say "Jeez, I hate how shooting russians in MW2 is as hard as shooting russians in MW2!"

 

[Ghengis John]

Man when I was playing Dead Rising it really annoyed me that I had trouble learning the combos in Marvel va Capcom 3.

Yeah, it makes about as much sense as what you said.

He is talking about faults in Fallout 3, why would he bring up faults in voice acting in a completely different game as an example?

The games use the same voice actors. Does that clear it up for you? He is saying you hear the actor who portrayed the imperial city gaurd, Wes Johnson a lot. To the extent that it is grating. Because Wes Johnson also voices characters in fallout 3. Also those marvel versus capcom 3 combos aren't so hard if you stick to *unannounced character*.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Choice in Fallout 3 basically boils down to "Do you want to blow up Megaton or not?"

Most of the other quests have one single path, and those that ACTUALLY have two different choices are, apart from blowing the SHIT out of Megaton, pretty samey.
All in all: Get New Vegas.

Did you know, you can't actually blow up megaton in the Japanese version?
I was like .. isn't that half the point of the game?

Anyhow, I play Fallout 3 like I play a whole bunch of other Bethesda games ... to make the most badass character ever.
Like aim to get 10 in every stat and 100 in every skill. Which is quite pointless since having 2 skills at 100 is already way overkill for crushing your foes.

 

[G-Force]

I might be willing to say that Fallout 3 has a lot more choices than people give it credit for instead of the good choice, evil choice, neutral choice as how you get to those choices is up to you.

Your average quest in Fallout 3 is Retrieve Item X for Client Y in order to get Reward Z upon your return. Here are all the ways the quest can be resolved

1. You return the item for your reward (neutral)
2. You return the item, forgo the reward and get a karma boost instead (good)
3. Double cross your quest giver for a different reward (evil)

Now we get into the other ways you can resolve the quest that's more than the standard three choices.

1. You return the item to Client Y, claim Reward Z then kill Client Y for more items
2. Take Item X and use it for yourself and forget about Client Y altogether.
3. Take Item X use it for yourself, kill Client Y and take your reward by force
4. Double cross Client Y by giving Item X to another person, take the second person's reward then return to Client Y kill him and take Reward Z

etc.

The key is that not every choice is reflected in the game's narrative and there are way more ways to resolve the quest that I haven't typed.

 

[manaman]

Man when I was playing Dead Rising it really annoyed me that I had trouble learning the combos in Marvel va Capcom 3.

Yeah, it makes about as much sense as what you said.

He is talking about faults in Fallout 3, why would he bring up faults in voice acting in a completely different game as an example?

The games use the same voice actors. Does that clear it up for you? He is saying you hear the actor who portrayed the imperial city gaurd, Wes Johnson a lot. To the extent that it is grating. Because Wes Johnson also voices characters in fallout 3. Also those marvel versus capcom 3 combos aren't so hard if you stick to *unannounced character*.

Yes actually it does. I'm not convinced that the guy really knows what he is talking about, but knowing that now makes my previous statement invalid as directed towards you. I apologize.

Are you serious? Please use some logic, he was drawing an analogy using another game? THAT'S THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF AN ANALOGY. You don't say "Jeez, I hate how shooting russians in MW2 is as hard as shooting russians in MW2!"

Look at that, we were both wrong. Well, then again you could be using the term analogy incorrectly.

Provided Ghengis John is right about the first posters motives in his statement he wasn't drawing an analogy he was pointing out that the he recognized voice actors in Fallout 3 from Oblivion, and that there where very few voice actors used over all.

 

[Danceofmasks]

The key is that not every choice is reflected in the game's narrative and there are way more ways to resolve the quest that I haven't typed.

There's also the "you got killed by a bear that was chasing me? Totally not my fault. Tee hee."

 

[TundraWolf]

Seeing as you haven't bought Fallout 3 yet, I will take this chance to try and persuade you into not buying it.

Spoiler: Here you go

[img]http://imgur.com/TVFXW.jpg[/img]

Hooray for me posting this image for the third time today. I hope the image answers all your questions about this horrendous game.

I will counter/cancel out this post by saying that Fallout 3 is my favorite game of all time. Ever.

Then I will counter/cancel your post by saying that you've got a terrible taste in videogames.

That's not how it works. We've already canceled each other out, you can't cancel me out again.

Actually, he can. He cancelled out your negative, giving you a positive. Which makes you win. It's the whole "-1 x -1 = +1" thing.

I think congratulations are in order.

 

[Ghengis John]

Yes actually it does. I'm not convinced that the guy really knows what he is talking about, but knowing that now makes my previous statement invalid as directed towards you. I apologize.

It's cool.

 

[Hairetos]

-snip-

FPSRPG/Action RPG is how I've seen it described.

Yes, it's first and foremost an RPG, but the fact that it has FPS elements (by which I mean that it's basically a FPS game) means that it's also classed as an FPSRPG.

You could just as easily argue that Half-Life wasn't an FPS game, as you could (ish) walk through the game with ONLY the crowbar, but that's obviously just a fucking retarded statement.

It doesn't have any FPS elements if you don't play it like that, and you're never pushed in that direction. It is built to allow you to play how you want, whereas Half-Life is geared towards shooting specifically, and whilst I'm sure someone is dull enough to try and crowbar their way through, it's still an FPS.

It doesn't have them if you don't want to play like that, BUT THEY ARE BUILT INTO THE GAME are they not? You still aim your police baton or dragon sword with your crosshairs, the FPS foundation is inescapable. And if you never engage in any combat at all, good luck getting Paul or Manny out of their respective predicaments alive.

His point is this. Say someone beat Deus Ex without shooting a single gun. Can they really walk up to someone and say they played a first-person shooter? The genre necessitates the firing of a weapon.

In an RPG, however, you are given many options for weapons. We don't call Oblivion a first-person sword-swinger because you can swing axes, wield magic, shoot bows, or punch people. We simply then just call it an RPG, even though swordplay is very prominent in the game.

 

[Ekibiogami]

Buy game.
Go here. http://fallout3nexus.com/index.php
Download lots of mods to make game better.
Have fun.

 

[lolnoobzor]

anyways, CAN i do this? will i be allowed to be a dispenser of brutal justice with nary any consequences besides bad karma?

To answer your question, right now even sandbox games are limited by the constraints of a scenario. A game that allows the freedom of say a GM ad-libbing for you in person simply doesn't exist, and by definition is going to be impossible without some kind of AI technology involved.

Even in MOST PnP RPGs there are limits to what players can do, within the constraints of the scenario. For example if your playing "Temple Of Elemental Evil" (old, classic module) there are certain bounds to the detailed area, and the reaction of other elements in the scenario (bad guys acting on their own towards specific objectives) is liable to ensure that the action takes place within a certain basic framework. You can predict most of the variables likely to occur when you read through the module to prepare to run it.

Coming from more of PnP-RPG school of thought, liberty (as in, all my actions shall have consequences, not as in, I can do whatever I want) is something of paramount importance for me in an RPG. Honestly, Fallout 3 was very dissapointing to me, especially compared to the 1 & 2.

If, like someone else here said, you're more interested in being a certain character of your choice within the world created for you, then from what many people say, you might thoroughly enjoy Fallout 3. Despite the complaints about VATS and the FPS side of it, it's not enough IMO to 'ruin' a game - though you might want to try it out first. Unlike many fans of the older games, I didn't mind the gameplay so much.

However, if you are like me and you believe playing the character you chose means having the capacity to make choices that truly affect the world around you, then you might hate the game. Personally I hardly played more than 4-5 hours, because a short time after scratching Megaton off the map, I made a series of simple choices which the game could not account for. Disgusted, I wandered the wastelands for some time, killed a couple mutants and uninstalled the game.

I felt it not so much as a problem with the lack of choice development by the developers, but as a lack of generic choice consequences.

In comparison, certain 'unintended' (read, not programmed by the developers) choices I made in Fallout 2 dogged me throughout my entire game, whereas in Fallout 3 I literally had the impression the NPCs were braindead for not understanding what the hell I was doing.

So: wanna play around in the Fallout 3 sandbox without pushing the limitations, you should like it, but if you want to 'live' an adventure in the Fallout universe, you can ignore this iteration of the series. I haven't tried New Vegas though.

 

[MADrevilution]

i would recomend new vegas more really as theres a lot more choice in that, but in fallout 3 i spent 2 hours running around tenpenny towers while invisible killing people in there sleep, only to leave and come back and act surprised....then ate the corpses with the cannibal perk....you know what...get both...such good memories

 

[Ghengis John]

His point is this. Say someone beat Deus Ex without shooting a single gun. Can they really walk up to someone and say they played a first-person shooter? The genre necessitates the firing of a weapon.

In an RPG, however, you are given many options for weapons. We don't call Oblivion a first-person sword-swinger because you can swing axes, wield magic, shoot bows, or punch people. We simply then just call it an RPG, even though swordplay is very prominent in the game.

Speaking of hairs. Quit splitting them. A game can be two things at once. You're pretty dense or pretty staid if you can't accept the concept of a hybrid. Is it an RPG? Yes. But it's also an FPS. It's both. One thing does not preclude the other. They are not mutually exclusive entities. Get over it.

For that matter the sword play in Oblivion was just horrible.

 

[MBergman]

Seeing as you haven't bought Fallout 3 yet, I will take this chance to try and persuade you into not buying it.

Spoiler: Here you go

[img]http://imgur.com/TVFXW.jpg[/img]

Hooray for me posting this image for the third time today. I hope the image answers all your questions about this horrendous game.

You gotta agree though that quite a few of those so called "plot-holes" are pretty retarded.

 

[Leg End]

Choices... quite a few but... it's not entirely... free. I don't know how to put it. It still gives you fun choices though.

In terms of everything else? GOTYAYEY. Actually, make sure you get the Game of the Year edition and I can almost guarantee that you will not be leaving your house for... ever. One of my personal favorite gaems, I have to say it is worth any price.

Though if you didn't like certain aspects of Oblivion, you might like Fallout 3.

And, that fucking image...

Spoiler: Here you go

[img]http://imgur.com/TVFXW.jpg[/img]

Hooray for me posting this image for the third time today. I hope the image answers all your questions about this horrendous game.

Dude, if you have posted that image 3 times today, don't you think that is a little... excessive? Plus, it does not answer any of the questions.

 

[kouriichi]

Law? HAHAHA~!
There is no law in fallout. Only the gun at your side and the speed you pull it out.

Well, to be fair, in FO: New Vegas, you can piss off the different factions and be shot on sight by them, but its nothing like the guards from Oblivion.

You will like this game. Anyone who says its bad is eather an idiot, or doesnt like RPG/Shooter hybrids. ((IE: Cuy'vul Dar))

The choices are limited to mostly, "Good", "Evil" and "I dont want to get involved". But its the type of choice system that feels deeper then that.

You want to be the punisher? Go for it. Shoot all the bad guys you want with NO DRAW BACKS other then looting theyer bodys for ammo.